This article is about the Mario franchise enemy. For the Italian-American slang term and slur, see Goombah. For other uses, see Goomba (disambiguation).
Goombas (/ˈɡuːmbə/), known in Japan as Kuribō and originally called Little Goombas, are a fictional species of mushroom-like creatures from Nintendo's Mario franchise. They first appeared in the 1985 NES video game Super Mario Bros. as the first enemy players encounter and serve as common foot soldiers in Bowser's army. According to franchise background lore, Goombas originally lived peacefully within the Mushroom Kingdom before turning traitorous to align with Bowser's forces. Across subsequent installments, numerous variants have been introduced—including winged Paragoombas, stacked Goomba Towers, and Cat Goombas—alongside related species such as Galoombas and Goombrats, as well as peaceful allied characters featured in the Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi role-playing series.
Physically, Goombas are small brown creatures designed to resemble shiitake mushrooms, featuring bushy black eyebrows forming a scowl, a pair of upward-pointing fangs, a tan stem-like torso, and two dark brown oval feet without arms. In most two-dimensional platformers, they walk aimlessly in a straight line, reversing direction only upon hitting an obstacle, and can be defeated with a single jump. They were added late in the development cycle of Super Mario Bros. after playtesters found the Koopa Troopa too difficult to navigate as an introductory obstacle, leading designers to create a basic enemy using a single asymmetrical sprite that flipped horizontally to convey a walking motion within the cartridge's limited storage space.
The Goomba is widely recognized as one of the most iconic enemies in video games, with its introductory placement in World 1-1 of Super Mario Bros. frequently cited by critics and game developers as a foundational masterclass in intuitive level design and player onboarding.
Concept and creation
The Goomba was designed to resemble a shiitake mushroom.
Goombas are brown, armless creatures designed to resemble shiitake mushrooms, featuring thick, scowling eyebrows and two tusk-like fangs protruding from their lower jaw. During the development of Super Mario Bros. (1985), the Koopa Troopa was initially the game's sole basic enemy, requiring players to jump on its shell and kick it away. After playtesters reported that the Koopa Troopa was too difficult to encounter as the very first obstacle, Shigeru Miyamoto and his team decided to introduce a simpler enemy that could be defeated with a single stomp. Because the cartridge had almost no memory remaining near the end of production, the designers had room for only a single enemy graphic. To animate its movement without additional frames, they drew the Goomba with a slightly tilted cap and one foot larger than the other, flipping the single sprite horizontally back and forth to create the illusion of waddling. Because the Goomba closely resembled the beneficial Super Mushroom power-up, the developers used the opening encounter in World 1-1 to teach players how to stomp enemies while altering the Super Mushroom's movement behavior so players would not fear collecting it. According to Miyamoto, a Goomba damaging Mario upon contact in Super Mario Bros. was originally meant to represent the creature biting him, a detail that was later explicitly animated in Super Mario Bros. Wonder (2023).
Early concept art for the 1993 live-action Super Mario Bros. film indicated that the production's tall, small-headed creature design was originally intended for Koopa Troopas before being reassigned to the Goombas. A separate special-effects studio outside the film's primary makeup department constructed the animatronic Goomba suits.
Etymology
Although the enemy was modeled after a shiitake mushroom, its Japanese name, Kuribō (クリボー)—combining kuri (栗, "chestnut") and the affectionate suffix -bō (坊, "boy" or "guy") to mean "chestnut guy"—was chosen after a programmer remarked that the pixel art looked more like a chestnut than a mushroom. Its English name, "Goomba", is phonetically derived from the Italian-American slang term "goombah" (from Neapolitancumpà and Italian compare, meaning "companion" or "associate"), while also coinciding with the Hungarian word gomba, which translates to "mushroom".
Appearances
Super Mario series
A Goomba as seen in Super Mario Bros. Its late addition to the game resulted in its two-frame flipped animation.
