Optical illusion of Super Mario running up or down a set stairs is baffling people

An optical illusion of everyone’s favourite video game star Super Mario running up or down that stairs has baffled internet users.

The optical illusion first appeared on social media three years ago but has since been doing the rounds again as people remain just as perplexed.

In a still photo, the Nintendo star character is walking on a staircase, but because of the way it's drawn, people can’t agree on whether he is going up or down them.

It’s a still image taken from the 1989 cartoon The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! and was shared on Reddit’s r/opticalillusions sub with the caption: “Is Mario going up or downstairs?”

Mario can be seen running on a tower spiral staircase to rescue Joilet who has been kidnapped, but the image can easily be interpreted as the Italian plumber running up or down the stairs.

According to The Sun, the answer can be deduced in five seconds only by those with “top IQs”.

Sign up to our new free Indy100 weekly newsletter

Baffled Reddit users gave their thoughts on Mario’s trajectory in the comments section.

Replying to the caption, one user simply replied: “Yes. Yes he is.”

Another user reasoned: “you can tell by his feet he has to be going up.” But, someone else quipped, “Unless he just tripped lol”.

Someone else argued: “Due to the angle of the light coming through the window (assuming that the sun is in a normal position in the sky) the light is being cast very far down the steps, therefore Mario is most probably walking up in this scene.”

Others took issue with the way the stairs were drawn. Someone commented: “Who builds stairs with the steps angled 45 degrees from horizontal?”

But, one clever user replied back: “Bowser.”

All was revealed when one Reddit user found the exact moment from the cartoon episode, which confirmed Mario was, in fact, running up the stairs.

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.