We all know Bowser. That large turtle dude who’s jealous at Mario and Co. for having fun and partying around. So, he gets angry and decides to attack with bad news. When Bowser appears in any Mario Party, we know that it’s nothing but bad news. Sometimes, you just want to (insert action) him because of that. Just how has Bowser changed in Mario Party, and how hasn’t he? That’s a good question. Whether you want to know the answer or not, I’m going to answer it.
First, let’s start out in the very beginning. How does Bowser ruin the first party you ask? Well, at first he doesn’t. In fact, he’s just there for no real reason really. It’s not like he gets jealous here or anything, he just simply wants players to feel miserable. Like when he gives you a useless Bowser Statuette for 10 coins in DK’s Jungle Adventure. I mean, in reality you may think “cool, this is made out of gold. If I sell this, I’d be rich, and I won’t need to be in these Parties which I never get to take any coins I win while playing anyway”, but really no one would want to buy it. Who would? It’s not like anyone would purchase it to display it somewhere. Perhaps at a museum of nice useless stuff would be a suitable location for things such as those. Anyway, what about Bowser in Mario’s Rainbow Castle? Sure that place looks nice, fluffy and full of happy spirits. But what about someone reaching the star? Bowser is flipped into action, and will sell you a cool Ztar for 40 coins. Too bad it doesn’t add to your total. Well, there isn’t much to say about Bowser in the first Mario Party. He’s just there for bad fortunes, and that’s about it.
What about in the next few installments of Mario Party? Bowser decides that Halloween comes early, so he begins playing villain in different costumes. But before that, he attacks the happy Mario Land and attempts to invade. He’s apparently stopped. Anyway, what does Bowser do now? Well, the player needs to stop Bowser of course in each board, and the only way to do that, is by winning the board game. You’ll eventually challenge the all powerful Metal Bowser which deletes the idea of lifting him by the tail. Apparently, Toad offers you Star power to be able to lift Bowser by his tail in order to defeat him. The Magical power of the Stars can make you strong enough to do that. What about in the 3rd Mario Party game? There’s also Curse that Bowser releases, a plague if you will. All players are magically poisoned and are only able to move between 1-3 spaces thanks to the plague. The other plague that Bowser reveals is the Reverse Curse, which plagues you with the magic of moving backward. Yeah, that’s just as magical as walking. What evil does he really reveal in this party though? The 10,000 Coin Present. Why? He probably programed the roulette to show that prize in Gold lettering so the players can always hope for it, but always feel miserable after the cursor never lands on it. And when it does, Bowser’s probably like “Uh, that’s not supposed to happen…. Hehe. So, 10,000 Coins huh? Uhhhh, Sorry. You can’t carry more than 999 coins, therefore, I can’t give you the prize. Bye!” Excuses, excuses. His roulette must have malfunctioned or something if it wasn’t suppose to do that.
Now for the GCN Mario Party games, and he changes in a big way….literally! Look at him in Mario Party 4, he’s drank his Vitamins and Calcium because he’s larger than life now. What does Bowser do here? He squishes the player which lands on his space if he does show up. The players will end up activating things like Bowser Revolution, which just equalizes everyone’s coins. Or even the memorable Bowser mini-games. Apparently, if you lose, you get flamed by Bowser, and that makes you lose whatever losing makes you lose. That better not have been confusing. But what about in Mario Party 5? Anything really noticeable here? Besides giving out Ztars if you have a Star if you land on a Bowser space, Bowser is trying to ruin everyone’s dreams, literally. So the hero must stop him because breaking into your dreams is a crime, so yeah, get the law on him now. In Mario Party 6, he’s just there because he’s like “Hm, the story doesn’t really involve me, but I’ll be here anyway because they need me”. He also has now become nocturnal after everything he’s been through. He was probably like “Hm, it would be friggin’ cool if I only showed myself up at night. I might get some respect to show them that I’m not afraid of the dangerous darkness.” Well, that just means that he’s afraid of the daylight. But enough with that, what about Mario Party 7. Here, he finally decides to do the worst, ruin a vacation for Mario and Co. by reducing the amounts of fun to its minimal amounts. Since he found out that he wasn’t invited by stalking on Mario and Co, he just wants to crash this party. His idea, is by having people party around the world with having every turn fill up a Bowser Gauge. When the Gauge is full, it’s Bowser Time! And that was the best thing he could come up with for ruining the players up.
Where’s Bowser in Mario Party 8? He’s around the Star Carnival having fun of his own. Ruining the party, like usual. This is getting old. But this time, things are different. He steals the Grand Prize of the Star Carnival, the Star Rod. You may be thinking, “Oh, that same Star Rod from Paper Mario? Too bad, it’s not the exact same one. It’s a rod with the name “Star Rod” which doesn’t really do anything too bad. Just allows him to do what he could have done even without the rod itself. And where will Bowser go for Mario Party 9? He’s probably thinking of something stupid, but you’ll never know. For all we know, the game can feature a demoniacal Bowser which is as evil as ever. Or he’ll just end up being your everyday Bowser.
Article by madstarr