Bowser

Bowser
'Mario' character
File:Bowser in his Modern Appearance.jpg Bowser, king of the Koopas, as he appears in New Super Mario Bros.
First game	Super Mario Bros. (1985)
Created by	Shigeru Miyamoto

Bowser, also known as King Koopa, is a video game character and the main antagonist of Nintendo's Mario series. In Japan, he is called Koopa (クッパ, Kuppa).

Bowser is Mario's archnemesis. He is the leader and most powerful of the turtle-like Koopa race. Although Bowser has joined forces with Mario in a few games, he is considered an antagonist due to his ambition to kidnap Princess Peach and conquer the Mushroom Kingdom. Even in games where he teams up with Mario to face a proverbial common enemy, he is often arrogant and egotistical, often joining for selfish reasons (such as to get his castle back from invaders or retrieve Peach's stolen voice so he can kidnap her again).

Creation and conception

Bowser was the creation of Nintendo designer/producer, Shigeru Miyamoto.

Since his creation, Bowser has appeared in every major Mario game except for Super Mario Bros. 2 / Super Mario USA and the Super Mario Land series.

Characteristics

Bowser is said to be "King of the Koopas," the race of sinister turtle-like creatures that co-exist with the Mushroom people that inhabit the Mario universe. In many games, particularly the RPG series, Bowser is presented as being considerably more villainous than the other members of his "koopa troop," who are mostly just followers, flunkies, or admirers of his strength or personality.

Bowser is perhaps most famous for his repeated kidnappings of Princess Peach. The reason for these kidnappings has changed dramatically over the years, from the fact the Princess is the only one who can undo Bowser's black magic, to the fact he has some love and devotion towards her. All the same, he can use her in his plans to take over the Mushroom Kingdom.

Bowser's appearance has been tweaked several times throughout the series, but most of basic overall look has been consistent. Despite his name, he actually looks something like a cross between a Koopa Troopa and a Kappa, although he is associated more with fire instead of water. He is bipedal, with large claws on his hands and feet. He is noticeably larger than all the other characters. He is mostly orange with a green shell. Several large spikes are located both on his tail and on his shell. His alligator-like jaw and stomach front are yellowish-beige. He sports a mane of fiery red hair on top of his head with a horn on either side. He also wears spiked metal cuffs around his wrists, biceps, and neck. Although his abilities vary from game to game, he is able to breathe fire in most of them.

Early on, Bowser was solely created as a main villain. However, as video game technology improved and games started becoming in-depth, a personality began to show, namely in Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars and Super Mario 128. Bowser was depicted as being driven on defeating Mario, but also as being a bit of an oaf. For all his bluster and ambition, he seems unable to come up with anything more complex than kidnapping the Princess and waiting for Mario. He also appears to be blindly confident in his own chances of victory. In Super Mario Sunshine, Bowser is shown as having a bit of a soft side towards Bowser Jr. In a number of games, although Bowser is shown to hate Mario, he in fact possesses a degree of respect for him.

Abilities

Bowser's abilities greatly vary from game to game. His most common physical traits are the ability to breath fire, and being extremely durable. He is in fact generally immune to standard attacks. His mobility greatly varies. In games where Bowser is playable, he's always depicted as extremely slow. When he's an enemy, he's even faster and more agile than Mario. Outside his common abilities, some individual games generally give attacks that aren't seen in others, such as being able to create shockwaves or flaming boomerangs.

Family

File:Koopa Kids.png

The Koopalings and Bowser Jr.

So far, Bowser is shown to have eight children. Seven of them, the so-called Koopalings, debuted in Super Mario Bros. 3 (on the NES), where they function as bosses at the end of every one of the game's worlds. Each Koopaling has his or her own airship where the player has to get through to battle the koopa. The seven kids reappeared in Super Mario World (on the SNES), again functioning as bosses, but having castles instead of airships. Super Mario Sunshine featured an eighth child: Bowser Jr., who uses a cross between a brush and a wand to disguise himself as a dark form of Mario (called "Shadow Mario"), and to pollute Isle Delfino, where the game takes place, with graffiti. When Mario and Princess Peach arrive at the isle, Bowser Jr. disguised as shadow Mario also kidnaps Peach. Later in the game, it is revealed that Bowser made Bowser Jr. believe that Peach is his mother, in order to have him 'return' her.

Appearances

Video games

File:Bowser (smb1).png

Bowser's very first appearance in Super Mario Bros. (1985).

