Shroob

Shroob
Origin	Unknown Planet
Type	Fungus
Debut	Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time

The Shroobs are a race of mushroom aliens that hail from a planet shaped like a mushroom.

Information

Although they have some minor similarities with Toads (and less with Goombas), they are nevertheless strikingly different. They are purple mushrooms with red eyes and stubby bodies. They do not speak the native language of the Mushroom Kingdom and instead speak in an abrupt alien language. They travel in a large mother ship, but are deployed in single small saucers built for one Shroob.

The Shroobs invaded the Mushroom Kingdom in the distant past during Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time. Their own planet had become barren and unfit to live, so they decided to take over the much more fertile Mushroom Kingdom. They invaded during the days when Mario and the others were still babies. Given that they had little resistance, the Shroobs were able to easily overcome the Mushroom Kingdom and even Baby Bowser's forces. They immediately began experimenting on the Toads and other local wildlife. They were able to form energy by sucking it right out of the Toads using one of their mutated creatures, a Swiggler. They established their base inside of Princess Peach's Castle and completely redecorated. Their rulers are the two Shroob princesses.

Although Shroobs are capable of close combat, they tend to rely on technological devices to perform their deeds. This comes in the form of laser guns and DS Pads used to summon Shroob Saucers to attack. They also are known to subject theirselves to mushrooms that will cause them to grow or shrink in order to gain an advantage. More than anything, Shroobs prefer to beat their opponents by superior numbers.

The Shroobs were defeated by Mario and Luigi and their baby counterparts. After the destruction of the Mother Ship, Mario and Luigi defeated both Shroob princesses. It was then that the weakness of the Shroobs was discovered: baby tears. The baby tears were spread across the Mushroom Kingdom with Professor E. Gadd's Hydrogush invention. The baby tears changed the people who had been turned into mushrooms by the Shroobs back to their original forms, and destroyed other Shroob technology, but the effect of the baby tears on living Shroobs is unknown. The fate of the Shroobs is unknown, but they likely returned to their home planet.

In Bowser's Inside Story, it is revealed that Bowser had cryogenically frozen all (or most) of the surviving Shroobs, hiding them within a secret chamber beneath his castle. Mario and Luigi can press a button to defrost and battle three Shroobs as an optional boss for a set of Attack Pieces. Various other Shroobs are seen frozen as well, including the Elder Princess Shroob. Earlier in the game, a Shroob could be seen in the audience at the Fawful Theatre.

Trivia

• The appearance of the Shroobs resemble the Poison Mushroom from Super Mario All-Stars.
• A sticker of the Shroobs appears in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.