Kamek was King Bowser Koopa's guardian (and possibly adopted father) and the ultimate enemy in the game Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island. He kidnapped Luigi and tried to kidnap Mario but Yoshi and his multicolored friends protected Mario and saved Luigi after defeating Bowser.

Kamek wears big spectacles and rides a broomstick. During the events of Yoshi's Island, Kamek attempted to block the Yoshis' progress by swelling enemies to dramatic size using magic. Unfortunately for him, the Yoshis beat all of these bosses.

Kamek has made a few cameo appearances in other Mario and Mario-themed games, such as Tetris Attack and Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga. In the latter, he was referred to as "Psycho Kamek," and actually helped Luigi out by hypnotizing him into thinking he was Mario. This Kamek may only be related to the original Kamek, as he is friendly. It is popular fanon to apply his name to other prominent Magikoopa characters in Mario games, such as the Magikoopa boss in Super Mario RPG.

An interesting and little-known fact, is that Kamek was originally considered to be a playable character in Mario Kart 64, and there are early demo shots of the game to prove this. However he was later scrapped and replaced with the more well-known character, Donkey Kong. This was also due to the fact they wanted another 'heavy' character to balance out the weight ratios.