Template:SSB4 to SSBU changelist/Bowser

Aesthetics

  • Change Bowser sports a darker and more monotone color scheme overall, similarly to his appearances in previous installments: his skin is yellower akin to his appearance in Brawl, whereas his head's and shell's green color schemes are similar to his appearance in Melee. Due to the different lightning physics used in Ultimate, Bowser's model also features a more subdued color scheme. His claws are darker and more gray in color. In addition, his scales, hair, horns, and spikes exhibit more subtle detailing; and his bands have visible scuffs and scratches. His pupils are also larger, and his spikes are slightly longer and thinner.
  • Change Bowser has been made more expressive than in previous installments, sporting facial expressions that are more prominent, as well as his jaw moving more naturally to match his angry expressions.
  • Change Bowser makes roaring noises during his idle poses instead of remaining silent like in Smash 4.
  • Change Bowser's shielding pose has changed: he turns around more, making it appear as if he's guarding attacks with his shell.
  • Change Bowser's hair has independent physics.
  • Change The particle effects of Bowser's claw attacks have been changed from light blue to yellow.
  • Change The shadow in the interior of Bowser's shell has been removed, no longer obscuring his face whenever he withdraws into his shell, like in Melee and Brawl.
  • Change Up and side taunts have been shortened, the latter also updated to match his upright stance.
    • Up taunt has Bowser no longer rear back before roaring.
    • Side taunt now has Bowser bite three times instead of five.
  • Change Bowser's victory poses have been updated:
    • His left-inputted pose where he roars in victory shows him rearing back and swaying his head before performing the rest of his victory pose. His body also faces more towards the screen during said animation.
    • His up-inputted pose where he slashes the air with his claws twice shows him running up to the victory area before doing so.
    • His right-inputted is completely new. He breathes fire towards the screen before striking a pose reminiscent of his Smash 4 artwork. It replaces his victory pose from the previous games where he performed Whirling Fortress and struck a pose.

Attributes

  • Buff Like all characters, Bowser's jumpsquat animation takes 3 frames to complete (down from 8), the second largest difference out of all veterans (only behind Snake), greatly improving his ground-to-air transitioning and out of shield game.
  • Buff Bowser walks slightly faster (0.858 → 0.901).
  • Buff Bowser dashes faster (1.792 → 1.971).
    • Buff Bowser's initial dash is significantly faster (1 → 2.255), going from the slowest in the game to being tied for the 6th fastest. This significantly helps him with both his defensive and offensive approach on the ground, whilst also giving him a respectable dash dance.
  • Buff Bowser's air speed is faster (1 → 1.155), especially relative to the cast, going from average to being tied for the 19th fastest in the game.
  • Buff Bowser’s traction is higher (0.0577 → 0.104), making it easier for him to punish out of shield. Relative to the returning cast, however, it is much lower, going from the 27th highest to only the 56th highest.
  • Buff Bowser falls significantly faster (1.39 → 1.77), his falling speed going from the 17th slowest to being tied for the 18th fastest. This greatly improves his vertical endurance and ground-to-air transitioning. The most notable change, however, is that this, when coupled with him receiving less landing lag on his aerials, helps him out with one of his primary weaknesses in Smash 4: his trouble landing safely.
    • Buff His fast-falling speed is also faster as a result (2.224 → 2.832), now being faster than his Melee fast-falling speed.
  • Change Bowser’s gravity is higher (0.11 → 0.125). When combined with his increased falling speed, this allows him to land drastically more safely, but makes him more susceptible to combos.
  • Buff Bowser is heavier (130 → 135), further improving his already excellent endurance, as well as the effectiveness of his Tough Guy armor.
    • Nerf However, it also makes him significantly more susceptible to combos, which is further exacerbated by his faster falling speed and higher gravity.
  • Buff The universal knockback reduction in rapid jabs allows Tough Guy to resist every single one of them, including the ones it couldn’t resist in Smash 4, such as Captain Falcon's.
  • Buff Forward roll has less ending lag (FAF 34 → 33).
  • Nerf Forward roll grants less intangibility (frames 4-19 → 4-16).
  • Nerf Back roll has more startup with less intangibility (frames 4-19 → 5-17), and more ending lag (FAF 34 → 38).
  • Buff Spot dodge has less startup (frame 4 → 3).
  • Buff Air dodge grants more intangibility (frames 4-29 → 4-32).
  • Nerf Air dodge has significantly more ending lag (FAF 35 → 47), although due to the universal changes, relative to the cast, it has gone from one of the slowest to one of the fastest.

