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Rather than dive in to something incredibly serious, let's take a bit of a break and analyze something more light-hearted this time around. This particular subject comes as a result to a rather large drought of mainstream Mario games and a large increase in Mario party and sports games. Bowser has always been in games such as Mario Kart, but has he lost the will to act as the main villain in the series' more serious titles?
Bowser first appeared in Super Mario Bros. for the NES. Though he vanished from the scene for a few years, he returned again in Super Mario Bros. 3 becoming one of the series' few reoccurring villains. Being a rather popular villain, he quickly attacked again in Super Mario World and, if you count them, an educational title or two and various cartoon shows. He was also Mario and Yoshi's opposition in Super Mario World 2, though, being a young child, his servant Kamek did the majority of the work.
The turning point took place in 1996, (North America) when Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars was released. Though he started out as the game's primary villain, he was quickly supplanted by Smithy. At this point, Bowser's role shifted greatly. Though he was still technically a villain, he was still willing to temporarily join forces with Mario and even the princess that he had captured so many times. Though he returned to his castle to be a villain once more at the end, would it really be the same?
It's been almost ten years later, but Bowser's attacks have grown very infrequent in comparison to the amount of damage he inflicted before Super Mario RPG. He's only really made two all-out attacks on the Mushroom Kingdom: in Super Mario 64 and Paper Mario. He did briefly appear as a secondary villain in Super Mario Sunshine, but the real nemesis was Bowser Jr.
Bowser has, however, appeared in about a dozen Mario-themed party/sports games since Super Mario RPG. Rather than wreaking havoc and kidnaping princesses, he's devoted himself more to crashing the heroes' parties, trying to prevent them from winning races, etc. Did Bowser develop a soft spot for Mario and company during the events of Super Mario RPG or is he getting lazy?
I believe the answer is actually more complicated than that. Much like another Mario villain, Wario, who went off to star in his own games, it seems that Bowser's archetype has shifted. Rather than being a primary villain like he once was, the mighty king of the Koopas has started to fill the role of secondary villain/rival. As in anime an several RPGs, Bowser even occasionally teams up with his rival to take on a greater foe. This can be seen in all of the Mario RPGs except for Paper Mario and in Super Mario Sunshine where he takes a secondary role to the games' real villain, and occasionally ends up actually helping out a bit.
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