Big Bad / Super Mario Bros.

Mario, Luigi, and their fellow protagonists have faced many dastardly villains over the many years of their existence, whether it be King Bowser Koopa, ruler of the Koopa Kingdom, trying out his latest plot to kidnap Princess Peach and take over the Mushroom Kingdom, or a new villain with their own plans. Although Bowser is the Arch-Enemy of Mario, there are other villains as well to deal with, and even Bowser will often try different plots with each game. Given that Super Mario Bros. is the biggest Long Runner in gaming history, its no surprise that there are many Big Bads.

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Main Series

• Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong '94: The titular Donkey Kong himself kidnaps Pauline, requiring Mario to save her.
• Super Mario Bros.: King Bowser makes his first appearance here, having kidnapped Princess Peach and turned the Toads of the Mushroom Kingdom into blocks.
• Super Mario Bros. 2 and Doki Doki Panic: Wart is the leader of the 8-bits who invades Subcon and corrupts the Dream Machine.
• Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels: King Bowser returns and kidnaps Princess Peach once again.
• Super Mario Bros. 3: King Bowser, with the help of the seven Koopalings, invades the seven kingdoms and turns their kings into monsters, eventually kidnapping Peach again.
• Super Mario Land: Tatanga is the alien being responsible for kidnapping Princess Daisy and the chaos spread over Sarasaland.
• Super Mario World: King Bowser returns with his Koopalings to invade Dinosaur Land and kidnap Peach, requiring Mario to team up with Yoshi to save the island.
• Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins: Wario, Mario's greedy rival, has taken over Mario's castle and kingdom while he was off rescuing Daisy in the previous game.
• Super Mario 64: King Bowser has taken over Peach's castle and imprisoned Peach and her staff inside the paintings with the help of the Power Stars, which Mario must collect to save the princess and the Toads.
• Super Mario Sunshine: The mysterious Shadow Mario has vandalized all of Isle Delfino with magical goo that traps anyone who touches it like quicksand, and tries to repeatedly kidnap Princess Peach. However, it's really Bowser Jr working for his dad Bowser.
• New Super Mario Bros. series: King Bowser reprises his usual role of kidnapping Peach in every game. In the original Nintendo DS game, Bowser Jr. does it for him, in the Wii game, Bowser Jr. and the Koopalings kidnap Peach on her birthday on his behalf, in the 3DS game 2, the Koopalings have abducted her for him, and in the U games he does this by kicking Mario, Luigi, and two Toads out of their castle so he can take it over himself.
• Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario Galaxy 2: King Bowser has become a Galactic Conqueror with the power of the Grand Stars, and kidnaps Peach with the intent to have her become his bride as he makes himself king of the universe. In the latter, he also abducts Rosalina and her Comet Observatory, his biggest opposition from the former when he drained the Comet Observatory's power.
• Super Mario 3D Land: As usual, King Bowser kidnaps Peach, requiring Mario to save her. Meanwhile, in the Special Worlds, Dry Bowser kidnaps Luigi, and Mario must save him- after defeating him, Bowser kidnaps Peach one last time.
• Super Mario 3D World: King Bowser, this time, has kidnapped the seven Sprixie Princesses, and Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Toad must venture to the Sprixie Kingdom to save them all.
  • Bowser's Fury: Fury Bowser, a powerful new form of Bowser corrupted by black goop, is rampaging throughout Lake Lapcat, and Mario must team up with Bowser Jr. to restore Bowser to sanity.
• Super Mario Run: Bowser is back, having kidnapped Peach yet again. He also kidnaps Daisy as well in the remix 10 mode.
• Super Mario Odyssey: King Bowser has kidnapped Princess Peach and this time is fully intent on marrying her, hiring the Broodals to help him invade several kingdoms and steal precious artifacts for his wedding.
• Super Mario Bros. Wonder: Invading the Flower Kingdom, Bowser this time has gotten a hold of a Wonder Flower, which transforms him into a massive castle stronghold. Throughout the game he gains more power, planning to use it to make his ultimate Wonder come true: have the entire universe forever rave to his magical music.

