Mario franchise strategy guide/Bosses/King Boo

King Boo (キングテレサ) is an enemy in the Mario series of games, appearing as the boss of Luigi's Mansion and is a minor character in many Mario games. He is member of the ghost-like Boo species and looks like a larger version of the generic Boo (though not as big as Boolossus or Big Boo) with a crown on his head and a slight blueish complexion. King Boo also has a distinctive cackle that is lower in pitch than that of smaller Boos. King Boo is more of a nemesis to Luigi than to Mario.

Abilities
King Boo has shown a large array of powerful magic from the few games he's starred in, proving he is more powerful than an average Boo. These include:

Mario Party
 * The ability to steal Coins from others telepathically.

Luigi's Mansion
 * Necromancy
 * The ability to create purple fire.
 * The ability to create powerful winds (aka. Big Boo Breath).
 * The ability to become invisible (similar to other Boos).
 * The ability to go through walls (similar to other Boos).
 * Teleportation.
 * The power to create creepy and incredibly detailed mansions out of thin air.
 * It seems he can also communicate with other Boos via telepathy.

Super Mario Sunshine
 * Summon Monsters, as he summons random enemies with a slot machine.
 * Spit out regular Boos and also call them back.
 * Blow bubbles.
 * Summon coins or fruit using a slot machine.

Super Mario 64 DS
 * The ability to breathe blue fire.
 * Can manipulate mirrors, e.g. turn Mario's reflection into Luigi, go into thus mirror and attack Luigi.

Super Princess Peach
 * Can disappear and reappear any time.
 * Can shoot blue fireballs at Peach.
 * Can cry and put out the fires Peach is trying to make to destroy it

Luigi's Mansion
In Luigi's Mansion, King Boo is the leader of the evil spirits inhabiting the titular mansion and appears as the final boss, whom Luigi must defeat in order to free Mario. When Luigi reaches the mansion's secret altar, where Mario is being imprisoned in a painting, King Boo sucks Luigi into the painting of Mario, which holds a strange dimension, similar in appearance to the roof. King Boo then attacks using either Bowser's body, or a Bowser-esque robotic/magical suit, (which it is has been widely disputed among fans). Luigi must use the Poltergust 3000 ghost-catching vacuum cleaner to suck up spiked mines that the fake Bowser throws and then fire them back at it, knocking off his head and exposing King Boo to attack. King Boo has five-hundred heart points, but the health comes out of him much faster than the normal Boos.

Only in Luigi's Mansion does King Boo appear with a huge ruby for a crown, glowing pink eyes and a blue tongue. He is also roughly the same size as an average Boo. After Luigi defeats him, his crown falls off, and Luigi pries the ruby out. In later appearances, King Boo appears more like a regular Boo, with a red tongue and black eyes. However he is about 4 times the size of a normal Boo and sports a simple gold jeweled crown more like Princess Peach's. It is often thought that the Luigi's Mansion and Super Mario Sunshine versions of King Boo are different characters (implying that the name is merely a title) but this has been proven false since alot of Mario characters have changed throughout the years.

Super Mario Sunshine
King Boo is a boss of Episode 5 in the Sirena Beach level in Super Mario Sunshine. He lives below the casino of the Sirena Hotel, which, like Luigi's mansion, is plagued by poltergeists. Mario fights King Boo in a sunken room with a spinning roulette wheel as a floor and a large slot machine in its center. During the battle, Mario has to spray King Boo's lolling tongue with water to activate the slot machine, which will either send out monsters, coins, or various fruits when Boo licks it after being sprayed. If the slot machine drops a red pepper, Mario must toss it in King Boo's mouth to set it on fire, then pelt him with more fruit. In this version, King Boo appears almost intoxicated, with blue eyes (or possibly a pair of shades) and a much larger, drooling mouth with a gigantic tongue, and laughs constantly, even when he is hit.

King Boo's appearance in a casino keeps in with an association with gambling. In Luigi's Mansion, each wing of the haunted house is modelled around playing card suits.

Super Mario 64 DS
King Boo keeps his antagonistic association with Luigi in Super Mario 64 DS. In order to unlock Luigi as a playable character, the player has to enter the area called "Big Boo's Haunt" and stomp the villain by following his movements in the mirrors that line his room.

In this remake of the original Super Mario 64, King Boo appears in stages previously inhabited by Big Boo, a different, crown-less character that appeared as the boss of the Boos in Super Mario World and Super Mario 64. The character is still called "Big Boo" in-game text, but it has King Boo's trademark crown and cackle. Later appearances would feature what is clearly the same character, but under the name "King Boo." This association has led some fans to wonder if the Big Boo and King Boo are the same character or if perhaps the Big Boo is a sort of prototype for King Boo. If so, this would mean that King Boo's first appearance was in either Super Mario World or Super Mario 64, even though both games use the older name. It's also possible that "King Big Boo" is his true name, though this is unconfirmed as of yet.

Other games

 * In Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, King Boo is an unlockable heavyweight character (which is strange, because he is a floating ghost and therefore should be weightless, but his size may make up for it). His default partner is Petey Piranha. Unlike all other Double Dash!! characters, King Boo and Petey can pick up any special item from item boxes. The pair has no special item of their own. King Boo drives the Boo Pipes; although a heavy kart, it has the quick acceleration and low top speed of a light vehicle. A lack of hind limbs does not apparently prevent King Boo from reaching the accelerator pedal.
 * King Boo also appears alongside many other minor Mario characters as a teammate in Mario Superstar Baseball. He is mainly a power hitter. His bat is a staff with a crown on it.
 * The current King Boo reappears alongside other Super Mario 64 DS bosses, as a Mission Mode boss in Mario Kart DS, where Peach must face him.
 * He is the boss of World 3 of Super Princess Peach. In this game, he seems to be harmed by light, though this fact about him has never been mentioned before and is contradicted by his appearances in several other games.
 * He will have his own board in Mario Party 8.