If you’ve played a Mario Game before in
your life, this scene should be pretty familiar. You’re happily frollocking about the mushroom
kingdom, making your way to wherever you're headed. But then, out of nowhere… WOOF WOOF *shudders* Creepy, right. But let’s rewind for a second. Listen carefully. That’s a bark. Why is this giant horrific, toothy chunk of
metal barking like a dog? Well, there's actually a very good reason
for it, and it's something that you really wouldn't expect. Let’s take a look. Hi there! Welcome to Thomas Game Docs! So today, we’re talking about the origin
of these creepy things: the chain chomps. They’ve been around for every recent Mario
game, giving players around the world horrific chomp-filled nightmares. But where exactly did they come from? Well, first, let’s track down their origin. Maybe “track down” is a little melodramatic. “Chain chomp first appearance” They first
appeared in Super Mario Bros. 3. Ok, well that’s our first question answered:
the first game that these creatures appeared in was the much revered NES game, Super Mario
Bros 3. This game brought a multitude of important
aspects to the Super Mario series that would eventually become mainstays - the tanooki
suit, toad houses, the world map! But one aspect which I’m not so keen on
is the chain chomp. But that doesn’t answer the question of
how these things even came about. I mean, they’re super weird looking, plus
they bark like a dog. So how did the game’s developers even come
up with these things? Well, to find out, we’re gonna have to look
into a tragic event in the childhood of one of the game’s creators. This guy - Shigeru Miyamoto. I would be pretty surprised if you don’t
know who he is, but just in case, he is the game designer who birthed Donkey Kong, Super
Mario, and Zelda, among many, many others. And, when he was younger, he experienced something
which scarred him. One day, Miyamoto was outside his house in
the small town of Sonobe, Kyoto, where he grew up. Suddenly, a neighbour’s dog appeared out
of nowhere, and started ferociously barking at him! It grew closer and closer, sending shivers
down the young Miyamoto’s spine. Then, it took one final leap, inches from
the boy’s face, with its mouth open, teeth glinting in the sunlight. BAM. It was jerked back by its leash. Moments later, Miyamoto opened his eyes. To his amazement, he had escape totally unharmed. He knew back then that he would never forget
that moment. Fast forward 25 odd years and Miyamoto was
now working as a game designer at acclaimed game development studio Nintendo. The game he was currently producing was Super
Mario Bros 3, the third entry in the much revered Super Mario series. The development team - that included producer
Shigeru Miyamoto, co-director Takashi Tezuka and lead programmer Toshihiko Nakago from
SRD - this team were currently in the midst of brainstorming new ideas for the game. They started with powerups. As I mentioned before, the team first wanted
to include a power up themed around becoming some sort of creature. They liked the idea of including something
mythological, eventually settling on a Centaur. If you’re not up on your Greek mythology,
that’s half human half horse. Before long, though, the team decided to give
it the axe, and replace it with a different mythological creature - the Japanese Tanuki. Well, to be clear, the tanuki, or racoon dog,
is a real animal. But it also has an undeniably important place
in Japanese folklore. And here’s a fun bit of trivia. In Japanese folklore, Tanuki use leaves to
help them transform, which is why Mario uses a leaf to enter his racoon form. Once the tanuki suit was decided on, the team
added the frog suit, which was also themed around turning into a different creature. After powerups, the team moved on to enemies. And right away, something jumped out at Shigeru
Miyamoto. What if he turned his childhood trauma with
the dog on the lead, into an enemy in the game. It would be a round sphere, with menacing
jaws, just like the dog way back when. And the enemy would be chained to a post,
again, just like his childhood memory. Finally, he would name the enemy after the
noise that dogs make in Japan - wan wan. In english, this ended up being changed into
“chain chomp”. A more literal translation would be calling
the enemy a “woof woof”, which, yeah, maybe doesn’t sound quite so menacing. Another new enemy this time around was the
boo, a ghost-like enemy who reacted to the player’s own movements. If Mario looked towards the boo, it would
