Lemmy Koopa

Lemmy Koopa, or casually Lemmy, is a part of the seven-member Koopalings. He and his siblings are very loyal to Bowser, and were originally described as being his children; but it was stated in 2012 they aren't.

Lemmy is the smallest of the group, and is often associated with childish traits due to his stature and personality. He is well recognized for his multicolored mohawk, crossed-eyes, and the rubber ball he balances atop in most appearances; his special abilities also deal with bouncy balls.

Super Mario Bros. 3
Lemmy's debuts in Super Mario Bros. 3, where he and the other Koopalings aid Bowser in his conquest of the various realms of the Mushroom World. Lemmy takes over Iced Land, stealing the Magic Scepter of its king and turning him into a seal in the process.

Lemmy is found and battled in the cabin of his Airship at the end of World-6. He rides a rubber ball around during battle, and uses his scepter to summon additional balls; once summoned, they don't disappear. Being stomped three times defeats Lemmy, allowing Mario to return the Magic Scepter to Iced Land's king; returning him back to normal.

Super Mario World
Lemmy next appears in Super Mario World, aiding in Bowser's invasion of Dinosaur Land. He takes hold in his own castle, found within the Vanilla Dome; Lemmy's is the #3 castle on the map. Inside, he guards one of the Yoshi trapped inside an enchanted Yoshi Egg.

In battle, Lemmy pops out of Warp Pipes to attack, along with two Lemmy dummies; he sometimes pops out sideways or bottom-first. Lemmy and the dummies need to be avoided except for stomping; a Lava Bubble needs to be avoided, as well. After getting stomped three times, Lemmy is defeated and forced out of a Warp Pipe into the lava below.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii
Along with the rest of the Koopalings, Lemmy appears in New Super Mario Bros. Wii. With Bowser Jr.'s lead, they pop-out of Princess Peach's birthday-cake, they then use it to capture and take her away. Lemmy is the third Koopaling to be fought, just like in Super Mario World and Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga. Like in Super Mario Bros. 3, his world has an ice theme; both also have a ground made up of ice; this time, making movement difficult due to the slipperiness.

Lemmy is first fought at the end of World 3's Tower. He uses his scepter to summon balls and bounce them towards the player; they can be jumped on for boosts, but are obstacles, otherwise. If the player fails to stomp Lemmy after he summons two balls, he will ride his ball to the other side of the stage; creating the hazard of being pushed-off. The ice terrain makes the drops on each side of the stage extra hazardous. The first two times Lemmy is stomped, his ball falls off the stage and he spins around in his shell; he inflicts damage when touched in this state. Upon being stomped a third-time, he seems to be defeated. Resisting defeat, however, Lemmy lifts his head and hops off-stage.

Lemmy is fought again at the end of World 3's Castle. This time, Kamek appears and casts his magic, greatly increasing the size of Lemmy's ball and creating smaller stage-drops. Lemmy summons more balls even faster, and the player must now use the ball-boosts to stomp Lemmy; the large ball can also be used as a boost but inflicts damage if not approached properly. If the player fails to stomp Lemmy after he summons four balls, he will bounce his ball to the other side of the stage; creating the hazard of being crushed. Once stomped twice, Lemmy's already-huge ball will grow again; making for a more difficult approach. Once stomped three times, he is defeated; this time falling off the stage.

After the credits roll, Lemmy is seen along with the other Koopalings rolling Bowser off his shell; only to have Bowser's castle fall on top of him.

New Super Mario Bros. 2
In New Super Mario Bros. 2, Lemmy and the Koopalings return to kidnap Princess Peach again shortly after the events of New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Riding in the Koopa Clown Car, the Koopalings kidnap Peach from her castle, nearly crushing Mario and Luigi as they go. He is the sixth Koopaling to be fought, just like in Super Mario Bros. 3.

