Bowser (SSB4)/Down aerial

Hitbox visualization showing Bowser's down aerial.

Hitbox visualization showing Bowser's down aerial on landing.

Overview

Bowser retracts into his shell, turns upside down, and propels himself downward. While the move mostly retains its animation from previous games, it has been largely overhauled in regard to its function; rather than a drill aerial, it is a stall-then-fall that meteor smashes opponents hit during the first 8 hit frames, out of the total of 33. However, the late hit also boasts extravagant power nonetheless, KOing middleweights reliably under 115% without rage and being the strongest non-meteor down aerial, along with Ganondorf's down aerial, in terms of knockback. In both cases, the move deals 16% damage, and produces a quake hitbox upon landing that deals an additional 2% with very weak semi-spike knockback, although this hitbox only affects opponents on the ground. The move possesses a large hitbox, enabling its meteor smashing hitbox to effectively edgeguard opponents when near the edge.

However, Bowser's down aerial suffers from the typical problems of stall-then-falls: due to its very long duration (77 frames before it can be interrupted), it is a guaranteed self-destruct offstage unless Bowser uses it high enough from the ground, and even said circumvention can leave him vulnerable afterwards if the move misses. Another glaring weakness is its extremely high landing lag at 40 frames; it is tied with his back aerial and Pikachu's down aerial as the aerial attack with the highest landing lag in the game, which nearly guarantees the opponent will be able to punish it should they shield the move or simply avoid it altogether. Overall, Bowser's down aerial is a very high risk edgeguarding tool, and usually only sees use when near the edge at a position where Bowser can land onstage while still meteor smashing the opponent into the bottom blast line.

Hitboxes

ID	Part	Damage	SD	Angle	BK	KS	FKV	Radius	Bone	Offset			SDIx	H×	T%	Clang	Rebound	Type	Effect	G	A	Sound	Direct
Clean hit
0	0	16%	0		30	100	0	7.0	0	0.0	-3.0	-1.0	1.0x	1.0x	0%							Kick
Late hit
0	0	16%	0		30	100	0	7.0	0	0.0	-3.0	-1.0	1.0x	1.0x	0%							Kick
Landing
0	0	2%	0		60	30	0	9.6	0	0.0	4.0	-8.0	1.0x	1.0x	0%							Slash
1	0	2%	0		60	30	0	9.6	0	0.0	4.0	8.0	1.0x	1.0x	0%							Slash

Timing

Attack

Initial autocancel	1-13
Clean hit	17-24
Late hit	25-49
Ending autocancel	70-
Interruptible	78

Landing lag

Hitboxes	1-3
Animation length	40

Legend (1 square = 1 frame)

Lag time

Hitbox

Autocancel

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