- Not to be confused with Bob-omb Derby, a minigame in the Mario Baseball series.
- "With Bomb Derby, you gotta throw the next bomb at the right tempo, just before Mario hits the last one."
- —Snoutlet explains a protip with the Bomb Derby in Mario & Luigi: Brothership.
Bomb Derby is a recurring move in the Mario & Luigi series. Mario uses it as one of his Special Attacks in all appearances.
Description
The Bomb Derby's bombs are pink bombs with yellow stars. Their fuses are also lit, but since they explode immediately upon striking enemies, they could also be impact-fused. The last bomb is bigger than the first eleven. In Mario & Luigi: Brothership, only eleven bombs are used, with the twelfth bomb being replaced by a red and blue orb containing a missile launcher.
In the Mario & Luigi series
Mario & Luigi: Dream Team
Bomb Derby is Mario's third Bros. Attack. It can be learned after collecting all of the Attack Pieces of Driftwood Shore. It costs 9 Bros. Points (BP). Luigi starts holding som e Bombs in his hands, and can throw them at Mario if the player flicks the circle pad (
) to the right. Then Mario whacks them with his hammer by pressing 
. Mario finishes the attack by hitting the final bomb, which is larger than the others, but the damage is still the same. If the action takes too long, the remaining bombs in Luigi's hand will all explode. Hitting 5, 7, 9 and 12 bombs will result in a "OK!", "Good!", "Great!" and "Excellent!" rating respectively.
The attack tends toward one target, but there is a random chance for the bombs to jump "off-target" and hit a different enemy.
The Mad Skillathon has a minigame that has this Bros. Attack. The controls are identical to the main game, but the bombs now target their foes randomly, the stack contains an infinite number, and some bombs may take a different time than expected (Those that take longer to reach Mario are brown with a U-turn arrow or yellow with a clock printed on their design with the former flying at a steeper arc and the latter freezing in mid-air, while those that reach Mario more quickly are blue with a wing printed on their design.), while others might vanish (telegraphed by a purple coloration and a Boo printed on their design). The regular bombs are worth two points when struck, with these "special" bombs giving five upon striking them.
Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam
Bomb Derby is once again used by Mario. It works exactly the same as the attack in Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, but the bombs now deal fire damage to their victims and the last one deals more damage. Its Special Point cost has been reduced to 7. Mario and Luigi find it in the east side of Gloomy Woods.
Mario & Luigi: Brothership
This attack makes a return in this game, with the last bomb being replaced by a sphere-shaped missile launcher that launches missiles at the enemies when Mario strikes it. The missile launcher targets all enemies. The Special Point cost is also raised to 10. Mario is given the attack after linking Heatfreeze Island.
The criteria remains the same for getting Great! or Excellent!, but the Okay! and Good! criterias have become more lenient, at 3 and 6. The enemies also turn towards the south as the Bros. send bombs from that direction.
Trivia
- The bomb design is similar to the one Lemmy Koopa uses in his New Super Mario Bros. U fight. Additionally, the bombs that Kirby throws with the Bomb ability in his later games (specifically Kirby's Return to Dream Land and onward) have a similar design, albeit dark blue with cyan stars.
- This attack is one of three Special Attacks to not use the B Button in Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, the other two being the Luiginary Ball and Luiginary Wall. It's also the only one of these three to be a Bros. Attack.
- As such, these are three of seven Special Attacks in the franchise as a whole to not use the B button. The other four Special Attacks outside of Mario & Luigi: Dream Team (three of which are Bros. Attacks with the last one being a Trio Attack) that use A and not B are the Jump Helmet from Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, the Cannonball Chuck from Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam, the Toad Trail from Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam, and the Trio Whirligig from Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam.
