Fireball (obstacle)

Fireballs are enemies found in Mario Bros. They come in red and green varieties. They are unique enemies in that game in that they can't cross the left or right edge of the screen and come out on the other side. They are also the only enemies that can harm players hiding behind the bottom pipes.

The red fireballs are slower and bounce diagonally all around the stage. If they hit one side of the screen, they ricochet off the side and keep going until making a full circuit of the screen after which it will disappear and respawn as a faster opponent. The quicker green fireballs move horizontally from one side of the screen to the other where it will disappear until respawning elsewhere. It has a pattern of two small wavy bounces and one long bounce. To destroy fireballs, the player has to bump them from below while they are touching the platform or the player could also use a POW Block to defeat them as well. Fireballs respawn as faster enemies a few moments after being destroyed. There can be a maximum of two red and one green fireballs on screen at any one time.

The sprites for green fireballs were swapped with Boos in the Super Mario All-Stars version. There are Podoboos in Super Mario World that resemble red fireballs by bouncing diagonally.