Big Boo (character)
- This article is about the specific recurring character known as "Boss Teresa" in Japanese. For Big Boos in general, which are sometimes treated as singular characters, see Big Boo. For the character from Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, see Three Musty Fears.
| Big Boo | |
|---|---|
 Artwork from Super Mario 64 | |
| Species | Big Boo Sleepy Boo (Super Mario Sunshine) |
| First appearance | Super Mario 64 (1996) |
| Latest appearance | WarioWare: Move It! (2023) |
- “Boooooo-m! Here comes the master of mischief, the tower of terror, the Big Boo! Ka ha ha ha...”
- —Boo, Super Mario 64
Big Boo, also known as King Boo, is a particularly large Big Boo introduced in Super Mario 64, acting as the Boos' leader. His role—and, starting with Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, his size—would later be given to the character of King Boo from Luigi's Mansion, though the two briefly coexisted, with both appearing in Super Mario 64 DS with the same model. Like with Koopa Kid, his English names are shared by other, similar entities.
History
Super Mario series
Super Mario 64 / Super Mario 64 DS
Big Boo makes his debut in Super Mario 64 as the owner of Big Boo's Haunt, being the boss of three missions: Go on a Ghost Hunt, Ride Big Boo's Merry-Go-Round, and Big Boo's Balcony. Like with the normal Boos, Big Boo disappears when looked at and becomes visible again when Mario turns away. Big Boo has a high-pitched laugh like a normal Boo, but he makes the same low-pitched grunt as a Thwomp does (changed to the sound made when a platform drops in the DS remake) when hit. If this Boo attacks Mario, he loses three wedges of health. He uses the same model as normal Boos, but enlarged.
Big Boo can be attacked only when visible, so Mario has to attack this massive ghost by either ground-pounding him from above or punching him from the side. He takes three hits to defeat, becoming smaller after each hit. However, if the player leaves the area before completely defeating Big Boo, his health resets. After defeating Big Boo, Mario receives a Power Star.
In Super Mario 64 DS, Big Boo plays the same role as in the original, but he now has his own, more sophisticated model and moves faster. Yoshi cannot defeat Big Boo due to low attack power, just like with the normal Boos, though due to his inability to enter Big Boo's Haunt, this cannot be seen without manipulating the game. King Boo from Luigi's Mansion also makes an appearance and shares a model with Big Boo, though while he retains his crown from Mario Kart: Double Dash!! and characteristic cackle, he is also referred to as "Big Boo" in English versions. The crowned Big Boo uses the same attack pattern, but with more abilities.
Super Mario Sunshine
In Super Mario Sunshine, King Boo appears as a boss of Sirena Beach's fifth episode, King Boo Down Below, and is the leader of the Boos terrorizing Hotel Delfino. This time, he wears a crown similar to the Luigi's Mansion King Boo and has an enormous tongue and constant drool. He dislikes spicy food, which serves as the key to defeating him. Despite him being called Boss Boo in Japan, the Japanese version of the Super Mario Bros. Encyclopedia states that he and the rest of the enemies of the game were created by Bowser Jr. using his magic brush.[1]
While Mario is searching Sirena Beach for Shine Sprites, King Boo takes up residence inside the basement of Hotel Delfino's casino. Down there, he produces enough noise to alert the hotel manager, who proceeds to inform Mario of the ghost's presence. The player can access the casino's basement by having Mario ground-pound the purple tile on the giant roulette wheel. The inner ring of the wheel then descends, and the battle against King Boo starts. The player has no control over the camera during the King Boo boss fight.
King Boo's primary strategy in this boss battle is bringing out a giant slot machine with images of pineapples, coins, Strollin' Stus, and question marks. Spraying King Boo with water causes him to activate the slot machine with his tongue. If the player waits too long to do this, King Boo will start to send out smaller Boos to attack Mario. Once the slot machine is activated, all Boos disappear, and there are five possible outcomes that determine how the battle will proceed.
- Three pineapples make King Boo spit out various fruits that can be picked up and thrown.
- Three coins make King Boo spit out 10 coins, allowing the player to restore Mario's health.
- Three question marks make King Boo spit out three pairs of randomly chosen enemies. Mario needs to defeat them or evade them until they disappear to proceed. Possible enemies include Cheep Cheeps, who lie upside down and flop; blue Cataquacks; Bloopers; Blue Electrokoopas; Bob-ombs; and Poinks.
- Three Strollin' Stus make King Boo spit out six Strollin' Stus or Smolderin' Stus, with the same conditions as above.
