Main characters: The Mario Brothers | Allies (The Princesses) | The Koopa Kingdom (Bowser — Bowser Jr. — The Koopalings — Other High-Ranking Subordinates — Bosses) | Assorted Nasties
RPG characters: Super Mario RPG | Paper Mario (64 — The Thousand-Year Door — Super — Sticker Star — Color Splash — The Origami King) | Mario & Luigi (Minion Quest: The Search for Bowser)
Spinoff series: Yoshi's Island | Luigi's Mansion | Mario Golf | Mario Tennis | Super Mario Maker | Donkey Kong series (Kongs) | Wario series (Wario and Waluigi)
Crossovers: Punch-Out!! | Super Smash Bros. | Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games | Skylanders | Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle | Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope
Other media: The Great Mission to Save Princess Peach! | Super Mario Bros. (DiC) | Super Mario Bros. (1993) | The Super Mario Bros. Movie
A list of all characters appearing in Super Mario RPG.
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Mario and his Party
In General
"For peace to return... we must get rid of Smithy, find the Star Pieces, and repair the Star Road..."
''Come on! Let's get this show on the road."
A group of courageous heroes (and Bowser) who band together to reclaim the Seven Stars, stop the Smithy Gang's reign of terror, and save Star Road.— Geno
- Breaking the Fellowship: At the end of the game, Geno returns to the heavens to guard Star Road, Mario and Peach return to their normal lives in the Mushroom Kingdom, Bowser heads back to the Koopa Kingdom to begin repairs on his castle, and Mallow joins his biological parents in the clouds. That being said, they all reunite one last time to celebrate and see Geno off.
- Combination Attack: In the remake, once the Action Gauge is filled, three of the heroes can work together to perform a Triple Attack that will play a short cutscene and deal massive amounts of damage to enemies. Each combination of characters produces a different effect.
- Five-Man Band: Naturally for a classic Square RPG, the heroes form an archetypal one:
- Mario: The Leader, whom all of the heroes follow and are inspired by (even Bowser, despite his refusal to admit it).
- Mallow: The Lancer, an emotional, dimwitted, and somewhat cowardly fellow who nevertheless sticks by Mario.
- Geno: The Smart Guy, being the most knowledgeable about magic, the Smitthy Gang, and Star Road. He fills in the Party on the backstory of the Seven Stars.
- Bowser: The Big Guy, easily the strongest and most aggressive member of the party.
- Peach: The Heart, the kindest and most compassionate party member whose most powerful abilities revolve around healing.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: Prior to Peach's unexpected arrival, the party formed one.
- Mario: the phlegmatic.
- Mallow: the eclectic.
- Geno: the melancholic.
- Bowser: the choleric.
- Freudian Trio: The initial three party members form one.
- Mallow: the id, the most emotional and spirited of the three.
- Geno: the superego, the most levelheaded member who is performing his sacred duty.
- Mario: the ego, a silent, yet friendly and cheerful guy who is acting out of pure altruism.
- Odd Friendship: All of them manage to at least somewhat befriend Bowser by the end in spite of his long track record of misdeeds. In the remake, despite returning to villainy, Bowser peacefully reunites with them at the end to see Geno again, with no ulterior motive whatsoever.
- The Power of Friendship: In the remake, the party is able to use the Stars to pool their abilities together and unleash devastating attacks.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The party is a truly bizarre group, even by Mario standards.
- Mario, a silent Italian plumber who is known for his jumping skills and rescues princesses on a daily basis.
- Mallow, a living cloud who thinks he's a frog and has no memory of his true past.
- Geno, a talking doll that hails from the heavens and wields strange powers.
- Bowser, a giant, evil turtle who has been forced into an Enemy Mine with his nemesis.
- Princess Peach, the most normal member of the party, who is nevertheless the human leader of a tribe of mushroom people.
- Team Spirit: Eventually, the party realizes that the only way to get the Seven Stars back is by putting aside their differences and working together. Even Bowser stops being hostile towards Mario by around 2/3 of the way through.
- Three Plus Two: The party is initially just Mario, Mallow, and Geno, all united towards a single goal. Then they're placed in an Enemy Mine with Bowser, who just wants his castle back, before finally being joined by Peach after she sneaks out of the castle to prove her worth as an adventurer.
- True Companions: By the end, despite going their separate ways and Bowser returning to his usuals schemes, the party still remain united by their memories of the adventure. In The Stinger thrown in for the remake, all of them (even Bowser) reunite to see Geno one last time.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: By the latter half of the game, Mario and Peach have formed this dynamic with Bowser, with the latter often boasting about his greatness while Peach snarks at him and Mario silently agrees.
Mario
[jumps]
Original
"Wow! You're THE Mario! I know all about you! You've got more JUMP in you than a box of frogs!"
— Mallow
The Hero of the Mushroom Kingdom leaps into action once again to save the world from the biggest threat he's ever faced with the same determination and courage he's used to take out Bowser countless times. He's the Jack of All Stats of the game and he specializes in jump and fire magic.
- Abnormal Ammo: Three of his weapons are to invoke the classic Mario technique of kicking a Koopa shell at the enemy. His "hidden" ultimate weapon, the Lazy Shell, has him kick a shell bigger than him.
- All-Loving Hero: Mario is such a determined Nice Guy that he's even willing to team up with (and even somewhat befriend) Bowser to save the day.
- And Here He Comes Now: Mario crashes through the roof of a mole's house just as said moles are wondering about him.
- Bare-Fisted Monk: Some of his weapons are gloves, which Mario uses to punch enemies.
- Boring, but Practical: Jump is his first special attack and as plain as you'd expect, but it is also an Evolving Attack that grows in power the more you use it and with time becomes a cheap, but very powerful and useful special attack.
- Bouncing Battler: Three of Mario's special attacks are him jumping on enemies. It's also lampshaded: after Mario beats Jinx, a professional martial artist, Jinx and his student decide to incorporate Mario's jumping techniques into their own fighting styles and spend the rest of the game bouncing up and down on one spot trying to emulate Mario.
- Can't Drop the Hero: Mario is the only character that you must take into battle, and the only one usually visible on the world map.
- Composite Character: Mario can fight barehanded and with jumps. He's basically a cross between a Monk and a Dragoon.
- Character Tics: Due to him being a Heroic Mime he often nods, vigorously shakes his head or even Face Faults when talking to other people to make his feelings clear.
- Deadpan Snarker: Some dialogue options can have Mario come off this way with a few being even quite mean spirited.
- Equippable Ally: One of Bowser's weapons allows him to throw Mario at the enemy.
- Evolving Attack: Though he learns six magic attacks, they're basically just powered up versions of the two base attacks: Jump, Super Jump, Ultra Jump, and Fire Orb, Super Flame, Ultra Flame. His basic jump attack also gets more powerful as you use it more.
- Famed In-Story: Most characters in the game are well aware of who he is.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: The phlegmatic. Mario is a Heroic Mime in this game, and expresses his thoughts through actions as opposed to words.
- Gathering Steam: His base Jump attack starts off weak, but in both versions of the game, it slowly powers up the more the player uses it, on top of Mario himself slowly growing more powerful from leveling up. If properly focused on, it can easily be his best general attack.
- Good Old Fisticuffs: His base unarmed attack and Punch Glove have him do two and three-hit punch combos.
- The Hero: Your main character, the all-around good guy, and the one everyone follows and pins their hopes on.
- Heroic Mime: He pantomimes, even to the point of shapeshifting into other characters to act out what he would otherwise be saying.
- Lampshaded at the beginning by Toad asking Mario "what's with the silent treatment?"
- It even extends to his clone during the second battle with Belome, as his Psychopath thought is "..."
- Infinity -1 Sword: The Ultra Hammer, found in the final dungeon, is his ultimate weapon, and the only ultimate weapon of the cast that's near-impossible to miss since it's a chest on the main path. However...
- Infinity +1 Sword: The secret Lazy Shell weapon, tied with the Frying Pan for the most powerful weapon in the game, is a "hidden" weapon that is even stronger. The catch is getting it is a Guide Dang It!, while the Ultra Hammer is out in the open.
- Jack of All Stats: He starts out this way. His offense and defense, physically and magically, are well-balanced. Only his speed is slightly below average. Over time, he morphs into the game's best character by far. This is necessary, since you Can't Drop the Hero.
- Kleptomaniac Hero: You can get called out on it — after assisting a man to his house in Rose Town, he asks if the treasure chests in his house are safe. If you tell them someone took them he'll realize only Mario could jump high enough to get them, and you have the option to come clean about it.
- Lightning Bruiser: As befitting Mario, he's usually a Jack of All Stats with all-around decent stats. But with his exclusive best equipment, the Lazy Shell and Attack Scarf, he becomes bar-none the most powerful character in the game, doing far more damage than anyone else as well as having the best speed and defenses.
- Loved by All: Almost everyone you meet knows who Mario is, and while they're informal since he's a known Nice Guy, they treat him with the respect and admiration deserved by someone who saves the world for a day job.
- Megaton Punch: Mega Glove has him throw his basic one-two combo with gigantic fists instead.
- Must Have Caffeine: When Mario sleeps at the Rose Town inn, Gaz's mother will ask Mario how well he slept. Mario can respond with "Need caffeine, keep away."
- Narrative Shapeshifting: He can even walk on air while doing it. He's a talented storyteller!
- Nice Guy: Despite never uttering a word, Mario is clearly a friendly, well-meaning, and all-around heroic guy who makes friends and saves lives wherever he goes.
- Nobody Here but Us Statues: Mario paints himself gold to hide amongst Valentina's statues. There's a short minigame where Mario has to avoid blowing his cover as Dodo pecks at the statues; winning nets you the speed-boosting Feather, and losing starts an optional fight with Dodo.
- No-Sell: His trademark Jump attacks are ineffective against certain types of enemies, most obviously Spinies and Piranha Plants; while using Jump attacks on these enemies doesn't hurt Mario, they deal no damage. However, Mario can invert this on them with the Jump Shoes, which cause Jump attacks to ignore such resistance.
- Playing with Fire: Those of his magic attacks that aren't Jump attacks involve him shooting fire at enemies.
- Scarf of Asskicking: By getting thirty Super Jumps in a row, Mario gets an accessory called the Attack Scarf that only he can equip. It adds thirty points to every stat except HP, making him significantly more powerful than the rest of the party.
- Signature Move: His trademark Jump serves to confirm his identity on a few occasions — a Snifit in Seaside Town considers a jump from him a form of ID, and Booster's Snifsters assume he just looks like Mario until he jumps and they realize it's actually him.
- Sympathy for the Devil:
- When Boomer is Driven to Suicide after his boss battle, Mario stops and attempts to cheer him up.
- After listening to a downtrodden Bowser recite some poetry, Mario takes a moment to tenderly pat his nemesis on the back.
- Would Hurt a Child: When Gaz tells Geno that Mario will need all the help he can get, Mario's outright ready to sock Gaz in the face, and only doesn't because he's forcibly held back by Mallow.
Mallow
Original
"I'm Mallow from Tadpole Pond. I’m a frog, but can you believe it? I can't jump. Embarrassing huh?"
A "tadpole" from Tadpole Pond who came to the Mushroom Kingdom on an errand and joined up with Mario to chase down a thief, and then to fight Mack. Upon returning home with Mario, he's told to his utter shock and horror that he isn't a tadpole, and his real family is out there somewhere. Thus he joins with Mario permanently to help save the world and find his real family. He's the resident Squishy Wizard (literally and figuratively) who has lots of magical abilities deriving from the weather.
- Badass Adorable: He looks like a walking marshmallow with a cheery smile and a childlike disposition. He's also a magic slinging badass whose weakest attack is summoning lighting storms from cloudless skies!
- Black Mage: Awful physical stats but powerful offensive magic. Being a Squaresoft project, this is an intentional decision — note his striped pants that many Black Mages of Final Fantasy wear. Has a bit of Red Mage too since he has a healing spell with HP Rain.
- Boring, but Practical: Thunderbolt is the only Herd-Hitting Attack you have access to until around Land's End when other people begin to learn them, and with a Timed Hit and good training to Mallow's magic it's pretty effective. The only other attack up to then that can hit all enemies is Bowser's Terrorize, but his magic attacks are nowhere near as strong as Mallow's.
- Character Development: He gradually grows stronger-willed and more courageous over the course of the game, going from breaking down in tears after his Frog Coin is stolen to holding himself back after he learns that his parents miss him. He also fails to jump over a small wall in his introductory scene, but jumps into the royal bus without any problems just before the endgame.
- Chekhov's Skill: His ability to summon rainstorms when crying, which appears several times. The final time, Mario gets out an umbrella after Mallow runs inside the Nimbus Land castle by himself, anticipating the teary reunion between parents and child.
- Colony Drop: His ultimate attack, Star Rain, drops a giant star on enemies. The amount of bounces increases the damage.
- Crutch Character: He's useful early on since he has the only magic attack that hits all enemies and also has a healing spell. Later on, his usefulness takes a hit due to Geno's more powerful offense overall, and Peach's wider (and more effective) variety of healing spells, on top of her hitting harder physically than Mallow can. However, he retains some usefulness due to the elemental properties of his magic; see This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman below. He also has more powerful magic than any other party member, until Geno unlocks his final spell, but this rarely amounts to anything, as few enemies resist physical attacks, and the ones who do tend to have low enough HP for Mario to defeat them with his fireballs, meaning Mallow's best talent is never really needed. The remake gives him some minor buffs so he can better keep up with the rest of the party, on top of the reworked inventory making FP management better, which in turn makes him much better at crowd controlling enemies.
- Cumulonemesis: An inversion. Mallow is a member of the Nimbus race, people who have cloud-like bodies. He is also one of Mario's partners and possesses weather manipulation powers.
- Detachable Lower Half: When using a special attack, Mallow's upper body detaches from his legs. It is unknown whether this is something exclusive to Mallow or if all Nimbus folk can do that.
- The Ditz: Has a knack for missing the obvious, such as the fact that he clearly isn't a frog. Best example: you get to a city filled with cloud people, just like Mallow, and are soon thereafter introduced to the long-lost Prince "Mallow", who looks nothing like any of the citizens. Mallow considers the name similarity a mildly amusing coincidence, that the city is boring, and that the team should search somewhere else.
- Elemental Powers: He commands rain, snow, and lightning to attack.
- Empathic Environment: The source of his magic is his power to control the weather. His emotional state is connected to his powers to a degree — he accidentally causes rainstorms when he cries.
- Enemy Scan: Psychopath, renamed as Thought Peek in the remake, reveals enemy stats and thoughts, which often carry a clue to how to beat them.
- Foil: To Dodo, made clear in the remake.
- They were misplaced away from their biological families and raised by individuals who found them, with Mallow being found by Frogfucius/the Frog Sage floating within a basket on a river and Dodo imprinting on Valentina upon hatching.
- They were also raised differently than what they were expected to be, with Mallow as the missing prince of Nimbus Land thinking he is a frog that happens to not be able to jump as one and Dodo being made to believe he is the missing Nimbus Land prince for Valentina's own schemes when he's made nothing more than her slave.
- Mallow adores Frogfucius/the Frog Sage and sees him as his own grandfather even when it is revealed that Mallow was never a tadpole. Dodo secretly resents Valentina for all her abuse and takes it out on her golden statues, but does not leave her due to owing her for raising him.
- Mallow is a cloud person that can easily fit in with the people of Nimbus Land mainly due to him being their missing prince while Dodo is a large dodo bird that is being presented as the missing Nimbus Land prince by Valentina.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: The eclectic. Mallow can be rather emotional, but his state of mind is usually dependent on what mood he's in.
- Gene Hunting: His main motivation for joining Mario.
- Good Old Fisticuffs: Like Mario, his unarmed attack, as well as his Sticky Glove and Whomp Glove, are punch combos with him elongating his limbs.
- Healer Signs On Early: The first party member to join and your primary healer at least until Princess Peach joins.
- Herd-Hitting Attack: He had a lot of herd hitting attacks in the original, but he wasn't able to really take advantage of them in the original game due to the inventory system making it hard to recover FP on demand. In the remake, the reworked inventory system and some minor buffs to his magic by far makes him the best character for dealing with random encounters.
- An Ice Person: Snowy creates a blizzard, then drops a snowman on enemies.
- Identical Grandson: Obviously, not to Frogfucius. When the party enters the sculptor's house in Nimbus Land, Mallow points out a statue that looks just like him. Turns out this is King Nimbus when he was a kid. It's thanks to this that they discover Mallow is the real prince and Dodo is an impostor.
- Infinity -1 Sword: As a result of the remake, the Sonic Cymbals has been relegated to this, having been replaced by the Sage Stick, but it is available only post-game.
- Infinity +1 Sword: The Sonic Cymbals is his best weapon. The remake adds the Sage Stick, obtainable in the Endgame+.
- Informed Flaw: Everyone, including Mallow himself, says he's sort of a crybaby, but he only cries three times in the entire game, and all for pretty understandable reasons. Granted, that's three more times than any other character, so he may have a point. Toadstool, Booster and Bowser(!) probably match him in on-screen crying.
- Interspecies Adoption: Mallow was adopted by Frogfucius, and grew up believing he was a "frog that can't jump". However, he was Happily Adopted too: until he found out the truth and was sent with Mario to learn his true origins and help him on his quest, it's implied he had a perfectly happy life in Tadpole Pond, and for sure he and Frogfucius were as close as any blood relatives. Even after finding out who his real parents are, he still refers to Frogfucius as "Grandpa".
- Kid Hero: He's very young but is Mario's first ally.
- The Klutz: There are occasions throughout the game where he trips and falls flat on his face.
- The Lancer: He's Mario's first companion and contrasts him in nearly every way.
- Make Some Noise: The Cymbals and Sonic Cymbals weapons deal damage just from Mallow slamming them together in front of the enemy.Sonic Cymbals description: Puts noise to work for you!
- Master of None: Mallow's magic is useful, but he's outclassed in at least one category by every other party member that follows. He's only really useful if you need some kind of elemental attack, or for clearing out groups of enemies for low FP. Averted in the remake, though.
- Moses in the Bulrushes: How Frogfucius adopted him. The old frog found a basket with a baby Mallow going down the river.
- Musical Assassin: His Cymbals and Sonic Cymbals have him bang cymbals together to damage enemies with the sound waves.
- Nice Guy: Behind Mario himself, Mallow is the sweetest and most kindhearted member of the party.
- Oblivious Adoption: He doesn't realize he's not a frog. No one else in his hometown seemed to notice either, since even the tadpoles rush to hear when Frogfucius reveals the truth.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: Granted, he doesn't realize he's royalty for most of the game. But he does continue on with the quest after learning he's a prince.
- Shock and Awe: Thunderbolt and Shocker zap enemies with lightning.
- Squishy Wizard: His HP and physical stats are awful, but he has the best offensive magic in the game.
- Star Power: Star Rain, which summons a giant star to jump up and down on enemies.
- Strong Family Resemblance: A plot point. While visiting Nimbus Land for the first time, the party walk into a statue shop and Mallow finds one of him. It turns out that that's actually of the king when he was Mallow's age. This alerts the sculptor and he forms a plan to smuggle the party into the castle.
- Tender Tears: Which create pouring rain.
- This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman:
- He's out-classed as a magic attacker by Geno, doesn't have the defense of Bowser, and isn't nearly as great a healer as Peach, but his lightning-based, multiple-target magic makes him ideal for taking out Speardovich — in fact, he makes the battle trivially easy. Before that, he is very effective in the underwater portions of the Sunken Ship.
- While not to the same degree as the Speardovich fight, every enemy in the Barrel Volcano is weak against Mallow's Snowy attack — except for the second form of the boss, which is weak to lightning. Like Yaridovich, Mallow makes the fight against Czar Dragon/Zombone much easier.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Prior to being recognized as royalty, Mallow views Nimbus Land, populated by a race of people who look just like him, with a prince of the same name, no less, as a fairly boring stop on the journey, in a hurry to get back on the road to somewhere more fun.Mallow: Don't we have anything better to do than hang around HERE? Come on, let's go and find the rest of the Star Pieces!
- Weather Manipulation: The basis of his magic powers. He is a cloud-person, after all.
- What Does This Button Do?: He wonders this about a giant green switch button inside the Smithy Factory. When he jumps on it, he's lifted into the air by a giant crane.
Geno
Original
"I serve... a higher authority. That Star Piece belongs to everyone. You can't keep it."
A representative spirit from Star Road sent to find the Star Pieces, he takes up residence in the body of a doll and makes it grow to life size to use as a body. Initially acting alone, he recognizes Mario as a great hero and accepts his aid in the quest for the Stars. He's a reliable and trustworthy ally, and provides plenty of exposition.
- Arc Hero: Despite being the third party member to be playable, he has the most personal connection to the primary goal of fixing the Star Road and defeating Smithy. He is even the one to reveal to Mario the true goal of the game and the purpose of the Star Pieces.
- Arm Cannon: The Hand Gun has Geno retract his right hand and produce a gun in the open space, which he uses to open fire. His first spell, Geno Beam, does the same, but shoots a beam instead of bullets. The Star Gun has Geno retract both hands instead of just one, shooting stars from the barrels.
- Badass Armfold: His victory pose has him strike this.
- Badass Cape: Aside from a hat and shoes, it's the only thing he seems to wear.
- Barbie Doll Anatomy: He is literally an animate doll.
- Beam Spam: Geno Blast summons a lot of rainbow-colored energy beams.
- Big Good: While Mario is The Hero as always, Geno unites the group together under the common goal of fixing Star Road and freeing Bowser's castle from Smithy, as he's the Star Road ambassador sent down for the purpose of repairing it.
