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 Ultimate
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 the 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. Having debuted in the Super Smash Bros. series, Giga Bowser is considered a part of the Super Smash Bros. universe, even though the character he is based on, Bowser, is from the Mario universe.

In Super Smash Bros. Melee

In 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 without using a Continue. If done correctly, a new cutscene will be shown after Giant Bowser is defeated - his KO'd trophy will return to the stage and be struck by lightning, causing it to come back to life as 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.

Unlike most other bosses, Giga Bowser has a damage percentage as opposed to HP (in both of his appearances) and takes knockback; the player must 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 and Super Smash Bros. 4

As a Final Smash

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. While Giga Bowser does not flinch during this transformation, the transformation only lasts ten seconds.

Outside of this appearance, as well as his related trophy, Giga Bowser does not make any other appearances in Brawl, and SSB4.

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

As a Final Smash

In Ultimate, due to full-moveset transformation Final Smashes being removed, Giga Bowser forgoes having a full moveset, instead acting akin to the Dragoon, where he teleports to the background and allows the player to aim a punch. The punch deals 40% damage, and causes an instant Screen KO for opponent(s) at 60% damage or greater.

As a boss

Giga Bowser as he appears as a boss in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Giga Bowser appears as a boss in Classic Mode for Mario and Captain Falcon. In the final stage, Bowser initially appears instead of a boss; once he is KO'd, a cutscene plays where he transforms into Giga Bowser, similarly to the final stage of Melee's Adventure Mode at high difficulties. A Maxim Tomato appears for recovery as the battle begins. Unlike Melee, Giga Bowser does not flinch from attacks, and the player must deplete his HP to defeat him, as opposed to being launched off the screen, just like every other boss. Following Smash 4, he utilizes Bowser's moveset from Brawl. Additionally, he moves slower as his attacks now have much more startup lag.

In World of Light, Giga Bowser is first fought in the Molten Fortress sub-area of the Light Realm map, and then fought again during the Final Battle like every other boss. The player faces him on the Final Destination stage, while the Giga Bowser theme is playing. Unlike other boss battles, defeating him will release the regular Bowser from Galeem's control, instead of both appearing separately on the map (as is the case with Ganondorf and Ganon).

He's fought for a second time during the true final battle with Galeem and Dharkon. During the battle's second phase, Giga Bowser is the second Light Realm boss to appear on screen, which might indicate him being the second boss in the game.

As a Playable Character

Much like in Melee, Giga Bowser can only be played via hacking or modding. However, most of his moves have several restrictions, including the loss of infinite super armor (albeit still having a good deal of), dashing, dash attack, down tilt, neutral aerial, and down aerial. However, despite these changes, Giga Bowser retains Bowser's more primeval moveset from Brawl. But unlike in his previous appearances, many attacks are generally much slower as his moveset gained a significant amount of start up lag, ending lag, and landing lag, as well as his jumpsquat being the slowest to jump out of. These changes are likely to help balance him as a boss character.

Changes from SSB4 to Ultimate

• Walking speed and frame data for numerous attacks are much slower.
• Run, dash attack, down tilt, neutral aerial and down aerial are no longer usable.
• Giga Bowser now receives knockback at a high enough damage percentage.
• Up taunt and down taunt animations have been altered.
• Aside from the roar he makes during his boss intro, Giga Bowser no longer has voice clips during gameplay.

Spirit

No.	Image	Name	Type	Class	Slot	Ability	Series
1,097		Giga Bowser		★★	3	Fire Attack ↑	Super Smash Bros. Series

Differences between Bowser and Giga Bowser

Undoubtedly the most dramatic transformation between Bowser and Giga Bowser is the clear 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 him unable to flinch from some attacks. Just like Master Hand and Crazy Hand, Giga Bowser cannot be grabbed, inhaled by Kirby, nor egg laid by Yoshi; severely limiting combo options.

As a transformation of Bowser, Giga Bowser's moveset is identical to his. His attributes, however, are significantly altered. His attacks 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, as well as having a longer range (in Ultimate, it can carpet the entire surface of Final Destination, however unlike his past appearances, his fire runs out after a period of time.). In addition, many 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, as does Whirling Fortress when used on the ground.

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 after this, making it a very safe move. It is faster than his Frame 7 Jab, sitting at Frame 5, making it one of the best out of shield options in the game, on top of his already formidable shield game padded by the grab immunity.

If Giga Bowser captures an opponent with Koopa Klaw, he can bite his opponent, but the pummel will whiff on Yoshi, and Pichu if mashed too fast. It can also whiff on the first hit with a few specific characters, although these circumstances can be rare. 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 with more toned muscular regions, sharper fangs, claws and shell spikes, a less rounded snout, larger horns, spikier hair, a more realistic shell, larger feet, bloodshot eyes, and a darker overall 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 at one point under consideration to be a transformation of Bowser in the Skylanders game Skylanders: SuperChargers. However, he was replaced by the Skylanders-original Molten Bowser.
• Giga Bowser in Melee, as well as Super Smash Bros.'s Metal Mario and Giant Donkey Kong, are the only boss characters in the Super Smash Bros. series to have their own character data and still use the standard percentage-based damage meter as opposed to a health bar.
  • Every other boss in Melee to use the standard percentage meter (and every boss that does this from Brawl onward aside from the final form of Master Core) is simply a regular character with a modifier attached, while the aforementioned three bosses are actually coded as separate characters.
• Giga Bowser's design closely resembles that of Ganon's in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, due to them being hulking, monstrous-looking bipedal creatures that sport a mostly green coloration, and similar horns, hair, and tails. The resemblance between the two is best seen in Ultimate, due to Ganondorf reverting back to his Ocarina of Time design, last seen in Melee, in this game.
• Giga Bowser was created due to Masahiro Sakurai's interpretation of Bowser's 8-bit sprites as a "frenzied, terrifying monster", compared to his modern appearance, which has steadily become cuter. He also notes that Giga Bowser and Bowser are separate characters, though this is contradicted with later installments.
• The only time that Giga Bowser's knockback animations can be seen is in the Adventure Mode: World of Light, where characters with counters can launch him when he uses his forward tilt, forward smash, or down special. The animations can also be seen in the same mode if a strongly powered up Hothead used by the player hits Giga Bowser while sparking.
• If Giga Bowser is launched off of the stage in Ultimate, he will use his double jump and up special to recover. He has all of the normal ledge options.
• Although Giga Bowser cannot be normally brought to the blast line, he can still self-destruct by using Bowser Bomb toward the edge.
• Giga Bowser can still come in contact with and obtain a Smash Ball. However, he does not have a programmed Final Smash of his own, as he is not intended to use one (hence his boss battle's lack of Smash Balls). Once used, it will appear as if Bowser is transforming into Giga Bowser, but will then immediately shrink as if reverting back to his regular form, with a green flash accompanying him. However, this Final Smash has no effect whatsoever apart from the green flashes remaining onto Giga Bowser until he is KOed, while he is otherwise unaffected. If Giga Bowser uses another Smash Ball afterwards, another layer of green flashes will appear on him and so on.
• If Giga Bowser is in a trapping Final Smash, such as Kirby's Ultra Sword, there a few moments where the player can see Giga Bowser revert to a T-pose position, likely because of the lack of animations for Giga Bowser being hit by the attack. Once the Final Smash ends, Giga Bowser will keep spinning in the air, and will stay that way until Training Mode is closed and reopened.