Frog

Frogs (Japanese: カエル, Kaeru) are a species of animals. In the Mario franchise, real-world frogs exist along with anthropomorphic frogs who are sentient and are capable of speech.

Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
The Tadpole Pond is inhabited by large, sapient frogs in the duration of Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. Mallow was raised by the frogs (specifically Frogfucius) and believed that he, himself, was a frog as well. The young tadpoles comprise a greater part of the population than the frogs, of which there are only two.

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
Smaller frogs later appeared in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island where they could be seen jumping around in some World 3 levels, they didn't have any effect on the gameplay and were mostly part of the background, also red and green frogs could be seen in the foreground of swamp stages (they are also unaffected by gameplay and were simply placed in the game for decoration). The game also features a sub-species of enemy frogs known as Frog Pirates and there was also a Frog Pirate boss called Prince Froggy.

Yoshi's Story
Frogs also appeared as enemies in Yoshi's Story during Stage 4-4: Neuron Jungle. They swarm any Yoshi crossing the lagoon. Although any Yoshi could eat them, Green Yoshi liked them best.

Diddy Kong Racing
In Diddy Kong Racing and its remake, several frogs live in the pond in the hub. One of these frogs, who has a tell-tale red crest upon its head, is actually Drumstick, who has been put into frog form by Wizpig. He can be freed if the player runs over him in a car.

Mario Party 6
In Mario Party 6, some frogs can be seen in the background of Towering Treetop.

WarioWare series
Frogs make minor appearances in WarioWare series. In WarioWare: Mega Microgame$ microgame What's the Toadal?, frogs must be counted. Strange-looking frogs appear in the Nature folder microgames Hoppin' Mad and The Frog Flap. In WarioWare: Twisted, orange frogs appear in Launchpad.

Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon
Frogs appear again in Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon. In this game, they are pigmented with warm colors, ranging from vermilion red on their body skin to yellow on their webbed toes. They croak when discovered and act as ambiance creatures. They do not actively try to injure Luigi, but can drain five heart points from his health meter once they come into contact with him. On the other hand, frogs can be defeated and transformed into a coin each provided Luigi flashes them with the Strobulb.

Frogs usually inhabit areas with dense vegetation and increased humidity, such as the Haunted Towers. They also show up in the final King Boo battle, with special giant versions of the regular frogs appearing as well, which may spawn from spiked balls after King Boo slams the ground. These giant frogs, however, do not grant any treasure upon getting flashed with the Strobulb.

The game also features a more precious variant of frogs called Gold Frogs, which will reward Luigi multiple Gold Bars if he exploits the Strobulb capabilities on them. Gold Frogs can be primarily found on the East Balcony of the Treacherous Mansion.

Other appearances
In Super Mario Bros. 3, there is a Frog Suit that allows Mario to become Frog Mario and Luigi to become Frog Luigi; other frog-like enemies also appeared Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins.

Trivia

 * In an E3 demo of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Hooktail had a strong dislike toward frogs, but this was changed and Hooktail was given the hatred of crickets. However, she is still afraid of frogs in the translated versions of the game other than English.