Video Game / Super Mariomon

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Super Mariomon is a Rom Hack of Pokémon Emerald developed by Too Many Productions, led by Alpharad. The hack features the setting and characters of Super Mario Bros. transplanted into a Pokémon game, complete with Mario enemies as the equivalent Pokémon.

Super Mariomon contains examples of:

• Adaptational Heroism: Compared to Super Paper Mario, where he was Luigi subjected to becoming Brainwashed and Crazy, Mr. L is just Luigi in a Paper-Thin Disguise attempting to be a (marginally) more threatening adversary.
• Adaptational Sexuality: Pauline, who only ever had eyes for Mario, is in a romantic relationship with Rosalina in this game.
• Anti-Frustration Features: The game features many quality-of-life features present in other ROM hacks of Pokémon Emerald and later games in the base series:
  • The Tattledex is extremely thorough and contains everything you need to know about a Capture, including the moves it can learn, its Hidden Ability, its stat spread, and the requirements for it to evolve.
  • TMs are unlimited use and moves can be relearnt at any time and at any place, meaning a Capture can never lose a move permanently.
  • The PC can be accessed anywhere using a Key Item.
  • The Escape Rope is now a Key Item, unlimited use, and present in your starting inventory.
  • HM moves are now distinct key items instead of requiring a move slot. The Warp Pipe (the equivalent of Fly) is obtained very early in the game for easier navigation.
  • In battle with a wild Capture, you can press the R button to throw Caps instead of having to navigate through the Items menu each time.
  • Healing is abundant; every town has an NPC who will perform a full party heal, even in places that don't have a Pokémon Center. Additionally, your party will automatically be fully healed before most consecutive battles.
• Artificial Stupidity: In World 5, you team up with Captain Toad, who starts with a Hammer Bro packing three weather-changing moves and its Secret Art Hammer Throw. Whenever you team up with him in a Wild Battle, however, he has a tendency to just constantly change the weather or sometimes even use a weather move that's already in effect without attacking, leaving him a sitting duck for the enemies most of the time. This can thankfully be subverted by simply catching more Captures for him, though. This was fixed with version 1.4, where his AI was improved in order to make such situations happen less often.
• Aside Glance: In World 5, Bowser silently stares directly at the camera in response to hearing that the Guardian of the Golden Banana used a priceless mystical artifact to clean his toilet, and then lost it on top of that. He then calmly orders Kamek to launch him into the stratosphere for his stupidity.
• Athletic Arena Level: For World 2, Princess Daisy managed to hijack one of Bowser's airships to repurpose as a Striker Stadium. Her puzzle consists of turning electric barriers on and off to get a Bullet Bill into the goal.
• Background Music Override:
  • When fighting Sonic, the usual legendary theme plays at first (a remix of Hooktail's theme), but then he transforms into Super Sonic, and the music changes to a full remix of Live and Learn.
  • When you're in the postgame area of Shiny Galaxy, the background music will continue to play during any of the battles with wild Captures you get in.
• Bait-and-Switch: One Power Star was assigned to Bowser Jr., and he would have served as the boss for World 8. However, his dad has some unfinished business with the Mario Bros., and so he's fought instead, leaving Jr. to be The Unfought. At least until the postgame, where Bowser himself is out of the picture and Jr. can be fought properly.
• Bat Family Crossover: The Tattledex and various NPCs come from several corners of Mario's shared universe, the mainline platformers, the RPGs, and even the spin-offs that star other characters. And one whose only interaction with the Mario universe was in certain non-canon crossovers.
• Bragging Rights Reward: The Crown Cap is this game's version of the Master Ball, and is given as a reward from E. Gadd after catching the Legendary dragon trio of the game. Those three are already quite difficult to catch, so E. Gadd lampshades this and notes that you probably won't have much reason to even use such a powerful item. In the postgame, there are three more Legendaries to catch, so it may actually find a use after all, provided you haven't caught them before catching the dragons.
• Capture Balls: In this mod, the Pokéballs are rendered as Caps, which are used for capturing the various Mario species.
