Koopalings
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 is the oldest. He 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 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 for 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).
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 third-youngest. She is the only female Koopa Kid. She was named after Wendy O. Williams. In the cartoons she was named Kootie Pie, and often whined about everything.
Morton Koopa Junior
Morton Koopa Junior is the second-youngest. He 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.
Larry Koopa
Larry Koopa is the youngest. He 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 Junior
In Super Mario Sunshine and the Mario Party series (and in Yoshi's Story, though this is arguable), Bowser had an eighth child named Bowser Junior who was otherwise known as Baby Bowser or (in Mario Party 6 Koopa Kid. The Baby Bowser in Yoshi's Island was just Bowser as a child.