Wiggler

From SMWiki

Wiggler is a large caterpillar from the Mario series of games.

[edit] General information

Wigglers first appeared in Super Mario World, where their basic attack pattern was set. Here, they are long and yellow and divided into four segments. The first segment is a head with a big red nose, two dot eyes, and a flower sitting on top. The next three segments have two legs a piece and a circle on the sides. Wigglers march back and forth aimlessly, but stay on ledges. If Mario stomps them, he crushes the flower on their heads, which makes them extremely angry. Afterwards, they change color and start moving much faster. Once a Wiggler changes its color, the player no longer gets points for stomping on it. The player gets hurt if they stop on a Wiggler and a portable springboard at the same time, even if they are on Yoshi.

Wigglers cannot be defeated with spin jumps, cape swipes, or fireballs, but a shell or star will take them out. Interestingly, if Wigglers are part of 1-up chain (from defeating a line of enemies with a shell or a star) they will give out 2-ups instead of the normal 1-up. Also, if Wigglers are stomped as part of a chain stomp, they will yield a 1-up on the first stomp, then a 2-up, a 3-up, a glitched up 5-up, then a bunch of other glitched x-ups. This eventually allows the player to get 9,999,990 points, the maximum possible. This glitch is fixed in the Game Boy Advanced version.

[edit] Hacking information

Wigglers can only be used with the forest sprite set (GFX 02). Their potential to yield massive amounts of lives means that they should be used sparingly in areas where the player can cape glide to bounce off of many foes in succession. Parts of the Wiggler's body often appear where they should not when this sprite is used, especially if there are several other sprites on the screen.

[edit] Related ROM addresses

0x1730C [C4 C6 C8 C6] Wiggler's body tilemap (4 frame walk animation)

0x1736E [8C] Tile used by Wiggler's head

0x173E4 [98] Tile used by Wiggler's flower when it's on his head

0x11F30 [98] Tile used by Wiggler's flower once it falls off his head

0x173EE [0A] Palette of flower

0x173F7 [00] Size of flower/angry eyes tile (00= 8x8, 02= 16x16)

0x174D3 [00 08] X placement of flower tile on Wiggler's head (1 byte facing right, 1 byte facing left)

0x173DF [08] X-coordinate of flower

0x173BE [88] Wiggler's angry eyes tile

0x173B1 [D5 F2] Pointer to use for X placement of Wiggler's angry eyes tile

0x174D5 [04 04] X placement of Wiggler's angry eyes tile (1 byte facing right, 1 byte facing left)

0x171BD [08 F8 10 F0] Wiggler/Koopa speed. First 2 bytes: normal speed. Next 2: mad speed

0x1746C [03] SFX that comes up when Mario stomps a Wiggler

0x17474 [BD] Set to 01 to disable Wiggler's color change animation when jumped on

0x17251 [0E] Palette cycling sequence

• 00-Palette 00; 2nd GFX page
• 02-Palettes 00,02; 2nd GFX page
• 04-Palettes 00,04; 2nd GFX page
• 06-Palettes 00,02,04,06; 2nd GFX page
• 08-Palettes 00,08; 2nd GFX page
• 0A-Palettes 00,02,08,0A; 2nd GFX page
• 0C-Palettes 00,04,08,0C; 2nd GFX page
• 0E-All palettes; 2nd GFX page

0x17258 [F1] Palette result? (tested w/17251 as 0E)

• F0-Palette 08; 1st GFX page
• F1-Palette 08; 2nd GFX page
• F2-Palette 0A; 1st GFX page
• F3-Palette 0A; 2nd GFX page
• F4-Palette 0C; 1st GFX page
• F5-Palette 0C; 2nd GFX page (changes palette cycling to 04,06,0C,0E; 2nd page)
• F7-Palette 0E; 2nd GFX page (changes palette cycling to 06,0E; 2nd page)
• FD-Palette 0C; 2nd GFX page (changes palette cycling to 0C,0E; 2nd page)
• FF-Palette 0E; 2nd GFX page (disables palette cycling)

0x1739A [05] How many segments Wiggler has

0x174D5 [04] Number of harmful Wiggler segments, minus 1

0x174E3 [0E] Extended Sprite that falls off of Wiggler's head when stomped