Birdo

Birdo is a Super Mario character and a Nintendo character that is chosen to be a playable character in the Super Smash Bros. Bowl (series). She was lost to Jacquelynn Escalante, where she uses eggs to put in her mouth and a contestant on Wipeout Canada from Ottawa. Birdo, known in Japan as Kyasarin, is a fictional character in the Mario series of video games, who first appeared in Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic, which was localized for English audiences as Super Mario Bros. 2 and is an enemy to Mario. Since her appearance, Birdo has been a recurring character in the series, more frequently in the Mario sports games as a playable character, as well as Mario Party titles. Birdo has also made several cameos, particularly in the Super Smash Bros. series and the Wii video game Captain Rainbow.

Birdo's gender in the original manual for Super Mario Bros. 2 asserts that Birdo is a boy who believes that he is a girl, and would rather be referred to as "Birdetta". Later releases of Super Mario Bros. 2 lacked any mention of her gender in either the game or the manual. Nintendo eventually established Birdo as female, first in Mario Tennis which depicted Birdo and Yoshi as boyfriend and girlfriend. However, several games portray her as male, such as Captain Rainbow, or refer to the gender confusion without assigning one, such as in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. It has been suggested that Birdo is a post-op transsexual by transsexual video game developer Jennifer Reitz, while Over the Top editor Chris Kohler felt that it was a way of retconning her transgender status.

Birdo has received mostly positive reception for her role in the Mario series; IGN editor Lucas M. Thomas suggested that Birdo was almost as well-known as Yoshi, a frequent partner of hers, in the sports games, while author Sherry Tuckle used Birdo as a demonstration of how Birdo's battle in Super Mario Bros. 2 presents a complex appearance yet sustains an assuring, rule-based world. However, some negative press exists, such as MTV Multiplayer editor Jason Cipriano, who criticized Birdo for being so popular over other Super Mario Bros. 2 characters. Birdo has made several appearances in other media, including the Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, as well as promotional material such as figurines.

When N. Sapera, A. Ford and E. Cundal run the course, Birdo says "Get back here, I don't want Pembroke, ON". She begins to Walk Away.

In "Wipeout Canada", Birdo was mentioning Allen Ford from Pembroke in Ottawa but how can there will be a handsome arm wrestler like Kelsi Nielsen? She drives to Pembroke, Ontario and the song High School Musical from High School Musical 3 is heard during the drive to the house where Kelsi Nielsen lives and goes back to Ottawa where Tom Green lived longer than Kelsi Nielsen.

Birdo is a Mario character and a Nintendo character in the Wipeout Canada series. She appeared with Kelsi Nielsen, and Olesya Rulin in the episode Chocolate Thunder. Her partner is Yoshi in most episodes expect Wipeout Workout.

Main Article: Ontario contestants

Concept and creation
Birdo is a pink, anthropomorphic creature who wears a red bow on her head until Canadian arm wrestling, and has a round mouth that can fire eggs as projectiles. Birdo also wears a large diamond ring on her finger. Birdo was originally featured in the Family Computer Disk System video game Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic before it was converted to the Nintendo Entertainment System game Super Mario Bros. 2 for North American audiences. In early art of Birdo, the character had an orange tone. Birdo's name was mistakenly switched with another Super Mario Bros. 2 enemy, Ostro, both in the manual and in the end credits. The mistake persisted in the version of Super Mario Bros. 2 included in the Super Mario All-Stars compilation, but was corrected in the Game Boy Advance re-release titled Super Mario Advance.

