Koopa Kid
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Image:Koopa Kid Larry SMB3.png
A Koopa Kid — also known as a Koopaling, although this term usually refers to the first seven Koopa Kids that appeared in Super Mario Bros. 3 — is a character from the Super Mario Bros. series of video games. As far as it is known, there are eight Koopa Kids, all of them children of Bowser Koopa. Nothing else is known about their origins. The first seven originally appeared in Super Mario Bros. 3, and subsequently appeared in Super Mario World, Yoshi's Safari, Mario Is Missing!, and Hotel Mario. More recently, they appeared in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, and are suspected to be included in the soon to be released New Super Mario Bros. They are always world bosses, except for Mario & Luigi, in which they are minibosses in Bowser's castle. Oddly, in their appearance in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, the Koopa Kids never speak. The eighth Koopa Kid is Bowser Jr., who first appears in Super Mario Sunshine, and in later Mario spin-off games like Mario Kart: Double Dash!! and the various Mario sports games; promotional art shows that he will also be in New Super Mario Bros., making it the first game to feature all eight Koopa Kids.
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 Super Mario Bros. 3. Explains Shigeru Miyamoto: "This is another way we give recognition to the many people who help make the games successful." Template:Ref Nintendo did not initially name them for their debut in the Japanese version of Super Mario Bros. 3. It has been speculated by fans that the game's American translator at Nintendo of America named them after western celebritiesTemplate:Ref.
Image:Koopalingspan-a.jpg In the Mario cartoons, the original seven Koopa Kids were given different names, either to reduce the amount of money the show's producers, DiC, had to spend to reserve the rights to copyrighted character names, or because the characters were not officially named before the show started production. In a similar fashion, the Koopa Kids' father, Bowser, is almost always referred to as "King Koopa", in which this is how Bowser is known in Japan.
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Ludwig Von Koopa
Image:Ludwig.gif Ludwig Von Koopa resembles and is probably named after Ludwig van Beethoven, because they are both composers. (According to in-game text in Super Mario World, Ludwig composes "Koopa symphonies" in his castle.) He first appeared in Super Mario Bros. 3 as the boss of the seventh world, the Pipe Maze. The game's official player's guide claims that he is Bowser's "second-in-command", and he has the powers of his sister and brothers, including multiple blasts from his wand and ground-shaking stomps. In Super Mario World, Ludwig is boss of the Twin Bridges area. He is the oldest of the Koopalings.
In a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book, Ludwig kidnapped Princess Toadstool to be in his dance recital, but she was saved by the Mario Bros.
In the cartoon series, he was named Kooky Von Koopa and was the typical mad scientist character, inventing wicked devices for his dad, Bowser to use, such as a time machine to help prevent the Mario Brothers from even coming to the Mushroom Kingdom — because, in the series, the brothers were from Brooklyn, New York, in the "real world" — or a robot look-alike of Princess Peach that was programmed to turn the Mushroom Kingdom over to Bowser. Kooky's German-accented voice was provided by Michael Stark. The only major physical difference between Ludwig and Kooky is that Kooky has untamed hair and that Kooky is significantly smaller, girth-wise.
Lemmy Koopa
Image:Lemmy.gif Lemmy Koopa has rainbow hair, a lazy eye, and balances atop a rubber ball (his dream is to be in the circus). In Super Mario Bros. 3, Lemmy was the boss of the sixth world, Iced Land. In Super Mario World, Mario fought him in the subterranean Vanilla Dome area. In Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, and Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga, Lemmy's fighting style matched that of his sister, Wendy. In Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga, he was the third Koopaling to fight Mario and Luigi. He is the second oldest Koopaling.
In the cartoons he was named Hip Koopa and he often hung out with his similar-looking brother Hop (Iggy). The two of them shared most of their sentences (a la Donald Duck's nephews) and were usually seen pulling pranks. There are two major differences between Lemmy and Hip: Hip's hair is far thinner and Hop has an overbite. He and Iggy are twins. He was voiced by Tara Strong.
In the comic books, Lemmy was quite stupid but could somehow understand Larry's picture-only dialogue. He was also a fan of Mario's favorite comic book superhero, Dirk Drain-Head.
Roy Koopa
Image:Roy.gif Roy Koopa is the boss of The Sky and the Forest of Illusion in Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World, respectively. In both games, his trademark attack is a ground-shaking stomp to the ground, which paralyzes Mario for a few seconds, leaving him open to an attack from the Koopaling. He is the third oldest Koopaling.
