Bowser (SSB4)

Bowser in Super Smash Bros. 4
Universe	Mario
Other playable appearances	in Melee in Brawl in Ultimate
Availability	Starter
Final Smash	Giga Bowser
Tier	C (24)

Bowser (クッパ, Koopa) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. 4. His return to the series was indirectly announced during the E3 Nintendo Direct on June 11th, 2013. Instead of using his voice actor Kenny James who has voiced Bowser since Super Mario Galaxy in 2007, Bowser retains his realistic roar voice clips from Super Smash Bros. Brawl, although they have been heavily altered.

Bowser is ranked 24th out of 54 on the tier list, placing him in the C tier. This is a significant improvement over his F tier placement in Brawl, where he was ranked 33rd out of 38, and his best placement in the series. Bowser's transition from Brawl was quite a favorable one, substantially enhancing his mobility, combos, and recovery, while granting him a notoriously strong grab game, packing a far-reaching grab, an up throw that can start combos at almost any realistic percent, and two kill throws. What's more, the implementation of rage meshes very well with his immense weight and powerful attacks, while the addition of Tough Guy improves his wall-breaking capabilities. Alongside these benefits, he retains his excellent endurance, high damage output, effective out of shield option in Whirling Fortress, and very strong KOing options.

However, Bowser is still held back by his poor defensive game. Despite having passive armor in Tough Guy, Bowser's disadvantage state is considered to be among the worst in SSB4; his rolls and sidestep are short-distanced and offer minimal intangibility. His large size and status as a super heavyweight also make him extremely susceptible to combos, which is further compounded by his lack of effective combo breakers. Bowser's size additionally gives him a hard time against camping, while his sole projectile does little to remedy this. Bowser's recovery, despite traveling a significant distance, is also unimpressive, as Whirling Fortress' general predictability and short-ranged hitbox make him vulnerable to edgeguarding.

Bowser's competitive reception has fluctuated over the years. Although the buffs he received and nerfs to his worst counters in Brawl initially made him a contender for the game's best fighter, nerfs from update 1.0.4 combined with his weaknesses becoming more pronounced caused him to be regarded as a low-tier. However, updates 1.1.3, 1.1.4, and 1.1.5 brought buffs that made players reassess his viability, leading to his current placement as a high-tier. Despite limited representation, mostly stemming from Nairo and LordMix, Bowser is now agreed to be a viable character at the highest levels of play.

Attributes

Bowser's pivot grab is infamous for its range.

Unlike in Melee and Brawl, Bowser boasts a respectable level of speed to go alongside his renowned power. While he retains slow walking speed and air acceleration and the slowest jumpsquat, and while his air speed and falling speed are much lower relative to the cast compared to Brawl, his dashing speed and double jump's height have both been significantly increased, and he also retains high gravity. This grants him mobility that is average overall, yet fairly balanced compared to most other heavy characters. As the heaviest character in the game, Bowser has the best horizontal endurance of them all, although due to his slow falling speed, his vertical endurance is not the best, but rather the third best, being surpassed only by his fellow super heavies King Dedede and Donkey Kong.

Bowser's greatest strength is his immense power. Since most of his attacks are highly damaging, Bowser has an easy time racking up damage, especially when compared to combo-oriented characters like Luigi and Sheik. In addition, most of his moves have high knockback, granting him numerous (if not the largest number of) KOing options. Some of his moves are among the strongest of the cast, including the one of the strongest meteor smashes in his down aerial, one of the strongest semi-spikes in his back aerial and the second-strongest forward smash, which is surpassed only marginally by King Dedede and maximum Aura Lucario's. The introduction of rage further amplifies the power of his moves without reducing the efficiency of his combos. Bowser's great endurance can also allow him to take full advantage of it, as it is very difficult to KO him without a strong attack. Furthermore, Bowser has great range in many of his attacks, allowing him to space opponents more easily than many other characters. Combined with the aforementioned perks, Bowser is proficient at edgeguarding.

Bowser also has a formidable grab game. While not particularly fast, his grabs have among the longest ranges in the game, with his pivot grab being notoriously effective, making it easy for him to grab opponents that are not right next to him. His pummel and his forward, back, and down throws deal respectable damage. His up throw's low damage output is counterbalanced by its low knockback, which grants Bowser many reliable follow-ups until around 75%, depending mostly on the opponent's falling speed. His down throw is the optimal choice for either forcing opponents off-stage for an edgeguard or preventing his other throws from becoming stale. His back throw is among the strongest, being surpassed only by Ness, Toon Link, Mewtwo, Villager, Lucas, Dr. Mario, and Mario's, and can KO at 180% from center-stage. His forward throw is the strongest of its kind in the game, reliably KOing any character at 180% from center-stage.

