Tatanga

Tatanga (also known as Tatanga the Mysterious Spaceman) is an alien invader who once conquered Sarasaland. Although he is acknowledged as an invader, in appearance he looks like a meek purple alien. During the events of Super Mario Land, Tatanga captured Princess Daisy, the princess of Sarasaland, and ordered his armies to guard the land's four kingdoms. Tatanga is also the first extraterrestrial main villain to appear in the Mario series, followed by Smithy, Sir Grodus, Princess Shroob, and Elder Princess Shroob.

Super Mario Land
Tatanga is a mysterious invader from another unknown planet. He invades Sarasaland during Super Mario Land, and captures Princess Daisy. Tatanga hypnotizes the inhabitants of Sarasaland, allowing him to control them. He has the most powerful of them guard the four kingdoms of Sarasaland - Birabuto Kingdom, Muda Kingdom, Easton Kingdom, and the Chai Kingdom. When Mario defeats the hypnotized creatures and liberates all the kingdoms, Tatanga and Mario will go head to head in air combat.

During the climactic battle, Tatanga fights in his spaceship, the Pagosu, while Mario fights in his airplane, the Sky Pop. Mario has to fire his missiles at Tatanga's spaceship while dodging the war vessel's big cannonballs, which immediately split into three small cannonballs. After forty hits, the Pagosu is destroyed (and 5000 points are gained); however, the alien invader escaped. In the end, Mario rescues Princess Daisy and peace is returned to Sarasaland.

Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins
Tatanga reappears as a boss in Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins. Although his role in this game was not as significant, he did play a part. While Mario was distracted with Tatanga, Wario took over Mario Land and occupied Mario's Castle. After Mario defeated the alien invader, Tatanga fled to Wario's new castle. The spaceman was given one of the six golden coins needed to access Wario's Castle, and he set up base in the Space Zone.

During Super Mario Land 2, Mario tracks down Tatanga, and the two fights for a second time. However, in this battle, Tatanga does not fight in his war vessel Pagosu. This time Tatanga fights with a smaller space craft, capable of shooting energy weapons and dive bombing Mario. While descending in his dive bomb attack, Mario jumps on top of the space invader. After three hits, Mario defeats Tatanga and recovers the golden coin of Space Zone. Like all the other bosses except Wario, Tatanga fell off the screen (his spaceship was destroyed as well, except instead of falling off the screen as he did, it simply disappeared) but not before crying about his loss. Ultimately, Mario uses the six golden coins to open the doors to his castle and kick Wario out.

The fact that he is guarding one of the six coins at all hints that Tatanga may have been working for Wario the entire time, and that his kidnapping of Princess Daisy was a means of distracting Mario specifically so Wario could take over his castle, though this is unconfirmed.

Unlike the other bosses featured in Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, Tatanga does not appear in Nintendo Power's Mario vs. Wario comic. This is ironic as he is perhaps the most major boss next to Wario, given his status as Super Mario Land's antagonist.

Game Boy
Tatanga appears as a villain in the Game Boy comic books spun off from the Nintendo Comics System, produced by the company Valiant. In the comics, Tatanga lives in an alternate dimension that exists within a Game Boy. However, the evil alien hypnotizes Herman Smirch, a human from New Jersey, causing the man to release Tatanga from the Game Boy. Upon arriving on Earth, Tatanga hopes to conquer the planet and rule it with an iron fist. Each time Tatanga is released, he always tries to take over an Earth monument, such as Disney World or the World Trade Center. One time, Tatanga and his minions conquer the Great Wall of China. However, Mario is always released from the Game Boy, and the hero inevitably brings the evil alien back to the Game Boy dimension. As it turns out, Herman Smirch is merely hallucinating all these events. However, the comic series is canceled before this plot point was revealed.

In this series, he is considerably bigger and more muscular than in the games, has more pronounced fangs and claws, and wears a black uniform. His Pagosu is also able to assume a more humanoid form, making it resemble battle armor.

References in Later Games
Tatanga, the Mysterious Spaceman, has not reappeared in games following Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins. However, Tatanga is mentioned in Princess Daisy's bio in the game Mario Superstar Baseball and her trophy in Super Smash Bros. Melee and its sequel, Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

Trivia

 * Katsini, a boss from Wario's Woods resembles Tatanga, though with more pronounced mandibles and hair, leading to the possibility that he and Tatanga may be members of the same species.
 * During his defeat scene in Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, his spaceship disappears before he falls off the screen. This is the only time he is ever seen outside of a spaceship, he is even shorter then Mario when out of his ship, making him one of the few main villains to not be much larger then the player.
 * Interestingly, Tatanga's role is the reverse of Fawful; While Fawful's first appearance is as the main villain's henchman, and his final appearance is as the main antagonist, Tatanga's debut is as the main antagonist, and in his final appearance he is one of the six bosses working for Wario. Both also seemingly explode after their first defeat only to turn up alive in a later game. Tatanga and Fawful are also two of the few recurring enemies not associated with the Koopa Troop.
 * Though always listed as the sixth boss in Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, Tatanga is sometimes implied to be the second, as the gold coin he has is placed in the second slot and the one that the octopus has is placed in the sixth.

Names in Other Languages
Tatanga

Tatanga the Mysterious Spaceman