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.

Giga Bowser (ギガクッパ, Giga Koopa), is a gargantuan, powered-up version of Bowser. He first appeared as a hidden boss in Melee's Adventure Mode and as one of the final opponents the player must face in the Event Mode; he eventually made his playable debut in Super Smash Bros. Brawl as part of 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 boss. To encounter him, all previous stages have to be completed in under 18 minutes, and on Normal difficulty or higher. If done correctly, a new cutscene will be shown after Giant Bowser is defeated- his trophy will return to the stage before being 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, sans the presence of his 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 hit points like the final bosses of the Classic Mode Master Hand and Crazy Hand; this forces the player to deliberately KO him as opposed to merely attacking him.

As a playable character

If the game is hacked through the use of the debug menu through an Action Replay, 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").

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.

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

When the game is played on the Dolphin emulator, and panic events are deliberately supressed, 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 his 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 playable character

Giga Bowser made its debut as a playable character in the Smash series as part of Bowser's Final Smash. In the Final Smash, 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 did not make any other appearances in Brawl or SSB4.

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 in the Adventure Mode, the character 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 has the identical moveset to Bowser; Giga Bowser's attacks, however, are considerably stronger in power and knockback. Some of his 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. In addition, some of Giga Bowser's attacks are given unusual hitbox properties: his claw-based attacks (forward 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 side smash and pummel) have explosion effects; and his down smash has freezing poperties.

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 Donkey Kong or Bowser. In addition to this error, Giga Bowser's fastfalling speed is identical to his ordinary falling speed.

Visually and/or aesthetically, 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, differently shaded shell, 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. Predictable, 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 (12/01)

Trivia

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

• In Melee's Sound Test for the NTSC regions, an unused sound by the announcer can be found, where the Announcer yells his name, not unlike the intros for Classic Mode.
  • There are two different soundbites for this, one of which yells "Giga Bowser!" and the other of which yells "Giga Koopa!". Although Koopa is the Japanese name for Bowser, the sound effect only plays when the Language is set to English, while the "Giga Bowser!" line is found when the language is set to Japanese.
• 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, as the two characters' weights do not share the same ratio, Giga Bowser will actually be lighter than Bowser in both cases.
• In Melee's debug menu, Giga Bowser's name is labeled "GKOOPS".
• Giga Bowser was considered as a transformation of Bowser in the Skylanders game Skylanders: SuperChargers. However, he was replaced by the Skylanders-original Magma Bowser.