Super Mario Odyssey came out years ago, but people are still scratching their heads over those cryptic posters plastered on kingdom walls. If you’ve spent any time tossing Cappy around the Sand Kingdom or the Metro Kingdom, you’ve seen them. Pixelated, weirdly framed, and often completely nonsensical at first glance. That’s hint art Mario Odyssey players either love or absolutely loathe. It’s a scavenger hunt designed for the internet age, yet it feels like something ripped straight out of a 1990s playground rumor mill.
These posters aren't just decoration. They are literal treasure maps. But unlike a traditional map that shows you "X marks the spot," these are visual riddles. Some show you a specific configuration of bushes. Others show you two characters standing in a way that looks like a math equation. It’s brilliant. It’s also incredibly frustrating if you don’t know what you’re looking for.
The Weird Geometry of Mario Odyssey Hint Art
Honestly, the first time I saw the Hint Art in the Bowser’s Kingdom, I thought my game was glitching. It looked like a bunch of colored squares. Then it clicked. It was a top-down view of the floor tiles in a completely different world. That’s the "hook" of hint art Mario Odyssey rewards—it forces you to memorize the geometry of the entire game. You can't just be a tourist; you have to be an architect.
Most of these puzzles require you to Ground Pound a very specific spot. But the trick is finding that spot based on a static, often distorted image. Take the "Two Poles" hint art found in the Metro Kingdom. It shows a taxi and some distance markers. If you aren't paying attention to the specific curve of the road in the Wooded Kingdom, you’ll never find that Power Moon. You’ll just be jumping around like a maniac while the local NPCs judge you. It’s this cross-pollination of kingdoms that makes the mechanic so deeply satisfying. You find the clue in world A, but the prize is hidden in world B.
Nintendo didn't just stop at the base game, either. After launch, they started dropping "Online Hint Art" via the Zelda-like news feed on the Switch dashboard. These weren't for Power Moons. They gave you coins or stars. But the community treated them like gospel. It kept the game alive. People were jumping back into the Luncheon Kingdom just because a low-res photo of a salt pile appeared on their Twitter feed. It’s a masterclass in player retention.
Why Some Hints Feel Impossible
Let's be real. Some of these are just mean.
The Hint Art in the Dark Side of the Moon? It’s basically a test of your sanity. One of them depicts a series of hats. You have to remember which NPCs in which kingdoms wear those specific hats and then find the one spot where they would theoretically intersect. It's not intuitive. It’s forensic. You’re basically playing CSI: Mushroom Kingdom.
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- You find the art.
- You take a screenshot (because nobody can remember these details).
- You warp between kingdoms until the background matches the art's art style.
- You Ground Pound until your controller vibrates.
There is a specific joy in that vibration. When the controller rumbles and that yellow glow starts emitting from the dirt, it feels like you've outsmarted a genius. But when you’re thirty minutes into a search and you realize you’re in the wrong kingdom entirely? That’s when the "Odyssey" part of the title starts to feel a bit too literal. It’s a long journey for a single moon.
The Mystery of the Poochy Hint Art
Remember Poochy? The dog from the Yoshi games? He’s the star of several post-launch hint art challenges. These were particularly interesting because they used Poochy as a landmark. You’d see a picture of Poochy standing near a certain tree or a specific rock formation.
What made these different was the perspective. The camera angles in the Poochy art were often impossible to replicate in-game. You had to use your imagination to "reverse-engineer" where the photographer was standing. It shifted the gameplay from platforming to spatial reasoning. If you can't wrap your brain around 3D space, you’re going to have a bad time.
The Evolution of the Scavenger Hunt
Before hint art Mario Odyssey made it cool, Nintendo experimented with this in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild with the "Captured Memories" quest. But where Zelda was melancholic and atmospheric, Mario is frantic. It’s bright. It’s colorful. And yet, the puzzles are arguably harder.
In Zelda, you’re looking for a massive mountain range. In Mario, you’re looking for a specific pattern on a rug. It’s the "Where’s Waldo" of video games.
