#minion quest the search for bowser

[slaket-and-sprash]

BOWSERS MINIONS AND BOWSER JR'S JOURNEY ARE ACTUALLY GOOD!?

NOBODY TOLD ME!?

Ever since these remakes came out I've always heard "oh the stories are good but the gameplay is bad" these are genuinely really fun RTS games with a fair amount of depth

I'm playing through Bowsers minions right now and it's a blast! You play as a lowly Goomba and you have to fight to stop your fellow minions, including the koopalings from being brainwashed by fawful.

You have to pick out a formation of 8, and it runs on a weakness triangle. These 3 types, melee (like Goombas and Bob ombs) Flying (like Paragoombas and Lakitus) and ranged (like Hammer Bros and Shy guys, who throw Turnips)

The game is really fun! I feel like a general plotting out my troop's next attacks

[lore-of-the-mushroom-kingdom]

Goombas Don't Die When Stomped On

In spite of what people think, Goombas don't actually die when Mario, Luigi, or anyone else stomps on them. There is a lot of material stating and showing this to not be the case.

In Mario Party DS has the following description for Goombas. "This brown foe has taken his lumps over the years from from Mario's boot. But he seems to harbor secret dreams of turning the tables one day." In Mario Party 9 the Ground Soldier Constellation is stated to be "inspired by the Stalwart mushroom monsters who never give up, no matter how many times they are squashed." Both examples show how Goombas can be squashed multiple times and still keep going. In Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga there are some escaped Goombas which Mario and Luigi are asked to help capture. The Goombas are stomped on multiple times in the fight yet in the end are alright, they are just defeated. In addition in Minion Quest: The Search for Bowser(Bowser's Minions) it's revealed one of these Goombas is Captain Goomba, and he mentions how he is can't believe he got stomped again. This affirms this happens multiple times. Later Wendy O Koopa actually brings up how Goombas always get stomped on repeatedly as well. It's actually pretty questionable about how while Bowser treats his minions pretty well, why exactly is he storing Goombas in barrels? More on Bowser's bizarre treatment of the Goombas, in Mario and Luigi Bowser's Inside Story Bowser sets Goombas on fire in his move Goomba Storm. The reason I bring this up is not only can Goombas survive being squashed, but they can also be set on fire. Continuing on in Paper Mario: Color Splash a Goomba talks about how they are tired of being stomped on, implying they have been stomped on multiple times before. "I am a bit tired of being stomped." Finally in an ad for the Mario Movie Captain Toad squashes a Goomba with his frying pan, but even after being squashed the Goombas keeps moving.

Someone might point to the Super Mario Bros. manual an say that it says Goombas die when stomped on. However, this is best seen as language to get across the game mechanics. But if literal then it would have been retconned since then.

So Goombas don't die when being stomped on. Also, I would like to note this claim that Goombas die when stomped on is often used by people to depict Mario as evil. However, nobody ever applies this to Luigi, Peach, Blue Toad, Yellow Toad, Toadette, Yoshi, Daisy, Nabbit, and even Bowser.

[istadris]

Playing Minion Quest : the Search for Bowser makes you realize how terrifying Mario and Luigi must look from the minion's perspective.

Minion's quest is a strategy game, you need to grind and carefully plan and organise your squads, a captain's decision or a lucky hit can mean the entire difference between victory or defeat. There are power squabbles, training, slowly working through the ranks...

...and against these same minions, it will take a couple of hits at most at high level for Mario and Luigi to stomp them down.

It puts in perspective the bros, it's not that Bowser's army isn't powerful, it's that on the other side, you have two freaking forces of nature that bulldoze their way through squads for breakfast, sometimes with cirque du Soleil-esque stunts or elemental powers out of nowhere.

No wonder the minions hate them.

[lembrosgame]

Bowser's Minions: Minion Quest: The Search for Bowser - Part Final

[aptrust]

Superpower 2 magic box

SUPERPOWER 2 MAGIC BOX FULL

Temporarily allows the player to defeat enemies or break blocks by tapping them on the GamePad. Transforms Mario into Boomerang Mario, allowing him to throw boomerangs to damage enemies, collect coins or activate Checkpoint Flags. Super Mario 3D Land, Super Mario 3D World, Super Mario Maker 2 ( Super Mario 3D World style only), Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury Transforms Mario into Boo Mario, allowing him to pass through fences and read Booish. Transforms Mario into Shell Mario, allowing him to shell dash, crouch in the shell to block most attacks, and swim faster with more control. New Super Mario Bros., Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story Temporarily transforms Yoshi into Blimp Yoshi, causing him to puff up and float, similarly to the Power Balloon. In Super Mario Maker, it also lets Mario destroy blocks by running into them, gives the screen a CRT effect, and changes enemies' appearances to be Mario-themed. Transforms Mario into Big Mario, allowing him to destroy Brick Blocks, Ice Blocks, ? Blocks, and Hard Blocks by jumping on or under them. Super Mario Maker, Super Mario Maker 2 ( Super Mario Bros. Transforms Mario into Bee Mario, allowing him to fly for a short time, walk on clouds and flowers, and stick to honeycombs.

SUPERPOWER 2 MAGIC BOX FULL

The article for each power-up provides more information, including a full list of which characters can use it. While other characters, such as Luigi, may be able to use many of these power-ups identically, the description for power-ups that Mario can use only describes their effect on Mario. Below is a list of power-ups, including a selection of their sprites and artwork, and a list of their respective appearances in the Mario franchise. Most of their effects make defeating enemies or exploring levels easier. Power-ups are unique items that give special abilities to characters that use them. For the move from Minion Quest: The Search for Bowser, see Special Skill (Mario & Luigi series). For the status effect that means "power up", see POW-Up. For the space in Mario Party 3, see Power-up Space. 95 and the nations involved need at least one religion or language in common.This article is about the power-ups found in different games.Peaceful Annexation: depending on population support in both nations, you now have more or less chance of peacefully annexation a nation.If you can handle it yourself, they won't help. AI: allies will make more rational decisions when there is war.Combat Radius has been enlarged to make frontlines easier to make.Diplomacy: embargo treaties result in a drop in relations.Economy: GTM limited to 30%, sectortax at 70%.The AI will take diplomatic relations into account and will decide whether or not to annex regions under it's military control now.Enemy fleets must be further than 1500km of your invasion fleet when trying to invade a region from the sea.They need to be within 750km of the region you're trying to invade. Capital ships needed for invasions from the sea.New internet matchmaking library, and modified the UI flow in the multiplayer menus.Solo scenarios and "sandbox mode", as well as full Multiplayer support for up to 32 players in a variety of styles, including world domination, economic master, and many others.Real-time gameplay and Modular units building.Real-life combat situations, with multiple forces joining and leaving battles as the balance of power shifts.designed to realistically simulate each country. 193 real countries all playable & equipped with realistic data drawn from the CIA World Factbook, the United Nations and U.S.SuperPower 2 offers the ability to fine-tune each country's performance, from creating or breaking treaties, to making tactical decisions in particular military conflicts. Along the way, gamers make use of economic sanctions, political alliances, and military actions to wage their battles. Players build up their own countries and increase their influence in the broader world while competing against sophisticated A.I. Players control countries in 3 major areas: political, economic and military, but this time, in a beautiful real-time 3D environment. RULE YOUR COUNTRY, CONQUER YOUR ENEMIES, DOMINATE THE WORLD! The Story:SuperPower 2 is the only global geopolitical simulation game which allows players to control entire countries.

