Block (Super Mario 64)

Blocks, also known as boxes, are, as the name entails, plain-looking blocks (one described as a "sand block" in the context of Shifting Sand Land) that first appear in Super Mario 64. They are scattered throughout the game's various courses and can be broken by most of Mario's attacks. Some of them contain three coins, but this is rather uncommon and most are empty. In this game, they look identical to the game's throwable Crates, though they are much larger. Unlike Crates, they cannot be thrown, though Mario is able to stand on top of them. Blocks are occasionally activated by Purple Switches in courses such as Wet-Dry World and Dire, Dire Docks. In these cases, the blocks are always empty and they are used more as platforms than containers.

In Super Mario 64 DS, "block" is now used as an umbrella term for several similar objects. The functional equivalents to the original blocks are known as Bricks and have an appearance similar to orange brick blocks, no longer sharing their cork-like texture with Crates. They are also much more common than before. Some Bricks contain mushrooms, but this is quite rare. Mario, Luigi, and Wario can also break Bricks, but Yoshi cannot break them with any of his attacks unless he has eaten a mushroom. In addition, Black Bricks are introduced as a variant of block that can be broken only by Wario. However, any player character can break them with the help of a mushroom. The other two types of block are the Crate and the Ice. Despite the original design not appearing in the game, it can be seen in reused artwork of Mario's actions in the manual.

In Mario Party, boxes appear in the minigame Box Mountain Mayhem. The goal of this minigame is to destroy as many boxes as possible, as many of them contain coins and coin bags. However, among the large "mountain," there are also Whomp Blocks disguised as these boxes, which will move the characters who attack them away from the mountain.

In Super Mario Galaxy 2, in the Throwback Galaxy, the blocks from the original Whomp's Fortress have been replaced by functionally identical crates.