Dotted-Line Block

Dotted-Line Blocks (originally formatted without a hyphen) are transparent objects found in several Super Mario games, such as Super Mario World (and its reissue), Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (and its reissue), Yoshi's Island DS, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, and Super Mario Run. They represent that they can be solid when a switch is triggered, rather than blocks appearing from nothing. In Super Mario World, they come in four colors and turn into ! Blocks once the player hits the ! Switch in the Switch Palace of the corresponding color. In Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, Yoshi's Island DS, Yoshi's New Island, and Yoshi's Woolly World, after the player hits a nearby ! Switch, the Dotted-Line Blocks temporarily become ! Blocks and are able to be used as platforms. Dotted-Line Blocks in New Super Mario Bros. Wii can turn into and revert from red blocks after the player presses the red ! Switches in World 3. In New Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Run, red (yellow in Run) ! Switches can change Dotted-Line Blocks into red blocks for a limited time.

Transparent boxes similar to Dotted-Line Blocks appear in Super Mario 64 and its remake, Super Mario 64 DS, where they turn solid and are able to be used after the player hits the ! Switch or ? Switch on the Tower of the Wing Cap in both versions and Vanish Cap Under the Moat and the Cavern of the Metal Cap in the N64 version only.

In Super Mario Maker 2, Dotted-Line Blocks can be triggered by ON/OFF Switches, with only the red blocks becoming solid when they are on and only the blue blocks becoming solid when they are off. In the Super Mario Bros. 3 style, they are depicted having a smiling face, while every other style depicts them as faceless blocks. As of the version 2.0 update, P Blocks also appear as an outline like Dotted-Line Blocks while inactive. Although previously not available in the Super Mario 3D World style, Dotted-Line Blocks were added in the version 3.0.0 update released on April 22, 2020.