Elder Princess Shroob
- This article is about the penultimate boss in Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time. For her younger twin sister, see Princess Shroob.
| Elder Princess Shroob | |
|---|---|
In-game artwork of the elder Princess Shroob's battle with Princess Peach | |
| Species | Shroob |
| First appearance | Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time (2005) |
| Latest appearance | Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr.'s Journey (cameo) (2018) |
- “FOOLISH MUSHROOM HEADS... YOU MAY HAVE BESTED ME, BUT SHROOBS WILL LIVE ON... ONE DAY, THE SHROOBS WILL DANCE ON THE BURIED REMAINS OF THIS PATHETIC KINGDOM...”
- —Elder Princess Shroob, Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time
The elder Princess Shroob,[1] alternatively capitalized as the Elder Princess Shroob[2] and typically referred to simply as Princess Shroob in-game, is the secret antagonist and the penultimate boss of Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time. She is the leader of the Shroobs (her younger twin sister, Princess Shroob, is the second-in-command), an alien race that invaded the Mushroom Kingdom when Mario and Luigi were babies. When Princess Peach, Toadiko and Toadbert time-traveled to Peach's Castle of the past using Prof. E. Gadd's time machine, they encountered the Shroobs, who had just begun their invasion. The elder Princess Shroob then attempted to attack Peach. However, Peach used the power source of the time machine, the Cobalt Star, to trap the elder Princess Shroob inside. Peach then shattered the star into pieces; however, the younger Princess Shroob was still able to capture Peach and trap her in Shroob Castle.
General information[edit]
Physical description[edit]
The elder Princess Shroob resembles her sister, as she is a humanoid Shroob wearing a magenta dress, a silver crown with a black gem in the center, and green earrings (although she has no visible ears). However, she is much bigger and has a muscular body and pointy teeth.
In her second form, the elder Princess Shroob becomes even larger and the gem on her crown is orange instead of black. Her arms have been replaced with four tentacles, and her dress becomes tattered, especially at the bottom, revealing her legs, which consist of many tentacles.
Personality[edit]
The elder Princess Shroob only appears in the game for a short time and has only a few lines of dialogue, so not much is known about her personality. She is shown to have cared a lot for the younger Princess Shroob, referring to her as her "dear, sweet, beautiful sister" following her defeat to the Bros. and vowing to avenge her apparent death. She shows some deceptive and manipulative traits when she tries to convince the Bros. to repair the Cobalt Star under the guise of it being a "Star Sprite". After the Cobalt Star is restored due to the protagonists' efforts, she acts highly condescendingly towards them, calling them "foolish mushroom heads" and "pathetic things", before she says that she no longer fears anything.
In battle, she shows little concern for the well-being of the Shroobs under her command. Whenever a Shroob saucer performs a task for her, it will usually get damaged or destroyed in some way. Whenever a saucer brings the princess a glass of vim, she will hit it and knock it away after drinking it. She will also get two saucers destroyed by riding on them as she shoots energy orbs at the brothers. During the second phase of the battle, she is even more destructive, shooting down her own saucers so that they fall onto the Mario Bros. Nonetheless, she seems to have confidence in the success of the Shroob invasion, as evidenced by her last words to the Mario Bros., wherein she states that even with her defeat, the Shroobs will ultimately be victorious over the Mushroom Kingdom.
History[edit]
Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time[edit]
Throughout the game, Mario, Luigi, Baby Mario and Baby Luigi collect the various pieces of the Cobalt Star, not knowing that the elder Princess Shroob is actually trapped inside. When the brothers get to the top of Star Hill, the "spirit of the Cobalt Star" - actually the elder Princess Shroob in disguise - appears and speaks to the brothers. Baby Luigi unexpectedly starts crying when this happens, suggesting he was somehow aware of its true identity. Various other characters, such as Kylie Koopa and Toadbert, briefly hint at the fact that she was trapped inside the Cobalt Star, even as early as when the Mario Bros were in Yoob's Belly. Professor E. Gadd even correctly guesses that there was a link between the Cobalt Star (unaware that the elder Princess Shroob was actually trapped inside it) and the Shroobs when he saw one of the Cobalt Star shards agitating the Junior Shrooboid when it floated near the Shrooboid's tube.
