Cosmic Mario

Cosmic Mario is a character in the game Super Mario Galaxy. He appears as a starry clone of Mario, similar in appearance to Shadow Mario; interestingly, if the player collides with Cosmic Mario, Star Bits come out. When a Cosmic Comet is orbiting a galaxy, Cosmic Mario will appear from it and challenge Mario to a race. Mario then has to race through numerous obstacles against Cosmic Mario to get to the Power Star.

If the player is playing as Luigi, Cosmic Luigi will appear in place of Cosmic Mario. Cosmic Luigi is far more intelligent, making use of short cuts and many long jumps. As a result, he is much faster than Cosmic Mario. This is done to add some extra challenge when playing as Luigi. While similarly named, the character Cosmic Wario, from Wario: Master of Disguise, has nothing to do with Cosmic Mario or Cosmic Luigi.

Cosmic Mario has a very high-pitched voice. Cosmic Luigi's voice sounds the same as Cosmic Mario's, despite the fact that normal Mario and Luigi have different voices. When Cosmic Mario appears in front of Mario, he says, "Come on!" while Cosmic Luigi only says, "Let's go!"

Cosmic Mario appears to be the equivalent of Koopa the Quick and Il Piantissimo from Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine, respectively. Spooky Speedster, also from Super Mario Galaxy, is a racer as well.

Trivia

 * At the start of a race, if the player holds Z at the beginning of the countdown, and then hits A just as the race starts, Mario (or Luigi) will get a extra boost at the beginning of the race. This move is called the Starting Boost.
 * During the "Underwater Cosmic Mario Race", Cosmic Mario's Koopa Shell is Blue.