Funnily enough, if you look at the Sprite Sheets (here's the one for Ludwig), you'll see that then the designer tried to explain that: the Koopas try to"squeeze" themselves so that the area of flesh between the belly plates and the rear shell is not exposed to the enemies. Then, we can talk about the number of plates increasing, but after all if the designers made the heads become smaller you cannot expect this from them:LeftyGreenMario said:
(although I think it would be cool if they tried to be more realistic, just for fun - by the way, the left turtle behaves like Bowser's species, the right one is a different way of retracting the head that from what I understand wouldn't fit how the Koopas retract their heads and limbs into the shell)
