Piranha Plant
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A Piranha Plant (パックン フラワー Pakkun Furawā?) is a Venus fly trap-like enemy in Nintendo's Super Mario video games, and they also have appeared in games made by Naughty Dog. Piranha Plants are almost always portrayed as a leafy green stalk topped with a white-spotted green or red globe, almost bisected by a toothy white mouth. Like Super Mushrooms, their coloring resembles that of the hallucinogenic Amanita muscaria and they are one of the most instantly recognizable Mario-related creatures, appearing in almost every Mario game. They are also the precursor to "ambush" enemies. They were most likely inspired by the Audrey Junior plant in the 1960 cult film The Little Shop of Horrors.
Piranha Plants typically hide within pipes, periodically emerging and ensnaring unwary passersby. There are two varieties of normal Piranha Plants: green and red. Often they have big white lips around enormous, toothed maws. Green Piranha Plants don't attack people that are touching their pipes, but the faster-moving Red Piranha Plants (which originated in the Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2, a.k.a. Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels) will emerge even if someone is standing next to or on the very edge of their pipes. Pipes infested with such plants are usually vertical, but horizontally dwelling Piranha Plants are not unknown, and some even hang from the ceiling. They are most dangerous when their pipes are the only platforms across a ravine. Some species can also spit fireballs (such as the Venus Fire Trap in Super Mario Bros. 3), or even jump all the way out of their pipes. Others live entirely outside pipes, being either rooted in the ground or even walking about on rootlike legs. Although they are immune to jump attacks, Piranha Plants are vulnerable to projectiles, such as fireballs, Troopa shells, and hammers.
Contents |
[edit] Appearances in the Mario series
Piranha Plants originally appeared in Super Mario Bros., being, in fact, the third enemy Mario encounters; and they have otherwise changed little since their first appearance. (They were absent from the American Super Mario Bros. 2, due to the game's unusual origins, unless one counts the fire-spouting, non-carnivorous Panser plant, which may very well be a relative of the underwater Lava Lotus and land-dwelling Volcano Lotus. The Panser came in three colors: red ones who would shoot their fireballs in an angle towards its enemies, gray ones who would shoot their fireballs in a straight-upward kind of pattern, and pink ones who also shot fireballs in an angle, but also had the ability to walk and chase their enemies.)
Super Mario Bros. 3 introduced several new piranha plant species: Venus Fire-Trap (spits fireballs), Ptooie plants (which could blow spiked balls), and two sub-species: the hopping Nipper and the indestructible Muncher. Additionally, the king of World 7 in Super Mario Bros. 3 is transformed into a Piranha Plant in the original NES game.
The jumping Piranha Plant and other Piranha Plants are replaced by the jumping Pumpkin Plant and other Pumpkin Plants once the Special World is completed in the video game Super Mario World.
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island had introduced another change in the Piranha Plant's design, which was used later in Paper Mario, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Super Mario 64 and other games. There was also a boss called Naval Piranha, which is a regular Piranha Plant powered up by Kamek, causing it to protude many vines and grow in size. Yoshi's Story was the first to introduce towering, tree-sized Piranha "Stalks" (in other words, their stems were tall, thorned, beanstalk-like stalks), which the Piranha Grove swarmed with. Yoshi's Story also introduced the juvenile Piranha Plants and baby Piranha Plants: Flying juveniles called Piranha Pests and walking seedlings called Piranha Sprouts.
Naval Piranha makes a reappearance in Tetris Attack, the Super Nintendo puzzle game remade from the Japan-only Panel de Pon, which is basically the same game with different characters. The Naval Piranha is the tenth boss out of twelve overall, but is the final boss of Easy mode. Naval Piranha replaces the original tenth boss of Panel de Pon, the Dragon. Naval Piranha gained a voice in this game as well.
Super Mario RPG showcased Piranha Plants in their usual red, white, and green, as well as a few different palette-swapped forms. The regular variety is referred to as Piranha Plant; others include Chewy and the boss Smilax.
In Super Mario 64, they appear in three variants - the first, and most commonly seen is the sleeping Piranha Plant. They will become annoyed when Mario (or anyone) awakens them, snapping wildly at them. Then they go back to sleep once Mario goes away. The next two are large and small Piranha Plants, which appear on Tiny-Huge Island. The visuals of the Piranha Plants were upgraded in Super Mario 64 DS.
