The Mario Bros. and their baby counterparts fighting Shrowser

“Mmm... I can feela power burning in my belly! What in the world did you feed me?”

—Shrowser,Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time

Shrowser^[1] is the final boss fought inMario & Luigi: Partners in Time.Bowser takes this form after ingesting apurple mushroom that turned out to be the form of the dormantElder Princess Shroob; she ends up possessing him, andMario,Luigi,Baby Mario, andBaby Luigi fight them both in the present-dayPeach's Castle.

While Bowser is possessed, he retains his normal appearance and personality, although with multiple signs of the Elder Princess Shroob's influence; he flashes purple, has purple eyes, and has an afterimage effect and purple clouds around him. The music during the Shrowser battle is the same one used during the earlier battle against Bowser andBaby Bowser; as such, he is the only final boss in an originalMario & Luigi game to not have an original music track.

Shrowser is the only boss inMario & Luigi: Partners in Time that can only be defeated with counterattacks. He is also one of the few bosses in theMario & Luigi series with this condition; the others includeLudwig von Koopa fromMario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions andThunder Sass fromMario & Luigi: Dream Team. Because the brothers cannot attack during the fight, Shrowser cannot be targeted, and the name normally never appears in-game; however, it actually appears as a string in the ROM that is translated in some releases of the game.^[2]

InSuper Mario-kunvolume 37,Baby Bowser is possessed by the Elder Princess Shroob instead, in the very last chapter of theMario & Luigi: Partners in Time arc. Unaware of what happened, he goes to Peach's Castle and find the shroom-ified Elder Princess Shroob and eats her, becoming possessed by her. Shrowser then meets with Baby Mario and Baby Luigi and attacks them. The babies are unable to attack Shrowser, but Baby Mario talks to Baby Bowser, telling him to not succumb to the Shroob Princess's control or he, as his rival, will never have the satisfaction of beating him. Moved by his words, Baby Bowser fights to expel the princess from his body, and ends up defecating her and breaking free from her control, much to her humiliation.

Battle[edit]

As the battle starts, a purple aura emits from Shrowser and takes the form of theElder Princess Shroob on the top screen. Shrowser then states that the Mario Bros. and their baby selves cannot perform any actions, such as attacking or using items. In order to defeat Shrowser, the quartet mustjump over orhammer back several of the fiery projectiles that he continually spews at them;Bowser himself deflects any and all counterattacks away, causing them to hit the Elder Princess Shroob's spectral form instead. While Shrowser has a regular set of stats and targets like most other enemies and bosses, much of it is unused due to the battle's programming and the win condition established at the beginning;^[2] instead, the Mario Bros. and their baby counterparts must deplete the Elder Princess Shroob's health meter, which is represented byShroob-like mushrooms on the top screen.

Shrowser's attacks can be countered by looking at the Elder Princess Shroob and her movement patterns. If she points with her right arm, Shrowser attacksMario andBaby Mario; if she points with her left arm, Shrowser attacksLuigi andBaby Luigi. Depleting the Elder Princess Shroob's health meter requires jumping over the equivalent of 20 fireballs or more, hammering back the equivalent of 10 fire orbs or more, or some combination of the two. The Bros. and Baby Bros. must survive the entire round of counterattacks as well; even if the health meter is depleted, if they are all KOed before that turn of attacks ends, it still counts as aGame Over. Once successfully defeated, the Elder Princess Shroob finally disappears, causing Bowser to faint.

Statistics[edit]

Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time enemy
Shrowser
	HP	4960	POW	180 (170)	Defense	140
	Experience	0	Coins	0	Speed	64
	Location(s)	Peach's Castle	Role	Boss	Item drop	None – 0% None – 0%
	Level	100	Battled by	Everyone
Notice:Stats in parentheses are from the Japanese and European versions (if they differ from the original American release).

Quotes[edit]

• "Hmm...I can feel a power burning in my belly! What in the world did you feed me?"
• "Gwa ha ha ha! Aw, who cares what it was? I've been reborn!"
• "Mario! Green 'Stache! And you brats, too! NO MERCY FOR YOU!" (When engaging Mario and Luigi in battle)
• "Hey! Listen here! From now on, you guys have NO chance to attack! I'll flatten you guys with an attack barrage! Enjoy! Bwa ha ha!"
• "Bwa ha ha! Sorry! No attacking!" (When blocking counterattack)
• "You can't dodge 'em all!"
• "Grrrrrr! Pesky bugs!"
• "Hungh?! WARGH! WHAT?!" (When defeated)

Gallery[edit]

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  Shrowser still sprite

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  Shrowser inSuper Mario-kun

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Names in other languages[edit]

References[edit]

• Bowser forms
• Shroobs
• Kings
• Final bosses
• Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time bosses

• Articles with dead external links
• Articles with unsourced foreign names