Bowser (PM)

Bowser in Project M and Project+
Universe	Mario
Base game appearance	Brawl
Moveset inspiration	Bowser (SSBM), Bowser (SSBB)
Alternate costume	Dry Bowser

Bowser is a playable character in the Brawl mod Project M, hailing as the main villain in the Super Mario games. His moveset in Project M comes from a combination of his Brawl and Melee movesets, though with heavy buffs.

Attributes

Bowser's alternate costume.

Bowser in Project M is the classic super heavy weight fighter. His moves are generally slow but hit incredibly hard, he has one of the highest weights and size, and he has widely spread armor on many of his moves. Bowser's armor mechanic demands respect and allows Bowser to simply block the knockback and flinching from weak to medium attacks while performing certain moves. This can be used defensively to absorb what would otherwise be a potentially combo starting move, and it can be used offensively to plow straight through an attack intended to stop Bowser from advancing. Even while being a slower character, Bowser has surprising speed in some areas. He has an above average dashing speed, and Bowser Bomb can be jump canceled, giving Bowser what has been dubbed a super-jump. It allows for terrifyingly quick follow ups into the air for a finisher with moves like his up or forward air, or Koopa Klaw, which has returned from Melee with more power. Whirling Fortress maintains its previous range and power, its viability as an out of shield option, and its ability to fortress hog.

However, Bowser's large size and heavy weight make him susceptible to being comboed, hit with projectiles, and just being hit in general. Despite his speed in some areas (getting to the edge, getting into the air for a follow up) he remains very easy to out-maneuver, as he has poor aerial speed and his long jumping animation gives him a very slow wavedash. While it is difficult to send Bowser far due to his extreme weight, it is fairly easy to send him off the bottom or gimp him, as he suffers from an extremely predictable recovery.

Changes from Melee and Brawl to PM

Seeing as how he was bottom tier in his former iterations, Bowser was heavily buffed overall from Melee and Brawl to Project M.

• Significantly larger, giving him more reach in his attacks.
• Slightly heavier.
• Most of Bowser's moves and animations now have some sort of launch resistance within Project M's new knockback armor engine: his crouch, crawl, and up smash charge grant him light armor, while his dash attack, smashes, neutral air, Koopa Klaw, and Bowser Bomb give him heavy armor (shown by a red flash).
• Many of Bowser's attacks, notably his forward tilt, up smash, back air, up air and down throw, do much more damage, shield damage, and knockback than either one of his past incarnations. His forward smash is the most notable example, as despite still having slow startup, it now deals a single hit with very powerful knockback and an explosive effect, being the strongest move in Bowser's arsenal (and also the strongest forward smash in the game).
• Second hit of down tilt is now optional, activated by pressing the attack button a second time; this allows Bowser to either launch the foe with a single hit to then follow on, or punish shielding or crouch canceling foes with a second hit, while formerly Bowser was forced to stay in place using the two hits.
• Forward aerial now has a sweetspot at the slashing trail, dealing stronger damage and knockback, while the rest of the attack acts like the Melee version.
• Flame cancel reimplemented from Melee, giving Bowser a lagless Fire Breath startup. Fire Breath's damage values were also inverted so that the flames inflict less damage close, but more damage from a distance, and Bowser additionally performs a fiery bite that launches nearby foes away when the move is canceled, making it generally more useful.
• Regains the Koopa Klaw move from Melee, allowing Bowser another set of powerful grabs with more utility than his Flying Slam. He can no longer bite opponents with the move, but both throws are now much stronger and can KO reliably.
• Fortress Hogging is made possible again, allowing Bowser to quickly and efficiently grab the ledge to edgeguard opponents.
• Bowser Bomb is much stronger, and can be canceled with a jump before the max leap height when used from the ground, letting Bowser follow up combos or even KO them outright after using a move that knocked his foe airborne. It can still grab ledges from both sides as in Brawl so it can be reliably used from the stage to then be edge-canceled, equipping Bowser with a deadly edgeguard in this move.
• Forward and back throws have stronger knockback.
• Pummel now involves biting opponents like with Koopa Klaw in Melee, dealing 4% damage as opposed to most pummels' 3%, allowing to rack up damage quicker.
• Spot dodge has more intangibility frames at the end, compensating for its long duration and dodging attacks more effectively.
• Larger size increases Bowser's hurtbox, making him more vulnerable to projectiles and combos.
• Forward smash deals less damage.
• Bowser Bomb no longer has a hitbox during its jump.
• Forward throw with Koopa Klaw is now a head smash.
• Bowser's second idle pose from Brawl now replaces his down taunt, and he additionally emits a roar reminiscent of that from Melee.

Dry Bowser

Dry Bowser appears in Project M as Bowser's alternate costume. In the game New Super Mario Bros., Bowser falls to his apparent doom in a pit of lava, only to emerge and be fought later on in his skeletal form, Dry Bowser. He is an undead skeleton of Bowser (similar to how Dry Bones are apparent skeletons of Koopas) with an orange tuft of hair and his shell intact, though badly burnt. Bowser's moveset, effects, and sounds remain the same while playing as Dry Bowser.