[thailandtrust]

Superpower 2 magic box

#Superpower 2 magic box cracked#

#Superpower 2 magic box full#

Moving around increases the rate at which coins are gained. Slowly gives Mario one coin at a time when worn, up to a limit of 100 (with no limit in Super Mario 3D Land). Super Mario 3D Land, Super Mario 3D World, Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury Transforms Mario into Cloud Mario, allowing him to create up to 3 cloud platforms (which are replenished upon collecting another Cloud Flower), make floaty jumps, and walk on clouds. Transforms Mario into Bunny Mario, allowing him to slow his descent or hover in midair. Transforms Mario into Cape Mario, allowing him to fly after building up speed, glide to slow his descent, and cape spin to attack enemies, similarly to the Super Leaf. 3 ( e-Reader-exclusive item), Super Mario Maker and Super Mario Maker 2 ( Super Mario World style only) Super Mario World, Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. Cannonballs can be charged indefinitely, and will fly faster when released if charged.

#Superpower 2 magic box cracked#

Super Mario 3D World, Super Mario Maker 2 ( Super Mario 3D World style only), Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury ( Super Mario 3D World campaign only)Ĭontinually fires cannonballs when worn which can collect items and break cracked walls and Rock Blocks. Super Mario Maker 2 ( Super Mario 3D World style only)Īllows Mario to fly horizontally for a short period of time.Ī Buzzy Beetle's empty shell, which can be worn by Mario to protect him from attacks from above, and to destroy Brick Blocks in the same way as Super Mario. He is also able to stick to the ceiling with his horns. Transforms Wario into Bull Wario, which allows him to destroy blocks with just one Body Slam instead of two, and is able to do a ground pound that destroys any enemy or block directly hit and creates a shock wave that stuns any nearby enemy. Temporarily transforms Yoshi into Bulb Yoshi, allowing him to reveal and stand on platforms that would otherwise be invisible and intangible. Temporarily allows the player to defeat enemies or break blocks by tapping them on the GamePad. Transforms Mario into Boomerang Mario, allowing him to throw boomerangs to damage enemies, collect coins or activate Checkpoint Flags. Super Mario 3D Land, Super Mario 3D World, Super Mario Maker 2 ( Super Mario 3D World style only), Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury Transforms Mario into Boo Mario, allowing him to pass through fences and read Booish. Transforms Mario into Shell Mario, allowing him to shell dash, crouch in the shell to block most attacks, and swim faster with more control. New Super Mario Bros., Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story Temporarily transforms Yoshi into Blimp Yoshi, causing him to puff up and float, similarly to the Power Balloon. In Super Mario Maker, it also lets Mario destroy blocks by running into them, gives the screen a CRT effect, and changes enemies' appearances to be Mario-themed. Transforms Mario into Big Mario, allowing him to destroy Brick Blocks, Ice Blocks, ? Blocks, and Hard Blocks by jumping on or under them. Super Mario Maker, Super Mario Maker 2 ( Super Mario Bros. Transforms Mario into Bee Mario, allowing him to fly for a short time, walk on clouds and flowers, and stick to honeycombs.

#Superpower 2 magic box full#

The article for each power-up provides more information, including a full list of which characters can use it. While other characters, such as Luigi, may be able to use many of these power-ups identically, the description for power-ups that Mario can use only describes their effect on Mario. Below is a list of power-ups, including a selection of their sprites and artwork, and a list of their respective appearances in the Mario franchise. Most of their effects make defeating enemies or exploring levels easier. Power-ups are unique items that give special abilities to characters that use them. For the move from Minion Quest: The Search for Bowser, see Special Skill (Mario & Luigi series). For the status effect that means "power up", see POW-Up. For the space in Mario Party 3, see Power-up Space.

May be able to store magical energy only in certain objects.This article is about the power-ups found in different games.

User can store an amount of magical energy over their normal limit, allowing them to do a big scale spell in a short time. The user can capture/contain/trap magical energy inside a container, such as room, box, etc., and use later by releasing it.

[goombasquad]

Captain Goomba, would you eat a bite of Fawful's food for 50,000 coins?

Captain goomba: these aren't crumbs. . .

Captain boo: right

Captain goomba: they're not crumbs!!

[fullmoonfireball]

yeah! that’s what I mean! they put him too front-and-center. it makes sense to have the more ‘side villain’ be the main villain of the side story, but it’s out of character to make him act like that in SSS. the translators even used the wrong speech pattern? but that’s just me noticing too much again 

also, there’s some points that directly contradict the canon of the main story, the first to come to mind being the scene with the destruction of Beanbean Castle Town.

Fawful was definitely not being solely responsible for that. throw those robots out the window while we’re at it, too. 

[seandwalsh]

How do you think Mario and Peach would handle Bowser is his actions got someone permanently dead?

Well, it’s important to realise that Bowser has gotten people permanently killed in the past, both directly and indirectly.

First, a little context around Bowser’s stance on killing!

Bowser isn’t afraid to use violence as a means to an end (in fact, it’s how he deals with most of his problems), but he usually isn’t a fan of killing people outright, not even Mario. This is made pretty clear in Minion Quest: the Search For Bowser, when Captain Goomba and the other Minions realised that Bowser was being possessed by Cackletta because Bowletta told him to “destroy” Mario:

This is also shown in Paper Mario: the Origami King, where Bowser denounced King Olly’s plan to erase all Toads from the world, saying “The Toads can’t come back from that, you know.”, despite the Toads being his long-time enemies:

There are exceptions to this anti-killing mindset, however. When Bowser has a lot of power or is extremely angry, he tends to make rash or unthought-out decisions.

This makes a lot of sense, however, as Bowser wants to rule over the universe, not destroy life within it. If he killed the citizens of every kingdom he invaded, he’d have nothing left to rule. This is likely why he transformed those who didn’t join him during his first invasion in Super Mario Bros. into stone, bricks, horsetail plants, etc. - it’s so that they’d still have the chance to be returned to normal later and accept him as their leader.

In Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, Bowser wished for Mario and Luigi to “disappear” while he had the power of the Dream Stone:

In Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam, Bowser barraged central Mushroom Kingdom and Peach’s Castle with cannonballs (while under the impression Mario, Peach and their friends were inside), seemingly with intent to kill them, after he was enraged by Mario and Luigi defeating Bowser Jr. and had the power of his castle’s new cannon:

At the beginning of Paper Mario, Bowser almost killed Mario with the power of the Star Rod, sending him falling from high above the Earth:

Bowser’s negligence has also lead to death in the past. At the end of Super Mario Galaxy, Bowser’s Galaxy Reactor collapsed when Mario removed the Grand Star powering it and turned into a supermassive black hole which proceeded to prematurely end the entire universe, killing everyone within it, including himself. Luckily the Lumas used their collective Power to reset the universe, reviving everyone in the process.

Bowser has likely indirectly caused the deaths of some of his minions. Their devotion to him and his cause leads to them putting themselves at risk. An example of this would likely be the Bob-ombs, who sometimes give up their lives to create a large explosion - as was seen with the Bob-omb who accompanied Mario during Paper Mario: the Origami King.

Bowser has also gladly helped in dealing with villains that plot to take over or destroy the world or universe themselves. Bowser is at least partially responsible for the deaths of Smithy, Fawful, the Dark Star, Dimentio and King Olly, either directly causing or aiding in their demises.

