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The Koopa Kids — originally Bowser’s spawn but retconned to be mere ‘minions’ of the Koopa King — first appeared in Super Mario Bros. 3. Iggy, Larry Lemmy, Ludwig, Morton Jr., Roy, and Wendy have since turned up in various games, including Mario’s last mainline 2D platformer, New Super Mario Bros. U.
We know the genesis of their English names, but nothing of their parents, with the only clue being Morton ‘Jr’ whose name suggests the existence of a senior Morton. Lemmy and Iggy are twin brothers, but there’s not a whole lot to go on when it comes to analysing the interpersonal relationships of this sizeable sibling set.
However, the fact they invariably appear together (and go go-karting as a group) suggests they’re pretty close-knit and, presumably, support each other following the umpteenth thrashing under the heeled boot of a Mario brother.
Sibling Score: 7 – There are seven of them and they’re pretty good, so let’s go with a seven.
Kotake & Koume (Twinrova) (Zelda series)
Koume and Kotake are twin witches who control the elements of Fire and Ice respectively and, awesomely, can combine to become Twinrova, the Gerudo-esque boss of the Spirit Temple in Ocarina of Time. These sisters are also surrogate mothers to Ganon, king of the ‘dorfs.
They also appear in the Oracle games and in alternate form as a benign pair of merchants in Termina’s Southern Swamp in Majora’s Mask, with Kotake running the Magic Hags’ Potion Shop and Koume operating the Boat Cruise. It was nice to be able to spend some time in their company without them attempting to freeze and fry our hides.
Sibling Score: 9 – Twin witches who combine fire and ice to become lukewarm water a kickass elemental boss? If that’s not worth a 9, we don’t know what is.
Lucas & Claus (Mother 3)
Finally, a pairing who actually feel like bros. Yes, we are perhaps being foolish to keep our fingers crossed for that Mother 3 NSO announcement (please tell us we aren’t the only ones) but we need an excuse to spend more time with these central twins. They rarely see eye to eye, have drastically different personalities but still look near identical. Yep, sounds like brothers to us.
Sibling Score: 8 – Lucas and Claus are very obviously brothers visually (we mean, just look at them) but we love this pair because of how much they feel like a family. They bicker, care for each other, have contrasting energies — that’s some good stuff right there!
Gorman Brothers (Majora’s Mask)
This identical-looking trio from Majora’s Mask, based on ranchhand Ingo from Ocarina, fall into two camps. The eldest and youngest brothers run Milk Road’s Gorman Track and are generally unpleasant, with misdemeanours ranging from the unsavoury (running no-doubt-illegal horse races on their track) to the downright despicable (terrorising the sisters that run Romani Ranch).
The middle brother, on the other hand — handily named Gorman — is leader of the equally handily-named Gorman Troupe, a travelling band of performers. It takes some effort to crack through his crusty persona, but this Gorman brother is revealed to have a sensitive side which led him away from his mean brothers and into the world of show business. He also shows up in The Minish Cap,
Sibling Score: 7 – Gorman (the nice one) has great depth and a dash of pathos which makes him a memorable figure in Majora’s Mask, and we admire how this band of brothers uphold the Mario tradition of confusing naming conventions based on one first name. If the Milk Road pair stopped hassling young women while they go about their business, these could be real contenders.
Blathers & Celeste (Animal Crossing series)
You can stop reading now — we’ve found our winning pair.
Blathers’ endearing blithering and museum curation services have been a fixture of the Animal Crossing series since the GameCube. Though saddled with tedious, repetitive dialogue, he overcomes it through cute, infectious enthusiasm and unrivalled professionalism. Living in the museum feels a bit obsessive to us, but hey, he seems happy.
And stargazer Celeste, the younger of the two, is equally knowledgeable and lovely. It’s a genuine treat to visit her in the observatory, or catch her out and about in your village of an evening. They’re our favourite amiibo pair, these two.
Sibling Score: 10 – An exceptional, genre-defining pair of outstanding intelligence and cuteness. List over, man. It can’t get better than these stupendous Strigiform siblings…
Tatl & Tael (Majora’s Mask)
We love Navi, we really do, but it is always nice to see some Zelda fairies with range. You never quite know whether you are going to get nice fairy or nasty fairy with these two and, you know, we kinda like that. That being said, we have to draw the line at assisting in global destruction.
Sibling Score: 7 – Call us old-fashioned, but having one sibling work towards the literal end of the world is always going to drag the pair’s overall ranking down a little.
Chrom, Emmeryn & Lissa (Fire Emblem Awakening)
Actually, there are too many Fire Emblem siblings to list them all. So, let’s stick with a trio of winners from one of our very favourite entries, Fire Emblem: Awakening. Chrom really steals the limelight away from his siblings here, but we have often relied on Lissa’s healing abilities and Emmeryn’s magic in a pinch (which, with rusty Fire Emblem skills like ours, is quite a lot). They are also some of the only royals on this list so we should all… bow? Or kneel? Something like that.
Sibling Score: 8 – Any group of siblings that actually fight together on a battlefield deserve a certain amount of credit, right?
Callie & Marie (The Squid Sisters) (Splatoon series)
Psych! Despite these Inkling idols being named the ‘Squid Sisters’, they’re not actually siblings — rather they’re cousins. Therefore, however much we like them and their dulcet tones, they don’t belong on this list.
We just like to keep you on your toes. We also enjoy scrolling through the comments to see who actually reads the text. How perfectly devious of us! Okay, here’s a bumper crop of siblings to make up for our cruel deception…
Sibling Score: Disqualified
Twin Jugglers (Ocarina of Time & Majora’s Mask)
Add these two to the list of Nintendo siblings that actually don’t seem to like each other very much. The twin in blue is ridiculed by his brother for the entirety of Ocarina of Time and, only to make matters worse, they are a part of the Gorman Troupe in Majora’s Mask. Tut tut, boys.
Sibling Score: 4 – Curse this pair’s impressive juggling skills and its ability to always distract us from the fact that they don’t seem to be very nice people at all.
The Able Sisters (Animal Crossing series)
Oof, Animal Crossing hits hard with the adorable siblings. Hedgehog sisters Mabel, Sable, and Label are the fashionistas and clothiers of the Animal Crossing world, and they’ve got a tragic backstory. Having lost their parents at a young age, Sable essentially raised young Mabel while middle child Label left to reinvent herself as ‘Labelle’. These three cover the entire emotional spectrum, with lives full of heartbreak, resentment, and resilience, but also love, trust, and adventure. There’s a lot to read between the lines here, with a complex relationship dynamic contained in one of Nintendo’s most cutesy series.
Sibling Score: 10 – They’re loving, hard-working, dependable, and — most of all — human. Well, hedgehog. An irresistible trio in our book.
You want more? We’ve got more! Follow us over to page two for another batch of Nintendo’s best (and worst) siblings…