The snails of Super Mario Bros

Abstract

Nintendo has recently released a new Mario game, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, a multiplayer platformer involving a good dose of mushrooms, both in-game and presumably during development. But psychedelic trips aside, in the first few stages of the game we are introduced to a completely new (and arguably the best) “enemy” in Mario games: a snail with a fabulous pink shell. Figure 1. Snail (©Nintendo, 2023; fair use). Source: Super Mario Wiki (https://mariowiki.com/). So far, this critter remains unnamed, but the Super Mario Wiki refers to it as Snail, with a capital S. So, I will use this name throughout this article. It’s not very creative, I agree, but maybe safer than risking a bad pun like in some Pokémon names. The Snail has a pink shell and a green soft body. Its tentacles are striped and its eyes are located below the tentacles. Overall, it is a cartoonish design – as it should be – but an interesting one nevertheless. First, it’s kinda cute. Secondly, it has some curious features that are an excuse for me to discuss a little bit about real-world biology. So, let’s get down to the snail science.