Lemmy is fought at the end of World Flower's Castle. This battle is similar to his first encounter in New Super Mario Bros. Wii. The stage is now a conveyor-belt, however, and on the ceiling is a button that switches its direction; which direction determines the speed of anyone and anything on it. If the conveyor is going in the direction towards Lemmy after he summons three balls, he will change the direction by summoning another ball that hits the switch. After three stomps, Lemmy is defeated and falls off the stage.

Lemmy rejoins the other Koopalings near the end of Bowser's Castle in World 6. In the Koopa Clown Car again, the Koopalings try to petrify the player by flashing the vehicle's lights. Once the player reaches the corridor to the exit-door, they retreat. After Bowser's early defeat, the Koopalings use their magic to make Bowser grow larger. As Bowser jumps up in his new state, he ends-up knocking the Koopalings down in the process.

During the credits, the Koopalings can be seen trying to lift Bowser up to safety; but they all get weighed down by him. Lemmy is last seen sprawled-out on top of a flipped Koopa Clown Car.

New Super Mario Bros. U
Lemmy appears once again in New Super Mario Bros. U, getting his own customized Airship like the rest of the Koopalings. He is the Castle boss of Acorn Plains and thus, the first Koopaling to be fought. When Mario enters his airship, Lemmy gets shocked once again, but this time he does an even higher backflip that makes him land perfectly on his ball in a tippy toe. Because of the lack of his Magic Scepter, he now generates bombs with his bare hands, and tosses them at Mario in the style of his bouncing balls. However, he still retains his method of ramming into Mario and friends with his circus ball. Like Wendy, Morton, and Roy, Lemmy's boss battle will involve him using a weapon instead of a Magic Scepter. After being stomped twice, he will start throwing larger bombs. After three stomps on the head, he will be defeated and fall off stage. He ultimately survived this, however, and ended up getting picked up by Bowser Jr. He is last seen in the closing cutscene, hanging on to Bowser's tail after the airship crashes. Of note is when Bowser attempted to board the airship, Lemmy fell off and grabbed Bowser's tail.

Lemmy has an airship with his face as the bow and his orange shell as the deck. The tail of the ship resembles his ponytail. The stern of his ship has a teal color design, similar to his shell color from the All-Stars remake of Super Mario Bros. 3. Like most of the airships, Lemmy's airship is equipped with a propeller at the back of his ship as well as another one placed just beneath the crow's nest. The airship is equipped with two cannons, one on each side. There are also light green lids on top of the cannons used for closing and opening the cannons. He has the smallest airship out of all the Koopalings. The interior of his ship has spiral shaped windows and it resembles the inside of a circus tent, which goes with his love for the circus.

New Super Luigi U
Lemmy, like the other Koopalings, reappears in New Super Luigi U. He is the boss of Lemmy's Light's Out Castle, and battles the same way as he does in New Super Mario Bros. U.

Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2
Lemmy appears in Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2 to reprise his role in Super Mario World. Aside from minor textual and graphical changes, the only thing new for Lemmy was the addition of a voice.

Super Mario Advance 4
In Super Mario Advance 4, the Game Boy Advance remake of Super Mario Bros. 3, Lemmy reprises his role. In this version, he turns the Iced Land king into a Monty Mole instead of a seal. His role was also expanded slightly with the Japanese-only e-Reader level "Hikōsen wa Tomaranai!" The level is merely a more difficult reworking of the original airship, with the player having to collect four Advance Coins before battling Lemmy. It's stated Lemmy rigged the Bolt Lifts for this level himself, however.

DIC Cartoons
In The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World cartoons, Lemmy was referred to as Hip Koopa and would often hang-out and pull pranks with his brother Hop Koopa, whom he was twins with. In the continuity of the cartoons, Hip and Hop were the youngest Koopa Kids, and were portrayed as six-year-olds, while the rest of the Koopa Kids were in their teens. In spite of their ages, Hip and Hop prove to be capable of doing such things as carjacking and pickpocketing. Like many stereotypical twins, Hop and Hip would often share their sentences by either speaking in unison or finishing each other's lines. In the cartoons, Hip retained Lemmy's personality from the games, but his appearance was much different. He had thinner hair than Lemmy, a large overbite, one spike on his shell, and didn't appear to have a lazy eye. Also, his ball was a normal beach ball, whereas it was yellow with orange stars in the games.