Of course, Mario and Peach can’t exactly condemn Bowser for any of these deaths. Nobody but Mario, Rosalina and the Lumas remember the events of Super Mario Galaxy, and it was technically an accident on Bowser’s part. Bowser isn’t directly responsible for his dedicated minions risking their lives for his cause, as his army is voluntary. As for the other villains Bowser has killed, Mario and Peach can’t condemn Bowser for those either, seeing as they either aided him or would’ve died themselves if he hadn’t helped kill those enemies. It would be hypocritical to punish or ostracise him for doing what he did.

Circling back around to the original question, I think Mario and Peach are generally extremely forgiving to Bowser. They truly want to redeem him, they treat him as a true ally when a greater threat arrives. However, if Bowser began killing innocents (which I think is out of character for him, but for the sake of the scenario) I do think Mario and Peach would condemn him.

They’d stop inviting him to sports events and they’d be a lot less welcoming towards him in general. When Bowser nearly kills Mario, locks up the guests and staff in Peach’s Castle and prevents the wishes of people in the Mushroom Kingdom from being granted in Paper Mario, Peach gets incredibly upset with him:

“I'm in a very bad mood, you monster! You've imprisoned all of the guests from the castle! You are the single greatest disaster to ever befall the Mushroom Kingdom! I'll tell you what: I'll smile when you make everything as it was before you showed up!”

And later:

“I have nothing to say to you.”

I would imagine this is how she’d begin treating him consistently if he killed someone permanently. Mario would follow suit. Hope this answer suffices!

Thanks for the question, this was a fun one!

[arahul-abyssia]

Looks like it's September again (already, somehow), so that means that it's Nintember again, which means I'll be writing again! Same dealio as last time, one story per five prompts, up to six writings total. (And I'll be putting most of each under a cut, because mobile users can't skip posts)

And for my first entry for @starprincesshlc and @jklantern 's wonderful little event, I shall once again be attempting to twist some modicum of continuity, characterization, and canon-compliance out of a world that clearly cares scarcely for all three.

The Great Act

~~ Art, Green, Dizzy, Fire, Strength ~~

It was the loud buzzing of his phone’s alarm clock that dragged him from his slumber. He awoke to find himself sprawled across the couch, which was in no way long enough for his lanky body and spindly legs. As he blearily reached out and slapped at the coffee table, hoping to find the rude device by pure luck, he also blearily reached out and slapped at his memories, trying to figure out what series of events had led him there. For a moment, they floated just out of reach, and then suddenly flooded back to him all at once.

Oh. Right. It’s all over.

Another sporting event had come and gone, and as usual, in spite of all the effort he put into training and practice, he had ultimately lost to the same people he always did. No matter the sport, no matter the plan, no matter the time, they always won. And why shouldn’t they? The heroes always win in the end, always securing victory against the villains.

And he was one of them: the purple-clad counterpart, mirror, and supposed rival to one of the land’s most revered figures. Meant to oppose, and meant to lose.

He was Waluigi.

The name still sounded absurd to him. He had no idea how two men whose names were ‘Mario’ and ‘Wario’ and who naturally served as near-perfect foils of each other, had managed to meet and form such a publicizable rivalry without any deliberate effort, but such was the case. However, the notion that the brother of one had his own doppelganger in the brother of the other (or cousin, they never did manage to keep that story straight), with the same dichotomies of name, body, and personality? That was simply and utterly ridiculous, far beyond even the realm of ‘too good to be true’. And yet, if anyone had caught on, they hadn’t made it known to him.

Lost in thought and routine, he realized he had reached and opened his wardrobe, where numerous sets of that purple hat, shirt, and overalls were staring him in the face. In a sickening sense, they were the centerpiece of a great work of art, the fabrication that was his entire public existence, the character that he and Wario had constructed so that he might further be the ‘evil counterpart’ to everyone’s favorite red-clothed fire-throwing hero. Mario was stout and a bit fat, Wario was stouter and fatter; Luigi was tall and a bit thin, so Waluigi was taller and thinner. Mario had an M as his emblem, Wario had an inverted M; Luigi had an L, so Waluigi had an inverted L. To any casual outside observer, it was perfect.

But unlike Mario and Wario, whose rivalry had been formed in their youth, Waluigi had never even met Luigi until Wario had made him his sporting partner. The most he had known of the legendary Mario Brothers was just that: they were legends, for the countless adventures and quests they went on. In truth, despite how much he played it up during each and every game, he bore no true grudge against the man he was supposed to hate; Wario had, for a time, convinced him that Luigi’s presence in the public eye was somehow detracting from his own, but he had long since realized that that wasn’t the case; in fact, it often seemed like Luigi himself was being snubbed by the public, with the vast majority of the glory placed upon Mario, no matter how much Luigi contributed.

And yet, despite his existence being little more than a convenient story, despite the stress that constantly acting like a jerk brought, and despite always losing at the games no matter what, none of it brought him any sadness: for all its ups and downs, he felt himself to be rather good at keeping up the act, and the sports were, at the end of the day, still fun.

So why do I still feel so… bad?

Routine and thought had once more brought Waluigi elsewhere, and he found himself once more on his couch, now dressed in his usual outfit, with some sort of drink in his hands, probably coffee or tea; he didn’t care to determine which at that moment. His eyes casually wandered around the room as he brought the mug to his lips.

Then, just as the liquid touched his tongue--apparently he had managed to make tea out of coffee beans--the answer came to him. All across the room’s walls and shelves was sporting equipment of every sort--tennis racquets, shin-guards, helmets, golf clubs, old kart wheels, giant dice blocks, a probably excessive number of deflated balls--and absolutely no other sort of decoration. He leaned forward to place the mug on the table, and in doing so noticed his gloved hands and violet sleeves. Who wore the outfit of a character that they supposedly were not, every single day? Apparently, him.

He didn’t do anything else. He had let the character that was Waluigi consume his life to the point that had no idea who he was outside of it. He had nothing that he did when sports weren’t involved. Wario didn’t dedicate all his time to his rivalry; he owned an entire video game company--an unstable and poorly-run one, certainly, but it was nevertheless another use of his time. Mario and Luigi had their own grand adventures, of course, which is also what Peach, the Yoshis, Bowser, and his horde of minions were all typically involved in.

They all had lives outside of the games, and what did he do during the interim times? He either tried to practice, on his own, in the few suitable locations that he could find when the world was arranged for adventure, in a vain attempt to not lose as bad when the next game came around, or he wallowed in his home, doing absolutely nothing of any import.

But what could he do? Waluigi was never anything beyond a fabricated counterpart to both Wario and Luigi, but he could not remember, even slightly, what or who he was before he embraced that role. That nearly all of his memories prior to his first meeting with his partner were lost to him, was, he shuddered to admit, rather unsettling. Not even his old name--if he even had had one, he could not recall anymore--would reveal itself to him, and it was not as though he could simply find out through some external means: he was never the best at record-keeping, and to really sell their act, he had had his name legally changed to “Waluigi” and all references to his previous identity erased.

He shook his head, attempting to clear his mind of thoughts. There was little sense in worrying and fretting over who he was in that moment--the chance of any sort of useful epiphany emerging from it was even slimmer than he was.

