Roy Koopa is the fifth of the Koopalings who appear as recurring boss characters under Bowser's command throughout the Super Mario series. He is known for the distinctive shades that he wears. In battle, Roy mostly relies on brute force and uses his weight against foes.

Background

	Roy in New Super Mario Bros. Wii
Roy Koopa
Species	Koopa
Hair color	None
Eye color	Unknown
Relatives	Koopalings (siblings)
Voiced by	Dan Falcone (2009-Present)
Debut	Super Mario Bros. 3

Original Appearances

Roy's first appearance was with the rest of the Koopalings Super Mario Bros. 3, in which he used an airship to invade an aerial kingdom known as The Sky. He stole a magic wand from the local king and used it to turn him into an animal (a duck in the original game or an Albatoss in the remake). He acted as the fifth boss who could be faced in the game. During the boss battle, Roy attacked with magical blasts, much like his siblings, and he could also use powerful stomps to temporarily paralyze anyone standing on the ground. Like the other Koopalings, he would also spend some time spinning around the room in his shell whenever he was attacked. After Roy was defeated, the wand was returned to the king, who was restored to his normal form.

Roy in Super Mario World.

In Super Mario World, Roy helped Bowser with the invasion of Dinosaur Land and held one of Yoshi's friends captive. He was the fifth boss of the game and was faced at the end of the Forest of Illusion, with his castle being located at the forest's outskirts. For this battle, Roy would attack Mario or Luigi by walking up walls and along the ceiling, before dropping himself down in an attempt to crush the plumber, while the walls slowly closed in. This battle was a harder version of the boss battle with Morton from earlier in the game. After Roy was defeated, the castle was destroyed by Mario and Luigi. Roy later reappeared in Yoshi's Safari as the boss of Float Castle I, where he battled Mario and Yoshi from a hot-air balloon which was equipped with six powerful cannons. He was the game's seventh boss, being the last Koopaling to be faced in the game as well as the last boss faced within the Light Realm.

Modern Appearances

After several years of absence, Roy made a reappearance alongside the other Koopalings in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, where he appeared to help Bowletta in her attack on the BeanBean Kingdom and was battled within Bowser's Castle. In this appearance, he was the fifth Koopaling to be battled, and he attacked Mario and Luigi by flinging fireballs at them and by creating shockwaves. He was also accompanied by a timed Bob-omb, which required the battle to be completed within a set number of turns. In the 3DS remake, Roy had some dialogue explaining how the timed Bob-ombs worked. He had more advanced fireball abilities, but he no longer had the ability to produce shock waves.

Roy returned to the main series in New Super Mario Bros. Wii, where he was redesigned to have a purple shell rather than a pink one. He and the other Koopalings kidnapped Peach on her birthday and escaped aboard an airship. During their escape, Bowser Jr. dropped each of the Koopalings off at fortresses along the way to slow down Mario and co. Roy was left at the World 2 fortress; when Mario arrived, he roared at him before engaging in battle, using a new magic wand and paralyzing stomps. Upon being defeated, he ran to the World 2 castle and launched spells at the heroes as they made their way to him. At the end of the castle, he faced Mario again with help from Kamek, who used a spell to form warp pipes on the arena's ceiling. He would jump in and out of different pipes in an attempt to catch opponents off-guard and he retained his ability to produce shockwaves with his stomps. After his second loss, Roy made his way back home on foot along with the other Koopalings. They arrived to find a fallen Bowser and helped him up, only for Bowser's Castle to fall on top of them.

In New Super Mario Bros. 2. the Koopalings worked together to kidnap Peach for their father. Roy held onto her first, acting as the boss of the first world's castle. In this battle, Roy simply attacked by shooting blasts from a magic wand and spinning around in his shell, while the walls slowly closed in. He was defeated once again, leaving behind the key that unlocked the next world, while Peach was taken away by the next Koopaling. The Koopalings turned up again at Bowser's castle in World 6, where they attempted to petrify Mario with a light emitted by the Koopa Clown Car and also used their magic to make Bowser gigantic after his first defeat. After the giant Bowser was defeated, the Koopalings attempted to tow him away with the Clown Car, only to accidentally crash it. Roy was comically shown to have accidentally gotten hooked on some of the scrolling text of the credits afterwards, which carried him offscreen. Within this game, the Koopalings made a final appearance in World Star's castle, where they once more attempted to petrify Mario and made Dry Bowser grow.

