#panser

Every Mario Character Update #30 (WIP 2)

Doki Doki Panic / Super Mario Bros. 2 (FDS / NES, 1987 / 1988)

Following up from my previous post is another one, this time based on New Super Mario Bros 2's World 2 desert. All props and textures were personally recreated with photo reference.

A scenic view of the formerly abandoned ruins. However, it seems some unsavory characters and wildlife have since claimed it!

Mario, Parakarry the Paratroopa, and Edwin the Slurple engage in battle with a Sombrero guy and his Panser girlfriends! While Mario's side will spank the quartet, you gotta wonder like those Pokeys and Clefts are...how did that Sombrero Guy get himself three gals?

The town is heavily surveilled by a large number of Bandits! ...except those two, since apparently the Red Bandit told the green one a dirty joke.

#28 Panser

Name: Panser

Debut: Super Mario Bros. 2

...HUH? THAT’s what they look like?! I’ve been looking at them wrong the whole time!

See, my first Mario game was Super Mario Advance, where they look like this. And I guess they could be interpreted as having eyes on their stem here, but, especially with the way their petals open to shoot fireballs, I always saw them like this!

I suppose it is kinda weird to jump to the conclusion that this enemy in a 2D game is always essentially being seen from a top-down perspective, but... it makes sense! Right?!

To be honest, I like my interpretation more, but the real one is still good! I love the way it’s an anthropomorphic flower who just sorta ends at the base of the stem, like it’s more sea anemone than plant. And it has a face that I feel like, for whatever reason, isn’t the sort of face you normally see on a Mario enemy! Since when do they look so confident in their abilities? And then there’s the way it has one leaf on its... hip like that. Is this... is this flower supposed to be sexy?

Especially funny to me is the name! A mix of “pansy” and “panzer”, a German tank. I guess it does shoot stuff, huh. This plant is a little bit like a tank!

Though Panser hasn’t returned, its legacy lives on! First was the Lava Lotus of Super Mario Bros. 3, noted to be an ARTIFICIAL flower, which lives underwater, firing lava balls from its transparent petals. That’s so cool! All of those things! And they’re all combined into one enemy! I guess it has to specifically shoot lava balls rather than fireballs to ensure they’re not totally rendered useless by the water it dwells in. You know, because the Mario series is very careful about realistically portraying how fire and water interact.

And then there’s Super Mario World’s Volcano Plant, which, despite looking quite different, has the same Japanese name as Panser! Sorry, Volcano Plant, but I have to say you’re the least interesting of the fire-spitting plants. Would it kill ya to at least have some eyes?