freeze on the spot, and not move any closer. However, if Mario looked in the other direction,
the boo would gradually creep closer and closer, eventually attacking Mario. But how did the team come up with this enemy? Well, the boo’s behaviour, especially in
Mario 64, was based around the daily life of Director Takashi Tezuka. You see, Tezuka would often spent long, long
hours at work, beavering away at Nintendo’s upcoming games. Meanwhile, his wife at home grew more and
more worried, waiting for Tezuka to arrive for the night. And his wife was normally very quiet, but
one day, maddened by all this time Tezuka spent at work, she exploded in a rage, giving
Tezuka a piece of her mind! That gave the team the idea for an enemy who
seems quiet and unassuming, but when Mario looks away, becomes large and menacing. This eventually become the boo. By the way, Tezuka was asked in an interview
who his wife felt about being included in the Mario games. His reply? “Haha, she knows.” Alright, one final enemy before we wrap up. Although, maybe that’s a little misleading
- to top it off, we’re talking Koopalings. Because these guys also have a pretty surprising
history. They got their start in a humble place: this
simple sketch. You see, in the earliest days of the Mario
series, Shigeru Miyamoto, an artist himself, was in charge of drawing up the official artwork
of the characters. His version of Mario looked pretty similar
to how Mario looks to this day. However, his versions of Peach and Bowser
looked veerrry different. I mean, look at Bowser. Euch. Actually, Miyamoto was inspired by an old
anime from 1960 called Alakazam the Great, also known as Journey to the West. There’s this ox demon in the film called
Shouryuu, and this was the source of inspiration behind Miyamoto’s drawing of Bowser. However, in the kindest way possible, bowser
looked AWFUL in all sorts of promotional art. I mean, I feel like I’m gonna have nightmares
about potato-head Bowser and his flock of geese koopa. Yeesh. And so, and so, whilst working on Super Mario
Bros 2: The Lost Levels, Nintendo decided a redesign was in order, to iron out some
of the kinks in these characters. Taking the lead on this redesign would be
acclaimed animator and artist Yoichi Kotabe. Seriously, this guy could not have been more
overqualified for his job as Nintendo artist - he's worked alongside some of Japan's greatest
animating talent. Now, Kotabe and Miyamoto worked together to
update the looks of the Mario series' main characters. For the plumber himself, Kotabe ended up leaving
well alone, for the most part. For princess Peach, or Princess Toadstool
as she was known at the time, Kotabe made her taller, and I guess more dainty? But Bowser was the character who required
the biggest overhaul. Although he was meant to be the king of the
koopas, Kotabe couldn’t help but view him as a hippo. Not very menacing. And so, he worked together with Takashi Tezuka
to draw a new design for the fiend. Here’s an early sketch they drew. Notice that in the background. This is the earliest sketch of the Koopalings
that we have on record. Fast forward back to Super Mario Bros 3, and
the development team were in need of a group of bosses the player could fight. Suddenly, Tezuka remembered the sketch that
he and Kotabe had drawn. It was perfect, he realised! And so, the group of developers decided that
there should be 7 of these mini bowsers, one for each world of the game. When designing the characters, they used themselves
as inspiration. That’s right, the koopalings were based
on Mario 3’s developers! Sadly, it’s not known which koopaling was
based on which developer, but it’s still very entertaining to think about. Now, for the Japanese release of the game,
the developers decided to leave the koopalings, or Kokuppa as they were known in Japan, unnamed. They were just the kokuppa. That was it. However, two years later, Nintendo of America
brought the game out in the US. And, alongside the cartridge itself itself,
there was this instruction manual. And, if we flip to page 4. Tada! They’ve all magically got names now. So why did Nintendo give the characters names,
and who was responsible for the naming? Well, to find out, we need to look to this
guy: Dayvv Brooks. Now, Brooks started off as purely a Nintendo
fan. And as you’ll know if you were an 80s or
90s Nintendo fan, there was this phone number you could call if you needed help with a Nintendo
game, called the Powerline. The phone number was 206-885-PLAY. And, calling this number would get you in
touch with a game counsellor, who would help guide you through the game you were stuck
