Super Mario-kun Volume 8

Super Mario-kun Volume 8 is the eighth volume of the manga series. It contains the full Super Mario Bros. 2 story arc (which takes places after the sixth chapter of volume 6) and the second part of the Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins story arc, in which Mario, Carrot, and Yokkī enter the Pumpkin Zone and casino.

The last two chapters are anticipations of the next two story arcs: Mario & Wario and Yoshi's Safari.

This volume's extras are puzzles.

Stage 1
マムーからの招待状!! サブコン世界突入!! (Wart's invitation!! Entering the Subcon Kingdom!!)

After having dealt with Mouser and the Phanto (from volume 6 chapter 6), Mario, Luigi, Yoshi and the new party member Birdo take a break in Bowser's Castle. Mario falls asleep and has a nightmare in which his friends have turned into monsters, before they all get eaten by a big worm. Mario wakes up into Birdo's snout and his screams wake his friends up, which reveals to have had nightmares too. Birdo recognizes this as the work of one of her boss' minions: Pidgit. In fact, a Pidgit appears, holding a message from the King of Nightmares himself, Wart: he has invited Mario and his friends to Subcon, but Mario refuses, not having the time to, and kicks Pidgit down from his Flying Carpet. Angry, Pidgit orders the carpet to kidnap them and creates a portal to Subcon, disappearing with the heroes. Bowser is informed of the disappearance of Mario and his gang and laughs, but Princess Peach starts crying and whining, throwing everything at Bowser and his minions.

Mario, Luigi, Yoshi and Birdo are (quite literally) dropped on a Subcon hill. Behind the hill, the giant head of Wart appears, challenging them to defeat the rest of his troop, save the Subcons and get out of there alive. Mario accepts, tossing Yoshi towards Wart, which is revealed to be a cardboard cutout. Pidgit disappears and an army of Snifits arrives. The Snifits attacks them and Birdo suggest Mario to use the Subcon vegetables as weapons to defeat Wart's army. Mario and Luigi try to find any vegetable in the ground, but the Snifits reveal that Wart got rid of those by making his minions uproot them before their arrival. Mario then uses another plan to get rid of the enemies and, wearing his chef clothes, tosses some Yoshi Cookies to create a Blind formation to create a wall and distance themselves from the Snifits.

Continuing on their path, Mario is attacked by a blood-sucking Tweeter which sucks so much from Mario, that all is left of him is his doctor persona. Luigi notices the Snifits coming, having got rid of the wall, but Mario locates a Red Shell inside a rock with his stethoscope. Mario grabs the shell, attaches two rocket pills to it and, riding it with his friends, runs over and defeats the Snifits. The Red Shell then crashes into a wall and, while everyone recovers, Mario turns back into his normal persona.

Stage 2
ピラミッドのわな!! ガプチョは路上戦士!? (Pyramid trap!! Tryclyde is a street warrior!?)

Mario, Luigi, Yoshi and Birdo are traversing the Subcon desert. While the Mario Bros. are dying from the heat and thirst, Yoshi and Birdo are enjoying themselves some Pokeys to suck and eat. Luigi notices a vending machine and runs towards it, only to find himself sinking in quicksand. Yoshi decides to "do something" and plants a warning sign near the quicksand and, by the time Mario has yelled at him for being useless, Luigi has already sunk to his demise. Birdo look closely to the vending machine and destroys it, revealing a Cobrat inside. The Cobrat launches at them, but Yoshi eats him.

More Cobrats appear around them, popping from the nearby Jars. Mario asks Yoshi to eat them all, but he's full from all the Pokeys (plus the fact that he doesn't like the Cobrats' taste), so Birdo tries to defeat them with her eggs, but the snakes eat them. Two Cobrats bites and paralyze Birdo and Yoshi, while a third one whips Mario, causing him to fall into a jar, in which he finds a POW Block that he uses to defeat the Cobrats.