- Breakout Character: He makes a cameo appearance in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, and there's a DLC Mii costume in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate based on him.
- But Now I Must Go: After the final Star Piece is reclaimed, he returns to the Star Road.
- Charged Attack: Geno Beam, Geno Blast and Geno Flash need the player to hold the button to power them up.
- Death from Above: Geno Blast rains down beams from the sky.
- Energy Weapon: His magic attacks manifest as laser blasts and energy projectiles.
- Finger Firearms: Finger Shot blasts pellets from his fingertips.
- Fixed Damage Attack: Geno Whirl, if you time it right, can do exactly 9999 damage, instantly killing anything. It doesn't work on bosses, though... excluding Exor.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: The melancholic. Geno is very eloquent in his expositions, and is rather serious about getting the job done.
- Glass Cannon: He's fast and equally adept with attack and magic, but has trouble taking hits. Justified, since even with all his magical powers, he's still just a toy doll.
- Infinity -1 Sword: As a result of the remake, the Star Gun has been relegated to this, having been replaced by the Stella 023, but it is available only post-game.
- Infinity +1 Sword: The Star Gun, which fires shooting stars at enemies, is his best weapon. The remake adds the Stella 023, obtainable in the Endgame+.
- Insistent Terminology: Is quick to correct anyone who misspeaks of the Star Road.
- Kamehame Hadoken: Geno Beam fires a long, continuous beam of blue energy from a gun in his arm.
- Living Toy: Sort of. He's actually a benign spirit who takes possession of a toy and uses it as a body.
- Magikarp Power: When he first joins, his attacks aren't anything to write home about, and even Mallow outclasses him in magic. Once you've gotten through the game a bit, he becomes the best attacker in the game bar none, both physically and magically. Even his defensive flaws are mostly mitigated by Toadstool's healing.
- Mr. Exposition: Given his position as the only one who understands what the Star Road is all about, it's slightly inevitable.
- My Little Panzer: Even before using his powers to fire Wave Motion Guns and exploding suns, Gaz's modifications to Geno's ordinary doll form enabled it to launch its fists at a high enough velocity to knock out a full-grown adult.
- Mysterious Past: Very little is revealed about Geno, aside from him being some kind of guardian spirit sent to stop Smithy. Even the doll he inhabits is pretty mysterious, as it has no in-universe backstory and only appears in one other game.
- Parody Sue: During Gaz's playtime, he has Bowser effortlessly take out Mario, so Geno has to pull a Big Damn Heroes moment and step in to beat Bowser himself.
- The Power of the Sun: Geno Flash shoots an orb of light that grows into a giant cartoon sun, which then explodes over enemies.
- Rocket Punch: His unarmed attack has him launch a single fist off of his arm into the enemy. Later, the Double Punch lets Geno launch both fists with more force.
- Sentient Stars: The true form of Geno is a tiny star, which possessed the doll to fight with the rest of the party.
- Shapeshifting: Morphs into a cannon to launch his ultimate attack, Geno Flash.
- The Smart Guy: He is incredibly knowledgeable on all matter related to magic and the Seven Stars.
- Some Call Me "Tim": His real name is "♡♪!?". He knows it's hard to pronounce.
- Sophisticated as Hell: As demonstrated in the above quote, Geno's speech and demeanor are generally as firm, polite, and righteous as you'd expect from an ambassador for the Powers That Be. But when he gets offended or thrown off by evildoers' actions, his language becomes notably less formal, including quips like "Hey! Chill out!" and "Yo, Smithy!"
- Star Power: Thematically; he comes from the Star Road, his emblem when casting magic is a star, and his ultimate weapon, the Star Gun, bombards enemies with tiny shooting stars as projectiles.
- Status Buff: Geno Boost increases one ally's attack and, if properly timed, defense.
- The Stoic: He rarely shows any emotion beyond dead-serious determination to complete his task, though he's not above finding humor in a joke every now and then.
- Stumbling in the New Form: As shown in the cinematic moment when he first takes possession over the Geno doll, he has a little trouble getting to his feet, then when he tries walking, he staggers forward so far that he hits his head on the counter before getting to his feet again and managing to walk out without further trouble.
- Theme Naming: All his magic attacks are "Geno ______".
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Time it right and Geno Whirl will deal a whopping 9999 damage to its target. Most regular enemies have less than a thousand health, and while the timed effect doesn't work on most bosses, the one boss it does work on has far less health than that.
- The Unpronounceable: Geno's real name, "♡♪!?". This is why he simply tells the party to call him Geno. It's even less pronounceable in the Japanese script, where his name is made up of nonsensical symbols
◊. - Walking Armory: Geno's various weapons make use of guns all over his arms. He can shoot from his fingers, retract his hands to reveal guns, open his elbow to launch a cannonball, or simply launch his fists.
- Wave-Motion Gun: Geno Flash fires a projectile so large it almost fills the screen.
- Your Costume Needs Work: When being brought back to Gaz to receive an arm upgrade, he recognizes that his Geno doll has been brought to life, but Gaz's mom believes Geno to be a cosplayer.
Bowser
Original
Voiced by: Kenny James (remake)
"I'm gonna do something I may regret later...! But I'm gonna let you join the Koopa Troop. You can thank me later..."
The king of the Koopas, supreme leader of the Koopa Troop/Minions and Mario's archnemesis got booted out of his home when Exor crashed into it and the Smithy Gang took over Bowser's Keep. Alone and out of options, he allies with Mario for a chance to smash Smithy and get his castle back. He's primarily a physical attacker and Mighty Glacier. His magic is weak compared to Mallow's or Geno's, but can cause Status Effects.
- Absurdly Sharp Claws: His unarmed attack is a pair of claw swipes. His ultimate weapon, the Drill Claw, combines this with Vibro Weapon.
- Affably Evil: Although he tries to keep up the façade of a brutish tyrant, Bowser is perfectly willing to team up with his nemesis and treats his minions very well.
- Anti-Hero: He only teams up with Mario to get his castle back, and is overall the most abrasive of the party members.
- Arch-Enemy: To Mario, and at least part of his motive in taking down Smithy is to prove himself as Mario's true nemesis.
- Badass Fingersnap: Bowser's animation for casting magic has him snap a finger.
- Benevolent Boss: Yes, Bowser of all people is shown as this. The handful of his former henchmen you meet up with over the course of the game apologize for abandoning him, but Bowser is universally forgiving of them, wishes them well in their new lives, and they're very willing to help him out. This is all the better to contrast him with his "replacement", Smithy, who is a Bad Boss.
- Bicep-Polishing Gesture: He does this in the Japanese version of the original. It was changed in the other versions because the gesture also resembles the bras d'honneur gesture, which is roughly the equivalent of the middle finger to many Western cultures. In the remake, he instead poses like in his Super Mario Galaxy artwork.
- Big Bad Wannabe: His main goal is to get his castle back and reassert himself as Mario's true Arch-Enemy. Unfortunately, Smithy is a far greater threat for the time being, necessitating Bowser's Enemy Mine with Mario. Ironically, Bowser can end up being the one to destroy Smithy himself, making it a rare example where the Big Bad Wannabe actually manages to kill the current Big Bad (albeit with help).
- The Big Guy: In a pinch, count on Bowser's bulk to be the answer to problems needing brute strength. He even joins the party after bashing down a door Mario and friends couldn't open. A good thing, too, because they need to bash open another door later.
- Boisterous Bruiser: He's always ready for a good fight and is good in one once it starts.
- Book Dumb: In the Japanese his speech is always in hiragana and katakana. By contrast, Geno seems to use the most kanji.
- Crutch Character: He starts out with a ton of HP, Attack, and Defense, making him a useful mid-game damage soaker and damage dealer. He also starts with the Terrorize spell, which deals mediocre damage but inflicts the extremely useful Fear status effect (halves attack and defense) on anything that doesn't resist it, which is almost every enemy and even some bosses up until Land's End. The problem is, he has the worst magic defense in the game, his other spells (one that inflicts the much less useful Poison status and two Non-Elemental damage spells) perform poorly, Mario and Geno will eventually catch up to him in physical attack power, and Peach's healing abilities make his HP and defense stats overkill for most fights. Worst of all, all his armor is outclassed by the Work Pants. That said, however, the remake does give him the ability to boost the party's Defense, which while not globally useful against lategame threats still helps to useful amounts against enough of them.
- Damage Reduction: in the remake, Bowser provides the entire party with his Defense Ally Buff, which boosts each member's Defense by a percentage.
- Dishing Out Dirt: Crusher, the only spell of his that isn't Summon Magic, and the only "earth" attack learned by any of the party members.
- The Dreaded: A gameplay element. When you re-visit Bowser's Keep and he is in your party, some of the monsters will run away out of fear of him.
- Dub Name Change: Consistently since SMB3, given the first name Bowser in the English version. note
- Enemy Mine: He allies with Mario to get his home back, since Bowser is clearly outmatched and Smithy is a much more dangerous threat to the world than Bowser ever was. This is notably the first time that such a scenario has ever happened.
- Epic Flail: His Chomp Shell, Chomp, and Spiked Link weapons are large chain flails that he spins overhead and hurls at enemies.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: As bad as Bowser is, he genuinely cares about and looks after his troops.
- Evil Versus Oblivion: Bowser is an evil tyrant who wants to defeat Mario and take over the Mushroom Kingdom. Smithy is an evil tyrant who wants to defeat Mario and take over the Mushroom Kingdom... as well as utterly decimate it and turn it into a wasteland populated by nothing but machines and weapons. Naturally, Bowser ends up helping in the war against Smithy.
- Fastball Special: The Hurly Gloves involves chucking Mario at an enemy. Judging from the way Mario is flailing his arms around when Bowser throws him, he's never expecting it either. It's not even a required part of the weapon — a small Mario doll takes the hero's place when the man himself is being thrown, and Bowser will throw the doll if Mario is incapacitated, for no loss of damage. Bowser is doing it for funsies. The doll may actually be easier to time for dealing out more damage.
- A Father to His Men: Bowser genuinely cares about his troops and seems to view them as a sort of family, even after they desert him. Notably, he becomes an Honorary Uncle to Goomhilde's children upon encountering her in Monstro Town.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: The choleric. Being the Big Bad in most installments outside of this one, Bowser has a very commandeering personality and easily loses his temper.
- Friend to All Living Things: He comforts an enslaved female Chain Chomp and uses her to take a bite out of enemies.
- Goomba Stomp: Taking a page from his rival's book, his ultimate magic "Mechakoopa Stomp" calls a giant Mecha-Koopa to bounce across the battlefield stomping enemies.
- Hidden Depths: One scene shows him reciting poetry (a haiku he wrote himself, in fact). It's not good poetry, but it's something.
- Honorary Uncle: To Goomhilde's young Goomba Triplets.
- How the Mighty Have Fallen: The game starts out as a Mario game usual does, with Bowser kidnapping Princess Peach and taking her to his Castle. But then like he always does, Mario beats him and then Bowser gets kicked out of his own home by The Smithy Gang and each time we see him afterwards, he has less and less troops. By the time you meet him at Booster's Tower, his entire army has deserted him and he's bawling as he remembers the good old days of fighting Mario.
- Hypocritical Humor: Bowser is appalled to find that the Smithy Gang have kidnapped and held an entire village captive… only for Peach to remind him of his usual antics.Bowser: Can you believe he didn't just kidnap 'em, he had the nerve to lock 'em up, too? Me and my minions would never pull a stunt like that!Peach: Really? I seem to remember a certain someone kidnapping me not too long ago.
- Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: He's prone to crying in his more vulnerable moments, his troops gradually desert him, and his attempts to command respect from others as he insists he's the real Big Bad of the land are always Played for Laughs. The beginning of the game is practically an Affectionate Parody of how ineffective he is, with Mario foiling his latest kidnapping scheme and saving Peach in the span of five minutes from when he leaves his home. This game pretty much shows Bowser at his most laughably pathetic, but he remains laughable at least.
- Inferiority Superiority Complex: Despite his arrogant and boisterous personality, Bowser is revealed to be extremely self-conscious about his reputation as the series' Big Bad, and part of his desire to get his castle back is simply to make sure that everyone knows who Mario's true nemesis is.
- Infinity -1 Sword: As a result of the remake, the Drill Claw has been relegated to this, having been replaced by the Wonder Chomp, but it is available only post-game.
- Infinity +1 Sword: The Drill Claw is his ultimate weapon. The remake adds the Wonder Chomp, obtainable in the Endgame+.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Sure, he's a warlord and a serial kidnapper, but Bowser genuinely cares about his minions (even after they desert him) and even comforts a captured Chain Chomp for no personal benefit.
- Laughably Evil: Even before joining Mario's party, Bowser is a goofy Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain with a hilariously fragile ego.
- Magically Inept Fighter: Worst magic in the party but makes up for it with sheer physical power.
- Mighty Glacier: Lots of power, HP, and defense combined with terrible speed and even worse magic.
- Noble Demon: He's the series' resident Big Bad Evil Overlord, but one who looks after his minions and honors his alliance with Mario.
- Nominal Hero: Only joins the side of good to get his castle back after Smithy usurps him.
- Pet the Dog:
- When he frees a Chain Chomp in Booster's Tower that Booster had locked up because she bit him.
- Gets more moments as he comes across some of his former troops throughout the game, and wishes them well with their new lives.
- In battle, if Mario is suffering from Status Effects when Bowser uses the Hurly Gloves, he'll throw a Mario doll instead.
- Bowser notably never attempts or considers stabbing Mario in the back during their journey. Even when he briefly tries to back out of the final stretch in favor of reinforcing his castle, he still seems to consider himself allied to Mario if only to insist that Mario also join him in the repairs. Even once they finish the journey Bowser leaves Mario on good terms.
- Play as a Boss: He works this way stat-wise, as he has massive HP, attack, and defense stats fitting for the boss character he usually is, to the point where he can go through the dungeon he joins for while naked and unarmed and not suffer for it. The downside is that the equipment he does get is considerably weaker than those of other characters to keep him in line, which is very visible with how the Work Pants (an armor made for universal use) outclasses almost all his shells.
- Poisonous Person: Poison Gas blasts enemies with, well, poisonous gas.
- Puzzle Boss: The fight against Bowser in the game's start. You can attack him but he eventually stops taking damage and the princess tells you to attack the chain instead so that Bowser falls.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Defied. The gang win control of Bowser's castle back, so he's about ready to go find his men and do some repairs — and he's all too eager to force Mario to help — until Geno points out that the gate to Smithy's world is still open, and his underlings are still a lingering threat... especially to Bowser's castle. Suddenly, Bowser's a little more willing to see this quest through to the end.
- Secret A.I. Moves: Bowser can shoot his spikes out of his shell when you fight him early in the game. When he finally joins your party, that move is not available.
- Slave to PR: Although he's been ousted from power, he still goes to great lengths to put on an air of power and intimidation. At several points in the game, we see his inner musings on how to go about helping Mario and/or asking Mario for help while still saving face as a villain."I'm the biggest, baddest brute around, and don't you forget it. But if Mario hears that I've been kicked out of my own castle... my reputation will be ruined! Even I have an image to keep up you know!"
- Spike Shooter: He shoots spikes from his shell in his boss fight. This ability is not available when he joins your party.
- Status Effects: He can cause Fear and Poison with his magical abilities.
- Still the Leader: Inverted. He is the fourth to join your group, which is prefaced by him claiming that he's recruiting Mario's team into the Koopa Troop. However, the only things he can influence are combat and the mooks inside his own castle.
- Summon Magic: Though his magic attacks are the worst in the game, they fall into this category with him calling Boo, Mokura and giant Mecha-Koopas to attack opponents.
- This Is a Drill: While not obvious in-game, his Drill Claw is shown in artwork as a glove with drills mounted in the place of claws.
- Token Evil Teammate: Though compared to his more vicious appearances in other games, in this one he's more of an Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain verging on Anti-Villain.
- Villain Decay: This is pretty much the exact moment Bowser's dominant characterization stopped being "menace" and started being "manchild goofball".
- Villainous Crush: On Peach, as per usual. Downplayed, however, as it's not his main motivation this time around and he's fine with forming a friendly Enemy Mine with her and Mario.
Princess Toadstool/Princess Peach
Original
"Let's go find us a star!"
The Princess of the Mushroom Kingdom. Initially kidnapped again, but before Mario can free her from Bowser's clutches, Exor crashes into the keep and sends her flying to parts unknown. After being found and saved and learning about Smithy and his cohorts, she isn't content to sit back and let Mario do the heroism this time, and comes along to help. She's the White Mage of the group, focusing on healing magic.
- Action Girl: While Peach is the party’s White Mage, she is just as physical as the rest of the group and can hit just as hard. Her preferred weapons are her slaps, parasols, fans, and frying pan.
- Badass Adorable: Just as cute as ever, but also willing to fight alongside her friends to save her kingdom.
- Bitch Slap: Her unarmed attack and initial weapon, as well as her second-best weapon, are slap combos.
- Combat Medic: She starts out with okay weapons, but her healing is invaluable. Once her stronger weapons and spells appear, she's one of the best characters.
- Damsel in Distress: But only for the first third of the game or so. Afterwards she gets to be in on the action for once.
- Deadpan Snarker: She has a pretty sharp wit, especially towards Bowser.
- Dub Name Change: Although the original SNES game was released two and a half years after Yoshi's Safari reverted her name back to Peach, she's still inexplicably Toadstool here. Averted in the 2023 Switch remake, which properly calls her Peach.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: The sanguine. Peach is the liveliest member of the party who's also the most optimistic.
- Frying Pan of Doom: Her Frying Pan is her best weapon. It makes a whang! sound when it connects, too.
- The Gadfly: Even the princess isn't above pulling pranks, with the biggest example being when she tricks Bowser and Booster into kissing Mario.Peach: Now THAT's one for the scrapbook!
- Girl in the Tower: Or more specifically, Girl on the Tower Balcony. Mario finds her locked up atop Booster's tower.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: She's blonde, young-looking, sweet, and innocent.
- The Heart: Quick to remind other party members to do the right thing and fight the Smithy gang to save the world.
- Improbable Weapon User: Her arsenal includes paper fans, gloves, and her frying pan.
- Infinity -1 Sword: The Super Slap is her strongest normal weapon, where she slaps an enemy as hard as she can.
- Infinity +1 Sword: The Frying Pan, tied with the Lazy Shell for the most powerful weapon in the game, is found through a secret method.
- Jack of All Stats: Once her levels are caught up, her stats are generally balanced across the board. Compared to Mario, she has slightly higher magic stats and speed in exchange for slightly lower but still decent physical stats.
- Magikarp Power: She joins at Level 9 with 50 HP, has very poor physical attacks, and no means to use her high magic attack offensively. As she catches up to the rest of the party, she becomes a very potent combination of Combat Medic and Jack of All Stats.
- Rebellious Princess: She's not very confrontational about it, though; she just has her grandmother agree to impersonate her and sneaks out of her bedroom window, floating down with her parasol to join Mario's group. She's also a princess.
- Resistant to Magic: She has high Magic Defense by default. In the remake, her Ally Buff boost the party's Magic Defense.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: She even lampshades that the crisis is so great this time, she can't just stand back and let others save the world.
- So Long, and Thanks for All the Gear: Subverted. After the whole fiasco with Booster in Marrymore, she decides to rest up in the Mushroom Kingdom castle in her room, keeping all the gear equipped with her at the time. This doesn't last long because as soon as you step out of the castle she just decides to rejoin anyways, for real this time.
- Squishy Wizard: Decent speed and great magic, along with the game's best healing, bar none. However, a stiff breeze can knock her over, at first.
- Status Effects: She can silence enemies and and put them to sleep.
- Star Power: Her "Come Back" move appears to call a star from the heavens to revive a fallen party member.
- Throw Down the Bomblet: Her ultimate spell, Psych Bomb, has her chuck a string of explosives at enemies.
- Took a Level in Badass: A crying Damsel in Distress at the beginning of the game, and then a bomb-throwing badass and Combat Medic who rebels against her kingdom once we hit the latter half of the game.
- Tsundere: Has shades. She's normally sweet and cheerful, but when she gets angry, she really gets angry.
- Unwilling Suspension: In the prologue, she's strung up on a rope to hang from the ceiling of Bowser's Keep.
- White Mage: Her primary purpose is being your healer.
Supporting Characters
Toad
Original
"Hey, you better watch out! He Knows About Timed Hits. He's gonna punch your lights out!"
The loyal retainer to the Mushroom crown, he pops up periodically to help Mario out with advice and items.
Worth noting: this is the only Mario game in which multiple Toads appear where an individual Toad character is singled out as the Toad.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: He somehow makes his way through Bowser's Castle and to the final hallway of Smithy's Factory on his own to sell Mario items to help him in the final battles.
- Distressed Dude: In Mushroom Way at the start of the game, he's repeatedly assailed by the monsters. After that he mostly stays home.
- A Dog Named "Dog": He's a Toad simply named "Toad".
- Dub Name Change: From Kinopio to Toad, as usual.
- Dungeon Shop: Toad himself appears in Smithy's Factory after defeating the Clerk, allowing you to stock up on any last-minute items before fighting the Manager, Director, Factory Chief and Smithy.
- He Knows About Timed Hits: Trope Namer when delivering Mario a tutorial about them.
- Mr. Exposition: Especially before you leave the Mushroom Kingdom, but even after that he occasionally pops up to give tutorials.
- Took a Shortcut: He inexplicably shows up to give you items no matter where you are. He even shows up at Smithy's factory, which is an area rife with powerful enemies. In another dimension.
Chancellor
Original
"First the Princess and now THIS! It's just too much to bear."
Princess Peach's royal advisor who constantly worries about her safety, and assumes Bowser is behind everything.
