Geno

"I serve… a higher authority…"

- Geno

Geno (whose real name is ♡♪!?) is a warrior from Star Road and one of Mario's partners in Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. He is sent by "a higher authority" to restore peace to Mario's world. During the events of Super Mario RPG, he teams up with Mario's team, which consists of Mario, Mallow, Princess Toadstool and Bowser and helps them out on their quest to defeat Smithy. In battle, he has high attack, but lower defense.

Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
When Smithy launches his attack on Mushroom Kingdom, he decides to make Bowser's Keep his base of operations. Exor crashes into the castle and occupies it. However, as Exor fell from the sky, he shatters the Star Road. Seven Star Pieces are scattered throughout Star Road as a result. With the Star Road broken, wishes cannot be granted. Because of this, Geno is sent to retrieve the Star Pieces and restore the power of wishes to the world.

Some time later, Rose Town is besieged by the Smithy Gang. Bowyer is launching arrows into the small town and paralyzing people. As a result, the people of Rose Town cannot leave their homes for fear of being paralyzed by one of Bowyer's arrows.

During this time of crisis, Mario and Mallow arrive in Rose Town. The pair enters the Town Inn to seek shelter from the arrows. Inside, Mario sees a young boy named Gaz playing with his dolls of Mario, Toadstool, and Bowser. Gaz's mom, asks Mario to play with her son. Gaz pretends to be Mario, and Mario pretends to be Bowser. Unfortunately, he plays too rough, and activates Geno's "Super Star Shot" by accident. Instead of hitting the Bowser doll, the blast hits Mario, knocking him out.

That night, a single star being, enters the Inn. Seeing the four dolls on the floor, the star decides to inhabit the Geno doll, but has problems with walking, such as the fact he hit the walls many times, but then, his victory animation was seen, surely he learned how to walk after so much time flying. Later, Geno admits he chose that particular doll because it appears to be the strongest of the four.

The next morning, Gaz tells his mom that he saw a living Geno walk into the Forest Maze. Because of this, Gaz receives a time out from his mother for telling a lie. Mario believes the kid's tale and enters the woods to find the animated doll. Geno enters the forest to challenge Bowyer, the arrow-firing fiend, and retrieves the Star Piece that Bowyer discovers. Mario and Mallow decide to help Geno, and together, the three defeat Bowyer and acquire the Star Piece.

After defeating Bowyer, Geno realizes he needs help recovering the remaining Star Pieces and decides to join forces with Mario and Mallow. Geno reveals to the heroes that he is a warrior from Star Road and that he assumes the form of a doll to fight the Smithy Gang. Additionally, he states that wishes can never come true again until all the Star Pieces are recovered. He also reveals his real name, ♡♪!?. However, this is impossible to pronounce, so the star warrior assumes the name of the doll: Geno.

Eventually, Mario, Mallow, Geno, Bowser, and Toadstool collect the remaining Star Pieces and defeat Smithy. With Smithy destroyed, Geno decides to leave the doll's wooden body, returning to the form of a star and bringing the Star Pieces to Star Road. Repairing the celestial road, the power of wishes return to the world. The lifeless Geno doll can be seen sitting behind Mario and company on Vista Hill while they witness Exor disintegrate.

Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
Geno's doll form makes a cameo in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga. He appears as the mechanical host of the Star 'Stache Smash arcade game in Little Fungitown, explaining the rules of the minigame. However, he does not return in the remake, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions, where text bubbles replace his role.

Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U
Though not available as a fighter, a costume based on Geno was released as DLC for Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. Although the hat can be worn by any Mii Fighters, the costume is exclusive to Mii Gunners. The DLC was released during December 2015, alongside the Chocobo hat, Cloud Strife, and the Midgar stage. This is fitting as the character of Cloud is owned by Square Enix, who also developed Super Mario RPG, and owns the rights to Geno.

Nintendo also released a QR code for those who wish to have the exact Mii used in the costume's advertising.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Geno is one of the selectable icons for use in the online Battle Arenas in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. He also appears as a Spirit.

Super Mario-Kun
Geno appears in the Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars volume of the Super Mario-Kun manga. Being an adaption with a few tweaks, he fills the same role as he did in the game.

Other appearances
While Geno is not in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Masahiro Sakurai has stated that Geno was considered for the game, but was not followed up on for unknown reasons.

Description
Geno acts as a sage-like figure to Mario and his allies. Consequently, Geno offers the heroes advice about matters the others may not understand. For instance, after Mario and his allies liberate Bowser's Keep, Bowser decides to quit the team and return to the castle. However, Geno points out that until Smithy and his factory are destroyed, Bowser's Keep is still at risk. Thus Bowser decides to continue the fight.

