Bowser (SSBM)

Bowser in Super Smash Bros. Melee
Universe	Mario
Other playable appearances	in Brawl in SSB4
Availability	Starter
Tier	F (24)

“	A mighty foe that trades speed for pure power.	”
—Melee's instruction manual

Bowser (クッパ, Koopa), is a character in Super Smash Bros. Melee and is available from the start. Announced at E3 2001, a stronger form of Bowser also appears as the "final" boss in Adventure Mode.

Bowser is currently ranked 24th in the F tier in the current Melee tier list. Among Bowser's positive traits is his difficulty in getting KO'd due to his high weight and rather fast falling speed; additionally, he has among the most powerful attacks in the game (most notably his forward smash), as well as some very good aerial attacks, most notably his forward and upward aerials. However, he suffers due to his large size and falling speed, making him extremely easy to combo. His moves are also very sluggish, and his approach is among the worst in the game, with laggy aerials, poor jumping ability (leading to an awful SHFFL), a short wavedash, poor projectile, and slow, predictable recovery. Bowser is among few characters to lack any positive matchups, and only two, against Yoshi and Pichu, are considered even.

Attributes

Bowser acts as the game's primary "slow and powerful" fighter; other equally heavy and powerful characters, such as Donkey Kong and Ganondorf, are of considerably higher speed than Bowser in a variety of ways. Bowser has an average falling speed, and a below average air speed, as well as high traction and a surprisingly fast dashing speed. These characteristics, however, also give Bowser a short and slow wavedash.

One of Bowser's greatest strengths is his raw damage output and KO potential. Many of his attacks are the strongest of their type, and their damage output can reach perhaps ludicrous levels; his side smash, for instance, deals 24% when not charged, and his down tilt has the second highest damage output in the game for a tilt (behind Ganondorf's incredibly slow up tilt), dealing a potential 22% if both hits connect. As a result of this high damage output, Bowser's KOing options are possibly the most numerous in the game, with his up and down tilts, all of his smash attacks, forward, back, and up aerials, Koopa Klaw back throw, Whirling Fortress, and even his jab becoming potentials for garnering KOs. In addition to their high power, Bowser's attacks also have very large hitboxes, leading to a rather large range.

In addition to this, Bowser has a surprisingly high amount of tricks that can be used to aggravate opponents. The set knockback of his down throw can allow for chainthrowing on fast fallers, while his up air, when L-cancelled and set up after a short hop, can infinite fast fallers. One of Bowser's most versatile moves takes form as his up special move, Whirling Fortress. In addition to a potential 32% it can cause, it is amongst the most flexible moves in the game, acting as a combo breaker due to its paltry 5 start-up frames, a potential edgeguard, and a dangerous substitute to Bowser's poor defensive roll.

Bowser's extreme power that sacrifices speed, however, is what causes him to be considered a poor character. Due to a metagame that favours fast characters such as Fox and Marth over slower characters such as Bowser, Bowser can quickly find himself overwhelmed, with very few ways to effectively counter faster attacks. A very large hitbox and a high weight that prevents him from travelling far also invites frequent combos against him, leading to few opportunities to counterattack. This is exacerbated by a poor defensive game, with a small shield that invites shield stabbing, as well as slow defensive rolls and sidesteps.

Bowser's approach in both the air and the ground are poor, and in both cases, they're considered amongst the worst in the game. On the ground, a slow dash attack, slow attacks in general, and a short, situational wavedash prevent Bowser from effectively approaching the opponent without setting himself up for counterattacks; the lack of a long-ranged projectile also hampers this. His aerial approach is of equally poor quality, due to a very slow jumping speed and high-lag aerials, leading to a poor SHFFL that is, ironically, very easy to perform.

Bowser's lack of low-knockback moves, coupled with high ending lag, also lend themselves to a poor combo game; most of his combos require precise timing and L-cancelling, and even then, these combos are limited to two or three hits, with the last hit often not being one that can lead to a KO. Bowser's slow speed on both the ground and in the air also prevent him from easily "pursuing" foes after they've been sent back, leading to opponents to easily recovering from hits and being able to counter Bowser's further attempts at comboing.

Moveset

For a gallery of Bowser's hitboxes, see here.