Goombas debuted in Super Mario Bros. (1985) and its sequel Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels (1986), where they walk in a straight line and reverse direction upon colliding with obstacles or other enemies. They can be defeated by stomping on them, which flattens them, or by striking them with fireballs. In the end-of-world castle of World 1-4, the boss disguised as Bowser is revealed to be a Little Goomba if defeated with fireballs. In Super Mario Bros. 3 (1988), the species was redesigned with visible fanged mouths, and recurring variants were introduced including winged Paragoombas, diminutive Micro-Goombas, oversized Grand Goombas, and Goombas hopping inside a wind-up boot known as Goomba's Shoe (or Kuribo's Shoe), which players can commandeer after defeating its rider to traverse spikes and other hazards.
While standard Goombas were replaced by behaviorally identical Goombos in Super Mario Land (1989), Super Mario World (1990) replaced traditional Goombas with round, chestnut-shaped enemies that flip upside-down when stomped so players can pick them up and throw them, a subspecies called Kuribon in Japan and later localized as "Galoombas". Traditional Goombas made their handheld debut in Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (1992) alongside undead ghost variants called Terekuribō. In Super Mario 64 (1996), Goombas transitioned to 3D environments, patrolling circular paths and charging at Mario upon spotting him. Goombas were absent from Super Mario Sunshine (2002), which instead featured the waddling enemy Strollin' Stu, but returned as recurring enemies in Super Mario Galaxy (2007) and Super Mario Galaxy 2 (2010).
In New Super Mario Bros. (2006), a giant Mega Goomba appears as a boss, while New Super Mario Bros. U (2012) times their movement animations to musical riffs in the background soundtrack. In Super Mario 3D World (2013), Goombas appear in novelty roles such as riding oversized ice skates across frozen surfaces. In Super Mario Odyssey (2017), Mario can throw his sentient hat Cappy onto a Goomba to capture and control it, allowing the player to cross ice without slipping, perform high twirl jumps, and stack onto other Goombas to form tall Goomba Towers that reach elevated platforms; approaching a pink female Goomba named Goombette in this form yields Power Moons. Goombas also serve as customizable course elements in Super Mario Maker (2015) and Super Mario Maker 2 (2019), and return in Super Mario Bros. Wonder (2023), where Wonder Flower effects can temporarily transform player characters into Goombas.
Role-playing games
Since Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (1996) and its 2023 remake, the Mario role-playing games have depicted Goombas as both combat adversaries and peaceful characters. The Paper Mario series expanded on Goomba society, introducing friendly settlements such as Goomba Village and oversized bosses like the Goomba King (later recurring as Goomboss in Super Mario 64 DS and Mario Kart DS). The subseries also introduced friendly companion characters that assist Mario with specialized field and combat abilities, beginning with Goombario, the franchise's first playable Goomba partner, in Paper Mario (2000), followed by the archaeology student Goombella in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (2004). In the 2017 remake Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions, an earnest foot soldier named Captain Goomba stars as the main protagonist of the tactical side-campaign Minion Quest: The Search for Bowser, leading Bowser's minions across the Beanbean Kingdom to rescue Bowser and free the Koopalings from enemy control, a role he reprises in Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr.'s Journey (2018).
Other games
A stylized silhouette of a Goomba's head serves as its character emblem across Mario spin-offs.
In the Mario Party series, Goombas appear as recurring minigame obstacles, non-player characters, and board hosts, before debuting as a playable competitor in Super Mario Party (2018) and returning to the playable roster in Super Mario Party Jamboree (2024). In Super Princess Peach (2005), Goombas are among the enemies exhibiting different emotional states, with enraged variants capable of causing earthquakes when stomping. In the Mario Kart series, Goombas have frequently appeared as track hazards that spin out racing vehicles on courses such as Mario Circuit, before making their playable racing debut as a lightweight driver in Mario Kart World (2025). Goombas have also appeared as playable athletes and teammates across several sports installments, including Mario Superstar Baseball (2005), Mario Super Sluggers (2008), and Mario Sports Superstars (2017), while a three-Goomba stack wearing a lab coat appears as the playable "Dr. Goomba Tower" in the mobile puzzle game Dr. Mario World (2019).
