Bowser Jr. (SSBU): Difference between revisions

Despite his great aerial mobility and damage-racking potential, Bowser Jr. is not without his flaws. One of his biggest problems is that his recovery is glaringly susceptible to gimps. While Abandon Ship! grants him considerable vertical distance, any weak hit can result in Bowser Jr. not being able to respawn his Clown Car if the player does not [[button mash]], and it doesn't have a hitbox outside of the Clown Car's explosion, making him very vulnerable. Another major problem that Bowser Jr. faces is a lack of viable out-of-shield options, as his grab is one of the slowest non-tether grabs, his aerials are either laggy or have poor range for being disjointed and his Mechakoopas will deactivate if they hit a shield, making him susceptible to punishes, and as his traction is one of the lowest in the game, this gives him a poor out-of-shield game. Bowser Jr. is also a very straightforward character, which can make him quite predictable at times. For instance, Clown Cannon and Mechakoopa are important to Bowser Jr.'s neutral game, making it easy (especially for characters such as {{SSBU|Fox}}) to read and shut down his options. Despite his grab range being rather long, his grabs have noticeable start-up and ending lag, and his throws have low utility due to their inability to KO at reasonable percentages outside of forward throw, with only up throw possessing some combo potential. In addition, despite his high power, Bowser Jr. suffers from poor KO potential due to having very few reliable KOing options (his neutral attack finisher, smash attacks and his forward/back aerials), which is further compounded by said options being burdened with considerable ending lag, while his forward smash has low ending lag and is safe on shield, but its multihits don't connect reliably into the final hit. Many of his attacks, such as his tilts, also have poor range, so he fares surprisingly poorly against swordfighters considering his disjointed moveset. Finally, Bowser Jr. takes more damage if he is hit but not his Koopa Clown Car, so he is very vulnerable to aerial approaches and after using Abandon Ship!, and he also struggles with dealing with pressure from his opponents. Since he always takes priority over his Clown Car when thrown, Bowser Jr. is also particularly vulnerable to being grabbed and can be knocked out earlier than a character of his weight class would by strong kill throws.