Ugh… better just try to distract myself…

The first suitable option to catch his eye was the TV remote lying on the table. He quickly grabbed it and flicked on the set, and was immediately assaulted by the cheery enunciation of the Lakitu news anchors on the aptly-named Lakitu News Channel. He recalled that that was the channel he had left the set on last night, after he had gotten quite fed up with the incessant and inane blathering about the events of that day’s final matches, and it took only about five seconds to figure out that they were still on that topic. Scowling, he began flipping through the various channels available, hoping to find something interesting enough to block out the melancholic thoughts that were biting at his mind, like a hundred tiny Muncher and Nipper Plants.

After a painfully long series of more newsrooms--all talking about the exact same thing, of course--and unappealing shows--Half of these are for children and other half would just make me feel even worse!--he stumbled across some sort of advice segment hosted by a Birdo (was it the Birdo? He couldn’t tell). With absolutely no better options, he resigned himself to sit back and listen halfheartedly to whatever trite tips she tried to provide; maybe they’d be amusing enough to at least give him a small chuckle.

“I hope you all enjoyed our lovely guest! Now, before we move on to the submissions from all you wonderful viewers, I’d like to reiterate some old, but tried and true, advice, which I hold very close to my heart.”

Oh, here we go…

“Something which you probably hear very often is to always be yourself, or to always be true to yourself…”

Feh, I can think of several people who definitely shouldn’t do that…

“But it may be that you don’t like who ‘yourself’ is, or perhaps you don’t know what self you even have to be true to…”

Hah! As if… uh…

“And to that end, I’d like to say that there is always room for change. There’s always a way to make something new of yourself, to alter the parts of you that you want to, to become a different, better person. ‘Yourself’ can be whoever you want it to be; never are you locked along one unending bleak path. Try new things! Experiment! Don’t let yourself be trapped in an endless cycle.

“Believe me when I say I have personal experience with this: I’ve done so many different things over a rather short period of time, trying to find what I wanted to do with myself, who I wanted to be. Even now, I’m still not entirely sure if this is my supposed ‘calling’…! But I never got anywhere by doing nothing: it was on me to break out of my shell and search for myself, and now it’s on you to do the same.

“You don’t have to begin drastically, with a flying leap of faith--I think we’ve all walked over enough cliffs by now to know that!--but, if this is the sort of mindset you find yourself in, why not try taking some small steps today? It could be as simple as wearing a new outfit, or talking to someone new, or partaking in a new pastime.”

Birdo continued to elaborate on her point, but Waluigi--or, whoever he was beneath that--had stopped listening. He wanted to make some snark about what she said; he wanted to rationalize how what she described couldn’t ever apply to him; but, he found that he couldn’t. He had attempted to follow similar advice long in the past, and failed, but something about the way she phrased it, managed to affect him more deeply than he had thought possible. It was as though her words had dug beneath his shields and layers and pierced something somewhere in his core; pulled a lever, turned a handle, flipped a switch.

A strange sensation washed over him, one he could only describe as a blazing fire--nay, an inferno--igniting within him. He had felt the touch of flame countless times over the years, but not even the innumerable rage-fueled volleys he had endured, all combined into a single force, could compare to what now burned in his soul.

He leapt up from the sofa and ran to his bathroom. Staring at him from within the mirror was a character, a costume, a facade. It was not who he was. He grabbed a towel, dampened it, and proceeded to scrub away the pink paint on his nose; Wario and Waluigi’s noses were defined by that bright rosy color, but his was not. He then tore open a cabinet and grabbed his bottle of mustache product; normally, it was used to create the signature angular mustache of Waluigi, but today, it would shape the hairs into something softer and curlier. Whether that was what he would ultimately like did not matter: he was experimenting! He was changing himself!

Though the man that stared back at him from the glass now bore a much different visage, it was still framed by the purple cap and shirt, yellow emblem, and dark indigo overalls. He tore them off, then opened his wardrobe once more and threw all the copies of that same outfit to the ground. Hidden behind them were old clothes that he hadn’t worn for many, many years. He grabbed the first garments he saw--a casual dress shirt and gaudy neon-yellow shorts. Did those go well together? It didn’t matter. Without hesitating, he put them on.

He quickly glanced in the mirror again: the ensemble was nearly complete, but just missing one last touch. He thought on it for a moment, then stricken with brilliance, hurried to his modest backyard, where the roses he performed with in the games grew. He plucked one from its bush and affixed it to his hair, then ran back to the mirror to observe himself one more time.

His mismatched get-up would likely garner many stares from others, though he wouldn’t mind them at all; if he had anything in common with Waluigi, it was that they both loved being the center of attention. Even still, that’s not what mattered. A whole new day lay before him, a whole new day to be someone new, someone different; to move on from the cycle he had been stuck in, to take a whole new step forward.

He returned to the sitting room and turned off the television, then went to the front door. Taking a deep breath, he turned the handle, threw it open, and marched into the daylight, the daylight which felt far fresher and warmer than it had in a long time, though even it held no candle to the flame that continued to blaze within him.

Ready or not, world; here I come!!

[incorrectsmashbrosquotes]

My Ideas for Non-Mario Super Mario Games

So Super Mario is a series that is beloved by many, but I think it’s time we gave other characters the spotlight. Here are some of my ideas for characters other than Mario, Luigi, and Yoshi to have games in the Mario universe.

-

Princess Peach’s Mushroom Kingdom Simulator

After her latest kidnapping, Princess Peach must set about repairing her kingdom from the damage caused by Bowser in his latest vanity-project/hostile takeover.

The game would be a resource management/kingdom expansion simulator in the same vein as Age of Empires. Gather resources, build cities, and forge alliances with other kingdoms to make the Mushroom Kingdom into something truly special.

-

Waluigi’s Detective Services

In an attempt to go straight, Waluigi opens up a Detective Agency in New Donk City. Most of his “cases” are finding lost pets or something along those lines, but when City Officials start to go missing, Mayor Pauline herself contacts Waluigi to get him on the case.

A semi-open world exploration game that requires you to talk to people, search for clues, and collect items that will unlock more information. This game would require you to be dynamic and active to put together the mystery of the missing officials. side quests and smaller cases abound to make you money and build experience

-

Bowser Jr: King for a Day

Shock and horror! In an completely unforeseeable turn of events, the demoniac forces King Bowser has recruited have turned on him and kidnapped him, throwing the Kingdom into disarray. As Bowser Jr, you must step up to the plate alongside Kamek and the other Koopalings to rescue your father and save Bowser’s Kingdom!

An turn based RPG inspired by the likes of Dragon Quest, this game would have you, as Bowser Jr, fight alongside allies and companions against monsters and demons that would take Bowser’s Kingdom for themselves. Explore a vast open-world version of the Mario universe. Recruit the other Koopalings, as well as Bowser’s various minions from over the years, to fight alongside you in your quest to rescue the Koopa King.

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Let me know what you guys think of these! I have other ideas, and if you want to hear them I’ll tell you about them. And hey! If you have ideas submit them and I’ll post them.

[lore-of-the-mushroom-kingdom]

Goombas Bite And Bunt

There is an old interview with Miyamoto that talks about how when you bump into a Goomba in Super Mario Bros. and take damage, you are being bitten by the Goomba. The reason you don't see it is because of sprite limitation. The reason other games don't show it is basically they simply didn't animate it, and nobody was enforcing the depiction of this. However, there is some media that does depict this.

In Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, one of the attacks Goombas use is to bite you. While not canon to the games there is a scene in The Super Mario Bros. Movie where Goomba is biting on another Goomba, a reference to this characteristic. Finally most recently in Super Mario Bros. Wonder when you run into Goombas an animation of them biting you plays.

