Shy Guy

**Shy Guys** are masked enemies seen in many Mario games, beginning with the American version of *Super Mario Bros. 2*, but not reappearing until *Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island*. There are several different variations of the Shy Guy that are found in an assortment of Mario games. There are various subspecies of Shy Guys as well.

## General information

### History

Shy Guys first appear in Super Mario Bros. 2, where they are minions of the mischievous Wart. However, their first appearance chronologically is in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, where they are members of the Koopa Troop.

Since Super Mario Bros. 2, Shy Guys have been seen working for many other villains, including Smithy, Donkey Kong, Wingo, and Kamek. One Shy Guy (the White Shy Guy) is actually an ally of Yoshi. Also, friendly Shy Guys appear in various spin-offs without any business of taking over the Mushroom Kingdom. It can be assumed that Shy Guys never have had a true allegiance and are simply neutral individuals themselves.

### Physical appearance

All Shy Guys (with the minor exception of some Shy Guys from Mario Strikers Charged) wear robes that can be red, pink, blue, light blue, yellow, orange, green, purple, black, gray, or white. However, in some games such as the Mario Party series, red Shy Guys are the only color variety seen. They are all fairly short and wear masks with holes on them that represent eyes and a mouth. It is unknown what is behind these masks. However, in Shy Guy's trophy celebration movie in Mario Power Tennis, after Shy Guy trips on one of the steps, his mask falls off, and Luigi sees its face without his mask on and is shocked at the sight. The Shy Guy then quickly puts the mask back on and picks the trophy up, showing it to the audience. Sometimes, when Shy Guy's mask falls off, what appears to be a mask strap tends to stay on its head. Also, in Luigi's Mansion, Luigi can use the Poltergust 3000 to pull a mask off a Ghost Guy. Ghost Guys do not have eyes on their masks, but their faces are pure blackness with two glowing yellow eyes where the mask's eyes would be. It is unknown whether this is what a Shy Guy's face looks like when it is alive, as they, like the game's other generic ghosts, were imitations created by Vincent Van Gore. Additionally, in Paper Mario: Color Splash, a Shy Guy in the Golden Coliseum says that Mario would make a terrible Shy Guy because he has a face, suggesting that Shy Guys do not have a face.

It is also possible that the Shy Guys' so-called "masks" are not masks at all, but rather faces. In Yoshi's Island DS, the sleeping Shy Guy's mask eye holes are closed, supporting this. Also, the Bandit sub-species of Shy Guy have been shown to have the ability to change the expressions on their masks as if they were their actual faces. The picture shown when Bandit wins in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island Mini-Battles even suggests that he is able to stick out his tongue. Also, Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars's Shy Guys' eye holes comically spin when the Shy Guy is confused, much like people's eyes do in cartoon gags; the Shy Guys of Super Mario RPG are also able to blush on their masks. Spear Guys and Dancing Spear Guys are perfectly capable of moving their mouth holes when chanting and singing, as Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island shows, while Boo Guys are shown regularly changing their expressions and blinking. Most recently, in Mario Strikers Charged, Shy Guys have been shown to yet again be perfectly able to change the expressions on their masks.

Some early Super Mario Bros. 2 artwork of Shy Guys, as well as The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, depicted Shy Guys as wearing mask-like badges depicting an angry face, similar to that of Phanto. It is unknown what this badge represents, but it is possible that it is an emblem of the 8 bits. Another Shy Guy-related element seen only in Super Mario Bros. 2. and The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! are also notable for using game artwork of the earliest forms of Shy Guys, making them tall, stout, and human-like; however, the appearance of Shy Guys was later redesigned to their in-game sprite appearance in Super Mario Bros. 2.

In the first few episodes of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, Shy Guys were depicted as being similar in appearance to their game counterparts, though with one large exception - their masks possessed only two holes. They only had eye holes perpetually in a scowling position. Later episodes of the show have Shy Guys resembling their game versions more with three holes in their mask, all of which were perfectly circular.

Even though Shy Guys appear to be short, squat humanoids, they are shown to have stick-like legs under their robes in the game Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker. Their legs can also be seen in Mario Kart 8 when winning first place in a race or while performing certain tricks.

Although Shy Guys generally don't wear much else besides their mask and robes, there are a few instances where they wore additional items. An example of this is in Mario Kart Tour, where Shy Guy wears a pastry chef hat and a red neckerchief, carrying a whisk.

Shy Guy as ChefShy Guy Ninja