Bowser's aerial attacks

		Name	Damage	Description
Neutral attack			5%	Bowser scratches with his left claw, and then his right claw. Noticeable KO potential at higher percentages.
			6%
Forward tilt	↗		15%	Bowser hits with his knuckle. Has a bit of start up lag and little range, fairly good knockback for a tilt. In fact, it is the most powerful forward tilt in Melee.
	→		14%
	↘		13%
Up tilt			7-11%	Bowser claws upward. Good knockback, good for setting up combos. 2nd most powerful up tilt in Melee.
Down tilt			13% then 9%	Bowser slashes along the ground with his claws. Two hits. First hit doesn't have much knockback, but the second hit is fairly slow.
Dash attack			6-11%	Bowser charges forward. Decent knockback, but easily countered due to starting and ending lag.
Forward smash			24%	Bowser rears back for a short moment, and hits incredibly hard with his head. Very high damage and knockback, though suffers from a lot of lag in general. It is the strongest smash attack in the game and KOs at around 18-38% when fully charged.
Up smash			20%	Bowser jumps upward, hitting with his spikes. A powerful attack with a rather long-lasting hitbox.
Down smash			20%	Bowser spins around in his shell, doing great damage with multiple hits from his spines. Subpar range, can be DI'd out of, and has noticeable ending lag, but still powerful nonetheless. Hits 7 times.
Neutral aerial			7-13%	Bowser spins around in his shell. Low knockback, but long duration.
Forward aerial			9-14%	Bowser slashes forward in midair. Good knockback and edgeguarding option.
Back aerial			8-13%	Bowser hits backward with his shell. Great knockback, good edgeguarding option when used in a SHFFL or ledge hop. It can semi-spike.
Up aerial			9-17%	Bowser hits upward hard with his head. Very high knockback, but one of Bowser's slower moves. It is the strongest up aerial and one of the most powerful aerials in the game (it is stronger than Ganondorf's down aerial on grounded opponents and being the second strongest aerial in Melee).
Down aerial			24% (Total)	Bowser spins downwards, hitting with the spikes on his shell. Not much knockback or damage, small hitbox, but releases a shockwave upon hitting the ground. Hits 9 times.
Grab			—
Pummel			2-3%	Bites the foe.
Forward throw			5-10%	Bowser throws his foe forward. Can act as a potential KO move at high percentages.
Back throw			5-10%	Bowser throws his foe backward.
Up throw			5-9% (Total)	Bowser throws his foe upward a short distance and on his shell, doing damage to the opponent while spinning. Has set knockback and can chaingrab fastfallers. Hits 6 times.
Down throw			6-12%	Bowser throws his foe on the ground and lands on them with tremendous force.
Forward roll Back roll Spot dodge Air dodge		—	—
Techs		—	—
Floor attack (front) Floor getups (front)			6%	A laggy attack, Bowser shortly gets up and swipes in front, then gets back down for a second before thrusting both his feet out.
Floor attack (back) Floor getups (back)			12% (Total)	Bowser gets up, swiping twice in front of him.
Edge attack (fast) Edge getups (fast)			8%	Swings many times inside his shell forwards to the stage.
Edge attack (slow) Edge getups (slow)			10%	Gets up and swipes.
Neutral special		Fire Breath	1-4% (Per Hit)	A flame breath attack that weakens and contracts over time. The move has a lot of start up lag, and is really only useful for edgeguarding. This attack has transcendent priority.
Side special		Koopa Klaw	13% (Slash), 4% (Bite), 13% (Throw Forward), 10% (Throw Backward)	A claw swipe that hits enemies farther away, but also causes Bowser to grab onto enemies very close to him. Foes can escape this move in the same way they can escape grabs: by rolling the control stick. The forward throw awards more damage, while the back throw gets better knockback. The attack hitbox has transcendent priority.
Up special		Whirling Fortress	13% (Ground), 20% (Air, Total)	A recovery move with very little start up. The attack has great knockback when used on the ground, and in the air, it is good for racking up damage. The attack hits once on the ground, but 7 times in the air. It's great for horizontal recovery, but does not cover much vertical distance.
Down special		Bowser Bomb	21%	If used on the ground, Bowser jumps up into the air, then plummets back down to the ground, damaging anyone who's in the way. If used in the air, the move functions the same, except there is no initial jump. This move is a stall then fall move.

