Pom Pom

"Hiya! I'm Pom Pom! I hate losing, so let's make sure we win!"

- Pom Pom

Pom Pom is a boss who debuted in Super Mario 3D Land, where she appears as the boss of various airships. She appears to be both the female counterpart and partner of Boom Boom, and is often seen wielding a shuriken with a ribbon on it. Pom Pom shares her name with a loose, fluffy material used by cheerleaders and sports fans, or in crafts, the pom-pom.

Super Mario 3D Land
Pom Pom debuts in Super Mario 3D Land as one of the two secondary antagonists and bosses encountered alongside Boom Boom. At the beginning of Super Mario 3D Land, Pom Pom, Boom Boom, Bowser, and the Koopa Troop had invaded the Mushroom Kingdom during a storm, stole the Super Leaves and kidnapped Princess Peach.

After the defeat of Boom Boom in World 3, Pom Pom resides in her pink airship, first seen in World 4. Shortly before fighting Mario (and later Luigi), she winks at them in a somewhat flirtatious manner. In battle, Pom Pom will throw boomerangs at Mario, a maximum of 2 Boomerangs, and jump a fair distance, similar to a Boomerang Bro (though she does back flips and front flips). When Pom Pom takes damage, she will hover in her shell and try to land on Mario, unlike Boom Boom. This can be avoided by stepping to the side, and repeatedly jumping on top of her shell during her hover attack will yield a number of 1-Up Mushrooms. After taking three stomps from Mario, Pom Pom is defeated and will vanish, releasing ten coins.

Pom Pom reappears in World 6; this time, the arena's floor is covered in fire on the side of the platforms. She will occasionally jump to different platforms in this battle, but otherwise is fought the same. In World 7, Pom Pom will fight her last battle in the regular worlds with Mario, alongside her partner Boom Boom. Unlike the first two encounters, she will throw a maximum of 3 boomerangs instead of 2. After defeating Bowser, she and Boom Boom appear frequently in the Special Worlds, fighting against Mario and Luigi separately until the last level, where they fight together for the last time.

Super Mario 3D World / Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury
Pom Pom returns in the sequel Super Mario 3D World and Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury. She appears the same, but is now smaller when compared to Boom Boom. She throws s, rather than boomerangs, and she uses transparent clones (the number of which varies depending on where fought and how many hits she took) to aid her in her boss fights, which also throw shurikens; the clones vanish if attacked. The difference between her and the clones lies mostly in her hair bow which the clones lack and the color of her shuriken (the clones have gray shurikens, while she has a pink one with a red bow on it). She is the boss of World 3 in the level The Bullet Bill Express, but Mario and the others have a rematch with her in The Bowser Express, where she produces more clones. In her third encounter in Boss Blitz, she reuses her strategy from the first encounter.

Unlike in Super Mario 3D Land, Pom Pom does not go in her shell after being damaged. Instead, she immediately makes clones again and continues throwing shurikens.

In the credits, she can be seen next to Boom Boom, comforting him over their recent loss.

Pom Pom also appears in the Nintendo Switch port Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury where, along with keeping her role in the main game, she appears as Cat Pom Pom in the Bowser's Fury side story. The battle is exactly the same as in the main game.

Super Mario Maker 2
Pom Pom appears as an enemy in Super Mario Maker 2, where she can be placed only in the Super Mario 3D World style. Like in Super Mario 3D World, Pom Pom creates a clone of herself and attacks by throwing shurikens; after the first hit, she spawns two clones, and after the second, she spawns three.

Mario and Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games
Pom Pom appears in Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games as a goalie for the Football event in the Nintendo 3DS version. Although she is not among the main cast of playable characters, the player can take control of her while playing the event, making this her first playable appearance in a game.

Mario Sports Superstars
Pom Pom makes her proper playable debut in Mario Sports Superstars. In baseball, she is classified as a Power type character. In soccer, she is one of the two selectable goalies, with the other being Boom Boom. Players can have two Pom Poms in the same field at once.

Super Mario Party
Pom Pom makes her Mario Party debut in Super Mario Party as an unlockable playable character. She is unlocked by completing the fifth world of Challenge Road, Salty Sea. This is the first game in which Pom Pom speaks, as well as the first game where Pom Pom is physically present while Boom Boom is not, who only makes a cameo as artwork in the minigame Absent Minded.

Pom Pom's special Dice Block in this game contains four faces with a "3", one face with a "0", and one face with an "8".

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Pom Pom appears alongside Boom Boom as an Ace-class Attack-type primary spirit with one support slot. It is the enhanced form of the Boom Boom spirit once it has reached level 99. The image used to represent the spirit is Boom Boom and Pom Pom's group artwork from Super Mario 3D Land.

Dr. Mario World
Pom Pom appears as an assistant in Dr. Mario World. In stage mode, she grants a chance that one virus is eliminated when starting a stage, but won't completely eliminate a virus that requires multiple hits to be eliminate such as floatie viruses or bubbles containing viruses. In versus mode, she grants a chance that one virus is eliminated if the player is about to lose, which only happens once per match.