Since the character's North American introduction, Birdo's gender has been an issue of discussion and speculation. The Japanese manual states the character's name is "Catherine", but it would rather be known as "Cassie." However, in the first edition manual for the North American release of Super Mario Bros. 2, Birdo is referred to as a male who believes he is female and would rather be called "Birdetta". In later printings, the second sentence was omitted, and no mention of Birdo being male was included in most later games featuring the character. In the Japanese version of Super Smash Bros. Melee, Birdo, called Catherine, is described similarly to the original manual, though wanting to be called "Cathy". In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, it is said that Birdo is of "indeterminate gender". Birdo appears in the Wii Japan only video game Captain Rainbow, which delves into Birdo's gender. Birdo is often lauded as the first transgender video game character. The character was given a female voice actor in Super Mario Advance, a remake of Super Mario Bros. 2. The Spanish language website for Mario Smash Football, while describing Birdo, suggests that the character's gender is indeterminate. The European website for Mario Strikers Charged Football refers to her as a male character.

Since Birdo, Pearl Krabs and Allen Ford are friends, they both live in Pembroke, Ontario. She has a relationship with Katara.

Voice
Birdo's voice has changed a lot over the years. In Mario Tennis and Super Mario Advance (a remake of Super Mario Bros. 2), the character was given a high pitched female voice provided by Jen Taylor. However, in Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour, Birdo uses a muttering noise which has been used in subsequent games.

Relationships
Her relationship was Allen Ford in Canada's arm wrestling, Yoshi in some Mario games and some Wipeout Canada episodes, and Pearl Krabs in two episodes of Wipeout Canada.

Birdo is mostly of an Eastern Ontarian.

Appearances


Birdo first appeared in the Family Computer Disk System video game Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic and its Western Nintendo Entertainment System conversion Super Mario Bros. 2 as a boss. The Super Mario Advance remake of Super Mario Bros. 2 features a large robotic version of Birdo called "Robirdo". Since the character's appearance in Super Mario Bros. 2, Birdo has made several cameo appearances, including an early one teaching players the rules of the video game Wario's Woods. But to date, she hasn't entered any other Mario mainstream game.

Birdo has made frequent appearances in later Mario spinoff games, including Mario Tennis and Mario Golf, first appearing in the Mario sports games with the Nintendo 64 Mario Tennis. Though, Birdo was to be included in the Virtual Boy video game Mario's Tennis. Birdo also made her first appearance in the Mario Kart series in Mario Kart: Double Dash!!. In both of the above-mentioned titles, Yoshi acts as her partner. Birdo is an unlockable character in Mario Kart Wii. Birdo also has made appearances in the Mario Party series, first appearing in Mario Party 7. Birdo also makes appearances in multiple Mario role-playing games, including Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars as a minor boss in Valentina's castle and Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga as a decoy for Princess Peach. Recently, Birdo appeared in the Wii video game Captain Rainbow, which makes reference to the gender confusion. Birdo appeared in both Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. Brawl in the form of collectible items (known as trophies). Birdo has also appeared in both Mario Superstar Baseball for Nintendo Gamecube, Mario Super Sluggers, and Mario Strikers Charged for Nintendo Wii.

In other media
Birdo was featured in the episode "The Bird! The Bird!" of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! kidnapping Toad due to being nearsighted, and believing Toad to be her son. Birdo was featured in the episode "Krusty Towers" of SpongeBob SquarePants.

Cultural impact
Since appearing in Super Mario Bros. 2, Birdo has received mostly positive reception. Birdo has appeared several times in promotional items, including figurines, plush toys, and other collectibles such as a chess set. 1UP.com editor Jeremy Parish described her as a favourite among fans. IGN editor Lucas M. Thomas called her the "transgender question mark," stating that Birdo was nearly as recognized as Yoshi in the Mario sports and racing games. GamePro editor "The Watcher" praised the roster of Mario Superstar Baseball, commenting that while "well-known" characters like Princess Peach and Yoshi make appearances, so do "lesser-known" characters such as Birdo and Dry Bones. Fellow GamePro editor "The D-Pad Destroyer" called Birdo "everyone's favorite."

