Balloon Mario | |||
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Original Character(s) | Mario, Luigi, Blue Toad, Toadette, Daisy, Yellow Toad, Peach | ||
Achieved By | Grabbing a P-Balloon Walking over a vent (Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story) Grabbing a Power Flower as Mario (Super Mario 64 DS) Grabbing a Wonder Flower (Super Mario Bros. Wonder) | ||
Forfeited By | Being hit, running out of time | ||
First Appearance | Super Mario World (1990) | ||
Main Ability/ies | |||
Floating upwards |
Balloon Mario (Japanese: バルーンマリオ Barūn Mario) is a power-up that appears in the Super Mario series. First appearing in Super Mario World, the "Balloon" form can be taken on by Mario and Luigi by touching a P-Balloon. While Balloon Mario, the player will float upwards uncontrollably as if filled with helium, only being able to slightly adjust whether their character moves left or right while doing so.
In Super Mario 64 DS Balloon Mario, here referred to as Floating Power (Japanese: 風船マリオ Fūsen Mario), appears as the power-up that Mario receives via the Power Flower. Only Mario is able to become Balloon Mario in this game as Wario instead becomes Metal Wario, Luigi becomes Vanish Luigi, and Yoshi gains the ability to breath fire upon touching the same power-up. Floating Power in this game is very situational, as it is extremely similar to the Wing Cap, another power-up that only Mario can use within the same game.
Balloon Mario would also reappear in Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story. In this game Balloon Mario was once again a form exclusive to Mario, who could now access this form by walking over air vents on the ground. Instead of Mario floating upwards indefinitely until the effects of the power-up run out, this game instead saw Luigi grab onto Mario's legs, allowing the two brothers to jump higher and slowly float down to the ground afterwards.
In Super Mario World, Mario or Luigi would revert to their small forms should they take damage while the P-Balloon's effects are active. In Super Mario Maker 2, characters affected by the P-Balloon will instead revert to their Super form upon taking damage, regardless of whether they had any other power-up previously. Yoshis also can not be ridden while under the effects of the P-Balloon.
Physical Appearance[]
Originally, a character under the effects of the P-Balloon would simply inflate into a spherical shape and hold their breath, essentially transforming them into a balloon. Mario and Luigi's clothing would remain unchanged in this form, making it one of the rare power-ups that does not give them a unique colour scheme; though it technically doesn't alter their appearance in any way, aside from inflating the character using it.
Beginning in Super Mario Maker 2, characters would receive a new design while under the effects of a P-Balloon. When in their Balloon forms, Mario, Luigi, Toad, and Toadette would instead gain yellow pants emblazoned with a white "P", while still inflating as they did normally; as Toadette wears a dress as opposed to pants, the "P" would be present on her dress while her pants would instead become yellow.
Balloon Mario is one of the few power-up forms that has exclusively appeared as an item with a time limit. While in some games, such as Super Mario Galaxy, limited-time power-up forms would have the music speed up as time runs out, Balloon Mario instead sees the character affected deflate for a few frames before reinflating; this process speeds up the closer the effects are to ceasing before eventually ending altogether and having the character fall back to the ground. In the Game Boy Advance remake of Super Mario World, Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2, the music's tempo would slow while controlling Balloon Mario or Luigi and slowly speed up as the effects wear off, with a deflating noise accompanying their return to normal; this is the only game in which this happens, however.
Fanon Appearances[]
Super Mario Maker 3 (TheProjectXZoneFan1997)[]
Balloon Mario is one of the many transformations of the game, the ones who can turn into this form are Mario, Luigi, Toad, Toadette, Peach, Daisy, Rosalina, Wario, Donkey Kong and Nabbit.