PLUSH Goomba 12"
Goombas are a fictional species of sentient mushrooms from Nintendo's Mario franchise. They first appeared in the NES video game Super Mario Bros. as the first enemy players encounter. They have appeared outside of video games, including in film, television and other media. They are usually brown and are most commonly seen walking around aimlessly, often as an obstacle, in video games. They were included late in the development of Super Mario Bros. in order to create a simple, easy-to-defeat enemy. Goombas were first introduced in the video game Super Mario Bros. and were the last enemy added to the game after play testers stated that the Koopa Troopa was too tricky as an enemy. As a result, the designers decided to introduce the Goomba as a basic enemy. When they decided to do this, however, they had very little space left in the game. They used a single image twice to convey the notion that the Goombas are walking, rotating it back and forth, causing it to look lopsided as it walks and giving the appearance of a trot. The Goomba's resemblance to the Super Mushroom forced designers to change the mechanics and appearance of the Super Mushroom. They used the Goomba's ability to be jumped on and defeated to teach players how to deal with enemies and to not fear the Super Mushroom. The Goombas are designed after a shiitake mushroom.