Yoshi, fully recovered from the paralysis, notices a pyramid and the three head to it, but Birdo trips and sinks in quicksand as well. Inside the pyramid, Mario and Yoshi sit on some blocks, but the Shy Guys underneath raise the blocks and toss the two heroes inside a Mask Gate, leading them into Triclyde's lair. Mario and Yoshi faces Triclyde, a three-headed Cobrat with the central head being big and mean, one smart and one dumb. The smart head starts to bicker with the dumb one, so the mean head bites them, hurting himself (since he has the pain receptors in his part of the body).

Mario and Yoshi try to take advantage of this bickering and flee, but the heads burn them with fire-breath, then the dumb head grabs Yoshi, but he manages to trick the head and go away. Mario and Yoshi are then hit by a serpentine, but just then, Luigi, wearing a Frog Suit, emerges from the ground, revealing that he survived and has found a Magical Potion. The dumb head grabs the potion, but Yoshi tricks it again and the potion falls on Mario's head. Mario's Life Gauge gets refilled and, with a new-found power, Mario overpowers Triclyde tossing Mushroom Blocks at him and kills him. Birdo too emerges from the ground and gets scared seeing that Triclyde's lifeless body fell on her.

Stage 3
キャシー死す!? ヨッシー怒りの猛攻撃!! (Birdo dies!? Yoshi's angry onslaught!!)

The party has reached World 3 and Mario and Luigi are not getting enough of seeing Yoshi and Birdo getting along so well, basically a couple. From the sky, Yoshi sees some falling and, about to eat it, Birdo shoves him away, having recognized the trap. She manages to save Yoshi, but in doing so, Birdo dies in a following explosion due to some bombs hidden in the mochi. Mouser, the mind behind that trap, appears from behind a rock and gets ready to strike on Mario, but Yoshi, literally fuming with rage for the loss of Birdo, pounces on him.

First he uses the Yoshi Cookies to make a Panic formation, making his face soft and malleable, then Yoshi tries with a Slave formation, but misses Mouser. Luigi resorts to punching Yoshi in the head to calm him down and makes him reflect on his next move. A bump appears on Yoshi's head as so does on Mario: the Slave formation hit him, so now Mario and Yoshi are bind to do the same exact action and feel the same things. Combining his fire breath attack with Mario's, Yoshi destroys Mouser.

Yoshi celebrates and Mario is finally free from the Slave connection, but another boss appears: Fryguy, who followed Mouser, sure about his imminent failure. Yoshi uses the Slave formation again, and this time he actually hits the target. Now immobilized by the attack, since Yoshi is not moving, Fryguy remains powerless while Mario urinates on Yoshi, wetting both him and Fryguy. Fryguy seems defeated, but he just divides himself into four Small Fry Guys. After getting burned by them, the trio makes a run for it towards a body of water, but once inside, much to their horror, they discover that it's a pot with broth, and the Fry Guys are boiling them in.

When all hope seems lost, the sky suddenly cracks and a hole appears from which Toad and Birdo, riding a flying Whale, come out, squashing the four Small Fry Guys. Mario and Luigi hugs Toad for his classical timely aid, while Yoshi runs to Birdo, asking her how can she be still alive: Birdo reveals that she is not the same Birdo they started the journey with, but one of her twin sisters, the one from World 4.

Stage 4
強敵チョッキー出現!! ポリゴンST勝負!! (Strong enemy Clawgrip appears!! ST Polygonal game!!)

At Wart's Castle, the Nightmare King is getting worried: Mario and his gang are getting closer and closer to his base, and they are winning the challenge he started. One last general has remained on his side: Clawgrip. After magically summoning him (alongside the bathtub in which he was), Wart sends him to stop Mario. Meanwhile, thanks to the flying Whale, Mario, Luigi, Toad and Yoshi have reached World 7, but before they can reach the castle, Yoshi starts eating the clouds and, gaining more and more weight, the Whale can't go on anymore and abruptly lands. Having to proceed on foot, the party leaves the tired out Whale behind.

An army of Sparks slides towards them, but Mario makes Yoshi eat one of them, and he becomes Spark Yoshi and, using him against the incoming Sparks, the party reaches the end of the level, where their path is blocked by Clawgrip, who hits Yoshi with a boulder, making him lose his transformation. Clawgrip starts tossing more boulders, but ends up hitting the Shy Guys, instead of the heroes. Mario makes fun of him, angering Clawgrip, who starts spinning, tossing boulders left and right. A Small heart appears and Mario grabs it and shapes it like a boomerang, then uses it to hit Clawgrip, cutting his claws off.

