Wiggler

Wigglers (ハナチャン, Hanachang) are caterpillar-like insects with a segmented body and comically large nose. Wigglers are most commonly depicted as being yellow (occasionally green) and having a cheerful expression on their faces; they also wear small flowers on their heads. When enraged, which occurs when a Wiggler is injured, the creature turns a bright red color, gains solid white eyes and fangs and its flower wilts. Wigglers first appear in Super Mario World, being found in wooded areas.



Although usually generic enemies in games such as New Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Galaxy, some appearances feature Wigglers, usually gigantic in size, as boss characters, an example being Super Mario 64. In spin-off games, the appearance of Wigglers is infrequent, although one does appear as an unlockable playable character in Mario Power Tennis and as a boss to race against in Mario Kart DS. In Mario Kart: Double Dash!! there are Wiggler Buses in the Mushroom Bridge and Mushroom City courses, which act as obstacles. Wiggler was featured again as a playable character in Mario Super Sluggers on the Nintendo Wii. He is a strong hitter with great speed, and a great asset to any Mario baseball team. Fuzzy Wigglers are found in Yoshi's Story. They are green and give Yoshi a melon.

Wigglers are the centerpiece of the mini-game "Which Wiggler?" in Super Mario 64 DS, where the aim is to locate and select the Wiggler that matches the one on the top screen by touching it with the stylus.

In Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, the Wigglers appear in the Forest Maze. If the player jumps on the head of the Wiggler, Mario will gain one coin. If the player manages to jump on it 10 times in a row, the player will gain a Frog Coin instead of a regular gold coin. They have 120 HP in that game.

In the Super Mario World animated series, Wigglers, though referred to as caterpillars and always drawn in their angered form, appear in various episodes. A Wiggler also makes an appearance in Super Mario Adventures comic and the taxi cabs of the Super Mario Bros. film are shown to be named Wiggler Taxi in one scene.

Mario Kart series
The likeness of Wiggler makes its first Mario Kart appearance in Mario Kart: Double Dash!!. Borrowing its green color from Super Mario Sunshine, long Wiggler-like buses appeared as part of the traffic in Mushroom Bridge and Mushroom City. Unlike the cars and trucks, which simply made racers spin out, Wiggler Buses flipped racers over. They are also immune to all items and attacks; if a player with a Starman hits a Wiggler, they will simply bounce back.

In Mario Kart DS, Wiggler is the final boss on Level 7 in Mission Mode. A racer must beat Wiggler in a race on Mushroom Bridge by collecting Starmen and staying at the fastest rate possible. Wiggler gets faster after each lap has passed. In Mario Kart Wii, two Wigglers appear in Maple Treeway. Bumping into them pushes racers back.

In Mario Kart 7 Wiggler appears as a playable unlockable racer in the Heavy class. You can unlock him by winning 150CC Leaf Cup. They also appear in Maple Treeway in Mario Kart Wii.

Super Mario Sunshine
The Wiggler is a giant green caterpillar that appears in Super Mario Sunshine. It is seen in episodes two and three of the Gelato Beach area.

Episode 2
During this episode, the Wiggler is curled up on top of the sand bird tower. The goal is to point all three mirrors at it to force it off. This is done by removing the Plungelos off each mirror causing them to tilt in its direction. After this is done, the giant falls off and a Shine Sprite appears.

Episode 3
In this episode, the Wiggler is seen awake and furious at Mario's actions. It will stomp around the stage furiously. In order to defeat it, the player must spray the sand buds with water causing the sand sculptures to rise. The monster will trip and land upside down. During this time a ground pound must be done on a designated body part. Each time this is done, the Wiggler will stand up and run even faster than before. This happens until it is defeated. Three ground pounds must be done to defeat it. When it is defeated, it will turn in to a pile of sand and sink into the ground.

Mario & Luigi series
In Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, a Wiggler appears as a mini-boss that Mario and Luigi fight after jumping on it. It appears in the Chucklehuck Woods where it was guarding a Chuckola Fruit.

In Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, a Wiggler appears as a boss that Bowser is forced to fight after...a bit of memory loss, plus aggression issues after Bowser was forced to eat a Giga Carrot. He's fought in Dimble Wood. Another Wiggler (or the same one...it's hard to tell) later shows up when Mario and Luigi are trying to find the Attack Pieces in the woods in order to get the last of the 3 Star Cures.

A Wiggler by the name of Wiggly appears in Mario & Luigi: Dream Team. He was angered into a fight after Popple thought he was a security guard and Popple kept saying bad things about him. Wiggly was eventually defeated and he chased of Popple.

Mario Party DS
In Mario Party DS, a Wiggler appeared in the first board: Wiggler's Garden and asked Mario and his shrunken friends to remove a Piranha Plant tearing up Wiggler's Garden. The gang accepted and defeated the plant monster. Wiggler happily gave up a Star Piece as a Reward. Wiggler also appeared as a friend badge and trophy.

Mario Party 9
Wiggler appears as a boss in Mario Party 9 for the Toad Road stage. When his HP goes down halfway, he gets angry and turns red. You defeat Wiggler by ground-pounding on each segment of his body.

Super Mario Galaxy
Once again, Wigglers appear in Super Mario Galaxy but this time as a standard enemy in the Honeyhive Galaxy. Not so standard, because when you Ground Pound in a part of his running zone and if it stays laid down, it will anger, become dark red and keep running for a while. When running around enough, it returns calm. Ground Pounding directly in a segment of its body will kill it instantly.

Paper Mario: Sticker Star
Only one Wiggler appears in Paper Mario: Sticker Star and is more of an ally than an enemy. This Wiggler plays a big role as appears in World 3 where it is first woken up by a Trumpet. This Wiggler's personality is more of a little kid that loves to play. The Wiggler wants Mario and Kersti's help to help clean up the forest so he can eat again. He takes the duo to his house but unfortunately is split up into five different segments by Kamek. Only his head remains and his other four segments start running lose in World 3. After Mario and Kersti get all four pieces back, Wiggler is put back together and is happy to take the two over to the source of the poison: Whitecap Beach. As Wiggler is easily crossing the poisonous ocean, Kersti realizes that Kamek had split up Wiggler because he knew that the Wiggler could cross the ocean with no problem. After Mario defeats the source of the poison Gooper Blooper, the forest is poison free and the Wiggler is free to eat all he wants. The Wiggler isn't seen again until before World 6 where he is now a full grown Flutter. With his new wings, the Flutter takes Mario and Kersti up into the skies for the final showdown with Bowser.

Gallery
Wiggler