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The Koopa Troop (also known as the Koopa Clan, Bowser Baddies, Koopa Pack in The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, Turtle Tribe,[1], Koopa Corps, Team Bowser, or simply the Koopa) is an alliance led by King Bowser Koopa, and they serve as his armed forces. The Koopa Troop has taken over the Mushroom Kingdom multiple times and has even attempted to take over the universe. Many of their goals are based entirely on Bowser's own interests such as getting Bowser to marry Peach. Not all the members of the troop are Koopas as there are other creatures in this group as well, although they serve as the majority of the members and also have high-ranking roles. According to official Japanese character books, the army is led by the Turtle Tribe, with older material indicating the members of Bowser's Royal Family as leaders. In both the Super Mario Pia and the Encyclopedia Super Mario Bros. the Royal Family term is missing, and in general the organization of Bowser's army is no longer explained, with the former reconfirming that the Turtle Tribe still leads it. As proven in New Super Mario Bros., Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, and Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr.'s Journey, when Bowser is absent, his son takes leadership of the Koopa Troop.

The Koopa forces differ from game to game, though Goombas and Koopa Troopas are consistently among the most common, and Magikoopas, Hammer Bros., and Koopatrols are usually among their elites.

History[]

During Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, Bowser's Keep is invaded by the Smithy Gang via Exor. By the time Bowser is met at Booster Tower, there are no more remaining Koopa Troopers by his side. He claims that Mario, Mallow, and Geno are active members when he joins the party (although it is heavily implied that he did this so he can avoid the humiliation of having to ask for their help). In Super Mario 64, Bowser would place his troop in numerous paintings to attempt to kill Mario (and stop his plans) and keep the stars in those paintings even putting how many stars it takes to enter each room. The Koopa Troop members in each painting would vary based on the type of painting it is. Certain Troop leaders in each painting would fight and try to kill Mario to stop him from getting the star. Bowser also kidnapped Peach in this game and would attempt to marry her which later fails at the end of the game when Mario saves her.

The Koopa Troop plays varying roles in the Paper Mario series. In particular, during the events of the first game, Bowser dispatched the Koopa Troop to halt Mario's attempts at restoring the Star Spirits. Aside from this, they also engaged in some side-activities such as holding a game show, with Peach acting as a contestant, and one Goomba even managed to use the castle armory as a makeshift shop for Mario and his party. In Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Bowser summons the Koopa Troop to confront the X-Nauts led by Lord Crump in Twilight Town, as the latter was trying to find the Superbombomb. This quickly turned largely to fighting over the Crystal Stars, however, with the conflict ending abruptly soon after; when the Superbombomb failed to detonate upon hitting Bowser, he then unleashed a plume of flame breath that inadvertently set it off and wiped out both sides.

In Super Paper Mario, Bowser gives a morale-raising speech as part of preparations to invade Peach's castle, completely unaware that she had already been abducted by an unknown third party until the Mario Bros. confront and accuse him of kidnapping her. However, neither he nor the rest of the troop could act on this information before the one responsible for her abduction, Count Bleck, proceeded to capture them as well as Luigi. The Koopa Troop later attended a "wedding" helmed by Count Bleck and his majordomo Nastasia, with Bowser eagerly wishing to marry Peach, while Peach was forced via hypnosis on Nastasia's part to accept the proposal. However, this turned out to have been done in order for Bleck to create the Chaos Heart to wipe out all existence due to grief. A Hammer Bro captain and Koopa Troopa named Private Koopa attempted to aid Peach in escaping while two Goombas (one named Gary) coerced Luigi into helping them escape; however, Nastasia thwarted the escape attempts by brainwashing the captain, Private, and Gary, while the other Goomba cowardly defected to her side. Although Peach ended up escaping due to unknown factors, Luigi was successfully brainwashed into becoming Mr. L by Nastasia. Bowser and presumably any Koopa Troop members who hadn't been brainwashed by Nastasia were then dispatched to the Bitlands, where they had a brief run-in with Mario and the escaped Peach. After being defeated in a brawl by his nemesis, Bowser agreed to aid Mario in stopping Count Bleck (as his plan of destroying all existence would obviously prevent any chance at Bowser conquering the world); he then had the Koopa Troop hold down the fort, although it was implied that they intended to use Bowser's departure to hold a party in his absence).

In Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, a group of troops which Bowser dubs the Bowser Baddies man the Koopa Cruiser. Bowser mistakes Luigi as an eager recruit, and takes him along Mario's quest to reclaim Princess Peach's voice from the Beanbean Kingdom, but the Baddies and their King are swiftly dealt with by Cackletta and Fawful. After Cackletta possesses Bowser's body, she takes control of his castle and the Koopa Troop to destroy the Beanbean Kingdom, but the Mario Bros. stop her. The Nintendo 3DS remake of the game, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions, adds a story mode that focuses exclusively on Bowser's troops. In it, they are dubbed Bowser's Minions in the English localization. During this story mode, the troops, led by Captain Goomba, set out to reunite and recruit all the troop members, and eventually rescue Bowser. The remake also shows that Bowletta duped the Koopa Troop, including the Koopalings, into fighting for her and impeding the Mario Bros. by faking Bowser's return.

In Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, the crew of the Koopa Cruiser make a second appearance.

In Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, the Koopa Troop is shown to be split into different divisions (the Goomba unit, the Shy Guy unit, the Koopa unit, the Bob-omb unit and the Magikoopa unit), as evidenced when Fawful shows Bowser his captured soldiers. As Bowser rescues his soldiers, he is able to use them as Brawl Attacks, for example, using a squadron of Shy Guys to sling Bowser forward to the enemy. The remake of this game once again features a story mode where the minions are controlled, this time led by Bowser Jr., who sets out to cure the Koopa Troop of their own case of the Blorbs in Bowser's absence.

In The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, the enemies under the command of King Koopa are often referred to as the Koopa Pack, although it seems to be used interchangeably between generic minions of King Koopa and a core group consisting of King Koopa, Mouser, Tryclyde, and a single Koopa Troopa. On one occasion, they also went by Koopa Troopers and Team Koopa. In the show, all of the members (except for King Koopa) are somewhat unintelligent. In Raiders of the Lost Mushroom, Mouser, Tryclyde, and Koopa Troopa said that stealing is wrong, which made King Koopa (or Kolonel von Koop as he was called) angrily hit them with a whip and say that bad guys are supposed to steal.

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, the Koopa Troop forms part of the Subspace Army, commanded by Bowser, Ganondorf, and Wario. Although the group is led by Master Hand, it is later revealed the he is being used by Tabuu in order to trick the three commanders into enveloping the World of Trophies into Subspace.

On some occasions, Bowser has teamed up with others (such as Luigi in Super Paper Mario and Antasma in Mario & Luigi: Dream Team) to achieve a common goal, but in these instances, these characters are not considered part of the Koopa Troop. In the Super Mario Movie, Bowser and the troop attempted to kill Mario, purposefully took Mario out of Rainbow Road, and Bowser even attempted to marry Peach (after he kidnapped her) before the troop would attempt to destroy the Mushroom Kingdom.

Profiles[]

New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe[]

  • North American website bio: "As if Bowser wasn't bad enough! Now Bowser Jr. and the Koopalings are on the move, and they'll use every dirty trick in the book to stop Mario and his friends from reaching Princess Peach's castle!"

Game appearances[]

Title Release date System/Format
Super Mario Bros. 1985 NES
Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels 1986 FDS
Super Mario Bros. 3 1988 NES
Super Mario World 1990 SNES
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island 1995 SNES
Super Mario 64 1996 N64
Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars 1996 SNES
Paper Mario 2000 N64
Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2 2001 GBA
Super Mario Sunshine 2002 GameCube
Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3 2002 GBA
Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 2003 GBA
Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga 2003 GBA
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door 2004 GameCube
Super Mario 64 DS 2004 DS
Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time 2005 DS
New Super Mario Bros. 2006 DS
Super Paper Mario 2007 Wii
Super Mario Galaxy 2007 Wii
Super Smash Bros. Brawl 2008 Wii
Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story 2009 DS
New Super Mario Bros. Wii 2009 Wii
Super Mario Galaxy 2 2010 Wii
Super Mario 3D Land 2011 3DS
New Super Mario Bros. 2 2012 3DS
Paper Mario: Sticker Star 2012 3DS
New Super Mario Bros. U 2012 Wii U
New Super Luigi U 2013 Wii U
Mario & Luigi: Dream Team 2013 3DS
Super Mario 3D World 2013 Wii U
Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros Edition 2015 3DS
Super Mario Maker 2015 Wii U
Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam 2015 3DS
Paper Mario: Color Splash 2016 Wii U
Super Mario Maker for Nintendo 3DS 2016 3DS
Super Mario Run 2016 iOS/Android
Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions 2017 3DS
Super Mario Odyssey 2017 Nintendo Switch
Mario Party: The Top 100 2017 3DS
Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr.'s Journey 2018 3DS
New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe 2019 Nintendo Switch
Paper Mario: The Origami King 2020 Nintendo Switch

Notable leaders[]

Notable Members[]

  • Army Hammer Bro
  • Baron Brrr
  • Bessie Bass
  • Big Bob-omb
  • Big Bully
  • Big Guy the Stilted
  • Bigger Boo
  • Boom Boom
  • Boss Brolder
  • Boss Sumo Bro
  • Bouldergeist
  • Bugaboom
  • Burt the Bashful
  • Buzzar
  • Cheepskipper
  • Chief Chilly
  • Cloud N. Candy
  • Corporal Paraplonk
  • Crystal King
  • Dino Piranha
  • Eyerok
  • General Guy
  • Giga Lakitu
  • Gilbert the Gooey
  • Glamdozer
  • Goomba King
  • Gooper Blooper
  • Hisstocrat
  • Hookbill the Koopa
  • Huff 'n Puff
  • Kamella
  • King Boo
  • King Kaliente
  • King Ka-Thunk
  • Lakithunder
  • Major Burrows
  • Marching Milde
  • Megasparkle Goomba
  • Mizzter Blizzard
  • Motley Bossblob
  • Mummipokey
  • Peewee Piranha
  • Petey Piranha
  • Pom Pom
  • Prince Bully
  • Priscilla the Peckish
  • Private Goomp
  • Raphael the Raven
  • Rollodillo
  • Sergeant Guy
  • Tarantox
  • Topmaniac
  • Tower Power Pokey
  • Tubba Blubba
  • Tutankoopa
  • Whomp King

Notable Species[]

Notable Enemies[]

Gallery[]

References[]

  1. Super Mario Bros. English instruction booklet, page 2.
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