RPG Spinoffs

• Super Mario RPG: Smithy is the leader of the Smithy Gang, a team of sentient weapons, who wants to create a world of weapons for him to rule.
• Paper Mario:
  • Paper Mario 64: King Bowser kidnaps Princess Peach, steals the Star Rod so he can control all wish granting, and imprisons the Star Spirits, and all of the chapter bosses are working for him, contrasting the sequels where quite a few chapter bosses are unrelated Arc Villains.
  • Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door: Sir Grodus, the leader of the X-Nauts, desires world domination and wants to use the treasure behind the titular Thousand-Year Door to do so. Ultimately, however, the instigator of the plot was revealed to be not Grodus, but Beldam, who used Grodus to release the "treasure", the Shadow Queen, the Greater-Scope Villain who destroyed Rogueport long ago and becomes the Final Boss when Grodus is taken care of and Beldam reveals her true agenda.
  • Super Paper Mario: Count Bleck is an Omnicidal Maniac who desires to destroy all dimensions and uses the Dark Prognosticus to open The Void for this end. He does this because he lost his true love, Timpani, and wants to destroy everything that took her away from him. But after defeating him, he is revealed to be an Unwitting Pawn of Dimentio, initially believed to be one of his followers, who actually wants To Create a Playground for Evil.
  • Paper Mario: Sticker Star: King Bowser once again kidnaps Princess Peach and also is responsible for destroying the Sticker Comet and scattering the Royal Stickers, one of which stuck to his head and made him Brainwashed and Crazy.
  • Paper Mario: Color Splash: King Bowser, who's now covered in black paint and is the mastermind behind Prism Island losing its colors. Ultimately subverted, as he's actually The Heavy to the sentient black paint. He accidentally created it by mixing every color of paint together and ended up possessed by it as a result.
  • Paper Mario: The Origami King: The eponymous Origami King, King Olly, conquers the Mushroom Kingdom by taking over Princess Peach's Castle and turning the princess herself, as well as Bowser and his minions, into origami creatures.
• Mario & Luigi:
  • Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga: Cackletta the witch steals Peach's voice to awaken the dream-granting Beanstar and conquer the Mushroom and Bean kingdoms. Or at least, she tries to, and once she realizes she's failed, she possesses Bowser, kidnaps Peach and tries to destroy the Beanbean Kingdom with Bowser's flying castle.
  • Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time: Princess Shroob is the leader of the Shroob aliens and directing their Alien Invasion of the Mushroom Kingdom. However, there's two of them, the one seen for most of the game is the younger sister: the Elder Princess Shroob is sealed inside the Cobalt Star and takes over when her sister is beaten.
  • Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story: Fawful, originally The Dragon to Cackletta, has amassed his own army and seeks to use the power of the Dark Star to conquer the Mushroom Kingdom (plus capturing Peach). He's later usurped by the Dark Star, which merges with him.
  • Mario & Luigi: Dream Team: The game has a Big Bad Duumvirate between King Bowser and his new partner, Antasma the nightmare monster, who shattered the Dark Stone, causing the pieces to rain down on the enitre Pi'iilo race, turning them to stone until the Mario Bros. rescue them. They intend to use the Dark Stone's light counterpart, the Dream Stone, to take over the world. Bowser ultimately ends up double-crossing Antasma and replacing him as the main antagonist, which is actually rather surprising given the secondary status he has in most Mario RPGs.
  • Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam: Bowser and Paper Bowser form a Big Bad Duumvirate after the book containing the Paper Mario characters is opened, releasing them into the regular world, and capture their respective Peaches in order to defeat the Mario Bros. and destroy the Paper world.
  • Minion Quest: The Search for Bowser: Fawful, though technically working for Cackletta, is the one who brainwashed the Koopa Troop, who Captain Goomba and his allies must rescue, and Fawful even goes against Cackletta's orders in the endgame.
  • Bowser Jr.'s Journey: The ultimate enemy in Bowser Jr's quest to cure the Blorb epidemic is revealed to be the Best Fitness Friends, a trio of beauty supply salespeople and personal health fanatics known as Dieter, Kaley, and Beef, who sent Bowser Jr. to collect the recipe for the Blorb cure. They are actually the Brute Force Federation working for Fawful who sent Bowser Jr. away so they can seize Bowser's castle. They are also planning to overthrow their boss and take over the Mushroom Kingdom for themselves.

