Bat (Super Mario Galaxy)

Data-rendered model of a Bat.

Bats are Swoop-like enemies from Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario Galaxy 2. They resemble brown bats with pig-like noses and bulging, glowing eyes with faint rings on them, causing them to resemble Keese from the Legend of Zelda series, particularly a cartoonish version of their Twilight Princess incarnation; the two games were in development at overlapping times, so this may be intentional.

Initially, Bats are found either hanging from the ceiling or flying around aimlessly. When Mario approaches, they fly in close to him, before attempting to fly straight into him. If they succeed, they will laugh at him. They can be defeated with a spin or jump, and will release either three Star Bits or one coin, respectively, depending of which way they're defeated. They can be found in many dark places, with the first being the cave in the Beach Bowl Galaxy. They are also found flying around the arm of Heavy Metal Mecha-Bowser. Icy locations such as the cold portion of the Freezeflame Galaxy sometimes contain an icy variant called an Ice Bat, which will freeze Mario if he makes contact with it, and can only be defeated with a Fire Flower.

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning	Notes
Japanese	Basa Basa (internal) バットン Batton	Swoop Variation on the English word "Bat"
German	Flappflapp[?]	Same name as Swoop.
Italian	Pippy[?]	From pipistrello, Italian name of bats.
Spanish	Vampílago[?]	From murciélago vampiro, Spanish name of the vampire bat.

Trivia

• The internal filename for this enemy in both games is a romanization of the Japanese name for Swoop. This indicates that early in development for the first game, the enemy was intended to be a traditional Swoop, and it kept the internal name when the files were reused in the sequel. The official Japanese name for Bat is shared with Enigma, another pig-nosed bat; however, due to the rights for Enigma being held by Square Enix as well as Enigma's distinct hive-minded behavior, it is unlikely that this was intentional.