• Casino Park: Waluigi is fought at the Casino Kingdom, even including the conveyor belt tiles used in Team Rocket facilities. And much like the Game Corners in Kanto and Johto, the player can exchange coins for captures.
• Competition Freak: Waluigi explains this before his battle against Mario, thinking of himself as the ultimate gamer.
• Continuity Nod: After E. Gadd explains the C.A.P. challenge involves going around and recruiting team members, Luigi compares it to baseball.
• Damn You, Muscle Memory!: The mod is based on a Generation III game, but contains elements from later generations, including the Fairy-type and the frostbite status condition.
• Developer's Room: Alpharad and the game's developers appear in E. Gadd's Lab in New Donk City. You get the chance to battle Alpharad after beating the Champion.
• Dinosaurs Are Dragons: The T-rex from Super Mario Odyssey is a Dragon-type capture. And so is the alien dinosaur Yoob.
• Dirty Coward: Main Street's Loan Shark clearly enjoys terrorizing people who come to him for loans and is perfectly happy to have his goons kill them for not repaying their debts. But once he sees Mario kick his goons' asses when they ambush him at Bowser's Castle, he runs for his life and decides to just forget about the debt since Mario is as far from an easy target as he can get.
• Diverging Evolutionary Phases: Yoshi, upon evolving from Baby Yoshi, can evolve into several different forms: three of which are the colored Yoshis (Red, Blue, and Yellow) from Super Mario World that require the corresponding colored shell, plus Yoob if brought to level 50 instead.
• Elite Four: After getting all eight Power Stars, Mario can head to Rainbow Road for his final challenges. The Elite Four being composed of Toadsworth, Kamek, Princess Peach, and E. Gadd.
• Even the Girls Want Her: Daisy has several swooning fangirls openly crushing on her in Cloud Cap, much to the annoyance of a Toad NPC in their vicinity.
• Expy: Several of the captures in-game are designed to be functionally identical to mainline Pokémon. A few examples:
  • Hammer Bro has the Forecast ability and has different forms depending on the weather, much like Castform.
  • Podoboo and Blargg serve as fire equivalents to Magikarp and Gyarados. Blargg even has a nearly identical stat spread to Gyarados, barring a point or two.
  • Dry Bones is equivalent to Shedinja, as a mon with 1 HP and Wonder Guard that you need an empty slot after evolving Paratroopa to acquire.
  • Fuzzy is incredibly weak but has the Schooling ability, which activates at level 20 and transforms it into the much stronger Fuzzy Swarm, exactly like Wishiwashi.
  • Bristle is a Shuckle equivalent, having incredibly low offenses but incredibly high defenses in turn, even sharing the same 505 BST, although its stat spread is a little less extreme.
  • Super Fly is a Fighting/Flying-type with incredible speed, is well-rounded in terms of its other stats, and gets Unburden as an ability, making it very similar to Hawlucha.
  • Lubba has the exact same stats as Blissey, and is similarly a Special Defense Stone Wall.
  • Duplighost's only known move is Transform, and it has Imposter as one of its abilities, firmly cementing it as the game's version of Ditto. It can even breed with any obtainable capture. Unlike with Ditto, this includes the legendaries. Or at least, it did until the anniversary update changed that by altering all Legendaries' egg groups to Undiscovered.
  • Virus has three different forms, with different types, each with a unique move to learn, and must be changed by interacting with an object, making it similar to Rotom and its many forms. Unlike Rotom however, where all of its forms are generally a Jack of All Stats, the Viruses have differing stats. ^note Chill Virus is quite fast, but that's about it, Fever Virus has decent speed and good attacking stats, but lower defensive stats, while Weird Virus is fairly well rounded statwise.
  • Yoshi references multiple lines and archetypes:
    • Yoshi can evolve into three separate Yoshis (red, blue, and yellow) depending on what shell you give to it, which makes it quite similar to the Eeveelutions. Birdo, while a separate and already fully evolved species, evokes the same idea (and is more of a Sylveon analogue), as both it and the three coloured Yoshis even have the same stat total and spread that the Eeveelutions have, with three stats that are below average, one that's about average, and two good to great stats, just allocated differently. Red Yoshi even has the exact same stat spread as Flareon, and shares an ability (Flash Fire).