Donkey Kong Subseries

• Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong 3 both have the titular Donkey Kong, whom Jumpman (the original identity of Mario) must rescue Pauline from.
• Donkey Kong Junior has Mario. This time he kidnaps Donkey Kong, leaving Donkey Kong Jr. to rescue him.
• Since Donkey Kong Country, King K. Rool has been the Big Bad and Final Boss of the majority of the Donkey Kong games up until his inexplicable disappearance. Each game has him attempt various schemes under different personas in order to eradicate the Kong family.
  • Donkey Kong Country: King K. Rool has stolen the Kongs' bananas, and they must get them back.
  • Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest: Kaptain K. Rool, an alter-ego of King K. Rool, has kidnapped Donkey Kong himself and is holding him ransom for the Kongs' banana hoard, so Diddie and Dixie must save him.
  • Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!: KAOS is the new, robotic leader of the Kremlings who has abducted Donkey and Diddy, leaving Dixie and Kiddy to save them. Its eventually revealed that KAOS is a creation of Baron K. Roolenstein, another alter-ego of K. Rool.
  • Donkey Kong 64: King K. Rool plans to use his Blast-O-Matic to destroy DK Isles for good, and has kidnapped four of the Kongs.
  • Donkey Kong Country Returns: Tiki Tong is the leader of the Tiki Tak Tribe who his minions hypnotize the residents of DK Island into stealing his banana hoard, so that he may use them to expand his forces.
  • Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze: Lord Fredrik, the leader of the Snowmads. After bringing an Endless Winter to DK Island, Lord Fredrik and the Snowmads take over the island, with DK and co. having to take it back from him.
• Diddy Kong Racing: Wizpig invades Timber's island, and Diddy has to confront and race his brainwashed friends to get a chance to race Wizpig and force him to leave.
• Donkey Kong Jungle Beat: The Cactus/Ghastly King hypnotized the other Kongs into serving him and leads the Evil Kings in stealing the bananas of the monkey tribes.
• DK: Jungle Climber: King K. Rool has stolen the magical crystal bananas from Xananab so he can become a Galactic Conqueror.
• Mario vs. Donkey Kong: In each game, Donkey Kong kidnaps Pauline for whatever reason, and Mario has to save her once again.

Wario Subseries

• Wario Land:
  • Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3: Captain Syrup is the one who steals Mario's giant golden statue, which Wario wants to recover for a reward.
  • Virtual Boy Wario Land: Demon Head is the master of the Awazon River cavern and leader of the Mask-Guys who trap Wario inside the cavern.
  • Wario Land II: Captain Syrup returns after her defeat in the first game and steals all of Wario's treasure for revenge.
  • Wario Land 3: Rudy the Clown is the one responsible for all the monsters, and he is also the imprisoned being that Wario spends the game trying to free.
  • Wario Land 4: The Golden Diva guards the treasure of the pyramid and is the one who turned Princess Shokora into the Black Cat.
  • Wario Land: Shake It!: The Shake King is the one who kidnapped Queen Merelda and stole the bottomless coin sack, the latter of which is what Wario is after.
• Wario's Woods: Wario himself uses his magic powers to take over the Peaceful Woods and rename them after himself, and Toad must stop him.
• Wario World: The Black Jewel transforms Wario's treasure into monsters and wreaks havoc in his castle, turning it into another realm.
• Wario: Master of Disguise: Count Cannoli and Carpaccio are Wario's main rivals in finding the pieces of the Wishstone, the former being a Phantom Thief known as the Silver Zephyr, and the latter is the head of Sigil Securities. Until Tiaramisu, the cute girl who has been helping Wario, reveals herself as the ancient demon Terrormisu that Carpaccio's been trying to stop.
• WarioWare:
  • WarioWare Gold: Wario himself is revealed as the thief who stole the golden pot from Luxeville and created the Wario Bowl tournament as a scam to trick the competitors into forking over their money to him.
  • WarioWare: Get It Together!: The Game Bugs (led by the Mega Bug) end up corrupting and causing havoc on the crew's newest game, and are the reason why The Supreme Developer summoned the crew into the game world in the first place. It is later revealed in one cutscene that Wario is the one that was responsible for creating them, albeit unintentionally.

