Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

PAPER MARIO: THE THOUSAND-YEAR DOOR

This game is awesome. Possibly the best of the entire series. Everything great about the Paper Mario series, you can find on rich display here. Complex, layered characters, a solid plot, strong gameplay, and even some creative uses of the paper theme without it taking over literally anything else (cough, cough). The plot follows Mario and a new set of companions after Princess Peach is abducted, not by Bowser, but by a race of aliens from the moon seeking to awaken an ancient demon.

Once again, Mario is our protagonist. Within the battle system, most of his moves are varying levels of jumping on enemies and smacking them with a hammer, though this is also complemented by badges that give you stat boosts and items like fire flowers and sleepy sheep. Outside of battle, he gains new abilities in the form of "curses" that give him special paper-themed abilities, such as turning sideways to slip through tight spaces, turning into a paper airplane, turning into a paper boat, and rolling up to roll along the ground and under things.

Much like the star spirits in the first game, Mario has to collect seven crystal stars from each world, and each one grants him a new ability. He starts out with Sweet Treat that restores his HP and FP, then Earth Tremor which smashes the ground and creates an earthquake, Clock Out which immobilizes the enemy, Power Lift which boosts attack and defense, Art Attack which lets you draw a circle around the enemy to damage them, Sweet Feast which is Sweet Treat but bigger, Showstopper which takes out an enemy entirely, and Supernova, which rains falling stars down upon the enemy. A lot of really cool moves, but sadly there really isn't one good character to give it all too, and Mario has plenty of his own.

Mario's companions are once again representatives of various races and thus most of them will probably be color swaps for that race and their moves here will add to that. That said, this one does have a couple of unique allies, but let's get into it. Goombella is a spunky, young Goomba student researching the Crystal Stars. Her abilities are much like Goombario's, with a Headbonk, Tattle, and Multibonk move, alongside Rally Wink, which gives Mario a second turn. Koops is a Koopa trying to prove himself not a crybaby and rescue his dad. He is also similar to Kooper in his moves, with Shell Toss and Power Shell being basically the same, but can also summon a Shell Shield to protect himself and Mario, and Shell Slam which is similar to Parakarry's Air Raid.

Flurrie is a former starlet who isn't directly tied to any one race of enemy, but rather she bears general similarities to a number of cloud enemies from Mario games, such as Ruff Puffs and Ty Foos. Her moves include a Body Slam, blowing away enemies with a Gale Force, Lip Lock which is a kiss that steals HP, and Dodgy Fog which lowers an enemy's visibility. You also pick up a Baby Yoshi that you hatched from an egg. The Yoshi will flutter jump and ground pound, swallow an enemy whole, throw eggs at enemies, and call in a stampede of other Yoshis. Mario can also ride him outside of battle.

Vivian is probably your most unique ally, and could either fall in here or with her sisters in the villain category. Basically she and her sisters Beldam and Marilyn are Shadow Sirens, dark sorceresses who once served the demonic Shadow Queen and are working with the X-Nauts to free her. After suffering endless abuse at the hands of Beldam, Vivian ultimately rebels against her sister and joins Mario's side. While we will come back to the other Sirens and their Queen later, for now I will simply list Vivian's moves. She can use Shade Fist to punch an enemy and leave a magical burn, Veil to pull herself and Mario into the shadows and out of harm's way, Fiery Jinx to cast a fiery spell on all opponents, and Infatuate to confuse enemies with a blown kiss.

Now, we come to the final two. Admiral Bobbery is a retired old Bob-Omb sailor who helps you sail to a remote island. His moves include blowing himself up, setting up three time bombs, dealing damage to any enemies that attack him, and blowing himself up but even stronger. (Hmm, we just might have it. I'll have to think). Finally, we have Ms. Mowz, co-owner of the badge shop who moonlights as a thief scouring the world for rare badges. Her moves include straight up slapping an enemy, giving an enemy a kiss and stealing their items, hopping around to confuse the enemy, and giving Mario a kiss to restore his HP.

During the intermissions between chapters, we now have two segments: one for Princess Peach, who sneaks around the X-Naut base with the help of TEC-XX, an A.I. computer who fell in love with her after, um, watching her in the shower. Yeah. Most of her gameplay is pretty basic, just sneaking around, stealing items and sending messages to Mario. She also mixes up an invisibility potion and disguises herself as an X-Naut at points. The other segment features Bowser and Kammy Koopa traversing 2D platforming levels after finding out someone had the nerve to kidnap Peach besides him. Bowser can stomp, breathe fire, jump, bite, grow gigantic, and fly around in a Koopa Klown Kar throughout all this. Kammy simply flies her broom and cast spells. Luigi also appears throughout the game, every time with some new stories about an adventure he's been going on on his own, complete with his own companions including a Blooper, a Cherry Bob-Omb, a Spike Top mechanic, a Crazee Dayzee, and a ghost thing called Screamy.

Other major NPCs appear throughout the game, mostly inhabiting the game's worlds as civilians. These include Merlon, Merlee, and Merluvlee again, once again serving the purpose of powering up your companions, casting spells to boost your stats, and giving you hints. Other NPCs include Goombella's teacher Professor Frankly, Koops's father and girlfriend Koopie Koo, a race of tiny creatures called Punies and their age-old nemeses, the Jabbies, Toadsworth and Toadette, Don Pianta, his daughter Francesca and her husband Frankie, a female Toad working undercover at the Glitz Pit named Jolene, an egotistical explorer named Flavio, and a Bumpty inspector named Pennington. Parakarry and Lady Bow also return as cameos.

Our main villains include the extra-terrestrial X-Nauts and the Shadow Sirens, both working together to free an ancient demon known as the Shadow Queen. The X-Nauts are led by Sir Grodus and his general Lord Crump. Sir Grodus has kind of a moveset all his own, constantly surrounded by two bodyguards called X-Yuxes, who shield him and spit rings of energy at opponents. He can also fire off a lightning blast, summon blue fire, and stop time with his wand.

Lord Crump on the other hand, is more like a glorified regular X-Naut who commands the X-Naut armies. In regular fights, he can butt bash you, call in a horde of X-Nauts, use them to stack up, hang from the ceiling, and roll up into a ball. He also commands the giant mech Magnus von Grapple, which can launch its fists, stomp on you, fly through the air and drill straight down, throw a spinning disk, and suck up the audience to use as projectiles against you. He also commands a battleship at one point. Outside of Lord Crump, the X-Nauts have multiple varieties including doctors and elites, and will generally just tackle you, although they can also drink potions to give themselves stat boosts or throw potions at you.

Now we get back to the Shadow Sirens, Vivian and her sisters Beldam and Marilyn. All three can move through shadow, slap, punch, and boost each other's attacks. While Vivian's moves are primarily fire based, Marilyn has a more electric-based attack, and Beldam summons an icy wind. Their queen and the game's final boss is the Shadow Queen, an enormous demon possessing Peach's physical body who turns everything dark, is surrounded by hundreds of shadowy hands with which she can drag souls into her shadow and draw energy from them, and can fire off a disintegrating blast.

The game features a few other bosses here and there, such as Hooktail the dragon, who breathes fire and stomps on you and will eat the audience for energy; Rawk Hawk, the arrogant champion of the glitz pit who pulls off a number of flashy moves throughout the game including sliding kicks, a double flip, a superman slam, a prop drop from the ceiling, a healing drop shroom, and a drop stomp (basically he's a wrestler). He's also known to cheat and send opponents poisoned cakes and such. Then we have Grubba, the Spike, or Clubba, manager of the Glitz Pit who had been using a machine under the stage to steal power from the fighters for himself. When you fight him, he powers up to Macho Grubba and can butt bash, punch, and backflip you. Then we have Doopliss, a Duplighost who copies your form and can turn people into pigs; Cortez, a giant skeletal pirate who can bite or stab you, and attacks with a floating sword, spear, cutlass, and hook (a really good boss battle option); Smorg, a giant swarm that attacks a train; and two recolors of Hooktail: Bonetail and Gloomtail.

Now for our enemies. Most of them are returning enemies, such as: Goombas (with Paragoombas), Bloopers, Koopa Troopas and Paratroopas, Clefts of several varieties, Fuzzies, Dry Bones, Piranha Plants, Puffs, Piders, Pokeys, Lakitus, Spinies, Bandits, Bob-Ombs, Spike Tops, Magikoopas of several varieties, Hammer, Boomerang, and Fire Bros, Chain Chomps, Koopatrols, Crazy Dayzees, Boos, Swoopers, Embers and Lava Bubbles, Bullet Bills, and Buzzy Beetles. Newcomers include top-like Spinias, mace-like Bristles, X-shaped Yuxes, spear-wielding Craws, and Wizzerds who multiply. Also of note are the fighters of the Glitz Pit, roughly eighteen different combinations of the previously mentioned enemies.