The heroes celebrate, but Clawgrip is not finished yet and transforms into a polygonal Andross-like version of himself, a transformation given him by Wart. Clawgrip starts spitting boulders at them, but Toad finds a Rocket, and they all jump in it. Yoshi finds some rockets and Mario launches them at Clawgrip, but the rocket bounces on the boss. Clawgrip then starts to inhale them inside their mouth, but the Mini Rocket, bumping up and down, hits his nose, breaking him into pieces. Turns out that Wart did not use a very strong glue for the Andross form and the Rocket hit the most sensitive part of the whole structure. In his defense, Wart blames it on the company that sold him the glue.

Stage 5
決戦マムー城!! スロットマシーンで運だめし!? (Battle at Wart's Castle!! No luck with slot machines!?)

The heroes have reached Wart's Castle. After having a quick snack, the heroes enters the palace, while Wart and his Pidgit assistant are watching every of their actions. The heroes arrive at the throne anteroom but, as soon as Mario tries to enter the Mask Gate, the latter attempts to chew Mario. The Mask Gate then flies and plunges at the heroes. Yoshi gets eaten by the Mask Gate and, while struggling to not get chewed, Mario tosses at him a Mushroom Block Toad found in the room. The Mushroom Block land right into Yoshi's mouth, transforming him into Kinoko Block Yoshi, becoming a thick enough to block the Mask Gate's beak. With that problem out of the way, the heroes enters the Mask Gate without the risk of being chewed.

The four ends up in Wart's throne room and the final battle begins. Mario kicks away Pidgit and tosses Luigi at Wart, then he grabs a bunch of vegetables and, following the instruction manual, where it is written that the "greens" are Wart's weaknesses (reason why he tossed Luigi, before), and tosses them at him. Surprisingly, tho, Wart eats the vegetables with no problem: in order to be healthy, he overcame his dislike for the greens. Being out of a plan, Mario suggest running away, but the party gets trapped inside Wart's bubbles and tossed around like ping-pong balls.

Mario tries to bounce against Wart, but he chomps on his bubble. Mario then uses a bomb and frees himself and hurts Wart in the process. Wart is about to make Mario pays for his trick, but Birdo's three sisters enters the room after crashing a wall with a Bonus Chance's slot machine, hitting Wart. Mario and the Birdos activate it and, getting a trio of 7s, and Wart is overwhelmed by an avalanche of coins. Mario then hits the slot machine's lever with a Mushroom and the words "To", "be", and "continued" appears.

Stage 6
マムー脱皮!! 最強パワーVS特製アイテム!! (Wart's molting!! Powerful abilities VS special items!!)

The battle can now continue, but no one is willingly to take Wart seriously, with the heroes and the Birdos prolonging the lunch break they had in-between chapters. Angered, Wart starts to strive so hard that Mario begins to think he's constipating but, under everyone's eyes, Wart starts molding and from the old skin a strange hybrid of all the Super Mario Bros. 2's bosses emerges: Wart's head, Clawgrip's body and claws and Triclyde as for hairs.

The Triclyde-hairs attacks the party with the serpentine Hadouken, defeating Luigi. While Toad, Mario and Yoshi battles themselves in a rock-paper-scissor duel to see who will go next, Wart's uses Mouser's infinite bomb reserves against them, but Mario uses Yoshi and makes him eat the bombs, which explode inside of him. Wart then uses his claws to cut off Mario's head, but he manages to avoid such fate and, while he is mocking him, Wart uses Fryguy's fire aura to burn him. The Birdos get then coiled by the Triclyde-hairs. Only Toad remains and he gets a Magical Potion and flees in the Subspace, returning few moments later with a chest full of items from the previous Mario games.