Also, Goombas don't just try to bite Mario and friends, Goombas also charge at you as well. This can be seen in any 3D Mario game, and even in Minion Quest: The Search for Bowser(Bowser's Minions). Bowser's Minions actually calls attention to this.

This is also why hypotheses that have Mario as evil and Goombas as completely harmless don't work, it contradicts was is established in canon.

[mysmashplaythroughs]

Super Mario Advance Playthrough

Fighter: Princess Peach Toadstool.

Game: Super Mario Advance, Wii U virtual console (GBA). First Released on March 21st 2001.

Fighter Bio.

Princess Peach Toadstool, known as Princess Peach more commonly now is the crown Princess of the Mushroom Kingdom. She is famous and well liked both within her Kingdom and in a lot of locations outside of it. Peach’s role in the Mario series varies with her most common role often being kidnapped by Bowser, but other villains have also captured her before. Based on my estimate, I believe she has been kidnapped roughly 31 times so far in the games including all spin-offs. Sometimes these kidnappings take place before the game starts meaning she only appears in the ending, other times she’ll have a role in the game before it happens and sometimes it will be a short part of the game like for a single chapter in one of the RPGs. Often in that last example it relates to another one of her roles, being a playable character who is either a party member or optional character to play as, with her sometimes becoming playable after being rescued. In the cases where Peach is not kidnapped immediately, she’ll often tell Mario and the others what they need to do when a crisis is taking place, advising them where to head to next or setting them off at the start of the game on their quest. Being captured so often, one skill Peach seems to have picked up over the years is her ability to often stealthily slip around her captors, sometimes simply working out a way to send Mario assistance such as items and advice, and other times managing to spy on her captor’s plans. Often due to the location she’s being held in she is unable to fully escape from her captors however, or in some cases her sense of duty to her also captured people will make her not try to leave without them.

The Mario series doesn’t have a solid timeline, so a lot of this is just my own personal ideas, but unless a game is explicitly taking place in the past with Baby versions of the characters, I tend to just go by the order in which the games are released regarding character’s histories in the franchise, something possibly evidenced by a scene in Super Mario Sunshine where F.L.U.D.D. searches its databank and has data on Mario’s adventures prior to that game as past events. I also personally like to consider the Paper Mario series broadly canon to the Mario series as a whole so I will be including aspects from that here. Peach first met the Mario Bros and Bowser back when they were babies, with her first meeting with them being during the events of Yoshi’s Island DS. In this game Peach was one of the babies who the Yoshis are trying to help get home, with her ability when riding a Yoshi being to use her parasol which allows them to ride on high winds. The next appearance of Baby Princess Peach was during the Shroob invasion where her older self went back in time and was kidnapped by the Shroobs. Baby Bowser planned to kidnap Baby Peach, however he was interrupted first by the Baby Mario Bros and then by the invading Shroobs. Baby Princess Peach actually manages to not be kidnapped throughout the game instead remaining in the future Castle with a young Toadsworth who is her caretaker. Following these two events (excluding spinoffs with Baby Peach where she appears but there’s no story such as Mario Kart) the Mario Bros seemingly left the Mushroom Kingdom possibly for New Donk City. Despite their absence, Bowser didn’t attempt any more kidnapping plots for some time, possibly not until the Mario Bros returned to the Mushroom Kingdom following the events of Donkey Kong and Mario Bros. Super Mario Bros seems to be the first time Bowser successfully kidnapped Princess Peach taking over her Kingdom entirely until the Mario Bros managed to defeat him and save her. In the backstory to this game, Bowser apparently used magic to transform the people of the Mushroom Kingdom into various objects and then kidnapped the Princess to stop her from turning them back. It’s due to this as well as Peach’s abilities in some games that it seems she is capable of certain forms of magic, often of the healing variety. It is only rarely however Peach is shown to use these abilities.

When it comes to her personality, Peach was probably the earliest character in the series to have dialogue, with her having lines in the very first game and most others after, whereas other characters like Bowser would more often only have dialogue in the instruction book at most. In the very first game it was fairly basic with her simply thanking Mario or Luigi for saving her and offering them the chance to take on a new quest, which was a harder version of the game. Super Mario Bros 3 however had her show a bit more personality, with her making a joke to her saviour at the end of the adventure based on the infamous line Toad would tell the player in the original game, “Thank you Mario but our Princess is in another castle.” Before telling them she was just kidding. Peach’s personality varies a little from game to game, but usually the main aspects of it are that she’s kind, generous and when not captured is good at advising the others what needs to be done. Despite being fairly reliable, she can sometimes be somewhat whimsical, especially in spin-off games with her often enjoying frolicking and singing, and she can when pushed show a fairly strong angry side, with her either aggressively convincing a character such as Luigi to go and save his brother or reacting angrily to those who mock her. Finally, despite her longstanding friendship with Mario, she’s willing to tell him off if he’s getting too carried away, almost abandoning him and Bowser at one point when they start squabbling and she just wants to go home.

Friends: Princess Peach is fairly popular throughout the Mushroom Kingdom and beyond and as such a lot of characters know of her even if they haven’t met her before. Peach’s subjects seem to all adore her a lot with them often being depressed when she’s absent. Of her closer relationships, her closest arguably is with Mario, with him often rescuing her and sometimes her returning the favour. Their relationship tends to be teased sometimes as possibly romantic, but there are times Peach will find Mario a bit too overbearing. What is clear is that they trust each other entirely and when possible will often work together. Peach is close with Luigi also although not to the same degree as Mario, however she will still in some games treat Luigi the same way she does Mario in the ending when Luigi is the character being played as, such as giving him a kiss on the cheek. Later games have shown she extends this to anyone who helps her as a sign of gratitude, including Yoshi, Toad and Toadette. The next closest relationship Peach has is with Toadsworth her elderly steward who has taken care of her since she was a baby. Toadsworth often worries for the Princess’s safety and tries to accompany her whenever he can. Toad is Peach’s attendant and often fulfils Toadsworth’s role in his absence sticking by her side when possible. Toad is fiercely loyal to Peach despite his cowardice and will often try to help her out however he can.

Toadette is someone Peach gets along with, however the two don’t interact that often with Toadette often doing other roles to help Mario. Peach has a connection to the Yoshis due to them saving her with the other Star Children when she was a baby, however besides this there is only one instance of her ever riding Yoshi, which is in the ending of Super Mario World where she rides Yoshi on the journey back to his house after Bowser is defeated. Of the rest of the cast Peach seems to get along fairly well with most of them, with possibly her best friend being Princess Daisy who she often partners with in various sports and other games and the two will also act as friendly rivals when in competition with each other.

Enemies/Rivals: The relationship between Bowser and Peach seems to have developed over the years. Initially Bowser seemed to aim to capture Peach simply because she was the princess of the Kingdom he was invading and then because she could undo the magic he used to transform her citizens. Eventually however, Bowser seemed to develop an affinity for Peach, one which she does not reciprocate at all. Due to this, Bowser’s aim is always to kidnap Peach and try to convince her to marry him rather than just destroy her as with his other enemies. Bowser also at one point told his son Bowser Jr that Peach was his Mother, which led to her being shocked when Bowser Jr claimed this. Despite Junior revealing later on he knew Peach wasn’t his real Mother, he still referred to her as Mama and seems to like the idea of it, kidnapping Peach sometimes so she can be with Bowser. Although Peach does not get along with Bowser or his troops, she will work with them when needed, and in cases where Bowser helps against another enemy she is willing to do things such as send him a cake as thanks. Beyond this, Peach has had a few other enemies, often them being villains who kidnap her as part of their plan such as Sir Grodus or Cackletta. Peach has fought against a couple of villains herself including Count Bleck’s minions, Smithy’s Gang and Wart, leader of the 8 bits who invaded Subcon.