Once again, the game is divided up into chapters, each of which hearken to various famous books, this time more obviously than the previous game. Rogueport is the main hub world of the game, a gritty port rampant with crime. The first chapter deals with a small town, Petalburg, being terrorized by a dragon from its castle. The second chapter covers a war between a bunch of tiny creatures all inside a giant tree in the Boggly Woods. The third hearkens to things like the Rocky movies, and sees Mario joining a tournament and working his way up to beating the champion in the Glitz Pit. The fourth takes place in Twilight Town, a town cursed to turn into pigs any time the bell tolls. The fifth chapter has a Gilligan's Island/Treasure Island sort of feel, as the heroes are marooned on a distant island, Keelhaul Key. Chapter six is a very obvious reference to things like "Murder on the Orient Express" and other Poirot/Sherlock novels, and takes place on the Excess Express and later Poshley Heights. And finally, chapter seven sees our heroes rounding up several Bob-Ombs to build a cannon to launch them to the moon, where the X-Naut Base is located. Finally, they manage to open the Thousand-Year Door and enter the Palace of Shadows, where the Shadow Queen was locked away.

The items in the game are generally similar to the items in the previous games, with a number of food, badges, elixirs, and other items that boost your stats or heal you, with Mushrooms, Fire Flowers, Repel Capes, and Mr. Softeners as items to use against the enemy.

Here's what we've got so far:

Characters:
Mario: jumping, fireballs, punch, hammer, koopa shells
Paper Mario: jump, hammer, companions, Star Spirits, badges, items like Fire Flowers and Sleepy Sheep, turn sideways, paper airplane, paper boat, roll up, Crystal Star powers
Luigi: various adventures
Princess Peach: therapy, group hug, sleepy time, mute, come back, psych bomb, slap, parasol, fan, frying pan, Sneaky Parasol, Twink, turn invisible
Bowser: Terrorize, Crusher, Bowser Crush, Poison Gas, throw Chain Chomp, drill glove, throw Mario, stomp, breathe fire, claw, Klown Kar, Star Rod, lightning, shockwave, bite, grow giant
Mallow: Thunderbolt, HP Rain, Psychopath, Shocker, Snowy, Star Rain, cymbals, froggie stick
Geno: Geno Beam, Geno Boost, Geno Whirl, Geno Flash, Geno Blast, pellets, shooting stars, rocket fists
Kammy Koopa: fly on broom, summon block, throw lightning
Yoshi: race, Ground Pound, Gulp, Mini-Egg, Stampede
Toad
Toadsworth
Toadette
Pianta
Star Spirits: Refresh, Lullaby, Star Storm, Chill Out, Smooch, Time Out, Up and Away, Focus, Star Beam, Peach Beam, Star Rod, lightning, shockwave
Merlon (and family): cast spell, lightning, tell future, divine secrets, trade, raise into the air, level up
Smithy: sledgehammer, meteor shower, drain, smelter, Tank Head, Magic Head, Treasure Head, Mask Head, build machines
Sir Grodus: cast lightning, blue fire, stomp time, X-Yux, shield
Lord Crump: butt bash, X-Naut horde, stack, ball, hang from ceiling, Magnus von Grapple, battleship
Axem Rangers: axes, bombs, petal blast, heal, freeze, electrify, mute, body slam, The Blade, breaker beam
Smithy Gang: Mack (fire), Bowyer (arrows, electricity), Yaridovich (spear, spells), Punchinello? (bombs)
Jr. Troopa: tackle, hide in shell, wings, head spike, spell, transform
Croco: steal, run away, bite, bombs, weird mushrooms
Booster: toy train, toy minions, card tricks, throwing knives, bouncing on a ball, killer Bundt cake
Birdo: shoot eggs
X-Naut: tackle, drink potion, throw potion
Johnny: trident, boost HP, drain, minions with spears, starfish, crabs, treasure chest, springs to get out of water, King Calamari
Valentina and Dodo: fly, peck, cancel moves, Petal Blast, Diamond Saw, Blizzard, Water Blast, Aurora Flash, Light Beam, Solidify
Culex: Shredder, Dark Star, Flame Stone, Meteor Blast, fire crystal, water crystal, earth crystal, wind crystal
Koopa (Kooper/Parakarry/Koops): Shell Toss, Power Shell, Dizzy Shell, Fire Shell, Sky Dive, Shell Shot, Air Lift, Air Raid, Shell Shield, Shell Slam
Goomba (Goombario/Goombella): Headbonk, Tattle, Charge, Multibonk, Rally Wink
Spiny
Lakitu (Lakilester): Spiny Flip, Spiny Surge, Cloud Nine, Hurricane
Hammer Bro
Shy Guy: Groove Guy, Sky Guy, Medi Guy, Spy Guy, Gourmet Guy, Pyro Guy, Spear Guy, General Guy
Cheep Cheep (Sushie): Belly Flop, Squirt, Water Block, Tidal Wave
Boo (Lady Bow): Smack, Outta Sight, Spook, Fan Smack
Piranha Plant
Bob-Omb (Bombette/Bobbery): Body Slam, Bomb, Power Bomb, Mega Bomb, Bomb Squad, Hold Fast, Bob-Ombast
Chain Chomp
Dry Bones
Blooper
Lil Sparky (Watt): Electro Dash, Power Shock, Turbo Charge, Mega Shock
Pokey
Monty Mole
Bandit
Tiny Mouser (Ms. Mowz): Love Slap, Kiss Thief, Tease, Smooch
Buzzy Beetle
Spike: clubs, butt bash, eat ghosts, heart, butt bash, punch, back flip, power up
Koopatrol
Duplighost (Doopliss): shape shift, turn into pigs
Flurrie: Body Slam, Gale Force, Lip Lock, Dodgy Fog
Vivian/Shadow Sirens: Shade Fist, Veil, Fiery Jinx, Infatuate, slap, punch, boost, electricity, icy wind
Shadow Queen: shadow hands, steal energy, spread darkness, possess Peach, disintegrating blast
Rawk Hawk: sliding kick, double flip, superman slam, prop drop, drop shroom, drop stomp, cheat

Bosses:
Belome
Exor
Smithy
Mega Smilax
Czar Dragon
Etc.
Goomboss
Koopa Bros.
Tutankoopa
Tubba Blubba
General Guy
Lava Piranha
Huff N. Puff
Crystal King
Hooktail
Cortez
Macho Grubba
Bonetail
Gloomtail
Shadow Queen

Stages:
Mushroom Kingdom
Tadpole Pond
Forest Maze
Yo'ster Island
Mole Mountains
Booster Tower
Sea Side
Star Hill
Sunken Ship
Land's End
Nimbus Land
Barrel Volcano
Bowser's Keep
Smithy's Factory
Peach's Castle
Toad Town
Star Sanctuary
Bowser's Castle
Goomba Village
Koopa Village
Mt. Rugged
Dry Dry Desert
Forever Forest
Boo's Mansion
Gusty Gulch
Shy Guy's Toy Box
Lavalava Island
Flower Fields
Cloudy Climb
Shiver Mountain
Crystal Palace
Rogueport
Petal Meadows
Hooktail Castle
Boggly Woods
Glitz Pit
Twilight Town
Church Steeple
Keelhaul Key
Excess Express
Poshley Sanctum
Fahr Outpost
The Moon
X-Naut Base
Thousand-Year Door
Shadow Palace

Items:
Badges
Mushrooms
Lots of Food
Fire Flower
Sleepy Sheep
Thunderbolt
Snowman Doll
Stop Watch
Too many to list

Thanks for reading! Next up, we'll cover Super Paper Mario!

Paper Mario

PAPER MARIO

Paper Mario for the Nintendo 64 is the first in the Paper Mario franchise and the second Mario RPG ever made, created as a sort-of sequel to Super Mario RPG, but with its own name and branding to differentiate the two. It tells the story of Mario, once again working to rescue Princess Peach from Bowser, only this time accompanied by several companions of several different species across the Mushroom Kingdom.

Mario is our main protagonist, and functions more or less as Mario would, with most of his in-battle moves consisting of three different levels of jumping or smacking the enemy with a hammer. You can also use items in battle, like fire flowers and such, but it's hard to really tie some of those down to him specifically. The main MacGuffins, if you will, of the game, are the seven Star Spirits, each of whom grant a special ability once you have rescued them. Eldstar restores your health by five points, Mamar sings a lullaby to put your enemies to sleep, Skolar calls down a storm of shooting stars, Muskular chills out the enemy and lowers their attack power, Misstar gives Mario a kiss and heals him by twenty, Klevar freezes time for the enemy for a while, and Kalmar turns enemies into stars to remove them from battle. All together, they can launch a powerful star beam. Hmm, seems like the Star Spirits have managed a slot all their own. Good for them.