Ground attacks

  • Buff Bowser has damage-based armor during the startup of all his tilt and smash attacks:
    • Up tilt: Armor active on frames 8-10; resists up to 4% damage
    • Forward tilt and down tilt: 7-9; 4%
    • Forward smash: 17-21; 10%
    • Up smash: 11-15; 8%
    • Down smash: 5-11; 8%
  • Neutral attack:
    • Buff The first hit transitions faster into the second (frame 12 → 10).
    • Buff The second hit deals slightly more damage (6.5% → 7%).
    • Nerf Both hits have a higher hitlag multiplier (1× → 1.4× (hit 1), 1.8× (hit 2)), giving opponents more time to SDI the first hit and DI the second hit.
    • Nerf The first hit has more ending lag (FAF 21 → 26), greatly reducing its jab cancel ability.
    • Nerf The first hit deals less damage (5% → 4%), slightly reducing the move's total damage output despite the second hit dealing more damage (11.5% → 11%).
    • Nerf The first hit has a shorter hitbox duration, with its arm intangibility reduced as well (frames 7-9 → 7-8).
    • Change The first hit has altered angles (30°/50°/85° → 361°/180°) to keep opponents closer to Bowser, and no longer deals set knockback (45/30/18 set/100 scaling → 40/35/30 base/18 scaling). This allows it to jab lock and connect more reliably into the second hit up to high percents, but less reliably afterward, without increasing its jab cancel ability due to its increased ending lag.
    • Change The first hit has an altered animation, being a sumo-style palm strike instead of a punch.
  • Forward tilt:
    • Buff The move deals more damage (12% → 13%) with no compensation on knockback. This turns it into one of the strongest forward tilts in the game.
    • Nerf The move has a slightly altered animation where Bowser bends his arm during the punch. This slightly reduces its range.
  • Up tilt:
    • Buff It deals more damage (9% → 11%) with no compensation on knockback, allowing it to KO at around 130%, much like in Brawl.
    • Buff Bowser's arm is intangible during the move (frames 11-16).
  • Down tilt:
    • Buff The first hit has received set knockback (20 base/100 scaling → 50/30 set/100 scaling), and its outermost hitbox launches opponents towards Bowser (361° → 130°), while the second hit comes out faster (frame 20 → 15). This allows both hits to link much more reliably.
      • Nerf However, the move's total duration remains the same, increasing its ending lag.
    • Nerf Both hits deal drastically less damage (14% → 7% (hit 1), 11% → 8% (hit 2)), still resulting in slightly higher total damage than the first hit alone in Smash 4 (14% → 15%), but significantly reducing it at low percents where the unchanged hits could link, in addition to weakening its shield safety and shield breaking ability. The second hit's knockback was also not fully compensated (12 base/100 scaling → 20/111), drastically weakening its KO potential, especially compared to the first hit in Smash 4.
    • Buff The second hit has larger hitboxes (5u/4.5u/4u → 5.6u/5u/4.5u), improving its range.
  • Forward smash:
    • Buff It now has transcendent priority, and combined with his legs now being invincible (rather than intangible), this makes Bowser's forward smash much more difficult to challenge, in a similar vein to his up smash.
  • Up smash:
    • Buff It deals slightly more damage (20%/15%/15% → 22%/16%/16%) with no compensation on knockback, and its sourspots launch at a consistent and higher angle (70°/120° → 85°), further improving the move's already impressive KO potential, to the point where the sweetspot is stronger than Ganondorf's up smash and the strongest up smash in the game.
    • Buff The landing hit deals twice as much damage (6% → 12%).
    • Buff The landing hit has more range behind Bowser (Z offset: 4–-5.5 → 4–-7.5).
    • Nerf The landing hit has significantly less knockback (80 base/100 scaling → 30/70), hindering its KO potential despite its increased damage.
      • Buff However, this improves its combo potential, even granting it a KO setup into his back air.
  • Down smash:
    • Change Bowser has a new down smash: a low claw swipe forward with one hand, then another swipe backward with his other hand, similar to Wolf in Brawl. It hits only twice instead of seven times, with one hit at each side.
      • Buff The move's new animation gives it much more horizontal range.
    • Buff Both hits deal much more individual damage, with the first hit's being the same the total of the previous down smash (2% (hit 1), 1% (hits 2-6), 9% (hit 7) → 16% (hit 1), 15% (hit 2)), and they launch at a lower angle (50° → 40°), with their knockback not fully compensated (40 base/130 scaling → 60/86 (hit 1), 60/92 (hit 2)). This significantly improves its KO potential, with both hits KOing under 100% from center stage, and effectively replaces a highly situational move that was notoriously outclassed by Whirling Fortress.
    • Nerf The new down smash has more startup, and significantly fewer active frames due to the removal of the looping hits (frame 10, 14-15, 17-18, 20-21, 23-24, 26-27, 31 → 12-13, 28-29). This makes it somewhat less effective for punishing rolls, and makes the first hit less safe on shield.