- Distressed Dude: When Claymorton and his Shymores invade Toad Town, Claymorton himself has the Chancellor held hostage, prompting Mario to save him.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: He takes Toadsworth's spot as Peach's royal advisor in this game because, at this point in time, Toadsworth wouldn't be introduced for another 6 years.
- Fantasy-Forbidding Father: Father figure, in this case. He absolutely prevents Peach from joining Mario to take on Smithy because he's way too concerned for her safety, prompting her to sneak out of the castle with her grandmother's assistance.
- The Good Chancellor: A surprising rarity for a Square Enix game. He's Peach's personal caretaker, and fully trusts Mario to save the Mushroom Kingdom time and time again.
Frogfucius/The Frog Sage
Original
"Yes, come into my sanctuary and partake of my wisdom, children."
An old frog living in Tadpole Pond, he's Mallow's adoptive grandfather. He's known as something of an all-knowing sage, as the gossip of the world filters down its waterways to reach him.
- Adaptation Name Change: The 2023 English translation renames him Frog Sage.
- Big Good: In a particular sense, it's him or the Chancellor, since the heroes regularly consult him for aid.
- Cool Old Guy: He may be old, but he's still got spirit and spunk.
- Dub Name Change: From Frog Hermit note (Japanese) to Frogfucius (English). Somewhat averted in the remake, where his name is changed to the similar-sounding Frog Sage.
- Eyes Always Shut: Look at the image. He never opens his eyes once.
- Mr. Exposition: Repeatedly lampshaded — at one point when the party isn't sure what to do, Mallow's suggestion is to go ask him, since he seems to know everything.
- Non-Mammalian Hair: He's a frog with a rich, lengthy white beard and mustache.
- Power Floats: He has a Lakitu carry him around with a fishing rod to give the impression that he can do this.
- Punny Name: Of Confucius, naturally, in the English version. Averted in the original Japanese release and the remake.
- Retired Badass: Implied; the Froggie Stick, Mallow's first weapon, was used by him when he was younger. In the remake, he was also the former wielder of the Sage Stick until it was swallowed by Belome.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Crickets, particularly Cricket Jam and Cricket Pie.
Chomp
A female Chain Chomp imprisoned in Booster Tower for taking a chomp out of Booster himself. She can be found in the tower and can become Bowser's first weapon and in the remake for a few reasons his last.
- Action Girl: She serves as Bowser's first equipped weapon giving him an increased attack power. The remake makes her even more powerful as she can be upgraded to the Wonder Chomp, his most powerful weapon.
- Adaptational Badass: Possibly depending on the player's actions. You can make her much more powerful than she was in the original game by fighting Punchinello in the post-game, which upgrades her to the gold-colored Wonder Chomp.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: She quickly becomes loyal to Bowser when he comforts and frees her from her confinement by Booster. She fights alongside him as his first weapon, and in the remake, his last since she gets an upgrade in the postgame.
- Canine Companion: Since Chain Chomps are basically Mario's answer to dogs, she is effectively this for Bowser, especially in the remake. She's infinitely loyal to Bowser and serves as his first acquired weapon, and in the remake, keeping her with Bowser allows her to become his most powerful weapon. Geno even lampshades that she suits him well.
- Crutch Character: She's Bowser's first weapon, meaning she ups his attack power greatly when you find her. However, she'll quickly be replaced by more powerful weapons as time goes on. Subverted in the remake which gives her Magikarp Power.
- The Dog Bites Back: She eagerly joins Bowser after he frees her, allowing her to get some more payback against Booster for locking her up and mistreating her.
- Elite Mooks: As her damage isn't just based on herself but also that of Bowser, she can dish out far more damage than any other Chomp enemy in the game. This also applies to her Wonder Chomp self, where she's now a double case of this as an Elite Mook of the already Elite gold-colored Chomp Chomps.
- Epic Flail: She's the first one that Bowser can find in the game. Bowser will whirl her around with her chain and throw her to strike and take a bite out of an enemy. She's also the last one he can find in the remake, where after the rematch against Punchinello, she'll be polished into her gold color.
- Gold-Colored Superiority: Gold Chain Chomps, or Chomp Chomps, are much stronger than regular Chain Chomps. This applies to her as well, as when she's upgraded to her gold color (exclusive to the remake), she becomes Bowser's most powerful weapon.
- Infinity +1 Sword: She becomes this in the post-game, where she can be upgraded into Bowser's ultimate weapon.
- Magikarp Power: In both versions, she's the first weapon Bowser can find, meaning she's also the weakest weapon that can be equipped. In the remake, she can be upgraded into Bowser's most powerful weapon.
- Morality Pet: She brings out the Friend to All Living Things side of Bowser. He treats her well when freeing her, and refers to her as his "new pal" when she's upgraded to the Wonder Chomp.
- Non-Standard Character Design: In the remake, the Chomp enemies are all redesigned with their modern appearances. This Chomp is the only one who retains her design from the original game, making her visibly distinctive from the enemy Chain Chomps.
- Right-Hand Attack Dog: Chain Chomps bark and act like dogs for the Mario universe, and this one can be rescued by Bowser and serve as his first weapon. And his last in the remake, as she can be upgraded to a much more powerful gold color.
- Shrinking Violet: She's a bit shy as Bowser says, prompting him to ask Mario to look away while he tends to her.
- Undying Loyalty: She fights alongside Bowser without question (mechanically she can't betray Bowser because she's a weapon that can be equipped).
- Videogame Caring Potential: Acquiring her requires the player to actively seek out a key to unlock the door to her prison. The puzzle involves investigating numerous paintings of Booster from youngest to oldest. And even when she's rendered obsolete by stronger weapons, you can still keep her in your inventory. The remake encourages you to do so for a good reason: she can become Bowser's ultimate weapon.
- Videogame Cruelty Potential: You can easily sell her once she's no longer the strongest weapon in Bowser's arsenal. This comes at a cost in the remake.
- Videogame Cruelty Punishment: You can sell her or discard her once you get Bowser's stronger weapons. In the remake, doing so means you lose Bowser's ultimate weapon.
Toadofsky
"That's it! This is the melody I've been looking for. Thank you for the inspiration!"
A Toad composer native to Tadpole Pond, who's found himself in a creative slump. Through Mario and other Mushroom Kingdom locals' help, he's able to finally compose his masterpiece.
- Meaningful Name: In both English and Japanese, his name is a portmanteau of Toad/Kinoko (mushroom) and famed Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
- Membership Token: He holds access to the Alto Card, Tenor Card, and Soprano Card, which allow Mario access to purchase more luxurious drinks at the Juice Bar in Tadpole Pond.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Despite his name being derived from Tchaikovsky, his hair is reminiscent of Johann Sebastian Bach.
Jagger, Goomhilde, and Wizakoopa
Three named leaders among Bowser's Minions that attempted to assist their Koopa King in reclaiming his castle from Smithy's forces, only to go their separate ways due to being overwhelmed by said forces.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Wizakoopa is found in the second visit of Bowser's Keep as a brainwashed member of Smithy's forces. Defeating him frees him from their control.
- Early Installment Character-Design Difference: Goomhilde is notable as the first female Goomba in the franchise, but she looks like a regular Goomba. Later female Goombas, such as Goombaria, Goomama, Goombella and Goombette have pink skin as opposed to the males' brown.
- Enemy Summoner: At the Six-Door Chamber in Bowser's Keep, the brainwashed Wizakoopa is the one who summons enemies behind the battle courses. In the battle against Wizakoopa himself, he can summon between three tough enemies, Bahamutt, King Bomb, or Jinx Clone, to protect himself from attacks with. Defeating the summoned monster will allow Wizakoopa to be targeted again.
- Evil Costume Switch: Wizakoopa's robes are red when encountering him in the return visit to Bowser's Keep, indicating his aggressive stance against the heroes due to being brainwashed into serving Smithy. Defeating him reverts his robes color back to the normal Magikoopa blue, freeing him from Smithy's control.
- Expy: Wizakoopa shares quite a few similarities to Kamek, the high-ranking Magikoopa and Bowser's right-hand turtle from the main series who debuted in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, seven months prior to the original SNES release. Using Thought Peek on him even has him refer to "the baby from so long ago," directly referencing Baby Mario.note Despite this, he has a unique name from every other Magikoopa, including Kamek himself (even more noticeable in Japanese where his name is Kamezādo, while Kamek has the same name as his own species).
- Mauve Shirt: While they look the same as regular Terrapins, Goombas and Magikoopas, the fact that they have actual names, proper reunions with Bowser and actively help Mario and co. when met puts them well above the usual Red Shirts of Bowser's troops.
- Named by the Adaptation: Aside from Jagger the Terrapin, in the original, the Goomba and Magikoopa were only known by their species names, althought the Magikoopa was hinted to be Kamek. The remake grants them the names of Goomhilde and Wizakoopa. Averted in the original Japanese, where they always had unqiue names (Nokoyan, Kurijennu and Kamezādo, respectively), meaning the trope was inverted for the original English version.
- Poison Mushroom: The Mushrooms that Goomhilde's children sell turn whoever uses them into Mushrooms.
- Retired Monster: Jagger and Goomhilde had run away and moved into Monstro Town by the time Mario and co. make it there, with Jagger becoming Jinx's apprentice and Goomhilde settling down and having triplets. Bowser gives the two of them his blessing to remain in Monstro Town, making it an official Heel–Face Turn. Wizakoopa averts it, remaining by Bowser's side and assisting him (and Mario by association) after being freed from his brainwashed state.
- Samus Is a Girl: Outside of Japan, anyway. Goomhilde was not properly established as a female in the original English script, but the Japanese script had Bowser highlight her "seductive charms" in the Rose Way scene, followed by a flash of hot pink as a response to indicate said wiles.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: The main reason why these three leave Bowser's army is due to their own fear and weakness against Smithy's gang.
- The Smurfette Principle: Goomhilde is the only notable female member among Bowser's minions seen in this game.
- The Unfought: Goomhilde is never fought at anytime by the party, having settled down as Monstro Town's shopkeeper. Averted for Jagger, who becomes Jinx's apprentice and faces the party prior to taking on Jinx himself, and Wizakoopa, who antagonizes the party in the return visit to Bowser's Keep due to having been brainwashed.
Gaz
"All right, Geno! Let's play!"
A young Toad from Rose Town who idolizes Mario and collects toys of him and his friends. He's even taken to creating his own toy character, Geno, but little does he know that his toy would become an imperative asset to Mario's adventure.
- Adorably Precocious Child: For someone his age, he seems to have woodcrafting and mechanical expertise, as he not only built Geno from scratch, but outfitted him with several strong (and dangerous) attack mechanics.
- Cassandra Truth: He was awake to see Geno be brought to life and wander off into the Forest Maze, but his mom thinks he's talking nonsense. Even when Geno is brought back to him fully sentient, his mom thinks Geno is a cosplayer.
- Innocently Insensitive: He says that Mario will need all the help he can get, and that he's currently no match for Bowser. Mario's so offended by this, he's prepared to punch Gaz if not for Mallow holding him back.
- Parents as People: While his mom very much cares for him, she never plays with him and tends to not believe what Gaz is trying to tell her. The remake addresses this by having his mom play with him during the ending sequence.
- Punny Name: In Japanese, his name is Toydo, derivative of "toy doll".
- Small Role, Big Impact: While he doesn't appear in the story any longer after Rose Town is saved, which is fairly early on, the fact that he created Geno makes him one of the most important characters to the story.
Yoshi
Original
Voiced by: Kazumi Totaka (remake)
"Please talk to a few of my pals here and... What? You can't understand them? Well... hop aboard and I'll be your interpreter!"
Mario's dinosaur friend and a famed athlete in Yo'ster Isle's Mushroom Derby. He's offered the position as leader of the island after defeating the reigning champion, Boshi, but instead prefers to just race as usual. By using Yoshi Cookies, Yoshi can be summoned to the battlefield to eat enemies and leave useful items behind.
- Advertised Extra: Despite appearing alongside the five main characters on the Japanese box art, Yoshi is only playable on Yo'ster Isle and is little more than a summonable character otherwise.
- Offered the Crown: Yoshi is offered the spot as the island's ruler after defeating Boshi, and he would certainly be a benevolent ruler, but he turns down the offer because he prefers racing over leadership.
- Power-Up Mount: Mario can ride him, but only on Yo'ster Island, a tiny area that is devoid of obstacles or enemies, making it just a novelty outside of the race with Boshi.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Yoshi Cookies. Using them is the only way to summon him in combat.
- Translator Buddy: Yoshi is seemingly the only member of his species who can speak Mario's language, and serves as his translator when talking to other Yoshis.
Baby Fat
"I'm dying for some Cookies."
A Baby Yoshi that resides in Yo'ster Isle. He hatches after Princess Peach joins your party, and you have the opportunity to feed him Yoshi Cookies. Feed him enough and he'll become obese. He'll even give you useful items the more cookies you feed him afterwards.
- All There in the Script: His name isn't mentioned in-game and is only mentioned in the official strategy guide and a British Nintendo magazine.
- Big Eater: He loves eating those Yoshi Cookies. Feed him 30 and he'll become pudgy enough that he has to leave the nest.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: He's a Baby Yoshi that can become really fat.
- Gameplay and Story Segregation: In the ending montage featuring Yoshi racing Croco, Baby Fat will always be in his small form whether you overfed him or not.
- Resized Vocals: As a newly hatched Yoshi, he has a very high-pitched Yoshi sound, but feed him more cookies, and his obese form has a deep pitch that sounds almost like Boshi's.
- Shout-Out: He's a possible reference to the Fat Chocobo from the Final Fantasy games.
Frogfucius'/The Frog Sage's Student
"Did you have a chance to accumulate many Frog Coins?"
A young tadpole-turned-frog under the tutelage of the Frog Sage. He spends most of his spare time reading books in Seaside Town, and is willing to give Mario some rare items in exchange for Frog Coins.
- Bookworm: He's primarily seen with his face deep into a book.
- Older and Wiser: He says that he met Mario at Tadpole Pond when he was just a tadpole, and has now grown up into a frog.
- Remember the New Guy?: He asks Mario if he remembers him, but there's no telling which of the identical tadpoles he was. There's a small chance he's the first tadpole Mario met who first introduced him to Tadpole Pond.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: When Yaridovich takes over Seaside Town, he's surprisingly spared and just hangs out upstairs in the Elder's house. If you first meet him during that, he suspects something weird is going on, but states that it doesn't concern him.
Johnathan "Johnny" Jones
Original
"So you're THE Mario, eh? Arr, harr, harr...! Not much to look at..."
A Shark Man pirate living in a sunken ship off the coast of Seaside Town, the fifth Star Piece fell into his realm. He becomes an ally to the group after recognizing Mario as a Worthy Opponent.
- Added Alliterative Appeal: His name has three "Js" in it.
- Affably Evil: Despite being a feared pirate lord willing to kill anyone who disturbs his ship, Johnny is more than willing to show respect when he feels it's warranted and is willing to help out Mario out of admiration.
- Anti-Villain: He's a shark and a pirate, but has an obvious sense of honor and nobility — he challenges Mario to a one-on-one duel when he recognizes a worthy foe in him, he hands over the Star Piece and lets him leave peacefully when Mario wins, and when he hears Yaridovich has stolen it from you he arrives to stop him from running so you can beat him up and take it back. Also, Mario invaded his ship to find the Star, so when you think about it he was just defending himself and his prize and not really being all that villainous.
- Blade Below the Shoulder: He has a traditional pirate's hook for a left hand, and has it on an extending chain to boot. However, he usually uses it to cast spells instead of swinging it around.
- Blood Knight: A fairly subdued one. If you get his thoughts in the remake:Johnny: You're good. Very good. Now this is a fight!
- He requests a postgame rematch specifically to "light his fire", as he hasn't had a good scrap since his last duel with Mario and has been hankering for another go. Once he's beaten, he cheerfully admits he didn't even care whether or not he won.
- Boss-Altering Consequence: If you defeat all his henchmen during the battle, he'll challenge Mario to a one-on-one duel, which Mario accepts.
- Defeat Means Friendship: Though he doesn't join the party, he's nonetheless an ally after his defeat and helps the party trap Yaridovich and take back the fifth Star Piece."That star's a gift to me mate, Mario. You spineless dogs have no code of honor!"
- Died Standing Up: In the remake, Johnny simply slumps over on his feet when he's knocked out at the end of the fight. He doesn't even use his trident for leverage like most examples of this trope would.
- Dub Name Change: Zigzagged. The English release added the nickname "Johnny" for reference. The Japanese version uses his original name Jonathan note with no nickname given.
- Duel Boss: Optional. He challenges Mario to a one-on-one fight, but only if the player kills off all his Mook henchmen. However, his post-game rematch in the Switch remake is specifically a one-on-one battle without the use of any items (although you do get some buffs from the party members cheering you on) - so it's essentially a fight to the death.
- Eyes Do Not Belong There: He does not have any eyes on his face, with circle designs on the area of his face where eyes would be. Instead, he has eyes in his mouth.
- Flunky Boss: He enters battle alongside four of his pirates, but unlike other enemies there's a reason he doesn't bother to call in more, as the next trope explains.
- Honor Before Reason: He manages to reverse it on the party — he challenges Mario to a one-on-one duel but only after your party of three take out his four Mooks that accompany him, and when he himself has taken enough damage. Essentially, by the time he becomes a Duel Boss, it's clear to the player and him that continuing the three-on-one fight will end with his defeat, but he has a better chance in a fair one-on-one bout. The player is furthermore never given the chance to refuse, Mario always accepts.
- An Ice Person: Diamond Saw summons twin razor discs of ice to attack, but he only uses it when he's fighting Mario one-on-one. Oddly enough, it's a non-elemental attack.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Skewer. His pirates can also use attacks to this effect.
- Logical Weakness: As a Shark Man he's unable to breathe properly outside the water. This means he couldn't participate in the fight against Yaridovich/Speardovich.
- No Item Use for You: In his rematch in the remake.
- Prongs of Poseidon: His trident, fitting for a ruler of the sea.
- Shark Man: It's not entirely clear what he is, as the "shark" is actually a costume he's wearing and the one eye glowing in the darkness of his mask is clearly inhuman. His journal entry in the remake suggests that it's actually the hide of a shark he defeated back in his youth. At the very least, its mouth moves whenever he talks.
- Threatening Shark: Subverted. He isn't a bad guy at all really—he hands you the Star Piece after defeat and helps prevent Yaridovich's escape so that the party can fight him and get the Star Piece back.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Currant Juice, which is even a hint in a quiz later in the game.
- Turns Red: His "Get Tough!" Status Buff is literally this when he gets weak, turning him from blue to red and buffing his attack and defense.
- Villainy-Free Villain: Again, he doesn't do anything evil, but as the being who found the fifth Star Piece and laid claim to it, he's an antagonist standing in the party's way. This trope is why he performs a Heel–Face Turn after losing, he has no intent to cause you trouble if you leave him alone.
- Worf Had the Flu: Despite cornering Yaridovich/Speardovich, Johnny doesn't fight him and the party has to do it themselves. He does put a note mentioning that his gills are failing on him, implying that his inability to breathe outside water is the reason he couldn't.
- Worthy Opponent: To Mario, signified by his one-on-one challenge when he sees he's underestimated him. His post-game rematch in the Switch remake cements this even further, forcing you to fight him one-on-one without any items.
Jinx
Original
"I'll accept a challenge any day."
A master martial artist living in Monstro Town. He's found as the mentor to one of Bowser's old minions and will allow Mario to challenge him, giving up his title as master of the dojo if defeated three times.
- Asskicking Leads to Leadership: When you beat him for the third time, he relinquishes his title to Mario.
- Badass Cape: Seemingly his only clothing, though being so small it's hard to tell.
- Barefisted Monk: He wields no weapons, being a martial artist. He beats your party members up with his bare hands, and they hurt.
- Dub Name Change: From Jackie (Japanese) to Jinx (English).
- Flash Step: Quicksilver has him warp behind party members to attack.
- Graceful Loser: After you beat him a third time, he gives you the Jinx Belt and acknowledges your strength and changes the dojo to incorporate Mario's techniques. If you defeat him in his post-game rematch in the Switch version, he outright addresses Mario as his new master.
- I Let You Win: The first two times you fight him, he holds back to avoid hurting you too badly. After the second time he recognizes your power is greater than he thought and goes all-out in the third round.
- Instant-Win Condition: For the rematch against him in the postgame in the remake, instead of actually defeating him, you'll be filling up the gauge while surviving his attacks and show him a Triple Move to end the battle.
- Kamehame Hadoken: Bombs Away, which manifests as the typical Hadoken blast of blue energy.
- Lightning Bruiser: He will attack when hit, he can take a hit well despite his size, and he has ridiculously strong attacks. This is exaggerated in the third fight when he uses both Valor Up and Vigor Up.
- Old Master: He's a bit on in years, but he hasn't lost any of his skills.
- One-Hit KO: Silver Bullet. Additionally many of his normal attacks are strong enough to do this if you don't block them. In his rematch in the remake, he'll use Silver Bullet immediately if you fail a timed hit.
- Optional Boss: Fighting or even entering his dojo is entirely optional.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: He's not much bigger than Gaz's dolls. And he's strong enough to lift characters into the air and dropkick them back several paces.
- Rapidfire Fisticuffs: Jinxed is a rapid combo of punches ending with a slam to the ground.
- Rule of Three: You must fight him three times, each time him holding back less until by the last time he's going all-out.
- Shout-Out: Averted in the US version, but he may or may not have been named after Jackie Chan.
- Took a Level in Badass: Each form has higher stats and uses more powerful attacks. He even has another battle in the Switch remake as well.
