Bowser

• 1. Introduction

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  Bowser, the fire-breathing king of the Koopas and the great enemy of Nintendo's Mario, once became the subject of a strangely candid admission. In a 2012 interview, his own creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, said: "Our current story is that the seven Koopalings are not Bowser's children. Bowser's only child is Bowser Jr., and we do not know who the mother is." That is a remarkable thing to say about a villain who has menaced the Mushroom Kingdom for decades. It raises a question about how much even his makers know about him. Where did this monster come from, and why does he look the way he does? Why does an angry turtle have a name that sounds like a household pet? And how did a character who exists mostly to kidnap a princess end up crowned the greatest video game villain of all time?

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• 2. From Ox To Turtle

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  Bowser made his debut in 1985 as Mario's opponent in Super Mario Bros., but he began life as a very different animal. Shigeru Miyamoto first pictured him as an ox, inspired by an ox-like king in the animated film Alakazam the Great. That film was an anime version of the Chinese novel Journey to the West.

  Then Takashi Tezuka looked at the drawings and made a blunt observation. The character looked more like a turtle than an ox. Miyamoto and Tezuka took the hint and began reshaping him into the leader of the turtle-like Koopa Troopas. Once the new look came together, Miyamoto remarked that he could make Bowser "look cool now".

  Time was short on that project. Miyamoto had considered handing the game's art to a manga artist or an illustrator, but he painted the original box art himself. That first Bowser looks odd to modern eyes. His complexion is gray-blue, and he has no horns.

  The finished design came from Yōichi Kotabe, who modeled Bowser on the Chinese softshell turtle. Kotabe knew the species as highly aggressive, which suited a villain with a short temper. Fans and writers later spotted another ancestor in Gamera, the fire-breathing kaiju turtle who flies by spinning inside his shell. Bowser's own spin attack in Super Smash Bros. is called the "Gamera Attack".

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• 3. A Name From Korean Food

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  Before he was Bowser, the villain's working name was "Boss Creeper". It nodded to the Shellcreepers of the arcade game Mario Bros., the forerunners of the Koopa race. Miyamoto then settled on the Japanese title Daimaō Kuppa.

  The word Kuppa came from gukbap, a Korean dish. Miyamoto had weighed other Korean dishes too. His shortlist included yukke, from yukhoe, and Bibinba, from bibimbap. In Korea the character is called Kupa, a phonetic round trip back from the Japanese version.

  The English name arrived with the North American release of the first game. That release also brought the anglicized spelling "Koopa". Japanese versions kept spelling it Kuppa until the arrival of Super Mario World.

  Nobody has confirmed who came up with "Bowser", or why. Matthew Byrd of Den of Geek described several competing theories. One says Bowser was a popular name for pets at the time. Another says Miyamoto picked it because both Bowser and Bibinba begin with the letter B.

  A third theory looks at the surname Bowser itself. It is said to derive from a Norman greeting meaning "good sir", which would make it an ironic label for such a diabolical character.

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• 4. Anatomy Of A Tyrant

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  Bowser is the King of the Koopas, yet he looks nothing like his subjects. Most Koopas are bipedal tortoises. Bowser has a large spiked shell, horns, a draconic muzzle with fangs, and taloned fingers. He also has three clawed toes on each foot, red eyes, and a shock of red hair.

  His abilities match the look. He is immensely strong, nearly indestructible, able to breathe fire, and able to jump very high for his size. He is also skilled in black magic. That magic covers teleportation, summoning objects, flying, generating electricity, telekinesis, and metamorphosis.

  His size is surprisingly flexible. In most games he towers over everyone else. In Super Mario RPG, however, he stands only slightly taller than Mario. In Yoshi's Island, Super Mario Galaxy, and Super Mario Galaxy 2, he changes size at will or through someone else's sorcery.

  The personality is just as variable. Bowser is generally menacing and sinister, but sometimes he turns into a blustering, buffoonish bully with some emotional vulnerability. Whatever the mood, he cares for his minions, a trait that matters when the story turns to his family.

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• 5. Kidnapper With A Kingdom

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  Bowser's plans have a consistent shape. He wants to conquer the Mushroom Kingdom and merge it with his own realm. He is also infatuated with Princess Peach, and he routinely kidnaps her as part of his schemes.

  His motives for the kidnapping shift from game to game. Sometimes Peach is simply bait to lure Mario into a trap. Occasionally Bowser hopes to marry her, as in Super Mario Odyssey.

  In the main series he is typically the central antagonist. The role-playing games bend that rule. There he sometimes works alongside the heroes to defeat a greater evil.

  His household has been rewritten more than once. Super Mario Bros. 3 originally stated that he was the father of the Koopalings, and later official sources added that he was their biological father. Since their return in New Super Mario Bros. Wii, they have been called his minions instead. Bowser Jr. was introduced as his son in the 2002 game Super Mario Sunshine.

