Thwomp
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Thwomp (ドッスン Dossun?) is a creature found in many video games from the Super Mario Bros. series, usually found guarding castles. It first appeared in Super Mario Bros. 3 and has been included in almost every Mario game since.
Thwomp is a large, heavy stone block with an angry-looking face. It hovers in the air, waiting for someone to get too close, and then THWOMP!; it falls and crushes him. Although Thwomps are invulnerable to most attacks, they are destroyed on contact with a invincible-wielding character. In Super Mario Bros. 3, they can also be destroyed by hammers. Tanooki Mario can even turn the tables on them by luring them into dropping and then jumping onto them, turning himself into a statue before landing. In New Super Mario Bros., they can be destroyed by a character enlarged by a Mega Mushroom.
In Super Mario Bros. 3, Thwomp first appears in the mini-fortress found in World 2 (Desert Land). Thwomp appears in many other mini-fortresses throughout the game. Thwomp also appeared in The Adventures Of Super Mario Bros. 3.
Thwomps are either blue or gray. In the early games, Thwomp was covered with spikes that could skewer Mario from any direction. Since 1996, the spikes have vanished, and Mario can jump on top of it. The spikes did make a reappearance in Super Mario 64 DS, though this did not eliminate Mario's ability to jump atop a Thwomp. The spikes have since been on Thwomps in new Mario games released after Super Mario 64 DS, including New Super Mario Bros.
Thwomps had a minor appearance in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door: Mario and his partners meet a Thwomp inside Shhwonk Fortress outside of Petal Meadows. This Thwomp challenges players with an assortment of questions and players must answer the questions correctly if they want to proceed. A robotic Thwomp appears in the X-Naut's base on the moon and, like the previous one, this Thwomp also asks questions in order for the player to proceed.
In Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour, Thwomps were obstacles in Bowser Badlands where they fell on your ball when it rolled underneath them, stopping it from moving.
[edit] Variations
Thwomp's big brother, Whomp, is a Mario character that crushes by toppling onto the player's character. Whomp was first introduced in Super Mario 64, on his own fortress, Whomp's Fortress; later, he was used as a blockade in party mazes in Mario Party games. Whomp returned to action games in Super Mario 64 DS and later New Super Mario Bros.. Whomp seems to be inspired by the nurikabe, a monster in Japanese mythology that took the form of an ambulatory, sentient section of wall that could turn invisible and liked to get in the way of travelers.
In Super Mario World, there was a smaller version of Thwomp, about the size of a standard block, that hopped back and forth, called Thwimp.
In the Mario Kart series, Thwomp is often presented as an obstacle on the Bowser's Castle courses. There was a strange green Thwomp that was locked behind the bars of a cage in Bowser's Castle in Mario Kart 64 - he was affectionately named "Marty" by fans and people began posting false rumours on how to unlock him. His true name was never revealed.
Thwomps also make appearances in Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time. First, there is a similar enemy, called Thwack (Found on Thwomp Volcano), which has various facial expressions on its sides, and a stronger form, called Wonder Thwack (Found on Star Hill). Several Thwacks can join together to make a Thwack Totem (a totem pole of Thwacks). A boss battle in the game involves fighting a Thwomp named Mrs. Thwomp. Mrs. Thwomp looks like a thwomp in most cases but is round, has hands, and has no spikes. Her eyes also look like those of a Whomp. In battle, she can split in four.
A version of Thwomps appeared in the flash game N. In this game, they are called Thwumps; however they appear as a bluish-gray orb instead of a square block. They behave much the same way as their Thwomp progenitors, but they seem to be robotic creatures instead of stone and have no spikes, instead electrocuting anything that touches the bottom side of them. They can, however, be jumped on. The game's description of them links them to the Thwomps: "According to legend, in pre-robotic times there existed a race of large, spiky stone bastards, whose complete invulnerability and hereditary hatred of heroic Italian plumbers led to their persuction, and eventually to extinction. Thankfully, they've been recreated, in robot form, and 3 of their 4 sides have been rendered harmless."
Thwomps also appear in certain areas in The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. In this game, they are depicted with only one eye, and come in three forms: the Thwimp, a tiny, red Thwomp, which behaves as a normal Thwomp and falls from the ceiling, unlike the Thwimps in Super Mario world; the Thwomps, which are large-sized, blue, spiky Thwomps which have one gigantic eye and a worried facial expression, and their heads can be used as a platform to stand on, much like the Thwumps in the flash game N; and finally the Mad Thwomp, a new form of the Thwomp created just for this game. It appears as a large, red Thwomp with two eyes (unlike the other Thwomps in the game) and has an angry facial expression. It will not lift up when approached, and must be dashed into with the Pegasus boots. There is a boss Roulette Thwomp in The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages at the end of the second dungeon. In order to defeat him, one had to throw a bomb into the hole on his top side when his face was red. This is possible because the view is from the side rather than aerial.
