Almost nobody can work out which way Super Mario is going in baffling optical illusion. Sometimes the best optical illusions are the ones that leave us scratching our heads—and this mind-bending Super Mario illusion is certainly no exception. If you're a fan of brainteasers, you've probably encountered the famous staircase illusion, where it’s impossible to tell which direction an object is moving. Well, now it’s Super Mario’s turn to confuse us.
In this perplexing image, Mario appears to be walking up or down a set of stairs, but the twist is that it’s tough to say which way he’s really going. Is he ascending, or is he descending? Some say he's going up, others argue he’s going down, and the more you stare at it, the more your brain gets tangled in a loop of uncertainty.
The optical illusion in question is a still taken from the Super Mario Bros. Super Show , an animated series that aired in 1999. The show, based on the iconic video game character Mario, has become a nostalgic piece of '90s pop culture. So, is Mario walking up or down the stairs? The confusion comes from how the animation was created: our brains want to interpret the movement in a way that makes sense to us, but the illusion plays tricks, making it appear as if Mario could be heading in either direction. Is it the way he's positioned on the steps? The way his legs move?.
