Loading zone
This article is a stub. Please consider expanding it to include any missing information. Specifics: Describe how this mechanic works in other Paper Mario games, in the Mario & Luigi games, and in Super Mario 64
Loading zones are areas or objects where the player is taken to a new location when they are entered or used. Warp Pipes are the most common form of loading zones in the Super Mario franchise. Loading zones primarily appear in the various RPG games such as Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, the Paper Mario series, and the Mario & Luigi series where they act as connectors between playable sections of the map.
History[edit]
Super Mario Bros. series[edit]
Super Mario Bros.[edit]
In Super Mario Bros., Warp Pipes and beanstalks act as loading zones. The active loading zone is set by using a loading zone object in the level.[1] If another loading zone object loads in, it overwrites the loading zone value. This allows for wrong warping, where the player is taken to the wrong destination.
Super Mario 64[edit]
In Super Mario 64, several courses use more seamless loading zones. These displace Mario by a set translation, load a different part of the level geometry, and load and unload sets of objects, which are intended to be offscreen at the moment of transition. There are several glitches involving oversights with loading zones and the ability to unload and reload the object slot that Mario is carrying.
The use of these loading zones affected the design of several courses, which resultantly feature tunnels designed to hide the separate areas on either side. Loading zones are present in:
- Dire, Dire Docks, in the middle of the underwater tunnel. The vertical bend ensures that the player does not see the unloaded area on the opposite side.
- Shifting Sand Land, inside the pyramid, in the entrance to Eyerok's room
- Tall, Tall Mountain, twice inside tunnels along the slide. Uniquely, these loading zones only work one way, since it is not intended to climb back up the slide.
- Wet-Dry World, in the tunnel leading to the town
Using certain doors causes the game to load completely separate locations, with the screen transitioning through black. Fake preview rooms are placed behind these doors to provide a sense of visual continuity. These rooms are not loading zones themselves; accessing them through glitches such as the Backwards Long Jump is not sufficient to warp Mario.
Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars[edit]
In Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, loading zones are usually signified by terrain that juts from the rest of the environment. Mario is transitioned to the next screen once he hits the point about halfway across the zone. The screen then quickly fades to black and Mario is placed in front of the loading zone of the screen it leads to, where gameplay continues from there, or leads to the map screen, where the region Mario wishes to go to is then chosen. Doors in this game automatically open when Mario comes into contact with them, so long as they are not locked. This does not trigger the loading zone as in the Paper Mario series, instead the loading zone is still triggered as normal, the door only serving to add aesthetic appeal, or to require the use of a key. Springboards can also act as loading zones, as well as falling off screen in the Factory, or down the clouds in Nimbus Land.
Paper Mario series[edit]
In the Paper Mario series, loading zones have a consistent design in all applicable games through Paper Mario: Color Splash. They are bridge-like structures with a yellow-and-orange zigzag pattern along the sides. This design is comparable to Flatbed Ferries in the Yoshi series.
Paper Mario[edit]
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Loading zones are more complicated in Paper Mario, which can be exploited for many various difficult glitches in the game. The entire zone of the loading zone is active in this game, taking the screen transition if Mario is on the loading zone, or any land above it, for more than one frame. One of the only places where taking a loading zone from above can be seen is in the room before Madam Merlar's room, where the upper area is accessed early by clipping out of bounds and falling to the top, then crossing the back to the area where the Mega Jump Badge can be found. Touching the land above the loading zone will cause Mario to enter Madam Merlar's room, even though he was above it. Door loading zones are only active when 
is pressed in front of it, or is pressed directly after unlocking it. Using glitches to fall behind a door shows that the protrusion behind the door does not act as a loading zone, only pressing in front of the door will cause it to activate. For aesthetic appeal, the angle in which Mario enters the loading zone is preserved between screens to add to the realism of walking through them. By using glitches to trigger a loading zone from across the room, the angle is still preserved as Mario angles himself as walking towards the center of the loading zone. If Mario triggers the loading zone from extreme enough of an angle, he will fall out of bounds as soon as he enters the next room, making a multitude of glitches possible. A majority of loading zones have invisible walls surrounding them, to restrict out of bounds access. Some areas however, the most prominent being Jade Jungle, do not have invisible walls around the zones, making out of bounds glitches more useful.
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door[edit]
Loading zones are slightly different in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. Instead of the ground itself triggering the screen transition, a thin invisible wall at the front of the loading zone triggers the screen transition. This was likely to prevent the glitches in Paper Mario from being abused. Touching the loading zone while moving at any point on while Mario is within the invisible wall will trigger the loading zone. If glitches are used to bypass the loading zone, the rest of the zone can be freely walked through, and if the zone does not have invisible walls around it, it makes an easy access out of bounds. Door and Warp Pipe loading zones work the same way as in Paper Mario. Interestingly, during the Bowser intermissions, to avoid Bowser leaving the area, the loading zones are completely removed. This is most prominent in the intermission in Poshley Heights after defeating Magnus von Grapple 2.0.
Super Paper Mario[edit]
Super Paper Mario forgoes the typical loading zones in the previous Paper Mario games and instead relies on doors and Warp Pipes to bring the player to new areas. In Flipside and Flopside, elevators are used as loading zones.
Paper Mario: Sticker Star[edit]
In Paper Mario: Sticker Star, loading zones may be found fastened down with a Brick Block and Bowser Tape, which must be removed to unfurl and cross them. This occurs with the first loading zone in Decalburg.
Gallery[edit]
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References[edit]
- ^ Retro Game Mechanics Explained (January 2, 2023). More Super Mario Bros. Mechanics Explained. YouTube (American English). Retrieved December 29, 2025.
