Banzai Bill

From SMWiki

Super Mario World Sprite
Banzai Bill
Sprite number(s)	9F
Type	Normal sprite
GFX file(s)	GFX20 (SP4)
Palette(s)	9

A Banzai Bill is a massive Bullet Bill introduced in Super Mario World.

General Information

Banzai Bill makes its first appearance in the very first level of Super Mario World. It looks like a giant Bullet Bill, but it is missing arms and has a huge mouth full of sharp teeth. (It is unknown if Banzai Bill is actually a living creature or if its face is merely painted on) It is slow moving, (The player can almost outpace it simply by walking in the other direction) but its sheer size can make it difficult to avoid. Often, there are holes the player can duck into to wait until the bullet passes overhead. (like in Yoshi's Island 1) Banzai Bills are fired from offscreen, and the cannon used to fire such large projectiles is never seen. If the player can jump high enough, a Banzai Bill is defeated with a single stomp. It is not vulnerable to fireballs, cape swipes, or shells, but a Star will knock it out of the sky.

Banzai Bill cannons were never shown in SMW1; however, both New Super Mario Bros. and both Super Mario Galaxy games do have cannons.

Hacking Information

Banzai Bill is sprite 9F. They are only useable with the Rex/Mega Mole/Banzai Bill sprite set. (GFX 20) By default, Banzai Bill uses the grey palette 09.

Because they eat up a lot of processing power, not many other enemies can be used around them without turning invisible or disappearing altogether. The Sprite Memory should always be set to 04 or 0D, because Mario could vanish when one appears.

Since Rex and Banzai Bill share the same graphics set, they are often used together. Some players come to suspect that Banzai Bills are nearby when they see Rexes, so if Banzai Bill's appearance is to come as a complete surprise, don't use Rexes beforehand.