Lastly, Bowser has a versatile special moveset. Fire Breath is Bowser's only projectile, which can be used to fend off opponents or gimp recoveries due to its ability to be angled, while the nerf to SDI makes it quite difficult to escape when caught up close. Flying Slam is a grab, allowing it to ignore shields and counterattacks. Upon a successful grab, Bowser is invincible up until he jumps to perform a flipping belly-to-belly suplex that deals enough knockback to KO around 120% or even earlier if he lands on a platform. After getting grabbed, the opponent cannot do anything other than slightly alter the move's trajectory. Whirling Fortress is Bowser's primary means of recovery, granting below-average vertical distance but good horizontal distance; button mashing increases the move's vertical distance if done close to the end of the move, while shortening it if done at the start. Whirling Fortress is also a phenomenal out of shield option, as well as Bowser's fastest attack. Lastly, Bowser Bomb is very powerful and can be used as an alternative to fast-falling, making it useful for grabbing the ledge while at the same time threatening edgeguarders. It also deals additional shield damage, meaning that a shield break will occur if both of its hits connect.

However, Bowser has some glaring flaws. One of his biggest problems is air-to-ground transitioning. All of his aerials have at least 20 frames of landing lag, with his back and down aerials having 40 frames each, which is exacerbated by his jumpsquat being the slowest in the game. As none of his aerials have favorable autocancel windows, returning to the ground is very difficult for him, or even impossible without air dodging and/or fast-falling, due to his slow aerial mobility. As a result, Bowser is quite vulnerable to combos and heavily susceptible to juggling, making it easy for opponents to rack up damage on him, further worsened by his large size. His down aerial is his only move that can help mitigate these issues, but its aforementioned landing lag and stall-then-fall status can make it quite unreliable most of the time. His moveset, while fast compared to most heavyweights, is slow when compared to the rest of the cast, limiting his combo starters to only up throw and jab canceled neutral attack, and making it difficult for him to keep up with faster opponents, such as Sonic. This also compounds another noticeable problem: his ability to escape pressure. Due to his slow rolls and sidestep, with the former also being short-distanced, Bowser's only real method of dealing with pressure is Whirling Fortress, which can be punished if executed too late. Some of his moves are also inevitable KOs if used off-stage, namely his two stall-then-falls, down aerial, and Bowser Bomb, as well as Flying Slam. Lastly, despite his recovery being rather long-distance, it is among the slowest of the cast, making aggressive edgeguarding more than enough to KO Bowser.

Bowser benefits greatly from custom moves. Compared to Fire Breath, Fire Shot is slower and has noticeable intervals between each fireball, but has more range and deals consistent damage, which makes it better for Bowser's neutral and edgeguarding games. Dash Slam is drastically weaker, but has a lower launch angle and propels Bowser forward, making it easier for him to grab opponents. Dash Slash deals less damage, but deals high knockback, hits throughout most of its animation, and maintains the default version's autocanceling, granting Bowser a very reliable move for approaching and setting up combos. Both Flying Slam alternatives can also improve his recovery. Lastly, Flying Fortress is less viable as an out-of-shield option, due to having more start-up lag, but it grants twice as much vertical distance at high speed, significantly improving Bowser's vertical recovery.

Overall, Bowser is a surprisingly speedy powerhouse who relies on a defensive, bait-and-punish-oriented playstyle. As such, he requires timing his attacks carefully or focusing on punishing his opponents' mistakes to avoid serious punishment himself.

Changes from Super Smash Bros. Brawl

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Bowser was considered to be an unviable low tier as while he had solid KO power, great endurance, good range, a good Out of Shield game and a solid grab game, due to his effective Flying Slam command grab and his short grab release animation, he suffered from having very poor frame data, a highly exploitable recovery and his combination of having a huge body, high weight and high gravity made him a punching bag for many characters. He overall struggled to approach (especially against projectiles) as he was a huge target without solid enough mobility, and he was a very easy target for multiple characters to chain grab, making him struggle against a large portion of the cast.

