Bowser (SSB4)/Side special/Default

Hitbox visualization showing Bowser's grounded Flying Slam.

Hitbox visualization showing Bowser's aerial Flying Slam.

Hitbox visualization showing Bowser's Flying Slam's collateral.

Overview

Bowser swings his arm in front of him to grab an opponent. The move is one of Bowser's best neutral options due to its property of being able to auto-cancel upon landing. This allows him to have tricky movement and to end the lag of his bulky aerials, which alleviate Bowser's weaknesses in having to land with the long end lag of his moves. Besides its utility in the neutral, the move boasts as a powerful KO option and can KO opponents at medium-high percents with rage when used on the top platform of common stages such as Battlefield and Smashville. The move provides enough pressure to force the opponent to consider whether or not to shield or to jump. It's a powerful alternative to Bowser's already strong grab and grab game, and due to the move's knockback sending at an upward angle, it can DI mixup an opponent as if they hold in, they do to the top, and if they hold out, they die straight to the side, forcing the opponent to DI down and away, sending them offstage for an edgeguard. It also puts them in the air, giving more opportunity to pressure the opponent and juggle them.

Update history

1.0.4/ 1.0.0

• Sacrificial KOs using Flying Slam now KO Bowser first instead of the opponent. When Bowser is KO'd, the opponent is released from the grab, potentially allowing them to recover back onto the stage.

1.0.6

• Bowser has more control over Flying Slam's trajectory, while the opponent has less control (base air acceleration: 0.15 (Bowser)/0.18 (opponent) → 0.18/0.17).

1.1.3

• Flying Slam's grab to slam transition is considerably faster (38 frames → 25), now only being a few frames slower than its Brawl counterpart.
  • However, the slam to grab transition has less intangibility (frames 1-23 → 1-16), as the intangibility frames were not adjusted for the move's new frame speed multiplier.
• Bowser has more control over Flying Slam's trajectory (base air acceleration: 0.18 → 0.21).
• The opponent has more control over Flying Slam's trajectory (base air acceleration: 0.17 → 0.19).
  • However, this does not fully compensate for Bowser's greater air acceleration, giving him more control overall.
• Flying Slam now has invincibility frames before Bowser leaves the ground.

1.1.4

• All variations of Flying Slam's grab range increased.
  • Grounded grabbox sizes: (4u/3u → 5u/4u (grounded), 1u/1u → 2u/2u (aerial)).
  • Far grabbox Z position: (17 → 17.5).
  • Aerial grabbox sizes: (5u/3.5u → 6u/4.5u).
  • Large grabbox Z position: (15 → 15.5).

Throw, Grab and Hitbox Data

Ground Grab

ID	Radius	Bone	Offset			Stretch			G	A
0	5.0	0	0.0	8.0	17.5	—
1	4.0	0	0.0	8.0	11.0	—
2	2.0	0	0.0	8.0	17.5	—
3	2.0	0	0.0	8.0	11.0	—

Air Grab

ID	Radius	Bone	Offset			Stretch			G	A
0	6.0	0	0.0	8.0	15.5	—
1	4.5	0	0.0	8.0	10.0	—

Throw

ID	Damage	Angle		BK	KS	FKV	Bone	FFx	Type	Effect	Sound
0	18%		Forwards	80	60	0	0	None			None
1	5%		Forwards	60	30	0	0	None			None

Collateral

ID	Part	Damage	SD	Angle	BK	KS	FKV	Radius	Bone	Offset			SDIx	H×	T%	Clang	Rebound	Type	Effect	G	A	Sound	Direct	Stretch
0	0	15%	1		80	80	0	8.0	0	0.0	2.0	6.5	1x	1x	0%							Kick		0.0	2.0	-4.5

Timing

Ground grab

Grab	8
Interruptible	43
Animation length	49

Air grab

Grab	17
Animation length	48

Falling hit

Intangible	1-23
Hitbox	72-
Animation length	81

Throw

Throw	8
Interruptible	49
Animation length	66

Legend (1 square = 1 frame)

Lag time

Hitbox

Vulnerable

Intangible

Grab

Throw point

Interruptible

Bowser's moveset

Neutral attack (1 · 2) · Forward tilt · Up tilt · Down tilt · Dash attack · Forward smash · Up smash · Down smash
Neutral aerial · Forward aerial · Back aerial · Up aerial · Down aerial
Grab · Pummel · Forward throw · Back throw · Up throw · Down throw
Forward roll · Back roll · Spot dodge · Air dodge · Techs
Floor attack (front) · Floor getups (front) · Floor attack (back) · Floor getups (back) · Floor attack (trip) · Floor getups (trip)
Edge attack · Edge getups
Neutral special (def · c1 · c2) · Side special (def · c1 · c2) · Up special (def · c1 · c2) · Down special (def · c1 · c2) · Final Smash