- Turns Red: Uses Valor Up and Vigor Up to boost his stats when weak.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Jinx and his student Jagger don't appear in the end credits parade sequence. This may be because — unlike most characters in the game — their ultimate fate will vary depending on the player's actions.
Sgt. Flutter
"We're 0.52 seconds late! I hold myself personally accountable for the delay, Ma'am!"
The leader of a squad of Koopa Paratroopas called the Sky Troopas. He and his squad are called in by Monstromama to help Mario scale the steep cliff in Land's End to reach Bean Valley. Flutter does this by setting up a mini-game where Mario has to use each Paratroopa as a stepping stone. If you complete the game fast enough, you will receive Frog Coins and a Troopa Pin.
- Clock King: He times Mario's progress in the Paratroopa minigame personally.
- Token Heroic Orc: He and his Sky Troopas are the only helpful Paratroopas in the game.
King and Queen Nimbus
"Please let Mallow find his way home."
The benevolent rulers of Nimbus Land. They are, unfortunately, trapped within their own palace due to Valentina's machinations to seize the throne, but are freed and able to continue to watch over their land upon Valentina's defeat. They are also Mallow's biological parents.
- Accidental Misnaming: King Nimbus can never get the name of the Star Road right, always referring to it as the Starway. The remake doubles down on this by having the two's revised wish of, "May Mallow fix the Road," be changed to, "May Mallow fix the Starway."
- Foolish Husband, Responsible Wife: They're both competent leaders of Nimbus Land, but while Queen Nimbus is much more serious about her duties, King Nimbus happens to be an unrepentant autograph hound who's also a tad scatterbrained.
- Good Parents: Once they reunite with Mallow, they are more than willing to support his endeavor to join Mario and his other companions in repairing the Star Road. This includes allowing the party the use of the royal bus to reach Bowser's Keep.
- Hero-Worshipper: The first thing that King Nimbus does upon being introduced to famous celebrities such as Mario, Peach, and Bowser is to ask them for their autographs before being reined in by the Queen.
- Informed Deformity: More like Informed Illness, but according to Valentina, the king is currently ill by the time Mario and the party arrive at Nimbus Land and should not be disturbed. Upon liberation, King Nimbus shows no signs of sickness, meaning it might have been a lie crafted by Valentina to keep him and his wife imprisoned or he might've recovered quickly upon reuniting with his lost son, Mallow, though it is more likely the former.
- No Full Name Given: Their first names are never mentioned, though King Nimbus might also be named Mallow since his wife at one point refers to Mallow as "Junior."
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: By the time Mario's party returns to Nimbus Land after retrieving the Star Piece from the volcano, they allow the heroes use of the repaired royal bus to be able to travel to Bowser's Keep.
- Ruling Couple: Of Nimbus Land.
- Strong Family Resemblance: Upon visiting Nimbus Land for the first time, Mallow points out a statue in Garro the sculptor's home looking a lot like him until Garro clarifies that it's of King Nimbus in his youth. This lets Garro connect the dots and realize that the true prince has finally returned home and that the "prince" that Valentina showed off to the public was a fake.
- Universally Beloved Leader: Both King and Queen Nimbus are beloved by their subjects and are viewed as fair rulers, which makes it unsettling to the people when they're no longer allowed to visit Nimbus Palace upon Valentina's orders.
Hinopio/Cinder Toad
"Thanks for stopping by. You can always come back, you know."
A rather burly, bearded, biker-looking Toad with a flame pattern on his "cap". He has setup shop within Barrel Volcano. Queen Nimbus recommends to Mario and his party to see him for his help in their search for the Star Piece that fell into the volcano.
- Dub Name Change: In the English remake, he goes from Hinopio (Japanese) to Cinder Toad (English). Doubles as Adaptation Name Change.
- Dungeon Shop: He has setup item and armor shops, as well as an inn, deep within Barrel Volcano, which would otherwise be convenient for Mario's party to rest and recover within the volcano's harsh environment.
- Face of a Thug: He is quite possibly the most intimidating-looking Toad in the entire franchise, but despite this, he is just as friendly as most other Toads.
- Meaningful Name: His original Japanese name, Hinopio, combines "hi" for fire and "Kinopio", Toad's Japanese name. His remake name, Cinder Toad, continues his affiliation with fire and his residence within Barrel Volcano.
- Rather Inn-Accessible: His Trauma Inn is in the very middle of an active volcano, and the bed is literally a pile of wood boxes in a corner. It still works as an inn, despite this.
- Renaissance Man: A very downplayed example, as they're all located within the same area, but he simultaneously runs an item shop, an armor shop, and an inn.
- Riddle for the Ages: Exactly why he thought that opening a shop in the heart of an active volcano was a good idea is anyone's guess, though Queen Nimbus being aware of him at least indicates that he has contact with Nimbus Land.
- Shout-Out: His back shelf has models of the Blue Falcon, the Fire Stingray, and an Arwing.
The Smithy Gang
In General
- Degraded Boss: Mass-produced copies of them appear in Smithy's factory as normal enemies. In the remake, they can become Special Enemies, essentially making them as tough as the original versions.
- Final Boss, New Dimension: The Factory where you fight them.
- Establishing Character Moment: They make their appearance shortly after Mario's latest quest to save Peach from Bowser, smashing the Star Road and taking over Bowser's Keep before sending Mario, Peach and Bowser flying. This establishes them as a major threat, not just to the Mushroom Kingdom, but to the Koopa Troop as well.
- Leitmotif: "Here's Some Weapons" whenever they show up on the field. There is also "Fight Against an Armed Boss" for their boss fights, which contains a more intense version of the same melody. They're all associated with the same musical snippet, not only being played near the start of the aforementioned tracks, but also plays at the start of Smithy's boss theme, and even during their section of the parade in the credits sequence.
- Ridiculously Human Robots: The members of the gang are all mechanical lifeforms manufactured by Smithy, and even Smithy himself is Ambiguously Human with how robotic and mechanical he looks.
- Robot Wizard: Aside from Axem Red, Axem Black, and Axem Yellow, most of Smithy's lieutenants are capable of casting magic despite being robots themselves.
- Weapon Specialization: Each member wields one and is one; they all have a specific weapon motif that reflects in their design and attacks. Mack is daggers, Bowyer is bows, Yaridovich is spears, the Axem Rangers are axes, Exor is swords, and Smithy is hammers.
- We Can Rebuild Him: Given that his lieutenants are all robots, Smithy just sets about building more of them after their destruction, and even moves on to mass production.
Commanders
Smithy
"Why don't you give me YOUR stars. Why, then I could easily conquer this world! Then we could get rid of all wishes, and create a world filled with... WEAPONS!!!"
The leader of the Smithy Gang and the primary antagonist of the game who wants to Take Over the World with an army of anthropomorphized weapons, he works from a dark factory in another world using Exor as a gateway into the Mushroom Kingdom.
- All Your Powers Combined: Smithy's Wizard Head using Sword Rain, Spear Rain and Arrow Rain represents his higher-ranking members Claymorton and Exor, Speardovich/Yaridovich and Bowyer respectively.
- Ax-Crazy: He's quite deranged and has an extremely bad temper to boot. His insane Villainous Breakdown literally has him accidentally destroy the ground that he and the heroes are standing on due to how much he uncontrollably smashes it.
- Badass Boast: "Over here, NOW! I'll crush you ALL!"
- Bad Boss: Though he isn't seen much, the few moments he does have on-screen indicate he doesn't care about his minions much, or even his own factory. He is a forgemaster, and every part of the gang besides him is something he made — meaning literally 100% of his minions and assets are replaceable as far as he's concerned. The Smithy gang part of the Parade Float ending sequence even has him flatten Mack, Bowyer, and Yaridovich with his hammer, presumably for failing him.
- The Battle Didn't Count: Beat him the first time, and he goes postal, assumes his true form, and an even harder battle starts.
- Beard of Evil: The Player's Guide describes him as looking like "a diabolical Santa Claus".
- Big Bad: He's the leader of the Smithy Gang and ruler of an alternate dimension, acting to take over Mario's world. Strong enough to take on the hero of the Mushroom Kingdom, a weather-controlling prince, a guardian of the Star Road, the Koopa King, and the Princess of the Mushroom Kingdom, and give them a heck of a fight.
- Big "NO!": Before he transforms, he lets out one of these.
- Big Ol' Eyebrows: His eyebrows are massive.
- The Blacksmith: This is his design motif — a blacksmith crafting weapons in the form of monsters to attack the world. He's even accompanied by his Smelter as a separate enemy.
- Chest Monster: One of the forms of his head is a treasure chest he unleashes status ailments from.
- Cognizant Limbs: In the final battle his body and head are two different enemies, though the lower body can't be killed off for good and is so weak it's little more than a distraction from his head.
- Death from Above: Sledge, which calls a giant sledgehammer to stomp the party. More than Sledge he has access to many other things like Meteor Swarm and Sword, Spear and Arrow Rains.
- Diabolus ex Nihilo: He has no backstory, as far as the game is concerned; he just shows up one day and takes over the Mushroom Kingdom. His only motivation is to gather the Star Pieces to create a world filled with weapons, and without hope.
- Dimension Lord: He rules the alternate world that is attacking Mario's.
- Dishing Out Dirt: His Wizard head can use Boulder to send a storm of rocks over the party.
- Dub Name Change: From Kajioh (Japanese) ("Smith King") to Smithy (English).
- Enemy Summoner: Smelter spits out a blob of goo, Smithy pounds it into a Mook to assist him. Rinse, repeat. And, if the conveyor belts running out of his lair are an indicator, Smithy also personally created every other member of the Smithy Gang himself. Thankfully, those Machine Made copies of the gang's elite members aren't called in to help him during the final battles.
- Evil Overlord: He's the ruler of the other world and does do with an iron fist.
- Faux Affably Evil: When we're first introduced, he seems like a calm and collected leader, nearly as someone who could be reasoned with. This is wildly subverted as we keep talking to him.
- Final Boss: He's the last challenge Mario and his gang face in the game.
- Final Boss, New Dimension: For the second phase of the fight, he drops the party into the basement of the factory. It's slightly less pleasant that the main floor above, going from a cold, metal workshop to a hellish field littered with metal scraps and spare copies of Smithy's heads.
- Finger Firearms: His left hand can do this, but only in his One-Winged Angel form.
- Fire, Ice, Lightning: The Mask Head is weak against ice, the Tank Head is weak against electricity, and the Treasure Head is weak against fire.
- Flat Character: He's evil, trying to Take Over the World with his army of weapons and has a nasty temper. That's about all we learn of Smithy.
- Flechette Storm: His Wizard head summons flurries of spears, arrows, or swords to attack the party.
- Flunky Boss: The first stage of the final boss fight with Smithy puts him next to his Smelter, and he can use said Smelter to summon Shypers to help him. Destroying it will stop them from appearing.
- Generic Doomsday Villain: He's given very little backstory and personality besides being a distant, short-tempered Evil Overlord who wants to conquer the world. He says his desire is to fill the world with his weapons, and he actively hopes the Star Road is not repaired and that wishes will continue to go ungranted, but aside from The Evulz he doesn't express much reason for doing what he does.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: He blows a fuse when Mario and co. defeat him, slamming the floor with his hammer. Three of his henchmen, a Shymore, an Aero, and a Drill Bit, even try to calm him down, and get bashed with his hammer for their trouble as he pounds the floor so hard he breaks it, sending his enemies and himself to the basement.
- Hidden Villain: He's never seen in person until the final battle. The game gives every indication that Exor is Smithy until almost the end of the game, since Exor isn't named until the battle with it.
- Large and in Charge: He's the most physically imposing member of the gang by far.
- Legacy Character: Judging by the broken Smithy heads seen in the bottom of the factory.
- MacGuffin Guardian: In a sense. He's wearing the final Star Piece, knowing what it does and why Mario and his friends are after it.
- Meaningful Name: Who would have thought a guy called "Smithy" would build things and wield a hammer?
- Mechanical Lifeforms: He seems to be some sort of robot, like the rest of his creations.
- Mighty Glacier: His tank form has good power, but isn't too fast.
- Multiversal Conqueror: Has taken over an alternate dimension and now wants the Mushroom Kingdom.
- No Cure for Evil: Averted, one of his heads in the final battle has Recover and Mega Recover.
- Non-Human Head: The second half of his fight has him transform his heads into various objects, including a tank, an iron mask, a treasure chest, and most bizarrely, the entire upper half of a wizard (with his crown replacing the head).
- Non-Lethal K.O.: The body cannot be permanently defeated as it will be inactive for a few turns before regenerating its health.
- No Ontological Inertia: After he explodes, Exor disintegrates and blows away.
- Oh, Crap!: He says he's furious but if you get his thoughts from his head before he changes it in the second phase, he's actually concerned that Mario and co. are skilled enough that they could be trouble for him to deal with.
- One-Hit Kill: Magnum shoots a golden bullet that instantly KO's the target, or take the receiver's HP down to 1 if blocked (not easy to do).
- One-Winged Angel: After losing the first time, he grows livid and transforms into his true form, a skull-headed robot.
- Orcus on His Throne: Played with. On the one hand, Smithy doesn't do much himself to directly interfere with Mario's quest, and he's never seen until the end of the game. On the other hand, he's actively sending out minions to conquer the world, and once he finds out about the Star Pieces he turns his attention to snatching them before Mario can. And since it's implied Smithy is the one creating all of his minions one at a time, he clearly has his hands full at home and doesn't have time to go about business personally.
- Percussive Maintenance: While smithing metal usually requires ruthlessly hitting things with a hammer, but Smithy doesn't need to cut down, file or assemble anything to make his army. Just some molten steel and a couple good thwacks.
- Pitiful Worms: Invoked shortly after he transforms.
- Planet of Hats: "We could get rid of all wishes and create a world filled with... WEAPONS!!"'
- Post-Defeat Explosion Chain: When he dies, he's wracked with multiple star explosions before disappearing in a giant white flash.
- Rank Scales with Asskicking: He's the leader of the Smithy Gang, and he has the power to back up his reign.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: In both forms, he has red eyes.
- Resistant to Magic: Wizard Head has extremely high magic defenses and resists all elements except Jump.
- Robot Wizard: He's a robot, and his wizard head form is capable of casting powerful spells against the party.
- Shapeshifting: He hammers his own apparently malleable head into different shapes for the final battle.
- Sore Loser: When you beat him the first time, he throws a fit (see Unstoppable Rage below).
- Squishy Wizard: His wizard form has awesome magic attacks, but terrible defenses.
- Stone Wall: His box head has massive defense and healing abilities, but low offense.
- Tank Goodness: One of his weapon heads is a tank that shoots Bullet Bills at you.
- Tempting Fate: His Thought Peek quote for his Mask head claims that he can't be harmed. He's vulnerable to ice attacks in this form.
- Tom the Dark Lord: "Smithy" sounds like a regular name for an Evil Overlord who wants to Take Over the World with weapons.
- Unstoppable Rage: The main reason he goes One-Winged Angel is that he's so utterly pissed off that Mario and co. defeated him in the first round. The fact that he also unwittingly broke his own factory in his rage and forced him into what seems to be a boiler room also doesn't help quell his temper either.
- Villainous Breakdown: He loses it when Mario and his allies beat him in the first round, sending him in an Unstoppable Rage and causing him to slam his hammer down so hard it destroys the floor.
- Weak to Magic: Smithy's Tank Head is vulnerable to magic due to having low Magic Defense. Treasure Head has decent Magic Defense but is Weak to Fire while the Mask Head has high Magic Defense but weak to Ice. The plain Smithy Head has low Magic Defense but it is only active on the first turn.
- White Hair, Black Heart: His regular form has a white beard and hair.
- Worthy Opponent: Smithy possibly sees Mario and co. as this, as his psychopath thought is "Eh? Not bad!".
Exor
Original
"Halt! Who goes there? A trespasser! This castle now belongs to us, the Smithy Gang. It's our first step towards taking over this world!"
A giant sword that crashed into Bowser's castle and shattered the Star Road, its mouth acts as a gateway between the Mushroom Kingdom and Smithy's world.
- BFS: If you don't understand that this is his weapon motif, you haven't been getting enough sleep.
- Climax Boss: Though all high-ranking members of the gang are fought at the end of the respective areas, Exor is notable for being the final boss of the Mushroom Kingdom before The Reveal that he isn't Smithy himself, but merely a gateway to Smithy's world, and the game continues on there.
- Cognizant Limbs: "Exor" is actually the tip of the sword's pommel, the other targets in the battle are the two eyes and mouth, the latter of which was renamed "Neosquid" in the English release for some reason.
- Contractual Boss Immunity: Subverted — unlike all the other bosses, he can be hurt with the full overkill damage of a perfect Geno Whirl. But you’re better off only doing it on the tip itself and not the eyes or mouth.
- The Dragon: It's either him or the Factory Chief, to Smithy. Exor is the one on who the invasion depends on, since he's the gateway between worlds.
- Dub Name Change: From Kariba (Japanese) to Exor (English).
- Eviler than Thou: Pulls this off towards Bowser in the opening of the game by abruptly crashing through the ceiling and hurling the Koopa King out of his own castle.
- Fascinating Eyebrow: A rather odd instance, this is the animation used for the eyes when they attack.
- Fireball Eyeballs: Exor's "face" on the hilt, not the two larger ones. Also counts as Glowing Eyes of Doom and Red Eyes, Take Warning.
- Go for the Eye: Exor is immune to damage until one of the two eyes is incapacitated, so guess who dies first.
- Handicapped Badass: According to the Psychopath thoughts revealed by Mallow, he has astigmatism in his right eye and is blind in the left one. The remake doubles down on this by describing Exor's right eye as having 20/66 vision while the supposed blind left eye has 20/28 vision.... by guessing blindly on the eye exam.
- The Heavy: Although Smithy is unambiguously the Big Bad, Exor's arrival is what kicks off the game's plot and his presence constantly looms over the heroes in the background, even motivating Bowser to form an Enemy Mine to get rid of him.
- Knight of Cerebus: The lighthearted Save the Princess story is cut short when Exor crashes through Bowser's Keep and establishes the game's higher stakes. And unlike any of the other members of the Smithy Gang, Exor is taken dead seriously as a threat right up to his boss fight.
- Jaw Drop: His mouth drops after he is defeated.
- Mascot Villain: The iconic image for the game is Exor impaled upon Bowser's Keep.
- Meaningful Name: Though you need to put his English and Japanese names together to see it. "Exor" + "Karibā" (romanized from "カリバー") = "Excalibur".
- Mistaken Identity: Everyone assumes that he's Smithy until the heroes actually confront him. When they learn his real name, they realize that Smithy is actually an entirely separate person.
- No Eye in Magic: A unique example of this trope where Exor's right eye can use magic as a separate entity. Temporarily disable the right eye and Exor will not use the spells from its right eye for a few turns.
- Non-Lethal K.O.: Its eyes and mouth can't be permanently killed, they sit out a few turns then regenerate.
- One-Hit KO: A perfectly timed Geno Whirl can kill Exor in one hit, the only boss vulnerable to this due to a programming oversight. The remake leaves this in.
- Red Herring: You never learn his name until you actually fight him near the end of the game. Thinking that he is Smithy is an understandable mistake. This is not helped by commercials for the game directly referring to "Smithy the Sword."
- Silent Antagonist: Surprisingly, he is reduced to this role after he announces Smithy's takeover of Bowser's Keep and destroys the bridge leading to it. He doesn't speak when Mario and co. arrive at Bowser's Castle via the Royal Bus either, and he doesn't have any lines when he's fought as a boss.
- The Usurper: In his first scene, he crashes through Bowser's Castle, sends Bowser flying off into the distance, and immediately takes over the Koopa Kingdom as a result.
- Wingding Eyes: The eyes turn into swirlies when temporarily defeated.
Lieutenants
Mack/Claymorton
Original
"Listen up, gang! These guys are gonna put a stop to OUR party! Are we happy about this?!"
A living knife, a lieutenant of the Smithy Gang, and the first high-ranking member of the group that Mario and company encounter, he and his army of Shysters (Shymores in the Switch remake) invade the Mushroom Kingdom and turn the castle into their base while Mario is off tracking down Croco in Bandit's Way.
- Adaptational Name Change: Rather than changing the name back to Kenzoru, he is now known as "Claymorton" in the remake.
- Ambiguous Situation: Is Mack the dagger, the reddish being on top of the dagger, or both? It's never really explained exactly in full detail and he's short lived as well.
- Badass Cape: Being a dagger, it's about all he can wear.
- BFS: He is one, though of a dagger design rather than your standard sword.
- Boss-Altering Consequence: Using Thunderbolt against him will stun him for a turn, being more obvious in the remake.
- Bouncing Battler: Mack is a giant pogo stick-like sword with a swarm of Shy Guys hopping on similar pogo sticks. They're all obsessed with bouncing, especially Claymorton whose only thoughts involve how cool he can make his next bounce.
- Dirty Coward: In battle, he has a bad habit of jumping offscreen and hiding, only returning once Mario and Mallow defeat all of his Bodyguards, usually just so he can summon more Bodyguards.
- Dub Name Change: His name is changed from Kenzoru (Japanese) to Mack (English, original)/Claymorton (English, remake).
- Field Promotion: According to their Monster List entry, the Bodyguards got their job "because they happened to be standing there."
- Flat Character: Appears in only one scene and has only a few lines that don’t reveal much. Even after the remake adds the Monster List, the only personality trait he's stated to have is that he's obsessed with bouncing.
- Flunky Boss: He's the poster man for this trope, alongside the Shymore Bodyguards who aid in his battle.
- Goomba Stomp: Claymorton and the Shymores' preferred method of attack.
