Bowser (SSB4)/Down aerial: Difference between revisions

Bowser retracts into his shell, turns upside down, and propels himself downward. While the move mostly retains its animation from previous games, it has been largely overhauled in regard to its function; rather than a [[drill]] aerial, it is a [[stall-then-fall]] that [[meteor smash]]es opponents hit during the first 8 hit frames, out of the total of 33. However, the late hit also boasts extravagant power nonetheless, KOing middleweights reliably under 115% without [[rage]] and being one of the strongest non-meteor down aerials, surpassed only by the sourspots of {{SSB4|Captain Falcon}} and {{SSB4|Ganondorf}}'s down aerials. In both cases, the move deals 16% damage and produces a [[quake]] hitbox upon landing, dealing an additional 2% with very weak [[semi-spike]] knockback, although it only affects opponents on the ground. The move possesses a large hitbox, enabling its meteor smashing hitbox to effectively edgeguard opponents when near the edge.

However, Bowser's down aerial suffers from the typical problems of stall-then-falls: due to its very long duration (77 frames before it can be interrupted), it is a guaranteed [[self-destruct]] offstage unless Bowser uses it high enough from the ground, and even said circumvention can leave him vulnerable afterwards if the move misses. Another glaring weakness is its extremely high landing lag at 40 frames; it is tied with his {{mvsub|Bowser|SSB4|back aerial}} and {{SSB4|Pikachu}}'s {{mvsub|Pikachu|SSB4|down aerial}} as the aerial attack with the highest landing lag in the game, which nearly guarantees the opponent will be able to punish it should they [[shield]] the move or avoid it altogether. Overall, Bowser's down aerial is a very high risk edgeguarding tool, and usually only sees use when near the edge at a position where Bowser can land onstage while still meteor smashing the opponent into the bottom [[blast line]].