Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door at 10 HP - Prince Mush

Описание: And this is the other superboss added to Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, the one that the fans back in the GameCube days really wanted to see: Prince Mush! He made mention of wanting to return to the Glitz Pit after he was rescued in Chapter 3, but he ultimately never did, nor did he even appear at all after that one scene.

Well, fans of Prince Mush have had their requests heard, because not only does he continue to hang around the Glitz Pit for the rest of the game, including the postgame, but you can challenge him to an exhibition match too—he isn’t ranked like the other Glitz Pit fighters, but instead welcomes all challengers, including Mario.

Like with Whacka, you’ll need to go through a few steps to get your opportunity to battle with Prince Mush, though this one is less esoteric, something you’ll likely do just going through the game:

1. Clear Chapter 3.
2. Go to the Trouble Center in Rogueport, accept Jolene’s trouble, and complete it.
3. Read the email sent to you by Prince Mush. This will likely happen some time after completing Jolene’s trouble, about a chapter if you’re still going through the game and about half an hour outside of Rogueport if you’ve already completed it.

After this, you can request an exhibition match with Prince Mush from any locker room available to Mario in Glitzville, or, in this case, the champion’s room. He doesn’t care what league Mario’s in; the fact that Mario defeated Macho Grubba is his proof that Mario’s a strong fighter.

Prince Mush was the first champion of the modern Glitz Pit, and it shows: he is far, far stronger than Rawk Hawk or even Macho Grubba. He boasts 96 HP, 6 Attack (which can be increased further), and 6 Defense (which is insanely high). He also switches between two stances at the beginning parts of the match: he will either move side to side or hop up and down. When he moves side to side, he will dodge all aerial attacks. When he hops up and down, he will dodge all non-aerial attacks. That’s why I switched to Flurrie: not only is she my go-to partner for very strong bosses while Mario has a fragile 10 HP, but Flurrie has both Body Slam, an aerial attack; and Lip Lock, a non-aerial attack, allowing her to continue hitting Prince Mush every turn while keeping the Power Lift stat bonuses.

What I REALLY dreaded, however, is his third stance. He won’t use it at the beginning of the battle, but he could randomly switch to it after he’s lost some HP, increasingly likely as his HP drops, and guaranteed once his HP is 40% or below. This stance blocks ALL attacks. Aerial attacks, non-aerial attacks, items, special moves (moves that use the Crystal Stars), counterattacks, trap attacks, Spite Pouch, Return Postage, and anything else I can and can’t think of. While in this stance, he can also charge up to boost his attack power, which can bring it up to about 27 damage per attack, some of which are a series of comboed moves, up to seven in a row (meaning Prince mush can deal well over 100 damage per turn). They say Prince Mush fights with a clean, honest style with no dirty tricks and nothing to hide, but looking at what he dan do, he doesn’t need to fight dirty at all. He’s just so far above the other Glitz Pit guys.

About the only thing this stance can’t defend against is the Superguard, which is why for this boss battle in particular, my rules of “no Superguard” had to be suspended, because it’s required to win in this battle. (This is probably why this battle is considered the same difficulty level regardless of if you challenge him as soon as possible, after Chapter 4, or any further point: the Superguard negates all damage and counters back all attacks, making Mario’s stats irrelevant if you’re good enough at it.) Using a Superguard also drops his Defense to 0 and removes his invincibility for that turn. If the battle has reached that “40% or below” phase, if Prince Mush is still standing, on his next turn, he will charge up again and re-enter that third stance, requiring you to Superguard him again to make him vulnerable again.

Me, I’m terrible with the Superguard. I’m terrible with timing in general. I don’t do the Superguard because the timing is so strict that I don’t consider it worth doing. Hence, it took me about seven attempts fighting Prince Mush before I finally overcame him, the attempt you see here. When I was able to Superguard him when his HP was low, I took no chances: I did as much damage in one turn as I could. And this is with both Simplifier Badges, which increases the Superguard timing from 3/60 of a second (1/20) to…4/60 of a second (1/15).

Defeating Prince Mush gets you a replica of his belt as proof that you’ve done it. To get it, you talk to Prince Mush as he’s standing in the backstage hallway in the Glitz Pit afterwards. Like with Whacka, who will remain at the bottom of the Pit of 100 Trials, Prince Mush will be open for an exhibition match against Mario at any time.