Nipper Spore

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"Puff ball" redirects here. For the enemies in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island referred to as "Puff-Balls" in issue #43 of the UK Nintendo Magazine System, see Fuzzy (Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island).
Nipper Spore
Character artwork for Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
Artwork from Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
First appearance Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (1995)
Latest appearance Yoshi's Crafted World (2019)
Variant of Piranha Plant
Variants
Relatives
Comparable

Nipper Spores or puff balls[1] are enemies with the ability to form into Nipper Plants when landing on to the ground. Nipper Spores generally resemble red spheres attached to white balls of fluff via small, black or yellow stems.

History[edit]

Yoshi series[edit]

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island / Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3[edit]

Nipper Spore from Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3

In Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island and its enhanced port, Nipper Spores are first encountered in The Cave Of Chomp Rock. They descend slowly from a certain height to the ground. Simply touching one will cause Yoshi to drop Baby Mario off his back. Upon coming into contact with the ground, they transform into a Nipper Plant, which starts walking right away. Yoshi will swallow a Nipper Spore directly upon eating it, without producing an egg. He will lick his lips directly after doing so.

Yoshi's Story[edit]

In Yoshi's Story, Nipper Spores have spikes on them. They are also foul tasting, meaning that they will hurt any Baby Yoshi (except for the Black and White ones) that attempts to eat them.

Yoshi's Island DS[edit]

In Yoshi's Island DS, Nipper Spores first appear in the level Ba-dum BUM!. Throughout the game, some Nipper Spores are produced by Nipper Dandelions. When strong gusts of wind blow (usually caused by Windbags), the Nipper Spores are blown off of the Nipper Dandelion and into the air, until they land and become Nipper Plants.

Yoshi's New Island[edit]

Nipper Spores return in Yoshi's New Island, acting the same way as before. They are first encountered in the level Cave of the Nipper Plants.

Yoshi's Crafted World[edit]

Nipper Spores reappeared in the course Jumping to Victory of Yoshi's Crafted World. Their design and behavior remain unchanged from previous games.

Mario & Luigi: Dream Team[edit]

Nipper Spores also appear in Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, where Piranha Plants in battle spit them out into the background to create Nipper Plants.

Yoshi's Woolly World / Poochy & Yoshi's Woolly World[edit]

A Nipper Spore in the Scrapbook Theater
A Nipper Spore in Yoshi's Woolly World

In Yoshi's Woolly World and Poochy & Yoshi's Woolly World, Nipper Spores are first present in the level Sponge Cave Spelunking, where they act the same as in the Yoshi's Island series. Nipper Spore Patches are sometimes encountered in large blocks of wool that can be unwoven; they behave identically to a regular Nipper Spore.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate[edit]

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Nipper Spores are mentioned briefly by Viridi during Palutena's Guidance dialogue for Piranha Plant. Unlike most other variations generally mentioned in order of appearance, they are listed amongst Super Mario Bros. 3 debuts. Big Piranhas, Big Fire Piranhas, Small Piranhas, and Fire Stalking Piranhas are similarly listed out of order.

Profiles[edit]

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island[edit]

  • Player's Guide: These drift slowly from the ceilings of caves and forts. You can't make eggs out of them.[2]

Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3[edit]

  • Shogakukan guide: 綿毛のついたタネが地面に落ちると、プチパックンになる。タネの間は食べてもタマゴにならない。[3] (Seeds with fluff attached that become Nipper Plants when they touch the ground. They do not turn into eggs when eaten while they are still seeds.)

Yoshi's Story[edit]

  • Nintendo 64 Spieleberater: Damit das mit den Sporen kein Drama wird, sondern lustig, schluck' ich sie gleich in der Luft.[4] (So that the spores are not a drama, but fun, I swallow them in the air.)

Gallery[edit]

Names in other languages[edit]

The contemporaneous name for each language is listed first. Subsequent names are listed in chronological order for each language, from oldest to newest, and have the media they are associated with in the "notes" column.

