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"Mario: Aw, what- I'm a cat?!
Donkey Kong: HA!!! You got the cat box! Oh my! Oh... [sighs] I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Okay. Now you die.
Mario: Hah! I'm a CAT!"
—Cat Mario and Donkey Kong, The Super Mario Bros. Movie

Cat Mario is a power-up making its first appearance in Super Mario 3D World. It can be used by Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Toad, Rosalina, and Bowser when they get a Super Bell. This also applies to Toadette in Super Mario Maker 2.

Physical description[]

When in cat form, only Cat Luigi, Cat Peach, Cat Toad, and Cat Toadette's fur match their corresponding signature colors, while Cat Mario's fur is yellow, and Cat Rosalina's fur is black. In terms of design, however, Cat Luigi and Cat Toad appears more unique in comparison to Cat Mario, Cat Peach, and Cat Rosalina; Cat Toad has dark blue stripes running horizontally along the back of his head, while Cat Luigi's green fur is peppered with darker green spots, his ears are rounded in contrast to the other characters' pointed cat ears, and the tip of his tail is darker green as opposed to the most commonly-seen white tipped tails.

Cat Toadette's model appears the same as Cat Toad's, right down to the stripes, except her fur is a darker shade of pink than that of Peach's, and her trademark braids are on the lowermost back part of her head.

Unlike the rest of the characters, Meowser becomes an actual cat. His appearance is akin to an orange tiger, his hair is white and red ending with black tips, and his shell is a dark pale blue with red rings at the base of each spike.

Although not given an official name, Cat Bowser Jr. adopts a similar appearance to Meowser, in that he does not wear a suit but rather takes on the form of a cat. Like his father, he has orange fur with stripes and a white underside. He also has whiskers (two instead of three like his dad) as well as having cat ears replacing his horns. His shell is a dark pale blue. His Junior Clown Car also has whiskers.

Powers and abilities[]

As Cat Mario, Mario and the others are able to climb up walls for a limited amount of time. They are also much more agile and run on all fours. This also gives them a bit more running speed. They also take on a shorter posture, allowing them to sprint through spaces which would normally require crouching to move through. Cat Mario can perform a scratching attack that works in close range, similar to Tanooki Mario's tail whip attack. While in the air, Cat Mario can perform a diving attack in which he pounces down at an angle.

One major weakness of Cat Mario is that his scratching attack requires to get up close to enemies. This can be dangerous against enemies that can strike from a distance. Also, Cat Mario tends not to do well in underwater levels and his climbing attack is only useful for certain points. Although Cat Mario can climb up walls, this leaves him wide open to other enemy attacks as he cannot fight while stuck to the wall.

Appearances in other media[]

The Super Mario Bros. Movie[]

"Toad: He looks adorable!
Peach: [giggles] He really does."
—Toad and Peach, The Super Mario Bros. Movie
Mario Movie Screenshot 27

Mario as Cat Mario.

Cat Mario makes an appearance in The Super Mario Bros. Movie where Mario uses the Cat Bell during his fight with Donkey Kong. Donkey Kong was giving Mario a lot of trouble in their one-on-one fight, and Mario was finally able to use a Cat Bell to transform into Cat Mario, something which Donkey Kong mocked upon seeing his opponent dressed like a cat. Cat Mario was able to easily outmaneuver Donkey Kong and eventually defeats him after using the diving pounce to send Donkey Kong through some blocks.

Gallery[]

Hat mario To view Cat Mario's
image gallery, click here.

Trivia[]

  • The Cat Mario transformation looks similar to the Kitsune Luigi transformation in terms of color palette and design.
  • Cat Peach later appears as a playable racer in Mario Kart 8, but only as a DLC character. Although, she, along with the other DLC racers, later became included in the base roster of the Deluxe version.
  • It has been speculated that Cat Mario's suit is not red since, in Japanese culture, the color red represents anger and danger, while yellow represents courage and cheerfulness.
    • However, Rosalina's cat suit is black by request of Yoshiaki Koizumi, the producer of Super Mario 3D World.
  • Cat Mario and Cat Peach make a cameo appearance in Super Mario Odyssey. In this game, they appear in 8-bit forms in nearly all of the kingdoms. Hitting Cat Mario with Cappy releases coins and Cat Peach releases Hearts.
  • Cat Toad's Stamp shows additional stripes on his arms, his back, and the top of his head; such stripes do not appear either in-game, in his official render (seen above), or his plush toy. However, the stripes are visible in Mario Kart Tour.

See also[]

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