The Strange Origin of Chain Chomps

If you've played a Mario game before in your life, this scene should look pretty familiar to you. You're happily frolicking through the mushroom kingdom, heading wherever you're headed. But then, out of nowhere... WOW WOW *shudders* Creepy, right. But let's back up a second. Listen carefully. That's a bark. Why does this gigantic, horrible piece of metal with teeth bark like a dog? Well, there's actually a very good reason for that, and it's something you wouldn't really expect. We'll see. Hello! Welcome to Thomas Game Docs! So today we'll talk about the

origin

of these creepy things:

chain

s that bite.

They've been present in every recent Mario game, giving gamers around the world horrible bite-filled nightmares. But where exactly did they come from? Well, first, let's locate its

origin

. Perhaps “tracking” is a bit melodramatic. “Chain Chomp's First Appearance” They first appeared in Super Mario Bros. 3. Ok, well, that's our first question answered: the first game in which these creatures appeared was the highly revered NES game, Super Mario Bros. 3. This game brought back a multitude of important aspects of the Super Mario series that would eventually become mainstays: the tanooki suit, the toad houses, and the world map! But one aspect I don't really like is the

chain

bite.

But that doesn't answer the question of how these things happened. I mean, they look super weird and they bark like a dog. So how did the game developers come up with these things? Well, to find out, we'll have to investigate a tragic event in the childhood of one of the game's creators. This guy... Shigeru Miyamoto. I'd be very surprised if you didn't know who he is, but just in case, he's the game designer who brought Donkey Kong, Super Mario, and Zelda to life, among many, many others. And, when he was younger, he experienced something that marked him.

One day, Miyamoto was outside his house in the small town of Sonobe, Kyoto, where he grew up. Suddenly, a neighbor's dog appeared out of nowhere and started barking at him ferociously. He was getting closer and closer, sending shivers down the young Miyamoto's spine. Then he took one last leap, inches from the boy's face, his mouth open and his teeth glinting in the sunlight. BAM. He was pulled back by his leash. Moments later, Miyamoto opened his eyes. To his surprise, he managed to escape completely unharmed. He knew then that he would never forget that moment. 25 years passed and Miyamoto was now working as a game designer at the acclaimed game development studio Nintendo.

The game he was currently producing was Super Mario Bros 3, the third entry in the highly revered Super Mario series. The development team, which included producer Shigeru Miyamoto, co-director Takashi Tezuka, and lead programmer Toshihiko Nakago of SRD, was currently in the middle of brainstorming new ideas for the game. They started with power-ups. As I mentioned before, the team first wanted to include a power-up themed around turning into some kind of creature. They liked the idea of ​​including something mythological and finally settled on a centaur. If you don't know Greek mythology, that's half human half horse. However, before long, the team decided to give him the ax and replace him with a different mythological creature: the Japanese Tanuki.

Well, to be clear, the tanuki, or raccoon dog, is a real animal. But it also has an undeniably important place in Japanese folklore. And here's some fun trivia. In Japanese folklore, Tanuki use leaves to help them transform, which is why Mario uses a leaf to take on his raccoon form. Once the tanuki suit was decided on, the team added the frog suit, which was also themed to become a different creature. After the power-ups, the team moved on to the enemies. And immediately, something jumped out at Shigeru Miyamoto. What if he turned his childhood trauma with the dog in the lead into an enemy in the game?

It would be a round sphere, with threatening jaws, like the dog of yesteryear. And the enemy would once again be chained to a post, like in his childhood memory. Finally, he would name the enemy after the noise dogs make in Japan: wan wan. In English, this ended up becoming “chain chomp.” A more literal translation would be to call the enemy “woof woof,” which, yeah, maybe doesn't sound as threatening. Another new enemy this time was the boo, a ghost-like enemy that reacted to the player's own movements. If Mario looked towards the boo, he would freeze on the spot and not come any closer.

However, if Mario looked in the other direction, the boo would get closer and closer and eventually attack Mario. But how did the team come up with this enemy? Well, the boo's behavior, especially in Mario 64, was based on director Takashi Tezuka's daily life. You see, Tezuka often spent many, many hours at work, working hard on upcoming Nintendo games. Meanwhile, his wife at his house grew increasingly worried, waiting for Tezuka to arrive for the night. And his wife was normally very quiet, but one day, angry at all this time Tezuka was spending at work, she exploded with rage, she told Tezuka what she thought!

That gave the team the idea of ​​an enemy who seems calm and modest, but when Mario looks away, he becomes large and threatening. This eventually turned into booing. By the way, in an interview Tezuka was asked how his wife felt about her being included in the Mario games. Your response from him? "Haha, she knows." Alright, one last enemy before we finish. Although perhaps this is a little misleading; To top it all off, we're talking about Koopalings. Because these guys also have a pretty amazing story. They started in a humble place: this simple sketch. You see, in the early days of the Mario series, Shigeru Miyamoto, himself an artist, was in charge of drawing the official art of the characters.

Mario's version of him looked pretty similar to how Mario looks to this day. However, Peach and Bowser's versions of him seemed very different. I mean, he looks at Bowser. Euch. Miyamoto was actually inspired by an old 1960s anime called Alakazam the Great, also known as Journey to the West. There is an ox demon in the film named Shouryuu, and this was the source of inspiration behind Miyamoto's drawing of Bowser. However, in the nicest way possible, Bowser looked HORRIBLE in all sorts of promotional art. I mean, I feel like I'm going to have nightmares about Potato Head Bowser and his flock of koopa geese.

