The Broodals
(Note: This is not a submission post. Tankman submitted Topper and Krookodilian assured me that the Broodals are a package deal. This is merely a post to show that the Broodals are the right choice)
Who Are The Broodals?
The Broodals are a group of rabbits that inhabit Lunar Ridge on the Dark Side of the Moon. Appearing in Super Mario Odyssey, they serve as Bowser’s wedding planners/henchmen and act as mid-bosses in a majority of the kingdoms to collect various objects necessary for the Bowser/Peach wedding. The Broodals consist of Topper, the green rabbit with the top hat. Spewart, the entertainer spewing poison. Hariet, the pyrotechnic of the gang and Rango, the lanky bouncer of the party.
Why should the Broodals join as alternate costumes?
While the Broodals have never been near a Clown Car, I still think the Broodals are the best choice. This is because of their similarities to the Koopalings. Acting as Bowser’s henchmen, with Mario fighting their way through the story and beating them as mini-bosses and being a package deal. Their designs are similar to the Koopalings’ as well, with strong and stout being mixed with a lanky character and a self-possessed girl.
Their personality and design also makes them a perfect fit for the Clown Car. The Clown Car moveset combines a commanding presence over the battlefield and strong, tricky artillery with an almost childish, slapstick and bratty flair. In their boss fights, The Broodals show to have both the boss fight design needed to show that they are versatile tricksters with a wide range of oppressive and intimidating tools under their command, but also a stylish and entertaining flair. Their vibrant and circus-like design and their entertaining personas also meshes well with the Clown Car’s inherent silliness.
Their own silliness provided a nice comical and bizarre twist to the generally more serious Koopalings, all while keeping this blend of commanding presence and tricky demeanor.
Lastly, they are the perfect choice to retain cohesion and coherence in the alternate costume department. While four alts can be put together from a list of submitted content, breaking the trend of the established group of Bowser Jr. + Koopalings devalues their presence and the moveset tailored towards them. Boom Boom and Pom Pom are a great duo, but they leave two slots dangling. The Broodals would fill the slots in an airtight way just like the Koopalings did and make the final few slots feel less random and filled up for the sake of it.
How do the Broodals adapt the Clown Car?
One thing that makes the Broodals a bit of a challenge to implement is the fact they’ve never been near a Clown Car. However, as lunar beings, they are quite associated with UFOs and have in fact used multiple UFO-type contraptions, such as the Torkdrift to steal the flowers from Wooded Kingdom and the UFO called Yoofoe appears as one of the few midbosses in the game.
Torkdrift
Furthermore, they are fought in a mech called the Robo-Brood in Bowser’s Kingdom, so they are not completely inexperienced in piloting a mech.
Adapting the Clown Car to fit the otherworldly and bizarre designs of the Broodals is a fun challenge, but the fundamentals of the Broodals are there to work with. By taking design prompts from the Torkdrift, a more metallic take on the Clown Car, with light blue eyes, could give it an otherworldly and alien vibe.
Complaints and Issues
“They’ve only appeared in one game”
True, however, Super Mario Odyssey is a big 3D Mario entry with great reception. 3D Mario titles are a bit less scarce than your average spin-off and thus leave more of an impact on the direction of the following Smash game, as can be judged by Mario‘s wedding alt, F.L.U.D.D attack and Rosalina & Luma making it in as a full-fledged newcomer.
Super Mario Odyssey is also the most recent Super Mario adventure, so the Broodals are the fresh new faces in town. What they lack im history, they make up for in freshness.
“They’re not affiliated with Bowser Jr.”
True, they’re not a mainstay in the Koopa Troop. However, their design clearly harkens back to the Koopalings’ as does their role as recurring mini-boss and Bowser’s gang of thematically consistent henchmen.
Krookodilian
to pass this through to the powers that be). Can I submit the Broodals as a seperate option to fill out all four alternate costume slots? Picking one of them is arbitrary and their strength lies in their unity as a group, but it seems like we’re simply throwing together four random, seperate submissions from the heap for this for which I think a different costume workx best.