Across the game, you pick up eight companions, each with their own abilities and representing a specific species respectively. Largely, each one is there to represent that specific species and thus will likely not get a slot of their own, but be a specific skin of the enemy that they are. That said, some, like Bombette and Sushie, represent species not yet with a roster slot, so they likely represent Bob-Omb's and Cheep Cheep's best chances of getting onto the roster all together.

First up, we have Goombario, a young Goomba who looks up to Mario. He is the most basic, his four moves being a headbonk, tattling on the enemy's information, charging up his power, and multiple headbonks. Next, we have Kooper, a Koopa wanting to become an adventurer. All four of his moves involve him spinning in his shell across the ground to strike the enemy, just with differing levels of power (and lighting on fire for the last one). Third, we have Bombette, a Bob-Omb held captive by the Koopa Bros. Her four moves include a body slam and three differing levels of exploding. (Hmm, not yet). Parakarry is a Paratroopa working as a mailman. His four main attacks include striking someone from the air, spinning in his shell to strike from the air, carrying an enemy offscreen, and attacking multiple times from the air.

Lady Bow is a Boo and wealthy heiress of a haunted mansion. Her moves include slapping an enemy, turning herself and Mario intangible, using a jumpscare to scare off enemies, and smacking enemies with a fan. Watt is a Lil' Sparky captured and used as a light source. Her moves include a powerful shock, another powerful shock that paralyzes an enemy, charging a specific stat, and an even more powerful shock. Sushie is a Cheep Cheep looking after a bunch of Baby Yoshis. Her moveset includes belly flopping by launching into the air, squirting a stream of water, covering Mario in a block of water, and causing a tidal wave of water. (Actually, I think she might have done it. Yay!). Finally, we have Lakilester, a Lakitu who turns against Bowser to join Mario. His moves include throwing a single Spiny egg, throwing a bunch of Spiny eggs, giving Mario a cloud he can use to avoid attacks, and causing a hurricane.

We have quite a few supporting characters, most of which are simply NPCs in the various towns you visit, the only exceptions being Princess Peach and the young Star Spirit, Twink. Between every chapter, you play as Peach and Twink as they work to undermine Bowser's control and help Mario from afar. Peach's controls are entirely basic, with the only exception being a magical umbrella that lets her disguise herself as an enemy. In battle, Peach doesn't fight at all, but Twink has a basic tackle ability.

Other major supporting characters include the wizard Merlon, who gives you advice and shows the ability to throw lightning. Merlon has several family members floating around, like Merlee, Merluvlee, Merlow, Merle, and Madame Merlar, all of whom cast spells to boost your stats or trade you certain items like Star Pieces. They might have potential but we'll see going forward. Most of the towns are populated with Toads, Yoshis, Ravens, Bub-Ulbs, Bumpties, and so on. A few important named NPCs include Goombario's family, the explorer Kolorado, Lady Bow's butler Bootler, Raphael the Raven, the Wise Wisterwood Tree, Lakilester's girlfriend Lakilulu, quizmaster Chuck Quizmo, the Master and his students Chan and Lee, and the cook Tayce T. Luigi also appears here and there.

Bowser is the main villain here, and he is primarily supported by his Magikoopa advisor Kammy Koopa. At the beginning of the game, Bowser stole the Star Rod from the Star Spirits, which gave him extraordinary powers (adding further possibilities to the Spirits themselves). He stomps, breathes fire, claws, and flies in his Klown Kar normally, but when powered up by the Star Rod, he also has increased strength, defense and HP, and can create lightning blasts and shockwaves with its power. Kammy is a pretty basic Magikoopa in the same vein as Kamek and can fly around on a broom, summon up a block, and throw lightning.

Jr. Troopa is a minor villain who recurs throughout the game and tries to pick a fight with you, gaining a new ability every single time. At first, he is basic and can only jump, but in later fights he gains the ability to tuck into his egg shell to defend from harm, sprouts wings to fly, gets a spike on top of his head, learns how to cast magic spells, and then puts them all together. Much like Croco, he might just barely ride the edge of a potential moveset.

Across the game, we have a number of bosses to contend with. These include: the first ever appearance of Goomboss, who simply kicks you; the Koopa Bros, TMNT Koopa knockoffs who stack on top of each other and spin together, fire Bullet Bill cannons, and pilot a giant papier-mache Bowser mech; Tutankoopa, a Pharaoh koopa who can float, throw Buzzy Beetle shells, and summon Chain Chomps to attack you; Tubba Blubba, a giant Spike . . . um, I mean, Clubba, I guess . . . who terrorizes a Boo village by eating the ghosts and can butt bash you; his heart also acts as a boss as you have to beat that to harm him; General Guy, a Shy Guy driving a tank who throws bombs and fires electric blasts at you; Lava Piranha, a giant Piranha Plant living in a volcano that spits fireballs at you; Huff N. Puff, a giant cloud being that can suck in or blow strong winds and blast you with electricity; and Crystal King, an ice being that throws bits of icy crystal at you and can create duplicates of himself.

Now, we come to the enemies. Most of them are series regulars, including: Goombas, with Paragoomba, Gloomba, and Hyper Goomba variants; Koopa Troopas and Paratroopas; Fuzzies, who now drain HP; Bob-Ombs; Bullet Bills and Bill Blasters; Bloopers; Monty Moles; Pokeys, who can throw their body parts; Bandits and Tiny Mousers from the Yoshi series; Buzzy Beetles, Swoopers; Chain Chomps; Piranha Plants, with putrid and frost varieties; Boos, Clubbas, which are basically Spikes with maces; Shy Guys with so many different varieties (including Groove Guys, Sky Guys on balloons, Spy Guys, Medi Guys, Gourmet Guy, Pyro Guys, and Spear Guys); Lantern Ghosts; Lava Bubbles; Spike Tops; Crazee Dayzees; Spinies; Lakitus; Hammer Bros; Bony Beetles; Dry Bones; and Magikoopas with different varieties for boosting attack, defense, and healing.

Some notable newcomers include Clefts, giant rock creatures that charge at you; Koopatrols, heavily armored Koopa soldiers; Buzzar, a giant vulture who attacks with feathers; M. Bush, an enemy pretending to be a bush; Hurt Plants who poison you; Ruff Puffs, basically clouds; Gulpit, a frog thing that swallows and spits out rocks at you; Monstar, a swarm creature who calls down stars on you; and Duplighosts who mimic you like a Ditto.

The game is divided up into specific chapters, each one with a seemingly loose connection to famous books that becomes more obvious in later games. The major hub areas include Peach's Castle and Toad Town around it, with Shooting Star Summit leading up the the Star Sanctuary where the Star Spirits live. The prologue takes place in Goomba Village and leads to Goomba King's Fortress. Chapter One covers Koopa Village and the Koopa Bros. Castle. Chapter Two is a desert-themed world, with Mt. Rugged, Dry Dry Desert, Dry Dry Outpost, and Dry Dry Ruins being major locations. Chapter Three has a haunted theme, with Forever Forest, Boo's Mansion, Gusty Gulch, Tubba Blubba Castle, and Windy Mill. Chapter Four takes place entirely withing a giant toy box. Chapter Five takes you to the remote Lavalava Island and the volcanic Mt. Lavalava. Chapter Six takes you to the pleasant Flower Fields, Sun Tower, and Cloudy Climb. Finally Chapter Seven takes you to Shiver City, Shiver Mountain, and Crystal Palace, all ice-themed. The final chapter sees you getting up to Bowser's Castle, a giant Klown Kar built underneath Peach's Castle.

Your item choices are once again enormous, as with most RPGs. You have a badge system where you can apply specific badges to your character to give them various stat boosts and so on. Other items include various types of food, both picked and prepared by Tayce T., Mushrooms, Fire Flowers, Syrups and Elixirs, Life Shrooms, POW Blocks, Sleepy Sheeps, Snowman Dolls, Stop Watches, and Thunderbolts.

