Boss Bass

A Boss Bass is a huge fish found in Super Mario Bros. 3. They swim on the surface of the water trying to lunge out and eat Mario when he gets too close. In some of the levels, platforms rise and fall, making Mario an easy target. Throwing blocks and fireballs can defeat them, but they'll eventually come back. However, in the GBA version, if the player has set on the e-reader card that will make enemies hit by fireballs turn into coins, and the player successfully hits Boss Bass with a fireball and collects the coin, Boss Bass will not return for the rest of the level.

The Cheep-Chomp from New Super Mario Bros. has similar qualities to the Boss Bass. Another enemy in New Super Mario Bros., Spike Basses, patrol the surface of water levels, similar to the Boss Bass. However, Spike Basses will not try to eat Mario.

Boss Basses are found in Yoshi's Island DS as well as the first known female Boss Bass known as Bessie Bass.

Boss Basses eat Cheep-Cheeps, but have trouble distinguishing them from something else, as proven in Super Paper Mario when a Shayde said that he fell into the ocean once, but luckily could swim as well as a Cheep-Cheep. Unfortunately, a Boss Bass thought that since he swam like a Cheep-Cheep, he was a Cheep-Cheep and ate him.

Boss Basses are similar in both appearance and behavior to the Red Blurps from Yoshi's Story. They are also possibly related to the identical-looking Big Bertha.