    • Yoshi can also forgo the shells and evolve at Lv 50, rewarding a patient player with Yoob, making it the pseudo-legendary of the game as well. They also evolve quite late, are usually also Dragon-type, and Yoob also has 600 BST just like them.
  • Pyoro's design was, by the admission of Alpharad himself, based on Absol. It shares its Dark-typing, general stat spread and two abilities (Justified and Super Luck) with Absol.
  • Boss Brolder, much like Coalossal, is a Rock/Fire-type that evolves from a pure Rock-type, gets Steam Engine as an ability (in this case, its only ability), and has nearly identical stats save for trading 10 points of Special Attack over to physical Attack.
  • Antasma is a Darkrai expy, right down to having both Bad Dreams for its ability and Dark Void in its movepool.
  • Sonic, being the game's strongest Legendary (and strongest Capture, period), fittingly incorporates elements from other Legendary Pokémon. Their stats are similar to Zeraora and Galarian Zapdos, being a fast Glass Cannon whose typing is a mix of the two (being Electric/Fighting), and even has their signature moves in Plasma Fists and Thunderous Kick. Mechanically, they're quite similar to Zygarde with its Power Construct (and in some spoiler-free TattleDexes the ability is outright referred to as Power Construct rather than Chaos Emeralds), having an ability that lets them transform into a much stronger form at lower HP. This ability is actually even better than Power Construct, since it will protect the user from being knocked out by direct damage, and once it triggers, it'll restore the user's health back to full, and all opposing stat changes and abilities are negated.
  • The 152nd capture, Tiptron, is reminiscent of the Mythical Pokémon earlier in the franchise, with base 100 stats across the board and a vast movepool. It specifically most resembles Mew, with its ability to learn every TM, HM and Move Tutor move.
  • As far as characters go:
    • Peach is a Normal-type Star Commander that is also pulling double duty as an Elite Four member using a different type (Fairy), which brings Larry to mind.
    • Kamek is Bowser's right-hand man and is also a member of the Elite Four, not unlike Malva. Both even specialize in Fire types.
    • E. Gadd is the game's professor, and gives Mario and Luigi the choice of Starter Mon. Similarly to Professor Kukui, he'll also be fought at the end of the game, albeit as just one of the Elite Four rather than the Final Boss.
• Gender Bender: It is possible to get a female King Boo since it is the final evolved form of a common Boo capture. Similarly, it is also possible to get a female King Bob-omb or Petey Piranha as a starter (even if the gender ratios are heavily skewed towards male like typical Starter Mons). Lubba is another example of this as they are the evolved form of the Luma capture, but unlike the previous examples, she's female in canon while possibly evolving from a male Luma here.
• Genre Throwback: Before you fight Wario, you must fight Red, who stepped right out of Gen I, complete with actual Pokémon rather than Captures. His Pokémon are Gen I powerhouses, down to even using moves like Blizzard and Hyper Beam... except that both moves are long past their heyday, as this game's engine follows Gen IX mechanics. The former became less accurate and weaker over time, while the latter was only used because of an oversight that let the user skip the recharge turn if it got a KO, which got fixed in later generations.
• Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: Sonic. After becoming the Champion, he just appears from nowhere right outside your house and flees to Green Hill Zone (Yes, THAT Green Hill Zone), where you can fight and catch him. The simple fact there's a Sonic the Hedgehog character in what is supposed to be a Super Mario Bros. fangame is completely out of place. Then Alpharad has another one...
• Green Hill Zone: World 1-1 shows up as the starting route, depicted as a lush, grassy plains with question blocks littered about to start you off on your journey. The Trope Namer itself also shows up in the postgame, where you get to fight and have a chance at capturing Sonic.
• Guest Fighter: Sonic the Hedgehog himself appears as a post-game boss, suddenly appearing outside your house and then fleeing to Green Hill Zone. He is catchable just like everyone else, and oh boy, is he strong.