Finally, at the end of the game, after Princess Shroob is defeated, it is revealed that Princess Peach kept the center shard of the Cobalt Star. Peach tells the Mario Bros. that she cannot allow them to repair the Cobalt Star, but before she can explain why, Baby Bowser appears and steals the last shard, combining it with the five that the heroes had already collected. The Shroob Princess, now enraged over the recent death of her younger sister, turns Baby Bowser into a Shroob mushroom and resumes her original form as Peach explains to the Mario Bros. what really happened when she first traveled back in time. Upon resuming her original form, the elder Princess Shroob promises to kill the Bros. as revenge for her sister's apparent death and then activates the platform they were standing on, engaging them in battle in the sky high above Shroob Castle. Notably, she speaks most of her dialogue in plain English, making her the only Shroob in the game to speak anything other than the Shroob language.
The Bros. manage to defeat the elder Princess Shroob and she becomes a Shroob mushroom, after she gloats that even with her defeat, the Shroobs will ultimately destroy the Mushroom Kingdom regardless. Mario, Luigi, Baby Mario, and Baby Luigi take her mushroom to the present-day Peach's Castle for it to be analyzed by Professor E. Gadd. However, when they get there, they find Bowser lying unconscious on the floor. The Shroob mushroom then unexpectedly comes to life and inserts itself into Bowser's mouth, fusing with him to create Shrowser and reviving the elder Princess Shroob as a ghost. The possessed Bowser regains consciousness and attacks the heroes under the command of the Shroob Princess. Despite being unable to attack Shrowser directly, the heroes dodge his fireballs which turn around and hit the elder Princess Shroob's ghost, eventually defeating her and by extension Shrowser, eliminating the Shroob threat for good. The characters, after bidding farewell, then return to their own time periods.
Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story / Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr.'s Journey[edit]
The elder Princess Shroob was one of many Shroobs seen frozen in the cold room of Bowser's Castle during Mario and Luigi's fight with the Shroobs in Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story. She appears in full view in the background of the battle, as do many other types of Shroobs; outside the battle, the elder Princess Shroob can still be barely seen, mostly cut off by the top of the screen, while there are fewer of the other Shroobs. The room is overall much smaller than in the battle.
In Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr.'s Journey, the elder Princess Shroob once again appears frozen in the cold room as a cameo, this time more clearly visible. The younger Princess Shroob can now be seen frozen next to her.
Battle[edit]
The battle against the elder Princess Shroob is split into two phases.
First phase[edit]
The elder Princess Shroob is much stronger than her sister, and commands a fleet of Shroob saucers. There can be up to six Shroob saucers present during the fight.
Her attacks depend on how many saucers are present:
- With one saucer:
- She can order a saucer to bring her a Vim-like drink recovers 120 of her HP (80 in non-American versions) then throwing it away while also flicking off the saucer.
- She summons a Shroob-like Chain Chomp named Kyankyan to chase after the saucer while the former unintentionally attacks Mario or Luigi, who must jump over her to avoid damage without jumping into the saucer above them. This attack ends after a certain amount of time, but it can end early if a bro jumps on Kyankyan.
- With two saucers, she can ride on top of the saucers and fire large energy blasts at the Bros. from the top screen with her left and right claws respectively (the right claw for Mario and the left claw for Luigi). The saucers then carry her into the background, where she fires larger orbs at the Bros. from a distance, which may need to be dodged by jumping depending on the height she is firing from. After this, the two saucers can no longer hold her weight and explode, launching her back onto the platform, which causes a shock-wave that must be jumped over.
- With three saucers, she can summon a meteorite held by the saucers, with which she attempts to crush the Bros to deal heavy damage; the targeted bro must whack her with the hammer enough times to make her drop it. The saucers are destroyed regardless if the meteorite was countered or not.
Every time more Shroob saucers are summoned, Princess Peach throws a star to the Bros., which they can use to knock saucers out of the sky and prevent the elder Princess Shroob from using some of her attacks. The Bros. can also earn Bros. Items (such as Red Shells and Smash Eggs) from the fallen saucers. Occasionally, Peach will throw a Super Mushroom to one brother.
The elder Princess only has one attack that she can use with no flying saucers present. She will back up before quickly running towards one of the brothers in a manner reminiscent of an American football tackle, which must be countered by hammering twice before she relents. Only the second hammer strike will damage her. She will sometimes do another variation of this attack, where her expression will change to a menacing smile before she starts moving. If she does this, she will stop right before she hits the targeted brother, attempting to trick them into swinging their hammer too early. In all non-American versions of the game, every time the player attacks the elder Princess Shroob, an exclamation mark appears above her, and she uses this attack against the Bro. who attacked her previously.
