if a new altered beast ever happens, they'd probably make it so the characters gradually develop features of the animals they transform into instead of getting extremely buff
Whoa! This mermaid is Pissed! Though I guess "Mad" could just be a shortening for something beautiful and elegant like "Madeline" or "Maddison" or perhaps "Madwoman". Either way, she is one of seven bosses that Toad can fight in Wario's Woods, a drop-down puzzle game for the NES (and SNES, but we'll get to that in a minute) most notable for being the last officially-licensed game released on the console, a whole four years into the lifespan of the SNES! We've already gone over most of the Wario's Woods denizens in a couple of posts, but with the exception of the NES bosses!
Original video credit: NintendoComplete on Youtube
The bosses in this game all play pretty much identically, summoning enemies and occasionally teleporting around. To damage them, you line up the thingies of the same color next to them, as you can see in the gif above. Yuppppp. She also appeared in Super Mario-Kun, where she is shown to be a shapeshifter!
I searched everywhere for more, but since Super Mario-Kun is apparently both very poorly archived and approximately three infinities long, here's some highlights courtesy of her Super Mario Wiki page! Wario has enthralled her by poisoning the lake she resides in, and after a fight, Mario and co. cure her by....... having Yoshi drink and subsequently urinate her out. Turns out this mermaid really was Pissed after all I guess.
Anyway, after that, her true form is revealed: a big fat anthropomorphic fish in a dress. If you don't think she's just as beautiful, get out of my sight. That's where I’d leave off the post normally, but as you may have noticed, we haven't yet touched on the SNES release of Wario's Woods. This brings us to the second half of the post...
Original video credit: World of Longplays on Youtube
Name: Aqualea
Debut: Wario's Woods (SNES)
Finally, someone calls Toad out on his trademark foolhardiness! Yes, Wario's Woods (SNES) includes a mermaid boss just like its NES counterpart. The odd thing here to me is not just that they went to the trouble of making a unique character that still sticks so close to Mad's design rather than outright cutting and pasting her into WW(SNES); but that of WW(SNES)'s seventeen non-Wario bosses, only one of them seems to bear any similarity to WW(NES)'s six.
Why go to the trouble of designing unique boss casts across both releases? Why not just distribute WW(NES)'s comparatively scanty lineup into WW(SNES)'s, which is almost three times as large? I mean, as a writer for a blog which hinges around novel and bizarre designs in the Mario franchise, I should really be thankful, but from a development standpoint it is just so odd! Especially considering both versions were designed and released concurrently! I think the most likely explanation here is poor coordination between design teams, though they did still have one member in common, so who's to say?
Anyway, all of that is to say that the circumstances surrounding Aqualea's conception are kind of infinitely more interesting than her design itself. Sorry, Aqualea! Although my sapphic sensibilities make it pretty hard to write you off completely, your cute-girl-ness can only get you so far, and novelty is unfortunately very much not on your side here.
Above, you can see how the boss gameplay differs from WW(NES). Instead of taking place on a single field, it now takes place across two, as is more traditional for competitive drop-down puzzle games. I really enjoy the unique SMB2(USA)-style sprite sets every boss has for this purpose. Seems like a good opportunity for a very niche ROM hack, if you ask me!
Every boss is also given a unique "lose" sprite for when you've defeated them. These are usually just a given boss's face in a distraught expression, but Aqualea is exceptional in that regard. I will now leave you with what is, in my opinion, the single most charming lose sprite of any boss in Wario's Woods (SNES):
sometimes I still get amazed that via voice chats, you're able to talk to people across the globe that you'd probably never see in real life at the press of a button
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