"I am waiting like an elevator. I have the commerce, I run Fawful's Bean 'n' badge but... The day comes soon when Fawful rises again, and then no baby's candy has safety! I am counting chickens before they are even eggs, before the chickens are even chickens! I! WILL! HAVE! FURY! I LAUGH AT DEFEAT! I FIGHT WITH RAGE! I HURT YOUR FACES!"
— Fawful, Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time
While Mario has faced many a foe trying to stomp him into oblivion, some jump out due to their cunning and charm.
Sections by release date.
All spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!
2D Games
- Super Mario Bros. Wonder: Bowser once again aspires for universal domination. Merging himself with a Royal Seed and Prince Florian's castle, he sets up a barrier to ward off anyone from stopping him as he absorbs more Wonder energy, having Bowser Jr. and Kamek distract Mario and friends from getting the Royal Seeds necessary for destroying his barrier. Having finished charging his energy by the time they accomplish this, he throws them into multiple gauntlets made by him before revealing his grand plan to hypnotize the universe with his Wonder-powered music. Treating the final confrontation like a rock concert while nonetheless fighting to the end, Bowser comes a hair's breath from turning everyone in the universe into his "captive audience".
3D Games
- Super Mario Galaxy: In this game, Bowser plans a scheme to conquer the universe. After acquiring the Grand Stars, Bowser then leads an airship assault on the Mushroom Kingdom to kidnap Peach. Having his troops scour the universe to conquer it, Bowser also fights Mario throughout the game—with Mario's victories proving useless since Bowser's final scheme was still active. Creating a Galaxy Reactor using a Grand Star, Bowser intends on creating a new universe for him to rule alongside Peach. Returning in the sequel, Bowser steals Grand Stars from Lubba and his Luma crew and uses them on himself to grant him immense power—later kidnapping Peach and restarting his scheme of universal hegemony, and attempting to devour the Comet Observatory to keep Rosalina from interfering. Orchestrating a scheme of a much grander scale compared to his usual ones with a dosage of Villain Respect to Mario, Bowser showcases how his brilliance can be a threat towards the whole universe.
- Super Mario 3D World: In this game, Bowser conquers the Sprixie Kingdom and keeps its princesses captive, while using the full might of his forces to repel Mario and his friends when they try to save the day. Seemingly defeated near the end of the story, Bowser recaptures the princesses in a surprise attack and retreats to World Bowser, where he reveals his secret weapons: the Super Bell and Double Cherry power-ups that the heroes had been using throughout the whole game, creating an unstoppable army of agile feline Bowsers that keep Mario and co. on their toes till the last second.
- Super Mario Odyssey: In this game, Bowser's scheme is to force Princess Peach to marry him on the moon, and he handily defeats Mario when he tries to stop him. When Mario and his new friend Cappy chase after him, Bowser and the Broodals go on a successful crime spree by stealing important items for the wedding from various kingdoms and forcing Mario to deal with the chaos left in their wake. Even when Mario catches up to Bowser, the Koopa King is able to get him off his tail by shooting down his ship, and then tames a powerful electric dragon to go after Mario when the plumber bounces back. Showing a lot more cunning than usual, Bowser leaves Mario in the dust time and time again, never failing to look stylish in the process.
Role-Playing Games
- Super Mario RPG: Johnathan "Johnny" Jones is the affable captain of the Sunken Ship crew guarding the fifth star piece. Having his ship sunk by King Calamari, he quarantines the squid in a password protected room before his quarters and sets up several puzzle rooms to prevent anyone from taking his star. Should Mario defeat all his minions, Johnny challenges him to a duel. When Mario proves his mettle, Johnny decides to relinquish the star to him, only for it to be taken by Yaridovich. Fortunately, Johnny predicted this, and stops the Blade from taking Yaridovich away, allowing Mario to defeat him and get back the star, showing an indisputable Noble Demon side.
- Paper Mario subseries:
- 64: Lady Bow is the aristocratic ruler of the Forever Forest who seeks to rescue her fellow Boos from their former bullying victim, the ghost-eating Tubba Blubba. To that end, she lures Mario to her mansion and tests his abilities with a variety of traps and puzzles. Upon his victory, Bow congratulates the plumber and reveals that she is holding a Star Spirit hostage, forcing Mario into an alliance to take down Tubba Blubba. Even after their success, Bow remains unapologetic for tormenting Tubba Blubba, yet promises to stop for the sake of her people, before releasing the Star Spirit and joining Mario's party to continue adventuring.
- The Thousand-Year Door:
- Ms. Mowz is a coy, flirtatious Badge thief who regularly breaks into places to steal Badges, then sells them at her own store, the Lovely Howz of Badges. Running into Mario multiple times while infiltrating dangerous and heavily guarded locations, Ms. Mowz takes the time to steal kisses from him and give him advice before escaping each time. Posting an anonymous request at the Trouble Center, if Mario takes it she sends him to find a cleverly hidden Badge before revealing that she hid the Badge to test his abilities and decides to join his party, using her item finding and thieving skills to help him in his adventures.
