Illustration de Clawgrip, le crabe géant rouge au ventre orangé rayé de Super Mario Bros. 2, vu de face, pinces levées, sur fond blanc

Clawgrip: the boulder-throwing crab of Super Mario Bros. 2

2357 words | Reading time : 11 minute(s)

BossSuper Mario Bros. 2Wart's general

A giant crab who pelts the heroes with boulders, and whom you beat by throwing them back at him. Clawgrip guards World 5-3 of Super Mario Bros. 2. This profile covers his battle, his pirate voice in Super Mario Advance and his names abroad, then his roles in the cartoon, books, comics and manga, right up to his appearance in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.

In World 5-3 of Super Mario Bros. 2, a gigantic crab awaits the heroes with a stockpile of boulders. To beat him, you have to catch his projectiles and throw them back at him. And this crab has one peculiarity: he did not exist in Yume Kojo: Doki Doki Panic, where another opponent took his place.

His career reaches well beyond 1988: a pirate voice in Super Mario Advance, a bandana in the cartoon, a makeshift toll in a book, a cooking pot in a manga and a big-screen appearance in 2026. From World 5-3 to Wart's Casino, let's follow this crab through his battles, his names and his roles on paper as well as on screen.

Contents

The giant crab of World 5-3 in Super Mario Bros. 2

In Super Mario Bros. 2, released in 1988, Clawgrip guards World 5-3. A member of the crab species known as Sidesteppers, he appears here in giant form and attacks by hurling boulders at the heroes.

Countering him takes a cool head: you have to grab a boulder, then throw it back at the crab. Five hits are enough to defeat him. The game's American instruction booklet singles out two of his traits: he grows suddenly, and he is surprisingly skilled when it comes to throwing rocks.

Clawgrip is one of the 8 bits (called “8 minus” in the 1989 Belgian manual, written in French and Dutch), a club of bad dreams in the service of Wart. Among them, he rubs shoulders with Mouser, Birdo and Fryguy.

Unlike the game's other enemies, he does not come from Yume Kojo: Doki Doki Panic. In that Japanese title, his role as boss went to a third Mouser, cream-white in colour.

Screenshot from Super Mario Bros. 2: Luigi on pink bricks facing Clawgrip, who is leaping above a red walkway on the right, near a pile of boulders, with a boulder in mid-air between them
In World 5-3 of Super Mario Bros. 2, you have to catch Clawgrip's boulders and throw them back at him: five hits are enough. In Doki Doki Panic, this battle went to a third Mouser.

A blue bandana in The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!

The cartoon series The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! gives him three appearances. There he no longer obeys Wart but King Koopa, like Mouser, Fryguy and Tryclyde, and each time he wears a blue bandana on his head.

His first outing comes in “Rolling Down the River”: Clawgrip is at the helm of the Sinister Star, the steamboat of Captain Koopa, one of King Koopa's alter egos. The Mouth of the River takes aim at him with a cannon loaded with a turnip, which knocks him down onto the lower deck.

In “Pirates of Koopa”, he is simply one of the minions waiting for Blackbeard Koopa to return to Pirate's Port. His final scene, in “Mario of the Deep”, takes place in a sunken wreck: there he attacks Mario, Luigi, Princess Toadstool, Toad and their Mermushroom companion.

The five heroes get away by jumping over him, then slipping through a hatch too narrow for his bulk. Along the way, the characters refer to “a” Clawgrip, which suggests there is a whole species of Clawgrips.

🧢 In the cartoon, Clawgrip keeps his blue bandana on his head in every one of his appearances: to top off your own look in Mushroom Kingdom colours, discover our Mario caps.

Clawgrip in The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! cartoon: a red crab wearing a blue bandana, claws raised and with a predatory grin, on an orange bridge in front of a blue wooden railing
Wearing his blue bandana, Clawgrip in “Rolling Down the River”, the first of his three appearances in The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, where the characters talk about “a” Clawgrip as if he were a whole species.

A pirate voice in Super Mario Advance

Super Mario Advance revisits the battle. At first, Clawgrip is just a small crab. Several bubbles, like the ones Wart spits out, then engulf him, and he grows back to his usual size.

He opens the battle in a cartoonish pirate accent: “Yar! You'll make a tasty treat!”, a promise to make a good meal of the heroes. Once defeated, he concedes a “Yar! You got me!” in the same tone. This 2001 voice work is by Charles Martinet, according to an interview the actor gave to the GameSpy website.

The remake also slips in a trick: a boulder thrown so that it bounces off the wall behind him, just as he moves towards the player, can hit him several times. The 2001 European manual echoes the portrait drawn by the original American booklet and adds a crab-like gait: he scuttles back and forth.

Chokkī, Clawglip, Chelo and his other names

In Japan, where Super Mario Bros. 2 is titled Super Mario USA, Clawgrip is called Chokkī. The name comes from “chokichoki”, the onomatopoeia that imitates the sound of snipping scissors.

In BS Super Mario USA, Chokkī remains a mini-boss, fought in much the same way as in the original. The game is written in Japanese, but the crab readily slips English words into his lines, perhaps as a nod to his absence from Doki Doki Panic.

The Perfect Ban Mario Character Daijiten, a character dictionary published by Shogakukan in 1994, places him in the Aqua clan and describes him as a scatterbrain. The book also notes that this giant crab from Mario USA is called Clawgrip in America.

Even in English, his name has wavered: the ending credits of Super Mario Bros. 2 spell it “Clawglip”, a spelling the international releases of Super Mario Advance did not keep. In Italy, where his official name remains Clawgrip, he has also been called Tenaglie in the cartoon's dub, Chelotto in that same remake and Chelo, from “chela”, the pincer; Korea turned him into Gawi Ge, the scissors crab.