As a result, Bowser has been heavily updated in Super Smash Bros. 4, with almost all of his animations being completely or at least slightly revamped from the previous game. Bowser has seen a mix of buffs and nerfs in the transition to Smash 4, and while he was not greatly improved in earlier versions of the game, he has seen some rather drastic buffs as of the latest patch, which greatly help him overall.

Bowser has seen multiple changes to his attributes, which noticeably help him. His running speed has been significantly increased, which, along with his new dash attack, makes it easier for him to approach and run away. He has additionally seen a helpful unique attribute known as Tough Guy, which gives him armor against very low knockback attacks, which allows him to plough through jabs as well as other low knockback attacks, giving him a rather unique advantage. His weight has also been noticeably increased which noticeably improves his endurance even with the removal of momentum canceling (especially relative to the cast), which is especially helpful considering the introduction to rage, which further bolsters Bowser's already high power when he is at higher percents, and his higher weight makes him an amazingly effective user of it.

Bowser's recovery has also seen some rather significant improvements. While his air speed is slower (especially relative to the cast), his air dodge has much less ending lag, and his aerial Whirling Fortress grants much more height, which can be increased further with mashing, making it a much better recovery move. The move can also now grab ledges from behind as it is rising, and the removal of edge hogging also greatly improves its recovery potential and makes it much harder to edgeguard against. Bowser's significantly improved recovery makes it much harder to KO him, further improving his already excellent endurance.

While some of Bowser's moves have seen rather simple animation changes, some moves have been changed completely for the better. His dash attack is a better burst option, his forward smash comes out faster, hits harder and is overall more reliable, his neutral aerial is now an effective damage racker, his back aerial is noticeably stronger and it can now auto-cancel in a short hop and his down aerial is now a hard hitting stall-then-fall, giving his neutral and down aerials in particular more utility than they had in the previous game. Some moves, which were not drastically changed, such as forward tilt, up smash, and forward/back throw,s saw improvements to their KO potential, which overall gives Bowser greater KO potential than he had in Brawl, which is further compounded with rage.

Bowser's most drastic and useful buffs, however, were made to his up throw. Up throw has less knockback, less ending lag, and it launches opponents at a more vertical angle, which has transformed the move from a very underwhelming spacing throw to one of the most devastating combo throws in the game. At lower percents, it can easily lead to an up tilt, a forward aerial, a back aerial, or a neutral aerial, with the latter being able to rack up a lot of damage. The most formidable part of the throw, though, is that at higher percentages, it can lead into an up aerial (which comes out much faster than in Brawl) for an early KO. Rage can allow this to lead to KOs even earlier, and as stated before, Bowser can very easily build up rage due to his being the heaviest character in the game, making him one of the largest benefactors of the mechanic.

The changes to this single move have immensely helped Bowser as it further solidifies the buffs some of his other moves have received (as with the case with his neutral and up aerials) and it means that he does benefit from the changes to hitstun canceling and the changes to directional influence as without the throw, Bowser still possesses a rather poor combo game and the two mentioned universal changes noticeably increase his vulnerability to combos. While the latter point is true regardless, his up throw acts as an extremely potent compensation, allowing him to make use of the changes to hitstun canceling/DI, which he otherwise would not be able to.

The changes to gameplay physics and mechanics (as well as the aforementioned changes to hitstun canceling/DI, along with the introduction of rage) also aid Bowser. With many projectiles being nerfed, it is much easier for Bowser to approach projectile users, especially with his increased running speed and his faster air dodge (although he is still vulnerable to projectiles due to his large size). The removal of chain grabbing eliminates the zero-to-death or otherwise heavily damaging combos that multiple characters possessed against him, greatly improving his endurance against certain characters. The changes to shield mechanics also help him, as the increased shield damage multiplier and the increased shieldstun make his attacks safer and harder to punish, as well as allowing him to shatter a shield more easily (particularly with Bowser Bomb).

Bowser has, however, received a few nerfs. As mentioned before, Bowser is now much more vulnerable to combos due to the changes to hitstun canceling/DI, which is further exacerbated with the changes to weight-dependent throws. Weight-dependent throws are now faster on Bowser despite his increased weight, which makes it harder for him to DI weight-dependent throws, and it gives them less ending lag against him, making him more susceptible to combos out of weight-dependent throws.