Although normal Piranha Plants did appear as enemies in Super Mario Sunshine in Bianco Hills, most of this game's Piranha Plants were huge and paint-covered. A lot of the goopy Piranha Plants seem to be actually made of paint, but a variant of them (a humungous, goopy Piranha Plant head that rolls) suggests that they may be actually Piranha Plants. This game also introduced Petey Piranha and supported the fact that Piranha Plants can be squirted in the mouth to defeat them, and "organic" ones can be fattened up on water.
In Paper Mario, Piranha Plants come in many shapes and forms, including the Chapter Boss, Lava Piranha. In the sequel, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, the Piranha Plant is actually the strongest form of the species, and appears only in the Pit of 100 Trials, while the weakest is the Pale Piranha.
Piranha Plants appear in New Super Mario Bros., in and out of pipes, and also as fire-spitting Venus Fire Traps and large Super Piranha Plants. They both make a weird cry when they are defeated.
The Piranha Plant also appears in The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening.
[edit] Eating habits
Piranha plants are not picky eaters and will swallow just about anything. Their favorite food is the Yoshi population, however the Venus fire traps seem to love fireballs and Mom piranha loved the element that signified the color she was (Red for fire, blue for electricity). Most Piranha plants eat anything but the piranha plants on Isle Delphino are very fond of Bowser Jr's Paint. In Super Mario RPG, Piranha Plant's loved Shy aways Watering can water, and would grow larger when watered.
[edit] Habitat
Piranha plants are most well known for living in the pipelines in the mushroom kingdom, especially in the underground segments.
Piranha plants also thrive on Yoshi's island because Yoshi's species (being their favorite food source) live there and Naval Piranha thrives there as well.
In Paper Mario, Piranha plants thrive in the forever Forest. There are also Putrid Piranhas that thrive on Yoshi's island in paper Mario, primarily to eat the species (Two of them almost have a Yellow Yoshi kid for lunch) and Frost Piranha's thrive in the cold climates. The Lava Piranha lives on Yoshi's island as well, and loves to BBQ Yoshi's for lunch.
In Paper Mario 2, Colorless Piranha Plants live in the puni forest, Putrid Piranhas thrive on keelhaul key, and frost Piranhas once again, live in cold climates, and the original Piranha plants live in the pit of 100 trials.
In Super Mario RPG, Piranha Plants live in Beanstalk way, far away from the Mushroom Kingdom, they enjoy the Shy Away's watering can and are usually very calm.
Finally, Some Piranha lants live in Bianca Hills, but only because of Bowser Jrs Paint.
[edit] Other media
On the television series based on Super Mario Bros., Piranha Plants made various appearances, usually acting as obstacles for the heroes, much as they do in the games. In the Super Mario Bros. 3 cartoon, Venus Fire Traps and Ptooie plants were used in a manner similar to guns. Additionally, a Super Mario World episode called "Fire Sale" featured a vociferous, wise-cracking Venus Fire Trap named Mama Fire Plant, whom Kootie Pie kidnaps in order to heat her domain in Iced Land.
[edit] Notable Piranha Plants
[edit] Naval Piranha
Naval Piranha is a magically empowered Piranha Plant who first appeared in the video game Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island with many vines growing out of her.
Naval Piranha has three attacks, the first of which is a ramming attack. In the second attack, Naval shoots Nipper spores out of her mouth which become Nippers if they touch the ground to make Yoshi's fight more difficult. For Naval's last attack, she sends her vines to attack Yoshi.
A very easy way to beat her is to have an egg, stand on the leftmost edge of the bridge (if you go past the first wooden plank of the bridge it doesn't work) carefully aim at the piranha plant (which becomes Naval Piranha), and destroy it. Kamek will appear, scream "OH MY!!!" and run away. You then get the key.
Naval Piranha also appears in the video game Tetris Attack, as the second of four bosses. She appeared as a villain along with Hookbill the Koopa, while Raphael Raven had turned good. This game confirmed her gender, through hearts she would litter her speech with.
Naval Piranha also made a small appearance in Mario Party Advanced as a boss. In the game's closing credits it says she now lives and thrives in the desert
Naval Piranha is not to be confused with the Lava Piranha boss from Paper Mario, despite the two looking almost identical.