Here's what we've got so far:

Characters:
Mario: jumping, fireballs, punch, hammer, koopa shells
Paper Mario: jump, hammer, companions, Star Spirits, badges, items like Fire Flowers and Sleepy Sheep
Luigi
Princess Peach: therapy, group hug, sleepy time, mute, come back, psych bomb, slap, parasol, fan, frying pan, Sneaky Parasol, Twink
Bowser: Terrorize, Crusher, Bowser Crush, Poison Gas, throw Chain Chomp, drill glove, throw Mario, stomp, breathe fire, claw, Klown Kar, Star Rod, lightning, shockwave
Mallow: Thunderbolt, HP Rain, Psychopath, Shocker, Snowy, Star Rain, cymbals, froggie stick
Geno: Geno Beam, Geno Boost, Geno Whirl, Geno Flash, Geno Blast, pellets, shooting stars, rocket fists
Kammy Koopa: fly on broom, summon block, throw lightning
Yoshi: race
Toad
Star Spirits: Refresh, Lullaby, Star Storm, Chill Out, Smooch, Time Out, Up and Away, Focus, Star Beam, Peach Beam, Star Rod, lightning, shockwave
Merlon (and family): cast spell, lightning, tell future, divine secrets, trade
Smithy: sledgehammer, meteor shower, drain, smelter, Tank Head, Magic Head, Treasure Head, Mask Head, build machines
Axem Rangers: axes, bombs, petal blast, heal, freeze, electrify, mute, body slam, The Blade, breaker beam
Smithy Gang: Mack (fire), Bowyer (arrows, electricity), Yaridovich (spear, spells), Punchinello? (bombs)
Jr. Troopa: tackle, hide in shell, wings, head spike, spell, transform
Croco: steal, run away, bite, bombs, weird mushrooms
Booster: toy train, toy minions, card tricks, throwing knives, bouncing on a ball, killer Bundt cake
Birdo: shoot eggs
Johnny: trident, boost HP, drain, minions with spears, starfish, crabs, treasure chest, springs to get out of water, King Calamari
Valentina and Dodo: fly, peck, cancel moves, Petal Blast, Diamond Saw, Blizzard, Water Blast, Aurora Flash, Light Beam, Solidify
Culex: Shredder, Dark Star, Flame Stone, Meteor Blast, fire crystal, water crystal, earth crystal, wind crystal
Koopa (Kooper/Parakarry): Shell Toss, Power Shell, Dizzy Shell, Fire Shell, Sky Dive, Shell Shot, Air Lift, Air Rad
Goomba (Goombario): Headbonk, Tattle, Charge, Multibonk
Spiny
Lakitu (Lakilester): Spiny Flip, Spiny Surge, Cloud Nine, Hurricane
Hammer Bro
Shy Guy: Groove Guy, Sky Guy, Medi Guy, Spy Guy, Gourmet Guy, Pyro Guy, Spear Guy, General Guy
Cheep Cheep (Sushie): Belly Flop, Squirt, Water Block, Tidal Wave
Boo (Lady Bow): Smack, Outta Sight, Spook, Fan Smack
Piranha Plant
Bob-Omb (Bombette): Body Slam, Bomb, Power Bomb, Mega Bomb
Chain Chomp
Dry Bones
Blooper
Lil Sparky (Watt): Electro Dash, Power Shock, Turbo Charge, Mega Shock
Pokey
Monty Mole
Bandit
Tiny Mouser
Buzzy Beetle
Spike: clubs, butt bash, eat ghosts, heart
Koopatrol
Duplighost

Bosses:
Belome
Exor
Smithy
Mega Smilax
Czar Dragon
Etc.
Goomboss
Koopa Bros.
Tutankoopa
Tubba Blubba
General Guy
Lava Piranha
Huff N. Puff
Crystal King

Stages:
Mushroom Kingdom
Tadpole Pond
Forest Maze
Yo'ster Island
Mole Mountains
Booster Tower
Sea Side
Star Hill
Sunken Ship
Land's End
Nimbus Land
Barrel Volcano
Bowser's Keep
Smithy's Factory
Peach's Castle
Toad Town
Star Sanctuary
Bowser's Castle
Goomba Village
Koopa Village
Mt. Rugged
Dry Dry Desert
Forever Forest
Boo's Mansion
Gusty Gulch
Shy Guy's Toy Box
Lavalava Island
Flower Fields
Cloudy Climb
Shiver Mountain
Crystal Palace

Items:
Badges
Mushrooms
Lots of Food
Fire Flower
Sleepy Sheep
Thunderbolt
Snowman Doll
Stop Watch
Too many to list

Thanks for reading! Next up, one of my two favorite Paper Mario's, The Thousand-Year Door!

Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars

SUPER MARIO RPG: LEGEND OF THE SEVEN STARS

Come on, Paul. Deep breaths. You can do this. They're only RPGs. Sure they come with a butt-ton of content that is way too complex to try to make any sense of, but you can do this. Now get out there and EAT THAT HORSE, VEGETA!

Alright, here we go. Super Mario RPG was the first major RPG created for the Super Mario franchise as part of a collaboration between Nintendo and the kings of the RPG, Square Enix. The game told a brand-new story set in the Mushroom Kingdom, wherein Mario and Princess Peach have to team up with Bowser, a star spirit inhabiting a doll, and a lost cloud prince who thinks he's a frog, in order to defeat an army of machines called the Smithy Gang.

Our main characters consist of Mario, Bowser, Princess Peach, and two new characters Mallow and Geno, one of which you may recognize as a ridiculously beloved and demanded character for Smash (because he's awesome). These five work together as an RPG party, each with their own unique moves and abilities, generally having six~ special moves and a number of more standard moves.

Mario is pretty basic Mario, with his special moves all being three increasing degrees of jumping on the enemy or throwing fireballs. The strongest fireball move is reportedly supposed to be the inspiration behind his current Final Smash. Outside of the special moves, he will punch, use his hammer, or kick a Koopa shell at his enemies. Outside of battle, he has pretty basic running and jumping capabilities.

Mallow is a young cloud boy raised by frogs who turns out to be the lost prince of a cloud kingdom. Most of his special moves are weather-based, but he also acts as your information character. His moves are Thunderbolt, wherein he strikes with lightning; HP Rain that heals his allies; Psychopath, which tells you what his enemies are thinking; Shocker, which strikes with a bigger lightning bolt; Snowy, which summons a blizzard before dropping a giant snowman on the enemy; and Star Rain, that calls down a meteor shower on the enemy. He also wields a "froggie stick" and a pair of cymbals as his weapons.

Geno is a star spirit that came to Earth and inhabited a child's doll in order to fix the Star Road broken by the Smithy gang. Most of his abilities are either based on the technology of the doll itself or on his star-based magic. His special moves include the Geno Beam, a basic laser he shoots from his arm; Geno Boost, a self-healing move; Geno Whirl, in which he throws a spinning disk at the enemy; Geno Blast, wherein he calls down beams of rainbow energy from the sky; and Geno Flash, where he transforms into a cannon and blasts a literal sun at his enemies. His basic attacks tend to be shooting pellets or shooting stars from his doll fingers, or firing off his fists altogether.

Princess Peach is your healer, with most of her moves boosting your health, stamina, or various stats. Therapy and Group Hug both do this, just to a larger scale; Sleepy Time puts your enemies to sleep; Come Back brings an ally back to life; Mute cancels out an enemy attack; and Psych Bomb attacks the opponents mentally. Her standard weapons include simply slapping an enemy or smacking them with a parasol, fan, or frying pan.

Last but not least, we have Bowser, who acts mostly as your tank. He only has four special moves for some reason, those being Terrorize, which scares opponents with a giant Boo; Poison Gas, which poisons the enemy; Crusher, which smashes the enemy with a rock; and Bowser Crush, wherein the enemy is stomped on by a giant Mechakoopa. His other abilities include throwing a Chain Chomp like a ball and chain, picking up Mario and literally throwing him at the enemy (nice), and using a glove with drill tips.

There are an assortment of ally characters floating around in the game, like cloud people, Toads, and frogs, including Mallow's adopted grandfather Frogfucius, but most of them don't really offer much to work with. Yoshi is an ally that is sort of playable in that you can ride him during a race with other Yoshis. Boshi is an arrogant blue Yoshi with shades that seems to be really popular, but as he is just a Yoshi, I don't see much point to him even being an echo (Maybe a color swap).

Now, let's deal with our bosses. First up, we have the main villains of the game, the Smithy Gang, a group of machines from another dimension. They are led by their boss, Smithy, their king who creates all the others in his forge. There are many different layers to his fight, but his first form's moves consist of using his sledgehammer, summoning a meteor shower, and draining his opponents. His second form can switch out its heads, including a tank head that fires projectiles; a magic head that can summon down rains of spears, swords, and arrows; a treasure head that can summon forth random item-based attacks, and the mask head that can recover and remove stat boosts from other characters.