Nintendo Comics System
Lemmy also appeared in the Nintendo Comics System, and out of all the Koopalings, appeared the most times in the imprint. He was depicted with low intelligence, using too many bombs to blow up a pipe when trying to help Bowser blow up the Mushroom Kingdom's main water pipes in "The Buddy System". Ironically, Lemmy was the only one who could understand Larry's picture-only dialogue. He is also a big fan of Dirk Drain-Head.

Nintendo Adventure Books
In Leaping Lizards, Lemmy and five of his siblings compete in the International Mushroom Games. If Mario, Luigi and Princess Toadstool are chosen by the reader as the offensive line in the Beetlebowl event, Lemmy catches a Hoopster, only to lose it immediately afterward when a Spike, a member of an opposing team called the Sneaks, attacks him with an exploding watermelon.

In Koopa Capers, Lemmy and his brothers have their wands stolen by Wendy, who disappears with them shortly afterward, intent on overthrowing their father with her own army, and a super wand she plans to create by fusing her own wand with her brothers'. If Luigi, who had been coerced by Bowser into searching for Wendy, tracks the female Koopaling down to her hideout, Bowser and the male Koopalings, who had been following him, will barge in after the plumber, but decide to stave off punishing Wendy for her mutiny if she helps search for the hiding Luigi. If Luigi had acquired Boom Boom's socks earlier in his adventure, he can toss them into Wendy's simmering wand combination potion, which will release fumes that knock the entire Koopa family and their minions out for at least a week.

White Knuckle Scorin' comic
Lemmy also had a prominent role in the White Knuckle Scorin' comic. Bowser, being illiterate, gets Lemmy to read a spell for him, which Lemmy eagerly agrees to do because he wants to show off the reading skills that he learned from Princess Toadstool, but he ends up reading the wrong spell. Later, Lemmy helps the good guys by telling them to attack Bowser by throwing Mecha-Koopas at his head.

Mario is Missing!
Though Lemmy doesn't appear in Mario is Missing!, he appears in some of the official artwork. In the original DOS release of the game, a portrait of him appears above a door on Wendy's floor, among four other Koopalings. In addition, audio files designated for Lemmy can be found unused within the CD-ROM Deluxe version, hinting that he was originally going to be encountered in the game itself.

Super Mario Adventures
Lemmy was also featured in the Super Mario Adventures comic. Here, he aided Bowser in his plot to marry Princess Toadstool.

Yoshi's Safari
In Yoshi's Safari, Lemmy once again aided Bowser in attacking another land. This time, Bowser took over Jewelry Land and gave Lemmy a magic gem to guard, as well as custody over Grass Land.

In his battle against Mario and Yoshi, Lemmy would ride in a large mech resembling a humanoid Koopa Clown Car equipped with five cannons. After sustaining heavy damage from Mario's Super Scope, Lemmy would lose the use of his center cannon and begin to hop around the battlefield; eventually, after being damaged some more, Lemmy's mech would explode, flinging the Koopaling over the horizon.

Hotel Mario
In Hotel Mario, the Koopalings aided Bowser in his plot to steal away Princess Peach and to hide her in several Koopa Hotels in the Mushroom Kingdom. After Larry is defeated by Mario and Luigi and his hotel explodes, Princess Peach is flung into the clouds and into Lemmy's High-ate Regency Hotel, where Lemmy takes possession of her.

The battle was located in Lemmy's Sky-Hideout, and the Koopaling attacked Mario by throwing paper planes at him while flying to different hotel floors using a helicopter pack. He is one of three Koopalings who wouldn't try to eat Mario or Luigi, possibly due to the fact he was using a unique flying machine, rather than walking about the stage. To defeat Lemmy, Mario would need to close all the doors in the area. Once Princess Peach is rescued, Lemmy would attempt to chase after her, Mario and Luigi, only to be blown away with his hotel by a large fan activated by Mario.

Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
After several years of absence, Lemmy made a return appearance in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga. After hijacking Bowser's Castle and using it to attack Beanbean Castle Town, Bowletta employed the Koopalings to guard the various halls of the castle. As with most of his appearances, he was the third Koopaling to be faced.

When first encountered by Mario and Luigi, Lemmy would try to confuse them by disguising Goombas as himself; in order to engage in battle with Lemmy, Mario or Luigi would need to hit him, not a copy, with their hammer.

Once in battle, Lemmy would attack by creating more Goomba copies of himself and shooting fireballs at Mario and Luigi (along with all the other Koopalings). However, he was eventually defeated by the Mario Bros. He can also spin, like Iggy, Ludwig, and Larry.

Defeating Lemmy activated a water fountain, allowing the Mario Bros. to put out the flames blocking their path and proceed towards Ludwig.

Mario Kart 8
Lemmy Koopa, alongside the rest of the Koopalings, appears as a playable character for the first time in Mario Kart 8, where he is an unlockable character. His blurb in the Japanese April 30, 2014 Nintendo Direct reads ｢すばしっこさナンバー１」, meaning "Number 1 in agility". His emblem is a yellow silhouette of his head on a black background, similar to Bowser's emblem.

Lemmy is the lightest member of the Koopalings (and is also among the lightest playable characters in the game, being tied with the babies and, when short in height, Miis), and as such, can potentially get near perfect acceleration, handling, and grip attributes. However, his speed and weight are quite low as a result.

Lemmy is the Normal Staff Ghost for Sherbert Land.

There are also advertisements for "Lemmy's Tire Service" on some of the tracks, specifically Mario Kart Stadium and DS Wario Stadium.

Oddly, Lemmy does not seem to have a lazy eye in this game, a first for any of his prior appearances.

Super Princess Peach
Lemmy was originally going to appear in Super Princess Peach, although he was taken out of the final game with the rest of the Koopalings. According to his sprite sheet, it seems he would spit something at Princess Peach.

Physical appearance
Lemmy has the same yellow and tan skin complexion, as well as a green head, like most of the other Koopalings, although he has a distinctive pair of orange bars on the left-side of his head. He also has a three-ribbed, padded stomach and padded feet. His mouth is turtle-shaped, as the bottom center of his top lip rounds down with the shape of his nose, and his lips curve up at the edges. He has large, oval eyes are often crossed or even pointing in opposite directions. Lemmy's head is oval-shaped and disproportionately large compared to his small body; his unorthodox appearance is complimented by the fact he balances atop a rubber ball most of the time. Lemmy is actually the smallest of all Koopalings, around as small as Toad, which has led many to mistakenly believe he is the youngest as well, though he is theoretically the second oldest, after Ludwig.

Lemmy has a multi-colored mohawk, that goes from yellow, pink, blue, yellow, pink, to blue, and ends in a long ponytail that fades from yellow to orange at the tip. His shell post-New Super Mario Bros Wii is orange lined with a white encasing, and with multiple, short spikes encircled by yellow rings. His original design had his shell as green, however, and in Super Mario World his shell was colored yellow due to graphical limitations. He wears the same metal, spiked cuffs as his male siblings.

Lemmy was shown to have teeth in Super Mario World, although he is shown to be lacking in them in his other appearances.

Development
Lemmy has undergone a relative amount of changes to his design over the course of his appearances.

Lemmy was originally depicted with a mohawk that had colors going from pink to blue, red, yellow and then green. This mohawk sometimes was colored with another streak of pink instead of red, and the green streaks always took up the back three spikes of the mohawk. Depending on the game and the artwork, it could differ slightly, but it wasn't until Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga that it was depicted with just yellow, pink and blue in color; it was also depicted the same way in his unused sprites for Super Princess Peach. This is slightly the same as in his newest design where the mohawk itself only goes from yellow to pink and then blue, with the addition of his ponytail that blends into orange at the tip. His body looks like that of Larry's only it is smaller than Bowser Jr.'s, the pad on his belly only has three sections, and the claws on his toes are more pointed than those of the other Koopalings.

