Pionpi

Pionpi are strange, Chinese-like ghouls found only in Super Mario Land. Found in the Chai Kingdom, they will constantly try to jump on Mario. They can be temporarily stopped by being jumped on, which will also award Mario with 800 points. However, Pionpis will come back in a darker color and will be a little faster after each resurrection. Mario does not gain any more points if he jumps on them afterwards. To actually destroy them, Mario had to lure them off the level or shoot them with a superball.

Appearances in Other Media
In the Super Mario Land comics published by Valiant Comics, a Pionpi was shown to be Tatanga's second-in-command. In the issue "Team Play", this Pionpi leads Tatanga's invasion of the Great Wall of China and is also the only one of Tatanga's Elite Squadron to protest Herman Smirch's joining of Tatanga's forces.

Trivia

 * Pionpis are based on Jiang Shi, a mythical vampire and zombie-like creature supposedly originating from China.
 * They could be a predecessor to the Dry Bones, insofar as being an undead enemy who will ressurect upon being killed.
 * Pionpis are similar to the Darkstalkers character Hsien-Ko from the series based on Capcom.