The rest of the Smithy gang includes Exor, a giant sword that stabs itself into Bowser's castle. His moves are pretty limited, being a sword and all, and mostly consists of shooting lightning from his eyes and summoning meteors. The Axem Rangers are a gang of five, parodying the Power Rangers, and all have their own moves and abilities, though all use axes. Axem Red is pretty basic, Axem Black uses bombs on you, Axem Pink is the healer though she also has a petal blast, Axem Green uses spells to freeze, electrify, or cancel out special moves, and Axem Yellow is the heavy who body slams you. All five control their ship, the Blade, which fires a breaker beam at you.

The Smithy Gang also consists of three major generals, all with a weapon theme. Mack is a sword/jackhammer character, Bowyer is a bow and arrow, and Yaridovich is a spear/halberd-looking character with a number of moves across the board. Mack is basic with only two fire moves; Bowyer has some lightning attacks, but he also mainly shoots arrows. Yaridovich is a bit more complex, stabbing with his spear, but also using a number of elemental moves like Fire Stone, Water Blast, Willy Wisp, and Bolt. If I were to make a moveset for these general guys, I would probably combine them all into one. I'll get back to that.

There are a few other bosses throughout the game, each with their own varying levels of difficulty and importance. Some will probably make it. Others will probably not. Croco is probably one of the most recurring, a crocodilian thief and predecessor to characters like Popple in later RPGs. He's mostly cowardly and tries to run away at the first opportunity, but on the offchance he does fight you, his moves involve tossing items like bombs and "weird mushrooms" from his bag or biting you. He's also good at stealing stuff. He might just make the cut, but he's teetering on the edge.

Booster is an idiotic manchild who drives around a toy train and runs really fast. That's about it for him. Punchinello is a bomb-themed character who seems like a member of the Smithy gang but isn't really. Belome is a giant dog-thing that guards a temple, and tends to use status-changing attacks, like putting you to sleep and turning you into a scarecrow. Birdo basically hatches from an egg and shoots eggs at you.

And now we come to the main three that I'm almost certain will get in, if any. Jonathan Jones is an awesome pirate captain who is also a shark, and ends up helping you out against the Smithy Gang. He himself mainly uses his trident to spear you, and boosts his own hp by 400, while also using the diamond saw spell and the draining spell. He's also surrounded by other minions in his pirate crew who fight him with spears and tridents, and enemies like spinning starfish, living treasure chests, and a giant squid named King Calamari. All these things together lend to a strong moveset. (Hmm, now that I think about it, Booster had a bunch of toy-themed minions, I think. Maybe I should revisit him).

After him, we have Valentina and Dodo, a money-grubbing pair seeking to overthrow Mallow's parents by passing Dodo off as their long-lost son and Valentina as his blushing bride-to-be. Dodo's attacks tend to include multiple pecks, flying, and muting attacks, while Valentina can make use of a number of common spells like Petal Blast, Diamond Saw, Blizzard, Water Blast, Aurora Flash, Light Beam, and Solidify, all weather-themed moves much like Mallow himself. I would make the two a tag team if anything.

And then we come to Culex, a secret optional boss in the game, presented as a mighty warrior from another dimension looking for a worthy challenger, who is widely considered to be one of the most notoriously difficult bosses in gaming. Culex can fight on his own, but he also has four gems surrounding him, each tied to a specific element. His fire crystal uses mainly fire attacks, obviously; his water crystal uses water and ice; his earth crystal uses moves like sandstorm and boulder; and his wind crystal uses a lot of lightning attacks. He himself can also use Shredder to negate stat buffs, Flame Stone, Dark Star, and Meteor Blast. All in all, plenty to work with, which gives me no end of pleasure saying.

Now for our enemies. We have: Terrapins, which are basically Koopas; Klinklinks, little dangling chains; Goombas and Goombettes; Sky Troopas, basically Paratroopas; Spikeys, which are similar to Spinies; Lakitus; Hammer Bros; K-9s and Chows, basically dogs; Frogogs, frogs that spit bubbles; Shysters, Shy Guys on pogo sticks; Rat Funks and Alley Rats, rats with poison attacks; Gobies, basically Cheep Cheeps; The Big Boo; Hobgoblins and Strawheads who claw at you; Shadows that float around and shoot dark bubbles at you; Pandorites, Box Boys, and Hidons, living treasure chests; Starslaps and Zeostars, basically starfish; Snapdragons that whip you with vines; Arachne and Spinthra, giant spiders; regular Shy Guys; Crooks and Sackits who steal things; Amanitas, living mushrooms; Buzzers and Stingers, basically bees; Octolots and Octovaders who shoot lightning; Wigglers; Guerillas, chained up apes that throw rocks; Piranha Plants; Hotheads; Bob-Ombs; Magmites that burrow; Crystal Clusters and Pulsars; Enigmas and Gorgons that split into clones; Snifits; Orb Users and Orbisons, basically living magic wands; Remo-Cons that dance an eerie jig; Jesters that attack with cards; Chain Chomps; Knife Guy and Grate Guy, a pair of minions working for Booster who toss knives and ride on a ball respectively (putting a pin here to remind myself for Booster); Chef Torte and a living Bundt Cake also made for Booster; Geckos and Geckits; Mastadooms, giant skeletal pachyderms; Mukumukus, basically prairie dogs; Greapers who attack with scythes; Reachers who guard treasure chests; Dry Bones; Bloobers, which are Bloopers; Bandana Reds and Blues who work for Johnny; Shoguns who slash you; Shy Aways, Shy Guys with spears; Jinx, a tiny cricket who challenges you; Fautsos, weird genie things; Smilax, a giant piranha plant; Birdies carrying spears; Jawfuls who stab you with a fork; Pinwheels that spin; Muckles, little jellyfish things; Shamans who cast spells; Stumpets and Corkpedites, enemies made of wood; Czar Dragon, a fiery dragon that becomes Zombone, a zombie dragon; Star Crusters, basically crabs; Magikoopas; Countdowns, living clock hands; Cloaker, Domino, and Mad Mallet, all creations of Smithy; and characters working in Smithy's factory like the Clerk, Manager, Director, and Factory Chief. There's probably a bunch more, hopefully most of them just the million recolors of various enemies, but I got lost a bit on the way.

As for our stages, we have a number of areas, mostly divided out into specific regions. We have the Mushroom Kingdom, which includes Mario's house, Peach's Castle and the surrounding town, and a few roads; Pond to Pipes, a sewer and swamp area that includes Tadpole Pond and Forest Maze, where you meet Mallow and Geno respectively; Yo'ster Island, which is basically Yoshi's Island; Mole Mountains, which includes Booster Tower; Sea Side, which includes Star Hill and Johnny's sunken ship; Land's End, a cliff leading up to Nimbus Land; Nimbus Land, where Mallow truly comes from; Barrel Volcano; Bowser's Keep, which happens to have Exor through it; and Smithy's Factory.

As for items, well, this is an RPG, so there's a ton of them. A lot of mushrooms, flowers, various types of armor and accessories, drinks, cookies, candies, syrups, elixirs, eggs, a few attacks like Sheep Attack to put enemies to sleep, and the ever so mysterious "Princess Toadstool's ???" Well that's fun. Am I done yet?

I guess not. Here's what we've got so far:

Characters:
Mario: jumping, fireballs, punch, hammer, koopa shells
Mallow: Thunderbolt, HP Rain, Psychopath, Shocker, Snowy, Star Rain, cymbals, froggie stick
Geno: Geno Beam, Geno Boost, Geno Whirl, Geno Flash, Geno Blast, pellets, shooting stars, rocket fists
Princess Peach: therapy, group hug, sleepy time, mute, come back, psych bomb, slap, parasol, fan, frying pan
Bowser: Terrorize, Crusher, Bowser Crush, Poison Gas, throw Chain Chomp, drill glove, throw Mario
Yoshi: race
Toad
Smithy: sledgehammer, meteor shower, drain, smelter, Tank Head, Magic Head, Treasure Head, Mask Head, build machines
Axem Rangers: axes, bombs, petal blast, heal, freeze, electrify, mute, body slam, The Blade, breaker beam
Smithy Gang: Mack (fire), Bowyer (arrows, electricity), Yaridovich (spear, spells), Punchinello? (bombs)
Croco: steal, run away, bite, bombs, weird mushrooms
Booster: toy train, toy minions, card tricks, throwing knives, bouncing on a ball, killer Bundt cake
Birdo: shoot eggs
Johnny: trident, boost HP, drain, minions with spears, starfish, crabs, treasure chest, springs to get out of water, King Calamari
Valentina and Dodo: fly, peck, cancel moves, Petal Blast, Diamond Saw, Blizzard, Water Blast, Aurora Flash, Light Beam, Solidify
Culex: Shredder, Dark Star, Flame Stone, Meteor Blast, fire crystal, water crystal, earth crystal, wind crystal
Koopa
Goomba
Spiny
Lakitu
Hammer Bro
Shy Guy
Cheep Cheep
Boo
Piranha Plant
Bob-Omb
Chain Chomp
Dry Bones
Blooper

Bosses:
Belome
Exor
Smithy
Mega Smilax
Czar Dragon
Etc.

