is a character who first appeared in Square's 1996 role-playing video game Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, which was published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Mallow is a cloud-like being originating from a kingdom known as Nimbus Land, but was separated from his parents, the King and Queen of Nimbus Land, at a young age and was raised as a tadpole by the Frog Sage. Mallow is introduced as one of the game's party members who fights alongside Mario to stop the game's main antagonists, the Smithy gang. In Super Mario RPG, Mallow primarily uses magic attacks on his foes in battle by manipulating the weather, with some comparing his role in the party to spellcaster roles in other role-playing video games.
Mallow received positive reception for his design and storyline, with many praising his character arc from a meek cry-baby to a strong and brave prince who became a hero in his own right. He also received additional commentary regarding his regional differences between his Japanese and English translations. Since his introduction, both fans and critics have asked Super Mario RPGs developers for Mallow to return to the Mario series in the future.
Character design
Mallow is a member of the Nimbus, a species of bipedal cloud-like beings from Nimbus Land. His is depicted as being small, rotund and fluffy, with an ivory-coloured body and a pink curl of hair on his head. Mallow wears pink shoes and blue and white striped pants, held up by a belt. Writers for Nintendo Life believe Mallow's species to be derived from the cirrus genus of clouds.
In battle, Mallow is seen as the spellcaster of the team, where he is more adept at using magic attacks rather than physical attacks. During combat, his magical attacks are primarily weather-based as he is able to control the weather using his emotions to attack enemies, such as summoning lightning, a large snowman or even star rain. He can also summon rain to heal a team member. Mallow is also telepathic; his "Thought Peak" move (originally referred to as "Pyschopath" in the 1996 version) allows him to read the enemy's mind to see what they are thinking as well as to help figure out their weakness. Outside of his magic attacks, Mallow can equip himself with either gloves, cymbals or a stick to physically attack his enemies.
According to designer Hideo Minaba, Super Mario RPG was planned to feature two original playable characters alongside Mario, and so the team were asked to formulate ideas for character designs and create illustrations for them, with some of the designs ending up as NPCs in the final game.Sources:
During this early stage of development, former Square developer Jiro Mifune began designing and conceptualising characters for the game, approaching the design theme of the characters with a The Three Musketeers motif, as at the time Mifune had difficulty imagining Mario donning a suit of armour and a sword. During this period, Mifune sketched a character named Keron, a young frog boy who was originally going to travel with Mario and his party. Mifune would later release many of these concept sketches on his Twitter account in November 2023. Keron is believed to have acted as the origin point for Mallow, who would eventually be reworked into the latter over the course of development, with the frog aspects of the character being written into the character's in-game origins. The design that more closely resembled Mallow's finalised appearance was initially conceived as a marshmallow-like character with a curled bang at the front. According to Minaba, he took the design and began to finalise the design by giving Mallow some fluffy pants and reworked him into more of a cloud-inspired character instead. Minaba explained in his artbook that by changing Mallow into a cloud, it would allow him to use elemental powers such as generating lightning and wind, similar to the wizard role in other role-playing video games.
Appearances Main appearances
Mallow's first appearance is in 1996's Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars as one of the game's five party members. Mario first meets Mallow outside Peach's Castle where witnesses Mallow chasing and ultimately failing to catch a thief named Croco, resulting in Mallow crying which causes the weather to begin to rain. When Mario approaches him, Mallow introduces himself as a tadpole from Tadpole Pond and explains that he had visited the Mushroom Kingdom to buy a cricket pie for his grandfather, but the frog coin he was going to use to purchase the pie was stolen by Croco. Mario offers to help Mallow and the pair team up to find the thief. The pair travel along Bandit's Way and defeat Croco, returning Mallow's Frog Coin to him. Arriving back from their battle, they find the kingdom overrun with a faction of the group known as the Smithy gang, the game's main antagonists. Inside the castle, the pair encounter and defeat the faction's lieutenant, Claymorton (known as Mack in the original game), who drops a Star Piece. The kingdom's chancellor thanks the pair and instructs them to head to Tadpole Pond to get advice on the matter from the Frog Sage (known as Frogfucius in the original game), Mallow's grandfather. At Tadpole Pond, the Frog Sage reveals that Mallow is not actually a tadpole nor his biological grandson and explains that he found Mallow as baby in basket and chose to raise him as a tadpole. Conflicted in his emotions, Mallow is confident that his real parents are still out there and says he will join Mario on his adventure in find the Star Pieces and hopefully find his parents along the way.
