Fixing Mario Pinball Land - Scans and new advice inside

------------------------------------
RESOLUTION EDIT
-The boss of the Shifting Sands Stage from Mario Pinball Land is Egyptian Koopa; "King Tut" was a (bad) misnomer that persisted in error for nearly a decade.

-The Paper Mario boss, Tutankoopa, is (indeed) a different villain altogether with a unique backstory.
------------------------------------

Original Post
The talk on this Wiki page has been abandoned for some time now, even though the poster had a valid point:

http://www.mariowiki.com/Talk:King_Tut

I actually signed up to this cool site, just to ask about this because it's been driving me nuts lol.

- I have the game manual for Mario Pinball Land, and to my knowledge there are no official guidebooks. I watched the commercials, too. The bosses are simply not named, anywhere.

- Even though a sprite may be modified, like Petey Piranha looking pretty deformed in Mario Pinball Land, it's still Petey Piranha, an homage to past Mario games. Because there are some superficial changes, is the boss no longer a clear homage to Tutankoopa from Paper Mario?

- The name King Tut is a human historical figure, and is so out of place as a Nintendo boss name. Was it made up by fans? I have heard people say "I guess Nintendo wasn't feeling original" with this name, but honestly I see no proof Nintendo ever called this character King Tut even once. Anyone who sticks to the King Tut thing references this website, which references nothing official in return.

- Can there really be two Tutankhamen-wannabe Koopas in the Mushroom Kingdom, guys? With one having the designation of King, and the other not? Seems pretty asymmetric and random.

I am of the opinion that "King Tut" is actually Mario Pinball Land's version of Tutankoopa. To actually break the character in two, there should be proof somewhere of a name, at the very least, right?

Thanks all,
Craig "Prenz"

Re: Perplexed by origins of name "King Tut" vs Tutankoopa

(This should probably be in the Wiki Collabs thread, btw.)

Anyway, it seems more like speculation than anything to say the two characters are the same: Petey Piranha's a recurring boss already, whereas Tutankoopa was a one-off, so it's be really unlikely for him to show up again out of the blue 4 years later in a game created by an entirely different team. Tutankoopa was a ghost who used magic and Chomp-based attacks (and to me, he resembles a Magikoopa more than anything else), whereas the Pinball Land pharaoh is a Koopa Troopa who uses magic pillars to change his size, and looks nothing like Tutankoopa besides the basic fact that they're wearing ropes and headdresses (with different designs). Egypt is a recurring thematic choice for Mario games, so it's perfectly understandable that there's two independent pharaoh-based Koopas.

Seeing as the name "King Tut" seems to be made up, perhaps we should change the name of the article to something more descriptive, as specifying that he's King Tut seems overly speculative for a conjectural name, especially in light of the existing, verified King Tut ref (which causes exactly this sort of confusion and fanon-talk). Perhaps "Pharaoh Koopa" would be better.

Re: Perplexed by origins of name "King Tut" vs Tutankoopa

The staff may move this thread at will (of course), sorry about that! However it's a pretty unusual situation and interesting topic IMO.

Yes, calling him King Tut, is pretty ridiculous. Besides the fact it was made up (look high and low, people), it would be like calling a Nintendo boss Genghis Khan, or Alexander the Great. King Tut as a name has no reference to him being a Koopa, or a Nintendo character at all, unlike all other bosses of Mario Pinball Land:

Petey Piranha
Cheep Cheep Pufferfish
Big Boo

The homage in my view is that there is an actual creature protruding from the headdress of the Pharoah costume, albeit a snake and not a miniature chain chomp which wouldn't fit the Shifting Sands enemies theme very well. Having actual alive stuff in a headdress was not the Egyptian norm as I understand (humor).

It is pretty amazing the power of this very Mario wiki, because there are YouTube folks who now ensure videos calling the boss Tutankoopa hear their King Tut wrath - when Tutankoopa is literally the only official (printed or spoken) name Nintendo has ever given to a boss figure of this nature.

The Nintendo wiki refers to him as Tutankoopa, as do several other sources, such as YouTube boss music and FAQs. It's by no means cut and dry. I hear your points about the backstory ghost origin. The Pinball Land has control of a black ball of magic that isn't a chain chomp, but it may well be the same ghastly spirit up to no good as a regular Koopa Troopa (as you claim somehow) wouldn't have these special magic powers...

Re: Perplexed by origins of name "King Tut" vs Tutankoopa

I think a guy told me the mario pinball bosses are named in an issue of nintendo power, but considering what the wiki was like in 2007, it's very probable the name is invented and whoever created the page couldn't be arsed to tag it with {{conjecture}}.

