Fixing Mario Pinball Land - Scans and new advice inside

P

Prenz

Goomba
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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.
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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.

71GdWWH3LWL._SL500_SX258_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg


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

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