Giga Bowser (Final Smash)

Giga Bowser (, Giga Koopa Transformation) is Bowser's Final Smash in Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Smash Bros. 4.

Overview
Bowser transforms into Giga Bowser, granting him his immense strength and primeval moveset from Super Smash Bros. Melee. Giga Bowser can be freely controlled for 660 frames (11 seconds) in Brawl and 480 frames (8 seconds) in Smash 4.

Despite Bowser's core changes over the course of Smash, Giga Bowser retains many of Bowser's old attacks in each of his appearances, such as the old back aerial and run animations. Thus, Giga Bowser can be seen as a semi-clone rather than a straight moveset upgrade. While in this form, Bowser has passive super armor, but can still receive damage, which may leave Bowser severely weakened and open to KOs after the transformation expires. Many of Giga Bowser's attacks have elemental effects and the smash attacks are even capable of one-hit KOs, making the Final Smash very powerful. However, despite the armor, Giga Bowser can still experience hitlag while the timer decreases, meaning that it can be difficult to deal significant damage if overwhelmed with multi-hit attacks or items like the Smart Bomb.

Super Smash Bros. 4
Super Smash Bros. 4 adjusts Giga Bowser's attacks by either changing their damage output, or adjusting their knockback values.

Special movements
Taunts
 * Up Taunt: Roars (same as Melee)
 * Side Taunt: Bites in front of himself five times and wheezes while doing so.
 * Down Taunt: Dances precariously on one foot.

Playability through hacking

 * Giga Bowser can be selected as a playable character by hacking the game. His icon always shows him as normal Bowser. He plays similarly to the Final Smash version but stays transformed for the entire match, even after being KO'd. He is usable in modes that disable the ability to use Final Smashes, such as Boss Battles and the Subspace Emissary, and will not prevent Smash Balls from spawning. Other interesting oddities include:
 * The ability to break Smash Balls and enter standby. Attempting to use a Final Smash like this will either freeze Giga Bowser for the rest of the match or put him in a permanent (until KO'd) fall, which causes floating on solid ground. Unless Giga Bowser is KO'd, the freeze prevents other Smash Balls from appearing. Other similarly hacked characters also experience this.
 * Inability to be defeated in a Stamina Match. When played like this, he is unable to turn back into Bowser to be KO'd, so his HP will never drop below 1.
 * When a match ends, Giga Bowser will appear on the Results screen instead of regular Bowser. His win animation is just his idle animation, and his losing shows him in his bind pose. Both also retain his size.
 * Similarly to how he is incapable of picking up items or jumping on springs, Giga Bowser is also unable to enter doors in The Subspace Emissary, nor the Rest Area Portal in All-Star Mode. Due to this, it is only possible to complete 4 Subspace Emissary levels as him, those being Midair Stadium, The Ruined Hall, Battleship Halberd Bridge, and The Canyon, as these levels have no doors. This can be circumvented by playing in Co-Op mode, and having the other player enter the doors and the portal for him.
 * Giga Bowser can be on the stage while any other Final Smash is being used at the same time. He can be hit by all of them. Negative Zone has no effects on Giga Bowser, and Peach Blossom does damage but does not put Giga Bowser to sleep. Both Triforce Slashes and the can be executed but will trap him in the T-pose position afterwards due to not having proper animations. While being attacked normally breaks other characters out of this T-pose trap, only Cook Kirby, Galaxia Darkness, and Great Aether are capable of freeing Giga Bowser from the trap, as these 3 are the only moves in the game capable of breaking through Giga Bowser's armor thanks to infinite knockback. Cook Kirby breaks through the resistance upon sucking Giga Bowser into the pot, and again upon dropping Giga Bowser out of the pot. Galaxia Darkness breaks through Giga Bowser's flinch resistance upon the hit (Which also causes the minimum amount of knockback to Giga Bowser). Great Aether breaks through at the start, but freezes him again and subsequently breaks him out numerous times, before fully freeing him at the end. All other Final Smashes simply deal damage to Giga Bowser, with some slowing him down like a Smart Bomb on each hit, while others cause no lag and ignore Giga Bowser's shield.
 * When played in 100-Man Brawl, the final opponent will be another Giga Bowser, making the mode very difficult to complete. An example video can be seen here.

