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Piranha Plant

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For fighter info, see Piranha Plant (SSBU).
Piranha Plant
Piranha Plant.png
SSBU spirit Piranha Plant.png

MarioSymbol.svg
Artwork of a potted Piranha Plant from Super Mario 3D World and a Piranha Plant in a pipe from Mario Party DS.
Universe Mario
Debut Super Mario Bros. (1985)
Smash Bros. appearances SSB
Brawl
SSB4
Ultimate
Most recent non-Smash appearance Super Mario RPG (Nintendo Switch) (2023)
Console/platform of origin Nintendo Entertainment System
Species Piranha Plant
Gender Unknown
Place of origin Mushroom Kingdom
Created by Shigeru Miyamoto
Article on Super Mario Wiki Piranha Plant

Piranha Plants (パックンフラワー, Packun Flower) are enemies from the Mario series.

Origin[edit]

The Piranha Plant's appearance in Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels, the basis of its 8-bit sprite in Ultimate.
A red Piranha Plant in Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels

Piranha Plants are recurring Mario enemies that primarily live in Warp Pipes and attempt to bite Mario and other characters. They are based on venus flytraps and first appear in the original Super Mario Bros., and have appeared frequently throughout the Mario franchise. Piranha Plants usually start popping out of their pipes for a few seconds then retract when the player is far away or above the pipe, but usually stay hidden when the player gets closer. Piranha Plants typically cannot be jumped on, as doing so would damage the player. They instead need to be taken out with attack-based power ups, such as the Fire Flower and Super Star. A large number of Piranha Plant subspecies exist, including variants that breathe fire, spit poison, and other abilities. There are also larger Piranha Plants that serve as bosses, such as Petey Piranha, a boss debuting in Super Mario Sunshine, and Naval Piranha, a recurring boss from the Yoshi series. Petey Piranha is the leader of all Piranha Plants.

In Super Smash Bros.[edit]

As a stage element[edit]

The Piranha Plant in Super Smash Bros.

Piranha Plants sometimes appear out of the Warp Pipes on the Mushroom Kingdom stage. They are enemies that don't have a set schedule between the two pipes. They won't appear if the character is on the pipe or on the side of the pipes, and the pipes are very low, making them easy to jump over.

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl[edit]

Petey Piranha, the first boss of Adventure Mode: The Subspace Emissary, is an oversized, mobile Piranha Plant.

As a stage element[edit]

A Piranha Plant may sometimes appear as a stage element on PictoChat. However, they don't go up or down, and they stay on the stationary platform.

Trophies[edit]

Piranha Plant trophy from Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
Piranha Plant's trophy in Brawl
Piranha Plant
NTSC A vicious, plantlike monster that typically hides in pipes. Piranha Plants emerge with mouths open, awaiting victims. A poorly timed jump means a chomping--hence the "piranha" name. While there have been exceptions--there are many Piranha Plants with unique traits--they generally don't appear if Mario waits on top of or just next to a pipe. They hate fireballs.
PAL A vicious, plant-like monster that typically hides in pipes. Piranha Plants emerge with mouths open, awaiting victims. A poorly-timed jump means a chomping--hence the "piranha" name. While there have been exceptions--there are many Piranha Plants with unique traits--they generally don't appear if Mario waits on top of or just next to a pipe. They hate fireballs.
NES: Super Mario Bros.
Nintendo DS: New Super Mario Bros.
Petey Piranha trophy from Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
Petey Piranha's trophy in Brawl
Petey Piranha
A colossal Piranha Plant. Unlike its pipe-inhabiting cousins, it uses its legs to walk around. It can fly, too. As you might expect, it often appears as a boss character in Mario adventures. This may come as a surprise, but it also displays surprising dexterity in kart races and ball games.
GameCube: Super Mario Sunshine
Nintendo DS: New Super Mario Bros.

Stickers[edit]

Name Game Effect Characters
Petey Piranha Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour AttackDarkness+047EffectIcon(Darkness).png Attack +47 GanondorfGanondorfHeadSSBB.png
Petey Piranha Mario Strikers Charged AttackBite+032TypeIcon(Bite).png Attack +32 Yoshi Wario Wolf Pokémon TrainerYoshiHeadSSBB.pngWarioHeadSSBB.pngWolfHeadSSBB.pngPokémonTrainerHeadSSBB.png
Brawl Sticker Petey Piranha (Mario Golf TT).png
Petey Piranha
(Mario Golf: TT)
Brawl Sticker Petey Piranha (Mario Strikers Charged).png
Petey Piranha
(Mario Strikers Charged)

In Super Smash Bros. 4[edit]

Piranha Plants reappear as just a trophy.

Trophy[edit]

The Piranha Plant trophy appears in both versions. In Super Smash Bros. for Wii U it is part of the Super Mario Bros. Trophy Box.

