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Goomba Village
Take care now!
There’s no reason to take a nap at full health, unless you really want to.
So, Goombario. Each partner has a special field ability. Most involve interacting with the environment to solve puzzles. Goombario is the exception, however.
Goombario gives information about our current location. This text is different for every single “screen” we’re in. Most of it is quite interesting.
For this reason, I’m going to introduce the Tattle tag. When you see this, you’ll know this is Goombario’s Tattle text. So for this screen…
This is Goomba Village. My family lives here. There’s also a Toad House, which, as you probably know, is a good place to take a rest. That big tree near my house is a great place to get Goomnuts.
So text for every location is pretty crazy, right? Well, it’s about to get crazier.
That’s right. Not only is there flavor text for every screen in the game, there’s flavor text for every single NPC. Yep!
He’s a regular Toad. He was sent here from Princess Peach’s Castle. He’s the manager of this Toad House.
If you hack her in with cheat codes, there’s limited functionality for Goombaria to be a party member in the game, though she crashes battles and has no field abilities. Guess they figured one Goomba was enough.
She’s my sister, Goombaria. She’s a spoiled girl, but still, everyone’s always nice to her. Why?
Let’s catch up with the Goomba family before we go.
Oh, my little baby! I can’t believe you’re going out into the world with Mario! Now you listen! You be a good boy, you hear! Don’t cause Mario any trouble!
I know, Mom, sheesh. I’ll be good.
Don’t brag about all the things Goompa taught you as if you already knew them!! And remember… And…
Urgh… Mom always nags me…
Now hush! Mario, please take good care of my sweet little Goombario.
She’s my mom, Goomama. She sometimes gets on my nerves when she worries too much about me, but I still love her lots. Don’t tell her what I just said! Seriously, Mario! Promise me!
I’ll make you proud, Dad, I swear it! Just wait!
Do your best, son. You’ve grown into a strong boy. I know you’ll be a great help. It’s a good thing you’ve spent so much time training, huh? Now do your old Goompapa proud!
And if we talk to Goompapa again…
He’s my dad, Goompapa. He’s willing to do anything for us. We can always count on him. He doesn’t really look lile it, though. But did you see him fixing stuff after that earthquake? That’s when I knew he was cool.
Take care, Goombario. You’re already one fine Goomba!
She’s my grandma, Gooma. I hope she lives forever! She’s the greatest! When she starts telling old stories, she always says, “When I was young, I was very popular with the boys.”
He’s my grandpa, Goompa. He knows oodles of stuff. Ever since I was a kid, he’s been telling me fantastic stories of his youth.
So in that giant mess of tattle information, you may have heard something about a Tree and Goomnuts.
Goombario’s tattles aren’t purely flavor text. There can be some useful hints as well.
According to Goombaria, this is where you landed. Something about this clearing feels weird. I can’t really say exactly what, though…
Before we go forth, let’s backtrack a bit for more tattle goodness.
These are the woods behind my house. Careful! There are many bad Goombas around here. Sorry… I’m sure that you can probably take care of yourself, huh?
This first section is where we met the three Goomba types. Let’s jump into battle and see how Goombario works, shall we?
Hey Mario, during a battle, you can change the order we attack in with (Z). I can attack first if you want. I don’t mind at all! Just keep it in mind, OK?
Each round of combat, both Mario and his partner will act before all enemies act, and back and forth like that. As Goombario said, Mario and his partner can act in either order.
Partners are more limited in combat. They do not have HP, so in the rare case that an attack hits a partner, they’re simply out for a set number of rounds until they can fight again. They can’t use Items either and have their own distinct attacks.
Headbonk is Goombario’s base attack and functions identically to Mario’s Jump, including damage from headbonking spiked enemies. Tattle is this game’s Libra spell, giving you basic stats, hints, and general flavor text for each enemy.
When Goombario tattles, we get a close up and a bunch of text.
Here’s how I’ll handle the layout for each enemy.
This is a Goomba. Goombas are what you’d call “small fries.” Actually, they’re pretty much the smallest fries. …Hey, wait! I’m one of 'em! You can jump on them or whack 'em with the Hammer. These guys are old school. They’ve been around since you were in Super Mario Bros.!
Once you Tattle an enemy, from that point forward you’ll get an HP bar every time you encounter that enemy. Thus it’s very beneficial to Tattle on every new enemy you meet, as well as bosses since Tattle also works on almost if not every boss in the game.
Let’s go check out the previous two screens before examining the next two Goombas.
These are the woods behind my house. Until a little while ago, Goombaria and I used to play hide-and-seek here… But there have been a lot of evil Goombas and Paragoombas spotted in the area, so Mom doesn’t let us play anymore.
I think this is Jr. Troopa’s secret base. That crazy kid! Whenever I try to explore in there, he freaks out. He needs to chill.
Back to enemies!
This is a Spiked Goomba. Spiked Goombas are Goombas with spikes on their heads. Whatever you do, don’t jump on their spikes or you’ll get hurt or even paralyzed!
This is a Paragoomba. Obviously, Paragoombas are Goombas with wings. You can’t hit 'em with the Hammer while they’re airborne. If you damage 'em, they’ll fall to the ground and become ordinary Goombas.
As I said, Goombario knows a freaking lot.
He’s also quite adept at headbonking.
I also forget to equip my badge, so let’s do that now.
I have a feeling your road will be lined with difficulties, so try not to overdo it. Be watchful, yet stay cool. A calm mind is the wisest.
There’re lots of bad Goombas around these parts.