Bowser's grab release animation now has 10 extra frames of ending lag to match the rest of the cast. When combined with the general changes to grab releases (particularly aerial grab releases) and the removal of chain grabbing, this completely removes his grab release's utility (although his improved up throw largely compensates for this).

Bowser also has inferior frame data on some of his moves. Some moves, such as up tilt and forward aerial, have increased startup lag (although the former has decreased ending lag and more range in front of Bowser), while others, such as down smash and Flying Slam, have increased ending lag. Some of Bowser's moves also have reduced KO potential, such as his up tilt, up aerial (although it comes out much faster to compensate), and his grounded Whirling Fortress. Many of his attacks also have reduced range, with many of his attacks having smaller hitboxes which are not positioned as far away from Bowser, although some of his new animations can compensate for this on certain moves.

Bowser's specials have also seen some nerfs. Fire Breath is inferior at racking up damage (due to its lower damage), its late hit no longer causes hitstun, and Bowser cannot turn his head as quickly while using it. While Flying Slam is stronger and Bowser has more control over his trajectory, the move now causes Bowser to be KO'd first while the opponent survives, and some characters can even make it back to the stage, making Bowsercide a less viable tactic to KO an opponent. In addition to this, the move has less range, more ending lag (as stated before), and Koopa hopping has been removed, making Flying Slam harder to land and decreasing its utility. Grounded Whirling Fortress has seen the most significant nerfs, however. The move is now a weaker, multi-hitting move, with no intangibility on startup, less range, more ending lag, Bowser moves slower while using it, and Bowser can no longer slide off edges while using it. This hinders its use as an Out of Shield option, and it is overall a less effective attack (with reduced power, reliability, and range) with less utility, although it is still an effective Out of Shield option.

Bowser's nerfs, however, are notably offset by the very useful buffs Bowser has received (particularly to up throw). Overall, Bowser has seen some rather significant buffs, which work excellently with the game's universal changes. Bowser not only has greater endurance, is overall faster, and has a much better recovery, but he also has greater KO potential and excellent combo potential, due to his greatly improved up throw. This has resulted in him faring much better than he ever did in Brawl and especially Melee.

In earlier versions, Bowser was still considered a low-tier character due to his flaws largely remaining intact. Besides his recovery and improved KO potential, Bowser still suffered from the same flaws he had in Brawl, and he had lost some of his more effective tools (notably his shorter grab release, which noticeably hurt his grab game at the time). Subsequent patches introduced crucial buffs that greatly improved his up throw, which became a devastating combo throw known for starting combos and closing stocks. While its combo potential was toned down in version 1.1.4 (which also introduced Bayonetta), he received other useful buffs in the subsequent patches, and it remained an excellent combo tool.

While Bowser still suffers from a large hurtbox, poor frame data and struggles to approach, he is now widely agreed to be a viable character in the highest levels of play in Smash 4, even if it is largely due to one move, and is overall one of the characters to be buffed the most in the transition from Brawl to Smash 4, alongside Mario, Luigi, Captain Falcon, and Sheik.

Aesthetics

• Due to the aesthetic used in SSB4, Bowser has a sleeker design, his shell is noticeably more detailed, his pupils are smaller, and his overall color scheme is significantly more vibrant, much like his appearance in Super Mario 3D Land.
• Bowser's charcoal-colored alternate costume has been slightly updated. His hair is now orange instead of red. Bowser has also received five new alternate costumes, one of which is based on Blue Bowser.
• Dash, roll, air dodge, crouch, and crawl's animations have changed. Bowser now dashes on both legs instead of shuttling along the ground, and he remains upright instead of retreating into his shell when rolling, jumping, or air dodging. Bowser's crouch also appears similar to his crouching defensive stance from Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story.
• A shadow has been added to the interior of Bowser's shell, which obscures his face (except for his eyes) whenever he withdraws into his shell.
• Bowser is significantly less vocal. He no longer vocalizes when jumping or performing his dash attack, any tilt attack, or any aerial attack.
• Bowser's body now faces the screen regardless of whether he's facing left or right.
• Bowser's victory theme is now changed into a rock-based remix of the Course Clear Fanfare used in Super Mario Bros.

