Big Penguin

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

- Big Penguin

The Big Penguin, also known as the Penguin Champ, Champion Penguin, or Racing Penguin, is a giant penguin appearing 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 (or Yoshi, Luigi, or Wario in the DS version) drops in through the chimney, the Big Penguin will speak to Mario and challenge him to a race. If Mario accepts, he will have to race down the icy slide in the mountain and beat the penguin to the finish line. The penguin will give Mario a Power Star if beaten. However, if Mario takes a shortcut by jumping onto another section or if he takes the hidden shortcut, the Big Penguin will accuse him of cheating and disqualify him. If Mario races the Big Penguin again after obtaining all 120 Power Stars (150 in the remake), he is even bigger and can easily knock Mario 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 him, the Big Penguin will make 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 the course Snowman's Land.

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.