The next few screens are pretty linear and don’t have any new enemies.
Though the signs are kinda rude.
Otherwise, it’s a few blocks and Goombas to stomp to move onward.
Did you know…there are good Goombas and bad Goombas? A bad Goomba will try to pick a fight with us the second it spots us.
Nintendo games really don’t muck around with questions of morality.
Red Question Blocks hold badges. This handy badge costs 1BP and lets Mario dodge attacks when in Danger, where Danger means being at 5HP or less. There’s actually a good number of badges that are effective when Mario is in Danger, making “Danger Mario” a valid if risky battle strategy.
Also, free mushroom!
Mario was a bit low from fights, so might as well enjoy the freebie!
Of course, later on in the screen is this block.
Look, Mario! There’s a Save Block. Might be a good idea to use it, don’t you think?
Hmmm, I wonder what he’s implying?
It’s a direct order from the Goomba King. That’s right! I’m sorry, but the only way by is through the Goomba Bros. That’s me, Red Goomba, and my brother, Blue Goomba.
Oh yeah! Let’s do it, my red brother!
And so the mini-boss music plays. Enjoy!
I made this GIF to point out the clouds in the top-right corner. It’s a nice little detail, I feel.
On to Tattling!
This is Blue Goomba. He’s the younger of the two notorious Goomba Bros. As you heard in his little speech, he’s one of the Goomba King’s men. He doesn’t look that healthy. He’s weaker than his brother.
This is a good battle to try out Power Jump!
It’s the same as a regular jump, except Mario gets a shadow effect and deals 3 damage instead of one. Two of these will take out Blue Goomba with ease.
The Goomba Bros. both only use headbonks. Nothing Mario can’t handle.
This is Red Goomba. He’s the older of the two notorious Goomba Bros. The Goomba King ordered him to try to stop you. You can take this guy, no prob. He has just a little more HP than an ordinary Goomba.
With Power Jump, Blue is no threat.
Red gets upset but doesn’t get a boost or anything.
Between Mario and Goombario, taking Red down’s a bit slow but still really easy.
Yet rewarding nonetheless.
I love Mario’s thumbs-up every time he wallops an enemy until they cry.
Can’t hurt to heal up before we go forward. We’re actually not too far from this section’s big boss battle!
If we go east a bit further, we’ll find a bridge. Once we cross it, we’ll be a hop, skip, and a jump away from Toad Town.
How devious.
After beating those Goombas up, Mario hits 100 Star Points and gains a level! First, Mario recovers all HP and FP while we listen to a variation of SMB3’s World 1 Overworld theme.
Each Level Up gives you the choice of boosting either HP, FP, or BP. Generally you want to focus on Badge Points because they give you the coolest options, plus there’s badges that boost HP and FP anyway (each costs 3 BP and boosts their stat by 5 so you’re effectively trading the BP level up temporarily for an HP/FP one). Still, I go with FP since it’ll be a bit before we get a good variety of badges, and more FP will let us actually use those cool flashy moves our new badges will give us.
Next up is the end of the road.
Mario beat us up!
I’m pretty sure there used to be a bridge on the other side. I wonder what happened to it.
Unfortunately, this is as far as you’ll ever get. Because I, the great and powerful King Goomba, will see to it that you advance no farther!
You hear that, Mario! No farther! Not one step! Are you scared, little man?
Bah ha ha!!! Yeah, you’re scared, all right. You wanna say you’re sorry?
I’m sure he’s no match for you, though, Mario! Let’s get him!
This is the boss battle of this “Chapter”. These usually are the biggest challenges and have their own music. This one still isn’t too bad, though.
We’ve got your back!
They must be pretty weak since we just finished beating them up back there.
Red and Blue start at a measly 2HP each. However, there’s also an additional, easy-to-miss target right next to the Goomba King.
This is a Goomnut Tree. Spiky Goomnuts will fall down if you hit this tree. They’ll definitely hurt if they hit us, but it may be worth it to use them against the enemy.
Sounds like a plan to me!
How handy!
Meanwhile, the Goomba King on the offensive.
This is the Goomba King. He’s really big. I mean, look at him! He looks really powerful. He’s the boss of Red Goomba and Blue Goomba. Who cares if he’s strong? You’re much stronger. Gee, I wonder what he ate to become so big? I’d like to be a bit bigger, too.
With Power Jump, the Goomba King is easy to wear down.
Goomba King is the first enemy to have more than one attack, this one hurtling Goomnuts down on Mario for decent damage.
It’s too little, too late though since one more round is enough to do the king in.
And what a kingly reward!
Yeah! I knew we could do it! Cooool!! Victory!!
And that’s that! Now we get full control and can do a few things. First, this area’s tattle.
I think there was a bridge between Toad Town and Goomba Village. If we head east, we’ll get to Toad Town. If we head west, we’ll come to my house in Goomba Village.
Guess we should start trying to find that bridge, huh?
Not in this tree!
If we try to enter the fort…
Of course, King Goomba! I hid it in the grass outside the fortress.
Outside the… You idiot! You didn’t hide it in here? Mario will find it for sure!
Oh! Do you think? You know…you might be right.
King Goomba, maybe we ought to try to trick Mario before he tries to…
Uhh… Might be a big late there, folks.
If you happen to find a strange switch somewhere, you should definitely not press it. It’s dangerous. Understand?
The castle proceeds to fall apart.
And with it goes the Goomba King.
At least we unlocked the bridge!
And on we go!
Until next time!