Crossovers with other Smash characters: Being from the Mario series, Princess Peach has had a fair few crossovers, although not as many as the Mario Bros themselves. Super Mario RPG had Peach playable as part of the party, and therefore she was also present when Samus made a cameo in the game. Link’s cameo in the game appears before Princess Peach joins the party, however they are still technically in the same game so I feel it’s still worth mentioning. Princess Peach similarly to Mario appears in the crowd for both the Megaton Punch minigame and Kirby’s Battle in the Boxing arena with King Dedede in Kirby Super Star and the remake Super Star Ultra. Princess Peach is a racer in Mario Kart 8, where there was a Mii costume for Captain Falcon, along with the Blue Falcon as a kart and two F-Zero tracks. In Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, there is also Link in both his Skyward Sword and Breath of the Wild incarnations as well as both default Inklings, two human Animal Crossing Villagers and Isabelle who are playable. Princess Peach is a character in the Game & Watch Gallery games and as such has crossed over with Mr. Game & Watch. In the NES version of Tetris, Pit appeared playing a harp alongside characters such as Princess Peach, Samus, Link and Donkey Kong.  Princess Peach is a character in the Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games series therefore crossing over with Sonic. Pac-Man has crossed over with Princess Peach in the arcade Mario Kart GP series. Whilst Princess Peach has never directly crossed over with any of the Hero characters from Dragon Quest, many of the Fortune Street games have featured crossovers with the Dragon Quest and Mario series, with many other Dragon Quest characters interacting with her. Finally, and perhaps most notably is a game where Princess Peach has a direct cameo and Mario doesn’t. (There is however a character based on him) In all versions of Link’s Awakening a character named Catherine sends a photo of ‘herself’ to Mr. Write (a character who is a clear reference to Dr. Wright from the SNES SimCity game who is also an assist trophy in Super Smash Bros) with him showing Link the photo which is a picture of Princess Peach. In reality, Catherine is a goat living in Animal Village. Whilst normally I tend to not include pictures or outfits in other games as cameos (Peach’s dress and parasol appear in many other series such as Animal Crossing for example) I felt in this case it was justified as the photo is part of the actual sidequest regarding the character’s identity rather than just being a background cameo.

Why this game?

Princess Peach has been playable in a few games so I had quite a few to choose from, Super Mario 3D World was one contender with Peach playing somewhat similarly to how she does in Super Smash Bros, however she lacked something specific in this game that I went for with my final choice. The other two notable options, Super Paper Mario and Super Princess Peach which was her starring role both had her play in a somewhat more unique way to how she did in Super Smash Bros, with Perry the Parasol being a big part of her moveset in SPP, whilst in SPM Peach only had her Parasol lacking her floating jump. Super Mario Bros 2 was the first time Princess Peach was playable, and most of her moveset in Super Smash Bros originates from the game, with not only her being able to float for a short time when she jumps, but perhaps the most unique aspect from the game being her ability to pull out turnips to throw as weapons, something she only does in SMB2. It was for these reasons I decided to go with Super Mario Bros 2 in this case, especially as those other games will still be covered later down the line on my list. When it comes to the version of the game I chose, I went for the Super Mario Advance incarnation rather than the original NES or Allstars version, however I will detail that more in the next section overall.

My past with this game.

So this game is one of the select few specifically from my childhood. I had Super Mario Allstars on the SNES with this game on it, but also I had the NES version as well. With the NES version the main thing I remember is just having the box with the picture of Mario on the front. Similarly to other games then I never completed this one, however it was probably the Mario game I got the least far playing. I believe I would only ever get to 1-3 before usually not making it past the Phantos to face Mouser. For some time I mostly remembered the game but didn’t really revisit it, it wasn’t exactly in the same class as Super Mario Bros 3 or Super Mario World even if I did have some fond memories of it for being so different. Probably the most confusing thing with the game for me back then was related to the cartoon show. In the cartoon show, Bowser is depicted looking different to the games, with him being mostly green with a crown on his head as opposed to his look in the vast majority of other appearances with orange scales on his body and only his head green as well as lacking a crown. Wart, the antagonist of Super Mario Bros 2 however, was all green with a crown on his head. Due to this, I believed that the King Koopa on the cartoon show was actually Wart (which might not be that outlandish as the first version of the cartoon show was based on Super Mario Bros 2, so it was likely King Koopa was just an amalgamation of Bowser and Wart, although this is DIC so the possibility of them just screwing it up is always the most likely scenario) Another perhaps somewhat unique source of this was my Grandma when I’d visit her as a kid, who would have various games I could play with my Cousins, and one she had was a card game called Super Mario Bros Blockbusting Card Game. Of course, being a big fan of Mario then I would love getting this out, especially as the big cards had artwork of the various enemies, powerups and the Mario Bros. What was interesting was this also had artwork of Wart as well as Bowser, which therefore for me back then looked even more similar, so I just assumed Wart was the King Koopa from the cartoons and Bowser was from the games. What helped with this was there were a fair few of the bosses from Super Mario Bros 2 who were cards in the set.

It was only with magazines I believe that I gradually learnt that Wart was the antagonist of Super Mario Bros 2, and at first I believed this meant he was the villain from the cartoon show till I finally realised the cartoon show wasn’t really relevant to the games at all and King Koopa was meant to be Bowser. I also at this time learnt probably the other most notable aspect of this game, that it wasn’t the original Super Mario Bros 2. Despite having Super Mario Allstars, back then I didn’t exactly look at the Lost Levels as anything else other than a weird version of Super Mario Bros I couldn’t get anywhere on, and it was only later I learnt that that was the game in Japan that was SMB2 and the SMB2 I knew had been another game altogether, Doki Doki Panic. What’s interesting is I believe apparently Miyamoto was more involved in Doki Doki Panic than SMB2 (Lost Levels) overall, so it’s not as if the game becoming a Mario one was completely out of nowhere. It’s also very interesting that so many factors of this game, things like Peach’s movement, Luigi’s distinct character design, Toad being playable and perhaps the biggest one being various enemies such as Bob-ombs and Shy Guys became a huge part of the Super Mario Bros series, with Bob-ombs appearing in the following game SMB3 (Which meant in Japan these enemies somehow went from being in Doki Doki Panic to Super Mario Bros 3.) The reason for this apparently was that they believed the original SMB2 (Lost Levels) was too difficult really to sell outside of Japan, something that tends to be mocked now, but personally I think it makes for a more interesting and unique sequel so I’m kind of glad it happened. It’s also interesting to me that due to this, outside of Japan Super Mario Bros fits a slight pattern I noticed with a couple of franchises on NES, where the second game in the series would be quite different to the first, then the third would end up being more like the first game again but expanded. The Legend of Zelda had Zelda II Adventure of Link which had sidescrolling as a major gameplay element before A Link to the Past brought the series back to how it was in the original game, Castlevania 2 Simon’s Quest was a lot different to the first game, but Castlevania 3 Dracula’s Curse brought it back to the gameplay of the first game, and with SMB2 it was radically different to SMB, but then SMB3 brought it back to the style of the first game.

