Petey Piranha

Petey Piranha (Boss Pakkun in the Japanese games) is a recurring villain (usually a boss) in the Mario series.

Character Description
Petey Piranha has many features that are similar to a typical Piranha Plant. However, Petey is much larger than other Piranha Plants, and has definitive arms and legs, and also wears white polka-dotted underpants. Petey made his first appearance in Super Mario Sunshine. He appeared as a boss in the first course. He would attack Mario by spitting "goop" at him. Mario had to spray water in Petey's mouth in order to knock him over and ground pound his large belly button. Petey has also appeared in many of the Mario sports games and the Mario Kart series. He appeared as a heavy racer in Mario Kart: Double Dash!!. Petey also appeared as an unlockable character in Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour. In this game, Petey was the most powerful character. He has also appeared in numerous other Mario Sports titles like Mario Superstar Baseball, Mario Power Tennis, and Mario Strikers Charged. He also appeared as a World Boss in "New Super Mario Brothers".

Petey Piranha in the Super Smash Bros. series
Petey Piranha appears as the first boss in Super Smash Bros. Brawl ' s Subspace Emissary mode, holding the cages of both Princess Peach and Princess Zelda. The player must destroy one of the cages (attacking Petey's head splits the attack's damage to both cages). When Petey is defeated, whichever cage is more damaged will break, freeing the princess inside. The princess who was not saved will be turned into a trophy by Wario. At the last level, Tabuu resurrects Petey (along with the other bosses) and sends him after the heroes in "The Great Maze."

Unlike in most Mario games, where Petey has a cartoonish voice, SSBB has him using fearsome roars. This could be the result of Tabuu's power, or just to make him more threatening (the same has been done to Bowser and the Kongs).

Petey Piranha's attacks
Petey has only two main attacks. The first involves swinging one of the two cages along the ground. The second is a jumping attack, where Petey tries to stomp and bite the player. Only contact with Petey's head will damage the player when he jumps and stomps.

When either cage is reduced to half health, Petey will roar and his head will glow red momentarily. Petey will then speed up his attacks.

Strategies
When attacking him, simply jump over his cage swings or use projectiles. When he uses his jump attack, simply dodge under him or stay off the side of the stage. Capturing Petey is rather tedious, as one must reduce one cage to low health and then hit that same cage with a Trophy Stand. Setting the game to a higher difficulty causes Trophy Stands to appear more often, which is recommended since staying alive while waiting is rather easy. If you lose your best characters, lose on purpose to start with Petey Piranha. Once his health is low enough, keep dodging his attacks until a Trophy Stand comes.

Trophy Info
''A gigantic Piranha Plant. Unlike his pipe-inhabiting cousins, he uses his legs to walk around. He can fly, too. As you might expect, he often appears as a boss character in Mario's adventures. This may come as a surprise, but he also displays surprising dexterity in kart races and ball games.''


 * Super Mario Sunshine (2002)
 * New Super Mario Bros. (2006)

Trivia

 * If one breaks both cages simultaneously by only attacking Petey's body, the game will randomly decide which princess is freed.
 * In the Great Maze level of the Subspace Emissary, and Boss Battles Mode, Petey's cages are empty and the background is changed to daylight.
 * During the cutscene before the first fight with Petey, a cannonball KO's Mario and knocks him out of the arena. It is never made clear where this cannonball comes from; Wario's Dark Cannon can't produce cannonballs, Petey Piranha himself is incapable of producing cannonballs in any game, and the Halberd's cannonballs move in a swirly motion, are blue, and explode on contact. A theory might be someone put the cannonball in Petey's mouth and Petey spit it out and due to his immense mouth it could've had enough force to knock Mario away. This theory is supported by the fact that when the part that shows the cannonball come out, if one looks closely in the smoke, a silhouette of Petey can be seen.
 * Petey's defeated animation causes him to catch on fire, no matter what move was used to defeat him.