Originally posted by: Gaffer Tape
Well, honestly, I think that the whole "evil mushroom" thing was just something the English localization team came up with for their instruction manual to SMB. Notice how they're rarely referred to as that in any recent game. And take the Goombas' real name: Kuribo, which is a pun on the Japanese word for "chestnut" (similar to Kuririn or Kuriza from Dragon Ball), and you might start to realize where these people were going with this.
Well, honestly, I think that the whole "evil mushroom" thing was just something the English localization team came up with for their instruction manual to SMB. Notice how they're rarely referred to as that in any recent game. And take the Goombas' real name: Kuribo, which is a pun on the Japanese word for "chestnut" (similar to Kuririn or Kuriza from Dragon Ball), and you might start to realize where these people were going with this.
I must admit, they do look very much like chestnuts in Super Mario World, however they are very mushroom like in any previous and following Mario game. In Mario RPG and Mario 64 they are very mushroom like. I am personally very fond of the mushroom shaped goombas. I could care less about the "evil mushroom" story, it is just that they have always explicitly resembled mushrooms and they were by far always the coolest Bowser's minions. I find consistency an admirable trait in evil minions.