Spark pylon
| Spark pylon | |
|---|---|
 Artwork | |
| First appearance | Super Mario Odyssey (2017) |
| Latest appearance | Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (2018) |
Spark pylons are capturable objects in Super Mario Odyssey. They represent the terminals of a power line, which Mario can travel rapidly along after turning into a ball of electricity. The base of a spark pylon has a small sphere on the top with a lightning bolt symbol on the sides.
History
Super Mario Odyssey
When Mario captures a spark pylon, he will turn into a ball of electricity and gain the ability to move across power lines to reach other spark pylons. Variants without power lines appear in the Moon Kingdom, Ruined Kingdom, Bowser's Kingdom, and in a Sand Kingdom bonus challenge, but handle similarly by having electricity arc across the path. This can help Mario quickly travel to different areas of some kingdoms, much like Launch Stars in Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario Galaxy 2, and the Warp Boxes and Clear Pipes in Super Mario 3D Land and Super Mario 3D World (only the former appears in both of these games).
Mario can move across a wire or over a path with the 
. The player can also shake the controller, moving into the default direction. (If there are multiple directions of wires, this will be the direction Mario faces when he captured the pylon. Mario cannot stop or change direction until he reaches a different spark pylon. If the destination spark pylon has options to move in that are not backward, Mario will stop and await a new input. If there is not, Mario pops out. A rare few destinations do not have a spark pylon, so Mario pops out there.
The player can shake their Joy-Con controller or press a button to slightly crackle. This has the additional effect of allowing the ball to target and follow trails of coins nearby, then return to the power line. In some cases, this allows Mario to grab out of reach Power Moons. The player can de-capture while moving, which can allow them to reach places the wire/path moves past. While a ball of electricity, Mario damages enemies he touches. This does not mean he is invincible: enemies that do not take damage like Fuzzies are sometimes seen on these same lines as obstacles.
Mario first encounters a spark pylon when traveling from the Cap Kingdom to the Cascade Kingdom for the first time. It is the only spark pylon that transports Mario to a different kingdom entirely, due to Mario not yet discovering the Odyssey; after that, the Odyssey becomes his main mode of transportation between kingdoms.
In One Player mode, spark pylons are the only objects that can be captured by the player while they are controlling another captured creature or object. This is done by simply touching the pylon while in this form. However, the captured enemy usually gets defeated by the electric ball. A special exception occurs with a spark pylon at the end of the game, which Bowsers uses while being captured. Princess Peach and Tiara also capture this spark pylon at the same time. This specific spark pylon is technically not considered a capture.[1]
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Spark pylons can be seen in the New Donk City Hall stage of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as background elements. They appear in the same spots on the building as in Super Mario Odyssey.
Names in other languages
| Language | Name | Meaning | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese | 电箱 (Simplified) 電箱 (Traditional)[?] Diàn xiāng |
Electric box | |
| Dutch | Generator[?] | Generator | |
| French | Borne gzzzt[?] | Gzzzt terminal | |
| German | Stromgenerator[?] | Electricity generator | |
| Italian | Generatore elettrizap[?] | Electrizap generator | |
| Russian | Трансформатор[?] Transformator |
Transformer | |
| Spanish | Poste de chispazo[?] | Spark post |
Trivia
- The electricity sound that is produced as Mario travels with a spark pylon adjusts its pitch and tempo according to the background music. This sound is replaced by koto samples in Bowser's Kingdom.