The two stripes on the left-side of his head were originally on both sides of his head due to the sprites being mirror images of one another, regardless of what direction they were facing; even in earlier artwork the stripes are shown on either side. The stripes were also colored pink, but are now orange to match his shell color.

Like the Koopalings who had green shells, Lemmy's was given a unique color, orange. And aside from the spikes being updated to an off-white color they were also given yellow rings. Not much else has changed aside from his snout being given a new shape due to the transition into 3D.

Personality and traits
Lemmy is depicted as an immature, fun-loving child, and is said to retain a childlike innocence about him despite not being the youngest of the Koopalings. It is mentioned in the various manuals and guide books of games that Lemmy is exceedingly immature, apparently preferring to join a circus rather than commit crimes and conquest. He is already somewhat clownish in how he loves balancing on top of his rubber ball. His love for the circus is also mirrored in New Super Mario Bros. U, as the interior of his airship resembles the inside of a circus tent. He seems to have a passion for the cold and ice as he was the ruler of Iced Land, as well as guardian of World 3 of New Super Mario Bros. Wii. He tends to rely on tricks and gadgets rather than his own prowess, such as his helicopter pack from Hotel Mario. As of New Super Mario Bros. Wii, he is shown to have a squeaky, high-pitched voice. In the original Super Mario Bros. 3 manual, Lemmy also spoke in a manner similar to that of a young child. Mario Kart 8 describes him as "Mr. Agility Supreme", apparently showing his lightness and agility.

In The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World, Hip is more mischievous than truly evil on most occasions, and preferred to simply play pranks instead of cause havoc; though several episodes, such as "Life's Ruff", showed him capable of causing real chaos.

In the Nintendo Comics System, Lemmy was somewhat childish and unintelligent, and seemed more keen on simply helping his father and trying to gain his appreciation then actually causing evil. Like Mario and several of Bowser's minions, Lemmy also had an obsession with the plumbing based hero Dirk Drain-Head and could somehow understand Larry's picture-only dialogue, while no one else could at all. In Nintendo Adventure Books, a continuation of Nintendo Comics System, Lemmy was portrayed as somewhat crazed in demeanor and much more menacing on some occasions.

In the Super Mario Adventures comics, Lemmy's personality was, more or less, identical to those of the other Koopalings, with no real differentiating quirks or attributes.

In the computer version of Mario is Missing!, the unused voices of Lemmy depicted him as being sarcastic, as he "pretends" to make Luigi join them.

Powers and abilities
Lemmy seems to prefer using circus balls when combating his enemies. He often fights atop his ball and if his boss area has icy floors or a conveyor belt, he will use them to his advantage by trying to slide his opponents right off the edges. In both Super Mario Bros. 3 and New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Lemmy utilizes his magic scepter to generate rubber circus balls, in numbers up to three (even more in his New Super Mario Bros. Wii rematch), creating great difficulty for the Mario bros. He also utilized various dummies as decoys when fighting Mario in Super Mario World. In Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga he would spin like a top like Iggy, and he could also summon Goombas disguised as clones of himself, just like Wendy. In addition, in a similar manner to Super Mario World, he also attempted in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga to confuse the Mario Bros. by splitting into copies prior to fighting them. Other than that, his abilities seem normal compared to his siblings, as he is seen walking and jumping in his Super Princess Peach sprites, and breathing fireballs in his appearance in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, as well as spinning inside his shell for offensive and defensive purposes in New Super Mario Bros. Wii. In New Super Mario Bros. U, he also threw star-patterned bombs that bounce on the floor and once touched by Mario, a short fuse is activated that will cause the bombs to explode after a few seconds. Lemmy has enhanced balance and acrobatics supported New Super Mario Bros Wii and New Super Mario Bros 2 by being able to maintaining his balance on a ball while on an icy floor and conveyer belt as well as performing a handstand on the ball upon the said floors before preceding to battle. He's also implied to be quite strong especially for someone his size in New Super Mario Bros. U, due to him throwing several large bombs at Mario with minimum effort.