Stages:
Mushroom Kingdom
Tadpole Pond
Forest Maze
Yo'ster Island
Mole Mountains
Booster Tower
Sea Side
Star Hill
Sunken Ship
Land's End
Nimbus Land
Barrel Volcano
Bowser's Keep
Smithy's Factory

Items:
Too many to list

Thanks for reading! Next up, we'll start in on Paper Mario! Whoo, only ten more to go . . . or eleven. Dang it, Nintendo!

Super Mario Bros. Roster, Updated

SUPER SMASH BROS. UNIVERSE

SUPER MARIO BROS.

We only had the four to add to the roster today, and no one else to shift around in any of the others. King Boo also upgrades from an echo to a full-on fighter in his own right.

1. Mario
2. Fursuit Mario
3. F.L.U.D.D. Mario
4. Luigi
5. Vacuum Luigi
5e. Professor E. Gadd
6. Princess Peach
7. Princess Daisy
8. Rosalina and Luma
9. Pauline
10. Cappy
11. Toad
11e. Toadette
12. Bowser
12e. Dry Bowser
13. Bowser Jr.
14. Shadow Mario
15. The Koopalings
16. Wart
17. Tatanga
18. Wanda
19. Perry
20. Sprixie Princess
21. Koopa Troopa
21e. Dry Bones
22. Goomba
23. Piranha Plant
24. Boo
25. Blooper
26. Lakitu and Spinies
27. Monty Mole
28. Hammer Bro
29. Chargin' Chuck
30. Wiggler
31. Chain Chomp
32. Ghost
33. Honeybee
34. Boom Boom
34e. Pom Pom
35. Birdo
36. Petey Piranha
37. King Boo
38. The Broodals

Thanks for reading! Next up, we begin tackling the Mario RPGs, starting with Super Mario RPG and all five current Paper Marios. No, I'm not scared. You're scared. Shut up! It's not going to be like opening the floodgates and letting the deluge spew forth, no.

Also the fact that Nintendo specifically revealed a new Paper Mario to come out after I've covered this section and (probably) while I'm in the middle of the possibly million character sheets makes me feel a little attacked personally.

Character Sheet: Ghost (Side Character Spinoffs)

GHOST

Today, we begin our next round of character sheets, with updates for every major character who appeared in the Luigi's Mansion series, Super Princess Peach, or Captain Toad's Treasure Tracker. Most of these should be fairly simple, with only four newcomers to speak of. They are:

1. Mario
2. Luigi
3. Princess Peach
4. Toad
4e. Toadette
5. Bowser
6. Koopa Troopa
6e. Dry Bones
7. Goomba
8. Piranha Plant
9. Boo
10. Blooper
11. Lakitu
12. Hammer Bro
13. Chargin' Chuck
14. Wiggler
15. Chain Chomp
16. Petey Piranha
17. King Boo
18. Kamek
19. Shy Guy
20. Vacuum Luigi (New)
20e. Professor E. Gadd (New)
21. Perry (New)
22. Ghost (New)

Today, let's cover our final new character before tackling the RPGs (shivers), the ghosts of the Luigi's Mansion series. Now, there really isn't any actual continuity between the three games, with each having their own species of ghosts with different designs and names. There do tend to be general types however, with a basic type for each game: Gold Ghosts in Luigi's Mansion, Greenies in Dark Moon, and Goobs in 3. These three will form the basis for the characters design, cycling through the three in their color swaps, with other colors based on the other types and colors.

Across the game, one of their most common attacks is their jumpscare, where they will jump out from being invisible and scare you, stunning you for just a minute. Other types throughout the game will punch you, try to grapple you from behind, throw out ghostly banana peels, pound the ground and make shockwaves, hang from the ceiling and drop bombs or bowling balls, hide in various locations, spit mud at you, possess items, cause items to levitate, warp between different mirrors, catch you with a twin tongue and smack you, or just generally play with whatever items happen to be lying around. All in all, plenty to work with for a moveset.

Here's the moveset I came up with:

Standard B: Jumpscare
The ghost will let out a loud shriek, stunning any character facing them for a few seconds out of sheer fright.

Side B: Grapple
This one is based on the frequent tendency of many ghosts to grab you from behind and hold you tight. It will also function similarly to Diddy Kong's move where he latches onto your face.

Up B: Mirror Warp
A mirror will appear beside them that they will swim into before another one appear several feet higher into the air and they will swim out of it.

Down B: Ground Pound
This one mostly hearkens to the large-sized ghost types that appear throughout the games and will ground pound and cause a small shockwave. If you wish, it's possible they may grow the gigantic square head of the large types appearing in 3 and slam that head down, or they may simply slam their fists on the ground.

Final Smash: Portrait Ghosts
The ghost will raid E. Gadd's gallery, breaking free every single Portrait Ghost, each of which will then swarm around the stage while haunting music plays.

Entrance: Popping out of a treasure chest and performing a jumpscare.

Taunts: Any instance from any of the games where you look into another room and see the ghosts just playing around with stuff would work just fine.

Thanks for reading! Next up, let's update the Mario roster before moving on.

Character Sheet: Perry (Side Character Spinoffs)

PERRY

Today, we begin our next round of character sheets, with updates for every major character who appeared in the Luigi's Mansion series, Super Princess Peach, or Captain Toad's Treasure Tracker. Most of these should be fairly simple, with only four newcomers to speak of. They are:

1. Mario
2. Luigi
3. Princess Peach
4. Toad
4e. Toadette
5. Bowser
6. Koopa Troopa
6e. Dry Bones
7. Goomba
8. Piranha Plant
9. Boo
10. Blooper
11. Lakitu
12. Hammer Bro
13. Chargin' Chuck
14. Wiggler
15. Chain Chomp
16. Petey Piranha
17. King Boo
18. Kamek
19. Shy Guy
20. Vacuum Luigi (New)
20e. Professor E. Gadd (New)
21. Perry (New)
22. Ghost (New)

Perry the Parasol is a supporting character from Super Princess Peach who acts as her primary weapon. Some backstory is given, but never given any sort of closure to, that Perry was once a human child with some kind of magical gift, but was transformed into a parasol by two shadowy figures and found by Toadsworth, who then gave him to Peach. As Perry is shown to be able to move around on his own, and as Peach's general gimmick in the game is rather divisive among fans, I figured there was no good reason why he might not inherit the moveset instead.

The main gimmick of the game is all emotion-based, built around four different emotional extremes: Anger, which makes Peach light herself on fire; Sadness, which makes her cry torrents of water and run faster; Joy, which makes her fly into the air on a small tornado; and Calm, which lets her heal for a second. Other moves directly connected to Perry himself is acting as a bludgeoning weapon, a boat, a submarine, hanging from a zipline, and covering her to protect from harm. All of these together give Perry a lot to work with.

Here's the moveset I came up with:

Standard B: Rage
Perry will get angry and burst into flames, doing heavy damage to anyone standing nearby. These flames will last for a short time.

Side B: Gloom
Perry will become sad and start crying, torrents of water shooting from his eyes and making the stage slick. He can also run in this state, hopping faster than normal.

Up B: Joy
Perry will become happy and start to sing, flying up into the air on a small tornado and blowing aside anyone who comes too close.

Down B: Calm
Perry will calm himself down and gather his emotions, letting himself heal and boosting his own power. This is similar to Wii Fit Trainer's Down B.

Final Smash: Vibe Sceptre
Perry will whip out the macguffin of the game, the Vibe Sceptre and wave it around over his head, causing extreme emotional uncontrollable responses in all characters on stage, whether they run around spewing water uncontrollably, light on fire taking heavy damage, floating in the air unable to get down, or simply not doing anything out of calm.

Entrance: The shadowy figures who transformed him will drop him on the stage.

Taunts: Showing small bursts of his emotional moves would work, maybe just mirroring Peach's emotional faces from each one or so.

Thanks for reading! Next up, we'll finish up with the ghosts from Luigi's Mansion!