Piranha Plant's trophy in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS
Piranha Plant's trophy in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U
Piranha Plant
NTSC These guys aren't so much carnivorous as Mario...nivorous. Ahem. There are lots of varieties, like Frost, Wild Ptooie, Ghost, Prickly, Dino, Bone, Elasto-Piranhas, Stalking, Naval... A helpful mnemonic is "Fireballs with Ground Pounds defeat baddies, even super nasties."
NES: Super Mario Bros. (10/1985)
NES: Super Mario Bros. 3 (02/1990)
PAL These carnivorous plants are hungry for one thing – Mario! There are all sorts of them, including the Naval Piranha, Fire Piranha Plant, Inky Piranha Plant, Piranha Creeper, Bone Piranha Plant, Stalking Piranha Plant... But all you need to know is "plants with teeth want to eat Mario".
NES: Super Mario Bros. (05/1987)
NES: Super Mario Bros. 3 (08/1991)

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate[edit]

As a playable character[edit]

Main article: Piranha Plant (SSBU)
Piranha Plant as a fighter in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Piranha Plant was confirmed as a DLC character on November 1st, 2018, making its debut as a playable character for the first time in any game. Piranha Plant was released on January 29th, 2019, and was available for free to players that registered the game with My Nintendo by January 31st, 2019. It was later made available as paid DLC separate from any Fighters Pass on February 1st, 2019. In Smash, Piranha Plant is a semi-super heavyweight with various unique attacks. Its neutral special, Ptooie, is a spiked ball projectile which can be held above itself or directed left or right, flying further depending on how close the ball is to its mouth when it is sent out. Piranha Plant's side special, Poison Breath, is a chargeable poison cloud projectile that can rack up massive amounts of damage when fully charged. Its up special is its recovery move, Piranhacopter; it is an easily maneuverable and long-lasting recovery that deals damage to any players caught in it. Long-Stem Strike is Piranha Plant's down special; it is a rotatable attack that becomes more disjointed the longer it is charged for. Lastly, its Final Smash involves summoning Petey Piranha in his Subspace Emissary incarnation to imprison other fighters in his cages, breathe fire on them, and slam them into the ground.

As a stage element[edit]

On Mushroom Kingdom in Ultimate.

Piranha Plants once again appear on the returning Mushroom Kingdom stage, now using their 2D sprites from Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels.

Spirits[edit]

Fighter spirit[edit]

Primary spirits[edit]

No. Image Name Type Class Slots Base Power Max Power Base Attack Max Attack Base Defense Max Defense Ability Series
53
SSBU spirit Nipper Plant.png
Nipper Plant
Grab
2 861 4309 435 2176 426 2133 Can Be Enhanced at Lv. 99 Super Mario Series
54
SSBU spirit Petey Piranha.png
Petey Piranha
Grab
★★★ 2 3319 9989 1616 4862 1322 3978 Giant Super Mario Series
125
SSBU spirit Petey Piranha (Super Mario Strikers).png
Petey Piranha (Super Mario Strikers) North America
Petey Piranha (Mario Strikers) PAL
Grab
★★ 1 1663 6696 798 3214 865 3482 No Effect Super Mario Strikers Series North America
Mario Strikers Series PAL

Names in other languages[edit]

Language Name Meaning
Japan Japanese パックンフラワー, Packun Flower Pakkun means "Swallowing whole"
UK English Piranha Plant
France French (PAL) Plante Piranha Piranha Plant
Quebec French (NTSC) Fleur Piranha Piranha Flower
Germany German Piranha-Pflanze Piranha Plant
Spain Spanish Planta Piraña Piranha Plant
Italy Italian Pianta Piranha Piranha Plant
China Chinese 吞食花, Packun Flower Swallowing Flower
South Korea Korean 뻐끔플라워, Packun Flower From the Japanese name
Netherlands Dutch Piranha Plant
Russia Russian Растение-пиранья Piranha Plant
Portugal Portuguese Planta Piranha Piranha Plant

Trivia[edit]

  • Piranha Plant made its playable debut in Smash before becoming playable in its own series (namely, in Dr. Mario World).
    • However, Fire and Poison Piranha Plants are enemies that can be captured in Super Mario Odyssey. Petey Piranha, a Piranha Plant himself who appears in Piranha Plant's Final Smash, has also been playable in various Mario spin-off games and was also notably the only playable Piranha Plant prior to Piranha Plant’s debut.
    • Worth noting is the fact that a Fire Piranha Plant, a variant of Piranha Plant, was added as a character in Mario Tennis Aces as a post-launch character, and, like the Piranha Plant in Smash, is potted and moves around in said pot.
  • Piranha Plant is the first playable character in the series to be a generic enemy.
    • This distinction is now shared with Zombie and Enderman, although unlike with Piranha Plant, they are not their own characters.
  • Piranha Plant is the only character with no indication of eyes. Prior to Ultimate, Mr. Game & Watch held this distinction; however, starting with Ultimate, his model changed to have eyes during certain attacks.
  • Piranha Plant is the only character to receive a Guidance conversation in the game it was DLC in.
  • Piranha Plant, R.O.B., Mr. Game & Watch, and Dark Samus are the only playable characters to not have a "proper" face, meaning it consists of a mouth, eyes, nose, etc.
    • This is excluding Samus, who wears a helmet over her face.
    • In Mr. Game & Watch's case, his eyes do exist, only showing up in certain animations; prior to Ultimate, however, this was not the case.
  • With it debuting in September 1985, Piranha Plant is the oldest fighter introduced in Ultimate.
    • Piranha Plant has the largest gap of any first-party character between its debut and becoming playable, at nearly 34 years, and the second largest gap overall, after Pac-Man, who had a gap of over 34 years.
  • Piranha Plant and Corrin are the only DLC newcomers to not come with a new stage. Of the two, Piranha Plant is the only one to not come with any music.
  • Piranha Plant has the longest duration of debuting in a non-playable role before becoming a playable character at 20 years, as it debuted in the original Super Smash Bros. as a stage hazard in the Mushroom Kingdom stage before becoming a playable fighter in Ultimate via DLC.
    • Because of this, Piranha Plant is the first DLC fighter to have made a non-playable appearance before becoming a fighter. It would later be followed by Min Min, Pyra, and Mythra.