A toll crab in the books and comics

Valiant's Super Mario comics agree with the cartoon on this point: Clawgrip is no longer an individual but an entire species, all of whose members seem to serve King Bowser Koopa. In “The Fish That Should've Gotten Away”, several Clawgrips stand among Mario's enemies, and he avoids them while putting up with the teasing of Stanley the Talking Fish.

The Nintendo Adventure Books give him two roles. In Double Trouble, Clawgrip and several of his clones created by GLOM try to attack Mario while he is exploring the Mushroom Kingdom, but the plumber gives them the slip.

In Pipe Down!, beneath Peach's Castle, he guards a tunnel leading to Pipe Land, passing himself off as a “Toll Crab”. If Mario and Luigi hand him a noisemaker or a pair of boots, he lets them through without any fuss.

Handing him a balloon, on the other hand, ends badly: Clawgrip pops it by accident, flies into a rage and gives chase to the brothers, just as he does when they try to force their way past. A few thrown coins distract him, but if the brothers have none or refuse to part with them, he catches up with them and it's Game Over.

🪙 Faced with the toll crab in Pipe Down!, it pays to keep a few coins on you: to always have yours close at hand, discover our Mario coin purses.

A cooking pot and a boomerang in the manga

In the Super Mario USA volume of the Super Mario manga published by Kodansha, Clawgrip and Fryguy form the last line of defence of the 8 bits. In chapter 3, it is the crab who notices that the stolen seed sack has a hole in it: having fallen to the ground, the seeds have grown into vegetables. He then spends his time spying on Mario through a spyglass.

At Wart's Castle, the encounter turns into a farce. Luigi deals with the crab while Toad prepares a pot to boil him in, and Birdo pees on Fryguy, who shrinks and serves as the fire under the pot: Clawgrip does not survive. Yet the bonus chapter that extends the story shows him helping Wart, whose plan is to kidnap and eat Peach and Kinoppe at Casino USA.

In Super Mario-kun, in chapter 4 of volume 8, Clawgrip is the last of the 8 bits generals to be faced before Wart. His rock throws miss, and Mario fashions a small heart into a boomerang that slices off his claws.

The crab then transforms into a huge Andross-like creature with a face made of polygons. Mario aims for its weak spot with a rocket and shatters that face. Later, Wart merges with his defeated general and gains the crab's claws and strength in the process.

A roughed-up guard in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie

In 2026, Clawgrip makes a brief appearance in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, without saying a word. He stands guard at Wart's Casino, alongside Birdo and Mouser.

Peach and Toad come there to pick up Rosalina's trail. Wart refuses to answer them, uses Clawgrip to intimidate the princess and sets Birdo and Mouser on her. Peach fights back and knocks the crab onto his back with a dropkick.

Just before she sends Birdo and Mouser flying, Clawgrip can be seen getting back up in the background, before disappearing from the film. He throws no rocks in it, but a promotional short shows him chasing Mario and Luigi with a large boulder in his claws, a nod to his 1988 battle.

A detail collectors will appreciate: of the members of the 8 bits who fight Peach, Clawgrip is the only one without his own card in the collectible card series devoted to the film.

Computer-generated Clawgrip in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie: a red crab with huge raised claws, big half-closed eyes and a pale belly, against a dark background
Clawgrip in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, where he stands guard at Wart's Casino without saying a word: he is also the only one of the 8 bits facing Peach without his own collectible card.

Clawgrip at a glance

French name Clawgrip
Original name Clawgrip (“Clawglip” in the ending credits, except in the international releases of Super Mario Advance)
Japanese name Chokkī, after the sound of snipping scissors
First appearance Super Mario Bros. 2 (1988), in World 5-3
Species Sidestepper, in giant form
Allegiance Wart's general among the 8 bits; King Koopa's minion in the cartoon
Attack Hurls boulders, which must be thrown back at him five times
Voice Charles Martinet (2001), with a pirate accent in Super Mario Advance
Other appearances BS Super Mario USA, The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, Valiant comics, Nintendo Adventure Books, Kodansha's Super Mario manga, Super Mario-kun
Latest appearance The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (2026), guard at Wart's Casino

🧦 The Super Mario Advance manual describes him scuttling back and forth, like a true crab: to get moving yourself, straight ahead or sideways, with the Mushroom Kingdom on your feet, discover our Mario socks.

FAQ

  • How do you beat Clawgrip in Super Mario Bros. 2?
    You have to catch the boulders he throws and throw them back at him: five hits are enough to defeat him in World 5-3. In Super Mario Advance, a boulder that bounces off the wall behind him can even hit him several times.
  • Does Clawgrip appear in Yume Kojo: Doki Doki Panic?
    No, the crab does not feature in it. In his place, the Japanese game pitted players against a third Mouser, cream-white in colour. Clawgrip was introduced in Super Mario Bros. 2 and is known in Japan as Chokkī.
  • Who voices Clawgrip in Super Mario Advance?
    In 2001, Charles Martinet voiced Clawgrip. The crab speaks with a pirate accent, opens the battle with “Yar! You'll make a tasty treat!” and admits defeat with “Yar! You got me!”
  • In The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, what does Clawgrip do?
    He appears in three episodes as one of King Koopa's minions, wearing a blue bandana. He is at the helm of the Sinister Star in “Rolling Down the River” and attacks the heroes in a sunken wreck in “Mario of the Deep”.
  • Is Clawgrip in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie?
    Yes, briefly and without any lines, as a guard at Wart's Casino alongside Birdo and Mouser. Peach knocks him onto his back with a dropkick, and a promotional short also shows him chasing Mario and Luigi with a boulder.
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