- Any other combination causes several bubbles to appear. They leave behind Water Bottles after being sprayed with water, and they will hurt Mario if he touches them.
After each round, King Boo dives into the ground, then brings out the roulette wheel again. While the battle is ongoing, the three segments of the roulette wheel constantly move in different directions; Mario can stop them in place by ground-pounding the purple tile. The roulette wheel segments start moving again every time King Boo dives into the ground; if Mario gets too close to King Boo during any of the above phases, he will dive into the ground and bring out the wheel early, possibly damaging Mario.
To get a chance to damage King Boo, the player needs to get three pineapples on the slot machine. To make him vulnerable, the player needs to have Mario pick up a pepper to set the ghost's tongue on fire, and then hit him again with any other available fruit. If he is hit without having his tongue disabled beforehand, King Boo will be harmlessly splattered and lick the fruit off him before laughing. After three direct hits with any fruit while vulnerable, King Boo is defeated, exploding into bubbles of goop, and a Shine Sprite appears. Depending on the fruit used to defeat him, he explodes into the color the fruit turns a Yoshi into: pink for bananas or a coconut, orange for a pineapple or a papaya, and purple for a durian.
Mario Party series
Mario Party
The Big Boo appears in Running of the Bulb, where it slowly chases players down a hallway with other Boos and Thwomps. If the Big Boo catches a player, they will be eliminated. One of the players must carry a lightbulb to a socket at the hallway's end, but if the Big Boo catches that player (or the player gets hypnotized by a regular Boo and walks into the Big Boo), all the players will lose.
Mario Party 2
In Mario Party 2, Big Boo appears in the Horror Land stage. As with a typical Boo, it is able to steal objects from player's rivals, being coins or stars. However, Big Boo deals for stealing the coins or the stars from all the opponents, while paying to him three times the amount of coins than a normal Boo would do. Characters can ask for him only in night time; in daytime, Big Boo appears as a giant Boo statue. Since Big Boo can only be visited at night after taking a path that requires the Skeleton Key, meeting him proves to be a difficult and rare opportunity for players, especially during "Lite Play" mode.
In Mario Party Superstars, King Boo replaces Big Boo from the original Horror Land board.
Mario Party 4
In Mario Party 4, Big Boo reappears in the board Boo's Haunted Bash, having the same role as in Mario Party 2. In the game, he appears in an odd blue color (similar to the Big Boos in Super Mario World), contrasting the Red Boos. He appears when the two Happening Spaces at the top right of the board are activated three times. The Gaddlight has no effect on him.
Mario Pinball Land
In Mario Pinball Land, Big Boo is one of the five bosses. He appears in the haunted house at the Fun Fair. To defeat him, Mario has to attack him from behind or quickly attack him when he turns visible. He has no direct attacks but instead approaches Mario continuously. If Mario comes into contact with Big Boo while the latter is invisible, Mario temporarily spins out of control as if in a daze. Hitting Big Boo grants 10,000 points each time, and doing so three times defeats him and grants 500,000 points. Once defeated, Big Boo leaves behind four Yellow Coins, four Blue Coins, and a Star Key.
Big Boo reappears and is fought again after all the Boos are defeated in his rematch room in the Fiery Stage. This time, defeating him grants 1,000,000 points and yields the player a Star.
WarioWare: Move It!
Big Boo reappears in Level 3 of the Mario Pinball Land microgame in WarioWare: Move It! It must be defeated to win the microgame.
Unused appearances
In certain unused text strings in Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, King Boo is referred to as "Boss Teresa," implying he was intended as a redesign of this character with elements from both designs rather than the Luigi's Mansion character until late in development; this likely explains King Boo's change in size and coloration for this game.
Profiles
Super Mario Pia
- Japanese:
ボステレサ
ボスとして登場する巨大テレサ。『スーパーマリオサンシャイン』では大きなベロを出している。
登場作品 S64,SMS
(Romanization: Bosu Teresa
Bosu to shite tōjō suru kyodai Teresa. "Sūpā Mario Sanshain" de wa ōkina bero o dashite iru.
Tōjō sakuhin S64, SMS)
(Translation: Boss Boo
A giant Boo who appears as a boss. In Super Mario Sunshine he has a big tongue.
