Lemmy Koopa

"Ah! Obviously I've done everything perfectly! Daddy will be so pleased!!"

- Lemmy Koopa

Lemmy Koopa (also known as Hip Koopa) is one of Bowser's eight children. Despite being the second oldest of the Koopalings, Lemmy is rather small in size; he also has a rainbow Mohawk, a lazy eye and most recently a ponytail. He has an orange shell as of New Super Mario Bros. Wii; but before that it was green. He appears to be toothless, but his Super Mario World sprite shows him with teeth.

Super Mario Bros. 3
Lemmy's first appearance in a game was in Super Mario Bros. 3, where he and his siblings aided Bowser in his attack and conquest of the various lands of the Mushroom World. While his brothers and sister took over other lands, Lemmy attacked and conquered Ice Land, stealing the Magic Scepter of the land's king and subsequently turned him into a seal (or Monty Mole, depending on the version of the game).

Like the other Koopalings, Lemmy was found and battled by Mario in the cabin of his Airship; in battle, Lemmy would ride a rubber ball around the room and use his stolen wand to generate more rubber balls, that Mario must dodge. Being jumped on the head three times defeated Lemmy, allowing Mario to reclaim the Magic Scepter of Ice Land's ruler.

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

In his battle against Mario, Lemmy wouldn't attack the plumber directly, instead he would simply pop out of a Warp Pipe in his chamber, along with two Lemmy look-a-like dolls. Mario would need to jump on Lemmy's head three times to knock him out of the end of his Warp Pipe and into the lava below, avoiding the fake Lemmys as well as a bouncing Podoboo.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii
Lemmy, along with the rest of the Koopalings, reappear in the game New Super Mario Bros. Wii, as bosses. 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. In this game he is notably smaller even than his brother, Bowser Jr.

He is first battled at World 3 in the tower. Before battling him, Lemmy is shocked by seeing Mario but does a back flip on the ball, ready to fight. In battle, Lemmy uses his wand 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 Lemmy gets stomped on, his ball disappears temporarily and he pulls into his shell and 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 provide a massive ball for Lemmy to stand on. 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 even reach him. When he gets hit 2 times, the ball Lemmy stands on further increases its size for additional difficulty to damage him one last time. Upon being defeated again, Lemmy falls offscreen and the players receive a key which allows Mario to pursue the airship that Princess Peach is captured in to World 4.

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.

Super Mario anime series
Lemmy, as well as his siblings were featured in the Super Mario anime series, a set of three Japanese OVAs. In the Mario retelling of the story "Momotaro", Lemmy and his siblings appear as minions of Bowser, aiding him in abducting Princess Toadstool. In "Shirayukihime" (Snow White) Lemmy and the other Koopalings appear as Bowser's minions once again; Lemmy ends up being beaten by Mario.

Cartoons
On The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World 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 Koopalings, and were portrayed as six-year-olds, while the rest of the Koopalings 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 had thinner hair than Lemmy, a large overbite, one spike on his shell, and didn't appear to have a lazy eye.

Publications
Lemmy also appeared in the Nintendo Comics System and Nintendo Adventure Books; out of all the Koopalings, Lemmy appeared the most times in Nintendo Comics System. 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.

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.

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

Mario is Missing!
Though Lemmy doesn't appear in Mario is Missing!, it is mentioned in the PC version of the game that he did indeed travel to Earth with Bowser and his siblings; instead of aiding Bowser in his plot to melt Antarctica, Lemmy decided to play in the snow and ice.

Super Scope 6
In LazerBlazer - Type A: Intercept mode of the game Super Scope 6, Lemmy, along with Mario, makes a small cameo in the game. Lemmy can be seen occasionally riding a missile in the game, and if players blast him out of the air, they will either recover a miss or gain points.

Yoshi's Safari
In Yoshi's Safari, Lemmy once again aided his family in attacking another land. This time, Bowser took over Jewelry Land, and gave Lemmy a magic gem to guard, and 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, Lemmy and his siblings aided Bowser in his plot to steal away Princess Peach and to hide her in several hotels which the Koopa family had taken over in the Mushroom Kingdom. After his brother 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. 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 Lemmy and his siblings (except Bowser Jr., who was conspicuously absent) to guard the various halls of the castle.

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. However, he was eventually defeated by the bros.

Personality
Lemmy 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 cold and 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 (it is even rumored that he learned to do this trick before walking). He seems to have a passion for the cold and ice as he was the ruler of Ice 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. It has been stated that he relies on gadgets (which could have been built by his more intelligent siblings, Ludwig and Iggy). His helicopter pack from Hotel Mario may be an example of this dependance. In New Super Mario Bros. Wii, he is shown to have a high-pitched voice.

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 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. Which made him more like a cross eyed idiot. 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 his siblings, with no real differentiating quirks or attributes.

Physical Appearance
Lemmy is actually the smallest of the original seven Koopalings, which has led many to mistakenly believe he is the youngest as well. He has a rainbow mohawk with the colors pink, blue, red, yellow, and green, in that order. He has a lazy eye and a disproportionately large head; and his unorthodox appearance is rounded off by the fact that he seems to balance atop a rubber ball most of the time. He has a green shell, but was depicted with a yellow one in Super Mario World. Recently, Nintendo has slightly changed his appearance for New Super Mario Bros. Wii. He now has a yellow colored pony tail, and his shell has been changed from green to orange. On top of this the order in his hair color changed to yellow, pink, blue, yellow, pink, blue, and ending in a yellow ponytail.

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.

Trivia

 * Lemmy was supposedly named after Lemmy Kilmister, the lead singer and bass guitarist of the English heavy metal band Motörhead.
 * 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. In this appearance, he would have been larger than Princess Peach.
 * Lemmy is the only Koopaling in Super Mario Bros. 3 who doesn't move around by jumping or running, but instead moves by riding on a beach ball. The same is also true for New Super Mario Bros. Wii.
 * In artwork featuring Lemmy's ball, it is always smaller than the one he rides on in-game.