King Bowser Koopa
King Bowser Koopa (Japanese:クッパ), a fictional turtle character from Nintendo video games, is Mario and Luigi's archnemesis (although he has joined forces with them in a few games). He constantly kidnaps Princess Peach Toadstool and has repeatedly attempted to conquer the Mushroom Kingdom since his first appearance in Super Mario Bros..
In Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, and Super Mario All-Stars, his seven children helped him in his unsuccessful conquest.
It is arguable whether Mario and Bowser first encountered each other when they were babies in Super Mario World 2, or from old manuals that they actually first encountered each other when Bowser took Princess Toadstool captive in Super Mario Bros. However, it is generally held that Baby Mario and adult Mario are the same person, and more recent Nintendo manuals agree with this conclusion.
In Super Mario RPG Bowser teams up with Mario, Peach, and their two new friends Mallow and Geno in order to get his castle back from an extraterrestrial named Smithy (or Kajioo in Japan).
In Super Mario 64, he steals Peach's castle. In Paper Mario he steals Peach's castle again with the Star Rod. In Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga he tries to kidnap Peach but somebody else has gotten there first and so ends up in a complicated adventure to help Mario get her back so he can kidnap her. In Super Mario Sunshine, it is revealed Bowser has a son named Bowser Jr.. According to Nintendo materials, this is the same "Baby Bowser" who in Yoshi's Storyconverts Yoshi's Island into a storybook.
Bowser also appears in secondary Mario Games like Super Mario Kart, Mario Kart 64, Mario Golf, Mario Tennis, Tetris Attack and Super Smash Bros. Melee. In these games he is not the villain, but rather a selectable character that the player can chose to play as.
Bowser has been known by different names over the years, which have since amalgamated into his current title. In Japan, he has always been known as simply Koopa. When Super Mario Brothers came out in the US, he was given the more American name of Bowser, King of the Koopas. Confusingly, the American cartoons, such as the Super Mario Bros. Super Show, and the Super Mario Bros. movie consistently referred to Bowser as "King Koopa", never Bowser. Somewhere along the line the two names merged, and he is now known in America as being Bowser Koopa, with "Koopa" as his, and his children's, last name.