The technical execution is actually pretty clever. These images are often rendered in a lower resolution or a stylized filter—like a blueprint or a sketch—to prevent players from just "matching the pixels." You have to understand the concept of the location. If the art shows a silhouette of a Goomba wearing a hat, you don't just look for any Goomba. You look for the specific Goomba that stands near the juice bar in the Seaside Kingdom. Nuance matters here.
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Common Misconceptions About Hint Art
A lot of players think you need to unlock the art to find the moon. That’s actually a myth for most of them. In many cases, if you know exactly where the moon is hidden, you can just go there and Ground Pound it. The art is just the map. However, some of the later "Achievement" moons or the post-game content might require the art to be "triggered" or at least seen before the spot becomes active. It's always safer to interact with the poster first.
Another thing? People get the kingdoms mixed up constantly. The "Keep" in Bowser's Kingdom looks remarkably like parts of the Cap Kingdom if you're squinting at a grainy hint art photo. If you find yourself stuck, look at the border of the hint art. Sometimes the frame itself gives a clue about which kingdom the solution resides in. It’s a meta-puzzle.
Breaking Down the "Walking" Puzzle
One of the most famous (or infamous) pieces of hint art is the one that just shows a bunch of footprints and a compass. It looks like a map for a hiking trail. You find it in the Sand Kingdom.
To solve it, you have to go to the Lost Kingdom. But here’s the kicker: it’s not just about the location. It’s about the movement. You have to follow the path indicated by the art precisely. If you veer off, the moon won't spawn. It’s one of the few times the game demands exactness over the usual "close enough" physics of Mario’s jump.
It’s these moments where the game stops being a platformer and becomes a logic puzzle. It’s why the game has such high "completionist" value. You can finish the story in a weekend, but finding every hint art moon? That’ll take you a month, easy.
How to Master Hint Art Without a Guide
If you want to do this the "honorable" way, you need a system. Don't just wander.
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- Check the Borders: Often, the frame of the hint art uses a pattern or color scheme associated with a specific kingdom. Red for Luncheon, Purple for Cap, etc.
- Look for NPCs: If there's a Toad or a local inhabitant in the image, that’s your biggest clue. NPCs are usually kingdom-locked.
- The Shadow Rule: Look at the shadows in the hint art. They tell you the direction of the "sun" or light source, which is static in most Mario Odyssey kingdoms. If the shadow is long, you’re looking for a spot near the edge of the map or a vertical structure.
- Vibration is Key: If you suspect you're in the right area, walk slowly. HD Rumble is your best friend. The Joy-Cons will pulse when you are standing on a hidden object.
Most people give up and look at a YouTube video. There's no shame in that. Some of these are genuinely cryptic. But if you manage to find one—like the Vanishing Road one—on your own? It's a high that few other games provide. It’s that "Aha!" moment that Nintendo spends millions of dollars trying to manufacture.
The Cultural Legacy of the Hint Art
What’s fascinating is how this sparked a mini-genre of "find the spot" games within the indie scene. We see these "photo-reference" puzzles everywhere now. But Mario did it with a level of polish that’s hard to beat. Each piece of art feels like a souvenir. Even the name, "Hint Art," is so utilitarian and classic.
It’s also a way for the developers to show off the assets. When you’re forced to look at a specific wall in the Metro Kingdom for ten minutes to match it to a drawing, you start to notice the textures. You notice the way the light hits the bricks. It’s a subtle way of saying, "Hey, look how much work we put into this world."
The hint art Mario Odyssey features isn't just a side quest. It's a love letter to the game's world-building. It turns the entire game into a single, cohesive puzzle box.
If you're still sitting on a 98% completion rate, go back. Check the walls of the Wedding Hall on the Moon. Check the back alleys of New Donk City. There is likely a pixelated poster waiting for you. And when you finally find that spot—the one where the perspective aligns perfectly and the moon pops out of the ground—you’ll remember why this game is considered a masterpiece.
Actionable Insights for Your Next Session:
Go to the Sand Kingdom and find the hint art on the side of a building near the slots. It shows a map of the Metro Kingdom. Warp to New Donk City, find the "Main Street" entrance, and look for the specific line of trash cans shown in the drawing. Ground Pound the empty space between the second and third cans. It's one of the easiest to solve manually and a great way to get the hang of "visual translation" before tackling the harder ones in the post-game.