Nintendo's Mario and Kirby are both platformers that excel in fun vibes. But which of the two heroes is more powerful?
Mario and Kirby are two of Nintendo’s biggest and best platformers. Mario had the successful Super Mario Odyssey a few years ago and an upcoming film. That game introduced “capturing” enemies, which led to a lot of comparisons to Kirby. Kirby and the Forgotten Land, the puffball’s newest game, generated comparisons to Odyssey with its “Mouthful Mode.”
There’s a lot to compare these two on. This is even true when it comes to strength and physical power. Both of them are unassuming and cartoonish, but contain immeasurable power. Is Mario the strongest plumber? Or is Kirby too tough of a pink puff to handle?
Throughout the entirety of Kirby lore, Kirby’s fought some pretty powerful and despicable villains. In Kirby and the Forgotten Land, the final boss is strong enough to pull planets. There’s plenty of unexplained horrors like Nightmare and Dark Matter. These fights usually involve magical artifacts or special abilities, but lately Kirby has been fighting them with his own strength.
In Kirby Star Allies, Kirby fought Void Termina. This massive monster could control beings across the universe and shatter planets. Kirby not only defeated it, but was heavily implied to be of the same source as it. If one scales Kirby to his opponents, Kirby belongs alongside gods.
One of Kirby’ most trusty tools is his Warp Star. Also known as Warpstar or Shooting Star, this is a cartoon five-point star that Kirby rides to get around. It was the focal point of the racing spin-off Kirby Air Ride. It also apparently moves at the speed of light.
In the opening cutscene of Super Smash Bros.’s World of Light mode, we see Kirby avoid several lasers fired by the god-like Galeem. These lasers are presumably moving at light speed, giving the Warp Star quite a top speed. Also, Kirby is never far from his vehicle. He can call it to his side whenever he wants with his Cell Phone.
One of the best games on the SNES, Kirby Super Star, featured a variety of fun sub-games. There were several campaigns to play through, but also two mini-games. One of them was Megaton Punch, a timing based game about breaking through blocks. Coincidentally, the characters from Mario can be spotted in the audience.
If the player nails the timing, Kirby’s punch will break through more than the blocks. The punch will result in Popstar gaining a hairline fracture visible from space. The planet is about Earth-size, so it’s a pretty substantial crack. In another minigame, Star Slam Heroes, Kirby hits a baseball so hard it travels 9999 light-years in a few seconds, so he has some striking power.
Kirby’s copy abilities are every bit as powerful and more than Mario's power-ups. And unlike Mario, Kirby’s power sources are far more common. He can inhale enemies, environments, projectiles, and much more to access new abilities. Projectile-using foes become their own undoing when Kirby’s on the prowl.
Kirby also has a numbers advantage with a greater amount of abilities. Mario only has around forty power ups, while Kirby approaches one hundred copy abilities. These abilities also often have more than one utility in comparison to Mario’s power ups. Every ability comes with a full move list full of possibilities.
Kirby’s durability is hard to understate. He’s resisted mind control from powerful corruption influences. He’s been crushed and fired into space. He’s even been divided into ten smaller, weaker Kirbies which were then destroyed except for one.
Perhaps chief among Kirby’s feats of greatness involve black holes and dimensions. It’s been a staple of Kirby games for enemies to create black holes as attacks. As recently as Forgotten Land Kirby has not only stood inside them but also outran their gravitational pull. Kirby has also stood in dimensions that are disintegrating, like in Kirby Return To Dreamland.
Mario:
Super Mario Galaxy isn’t just one of the best games for the Wii. It’s also a game that shows some of Mario’s true potential. Mario gets to interact with tons of celestial objects in this game. As such, his power level gets up to cosmic proportions.
His flight through space using Launch Stars is a memorable highlight. Mario has a lot of ways to control his flight besides these, however. He has P-Wings, Red Stars, and Wing Caps to soar through the air. Also Mario doesn’t seem to need to breathe in space at least some of the time.
Mario often fights with Bowser, who’s no slouch when it comes to physical strength. But when it comes to his own, he’s plenty tough. He’s got plenty of power ups that make him bigger or denser. Metal Mario can survive at the ocean floor with no sweat.
Super Mario World has a running gag where Mario destroys every castle after he accomplishes it. These are done in small silly cutscenes after each boss battle. For Larry’s Castle, Mario picks it up and kicks it over the horizon. He also demolishes Morton’s castle with flying kicks in a similar way.
Strength is all about what one can lift, however. It’s about the versatility and variety that someone brings to the table. Mario’s Power-Ups give him tons more options, like the aforementioned flight. He can also throw projectiles such as Fire, Ice, Hammer, Boomerang, Gold, and Superball Mario.
Power-ups like Cat Mario allow him to climb walls. The Golden Cat transformation turns him giant, as does the Mega Mushroom. He’s got power-ups that stop time and transmute enemies into coins. There’s even power-ups that make Mario impervious to harm (for a short time).
In Mario Odyssey Mario obtained his own adaptive ability. After falling into the Cap Kingdom, his hat was possessed by the friendly Bonneter Cappy. Cappy allows Mario to throw his hat to control both living and nonliving creatures. At the beginning of the game when Mario possesses a frog, we can even see Mario gain access to all the frog’s knowledge and memories.
Mario could use this to end fights quickly, either by possession or by learning enemy weaknesses. Cappy also doesn’t need to be thrown by Mario to possess someone. It does seem to have a problem capturing people who wear hats, but otherwise its very strong. From a T-Rex to a traffic pole, Super Mario’s captures are nothing to sneeze at.
Mario’s most impressive feat brings it back to Super Mario Galaxy. There’s a lot of debate about this particular moment in the franchise and how it should be interpreted. The only thing everyone agrees on is that it’s a massive tone-shift. In the game’s eleventh hour, Bowser’s Black Hole Generator at the center of the universe expands and sucks the rest of the universe into a dot.
Then Mario appears in an odd interspace with a giant Rosalina standing in front of new stars about to be born. After a brief monologue about cycles, the universe expands outward and Mario, Peach, Bowser, and all their friends appear fine. It’s unclear whether or not the new universe was made to house characters from the former one, or if even the characters are recreated. If it is the former, it’s certainly a cosmic level feat that would make Mario the most powerful.