Other oddities and glitches

 * The length of time spent as Giga Bowser is not correctly affected by Training mode's speed change. For example, setting the Training Mode speed to 1/4 will only give Giga Bowser enough time for one or two attacks before reverting.
 * This was fixed in Super Smash Bros. 4, where the duration of the transformation is now based on the amount of frames that have played.
 * When played as a Final Smash, on Stamina Mode in Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Smash Bros. 4, Giga Bowser does not get defeated (along with Wario-Man, Giga Mac, Mega Charizard X, and Mega Lucario) if reduced to 0 HP. This causes the Undead Glitch.
 * Giga Bowser's shield cannot be broken by any means. He can still be damaged when the shield is too small, but it will not break or be canceled. The shield does not return to full strength after the transformation finishes. Also of note is that Giga Bowser cannot be grabbed or Inhaled, which also includes special moves having to do with grabbing such as Falcon Dive. Strangely, the unbreakable shield is exclusive to Giga Bowser, as Wario-Man's shield will break normally.
 * Since hitstun causes characters to be KO'd off the top blast line, it is possible to KO Giga Bowser if he is attacked while above the line. The same is true if Giga Bowser is carried above the blast line by a platform, including the top of any of the 3 Landmasters.
 * Giga Bowser is not recognized as a target by stage elements such as the Ultimate Chimera or the Bulborb; he will be ignored and not bitten by the two. In fact, Giga Bowser can jump up through the Bulborb's mouth's ceiling.
 * Giga Bowser's large size can cause teleportation due to grabbing edges in enclosed areas, such as in Jungle Japes. The teleportation happens because Giga Bowser grabs the edge of the higher platforms, which causes him to land on the middle platform due to his large size.
 * Giga Bowser cannot swim, pick up items, or use a spring. He can use the Starman item and lightning bolts, however, and can also have a Bunny Hood, a Superspicy Curry, a Franklin Badge, flower effects, and be either giant or tiny depending on the size selected in the Special Brawl mode. The flower effect can also be applied during a normal match by hitting Giga Bowser with any moves that cause the effect. Giga Bowser is also unaffected by Pitfalls, Banana Peels, Metal Boxes, both Super and Poison Mushrooms, Lightning Bolts, and Bumpers. All other damaging items simply deal damage to him.
 * It is possible for the crowd to cheer for a player using Giga Bowser. However, because Giga Bowser lacks an audience cheer sound clip, the game will play a beep in succession for however many times the sound clip was to play, then play the clapping sound clip as usual.
 * If a CPU is using Giga Bowser, it will act strangely if hit by attacks that don't cause flinching. It will attempt to duck under them, jump over them, shield them, and otherwise dodge them. The CPU will not react in any similar way against other types of attack.
 * If Giga Bowser and another fighter are KO'd at the same, or a similar time in SSB4, the revival platform for Bowser and the other fighter will appear in the same place, rather than one appearing to the side of the other.

Origin
Giga Bowser first appeared in Melee as a hidden boss in Adventure Mode, and was considered to be a separate character from Bowser. To battle him, Adventure Mode must be done on Normal difficulty or higher in 18 minutes or less with no continues. Giga Bowser also appeared in the final event in Melee as an opponent, alongside with and. Giga Bowser returned for Brawl and SSB4, but as a Final Smash transformation for Bowser and not a separate character. Aside from being a semi-playable character in Brawl and Smash 4, Giga Bowser does not make any other playable appearances without hacking the game.

Strictly speaking, Giga Bowser did not appear in any games, arguably making him a Smash character. This is because Giga Bowser is based on Masahiro Sakurai's interpretation of Bowser's 8-bit sprites as a "frenzied, terrifying monster". His transformation ability could, however, be a reference to the tradition of final boss fights in Mario games involving Bowser growing to gigantic size. This first appeared with Baby Bowser in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, while the adult Bowser first did so in Super Mario Sunshine, which was in development at the same time as Melee.

Trivia

 * Giga Bowser is one of only four characters who can use Darkness attacks in Brawl, the other ones being, Crazy Hand, and 's White (though this is considered poison, it technically uses the darkness effect).
 * Within the game's files, Bowser's sound effect file actually contains duplicates of his voice clips and sound effects. These are no different from the normal sounds, but are placed in a filter during gameplay to create Giga Bowser's deeper voice. The voice can also be pitched higher or lower in Special Brawl matches involving size changes. Both Giga Bowser's voice clips and sound effects can be played in the game's Sound Test, being placed together with Bowser's sounds.
 * The fact that Giga Bowser has a results screen animation when using an infinite Giga Bowser hack is odd, considering Wario-Man and other characters playable in this fashion do not have them, and thus freeze the game upon a match ending unless their animation files are hacked. Also of note is how this Giga Bowser never turns back into Bowser when KO'd, while Wario-Man will always turn back into Wario upon being KO'd. This may suggest that Giga Bowser was originally going to reprise his role as a boss like in Melee, while was to have a non-transforming Final Smash.
 * Within Brawl's files, Giga Bowser actually has animations for numerous actions he is normally unable to do. These include all animations for being thrown, picking up light items and food, all light item throws, using the, growing or shrinking via items, picking up and releasing an Assist Trophy, assembling and riding the Dragoon, slipping, and teetering over a ledge. Most of these relate to actions Giga Bowser could do in Melee that he is missing in Brawl.
 * In SSB4, there are files for palette swaps for Giga Bowser, but they aren't used in the game. The same thing applies to Giga Mac, Wario-Man, and Mega Lucario, as shown here.
 * While Bowser overwent a major moveset overhaul on the transition from Brawl to SSB4, Giga Bowser retained his Melee-inspired moveset. This also applies for his role as a boss in Ultimate.