During the journey, Mario, Mallow, and the other party members, eventually arrive at Nimbus Land. Whilst there, they witness a woman named Valentina who claims she has found the lost Prince Mallow, who is actually her large bird assistant named Dodo, and that he plans to marry her and make her the new queen. Later, the party find a sculptor named Garro, who at the back of his place has a golden statue, which Mallow remarks looks almost identical to him. Garro explains to the group that Valentina had taken the rulers of Nimbus Land captive and has Dodo impersonating the prince; he also reveals that Mallow originated from Nimbus Land and was in fact the true lost prince. Determined to put an end to the ruse, the party sneak into the Nimbus Land palace by disguising Mario as a statue. They eventually defeat Valentina and free the Mallow's parents, the King and Queen. Although given the choice to stay with them, Mallow says he will stay with Mario until the adventure is over. Near the end of the game, Mallow and the other party members confront Smithy in his lair. Following Smithy's defeat, Mallow returns to Nimbus Land, where he is seen alongside his parents having taken on his role as prince.
Mallow retains the same role in the 2023 remake Super Mario RPG. In the remake, he can unlock a new weapon called the Sage Stick that is only available by beating the boss Belome again in the new postgame. A new mechanic was introduced called "Triple Moves" which allows all party members in a battle to unleash a powerful move; depending on who performs a triple move, the outcome of the move changes. An example of this is the move "Star Riders", which is an attack performed by Mallow, Mario and Geno that does significant damage to one enemy at a time. However, if Geno is swapped for Princess Peach, a new move called "Healing Rainbow" is performed instead, which causes all member of the party to be healed or even revived. Another new feature added to the remake is a scrapbook where events from the game are logged by Mallow.
Other appearances In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Mallow appears as collectable known as a "Spirit", where the player fights in a match under certain conditions. He is also represented in the Geno spirit battle, where Mallow is represented in the match by a grey Kirby. In November 2023, a free limited time background was added to Tetris 99 in promotion of the Super Mario RPG remake, which featured promotional art of Mallow alongside Mario, Princess Peach, Bowser and Geno. Mallow also made an appearance in the Japanese manga adaptation of the Mario franchise, Super Mario-kun.
Critical reception Following his appearance in Super Mario RPG, Mallow was praised by critics for being a standout character, with USGamer reporter Mathew Olson describing him as his favourite companion in the role-playing video game genre. Olsen wrote that he hoped to see Mallow reappear in another game in the future, though admitted that with the subsequent release of other Mario RPG series, his chances of being brought back became "more and more like a remote possibility." Real Sound writer Moe Harumaki similarly declared Mallow as being her favourite character in the game, noting that whilst she was initially shocked and confused by the character's introduction as she believed Mario's companions would be other reoccurring Mario characters such as Luigi or Yoshi, she grew to love both his personality and his design, describing Mallow's appearance as looking like a "melting vanilla ice cream". Connor Christie from Pocket Tactics also called Mallow their favourite character, writing that Mallow's "endearing naivety" reminded him of Vivi Ornitier from Final Fantasy IX, though remarked that Mallow lacked Vivi's "existential pondering."
Magmixs Fumi-kun remarked how despite having a fluffy appearance, they were surprised by how sharp and mysterious Mallow was written, though still regarded him as having a loveable personality. Ozzie Mejia of Shacknews deemed that because Mario was mute in the game, Mallow acted as a pivotal character in helping to present Super Mario RPGs world, describing him as an "everyman standing in contrast with the rest of the cast" due to him seeing the wider world for the first time. Mejia further stated that this is better juxtaposed by the reveal that Mallow is actually a prince, writing that while Mallow and Mario are both from the same world, they each have "their own kingdoms and their own stories to live out." In an article for Game Rant, Zackari Greif felt that Mallow was often overlooked by fans for other original characters in RPG such as Geno, but believed Mallow to be a worthwhile character that should be recognised more alongside the others. In his defence, Greif opined that Mallow was the heart of Super Mario RPGs story and that Mallow's character evolution by the end of the game made him shine, admiring the character for his growth by the time he reached Nimbus Land. When interviewed by Famitsu about Super Mario RPG, Japanese professional wrestler Hiromu Takahashi mentioned that whilst Geno was his favourite character, he admitted that he did also like Mallow and that his introduction scene was his favourite scene in the game; Takahashi said that he found the scene visually beautiful and admired Mallow's lines during the scene where is trying to talk himself out of crying, finding that he could really feel his resolve in that scene.