Snowman (generic)
| Snowman | |||
|---|---|---|---|
   Various snowmen as seen in Donkey Kong Jungle Beat (left), Super Princess Peach (middle), and Super Mario Galaxy (right) | |||
| First appearance | Super Mario 64 (1996) | ||
| Latest appearance | Princess Peach: Showtime! (2024) | ||
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Snowmen are a common ambient element in snow-themed levels of the Super Mario franchise. A number of distinct characters and species in the franchise, such as Mr. Blizzard, Flurries, and Sorbetti, are essentially animate snow sculptures, but there are also generic instances of snowmen that feature interactive qualities or otherwise play a prominent role. These generic instances are documented on this article.
HistoryEdit
Super Mario seriesEdit
Super Mario 64 / Super Mario 64 DSEdit
In Super Mario 64 and Super Mario 64 DS, a giant, unnamed snowman with blue eyes and a pine tree on top appears in Snowman's Land. The snowman gets upset with Mario as he tries to use the ice bridge in front of its face and tries to fling him away by blowing a strong, constant wind current out of its mouth. A large penguin waddles across the bridge, which Mario can use as a shield from the snowman's wind. In Cool, Cool Mountain, a headless snowman must be fully assembled during one of the course's missions. The game also features snowman enemies called Mr. Blizzard.
Super Mario GalaxyEdit
Snowmen in Super Mario Galaxy also lie in cold climates, such as the backside of the icy planet in the Freezeflame Galaxy and the Snow Cap Galaxy. These snowmen have Star Bit features and orange hats, and are made up of two segments. It takes two fireballs from Fire Mario or Luigi to destroy them, with each destroying one segment. If the Star Bits have not already been collected via the cursor, they will scatter everywhere when it is destroyed.
Super Mario Maker 2Edit
In Super Mario Maker 2, snowmen in the likeness of Mario and Peach appear as background objects in snow-themed levels. As of the 3.0 update for the game, they also appear in Super Worlds. When a course icon is tapped on and held, some options appear which the player can use to customize how that course icon looks (give it a pool of water, replace it with a Galoomba, etc.) If the player selects the option to put snow around it, a snowman resembling Mario also appears within the snow. When that course is cleared, the snowman's hat and scarf turn green, causing it to resemble Luigi instead.
Super Mario Bros. WonderEdit
In Super Mario Bros. Wonder, large snowmen appear on the giant snowball in Outmaway Valley as it rolls during the level's Wonder Effect.
Mario Kart seriesEdit
- Main article: Snowman
The snowmen in the Mario Kart series have a highly consistent and distinctive build. Such snowmen most often appear as obstacles, with one being playable in Mario Kart World.
Mario Kart: Super CircuitEdit
Mario Kart: Super Circuit features snowmen that do not follow the design of the ones seen in other Mario Kart series. They appear off-road throughout the course Snow Land. The course's later iterations in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Mario Kart Tour use the typical Mario Kart snowmen instead.
Diddy Kong Racing / Diddy Kong Racing DSEdit
In Diddy Kong Racing and its Nintendo DS remake, snowmen are decorative obstacles similar to trees in Snowflake Mountain, usually on hills where they can only be hit by the plane. Snowmen in the remake's optional touch challenge against Bluey the Walrus throw snowballs to attack.
Paper Mario seriesEdit
Paper MarioEdit
Snowmen in Paper Mario act as the guards of the secret door to Shiver Mountain in the area of Shiver Snowfield. The only way to get past them is to bring them a scarf for the scarf-less snowman and a bucket for the hat-less snowman. After Mario does this, the snowmen thank Mario and open the door to Shiver Mountain for him. In addition, Mario will be able to receive items when he sleeps in the Toad House in Shiver City after he helps out these snowmen. Goombario's tattle says, "It's a snowman. There're so many of snowmen![sic] They don't melt because it's cold here. The way they're standing...they remind me of gatekeepers."
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year DoorEdit
A Bob-omb snowman, built by a Bob-omb named Gob, makes a very minor appearance in Fahr Outpost in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door.
