12 Mario Villains More Powerful Than Bowser

Ask anyone who Mario's greatest villain is, and they'll all tell you the same answer: Bowser. The king of the Koopas is one of the most legendary video game antagonists of all time, and Mario has been rescuing Princess Peach from his clutches for decades. Bowser was the main antagonist in the astonishing "Super Mario Bros. Movie," but the film's sequel has a chance to show how deep the Mario villain bench really is.

Almost every "Mario" game tries something new, though that isn't always for the best. There are plenty of "Mario" games Nintendo wants us to forget about, but there are others that the company probably wishes were celebrated more often. Games like "Super Paper Mario" or "Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story" didn't just bring new gameplay elements to the franchise, but also added some astonishing villains.

Mario has been around for a long time, and while King Koopa gets most of the attention as Mario's main villain, he's not the scariest foe the Mushroom Kingdom has ever seen. Here are some lesser known "Mario" villains who could absolutely give Bowser a run for his money.

The "Paper Mario" series brings some role-playing elements to the Mushroom Kingdom and lets players take control of Mario in brand new ways. The series has given fans multiple villains who are even more powerful than Bowser, and Dimentio is one of its most intimidating additions to the franchise. Dimentio was introduced in the 2007 Wii game "Super Paper Mario," and he starts out working as a minion for the game's primary villain Count Bleck. We'll talk about the Count later, but as the game progresses, it becomes clear that Dimentio is, in his own way, a worthy foe for Mario.

Dimentio plays the role of an evil prankster, and his magical abilities make his misdeeds particularly menacing. Dimentio can use his powers to warp minds, and in "Super Paper Mario" we watch him turn several otherwise peaceful characters into dangerous enemies. On top of that, Dimentio can teleport himself and others wherever he pleases, and he has dangerous offensive abilities, like his deadly psychic finger gun and the ability to change his size and shape at will.

Dimentio doesn't have anything on Bowser when it comes to raw physical power, but his magical abilities make him an even more dangerous villain. That's why he ultimately becomes one of the main final bosses in "Super Paper Mario," and why he's even a challenge for Bowser to fight in the game. 

Before the "Paper Mario" series became the fan-favorite Mario role-playing game experience, another title brought RPGs to the Mushroom Kingdom. Developed by legendary RPG studio Square, 1996's "Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars" did its best to appeal to fans of "Mario" and "Final Fantasy" games.

"Legend of the Seven Stars" features an isometric perspective and turn-based combat mechanics pulled straight out of the most popular JRPGs of the '90s. The story, naturally, is more involved and far-reaching than previous "Mario" titles, which is how the game ended up giving us one of the deadliest villains in the franchise. The game also received a critically successful 2023 remaster with updated graphics that's well worth checking out.

Culex, the main villain in "Legend of the Seven Stars," is the most demonic-looking enemy Mario has ever faced. He has purple skin and massive wings, and his body is surrounded by what looks like lightning bolts formed from his own magical energy. Culex is an interdimensional being that harnesses the power of magical crystals for his own dark purposes. Basically, he's a "Final Fantasy" villain in a Mario game, with all the terrifying power that implies.

Finding Culex is its own challenge, but after players discover him, he'll challenge them to one of the hardest fights in the game. In battle, Culex uses elemental and space-themed powers to dish out truly monstrous amounts of damage. Once defeated, Culex drops some useful items and transports Mario back to the Mushroom Kingdom. That's nice of him, at least.

The evilly scheming Fawful was first introduced in 2003's "Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga." In that Game Boy Advance title, Fawful is a student to the game's main villain Cackletta, but he's got serious ambitions. Fawful went on to appear in the Nintendo DS game "Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time" before finally playing the main villain role himself in 2009's "Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story."

Fawful's greatest asset is his intelligence. Cackletta was willing to teach Fawful because he's a sharp student. In his later appearances, Fawful takes everything he learned from the evil witch and puts it to devious use. In "Bowser's Inside Story," the worst-selling "Mario" game ever, Fawful comes into his own. He manipulates Bowser by feeding him a magic mushroom that gives him the Kirby-like ability to suck up his enemies. It turns out that Fawful's "gift" is really the first step in an elaborate plan to take over Mushroom Kingdom and Bowser's Castle. In the game Fawful repeatedly manipulates Bowser into playing a key role in his plan.

