Some days ago I wrote a first impressions post on Super Mario 3D World where I made this statement:
Isn't he just the coolest villain from any franchise ever? I just love the visual evolution that Bowser has had through the years. With every iteration they just make him cooler and cooler.
This made me want to take a deep dive into the evolution of Bowser through the years. How has he changed visually? How different is he today from what was envisioned in the beginning?
Seeing as the Super Mario franchise has a huge fandom and therefore an extensive and detailed Wikipage that was pretty much all I needed to put this together.
Then and now
Mariowiki
Above on the left is the very first iteration of Bowser. Or rather the earliest known concept artwork. On the right is the box artwork, drawn by Shigeru Miyamoto, for the first Super Mario Bros. This was before they had really settled on a final design which is why he is so drastically different today.
In the game however he looked more like the Bowser we know today. The earliest in-game version of Bowser can be seen on the left below while one of the latest can be seen on the right. There's been a lot of changes, not only the fact that he's a pixelated 2D-sprite in the first and a beast of a 3D rendered model on the right. I don't even know what he's supposed to be on the left, seeing as the idea and decision that he would be a turtle didn't come until after the release of Super Mario Bros. Since then his designed has always evolved to match that of a turtle with a spiky shell and red hair.
Strategy Wiki | Mariowiki
Enter 3D
In 1996 and with the release of Super Mario 64 we got to see the first 3D modeled version of Bowser. In all honesty, not that great of one. Even as a kid I thought Bowser looked weird in this model and now as a grown-up I finally see why. His head is way to big for his body. The proportions are out of balance and this makes him look like a big baby.
Still it's a huge step forward. The ability to start creating 3D models opens up a sea of possibilities. For Super Mario Sunshine however they've gone and fixed up his proportions and we get to see the first model that's gonna be moulded for years to come. The proportions and design from Sunshine is the same one we see today.
Variations
As mentioned from this point outward the design of Bowser is mostly kept intact. The proportions, design and color palette stays the same until this day. We do however get to see a lot of variations of him. A lot of awesome variations. One of the earliest ones being Mecha-Bowser and Dry Bowser.
With the release of the new Bowser's Fury we get to see the latest variation of Bowser. The cleverly named Fury Bowser. The darkest, the gloomiest and by far the coolest variation we have yet to see of him. There's gonna be some work ahead of them if they intend to top this one.
Enter weirdness
It has to be said that not every design of Bowser ever has been great. Nintendo and the video games aren't really at fault of this though. An attempt at a movie was made in 1993 with Super Mario Bros.. A live action movie. While the design of Mario and Luigi was quite decent, how far can a man with a mustache and red pants even go, Bowser was a different story. Named King Koopa in this movie and played by Dennis Hopper.
That's goombas in the background by the way. Just, what is this abomination? Sure, it's a live action movie but come on. Whoever thought this was a great idea deserved the 4.1 this movie scored on IMDB and the 35 it's currently sitting on at Metascore. But it doesn't stop there.
In the late 80s Bowser had his own TV-show called King Koopa's Cool Kartoons. It actually ran for two seasons with a total of 60 episodes but it's hard to understand why when you see the design of Bowser in this one. The 80s were weird.
I'm sorry I had to show you this. It was fascinating reading about the show and I recommend you do the same here.
The coolest there is
I'm gonna conclude here and now that Bowser is the coolest recurring villain in any video game series ever. It might sound weird when he's described as a giant turtle with red hair and spikes on his back, but there it is. It's the truth and if you disagree you're gonna have to fight me.
It does however need to be emphasized that he's the coolest in any video game series. We're not counting any movies or TV-shows into this equation for reasons I have already shown.
I'm quite impressed that they've managed to make this character cooler and cooler for 35 years. For 35 years this turtle has been the main villain in Nintendos biggest franchise. For 35 years he's just kept on getting cooler and cooler. That's amazing. Nintendos design team really is something special.
Let's end this post on a fun fact. Did you know that the president of Nintendo of America is named Doug Bowser? That doesn't bode well...
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