Special Attack

Special Attacks first appear in the game Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story. Bowser, Mario and Luigi are able to use these, which each special attack using a certain amount of Special Points, or SP. Special Attacks even have a menu section in the Star Menu, where the player can watch demos and practice the attacks.

Mario and Luigi's Attacks
Mario and Luigi both use a total of ten Special Attacks throughout the game. To obtain a Special Attack, Mario and Luigi need to collect ten Attack Pieces. They can be obtained from special Attack Piece Blocks and completing various sidequests. All ten of Mario and Luigi's Special Attacks are shown in the table below (Note: When using an attack with a Tight Belt, the SP cost is reduced in half):

Bowser's Attacks
Bowser has a total of six Special Attacks that he gathers throughout the game. Like Mario & Luigi, Bowser has to unlock them in many areas of the game. To unlock these type of attacks for Bowser to use, the player must liberate Bowser's loyal, non-brainwashed troops. The player finds them in cages all around the Mushroom Kingdom. Out of the six, five of them would be found inside one of the cages. The last one is when the player collects all fifteen Blitties through the vacuum ability. Unlike Mario & Luigi's attacks, which use the buttons, Bowser's attacks use the touch screen. All six of Bowser's Special Attacks are shown in the table below (note: When using an attack with an Economy Ring, the SP cost is halved):

Trivia

 * Although the top screen of Mario and Luigi's tutorials always show a Goomba being defeated by the acquired Special Move, no normal Goombas are seen in the game as enemies except Jailgoons, Choombas, and Chuboombas.
 * Additionally, the top screen of Bowser's tutorials always show a candy-less Chuboomba being defeated by the acquired Special Move. However, in normal battle conditions, Chuboombas flee once the candy is removed.