Cat Mario

Cat Mario is a form of Mario introduced in Super Mario 3D World which he can transform into by using the Super Bell item. This suit is not limited to Mario, and can also be used by Luigi, Toad, Princess Peach, Rosalina and Bowser. Mario's suit is yellow, while Luigi's is green, Peach's is pink, and Toad's is blue, which match their colors (Luigi's suit, however, has rounded ears, a spotted body, and dark green ears and tail tip, making him resemble either a leopard, a jaguar, or a cheetah). Rosalina's is black, and resembles a tuxedo cat, while Bowser uses the Super Bell to become Meowser, the final boss of the game. For Mario Kart 8, Cat Peach appears as a playable character of her own in the first DLC add-on pack for the game.

In this form, the player can climb up walls for a brief period of time as well as climb up the Goal Pole. The player also has the ability to pounce on enemies from midair to scratch them with their claws. Cat Mario can also scratch enemies from close up on the ground as well as slide into them. When running across ground, Cat Mario clings to the ground and runs at a crouching height. He also has the ability to spin Cat Wheels, similar to Tanooki Mario in Super Mario 3D Land. Cat Mario can also break into a sprint significantly sooner than with any other power-up.

The form is similar to Tanooki Mario and Flying Squirrel Mario as they are all based on animals and can be used to reach higher places. He has white and orange fur with brown stripes, similarly to a tiger, a ringed tail, cat ears instead of horns, whiskers, and his nose is black. Also, his hair is colored red, white and brown, and his shell appears to become more blueish. Like Cat Goombas and Cat Bullet Bills, his form is similar to a transformation than an actual suit.

Obtaining a Lucky Bell lets Mario turn into another form of Cat Mario known as Lucky Cat Mario, which lets him turn into Golden Statue Mario, similar to Statue Mario from Super Mario 3D Land. Its appearance is similar to that of a maneki-neko.

The Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo Wii U's eShop offers a video series called The Cat Mario Show which stars both Cat Mario and Cat Peach. The purpose of the series is to provide watchers with facts, strategy tips, quizzes and other content regarding the latest video games released for the Nintendo 3DS or the Wii U.

Trivia

 * Unlike the other characters' cat suits, Mario and Rosalina's suits don't match their color clothing.
 * When in Cat form, a jingling sound can sometimes be heard when the player jumps.
 * In the beta version of Super Mario 3D World, whenever Mario transformed into Cat Mario, he would say "Nya Nya", which is Japanese for "meow". In the final version, this was changed to "Meow meow" instead.
 * The Cat Cruiser kart in Mario Kart 8 has decoration that resembles the playable character (from Nov 2014) Cat Peach.
 * According to Iwata Asks: Super Mario 3D World, the reason for Rosalina's cat suit being black was by a request from Super Mario 3D World producer Yoshiaki Koizumi.