- Playing with Fire: Mack has the Fire Magic spells Flame and Flame Wall.
- Punny Name: His name in the original is a reference to Mack the Knife. The remake changes his name to "Claymorton", which is a play on "Claymore", a type of two-handed sword that originates from Scotland.
- Serious Business: Bouncing. According to the Monster List, "All he ever thinks about is how cool he can make his next bounce."
- Spring Coil: The knife portion of Mack is a red spring-like pogo stick with a blade below.
- Starter Villain: He's the first major member of the Smithy Gang to appear.
- Visual Pun: He's a literal Mack the Knife.
Bowyer
Original
"For cover they run, nya! FUN this is, yes. Nya!"
An animated giant bow and a lieutenant of the Smithy Gang who set up base in the Forest Maze, he terrorizes Rose Town by firing paralyzing arrows at the helpless citizens.
- Annoying Arrows: In a nice case of Gameplay and Story Integration, the player can routinely see arrows fired into Rose Town and the Forest Maze, and, if hit with one, then Mario will be stunned like the NPCs, though only momentarily as he immediately breaks free through willpower. The arrows return much later in the Factory, and they're even more annoying, especially when they appear right next to a production line of enemies coming off a conveyor belt.
- Beat Them at Their Own Game: Defied. When Geno brings up the idea of executing a Triple Move on Bowyer, Bowyer tries to look around to attempt the same thing - only for him not to have any allies with him.
- Dub Name Change: From Yuminpa (Japanese) to Bowyer (English).
- Evil Redhead: He has a shock of red hair and is one of the lieutenants of the antagonistic Smithy Gang.
- Exact Words: In the remake, he forbids you from pressing the A, X, and Y buttons, on top of his previous disabling of Toad Assist. Note that he prevented Toad Assists, not the minus button as a whole, so once Geno teaches Mario and Mallow how to use Triple Moves, they can use it, since it replaces Toad Assist.
- Forced Tutorial: Although the battle operates as normal for the most part in the Switch remake, he disables all three of your action buttons once he's really low on health. This introduces the Triple Move mechanic (which uses the minus button instead of the three regular buttons), which is required to finish him off.
- For the Evulz: Unlike Mack and Yaridovich, Bowyer had no real reason for attacking Rose Town except for the fun of target practice.
- Genre Savvy: In the remake, he gets the idea to lock down all three of the buttons once he's low on health and actually does so. This would've completely disabled the party if not for Triple Moves now existing and not relying on any of those buttons.
- Interface Screw: Whichever button you use most gets locked down for two or three turns at a time (plus disables Toad Assists in the remake for good measure). In the Switch remake, he completely disables all three buttons once he's about to be defeated. Unfortunately for him, Triple Moves aren't part of those buttons.
- Lean and Mean: Being a bow, he's got a very thin body.
- Meaningful Name: "Bowyer" is the term for a person who makes, maintains and repairs bows.
- Medium Awareness: He is completely aware about the controller buttons, and will target them accordingly to make the fight a challenge.
- One-Steve Limit: It's a little bit confusing to have an early villain named Bowyer, when you also have a normally-a-villain-but-temporarily-joining-the-hero's-side-character named Bowser.
- The Paralyzer: When someone is struck with his arrows, they're paralyzed in place, unable to move, but still able to talk.
- Psycho Electro: He uses Thunder magic such as Static E, Bolt, and Lightning Orb, and he's unstable if his speech patterns are any indication.
- Puzzle Boss: A subtle variation, he locks whatever button command the player uses most, so the trick is to confuse him and mix up your attack patterns.
- Rain of Arrows: He attacks Rose Town by constantly firing arrows into it from the forest.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: He's depicted with red eyes in the game's artwork, though he has blue eyes in-game. The remake goes with the latter as well. His Machine Made Clone however has red eyes (which every single other Machine Made has a grayish body), which is kept in the remake.
- Shock and Awe: The element of magic that Bowyer uses.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Bowyer's presence is pretty minimal outside of harassing Rose Town citizens with his arrows, but the moment one of his Aeros finds a star, Geno's interference (and later exposition) allows an eavesdropping Aero to alert Smithy about the importance of the Star Pieces.
- Strange-Syntax Speaker: "Fix it I will, nya! Shoot an arrow I shall! When target it hits, that button... locked!" Bowyer tends to switch the order of the predicate and the subject (that is, he gives additional details about something first and says what that something is second). Oddly, Mallow's Thought Peek reveals he at least thinks normally, and even then, he thinks like this in the remake.Bowyer: What's with these folks? Dressed funny, they are, nya. Furious it makes me, nya!
- Verbal Tic: Bowyer tends to end his sentences with "nya", in addition to being a Strange-Syntax Speaker.
Yaridovich/Speardovich
Original
"I'm such a genius, it scares me sometimes. No wonder I'm so important!"
A spear-like being wielding a spear and a lieutenant of the Smithy Gang who splits into copies of Mushroom kingdom citizens and collectively poses as the citizens of Seaside Town to trick Mario into retrieving the next Star Piece for him.
- Badass Cape: Another of Smithy's minions to wear one.
- Cool and Unusual Punishment: A But Thou Must! moment, he inflicts Tickle Torture on the real Elder of the town if the player refuses to give him the Star.
- Cowardly Boss: It takes Johnny Jones and his men cornering him to get him to hold still and fight.
- Dub Name Change: The remake changes it to Speardovich.
- Grievous Harm with a Body: He can remove his own head and stab people with it.
- Insufferable Genius: Even when he's pretending to be Mushroom citizens, Yaridovich is quite the dick to Mario. He only gets worse when he reveals his true form.
- Lean and Mean: As a spear, he has a tall, thin body, and spindly limbs.
- Magic Knight: Despite being a living weapon, his physical power is quite weak. His magic power on the other hand is murderously strong.
- Making a Splash: Yaridovich's strongest magic attack is Water Blast, although visually the spell seems to be a steam attack rather than a water attack and is actually a Non-Elemental attack in terms of gameplay.
- Master of Illusion: He can create copies of himself and can split into smaller forms that can shapeshift.
- Meaningful Name: His name is a combination of "Yari", the Japanese word for "spear", and "ovich", a traditional Russian naming convention. The remake's English name is a combination between "spear" and "vich".
- Mechanical Lifeform: He even makes a crack about potentially rusting when he decides to swim to escape Mario.
- Morphic Resonance: His disguised forms all retain his red-and-gray color palette.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Besides the Musical Spoiler of the "troubled town" theme playing when you first visit, it's quite obvious there's something more than a bit strange about Seaside Town when Yaridovich is playing as its citizens.
- Permanently Missable Content: Though it's questionable just how useful they are, the rather unorthodox items sold in the shops under Yaridovich's watch cannot be bought anywhere else. note
- Playing with Fire: His Flame Stone and Willy Wisp attacks, although the latter is Non-Elemental in terms of gameplay.
- Professional Butt-Kisser: While disguised as Seaside Town's elder, he claims that "pleasing his superiors" is something he does well. He later says that if he brings the star to Smithy he'll get "brownie points", which are the way to get ahead. Using Psychopath on him and his Machine Made duplicates reveals the most pressing thought to him is his promotion.
- Self-Duplication: He can create copies of himself to confuse Mario. His Machine Made clone in the final dungeon can split into four Drill Bits. Before his fight, the "residents" of Seaside Town are five people, but when cornered, they merge into Yaridovich, who apparently was all of them already.
- Stupidity Is the Only Option: Even if you figure out he's untrustworthy, you must go along with his whole act anyway.
- Tickle Torture: If you refuse to give him the Star, he tortures the Elder of the town by tickling them.
- Voluntary Shapeshifter: Combines this with Self-Duplication to impersonate roughly an entire town's population.
- Wake-Up Call Boss: Yaridovich is the first boss to use AOE attacks liberally, and he has several of them. If you haven't practiced party-wide healing, expect to see the Game Over screen more than once.
The Axem Rangers
Original
"We fight for evil!" "We live for disorder!" "We like what we do!" "We struggle for chaos!" "We are..." "THE AXEM RANGERS!"
— In order; Axem Red, Axem Black, Axem Green, Axem Pink, Axem Yellow, the entire group
A group of ax-wielding warriors in the Smithy Gang commanding Smithy's airship, Blade, they attack Mario in Barrel Volcano to steal the sixth Star Piece from him.
- Adaptational Badass: Axem Yellow has extra Speed allowing him to go a lot sooner, and as if that wasn't enough, his attacks can be difficult to time against properly as part of rebalancing with attack timing. He is also not as susceptible to Bowser's Damage Reduction Ally Buff as his comrades sans Axem Green himself, allowing him to deal heavy enough damage consistently.
- Adaptational Wimp: Axem Black, as shown here, was hit particularly hard by the remake's general balance changes. Not only does he have to contend with his bombs now being blockable, but Bowser's Ally Buff of boosting Defense is bound to neuter his attack power by Damage Reduction, which would be softened by the Chain needing to be built up if Axem Black didn't attack so often with easy to block attacks. Needless to say that Axem Black, while still worth consideration for anybody not using Bowser, now puts the fragile in Fragile Speedster.
- All Your Colors Combined: They're a color-coded team, but their attacks do not reflect this. After the team is beaten individually, however, they pour their power into the Blade so it can fire the white Breaker Beam.
- Barely-Changed Dub Name: In Japanese, they're simply known as the "Axe Rangers", without the M.
- Card-Carrying Villain: Check the profile quote, which they recite when the battle begins.
- Colour-Coded Characters: The colors that they possess is from the names they bear.
- Combat Medic: Axem Pink can both heal her allies and fight.
- Corrupted Character Copy: Of the various Power Rangers and Super Sentai teams. While those teams were pure hearted warriors who fought for the safety of the world against supervillains that threaten it, the Axems are clear opposites, and their goal is to help a supervillain (Smithy) to conquer worlds.
- Counter-Attack:
- Axem Black will retaliate with Spritz Bomb if hit with a special attack.
- Axem Yellow responds to physical attacks with Body Slam, which in the remake is a far more sudden hit.
- In the original, Axem Pink could counter special attacks with either a sleep bubble or a regular attack. This is no longer the case in the remake, where both attacks are simply possible options for Pink on her regular turn.
- Dark Action Girl: Axem Pink is a Combat Medic, a Card-Carrying Villainess, and the group's sole female.
- Dark Is Evil: Axem Black is evil and well... black.
- Evil Counterpart: To the party:
- Axem Red is obviously the counterpart to Mario, being both physically and magically competent, a jack of all trades, and is the party's leader.
- Axem Black is a counterpart to Geno, as both are The Lancer as well as being a possessing powerful attacks but with relatively low HP.
- Axem Yellow is the answer to Bowser, as both are bulky, Mighty Glaciers, and the physically strongest member of the crew.
- Axem Green is Mallow's, as both are Squishy Wizard spellcasters.
- Axem Pink is one for Peach, as both act as the White Mage to their respective teams.
- Evil Feels Good: They fight for the forces of evil and claim they like it.
- Evil Is Deathly Cold: One of Axem Green's spells is Solidify (an ice attack).
- Fat Bastard: Axem Yellow is an overweight Axem Ranger who is a subordinate to Axem Red, who in turn is subordinate to the villanous Smithy.
- Flash Step: Axem Black moves so fast he leaves multiple images as he sweeps in to attack. Of course, given that the game is a turn-based battle system, this is mostly just Rule of Cool, although it can help illustrate why he's able to attack in-between your turns...
- Four-Temperament Ensemble:
- Axem Red is the choleric, being the fierce, no-nonsense leader.
- Axem Pink is the sanguine, being the flirtatious diva.
- Axem Black is the phlegmatic, being the cold, serious soldier.
- Axem Green is the melancholic, being the most overly dramatic and whiny.
- Axem Yellow is the eclectic, being more hungry than he is emotional.
- Green and Mean: Being green doesn't mean Axem Green is heroic. He is part of the villainous Smithy Gang.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: It doesn't take much for Axem Red to get angry, especially when his teammates go down one-by-one.
- Hope Crusher: Axem Red is really eager to destroy all forms of hope.Axem Red: This Star Piece gives people hope! It needs to be destroyed!
- The Klutz: Hilariously, Axem Red is this. According to the in-game encyclopedia, Red wants to look threatening, but comes across more as a clumsy bumbler thanks to his inability to get his poses or speeches right, and many of his team's thoughts are complaints about his constant ineptitude. At one point, he drops the all-important Star Piece they just stole, prompting an annoyed Axem Yellow to have to fall back to retrieve it, loudly delcaring that Red is "all thumbs".
- Lean and Mean: Axem Green is very thin and is part of the villainous Axem Rangers.
- Magically Inept Fighter: Axem Black and Axem Yellow have terrible magic stats (so bad that neither one gets spells, and are also fairly weak to magic attacks) but make up for it with either wicked speed and multiple attacks (in the case of Black) or pure brute force (in the case of Yellow).
- Makeup Is Evil: Axem Pink is evil and she states she wears make-up.
- Master of None: Axem Red may have the most HP, but he doesn't have Yellow's high defense and power or Black's counterattacks and unblockable bombs.
- No Cure for Evil: Axem Pink averts this to an extent — but both whether she uses a cure at all and which of the Axems she targets is randomized.
- No Sympathy: Axem Red shows absolutely no sympathy towards his comrades when they're defeated. He tells Pink to change brands when her make-up starts running, he tells Yellow to quell his hunger by chewing on his tongue, he remarks that Green is out of shape when he complains about his headache, and he outright says to Black when his shades are broken that it serves him right.
- Psycho Pink: Axem Pink is a pink Dark Action Girl.
- The Psycho Rangers: Their abilities directly mirror Mario and his four allies — Jack of All Stats (Red), Squishy Wizard (Green), Fragile Speedster (Black), Mighty Glacier (Yellow), Combat Medic (Pink). Bonus points for being evil Power Ranger knock offs.
- Red Is Violent: Axem Red is a red and aggressive warrior who easily berates his teammates when they make mistakes.
- Sentai: They're a Shout-Out to Super Sentai (in Japan and certain other Asian countries) and Power Rangers (everywhere else), obviously. Their Japanese name, Kajio Sentai Onoranger, uses the same naming scheme as almost every Super Sentai seasons (there are only four exceptions totalnote ): Blank Sentai Blank, the second Blank usually ending in -nger or -man.
- Shock and Awe: Axem Green can use the attack Static E (an electric spell).
- Shoot the Mage First: Axem Green is oftentimes the opponent the player should take out first, as he poses a huge threat to your team via his powerful spells but is very squishy especially on the physical side.
- Shoot the Medic First: Axem Pink heals her allies, has the lowest HP, and uses Petal Blast to turn the party into mushrooms. The official strategy guide for the game even advises this. To be sure, it is worth keeping in mind that Pink's healing spells select the target at random so she'll most likely waste her turn healing someone who's at full health already, her defense is fairly stout, and Petal Blast isn't that dangerous if Peach has protective equipment such as a Trueform Pin or the Safety Ring. Axem Green uses powerful magic attacks like Solidify and Meteor Burst to outdamage the rest of the Axems put together and has only marginally more HP but far less defense than Pink, so taking him out first is worth consideration. That being said, Pink can still heal Black and Yellow (who do have good Defense), Petal Blast can stll be dangerous, and in the remake, Pink can put characters to sleep or use her regular attack that comes out fast enough to easily threaten the player's Chain.
- Sinister Shades: Axem Black is villainous and he sports black shades. He even gets upset when they break when he's defeated. You'd think they'd be expensive, but the Monster Log reveals he actually bought them at a dollar store.
- The Smurfette Principle: Axem Pink is the only female member.
- Squishy Wizard: Although he's got good magic defense and magic defense, Axem Green also has bad physical defense.
- Teens Are Monsters: They're teenagers and Card-Carrying Villains, with the former being stated in Nintendo Player's Guide.
- Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: Axem Pink, in addition to being pink, has long curly eyelashes. Even though her head's a helmet.
- This Cannot Be!: They exclaim exactly this upon their defeat.
- Throw Down the Bomblet: Axem Black tosses out small bombs to attack.
- Turns Red: Axem Red starts using Status Buffs to boost his attack and defense when too many of his allies are killed off.
- Villainous Breakdown: After he and his allies are defeated, Axem Red snaps.
- Villainous Glutton: Implied with Axem Yellow; he's larger than any other two Rangers put together, and his remark upon defeat is him saying he's hungry.
- Weak to Fire: Axem Pink takes extra damage from fire attacks.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: The Axem Rangers don't appear in the end credits parade sequence, unlike most of their fellow Smithy Gang lieutenants.
- Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Lampshaded by the Blade's Thought Peek quote in the original Japanese and remake. The Blade questions why the Rangers didn't think about bringing it out in the first place rather than save it for the second phase.
- Wolf Pack Boss: If you faced any of them alone they'd probably die in one round. But together... this is reflected with the Machine Made copies of the gang in Smithy's Factory. The Axem Rangers come in two groups, one consisting of Red, Pink and Green, the other of two Blacks and two Yellows, and their copies are more numerous than Mack, Bowyer, or Yaridovich.
The Blade
A giant sentient axe-like battleship used by the Axem Rangers. Once the Axem Rangers all excuse themselves from their fight, his cannon is battled as the last phase of the battle.
- Always Late: He was supposed to pick up Speardovich, but never showed up, and while he did arrive to pick up the Axem Rangers, he was so late that they were forced into a fight with Mario.
- Charged Attack: Breaker Beam is so strong, they have to skip a turn to power it up for a blast.
- Cool Airship: He is a living axe-like airship that can fire a massive laser.
- Death or Glory Attack: Breaker Beam, naturally. See Charged Attack.
- Foreshadowing: He is hinted at when confronting Yaridovich/Speardovich as being the one the latter is waiting for to leave Seaside Town with the fifth Star Piece. Johnny mentions seeing him and warns Mario. He does not actually appear until the end of the sixth Star Piece arc.
- Logical Weakness: As his cannon is metallic, it is weak to Lightning-element attacks.
- Wave-Motion Gun: Breaker Beam fires a huge cone of energy across the screen.
- When All You Have Is a Hammer…: Blade will never consider anything but Breaker Beam. This bites him against anybody who can survive it (read: Mario and friends) as the vulnerability time allows for heavy retaliation.
Boomer
Original
A robotic samurai and lieutenant of the Smithy Gang. He guards the now Smithy-occupied Bowser's Castle to fight off intruders.
- Affably Evil: Despite his despair at being defeated, he still offers the party (and possibly the player) a hearty goodbye.Boomer: See ya later, kids!
- Alas, Poor Villain: After his defeat, Boomer despairs about his loss of honor and prepares to commit Seppuku. Mario offers him some sympathy and tries to cheer him up, but to no avail. Luckily, his suicide attempt seemingly fails.Shyndelier: Boomer! Oh, poor Boomer!
- Barrier Change Boss: He can change color from red to blue and vice versa. Blue will give him resistance to normal attacks, but weak to skills, while his normal form does the opposite.
- Better to Die than Be Killed: Rather than be finished off by Mario and his party, he decides to go out on his own terms by forcing a Shyndelier to drop a chandelier and down to his demise. Subverted, as another Shyndelier immediately notes that he is still alive despite the fall.
- Bungled Suicide: As mentioned above, his attempt at Seppuku fails and the Shyndelier remarks that he'll be fine.
- Counter-Attack: His common response to being struck with an attack-type he is weak to will have him retaliate with an insta-kill "Shaker".
- Don't You Dare Pity Me!: When Mario tries to befriend him out of sympathy after his defeat, Boomer denies it and insists on going out on his own terms.
- Driven to Suicide: He attempts Seppuku after being defeated. It doesn't pan out.
- Honor Before Reason: Boomer is so fixated on the idea of dying with honor that he fails to realize that he may not be high enough off the ground for a fall to kill him.
- Katanas Are Just Better: Wields a katana, and he possess two powerful techniques involving the use of his weapon.
- One-Hit KO: His "Shaker" skill will instantly down any party member who got hit by it. If successfully blocked though, they either take zero damage, or only survive with only a sliver of health if it's done too early or late.
- Orcus on His Throne: A justified example. Rather than be part of the group tasked with collecting the Seven Stars, he is instead assigned as the guard inside Bowser's (former) Castle to take care of any possible intruders. He only shows up when Mario and his party storm the castle.
- Samurai: He is themed after a samurai, albeit he lacks a demonic mask and bears a simplistic design (like the Ninjas).
- Seppuku: Going along with his samurai motifs, upon losing his battle, Boomer decides to go out with honor by falling from a chandelier within Bowser's Castle. According to a Shyndelier, it doesn't quite go as planned.
- Wearing a Flag on Your Head: Fitting for a samurai, his helmet bears the Japanese flag.
Count Down
- Clockwork Creature: A massive alarm clock with Ring-a-Ding controlling it. It even rings loudly when it spots Mario.
- Cue O'Clock: The clock itself will attack in a fixed order based off what "time" it is. For instance, at 7:00, it will use Water Blast.
- Deadly Ringer: The Ring-A-Ding Bells control the large clock and are capable of using powerful and annoying spells, including Dark Star.
- The Power of the Sun: It uses Corona (Flare in the remake), a sun-based fire move, when its hands point to noon.
- One-Hit Kill: One of Ring-A-Ding's moves is Fear Roulette, which can knock out a party member at random.
- Punny Name: A countdown is the practice of counting backwards until zero, but count is also a royal title. In other words, he's a count named Down, but he's a clock.
- Resting Recovery: When its hands point at 3:00 and 6:00, it will use Recover and Mega Recover respectively.