Character Sheet: Professor E. Gadd (Side Character Spinoffs)

PROFESSOR E. GADD

Today, we begin our next round of character sheets, with updates for every major character who appeared in the Luigi's Mansion series, Super Princess Peach, or Captain Toad's Treasure Tracker. Most of these should be fairly simple, with only four newcomers to speak of. They are:

1. Mario
2. Luigi
3. Princess Peach
4. Toad
4e. Toadette
5. Bowser
6. Koopa Troopa
6e. Dry Bones
7. Goomba
8. Piranha Plant
9. Boo
10. Blooper
11. Lakitu
12. Hammer Bro
13. Chargin' Chuck
14. Wiggler
15. Chain Chomp
16. Petey Piranha
17. King Boo
18. Kamek
19. Shy Guy
20. Vacuum Luigi (New)
20e. Professor E. Gadd (New)
21. Perry (New)
22. Ghost (New)

Today, let's cover Professor Elvin Gadd, Luigi's mentor and tech support throughout the Luigi's Mansion games. Now, many would say that Gooigi would be the echo, but I felt like Gooigi fits better as a color swap or move in and of himself. Plus, E. Gadd seems to be an actual character rather than just goop programmed to mimic Luigi, but it works either way. As E. Gadd invented all the stuff and supposedly used most of it in his younger days, it seems fair that he act as an echo fighter who's maybe a little slower than Luigi.

Here is the moveset I came up with:

Standard B: Suction
Basically the same.

Side B: Flashbulb
Basically the same.

Up B: Balloon OR Backfire
Basically the same.

Down B: Gooigi
I suppose it wouldn't be a Gooigi so much as an E. Goo or something like that, but you get the gist.

Final Smash: Super Suction
Another option might be his portrification machine that all the characters get put through and turned into paintings, similar to King Boo's.

Entrance: He will transport himself through his own machine.

Taunts: His famous chuckle, adjusting the settings on his poltergust, playing with Polterpup, so on.

Thanks for reading! Next up, we'll cover Perry, the parasol from Super Princess Peach.

Character Sheet: Vacuum Luigi (Side Character Spinoffs)

VACUUM LUIGI

Today, we begin our next round of character sheets, with updates for every major character who appeared in the Luigi's Mansion series, Super Princess Peach, or Captain Toad's Treasure Tracker. Most of these should be fairly simple, with only four newcomers to speak of. They are:

1. Mario
2. Luigi
3. Princess Peach
4. Toad
4e. Toadette
5. Bowser
6. Koopa Troopa
6e. Dry Bones
7. Goomba
8. Piranha Plant
9. Boo
10. Blooper
11. Lakitu
12. Hammer Bro
13. Chargin' Chuck
14. Wiggler
15. Chain Chomp
16. Petey Piranha
17. King Boo
18. Kamek
19. Shy Guy
20. Vacuum Luigi (New)
20e. Professor E. Gadd (New)
21. Perry (New)
22. Ghost (New)

Today, let's begin our batch of newcomers. Luigi's Mansion is a very unique franchise within the Mario universe. It places Luigi as a quasi-ghostbuster, working his way through a haunted house and using a vacuum to suck up ghosts. Now this is a very unique mechanic from Luigi's normal appearances and it is only fitting that an entirely separate moveset making use of this gimmick be created.

First of all, we must deal with the vacuum, Luigi's main weapon. It's core mechanic is to suck in enemies, though it can also be used to fire elemental attacks including fire, water, and ice. It can also blow out, used in one game to inflate a balloon to carry Luigi upward, and in another game to blow down and launch Luigi into the air. In later games, after he has caught the ghost in question, he can also slam them against the ground to weaken them. He is also armed with a flashlight that he can use to flash and stun his enemies, and in Luigi's Mansion 3, he gains the ability to use an ectoplasmic clone of himself to traverse areas he can't reach himself. All of these things make for an interesting unique moveset.

Here is the moveset I came up with:

Standard B: Suction
Luigi will suck hard with his vacuum. Once a character is caught, he can either play it straight and suck them in before they pop out a few seconds later, or the player can press hard in the opposite direction and he will slam the character hard into the ground.

Side B: Flashbulb
Luigi will flash his flashlight, stunning any opponent caught in the beam.

Up B: Balloon OR Backfire
Either one of these work fine and I couldn't quite pick between them. Balloon will see him inflate the balloon from Dark Moon that will carry him high into the air. Backfire will burst air below Luigi and launch him upward a shorter distance.

Down B: Gooigi
Luigi will spawn a Gooigi who will walk around in front of him, mimicking his attacks and taking his hits for him with minimal damage. Down B will also call Gooigi back or he may be dissolved by watery attacks, making FLUDD Mario a sort of natural enemy to him.

Final Smash: Super Suction
So this one will function very similarly to his current Final Smash in the game, and also draws inspiration from the move in LM3. His vacuum will suck up all opponents around the stage and pop them all out toward the stage boundaries.

Entrance: He will be transported via E. Gadd's machine from Dark Moon.

Taunts: He will call out Mario, he will flicker his flashlight, he will check his Game Boy Horror (or one of the other devices).

Thanks for reading! Next up, we'll cover his echo fighter, Professor Elvin Gadd.

Character Sheet: Shy Guy (Side Character Spinoffs)

SHY GUY

Today, we begin our next round of character sheets, with updates for every major character who appeared in the Luigi's Mansion series, Super Princess Peach, or Captain Toad's Treasure Tracker. Most of these should be fairly simple, with only four newcomers to speak of. They are:

1. Mario
2. Luigi
3. Princess Peach
4. Toad
4e. Toadette
5. Bowser
6. Koopa Troopa
6e. Dry Bones
7. Goomba
8. Piranha Plant
9. Boo
10. Blooper
11. Lakitu
12. Hammer Bro
13. Chargin' Chuck
14. Wiggler
15. Chain Chomp
16. Petey Piranha
17. King Boo
18. Kamek
19. Shy Guy
20. Vacuum Luigi (New)
20e. Professor E. Gadd (New)
21. Perry (New)
22. Ghost (New)

Today's pretty simple. Shy Guys appear as an enemy in Captain Toad's Treasure Tracker, acting sorta like Goombas throughout the game, but pretty simple from there. The first Luigi's Mansion game also has ghost versions of them whose masks you have to suck off before you can capture them. (Its probably one of the only times we get a glimpse at their real faces too).

Here is their current moveset:

Standard B: Snifit

Side B: Mace

Up B: Fly Guy OR Pogo Stick

Down B: Spear and Shield

Final Smash: Pirate Ship

Entrance: Drifts to the ground via parasol.

Taunts: A number of their appearances playing around in the background of various games offers up a number of possibilities.

Next up: Let's start in on our newcomers with Luigi in his Luigi's Mansion form!

Character Sheet: Kamek (Side Character Spinoffs)

KAMEK

Today, we begin our next round of character sheets, with updates for every major character who appeared in the Luigi's Mansion series, Super Princess Peach, or Captain Toad's Treasure Tracker. Most of these should be fairly simple, with only four newcomers to speak of. They are:

1. Mario
2. Luigi
3. Princess Peach
4. Toad
4e. Toadette
5. Bowser
6. Koopa Troopa
6e. Dry Bones
7. Goomba
8. Piranha Plant
9. Boo
10. Blooper
11. Lakitu
12. Hammer Bro
13. Chargin' Chuck
14. Wiggler
15. Chain Chomp
16. Petey Piranha
17. King Boo
18. Kamek
19. Shy Guy
20. Vacuum Luigi (New)
20e. Professor E. Gadd (New)
21. Perry (New)
22. Ghost (New)

Today, we'll cover Kamek, the Magikoopa advisor of Bowser. He appears only as a boss in Super Princess Peach, albeit looking a bit different from his normal appearance. As far as abilities, it's all pretty basic Kamek stuff.

Here's the moveset:

Standard B: Magic Spell

Side B: Broomstick

Up B: Teleport

Down B: Hammer

Final Smash: Boss Battle

Entrance: Swoop in on his broom and do his little chuckle.

Taunts: Hold up his wand and wave it around for a second, is a good one. His chuckle, as mentioned before. Maybe cast a little magic and surprise himself.

Next up: Let's go over the Shy Guys!