Bowser's first appearance was in Super Mario Bros as the main villain who kidnaps Princess Peach and as the boss of the 8th world, although it seems like bowser is the boss of worlds 1-7 there actually enemies disguised as bowser. He reappears in Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels under the same role. He also appears in Super Mario Bros. 3, and along with the seven Koopalings, he kidnaps Peach again and causes havok within various kingdoms. The eight reappear again in Super Mario World, where they kidnap Peach while she and Mario are on vacation on Yoshi's Island, and then they make two more appearances in Hotel Mario and Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga.

Bowser makes his first 3D appearance in Super Mario 64 where he invades Princess Toadstool's (Peach's) castle and seals much of it with the magic of the stolen Power Stars. He returns in Super Mario Sunshine, in which he has his son, Bowser Jr., kidnap Peach. Bowser himself eventually appears in the final boss battle of the game.In Super Mario Galaxy, Bowser kidnaps Peach and takes her to the center of the universe to recreate it. In New Super Mario Bros., Bowser is the first boss of the game, and after being beaten, he falls into lava and becomes a Dry Bones-esque skeleton called Dry Bowser. He is eventually restored and acts as the final boss.

Bowser makes various appearances in the Mario RPGs. In Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, he joins up with Mario in order to regain his castle, which is stolen by the main villain, Smithy. He plays minor antagonistic and supporting roles in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga and its sequel, Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time. He is the main "Villain" of the original Paper Mario, a minor antagonist in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, and a playable character within Super Paper Mario.

Bowser also appears in various spin-off titles such as Mario Is Missing!, Yoshi Topsy-Turvy,Paper Mario and Super Princess Peach as the main antagonist. He appears as a playable character in the Mario Kart series and various Mario Sport titles, such as Mario Golf and Mario Tennis. Bowser also appears as the main villain in many the Mario Party games. He plays an active role in their story modes and antagonizes the characters during gameplay. Bowser is a selectable character within Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. Brawl. He is a large character that uses his heavy body, fire breathing, and claws. The games also feature a different form not seen in any Mario series game called "Giga Bowser", a darker and more monsterous form. He is also a playable character in Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games. He is high on power, but has very low speed and skill.

Bowser appears as a child in various games. Known as Baby Bowser, he antagonizes the Baby Mario brothers and various members of the Yoshi species. He first appears in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island where Kamek predicts the brothers will become problems in the future, so he attempts to kidnap them. In the sequel, Yoshi's Island DS, Baby Bowser joins with Mario and a group of Yoshi in order to regain his castle from his future self that travels back in time. He is also an antagonist along with his future self in Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, and steals the Super Happy Tree from a group of Yoshi in Yoshi's Story.

His first appearance as a playable character was in Super Mario Kart. After this, he has appeared in many spin-off games, such as the Mario Golf, Mario Tennis, Mario Hoops 3-on-3, Mario Superstar Baseball, Mario Super Sluggers, Super Smash Bros. Melee, and Super Smash Bros. Brawl. In the end, Bowser remains the only major Mario cast member to not have appeared as the star of his own game to date.

In the early 3D Mario games, Bowser is voiced by Isaac Marshall. Marshall's voice for Bowser merely consisted of various roars, grunts, and growls, but no actual words or sentences. Marshall continued to provide his voice until Super Mario Sunshine in 2002, where he was then replaced by Scott Burns. It was Burns who gave Bowser the ability to talk out loud for the first time in video game history. However, voice clips done by Marshall were used in some later games for Bowser's roar.

Other media

Bowser's first appearance in any Mario media outside of the games came in the obscure Mario anime movie, Super Mario Bros.: Peach-Hime Kyushutsu Dai Sakusen! in which Bowser is voiced by Akiko Wada. He then appeared in the Super Mario Bros. 3 OVA films. His first American appearances were as the antagonist in The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3, and Super Mario World, in which he is voiced by Harvey Atkin.

Bowser also appears as the regular antagonist in the Mario comics published as part of the Nintendo Comics System, and other pieces of writing. He is the villain of the Super Mario Bros. movie, where he is played by Dennis Hopper and acts as the tyrannical ruler of the parallel-universe city of Dinohattan. Bowser has been portrayed by Christopher Hewett in the 1989 Ice Capades during the same year.

Reception

Due largely to the success of the Mario franchise, Bowser has become one of the most iconic and easily recognizable video game villains of all time. He frequently appears in lists for greatest video game villains. IGN placed him at #10 (out of 10), Gamepro placed him at #9 (out of 47), and MMOABC placed him at #4 (out of 10, with 4 additional honorable mentions).