Geno has a variety of attacks which use a mix of physical and energy projectiles. His regular attack involves shooting physical projectiles from his arms. His special attacks typically involve powerful energy blasts. Additionally, Geno is the fastest of Mario's allies.

Personality
Geno's personality is strongly based on his confidence and attitude. Geno has more of a defiant, heroic attitude. His eagerness to confront the villain may be due to his status as an authority figure from Star Road. He also tends to show more enthusiasm than any other party member.

Geno comes off as very powerful from his first appearance as a doll when Gaz attacks using Geno and accidentally hits Mario and knocks him out. However, when Geno tries to fight Bowyer, upon striking Bowyer will say, "Strong you are, but stronger am I!" One of Geno's magic powers is also potentially the most powerful attack in game, Geno Whirl. If timed just right, it deals 9,999 points of damage; if not timed right, it does average damage at best. The skill works only on regular enemies, as well as Yaridovich, Machine Made, and Exor.

Although powerful, Geno is quite amiable, quick to make friends with Mario and Mallow. He has a strong sense of duty and responsibility, and his role on Star Road may be analogous to Mario's role in the Mushroom Kingdom. He even worries over the "ownership" of his physical form, and promises to return the body to the home from whence it came.

Battle
Geno is a very potent offensive character overall, having the highest speed of any party member (30), comparable attack stats to Bowser, and high magic attack stats and potent special moves primarily revolving around single and multiple enemy attacks. His one support move, Geno Boost, bolsters attack (and defense if timed properly) stats even further. When equipped with the Feather, Geno is the only character capable of defeating a Shy Ranger (provided Mario does not have the Super Suit + Attack Scarf combination). However, his HP growth begins to stall after level 20 and his special equipment is subpar at best, with his ultimate weapon, the Star Gun, not being as powerful as that of others, such as Mario's Lazy Shell, while his ultimate armor, the Star Cape is the second worst in the game, making him relatively weaker in both attack and defense power later in the game despite his high base stats. Still, Geno Boost and Geno Flash, one of the strongest special moves in the game that strikes all enemies, make Geno useful to have on any team.

Special moves

 * Geno Beam - Charging up his energy, Geno shoots a deadly energy beam at one enemy. Holding Y until three stars appears will deal more damage.
 * Geno Boost - Using magic, Geno boosts an ally's attack. After all the arrows disappear, pressing Y will boost the ally's defense as well.
 * Geno Whirl - Geno throws a disk of light at one enemy. If timed correctly, the attack will do 9,999 damage. This does not work for boss characters (except Exor and Yaridovich copies).
 * Geno Blast - Geno summons light energy from the sky, damaging all enemies. Holding Y until three stars appears will deal more damage.
 * Geno Flash - Geno transforms into a large cannon, then shoots a large ball of energy, damaging all enemies. Holding Y until three stars appears will deal more damage.

Initial Stats in Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars

 * Level - 6
 * HP - 45
 * Speed - 30
 * Attack - 60
 * Defense - 23
 * Magic Attack - 25
 * Magic Defense - 17
 * Experience Level - 234 (254 after defeating Bowyer)
 * Special Attacks -
 * Geno Beam -
 * FP Required - 3
 * Magic Power - 40
 * Description - Geno shoots an energy beam at one enemy. Hold Y until three stars appear.

Trivia

 * Geno's real name is different in the Japanese version of Super Mario RPG, using a one-time set of unpronounceable symbols derived from a fictional star language.
 * The sprites of Geno's star form when possessing the Geno doll and those seen at the end of the game are vastly different, the former being a small, white, almost realistic star while the latter was a yellow, more traditional Mario star surrounded by yellow dots. Similarly, the sprites of the Geno doll when playing with Gaz and the one sitting pose of it seen at the end of the game are proportionally inaccurate to each other.
 * Although Geno appears in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, he is an intellectual property of Square Enix, as noted in the end credits of the game. They state, "Regardless of the above-mentioned, the copyright of Geno, reserved by Square Enix, Co. Ltd." (despite intellectual property laws for most countries maintaining that any element created specifically for a specific setting belongs to the owner of said setting, which in this case would be Nintendo).
 * When Geno uses a Special Move a symbol of a star is superimposed over his body. This also happens to be the only one of the aforementioned Special Moves that is not a playing card symbol.
 * Prior to the North American release of the Super Mario RPG, Nintendo Power wrote that Geno was described by Square as "Pinocchio".