The Shy Guys are the masked, robe-wearing enemies in
Nintendo's
Super Mario Brothers series of video games. The originated in the
Famicom Disk System title
Doki Doki Panic and were later transplanted to the
Mario series when
Nintendo turned the game into
Super Mario Brothers 2 for the American and European audiences. Their main personality trait is that they're shy, hence they wear large white masks over their faces to protect their identities. While rather weak and slow by nature, the physical strength of the Shy Guy clan comes from travelling in packs. It is seldom that you'll see a Shy Guy wandering around by himself, as they prefer to team up against opposition. They claim to be members of the
8-bits Club, although the meaning behind this has never been explained or even mentioned beyond the instruction manual for
Super Mario Brothers 2.
Paper Mario revealed that Shy Guys come from a magic toybox hidden deep in the
Mushroom Kingdom's most secret of places. Clan relatives include the winged
Beezo and the bullet-spitting
Snifit.
Like the Koopa Troopas, Shy Guys are multicolored. In Super Mario Brothers 2 they wore either red or pink robes (red-robed Shy Guys marched on and on, while the pink-robed ones patroled a specific area), but by the time Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island came around the Shy Guys were donning robes of red, pink, yellow, and green and they had embraced rhythmic dance. Yoshi's Story added white, black, and blue to the mix in order to have Shy Guys matched up via color to the various Yoshis. Each colored Yoshi has a Shy Guy flavor preference with two exceptions: all black-robed Shy Guys taste terrible, while white-robed Shy Guys are helpful little fellows who will rescue a captured buddy from Baby Bowser's castle in exchange for not being snarfed up by a hungry Yoshi.
The talent of the Shy Guy lies in their inventiveness. The clan has created many unique mechanical weapons to launch at hapless plumbers. The Autobomb, a mechanial fire-shooting vehicle, was used in Super Mario Brothers 2 to limited success. In Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island the clan took to walking on stilts, hovering overhead with balloons & propellers, chucking spears, and other using other such primitive weaponry. Yoshi's Story is where their technological prowess shines, as the clan called upon invincible submarines, crude personal flying machines, portable burners, wooden limbo sticks, pirate ships, and even simple snowballs in their battle against the Yoshis. Shy Guys have also been seen riding pogo sticks, traveling in massive packs, stacked on top of one another to form a totem pole, watering plants, rising from the dead, ice skating, and even playing tennis.
Shy Guys take a beating and keep coming back for more, each time with a new plan of attack. We will see them again and they will continue to surprise us.
Shy Guy Game Appearances
References:
http://www.classicgaming.com/tmk/
http://mariomonsters.com/shyguy/index.html
Did I miss an appearance? Let me know.