- Pirate King Cortez is the scourge of the Pirate's Grotto, and keeper of the fifth Crystal Star, attacking and shipwrecking all who come near Keelhaul Key with his Ember army, including several innocents. Cortez prepares traps in Pirate's Grotto to stop any intruders, complete with bone-chilling warnings. To even get into the Grotto Mario needs the jewel Flavio's father stole from Cortez several years ago. Helping to stop the X-Nauts in an Enemy Mine with Mario after he is defeated with his army, Cortez is a frightfully competent pirate king.
- Sticker Star & Color Splash: The Host Snifit is the charismatic head of Snifit or Whiffit, a game show that rewards winners with crucial items and punishes losers with death by poison gas. Introducing himself by holding a piece of Wiggler hostage, the Host Snifit forces Mario into four life-threatening rounds of Snifit or Whiffit to entertain the audience, before respectfully freeing the Wiggler segment when the plumber wins. Returning for Snifit or Whiffit: Seabed Edition, the Host Snifit, now guarding a Paint Star, welcomes Mario back before subjecting him to another seven, increasingly difficult rounds of his show under the threat of drowning to death. Despite his loyalty to Bowser and willingness to kill Mario, the Host Snifit nevertheless remains friendly and always honors his word.
- The Origami King: Scissors is one of King Olly's Lieutenants and the main guard for the final streamer. Having taken over Bowser's Castle, Scissors is first introduced cutting Bowser Jr. to pieces. After Mario and company fix Bowser Jr. and subsequently invade Bowser's Castle, Scissors ends up creating Handaconda to kidnap most of Mario's allies, and later a Paper Mistake Buzzy Beetle to impede him further. Finally battling Mario head on, Scissors sheaths their scissor blades and only unsheaths once Mario proves a challenge. A literal pair of scissors in a world of paper, they are dead serious in their mission to destroy Mario and help Olly conquer the Mushroom Kingdom.
- Mario & Luigi: Fawful is introduced as a kooky, crafty subordinate to Cackletta before graduating to Big Bad of the third game in the series. Covertly selling a mushroom causing the Blorbs disease to the Toads of the Mushroom Kingdom, Fawful takes advantage of the chaos to provide Bowser with the Vacuum Shroom to allow him to stir up more trouble as he inhales everything in sight. Taking over Bowser's castle, Fawful brainwashes the former's minions into helping him fatten their boss up to allow him to extract Princess Peach from his body and awaken the Dark Star to rule the Mushroom Kingdom. Even when faced down by Bowser and the Mario brothers, Fawful takes in all the power he can to fight to his last.
- Mario Party: Island Tour: Bowser, irritated over not receiving a Party Islands invite, creates a 30-story tower and a bubble machine to lock the fun of the Party Islands away. When the Player Character arrives to stop him, Bowser gloats that they're too late and employs many tricks to stop them from reaching him, including evil clones of player characters, bosses, and a roulette wheel. Bowser grows to respect the player's skills as they scale the tower, especially if his son, Bowser Jr., is chosen, and has standards over the worst possible roulette results. When the player defeats him, Bowser reveals the Final Boss battle was a decoy and knocks them off the tower, ultimately winning while daring the player to try again.
Related Works
- Wario Land: Captain Syrup, the sultry leader of the Black Sugar Gang, is Wario's chief rival and just as proficient as Wario himself. Showing her true cunning in Shake It!, Syrup seemingly puts aside her feud with Wario to help him gain the Bottomless Coin Sack from the notorious Shake King, even putting in her part to help the Merfles the King has kidnapped. After having used Wario to defeat the Shake King, Syrup doubles around to swipe the Sack for herself, revealing she negotiated it as a "finder's fee" from the Merfles behind Wario's back, driving off victorious with one more kiss blown to Wario and remaining syrupy-sweet every second of screentime.
- Donkey Kong 64: Snide was once King K. Rool’s chief technician who helped him create the Blast-O-Matic to destroy DK Isle, but when he was fired by K. Rool out of paranoia, Snide sought revenge. Secretly collaborating with the Kongs to put a stop to K. Rool’s plans, Snide is able to stall the Blast-O-Matic’s firing process long enough for them to stop the machine and eventually ensure K. Rool’s defeat.
- DK: Jungle Climber: King K. Rool aims to steal the Crystal Bananas to take over the universe. To this end, he and his men steal them from benevolent alien Xananab and flee before the Kongs arrived to investigate, leaving both parties to mistake each other as enemies and wreck the ship. Throughout the game, he stays one step ahead of the Kongs, using the Bananas to power up his minions to distract the Kongs, at one point luring them into a trap and leaving in his space ship before they got out. Eventually being cornered, he tricks the Kongs into preparing to fight him and escapes to Xananab's home world, fighting the Kongs when they follow and find him, first by replicating Donkey Kong's moves, and then by using the Banana to grow big and try to crush the Kongs.