Character Sheet: King Boo (Side Character Spinoffs)

KING BOO

Today, we begin our next round of character sheets, with updates for every major character who appeared in the Luigi's Mansion series, Super Princess Peach, or Captain Toad's Treasure Tracker. Most of these should be fairly simple, with only four newcomers to speak of. They are:

1. Mario
2. Luigi
3. Princess Peach
4. Toad
4e. Toadette
5. Bowser
6. Koopa Troopa
6e. Dry Bones
7. Goomba
8. Piranha Plant
9. Boo
10. Blooper
11. Lakitu
12. Hammer Bro
13. Chargin' Chuck
14. Wiggler
15. Chain Chomp
16. Petey Piranha
17. King Boo
18. Kamek
19. Shy Guy
20. Vacuum Luigi (New)
20e. Professor E. Gadd (New)
21. Perry (New)
22. Ghost (New)

Now here's one who's really getting an upgrade. King Boo appears as the main villain in every single Luigi's Mansion game and as a boss in Super Princess Peach. While his boss battles in SPP and the first Luigi's Mansion are nothing to write home about, with him acting basically just like a Boo, his boss battles in the later Mansion games greatly expanded on his capabilities, meaning he gets an upgrade from echo fighter to full on character in his own right.

One major ability he shows is the ability to trap his enemies in paintings mostly using a strange powerful picture frame to do so. That will definitely come into play here. He also shows the ability to shoot a powerful purple lightning bolt from his crown, which he uses to shatter the Dark Moon in the second game. In his own boss battles, he can also call down lightning in spots, bounce across the floor on his belly, throw large spiky items, roll around like a boulder, summon up purple energy gates to trap you in a specific location, spit fireballs at you, and attack and sweep with his tongue. All of these are quite unique from your basic Boo, so let's see what we can do.

Here's his moveset:

Standard B: Crown Laser
He will shoot the purple lightning bolt he uses to destroy the Dark Moon and shock his opponents.

Side B: Tongue Slap
He will slap the ground with his long tongue and then roll around a couple of times, doing a little bit of extra damage.

Up B: Belly Bash
When on the ground, he will slam hard on the ground with his belly and bounce himself up into the air. When not on the ground, he will simply flip himself upward.

Down B: Energy Gate
I didn't want to do lightning again, so instead King Boo will summon up one of those energy gates that trap Luigi in a certain location and it will act as a shield for him.

Final Smash: Painting
A giant picture frame will appear above the stage and slam down, trapping every fighter inside of it, removing a single stock, and saving the portrait to your game's photos. (I assume this hypothetical game also has unlimited data for pictures as well. If not, I imagine it would just show you the portrait and then ask you later if you want to keep it). This move could theoretically be a standard B move as well, if the portrait was smaller and only captured a single opponent temporarily, like a Yoshi Egg. I went with the Crown Laser instead, but the possibility is there.

Entrance: Emerging from his painting portal

Taunts: His evil laugh he always does, admiring a portrait of one of the Portrait ghosts maybe, tossing around a piece of the Dark Moon. Heck, maybe Hellen Gravely could pop up and fawn over him.

Thanks for reading! Next up, we'll cover our boy Kamek.

Character Sheet: Petey Piranha (Side Character Spinoffs)

PETEY PIRANHA

Today, we begin our next round of character sheets, with updates for every major character who appeared in the Luigi's Mansion series, Super Princess Peach, or Captain Toad's Treasure Tracker. Most of these should be fairly simple, with only four newcomers to speak of. They are:

1. Mario
2. Luigi
3. Princess Peach
4. Toad
4e. Toadette
5. Bowser
6. Koopa Troopa
6e. Dry Bones
7. Goomba
8. Piranha Plant
9. Boo
10. Blooper
11. Lakitu
12. Hammer Bro
13. Chargin' Chuck
14. Wiggler
15. Chain Chomp
16. Petey Piranha
17. King Boo
18. Kamek
19. Shy Guy
20. Vacuum Luigi (New)
20e. Professor E. Gadd (New)
21. Perry (New)
22. Ghost (New)

Today, it's time to return to the Mario series's favorite recurring boss character: Petey Piranha! He appears in Super Princess Peach as a boss, during which he can fly and throw tornado gusts around, and also demonstrates the ability to spit up Nippers. It's a pretty basic Petey fight, but it works nonetheless.

Here is his moveset:

Standard B: Piranhabon

Side B: Tornado

Up B: Fly

Down B: Divebomb

Final Smash: Emissary Cage Match

Entrance: He will wake up from a nap.

Taunts: His roar, maybe with a bit of a stunning effect. His belly button poking out and his rolling over on the floor. Napping, maybe.

Next up: Let's cover the main villain of the Luigi's Mansion series, King Boo.

Character Sheet: Chain Chomp (Side Character Spinoffs)

CHAIN CHOMP

Today, we begin our next round of character sheets, with updates for every major character who appeared in the Luigi's Mansion series, Super Princess Peach, or Captain Toad's Treasure Tracker. Most of these should be fairly simple, with only four newcomers to speak of. They are:

1. Mario
2. Luigi
3. Princess Peach
4. Toad
4e. Toadette
5. Bowser
6. Koopa Troopa
6e. Dry Bones
7. Goomba
8. Piranha Plant
9. Boo
10. Blooper
11. Lakitu
12. Hammer Bro
13. Chargin' Chuck
14. Wiggler
15. Chain Chomp
16. Petey Piranha
17. King Boo
18. Kamek
19. Shy Guy
20. Vacuum Luigi (New)
20e. Professor E. Gadd (New)
21. Perry (New)
22. Ghost (New)

Chain Chomp's pretty simple here. It appears in Super Princess Peach, and acts basically as it always does. That's pretty much it.

Let's see what we can do:

Standard B: Lunge

Side B: Chomp Rock

Up B: Incoming Chomp

Down B: Earthquake

Final Smash: Chomp Shark

Entrance: It appears stuck to a peg in the ground. The peg will disappear into the ground three segments at a time, at which point the Chomp will break free.

Taunts: Bouncing around and biting the way he does. The famous barking sound.

Thanks for reading! Next up let's cover Petey Piranha.

Character Sheet: Wiggler (Side Character Spinoffs)

WIGGLER

Today, we begin our next round of character sheets, with updates for every major character who appeared in the Luigi's Mansion series, Super Princess Peach, or Captain Toad's Treasure Tracker. Most of these should be fairly simple, with only four newcomers to speak of. They are:

1. Mario
2. Luigi
3. Princess Peach
4. Toad
4e. Toadette
5. Bowser
6. Koopa Troopa
6e. Dry Bones
7. Goomba
8. Piranha Plant
9. Boo
10. Blooper
11. Lakitu
12. Hammer Bro
13. Chargin' Chuck
14. Wiggler
15. Chain Chomp
16. Petey Piranha
17. King Boo
18. Kamek
19. Shy Guy
20. Vacuum Luigi (New)
20e. Professor E. Gadd (New)
21. Perry (New)
22. Ghost (New)

Today, let's cover Wiggler, one of our newer additions to the enemy roster. Wiggler appears as a boss in Super Princess Peach. Not much to work with, but enough. He will charge across the screen at you and rocks will drop from the ceiling. Also in the cutscene, he is seen bouncing a ball containing a Toad on his nose.

Here's the moveset I came up with:

Standard B: Panel

Side B: Charge

Up B: Flutter

Down B: Egg-odil

Final Smash: Mechawiggler

Entrance: waking up from sleep.

Taunts: Bouncing a ball on his nose, rolling his body segments here and there.

Thanks for reading! Next up, let's work with the Chain Chomps.

Character Sheet: Chargin' Chuck (Side Character Spinoffs)

CHARGIN' CHUCK

Today, we begin our next round of character sheets, with updates for every major character who appeared in the Luigi's Mansion series, Super Princess Peach, or Captain Toad's Treasure Tracker. Most of these should be fairly simple, with only four newcomers to speak of. They are:

1. Mario
2. Luigi
3. Princess Peach
4. Toad
4e. Toadette
5. Bowser
6. Koopa Troopa
6e. Dry Bones
7. Goomba
8. Piranha Plant
9. Boo
10. Blooper
11. Lakitu
12. Hammer Bro
13. Chargin' Chuck
14. Wiggler
15. Chain Chomp
16. Petey Piranha
17. King Boo
18. Kamek
19. Shy Guy
20. Vacuum Luigi (New)
20e. Professor E. Gadd (New)
21. Perry (New)
22. Ghost (New)

I never realized just how big a thing Chargin' Chuck was before I started doing this. In my mind, he was just those weird football guys who showed up in Super Mario World and pretty much nowhere else. Yet I feel like I've covered them a lot in this series. They still don't do anything outside of the basic charging, unlike their first appearance, but at least I feel a little better about their inclusion and don't see them as one of the out-there inclusions like Tucks and Honeybee anymore.

Here's the moveset:

Standard B: Baseball Pitch

Side B: Charge

Up B: Jump and Clap

Down B: Dig

Final Smash: Team Blitz

Entrance: He will charge through a block

Taunts: You could probably pull a few from actual football and other sports. Like a war dance, or a huddle, or the lineup position, and so on.

Next up: Let's cover Wiggler!