Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins - Mario Zone:

“Time to play inside a huge Mario doll. This is such an iconic and fun zone. Also, we gotta love the fact that the zone in Mario’s “family jewels” is all about balls... hilarious. Either way, what a fantastic set of levels.”

Name: Bear

Debut: Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins

This sure is a bear! Only a few feet tall, no discernible neck, and riding on a beach ball. Just like any other bear. I wouldn’t blame you for thinking these were photos!

Stage 2 of Mario Zone features a few of these bears on balls, and when the bear is defeated, Mario can jump on the ball and use it to safely traverse the spiked balls that make up the environment. 

Name: Bomubomu

Debut: Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins

Two in one post? You’ll see why soon enough! Bomubomu is a weird pig whose snout contains not a nose, but a big ol’ cannon hole out of which is shoots cannonballs. These cannonballs are, luckily, slow-moving, and can be jumped on to “defeat” them. They appear in multiple areas, including stage 2 of Mario Zone, alongside the bears on balls.

...You’ve noticed by now the emphasis on a certain word in this post. No, that’s not just an immature joke! Well, not on my part, anyway.

You see, Mario Zone is a giant robotic Mario, and each stage takes place on a different part of his body. Usually, the theme is completely unrelated to the bodily location, but... stage 2 is completely themed around balls. Sure, we can call them anything else- spheres, orbs, round-aroos- but that doesn’t change the fact that the stage that represents Mario’s pelvic region just so happens to be entirely made of them, full of enemies that ride on them and use them as ammunition.