The Koopalings returned again in New Super Mario Bros. U, where they each received a personalized airship that featured a likeness of the respective Koopaling's face on the front. The airships accompanied Bowser's airship while he took over Princess Peach's Castle, and then they scattered to occupy surrounding areas. Roy Koopa ended up with the Rock-Candy Mines, which was the sixth world, making him the second-to-last Koopaling who could be faced in the game. To battle him at his airship, Mario and/or his friends had to fire themselves out of a cannon found at the end of his castle level (Roy's Conveyor Castle in the original version or Roy's Ironclad Castle in New Super Luigi U). The boss battle took place atop the crow's nest of the airship, where Roy attacked using a large double-sided Bullet Bill cannon and paralyzing stomps. After he was defeated, his airship was sent off on a crash course. At the end of the game, the Koopalings attempted to escape on Bowser's hastily-repaired airship, but the giant Bowser weighed the ship down and made it crash. They ended up clinging to Bowser Junior's Junior Clown Car in a human chain as their method of retreat.

In Dr. Mario World, a doctor version of Roy was made available as a potential playable character through the game's Staffing feature starting in February 2020. The Koopalings were also added to Super Mario Maker 2 in April 2020 and were available as enemies for stages made in any style, except for the Super Mario 3D World style.

Sports

The Koopalings made their first appearance within the sports games as unlockable racers in Mario Kart 8 and returned as default racers in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. In Mario Kart Tour, Roy was potentially available in the beta version of the game and was made available for the final version of the game in October 2019. He had to be unlocked at random through the game's gacha feature or could occasionally show up for sale at the shop (which uses coins earned in-game).

Roy also appears as a guest character in the Nintendo 3DS version of Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, where he is playable in beach volleyball games. A Mii costume of Roy Koopa has also been available in every Mario & Sonic game starting with Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Other Appearances

Video Games

Roy Koopa appears as a boss in the licensed games Mario is Missing! (the PC and Super NES versions only) and Hotel Mario. In the latter game he is the boss of Roy's HardBrick Hotel and reuses his attack scheme from Super Mario World by climbing up walls and then dropping from the ceiling.
In the Super Smash Bros. series, Roy (along with the rest of the Koopalings) has appeared in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS/Wii U and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as a playable alternate costume of Bowser Jr.. Thus, he has the same exact moves as Bowser Jr. and only attacks from the Junior Clown Car. He has also been represented by a trophy in the 3DS/Wii U game and a Fighter Spirit (which has to be bought from the Vault's shop) in Ultimate.
In Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition, Roy appeared as a boss in the World 6-Castle and World 6-Airship, and he could be recruited by beating him in the latter level. He was a Light attribute character.
In Nintendo releases of Minecraft, playable skins of Roy and the other Koopalings are available as part of the Super Mario Mash-Up Pack.

Other Media

In Amada's Super Mario OVA, Roy and the Koopalings appear in the Momotaro and Snow White shorts as minions of Bowser whom Mario defeats with ease on his way to fight Bowser.
In The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World animated series, Roy was featured as a recurring villain. He was known as Bully Koopa in this series and was shown to have a thug-like demeanor
Roy also appeared in the various comic adaptations of the Mario series. In the Mario comics published as part of the Nintendo Comics System, he had a personality similar to in the cartoon. He additionally appeared in the Nintendo Adventure books and Super Mario Adventures comic.

Canceled Appearances

Sprites of Roy and the other Koopalings were found on Super Princess Peach, indicating that they were intended to appear in the game as bosses but were removed at some point in development.

Trivia

Roy was named after the famous rock and roll legend, Roy Orbison, because they sport similar glasses.
The Koopalings were initially believed to be Bowser's children, and Bowser Jr. was originally assumed to be their youngest sibling. However, Shigeru Miyamoto later clarified in an interview that the Koopalings are not actually children of Bowser, and that Bowser Jr. is Bowser's only actual child.
In Super Mario World and its remakes, Roy's face and shell were colored blue instead of pink in his sprite, although his official art used his actual official coloring. The color of the frame of Roy's glasses has also varied in the sprites from the different versions of Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World, while being consistently shown as pink in official artwork.
In Mario Kart 8, advertisements can be seen for businesses or services involving each of the Koopalings. Roy's is called Roy's Smooth Sounds and sports a logo featuring Roy's glasses surrounded by a set of headphones, implying that it is some sort of music company.
In Mario Tennis Aces, the Koopalings' personalized airships from New Super Mario Bros. U could be seen in the background of the Savage Sea court.

Roy Koopa

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