Big Penguin

"I know speed when I see it, yes siree--I'm the world champion sledder, you know."

- Big Penguin

The Big Penguin is a giant penguin who debuted in Super Mario 64.

Super Mario 64 / Super Mario 64 DS
The Big Penguin, also known as the Penguin Champ, Champion Penguin, or Racing Penguin, appears in Super Mario 64 and its remake, Super Mario 64 DS. He is a competitor character along with Koopa the Quick, and he is raced only once in the game on Cool, Cool Mountain. He claims to be the world-champion sledder, and he seems to know Mario prior to the game's events, calling him "buddy".

The Big Penguin is raced against in the third mission of Cool, Cool Mountain. He can be found inside the house at the top of the mountain. When Mario, Yoshi, Luigi, or Wario drops in through the chimney, the Big Penguin speaks to him and challenges him to a race. If the player character accepts, he has to race down the icy slide in the mountain and beat the penguin to the finish line. The penguin gives the player character a Power Star if beaten. However, if the player character takes a shortcut by jumping onto another section or if he takes the hidden shortcut, the Big Penguin accuses him of cheating and disqualifies him. If the player character races the Big Penguin again after obtaining all 120 Power Stars (150 in the remake), he is even bigger and can easily knock the player character off the slide. There is no reward for winning the race again except for further praise from the Big Penguin.

In the original Japanese version, if the player loses to the Big Penguin, he makes a Koopa Troopa sound when talking instead of his own sound; this was fixed in other versions. Also in the Japanese version, the penguin uses the feminine pronoun 「あたし」 atashi to refer to himself.

An unrelated character also described as a "big penguin" appears in Snowman's Land.

Mario Kart 64
In Sherbet Land from Mario Kart 64, the Big Penguin can be seen walking in circles on an unreachable ice island.

Mario Kart Wii
The Big Penguin appears in Mario Kart Wii, with the return of the, and behaves identically to how he did in Mario Kart 64.

Trivia

 * In Super Mario Galaxy, penguins refer to Stars as gold medals; similarly, in Super Mario 64, when the Big Penguin gives Mario a Star after being beaten, he says that he cannot give Mario a gold medal.