Tatanga

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Tatanga in his war vessel Pagosu.

Tatanga (also known as Tatanga the Mysterious Space Man) is an alien invader who conquered Sarasaland. During the events of Super Mario Land, Tatanga captured Daisy, the princess of Sarasaland, and ordered his armies to occupy the land’s four kingdoms - Birabuto, Muda, Easton, and Chai. The hero of the Mushroom Kingdom, Mario, ventured to this new land and liberated the occupied kingdoms. In the end, he confronted the evil Tatanga in an epic showdown in the sky.

During the climatic battle, Tatanga fought in his spaceship, the Pagosu, while Mario fought in his airplane, the Sky Pop. Mario had to fire his missiles at Tatanga’s spaceship while dodging the war vessel’s scattering rockets. After forty hits, the Pagosu was destroyed; however, the alien invader escaped. In the end, the heroic plumber rescued Princess Daisy and peace is returned to Sarasaland.

However, all is not as it seems. As it turns out, Tatanga was hired by Wario to invade the peaceful Sarasaland and kidnap Princess Daisy, just so Wario could conquer Mario's Castle. 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 the events of Super Mario Land 2, Mario tracks down Tatanga

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Tatanga in a considerably weaker spaceship.

and the two fight 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 jumped on top of the space invader. After three hits, Tatanga was defeated and Mario recovered the golden coin of Space Zone. Ultimately, Mario uses the six golden coins to open the doors to his castle and kick Wario out.

Tatanga, the Mysterious Spaceman, has not been seen since. However, Tatanga was mentioned in Princess Daisy’s bio in the game Mario Superstar Baseball. Strangely, the alien did not appear as a trophy in Super Smash Bros. Melee (even Stanley the Bugman has a trophy). However, Tatanga was mentioned in Daisy's trophy.

Other Media

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Tatanga, as he appears in the comics.

Tatanga appeared as a villain in the Game Boy comic books created 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 was released, he always tried to take over an Earth monument, such as Disney World or the World Trade Center. One time, Tatanga and his minions conquered the Great Wall of China. However, Mario is always released from the Game Boy, and the hero inevitable brings the evil alien back to the Game Boy dimension. As it turns out, Herman Smirch was merely hallucinating all these events. However, the comic series was cancelled before this plot point was revealed.