Mechakoopa

Mechakoopa (, Mechakoopa) is Bowser Jr.'s down special move.

Overview
The Mechakoopa marches until colliding with an enemy, knocking them back before exploding. It does 2% when jumping and 7% explosive damage when it explodes for a total of 9%. It deals weak diagonal knockback. If the Mechakoopa walks to a ledge without hitting anyone, it will turn around, and if it isn't activated after about five seconds, it will explode on its own. Bowser Jr. can only have one Mechakoopa out at a time; the move will fail if he uses it again before the Mechakoopa is gone, leaving him with around half a second of lag. In Ultimate, if a Mechakoopa collides with a shield, it will switch off and become an item the opponent can pick up.

If a player picks up the Mechakoopa, it will reset the timer. This can be used for combos or potentially dropping off-stage for gimping opponents. However, the Mechakoopa counts as an item that can be picked up and thrown back at the user, similar to Diddy Kong's Banana Peel. As a result, these plays are not reserved to Bowser Jr., and they're equally effective against him as they are on the opponent.

When a Mechakoopa jumps onto an opponent, it will latch on for a limited period of time before exploding. This can be exploited by the Bowser Jr. player in a number of ways: "extending" throw knockback, combos into forward aerial and confirming smash attacks among other things. This is a massive part of Bowser Jr.'s playstyle, and learning how to use it is imperative to learning the character.

Customization
Special Move customization was added in Super Smash Bros. 4. These are the variations:


 * 1) Mechakoopa: Default.
 * 2) Impatient Mechakoopa: The Mechakoopa is flung from the Car, functioning more as a horizontal projectile, and will quickly explode upon hitting the floor. The explosion does a mere 4% damage, and hitting a player with the Mechakoopa prior to explosion does 1%.
 * 3) Big Mechakoopa: A much larger Mechakoopa is deployed, which slowly walks a short distance and explodes on its own. It can be picked up and thrown. Thrown, it will do 1% damage and explode for 15% damage. Can KO around 140% damage.

Spirit
Mechakoopa appears in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as an Advanced-class support spirit.

In Adventure Mode: World of Light, Mechakoopa is presumably one of the countless spirits captured by Galeem during his takeover of the universe. Mechakoopa's spirit is located in the Molten Fortress sub-dungeon of The Light Realm.

Mechakoopa uses an army of Tiny puppet fighters and is fought on the Mushroom Kingdom U stage's Slide Tower layout. Each of the puppet fighters start off with a Bomber, referencing the Mechakoopa's tendency to explode.

Origin
s debuted in , appearing in and being thrown by Bowser out of his Koopa Clown Car during the final battle. Mario can disable them by stomping them, though they will return to normal after some time. When they are deactivated, Mario can pick them up and throw them; this is the only means of defeating Bowser in that game. They appeared mostly in spin-off games over the years before returning in .

The Big Mechakoopa would later go on to inspire the, which first appear in ' in the minigame and then in ' via the 3.0.0 update. While not explicitly described as such, similarly sized Mechakoopas appear in  and its Deluxe re-release in their remake of, the second course of the.

The first instance of a Mechakoopa exploding in the Mario series is  in the minigame after being jumped on, however the resulting explosion doesn't affect the player. The more offensive and self-destructive instance shown in Smash carries over into  as one of Bowser's abilities where he can summon up to five s to attack enemies with them exploding on contact if they reach an enemy and will set the enemy on fire if they are upgraded. If they do not reach their target on their first turn, any ally (including Bowser) nearby can also pick them up and throw them at enemies. Bowser's clone also has this ability as well by using s though he does not pick them up to throw at enemies nor can he summon up to five of them at once being only able to summon the default three. Additionally they cannot set anybody on fire as well.

Trivia

 * The Mechakoopa's falling speed in Ultimate is identical to the pushing speed of a wind zone in Stage Builder set to 100 power. As such, when used in such a wind zone it will stay in place indefinitely and unanimated until grabbed.
 * Mechakoopas have a hurtbox, and occasionally this can make them fall off platforms.
 * The Mechakoopa is distinct for being one of the few known special moves with an associated spirit in Ultimate to not allude to the move in any direct sense (as its Spirit Battle is exclusively against 4 tiny Bowsers instead of Bowser Jr.)