Bowser (Super Smash Bros. Melee)


 * This article is about Bowser's appearance in Super Smash Bros. Melee. For the character in other contexts, see Bowser.

A mighty foe that trades speed for pure power.

Bowser (, Koopa) is a character in Super Smash Bros. Melee and is available from the start. Announced at E3 2001, a stronger form of Bowser (a gargantuan, power-up version of the said character) also appears as the "final" boss in Adventure Mode. His design is based on his appearance in Super Mario 64.

Bowser is currently ranked 26th in Melee's tier list. He is located in the F tier, the lowest ranking newcomer and the worst character in the game. This is due to his large size and weight, which make him extremely easy to combo. His moves are also sluggish, and although he does have a projectile, it does not help him against foe's projectiles, particularly Fox or Falco's lasers. He overall has terrible matchups, with two being even (Yoshi and Pichu) and the rest being negative, and considering that both of his even matchups have risen in the tier since he can be seen to have a losing matchup against everybody else in the game.

Attributes
Bowser is the heaviest and largest character in the game. This means that it takes many hits to KO Bowser, but landing those hits is easy. Bowser boasts the largest shield in the game, which makes defending against these attacks much easier. As one would expect from such a large heavyweight, Bowser has very powerful, yet very slow, attacks. Bowser's Forward Aerial has great power, and his Up Aerial is one of the most powerful Aerial Attacks in the game. However, all of his aerial attacks are laggy if not L-canceled.

Bowser has decent range and large hitboxes for most of his moves, but his standing grab range is poor, resulting in an unreliable shield grab. Bowser's Side Special Move, Koopa Klaw, can grab opponents and either throw them with 1.3 times the normal throw power or slash opponents, launching them into the air. Bowser is relatively slow on both the air and the ground, and his wavedash is very slow and near useless (except when used as a Waveland) due to his very slow jumping. In fact, this very slow jumping and landing animation is one of the major (if the not the biggest) reasons he is so slow.

Bowser has good edge guarding tactics (e.g. Fire Breath), but a lot of his KOs are dependent upon his ability to edge guard opponents, which means they must first be off the edge. Bowser's Up Special Move, Whirling Fortress, is useful and very fast. However, like Donkey Kong's Spinning Kong, it mostly only goes horizontally and has poor vertical recovery. Bowser's Neutral Special Move, Fire Breath, acts as Bowser's projectile. However, Bowser lacks a reliable way to deal with opponents' projectiles.

What really hurts Bowser the most, however, is combos, or susceptibility to thereof. Bowser is one of the easiest characters (if not the easiest character) in the game to combo, due to being large, extremely heavy, and falling relatively quickly. He also has very poor combos, and the few combos that he has only work efficiently on three characters- and even then, they are not guaranteed (they can be escaped with proper DI). Also worth noting is that they are generally only two-hit combos. These combo-related troubles give Bowser much grief when in a competitive setting.

Regional differences
Bowser is one of the few characters who has a different name in the Japanese version of Melee. In the English version, his name is "Bowser", but in the aforementioned Japanese version, his name is "Koopa". The name "Koopa" comes from the fact that in the original Mario series, he evolved from 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 and Jigglypuff 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.

Taunt

 * Rears his head back and roars.

Idle pose

 * Leans back and roars, exhaling steam from his mouth.

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.

If the player, however, arrives at Stage 12: Final Destination on Normal difficulty or higher, Bowser will appear with his black color scheme instead of his ordinary green color scheme (or his green color scheme if the player plays Bowser with his black color 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. Then Giga Bowser comes to life when he opens his mouth. 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. When fighting Bowser on Yoshi's Island, the stage will always play its alternate track, "Super Mario Bros. 3".

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 Giga Bowser, Ganondorf, and Mewtwo on a team. With no time limit, the player is tasked with defeat all three, and everyone is given three stocks.

Trophy descriptions
In addition to the normal trophy about Bowser as a character, there are two trophies about him as a fighter, which are 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.
 * Super Mario Bros. [10/85]


 * 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 smouldering. 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

Trivia

 * Bowser and are the only two characters in Melee to have no advantageous matchups.
 * For unknown reasons, Bowser's Down Throw does not do damage to Jigglypuff or Mr. Game & Watch.
 * Bowser is the first starter villain.
 * In the Special Movie, Bowser is the only character not to appear with his universe (nor play a song from his own universe nor play his own credits theme). However, Bowser is from the Mario universe. But he is shown right after Captain Falcon (continuing Captain Falcon's theme song and credits theme.
 * Not counting Donkey Kong and Mario, as they have been both a protagonist and antagonist, Bowser, along with Ganondorf, are the first two playable antagonists in the Smash franchise.