[edit] Lava Piranha
Lava Piranha is the boss of the fifth chapter of Paper Mario. He is assisted by two Lava Buds, who have eight HP each. If you don't leave them alone, the Lava Buds will summon a small fireball, which is registered as a character in the fight (And Called Putrid piranhas for some strange reason) and has 1 HP, but takes away 6 HP from Mario. The Lava Piranha himself has a flame attack that takes away five HP, and he has 40 HP.
After defeating Lava Piranha (Lava Buds and fireballs are not needed to win), it looks like you've won the chapter. You even get Star Points. But suddenly, the ground rumbles, and the Lava Piranha and the Lava Buds burst out of the ground, with fire on their heads. They all have the same HP as before. Now, many attacks from you and your partners will not damage them and get 1 point of damage themselves, unless you have specific badges that protect you from the fire.
Lava Piranha's flame attack is now 7 HP of damage. Almost everything is stronger.
After defeating him, he will be gone for good, and you will have almost finished chapter 5. Now that Misstar is freed, you just have to escape the volcano (after some humorous cutscenes). The Lava Piranha is seemingly gone for good.
Lava Piranha has a loose grip on English, but it is a wonder he can speak an understandable language in the first place. The Lava Piranha actually has a worse grip at English than its underlings, the Putrid Piranhas. While the Putrid Piranhas speak like they are in the military, the Lava Piranha says stuff like, "ME GUARD STAR SPIRIT. MARIO WANT STAR SPIRIT. MARIO BAD. HUCK HUCK HUCK!"
[edit] Petey Piranha
Main article Petey Piranha
Petey Piranha is a goop spewing Piranha Plant that first appeared in Super Mario Sunshine. Since then he has become a regular in the Mario series, reappearing in Mario Pinball Land, Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time, New Super Mario Bros and Super Princess Peach as a boss, and becoming a playable character in Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour, Mario Power Tennis, Mario Kart: Double Dash!!and Mario Superstar Baseball. This makes Petey the first playable Piranha Plant character in the Mario series. His "lips" are green instead of white like most piranha plants. (In Super Mario Sunshine however, all Piranha Plants' lips are green.)
[edit] Smilax
Smilax was a large piranha plant in Super Mario RPG. He started out as what appeared to be an ordinary piranha plant, but, with the help of Shy Away became a huge, 3-headed plant similar to Lava and Naval Piranha called Megasmilax.
[edit] Spin offs
In the SNES/GBA game Mr. Nutz, there were Piranha Plant lookalikes. In the second level, the plants were small from far away, but grew large when the player would get close to them. In addition, it is said that the Deku Babas from the Legend of Zelda Series resemble Piranha Plants.
[edit] Appearances in non-Nintendo games
Piranha plants also appear frequently in the Crash Bandicoot series of video games. In these games their only means of self-defence is biting and swallowing any living creature who approaches them, though some forms in Crash 2 can spit explosive projectiles through their mouth instead. Unlike their Mario counterparts, they can only be killed by jumping or belly flopping on their heads, or not at all in Crash Team Racing. They may appear in a purple, red or orange colour, depending on its native environment. A harmless piranha plant also appears in Naughty Dog's first Playstation 2 game, Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy in Samos the Sage's hut, as a nod to the Crash franchise. Some not-so harmless piranha plants also appear in Daxter.
[edit] External links
| Good Guys | Crash | Tawna | Aku | Coco | Polar | Pura | Rex | Trophy Girls | Crunch | Pasadena | Penta | Fake Crash | Ernest | Chick | Stew | Von Clutch | Park Drones | |
|---|---|
| Neutral | Brio | Papu | | Krunk | Nash | Norm | Geary |Viscount |
| Uka Uka and His Villains | Cortex | Ripper Roo | Kong | Pinstripe | N. Gin | Komodo Bros. | Tiny | Uka | Tropy | Dingodile | Rilla Roo | Elementals | Trance | Nina | Rusty |
| Other Villains | Oxide | Evil Crash | Amberly | Tikimon | Zam | Zem | Evil Twins | Bearminator | Ripto | Willie|Emperor Velo the 27th |
| Enemies | Tribesmen | Lab Assistants | Piranha Plants | Ants |
| Items | Crystals | Gems | Wumpa Fruit | Relics | Gem Shards |
| Areas | N. Sanity Island | Cortex Castle |
