Mario 64’s penguins return in The Super Mario Bros. Movie trailer

Nintendo debuted a new trailer for The Super Mario Bros. Movie Part of Thursday’s Direct. In it, we get to to finally hear what Chris Pratt’s Mario voice sounds like, but the trailer also had a cameo from an relatively unknown set of characters. The trailer opens by Bowser with his Koopa army fighting a kingdom full of penguins. The birds put up a good fight by flinging snowballs, but it’s no match for Bowser’s flames. The inclusion of the penguins comes as a surprise, mainly because they aren’t the most central Mario characters in previous games. We decided to share the details about the penguins as they have become a familiar fixture of the franchise series.

A Mario Wiki entry states that penguins first appeared in Mario’s Mario series back in 1984. Pinball game. The first big appearance and one that fans will remember the most is from Super Mario 64. There’s a set of levels set in a mountain themed world called Cool, Cool Mountain that feature the penguins prominently.

You can have interactions with monstrously large bipedal birds at multiple levels around the globe. In “Big Penguin Race,” you have to race against one down an ice slide to get a Star. In “Li’l Penguin Lost,” Mario is tasked with helping a penguin mom retrieve her lost penguin child. You must navigate treacherous and slippery terrain holding the penguin. I still hear the baby penguins crying to me every day. People joke about dropping them off the cliff.

Since 64Mario games have incorporated penguins into their worlds in the past. Mario Party fans may recall rounding penguins up in a mini-game. Super Mario PartyYou might also recognize them by the slippery icebergs. Super Mario Odyssey’The Snow Kingdom. They have been a fixture in Mario games for many years.

We still have many questions about the lore. We still don’t know why the penguins have beef with Bowser and we don’t know how they came to rule and dominate their own kingdom, so we’ll have to wait on the details. The movie will feature the mainstays of the franchise. (Even if it’s because get beaten down by Bowser.)