Physical appearance
Pom Pom appears to be the female counterpart of Boom Boom. She has red eyes and a tan-colored head, with blonde hair containing a small, orange fade; the hair is styled into a short ponytail and adorned with a pair of light green beads. Pom Pom's skin is colored magenta, her foot pads are pink, and her arms are more normally proportioned in comparison to Boom Boom's; her red shell is smoother and smaller with pastel red dots, making it closer to those of Buzzy Beetles as opposed to the standard Koopa shells with plates and grooves. Pom Pom has a high cream snout, and her mouth has two prominent fangs; her head shape is very similar to the Koopalings, particularly Wendy O. Koopa. Since Super Mario 3D World, Pom Pom also has clawed hands similar to Boom Boom.

Identity
There has been inconsistent wording on whether there is more than one Pom Pom. Both Pom Pom and Boom Boom are referred to in the plural sense on the European and Australian websites of Super Mario 3D Land, rather than individuals in the overall Boom Boom species. Therefore, it is possible that the player is fighting different Pom Poms and Boom Booms on the various ships; however, the North American website refers to them singularly, the Prima guide also refers to them singularly and as siblings , and even the Japanese website implies Pom Pom is a unique individual by describing her as 「クッパの. 」, meaning "The Koopa army's lone female." . In Super Mario Maker 2, one of the official courses is named Target: A Single Pom Pom, and both its English and Japanese description contradicts the above, implying that Pom Pom is a species.

Abilities
In Super Mario 3D Land, Pom Pom's way of fighting is similar to that of a Boomerang Bro. She throws at least two to three boomerangs at Mario, and then jumps away. She also spins in her shell to attack Mario anytime she gets hurt, though in a different manner from Boom Boom and the Koopalings: She hovers in her hard shell and tries to smash on her opponent overhead. Pom Pom can shake her airship just by impacting the floor with her spinning shell. Pom Pom is highly acrobatic as she can perform high jumps and elegant flips after she attacks.

In Super Mario 3D World, she uses the art of ninjutsu to battle. She performs a hand gesture to disappear into pink smoke, which splits and teleport across the arena. She reappears from the split smoke with a large horde of clones equipped with large shurikens to attack with the real Pom Pom, who can be identified by her hair tie and pink shuriken with a bow, traits the clones do not share.

Personality and traits
Similarly to Boom Boom, Pom Pom is a faithful servant to Bowser and is one of the higher-ranking Koopas in the Koopa Troop. According to the commentary in Super Mario 3D World Original Soundtrack, Pom Pom wants to be refined and elegant, but is actually prone to losing her temper. This aspect of her personality is supported by her actions in Super Mario Party: Pom Pom generally makes ladylike poses in most of her animations, but whenever she loses a minigame, she jumps up and down in an angry fit before pouting.

In most of her appearances, Pom Pom is partnered with Boom Boom; the two are shown to work well together. Likewise, Pom Pom does not get along with Mario and friends due to their interferences in Bowser's plans and their victories against her; the lone exception is Super Mario Party in which Pom Pom is treated politely by Toad and Toadette, and plays friendly party games with Mario and co. Similarly to Boom Boom, Pom Pom does not speak in most games; however, she communicates through grunts, yells, and roars.

Super Mario 3D Land

 * North American website bio (shared with Boom Boom): "Cruising for a bruising in Bowser's airships, Boom Boom and Pom Pom wait for you in the lower chambers. They may look tough, but they're both a bit of a pushover—three quick stomps to the head will take them out."
 * European website bio: "Adding a dash of glamour to Bowser's army of minions, Pom Poms lead Mario a merry dance with their silky smooth moves."

Super Mario Party

 * Website bio: "This boomerang-tossing character makes her Mario Party debut as a playable character."

Dr. Mario World

 * Stage mode: "Grants 50%/60%/70%/80%/100% chance viruses (1) will be eliminated on stage start."
 * Stage mode (Prior to version 2.3.0): "Grants 10%/20%/30%/40%/50% chance viruses (1) will be eliminated on stage start."
 * Versus mode: "If you are about to lose, grants 20%/40%/60%/80%/100% chance viruses (1) will be eliminated. (Once only.)"

Quotes

 * "I'm so inspired! You make me wanna be a Super Star too! Perhaps next time we'll meet as rivals." - Super Mario Party
 * "Wow, what a neat-looking place! Name's Pom Pom! I'm not TOO late, am I?" - Super Mario Party
 * "Where ya headed? I'll come with!" - Super Mario Party
 * "Great! I'm a winner at pretty much everything!" - Super Mario Party

Trivia

 * In the Super Mario Mash-up in Minecraft versions 1.16.0 and later (Nintendo Switch only), Zombified Piglins gain a texture resembling Pom Pom, which replaces Zombie Pigmen's texture (Rex) from before version 1.16.0.