Mario grabs a Super Leaf, Yoshi and one of the Birdos a Tanooki Suit, while the other Birdo takes a Frog Suit, lastly, Luigi grabs a Mushroom, only to be turned into Small Luigi: he got a Poison Mushroom from Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels. The party is now a match for the molded Wart and, after Mario immobilizes him with the Anchor, the heroes go all out on him. Wart put himself back together and uses his last ace: since his kingdom is the dream world, he can do whatever he wants and, with a simple request, all the power-ups and all the heroes' transformations (a part from Luigi's) disappears. Then, with a big amount of glue, paralyses the heroes. The battle is over, and Wart is the winner.

Stage 7
大逆転!! 友情?パワーでマムーをたおせ!! (Great turnaround!! Friendship? Let's beat Mamu with power!!)

The molded Wart places the glues heroes outside is palace in a way that they form the word アホ (Idiots). While Wart laughs at them, Yoshi notices something in the sky and, immediately after, the entire Bowser's Castle plummets on them, breaking the heroes free from their gluey prison and squashing Wart's Castle and his owner. Bowser, Peach and a tired out Koopa Troop appears, and they reveal that, in order to stop Princess Peach's cries, they all agreed to go look for Mario.

Wart comes out from under Bowser's Castle and starts arguing with the Koopa King, which calls his minions, only to remember that they are all out of shape and tired. After hugging and kissing Peach, Mario reaches him and pulls out his ace in his sleeve: the Special Power-up Kinoko, which he declares to be stronger than Wart's powers. Wart then shoots Mario with an electric ray, hitting in the process a Thwomp, a Galoomba, a Koopa Paratroopa and a Bullet Bill too. This activates the Super Power-up Kinoko, fusing Mario to the three aforementioned enemies, transforming him in Miracle Mario.

Mario uses his Bullet Bills feet and shoots Wart, then, helped by a Boo, grabs a bunch of Bob-ombs and plunges against Wart, protecting himself from the explosion thanks to the Boo, then he uses his Thwomp body to squash him, finally killing him. The Koopa Troop and the heroes celebrate the victory, while Miracle Mario's transformation wears off. Suddenly, Wart's Castle debris recompose himself into a stone Wart face: Wart's spirit possessed his castle's bricks for one last chance to destroy his enemies. The castle zaps the Koopa Troop, but from Bowser's Castle, the Baby Yoshis (which Yoshi left in, at the moment of his forced visit to Subcon) come out and start eating Wart's Castle. Yoshi joins them for the final blow, and Wart is finally defeated, once and for all.

The only remaining piece of the castle is the jar in which the Subcons were held captive, and now they are free. Mario and his friends celebrate, but it is short-lived: Bowser takes Peach and with his castle flies away to the Valley of Bowser, chased by Mario, Luigi, Toad and Yoshi.

Stage 8
おばけがいっぱい!? パンプキンゾーン突入!! (A lot of ghosts!? Entering the Pumpkin Zone!!)

Mario, Carrot and Yokkī are about to enter the Pumpkin Zone, the darkest and scary region of the Mario Land, so scary that Mario and Yokkī are trembling in fear. Mario tries to keep his composure, but after getting bit by a Piranha Plant, he panics so much that he runs everywhere with a Piranha Plant still biting his head. After a while, Mario calms down, only to turn around and finding himself face to face with a vampire, which gets scared as well by Mario.

The vampire presents himself to the trio as Kurokyura, a timid and wimpy vampire. Mario, enlighten by his inner bully, bosses Kurokyura around to know where the Pumpkin Coin is. Kurokyura answers that the Witch has it, then Mario asks for a drink, and Kurokyrua brings him two glasses of tomato juice. Mario offers the second glass to him, but Kurokyura refuses, but Mario forces him to accept, learning a bit too late that the tomato juice makes vampires go crazy: Kurokyrua then transforms into a Bat-Man and attacks Mario and his friends.

Kurokyura first orders his Minikyuras to suck Mario's blood, but the bats get scared by Yokkī's wig and fly at Kurokyura, sucking his blood before getting smacked by him. Furious, Kurokyura jumps at Mario, but he uses Carrot as a shield, so Kurokyura sucks her life energy, becoming stronger. Mario then grabs a Fire Flower and burns the vampire, leaving behind only his fangs, who are still fighting and biting. Suddenly, a Super Scope appears: Peach has sent a weapon to Mario, too bad that it is empty.