• Guest-Star Party Member: Captain Toad tags along with you for the majority of World 5 due to the area's focus on Double Battles (er, Wild Battles). Mario will switch between having him tag along, making him a partner in battle, or separating from him and having him move on his own, swapping control between the two. Due to only starting with a single Capture, the player will even have to catch new ones for him in order to progress.
• Jungle Japes: World 5 is the jungle world, themed after the Jungle Kingdom from the movie.
• Loan Shark: Found on Main Street, a Toad with blue spots will loan you some Purple Coins to spend at Waluigi's Casino, and will occasionally sic his Pianta henchmen on you to repay some of your debt. The player is actually never given the option to repay the debt themselves even if they have enough Purple Coins to do so; it only goes away when the loan shark has his Pianta minions try to throw you into lava at Bowser's Castle when your interest becomes too high, only for Mario to defeat them and intimidate the shark into cancelling it.
• Mundane Wish: As Luigi was the first to beat the C.A.P. challenge, he has first rights to having his wish granted. His wish is simply to go home with his brother... as well as a copy of Super Mario Bros. 3 for the NES.
• Musical Spoiler: In Bowser's Castle, the halfway point is a rest area, and appropriately has the theme of the All-Star Rest Area from Super Smash Bros. Brawl playing. A Super Smash Bros. track that you hear not too long before the fight with Giga Bowser, who is originally a Smash creation.
• Mythology Gag: Plenty of them:
  • Koopa Troop trainers are wearing helmets and wielding spears like how they did in the Illumination movie.
  • Wild Boos can be found in Castle Gardens, referencing how Boos appeared in the castle courtyard back in Super Mario 64.
  • Luigi can nickname his starter capture after his partners from Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door.
  • World 5's mechanic of teaming up with Captain Toad who is capable of solving puzzles only he can (as he has the Power Glove, the equivalent to the Strength HM to push boulders around, and he can enter small gaps in trees that Mario can't), while there's stuff only Mario can solve (he can use jump pads, or break blocks) brings to mind Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga. Just like it, there are times where the Bros. must separately solve puzzles using abilities only they have, before joining up together again.
  • A Koopa Troopa mentions that Koopley went off in search of a dragon (that being Hooktail). In Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Koopley fought Hooktail 10 years before the events of the game.
• Nerf: Between versions, while most Captures ended up getting some new tools or got reworked, some ended up being just a bit weaker in the process.
  • As of version 1.4:
    • Magikoopa can no longer learn After You. This is due to it also having Prankster, which would've let it basically ensure that its partner could move first, no matter how slow they were.
    • Lubba once had the ability Triage, which gave +3 priority to healing moves (and it had a few that took advantage of this ability), and that helped get past its rather poor Spd. It was instead changed to Victory Star, which boosts the accuracy of its moves and its partner's moves instead. It also had access to Follow Me, which is amazing on a capture with the same stats as Blissey, but it was removed from its movepool.
    • The Final Boss fight against Champion Mr. L, aka Luigi was incredibly difficult initially, with Captures that have maxed out IVs and optimal EV spreads, and with a team that had movesets and items that would be seen in competitive environments. Alpharad felt this was a bit much, and the fight was toned down since. (Ironically, he was also the one who previously lobbied for a stronger final boss and got a bit more than he bargained for.)
  • As of version 1.5:
    • Spark was the most broken capture in the game, aside from Capture #151. It's the second fastest Capture in the game, and learns Electrify, which lets it go first and turn the opponents moves into Electric-type, which it'll absorb with Lightning Rod to boost its Special Attack. After a few uses of this strategy, Spark will have sky high Special Attack and sweep the opposing team with no resistance on their end. Naturally, Electrify was removed from its movepool.
    • Birdo, with its base 130 Special Attack, base 140 power Boomburst, and Pixilate to turn it into Fairy-type and boost its power even further, was essentially a walking Fairy-type nuke. Its Special Attack was thus lowered to 115.
• The Nicknamer: Unlike every other NPC, Luigi nicknames all his Captures. Even his entire team while pretending to be Mr. L is nicknamed. The only other nicknamed Capture in the game is Kamek, to distinguish him from any standard Magikoopa.
