Wrench

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Wrench

New Super Mario Bros. Wii artwork of a wrench
Appearances
First appearance Super Mario Bros. 3 (1988)
Latest appearance Paper Mario: The Origami King (2020)
This article is about the object thrown by Rocky Wrenches. For information about the sticker in Paper Mario: Sticker Star, see Wrench sticker. For the item from the Nintendo Adventure Book Brain Drain, see Wrench (Brain Drain).

Wrenches (sometimes referred to as spanners) are a type of object usually thrown by Rocky Wrenches in the Mario franchise. They are similar to the wrenches in the real world. Wrenches first appear in Super Mario Bros. 3 along with Rocky Wrenches themselves. Wrenches appear in most media that feature Rocky Wrenches.

History

Super Mario series

A Rocky Wrench throwing a wrench in World 5-4 from Super Mario 3D Land

Like Rocky Wrenches, the wrenches primarily appear within the Super Mario series. Here, Rocky Wrenches generally attack by poking their head out to throw a wrench before retreating back into their hole. In most installments, Mario, Luigi or another character take damage upon touching a wrench.

In Super Mario Bros. 3, wrenches are thrown at either a horizontal, upper diagonal, or lower diagonal direction, due to the bobbing in most airship levels.

This changed in New Super Mario Bros. Wii, where most wrenches are now thrown horizontally and do not change direction. This same behavior also carries over in New Super Mario Bros. U.

In Super Mario 3D Land, it is possible for Mario or Luigi to jump on a wrench without taking damage, which destroys the thrown wrench and gives either character a coin upon destroying it. There are also some Rocky Wrenches who throw coins and Bob-ombs instead of wrenches.

In Super Mario Maker its 3DS port, and its sequel, Super Mario Maker 2, wrenches are also thrown by Winged Rocky Wrenches and big Rocky Wrenches. The former hovers a bit before throwing their wrench while the latter throws a bigger wrench. Big winged Rocky Wrenches combine the two behaviors. In both the Super Mario World and New Super Mario Bros. U style in either game, Yoshi can use his tongue to eat a wrench thrown by a Rocky Wrench or its variants and spit it back out. If the Rocky Wrench or most other enemies get hit by the wrench, they get defeated. In version 1.40 of Super Mario Maker, wrenches were given a red part in the middle to improve their design.

Similar to Super Mario 3D Land, in Super Mario Run, some Rocky Wrenches throw coins instead of wrenches, though the wrenches themselves function the same to how they do in previous games.

The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3

A Rocky Wrench throwing a wrench in "Mush-Rumors"

In The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3, wrenches are used as a weapon by Rocky Wrenches in the few episodes that they appear in.

In "Princess Toadstool for President," one of the Rocky Wrenches who were driving the tanks peeks their head out to throw a wrench at Mario and Luigi, but the Bros. mangage to quickly escape in a pipe.

In "Mush-Rumors," there is a scene where Rocky Wrenches try to attack the Kansas family by throwing wrenches at them along with various other projectiles being thrown at said family due to King Koopa thinking they are aliens.

In "The Ugly Mermaid," Rocky Wrenches attempt to attack Mario and his friends from the Doom Sub by throwing wrenches at them, but they manage to throw the wrenches back at the Doom Sub, causing it to briefly spin out.

In "Up, Up, and a Koopa," a Rocky Wrench throws two wrenches at Mario and Luigi for attempting to bribe them out of their cage. Unlike other appearances, these wrenches return back to the Rocky Wrench, similar to a boomerang.

Super Mario 4koma Manga Theater

In volume 2 of Super Mario 4koma Manga Theater, Rocky Wrenches resort to throwing random objects at Luigi after they ran out of wrenches.

Super Mario-kun

Several Rocky Wrenches throwing wrenches at Mario under the command of Larry Koopa in volume 30 of Super Mario-kun

In both volume 30 and volume 45 of Super Mario-kun, wrenches are used as an attack by Rocky Wrenches.

The former volume has several Rocky Wrenches throwing wrenches at Mario by the command of Larry Koopa, and the latter volume has several Rocky Wrenches throw wrenches at Mario when Boom Boom pushes a button to call the Rocky Wrenches to attack.

Paper Mario series

Several Rocky Wrenches throwing wrenches at Mario in Paper Mario: Sticker Star

In Paper Mario: Sticker Star and Paper Mario: Color Splash, Rocky Wrenches throw wrenches as a way of attacking Mario in both the overworld and during battle. They also throw much bigger wrenches which heavier than the standerd wrenches, but these wrenches do more damage when hitting Mario. In Paper Mario: Sticker Star, there is a wrench sticker, which is sometimes dropped by Rocky Wrenches and can be used by Mario to throw a wrench at enemies. In Paper Mario: Color Splash, the Rocky Wrench Battle Card allows Mario to summon a Rocky Wrench which can throw a singular wrench at an enemy until the Rocky Wrench either gets defeated or if the battle ends.

In Paper Mario: The Origami King, origami Rocky Wrenches throw wrenches and gold colored spanners at Mario both in the overworld and in-battle. Although the standard wrenches are thrown how normal Rocky Wrenches throw them, the spanners are thrown in an arch similar to the hammers thrown by Hammer Bros. The sprites for the normal wrenches, as well as the bigger wrenches from the previous two Paper Mario games (specifically Paper Mario: Color Splash) are seen in the sprites for Rocky Wrench, but they remain unused due to the standard Rocky Wrenches being friendly NPCs.

WarioWare Gold

In WarioWare Gold's Super Mario Bros. 3 microgame, Rocky Wrenches specifically target Mario or Luigi when throwing their wrench, something not seen in any other game.

Gallery

Games

Other media

Trivia

  • In Super Mario Galaxy, there is a separate mole enemy unrelated to Rocky Wrench named Monty who also throws wrenches. However, these wrenches are likely different to the ones thrown by Rocky Wrenches, due to Monty being a part of a separate mole species.
  • Despite Rocky Wrenches appearing in the Mario Kart series, it is one of the few games to not feature them throwing their namesake wrenches.
  • In the original Super Mario Bros. 3, due to the Nintendo Entertainment System's palette limitations, the wrenches are red while held by a Rocky Wrench but turn cyan when thrown.
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