Re: Perplexed by origins of name "King Tut" vs Tutankoopa

I just picked up Nintendo Power 185 (Nov 2004) from the auction site. I'll have it within a couple weeks, all.



Maybe this will help get to the bottom of this at long last; the third game on the bottom row is Mario Pinball Land.

I won't forget this thread; I'll be back! (Terminator voice) 8)

Re: Perplexed by origins of name "King Tut" vs Tutankoopa

if that issue doesn't infact have names, I completely absolve myself of any responsibility for wasting your money

Re: Perplexed by origins of name "King Tut" vs Tutankoopa

<Borp>: the four bosses are "Big Boo", "Porcupuffer", "Petey Piranha" and "Egyptian Koopa" according to this [Nintendo Power] article
Borp>: he's not a mummy at all, though
<Borp>: also
<Borp>: Spiny is misnamed "Spikey"
<Borp>: and the Koopatrols are "Armored Koopa"
<Borp>: the bees are indeed named "Bumbler" though

Click to expand...

so there's the answer.

Re: Perplexed by origins of name "King Tut" vs Tutankoopa

page #?

Re: Perplexed by origins of name "King Tut" vs Tutankoopa

I cited it when adding the refs, it's #117 according to borp.

Re: Perplexed by origins of name "King Tut" vs Tutankoopa

I'm a collector so I'll be glad to have that Nintendo Power issue, even if we've already gotten to the bottom of this.

I can't believe the King Tut rubbish survived for a decade on this site, influencing the whole of the internet and their opinions on the matter.

Also, I see you guys added the boss as Porcopuffer, but above in this thread I see Porcupuffer. Please fix that

http://www.mariowiki.com/Mario_Pinball_Land#Bosses

I'm pretty stoked my signing in to this website has already influenced the Wiki in a major way; good thing people were willing to be open-minded and re-explore the issue!

Re: Perplexed by origins of name "King Tut" vs Tutankoopa

To all - I will post a (partial) scan of page 117 when I receive the issue! Would be nice closure for many, I'm sure.

Re: Perplexed by origins of name "King Tut" vs Tutankoopa

Man, Pinball Land even sucked at getting enemy's names right. Armored Koopa? Pshh.

I used to think they were the same character as well, so it's good we now know they aren't and that it isn't King Tut

Re: There is no "King Tut" in Nintendo lore, there is only Egyptian Koopa!

To the mods -

This page likely needs an edit to reflect this "new" knowledge:

http://www.mariowiki.com/Spiny_Cheep_Cheep

The page contains ambiguity on what the enemies are actually called in Mario Pinball Land. Now we know they are not Spiny Cheep Cheeps at all, but Porcupuffers.

Re: Perplexed by origins of name "King Tut" vs Tutankoopa

Prenz said:

I can't believe the King Tut rubbish survived for a decade on this site, influencing the whole of the internet and their opinions on the matter.

Click to expand...

A lot of crap gets stuck there for years cough Clawdia Koopa cough, so I'm not wholly surprised at this point. ;P

Enemies (NP, p116):


Bosses (NP, p117):


And a link to the Game Manual (pdf).

The above are the only known sources of official Mario Pinball Land information (to my knowledge!), besides page 114 and 115 of the same issue that provides some tips about starting the game.

***JOBS***

That being said, there are some errors on the Wiki page enemies list:
1) Spikey is the game's name for a 'Spiny'. It definitely wasn't a typo, as it even has an extra letter and was written twice. This game wants Pokey and Spikey to sound cool together, who knows.
2) Koopa is the given name for what's listed here as 'Koopa Troopa'. You won't find Troopa written in any descriptive materials above. Also, having Armored Koopa, but then 'Koopa Troopa', is weird.
3) Flying Shy Guys and Shy Guys on Skates are two enemy types. There is no 'Fly Guy' as seen in the wiki, and the skating type is missing altogether.
4) Snakes exist in Mario Pinball Land, not 'Cobrats'. Cobras have that Pharaoh head IRL, not these guys though.
5) 1-Up Mole hides in this game, not 'Monty Mole'.
6) Half of the enemies in this list are singular, the other half are plural and it's done haphazardly. I would change every single one to singular form.

And, the Worlds part of the Wiki has errors as well:
1) The Fun Fair vs. 'Fun Fair' (small edit)
2) Pyramid is the only way this part of Shifting Sands is referred to (manual or Nintendo Power). It's been established that King Tut was a weird misnomer.
3) Wrong order shown in the Wiki (needs to be fixed). Correct order according to manual:
The Fun Fair
Frosty Frontier Stage
Grassy Greens Stage
Shifting Sands Stage
Fiery Stage
And according to NP:
The Fun Fair
Frosty Frontier
Grassy Greens
Shifting Sands
Bowser's Castle
4) Besides the order, the above lists highlight another issue. The last stage according to the game manual, which is official information for every single person who bought this game (new), is called "Fiery Stage". "Bowser's Castle" is only seen in the NP magazine. I think the Wiki should call it Bowser's Castle (Fiery Stage). Fiery Stage must be somewhere, because that is what people are going to look up who have this game. Note that Fiery is an adjective, so calling it 'Fiery' as what done on this site in the recent past is unacceptable / nonsensical.