In the book Life on the screen: identity in the age of the Internet, author Sherry Tuckle uses the pattern Birdo uses in boss battles as an example of something that, while complex, sustains the sense of a reassuring, rule-based world. In Prima's Official Strategy Guide for Super Mario Advance, author Bryan Stratton describes Birdo as the hardest-working boss in video games due to her appearing more than a dozen times as a boss in Super Mario Bros. 2. N-Sider editor Anthony JC commented that Birdo was a "pushover" compared to the other bosses in Super Mario Bros. 2. GameDaily editor Chris Buffa listed her as one of the most unappreciated Nintendo characters, commenting that Bordo had appeared across web sites "in less-than-flattering articles." Official Nintendo Magazine listed her as one of the "unsung heroes" amongst the Mario series, stating that while "Birdo does get more exposure than the other characters in this section (he's showed up in a few Mario spin-offs), but she/he's still not as popular as we'd like." In a poll by Official Nintendo Magazine on its users, Birdo tied for eighth best female character on a Nintendo platform along with Midna and Kazooie. In their article about it, they express confusion at her being voted in. UGO Networks listed Birdo as the 20th "unsexiest sexy video game characters", questioning whether or not the various sexual features, such as her "O face", were supposed to be arousing. Birdo was ranked the ninth ugliest female video game character by ScrewAttack, who described her as resembling a "retarded anteater". Games.net placed Birdo at #8 of their "Top Ten Disturbingly Sexual Game Characters" list. GameDaily listed Birdo as one of the 10 worst Mario characters, stating that "if Birdo wants to dress like a chick, all power to him. Eggs from the mouth, however... that's nasty."

Birdo also appeared in one of the McDonald's Happy Meal promotion of Mario toys which starred Mario, Donkey Kong, Yoshi and others. Wired editor Chris Kohler described her as well as other characters from Captain Rainbow as "forgettable." IGN editor John Tanaka found Birdo to be one of the more enjoyable guest characters in Captain Rainbow, associating his enjoyment with developer Skip's plot, which involves crossdressing and toilet humour. In an article on MTV multiplayer discussing the best birds in video games, Birdo tied for second place with the chickens from Chicken Run. Tofuburger of the web site I Can Haz Cheezburger listed her as his favourite bird, calling Birdo the first transgender video game character and humorously praising her for her fearlessness about doing whatever she wants. MTV Multiplayer editor Jason Cipriano questioned why Birdo and fellow Super Mario Bros. 2 enemy Shy Guy have been included in so many spin-off titles in the Mario series, commenting that they both "kinda suck", but enemies such as Wart and Mouser were not.

"Birdo", the first track of Horse the Band's album The Mechanical Hand, heavily references the character.

Gender
Birdo has been the subject of discussion relating to her gender issues. Gamasutra editor Simon Carless described Birdo as "infamously gender-confused." Birdo was praised by transsexual video game designer Jennifer Reitz. It is speculated by Wired editor Chris Kohler that the gender issue was retconned to make her female, while Reitz suggests that she received a sex change operation. In the book Vintage Games: An Insider Look at the History of Grand Theft Auto, Super Mario, and the Most Influential Games of All Time, the authors describe Birdo as the most notable character in Super Mario Bros. 2 due to being the first transsexual character in video games. GamesRadar editor Chris Antista has discussed Birdo in several articles. He listed Birdo #1. in his top seven "That's a Dude?!" game characters. He cited her bow, mascara, her being pink, and her being able to lay eggs as the identifying features of Birdo being female, while using the manual insert as the sole evidence to her being male. In the article "10 things you didn't know about Super Mario Bros 2," Antista listed Birdo's gender confusion, stating that the revelation was similar to when "lead singer of Judas Priest came out to a legion homophobic metalheads dressed to the nines in skin tight leather left wondering if their dicks will fall off." He also picked her as his first gaming crush, commenting that he worried that he would be outed once he read about her gender confusion in the manual.