Cloaker and Domino
Cloaker on the left, Domino on the right
A pair of jesters that guard the main portion of Smithy's factory. Defeat one of them, and the other will retreat to their mechanical pet cobra, Earth Link/Bad Adder (Cloaker) or Mad Adder (Domino).- Boss-Altering Consequence: Whichever jester is still alive after the other diesnote will merge with their pet cobra, and the other cobra isn't fought (though you still get their entry in the remake). The remake's Monster Compendium entries for Bad Adder and Mad Adder even allude to this:Bad/Mad Adder's entry: Apparently it would be called something else if it had fused with Cloaker/Domino instead of [opposite boss]. Which raises the question...what is this monster's true name?
- Crippling Overspecialization: Both jesters specialize in a different form of prowess while being crippled with the opposite - Cloaker is physical, Domino is magic.
- Developer's Foresight: Should both get killed in the same attack, the second part of the fight still occurs. In this case, Cloaker is the one who goes down and Domino immediately merges with Mad Adder.
- Dual Boss: Both Cloaker and Domino are fought together in the first phase of the battle, where you have to defeat one of them. This also applies when they merge with their pet snake as well.
- Fighting Clown: Both are jesters that are very formidable in combat. Cloaker is more physically oriented while Domino is more magically oriented.
- Gemini Destruction Law: Subverted. One might assume it's possible to skip the second half of the fight if both Cloaker and Domino are defeated in the same attack, but doing so will cause Cloaker to go down first (as he's first in enemy positioning), and Domino will immediately merge with the cobra to form Mad Adder.
- Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: They confront the party out of nowhere just before the final run-up to Smithy's factory, and barely fit the weapon theming of the other villains, instead resembling a pair of flasks that plug into a giant snake. In the remake, their enemy description suggests not to think about it too much.
- The Great Serpent: Defeating one of them results in the other retreating to a giant mechanical cobra. Cloaker retreats to Bad Adder while Domino retreats to Mad Adder.
- Lost in Translation: They all had Theme Naming along the lines of "[Material] Link" in the Japanese version, but only Earth Link's name was kept in the SNES localization. The remake changed Earth Link’s name to "Bad Adder", to keep consistency with its counterpart Mad Adder.
- Magically Inept Fighter: Cloaker can barely use any magic attacks and goes down easily to those, but he's very strong physically. This applies to Earth Link as well.
- Palette Swap: Both cobras are palette swaps of each other, with Bad Adder being purple and Mad Adder being pink.
- Recurring Element: Like Knife Guy and Grate Guy in Booster Tower, they're a Fighting Clown duo (who also happen to be composed of a physically competent member and a magically competent member) that ambush Mario and co. at the end of the area. They even have a similar stacked "merged" form, although unlike Knife Guy and Grate Guy, they merge with a mechanical cobra as opposed to each other.
- Sequential Boss: The fight is composed of two phases — first is fighting Cloaker and Domino, and the second is fighting the surviving one on their giant cobra.
- Shout-Out: Domino's cobra is named "Mad Adder", which comes from the name of a character called the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland, as well as an adder, a type of venomous snake. The remake changes the name of Cloaker's cobra to "Bad Adder" to keep with the theme of the reference.
- Squishy Wizard: Domino specializes in magic and has great magic defense, but is very susceptible to physical attacks.
- Sword and Sorcerer: Cloaker is a physical attacker who even carries a sword and shield, while Domino is a magic user. The two fight you together.
- Theme Naming: The Japanese version has the Clowns named "Dirt Link" and "Metal Link", while the two robotic cobras are named "Earth Link" and "Mercury Link".
Clerk, Manager and Director
The Clerk, Manager, and Director are three supervisors of Smithy's production forces. They are a rank below the Factory Chief.
- Contractual Boss Immunity: Averted with regards to negative statuses. None of the three are immune to sleep, poison, fear or silence.
- Flunky Boss: All three of them are accompanied by Mad Mallets (Clerk), Pounders (Manager), and Poundettes (Director).
- Mini-Boss: All three serve as mini-bosses for the factory portion. Oddly enough, the SNES version just used the regular battle music against all of them (with only the Factory Chief/Gunyolk having the boss theme). The remake corrected this by giving all three the boss theme.
- Palette Swap: All three of them are palette swaps of each other. The Clerk is greenish, the Manager is blue, and the Director is red.
- Throw Down the Bomblet: All three use bomb based attacks.
- Villainous Breakdown: The Director is seems in the throes of one, if his Psychopath quote in the SNES version is any indication.Director's Psychopath: I just lost EVERYTHING!
- Wham Line: The Factory Clerk mentions this bombshell of a line before fighting him, confirming that the Machine Mades you fought earlier are just mass produced copies intended to invade the Mushroom World.Clerk: This, despite the fact that Mack/Claymorton, Bowyer, Yaridovich/Speardovich, and the Axem Rangers were defeated. At this rate, Smithy will have a new army in no time.
Factory Chief
The head supervisor of Smithy's factory. When Mario reaches him, he uses him to test out the Smithy Gang’s ultimate weapon- the Gunyolk.
- Contractual Boss Immunity: Averted with regards to negative statuses. Neither of them are immune to sleep, poison, fear or silence.
- The Dragon: He's this as the one in charge of making all those robots and weapons Smithy loves.
- Dual Boss: You fight both him and the Gunyolk at the same time.
- Gadgeteer Genius: The monster journal in the remake reveals that unlike most of Smithy's weapons, the Gunyolk was not designed or invented by Smithy, but by the Factory Chief themselves.
- King Mook: Is an elite ranking Ninja that happens to be the chief supervisor of Smithy's productions.
- Palette Swap: He's just a ninja with a purple color scheme and higher stats.
- Pre-Final Boss: He's the last boss you fight before you make it to Smithy.
- Tank Goodness: The Gunyolk - but not to Mario and his party.
- Tuckerization: "Gunyolk" is derived from the first syllables of Gunpei Yokoi.
Other Villains
Hammer Bro
"Now ya got my hammer angry! Ya shouldn't have done that!"
A giant Hammer Bro who appears at the end of Mushroom Way. Not only is he blocking the path out of the stage, but he's also captured Toad. In battle, he becomes two Hammer Bros. Defeating him/them awards you the Hammer, the first weapon Mario can equip.
- Actually Four Mooks: On the stage, only a single Hammer Bro is seen. But in the battle, you end up fighting two Bros. The Remake's journal entry on the Hammer Bro. brings attention to this.
- Companion Cube: His hammer.
- Let's Get Dangerous!: After you defeat one Hammer Bro., the remaining one will use Valor Up to increase his defense.
- Warm-Up Boss: He's the first boss battle in the game proper (Not including the battle against Bowser at the Keep).
- Your Size May Vary: They are bigger here than in most other games, being comparable to Sledge Bros.
Croco
Original
"Har, har! Youse mugs'll NEVER catch me! A snail could outrun YOU morons! Later!"
A crocodile thief who pops up routinely to swipe stuff from the party before fleeing to avoid a confrontation.
- Bag of Holding: The objects pulled from his sack include bombs, mushrooms, and full-sized enemies to chuck at you.
- Bandit Mook: In his second fight, he'll steal your whole inventory after losing about half of his HP. Once you've beaten him, he'll give your items back.
- Boss-Altering Consequence: If you use a Fire attack against Croco, it will set his tail on fire, and he'll waste a turn trying to put it out with the remake making this more obvious.
- Cowardly Boss: A variation; he runs from you after stealing and you have to chase him down, but once you engage him he stands and fights.
- Delicious Distraction: During the ending, while he's racing Yoshi in the Mushroom Derby, Croco throws a Yoshi Cookie behind him to stop Yoshi in his tracks while eating it. However, the cookie gives Yoshi the boost he needs in order to beat Croco.
- Dungeon Shop: In Bowser's Keep, he'll sell you items at two instances (once before the door challenge and another time after defeating Wizakoopa). With the unlimited coins you can potentially get from Wizakoopa, you can easily take advantage of the second opportunity.
- "Get Back Here!" Boss: He refuses to fight until you corner him, and prefers to run away if he has room to.
- Goldfish Poop Gang: Any time he appears he's little more than a nuisance.
- Heel–Face Turn: Of a sort. He doesn't come to any particular moral realization, but eventually finds more profit in selling you items than fighting you.
- Mini-Boss: He's never the primary villain, but a stepping stone to such instead.
- Never Smile at a Crocodile: He's a thieving crocodile who frequently opposes the heroes.
- No Cure for Evil: Averted, he can heal himself the first time you fight him, though he only does it once.
- No Item Use for You: In the second fight, he'll steal your items halfway through the battle and returns them when beaten.
- Purple Is Powerful: He may be an early boss, but he is very tough despite that fact.
- Recurring Boss: You face him twice, and can encounter him twice more after.
- Rump Roast: Using a fire attack against him will cause his tail to be set on fire and he'll be forced to spend a turn putting it out. This is more obvious in the remake, where he'll actually be shown having his tail burning.
- Stupidity Is the Only Option: You have to land on his trap spring in order to advance through the mines.
- Villainous Friendship: In the ending sequence, he apparently bonds with Boshi after Yoshi beats Croco in a race.
- Wake-Up Call Boss: He's the second mini-boss in the game, and following the first you naturally wouldn't expect much. This line of thinking proves fatal if you thought to just breeze though Bandit's Way without leveling up Mario and Mallow or buying armor in Mushroom Kingdom.
Belome
Original
"Ooh! Room service has been kind to me! Where's my bib?"
A monster of ambiguous design who guards the Kero Sewers, he has a huge tongue and an appetite to match.
- Angry Guard Dog: Despite being a Mix And Match Creature, Belome has a decidedly canine appearance. Both times you fight him, he's between you and your next plot-mandated destination, specifically a literal gate.
- Anti-Villain: He's not really that evil compared to other antagonists like the members of Smithy Gang; while he blocks Mario's way multiple times and tries to eat him and his party members, he's more of a Non-Malicious Monster who likes eating. In the remake's Endgame+, he returns and attacks Mario again, but it's because he's irritated by the Sage Stick in his throat rather than actual malice towards Mario's team.
- Big Eater: Belome's defining character trait. Notably, this works to Mario's favor: If you feed him a Temple Key after his second boss fight, he'll grant the party access to his treasure room.
- Extreme Omnivore: Especially during his second fight where his appetite extends to other party members other than Mallow including Bowser (who he finds to be repulsive).
- Extra Eyes: Four total.
- Flunky Boss: In the second battle he can clone party members by tasting them. In his rematch in the remake, these clones will actively protect him until defeated.
- Forced Sleep: The second fight against Belome has him replace Scarecrow Funk with a few spells that induce the sleep status.
- Forced Transformation: In his first battle, he can cast Scarecrow Funk on Mario to turn him into a scarecrow.
- Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: His appearance in the Kero Sewers is foreshadowed, with Mallow saying Frogfucius/Frog Sage warned him about Belome. However, his reappearance in Land's End in a golden underground temple dedicated to him was a bit out of left field, and has no bearing on the plot except to provide a boss fight at the end of the area.
- Heavy Sleeper: It's implied when he's not eating, he's sleeping. Mario and Mallow find him asleep when they enter his lair and accidentally wake him up.
- Light 'em Up: His sleep attacks in the second battle manifest as blasts of light, namely Light Bubble and Aurora Flash.
- Light Is Not Good: In his second fight, he uses several light-based attacks.
- Load-Bearing Boss: Defeating him in the Kero Sewers causes the sewers to flood as the floodgate opens. Justified as he was standing on the switch keeping it shut.
- Maniac Tongue: He's an antagonist and he has his tongue out.
- Our Monsters Are Weird: He's a dog-like creature who stands upright, has four eyes and four ears or horns, the ability to create clones of people after tasting them, and a variety of powerful magical Breath Weapons. He also has an underground temple dedicated to him and, going by his final Monster List entry, is even older than the Frog Sage.
- Shielded Core Boss: His post-game rematch makes him one along with Flunky Boss — if any cloned party members are in the fight, they will shield him from damage. This requires you to kill any clones before focusing on Belome.
- Status Effects: In the first battle he can turn the party into scarecrows; in the rematch he instead uses sleep attacks.
- Villain: Exit, Stage Left: It's made clear in the remake that Belome just teleports out of battle after being defeated, even vanishing in a puff of smoke in the Nintendo Switch version unlike every other boss in the game. His rematch in the post-game is arguably an even more of straight example, as he just turns around and jumps out of the battlefield once all of his HP has been depleted.
- Villainous Glutton: His entire shtick is that he loves to eat, including your party members.
- Wake-Up Call Boss: Serves as the introduction to the post-game rematches and an indicator that you really shouldn't take any of the rematches lightly.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Belome might be the most prominent character to not appear in the end credits parade sequence. However, in the remake, he joined the other characters to take a photo in the ending, and he is available to be rematched in the post-game, residing in Land's End where you fought him the second time.
Boshi
Original
"What're YOU lookin' at? If you wanna challenge me, you have to bring Cookies!"
A blue Yoshi on Yo'ster Isle, he's the current champion of the Mushroom Derby, so he sets the rules about competing. Unfortunately he only accepts one-on-one races, so the other Yoshis can't compete like they love to do until someone beats him.
- Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Got to his position by being the best, and you dethrone him by beating him.
- Defeat Means Friendship: After Yoshi beats him he mellows out a bit, and as the person to talk to to organize further races, is almost Yoshi's Lancer in the island community.
- Evil Counterpart: To Yoshi, though not "evil" as much as just a jerk.
- Evil Sounds Deep: All the Yoshi's have a vocalized sound effect of their name when you speak to them. Boshi's is much deeper in tone.
- Gameplay and Story Segregation: Even if he wins in subsequent races, Yoshi remains in charge.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Once he became the champion of the races, he refused to race in groups, preferring one-on-one matches, and he only does it for a wager of Yoshi Cookies. That being said, the game's ending cinematic shows Boshi comforting Croco after losing a race to Yoshi, as both walk away from the racetrack.
- Meaningful Name: "Bad Yoshi" and "Blue Yoshi". His Japanese name, "Washi", follows the same naming theme as Wario and, later, Waluigi.
- Serious Business: The races, to him and the rest of Yo'ster Isle.
- Sinister Shades: The only Yoshi to wear sunglasses.
- Sore Loser: After winning a Mushroom Derby race, he declared himself leader of the Yoshis and canceled the derby so he could be champion for eternity. When Yoshi and Mario win the race, Yoshi declines the role as leader, saying he just wants to race. Boshi matures, agreeing to participate in fair competitions from now on.
- Spikes of Villainy: Wears a spiked collar.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Yoshi Cookies. The player's guide explicitly states that even after you beat him once, he'll race against you if a cookie is the prize.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Boshi doesn't appear in the end credits parade — even though he did appear in the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue immediately prior to it.
Punchinello
Original
"Good day. The name's Nello... PUNCHINELLO!"
A bomb-happy... thing lurking in the Moleville mines, he attacks Mario to try and get some recognition.
- Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: A bomb-throwing lunatic who's round, squat and has a hat that looks like a fuse. Unlike the other bosses you fight with over Star Pieces, however, he's not a being made by Smithy; he just legitimately happens to look like a bomb. For his Japanese name, his posture, googly eyes, and hat make him look like a marionette that's had some of its strings cut.
- Attention Whore: He just wants fame and attention. A Lampshade Hanging of the fact he's a Giant Space Flea from Nowhere.
- Belated Happy Ending: In the original game, he's crushed by his King Bomb and is never seen again, leaving his wish of becoming famous unfulfilled. The remake decides to throw him a bone by having him survive being crushed to return as a Superboss in Endgame+, and when he's defeated, he polishes up Bowser's Chain Chomp, prompting Bowser to recruit him as part of the Koopa Troop, giving Punchinello the fame he's desired all along, and in the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue, he's seen helping to fix Bowser's castle.
- Big, Bulky Bomb: King Bomb is so huge it crushes him when he summons it. Eep. Mezzo Bomb counts too, considering they're two or three times the size of Mario's party or Punchinello himself, even if they are still-smaller than King Bomb.
- Death by Irony: He tries to summon his biggest bomb yet to blow up Mario, and it falls and crushes him. Subverted in the remake, where he survives.
- Dishing Out Dirt: Sandstorm blasts the party with a sandstorm.
- Dub Name Change: From Pepatto (Japanese) to Punchinello (English).
- Enemy Summoner: Throughout the fight he summons Bob-ombs to aid him, summoning ever larger ones as he gets lower on HP. Unlike other bosses of this type though, his bombs will charge you and self-destruct if left alone, so if you try to leave one alive after killing the others so he doesn't summon more, it won't work.
- Flunky Boss: Aided by Bombs and other mine creeps.
- Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: Lampshaded. When he introduces himself, Mallow says "Never heard of ya". Unlike the other bosses fought around the time one gathers the Stars (before in Mack and Bowyer's case, after in the case of Yaridovich and the Axem Rangers), he has no connection to Smithy.
- Glory Seeker: His main goal in both his boss battle and his post-game rematch in the Switch remake. In terms of the first battle, he wants to fight Mario so he can become famous. In the rematch, he instead wants to defeat Bowser so he can become famous.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: His own undoing in his first fight, since he failed to anticipate where his big bomb would land. In the remake, however, it is really the only way he could honestly be defeated, by using his own bombs against him as they are the only way to do any real damage.
- Lone Wolf Boss: He has the honor of being a boss you fight for a Star Piece but isn't affiliated with Smithy; he's only fighting Mario so he can be famous.
- Mad Bomber: When you encounter him he's randomly throwing bombs around his chamber, and it's possible the other Bob-ombs in the mine were his doing since they're also in the chamber.
- Magically Inept Fighter: He has one of the lowest FP pools of any boss in the game, only enough to fuel one cast of Sand Storm, his only spell. He gets more FP and spells for his postgame rematch in the remake.
- Meaningful Name: A punchinello is an Italian term to refer to a clown with a short, fat, sometimes grotesque physique. Punchinello himself is on the shorter side compared to most other bosses, is decidedly portly, looks almost terrifying were it not for his googly eyes, and is treated as a joke by everyone who meets him. Likewise, his Japanese name is an anagram of "Papetto", derived from "puppet", and he has a yearning to take the spotlight by any means necessary and can be easily manipulated by exploiting his ego.
- Puzzle Boss: His rematch in the remake has him take significantly less damage from any attack thanks to his new shield... but his Bob-ombs are having targeting issues and can be turned around to charge at him instead of the party, bypassing the shield entirely.
- Shout-Out: Ted Woolsey wanted to name him James Bomb, but
management refused. His above introduction is a leftover from that idea. - Stuff Blowing Up: Did you miss the bomb theme yet?
- Throw Down the Bomblet: One of his attacks is to chuck an explosive at you.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: In the remake, he earns Bowser's respect through powering up his Chain Chomp, earning him a place working on repairing Bowser's castle and potentially giving him a route to the fame he so desires.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Punchinello doesn't appear in the end credits parade sequence and is one of just two Bosses defending a Star Piece (Czar Dragon/Zombone is the other) to never appear again in any form after his defeat. Subverted in the remake, where he's one of the bosses that can be rematched post-game. He even acknowledges Bowser's popularity, wanting to defeat him so he can finally become popular.
Booster
Orignal
"Please, enjoy yourself! At your own risk, that is!"
A bizarre man living in a tower to the south, he lives a secluded life in a world of Snifits, trains, and Chain Chomps.
- And Now You Must Marry Me: Subverted. His plot to marry Peach seems sinister... until over time you realize he has absolutely no clue what marriage is, let alone any interest in being with Peach after the "wedding". He just thought the idea of a wedding party sounded fun. After a chaotic ceremony, swallowing a gigantic cake monster, and getting a kiss from Bowser and/or Mario, he promptly leaves, content with his "wedding" party, and never bothers the heroes again.
- Anti-Villain: He really isn't that bad of a guy. While he's quite selfish, he never means to kill Mario and co., only to scare them off — and he drops that pretty readily after a few scenes. He also wants Peach to be happy about their marriage, doing everything he can (In his own... special way) to make Peach happy. He doesn't even want to marry Peach for sexual reasons — he just likes the idea of a big celebration.
- Beard of Barbarism: Looks like a Klingon cross-bred with Santa Claus.
- Beetle Maniac: He's infatuated with playfully catching beetles, a pastime often associated with young children in Japan, which plays into his whole manchild characterization. That said, since he has zero attention span, his Snifsters are typically tasked with catching them for him.
- Beware the Silly Ones: As goofy as Booster looks, his optional boss fight is nothing to laugh at. He'll ram a train at a party member and cause severe damage to them - and that's not even mentioning the post-game boss rematch against him, which he uses a train attack that hits everyone for an unavoidable instant kill due to sheer damage output, as in "it does FOUR-digit damage and you'll never have more than three-digit HP". Just be lucky your party members swap in for you.
- Boss-Altering Consequence: If you manage to hide from the Snifsters while they're looking for the Mario doll, you won't fight him at all. In the remake, you can still fight him in a postgame rematch.
- Car Fu: If you mess up the final minigame in his tower you face him and all his Snifsters together, and his strongest attack is to jump on his train and ram it into a party member.
- Charged Attack: In his rematch, Booster continually attempts to repair one of his trains. Hitting him breaks his concentration, forcing him to start over. If he gets enough uninterrupted turns in a row, however, he finishes fixing his train and rides it into the party for a One-Hit Kill.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Booster's grasp of reality is merely theoretical. Among other eccentricities, he doesn't know what a party is and needs his Snifits to explain it to him, thinks that Peach's tears are a sign she's "sprung a leak" and tastes them, and doesn't recognize a cake when he's literally standing on one and thinks the way to eat it is to boil it. In the remake when Mario and his party meet him again in the post-game, Booster doesn't even seem to remember his first encounter with them and recounts "lots of people showed up at my house, and then there was a big fuss for some reason.""My bride-to-be is chanting 'MARIOHELPMEMARIOHELPME'. Is she showing her happiness?"
