A Koopa Kid (also known as a Koopaling) is a character from the Mario Brothers series of video games. As far as it is known there are at least eight Koopa Kids - all the children of King Bowser Koopa. Their origin (i.e. mother) is never revealed. The first seven originally appeared in Super Mario Bros. 3. They also appeared in Super Mario World, Yoshi's Safari, and Mario Is Missing!. Recently, they appeared in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga. They are always bosses of levels.

The Koopa Kids have wild punk hairstyles and dress. It is said that each Koopaling was personally designed by a different member of the production staff of SMB3.

'[The Koopa Kids] were modelled after the design team of that game [Super Mario Bros 3]. This is another [sic] way we give recognition to the many people who help make the games successful.'

• Shigeru Miyamoto, Mario Mania Players Guide [1] (May 1991).

All of the first seven Koopa children are named after celebrities. In the Mario cartoons, they were given different names, probably because they were not given names in the Japanese version of the games.

Ludwig von Koopa

Ludwig von Koopa was named after (and resembles) Ludwig van Beethoven and they are both composers (according to Super Mario World he composes "Koopa symphonies" in his castle). He first appeared in Super Mario Bros. 3 as the boss of World 7. In the cartoon series he was named Kooky, and is the typical mad scientist character, inventing wicked devices for his dad to use, such as a time machine with which to prevent the Mario Bros. from coming to the Mushroom Kingdom or a robot look-alike of Princess Peach programmed to turn the Mushroom Kingdom over to Bowser, and speaking with a German accent. The name Kooky may be an erroneous interpretation of Super Mario World where his castle stands atop a mountain in a world named Cookie Mountain (many worlds are named after foods in the game, e.g. Chocolate Island, Vanilla Dome, Donut Plains etc).

Lemmy Koopa

Lemmy Koopa is the second oldest. He was named after Lemmy Kilmister. Lemmy has lazy eye and balances atop a ball. In the cartoons he was named Hip, and he often hung out with his similar-looking brother Hop (Iggy). In the comic books, he was quite stupid, but could somehow understand Larry's dialogue. He is also a fan of Dirk Drain-Head. He first appeared in Super Mario Bros 3 as the boss of World 6. He also appeared in Super Mario World, Mario is Missing, and Yoshi's Safari.

Roy Koopa

Roy Koopa is the third oldest. He was named after Roy Orbison, and both he and Orbison wear trademark dark sunglasses. In the cartoons he was named Bully, and he acted like one too.

Iggy Koopa

Iggy Koopa is the fourth oldest. He is bespectacled and blue. He is named after Iggy Pop. In the cartoons, he was called Hop (Lemmy, his brother, was named Hip, a play on hip hop).

Wendy O. Koopa

Wendy O. Koopa is the only female Koopa Kid, and was named after Wendy O. Williams. In the cartoons she was named Kootie Pie and apparently sixteen years old, and often whined about everything. Usually, she wants something terribly, such as domination of the United States or her own water park in Venice, and Bowser, caring father that he is, often tries to grant her wishes in order to please her (or at least shut her up). She was once hit on by Stanley the Talking Fish.

Morton Koopa, Jr.

Morton Koopa, Jr. is named after Morton Downey, Jr. and appears to be modelled after Paul Stanley of KISS. In the cartoons he was named Big Mouth, because he was more talk than action.
The Jr. in his name raises many questions, none of which have been answered.

Larry Koopa

Larry Koopa was named after Larry King. In the cartoons he was named Cheatsy. In the comic books published by Valiant, he didn't speak normal English; rather, his dialogue balloons had various pictures in them (Lemmy was somehow the only one who could understand him).

Bowser Jr.

Bowser Jr. is believed to have first appeared in Yoshi's Story whereas others believe that this is merely the older Bowser as a child ("Baby Bowser"). He indisputedly appeared in Super Mario Sunshine, in which he used his alter ego known as Shadow Mario to frame Mario under the guise of Shadow Mario of polluting Isle Delfino using his magical brush made by Professor E. Gadd. He has since than appeared in Mario Kart Double Dash, Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour and Mario Power Tennis as Bowser's partner.

Baby Bowser in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island is just the older Bowser as a child.

Characters that seem to be similar to him have appeared in Mario Party 3, Mario Party 4, Mario Party 5, and Mario Party 6 under the name of "Koopa Kid," though these games don't necessarily follow the plot line of other Mario games, since they were created by Hudson Soft.

Bowser Junior, unlike his siblings, does not appear in Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga.

Ludwig theory

It has been theorized that Bowser Junior is actually Ludwig Von Koopa in a graphically ambigous form. This theory is mainly based on the fact that Bowser Junior appeared so suddenly and yet this fails to take into account that in FLUDD's intro Mario can be seen fighting Larry Koopa and since that Ludwig is significly older than Larry, Ludwig must already exist time line wise.

Princess Peach Theory

Throughout the Mario series, Bowser has kidnapped Princess Peach and taken her to his lair multiple times. His motives for doing so have never been stated explicity, but it may be involved in the creation of the Koopa Kids and/or Bowser Jr. Conjecture to support this theory:

1. There is no "mother" Koopa present in the series, so Bowser either reproduces asexually, or he requires a mate.
2. The duration Princess Peach spends in captivity (or the amount of time needed for Mario to travel from any starting point to Bowser's Castle) is ample time for the two to mate.
3. In most cases after rescue, Princess Peach remains silent about the events that transpired while in captivity.
4. Mario Sunshine has a quote by Bowser Jr that further supports this:

Leave her alone! I won't let you take mama Peach again. Dad told me all about it. He told me I had a mom that got kidnapped by a bad man named Mario. Bowser said Mario is a great big bully. He never fights fair. So I tried to get him in prison. But they didn't lock him up! And now he came back to steal mama Peach again!

If this is in fact correct, it will most likely never be stated directly due to its target audience. However, the statement made by bowser about Peach is probably untrue, considering it would fit in Bowser's character to lie and parts of the quote are obviously untrue ("I had a mom that got kidnapped by a bad man named Mario. Bowser said Mario is a great big bully. He never fights fair.")

References

• Super Mario Bros. Info Station (December 5, 2003). Theoretical Origin of the Koopalings' Names. Retrieved Jan. 23, 2005.