They are the weakest Super Mario enemy, after all.

In just about every Super Mario game, the first foe you’ll encounter is the lowly Goomba. It’s essentially the series’ tutorial enemy, with no method of attack other than waddling slowly towards Mario and serving as a target for him to jump on and defeat to help the player coordinate their muscle memory for the rest of the adventure to come.

So it’s only fitting that at the recently opened Super Nintendo World theme park section at Universal Studios Japan, the very first enemies to have fallen are the Goombas.

And we mean “fall” literally. Super Nintendo World’s installations include a stacked quartet of Goombas who move back and forth across part of the platformer-style mountain that serves as the area’s backdrop. On Monday morning, they toppled and fell from their perch, crashing down from a height of several meters.

▼ A video taken after the incident, showing the empty space where the Goombas used to roam.

Fortunately, since they fell into an area that’s not accessible to guests, no one was struck by the Goombas, which is a relief since real-world humans don’t have the luxury of stocking up on extra lives. However, the Goombas did crash land close to the tracks of the Yoshi’s Adventure ride, which was temporarily shut down while the staff performed safety inspections.

The cause of the accident is still being determined, but strong winds from a typhoon that was passing by the area (though not directly through Osaka) are suspected to have been a factor, though we really shouldn’t rule out the possibility of Mario, out of sheer habit, having knocked over his age-old enemies.

Source: Asahi Shimbun Digital via Livedoor News via Jin
Top image, GIF ©SoraNews24
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