Attributes

• Bowser is smaller (size multiplier: 1x → 0.82x). This reduces his hurtboxes, making him harder to hit, but it also decreases his range.
• Bowser now stands upright, which is also reflected in his new walking and dashing animations. This makes him harder to hit horizontally, and while this would make him easier to hit vertically, this is offset by Bowser's smaller size, making him no easier to hit vertically overall.
  • Bowser's new upright posture has also been translated into his moveset, be it through a tweaked animation or a completely new move.
• Bowser now has a unique attribute, Tough Guy. It is universal armor against attacks that deal less than 19 units of knockback, such as the first hit of many neutral attacks, or numerous neutral infinites. It is amplified if he is crouching (due to the changes to crouch canceling).
• Bowser walks faster (0.8 → 0.858).
• As with other returning veterans, Bowser walks much faster when carrying heavy items, to the point where it now surpasses Donkey Kong's, although DK still surpasses him regarding jumping or falling with them.
• Bowser dashes much faster (1.527 → 1.792), going from the 16th fastest out of 39 in Brawl to the 17th fastest out of 58 in Smash 4.
• Like all characters returning from Brawl, Bowser's fast-falling speed is faster (1.946 → 2.224). This improves his aerial mobility and leaves him less susceptible to juggling.
  • However, since his regular falling speed remains unchanged and most other characters saw an identical increase to their fast falling speed relative to their normal falling speed (60%), his fast falling speed is much lower relative to the cast, going from the 19th fastest out of 39 to the 17th lowest out of 58.
• Bowser is noticeably heavier (120 → 130), significantly improving his endurance and making him suffer less from the removal of momentum canceling than other returning veterans.
• Bowser's air speed is slower (1.034 → 1.0), especially relative to the cast, going from the 11th highest out of 39 to the 31st highest out of 58.
• Bowser’s gravity is higher (0.1027 → 0.11). When combined with his faster fast-falling speed, this allows him to land more safely, but makes him more susceptible to combos, as well as slightly reducing the height of his jumps.
• Bowser has a new double jump animation where he stays upright. This allows him to grab ledges from further below, but it also makes him a much larger target.
• Bowser's item throw is stronger (1 → 1.1).
• The changes to hitstun canceling both help and hinder Bowser. They significantly improve his combo potential (particularly out of up throw), but make him more susceptible to combos.
• The removal of chain grabbing significantly improves Bowser's endurance against certain characters.
• The changes to weight-dependent throws hinder Bowser, as it makes weight-dependent throws faster against him despite his significantly increased weight.
• Rolls have less startup (frame 5 → 4) and ending lag (FAF 40 → 34).
• Rolls travel less distance due to Bowser's smaller size.
• Air dodge has less ending lag (FAF 50 → 35).
• Air dodge has a slightly shorter duration (frames 4-30 → 4-29).
• Spot dodge has less ending lag (FAF 33 → 29), no longer being the slowest.
• Spot dodge has more startup lag with a shorter duration (frames 3-24 → 4-19).
• The 1.19x damage multiplier to shields and the increase to shieldstun make some of Bowser's attacks much better at pressuring shields, as they are safer and deal more shield damage.
• Bowser's grab release has more ending lag (FAF 20 → 30), now matching the rest of the cast. When combined with the changes to grounded and aerial grab releases, Bowser now has no frame advantage out of a grounded grab release and only a 10 frame advantage out of an aerial grab release (compared to 11 and 31 frames (against most characters) respectively). This removes all of his guaranteed follow-ups from a grab release, which is further exacerbated by the removal of chain grabbing.

