Bat (Super Mario Galaxy)

Bat
First appearance	Super Mario Galaxy (2007)
Latest appearance	Super Mario 3D All Stars (2020)
Species origin	Swooper

Two bats attacking Luigi in the Slimy Spring Galaxy

A Bat is an enemy from Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario Galaxy 2. They resemble reddish brown (or sometimes brown) bats with pig-like noses and bulging, glowing eyes with faint rings on them.

Initially, bats are found either hanging from the ceiling or flying around aimlessly. When Mario approaches, they fly in close to him, before attempting to swoop him. If they succeed, they will laugh at him. They can be defeated with a spin or stomp, and will release either three Star Bits or one Coin, respectively, depending of which way they are defeated. They can be found in many dark places, with the first being the cave in the Beach Bowl Galaxy. They are also found flying around the arm of Heavy Metal Mecha-Bowser. They can also be found in the Slimy Spring Galaxy. In Super Mario Galaxy, Bats are reddish brown and in Super Mario Galaxy 2, they are completely brown.

Gallery

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  Data-rendered model of a bat

Names in Other Languages

Language	Name	Meaning
Japanese	Basa Basa	Swooper Variation on the English word "bat"
German	Flappflapp	Flutterflutter (same German name as Swooper)
Italian	Pippy	From pipistrello, Italian name of bats.
Spanish	Vampílago	From murciélago vampiro, Spanish name of the vampire bat

Trivia

• The internal filename for the game refers to the Bat as a Swooper despite the fact that Swoopers look very different. Likely the case was that Swoopers were originally going to appear in the game but were replaced with Bats and the internal filename was assigned to them instead.
• Bats resemble Keese from the Legend of Zelda series, particularly a cartoonish version of their Twilight Princess looks. The two games were in development at overlapping times, so this may've be intentional.
• Bats resemble Buckies from Donkey Kong Jungle Beat. They also have Ice counterparts like Buckies do.