Once the elder Princess Shroob loses half of her health, any remaining Shroob saucers leave the battle as she activates her crown and morphs into her final form, causing Princess Peach to collapse in fear. The Bros. must defeat this monstrous form to put an end to the Shroob invasion.
Second phase[edit]
In this second form, the elder Princess Shroob turns into a giant octopus-like monster. She has seven parts that must be attacked separately: four arm tentacles, a group of leg tentacles, a crown, and her head. The crown cannot be attacked while the legs are active. While the crown is activated, the head receives only 1 damage from all attacks. To defeat her, the Bros. must destroy the legs to reach the crown, and then deactivate the crown to make the head vulnerable. The tentacles, legs, and crown reactivate 3 turns after they are destroyed.
Each body part has different attacks usually going in the order of head, tentacles, then feet. The head has two attacks; one is to summon up to six Shroob saucers, and then launch a energy ball from her mouth that hits all of them in a random order, causing them to either catch fire or short-circuit. After a few seconds, they will fall one at a time in the order they were hit. The saucers that are on fire will land on Mario, and the electrified ones will land on Luigi. This is likely a reference to the brothers' respective Firebrand and Thunderhand abilities in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga. This attack is repelled by hammering the saucers at the elder Princess's head. For the second attack, she launches a giant purple energy ball to the top screen, and proceeds to launch smaller red and green blasts into it in random order. The giant ball will then land on the bro corresponding to whichever color blasts the ball absorbed more of. That bro must hammer the ball, after which it will then land on the other bro who must also deflect it with their hammer.
The arm tentacles have two attacks; one is to jab at the Bros. with her tentacle claws, being telegraphed by a sparkle. This is dodged by jumping depending on which tentacle sparkled, and she can do this 2 to 4 times per attack. Less often, the upper two arms are also used as a fake-out attack, hitting slightly above the Bros. The second attack has the right and left tentacles slither towards both Bros. at the same time, to grab and throw them at the ground. To counter this, the Bros. must each hit the approaching tentacles with their hammers several times in a row. For the legs, the elder Princess Shroob uses them to back up and spit 2 to 5 poison gas clouds at the Bros. that must be jumped over. Her legs also have a passive attack at the end of every turn, in which they sweep across the floor in a circular motion. The Bros. must jump at the right time over and over until the spinning stops. She can do this attack using two tentacles, or three later on in the fight. Her last and rarest attack is used by the head after half her HP is depleted, and requires the legs to be activated. Similar to the head's first attack, she summons six saucers, but then she backs up and summons a time hole on the ground as well. After all of the saucers are hit by her energy blast, they will fall into the time hole and disappear. On a later turn with the legs activated, she will back up again and the time hole will reappear and spit out the saucers directly at the Bros. The saucers will go towards either Mario or Luigi depending on the order they were hit before falling into the time hole.
Statistics[edit]
| Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time enemy | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Princess Shroob (elder, 1) | ||||||||
| HP | 3500 (1800) | POW | 130 (210) | Defense | 130 (150) | |||
| Experience | 0 | Coins | 0 | Speed | 62 (100) | |||
| Location(s) | Shroob Castle | Role | Boss | Item drop | None – 0% None – 0% | |||
| Level | 30 (31) | Battled by | Everyone | |||||
| Notice: Stats in parentheses are from the Japanese and European versions (if they differ from the original American release). | ||||||||
| Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time enemy | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Princess Shroob (elder, 2) | ||||||||
| HP | 3000 (2000) | POW | 140 (230) | Defense | 140 | |||
| Experience | 0 | Coins | 0 | Speed | 64 (70) | |||
| Location(s) | Shroob Castle | Role | Boss | Item drop | None – 0% None – 0% | |||
| Level | 31 | Battled by | Everyone | |||||
| Notice: Stats in parentheses are from the Japanese and European versions (if they differ from the original American release). | ||||||||
| Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time enemy | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crown | ||||||||
| HP | 200 | POW | 140 (0) | Defense | 140 | |||
| Experience | 0 | Coins | 0 | Speed | 64 (50) | |||
| Location(s) | Shroob Castle | Role | Support | Item drop | None – 0% None – 0% | |||
| Level | 31 | Battled by | Everyone | |||||
| Notice: Stats in parentheses are from the Japanese and European versions (if they differ from the original American release). | ||||||||
| Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time enemy | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tentacle | ||||||||
| HP | 200 (350) | POW | 140 (200) | Defense | 140 (126) | |||
| Experience | 0 | Coins | 0 | Speed | 64 (70) | |||
| Location(s) | Shroob Castle | Role | Support | Item drop | None – 0% None – 0% | |||
| Level | 31 | Battled by | Everyone | |||||
| Notice: Stats in parentheses are from the Japanese and European versions (if they differ from the original American release). | ||||||||
| Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time enemy | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Foot | ||||||||
| HP | 400 (500) | POW | 140 (190) | Defense | 140 | |||
| Experience | 0 | Coins | 0 | Speed | 64 (50) | |||
| Location(s) | Shroob Castle | Role | Support | Item drop | None – 0% None – 0% | |||
| Level | 31 | Battled by | Everyone | |||||
| Notice: Stats in parentheses are from the Japanese and European versions (if they differ from the original American release). | ||||||||
Gallery[edit]
The elder Princess Shroob
The elder Princess Shroob
The elder Princess Shroob's final form
Shrowser with the elder Princess Shroob's ghost
Shrowser with the elder Princess Shroob's ghost
The elder Princess Shroob turned into a Shroob mushroom
Toadbert's drawing of the elder Princess Shroob
Toadbert's drawing cleaned, revealing the younger Princess Shroob
The battle with Shrowser
Credits scene of the elder Princess Shroob about to fight the Mario Bros.