In the cartoons, he was named Bully Koopa, and he acted according to what his name implied. Also, he spoke with a gruff Brooklyn accent, voiced by Dan Hennessey. He was usually seen beating up on his siblings, mostly Big Mouth (Morton) when he talked too much. Names aside, Roy doesn't seem to have any significant differences from his cartoon counterpart other than girth, as usual.
The comic books, however, did not carry the accent trait over, because Roy spoke in a standard English dialect in his one major Nintendo Comics System appearance. Incidentally, in the comics, it was revealed that he had a pet bunny named Pookie, whom he would often beat for Bowser's amusement.
Iggy Koopa
Image:IggyKoopa.gif Iggy Koopa is bespectacled, somewhat demented, inventor of the Koopa's Machinery, and has rainbow hair like his brother Lemmy. He's the boss of Giant Land in Super Mario Bros. 3, and he faces Mario in the first area of Super Mario World, Yoshi's Island. He is the fourth oldest Koopaling.
The artwork for Super Mario Bros. 3 portrayed Iggy with blue eyes, but later depictions (including Super Mario World and Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga) show him with eyes that are swirls instead, possibly to indicate the reflection. Iggy is responsible for inventing the robots that the Koopalings use in Yoshi's Safari.
In the cartoons, he was called Hop Koopa (Lemmy, his brother, was named Hip, a play on hip hop). Hop's overbite is the only significant way in which he differs from Iggy. Like Hip, Hop was also voiced by Tara Strong.
In the Super Mario Bros. movie, one of King Koopa's cousins is named Iggy, along with a female interest possibly modelled after Birdo.
Wendy O. Koopa
Image:Wendy.gif Wendy O. Koopa is the only female Koopa Kid. In Super Mario Bros. 3, Wendy is the final boss of Sea Side and in Super Mario World, she is the boss of Chocolate Island. She is the fifth Koopaling.
In the cartoons, she was named Kootie Pie Koopa, and was apparently sixteen years old, and often whined about everything. Frequently, Bowser would execute his schemes just to keep Kootie Pie pleased. There is little physical difference between Wendy and Kootie Pie. The only difference that really stands out is that Kootie Pie's bow is more pointy and has two fangs sticking out of her mouth. Her voice was that of Paulina Gillis.
Other than Lemmy, Wendy is the only Koopaling to appear in her own story in the comic books; in "Fins and Roses", she is setting up a trap for Mario when she attracts the attention of Stanley the Talking Fish. Thinking his romantic feelings for her are mutual, Stanley accepts one of Wendy's bombs as a gift, and Wendy attempts "to make the world a better place by removing Stanley from it." In the end, Wendy fails in both obliterating Mario and destroying Stanley, but Mario, having had to put up with Stanley before, calls a truce with Wendy so they can say mean and nasty things about Stanley.
Wendy also played a prominent part in the Super Mario Adventures comic serial that ran in Nintendo Power in 1992. There, she continually matches wits with Princess Peach, who torments Wendy by threatening to shred her favorite dress. Later, Wendy calls Peach's bluff when she threatens to blow up the tower they're in.
Wendy is one of the first Nintendo characters to distinguish herself as female by wearing a bow on her hairless head, and the first to do so in a game; other female characters who wear a bow include Birdo, who wears a similar bow on her head, Lady Bow from Paper Mario, who wears a smaller bow on each side of her head, and Candy Kong, who wears a bow in Donkey Kong Country, but not in any other games. Although Birdo appeared first, she only wore her bow in promotional materials, and didn't appear with a bow in a video game until Super Mario Bros. 2 was remade for the SNES compilation Super Mario All-Stars.
Morton Koopa Jr.
Image:Morton.gif Morton Koopa, Jr. is the boss of Desert Hill and the Donut Plains in both Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World, respectively.
In the cartoons he was named Big Mouth Koopa, ostensibly because he was more talk than action. Aptly, in the Super Mario World cartoon, he occasionally served as an announcer (until an annoyed sibling would toss him off the stage when he talked too much). There are a few physical differences between Morton and Big Mouth: Morton's shell is gray and Big Mouth's is purple; Big Mouth has much larger eyes and purple eyelids; and the star-shaped birthmark on Morton's face is darker around the cheek, while it's just one solid color on Big Mouth. Morton Jr. is also much larger than Big Mouth. Big Mouth's rambles were given by Gordon Masten.