Donkey Kong Jungle BeatEdit
In Donkey Kong Jungle Beat, Snow Men[1] are decorated with bananas, a scarf, and a blue hat. Groups of appear in cold climate levels, such as Ice Warren and Aurora Glacier, and upon noticing Donkey Kong, the Snow Men shift their heads into his direction and attempt to block his path. Snow Men often remain in one position and stare at Donkey Kong. Donkey Kong can easily defeat a Snow Man by sliding into it or by using his Sound Wave Attack. Upon defeating one, Donkey Kong is rewarded with a banana.
Super Princess PeachEdit
Snowmen also appear in Super Princess Peach, where they are dressed in an orange scarf with a matching beanie that both have white pom-poms on them. They appear in some of the levels of Gleam Glacier, serving as merely harmless obstacles, and Peach can destroy them by hitting them with Perry or melting them with the fire from her Rage vibe. Snowmen usually release coins upon being destroyed. Some snowmen block doorways.
Super Mario-kunEdit
In volume 36 of Super Mario-kun, a snowman first appears in the beginning of the chapter, where Baby Luigi finds a broken snowman and rebuilds it. It then saves the Mario Bros. by stopping a Shroob bomb from exploding, but the captain shoots a laser at the snowman, leaving Baby Luigi crying. After Baby Luigi freezes the Shroobs, Baby Mario rebuilds him, ending the chapter.
Mario & Sonic seriesEdit
Snowmen appear in the Winter Olympic Games installments of the Mario & Sonic series. In the Nintendo DS version of Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games, snowmen appear during the adventure mode, where if Mario or Sonic interact with a Snowman, its hat will either reveal a brief or occasionally a heart. The game also features snowmen as obstacles in the Dream Event Blazing Bobsleigh. In Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games, Snowmen with hats and green cloaks with a star pattern and the Sochi 2014 logo are obstacles in Groove Pipe Snowboard, where they slowly move around the course; hitting a snowman slows the player, but it also destroys the snowman.
Yoshi's Woolly World / Poochy & Yoshi's Woolly WorldEdit
In Yoshi's Woolly World and Poochy & Yoshi's Woolly World, snowmen appear in A Little Light Snowfall, being made of yarn with buttons for eyes and on their front. Yoshi can stand on a snowman. Even bigger snowmen appear in the level's secret areas, one of which has a hidden Winged Cloud behind it.
Yoshi's Crafted WorldEdit
A snowman appears in Yoshi's Crafted World as two crafts: one in Poochy's Tape Trail made from twisty tape with a pink hat on, and the other made of paper mâché with two twig arms on a polar bear-shaped iceberg in Slip-Slide Isle. It has a nose that is also made from a twig and its blue hat as described by the Blockafeller of Chilly-Hot Isles is made from a plastic bottle cap.
Princess Peach: Showtime!Edit
The stage A Snow Flower on Ice in Princess Peach: Showtime! has a section where Peach must free three Dancer Theets who are trapped in snow, two of which are trapped inside snowmen. The dancers inside the snowmen freeze audibly before Peach rescues them by using Sparkle on the snowmen.
Unused appearancesEdit
Paper Mario: Sticker StarEdit
Pre-release footage of Paper Mario: Sticker Star shows Mario walking by a snowman in a snow-themed level, though it is unknown if it can be interacted with or is merely aesthetic.
GalleryEdit
Snowman craft from Yoshi's Crafted World
Names in other languagesEdit
| Language | Name | Meaning | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Japanese | Yukidaruma |
Snowman | |
| スノーマン[3] Sunōman | |||
| Italian | Pupazzo di neve[4] | Snowman; Lit. "Snow puppet" |
See alsoEdit
- The snow sculptures of Super Mario Galaxy 2, which resemble Goombas, trees, and Bowser.
ReferencesEdit
- ^ Donkey Kong Jungle Beat internal filename (ObjectData/SnowMan.arc)
- ^ Okamoto, Daisuke, and Norio Ando (STF) (2006). 『スーパー プリンセスピーチ任天堂公式ガイドブック』. Tokyo: Shogakukan (Japanese). ISBN 4-09-106268-7. Page 94.
- ^ Donkey Kong Jungle Beat Shogakukan book. Japanese. Page 171.
- ^ «Pupazzo di neve» – Crafts list (2019). Yoshi's Crafted World. Nintendo of Europe (Italian).
