Dragon Coin
| Dragon Coin | |
|---|---|
 Artwork from Super Mario World | |
| First appearance | Super Mario World (1990) |
| Latest appearance | The Super Mario Bros. Movie (cameo) (2023) |
- “The big coins are Dragon Coins. If you pick up five of these in an area, you get a 1 UP.”
- —Message Block in Yoshi's Island 3, Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2
A Dragon Coin is a large coin that first appears in Super Mario World. It has a picture of a Yoshi's head and torso imprinted on it.
History[edit]
Super Mario World / Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2[edit]
In Super Mario World, at least five Dragon Coins appear in most levels, although places such as castles, Ghost Houses, and fortresses have no Dragon Coins. Collecting a Dragon Coins plays a unique sound effect, and it is also counted as one coin. The first four coins collected give 1,000, 2,000, 4,000, and 8,000 points, respectively, and collecting all five in a level awards the player an extra life. Yoshi's Wings can be used to access certain auto-scrolling Coin Heavens, where five Dragon Coins can be found. Six or more Dragon Coins may rarely appear in a level, with every Dragon Coin after the fifth also rewarding an extra life. In these levels, going through a Warp Pipe to a new area causes all remaining Dragon Coins to disappear if Mario or Luigi has already collected at least five of them, making the remaining ones unobtainable. Chocolate Secret is unique for having only one Dragon Coin.
For the Game Boy Advance version, Dragon Coins were given a slightly bigger role. They now appear in levels that did not originally have them, and the number of Dragon Coins acquired is recorded on a menu. If the player collects them all, a cutscene plays, showing all of the collected Dragon Coins falling from the sky and being stacked together; afterwards, a giant Dragon Coin appears, and Yoshi eats it and lays an egg, which hatches into a giant coin with Princess Peach's face, resulting in all of the Dragon Coins in the game having Peach's face imprinted on them instead of Yoshi's. Chocolate Secret now has the standard set of five Dragon Coins. In the Nintendo Power Advance guide for Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2, the symbol for the Dragon Coins denoting where they are located in a level is drawn with a three-tined fork instead of Yoshi's or Peach's likeness.[1]
The Dragon Coin's collection sound effect was reused for the Advance Coins in Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3, the Star Coins in the New Super Mario Bros. games, and the color coins in Super Mario Run. In New Super Mario Bros., the sound effect is internally labeled "SE_OBJ_GET_DRAGON_COIN."[2]
Game & Watch Gallery 4[edit]
In Game & Watch Gallery 4, a Dragon Coin is used to represent five KOs in the Modern version of Boxing.
WarioWare: Get It Together![edit]
In WarioWare: Get It Together!, Dragon Coins appear in the microgame Super Mario World. Collecting them is not necessary to complete the microgame and has no real effect on gameplay, although the "Dragon Coin Collection" mission requires the player to collect at least four Dragon Coins in all three levels while playing as Jimmy T.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie[edit]
In The Super Mario Bros. Movie, a display box containing a Dragon Coin with the same appearance as its Super Mario World sprite can be seen in the antiques shop.
Unused appearances[edit]
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island[edit]
Dragon Coins were originally going to appear in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, where they were going to be a currency along with regular coins for some of the Bonus Challenges.[3] They were possibly replaced by flowers. The sprite for them is not present in the Game Boy Advance port at all.
Profiles[edit]
Super Mario World[edit]
- Wii U Virtual Console manual description: Collect five Dragon Coins in a course to earn an extra life.
Super Mario World: Super Mario Land 2[edit]
- European instruction manual description: Collect 5 or more on a single course to receive an extra life. (Dragon Coins may also be included in the normal coin count total.)
Gallery[edit]
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (unused)
Front of a Wendy's Kids' Meal bag from 2002
A Dragon Coin with Princess Peach's face, seen when all regular Dragon Coins are collected, in Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2
Cover of Super Mario Wisdom Games Picture Book 1: Search for the Dragon Coin
Super Mario Wisdom Games Picture Book 1: Search for the Dragon Coin
Super Mario Wisdom Games Picture Book 1: Search for the Dragon Coin
Super Mario Story Quiz Picture Book 5: Mario's Amusement Park
See also[edit]
Names in other languages[edit]
| Language | Name | Meaning | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Japanese | ドラゴンコイン[?] Doragon Koin |
Dragon Coin | |
| Chinese (simplified) | 龙币 (Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2)[?] Lóng Bì |
Dragon Coin | |
| 龙金币 (WarioWare: Get It Together!)[?] Lóng Jīnbì |
|||
| Chinese (traditional) | 龍金幣[?] Lóng Jīnbì |
Dragon Coin | |
| French | Pièce Dragon[?] | Dragon Coin | |
| German | Drachenmünze[4] | Dragon Coin | |
| Italian | Moneta del Drago[5][6] | Coin of the Dragon | Super Mario World |
| Moneta drago[7][8] | Dragon coin | Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2, Super Mario World on Virtual Console | |
| Moneta Drago[?] | Dragon Coin | WarioWare: Get It Together! | |
| Portuguese (NOA) | Moeda Dragão[?] | Dragon Coin | |
| Spanish | Moneda Dragón[?] | Dragon Coin |
Trivia[edit]
- Yoshi's Safari and every game of the Yoshi's Island series feature coins with a Yoshi's head on them rather than the normal coin design. The coins on the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe version of the course Yoshi's Island also features this design, as the course is heavily inspired by Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island. The coins in Yoshi's Crafted World feature a depiction of a Yoshi's Egg instead; however, the larger 10 Coins depict Yoshi's head, similar to Dragon Coins.
- The Plessie Medals found in the Bowser's Fury campaign of Super Mario 3D World Bowser's Fury bear similarities to Dragon Coins.
References[edit]
- ^ Winter 2002. Nintendo Power Advance Volume 4. Nintendo of America (American English). Page 18.
- ^ TCRF. New Super Mario Bros.#Sound Effects. The Cutting Room Floor. Retrieved February 18, 2019.
- ^ Proto:Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island/ys romX 0/Bonus Challenges. The Cutting Room Floor. Retrieved October 30, 2021.
- ^ Menold, Marcus, Claude M. Moyse, and Andreas G. Kämmerer, editors (1993). Der offizielle Nintendo Spieleberater "Super Mario World". Großostheim: Nintendo of Europe GmbH (German). Page 17.
- ^ Super Mario World instruction booklet. Nintendo (Italian). Page 7.
- ^ Super Mario Bros. Enciclopedia. Page 61.
- ^ 2002. Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2 European instruction booklet. Nintendo of Europe (Italian). Page 107-108.
- ^ Super Mario World (Virtual Console). Page 7.
