7 King Koopa Facts – Bowser Power

Bowser, King of the Koopa and arch nemesis of our mate Mario. Every good guy needs a bad guy to battle against and Bowser does a pretty awesome job of it! So it only seems fair that we delve a little deeper into the life of Bowser, for without him there would be no Princess to rescue or minions to jump on! So sit back, relax and enjoy these 7 Brutal Bowser facts! There is a video at the bottom for those of you that prefer your Mario’s in video form too!

Starting with Number 7 we have – Bowser Power

Think about Bowser for a moment…he is essentially a super charged, powerful spiky turtle that can breathe fire and has mastered black magic. His size seems to vary in every game. His sole aspiration in life is kidnapping the princess and taking over the mushroom kingdom. He leads a massive army of his own and is even king of his own world. Yet somehow this spiky turtle still can be beaten by an overweight plumber and also makes time to play a round of golf or two with his enemies now and then.

This leads us nicely to number 6 and– Multi Skilled Bowser

Is there anything this King of the Koopa’s can’t do? Bowser has featured in so many games now in so many roles, he has slowly become a jack of all trades! From mastering the Go Kart and Golf Swing to playing baseball and competing in Olympic game events, we can only wonder what Bowser will be doing next!

Number 5 – Clawdia Koopa

A Nintendo Power UK magazine once cited Bowser’s wife as being a mysterious “Clawdia Koopa”! So who is she and where is she now? No one knows. Since Bowser is so obsessed with the princess one can only presume she is off the scene. It does raise some further questions as to where Bowser Jr came from though! But dose Perhaps give some explanation to the Koopalings origins, but not really.

Number 4 – Bowser’s sweet rides

Bowser certainly likes to pimp his ride! Ever since Super Mario World and the introduction of Bowser’s flying Koopa Clown car contraption, it seems like he has been trying to top himself. His latest efforts in Super Mario 3D world with his Bowser Mobile Muscle car are making it plain that, combined with his princess snatching, he is trying to over compensate for something.

At Number 3 we have – Bowser’s original design

Because time was running short during the creation of Super Mario Brothers, Mr. Miyamoto actually drew the first version of the box art, including Bowser, himself! This original drawing was based on a tribute to the Ox Demon King from the Chinese Novel “journey to the west”, hence this original concept shows Bowser as an Ox with some spikes rather than a koopa! With a little help from Takashi Tezuka and the animation artist Yoichi Kotabe, Bowser’s new Koopa like form that we know and love today, came to fruition.

At Number 2 – A Bowser by any other name

Bowser is known by a ton of different names! To Rattle off a few others we have: “Bowser, king of the Koopa”, “King Koopa”, “Koopa”, “Great Demon King Koopa” and he is even referenced as “The sorcerer-king” in the Super Mario Bros. instruction manual.

And finally at Number 1 we have – Bowser’s Name origins

Believe it or not, Bowser’s name originates from a Japanese name for a Korean dish of food known as gukbap! When considering a name for the main villain of Super Mario Brothers Mr Miyamoto, for some unknown reason, was tossing up between a few Korean dish names and eventually “Kuppa” was the winner. When this name was anglicised it became Koopa which gives us King Koopa as he is mostly known as in Japan. As to the origins of the name “Bowser”? This came from a marketing team who were addressing concerns that the Western audience may have trouble accepting minor turtles and the major nemesis as both being Koopa’s! I’m not sure personally if they needed to worry but Bowser is a cool name so I’m not complaining!

And as per usual with our count down posts we have a video summing up these facts for those that prefer it! If you like our videos don’t forget to go and subscribe to our youtube channel too!