During the development of Super Mario Bros., a 16x32 pixel square represented the player character. After asking to see sales figures from the head of Nintendo's Sales and Marketing Division, Takashi Tezuka and Shigeru Miyamoto decided to make Mario the game's protagonist due to the success of the Famicom port of Mario Bros.

The concept of Mario riding a dinosaur was first concieved for Super Mario Bros., but was considered impossible from a technical standpoint. Eventually, this concept would be used in Super Mario World with Yoshi.

Super Mario Bros. / Duck Hunt / World Class Track Meet has unused graphics from Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels, which can be activated by a Game Genie code, allowing one to play SMB1 levels with The Lost Levels graphics, albeit with some glitched tiles in different parts of the game.

According to source code leaked in 2020, during development of Super Mario Bros., Bowser was called "Big tortoice" [sic]

According to Pac-Man creator Toru Iwatani, Pac-Land had a strong influence on the development of Super Mario Bros. In an interview with Geek Culture, Iwatani stated:

According to Super Mario Bros. Wonder's art director Masanobu Sato, Shigeru Miyamoto reportedly explained during the development of the first Super Mario Bros. that the reason why Goombas damage Mario when walking into them is because they bite Mario on impact. Due to graphical and hardware limitations, this could not be shown at the time. However, while Super Mario Bros. Wonder is thought to be the first game in the mainline series that shows this detail in gameplay, it's not the first game in the overall franchise to show it, as Goombas had been seen biting in earlier spin-off games like Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars.

The Minus World glitch is believed to be first acknowledged by Nintendo in the third issue of Nintendo Power (November/December, 1988, page 55).

There's an invisible 1-Up in the first level of each world, but whether or not it appears depends on whether or not you collected all the coins in the previous world's 3rd level. For instance, in World 3-1, to make the invisible 1-up that's on the bridge appear, you need to collect all the coins in World 2-3.

There are only two exceptions to this rule: World 1-1 because it's the very first level in the game, and World 2-1 where you're allowed to miss 2 coins in World 1-3. However, the hidden 1-Ups will always appear if you use a Warp Zone or the level select trick after beating the game. Another caveat is that each hidden 1-Up will only appear once so if you make the hidden 1-Up appear and lose a life, it won't reappear.

After losing all of your lives and returning to the title screen, holding A and then pressing Start will start you at the beginning of the last World you died on.

During a second playthrough Mario can obtain unlimited extra lives in World 1-2 through a glitch.
The player must start a 2 player game and Mario must die in World 1-2. As Luigi, the player must reach World 5-2 and die climbing the vine that comes out of a block next to a Hammer Bro.
When Mario re-starts World 1-2, the vine from World 5-2 will grow through the ground. Mario can can then climb the vine and come down between the Buzzy Beetles and earn 1-Ups.

The Power Up sound effect is very similar to the flagpole music just sped up around 20 times its usual speed.

The Spiny eggs are thrown by Lakitu in a simple way, with no horizontal movement whatsoever. However, this is not the intended behavior; it's actually the result of a bug! The eggs are supposed to be thrown out relative to the player's speed, Lakitu's speed, the player's position, and a pseudo-random value, as well as bounce off of any blocks or walls that they hit on the way down.

The current world record for fastest time beating the game is 4:54.631 seconds by speed runner Niftski as of September 8, 2023. This record surpassed his previous record by ~0.167 seconds.

Although Bloopers in Super Mario Bros. normally spawn only in water levels, they can be placed in non-water levels normally and will award a massive 1,000 points when stomped. Other "impossible" ways to kill enemies, such as hitting a Podoboo or Bowser with a Starman, only award the default 200 points. Given that Bloopers appear in non-water levels in Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, and also award 1,000 points, this behavior was likely intended all along.

While a Goomba is the first enemy the player encounters, they were the last object added to Super Mario Bros. They were created after Miyamoto and his team decided that they needed an enemy that could be taken out with a single stomp, as opposed to the Koopa Troopas. Unfortunately, there was very little space left on the cartridge, and so it needed to be as small and simple as possible. They only used a single image, and made a walking animation by flipping it back and forth.

Super Mario Bros. was the first video game to receive an animated film adaptation. The film was called "Super Mario Bros.: Peach-Hime Kyushutsu Dai Sakusen!", and was only released in Japan in 1986. While the game would also be made into a poorly-received live-action film in 1993, it is not the first video game to receive a live-action film adaptation. The Mysterious Murasame Castle is one of the earliest known games to hold that title with a Japanese made-for-TV movie also in 1986.

In the game's manual, it's stated that the Koopas turned the Mushroom People into stone, bricks, and plants. This could imply that throughout the game you're killing the inhabitants of the Mushroom Kingdom.

It's possible to access an additional 256 worlds in the game through a glitch. There are two methods to access them via the Japanese Famicom version:
• Having a copy of both Super Mario Bros. and Tennis, first insert the Mario cartridge and then remove the game at the title screen whilst it's still on. Then insert the Tennis cartridge, and during a match, remove the game and place Super Mario Bros. back in. Reset the console and at the title screen hold down A and press Start.
• The second method involves the Family Basic cartridge and the keyboard peripheral. By inputting a series of code and then swapping the cartridge with Super Mario Bros., reset the console and then hold down A and press Start, which will grant players access to one of the 256 glitch worlds.

The Tennis method can also be done with the western version of Super Mario Bros. but only on the NES-101 model.

Each of the worlds appear to reuse assets from the other levels, resulting in various bugged stages. The Tennis game method is possible presumably due to both it and Super Mario Bros. using the same addresses, but don't place the same check values. Leaving the power on also retains the RAM and the previous check value remains.

The Famicom Disk System version of Super Mario Bros. also contains World 0-1 but it is a full-fledged world with complete programming.

• 0-1 is a differently-textured version of 1-3, though it takes place underwater (even though there is no visible water and features bizarre elements, such as floating Princess Toadstools and floating, headless Bowsers).

• 0-2 is a carbon copy of 7-3.

• 0-3 is a copy of 4-4 that lacks its False Bowser and maze-like elements, features a different color palate (i.e. blue lava), and floating bloopers that can be stomped for 1000 points.

After beating 0-3, the player is taken back to the title screen (with the activation of hard mode upon starting the game), as if they had beaten the game.

The World 0-1, or Minus World glitch (in which Mario can visit a secret world before World 1, and entering the pipe at the end of it returns him to the beginning of the World), is fairly well known but there are actually two more worlds after it that can be accessed by hacking a flag pole into the level.

Level 0-2 is just another water level with a lot of unfinished level design and acts as one of Bowser's castles.

Level 0-3 is a land level with the flooring as a ceiling which you can break like normal blocks. This level also has enemies unlike 0-2 and ends just like a castle too.

Level 0-4 is a level that doesn't exist so the game just takes you to a black screen.