Name: Gushen
Debut: Super Mario Odyssey
Time to GUSH about a flapjack octopus! At least, I think it’s a flapjack. It sure is delightfully round cephalopod at least, and rounder still is its orb of water it lives in! How do you think it does that? Psychic powers?... Silk?! Maybe it’s like a reverse diving bell spider!
Like real octopuses, Gushens move by propelling themselves with jets of water, but unlike real octopuses, Gushen does this from the center of its arms, where the beak would normally be! Is this its siphon? Or perhaps it’s just a cartoon octopus with a disgusting fleshy lip mouth, like Hank from Finding Dory? I guess the real mouth could be hidden by the mustache, which I’m just not vibing with, sorry.
Whatever their anatomy is, it sure is fun to Capture and play as Gushen! Having free flight in a 3D platformer is always pretty magical, I think. This, of course, is even better when it’s a mollusk doing the flying.
The Gushens are led by Brigadier Mollusque-Lanceur III, Dauphin of Bubblaine, who earned his position by being the biggest and the most French. He’s slurping up all the kingdom’s precious Sparkle Water through a bendy straw, confirming that this on his face is, in fact, a mouth! I guess the thing on the bottom is the siphon after all. LOOK at those realistic octopus eyes! A splendid touch!
He has quite a grand boss fight, too, which involves chasing him through the entire kingdom as a Gushen, giving it quite a grand scope! The rematch even takes place in a rainstorm, so your water never runs out, letting you achieve TRUE unlimited flight. I just don’t get why he can cover his head in lava. That’s pretty close to the bottom of my list of “things an octopus would do to attack”.
More Odyssey octopus content awaits on our Astro-Lanceur post!