Other Spinoffs

• Wrecking Crew: Foreman Spike is the Mario Brothers' Bad Boss that does all he can to impede the progress of their demolition work. He's later Demoted to Dragon in Wrecking Crew '98, with King Bowser being the main villain as usual.
• Yoshi's Island:
  • Series-wide: The antagonists of the series are Baby Bowser and Kamek the Magikoopa, as the one kidnapping babies and trying to stop the Mario brothers from growing up to become threats to the Koopa Kingdom in the future. While Baby Bowser is technically Kamek's boss, he's too immature and young to be the bigger schemer and threat that he is as an adult, leaving Kamek to essentially do the heavy lifting of being a threat to the Yoshis.
  • Yoshi's Safari: King Bowser has kidnapped King Fret and Prince Pine, and shattered Jewelry Land into the Light Realm and Dark Realm by stealing the twelve gems that keep the land balanced.
  • Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island: Kamek kidnaps Baby Luigi and does everything he can to kidnap Baby Mario.
  • Yoshi's Story: Baby Bowser is center stage as the villain since Kamek is absent - here, he steals the Super Happy Tree and traps the eight Yoshis in a magical storybook.
  • Yoshi's Universal Gravitation: King Bowser is rampaging across Yoshi's Island, causing Hongo to seal the island in his Forbidden Pop-Up Book.
  • Yoshi's Island DS: Kamek is once again the antagonist, this time kidnapping babies from around the world. Until it turns out that he's been working for the future Bowser, who seeks the seven Star Children to become a Galactic Conqueror.
  • Yoshi's New Island: Kamek and Baby Bowser once again kidnap Baby Luigi and seek Baby Mario, with Baby Bowser wanting to turn Egg Island into his own personal resort.
  • Yoshi's Woolly World: Baby Bowser has ordered Kamek to transform the yarn Yoshis into inanimate Wonder Wool so he can turn them into a new castle.
  • Yoshi's Crafted World: Baby Bowser and Kamek cause the Sundream Stone and its five jewels to be scattered across the world, and seek to collect them for their own nefarious purposes.
• Mario Party: King Bowser is usually the main enemy, sabotaging the parties in each game and making trouble for the playable characters. The only exception is Super, where Bowser is instead a more-or-less benevolent playable character and there is No Antagonist.
  • Mario Party: Bowser shows up in each board to try to stop the heroes from completing each objective, eventually stealing all the player's 100 stars and challenging them to go to Eternal Star, the final board he has broken up, to get them back.
  • Mario Party 2: Bowser invades Mario Land, a new world that Mario and friends have created, to take it over for himself.
  • Mario Party 3: Bowser seeks the Millenium Star to become the Superstar of the universe. However, he winds up beaten by Waluigi, who becomes the villain instead.
  • Mario Party 4: Bowser repeatedly tries to sabotage the birthday celebrations of the characters in the Party Cube, and in the climax of Story Mode, steals all the presents for himself.
  • Mario Party 5: Bowser intends on conquering Dream Depot with his Koopa Kids.
  • Mario Party 6: Bowser tries to stop Mario and friends' efforts to mend the relationship between Brighton and Twila.
  • Mario Party Advance: Bowser invades Party World and scatters the Gaddgets and minigames throughout, requiring the hereos to get them back.
  • Mario Party 7: Bowser tries to ruin the heroes' luxury vacation as revenge for not being invited.
  • Mario Party 8: Bowser is trying to ruin the Star Carnival for the heroes, and in the climax of Star Battle Arena, outright steals the Star Rod.
  • Mario Party DS: Bowser uses his Minimizer to shrink the heroes and steal the Sky Crystals.