If Bowser and Fawful ever faced each other in a fair, one-on-one fight, there's almost no doubt that Bowser would win. In reality, though, Fawful is smart enough to never let that happen. The fact that his evil plan in "Bowser's Inside Story" very nearly succeeds proves that even Bowser should be fearful of Fawful.

You might have forgotten about the alien invasion plot in the "Mario" video game universe, but it happened. "Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time" is chock full of sci-fi elements, from time travel to extraterrestrial mushrooms. In the game, a time-traveling Princess Peach encounters the evil Elder Princess Shroob who has plans to dominate the Mushroom Kingdom. Peach manages to trap Princess Shroob in a magic gem which, of course, gets separated into pieces that the Mario Bros. have to recover.

At the end of the game, Princess Peach tells Mario and Luigi why the gem must never be put back together, but moments later, Baby Bowser crashes the scene and does exactly that. The Mario Bros. have the fight of their lives against Princess Shroob and her alien powers, but their victory still isn't the end of the story.

Princess Shroob arguably becomes even more powerful after she's beaten. She turns back into her alien mushroom form, but in that guise she's able to infect a sleeping Bowser, transforming him into the hybrid villain Shrowser. Ultimately, Mario and Luigi are able to defeat the new uber-villain, but Bowser better make sure that he's never asleep again when Shroobs are around. He just might find himself under the mushroom's spell once more.

The Shadow Queen is an antagonist from 2004's "Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door," and more than two decades later, she's still one of the most intimidating villains the Mushroom Kingdom has ever seen. In the game, the evil Sir Grodus has plans to take over the Kingdom, and he summons the Shadow Queen to aid him. Unfortunately for Grodus, the Shadow Queen has no intention of working for anyone. She overpowers him, possesses Peach, and wreaks unholy havoc on the entire Mushroom Kingdom.

The Shadow Queen's possession powers are the real reason that Bowser should be afraid of her. Aside from that supercharged ability, however, the Shadow Queen has a huge assortment of combat abilities that make her particularly fearsome in battle. When she's not possessing someone, the Shadow Queen has a ghostly body that can grow in size before smashing anyone who opposes her. On top of that, the Queen can summon magical lightning and dark energy to deal huge amounts of damage.

There's a good reason why the Shadow Queen's arrival essentially sidelines all the other villains that the Mario Bros. have faced over the years, and her unique appeal as a villain is one reason why "The Thousand-Year Door" received a remaster from Nintendo in 2024.

Count Bleck is the main villain of "Super Paper Mario," and he's one of the most destructive characters in the entire franchise. Mario villains tend to have some pretty strange motivations. The Shroobs want to make the Mushroom Kingdom their new homeworld. Bowser wants to live happily married to Princess Peach. Count Bleck has more of a comic book villain's motivation. He wants to destroy the entire universe. The reason he's more powerful than Bowser is that he very nearly pulls off his evil plan.

Count Bleck, like other "Mario" villains, manipulates Bowser into playing a role in his plot. The Count captures Peach and Bowser and sets up a wedding for the two of them. He wants to use their marriage to fulfill a prophecy and summon a magical artifact called the Chaos Heart. Count Bleck plans to use the Heart to open The Void which will destroy the entire world. Mario puts a stop to the plan, but then Dimentio intervenes and uses the Chaos Heart to boost his own power. Count Bleck earns himself a place on this list thanks to his knowledge of prophecy, his magical abilities, and his skill in capturing Bowser.

King Boo has been haunting the "Mario" franchise for decades. Mario himself has had surprisingly few interactions with this ghostly royal, but that's mostly because King Boo has kept himself occupied with tormenting Mario's brother, Luigi. Anyone who's played the "Luigi's Mansion" games knows just how scary King Boo and his loyal compatriots can be. Naturally, the Boos can phase through walls, meaning that nowhere is safe from their sudden appearance.

When he's all by himself, King Boo doesn't have access to his full strength, but he could probably still give Bowser a run for his money. The King's ghostly phasing abilities would be a challenge for the more physically-focused Bowser, but King Boo can also breathe fire at will.

What really makes King Boo dangerous, though, is his ability to draw power from other ghosts. King Boo can summon regular ghosts to his aid, and he can also call on the massive, terrifying Boohemoth. As he does, his own magical abilities also get stronger as more and more ghosts surround him. If King Boo were able to call on his whole army, there's almost no chance that Bowser would be able to withstand the assault.

"Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga" is another "Mario" game that's gotten a remake in recent years. The original game debuted in 2004 on the Game Boy Advance, and part of the reason it got a 2017 remake is because the game has such a memorable main villain. Cackletta is a devious witch who comes from the frequently unmentioned Beanbean Kingdom, which shares a border with the all-important Mushroom Kingdom.