Aerial attacks

  • Buff All aerials have less landing lag (neutral: 20 frames → 15, forward: 24 → 14, back: 40 → 24, up: 28 → 17, down: 40 → 34).
  • Neutral aerial:
    • Buff The move auto-cancels earlier (frame 45 → 41).
    • Buff Due to its lower landing lag and Bowser's faster jumpsquat, it is a much better landing option and combo starter, leading into aerial attacks even up to high percentages.
    • Nerf Its hitboxes are smaller (5.5u → 5u).
  • Forward aerial:
    • Buff The move always launches opponents in front of Bowser now, improving its consistency in edgeguarding and killing.
      • Nerf However, this removes a confirm the move had in the previous game into Bowser's back aerial if the opponent was sent backwards by it.
  • Down aerial:
    • Buff The landing hitbox has a longer duration (frames 1-3 → 1-6).

Throws and other attacks

  • Grabs:
    • Buff All grabs have a longer hitbox duration (2 frames → 3).
    • Buff Standing grab has less startup (frame 9 → 8).
    • Nerf Standing grab has more ending lag (FAF 39 → 41).
    • Nerf Dash and pivot grabs have more startup (dash: frame 10 → 11, pivot: frame 11 → 12), with dash grab's total duration increased as well (FAF 48 → 49).
    • Buff Dash grab has slightly more range (Z2 offset: 15.5u → 16.2u).
    • Buff Pivot grab has less ending lag (FAF 46 → 44).
    • Nerf Pivot grab has drastically reduced range (Z2 offset: -26.5u → -22u), being stricter to Bowser's arm. However, it is still one of the longest-reaching non-tether pivot grabs in the game.
  • Pummel:
    • Buff Pummel has less startup (frame 9 → 2), deals more hitlag (5 frames → 15), and has significantly less ending lag (FAF 24 → 8), shortening its duration. This slightly increases the amount of times Bowser can pummel the opponent before throwing them or before they break out.
    • Nerf Pummel deals much less damage (3.1% → 1.6%). This makes it marginally less reliable for racking up damage.
  • Up throw:
    • Buff The eighth hit deals more damage (1% → 2%), and it has an additional hit right as the release occurs that deals 4%, almost doubling its total damage output (6.5% → 11.5%).
    • Nerf The ending hit's knockback will override the throw portion's up until very high percentages. Said hit has greatly altered knockback (25 (base)/180 (scaling) → 85/80) effectively resulting in the move dealing noticeably more knockback at lower percents while not having improved KO potential at high percents, reducing its combo potential significantly, but not entirely.
    • Nerf The throw releases opponents slower (frame 53 → 57), but has more ending lag (FAF 64 → 75). Although this is somewhat alleviated by Bowser's faster jumpsquat, it completely removes the move's combo potential past mid percentages, along with no longer possessing any guranteed KO setups.
    • Nerf The last hit deals significantly less knockback to bystanders (80 base/200 scaling → 85/80).
    • Change The last hit launches bystanders vertically instead of being a semi-spike (0° → 80°). Coupled with the previous change, this removes the extreme horizontal KO power it used to have, but allows it to combo them alongside the thrown victim.
    • Change Bowser hops during the final hit.
  • Down throw:
    • Buff The throw's release deals more damage (2% → 4%) with no compensation on knockback, although it's still rather weak.
    • Nerf It has faster startup (frame 45, 56 → 35, 37), but with its total duration not reduced, significantly increasing its ending lag, while it remains easy to react to.
    • Change It has a more exaggerated animation.
  • Edge attack:
    • Buff Edge attack deals more damage (7% → 10%).

