Cackletta's Soul
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- “Are you still conscious? Ugh. You're a persistent pair! I shall dispose of you quickly, and then eat you for lunch!”
- —Cackletta's Soul, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
Cackletta's Soul is the final boss and soul of Cackletta in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga. When Mario and Luigi are inhaled by Bowletta, the ghost is found inside her body.
History
Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
In Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, Cackletta's Soul is the final boss of the game. After Mario and Luigi defeat Bowletta, she inhales them and they must battle her soul. In battle, Cackletta's Soul will use energy attacks against the Mario Bros., and they must destroy both of her arms and her head to expose her heart. When her heart has been exposed, the Mario Bros. must attack it to finally destroy her and beat the game.
One of her attacks is to create an energy ball that will attempt to crush the Mario Brothers. When the player hammers it, it will come back down. The player will have to constantly hammer it until it explodes. Another attack is to stretch her arms out at the Marios, attempting to hit them. This can be countered by hammering her hands quickly. Her hands also attack. Her right one summons two fireballs to rotate around the Mario Bros. They must dodge it by jumping at the right time. Her left hand summons a ball of electricity that must be hit with a hammer. Hitting it will make it slide to the next brother. They must hit it until it breaks. Her head attacks by shooting a giant energy ball at Mario or Luigi (its shadow indicates who it will attack). It goes directly above one of the brothers and then drops down. The brother must hit it repeatedly with his hammer, bouncing it into the air each time, until it is destroyed. If both her arms are active, she will also (as one of her head's attacks) spin her arms around. If her eyes are up, the brothers should stand still as her arms will be up as well. If her eyes are down, the brothers should jump over her arms to avoid them.
When Cackletta is low on HP, she will have two new attacks. She will move her eyes up or down, indicating where she is going to fire a beam. If her eyes move up, she is going to fire upwards. If they move down, she will fire downwards. Mario and Luigi must jump or stand in the right position before Cackletta freezes time in order to dodge the beams. When her eyes glow to shoot eye lasers, this is when the one she is targeting should jump. She also summons a ghost of Fawful that will shoot fireballs at the brothers then go close to one of them. Mario or Luigi must quickly hit it with a hammer or else it will continue to shoot more fireballs. If it is in front of Mario, it will shoot the fireballs at Luigi first (then Mario), and if in front of Luigi, it will attack Mario first.
When Cackletta is almost defeated, her giant energy ball attack will be changed to an attack where she makes several energy balls appear and then disappear. The blue ones do nothing, but when a purple one appears and disappears, it will reappear in front of Mario and hit him. To counter, Mario must hammer it away, and at random it will hit any vulnerable part of Cackletta. The green ones are the same, but attack Luigi instead of Mario. She is also less inclined to use her Fawful attack. Also, as her HP gets lower, her spin attack becomes harder, usually changing altitude either between changing directions or every other spin, often finishing with several spins in one direction with her arms down. Also, her two hands' attacks last longer, but are not really much harder to avoid.
If the brothers try to attack the head while the hands are still active, the hands will notice and attack afterwards. Cackletta can heal her head or hands, but can't regenerate the hands when destroyed, until her heart is vulnerable. Every turn her heart is active it heals her head or arms, but the heart itself cannot be healed. After the battle, the spirit leaves Bowser's body and disappears into thin air, so that Cackletta is finally defeated. It is presumed that Cackletta is finally dead after her spirit disappears, given that she never makes a reappearance even alongside Fawful when he tries his own plan for revenge and world domination in Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story.
Trivia
- To defeat Cackletta's soul, which has the appearance of a ghost, her heart must be revealed. This could be a reference to Luigi's Mansion, since Luigi has to reveal a ghost's heart before sucking it into the Poltergust.
- It is implied from her Fawful ghost attack that Fawful was killed when Luigi knocked him over the edge of the castle. However, the next two Mario & Luigi games reveal that he survived, thus the ghost of Fawful she summons is only an apparition created by her.
- This final boss is similar to the Shadow Queen from Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door: Both are the evil spirit of a witch, both are possessing a major character, and both have two hands that attack separately and can regenerate once destroyed. Both also speak similar lines before their death scenes. Although Cackletta's hands must be destroyed in order to defeat her, and only regenerate when her heart is vulnerable, while the Shadow Queen's hands can regenerate at any time and do not need to be attacked (though destroying them prevents her from healing, and is thus highly recommended), as she is always vulnerable after the cutscene.