Another big part of my history with the game, as with a fair few franchises, goes back to my experiences on the early internet, specifically Newgrounds flash animations again. Back then, there was a flash animation at the time called Rise of the Mushroom Kingdom which I really enjoyed. It was bloody and involved Mario dying and Luigi setting out for revenge, fairly tame compared to a lot of stuff on Newgrounds then and with some really nice usage of sprites. It was the second flash movie in this series however that involved Mario setting off to face the real villain behind the events of the first movie (which turned out to have been a dream) Wart that really made me appreciate SMB2 more. At the time I was really getting into messing around with sprites and Games Factory, trying to make my own games, so this flash movie made me look a lot more into SMB2 and all the unique enemies in it, with the various bosses such as Mouser, Tryclyde and of course Birdo and Wart being characters I wanted to see more of. This all led me to finally properly play SMB2 and beat it some time after I had beaten SMB3.

For my final history with the game, it relates mostly to Super Mario Advance, the remake of Super Mario Bros 2 that launched the Game Boy Advance. It was traditional at that point to launch a new Nintendo console with a Mario game, a pattern that would be broken only a few months later with the release of the Gamecube (which instead had Luigi’s Mansion, and the Wii wouldn’t have a Mario series game at all at launch.) This game was the first in the Super Mario Advance series and it’s arguably the version that was changed the most from the original game, with a few changes to the levels such as new giant Shy Guys and a fair bit more voice acting with all the bosses getting lines they’d say when you met them. This is pure speculation I’ve had since then, but I feel like they possibly picked Super Mario Bros 2 as they felt it was the game that they could risk changing most, and also that they changed it the most of the series so as to show off what the GBA was capable of with the voices and sprites. I remember when the GBA was the current console, Super Mario Advance was the game I’d tend to see most often being shown off in stores, even sometime after other games had come out. Despite this, it was probably the last game in the Advance series I got, but I’d say out of the Mario Advance series it’s the game I’d most recommend instead of or alongside the original or Allstars version as it’s the more unique experience. It’s due to this that I chose Super Mario Advance as the version for my playthrough rather than the others.

My Smash Playthrough.

I have actually played through this game fairly recently from start to finish, for a character much further down my list so the game is somewhat fresh in my memory compared to other games I’ve written about so far here. For this playthrough as it was the game I chose for Princess Peach I played through the whole game solely as her. In comparison I’d say she’s one of the characters who I prefer playing as due mostly to her extremely useful floating ability, with her downside (being her power which means she’s unable to pull vegetables or pick up enemies as quickly and a slower running speed) not really feeling too much of a hassle in exchange. I want to focus on Peach mostly, but Mario as always is the all-rounder having no real weaknesses nor gimmicks that make him excel in any area, Luigi has the best jump but is a little slower and less powerful than Mario (this is also the game where he first had his scuttle jump) and finally Toad (the character I played through the game as recently) is the fastest and most powerful but has the lowest jump, often requiring you to charge up a super jump (done by crouching down until the character starts glowing) to reach higher platforms. The plot of the game is that Mario had a dream one night where he went up a staircase and found a mysterious door. Opening the door he saw a vast world before him and heard a voice telling him this land was Subcon and that the evil Wart is causing suffering there. The voice tells Mario that only he can save the land and to remember Wart hates vegetables before Mario wakes up. The next day, Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Peach go for a picnic, Mario tells them of the dream he had and they all say they had the same dream. During their picnic they see a cave and look inside it, finding a staircase leading up to the same door from the dream. When they open it, they are once again standing before Subcon, with them this time entering which is where the game starts.

Probably the most immediate point for most Mario players to notice when first playing this game is how it is very different when it comes to a lot of the standard Mario mechanics, granted when the game came out this was following only the original Super Mario Bros, so it wasn’t quite as unusual. Some aspects remain the same, such as the characters turning small when they have only one hit left, however unlike in other Mario games their health is restored by finding hearts, with any amount of hearts over one bringing them back to regular size. Mushrooms are in the game still, but this time finding one and picking it up gives the character an extra heart (as well as fully healing them) which means they’re a lot less common than in other Mario games. This game also lacks any sort of power-ups such as the Fire Flower, with the only alternate form being brief invincibility when touching a Star. I quite enjoy the main mechanic used to fight in this game, being picking up objects or enemies and throwing them at other enemies to defeat them, it provides a fun and fairly unique style of gameplay to the other games in the series and creates fairly basic puzzles in some cases where you’re required to build a small tower of mushroom blocks as an example to be able to reach a high platform. Possibly one of the most infamous aspects of this game are the keys that are sometimes required in stages to get through a locked door. You are required to carry the keys similarly to other objects to the door, however when holding the key, the evil Phanto Masks will relentlessly pursue you, and only stop either when you use the key on the door or drop the key. Despite their reputation and giving me some trouble as a kid, nowadays I barely find them a problem as just throwing the key ahead of you usually gets them off your back long enough to travel a fair distance before they pursue you again.

When it comes to difficulties I faced playing the game, it’s a fairly easy game, with only two sections I remember really causing me many problems both recently and back during this playthrough. The first is a stage where you’re travelling across the tops of whales in the ocean. The top of them is a fairly big platform, although the middle of the platform will sometimes have water spout out of their blowhole. Touching this water from the side will hurt you which can be somewhat annoying, however jumping on top of the water that’s spurting out provides a platform. Perhaps the most irritating part to me is when you’re required to use the whales tails as platforms, mostly as they are very small and it can be very easy to slip off of them, leading to an instant death. The second and probably most irritating situation in the game for me are parts featuring you digging through sand. In these parts of the level there are layers of sand that you can dig by pulling them similarly to how you pull vegetables out of the ground. The problem with these parts are the Shy Guys who constantly walk from left to right, and will fall down the layers of Sand you’ve removed. Due to how little room you have to manoeuvre when you get lower in the sand, picking the Shy Guys up and throwing them doesn’t really work, often with them catching on a layer above and instantly walking back into you taking off health. The way I describe this sounds like it’s a design issue but it’s more just hard to describe and really makes sense when playing, it’s not unfair or anything, it’s just these sections are the ones I tend to die most at and find the most tedious, possibly simply due to impatience when it comes down to it.

The stages aren’t really ground-breaking, but when compared to the stages in the original Super Mario Bros I feel they have a fair bit more variety. The themes for them are grassland, vertical waterfall stages, desert stages, underground caves and snow stages, with some of them simply being at night. I still find the stages do some interesting things however with them not seeming just like variations of each other but often having a few unique features to them that makes them stand out, for example the very first stage is a fairly basic grassland, but the end of it has you going into a cave to reach the top of some hills, then climbing into the clouds before facing the boss. The levels are longer than those in the original Super Mario Bros, however there are less of them, with each world only having 3 stages, and the last world, World 7 only having two. The game is somewhat challenging, it was probably the one I got the least far in of the Super Mario Bros games as a kid, but despite a couple of issues I find it fairly simple to play through now, especially with Peach.