Giga Bowser

Attributes

Giga Bowser's alternate costume.

Giga Bowser remains as Bowser's Final Smash in Project M. However, by holding a shield button at both the character and stage selection screens, it is possible for Bowser to start and participate as Giga Bowser permanently during the match, similar to how Zero Suit Samus was playable in Brawl. Starting from 3.0, Giga Bowser can now receive knockback in addition to damage, as well as now being vulnerable to status ailments like sleeping or getting buried, though his moveset has been improved to compensate for this, and he still cannot be grabbed nor pick up any items. Giga Bowser's main flaw is that he is extremely prone to combos because of his size and weight. His duration when summoned via Final Smash was also increased to almost twice as long. Some changes to Giga Bowser include:

• Dashing now produces hitboxes in front of Giga Bowser's feet, which repeatedly inflict 3% damage while weakly pushing enemies forward.
• Landing with Bowser Bomb produces an enormous quake hitbox that affects all grounded opponents (no matter the platform in which they are standing) near him, similar to Venusaur's Earthquake in Melee.
• Down throw now involves Giga Bowser forcefully slamming his opponent with his hand into the ground at a backwards angle, which is faster than the original throw, and inflicts a much more powerful 19% damage in addition to hitting nearby characters.
• Vulnerability to knockback now leaves Giga Bowser heavily susceptible against combos due to his large size, especially against juggling ones.
• Shield can now become broken.
• Ending the match as Giga Bowser will now make him appear that way on the results screen, using the same victory poses and clapping motion as the regular Bowser.

Giga Bowser now additionally uses recolors correspondent to those of the regular Bowser, including a Giga Dry Bowser alt costume. Disregarding size, shell and tail, the latter costume looks exactly the same as the regular Dry Bowser, though with a more pronounced muzzle and additional spikes protruding from his chest and nose.

Revisions

2.1

• Bowser fits properly on the Training pause screen.

2.5b

• Bowser's crawl speed has been increased.
• Bowser's knockback armor strength was increased slightly on dash attack's startup, up smash's charge, down air, and up throw to correspond with the tumble threshold.
• Neutral air adjusted in animation and timing to be autocancelable in a short hop.
• Down air hitboxes adjusted to be more like Melee in positioning, but pull opponents into the hits much better.
• Whirling Fortress can properly meteor cancel.
• Bowser's spot dodge animation and invulnerability adjusted.
• Bowser's sound effects cleaned up on first jab.
• Down air causes more shield damage on the landing hit, but less shield damage on the multihits.

2.6b

• Dash attack now hits a second time; when Bowser lands on the ground.
• Dash attack's cooldown reduced.
• Back aerial autocancels notably sooner.
• Dash grab has Bowser lunge notably further.
• Dash grab's startup was changed to look identical to the dash attack's one.
• Pivot grab range increased.
• Grounded Bowser Bomb's horizontal drift can now be controlled slightly during the jump cancel window - Bowser can gain or lose a distance of about a width equal to himself.
• Bowser Bomb's quake hitboxes were slightly increased in size.
• Corrected a mistake where crawl armor was much stronger than light armor when not moving.
• Removed armor on Whirling Fortress, back aerial, and down aerial.
• Neutral aerial timings and cooldown reverted to those of 2.1.
• Forward aerial knockback base greatly reduced; its knockback growth was compensated for percents over 115%, but not sufficiently.
• Back aerial knockback slightly reduced.
• Giga Bowser significantly revamped.
• Bowser's armor matched to the Project M standard of Light, Medium, and Heavy armor. The majority of Bowser's Armor was already adhered to this standard, and remained unchanged.
• Converted Bowser's crawl armor to light armor.
• Forward tilt's startup homogenized between angles.
• Forward tilt knockback base reduced, but knockback growth compensated for percents over 115%.
• Back aerial's hitboxes repositioned and resized to closer match Melee's placements.
• Up aerial's knockback angle slightly lowered.
• Ledge attack knockback reverted to set knockback (2.1's knockback).
• Fire Breath reaches slightly further, but drains faster to a much smaller minimum range, and recharges a bit slower.
• Grounded Whirling Fortress's initial hitboxes reduced in size. To compensate, the hitboxes' damage degrades slightly slower, and the hitboxes enlarge briefly when it does so.
• Bowser Bomb's landing graphics enlarged to match the new hitboxes.

3.0

• Up tilt initial knockback stats increased to match Melee's. Frame timing adjusted so that the move degrades sooner, when Bowser is swiping above his head.
• Forward aerial's hitboxes restructured into a tipper format. The inner “flub” hitboxes have damage and knockback approximating Melee's hitboxes, while the tipper hitbox has damage and comparable knockback to PM 2.5's forward air.
• Fire Breath's hitboxes redone. They now start with lower damage but gain damage as they travel, being strongest at the tip, so it's better to use the move from a distance. Grounded foes are now pushed down and out of the flames.
• Dash length very slightly shortened.
• Dash grab reverted to pre-2.6 animation and tweaked for readability. Bowser grabs slightly later, but grab range should now match animation properly.
• Neutral aerial's knockback stats reduced to be closer to Melee's.
• Back aerial's IASA timings delayed to match Melee's.
• Whirling Fortress edgehog behavior changed to no longer auto-snap to ledges; it requires more finesse to fortress hog now.
• Grounded Whirling Fortress initial hitboxes further shrunk and later hitbox coverage restructured to match the animation better.
• Aerial Koopa Klaw has slightly less horizontal movement.
• Forward aerial now has a claw trail that traces the sweetspot's arc.
• Aerial Whirling Fortress hitboxes redone to reduce vertical coverage but slightly increase horizontal reach.
• Whirling Fortress animation has slight tweaks for polish.
• Aerial Fire Breath hitboxes have unaltered knockback behavior, but have the scaling damage of the grounded version and no longer flinch at the tip.
• Giga Bowser can now be damaged normally. As compensation, his moveset was improved and his Final Smash duration almost doubled.