on. One day, a young Dayvv Brooks found himself
in need of a little help with the game he was playing. After digging through the instruction manual,
he found the phone number for the Nintendo Powerline, and gave it a ring. After explaining his problem to the counsellor,
they quickly found the solution, and Dayvv managed to progress through the game. Once he hung up the phone, he thought to himself,
“that must be the coolest job on the planet.” Only a few weeks later, Brooks noticed something
in the local newspaper: it was an advert for the very job he had just been admiring - a
chance to become a Nintendo game counselor! Before long he showed up to the job interview,
...and it turned out to be shockingly simple - all he needed to have done was played Zelda
and Mario, which for a teen in the 80s wasn’t very rare. And so, Brooks quickly settled into his job
as Nintendo Counselor. However, before long an opportunity came up
for him - he would be able to move into the product analysis department of Nintendo, which
looked over the company’s games to help decide how to market them, and whether to
even bring to over from Japan at all. However, before taking the job, he had to
prove himself by writing a review of SimCity for the Mac. Well, it turned out that he wasn’t half
bad, and he got the job. Now, one of his first tasks was to look over
the very roughly translated Japanese from Super Mario Bros 3, and make it sound more,
uh, correct. And, he quickly noticed that the koopalings
were left unnamed. Well, that wouldn’t do, would it! And so, he got to work, thinking up some names
for these characters. Now, Brooks was a big music lover, so this
had a major effect on his naming decisions. When looking over the Koopalings, one of them
immediately jumped out at him. His hair looked exactly like the great composer
beethoven. Ludwig van beethoven. And so, he decided to name the Koopaling,
Ludwig von Koopa. Von, van..? I think he got a little mixed up there. Oh well, the rest of the Koopalings followed
a similar pattern. This little guy had some preeetty snazzy glasses,
which reminded Brooks of singer-songwriter Roy Orbison. And so Roy Koopa was born! Sidenote, apparently this guy is nicknamed
“The Big O” - which is amazing - please only refer to me as the big T from now on. Right, the next Koopaling Brooks picked out
was this one, who reminded him of punk singer Wendy O. Williams. And so, Wendy O Koopa was the name he chose. Another Punk inspired Koopaling was Iggy Koopa,
named after Iggy Pop, the godfather of punk. Next, Brooks picked out this guy, who he saw
as a bit of a loudmouth. And so, he named him Morton Koopa Jr., after
the loud-mouthed talk show host Morton Downey Jr. For Larry, there was no real-life inspiration. Brooks just thought he looked like a Larry. And lastly, Lemmy Koopa. His guy was named after the founder and lead
singer of the hugely influential rock band, Motörhead, Lemmy Kilmister. And that was all the koopalings! Once Brooks had all the names decided on,
he sent them over to Nintendo of Japan to check over. Somewhat surprisingly, they were absolutely
fine with these names, even though they were inspired by some not so kid friendly sources. And with that, the names were pinned down. That was how it stayed! For the most part. I’ll keep this quick before I end the video,
but there was this American cartoon adaption of Mario 3, produced by DIC Entertainment,
called “The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3”. And in this show, the Koopalings have completely
different names. Kind of weird ones, as well. I’ll rattle them off now: Bully Koopa, Big
Mouth Koopa, Kooky Von Koopa, Cheatsy Koopa, Kootie Pie Koopa, and Hip and Hop Koopa. Now, I originally thought that maybe this
show aired before the game was released in north america, so they were forced to come
up with their own names. But no. This show came out around 9 months after the
game. Very weird. These names ended up being used again in the
Super Mario World american cartoon, but after that all of the series spin offs stuck to
their official names. Which, I think is a good thing. I mean, Cheatsy Koopa? Kootie Pie Koopa? Big Mouth Koopa? Man, the 80s were weird. Oh, before you go - thanks for the huge amount
of support this channel has been receiving over the last week or so. It’s been crazy. If you’d like to, follow me on Twitter - that
way you’ll now ahead of time what videos I have planned. Plus, it’s just general good times over
there. Alright, see you next week! Bye!
