Pal Pill
- “These are Pal Pills! Little pals will follow you and damage any enemy they hit.”
- —In-game text, Super Paper Mario
A Pal Pill is an item found in ? Blocks in the game Super Paper Mario. When used, it creates an 8-person army of miniature, 8-bit copies of the user, which then surround them in a circular formation. Each pal will mimic the player character's movement at an offset, until either it touches an enemy, which both damages the enemy and defeats the pal; it falls down a pit; or the player leaves the area.
The pals use sprites and sound effects from Super Mario Bros. If the player switches characters when they have Pal Pills, the pals will not change their appearance to match.
Super Dimentio has a similar attack where he releases 8-bit Luigis that will be defeated if they touch anything. These pals are slightly larger than those created by a Pal Pill.
Names in other languages[edit]
| Language | Name | Meaning | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Japanese | おたすけドット[?] Otasuke Dotto |
Assist Pixel | |
| French | Minipotes[?] | Mini buddies | |
| German | Kumpelkapseln[?] | Buddy capsules | |
| Italian | Pillole Amico[?] | Friend/Pal Pills | |
| Korean | 도트도우미[?] Doteu Doumi |
Pixel Helper | |
| Spanish (NOE) | Minialiados[1] | Mini-Allies |
Trivia[edit]
- The coloration of the Pal Pill item reflects Mario's color palette in true color, unlike the pals it creates, which follow the color limitations of their Super Mario Bros. sprites. This may be a leftover from pre-release versions of the game in which Mario's Mega Star form also used the same colors.
- In the Super Mario World animated series episode "Rock TV", an item similar to the Pill Pals appears. By hitting a ? Block, Princess Toadstool releases a brigade of miniature Marios who begin to attack the nearby Koopalings. The airdate of this episode predates the release of Super Paper Mario by 16 years.