Moveset

Up to date as of version 3.0.

	Name	Damage	Description
Neutral attack	Double Scratch	6% then 5% (11% total)	Bowser swipes at the opponent twice.
Forward tilt	Koopa Knuckle	15%	An extended punch with good knockback.
Up tilt	Ceiling Scratch	13% (clean), 12% (early)	Bowser scratches upwards at an opponent. Can hit at the sides.
Down tilt	Floor Scratch	12% close, 13% tip (first), 14% (second)	Bowser scratches at the opponent at the feet. The second scratch is optional by pressing the attack button again.
Dash attack	Horn Charge	12% (ram), 8% (fall)	Bowser tackles the opponent. Has heavy armor during the inital frames of the attack.
Forward smash	Hammer Head	26%	Bowser smashes his head into the opponent. If it connects, an explosion occurs. The attack is a great finisher at low percentages, and has armor during the frames before contact.
Up smash	Shell Shock	14%, 10% (landing)	Bowser spikes an opponent with his shell. Causes an earthquake when coming down.
Down smash	Buzzsaw	6 hits of 3%, then 10% (28% total)	Bowser spins around piercing at the opponent with deadly force. Strong armor during the inital frames.
Neutral aerial	Gyroscope	13%	Bowser spins in the air multiple times, and has super armor during the first spin.
Forward aerial	Jump Slash	13% sourspot, 16% sweetspot	Bowser slashes at the opponent with all his claws. The glowing area is the sweetspot.
Back aerial	Spike Stretch	17%	Bowser extends his shell to the opponent. If he hits the ground, Bowser is vulnerable for a good amount of frames.
Up aerial	Horn Toss	18%	Bowser strikes the foe with both horns at a deadly force. Can cause serious knockback.
Down aerial	Scrub Brush	10 hits, 16% total, then 5% (grounded hit)	Bowser rapidly hits the opponent upside down with his shell.
Grab		Grab	Grabs the opponent.
Pummel	Bite	4%	Bowser bites the opponent. Fairly slow pummel
Forward throw	Catapult	10%	Bowser tosses the opponent forwards.
Back throw	Reverse Throw	10%	Bowser violently throws the opponent backwards.
Up throw	Blender	8 hits of 1%, then 2% upon releasing (10% total)	Bowser throws the opponent onto his back and spikes them with his shell. Has great knockback.
Down throw	Bowser Slam	16%	Bowser puts the opponent on the ground. Helpless, the opponent is body slammed, while struggling to get free.
Floor attack (front)	Worm	6%	Bowser attacks from the front and back with a headbutt and kick.
Floor attack (back)	Claw Spin	6% Each swipe	Bowser extends himself to scratch the opponent.
Floor attack (trip)	Floor Spin	5%	Bowser scratches at the opponent to get up.
Edge attack (fast)	Quick Spin	8%	Bowser throws himself at the opponent at his shell before retreating back to the ledge.
Edge attack (slow)	Slow Swipe	10%	Bowser swipes with his claw to give some space.
Neutral special	Fire Breath	3% (first hit), 2% (subsequent hits), 3% (bite), 6% (tip)	Bowser releases a flamethrower at the opponent. Over time it loses its range, but gains slightly more power.
Side special	Koopa Klaw	20% (forward throw), 15% (back throw), 11% (claw)	Bowser grabs the opponent to then throw them either forward or backward. If no one is grabbed, Bowser does a forceful swipe. Has super armor before the grab.
Up special	Whirling Fortress	13%	Bowser spins rapidly to gain height. Can be used for edgehogging.
Down special	Bowser Bomb	25%	Bowser jumps into the air and lands on the opponent with force if used on the ground. In the air, Bowser slams over what he is over. Has super armor during the jumping animation and when hitting the ground. Can be jump cancelled before the flip.
Final Smash	Giga Bowser	Varies	Bowser transforms into an enlarged, much more powerful version of himself, which uses elemental effects such as fire, electricity and darkness during most attacks. Lasts for roughly 24 seconds, and can receive knockback, though he becomes significantly heavier and immune to grabs.

In competitive play

Notable players

•  Cmart
•  DJ Nintendo
•  Gimpyfish
•  JaimeHR
•  Jorge
•  Kirk
•  Mew2King
•  Jake2o

Palette swaps

Bowser's palette swaps in PM

External links

• Project M character page