Cameos

Throughout the Mario series, many characters from other series made cameos. The large majority of these cameos are from characters developed by Shigeru Miyamoto and Nintendo. Some non-Nintendo characters have appeared as well, such as Sonic or Earthworm Jim.

Pikmin
Pikmin are a species of small plant-like creatures that exist in the Pikmin series. They have also appeared in the Marioverse on a number of occasions. Of the Pikmin that have appeared in the Mario series, only three varieties of Pikmin have appeared. Pikmin made their first appearance into the Marioverse during the events of Super Smash Bros. Melee. Pikmin can be collected as a trophy. A savegame of the Pikmin game is needed on the GameCube's Memory Card in order to get the Captain Olimar trophy.

Pikmin later made another cameo during the events of Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour. If certain flower beds were struck by a golf ball, Pikmin would pop out of the flowerbed and attempt to flee. These flower beds can be found in various stages. In WarioWare: Smooth Moves, Pikmin made an appearance in a microgame.

Earthworm Jim
Earthworm Jim is a mutated humanoid earthworm wielding a red ray-gun. Like Sonic the Hedgehog, it is believed that Earthworm Jim once entered the Marioverse. In Donkey Kong Country 2, Donkey Kong's father, Cranky Kong, created a challenge to see who could find the most secret DK coins on Crocodile Isle. Mario came in first, Yoshi came in second and Link came in last (Later on, Diddy Kong would claim the spot as number one). Earthworm Jim seems to have entered this competition as well, but didn't even come in third. This made him leave the island, and set his ray-gun as evidence that he came.