Goomba

Goomba
Mario character
Goomba, as seen in New Super Mario Bros. U.
First game	Super Mario Bros. (1985)
Voiced by	Hiroko Maruyama and Kazue Komiya (Super Mario Bros.: The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach!)
Portrayed by	Thomas Merdis, Michael Harding, Michael Lynch, Scott Mactavish, Wallace Merck, and Fred Folger (Super Mario Bros.)

Goombas /ˈɡuːmbɑː/, known in Japan as Kuribo (クリボー, Kuribō^?, [ku͍.ɽi.boː]), are a 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.

The species is considered one of the most iconic elements of the Mario series, appearing in nearly every game in the series, and is often ranked amongst the most famous enemies in video games. Crave Online described it as the series' "everyman". It has been compared to other generic enemies in video games, such as the "Met" enemy from the Mega Man series. The video game incarnation has been made into several plush toys.

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. 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.