As a witch, Cackletta has a range of magical abilities. Her offensive spells call on electricity and fire to deal damage to her enemies. Dangerous as those attacks can be, they aren't Cackletta's real strength. What makes her particularly dangerous is her ability to change forms.

Aside from her physical witch body, Cackletta can take on a ghostly spirit form. When she's a spirit, Cackletta can possess other beings, and in the "Superstar Saga," Cackletta uses that power to take control of Bowser's body. As we've seen, Cackletta isn't the only villain who's able to possess Bowser, but she is another lesser-known "Mario" franchise bad guy that Bowser should be wary of.

Sometimes the most fearsome villains that Mario faces aren't really "Mario" villains at all. The crossover game "Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope" debuted on the Nintendo Switch in 2022, pairing Mario with the Rabbids from the "Rayman" game series to pit them against a cosmic entity called Cursa. Looking like a purple hooded figure with massive spectral hands, Cursa is actually just a small sentient piece of a different cosmic being called the Megabug.

Cursa may be a mere spirit sliver, but that doesn't make it any less powerful. In fact, thanks to some sci-fi shenanigans, that slice of Megabug gained sentience and became a totally terrifying enemy in its own right. Cursa has cosmic powers, its own free will, and dreams of total domination. Cursa feeds on the energy of the universe, and it has magical mind control powers that it can use to create armies with unwavering loyalty. Bowser has to control his minions with fear and intimidation, but Cursa gets what it wants much more easily.

Smithy is the main villain in "Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars," and he's one of the toughest foes that Mario and his companions have ever defeated. Much like Bowser, Smithy has a ton of physical strength on his side. He is a mechanical being that can literally smash his way through almost any obstacle in his path. Smithy's physical strength is certainly something to be feared, but it's not the trait that makes him more powerful than Bowser.

Smithy's greatest asset is his mechanical nature. He comes from an alternate dimension full of synthetic beings, and most of them work for him. Smithy manufactures his own minions and uses them as weapons to enforce his will throughout the Mario multiverse. When players finally challenge Smithy at the end of "Legend of the Seven Stars," they have to fight multiple copies of the villain because he used his special factory to duplicate himself.

If Smithy had achieved his goal of stealing all the power of wishes from the "Mario" universe, he would have become virtually unstoppable. As it is, when Smithy has access to his factory, he's still one of the strongest villains the Mushroom Kingdom has ever seen.

We've seen plenty of space creatures, frightening demons, and mystic witches that could give Bowser a run for his money, but there's another anthropomorphic animal who loves to cause chaos in the Mushroom Kingdom. Midbus looks like an unhappy cross between a pig and a snapping turtle, and he made his debut in the "Mario" franchise in 2009's "Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story." In the game Midbus is working alongside Fawful, but he seems to have a special bone to pick with Bowser.

In many respects, Midbus and Bowser are perfectly matched. Just like Mario's number one bad guy, Midbus has incredible physical strength and a temper to match. Unlike Bowser, Midbus has access to some ice abilities thanks to an ice ray invented by Fawful. During the events of "Bowser's Inside Story," Blizzard Midbus manages to freeze Bowser, and if it weren't for the intervention of the Mario Bros., Bowser might still be stuck like that. At the end of the game, Midbus himself gets frozen, and he's presumably been left in that same place.

By now it should be clear that even the side villains in the "Mario" games can be monstrous opponents. Count Bleck gets most of the attention in "Super Paper Mario," but his right hand henchman deserves some recognition as well. Nastasia is a blue-skinned, pink-haired woman who works as Count Bleck's secretary. Nothing makes her happier than helping others ruin lives, but that's not what makes her especially fearsome.

Unlike most of the other enemies in the game, Nastasia doesn't have her own boss fight. Players never actually get to challenge her one-on-one because her magic powers make that essentially impossible. Nastasia has the ability to hypnotize anyone she encounters, and throughout "Super Paper Mario," she throws an assortment of mind-controlled enemies in Mario's direction.

Aside from being dangerous, Nastasia is also genuinely complicated. She really loves Count Bleck, and near the end of the game, she sacrifices herself to save his life. If she weren't so infatuated with the Count, Nastasia could become a main villain in her own right. Her powers still make her technically more powerful than Bowser, even if her feelings got in the way of her evildoing.