495 Words About: Iggy Koopa and Super Mario World
I thought the words, “Iggy Koopa’s boss fight in Super Mario World is just sumo wrestling.” I said, “Huh, yeah it is.” And then I returned to washing the dishes.
I’ve beaten Iggy Koopa more times than I can count and that isn’t platitude. I’ve been playing Super Mario World since I was six, and despite my failure to ever complete the game, I have been able to defeat every Koopaling boss in every castle. Because he was first he was the “easiest” boss to defeat, and I wound up defeating him frequently.
So frequently, I don’t have a number.
Iggy’s lair is a single platform that’s a half-sphere floating on a bed of lava. Since Super Mario World is a 2D-scrolling platformer there is just the diameter of this island, with Iggy beginning on the right hand side, and Mario on the left. Iggy will charge the player, and as I’ve learned thus far in the game, contact with Iggy (or any non-playable character(npc)) will make an automatic defeat and I’ll have to start the castle over (except these days I’m playing on my Nintendo Switch so I can just rewind(but when I was six I didn’t have this option) defeat was final, agonizing, and frequent))).
Hopping on Iggy doesn’t result in his immediate death, nor does it even damage him. Instead every jump Mario makes will result in a dull thud and Iggy being pushed back a few feet depending on what side Mario strikes him. But to compound this issue, the island floating in the lava will shift its angle depending on the weight that’s exerted on either side, meaning if Iggy is knocked towards an edge with a higher angle, he won’t plummet into the lava and the fight will keep going. I learned this last lesson the hard way…and still somehow never appreciated geometry until my early 30s.
This fight is sumo wrestling in the purest sense because both parties are of equal weight, and the only way to win this fight is by using the right force at the right angle to force my opponent out of the ring. I can assume an offensive strategy and push Iggy quickly over the edge, or I can attempt a more defensive stance and avoid his strikes. Both of these are choices that can result in victory, it’s just going to depend on my observation of the geometry that’s ever-changing on this battleground.
Mario as an element of the world is composed of weight and exerts force through movement, and the brilliance of Iggy’s boss fight is how both of these factors will determine success or failure. Just like Sumo wrestling, it’s a game of measuring and executing force, position, and angles.
One push was often all it took.
One push, and Iggy plummeted off the edge of the world, swallowed into the glowing magma never to return…until my save file deleted and I had to start again.
Joshua “Jammer” Smith
12.8.2025
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