- The Cuckoolander Was Right: After his wedding to Peach is called off, he waits at his tower's balcony thinking that another bride will just fall out of the sky like she did, much to the concern of his Snifsters. He's proven right when Valentina lands there after running away from Nimbus Land.
- Composite Character: Looks like Wario, loves bombs like Wario, is a demented weirdo like Wario was in his original appearances; has horns, has an entire race (the Snifits, as opposed to the Koopas) who are preposterously loyal to him, holds Peach prisoner in a fortress and later tries to marry her against her will, all like Bowser. He also has design elements of Cid Pollendina, having a similar wild beard, perpetual toothy grin, and horned helmet.
- Cool Train: He rides a toy train around his tower.
- Curtain Camouflage: One of the minigames in his tower involves Mario avoiding the Snifsters by hiding behind rows of curtains.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Downplayed. He has a big black beard and wears dark red colors, and he's the antagonist of his chapter. But he's more of a non-malicious Eccentric Millionaire Anti-Villain who only kidnaps and throws a wedding for Peach just because he likes big celebrations, and he actually wants to make sure she's happy.
- Dub Name Change: From Bukki (Japanese) to Booster (English).
- Dysfunctional Family: His ancestors were just as unstable as he is.
- Eccentric Millionaire:
- Implied, since Booster lives in a giant tower with a variety of different Snifits, Magical Clowns, Bob-ombs, Chain Chomps, living puppets, intelligent fireballs, and sentient magic wands serving him. One of the higher rooms in his tower also has a treasure room filled with regular coins and Frog Coins. He can also afford to have a lavish wedding ceremony, install a train and railroad in his tower, and buy a huge toy collection. As for the "eccentric" part... well, just read the rest of this entry.
- Amusingly subverted in the 2023 remake. His new profiles mention that the increased costs of maintaining his tower and railroad mean he can't afford to fix his front door after Bowser smashed it down. He also had to sell his favorite video game to a kid in the Mushroom Kingdom to raise money. His Snifits' Thought Peeks also reveal they're unhappy with their pay and vacation.
- Expy:
- He's essentially this game's version of Wario, who had debuted four years earlier, being a stout, goofy man who lives in a castle and antagonizes Mario.
- Design-wise, he's reminiscent of Cid Pollendina, having a similar wild beard, perpetual toothy grin, and horned helmet. His frequent association with trains also show that he is also decent with building and maintaining them, harkening similar talents in engineering.
- Face of a Thug: Downplayed. While he's very much a Gonk, and the main antagonist of his chapter, he's more of an Anti-Villain who only throws a "wedding" because it sounds fun (and because he loves big celebrations) and genuinely tries to make Peach as happy as she can. Even when the "wedding" goes awry, once the dust settles and the "wedding" ends, he and the Snifsters just walk away, perfectly content.
- Gadgeteer Genius: He is capable of building life-sized train models that can bring severe damage to party members in battle, particularly in the post-game rematch. It becomes a mechanic that the turns that he is left alone to concentrate, he can build up the Engine 023 train and "show it off" to the party by ramming them with it for a complete party wipe. He works even faster with every Moral Support boost he receives from a standing Strong Snifster. This also ties in to his coincidental design to Cid Pollendina as someone handy with building things.
- Genius Ditz: Booster doesn't know what a party or a wedding is, but he can easily build functioning life-sized model trains.
- Gonk: Just look at him. He is an ugly man.
- Hanlon's Razor: Booster isn't outright evil so much as incredibly impulsive and ignorant.
- Hidden Depths: He's apparently quite poetic. He woos Valentina just by whispering something in her ear — which we never get to see in text.
- Kavorka Man: His personality wins over Valentina; his looks sure wouldn't cut it.
- Meet the New Boss: Another horned freak keeping the princess locked in his castle.
- Naked People Trapped Outside: If you battle him at Booster's Tower, and use Though Peek on him, he'll compare the battle to this trope. Averted in the remake where he feels like it's the last day of summer, and he just remembered all the homework he had.
- No Guy Wants to Be Chased: Played with.
- Considering that Booster did not know what a wedding was until his Snifsters explained the idea to him, he appeared more interested in the fun aspect of it, such as the celebration and tasty cake involved. He does not even seem to remember Peach or bring up the previous attempt to marry her when visiting him post-game for the rematch, which would highlight his Manchild personality of being more interested in having fun in the moment rather than engage into a serious lifelong commitment.
- That said, he brought up the idea of marriage to the next woman that falls from the sky and lands in his tower balcony, Valentina, and manages to win her over by whispering some words into her ear. As a result, her attempts to get close to him and invade his personal space appear to repel him away, only for her to attempt to close the gap, which continues at the end of the game with her chasing after him when he tries to run out from their wedding at the Marrymore chapel.
- One-Hit Kill: In the remake, his train attack in his post-game rematch does 9999 damage and can't be blocked by Timed Hits. Your party's HP never goes over three digits. Fortunately, your other two party members swap in for the fallen ones.
- Psychopathic Manchild: A comedic and relatively friendly version; he looks like a middle-aged man who's selfish, spoiled, cries/goes into a rage at the drop of a hat, and doesn't even know what a party is.
- Rail Enthusiast: Has a rideable model train that goes around a "personal railway" in his tower. In the remake, he builds a new engine that is used in the second battle with him to deliver a One-Hit Kill to your party.
- Shrinking Violet: Surprisingly enough, he's this way towards Valentina. He's not shy around Peach due to her showing no interest in him, but when Valentina becomes smitten with him, Booster becomes incredibly skittish and has a hard time standing close to her when she inches towards him.
- Skippable Boss: Booster is only fought in the main game if the player fails to avoid being discovered by the Snifters searching the curtains three times.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Of Wario, possibly. He looks very similar to him, anyway. This might even be lampshaded — one room in his tower has a bunch of portraits of his ancestors, one of whom is a dead ringer for Wario (though he's not identified with that name).
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: The post-game rematch against him in the remake has the Loco Express 023 attack where he runs a train into your party once he fully assembles it. This deals a whopping 9999 damage to your whole party in a game where you have maximum 3 digits of health. Fortunately, Lazy Backup is averted and your backup party members will switch in.
- Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: He wants to marry Princess Peach initially, but he later marries Valentina.
- The Unfought: If you do the curtain minigame right, you'll never get to fight him for the rest of the game. This becomes averted in the remake, where he can be fought as a post-game boss fight.
- Unholy Matrimony: Done VERY comedically at the end of the game. With Valentina, of all people! He chickens out at the last minute and tries to run away, but she chases him.
- Villain of the Detour: He has nothing to do with the Smithy Gang nor the Star Pieces, but Mario and co. must defeat him in order to rescue Peach.
- Villainous Glutton: Downplayed. He's an Anti-Villain who eats an entire cake in a single bite!
Snifits/Snifsters
Original
"Hello there. Booster's busy right now, so he can't play. Come back some other time, or you can try to force your way in..."
A trio of grey Snifits serving as Booster's beleaguered top henchmen. Several Apprentices can join their ranks via a secret encounter.
- Adaptational Name Change: The remake renames them from Snifits to Snifsters, similarly to how Claymorton's Shysters were renamed to Shymores. "Snifit" is now specifically used for blue underling Snifits (known as "Spookums" in the original English translation).
- A Dog Named "Dog": In the original English translation, they're Snifits who are called Snifits.
- Dub Name Change: Their Japanese name is Bukkā, a pun based on Booster's Japanese name; the SNES English localization just names them after their species. The English localization of the remake gets the idea across with their new name, a portmanteau of "Snifit" and "Booster".
- Enemy Mine: Mario briefly helps a Snifster bust down one of the locked doors in Marrymore's chapel, and then assists them in retrieving all of Peach's belongings during the subsequent scramble.
- Girly Run: While chasing Mario up the side of Booster Hill, they run faster by pulling up their robes to not trip over them, as if they were wearing dresses.
- Goomba Springboard: Jumping on them when they charge at Mario on Booster Hill will boost Mario's jump and bring him closer to Booster and Peach.
- Hyper-Competent Sidekick: They're generally more grounded to reality than Booster and carry out much of his work, though they frequently end up in The Blind Leading the Blind situations regardless.
- Kill It with Ice: They are weak to Mallow's Snowy attack and Ice Bombs.
- The Pawns Go First: In the boss fight with Booster, the three Snifsters need to be taken out before Booster can be targeted.
- Piñata Enemy: Inverted; despite being mini-bosses, they give out a pathetic two experience points when defeated, less than the standard enemies in Booster Tower.
- Mook Promotion: If an Apprentice beats Mario, it will be promoted to a Snifster.
- My Species Doth Protest Too Much: A Snifster with no overt connection to Booster runs Beetles Are Us in Seaside Town.
- Not in My Contract: Their Thought Peek quotes express exasperation at having to get beaten up by Mario and company for a minimum-wage job.
- Skippable Boss: All three Snifits can be avoided across the trip through Booster Tower; #3 is the only one that tries to impede the party, and #2 can only be fought via a small secret.
- Soul-Crushing Desk Job: They're essentially a wacky fantasy version of white-collar workers, with their Thought Peek lines expressing desires for higher wages and paid vacation. Despite this, the large number of Apprentices implies that the job is in high demand.
- Status Buff: In the post-game fight in the remake, they can use "Moral Support" to make Booster hasten his work on the Loco Express 023.
- Quirky Miniboss Squad: The main three Snifsters are a Terrible Trio of henchmen that harass Mario and his party throughout Booster Tower.
- You Are Number 6: They go by Snifster No. 1, Snifster No. 2, etc.
Knife Guy and Grate Guy
Knife Guy on the left, Grate Guy on the right
A pair of clowns working in Booster Tower, and they fight Mario and his friends when they try to rescue Peach from Booster.
- Dual Boss: They're fought together at the balcony of Booster Tower.
- Fighting Clown: They're a duo of circus clowns that serve as bodyguards for Booster. Knife Guy is more physically oriented while Grate Guy is more magically oriented.
- Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: Their boss fight comes completely out of nowhere with no prior mentioning whatsoever after Mario, Mallow, Geno and Bowser attempt to chase Booster. Afterwards, they become friendly NPCs.
- Heel–Face Turn: After their defeat, Knife Guy stays in Booster Tower and offers to play ball minigames with Mario, while Grate Guy starts running his own casino where you can win rare items.
- Punny Names: "Nice Guy" and "Great Guy", though they’re villainous at first.
Chef Torte, Apprentice and Bundt/Raspberry
A pair of chef Terrapins who were preparing a wedding cake for Raz and Rani's wedding. However, when Booster disrupts the wedding to have his own with Peach and Mario arrives to rescue her, the pair think their cake will go to waste and attack the party in a rage. During battle, the cake suddenly comes to life! Bundt is the top layer, while Raspberry is the bottom layer.
- Berserk Button: The strategy guide warns you not to step on the cake, as Chef Torte hates that. If Mario does jump on the cake in his kitchen, Torte will yell at him and he'll immediately hop off.
- Cassandra Truth: The apprentice notices the cake moving and tries to tell Chef Torte about it, but it remains still when Chef Torte is looking, making him think his apprentice is pranking him. It's during the second time that the cake starts moving in earnest and proves the apprentice right.
- Dishing Out Dirt: Raspberry can use Sandstorm to inflict the Fear status on the party.
- Dual Boss: Both Torte and Apprentice, and Bundt and Raspberry fight in pairs. During the phase against Bundt, Raspberry will be untargetable but still capable of attacking the party, forcing them to get rid of Bundt first.
- Food Eats You: Bundt and Raspberry somehow become sentient and attacks Mario and co. with no explaination why it happened. It happens again in the remake, where Torte and his apprentice will beg Mario to defeat a stronger Bundt. Torte's wish after the boss is defeated is that he wants to make a normal cake.
- Germanic Depressive: Chef Torte has an incredibly thick German accent, has a bit of a temper, and becomes incredibly lethargic by the time of the rematch.
- Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: There was no indication that the giant cake Torte and his apprentice were making would come to life and attack Mario and co. Its only (possible) motivation is if Mario stepped on the cake earlier, but no one knows why the cake became alive. Even in the remake's postgame, Torte makes a second living cake and still doesn't know how it happened.
- Good vs. Good: They're not bad guys at all, they're just chefs angry that the cake they spent so much time making will go to waste.
- Healing Boss: To beat Bundt, you need to blow out all its candles by attacking it. However, it will relight a candle each turn, and it can get multiple turns.
- An Ice Person: Bundt can use the ice-based Diamond Saw and Blizzard. May possibly be an ice cream cake.
- Impossibly Delicious Food: So impossibly delicious that it gains a life of its own, apparently. When Booster eats Raspberry at the end of the fight, he describes it as so good it makes him want to cry.
- Interface Spoiler: The fact that you can attack the cake as well as Chef Torte and his apprentice cannot be defeated clues the player to what the real boss is.
- Locked Out of the Loop: The chefs were in the middle of making a cake for Raz and Rani's wedding when Booster suddenly crashed the wedding and threw out everyone except the chefs, leaving them oblivious to the fact the wedding had gone off the rails. By the time they finish and arrive in the chapel hall, they assume Peach is the bride and that Mario is trying to take them away, triggering the boss fight.
- May It Never Happen Again: After Bundt's defeat, the two chefs make a new cake they're certain will stay put and not turn into a monster. Unfortunately for them in the remake, their next cake somehow also comes to life.
- Meaningful Name: Torte is German for "layer cake", which is exactly what he's working on when first encountered. It also sounds similar to "tortoise", which fits with the fact he's a Koopa/Terrapin.
- Mechanically Unusual Fighter:
- Bundt doesn't have a traditional health bar like other enemies or bosses. Instead, each hit causes a candle lit on its head to blow out, and defeating Bundt requires blowing out all of the candles to move the fight to the second phase against Raspberry. Making things trickier is that it relights one candle every time it gets its turn, and it can get multiple turns.
- In the post-game rematch, Bundt now takes normal damage regardless of lit candles, and no longer relights a candle during its turns. However, the Tortes now stick around, cannot be killed, and relight a candle on their turn. If all five candles are alight at any time, Bundt will perform a party-wiping attack.
- Non-Indicative Name: The journal entry in remake on the Switch notes that though it's called Bundt, it's not a bundt cake.
- One-Hit Kill: In the remake's rematch, if Extra Fancy Bundt's candles are all lit up, it'll use Celebration Shot, which deals 9999 damage to the party.
- Sequential Boss: Chef Torte and his apprentice are the ones who initiate the boss fight and are the ones to attack during the first few turns, but you can't target them, and they're pathetically weak. Suddenly, the cake starts moving and takes over as the boss of the fight, scaring the two away.
- Shoot the Mage First: In the remake's rematch against Extra-Fancy Bundt, the Chef Tortes will light up a candle if they ever get a turn, and if all five are lit up, Extra-Fancy Bundt will use a party wiping attack. Unfortunately, the Tortes can't be defeated, but fortunately they can be put to sleep, which is key to winning this fight.
- Sleepyhead: In the remake, Chef Torte and his apprentice are exhausted from making the cake and can be seen sleeping next to the cake prior to the rematch. In the rematch, they're still invincible, but are weak to Sleep, which can be used to stop them from lighting the candles.
- Supreme Chef: Chef Torte is so good at making cakes that he unwittingly makes one that comes to life.
- Support Party Member: The post-game rematch has the Chef Tortes, who don't attack but instead light up one of Bundt's candles on their turn. Getting all five lit up will result in Bundt using a party-wiping attack. While the Tortes are invulnerable to damage, they're not immune to the Sleep status, and putting them to sleep helps the fight immensely.
- Swallowed Whole: When the battle is won, the Snifsters and Booster come in wondering what to do with the cake, not realizing it's alive. Having not had cake before, Booster has no idea how to eat it, and so one Snifster suggest that he just swallow the whole thing in one gulp. While hesitant, Booster does so with help from the other three Snifsters.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: The post-game rematch against it in the remake has the Celebration Shot attack where it fires a massive blast from all its lit candles. This deals a whopping 9999 damage to your whole party in a game where you have maximum 3 digits of health. Fortunately, Lazy Backup is averted and your backup party members will switch in.
King Calamari
"This ship's mine! Scram!"
A giant Blooper that sank Jonathan Jones' ship and was locked in its treasure room. Mario and his party need to defeat it in order to enter the ship's lower half.
- Cognizant Limbs: Its tentacles are fought as separate entities during its boss battle, and will in fact continue to fight after the main body is defeated until Mario and his party put them down individually.
- Giant Squid: It's a gigantic Blooper with a penchant for dragging ships into the depths.
- Kill It with Fire: Its main body and tentacles are all weak to fire.
- King Mook: King Calamari is a Giant Squid version of Bloopers fought as an individual boss.
- My Rules Are Not Your Rules: Its Tentacle Rope attack ignores immunity to fear.
- A Pig Named "Porkchop": "Calamari" generally refers to squid prepared as seafood.
- Poisonous Person: It can use Venom Drool to poison party members.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: It was locked in the Sunken Ship's treasure room. Accessing the boss battle and being able to move on requires Mario to Solve the Soup Cans and figure out the password.
- Tentacle Rope: One of its attacks consists of dragging a character away offscreen. When they return, they are inflicted with the fear status, which splits their attack and defense in half and makes them tremble violently. Though the remake makes the animation clearer that they're really just throwing the characters up in the air.
Shy Away/Beezo
Orignal
"Queen Valentina... That Mario creature who beat up Smilax is here."
A renegade Beezo in service to Valentina. First seen in Bean Valley growing the Megasmilax plant, he's later seen inside the Nimbus Land castle reporting Mario's infiltration to Valentina.
- Caring Gardener: He treats all of his plants with tender love and care, but he doesn't seem to realize that his plants are all dangerous.
- Elite Mook: He looks no different than a normal Beezo, but is one of Valentina's lead enforcers.
- Nice, Mean, and In-Between: The nice to Valentina's mean and Dodo's in-between. He never loses his patience, shows genuine affection to his plants, and is eerily calm when reporting Mario's presence.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When the three are cornered by Mario, Valentina decides to book it, with Beezo right behind her, and the two leaving Dodo behind.
- The Stool Pigeon: Obedient Obadiah variety. Because Mario defeated Megasmilax and infiltrated the Nimbus Land castle, Beezo goes and reports him to Valentina. Even after Mario stops him for a minute and tries to convince him otherwise, he turns his back a couple of seconds later to still go and tell everything to his mistress.
- The Unfought: This particular Beezo is never battled. The most he does is water Smilax and Megasmilax during the boss battle, but never takes part beyond that.
Megasmilax
Original
A breed of Piranha Plant found in Bean Valley. It was planted in the pipe leading to Nimbus Land, placed by Valentina to keep the kingdom isolated. In battle, it starts out as a single plant called Smilax. Every time Smilax is defeated, a Shy Away/Beezo flies in and waters the plant, causing to grow back with more heads, until it eventually grows into the giant Megasmilax.
- Cognizant Limbs: It has multiple heads which attack separately.
- Death Is Cheap: The first few times, at least. Whenever you destroy the smaller Smilax heads, Beezo will water the stems and new heads grow out. You have to do this until you get to Megasmilax, which defeating will end the battle.
- Forced Transformation: It can use Petal Blast, a magic attack that turns the party into mushrooms if they're not protected.
- King Mook: It is essentially a more dangerous version of a Piranha Plant.
- Playing with Fire: One of its magic attacks is Fire Wall.
Valentina and Dodo
"Dodo! Do you hear me?! Get over here NOW! I need some help... entertaining Mario! So MOVE IT!! Come here NOW!"
A vain woman who locks up the King and Queen of Nimbus land and has her pet ("son" in the remake) Dodo pose as Prince Mallow so she can rule using him as a Puppet King.
- Abusive Parents: Dodo's entries in the remake's Monster List state that he imprinted on Valentina upon hatching, seeing her as his mother. Valentina, naturally, has shown to be nothing but abusive to him. His first Monster List entry even describes how shocked he was to discover that he was secretly the Nimbus Land missing prince, which was ultimately part of Valentina's scheme to take over the throne. Dodo's abuse under Valentina is possibly to blame for why he's so fat, lazy, and foul-tempered.
- Adaptational Sympathy: The remake establishes that Dodo not only imprinted on Valentina and saw her as his mother, but was also "shocked to discover he was secretly prince of Nimbus Land" (meaning she was keeping him in the dark about her plot to take the throne). This changes Dodo from a random lackey and Jerkass to a pawn in their own "mother"'s schemes.
- Ambiguously Human: Valentina's overworld sprite looks normal enough, but then in battle she is revealed to be a floating giantess with bizarre proportions which, coupled with her powerful magic, gives the impression that she is some kind of Mage Species.
- Bad Boss: Valentina is often hitting Dodo, her assistant, even for petty reasons. Using Mallow's Psychopath/Thought Peek on her Birdy minions will give the thought "I HATE Valentina"/"Ugh, I hate that Valentina", implying that she treats them no better.
- Bald of Evil: Valentina is completely bald under that parrot. Her full name in Japan (マルガリマルガリータ, or Margari Margarita when directly translated) even alludes to this; skinheads in Japan are called margari note .
- Battle Butler: Dodo's duties seem to consist of doing Valentina's bidding and kicking your ass in-between shifts.
- Big Eater: Dodo is a Fat Bastard who got that way because he's lazy and gluttonous. If you read his thoughts with Psychopath, he whines that he's STARVING!
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Valentina pretends to be a loyal retainer to the king and queen, but has imprisoned them so she can seize power.
