King Bowser Koopa, known in Japan as Koopa (Japanese: クッパ), a fictional turtle character from Nintendo video games, is Mario and Luigi's arch-nemesis (although he has joined forces with them in a few games). He constantly kidnaps Princess Peach Toadstool and has repeatedly attempted to conquer the Mushroom Kingdom since his first appearance in Super Mario Bros.

Appearances in video games

In all of his various incarnations throughout the Super Mario Bros. series, he has been depicted as obsessed with Princess Peach. He is also consistently depicted as nasty, brutish, and not particularly bright.

In Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, and Super Mario All-Stars, his seven children helped him in his unsuccessful conquest.

It is arguable whether Mario and Bowser first encountered each other when they were babies in Super Mario World 2, or from old manuals that they actually first encountered each other when Bowser took Princess Toadstool captive in Super Mario Bros. It is generally held that Baby Mario and adult Mario are the same person, and more recent Nintendo manuals agree with this conclusion.

In Super Mario RPG Bowser teams up with Mario, Peach, and their two new friends Mallow and Geno in order to get his castle back from an extra-dimensional invader named Smithy (or Kajioo in Japan). This is the only game in the series in which Mario and Bowser have intentionally worked together, and the only Mario RPG game in which Bowser is a member of your party.

In Super Mario 64 and Super Mario 64 DS, he steals Peach's castle, and Mario (and his friends) have to collect all the stars to restore the power of the castle. In Paper Mario he steals Peach's castle again with the Star Rod. In Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga he tries to kidnap Peach but somebody else has gotten there first and so ends up in a complicated adventure to help Mario get her back so he can kidnap her. In Super Mario Sunshine, it is revealed Bowser has a son named Bowser Jr. According to Nintendo materials, this is the same "Baby Bowser" who in Yoshi's Story converts Yoshi's Island into a storybook. In Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Bowser is enraged when he discovers that someone other than himself has captured Princess Peach and sets out on a mission of his own to find her, only to be beaten by the punch at every turn.

Bowser also appears in secondary Mario Games like Super Mario Kart, Mario Kart 64, Mario Golf, Mario Tennis, Tetris Attack, Mario Kart Super Circuit, Mario Kart: Double Dash, Mario Power Tennis and Super Smash Bros. Melee. In these games he is not the villain, but rather a selectable character that the player can choose to play as. A giant Bowser also cameos in the SNES port of the original Sim City when a monster disaster strikes.

Appearances outside of video games

Bowser has been known by different names over the years, which have since amalgamated into his current title. In Japan, he has always been known as simply Koopa. When Super Mario Bros. came out in the US, he was given the more American name of Bowser, King of the Koopas. Confusingly, the American cartoons, such as The Super Mario Bros. Super Show (where he had an amazingly large sense of humor and delivered most of the show's one-liners), and the Super Mario Bros. movie consistently referred to Bowser as "King Koopa", never Bowser (although he was occasionally addressed as Bowser in The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3). Somewhere along the line the two names merged, and he is now known in America as being Bowser Koopa, with "Koopa" as his, and his children's, last name.

Confrontations with Bowser

The following is a description of fights with Bowser:

• In Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, Bowser (and those disquised as him) will breathe fire and jump periodically. As Mario or Luigi, you had to run or jump past him and touch the axe at the other side. In worlds 6 and higher, he also threw hammers like Hammer Brothers.
• In Super Mario Bros. 3, Bowser again breathes fire, this time from above, being shot downward at a 45 degree angle and then turning and moving horizonatally as it approached the ground. Bowser jumped at the player, which crushed bricks that would eventually make him fall into a pit.
• In Super Mario World, he rode his Koopa Clown Car (it better resembled a hot air balloon), and threw mecha koopas at the player. He would later drop giant balls, and finally bounce his "car" up and down in a final attempt for victory.
• In Tetris Attack, Bowser would appear in Stage Clear mode, representing a very dificult level.
• In Super Mario RPG, Bowser is fought at the very beginning of the game, where he and Mario were on separate chandeliers, and could be temporarily defeated by damaging the chain that held Bowser's chandelier in place.
• In Super Mario 64, Bowser would again breathe fire, but in 3D this time. In the final battle, he would do a big jump to remove sections from the battle platform. Mario could defeat him by grabbing his tail and throwing him at spiked bombs.
• In Paper Mario, Bowser would beat Mario at the begninning of the game, but could be defeated at the end, even with the help of a machine that would power him up to the point of invincibility, if it were not for the combined efforts of Peach, Twink, and the Star Spirits.
• In the Mario Party Series, Bowser will usually arrive when you land on a Bowser space, presenting the players with Bowser minigames, the Bowser shuffle (players swap places on the board) or even the Bowser Revolution, in which all of the coins would be evenly distributed amongst the players.
  • In Mario Party 5, Bowser appears at the end of Story Mode. The player must first force him to stomp the same area until he falls through (in a confrontation similar to Super Mario Bros. 3, only done in an overhead view). Then he'll take a potion and grow, and shoot some fireballs at you. Sometimes a rock will appear, which the player can throw at Bowser to damage him.
• In Super Mario Sunshine, Bowser is laying back in a hot tub, and again breathed fire at Mario, while Bowser Jr. shot homing missiles. The only way to win is to destroy the hot tub by hitting 5 specific points coming out the edge of it.
• In Paper Mario, The Thousand Year Door, Bowser fights Mario once in a wrestling match and later just before the final boss, in which he is accomponied by Kammy Koopa. In both confrontations, he can be defeated with the same RPG tactics that are used for all battles in the game.
• In Luigi's Mansion Luigi must defeat Bowser as the final boss using his poltergust 3000 to complete the game.

Bowser the wardrobe artist

In The Super Mario Bros. Super Show, Bowser/Koopa had a particularly large wardrobe, and every so often (mostly in movie parody), he'd put on one of his many costumes and/or take on a new alias. Among his many alter-egos:

• Kid Koopa (cowboy)
• Kaptain Koopa (steamboat captain)
• Emperor Augustus Septemberus Octoberus Koopa (Roman emperor)
• Moonman Koopa (cosmonaut)
• Koopa Khan (parody of Genghis Khan)
• King-of-the-Road Koopa (biker)
• Count Koopula (vampire)
• Blackbeard Koopa (pirate captain)
• King Googoo Gaga Koopa (baby)
• Professor Kooparity (parody of Professor Moriarty)
• The Pied Koopa (parody of The Pied Piper)
• Dr. Koopenstein (parody of Frankenstein)
• Koopfinger (parody of James Bond villain Goldfinger)
• The Sheriff of Koopingham (parody of the Sheriff of Nottingham)
• Koopa Nemo (parody of Captain Nemo)
• Koop-zilla (parody of Godzilla)
• Koopa Klaus (parody of Santa Claus)
• Red Baron Koopa (pilot)
• Al Koopone (parody of Al Capone)
• Rappin' Koopa (Disc jockey)
• El Koopitan (Spaniard)
• Koop Tut (Egyptian pharaoh)
• Redcoat Koopa (redcoat)
• Alley Koop (caveman)
• Klaimjump Koopa (cowboy)
• Kool Koopa (greaser)
• Karate Koopa (samurai)
• Billy the Koopa (cowboy)
• Judge Koopa (judge)
• Warden Koopa (warden)
• Barra-Koopa (merman)
• Kolonel Von Koop (Nazi)
• Kangaroo Koopa (Australian hunter)
• Darth Koopa (parody of Darth Vader)
• RoboKoopa (cyborg)

Quotations

Although he's supposed to be the main villain of the whole franchise, Bowser has been known to let out a lot more one-liners than any of the other characters. This is especially true in the cartoons, where despite a claim he made in one episode, he has a very large sense of humor. Here's some hilarious things that he has said over the years:

• "Welcome. No one's home! Now scram--and don't come back!"
• "How dare you come up with such a cool evil plan?"
• "Who were you expecting? The Tooth Fairy?"
• "This is gonna be excellent!"
• "He who koops and runs away lives to koop another day!"
• "He who koops last koops best."
• "I'm back! And so is 'Captain N & Super Mario Bros. World'!"
• "PTEWWW!! What is this?!!!! I didn't order Koopa Kola Plain--I wanted Koopa Kola Crunchy!!!"
• "Scram, pests, or I'll call an exterminator!!"
• "Koopa Sez, everybody go to the Dome Castle, and get Mario and Luigi, and bring them to me!"
• "Stand still so I can squash ya, you little vermin!"
• "If Mario doesn't find these Star things, I'll have the princess, but I can forget about my castle... Can you run that past me again?
• "Me, nice? I've never been nice in my life! I'm allergic to nice!"
• "The courage beyond compare, the bravery beyond description, I praise this great hero, the superior fiend... me."
• "If I didn't deserve this, I wouldn't give it to me."
• "I haven't done anything really rotten in a long time, not since yesterday."
• "Last one into the cave is a goodie-goodie!"
• "No one asks for a trap faster than a plumber!"
• "Don't interrupt me, not while I'm boasting and gloating!"
• "OK, that does it! You're all gonna be Koopatized!"
• "There'll be other crooked races, and other ways to cheat!"
• "Don't question my orders, you rotten rodent! Just do it!"
• "Stop wisecracking, mushroom, or I'll turn you into soap!"
• "I pledge allegiance to Kootie Pie and the repulsiveness for which she stands..."
• "Fool! Those pinhead plumbers are bound to try to rescue Princess Toadstool, and I intend to capture them before they do."
• "This is easier than talking Kootie Pie into a shopping spree!"
• "All right! Come and get your burgers!"
• "We're gonna celebrate the capture of those faucet freaks by letting me win a baseball game."
• "NO!!! It's a chain reaction!!"
• "We never would've lost if you Koopaling clowns had just tried to wake me up! Whose idea was this midnight attack?!"
• "Patience, my little chickadees. Egg Scoopa Koopas for everyone, cash in hands, of course."
• "Well, hello there! Give your uncle a big kiss! Ow! Why you-- uh, you sweet little thing you! Yuck! I hate mushroom brats!"
• "Ta ta, turtle dove, until next week. Here's a smooch for your sweet cheek!"
• "Oh no! I can't believe I left my secret diary lying out! It would be totally embarrassing if someone were to read that thing. Wuh... wuh... WHAAAT?!! What's the princess doing here?"
• "I should never have quit my day job!"
• "Will someone get me a drink without little paper umbrellas??!"
• "Are my dinosaurs in for a treat! Kinda high in cholesterol, but I'm sure they can handle it!"
• "I guess I'm not a good guy."
• "My beautiful fortress! And I was going to conquer the world on Tuesday!"
• "Remember, 'Oogtar' spelled backwards is 'rat goo'!"
• "I had so much fun as your crooked judge I decided to become your cruel warden!"
• "Ohh, I hate it when my tootsie-wootsies get wet!"
• "I wonder if I can put Lemmy up for adoption?"
• "Eight Egg Scoopa Koopas coming up! Cook 'em good! No one likes runny eggs, dinobrain!"
• "Hey, don't forget the special Scoopa Sauce. A little scoop'll do ya, haha!"
• "How can I plunder your kingdom if I don't get my beauty rest!?"
• "Happy? Imposter! I never use the H word."
• "Top this, turkey-mouth!"
• "My ol' pop used to say in situations like this - 'Son, when you put your mind to it, there's no problem big enough to run away from'!"
• "Hey, what are you staring at? Haven't you ever seen a reptile ready to conquer the world?"
• "So now Toadstool and I are allies! I'll never live this down!"
• "Go clean your room! And you'd better do it! Stop pinching your little brother! Don't be a brat! Turn down your stereo! Pick up your socks! Close the door! Get off the telephone!"
• "Gimmie back Hip's Magic Wand! It's Koopa property, and it's rightfully mine!"
• "It's not neat stuff, you nincomkoop! It's the same trash we had before! Now get rid of it! And this time, see that it doesn't come back!"
• "HAHAHAHAHA! This is Koopa-riffic! I can do even more bad in my Doomsub that in my Doomship!"
• "STOP! YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO OPEN IT TILL CHRISTMAS... morning."
• "Quiet, Koopalings! I'm the king here! I'll decide what land we're gonna take over!"
• "It's a dirty job, but somebody gets to do it!"
• "Kooky, what are you doing? I'm your dear old King Dad!"
