N-Philes

After restoring the castle's Star Power and saving the Princess and eating some cake in Super Mario 64, Mario treats Peach and an entourage of toad-servants to a vacation on the exotic Isle Delphino. With the dreams of sun-drenched beaches and limitless seafood fresh in their minds, the Mushroom Kingdom travellers step into a sticky situation. Some Mario look-a-like is framing our good plumber and defacing the entire island in the process, nearly sentencing him to a long, lonlely prison term. And it isn't Luigi.

So, who's giving Mario a bad rap? Early on, we discover that the shadowy Mario figure is in fact Bowser's son, equipped with some E. Gadd technology. A few kidnappings and dozens of Shines later, we come to the final confrontation with, well, you better know by now.

Bowser, who is also on vacation with his son and the abducted "Mama" Peach, is intent on destroying Mario.



Bowser was smart this time. He stayed away from floating mines and collapsable bridges and hid in a giant floating hot tub of poisonous goop. Unfortunately for him, his shiny bowl has a weakness, and can be overturned by breaking the five extended platforms. But there's no way Mario could do that, right? Afterall, Bowser is much larger than Mario (larger than just about any Bowser to date) and he can breathe fire and shake the bowl. Plus he's got both his son with a Bullet Bill-launching boat and terrible frame rate drops on his side.



In one of the easiest boss battles ever, Mario quickly overthrows Bowser in the Sky Part II, and everyone crashes down to the island. Does Mario's recklessness have a price? Perhaps...

As it turns out, Bowser's son knew that Peach really wasn't his mother. He's a smart kid (clearly from his real mother's side, if one exists), and he wants to fight Mario again. After his vacation.