Bio from The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 Writers Bible
''While the rest of the Koopalings are in their teens, Hip and Hop are bratty six-year-olds. These twins don't go anywhere without one another, and are always finishing each other's sentences. Silly and dumb, goofy and bumbling, they are always lost, and have probably forgotten where they were going anyway. They flunked Koopergarten. They wouldn't be a threat to the Marios and the princess, if it weren't for the fact that they have the most powerful Magic Wands, and are easily manipulated by Bully and their other siblings.

Quotes

 * "How far can Mario go? I hope he doesn't make it this far. Dad has many complicated tricks waiting for him in the Dark Land. I've even heard about some new weapon that dad's been making." - The Super Mario Bros. 3 manual (page 34)
 * "「マリオのヤツがどこまでガンバレルか楽しみだなー. ワールドのマップも先へ進むにつれ、どんどん複雑で広大なものになってくるよ. それはそうと、暗黒の国だけはオヤジしか知らなくて何もわかんないんだ. でも、何か、すごい新兵器を作ってるのをちらっと見たことがあるよ. 」 (I'm looking forward to see how far can Mario go. As you advance the world maps become more complex and extensive. Anyway, our dad alone knows the Dark Land and I have no idea about it. But I had glanced he had been making some great new weapons.)" - The Super Mario Bros. 3 Japanese manual (page 34)
 * " I’ve taken over all the TV stations! And I’m holding a Koopathon! I’m not going off the air until everybody sends me all their money!" - 7 Continents for 7 Koopas
 * "Lying is an excellent trait!" - A Little Learning
 * "Hey, cave klutz, try dodging this!" - A Little Learning
 * "This is a volcano!" - A Little Learning
 * " You can never predict when exactly a volcano is going to erupt!" - A Little Learning
 * "You know, Luigi, a smart guy like you ought to join up with the winners. Here's a nice turtle shell you can wear. If you can't defeat us, you might as well join us" - Mario is Missing! (unused)
 * "What's a nice plumber like you doing in a place like this? With your talents you ought to be unclogging drains somewhere, not trying to embarrass yourself as a detective" - Mario is Missing! (unused)
 * "So, you had a little trouble in the city? Not everybody's cut out to be a super hero. Take a job with us, Luigi, you could always dump our trash and maybe do a little cooking" Mario is Missing! (unused)
 * "On the level, Luigi. Put down that burning bloom man, and let's talk reason. There's no reason to get all fired up" Mario is Missing! (unused)
 * "You're very strong and powerful, pal, but excuse me for not running. I mean, you don't have a fire flower, do you?" Mario is Missing! (unused)
 * "NOOOOOOOOO!!!!" - After being defeated in his castle in New Super Mario Bros. Wii.

Trivia

 * When fought in Super Mario Bros. 3, while the other Koopalings shift to another part of the room after being stomped on, Lemmy remains stationary on his ball (probably due to limitations of the NES). In New Super Mario Bros. Wii, after each time he is stomped on, the ball disappears and he shifts around the room in the same way as the other Koopalings, and then produces another ball with his wand.
 * The bombs that Lemmy uses in New Super Mario Bros. U are similar to the bombs that Bomb Kirby uses in Kirby's Return to Dream Land, as both sets of bombs have stars printed on them. Bombs with the similar design appear as one of the Bros. Attacks in Mario & Luigi: Dream Team.
 * In the Nintendo Power Guide for Super Mario Advance 4, Lemmy was referred to as the "Clown Prince of Koopas," a reference to one of the nicknames for Batman's archnemesis, the Joker (the "Clown Prince of Crime").