- Butt-Monkey: Dodo exists to be abused by Valentina and the party alike.
- Buxom Beauty Standard: Valentina is well-endowed and considered a great beauty. Her chest is also emphasized by the Jiggle Physics present on them when she's hit in the SNES version.
- Cowardly Boss: Dodo, after you beat him initially, runs away from you.
- Dark Action Girl: Valentina is an evil woman with powerful magic attacks.
- Dark Is Evil: Dodo has black feathers and is evil.
- A Dog Named "Dog": Dodo is a dodo.
- Dual Boss: The two of them attack Mario's group together.
- Dub Name Change: Valentina's original (Japanese) name is Margarita.
- Duel Boss: But before that, Dodo whisks away your center party member for a little one-on-one.
- Edible Theme Naming: Her Japanese name translates to "Margarita", referencing the cocktail served with a lime slice and she's holding a cocktail glass. The official render depicts her glass with a cherry however, but the remake changes it to a lime slice, completing the reference.
- Evil Chancellor: She threw the rightful rulers in prison in order to take the throne for herself.
- Evil Is Deathly Cold: Valentina is cold and has many ice-based attacks.
- Evil Is Petty: Valentina is rude (particularly towards Dodo) and can attack Dodo for petty reasons.
- Fake King: Or Fake Prince, at any rate. Dodo poses as the prince of Nimbus Land so Valentina can use him as a Puppet King.
- Fat and Skinny: Dodo and Valentina respectively.
- Fat Bastard: Dodo is very large and a nasty and hateful creature, and several characters make jabs at his weight, particularly Valentia. Possibly to reflect his new backstory, many of these comments were toned down/replaced in the remake - besides the ones made by Valentia herself, of course.
- Feathered Fiend: Dodo is a, well, dodo, and a vicious one.
- Flying Flightless Bird: Despite being a dodo, Dodo's actually capable of flight (but isn't too good at it thanks to his weight), best shown when he abducts your middle party member to fight them one-on-one.
- Fur and Loathing: Her hair is a parrot. Not just any parrot, but Squawks from the Donkey Kong Country series no less.
- Glass Cannon: While her magic is powerful, Valentina's defenses suck.
- God Save Us from the Queen!: Queen Valentina is an awful woman who's trying to take over the kingdom.
- Green and Mean: Valentina's hair is a parrot with many green feathers.
- Hartman Hips: Valentina has ridiculous hips.
- Hate Sink: The remake upgrades Valentina to this role. On top of already being an egotistical, power-hungry usurper and a massive Jerkass, the game reveals that she's also an Abusive Parent to Dodo, which adds a whole new level of loathsomeness.
- An Ice Person: Most of Valentina's attacks, including Blizzard, Solidify and Diamond Saw, manifest as ice. She also is immune to ice-based attacks herself.
- Impossible Hourglass Figure: Valentina's torso is exaggerated to the point where it looks more like a martini glass.
- Imprinting: In the remake, Dodo's Monster List description says that he imprinted on Valentina when he hatched.
- Jerkass to One: Type II with Valentina; she's rude to everyone, especially Dodo.
- Lady of Black Magic: Valentina is a powerful spellcaster, having the largest spell pool out of any enemy in the entire game.
- Lazy Bum: Dodo. According to the Player's Guide, he puts up with Valentina's abuse because he dreads the idea of getting a real job even more.
- Light Is Not Good: Valentina's appearance consists of white clothing and bright colors. She also uses spells such as Aurora Flash and Light Beam. That said, she is far from the side of good.
- Locked Out of the Loop: While Dodo goes along with the ploy to take Valentia as his queen, the remake reveals that he actually believed he was Nimbus Land's missing prince and wasn't in on that part of the story being a big, fat lie.
- Ms. Fanservice: Valentina has a very curvy body and gratuitously jiggly breasts in the SNES version.
- Narcissist: Valentina considers herself an art buff... and it just so happens her favorite subject is herself. She's turned Nimbus Castle into her own Shrine to Self by filling the palace with statues of herself.
- Nice, Mean, and In-Between: Valentina's mean and Dodo's in-between to Beezo's nice. Of the trio, Valentina is the most hot-headed and vain, while Dodo is a grouchy Beleaguered Assistant.
- No Indoor Voice: Valentina shouts a lot. Mallow mentions that her voice can be heard in a 10 mile radius.
- Noblewoman's Laugh: It's plastered all over Valentina's leitmotif.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Somehow Dodo passes as a member of the Nimbus Land royal family when he looks nothing like any of them. They just comment on how fat "the Prince" has gotten since last they saw him.
- Parental Substitute: The remake's Monster List reveals that Dodo imprinted on Valentina upon hatching from his egg, seeing her as his mother. Despite the abuse he receives from her on a regular basis and knowing that Valentina is not his real mother, Dodo stays with her due to being unable to repay the debt of her raising him.
- Pink Means Feminine: Valentina's pink skin tone.
- Psycho Pink: Valentina is evil, violent, and has pink skin.
- Recurring Boss: Dodo can be faced up to three times, though the first two fights can be avoided.
- Red and Black and Evil All Over: Valentina's assistant, Dodo, is primarily black with red and white parts of his feathers.
- Sequential Boss: In a sense. Valentina summons Dodo to whisk your center party member away for a one-on-one fight, then when Dodo is beaten he runs off. Then your two remaining party members fight Valentina for a while, until Dodo and your other party member return to join the fight on their respective sides.
- Skippable Boss: Dodo can be fought up to three times, but only has to be fought once. The first fight can be skipped if you avoid detection while posing as a statue. The second time, you can just run right through him while under the invincibility effects of a super-star. In the third battle, Dodo will pull your middle party member into a solo fight until he's defeated, after which both of them rejoin the main battle.
- Smug Snake: At her core, Valentina is haughty, full of herself and looks down on everyone else. She's clever enough to fool the people of Nimbus Land, but is tricked into letting Mario into the palace when the latter's disguised as a statue.
- Spam Attack: Dodo's "Multistrike" is a rapid series of peck attacks.
- Squishy Wizard: Valentina has awful defenses, but powerful magic.
- Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: She ends up marrying Booster at the end, becoming the Hot Wife to his Ugly Guy.
- Undying Loyalty: Dodo to Valentina. To her face, anyway. Given how he vents by pecking at the statues of her, he's likely got some limit to how much he can tolerate her bossing him around.
- Unholy Matrimony: With Booster, of all people.
- Vapor Wear: Any instances where Valentina's legs are shown from the side, they appear bare up to her dress.
- Vile Villain, Laughable Lackey: Valentina, a scheming, seductive usurper, and her lazy, fat, bumbling lackey Dodo, whose size and temper are Played for Laughs.
- Villain of the Detour: She has nothing to do with the Smithy Gang nor the Star Pieces, but Mario and co. must defeat him in order for Mallow to reunite with his parents.
- The Voiceless: Dodo never talks; his only way to express himself is to flutter his feathers and peck things. You can hear him "speak" if you read his thoughts with Psychopath.
- Weak to Fire: Dodo is weak to fire-based attacks.
- Wicked Cultured: She comes off as regal due to seizing control over Nimbus Castle and declaring herself its queen, the theme music of the castle under her control combines her Noblewoman's Laugh with elegant harpsicords, her official art depicts her with a cocktail glass, and she considers herself an "art buff", even though most art around her are golden statues of herself.
Birdo
"Hello!♡ I'm Birdo."
A dinosaur freshly hatched from an egg found inside the Nimbus Land castle, marking her first official debut in the canon Mario installments.
- Affably Evil: She considers fighting Mario to be "playing", but she also acts rather flirtatious and cordial with Mario.
- Born as an Adult: When she hatches from her egg, she's already fully matured. Even before it hatches, she's heard speaking from within the egg.
- Canon Immigrant: As Super Mario Bros. 2 was a Dolled-Up Installment that turned out to be All Just a Dream, this marks Birdo's first canon debut to the series, barring Wario's Woods, which was a puzzle spin-off.
- Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: Unlike Megasmilax, who was a King Mook to the Smilax Piranha Plants that Beezo was watering, there's no buildup to there being a giant egg inside the Nimbus Land castle's center hall, and mainly just gives a reason for Beezo to be inside the castle.
- Proj-egg-tile: Birdo spits out explosive eggs from her mouth, as well as creating miniature egg minions called Eggberts.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: After she's defeated, she retreats back into her egg, and once Mallow's parents are saved, the egg inexplicably disappears. Several of Prima's Mario Kart strategy guides say Birdo still lives in Nimbus Land, though.
- Your Size May Vary: She is a lot bigger here than in all of her other game appearances, where she is about the same size as Mario.
Czar Dragon/Zombone
The Czar Dragon
Zombone
"I'm fired up! Seriously, I'm on fire. How about that?"
A dragon that guards the sixth Star Piece within Barrel Volcano. After being defeated, the Czar Dragon falls into a pit of lava and swiftly reemerges as the skeletal Zombone.
- Beware the Silly Ones: Czar Dragon's concept art looks silly enough that you might mistake it for a Mook, despite being an appropriately leveled boss fight. Downplayed in the actual game, since its static sprite with unmoving eyes actually dips into the Uncanny Valley. Zombone, by contrast is much more appropriately intimidating.
- Dracolich: Zombone, a skeletal being formed after the defeated Czar Dragon rises from the dead.
- Expy: The Czar Dragon looks suspiciously like the Blarggs from Super Mario World. They both live in lava, they're both reptillian in nature, and they both have similar goofy faces with nearly the same eyes. Blarggs as a species are otherwise absent from the game, and it's not actually related to them, having been formed instead through members of the Lava Bubble species.
- Fusion Dance: It's formed on-screen by multiple Pyrospheres/Lava Bubbles fusing into a single form.
- Holy Burns Evil: The Pure Water item — Holy Water in Japanese — deals increased damage to the undead Zombone.
- Our Dragons Are Different: The Czar Dragon is a goofy-looking creature created by the fusion of many living flames, and after death rises as a much more realistic, skeletal being.
- Playing with Fire: The Czar Dragon's magical attacks focus on conjuring walls of flame and summoning fiery orbs.
- Sequential Boss: After being defeated, the Czar Dragon immediately comes back as Zombone, who is fought in the second phase. Doubles as this to the Axem Rangers since you fight them right after.
- Shout-Out: The Czar Dragon's name is shared with a boss that was Dummied Out from the original version of Final Fantasy VI. Although the boss appeared in that game's Game Boy Advance Updated Re-release, it was retranslated as Kaiser Dragon, making the connection with this game's Czar Dragon less obvious.
Culex and the Crystals
Remake (SPOILER)
"Will you accept my challenge? You will enter combat against me?"
A mysterious being from the world of "Last Illusion" who is found in a dimensional rift in Monstro Town. He challenges Mario to a battle and attacks with four elemental Crystals. His entire scenario was completely rewritten by Ted Woolsey beyond that. In the original Japanese, he is the "ruler of all evil" in his world who is intrigued by an unfamiliar power Mario and his allies possess that he has never sensed before, and challenges them to see that power. In the English translation, he is a Dark Knight of Vanda sent by the Dark Mage to conquer Mario’s world. But he discovers that the world is uninhabitable for him and his kind, so he instead wants to challenge the world's strongest knight to a fight before heading back home. The English remake combines details of both, with Culex being a servant of Vanda created as a two-dimensional being who seeks to claim the power of 3D for himself.
- Adaptational Attractiveness: His 2D sprite has a monstrous face with what looks like a Glasgow Grin. His 3D form in the remake changes his face to be much more chiseled and human-like to match his concept art◊.
- Achilles' Heel: Each Crystal has its own weakness; Fire is weak to ice, water is weak to fire, earth is weak to thunder, and wind is weak to jump.
- Affably Evil: In the English depiction, his entire demeanor is friendly and polite even as he casually tells you he came to this world to "fight for the Dark Mage", but decided to call it off after he realized his kind cannot survive in it. What exactly would've this entailed? Is the Dark Mage an invader like Smithy, or does he also have beef with him? We never find out.
- After fighting him, Geno's log in the scrapbook says that even though Culex was sent to fight for the Dark Mage, he didn't seem like a bad fellow.
- Amazing Technicolor Battlefield: The battle takes place against a starry blue-and-purple background more like something you'd see out of Final Fantasy than anything from Mario.
- Art Shift:
- A big clue that he's not of this world is that he uses a traditional 2D sprite in the field, with a more detailed, Amano-style sprite that only bobs up and down in battle. By contrast, the other characters of the game use 2.5-D isometric sprites, and most of them look the same in or out of battle.
- This effect is strengthened in the remake, where he's still a 2D sprite while everyone and everything else is rendered in full 3D... until the rematch that is.
- Badass Boast: With a bit of Ice-Cream Koan for good measure:I am matter... I am antimatter... I can see your past... I can see your future... I consume time... and I will consume you!
- Bland-Name Product: His description in the remake states he's from a world called "Last Illusion", a gag riff on Final Fantasy.
- Boring, but Practical: One of the most hard-hitting attacks you have to watch out for during the battle is Culex's standard physical no-flashy-effects attack. There's no telegraphing for it (as he doesn't even move from his position when it happens), so it's very difficult to time against. Luckily, he doesn't use it as often as his magic attacks. The remake gives his physical attack a flashy effect to reference the 16-bit Final Fantasy games.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall:
- He was already leaning pretty heavily on it, but he outright breaks it after his defeat in the English version when he muses that, had he and Mario met in another game, they might have been mortal foes.Culex: Perhaps in another time, another game, we may have been mortal enemies...
- The dimension he keeps talking about is a joke about how he's a 2D character in a 3D game. At the time of release, sprites made with 3D-assisted models was a huge deal. This joke is even more apparent in the remake, as every character was updated to have genuine models... except Culex (until the rematch).
- In the remake, his Thought Peek outright has him refer to himself as the power of post-game content.
- He was already leaning pretty heavily on it, but he outright breaks it after his defeat in the English version when he muses that, had he and Mario met in another game, they might have been mortal foes.
- Cavalier Competitor: In the English version, he asks to challenge the world's best warrior before he leaves out of a sense of sport.
- Company Cross References: His existence is one giant Mythology Gag for Final Fantasy, as Square developed Super Mario RPG. The music that plays during his fight is the boss battle music from Final Fantasy IV, and beating him plays the standard Final Fantasy victory fanfare. The Monster Compendium in the remake even state his origin world is known as "Last Illusion".
- Composite Character
- He essentially combines elements of the three Super NES Final Fantasy villains; his winged upper torso with a muscular purple body is reminiscent of Kefka's god form, while his horns are similar to Neo Exdeath's, the crystals on his torso call to mind the Interdimensional Rift, and the winding trail from his lower body is similar to Exdeath's tree form. He uses the boss theme from Final Fantasy IV, and in the English localization he's named after a fly like Golbez was.
- In the remake, he retains his original localized name, and the re-written dialogue where he claims to come from the land of Vanda to fight for the Dark Mage. The rest of his dialogue though is more faithful to the original Japanese, where he, a 2D being, is intrigued by the power of Mario's 3D world.
- Dub-Induced Plot Hole: The English version suggests he's challenging Mario to a duel, but the fight isn't one-on-one like with Johnny, instead consisting of Culex and four crystals versus Mario and two party members.
- Dub Name Change:
- His original (Japanese) name sounds like "Crystaller" or "Crystala" note . The Chinese version goes with "Shuijingtala", which combines the Chinese word for "crystal" and his Japanese name.
- His name is Cristax/Krystax in French/Italian and Crystallux in German.
- Eldritch Location: His boss room is hidden behind a door in Monstro Town, and seemingly exists outside the boundaries of normal space: when he's defeated, the door disappears entirely. In the remake once all of the other Superboss rematches have been cleared, the door is back.
- Elemental Powers: As expected of a Final Fantasy-based boss — there's the Fire Crystal, Water Crystal, Earth Crystal, and Wind Crystal.
- Fluffy the Terrible: Of the Bilingual Bonus variety. Think his English name, Culex, Dark Knight of Vanda, sounds impressive? Culex means gnat in Latin, and Vanda is a family of orchids, which means he is actually named after an insect that lives on a pretty flower. This is likely a reference to Golbez, also named after a type of fly. His Japanese name is... Crystaller. However, Culex also happens to be the genus name for some mosquitoes, including those carrying West Nile Virus.
- Gemstone Assault: In his 3D form, Culex launches crystal shards at the target for his basic attack.
- Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: In the Final Fantasy tradition. He is never seen again after his defeat, either. He comes back in the remake after finding out how to become a 3D model.
- The Ghost: The Dark Mage that Culex fights for is never seen. One has to wonder how powerful he must be if Culex is his subordinate.
- HP to One: Kicks off his rematch with Meteor, which reduces all party members' health to one, then uses it every once a while with a countdown. Its damage calculation is actually Max HP minus 1, meaning it will instantly KO anyone not at full health.
- Immortality Immorality: Implied in the Japanese version. Upon defeat, he senses that the legendary Power of Love and Friendship is synonymous with the third dimension. As a two-dimensional being, he may just be incapable of truly understanding these feelings.
- Interface Screw: In the rematch against 3D Culex, the Crystals take a page from Bowyer's book and can disable one of your buttons.
- Kill One, Others Get Stronger: In the rematch, once each crystal is defeated it'll give a permanent stat boost to the remaining crystals and Culex.
- Lampshade Hanging: Using Thought Peek on him will reveal that he's feeling a little out of place. This joke has a double meaning; he's a 2D being in a 3D world, as well as a Final Fantasy inspired boss that's in a Mario game.
- Lost in Translation: In the Japanese version, Culex says he's a two dimensional being. He's perplexed why Mario and friends are three dimensional, so he wants to fight them in order to gain understanding of the third dimension. This explains why Culex looks like he's straight out of a 2D Final Fantasy, but since the English translation ditches this completely, this detail got lost in the SNES version. The remake adds this detail back to the English translation while staying true to the original. This turned out to be a necessary change, as Culex returns in a 3D form for his rematch.
- Meta Guy: His mention of the graphical differences between him and Mario, and his comment about "another life, another game", indicate that Culex knows he's in a video game. Taken even further in the remake, where he gains the power of the third dimension at last, causing him to acquire a 3D model for his rematch, and his Thought Peek is, "You shall bear witness to the power of post-game content!"
- Musical Nod: The Prelude and victory fanfare from the Final Fantasy series in general, and the track that plays when you fight him is Final Fantasy IV's boss theme.
- Mythology Gag:
- In Final Fantasy IV, one of the bosses that Cecil and his party fight is Barbariccia, the fiend of wind. When she kicks up the wind during her battle, only a Dragoon's jump attacks can harm her. This likely is the reason why the Wind Crystal is weak to Mario's jumps.
- In the remake, Culex briefly flashes white before he uses his physical attack. Monsters in the classic Final Fantasy games do the same thing before they attack.
- Non-Indicative Name: The Earth Crystal can use Water Blast and Storm, which don't really line up with its name.
- Non-Standard Character Design: As detailed above under Art Shift, his appearance is completely unlike anything else seen in a Mario game.
- No-Sell: The Fire Crystal is, predictably, immune to fire. The Water Crystal is likewise immune to ice. Unlike the source material, hitting them with these elements won’t heal them.
- One-Hit KO: During the rematch with him, after his crystals are destroyed, he instead uses Final Claw at the end of his countdown, which deals 9999 damage to a character if unblocked.
- Outside-Context Problem: His presence in the game is at odds with the rest of the story and atmosphere.
- Purple Is Powerful: He's purple and one of the most powerful enemies in the game. Yup. And even more so in the remake, where his 3D form not only has a slew of One-Hit KO attacks that you need to stop or block if you want to survive, not only does he hit even harder than last time, but destroying his crystals ''buffs'' him even further too!
- Reality Warper: His Wind Crystal can turn the Party into Mushrooms, and he makes the entrance to his Pocket Dimension vanish when he leaves.
- Retraux: The remake keeps Culex’s original sprite despite the graphical overhaul of everything else, which makes him look ancient and out of place. This is an artistic choice, as it really makes him stand out. The original 16-bit version of his battle theme also plays no matter what your soundtrack setting is.
- Sacrificial Revival Spell: Beat Culex 3D without defeating the Crystals? They sacrifice themselves to revive him to full HP.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: In the Japanese version, it's unclear if he was always in this pocket space or if he was put there. He does, however, want to escape to the third dimension one day, and attempts to do so early by taking "The Power of Creation" from the party's heroic essence.
- Spring Cleaning Fever: In the SNES original, using Psychopath on the Fire Crystal reveals that it needs to vacuum later.
- Status-Buff Dispel: Has the spell, Shredder which removes all buffs on the party.
- Stone Wall: The Wind Crystal has high physical defence.
- Superboss: He's an entirely optional side-encounter and one of the toughest things in the game, being quite a lot sturdier and stronger than the final boss. The rematch against his three dimensional form in the Switch version is even stronger, with himself having even higher health than Smithy. He even outright tells you how many turns it took you to defeat him and invites you to try again for a lower score next time.
- Theme Naming: A Culex is a genus of mosquito; and the Golubac Fly that Golbez gets his name from was originally called the Culex lanio. Amusingly enough Culex is simply named "Crystaller" in Japanese.
- Villain of Another Story: Somewhere out there, in another world or another dimension, Culex still waits and plots to this day in a story we'll never know.
- Villains Out Shopping: If you go back and defeat Smithy again after beating Culex 3D, the epilogue scene at Monstro Town will now show Culex (in his sprite form) watching the Starslap's performance with the rest of the town.
- Wolfpack Boss: He fights alongside the four Crystals of the elements.
- Worthy Opponent: He considers the party this when he is defeated and relinquishes the Quartz/Crystal Charm.