While the fangs are chomping Mario, Yokkī accidentally bumps on a ? Block, revealing a 1 UP Heart, which falls on the Super Scope, recharging it. Mario takes the chance and shoot the fangs with it, cancelling their ferocity, but somehow creating a lovey-dovey double of them.

Stage 9
マリオはブタ肉!? サバーサのお料理教室!! (Mario is a pig!? Witch's cooking class!!)

At Wario's Castle, a Bero has come to inform Wario that Witch's plan to stop Mario by cooking him is ready. To prove it, Bero pukes out the Witch's test subject for this plan: a horrible stew and fried Karakaras. Back to the Pumpkin Zone, Mario, Carrot and Yokkī meet a Boo that is supposed to be on Wario's side, but not even his hypnotic spell can do anything about a vengeful soul: furious that his companion Boos were used as test subjects for the Witch's plan and were all cooked in different meals, the Boo has decided to rebel and help Mario instead, guiding them through a secret path to the Witch's lair.

On their way through the shortcut, Mario feels heavy and then collapse to the ground. Using the light, Boo discovers that Mario is being held down by an army of Kyororos. Boo and Carrot try to come up with a plan to shoo away the Kyororos. During one of Carrot's tries, Yokkī is tickled by Carrot's leaves and sneezes so hard that all the Kyororos are swept away. Mario then burns them, turning them into sunny-side eggs that Yokkī then eats.

The party finally reach the Witch's lair and the battle begins. Mario is initially scared by the lair's skeletal decorations, but he then offers Carrot as a sacrifice to the Witch. Witch accepts it and turns her back to Mario, and he tries to sneak up on her with a hammer, but Witch then turns back and casts a spell on Mario, turning him into a pig: her plan has worked, now she just needs to stop Mario's helpers and cook them all. Boo, Carrot and Yokkī try to run away, but the Witch uses some Leaping Lids against them. Carrot and Yokkī are crushed by two lids, making her give the Bunny powers to the latter. Bunny Yokkī manages to slap the Witch with his ears, but she shoots him with a fire spell.

Mario, not being able to speak or do anything, is suggested by Boo to steal Witch's wand and the two manages to obtain it and zaps Witch with a spell. The scene moves some time later, when Wario receives a package: it's a cooked fish that he eats with pleasure, while his Goomba assistant realizes that the fish is the Witch. Meanwhile, outside, Mario (still in pig form) is celebrating, having obtained the fifth Golden Coin.

Stage 10
一攫千金!! スロット勝負は男のロマン!? (A lot of money!! The slot machine is men's best friend!?)

Mario and Carrot, while heading to the next zone, finds a strange structure: the casino. Due to the big signs sponsoring the casino, the two realize that must be a trap, but Mario falls for it after hearing that anyone can win a grand prize in cash. Inside, Mario tries his luck with the Slot Machine, but after losing all his money to it, Mario kicks the machine, revealing two Goombas inside.

To avoid punishment, the Goomba offers another slot machine game to Mario. Mario tries it out and the icons of the Big Bird, Būro, and the octopus on each slot and a monstrous hybrid of the three bosses appears and attacks Mario. Happy, one of the Goomba accidentally kicks the slot machine, obtaining three "7"s, making an avalanche of coins overwhelms the monster, much to the second Goomba's dismay.

The slot machine is activated a second time, and three new icons appears: Wario's initial, Wario's nose and a bunch of hearts and a clone of Wario (wearing a pair of underpants with hearts) appears. Mario uses Carrot powers to become Bunny Mario, but the Wario clones copies him: the clone had the same abilities as Mario, and he first turns into Bunny Wario, then Fire Wario and lastly he kicks Mario straight into the slot machine, obtaining three icons of a bomb, turning Mario into Bomb Mario. The casino blows up, destroying the Wario clone, while the real Wario laughs at Mario from the castle.

Stage 11
ここはどこ!? メロメロめ~ろコースを突破せよ!! (Where are we!? Break through the mellow course!!)

The story contains different types of puzzles that the reader can solve in order to proceed in the story.