In television and film, Goombas appeared as recurring foot soldiers in the DIC Entertainment animated series The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! (1989) and The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 (1990). In the 1993 live-action film Super Mario Bros., Goombas are portrayed as citizens of the parallel dimension Dinohattan whom President Koopa punishes by devolving them into large reptilian guards with small heads. Early in the film, the street musician Toad (portrayed by Mojo Nixon) is devolved into a Goomba for expressing dissent, but retains his friendly disposition and later assists Mario and Luigi. Game-accurate Goombas later appeared as members of Bowser's army in the 2023 animated film The Super Mario Bros. Movie. Nintendo has also featured Goombas across multiple merchandise lines, including Lego Super Mario playsets, and an amiibo figure released alongside Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions. Goomba has appeared in a few promotional Happy Meal toy sets produced with McDonald's, beginning with Nintendo's first fast-food promotional tie-in for Super Mario Bros. 3 in 1990, which featured a spring-loaded, back-flipping Little Goomba figure.
Reception
The Goomba has become an icon of the Mario series, both in its appearance and the concept of "stomping on them", often referenced as one of the key elements of the original Super Mario Bros.IGN editor Craig Harris described the Goomba as a "household name" along with Koopa Paratroopas and King Koopa. Video game musician and reviewer Tommy Tallarico commented that many new converts to gaming have "never even made Super Mario smoosh a Goomba". In a criticism of video game storytelling, Gamasutra editor Daniel Cook referenced Goombas being mushrooms, but added that it was a less important fact than them being squat, to-scale with the world, and able to be squashed. In an article discussing happiness in video games, Gamasutra editor Lorenzo Wang listed the sound the Goomba makes when it is squished as one of his pleasures. IGN editor Mark Birnbaum praised the sound effects of Super Mario Bros., giving similar praise to the sound of the Goomba being stomped on. It was compared to the Met enemy from the Mega Man series, calling them the "Goomba of the Mega Man series". In 2009, CraveOnline editor Joey Davidson described the Goomba as the series' "everyman", characterizing it as both defenseless and of little threat while noting exceptions such as the giant Goomba seen in Super Mario Galaxy. A common enemy in Braid has been compared to the Goomba, with Gaming Age editor Dustin Chadwell calling it a "slightly skewed version of the Goomba". GameDaily listed the Goomba as the fourth best Mario enemy, stating that every gamer has run into one as Mario before. Destructoid listed the deaths of Goombas as one of the six sinister things about Super Mario, remarking that "whether or not the Goombas are actually working for Bowser, they certainly don't seem like killers, or even soldiers. They walk around aimlessly, and if you touch them, you get hurt. Is that worth killing over?" Nintendo Power listed them as one of their favorite punching bags, stating that while it is hard not to feel bad for them, stomping them remains satisfying.
The live-action Super Mario Bros. film version of the Goomba received largely negative reception. IGN editor Jesse Schedeen called Bowser and his Goombas the most flawed part of the film, commenting that it would be difficult to create a live-action version of the Goomba that deviates from the original design more than the film's incarnation. An Entertainment Weekly article called the design creepy, noting that its "foam-latex skin had to be baked for five hours at 200 degrees to achieve that lovely reptilian effect". The facial design of the character Venom in Spider-Man 3 was compared to the film version of the Goomba by CraveOnline, which described Venom's face as short and rounded. Conversely, Hal Hinson of The Washington Post called the Goombas "big dumb goons with shrunken little dino heads", while praising them as the "best movie heavies since the flying monkeys in The Wizard of Oz".
↑Cox, Dan (September 26, 2012). "Bowser is simply misunderstood". VentureBeat. Retrieved May 14, 2025. He [Bowser] also has an army made up of other Koopa, Goomba, and other species depending on the game.
↑Sarkar, Samit (June 12, 2018). "Super Mario Party announced for Nintendo Switch". Polygon. Retrieved January 25, 2026. In this mode, the characters—new ones include Rosalina, Dry Bones and a goomba[sic]—move across the devices, which are placed perpendicularly to make a path.