  • Mario Party 9: Bowser is sucking the Mini Stars into a vortex to use their power, and the heroes must team up to stop him.
  • Mario Party: Island Tour: Bowser, anrgy that he has not been invited to a party yet again, builds a giant tower and locks away all the fun in the Party Islands inside the tower.
  • Mario Party 10: Bowser is out to regain the Mini Stars and turns himself giant to personally chase the party down and stomp them down.
  • Mario Party: Star Rush: Bowser leads his minions in stealing as many Power Stars as they can.
• The Luigi's Mansion series has King Boo leader of the Boos, who kidnaps Mario and traps him in a painting in each game, requiring Luigi to rescue him:
  • Luigi's Mansion: King Boo traps Mario in a painting and releases the Portrait Ghosts inside E. Gadd's gallery in order to avenge the Boos that Mario had defeated in the past.
  • Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon: King Boo shatters the titular Dark Moon, making the spirits of Evershade Valley go insane, and kidnaps Mario again in order to seek revenge on Luigi and E. Gadd for defeating him.
  • Luigi's Mansion 3: King Boo teams up with Helen Gravely, who idolizes him, to trap Luigi's friends and family in the Last Resort and take down Luigi for good.
• Mario Pinball Land: Bowser invades the Fun Fair and kidnaps Peach, requiring Mario to save her again.
• Dance Dance Revolution Mario Mix: Waluigi tries to steal the four Music Keys and causes them to be scattered, bringing chaos. However, he's beaten pretty early, and Bowser ends up being the final antagonist when he steals all four keys near the end.
• Hotel Mario: Bowser kidnaps Peach and hides her in one of his seven hotels run by the Koopalings.
• Super Princess Peach: King Bowser kidnaps the Mario Bros this time around, and is wreaking havoc on Vibe Island, requiring Peach to step up to the hero role.
• Princess Peach: Showtime!: Madame Grape is the leader of the Sour Bunch who terrorizes and takes over the Sparkle Theater where she tortures the Theets and plans to destroy their hopes and dreams as well as the Sparkle Theater as her ultimate vision of a perfect tragedy.
• Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker: Wingo, a Feathered Fiend who steals Power Stars and kidnaps the main characters multiple times over the course of the game.
• Mario Super Sluggers: Bowser Junior takes over the Baseball Kingdom, and your mission is to defeat him in his own arena. Though the final challenge is Bowser, not him.
• Mario Tennis Aces: Lucien is an evil tennis racket from the Kingdom of Bask who possesses Wario, Waluigi, Luigi, and finally Bowser in its plot to Take Over the World.
• Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle: Bowser Junior is the one scaring and pressuring Spawny into creating the villains and monsters of the game, until he gets overshadowed by the Megabug, a virus created by the Rabbids' time-washing machine and Supa-Merge who possesses Bowser and turns Rabbids evil.
  • Donkey Kong Adventure: Rabbid Kong, previously a mere boss, becomes the antagonist when he stomps Rabbid Peach into the ground as revenge for her causing his defeat, setting Donkey Kong and Rabbid Cranky against him.
  • Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope: Cursa is the reincarnation of the Megabug from the first game who possesses Rosalina and aspires to kill all of the Sparks, fusions of the Lumas and Rabbids, by absorbing their life energy so that it can take full control over Rosalina by spitefully crushing her with despair and terrorizes multiple planets across the universe with its ultimate end-goal being to destroy the entire universe by covering it in darkness.