Goro-chan
| Goro-chan | |
|---|---|
| |
| Species | Dinosaur |
| First appearance | Super Mario (Super Mario Land 2) (1989) |
- “ガウガウ! (Gaugau!)”
- —Goro-chan, Super Mario Land 2
Goro-chan is a baby dinosaur that appears as an ally of Mario and his friends in the first act of the Super Mario Land 2 manga from the Super Mario series published by KC Deluxe.
It is a big baby green bipedal dinosaur of unclear species with a big head with some hairs sticking out from the top. It only communicates via grunts and growls that are sometimes translated in parentheses. It shares traits with Yoshi, who had not been introduced in the franchise at the time.
While searching with Mario for the fabled treasure of Tetris in the ruins of its kingdom, Peach comes face to face with the dinosaur, who suddenly hugs her. Scared, she calls Mario for help, but he fakes being dead. While yelling at him that he is not going against a bear, Peach waves her arms and accidentally hits the dinosaur, who runs over its eggshell and hides behind them. Reading the words written on the cracked egg, Peach realizes that the dinosaur had recently hatched and, after apologizing to it, takes it under her care and later names it Goro-chan. Mario attempts to appear brave by claiming that Goro-chan would have lost against it, only to flinch when it growls at him.
Mario and Peach then ride Goro-chan to look for the Tetris temple and find it. While Shūchō no German tests some members of the Koopa Troop at the Tetris challenge, Goro-chan grabs Luigi's (who previously failed the challenge and ended up at the bottom of a large water basin) backpack in which Mario finds another clue for how to beat the Tetris challenge. During the challenge, Goro-chan helps Mario and Peach in placing or passing the falling Tetriminos. At one point, German, worried about their imminent victory, attempts to squash Peach with a boulder, but Goro-chan jumps on the falling rock, deviating it from landing on Peach but falling into the water basin and getting eliminated from the challenge. After Mario wins, the water basin dries up and Luigi and Goro-chan return to the game.
After Peach, Luigi and Goro-chan are split off from Mario, who is battling King Tetris for the treasures, Goro-chan is dragged by the water's stream and pulled towards King Tetris' waterfall and ends up cutting off the water by plugging up the canal with its large body. German and the Tetris tribe, who were cheating to help the king, order them to move, but the trio refuses, until the tribe men fuse together, creating Gattai Tetris Ningen, scaring the three away from the canal.
After that, Goro-chan has no other relevant roles and sticks around until the end, where it watches the starry sky with its friends questioning where Bowser landed with the treasure (a rocket ship). It does not reappear in the second act or in other issues of the series, as its role would be later taken by Yoshi.
Names in other languages[edit]
| Language | Name | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Japanese | ゴロちゃん Goro-chan |
From「ゴロゴロ」(goro-goro, onomatopoeia for grumbling, possibly in reference to the noises it makes) with the affectionate honorific「~ちゃん」(-chan) |