The Bosses are probably the more interesting of the first three Super Mario Bros games with there being quite a few variations, although some are repeated a few times. This game was the debut of Birdo who appears in a few variations. The most basic battle with Pink Birdo has her shoot eggs from her mouth at you, which you have to grab from the air and throw back at her. Red Birdo shoots eggs also, but varies it with some fireballs, so you have to be careful which projectile you jump onto and which you just avoid. Green Birdo is the final variation shooting only fireballs, requiring you to grab other objects from around the room to throw instead of eggs to beat her. There is a fourth sort of variation exclusive to Super Mario Advance, being the Robo Birdo. This boss fires eggs also like Birdo, however the eggs are giant and it also has a charging attack which requires you to grab one of the chains hanging from the ceiling to avoid. Birdos are usually the bosses of the regular stages in Super Mario Bros 2, with the third stage of each world having a unique boss to fight, Robo Birdo being one of these unique bosses who replaces a repeated boss in the original versions of the game. There are a couple of unique appearances of Birdo in the game however which I find neat personally, one of which is a Pink Birdo who appears at the very start of stage 4-3. This Birdo will always respawn when defeated when you leave the area through a door and return again. The reason why is that the eggs she fires are actually meant to be used to ride across a large chasm to reach the rest of the level, which is probably one of my favourite little gimmicks in the game.

Mouser is the first main boss in the game, a Mouse with sunglasses who likes to throw bombs everywhere, naturally the way to beat him is to throw his bombs back at him. I remember finding this boss a little annoying mostly as he’s on a platform above you, and only gets effected by the bomb if it goes off where he’s standing. Due to his erratic movements this can be down to luck somewhat as to whether he’ll stand in the right spot when the bomb explodes, although it’s hardly a difficult battle overall. What’s probably most interesting to me about Mouser is that he is probably the boss who varies the most between versions of the game. In the original form of the game, Doki Doki Panic he appeared as a boss three times, with a green eared version in stage 3-3 and a white furred version in 5-3. Super Mario Bros 2 replaced the version in 5-3 with another boss, and then Super Mario Advance replaced the green eared version with Robo Birdo, but actually had a second boss battle with the regular Mouser replace a second boss battle with another character. Tryclyde is the next boss faced all versions of the game, being a three headed snake that shoots fireballs and has to have mushroom blocks thrown at it. Interestingly Tryclyde appears again as a boss in SMB2 but in Super Mario Advance it’s replaced in it’s second battle by Mouser. Another odd factor with Tryclyde is in Super Mario Bros 2 it is red, but in the remake for Mario All-Stars and Super Mario Advance it is instead green with red patterns on it’s back. It’s particularly odd in this case as some enemies, Cobrats who are single headed snakes that appear in the game remain red in all versions. Tryclyde is more of a challenging boss than Mouser and caused me perhaps a death or two but wasn’t that tough overall. The next boss is probably the one I had the most trouble with, Fryguy a living flame. Due to being a flame, touching Fry Guy at all causes damage, so you have to throw mushroom blocks at him. What makes this battle more difficult is that Fryguy moves around a fair bit, and hitting him with the mushroom blocks due to this without being hit yourself can be a lot more tricky. On top of this, when you beat the first phase of the boss fight, Fryguy then splits into four smaller versions that can be just as tricky to hit and all need to be extinguished in order to beat him. Fryguy is probably second only to Wart when it comes to how often I’d die to him, and I think in this playthrough actually killed me more than Wart did. Clawgrip the crab is the final of the standard bosses in the game, throwing boulders at you which have to be picked up and thrown back at him. I remember this battle being a little tricky as landing on the boulders properly could be tough, and approaching from the side at all would cause you damage, but overall he was less tough than Fryguy to me. Clawgrip replaced the white Mouser and was the only boss who wasn’t in Doki Doki Panic (besides Robo Birdo.) Every boss is voiced in this version of the game and I find them fun little voicelines overall that make them more memorable, with lines like Mouser going “Here, have some bombs!” or Birdo’s “This is as far as you go!”

The final two levels are the most difficult overall, not being as irritating to me as the digging through sand or whale sections earlier in the game, but more difficult stages overall than the others, with the first having you travelling across clouds with a lot of enemies and pits to overcome and the second being a big palace which is probably the biggest maze in the game. They are both however, probably my favourite levels in the game overall. I tend to have an affinity for cloud based sky stages and I find the palace a fitting final location. Wart is the final boss of the game and is fought in a room with the Dream Machine which he has been using possibly to create the various monsters that make up his army of bad dreams. The Dream Machine seems to perhaps possess some sort of sentience however, as in the final battle it starts shooting out vegetables which can be grabbed and thrown into Wart’s mouth to defeat him. Wart fights by shooting out bubbles and it is only when he opens his mouth to do so he can be hurt by throwing a vegetable in there, which was why at the start of the game Mario was told about Wart hating them as a hint. I remember having some trouble years ago with timing the vegetables so as to not get hit by the bubbles, but this time it went fairly smoothly and I beat Wart I think first time. With Wart defeated you go through to the next room and free the native inhabitants of Subcon from a jar, who celebrate Mario, Luigi, Toad and Peach defeating Wart and saving them before seeming to throw the defeated Wart out of the Palace. With this, the scene then switches to Mario in bed, revealing the whole game was a dream as cast credits for all of the enemies in the game go by, which in the original version of the game had a couple of mistakes such as Ostro, a minor enemy and Birdo’s names being swapped, which is corrected in this version. It’s a nice ending and for those who overanalyse these games like me, somewhat interesting as a few of the enemies who first appeared in this game such as Shy Guys and Snifits actually also appeared in Yoshi’s Island when Mario was a baby, so as this is part of a dream those memories might be related to them appearing in Wart’s army of bad dreams, although I know it’s probably nothing that deep overall. So overall, I enjoyed playing through this game, it’s not overly long or difficult and as a portable game back when it came out and the first example of what the GBA could do, it was very good overall I’d say.

Specific aspects about the game relating to Peach in Smash.

I’ve pretty much gone over the main aspects of Princess Peach in this game when it comes to Super Smash Bros, this game was the origin of Peach’s floating jump ability and her pulling turnips out of the ground to throw at enemies. In Super Smash Bros, very rarely Peach can pull other items out of the ground instead of a turnip, one of which being a Bob-omb, which is possible also in Super Mario Bros 2 where some of the tufts of grass when pulled will turn out to be a Bob-omb which has to be thrown away immediately or else it will explode on you. Other than this however, most of Peach’s other moves come from other games I will cover later, such as her frying pan being from Super Mario RPG, Tennis Racket and Golf Club from their respective sports series and Parasol from various other games. There’s nothing really to customise so that’s pretty much it for Peach’s appearance in this game.

Credits.

For information on this game including dates of releases I must give credit to Super Mario Wiki.

The screenshots in this post are taken by me using Miiverse before it shut down.

[lembrosgame]

Bowser's Minions: Minion Quest: The Search for Bowser - Part 9

[captainshyguy]

im probably not gonna play bowser jrs journey because the captains from minion quest/the search for bowser aren’t the main characters anymore, but im scanning someone’s playthrough of the game to see if they have any scenes together and uh

as usual, captain ‘gay rights!’ shy guy is pulling through for me 

[nintendocafe]

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Mario and luigi have access to different techniques, known as Bros. Moves, necessary for solving puzzles on their adventure.

Time your button presses to skillfully dodge enemy blows, land devastatingcounters, and inflict increased damage in battle. Utilize Bros. Attacks that dishout massive damage!

In the brand new mode titled Minion Quest: The Search for Bowser, become the unlikely hero, Captain Goomba. Journey together with ShyGuy, Boo and other familiar Baddies.

The Minion Quest storyline takes place during Mario & Luigi's classic adventure. Find out what really transpired behind-the-scenes!