Yes. And so, while working on Super Mario Bros 2: The Lost Levels, Nintendo decided that a redesign was necessary to fix some of the problems with these characters. Leading this redesign would be acclaimed animator and artist Yoichi Kotabe. Seriously, this guy couldn't have been more qualified for his job as a Nintendo artist: he's worked alongside some of Japan's biggest animation talents. Now, Kotabe and Miyamoto worked together to update the appearance of the main characters of the Mario series. For the plumber himself, Kotabe ended up leaving him alone, for the most part. For Princess Peach, or Princess Toadstool as she was known at the time, Kotabe made her taller and I guess more delicate.

But Bowser was the character that required the most overhaul. Although he was destined to be the king of the koopas, Kotabe couldn't help but see him as a hippopotamus. Not very threatening. And so, he worked together with Takashi Tezuka to draw a new design for the demon. Here is one of the first sketches they drew. Notice that in the background. This is the oldest Koopaling sketch we have on record. Going back to Super Mario Bros 3, the development team needed a set of bosses that the player could fight. Suddenly, Tezuka remembered the sketch he and Kotabe had drawn.

It was perfect, he realized! And so, the developer group decided that there should be 7 of these mini bowsers, one for each game world. When designing the characters, they were inspired by themselves. That's right, koopalings were based on the developers of Mario 3! Unfortunately, it's unknown which koopaling was based on which developer, but it's still very entertaining to think about. Now, for the Japanese release of the game, the developers decided to leave the koopalings, or Kokuppa as they were known in Japan, unnamed. It was just the kokuppa. That was it. However, two years later, Nintendo of America released the game in the United States.

And, next to the cartridge, was this instruction manual. And, if we turn to page 4. Tada! Now they all magically have names. So why did Nintendo give the characters names and who was responsible for naming them? Well, to find out, we have to look at this guy: Dayvv Brooks. Now, Brooks started out as a pure Nintendo fan. And as you know if you were a Nintendo fan from the 80s or 90s, there was a phone number you could call if you needed help with a Nintendo game, called Powerline. The phone number was 206-885-PLAY. And calling this number will put you in touch with a gaming counselor, who will guide you through the game you were stuck on.

One day, a young Dayvv Brooks found himself in need of a little help with the game he was playing. After reviewing the instruction manual, he found Nintendo Powerline's phone number and called. After explaining his problem to the counselor, they quickly found the solution and Dayvv managed to advance in the game. Once he got off the phone, he thought to himself, "That has to be the coolest job on the planet." Just a few weeks later, Brooks noticed something in the local newspaper: it was an ad for the same job he had just admired: an opportunity to become a Nintendo gaming advisor!

Soon he showed up for the job interview and it turned out to be surprisingly simple: all he needed to have done was play Zelda and Mario, which for a teenager in the '80s wasn't very unusual. And so, Brooks quickly adapted to his job as a Nintendo Advisor. Soon, however, an opportunity presented itself: He could move to Nintendo's product analysis department, which examined the company's games to help decide how to market them and even whether to bring them from Japan. . However, before accepting the job, he had to prove himself by writing a review of SimCity for Mac.

Well, it turned out he wasn't that bad and he got the job. Now, one of his first tasks was to revise the rough Japanese translation of Super Mario Bros 3 and make it sound more correct. And he quickly realized that the koopalings had no name. Well, that wouldn't help, would it? And so he got to work, coming up with some names for these characters. Now, Brooks was a big music lover, so this had a major effect on his name decisions. Looking at the Koopalings, one of them immediately jumped towards him. His hair looked exactly like that of the great composer Beethoven.

Ludwig van Beethoven. And that's why he decided to name the Koopaling Ludwig von Koopa. Von, van...? I think he got a little confused there. Well, the rest of the Koopalings followed a similar pattern. This little guy had very stylish glasses, which reminded Brooks of singer-songwriter Roy Orbison. And thus Roy Koopa was born! Side note: Apparently this guy goes by the nickname "The Big O," which is awesome. From now on, please refer to me only as the big T. Well, the next one Koopaling Brooks chose was this one, which reminded him of punk singer Wendy O. Williams.

And so, Wendy O Koopa was the name he chose. Another punk-inspired Koopaling was Iggy Koopa, named after Iggy Pop, the godfather of punk. Next, Brooks chose this guy, who he considered a bit of a charlatan. And so he named him Morton Koopa Jr., after the rowdy talk show host Morton Downey Jr. For Larry, there was no real-life inspiration. Brooks just thought he looked like a Larry. And finally, Lemmy Koopa. His boy is named after the founder and lead singer of the influential rock band Motörhead, Lemmy Kilmister. And those were all the koopalings! Once Brooks decided on all the names, he sent them to Nintendo of Japan for review.

Surprisingly, they were absolutely fine with these names, even though they were inspired by some not-so-kid-friendly sources. And with that, the names were set. So I remain! For the most part. I'll be brief before I end the video, but there was an American cartoon adaptation of Mario 3, produced by DIC Entertainment, called "The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3." And in this show the Koopalings have completely different names. A little

strange

too. I will recite them now: Bully Koopa, Big Mouth Koopa, Kooky Von Koopa, Cheatsy Koopa, Kootie Pie Koopa and Hip and Hop Koopa. Now, I originally thought that maybe this show aired before the game was released in North America, so they were forced to make up their own names.

But not. This show came out about 9 months after the game. Very rare. These names ended up being used again in the American Super Mario World cartoon, but after that all spin-offs of the series kept their official names. Which I think is a good thing. I mean, the trickster Koopa? Kootie Pie, Koopa? Koopa Big Mouth?Man, the '80s were weird. Oh, before you go, thank you for the tremendous amount of support this channel has received over the last week. It's been crazy. If you want, follow me on Twitter; This way you will know in advance what videos I have planned.

Plus, there are generally good times there. Alright, see you next week! Bye bye!