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Name: The Shroobs (Gerogero in Japanese, “frog-frog”) First Appearance: Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time (Nintendo DS, 2005) Home: The Shroob Planet (a distant alien homeworld) Voiced by: Wordless alien vocalizations performed by Nintendo studio staff Associates: Princess Shroob (royal leader), Elder Princess Shroob (her sister and true final boss), Shrooboid Brat, Petey Piranha-styled Shroob hybrids, the wider Shroob invasion force |
General profile
The Shroobs are a malevolent race of purple, mushroom-shaped alien invaders who serve as the principal antagonists of Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time for Nintendo DS (2005). Originating from a distant alien planet known only as the Shroob Planet, these creatures arrive in the Mushroom Kingdom’s past era and rapidly conquer the entire kingdom, transforming the lush Mushroom Kingdom geography into a hostile alien landscape. The Shroob species has a strikingly distinctive visual design: small purple mushroom-shaped bodies with bulbous heads, large empty white eyes, dual antennae, and characteristically pinched expressions. The species is the most thematically distinctive enemy faction in the Mario and Luigi RPG series, and their invasion drives one of the most darkly-toned narratives in the entire Mario series canon.
The Shroob invasion of the past Mushroom Kingdom serves as Partners in Time’s central plot. The game opens with Professor E. Gadd‘s Time Machine transporting Princess Peach to investigate strange anomalies in the past, only for the princess to be captured by the Shroobs upon her arrival. Mario and Luigi must subsequently travel back in time using the Time Machine to rescue both Princess Peach and the kingdom’s past population from the Shroob occupation. The game’s use of darker themes, mass-population assimilation, alien-invasion warfare, the destruction of the past Mushroom Kingdom geography, set it apart from the typical lighter-toned Mario and Luigi RPG series narratives.
The Shroob hierarchy is structured around two principal royal figures: Princess Shroob, the younger sister and the Shroob occupation force’s public leader, and Elder Princess Shroob, the older sister and the true final boss of Partners in Time who has been sealed inside a magical mushroom-shaped artifact for the majority of the game’s events. The two sisters’ relationship and their rivalry over the Shroob crown forms a sub-plot of the Partners in Time narrative. The species’ broader rank-and-file structure includes various sub-types: standard Shroob foot soldiers, Shroob Blaster-wielding shock troops, mounted Shroob cavalry, and various boss-tier Shroob variants encountered throughout the game.
Quotes
Enemies
The Shroobs’ primary enemies are Mario, Luigi, Baby Mario, and Baby Luigi, the four playable party members of Partners in Time who collectively oppose the Shroob invasion across the game’s campaign. They also oppose Princess Peach (their initial kidnap victim), the past Princess Peach (her younger time-displaced self, who joins the party briefly), Princess Toadstool’s mother (the Past Mushroom Kingdom monarch, a major NPC), and the wider past Mushroom Kingdom population. Bowser also opposes the Shroob invasion, ironically aligning him with Mario’s side for the duration of the game, an unusual circumstantial alliance that becomes one of Partners in Time’s most memorable plot beats.
Friends
The Shroobs have no friends beyond their own species. Their alien-invader status places them in opposition to essentially every protagonist faction in the Mario series, and their hierarchical structure is purely military-political rather than social. Princess Shroob and Elder Princess Shroob have a complex sibling rivalry rather than a friendly relationship, the elder sister has been sealed away by the younger for centuries before the events of Partners in Time, making theirs one of the more dysfunctional villain-family dynamics in Mario series storytelling. The Shroob species as a whole has no canonical alliances with Bowser, Wart, the Smithy Gang, or other Mario series villain factions.
Appearances
Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time (DS, 2005)
The Shroobs debuted in Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time for Nintendo DS (November 2005, Japan; November 2005, North America), developed by AlphaDream. They serve as the principal antagonists of the entire game, with their invasion of the past Mushroom Kingdom driving the central plot. The Shroobs were designed by AlphaDream’s character team led by Akira Otani, with a deliberately alien aesthetic to differentiate them from the standard Bowser-led Mario series villain roster.
The Shroob Planet (2005)
The Shroobs originate from a distant alien planet known only as the Shroob Planet, briefly depicted in Partners in Time’s opening cutscene. The planet’s aesthetic, purple-and-red wasteland with mushroom-shaped geological formations, deliberately echoes the Shroob species’ visual design. The Shroob Planet’s broader place in the Mario series cosmology has never been canonically established, and the planet itself has not been revisited in any post-Partners in Time entry.
The Invasion of Princess Peach’s Castle (2005)
The Shroob invasion of Princess Peach’s Castle is one of the most dramatic opening sequences in any Mario and Luigi RPG. The cutscene shows Shroob flying saucers descending on the past-era Mushroom Kingdom, with the saucers’ beam-weapons assimilating the kingdom’s Toad population. The sequence sets the tone for Partners in Time’s darker thematic palette and establishes the Shroobs as a genuinely menacing threat distinct from the typical Mario series villain archetypes.
Princess Shroob (2005)
Princess Shroob, the public leader of the Shroob invasion force, is fought as one of the late-game bosses of Partners in Time. She is depicted as a larger, more elaborate version of the standard Shroob design, with regal crown, ornate dress, and significantly enhanced combat abilities. Her defeat reveals the existence of her older sister, Elder Princess Shroob, who serves as the true final boss of the game. The sibling rivalry between the two princesses is one of the more nuanced villain-family dynamics in the Mario series.