Taunt

Bowser rears his head back, roaring.

Victory Theme

An orchestrated cover of the iconic "Level Completed" music from Super Mario Bros..

In competitive play

Matchups

Super Smash Bros. Melee Character Matchups

Avg.

Notable players

See also: Category:Bowser professionals (SSBM)

Inactive

•  Gimpyfish
•  WarriorKnight
•  Gojira
•  DJ Nintendo
•  Eikelmann

Tier placement and history

Bowser has traditionally always been a very low-tiered character, ranking at or near the bottom on many revisions, due to his negative attributes and his pitiful matchups against top/high tier characters, which led to very poor tournament results overall. Even with the innovations of dedicated Bowser professionals such as Gimpyfish, who propelled Bowser to a level of play that many rarely ever saw before, Bowser simply could not reach the ubiquity and consistency needed as a main to be considered as a relevant threat in the top-level environment. Currently, Bowser is in the F tier in 24th place; he has negligible representation in tournaments outside of situational matches where he is counterpicked against players unfamiliar with the matchup (e.g. DJ Nintendo vs. Unknown522 at Zenith 2013), and is considered non-viable for serious play.

Regional differences

Bowser is among few characters to be changed in all three versions of Melee. In the Japanese release, Bowser's name was "Koopa", a reference to how he was an evolved form of a Koopa Troopa. Likewise, Giga Bowser's name in Japan was "Giga Koopa". All such changes of his name can be seen if the game's language is set to Japanese.

Bowser, in the PAL regions, also received a few changes; he was made 1 unit heavier in PAL regions, from 117 to 118, and errors concerning his down throw, such as its inability to hit Mr. Game & Watch, were corrected. The PAL region version of the game also had a bug fix for Bowser from the American 1.2 version: he could no longer "Flame Cancel" by landing during the ending frames of Fire Breath, his neutral special move.

In single-player modes

In Classic Mode

In Classic Mode, Bowser can appear as an ordinary opponent, an opponent alongside Mario, Zelda, Mewtwo or Peach, a giant opponent, a metal opponent, or an ally in the team and giant battles.

In his appearances, he will appear on either Battlefield or Princess Peach's Castle. Unusually, if fought as a giant character, he will appear on Fountain of Dreams.

In Adventure Mode

In Adventure Mode, Bowser acts as a final boss of sorts, fought on the last stage, Stage 12: Final Destination. In this appearance, he is larger than usual, and as a result, he is more resistant to knockback. When played on Very Easy and Easy difficulties, or if the player spent too much time in the Adventure Mode, then the game is concluded there. Classic Bowser's trophy falls off the stage, and the player's selected character celebrates with one of his or her Victory poses.

Bowser's trophy returns to face the Ice Climbers one last time.

If the player, however, arrives at Stage 12: Final Destination on Normal difficulty or higher in less than 18 minutes, Bowser will appear with his black colour scheme instead of his ordinary green colour scheme. After he is KO'd and the ordinary cutscene is played, However, the eerie music continues where another cutscene shows the classic Bowser's trophy returning to Final Destination to face the player's character one last time. The trophy is then struck with lightning, and Bowser turns into Giga Bowser. As a last challenge for the player, they must defeat Giga Bowser in order to clear the Adventure Mode. After he is defeated, a cutscene shows Bowser's trophy falling off the stage again; this time, however, it breaks apart in which appears to be a "floor" in a pitch black background.

In All-Star Mode

In All-Star Mode, Bowser and his allies are fought on Yoshi's Island, as the remaining Mario stages were already taken by the rest of the four characters in the cast.

In Event Matches

Bowser makes the following appearances in the following event matches:

• Event 1: Trouble King: Bowser is the first opponent of the event mode. The player plays as Mario, and Mario and Bowser have 2 stock each in an untimed match on the Battlefield stage. KO Bowser twice to win, which is an easy objective because Bowser is lighter than usual and has less competent AI.
• Event 10: All-Star Match 1: Bowser is the last of five opponents the player must fight in this series of staged battles. The player's character battles him on the Rainbow Cruise stage, and their character has 2 stock while Bowser has 1. With a timer of four minutes, the player must defeat him and the other four characters one-by-one with the overall time and life the player has: Mario, Donkey Kong, Yoshi, and Peach beforehand.
• Event 17: Bounty Hunters: In this original scenario, the player plays as Samus teamed up with Captain Falcon (with Friendly Fire turned off), and the shared opponent is Bowser on the Jungle Japes stage. With everyone receiving one stock and 2:00 as the time limit, the goal is to be the one to KO Bowser. The player fails if Captain Falcon delivers the finishing blow or if Bowser SDs.
• Event 19: Peach's Peril: A scenario designed in homage to the standard plot of traditional Super Mario games of Bowser being after Peach and Mario saving her. The player plays as Mario teamed with Peach, whose AI is set on walking to each end of the stage aimlessly, and they each have 1 stock while the enemy Bowser has infinite stock. Bowser is especially strong and durable in this match, and he will attack either of them in the area on the Final Destination stage. The objective is to last a full minute with both Mario and Peach surviving by the end, and high score is determined by how many times Mario can KO Bowser.
• Event 25: Gargantuans: A scenario designed in homage to old, campy monster movies like Godzilla and King Kong. On the Fourside stage, with unlimited time, the player plays as a giant-sized Bowser (as "Godzilla") with 1 stock against a giant-sized Donkey Kong (as "King Kong") with two stock. Two other characters on the match are a tiny Mario and a tiny Peach, who will be K.O.'d within seconds of the battle between the two main monsters.
• Event 42: Trouble King 2: This tough event takes place in Poké Floats. The player controls Luigi against a giant Bowser in an untimed match where the two of them have a stock of two each.
• Event 51: The Showdown: In the game's final Event Match, the player has to square off against Ganondorf, Mewtwo and Giga Bowser on a team. With no time limit, the player is tasked with defeat all three, and everyone is given three stocks.

Ending Images

• 

  Classic Mode.

• 

  Adventure Mode.

• 

  All-Star Mode.

Trophy descriptions

In addition to the normal trophy about Bowser as a character, there are two trophies about him as a fighter, unlocked by completing the Adventure and All-Star Modes respectively with Bowser on any difficulty:

Bowser

Bowser has a long history of kidnapping Princess Peach to lure his nemesis, Mario, into traps. He leads an enormous group of mischievous creatures, not the least of which are his seven children. With outrageous strength, flammable breath, and more spikes than you can shake a Star Rod at, Bowser is a constant threat.

Bowser (Smash Red)

In many ways, Bowser is the toughest character around. Not only does he have near-impervious hide, but his great mass makes him almost impossible to hurl offscreen. Of course, his weight also makes him rather slow to maneuver, so when facing him in battle, it's best to press your attack and not give him a chance to counter.

• B: Fire Breath
• Smash B: Koopa Klaw

Bowser (Smash Blue)

Bowser's Fire Breath strikes continuously, but it grows gradually smaller over time until it's barely smoldering. The Koopa Klaw rakes enemies at a distance and pulls nearby foes in close for a good gnawing. Bowser's Whirling Fortress moves laterally over the ground; it works in midair as a recovery. The Bowser Bomb is powerful and paves the way for more attacks.

• Up & B: Whirling Fortress
• Down & B: Bowser Bomb

• 
• 

  Smash Red

• 

  Smash blue

Alternate costumes

Bowser's alternate costumes in Melee

Glitch

Bowser's giant hand glitch is a glitch in Super Smash Bros. Melee that temporarily makes Bowser's hand inflate to several times its size, as the name implies. However, the glitch is only visible for a brief second.

Method: First, Bowser must pick up a capsule, then short hop. After that, he must immediately perform an air dodge.

• As Bowser lands from the air dodge, his right hand (the one holding the capsule) will quickly grow many times its normal size, then just as quickly shrink back to normal. It grows and shrinks over the space of only a few frames, so it is difficult to pause the game at exactly the right point. If the game is paused when Bowser's hand is giant, inspection reveals that the giant hand is as detailed as Bowser's normal hand. When in its giant state, the hand can also distort platforms.

Trivia

• In the Super Smash Bros. Melee mini movie, Bowser is the only character not to appear with his series. Bowser is from the Mario series and he appears right after Captain Falcon.
• Bowser has his own unique landing effect as opposed to the other characters and this effect is also used for his helpless landing animation as well.
• Bowser and Pichu are the only two characters in Melee to have no advantageous matchups.
• Bowser is the first starter villain.