Mario, Yoshi and Peach heard a rumor that a fairy was spotted in the Yōsei no Mori, so they all look for her so to capture it and have a wish granted. Suddenly, three buckets fall on their head: Wario, on top of a moving cloud, followed them and pulled a prank on them. Using brute strength and fireballs, Mario and Yoshi manages to pull out the bucket from each other's head, but knowing they can't resort to such methods to remove the princess' bucket, they decide to follow Wario, while at the same time helping Peach to not crash into every tree in the forest.

While rowing across a lake, the trio is attacked by the octopus (puzzle: maze). Mario and Peach manage to safely reach the beach, while Yoshi gets coiled by the octopus's tentacles that he then proceeds to eat. The trio reaches three caves (puzzle: choose your adventure) and only one of them leads to safety, but to know which one, it is needed to solve a riddle on a sign. If Mario and Yoshi chose the wrong caves, they are revealed to be Būro's nostrils.

On the other side of the right cave, Wario sends them a storm of Minikyuras that surrounds Mario and his friends, creating a dark bubble around them (puzzle: how many Minikyura are there?). Mario then pulls out all his coins and use the light reflecting on them to blind the bats. Angry, Wario jumps out of the cloud and challenges Mario to a match (the panel is a Mario themed tiddlywinks board). Wario loses and tries to confuse Mario by creating copies of himself (puzzle: find the intruders). Mario lures the real Wario out and burns him with a fireball.

Wario surrenders and accepts to free the princess, but the fireball burned and pulverized the key. Seems like the only way to free Peach is by finding that alleged fairy.

Stage 12
百発百中!? 突撃バズーカヨッシーくん!! (Hundreds of hundreds!? Assault Bazooka Yoshi!!)

Yoshi is hunting enemies with his brand-new bazooka and accidentally hit Mario, having mistaken his silhouette. To be forgiven, Yoshi invites Mario to a hunting trip. Before he can reply, some Paragoombas attacks Mario. He quickly reaches for the bazooka, but accidentally grabs a log and he gets smacked by the enemies once again. Mario yells at Yoshi to do something, and Yoshi tries to shoot them down, but his bazooka fires magician tools instead of bullets, making the enemies laugh more, so Yoshi smacks them using the bazooka as a club.

A bunch of Parabombs floats down from the sky and Yoshi runs away in fear. Mario stops him, makes him eat hot baked sweet potatoes and tucks his butt to the back end of the bazooka, making it fires hot farts at the Parabombs, making them explode. The two sigh in relief, but a Hammer Brother appears. Ha tosses hammers at them, but Yoshi shoots four Yoshi Cookies, forming a Panic formation, scaring the hammers back to the owner.

Angry, the Hammer Brother pulls out a bigger hammer and squashes Mario and runs at Yoshi. Yoshi shoots then a Yoshi Eggshell at the Hammer Brother, but misses him, much to Mario's shock and the enemy's laughter. The eggshell, like a boomerang, comes back and, while the Hammer Brother panics, Yoshi fires another eggshell trapping the enemy in between the two eggshells. Another hoard of enemies approaches, and Mario screams at Yoshi to prepare the bazooka, but he instead eats the enemies with his tongue. "Why didn't you do that from the beginning?" yells Mario.

Puzzles
マリオスーパー迷路・パズル (Mario Super Maze: Puzzle)
 * 1) 観覧車クイズ (Ferris Wheel quiz): Use the three photos below as hints to find out who was on the boxes 1-4.
 * 2) マリオカートクイズ (Mario Kart quiz): Everyone is on their karts. Look for the difference between the picture above and the picture below. There are eight differences in all.
 * 3) ティーカップクイズ (Teacups quiz): Who is riding the same teacup as Mario? (It doesn't matter in which direction it is facing)
 * 4) おばけやしき迷路 (Hunted maze): Climb the stairs to the goal so as not to meet any Boos.
 * 5) 島わたり迷路 (Island maze): Using the bridge, reach for the island where the Baby Yoshies are.
 * 6) 恐竜ランド (Dinosaur Land quiz maze): Let's go through the maze while answering the quiz on the way. If you go to the right direction, you can reach the goal.