In his article "Too Gay for the U.S.A.," editor Andrew Webster used the history of Birdo in the lead-in to his article, commenting on how Nintendo tried to hide Birdo's gender confusion, and how "He's just one of a long line of Japanese videogame characters forced to hide their true sexual identity". GamesRadar UK listed Birdo as one of "gaming's most repelling anti-babes," describing her as a "pink, egg blowing, transvestite dinosaur with a mouth like a burst fire hose," thereby describing her as "terrifying." Morgan Webb of X-Play created a video titled "Birdo WTF", commenting that everyone initially thought of Birdo as a "cute little dinosaur". She also describes her as a very feminine male character if she really is a transsexual. Nintendo Power listed Birdo as one of three weirdos, citing her change from being male to being a love interest for Yoshi. They described her gender as one of life's biggest questions, commenting on how she shoots eggs out of her mouth as another oddity. IGN editor Lucas M. Thomas commented in his article about Yoshi that Birdo "almost worthy of a whole other article," stating that she is "the most gender-confused character in the history of Nintendo." He commented on the relationship Yoshi and Birdo formed in Mario Tennis, stating that "Yoshi is supposedly a male, but lays eggs like a female. Birdo is supposedly a female, but was originally called a male. And now the two of them are a romantic couple? They were both sexually chaotic as individuals -- this new pairing just made your head hurt thinking about it."

Episodes
The males of Episodes 7 and 9 has to be announced. Phone Number: (613-203-1359 (Wipeout Canada episodes but some of them) but it's all about Allen)
 * Match of Beauties vs Geeks (Crystal Grierson and Ron Langton)
 * Athletes Edition (Halley Van Muyen and Nicky Sapera), but wrong home
 * East vs West (Caroline Dalpe)
 * Chocolate Thunder (Pearl Krabs, Abigail Santos, Kelsi Nielsen, Jason Cross)
 * Heroes Edition (Evan Cundal)
 * Food Fight (Lindsay Goldman and Dave Shugar)
 * Tight and Bright (same contestant as Chocolate Thunder, Pearl Krabs)
 * The Wipey Awards (Nicky Sapera)

Phone Number (Chocolate Thunder) : (613-281-2468) in Bet on It Birdo does not have a ring.

Songs of Contestants

 * Bet on It (Reprise) - Chocolate Thunder
 * All for One - Chocolate Thunder and Beauties vs Geeks
 * Elementary School Musical

Quotes

 * "Play a film"!
 * "Get back here, I don't want Pembroke, Ontario".
 * "Have you ever see DamianAlexDeromas?"

Yoshi
In All-Star Brawl (Beauties) when Abigail Santos was shown with Kelsi, not Kelsi's sidekick, Birdo said "Wipeout Canada is much more boring".

There was a gigantic boss named Bowser behind both.

Troy Bolton
When Sharpay edits Wikipedia on the Olesya Rulin as Kelsi Nielsen's place page in Wipeout Canada, it is vandalism.

Kelsi Nielsen
In "Chocolate Thunder", Allen Ford was with Birdo in a relationship and then it changed to Kelsi Nielsen in arm wrestling.

In "Wheel of Fortune" Birdo's place was in the Capitals Week.

Brandolynn Bentley
Birdo on the course said it is much more boring for Brandolynn Bentley than Baby Daisy.

Allen Ford
When the course say "Next is national arm wrestling champ Allen Ford but Kelsi said Kelsi 'The Piano Player' Nielsen and then it is not Allen 'The Hit Man' Ford from Pembroke, ON but Petawawa, ON", Birdo said he is currently not from Pembroke but from Petawawa and Kelsi said on her cell phone currently from Pembroke.

When Birdo, Kelsi and Abigail sing You are the Music in Me (Chocolate Thunder), others come later than usual. In "Chocolate Thunder", Birdo says "but no buts" about Pembroke.

In "The Wipeys", Birdo is in a relationship with him but in prom.

In "Wheel of Fortune", he and Kelsi appear as unlockables.