Goomba

Goombas are small, brown enemies that resemble Mushrooms in the Mario series. They were introduced in Super Mario Bros. for the NES where they were the easiest enemies to defeat, as a simple jump on the head would do them in. After their initial appearance, Goombas started to appear in nearly every Mario platformer excluding Super Mario Bros. 2 and Super Mario Sunshine for the NES and GameCube, respectively. Over the years, new variations have popped up that boost their defense and offense such as the Spiked Goomba and the Paragoomba. In Super Mario Sunshine, the Goombas were replaced by an apparently sub species enemy, known as a Strollin' Stu. The Goombas can be defeated by any of Mario's attacks in every game that they have appeared in.

Prior to the events of Super Mario Bros., Goombas were apparently friends to the Mushroom Kingdom until the evil king Bowser earged them to join his army. While some stayed loyal, most went to the new superpower, though have become a relatively useless ally. However, in some games such as Paper Mario and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door for the Nintendo 64 and GameCube, Goombas became Mario's partners (Goombario and Goombella).

Goombas have also appeared as obstacles in the Mario Kart series as well. Such as in Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, Mario Kart DS, and Mario Kart Wii where they appeared in the Mario Circuit stage. The only actual playable appearance of a Goomba in a sports game was in Mario Superstar Baseball and its sequel Mario Super Sluggers where this species and a Paragoomba both were playable.

They have appeared in almost every Mario platformer, other than Super Mario Sunshine and Super Mario Bros. 2, which was meant to have more original and new enemies on the account that Mario traveled to new areas. They do appear however in Super Mario Galaxy for the Wii, where they appear in three forms. Standard Goombas can be squished under Mario's foot and a coin is obtained or using the spin attack results in the Goombas spinning upside-down. While upside-down, running into them will result in Mario kicking them into space and an explosion of Star Bits. A Grand Goomba appears in the first level and dark tiny Goombas appear throughout and can be killed with one spin or jump. Other than the Goombas, there is a sub species of Goomba on both installments of the Super Mario Galaxy games, known as an Octoomba. In Super Mario 3D Land, there will be Goombas with Tanooki tails.

Goomba variants

 * Paragoomba: Knock off their wings to turn them into normal Goombas. Red kinds can only jump and brown kinds eject Mugger Micro Goombas. Some kinds don’t have wings and float down on parachutes. Paragoomba.jpg
 * Mugger Micro Goomba: These are tiny Goombas are either ejected by high flying Paragoombas or wait to throw bricks at Mario.
 * Kuribo's Goomba: Knock out the Goomba and you can take a ride in the Kuribo's Shoe. This Goomba, and its powerup, only appear in Super Mario Bros. 3.
 * Giant Goomba: A larger form of a Goomba seen on Tiny Huge Island in Super Mario 64.
 * Grand Goomba: Very similar to the Giant Goomba, though appears in Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario Galaxy 2.
 * Gloomba: These Goombas always appear in underground areas and have a light blue color. They first appeared in Super Mario Bros. but weren't referred to as a different species until the Paper Mario series.
 * Spiked Goomba: A goomba From the Paper Mario Series. they wear a spike hat and may only be defeated by the Hammer or a Special Attack
 * Tanooki Goomba: A Goomba with a Tanooki tail (which they use to whack Mario), these Goombas.Tanooki Goombas will sometimes leave behind a Tanooki Leaf. They first apperear in super Mario 3D.

Cameo appearances

 * The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening - Goombas, along with other Mario enemies appear in the sidescrolling levels.
 * Super Smash Bros. Melee - Goombas appear as an enemy on the Mushroom Kingdom levels, and also have a trophy.
 * Super Smash Bros. Brawl - Goombas appear as a common enemy in Brawl's Subspace Emissary.
 * Super Mario Sunshine- Goombas do not appear in this game, but are replaced by Strollin' Stu, which appear to be related to Goombas.

Goombas also appear as trophies in Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Their description for brawl is, ''A citizen of the Mushroom Kingdom who sided with Bowser when he invaded. Goombas slowly chase after Mario on stubby legs. They're not the toughest creatures and can generally be defeated by jumping on them, which makes them disappear. They have fierce fangs, but they don't seem to serve any purpose. Tough a nuisance to Mario, they're decent at baseball and mah-jongg.''

Development
Goombas were added at the very end of development on Super Mario Bros. According to Takashi Tezuka, they initially only had Koopa Troopas in the game. After play testers explained to the developers that the Koopas were too challenging to be the first enemy the player encounters, the Goomba replaced them. "So we decided that that we should make an enemy that you could easily squash with a single blow. That's why we made it so that the first enemy the player would encounter would be a Goomba. But we created it right at the very end." said Tezuka. According to Toshihiko Nakago, the programmer of Super Mario Bros., they had a hard time putting the Goomba in the game because they had very few bytes available. Instead of making distinct sprites indicating movement, they instead chose to just flip the sprite which made it look as if the Goomba was walking.

As revealed in an edition of Iwata Asks, the design of the Goomba is based on a shiitake mushroom.