Baby Bowser

"Ahh...nothing quite like good cookies and some evil milk."

- Baby Bowser

Baby Bowser (called Prince Bowser by his minions) is a recurring villain in the Yoshi series designed to be the baby form of Bowser. Although not related to him, Kamek was mainly responsible for his child rearing. He looks similar to his adult form's eighth child, Bowser Jr..

''Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
Baby Bowser is the final boss of Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island. However, he doesn't seem to be too involved with Kamek's plans at capturing the Baby Mario brothers. He appears in King Bowser's Castle when Kamek demands that Yoshi hand over Baby Mario at the end of the level. The area turns to his room, after which Baby Bowser complains about Kamek making noise that woke him up and literally pounds him flat as paper and kicks him away. He then notices Yoshi and immediately wants to ride him. He tries to kick Baby Mario off Yoshi's back and ride Yoshi himself. He also sends out shock waves by ground pounding. Yoshi gives him a taste of his own medicine by hitting the spoiled prince with his shock waves. After three hits, Baby Bowser is beaten, and then Kamek shows up and uses his magic on him. Most of the castle is then destroyed as Baby Bowser grows to a giant size and rises up in the background. He begins the final battle by sending debris tumbling down and destroying some of the floor that Yoshi was standing on. He then starts shooting large fireballs out of his mouth at Yoshi. During the battle, Yoshi eventually notices a Baron von Zeppelin carrying a Giant Yoshi Egg. Yoshi snatches the egg and, with precise aim, launches it at Baby Bowser, sending him further back.

Yoshi has to continue to throw eggs at Giant Baby Bowser because if he got too close, he would make the entire platform collapse, instantly defeating Yoshi. Once Yoshi hits Giant Baby Bowser enough times, he sends more debris falling down, crumbling even more of the floor. Yoshi pelts a few more eggs at Giant Baby Bowser until he can't take anymore and finally decides to just charge. After one more hit, he is defeated, knocked out, and returned to his normal self. Kamek flies off with him, but not before vowing revenge. Yoshi then runs up to The Stork and Baby Luigi, freeing them both, and handing Baby Mario to the stork as well.

It is possible to defeat him even when the platform is gone. If done, he falls down, and Yoshi falls, landing on a platform where Baby Luigi and the Stork are. Yoshi would notice Kamek, who would vow revenge and fly off. Then the rest would be normal.

''Yoshi's Story
Baby Bowser gets that revenge in Yoshi's Story when he steals the Super Happy Tree, the source of all the happiness in Yoshi's Island. To make matters worse, he turns the island into a pop-up book. It is up to a bunch of Yoshi babies to stop him. After some adventuring, the Yoshi finds Baby Bowser in his castle and the two start to fight. Yoshi has to hit Baby Bowser with Bob-ombs while the prince is riding his "pet" and knock him off. The battle is then on the ground where Baby Bowser shoots fireballs, throws bombs and sends shock-waves; Yoshi has to hit him a few more times to beat him.

This battle is actually pretty easy because the Super Happy Tree was right there, so Yoshi can recover health whenever. However, if the player plays the later levels of page 6, the amount of fruit that the tree creates will diminish, with page 6-4 (Magma Castle) giving out the least amount of fruit.

''Yoshi's Island DS
During the events of Yoshi's Island DS, Baby Bowser is at his castle when Bowser shows up from the future to kidnap the Star Children and gain control of the universe. His younger self is (ironically) abducted by the Kamek from the future and brought to Bowser's castle. When Baby Bowser realizes what's going on, he insults his grown-up self and his plan, calling him an "old geezer". Enraged and oblivious to the fact that his younger self was one of the Star Children, the Koopa King kicks Baby Bowser out of the castle.

As he falls, Baby Bowser swears revenge and once he lands, he yells into the sky in a futile attempt to remind his older self that they are one and the same. He then sees Baby Mario and tells him he saw Baby Luigi in Bowser's castle. He then realizes that he had just landed on Yoshi, and he is excited to get a ride from him. Baby Bowser is, surprisingly, then playable for the remainder of World 4; as the Nintendo Power Player's Guide puts it, he shows up to "kick some major enemy butt, of course!" While carrying Baby Bowser, Yoshi can't swallow enemies, as this move is replaced with the young Koopa's ability to breathe fireballs; this defeats enemies and melts ice cubes. Once Big Guy the Stilted is defeated, Baby Bowser leaves Yoshi's group in an attempt to hitch a ride from the future Kamek as he flys off to report to the adult Bowser. However, Baby Bowser loses his grip and falls off of Kamek's broomstick.

He later rejoins Yoshi's group, along with Baby Wario, when they reach Bowser's Castle. Baby Bowser eventually betrays them and attacks Yoshi and the other babies, believing they are after his treasure. The fight goes much like the previous one, but faster. Yoshi beats the little prince, and Kamek takes him away, leaving the group to the future Bowser, who is eventually defeated himself. At the end of the game, Baby Bowser falls off Kamek's broom and lands on a barge carrying his treasure, now claimed by Baby Wario; an argument between the two young misers inevitably ensues.

''Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time
Baby Bowser's first and only appearance in the Mario & Luigi series is in Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time in another attempt to kidnap Baby Peach. Luckily, Baby Mario and Baby Luigi had just shown up to play with Baby Peach. After Baby Mario defeats Baby Bowser, however, the Shroobs attack Princess Peach's Castle. Luckily, everyone manages to escape on Baby Bowser's Koopa Cruiser. On the way to his castle, Baby Bowser picked the Mario and Luigi from the future to get Baby Peach to stop crying. On the Koopa Cruiser, Baby Bowser receives a transmission from Princess Shroob at Shroob Castle. She tells the crew something in the Shroobs' language and shoots down the Kooopa Cruiser with a Shroob missile.

Baby Bowser is flung away from the Koopa Cruiser on impact, into his castle. Eventually, he realizes that the Mario Bros. have stolen the Cobalt Star Shard from his castle and tracked the Bros. at the Vim Factory, where he stole both his Cobalt Star Shard, and the one the Bros. had just found from Swiggler.

Baby Bowser then fled to the peak of Yoshi's Island with his caretaker, Kamek, where he orders Kamek to steal the Yoshi Cookies from the Yoshis. When the Mario Bros. catch up to Baby Bowser at the peak, he scarfs down all the Yoshi Cookies, but starts choking. He then leaves to the other side of the peak after Kamek had given him some "evil" milk. After the Mario Bros. defeat Kamek, they corner Baby Bowser at the other side of the peak. Without thinkng, Baby Bowser eats the Cobalt Star Shards. Soon after, Baby Bowser and the Mario Bros. are eaten by Yoob.

Inside Yoob, Baby Bowser, along with the Yoshis already eaten, is put inside an egg. When the Mario Bros. confront Sunnycide, a monster within Yoob, Sunnycide throws the egg Baby Bowser was in at Luigi, breaking it open. After the Mario Bros. defeat Sunnycide, Baby Bowser and all the swallowed Yoshis escape Yoob.

Back on Yoshi's Island, Baby Bowser has told the Yoshis that he saved them from Yoob. Having believed him, the Yoshis give him the rest of their Yoshi Cookies when the Mario Bros. and Toadbert show up and tell the Yoshis that he was lying. Baby Bowser then eats all of the Yoshi Cookies and gets sick. He throws up the Cobalt Star Shards, which, seemingly with a mind of their own, hit him and fling him off of Yoshi's Island

Later, Baby Bowser goes to Thwomp Volcano to build a new castle, where he meets his future self, Bowser. After a little argument, Baby Bowser and Bowser team up, not knowing the other ones identity, against the Mario Bros. They end up being beaten after the battle and flung into the sky by a Thwomp, where Bowser ends up in a time hole and Baby Bowser ends up on top of the Shroob Mothership.

He shows up again after the Bros. beat Princess Shroob and, despite being warned, he put the Cobalt Star Shards together and completed the Cobalt Star, releasing the Elder Princess Shroob. He is then turned into a Shroob Mushroom. Baby Luigi's tears later turn him back to normal. He shows up at the end of the game going home and complaining about losing the Cobalt Star.

At the start of the game, all Baby Bowser has to attack is a standard fireball move that can be easily dodged by jumping. This is mainly just a tutorial as Junior Shrooboid was. Interestingly, he was the first battle in the game, not just the first boss in the game. He might not even be a boss as the music is the typical normal battle music.

The second time the player faced him, he is teamed up with his adult form, Bowser. Many attacks are used by Bowser alone, but some aren't. For example, when Bowser does the slow ground pound, Baby Bowser will leap in the air and, after spinning once, will ground pound Bowser's head which will spurt a flame at one of the Mario Bros. The lizard tyrant will spin counterclockwise when the flame hits Mario and clockwise when hitting Luigi. Occasionly he will leap so high he goes off the top screen and land on Bowser, who will spurt two flames at both of the Mario Bros. at the same time. When Baby Bowser hits Bowser with his hammer, he lets the hammer down low when he is hitting Luigi and hammer high when hitting Mario. Unfortunately this is Baby Bowser's weakness, as if he was hit by the shell he would be alone temporarily. The attack works in a similar way to determine who Baby Bowser attacks when he is alone. But this time he spits fireballs in the air to perform a more dangerous attack.

''Super Smash Bros. Melee
Baby Bowser did not appear in Super Smash Bros. Melee as a playable character himself, but he did appear as a trophy. The player can get a trophy of Baby Bowser by doing anything in the game.

Personality
A spoiled child, Baby Bowser frequently throws tantrums in hopes that his minions, Kamek and the Koopa Troop, will give him what he wants. He is greedy and also very gluttonous, as shown in Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time, where he eats a huge pile of Yoshi cookies and the Cobalt Star. Toadbert calls him a 'Little Piggie'. He even insulted adult Bowser in Yoshi's Island DS.

Trivia

 * Baby Bowser looks and sounds exactly like Bowser Jr. in Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, although his bandana is different in appearance.
 * Baby Bowser was referred to as "King Bowser" in the English version of Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island. Subsequent games replaced his title with "Prince Bowser".
 * Baby Bowser has 20 HP during the first battle of Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time. However, Baby Mario automatically wins after five attacks. If the player could somehow cause 20 HP of damage before five turns expired, the game would freeze.
 * Baby Bowser and Baby Wario were the only babies who did not appear in Mario Super Sluggers.