I hope this stuff helps you guys sort this game out officially, once and for all

Worlds Wiki corrections, last one:
5) Shipwreck is how NP p117 (Porcupuffer description) calls 'Sunken Ship'. The vessel is never named in any other place, manual included.

And that is all

Thanks!

There sure are a lot of random name changes, but it seems reasonable to leave info where it is, and just mention the weird names.

Manuals take precedence over NP for naming, so all the areas should just be moved to the manual names (in the case of Bowser's Castle, the info has to be split). In-game, the 4 worlds can all be accessed at the same time, but in both NP and the manual, id does indeed list the ice world before the grass world, so it'd make sense for us to follow suit rather than arbitrarily having a different order.

The small bestiary from the manual (full pdf file linked in previous post) is precisely consistent with the Nintendo Power listing.

The only inconsistencies between the Manual and Nintendo Power, for Mario Pinball Land, are the following:

Manual-vs-NP #1) Haunted House (manual, and this Wiki) is called Fun House on NP, p117 (Big Boo description)
Manual-vs-NP #2) Fiery Stage (manual, absent on this Wiki) is called Bowser's Castle ONLY in NP (p116), and never Fiery Stage.

Here are some quotes from the manual:

"Hit the statues with Mario on the Fiery Stage. When each key has been placed, a Red Switch appears at each area where the bosses used to be." (page 16)

"Fiery Stage - This stage fills everyone with a nameless dread." [...] "Use the Star Keys to open the gate to Bowser's castle!" (page 21)

This is important because it makes it clear the stage is called Fiery Stage after all, and Bowser's Castle is what lies beyond the first gate.

Guys, in addition to these naming considerations, the mariowiki Items list for this game is missing the most powerful item in the game, which is a pretty big huge omission.

When you clear a Red Coin challenge, a new red box appears with a white exclamation point, in the boss area where the switch used to be to activate the challenge. If you hit this very unique box with no items equipped (B button), you'll get a Special Egg:

http://retroachievements.org/Achievement/18879

I just came off playing this game, this item is for real. There are 4 to collect in the game. I can't even find a proper image of it (not black and white) online, that shows you how rare it is as far as internet knowledge goes. Not even Nintendo Power references this item (the best item!) much less the manual. Strange...

When you collect the item, Mario shouts out "Speciallll" which is the only clue on how to name this egg. The linked name 'Red Yoshi Egg' is made-up, though the Special Egg is indeed red with white stars. Using the in-game exclamation (unique to this item, mind you!) is clearly the most legit way of referencing the item.

Anyway, what this item does is awesome. When you hit B to use it, you get the combined effects of the Mega Mushroom, Star, Yoshi Egg, and Blue Pipe. That is, your Mario ball will be huge and invincible, but not only this, the Yoshi Egg will be huge as well which is insane. And the drain is blocked. After some time, the multiple awesome effects wear off. Note - the huge Yoshi Egg you get to bat around by using this power-up is normal white-and-green patterned, just big.

Yeah, I meant random name changes compared to previous games, but it's good to know there's consistency between NP and the manual for the most part. When there's conflict, we'll go with the manual over NP. I already made a page for Fiery Stage, and added info to the Ghost House article (other games have used that name as well, apparently). But despite adding a link to the template, I'm not completely if we should really bother making a "Shipwreck" article, or just leave it as part of the Frosty Frontier Stage page.

As for the Special Egg stuff, that's pretty interesting, thanks for letting us know about it. So in addition to having two huge balls and the drain being blocked by a (blue?) pipe, you're also invincible, like when using a star? Anyway, I added it to the item list and the appropriate Yoshi Egg article section, with a ref to that site you liked to, but obviously, an image and a ref to gameplay footage or something would be even better - hopefully we'll be able to find something. The goal will be to have a specific article for it, instead of just a redirect to Yoshi Egg (which was preexisting from back in 2006 - maybe that old user knew about it too).

It's worth mentioning that this gamefaqs guide (http://www.gamefaqs.com/gba/920192-mario-pinball-land/faqs/39250) mention the item (and actually describes what it does, as opposed to the other link). It's also called Red Yoshi Egg, interestingly.