• Oddly Common Rarity: The red Bullet Bills launched from red Bill Blasters are considered Shiny, and since they can fire an infinite amount of them, Shiny Bullet Bills are incredibly easy to obtain.
• Olympus Mons: Like any Pokémon romhack this game has a group of captures equivalent to the mainline series legendaries, they are: Exor, Hooktail, Gloomtail, Bonetail, Antasma and Sonic the Hedgehog. Version 1.4 would add a Mythical into the game in Tiptron.
• One-Steve Limit: A humorous aversion as a consequence of Theme Naming for the trainers. The Kong Guards in World 5 are named after Pokémon professors, while the Toads and Lakitus in Rainbow Road are named after the Champions. As Professor Kukui is both a professor and the Champion stand-in in Sun and Moon, this results in there being two Kukui's in the game.
• One-Winged Angel: Bowser transforms into Giga Bowser for one final attempt at taking down Mario.
• Optional Boss: Ashley holds one of the passwords needed to get to Wario, but she's willing to just give it to you to send you on your way without a fight. She even asks you if you want to battle, to which you can say no and move on.
• Orchestral Bombing: When Mario catches Bowser playing "Peaches" on the Mad Piano, he chews Mario out for interrupting him just as he was getting to the good part and orders the Elite Trio to attack him. The fight against the Elite Trio's teams ends up being scored to "Peaches".
• Paper-Thin Disguise: The champion of the game is Mr. L, who is clearly just Luigi in a disguise.
• The Pawns Go First: All of Bowser's Capture battles play out as standard battle fare, but after all of his captures go down, he himself gets involved in the battle.
• Pretty Princess Powerhouse: Princess Peach is one of the most capable trainers in the CAP challenge, not only being the main organizer and the first Star Leader trainers must face, But she is also part of the Elite Four, only bested by the Champion of the Mushroom Kingdom. Given that Alpharad is directing the game, this shouldn't be too surprising.
• Pungeon Master: Cranky Kong has plenty of primate-based puns to tell in this game, even doing some stand-up comedy.
• Recurring Boss:
  • As expected of a rival, Luigi is fought several times throughout the story, as he's also doing the CAP Challenge alongside Mario.
  • Bowser, being the villainous team leader stand-in, is also fought multiple times, culminating in a Climax Boss fight against him in his castle. And his transformation into Giga Bowser is basically the box cover Legendary fight of the game.
  • If you do the Loan Shark mission and obtain 5000 Purple Coins without repaying the debt, you will be ambushed by two Pianta goons in multiple areas. Once you beat 'em at Bowser's Castle, they eventually give up and the mission is complete.
• Recurring Element: The game's structure matches that of a typical Pokémon game in many ways.
  • You get a choice of Starter Mon that's Grass, Fire, or Water-type. Here, it's Piranha Plant, Bob-Omb, or Blooper. They also remain exclusive to the main characters (Mario and Luigi), and are otherwise not seen or inaccessible until the postgame (where Luigi gives you the first stage form of his, and E. Gadd gives you the other one, and all three are available in a postgame area), as other starters in the Pokémon games tend to be.
  • Luigi serves as The Rival, and is very much a Friendly Rival, down to even using the starter that's weak to yours. Friendly doesn't mean he isn't formidable though, as he'll challenge you fairly often, and builds up a good team of Captures.
  • The eight Power Star Leaders (Peach, Daisy, Wario, Waluigi, Donkey Kong, Pauline, Rosalina and Bowser Jr.^note Although Bowser Jr. is The Unfought until the postgame, as Bowser claims to have "unfinished business" with the Mario Bros. and fights them instead, and you get the badge after Giga Bowser is defeated) are basically the game's Gym Leaders, and you're often tasked with solving some puzzle or helping out with a local area's troubles before you're able to challenge 'em.