The elder Princess Shroob in Super Mario-kun
The Elder Princess Shroob in Super Mario-kun
Shrowser in Super Mario-kun
Shrowser in Super Mario-kun
Shrowser in Super Mario-kun
Shrowser in Super Mario-kun
Quotes[edit]
- As the "spirit of the Cobalt Star"
- "I am the Star Sprite that lives within the Cobalt Star... I have tapped into the sacred power of the Hill so that I might speak with you... I think you may have already figured this out, but I hold power to defeat the Shroobs..."
- "However, Princess Shroob also knew this truth. She broke while battling Princess Peach... Mario, Luigi... young babies... You are the last remaining hope to save this kingdom. But please, you must hurry... My pieces must all be brought together once more..."
- "If you collect two of the three shards that still remain... You'll be able to pierce the Shroob barrier the guards Princess Peach's castle... And then, when you collect the last shard... You will become heroes of this land... Now hurry! Collect my remaining shards..."
- "I believe there is one shard sleeping within the Star Shrine ahead... For now, this is all the aid I may offer you... We will speak again, of that I am sure..."
- "Ahead... ahead... Something ahead... A strong power beckons... Hurry... Hurry..."
- "Thank you all for everything you've done. Now we must part."
- "All of you, please continue looking for Princess Peach."
- "In the meanwhile, I will try to ascertain the whereabouts of Princess Shroob."
- In her true form
- "I LAUGH AT YOU. MUSHROOM HEADS. PATHETIC THINGS."
- "YOU GATHERED THE COBALT STAR SHARDS WITHOUT EVER GUESSING THE TRUTH! NOW I AM FREE! AND THAT HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE COBALT STAR IS NO MORE!"
- "I FEAR NOTHING NOW! DO YOU HEAR ME? NOTHING!"
- "I WILL GIVE YOU A SPECIAL REWARD FOR SETTING ME FREE. YOU WILL LOVE IT."
- "AND MY SISTER... MY DEAR, SWEET, BEAUTIFUL SISTER... I WILL AVENGE HER!"
- "FOOLISH MUSHROOM HEADS... YOU MAY HAVE BESTED ME, BUT SHROOBS WILL LIVE ON... ONE DAY, THE SHROOBS WILL DANCE ON THE BURIED REMAINS OF THIS PATHETIC KINGDOM..."
