Giga Bowser

Not to be confused with Giant Bowser.

Giga Bowser
Mario squares off against Giga Bowser in the Adventure Mode.
A boss in	Melee
Universe	Super Smash Bros.
Point worth	100000

Giga Bowser (ギガクッパ, Giga Koopa), is the gargantuan and powered-up version of Bowser. He first appeared as a hidden final boss in Super Smash Bros. Melee's Adventure Mode and as one of the final opponents the player must face in Event Mode. He eventually made his semi-playable debut in Super Smash Bros. Brawl as Bowser's Final Smash. Despite Bowser being a part of the Mario universe, Giga Bowser is considered part of the Super Smash Bros. universe, having debuted within the series.

In Super Smash Bros. Melee

In the Adventure Mode

In Melee, Giga Bowser appears as a hidden final boss. To encounter him, all previous stages in the mode have to be completed in under 18 minutes and on Normal difficulty or higher and no continues. If done correctly, a new cutscene will be shown after Giant Bowser is defeated - his trophy will return to the stage and be struck by lightning, causing it to come back to life as Giga Bowser. Then Giga Bowser opens his mouth, and the fight begins (with the trophied Giga Bowser who is now a real life Giga Bowser). Defeating Giga Bowser leads to the completion of the Adventure Mode; defeating him without using a Continue also rewards the player with his trophy.

In Event 51: The Showdown

Giga Bowser also appears in Melee's final Event Match, alongside Ganondorf and Mewtwo. The match is similar to his appearance in the Adventure Mode, but with the presence of two teammates. Clearing the Event Match allows the player to use Final Destination as a Versus stage, as well as rewarding Final Destination's trophy; as an added bonus, clearing the match without losing a stock rewards the player with an exclusive Notice.

In both of his appearances, Giga Bowser has a damage percentage as opposed to HP like other bosses; this forces the player to deliberately KO him by knocking him offstage as opposed to merely attacking him.

As a playable character

Although winning with Giga Bowser usually crashes the game, he can sometimes "appear" on the Results screen.

If the game is hacked through the use of the debug menu, it is possible to use Giga Bowser as a character. Giga Bowser is mostly functional, and his name is even displayed on the Jumbotron in Pokémon Stadium (as "G-Bowser"). Internally, Giga Bowser is known as GKOOPS.

Due to a lack of victory poses to display for him on the results screen, the game will usually crash if Giga Bowser wins a match, due to a panic event being called.

When the game is played on the Dolphin emulator and panic events are deliberately suppressed, when Giga Bowser wins a match, the game will not freeze, and the results screen will appear. The game, however, will display Sheik's name in red, and Giga Bowser's stock icon will be a Target. The announcer, however, will properly say Giga Bowser's name.

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Super Smash Bros. 4, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

As a playable character

Giga Bowser makes his debut as a semi-playable character in the Smash series as part of Bowser's Final Smash. When the Final Smash is activated, Bowser transforms into Giga Bowser, allowing players to take advantage of his increased power and range, as well as different hitbox properties. Bowser becomes Giga Bowser for 10 seconds in Brawl and 8 for SSB4 and SSBU. While Giga Bowser does not flinch during this transformation, the transformation only lasts 10 seconds in Brawl (or 8 in SSB4 and SSBU).

Outside of this appearance (his appearance as a semi playable character), as well as his related trophy, Giga Bowser does not make any other appearances in these three games (separate from Melee).

Differences between Bowser and Giga Bowser

Arguably the most dramatic transformation between Bowser and Giga Bowser is the difference between their sizes; Giga Bowser is almost twice as large as Bowser, and even if Bowser is under the influence of a Super Mushroom, Giga Bowser is still slightly larger than him. This larger frame also leads to Giga Bowser being considerably heavier than Bowser, and when fought in Adventure Mode, he is also given a handicap to make him even more difficult to KO. Adding to this, Giga Bowser also has access to some super armor, making it difficult to get him to flinch at some attacks. Giga Bowser cannot be grabbed, inhaled by Kirby, or egg laid by Yoshi.

As a transformation of Bowser, Giga Bowser's moveset is identical; his attacks, however, are considerably stronger in power and knockback. Some of Giga Bowser's attacks also have different properties as a result of his transformation; Fire Breath, for instance, does not run out or become weaker the longer it is used. His fire breath move is invincible. In addition, some of Giga Bowser's attacks are given unusual hitbox properties: his claw-based attacks (side tilt, up tilt, down tilt, edge attacks, forward aerial, forward throw, and back throw) all have a darkness hitbox; his shell-based attacks (his up smash, neutral aerial, back aerial, down aerial, and up throw) all have electric hitboxes; his horn-based attacks (his forward smash and pummel) have explosion effects; and his down smash has freezing properties.

In order to compensate for Bowser's ordinary sub-par recovery, Giga Bowser's Whirling Fortress grants significantly more height, and it also has 26 invincibility frames; its large hitboxes also give multiple pseudo-invincibility frames.

Unusually, if Giga Bowser captures an opponent with Koopa Klaw, he can bite his opponent, but no damage will be inflicted unless the opponent is as big as Donkey Kong or Bowser or powered up with a Super Mushroom. In addition to this error, Giga Bowser's fastfalling speed is identical to his ordinary falling speed.

Visually, Giga Bowser has more pronounced physical features than the normal Bowser; aside from the aforementioned size, Giga Bowser has longer and less-bulky limbs, sharper fangs, claws and shell spikes, a less-rounded snout, larger horns, spikier hair, a differently shaded shell, larger feet, soulless eyes, and a darker skin tone.

Trophy Description (Melee)

Giga Bowser's trophy in Melee

Giga Bowser

An even more imposing figure than the original King of the Koopas, Giga Bowser is roughly twice the size of his scaly, fire-breathing, spike-studded, Super Smash Bros. Melee counterpart. Predictably, this monstrous creature's offensive and defensive powers are a grade higher than those of regular Bowser. Good luck defeating this colossus!

: Super Smash Bros. Melee 12/2001

Trivia

Left: Giant Bowser and normal Giga Bowser. Right: Normal Bowser and Tiny Giga Bowser.

• As previously mentioned, in Melee there exists an unused sound clip where the Announcer says Giga Bowser's name. This clip can only normally be heard in the Sound Test.
  • As expected, due to Giga Bowser's different names in English and Japanese, there exist two different sound bites, one where the announcer says "Giga Bowser!" and the other "Giga Koopa!". In the NTSC version, the two clips are oddly swapped in the Sound Test; the announcer says "Giga Koopa!" when the game language is set to English and "Giga Bowser!" when the game language is set to Japanese. The PAL version only has the "Giga Bowser!" clip, as expected. Both are used properly if Giga Bowser is hacked to be available on the character select screen, or if he wins a match without the game crashing.
• The size difference between Bowser and Giga Bowser is approximately equal to one usage of a Super Mushroom or Poison Mushroom, with Giga Bowser being slightly larger when he is shrunk or Bowser is enlarged. Despite this, the two characters' weights do not share the same ratio as the code for changing characters' sizes does, so Giga Bowser will actually be lighter than Bowser in both cases.
• Giga Bowser was considered a transformation of Bowser in the Skylanders game Skylanders: SuperChargers. However, he was replaced by the Skylanders-original Molten Bowser.
• Giga Bowser was created as a throwback to the older "aggressive" look of Bowser from the pre-Super Mario 64 games. According to Masahiro Sakurai, he disliked having to use the newer design; he thought this original design was more frightening, appropriate for the character.