Language Name Meaning Notes
Japanese プチパックンのたね[5][6]
Puchi Pakkun no Tane
Nipper Plant Spore
プチパックンのタネ[3]
Puchi Pakkun no Tane
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
Chinese (simplified) 钳人花种子[7]
Qiánrénhuā Zhǒngzi
Nipper Plant Seed
Chinese (traditional) Nipper Spore[7] Unmodified from the English name
Dutch Nipper Spore[8][7] -
French (NOA) Nipper Spore[9][7] -
French (NOE) Spore de Nipper[10][7] Nipper Spore
German Möchtegern-Spore[11][7] Wannabe Spore, named in relation to Möchtegern-Pflanze ("Nipper Plant")
Para-Sporen[4] Para-Spores Yoshi's Story
Italian Spora Tenaglia[12][7] Nipper Spore
Korean 새끼뻐끔의 씨앗[13][7]
Saekkippeokeum-ui Ssiat
Nipper Plant Seed
Russian Грызоспора[7]
Gryzospora
Nipper spore
Spanish Espora de Blantita1[14][7] Nipper Spore

1 - This name was lowercased as "espora de blantita" in Latin American localizations from 2012 to 2019.[15][7]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Feature: They start off as puff balls and turn into Nipper Plants" – Play Nintendo (March 18, 2023). Mario, Pokémon Trainer, Link & Yoshi vs TINY Encounters! 😱 Baddies & Battles Ep 3 | @playnintendo (2:25). YouTube. Retrieved March 19, 2023. (Screen capture.)
  2. ^ Miller, Kent, and Terry Munson (1995). Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island Player's Guide. Nintendo of America (American English). Page 128.
  3. ^ a b Watanabe, Takashi, Noriko Oketani, Mitsuharu Orihara, Tatsuhiko Mizutani, and Yasushi Nakahara, editors (2002). 『スーパーマリオアドバンス3任天堂公式ガイドブック』. Tokyo: Shogakukan (Japanese). ISBN 4-09-106071-4. Page 21.
  4. ^ a b Hein, Marko, John D. Kraft, and Thomas Rinke, editors (1998). Der offizielle Nintendo Spieleberater „Yoshi's Story“. Großostheim: Nintendo of Europe GmbH (German). Page 19.
  5. ^ Yoshioka, Seino (Muse Staff) (1998). 『ヨッシー全百科: カラースペシャル版』. Tokyo: Shogakukan (Japanese). ISBN 4-09-281158-6. Page 73.
  6. ^ Kataoka, Michiaki, Hideyuki Yoshizawa, Hiroshi Shibano, Satoru Watanabe, and Tomoya Sato (2017). 『ポチと! ヨッシー ウールワールドオフィシャルガイド』. Tokyo: Kadokawa (Japanese). ISBN 978-4-04-892795-6. Page 258.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k In-game name for Palutena's Guidance on Piranha Plant from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
  8. ^ Herinneringentent (3 Feb. 2017). Poochy & Yoshi's Woolly World by Good-Feel. Nintendo of Europe GmbH (Dutch).
  9. ^ Théâtre des souvenirs (3 Feb. 2017). Poochy & Yoshi's Woolly World by Good-Feel. Nintendo of America (Canadian French).
  10. ^ Théatre des ouvenirs (26 Jun. 2015). Yoshi's Woolly World by Good-Feel. Nintendo of Europe GmbH (French). (Archived 27 Sept. 2015 via JeuxVideo by marye43.)
  11. ^ Museums-Pavillon (26 Jun. 2015). Yoshi's Woolly World by Good-Feel. Nintendo of Europe GmbH (German). (Archived via YouTube by Domtendo.)
  12. ^ Teatro dei ricordi (26 Jun. 2015). Yoshi's Woolly World by Good-Feel. Nintendo of Europe GmbH (Italian). (Archived via Mario's Castle.)
  13. ^ 추억 극장 (4 Mar. 2017). Poochy & Yoshi's Woolly World by Good-Feel. Nintendo of Korea Co., Ltd. (Korean).
  14. ^ Guías Nintendo (2015). Enemigos. Guía Yoshi’s Woolly World (European Spanish). (Archived April 18, 2024, 12:37:03 UTC via Wayback Machine.)
  15. ^ Carpa de los recuerdos (3 Feb. 2017). Poochy & Yoshi's Woolly World by Good-Feel. Nintendo of America (Latin American Spanish).