Pop culture has shown us that while people love a relatable hero, a story is only as successful as its main antagonist. If that is the case, then the success of the Super Mario franchise might rest on the shoulders of a gigantic demon turtle. Bowser, also known as King Koopa, has been Mario’s number one nemesis since the release of the original Super Mario Bros. on NES in 1985. Since then, he has alternatܫely been the biggest thorn in the plumber’s side, but also an unlikely ally. Showing more and more personality with each passing game, Bowser can be a cruel tyrant in one adventure and a comically inept antihero in the next, but through it all, he has maintained a mean streak that arguably makes him the most well-k🏅nown villain in video games history.
Over the past thirty years of his existence, we have learned a lot about Bowser: he wants to marry a princess, he wishes to rule the Mushroom Kingdom and he’s pretty good at driv𒁃ing a kart. But what about his secrets? What about the parts of his past that Nintendo never mentions? We dug deep and found twenty-five things most people wouldn’t know about the king of awesome, Lord Bowser himself. Think of this as “Bowser: Behind The Music.”
25 ꦆ He was originally an ox, not a giant turtleꦕ
Bowser may look like a demon turtle these days, but it wasn’t always the case. Shigeru Miyamoto, designer of Mario and the gang, . More specifically, the Ox King from the movie Alakazam the Great was the main inspiration for the original concept. His final design made it to the official box art of Super Mario Bros. 🔯in Japan. It is Takashi Tezuka, a designer at Nintendo, who pointed out that Miyamoto’s “ox” had the body of a tu🤡rtle.
It is Yoichi Kotabe who we have to thank for Bowser’s distinctive features. An artist at Nintendo, he was asked to create new illus♔trations for the Mario series. Remembering Tezuka’s c🎐omments, he and Miyamoto worked together to come up with a new design for Bowser, one which is not only based on a turtle, but which makes a lot more sense story-wise. After all, he was already the king of the turtle-like Koopas, so why not make him look like the rest of the family?
24 His current appearance is similar to a Japanese demon ﷽
Even though Mr. Miyamoto has never confirmed it himself, some sources such as the Prima Super Mario Galaxy str🎀ate♔gy guide have theorized that Bowser’s current appearance could be based on that of a kappa, a Japanese demon. In the mythology, the kappa are turtle-like creatures that lure people into lakes and rivers and pulls them. Throughout Japan, these legends used to be told to children to warn them of the dangers of lurking near the water. When looking at illustrations of a kappa, such as the one above, it’s easy to see the similarities between “koopa” and “kappa.”
The Japanese legend resurfaces again in Super Mario World as Kappa Mountain, as the home of the Yellow Switch Palace. The mountain has a small lake in the middle, similar to how a kappa has a small water-filled depression on top of its head. Official sources at Nintendo deny that Bowser is based on a kappa, b⛦ut the similarities are still very interesting.
23 ♊ He is named after a Korean dish
Bowser’s full name in Japan can be translated as “The Great Demon King Koopa,” which is admittedly a lot scarier than “Bowser.” What is less scary however is that the “Koopa” part, or “Kuppa” in Japanese, is based on the name of a Korean dish. “Kuppa” is the Japanese name for “gukbap,” a soup-like dish with rice, which sounds delicious but lacks the intimidation factor. : “Yukke” and “Bibinba.” The first one is based on “yukh🐈oe,” a raw beef dish similar to steak tartare, while the second one is based on “b꧅ibimbap,” a dish of rice and sautéed vegetables.
As for “Bowser,” it was only introduced in the anglicized version of Super Mario Bros. Nobody seems to know just who is responsible for the translation, jus🀅t that the first mention comes from t▨he game’s instruction booklet.
22 His first scheme was downright ev🅘il
The instruction booklet for Super Mario Bros. teaches us a lot more about Bowser than just his ♍name. While Bowser’s usual schemes these days consists of kidnapping Peach and a very vague desire to “take over the world,” his first apparition was much darker story-wise. The game tries to portray Bowser as a powerful user of black magic, but the implications make him look like a genocidal maniac.
Here’s the : “The quiet, peace-loving Mushroom People were turned into mere stones, bricks♕ and even field horse-hair plants…”.
That’s right, the Toads are all turned into bricks, the very same 🌃bricks that you, as Mario, spend the whole game breaking for extra points. Was Mario aware of this detail the whole time? Or did Bowser knowingly omit this part of his ploy, letting Mario accidently slaughter thousands of Toad over the course of his rescue mission? Bowser goes right past “cunning” and straight into “evil” territory with this one.
21 ♎ He toned it down significantly over the years
After his attempted genocide of the entire population of the Mushroom Kingdom, Bowser turned down the crazy quite a bit with his next few plans. In Super Mario World, he settled for kidnapping dinosaurs on a remote island. In Yoshi’s Story, he steals a tree that makes the same dinosaurs happy. However, it is in a series of Mario spin-offs released in the 90s that Bowser was at his most comically bonkers. In Hotel Mario (an unpopular CD-I game), he transformed the Mushroom Kingdom into a hotel chain. In Mario’s Time Machine, he attempts to travel through time🌃 to steal ar🔯tifacts and open his own museum.
