Debut: Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
Check it out. A Goomba with a hat. You know what we gamers do with Goombas wearing hats... that's right! We hope and pray that they become fighters in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. But Goomther is not just any Goomba with a hat, even if he shares his design with plenty of other hatted Goombas in town. He has a sexy little secret...! Okay, it's not a secret. He's very open about it. And to be honest, I don't find it sexy. But maybe someone does. Maybe you? Please?
Goomther's whole deal is that he is constantly a victim of credit card fraud! That's fun. I love credit card fraud. From a distance, of course! Really, I just love the concept of credit card fraud in whimsical fictional universes. Now that I've finally played TTYD recently, I finally get it! It's such a wonderful depiction of the Mario world. There are parts that are unsavory, full of petty theft and organized crime... but just like anywhere else, they're just full of people! People who love and care and are deserving of help, no matter how rough around the edges. It's good stuff!
When you talk to Goomther, he'll say his iconic catchphrase:
“I'm looking for this guy who defrauded me with a fake credit card the other day. If you find that jerk, give him a whupping for me!”
Well, alright! Let's go find that jerk!
The perpetrator is none other than Larson the Bandit. A guy who proudly dons the bright blue uniform that screams "I Steal From Suckers", and who is named after larceny. I hope that's his birth name. I hope his mother named him that with the purest love in the world, hoping he would spend his life cheekily inconveniencing others. He runs around a bunch, but after enough time, Goomther himself shows up to beat him up. How proactive! He started out as a passive victim, but now he's facing his problems head-on! I'm impressed at how much this NPC Goomba has grown as a person. What does he have to say after the events of this quest?
“I'm looking for this guy who defrauded me with a fake credit card the other day. If you find that jerk, give him a whupping for me!”
So they just didn't bother to give him new dialogue... OR! Maybe this was intentional. I hope it was. I hope this is meant to indicate that he's been defrauded many times through fake credit cards. It happens day after day. His cosmic fate. If you ever find yourself a victim of credit card fraud, I'm sorry. I hope it all gets sorted out. But! I hope you can also smile about it. "I'm just like Goomther the Goomba, my (number)th favorite Goomba!" You can say something like that.