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• 6. Every Genre Imaginable

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  Since 2001's Super Smash Bros. Melee, Bowser has been a playable fighter in every installment of that series. He was meant to be in the first game too, but time constraints forced the developers to cut him during development.

  His career outside the main platformers is enormous. He has appeared in nearly all of the Mario spin-offs, from the Mario Kart and Mario Party series to sports titles. Those include Mario Tennis, Mario Golf, Super Mario Strikers, and Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games. He also turns up in Mario's Time Machine, Hotel Mario, and Mario Pinball Land. He is playable in Itadaki Street DS and its Wii sequel Fortune Street. In Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars he is a character in the story. He also makes a cameo in Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, and he returns in its sequel, Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope.

  Some appearances are stranger. Tetris Attack was built on the Japan-exclusive Super Famicom release Panel de Pon, and it replaced nearly the whole cast with characters from Yoshi's Island. Adult Bowser, the one character not seen in Yoshi's Island, takes on the role of final boss Corderia. In Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition he is a Dark attribute character and the main opponent.

  The merchandise followed. As Hammer Slam Bowser, he became a playable character in Skylanders: SuperChargers, with a figurine of his own sold alongside Donkey Kong. A physician version called Dr. Bowser is playable in Dr. Mario World.

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• 7. Screens And Pages

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  Dennis Hopper played King Koopa in the 1993 live-action Super Mario Bros. film. That version rules Dinohattan, a city in a parallel universe where humans evolved directly from dinosaurs. He is nearly human, with blonde hair gelled into a crown-like shape and a black business suit and necktie. He abducts Princess Daisy and forces her to merge his world with the human world. After brief exposure to his own evolution-reversing technology, he starts to show reptilian traits. In the climax he devolves into an enormous green Tyrannosaurus rex, and the Mario Bros. push him further back into primordial ooze.

  In the 2012 animated film Wreck-It Ralph, Bowser is one of the gaming villains in a "Bad-Anon" support group. Director Rich Moore said Nintendo was very positive about the idea. In his own words, Nintendo said: "If there is a group that is dedicated to helping the bad guy characters in video games then Bowser must be in that group!"

  Jack Black voiced him in The Super Mario Bros. Movie in 2023 and in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie in 2026. In the first film, Bowser seizes the Super Star from the Penguin Kingdom. He threatens to destroy the Mushroom Kingdom unless Peach agrees to marry him. Mario and Luigi defeat him in a final battle in Brooklyn. He is shrunk with a Mini Mushroom and sealed in a bottle. A mid-credit scene shows him singing his song until a guard scolds him. That song, called "Peaches", was written and performed in character by Black, and it turned into an Internet meme.

  In the sequel, the shrunken Bowser is held in Peach's castle, where Mario and Luigi try to rehabilitate him. Bowser Jr. wrecks that plan by lifting the castle with his ship and dropping everyone into the Honeyhive Galaxy. Bowser later comes back as Dry Bowser after being thrown into a lava lake. A mid-credit scene shows him and Jr. imprisoned by Fox McCloud and intimidated by a Luma guard.

  Outside film, Bowser has been voiced by Kenny James since 2007. Harvey Atkin voiced him in three animated series produced by DIC Entertainment. He is the principal antagonist in Nintendo Power's comic series Super Mario Adventures and in the Mario comics of Valiant Comics' Nintendo Comics System.

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• 8. Critics And The Internet

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  Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition 2013 placed Bowser first in its list of the top 50 villains. Other lists were less generous but still high. IGN ranked him No. 2 out of 100, and GamePro put him at No. 9 out of 47. In 2011, Empire ranked him as the 23rd-greatest video game character.

  GameSpot also placed him at No. 9 in its top 10 villains. Its writers argued that his life may have settled into a rut, but he has refined his game to an everyday thing. They said he is "focused", "dedicated", and, worst of all, "patient". Not everyone was admiring. ScrewAttack rated him the 4th-biggest douchebag in gaming history, saying he wants to "take Mario down".

  Super Mario Galaxy drew some of the warmest comments. Eurogamer's Margaret Robertson said that after years as a "comedy villain", the game put him back at his "scaly, scabrous best". Chris Sell of PALGN liked that he was "back to being mean again".

  Then came Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, where players control Bowser himself. Wired's Chris Kohler called his segments funnier than those of Mario and Luigi. IGN's Craig Harris described Bowser as the only core Nintendo character of the past couple of decades never to have starred in a game, and called the game his "big break".

  Bowser also lives a second life online. In 2015, the alligator snapping turtle of the Amur River was discovered and became an Internet sensation for its resemblance to him. In 2018, a short comic showed Bowser using a Super Crown to become a sinister female resembling Peach, whom fans named Bowsette, and she went viral. "Bowser Day 2021" became a Twitter fad.

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