Tetris tribe

The Tetris tribe is a race of humans with the capability of shapeshifting into anthropomorphic s. They appeared in two volumes of the Super Mario manga series published by KC Deluxe. They are dark-skinned humans wearing pre-Colombian civilization clothing, such as leaf skirts and feathered headgears, but in their Tetrimino form, they look like normal Tetriminos with human limbs and faces.

They make their debut in Super Mario Land 2, where it is explained that they once ruled in the ruined Tetris ōkoku more than 6,000 years ago, before they retreated into their temple to guard the treasure of King Tetris. With time, the treasure of Tetris and its tribe became a legend among the Mushroom Kingdom citizens, but the few that go looking for it have the chance of being put to the test with a real-life challenge of Tetris: if they pass, they may proceed to the treasure, otherwise they are turned into slaves to carry Tetriminos for the challenges or put to rest at the bottom of the water basin in their temple.

In the present time, the leader of the tribe is German, a harsh and cheating guardian. When Mario duels with King Tetris (who is Bowser in disguise), Peach, Goro-chan, and a rescued Luigi try to stop German from assisting King Tetris by telling him him which Tetrimino will be dropped next. To stop them, German orders the nearby tribe men to turn into their Tetrimino form and fuse together into the Gattai Tetris Ningen, but Luigi manages to destroy it by crashing a mine cart against it.

Later in the volume, Bowser dons the King Tetris disguise again to lead an alien invasion on the Mushroom Kingdom. To his aid, he uses the Tettoman Shichininshū, a group of seven superhero-like individuals with a Tetrimino for a head, though it is not clear if they are part of the tribe or a separate species.

Both the Tettoman and the tribe (in Tetrimino form) reappear in the following volume, where the latter aids Bowser-King Tetris in a Tetris-ice hockey match by disguising themselves as polar bears, before they reveal their identity and Mario and his friends use them in place of Tetriminos to win the game.