His Bugs Bunny-like logic reaches its apex in Mario Is Missing!, a game were he attempts to melt Antarctica using hairdryers. Still, hairdryers are expensive, so he must steal treasures to finance his scheme. His reasoning his sound, but that’s a far-cry from tricking Mario into slaughtering Toads. With the 90s far away behind him, Bowser has recently reverted to his Peach🐭-kidnapping ways. It's not as whimsical, but it fits his style a lot more.
20 😼He is a hard-working single dad
Bowser’s goal to kidnap Peach has at time been explained as him trying to find a mother for his kids. As an idea, it is terribly misguided, so the poor guy has to be getting des𒐪perate. After all, just how many kids doe💃s Bowser have anyway? Is it eight? Or is it just one?
In Super Mario Bros. 3, the seven Koopalings were introduced as Bowser’s children, with Morton making references to his dad in the instruction manual. The introduction of Bowser Jr. in Super Mario Sunshine complicated matters, making it uncertain if he was Bowser’s 8th offspring or if the Koopalings had vanished forever. Their reappearance in New Super Mario Bros.Wii forced Nintendo to : Bowser Jr.👍 is now his only son, and the Koopalings have simply been downgraded to “minions.”
Despite losing their family ties, the Koopalings have never been busier: following an appearance in New Super Mario Bros. U, they became playable characters in Mario Kart 8 and made their fighting debuts in the latest Super Smash Bros.
19 Bowsꦆer is an orphan
Bowser Jr. is not the only one whose mother is unknown. Bowser himself, per the Yoshi’s Island🌳 series, has never met his mom, nor has he met his dad.
In Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island, it is stated that Kamek the Magikoopa has been raising Bowser from infancy. In fact, Kamek spends most of the Yoshi’s Island games as well as Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time taking care of Bowser. This relationship carries over to other games, notably Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. If Bowser is in 🌱your party wဣhen Mallow’s Psychopath ability is used against a brainwashed Kamek, he thinks "That’s… my child?” when looking at his protégé.
Despite the similarities, Kamek should not be confused with Kammy Koopa, another Magikoopa which is oftജen portrayed as Bowser’s advisor. Their relationship is often strain⛄ed at best and sometimes antagonistic, making one wonder why Bowser keeps her around at all.
18 Bowse♊r is most probably immortal
As previously established, Bowser is a skilled black magician. This power can be used to explain anything, from the way he makes his castle fly in Paper Mario to his apparent iꦅmmortality. Though he can be defeated in game, have you noticed how he always appears unscathed in Mario’s next adventure? The amount of punishm💟ent he has gone through would kill any lesser being.
Further evidences of Bowser's immortality show up in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, where he has infinite lives in his platforming section. Still🦄, it is the most convincing demonstration of Bowser’s inability to die which is also the most gruesome. In many games, Bowser falls into lava only to emerge moments later as a living skeleton, his skin completely melted off yet fully aware and ready to keep fighting at the end of world eight. Think of the implication: Bowser should die of horrific injuries and yet he is cursed to keep shambling through life as the undead King of Koopas, battling Mario for eternity. The fact that he shows up in the next game with his skin intact means that either he's one hell of a magician or I am seriously overthinking this.
17 He is a persistent i💜ndividual who has (at the very least) kidnapped Peach 19 times
That’s right. An exhaustive and very scientific count shows that Bowser has at the very least kidnapped Peach nineteen times. This includes games in which he held onto Peach until the very end, but also games in which he either fails or his plan if foiled early on such as Super Mario RPG or Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga. An imaginative man, Bowser has tried many different ✃methods, from the simple (throwing her in a box and getting the hell out) to the overly complicated (burrowing his own castle underneath Peach’s castle, and then levitating both into the sky). If there was an award for perseverance, Bowser would be in serious contention.
The♕ reasons for the kidnapp🐲ing are often sketchy at best. Over time, Bowser has expressed his wish to dominate the Mushroom Kingdom, with the thought process being that marrying the ruler of the place (though forcefully) would make him the king. His plans have obviously failed each and every time, that is until a certain Count Bleck strolled into the picture...
16 Bowseꦛr and Peach are married 🦩
Although it is not Nintendo’s official position, all signs point to Bowser and Peach being lawfully married as of Super Paper Mario. The game presents a plot in which Count Bleck, the main villain, marries them in a ceremony to bring forth the Chaos Heart, thus putting the world in jeopardy as usual. The ceremony is brought to its conclusion and Bowse🌳r indeed spends the rest of the gam🌄e referring to Peach as his wife.
If you play Super Paper Mario to the end, you will notice that while Peach isn’t super into the idea of being married to Bowser, they never get divorced. Nintendo does not even mention the story in any interview or in later games. For all intents and purposes, these two are still lawfully wed, with Bowser’s ultimate goa🥂l being f𝔍inally achieved without any intervention on his part.