• "Knock it off, knuckleheads! I'm not doing exercises, I'm having a temper tantrum!"
• "Clams, coins, old socks, we're given' em away!"
• "You will grow up to be sneaky, two-faced, cheating illiterates, just like your dad!"
• "HIP! HOP! GET IN HERE! I'LL SEND YOU TO SCHOOL! Gladly."
• "Watch it soldier, when I want my feet licked, I'll ask for it! I want my feet licked."
• "If I want something, I'll just take it!"
• "Time out on the tongue department, Big Mouth!"
• "I just got this clunker back from the repair shop!"
• "The Real World's got seven continents, and I'm givin' one to each of you to do with what you like! Bully, you get to be the beast of the east in Asia! Cheatsy, you show how low you can go, down under, in Australia! Kootie Pie, show the Old World some newer nastiness! Go be a plague in Europe! Kooky, go wild in Africa! Big Mouth, blow your hot air all over Antarctica! Hip, rediscover North America! Be rotten from sea to shining sea! Hop, lambada South America! Give the Real World a Kooping it'll never forget!"
• "And I'm gonna destroy you miserable little meddlers! Drat! Where is that 'destroy-you-miserable-little-meddlers' button!?"
• "Now you'll see why I modestly call myself a genius."
• "That's a cruel, rotten, disgusting idea - and I love it!"
• "Hey! Who's been foolin' with my wands?"
• "I'd love to save you, kids, but I just remembered I have a tail-styling appointment in another warp zone!"
• "Costumed plumbers at your service, ma'am! We make plumbing a party!"
• "Like the moon over the day, my genius and brawn are lost on these fools."
• "Keep your crown on! You want people to think I'm marrying a nag?"
• "Pbbbthbtth! Am I Mario's baby-sitter? I don't care what he's doing! Are you going to call me every time that guy blows his nose, or what? Sheesh!"
• "AIRHEAD!!! A picnic?!? You MORON! This is no time for fun! See, THIS is why my evil plans always derail! Because you clods always goof off! AAARGH!"
• "Under NO circumstances is ANYONE allowed to kidnap her without MY say-so!!!"
• Pizza Delivery Man: "Python Pizza here. May I help you?" Bowser: "King Koopa here." Pizza Delivery Man: "Oh. Yes sir?" Bowser: "I'd like the Koopa Special." Pizza Delivery Man: "Pterodactyl tail on that?" Bowser: "Yes. Dino, lizard, hold the mammal, no worms... and, uh, spicy."
• Mouse: "You were going to flood our chambers?! Why?" Bowser: "Well, um... then no one could travel underground anymore and, uh...." Mario: "Let me guess. You were planning on starting a rickshaw service?" Bowser: "Taxi service."
• "One of the nice things about being evil is, you get to lie a lot."
• Mario: "Koopa, you're the meanest, ugliest lizard that ever slimed its way across Cramalot!" Bowser: "Flattery will get you nowhere."
• Mario: "Don't I get a last request or something? A pepperoni cheesecake? A fetuchine sundae?" Bowser: "Are you kidding? I'm a villain, remember?!"
• Yoshi: "Um, I forgot money." Bowser: "You little dino-dweeb! Whadaya think this is, a charity operation?! I'll make special Scoopa Sauce outta you." Mario: "Step off, you nasty green bully! What's he owe?" Bowser: "18 smackeroos, flange-face. Absolutely no credit to actors, writers, or plumbers." Mario: "18 coins?! I call that highway robbery!" Bowser: "Well, I call it inflation, in more ways than one. Wait till the calories start piling up on his waistline, heh heh."
• (yelling at Toad's Shy Guy costume) "Hey, where did you get this crummy robe? What cheap material! What shoddy workmanship! You're a disgrace to the Shy Guy uniform! Stand up while I'm yelling at you, you limp wimp. SPEAK UP, FOOL!!"
• "Welcome aboard Air Albatoss. This is your Koopa speaking. This flight is nonstop, till ya drop!"
• Bowser: "Know what I'm gonna do with you buttinskees?" Mario: "Say you're sorry and let us go?" Bowser: "NO! I'm gonna lock ya up for 200 years!"
• Mario: "Koopa!" Bowser: "Thats Ka-Hoopa to you, bud."
• "Ah--What a releife to take off this shirt! I just hate anything that's louder than I am."
• Peach: "Koopa, the volcano will shoot lava and destroy the island!! HOW CAN YOU LIVE WITH YOURSELF?!!" Bowser: "Judgement call. Excuse me, I gotta go act royal again. But please enjoy yourself! It really is a pleasant little island." Mario: "Yeah, for about another 10 minutes." Bowser: "Five, but who's counting? My burning inferno is your burning inferno. Tootles!!"
• "Well? I'm dying to hear the rest of your hilarious story, Mr. Comedian! Do share!"