10 Huge Unresolved Mysteries In Mario Games

Ever since Mario has had his name, red hat and famous jump, he's had Bowser, King of the Koopas serving as his arch-enemy. From Super Mario Bros. in 1985 all the way through to Odyssey, this giant turtle-looking foe has been the player's final challenge once they've run through all the game's levels and traversed through his armada of airships and clutch of castles.

Whilst his evil plans of taking over the Mushroom Kingdom through transforming kings and kidnapping Princesses might have shifted towards a more relatively lighthearted battle where he gets to live out his fantasy as Meowser in later games, one thing that has never been taken from Bowser is his loathing of Mario.

The plumber has jumped over or snuck under the Koopa King so many times now that it's a mystery in itself why Bowser continues to leave hammers that unlock his lava-suspended drawbridges lying around the place. Nevertheless, Bowser always comes back.

Whilst some of his backstory is still clouded away, Bowser is shown to be a fairly skilled black magician, can go on living after a dip in some lava either as himself or as Dry Bowser and is shown to have infinite lives thanks to the platforming levels in Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door game.