Just Deserts

Just Deserts is a Super Mario Bros. comic story, originally published in Nintendo Comics System #1. It was reprinted in The Best of the Super Mario Bros. and again in Nintendo Comics System Featuring... #5.

Synopsis
One day in the desert, King Toadstool is driving a go-kart with Mario and Luigi in the back. Unfortunately, they run over a cactus, which shreds the wheels. The King pulls out his portable throne to rest on while Mario and Luigi get to work to fixing the tires, getting tire repair kits from a nearby vending machine that a Toad named Benny had installed there. Meanwhile, King Koopa and his Cobrat minions are in their hidden headquarters under a pyramid, watching them. King Koopa pushes a key on his computer keyboard that makes an oasis appear behind the Mushroom King. The Mario Bros. think it is a mirage, but the King runs off to go swim in it anyway. Seeing what a good time the King is having in the oasis, the Mario Bros. go to join him, but right when they reach it, Bowser makes the oasis disappear, taking the King with it, and Mario and Luigi hit the sand.

The brothers hop into their go-kart and drive off, searching for the King. They come upon another vending machine, this one dispensing ransom notes and sundries. Luigi gets a ransom note saying that the King is being held hostage, and if they want to set him free, they must leave ten million Koopabits by the tiny pyramid. The brothers are puzzled by this, not realizing that they're parked right on top of the tiny pyramid - which is actually the very top of Bowser's hidden pyramid. Annoyed with the plumbers not understanding his ransom note, Bowser makes his pyramid rise from the ground, leaving Mario and Luigi teetering atop the pyramid. They drive down, but go through a window into the pyramid and crash into the pyramid basement, where they find the oasis and the King. Mario finds an exit with their names on it (literally) and presses the "Master Mirage" control button, destroying Koopa's fortress and sending Koopa and the cobrats in the middle of the desert. Mario then turns the go-kart into a limousine using the mirage controller as the three of them drive back to the Mushroom Kingdom.

Trivia

 * King Koopa's design in this comic is the closest any of the Nintendo Comics System installments came to using his design from the games. However, just like in all his other NCS appearances, he is still colored about the same as in the DiC Entertainment television cartoons, and he still has a crown instead of a mane.