  • Bowser and the Koopa Troop serve as the game's villainous team analogue, while Bowser himself can be seen as a sort of secondary rival due to being fought just as frequently as Luigi. In typical Bowser fashion, whenever he shows up, there's trouble brewing around the corner. His underlings even share the same encounter theme as Team Aqua/Magma's. World 8 takes place in Bowser's Castle, and is a confusing interconnected maze of rooms not unlike one of the many villainous team bases encountered late in the game, while Kamek and the Elite Trio (Private Goomp, Corporal Paraplonk, and Sergeant Guy) are analoguous to villainous team Admins. Bowser is fittingly the Big Bad and leader of this villainous team, and also serves as the title/box legendary fight stand-in when he transforms into Giga Bowser.
  • After getting all eight Power Stars, you're allowed access to Mushroom Hill, and traverse a perilous Rainbow Road, the game's Victory Road. Many tough trainers are fought here, including Luigi, and though many Victory Roads have puzzles to solve, this one requires good karting skills instead. Once you've made it to the peak, you face the Elite Four, and like in games from Black and White onward, you can do it in any order. And just like in a few of the Pokémon games, your rival is the Final Boss.
  • After the credits roll, you'll have access to a secret, super powerful Legendary to fight, not unlike Mewtwo or Rayquaza awaiting the the newly crowned Champion. Just like those two, Sonic also has an even stronger form he can transform into. There's also a Legendary trio that are hiding throughout the game's world and take a bit of effort to seek out, not unlike the many Legendary trios of the Pokémon games.
  • v1.4 introduces Tiptron, who acts as the game's equivalent to a Mythical Pokémon. It only appears in the postgame, only one can be obtained, and it can't be bred; like Mew, it has a BST of 600 (100 in each stat) and can learn every teachable move in the game.
• The Rival: Luigi serves as your friendly rival, fighting you at various points in the game. He picks the starter weak to yours.
• Running Gag: Once per world, there's a room/house that has a group of gamer Toads that each speak about loving Super Mario Bros. 3, to varying degrees of fervor. By the end, right after Luigi makes his humble wish to go home with Mario, he quickly makes one more request: wanting a copy of Super Mario Bros. 3.
• Quest for a Wish: The plot of the game is that Princess Peach is holding a special tournament, where if one participant gets all 8 of the Power Stars, they'll be granted a wish, with the Mario Bros. naturally participating. Bowser's also vying for the wish, and thus acts as an obstacle for the Mario Bros. Luigi gets it in the end, as he became the Champion before Mario did.
• Serial Numbers Filed Off: In-Universe. After seeing how popular the game Pyoromon is, Wario attempts to create a knockoff called Wariomon. And even then, the game he ends up with is literally just the actual Pokémon game, which glitches out and forces you to fight Pokémon Trainer Red before Wario himself.
• Shifting Sand Land: The pipe to World 6 was supposed to send Mario to the Metro Kingdom, but by the time Mario has access to it, it needs fixing and ends up sending him to the Sand Kingdom.
• Ship Tease:
  • Luigi gets this with both Daisy and Bowser:
    • Alpharad has stated that he intentionally portrayed Bowser and Luigi's relationship as toxic yaoi. Luigi becomes very attached to Bowser after they team up, and Bowser's betrayal of Luigi is portrayed like a breakup, with Luigi even saying that Bowser broke his heart.
    • After Mario defeats her and obtains her Power Star, Daisy explicitly asks him to tell Luigi that she will be waiting for him. Later on, after crashing through the roof of the Toad Town market, Daisy gets disappointed that Luigi wasn't around to see it.
  • Rosalina and Pauline can be found spending time together on what is all but confirmed to be a date in the post-game.
• Shout-Out:
  • When exploring Diamond City, Mario can come across a Pianta named Felonius that goes off about a Freeze Ray and some Minions. Talking to the Minions can have them randomly say "Banana."
  • Within Kong Kapital, there's a Ukiki who tries his magical chant of "Ei-Ei-Poo" and wonder if being in another universe means that it won't work.
  • When you take the faulty pipe to Sand Kingdom, Wario enters right as you leave asking "Where's the leak, ma'am?".
  • A quest in New Donk City requires Mario to retrieve a long thingy thing, a short gizmo gadget, and a secret ingredient.
