Lemmy Koopa

Lemmy Koopa (known as Hip Koopa in the cartoons) is the smallest of the seven-member clan known as the Koopalings. He and the other Koopalings are loyal to Bowser and were originally depicted as his own children, however this idea was downplayed or ignored by most games released after their debut in Super Mario Bros. 3. In 2012, Shigeru Miyamoto confirmed that Nintendo's current story is that the Koopalings are not Bowser's children. Despite being the second oldest of the Koopalings, 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 circus ball he balances atop in most appearances; his special abilities also deal with bouncy balls. Lemmy was named after Lemmy Kilmister, the lead singer and bass guitarist of the English heavy metal band Motörhead.

Super Mario Bros. 3
Lemmy's debut was in Super Mario Bros. 3, where he and the other Koopalings aided Bowser in his conquest of the various realms of the Mushroom World. Lemmy attacked and conquered Iced Land, stealing the Magic Scepter of the land's king, subsequently turning him into a seal; Lemmy turned the king into a Monty Mole in later remakes of the game.

Like the other Koopalings, Lemmy was found and battled in the cabin of his Airship; unlike the others, however, Lemmy would ride a rubber ball around the room during battle. He also used his stolen wand to generate more rubber balls. Being jumped on the head three times defeated Lemmy, allowing the player to reclaim the Magic Scepter of Iced Land's ruler.

In the GBA remake, Super Mario Advance 4, Lemmy's role was expanded slightly with the (Japanese-only) e-reader level "Hikōsen wa Tomaranai!" In it, Lemmy utilized another airship, this time rigged with numerous nuts and bolts and sloping areas of the ship. When the player arrives, he then fights them, but ends up defeated.

Super Mario World
After the events of Super Mario Bros. 3, Lemmy next appeared in Super Mario World, aiding Bowser in the Dinosaur Land invasion. Lemmy inhabited the Vanilla Dome in a castle, where he guarded a kidnapped Yoshi trapped in an egg.

In his battle, Lemmy wouldn't attack directly, instead he would simply pop out of Warp Pipes in his chamber. Along with two Lemmy look-a-like dummies, he would pop out of the pipes, sometimes sideways and sometimes bottom-first. Avoiding the fake Lemmys as well as a bouncing Podoboo was a necessary part of the battle as well. The Mario Bros. cannot safely touch Lemmy or his fakes unless stomping on them which rewards 400 points. Lemmy's head or bottom needed to get stomped on three times, forcing him to come out of the end of his Warp Pipe, sending him into the lava below.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii
Lemmy, along with the rest of the Koopalings, reappears in the game New Super Mario Bros. Wii as the boss of World 3. Lemmy now sports an orange shell and a ponytail in this game, he is also shown with his beach ball, last seen in Super Mario Bros. 3. He is noticeable even smaller than Bowser Jr.. He is the third Koopaling to be fought, just like in Super Mario World and Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, and like in Super Mario Bros. 3, his world has an ice theme. His stage for both the tower and castle are the same: ground made up of ice which makes movement hard due to its slipperiness. There is also a pit in both ends of the stage.

Before battling him, Lemmy is shocked by seeing Mario but does a back flip on his ball to regain confidence, ready to fight.

At the World 3 tower, Lemmy uses his scepter to conjure a ball and bounce it towards the player(s)' character(s). While the ball doesn't inflict damage, should it touch the player character, it does push him towards the edge of the ledge and into a pit if the character does not jump over it. When he gets stomped on, his ball 'falls through the ground' and Lemmy pulls into his shell then slides across the floor, trying to hit the characters. When he rises again, he generates a new ball and increases the number of balls he sends out to the player by one. Up to three balls are sent out to the player to knock him down the pit. Once defeated, Lemmy retreats from his tower by jumping to his castle.

Upon meeting him there in the castle, Kamek will appear and enchant Lemmy's ball, making it massive. Lemmy once again resorts to trying to knock the players into the pit with his smaller balls, but this time the players need to jump and bounce off the balls he sends out to reach and jump on him. When he gets hit two times, the ball Lemmy stands on further increases its size for additional difficulty to damage him one last time (one jump from a ball he conjures is still enough to reach him). Upon being defeated again, Lemmy falls off-screen and the players receive a key which allows Mario to pursue the airship that Princess Peach is captured into World 4.

