Shy Guy
From Mariopedia
======Shyguy======
SHY GUY [Japanese name: Hei-ho] Occupation: Evil anonymous First appearance: Doki Doki Panic (1987)
In short, Shy Guys are the Goombas of Wart's army, though they'd later be appropriated by Bowser, Smithy and Cackletta, to name a few. They're the dumbest and the most plentiful of the enemies in Super Mario Bros. 2. While the art depicted them as little guys wearing red or pink robes and white masks, their in-game appearance always reminded me more of walking loaves of bread — that, and the red Shy Guys always looked brown. (In the Super Mario All-Stars remake of Super Mario Bros. 2 and the Game Boy Advance version as well, Nintendo changed the pink Shy Guys to blue. I can only guess they did this to make people like me wonder why.) Two alternate forms of Shy Guys existed as well: the Snifit, a Shy Guy who could shoot bullets, and the Beezo, a winged Shy Guy who would aim for Mario and charge with a pitchfork.
Despite their plentitude in Super Mario Bros. 2, Shy Guys all but vanished until Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island. There, they appeared in as many colors as there were Koopa Troopas in Super Mario World. They also, apparently, had trained during their absence, and now attacked in a variety of inventive ways: on stilts, hiding in flowers, lighting themselves on fire, throwing baseballs, swinging baseball bats and even flying with propeller tops.
Since then, Shy Guy sightings have increased. They appear in nearly every Mario game since, including the RPG games. They populated Yoshi's Story as well, where they proved to be especially good eating. The Yoshies in that game could even find the rare White Shy Guy, who, when caught, would follow Yoshi to the exit and then wait with the other Yoshies to rescue one if Bowser's forces caught him or her. Incidentally, in Yoshi's Story, the Shy Guys speak. You can clearly hear them saying "hei-ho," their name in Japanese. And in Luigi's Mansion, Luigi could use his vacuum cleaner to suck off the masks of generic Shy Guy ghosts, finally revealing what lies underneath: a shadowy form with a pair of glowing eyes.
Though the Shy Guys truly had their day in Paper Mario, where they dominated an entire area of the game, a crazy-kiddy-colorful maze of games called Shy Guy's Toy Box, the first — and so far only — playable Shy Guy appeared in the Nintendo 64 installment of Mario Tennis. The little guy was an interesting character to control, but apparently not interesting enough. He didn't appear as a playable character again until the sequel, Mario Power Tennis. There, he powered-up his normal tennis skills with the help of an alternate Shy Guy persona: Spear Guy. (Picture a Shy Guy in a hula skirt and tribal paint on his mask and you've got it.) Shy Guy- as-Spear Guy could use his spear to make some devastating returns or approach shots.
Maybe Shy Guy's newfound might will earn him a playable spot in a non-tennis Mario game in the future.
And did you notice the Shy Guy-related peculiarity in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door? Although the Shy Guys appear in the battle scenes as audience members — sometimes ones that interfere by tossing garbage at Mario and his pals — they never appear in the game otherwise. Not as enemies, not as generic characters. Nothing. Strange, eh?
- SMASH BROS. TROPHY INFO FOR SHY GUY***
There are many types of Shy Guys: they've been known to walk on the ground, fly through the air, traipse about on stilts, wear flowers or camouflage, throw balls, swing bats, sail on pirate ships, carry fruit, do the Bamboo Dance, ride submarines, play guitar, play tennis, wear red, come in large or small sizes, steal people's toys, cause mischief...
- SMASH BROS. TROPHY INFO FOR SHY GUY***
Shy Guy's starring roles: Mario Tennis (Nintendo 64) - 2000 Mario Power Tennis (Gamecube) - 2004
Other appearances: Doki Doki Panic - (Famicom) - 1987 Super Mario Bros. 2 (NES) - 1988 Super Mario All-Stars (Super NES) - 1993 Super Mario All-Stars + Super Mario World (Super NES) - 1994 Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (Super NES) - 1995 Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (Super NES) - 1996 Game & Watch Gallery 2 (Game Boy) - 1998 Picross NP Vol. 2 (Super Famicom) - 1999 Paper Mario (Nintendo 64) - 2001 Mario Party 3 (Nintendo 64) - 2001 Super Mario Advance (Game Boy Advance) - 2001 Super Smash Bros Melee (Gamecube) - 2001 Luigi's Mansion (Gamecube) - 2001 Mario Party 4 (Gamecube) - 2002 Mario Party-e (Game Boy Advance E-Reader) - 2002 Mario Party 5 (Gamecube) - 2003 Mario Kart: Double Dash!! (Gamecube) - 2003 Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga (Game Boy Advance) - 2003 Mario vs. Donkey Kong (Game Boy Advance) - 2004 Mario Pinball Land (Game Boy Advance) - 2004 Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (Gamecube) - 2004 Mario Party 6 (Gamecube) - 2004 Mario Party Advance (Game Boy Advance) - 2005