  • In World 2, a Shy Guy asks whether you want to do a one-space vertical jump for a Nut, or a one-space diagonal jump for a Super Nut.
  • Like the original game, the hack has a few messages in Braille... but one is gibberish when translated, because it's actually just a post-modern rendition of Loss.
  • In World 6, a Koopatrol commands a Koopa to count how much sand there is in the desert.
  • World 7 has a couple of references to Among Us:
    • In one of the areas, there are some panels of glass and either grass patches or bushes that are arranged to evoke the appearance of one of the Crewmates. For added reference, the Toad that is standing on one of the glass panels has the following line to say after being defeated:
      Altair: Really though, it's almost as if there's an impostor among us.
    • In another area, there's a blue Toad that's just relaxing on the edge of the map, and you're given the option to give them a light nudge. If you do so, they go flying off into space. And just in case the reference wasn't obvious enough, it is immediately followed by the following message:
      TOAD was ejected.
• "Simon Says" Mini-Game: Mario has to match Jimmy T.'s dance moves to get his attention enough for a proper battle, which ends up being this in practice as you memorize his overworld walk cycles.
• So Long, and Thanks for All the Gear: Defied, as Captain Toad gives you all of his captures and important items during your time together in World 5 once the Bowser situation has been sorted out for that chapter, except for his Hammer Bro.
• Speaks Fluent Animal: Captain Toad can understand the Kongs' language (referred to as "Monkeese") perfectly, acting as a translator for Mario and subtitling the dialogue of any Kong spoken to if he's nearby.
• The Speechless: Donkey Kong never speaks, even after Mario gets a translator that lets him understand all the other Kongs. Cranky Kong does the talking for him.
• Starter Mon: Piranha Plant, Bob-omb, and Blooper are your possible starter captures. Luigi picks the one weaker to your starter.
• Superboss: The game has several Mario themed legendaries that you can fight as distractions from the main story, but the strongest of them all, Sonic the Hedgehog, can only be fought after beating the game. You can also fight Alpharad at the Developer's Room, who upon first meeting him explicitly tells you to come back to him after you've become the Champion. He even leads with the aforementioned Sonic.
• Theme Naming: A number of trainers have certain themes in their names depending on the trainer class or where they're located.
  • The Toads in World 1 are named after various Nintendo and Game Freak staff members such as Koji (Kondo), Shigeru (Miyamoto), and Satoshi (Tajiri).
  • The trainers in World 2 are named after types of clouds; in World 3 they are named after precious metals; in World 4 they are named after types of mushrooms.
  • Shamans wandering around Ashley's Mansion are named after the family of Portrait Ghosts from Luigi's Mansion.
  • The Kong Guards in World 5 are named after the Pokémon Professors. Meanwhile, the Koopa Troop members are named after various other plants.
  • The trainers in the Sand Kingdom of World 6 are named after Mexican landmarks, and the trainers in World 7 are named after constellations.
  • Similar to the Kong Guards, the Toads and Lakitu trainers on Rainbow Road are all named after the Pokémon Champions, fitting the Victory Road comparison.
• Unusable Enemy Equipment:
  • Bowser can't be legitimately obtained by the player, except in the randomizer mode introduced in v1.5. Justified as the only character who has him is, well, Bowser, the implication being that he is cheating by fighting you himself after running out of captures.^note Bowser can be obtained via a glitch; catch an Uproot in an older version of the game, make it faint, then immediately flee, causing it to stay in its "busted" form after the battle. Then update to v1.4, and it'll abruptly transform into Bowser with no explanation. And if your Uproot was shiny, Bowser will be shiny too!
  • It is impossible to obtain the Pokémon that Red uses during the battle against him, even in randomizer mode.
  • Subverted with Kamek, who at first appears to be a boss-only encounter in the same manner as Bowser. However, he's really just a nicknamed Magikoopa, which you can catch after you first fight Kamek.
• Vice City: Ever since Waluigi has set up his casino in the swamp, Main Street in World 4 has been booming, but Purple Coins have replaced the traditional coins as currency. Some Bandits will even force you to cough up some Purple Coins right after you defeat Waluigi.