Appeared in works S64, SMS)
Gallery
Mario Party 2
Mario Pinball Land
Names in other languages
| Language | Name | Meaning | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Japanese | おやかたテレサ[2] Oyakata Teresa |
Boss Boo (Super Mario 64, Mario Party 2, and Mario Party 4) | |
| ボステレサ[3][4] Bosu Teresa |
Boss Boo (Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, and Mario Pinball Land) | ||
| ガスボステレサ[5] Gasu Bosu Teresa |
Gas Boss Boo (Mario Party) | ||
| ビッグテレサ[6] Biggu Teresa |
Big Boo (Mario Pinball Land; shared with the Terrorize Big Boo from Super Mario RPG) | ||
| French | Big Boo[?] | Big Boo (Super Mario 64) | |
| Roi Boo[?] | King Boo (Super Mario Sunshine, Super Mario 64 DS) | ||
| German | Big Boo[?] | Big Boo (Super Mario 64, Super Mario 64 DS; shared with King Boo in the latter) | |
| König Buu Huu[?] | King Boo (Super Mario Sunshine) | ||
| Italian | Re Boo[?] | King Boo (Super Mario Sunshine, Super Mario 64 DS) | |
| Grande Boo[7] | Big Boo | ||
| Gran Boo[8] | Great Boo (Super Mario 64) | ||
| Korean | 부끄짱[?] Bukkeu Jjang |
Boo Boss | |
| Spanish | Rey Boo[?] | King Boo (Super Mario Sunshine) | |
| Gran Boo[?] | Big Boo (Super Mario 64 DS; shared with King Boo in this game) |
Trivia
- In Mario Party 7, Mathemortician features Red Boos with similar crowns to Big Boo's Super Mario Sunshine appearance.
- The noise Big Boo makes when he gets hit with a pepper in Super Mario Sunshine was later reused for King Boo's horn in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.
References
- ^ An excerpt of page 107 of the Encyclopedia Super Mario Bros. The title of the box is 「クッパＪｒ．の落書き!」 which means "The graffiti of Bowser Jr.!" and the text says 「本作の敵キャラクターたちは、クッパJr.が落書きで生み出したという設定。そのため、水に弱かったり、デザインが他のシリーズと少々異なっていたりする。ヨッシーも、同様の理由で水に落ちると消えてしまう。」 which means "This game's enemy characters are created by Bowser Jr.'s graffiti. That is why they are weak to water, and differ slightly in design from the rest of the series. Yoshi also vanishes if he falls in water for the same reason."
- ^ 2015. Super Mario Bros. Hyakka: Nintendo Kōshiki Guidebook, Super Mario 64 section. Shogakukan (Japanese). ISBN 978-4091065698. Page 85.
- ^ スーパーマリオボール 遊園地ステージ. Nintendo.co.jp (Japanese). Retrieved September 30, 2016.
- ^ Nemoto, Yasuhiro, Hideki Endo, Yuta Naoi, and Noriko Noriko, editors (1996). 『スーパーマリオ64完全クリアガイド』. Tokyo: Media Factory (Japanese). ISBN 4-88991-411-0. Page 14.
- ^ Mario Party Official Nintendo guide, unknown page
- ^ Super Mario Ball Shogakukan book
- ^ 2018. Super Mario Bros. Enciclopedia. Magazzini Salani (Italian). ISBN 978-8893674362. Page 54.
- ^ Super Mario Bros. Enciclopedia. Page 85, 88.
| Mario Party 2 | |
|---|---|
| Main characters | Mario • Luigi • Princess Peach • Yoshi • Wario • Donkey Kong |
| Other characters | Bowser • Toad • Goomba • Boo • Koopa Troopa • Thwomp • Kamek • Whomp • Big Boo • Mr. I • Mushroom Genie • Steamer • Snifit Patrol • Shy Guy • Sushi • Baby Bowser • Woody • Professor Fungi • Battle T. • Totem Bros. |
| Items | Mushroom • Skeleton Key • Plunder Chest • Dueling Glove • Warp Block • Golden Mushroom • Magic Lamp • Boo Bell • Bowser Suit • Bowser Bomb |
| Spaces | Blue Space • Red Space • Item Space • Happening Space • Battle Space • Bowser Space • Star Space • Chance Time Space • Bank Space |
| Boards | Pirate Land • Western Land • Space Land • Mystery Land • Horror Land • Bowser Land |
| Other | Crazy Counting • Dinky Rinky • Goodness Rakes • Melon Mayhem • Nomiss • Rules Land • Gallery • Mario Land • Media • Minigames • Pre-release and unused content • Quotes • Sound test • Staff |
