"Why do people hate me?"
Article by: Paul Watkins (watkinzez)
Pictured from: New Super Mario Bros.
Created by: Nintendo
First appearance: 1985
Bio
As with any anthropomorphic species in video games, the Lakitus come in good and evil varieties. Using its own personal flying cloud Lakitu can either hinder or help Mario on his many adventures, and has appeared in much of the Mario series since its inception — effectively in the same category as the classic Mario characters (Goombas, Koopa Troopas, Bullet Bills and Piranha Plants being among some).
Lakitus as foes of Mario use their height and speed advantage to attack from the sky with various projectiles, usually Spiny Eggs. A pain to avoid, it turns out, and equally so for Mario to remove these enemies from his path. It wasn't until Super Mario World that the plumber could get his own back and steal Lakitu's cloud from under it. Not all variants had the aerial advantage, though — some chose to hide in pipes from which to attack.
It's not all bad for Mario, though — some of the flying turtles have appeared to help him in his quests. Super Mario 64's pioneer approach to the 3D platform game camera involved an actual in-game camera that the Lakitu Bros. would carry while following Mario. Also professed judge of the Mario Kart series, Lakitu would carry the race's starting light, and bring aid to anyone who had taken an ill turn in the race.
Selected game appearances
NES
- Super Mario Bros. (1985)
- Super Mario Bros. 3 (1988)
Super NES
- Super Mario World (1990)
- Super Mario Kart (1992)
- Super Mario All-Stars (1993)
- Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (1995)
- Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (1996)
- Tetris Attack (1996)
Nintendo 64
- Super Mario 64 (1996)
- Mario Kart 64 (1996)
- Super Smash Bros. (1999)
- Mario Party 2 (1999)
- Paper Mario (2000)
- Mario Party 3 (2000)
GameCube
- Super Smash Bros. Melee (2001)
- Mario Kart: Double Dash!! (2003)
- Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (2004)
Game Boy Advance
Nintendo DS
- Yoshi Touch & Go (2005)
- Mario Kart DS (2005)
- New Super Mario Bros. (2006)
Wii
- Super Paper Mario (2007)
- Super Smash Bros. Brawl (2008)
- Mario Kart Wii (2008)
- New Super Mario Bros. Wii (2009)
Nintendo 3DS
- Mario Kart 7 (2011)
Wii U
- Mario Kart 8 (2014)
Nintendo Switch
- Super Mario Odyssey (2017)
- Super Mario Maker 2 (2019)
References