Special moves

  • Fire Breath:
    • Buff It deals more damage per hit (1.2% → 1.8%).
    • Buff It has larger hitboxes (4u → 4.5u).
    • Change The flames are more vibrant in color, a stark contrast to the more realistic-looking flames in SSB4.
  • Flying Slam:
    • Buff The move has significantly faster startup overall (frame 8 (ground)/17 (aerial) → 6 (both)), especially in the air. This allows Bowser to beat out shielding opponents much more easily when airborne, and in combination with his faster jumpsquat gives it utility as an out of shield option.
    • Buff The move can be B-reversed.
    • Buff It has a new property that gradually increases its damage the more distance Bowser falls with the grabbed opponent before impacting ground (for example, if he lands on a lower platform from where the move was initiated), still with a minimum of 18% and reaching a maximum of 23.4%. This damage increase fully affects the move's knockback, improving its KO potential if initiated above the stage or if Bowser can control it adequately.
    • Buff The inner grabbox is larger (4u → 5u).
    • Nerf The move has noticeably more ending lag (FAF 43 (grounded), 50 (aerial) → 53), and the aerial version no longer auto-cancels upon landing, making it much easier to punish.
    • Nerf Upon grabbing an opponent, it has more lag before Bowser jumps (25 frames → 33), giving the opponent more time to influence its movement.
    • Change The outer grabbox is smaller (5u → 4u), but further out (Z offset: 17.5 → 19), increasing its horizontal reach but worsening its vertical reach.
    • Change Bowser spins around more dramatically on the way down when grabbing an opponent, and the move produces an explosion on landing.
  • Whirling Fortress (grounded):
    • Buff The looping hits use different angles (180° → 160°/165°), deal less knockback (50/70 set/100 scaling → 80/120/50), have a lower hitlag multiplier (1× → 0.7×), use weight-independent knockback, and have gained an additional hitbox above Bowser that meteor smashes opponents into the attack (180° → 240°) with low knockback. This allows it to connect significantly more reliably, with opponents no longer being able to tech out of it, and increases its vertical range.
    • Buff The last hit deals more damage (4% → 6%), with knockback compensated (70 base/150 scaling → 50/140).
    • Change The last hit uses weight-independent knockback. This hinders the move's KO potential against lighter targets, but improves it against heavier ones.
    • Change The last hit launches at a lower angle (60° → 55°).
  • Whirling Fortress (aerial):
    • Buff It has significantly less landing lag (50 frames → 36).
    • Buff The first hit and looping hits use the autolink angle (84° → 367°), with the former dealing effectively set knockback (80 base/60 scaling → 50/0), and it has an additional finishing hit at the end (dealing 12 hits, up from 11) with significantly more knockback scaling (20 → 180). This repurposes the move into a more traditional multi-hit move that can rack up damage more safely.
    • Nerf It deals significantly less damage (10% (hit 1), 3% (hits 2-6), 2% (hits 7-11) → 7% (hit 1), 1% (hits 2-11), 2% (hit 12); 35% total → 19%), no longer being one of the most damaging up special moves in the game.
    • Nerf The looping hits have smaller hitboxes (6u → 4.3u).
    • Change The last hit launches at a lower angle (84° → 60°).
    • Change Its animation has been altered, with Bowser spinning more at an angle toward the camera.
  • Bowser Bomb:
    • Buff The grounded version's first hit has different angles (85° → 80°/100°/90°) and deals less set knockback (90 → 60), but uses weight-independent knockback, a lower SDI multiplier (1× → 0.5×), and has gained a hitstun modifier of 8, while the second hit has less startup (frame 38 → 37). This makes the first hit impossible to DI and allows it to connect better into the second hit.
    • Buff The first hit uses 4 smaller but extended hitboxes rather than one large unextended one. Overall it has more reach.
    • Buff The aerial version has less startup (frame 32 → 31).
    • Change The move meteor smashes at the beginning of its descent (76° → 290°). This grants it utility in edgeguarding, but makes its onstage KO potential less consistent.
      • Nerf The aforementioned new meteor smash hitbox deals much less knockback (45 base/75 scaling → 13/65), making it significantly less powerful as a result.
  • Final Smash:
    • Change Bowser has a new Final Smash called Giga Bowser Punch. Rather than utilizing Giga Bowser's Brawl moveset, he teleports to the background of the stage in giant form, and aims a single punch that does 40% damage. If the opponent's damage percent is at 60% or greater before they are punched, they receive an instant Screen KO, otherwise they receive moderately high knockback.
    • Buff Since Giga Bowser Punch causes Bowser to teleport to the background, the Final Smash no longer renders Bowser vulnerable to damage during it.
    • Change Since Giga Bowser Punch consists of a single hit rather than allowing Bowser to hit opponents, this makes its KO power and damage more consistent and allows it to more easily KO several targets, but hinders the damage racking ability Giga Bowser previously had.
      • Nerf As a result, Giga Bowser Punch deals less damage than Giga Bowser's most damaging option, which was a fully charged down smash (4.2% hits 1-7/18.2% hit 8/47.6% if all hits connect → 40%).
    • Bug fix As a result, the undead glitch on the Stamina Mode, and results screen glitch on the timed team battle have been removed.