Names in other languages[edit]
Elder Princess Shroob[edit]
| Language | Name | Meaning | Note(s) | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Japanese | ゲドンコ姫 Gedonko-hime |
Princess Shroob | [?] | |
| ゲドンコ姫（姉） Gedonko-hime (ane) |
Princess Shroob (older sister) | [3] | ||
| French | Princesse Xhampi | Princess Shroob | [4][5][6] | |
| German | Ältere Prinzessin Shroob | Elder Princess Shroob | [?] | |
| Italian | Principessa Shroob vecchia | Old/Elder Princess Shroob | [7] | |
| Princip. Shroob | "Princip." is short for Principessa ("Princess") | In-battle; shared with the sister | [8] | |
| Spanish (European) | Hermana de la Princesa Shroob | Princess Shroob's sister | [?] |
Crown[edit]
| Language | Name | Meaning | Note(s) | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Japanese | おうかん Ōkan |
Crown | [?] | |
| French | Couronne | Crown | [?] | |
| German | Krone | Crown | [?] | |
| Italian | Corona | Crown | [?] | |
| Korean | 왕관 Wang-gwan |
Crown | [?] | |
| Spanish | Corona | Crown | [?] |
Tentacle[edit]
| Language | Name | Meaning | Note(s) | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Japanese | しょくしゅ Shokushu |
Tentacle | [?] | |
| French | Tentacule | Tentacle | [?] | |
| German | Tentakel | Tentacle | [?] | |
| Italian | Tentacolo | Tentacle | [?] | |
| Korean | 촉수 Chogsu |
Tentacle | [?] | |
| Spanish | Tentáculo | Tentacle | [?] |
Foot[edit]
| Language | Name | Meaning | Note(s) | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Japanese | あし Ashi |
Foot | [?] | |
| French | Pied | Foot | [?] | |
| German | Fuß | Foot | [?] | |
| Italian | Piedone | Big-foot | [?] | |
| Korean | 다리 Dari |
Legs | [?] | |
| Spanish | Tentáculos | Tentacles | [?] |
Notes[edit]
- In Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, Princess Peach both states that the two Shroob sisters are twins, and that this character is older than the other Princess Shroob who was previously fought. It is not clear how both of these things are true at the same time, nor how Peach would know this information.
- The Elder Princess Shroob has a unique variation of the boss defeat animation, with black shockwaves instead of the usual pink ones, and a different explosion sound effect.
- In the North American version of Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, the elder Princess Shroob's crown is given an attack rating, although the crown never actually attacks, as its purpose is to simply protect the princess from damage.[9] In other versions, this has been corrected, as the crown has a Power rating of 0.
- During her attack in her second phase when she strikes down her saucers, it is possible for the player to counterattack until her HP reaches zero, and then get knocked out by the remaining saucers. If this happens, she does not get defeated, and the player gets a Game Over.
- Before the fight against the elder Princess Shroob, an ominous background music track is played, which isn't heard anywhere else in the game. In the North American version, this music track starts playing a few seconds before the ground platform starts rising into the sky. In other versions, the track starts playing quite a bit earlier than that, when the elder Princess Shroob first appears.
- When the elder Princess Shroob becomes a Shroob mushroom, the key item acquisition fanfare plays when Baby Luigi takes it in non-American versions.
References[edit]
- ^ "Uh-huh... Gathering all of the Cobalt Star shards... ...gave the elder Princess Shroob all of her power back!" – Princess Peach (November 28, 2005). Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time.
- ^ Hoffman, Chris (November 18, 2005). Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time Player's Guide. Nintendo of America (American English). ISBN 1-59812-006-9. Page 94-96.
- ^ Super Mario-kun volume 37. Page 24.
- ^ « Oui. j'ai enfermé la princesse Xhampi à l'intérieur, puis j'ai détruit l'étoile. » – Princess Peach's speech before the first fight against Elder Princess Shroob. Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time. French. Retrieved February 9, 2024.
- ^ « Donc, le lutin auquel nous avons parlé sur la Colline Étoile... En fait, c'était la princesse Xhampi qui était enfermée à l'intérieur! C'est fou, ça! » – Stuffwell's speech before the first fight against Elder Princess Shroob. Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time. French. Retrieved February 9, 2024.
- ^ April 28, 2023. v1Kqgow (Screen showing the french name of the Elder Princess Shroob) (png). Imgur. Retrieved February 9, 2024.
- ^ «Ora che i pezzi sono riuniti... la Principessa Shroob vecchia è di nuovo libera!» – Princess Peach. Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time. Italian.
- ^ «Princip. Shroob» – Battle nametag. Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time. Italian.
- ^ "Some stats were changed from the original American version of the game to the Japanese and European versions." – Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time. The Mushroom Kingdom (English). Retrieved February 9, 2024.
| Shroobs | |
|---|---|
| Characters | Commander Shroob • Elder Princess Shroob (Star Sprite) • Elder Shrooboid • Junior Shrooboid • Princess Shroob • Shrooboid Brat • Shrowser • Sunnycide |
| Variants | Blazing Shroob • Dr. Shroob • Guardian Shroob • Intern Shroob • RC Shroober • Shroid • Shroob • Shrooba Diver • Shroob saucer • Shrooblet • Shroobsworth • Support Shroob |
| Relatives | Egg (Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time) • Kyankyan • Shroob mushroom • Shroob Rex • Shroob-omb • Spiny Shroopa • Swiggler • Tashrooba • Yoob |