Ground attacks

• Neutral attack:
  • Bowser has a new neutral attack: his claw swipes have been replaced with alternating punches.
  • Both hits have more startup lag (frame 6 (hit 1)/8 (hit 2) → 7/9).
    • However, their total durations were unchanged, giving them slightly less ending lag.
  • The first hit's far hitbox is larger (4u → 5u).
  • The first hit's far hitbox launches opponents slightly higher (83° → 85°), making it connect more reliably into the second hit.
  • The first hit's near hitboxes are smaller (5u/4.5u → 3u/4u).
  • The first hit's far hitbox has been moved closer to Bowser (x offset: 8 → 5), while its nearest hitbox has been moved further away from him (x offset: -8 → -7), reducing its range.
  • The second hit deals more damage (5% → 6.5%).
  • The second hit's near hitboxes are smaller (6u/5.5u → 3u/4u).
  • The second hit's far hitbox has been moved closer to Bowser (x offset: -8 → 5), while its nearest hitbox has been moved further away from hit (x offset: 8 → -6), reducing its range.
• Forward tilt:
  • Forward tilt has an altered animation where Bowser now closes his fist when performing the move.
  • Forward tilt deals more damage (11% → 12%), improving its KO potential.
  • Forward tilt has smaller hitboxes (5.7u/5u/4u → 5.5u/4u/4u) and the hand hitbox has been moved closer to Bowser (x offset: 7 → 5.1), reducing its range.
    • In addition to this, the move no longer has a body hitbox, as the previous body hitbox has been moved to the same position as the arm hitbox, with the move now having two overlapping arm hitboxes.
  • The down-angled version no longer has a 40% trip chance, although this does not affect the move under a competitive ruleset.
• Up tilt:
  • Up tilt has less ending lag (FAF 51 → 41), making it safer and improving its ability to set up juggles.
  • Up tilt deals less damage (12% → 9%), hindering its KO potential.
    • However, this also improves its ability to set up juggles.
  • Up tilt has more startup lag (frame 8 → 11).
    • However, due to its new animation, up tilt's hitboxes now start right in front of Bowser, allowing the move to hit opponents in front of him.
  • Bowser's arm is no longer intangible when performing up tilt.
  • Up tilt has smaller hitboxes (6u/5.5u/5u → 5.5u/5u), the body hitbox has been removed, and the hand hitbox has been moved closer to Bowser (x offset: 8 → 6.9).
• Down tilt:
  • Down tilt has an altered animation. It is now an alternating pair of hooks rather than an alternating pair of claw swipes.
  • This new animation properly matches its hitboxes' placements, with the move now fully covering Bowser's hand, despite the far hitboxes being moved closer to Bowser (x offset: -7 (hit 1)/7 (hit 2) → 6 (both)).
    • This new animation is also shorter (51 frames → 45), allowing Bowser to crawl earlier after performing the move.
    • Despite its altered animation and hitbox placements, down tilt still roughly has the same amount of lateral range it had before.
  • The middle arm hitbox has been removed, giving down tilt slightly less vertical range at certain positions.
• Dash attack:
  • Bowser has a new dash attack, a side kick, similar to Meta Knight’s dash attack.
  • Compared to the previous dash attack, it deals more damage (11% (clean)/8% (late) → 12%/10%) and its clean hit deals more knockback (120 (base)/30 (scaling) → 110/35), improving its KO potential.
  • Dash attack covers more space in a shorter amount of time, making it a better approach and burst movement option.
  • Dash attack has more startup lag (frame 10 → 11).
    • However, its total duration was unchanged, giving it slightly less ending lag.
  • Dash attack's far hitboxes have been moved closer to Bowser (x offset: 18 (clean)/15 (late) → 12/10), reducing its range relative to Bowser.
  • Dash attack's near hitboxes are smaller (7u (clean)/5u (late) → 4u/3.8u), and the late near hit has also been moved further away from Bowser (x offset: 3 → 4).
• Forward smash:
  • Bowser has a new forward smash: a single-hitting dropkick with a clean hit and a late hit, rather than two separate hits.
  • Forward smash has less startup lag (frame 26 → 22).
    • However, it starts charging much sooner (frame 12 → 4), giving it more startup lag out of a charge release despite this change (frame 15 → 19).
  • Forward smash now grants invincibility to Bowser's feet.
  • The clean hit deals more knockback (25/22 (base)/81 (scaling) → 25/98), improving its KO potential.
  • The clean hit's sourspot launches opponents at a more favourable angle (60° → 361°), improving its KO potential (unless used near the upper blast zone) and making DI less effective against it.
  • Due to its new animation, forward smash has significantly more range, and it can be used to low profile under certain attacks.
    • However, as this new animation moves Bowser forward, it leaves him in a more vulnerable spot if forward smash is shielded.
  • The clean hit now has transcendent priority. When combined with Bowser having feet intangibility, this allows the move to ignore any hitbox, while still being able to cancel out projectiles.
  • Forward smash now has a late hit which deals 17%/14% depending on where it lands and decent knockback (10 (base)/103 (scaling). This new late hit extends forward smash's duration (frame 26 (hit 1)/28-31 (hit 2) → 22-23/24-27).
    • However, the clean hit has a shorter duration (frames 28-31 → 22-23).
  • The new late hit has anti-rebounding priority.
  • Forward smash now only hits once, reducing its maximum damage potential (33% → 23%), no longer being the highest damaging forward smash in the game.
    • However, this also makes forward smash more reliable.
  • The clean hit has smaller hitboxes compared to the previous second hit (7.3u/6.3u → 7u/5.5u), with the new late hit having even smaller hitboxes (6u/5u).
  • The sourspot deals less damage (21% → 20%).
  • Forward smash has more ending lag (FAF 66 → 70).
• Up smash:
  • Up smash's main hit has increased knockback scaling (80 (sweetspot)/90 (sourspot) → 90/100), improving its KO potential.
  • The main hit has a longer duration (frames 16-21 → 16-23).
  • Up smash has an altered animation where Bowser has a more upright posture. This makes it easier for the sweetspot to connect against grounded opponents.
  • Up smash's invincibility on Bowser's shell now works properly, giving him the protection he was intended to have in Brawl.
  • The landing hit has more startup lag (frame 31 → 37), with up smash's total duration being subsequently increased (FAF 52 → 58).
  • The clean hit has smaller hitboxes (8u/6u/6u → 7u/5.5u/5.5u) and the sourspots have been moved closer to Bowser (z offset: 6/-6 → 5/-5).
  • The landing hit deals less damage (12%/10% → 6%) with it only seeing an increase to its base knockback (60 → 80), hindering its KO potential.
  • The landing hit uses one smaller extended hitbox (6u/6u/6u → 5.5u), decreasing its overall range.
• Down smash:
  • Down smash has a new first hit that is active right before Bowser starts spinning, giving it less startup lag (frame 14 → 10).
  • The weakening of SDI makes down smash significantly more difficult to escape from.
  • The final hit has less startup lag (frame 32 → 31).
    • However, there is a longer gap between the sixth and final hit (1 frame → 3).
  • The final hit's angle was altered (65° → 48°).
    • This improves its KO potential near the horizontal blastzone, as well as making it less susceptible to DI.
    • However, this hinders its vertical KO potential (including from center stage positions on tournament legal stages without DI), as well as removing its ability to set up juggles.
  • Down smash has more ending lag (FAF 67 → 72).
  • Hits 2-6 deal less damage (2% → 1%), reducing down smash's total damage output (21% → 16%).
  • Hits 2-6 have smaller hitboxes (5.5u/5.5u/4.4u/4.4u → 4.2u/4.2u/3.7u/3.7u), they have been moved closer to Bowser (z offset: -9/9/-6/6 → -7.2/7.2/-5/5) and the upper hitboxes have been moved lower down (y offset: 11 → 9), reducing their range.
  • The final hit has decreased knockback scaling (140 → 130), hindering its KO potential.
  • The final hit's hitboxes have been moved closer to Bowser (z offset: -9/9/-6/6 → -7.2/7.2/-5/5) and the upper hitboxes have been moved lower down (y offset: 12 → 9), reducing its range.

