- This article is about the fake Bowsers from Super Mario Bros. For other uses, see Fake Bowser (disambiguation).
| Impostor Bowser | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 Artwork of a fake Bowser from Super Mario Run | |||
| First appearance | Super Mario Bros. (1985) | ||
| Latest appearance | Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition (2024) | ||
| Variant of | Koopa | ||
| |||
A fake Bowser, referred to as Bowser's decoy in NES Remix, is a standard enemy that was transformed by Bowser's black magic into a copy of himself. They first appear in Super Mario Bros.
Background
Concept and creation
The concept of fake Bowsers came about during development of Super Mario Bros. Since all enemies have their sprites flipped upside-down when they are defeated (except for Piranha Plants, which simply disappear, and Bullet Bills, which stay rightside up), one of the programmers accidentally inserted an upside-down Koopa Troopa shell when portraying Bowser's death animation as if he were defeated with fireballs. The developers liked this idea, and as a result, this idea was extended to most of the Bowser battles in the game.[1]
History
Super Mario Bros. / Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels / Super Mario Bros. Deluxe
In Super Mario Bros., the seven fake Bowsers are placed in each castle, with Bowser's Castle containing the real one. Defeating a fake Bowser with five fireballs reveals that they are really just common enemies disguised as Bowser. The enemies and their abilities are the following:
- World 1: Little Goomba - fire
- World 2: Green Koopa Troopa - fire
- World 3: Buzzy Beetle - fire
- World 4: Spiny - fire
- World 5: Lakitu - fire
- World 6: Bloober - hammer
- World 7: Hammer Brother - hammer
Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels additional worlds (in the Super Mario All-Stars version, the final fake Bowser is now replaced with the actual Bowser):
- World A: Goomba - fire (FDS) / Red Koopa Troopa - hammer (All-Stars)
- World B: Green Koopa Troopa - fire (FDS) / Green Cheep-Cheep - hammer (All-Stars)
- World C: Buzzy Beetle - fire (FDS) / Bullet Bill - hammer (All-Stars)
- World D: Spiny - fire (FDS)
The "You VS. Boo" challenge of Super Mario Bros. Deluxe:
- 1-4: Green Cheep-Cheep
- 2-4: Bullet Bill
Like Bowser, the blue Bowser's Brother in World D-4 is also a fake revealed to be a Spiny when defeated with fireballs, and only breathes fire. In Super Mario All-Stars, both of these fakes are replaced with the real ones that only throw hammers, although Bowser's Brother is now green and looks identical to his twin. Due to All Night Nippon: Super Mario Bros. also featuring Worlds A-D, all of the fake Bowsers from those worlds return, including the fake Bowser's Brother in World D-4.
Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3
In Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3, a fake Bowser appears as a boss in the World-e level Classic World 1-4, where it plays a similar role to that played in Super Mario Bros., though it looks identical to the game's real Bowser. It is revealed that the fake Bowser is a Goomba if it is defeated with fireballs.
Super Mario 3D Land
While typical fake Bowsers do not appear in Super Mario 3D Land, variants powered by Super Leaves known as Tail Bowsers make their first appearance.
Super Mario Run
In Super Mario Run, fake Bowsers appear at the end of the castle course, excluding World 6's Bowser's Bob-ombing Run which has the real Bowser. World 1's castle, Bowser's Castle Hangout, has a Goomba as the Fake Bowser. World 3's Fire Bar Castle! Youch! has a Green Koopa Troopa as the Fake Bowser, and World 5's Rings of Fire! has a Buzzy Beetle as the Fake Bowser. They walk back and forth along their bridge, occasionally shooting a Bowser's Flame, jumping, or jumping and briefly staying in the air to shoot a Bowser's Flame. A Pause Block placed directly before the bridge, and a cutscene forces the player to stop on it the first time the player enters the area per run of the course. Fire Bar Castle! Youch! adds a Fire Bar, while Rings of Fire! adds a Fire Chain. An Axe on the other side collapses the bridge, causing the Fake Bowser to reveal its true identity before falling into the lava.
Fake Bowsers do not have an entry in the Notebook. Rather, a Fake Bowser counts as the enemy using the disguise. Thus, the results screen for a course shows that enemy, and adds one to the number of that enemy defeated for the purposes of leveling up that enemy.
In Remix 10, some areas end in castles, with the VS Bowser course. A Fake Bowser must be defeated, through the same means as before. These courses allow the player to enter with a Super Star or while invincible, and touching a Fake Bowser while invincible defeats it instantly. It is knocked off the bridge without losing the disguise.
List of appearances
| # | Title | Role | Release date | Format
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Super Mario Bros. | Boss | 1985 | Family Computer / Nintendo Entertainment System |
| 2 | Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels | Boss | 1986 | Family Computer Disk System |
| 3 | Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 | Boss | 2003 | Game Boy Advance |
| 4 | Super Mario 3D Land | Boss | 2011 | Nintendo 3DS |
| 5 | Super Mario Run | Boss | 2016 | iOS, Android |
Gallery
The fake Bowser of World 1's true form: a Goomba.
A fake Bowser in Super Mario All-Stars
The first fake Bowser in Super Mario Run.
Names in other languages
| Language | Name | Meaning | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Japanese | にせクッパ[2] Nise Kuppa |
Fake Bowser; shared with Bowser Clone | |
| Dutch | Nep-Bowser[?] | Fake Bowser | |
| French | Faux Bowser[?] | Fake Bowser | |
| German | Falscher Bowser[?] | Fake Bowser | |
| Italian | Falso Bowser[?] | False Bowser | |
| Finto Bowser[3] | Fake Bowser | Super Mario Bros. Encyclopedia, Super Mario Party Jamboree | |
| Korean | 가짜 쿠파[?] Gajja Kupa |
Fake Koopa | |
| Russian | Поддельный Боузер[?] Poddelny Bouzer |
Fake Bowser | |
| Лже-Боузер (Super Smash Bros. Ultimate)[?] Lzhe-Bouzer |
- | ||
| Spanish | Bowser falso[?] | Fake Bowser |
Trivia
- The World 3 and World C (original) fake Bowsers are the only Buzzy Beetles that can be defeated by fireballs (outside of Super Mario Bros.: Peach-hime Kyūshutsu Dai Sakusen!), and the World C (All-Stars) and "You VS. Boo" 2-4 (Deluxe) ones are the only Bullet Bills that can be defeated by fireballs.
- The World A and World C fake Bowsers in All-Stars are the only fake Bowsers whose true forms are right-side-up instead of upside-down.
- In Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga and Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions, an exaggerated cardboard Bowser suspended by a pair of ropes over a bridge is seen at the end of a special area inside Bowser's Castle, which is a side-scrolling level imitating a Super Mario Bros. castle. Mario must move underneath the stationary object and touch the axe to make it fall.
- If the player beats Bowser's Sky Scuffle with any character barring Bowser Jr. in Mario Party: Island Tour, Bowser will reveal that the "Bowser" they defeated had been a decoy, which may have been a reference to the fake Bowsers.
References
- ^ https://www.giantbomb.com/false-bowser/3015-8320/[better source needed]
- ^ Nintendo (2020). CHARACTERS of Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros. 2. Nintendo (Japanese). Archived February 10, 2021 from the original via Wayback Machine. Retrieved March 20, 2021.
- ^ November 15, 2018. Super Mario Bros. Enciclopedia. Magazzini Salani (Italian). ISBN 889367436X. Page 22.