Spade Panel

Spade Panel
First appearance	Super Mario Bros. 3 (1988)
Latest appearance	Super Mario All-Stars Limited Edition (2010)

Spade Panels, also known as Flip Games or Spade Houses, are small panels on overworld maps in Super Mario Bros. 3 that can be used to earn extra lives for Mario or Luigi. Once the player enters one, they can play a minigame hosted by a Toad. Its gameplay is similar to that of a slot machine, in which parts of pictures slide past on three different reels, and the player must line up three matching parts to make a picture and win extra lives. There are Mushroom, Flower, and Star icons, granting two, three, and five extra lives when lined up as the Mushroom Picture, the Flower Picture, and the Star Picture, respectively, similar to the goal at the end of nearly every level. If any of the picture parts are mismatched, no extra lives are awarded. The player gets only one chance to play the minigame, after which the Spade Panel disappears.

A visualization of the minigame's mechanics. For each reel, the window to receive a certain picture without delay is highlighted in red, and the variance in delay time is highlighted in blue.

During the minigame, when the player presses to stop one of the reels, a random number generator is used to add an arbitrary amount of delay between the time that is pressed and the time that the reel starts to slow down before stopping on a certain picture. The possible delay time ranges from 32 to 47 frames for the first reel, 32 to 63 frames for the second reel, and 64 to 127 frames for the third reel. This means that the difference between the minimum and maximum delay time (or the variance in delay time) before the first, second, and third reels start slowing down is 16 frames, 32 frames, and 64 frames, respectively. Without any added delay time, there is a 19-frame window during which a certain picture can be obtained on the first and second reels, and this window of time decreases to 16 frames for the third reel, which spins more quickly than the other reels. However, since the variance in delay time is larger than the timing window without delay for the second and third reels, the delay can potentially cause the reel to skip over the entire timing window for a certain picture; therefore, it is impossible for the player to guarantee that the second and third reels will stop on a desired picture. For the third reel, the minimum delay of 64 frames is equivalent to one full revolution of the reel, and the maximum delay of 128 frames is equivalent to two full revolutions, essentially meaning that the third reel can start slowing down anywhere on the reel and stop on any of the possible pictures, regardless of when the player presses . Thus, the outcome of the game cannot be determined by the player whatsoever.

In Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3, if a Spade Panel is matched up correctly, further Spade Panels change to Heart Panels. The Stars are replaced by Leaf icons that give seven extra lives. Clearing one of these turns further Heart Panels into Club Panels, and the Super Leaves change to "3" icons that reward 10 extra lives. Clearing a Club Panel turns further panels into Diamond Panels, where only one picture can be lined up, making it impossible to lose. Earning a minimal number of lives at previous panels results in a Mushroom Picture, while higher numbers yield a random picture, and each picture gives the corresponding number of extra lives. If the player clears a Diamond Panel, or fails at any of the other ones, all panels revert to Spade Panels, restarting the process. Clearing all levels makes all Spade Panels reusable.

A special Spade Panel, the N-Mark Spade Panel, appears every 80,000 points. When it is activated, the player plays a card game for prizes, with a total of nine prizes per game. After the game, all prizes earned are included in the player's inventory. Unlike with the other Spade Panel games, a player can make two mistakes during an N-Mark Spade Panel game before being returned to the world map; when the next 80,000 points are achieved, the player can continue the game off where they left.

In Super Mario Maker 2, while the Spade Panel itself does not appear, its minigame reappears in the World Maker mode as Match & Win!, which can be played in one of the Toad Houses the player can place on the world map; however, this minigame does not contain any arbitrary delay, and the pictures that the reels stop on can therefore be reliably timed by the player.

Gallery

Super Mario Bros. 3

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  Gameplay

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  Mushroom

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  Fire Flower

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  Starman

Super Mario All-Stars

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  Gameplay

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  Mushroom

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  Fire Flower

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  Starman

Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3

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  Gameplay

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  Mushroom

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  Fire Flower

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  Starman

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  Super Leaf

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  A three

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning
Japanese	スペードパネル Supēdo Paneru	Spade Panel
Italian	Quadro del segno di picche Pannello picche Asso di picche	Spade symbol square Spade panel Ace of Spade

Trivia

• This minigame's theme music is arranged in Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (for Grate Guy's Casino), Super Mario 64 DS, New Super Mario Bros. (both for the minigames Wanted!, Connect the Characters, and Mario's Slides), Paper Mario: Sticker Star, Paper Mario: Color Splash (both for Snifit or Whiffit), Mario Party: Island Tour (for the minigame theme "Slowly Bubble Up"), and Super Mario Odyssey (for the Slots minigame).
• This minigame's theme music in Super Mario Bros. 3 is a looped sample from the bassline (or pause music) from Super Mario Bros. 2's Ground Theme.
• Much like the case with Bowser's wristbands from the original Super Mario Bros., in the sprites for Mario and the Toad in the Spade Panel cutscene, due to the NES supporting just three colors for each sprite, Mario/Luigi's gloves and the white parts of the Toad's body, including the primary color for his mushroom "hat" and pants, are actually transparent and appear white due to the sprites appearing in front of a white background. This also results in the Toad gaining an orange pixel (formed from the brick outlines of the wall) on his sprite if one looks closely enough.