Aerial attacks

• All aerials except down aerial have a shorter initial auto-cancel window (frames 1-7 (neutral)/1-8 (forward/back)/1-9 (up) → 1-3 (neutral/forward)/1-2 (back/up).
• Neutral aerial:
  • Bowser has a new neutral aerial: an aerial cartwheel. Bowser's hands and feet consist of hitboxes (which slowly appear as time goes on) that deal 6% each and launch opponents vertically (361° → 75°).
  • All four of neutral aerial's hitboxes can connect, greatly increasing its maximum damage potential (13% → 24%).
  • Neutral aerial has more range overall, as the move now has four hitboxes which circle Bowser.
  • Neutral aerial has a longer duration (frames 8-13 (clean)/14-23 → 8-29 (hit 1)/14-29 (hit 2)/18-29 (hits 3 & 4).
  • Neutral aerial has less landing lag (24 frames → 20).
    • Altogether, these changes combined with the changes to hitstun cancelling/DI, improve neutral aerial's damage racking and combo potential, as the move launches opponents vertically.
  • Each hit of neutral aerial deals less damage (13% → 6%), and their knockback was not fully compensated (20 (base)/80 (scaling) → 20/50 (hit 1)/20/100 (hit 2)/60/90 (hits 3 & 4), hindering its KO potential.
    • However, this does improve its combo potential.
    • In addition to this, the move's vertical launch angle significantly hinders its edgeguarding potential.
  • Due to its multi-hit nature (along with each hitbox having different knockback), neutral aerial is far less consistent and reliable to