The fact that Morton's name ends in a "Jr." has made some fans wonder if Bowser's actual first name is "Morton" as well. This may not the case, as the nominal suffix could merely be a nod to Morton's namesake, the late Morton Downey, Jr., just as the "von" in Ludwig von Koopa is a nod to Beethoven. Any speculation into other possibilities — brown-skinned Morton being adopted into the yellow-skinned Koopa family, for example — has no basis in Nintendo canon, as Nintendo has never opined on the issue, one way or the other. In fact, the editors of the magazine Nintendo Power once claimed that when they asked Bowser why Morton Koopa was called "Jr.", he responded by pelting them with Bob-ombs. He is the sixth Koopaling.
Larry Koopa
Image:Larrykoopa.gif Larry Koopa is the youngest of the original seven Koopalings and is the first boss Mario faces in Grass Land of Super Mario Bros. 3, but shows up in the last stage of Super Mario World, the Valley of Bowser.
In the cartoons, he was named Cheatsy Koopa and was usually scheming up the Koopa's next plan, sometimes with Kooky. A very common animation goof regarding Cheatsy was that his green head was often colored as orange as the rest of his body. One particular shot in the episode "The Beauty of Kootie" even had his head mistakenly colored purple! Then in the Super Mario World series, Cheatsy's hair was given a lighter grey-green color and drawn a tad thicker. This could be because his hair appears to be white in the original games (oddly, Ludwig's hair was white in the games as well, but his hair is unchanged in the cartoons). There are several physical differences between Larry and Cheatsy: Larry's hair is pointed upwards but Cheatsy's hair was flatter and much more untamed; Cheatsy was almost always seen squinting and was given an overbite. Cheatsy was voiced by James Rankin.
In the comic books published by Valiant, Larry didn't speak English; instead, his dialogue balloons contained various pictures. Only Lemmy was able to understand him.
Bowser Jr.
Image:ShadowMario.jpgImage:Bowserjr.jpg Bowser Jr. was the main villain in Super Mario Sunshine, in which he used an alter ego known as Shadow Mario (shown to the left) to frame Mario for vandalizing Isle Delfino using his magical brush made by Professor E. Gadd. He has since then appeared in Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, Mario Power Tennis, Mario Superstar Baseball, and Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour, the last of which inexplicably features his alter ego, Shadow Mario, as well. Starting with Mario Superstar Baseball, Bowser Jr. has been portrayed as a left-handed player.
In Super Mario Sunshine, Bowser Jr. was shown as covering his face with a drawing of Mario's distinctive nose and moustache (as pictured), presumably for his role as Shadow Mario. In future appearances however, this is replaced with a drawing of a set of fangs, which he can wear over his mouth — as it is in Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour and Mario Power Tennis — but which he can also hang loosely from his neck — as in Mario Kart: Double Dash!! and Mario Superstar Baseball. He only has two small fangs at the top of his mouth, and presumably he can use these images of fangs, when needed, to make himself look more menacing, and more like his dad.
Image:BowserJr2.jpgIn the Mario series, Bowser Jr. is voiced by Dolores Rogers. Confusingly, Tara Strong's official website lists her being Bowser Jr.'s voice in Super Mario Sunshine, despite her apparent absence from the game's credits.
Bowser Jr. is often confused with Baby Bowser, who appears in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, Yoshi's Story, and Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time. (Indeed, the character model for Baby Bowser in Mario & Luigi: Partners In Time is virtually identical to that of Bowser Jr., making it even more confusing for the uninitiated.) Baby Bowser, however, is the infant form of Bowser, rather than a child of his.
It is said that all of the Koopalings will be in the game New Super Mario Bros.
Koopa Kid (Mario Party)
Other characters that seem to be similar to Baby Bowser or Bowser Jr. have appeared in the Mario Party games under the names "Mini Bowser," "Baby Bowser", "Bowser's Cohort" and "Koopa Kid", the latter being the name they appear to stick with now. However, these games, created by Hudson Soft, don't follow the plotline of other Mario games, and the Bowser-related characters have larger horns. There is nothing to suggest that they are Bowser's offspring, like the Koopalings or Bowser Jr.
Mario Party 5 introduced three differently-colored Koopa Kids: Red Koopa Kid, Green Koopa Kid and Blue Koopa Kid. They have been around in the Mario Party Series ever since. While these three can compete with the player in mini-games in Mario Party 5 and 6, only the original Koopa Kid has ever been playable. Normally, that is, as the others could also be made playable via the debug menu (only in Mario Party 5 and 6). The Colorful Koopa Kids make cameo apperances in Bowser mini-games in Mario Party 7.