In the tower battle, if the player(s) fail to hurt Lemmy he will begin to ride on his circus ball trying to ram the player(s) into a nearby pit. But in the castle battle, if the player(s) has yet to stomp on Lemmy when he finishes conjuring all the balls he send out, he will bounce with his own ball to the other side of the stage which pushes the player(s) if contact is made with the ball. The best method to avoid getting pushed is to run past the gap when the ball is in the air. After that, he continues to send out some balls.

Lemmy survived the battle, however, and was seen along with the other Koopalings getting Bowser back up, only to have Bowser's castle fall on top of all of them.

New Super Mario Bros. 2
Lemmy, along with the other Koopalings, returns in New Super Mario Bros. 2 as the castle boss of World Flower. He is the second-to-last Koopaling to be fought, just like in Super Mario Bros. 3. In terms of his battle, it is similar to his first encounter in New Super Mario Bros. Wii, the difference being the floor; instead of ice, there is a conveyor belt, with a button up on the ceiling to alter the direction. Because of said conveyor belt, when he attacks in his shell, he'll go faster in one direction and slower in the opposite, depending on the direction the belt is going. Mario will also go faster one direction and slower the other. After 3 stomps, Lemmy is defeated and gives up the Key to World 5. Oddly, despite being seen dragging Princess Peach along when his world is unlocked, the aftermath of the battle does not have Mario discovering Princess Peach in the room after her. A similar oddity appears with Larry in World Mushroom.

Lemmy survived the encounter, and rejoined his comrades at Bowser's castle, where they attempted to petrify Mario with their Koopa Clown Car's petrification device. He also aided Bowser alongside the rest of the Koopalings by causing him to grow larger, but it resulted in him and the others being knocked into a lava pit by Bowser due to his increased size. He and the other Koopalings survived, however, and attempted to help Bowser by airlifting him with the Koopa Clown Car, but this resulted in it crashing due to it being unable to handle the combined weight of both them and Bowser. Lemmy was closest to the crash site. He can be seen with his head stuck in the mouth of the Koopa Clown Car, alongside Iggy (the latter of whom was sitting in shock at what happened).

Once again after he enters the room, like in New Super Mario Bros. Wii, he'll do a back flip before he battles.

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. Like the rest of the ships, Lemmy has his face as the helm and his shell as the deck, but the tail of the ship resembles his ponytail and his airship is smaller than the others. The interior of his ship resembles the inside of a circus tent, which goes with his love for the circus.

He is the Castle boss of Acorn Plains. Because of the lack of his Magic Wand, he now tosses bombs in the style of his bouncing balls. Like Wendy, Morton and Roy, Lemmy's boss battle will involve him using a weapon instead of a Magic Scepter. After being stomped on twice, he will throw bombs much larger. After three stomps on the head, he will be defeated and fall off stage.

DIC Cartoons
In The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World cartoons produced by Nintendo and DIC Entertainment, Lemmy was renamed 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. 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, and quotes attributed to Lemmy can be found in the coding of the DOS version of the game, hinting that he was originally going to be encountered in the game itself. Instead, the DOS version explains that his absence is because he decided to play in the Antarctic snow after he travelled to Earth, rather than helping Bowser and the other Koopalings to try and melt the ice and flood the planet.

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.

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

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.

Character Description
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, which has led many to mistakenly believe he is the youngest as well, though he is actually 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 peers.

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.

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 a man-child, and is said to retain a childlike innocence about him, despite being the second oldest of the Koopalings. It is mentioned in the various manuals and guide books of games that Lemmy is exceedingly immature, preferring to clown around instead of committing crimes and conquest; this is proven in Mario is Missing!, where he simply plays in the Antarctic snow instead of helping Bowser in his plan to flood the Earth. It has also been stated Lemmy would rather join the circus than try to destroy Mario, he is already clownish in how he loves balancing on top of his rubber ball. 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, and he decided to play in the snow when he traveled to Earth. Nonetheless, he serves Bowser and aids him in his schemes despite his desires to join the circus. It seems to be implied that he relies on gadgets, and his helicopter pack from Hotel Mario may be an example of this. As of New Super Mario Bros. Wii, he is shown to have a squeaky, high-pitched voice. In the Super Mario Bros. 3 original manual, Lemmy also spoke in a manner similar to that of a young child.

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 Amada series and Super Mario Adventures, 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.

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.

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)
 * "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)

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.
 * 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").