The Battle Against the Shroobs (2005)
The standard Shroob foot-soldier encounters across Partners in Time are some of the most distinctive enemy battles in the Mario and Luigi RPG series. The Shroobs attack in coordinated military formations rather than the typical Mario series enemy patterns, using Shroob Blasters, flying saucers, and group-tactical attacks. The Shroob species reappears as encountered enemies in Mario and Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story + Bowser Jr.‘s Journey 3DS remake (2018), confirming their canonical status in the broader Mario series.
Mario and Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story Remake Cameo (2018)
The Shroobs return as encounterable enemies in Mario and Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story + Bowser Jr.’s Journey 3DS remake (December 2018, Japan; January 2019, North America). Their inclusion in the 3DS remake confirmed the species’ canonical status within the broader Mario series and the continued relevance of the Shroob invasion to Mario series lore. The remake added new Shroob enemy variants and combat encounters that were not present in the 2009 Nintendo DS original.
Mario and Luigi: Brothership Reference (2024)
The Mario and Luigi series’ 2024 entry Brothership (Switch, November 2024) includes a subtle reference to the Shroobs in the form of the “Mushroob Reef” location, which features environmental design echoing Shroob-themed visual cues. The reference confirms the Shroob species’ continued presence in Mario series lore even as no major Shroob storyline has been featured since the 2018 3DS remake.
Trivia & Official Sources
- The Shroobs were designed by AlphaDream’s character team led by Akira Otani for Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time (2005). The species’ alien-invader aesthetic was a deliberate creative choice to differentiate Partners in Time from the standard Bowser-led Mario and Luigi RPG storylines.
- The Japanese name Gerogero literally translates to “frog-frog” or “ribbit-ribbit,” referencing the croaking sound effects associated with the species. The Western name “Shroob” combines “Shroom” (from Mushroom) with the “-oob” suffix, preserving the species’ deliberately-alien naming convention.
- Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time (2005) sold approximately 2.5 million copies on the Nintendo DS. The Shroobs’ role as the principal antagonists of this entry has nonetheless not translated into substantial post-2005 appearances in the mainline Mario series.
- The Pix’n Love Encyclopedia Super Mario Bros. (2018) describes the Shroobs as “a race of malevolent alien mushrooms who invaded the past Mushroom Kingdom in the events of Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time.”
- The Shroob species hierarchy is structured around two royal figures: Princess Shroob (the public leader) and Elder Princess Shroob (the older sister, sealed inside a magical mushroom-shaped artifact for the majority of Partners in Time). The Elder Princess Shroob serves as the true final boss of the game.
- The Shroob invasion is one of the darkest-toned plot lines in the Mario series. The species’ mass-assimilation of the Mushroom Kingdom’s Toad population, and their transformation of the kingdom’s geography into hostile alien terrain, set the Partners in Time narrative apart from typical lighter-toned Mario and Luigi RPG storylines.
- Bowser’s circumstantial alliance with Mario against the Shroob invasion in Partners in Time is one of the most memorable plot beats of the game. Bowser, recognising that the Shroobs threaten his own kingdom as much as Mario’s, temporarily joins forces with the Mario brothers, an unusual deviation from his standard antagonist role.
- The Shroob Mushroom is a mushroom-shaped magical artifact that serves as the species’ source of power in Partners in Time. The artifact has the ability to transform standard Mushroom Kingdom mushrooms into Shroob-aligned versions, a key mechanic in the game’s plot.
- Petey Piranha appears as a Shroob-fused boss in Partners in Time. The crossover establishes that the Shroob species can hybridise with other Mario series enemies, an unusual narrative beat that gives Partners in Time a distinctive science-fiction tone compared to typical Mario series storytelling.
- Shroob amiibo figures have not been released as of late 2025. The species has not been included in the 2017 Mario Sports Superstars amiibo line nor in subsequent Mario series amiibo waves.
- The Shroobs have appeared as collectible stickers in Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii, 2008), confirming their canonical status within the broader Mario series Smash continuity. They have not appeared as playable fighters or Mii Fighter costumes in any Smash entry.
- AlphaDream, the studio behind the Shroobs’ creation, ceased operations in October 2019, ending the Mario and Luigi RPG series development that introduced the species. The series was subsequently revived in 2024 with Mario and Luigi: Brothership, developed by Acquire, which includes a subtle Shroob reference in its Mushroob Reef location.
- The Shroob species name has occasionally been spelled “Shroob” or “Shroob-i” in different localisation materials. The standard “Shroob” spelling has been canonised in all official Mario series materials since 2005.
- The Shroobs have not been confirmed to appear in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (April 2026) as of late 2025 pre-release marketing. The species’ film-adaptation status remains one of the open questions for Illumination’s Super Mario film series.
- Yoob, a giant pink Yoshi-Shroob hybrid creature, appears as one of the major bosses of Partners in Time. The Yoob represents the Shroob species’ ability to forcibly assimilate other Mario series creatures into Shroob-aligned versions, a thematically dark plot element.
- The Shroob species has the unique distinction of being the only major Mario series villain faction that is canonically extinct by the events of subsequent games. The Shroob invasion was successfully repelled at the end of Partners in Time, with the species effectively wiped out, though small surviving populations are referenced in the 2018 Bowser’s Inside Story 3DS remake.