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Big Sean's Guide to Bowser

Big Sean

Smash Journeyman
Joined
Jun 3, 2003
Messages
484
Location
Berkeley
Cursive submitted a new guide:

Big Sean's Guide to Bowser - A fairly comprehensive guide on the fundamentals needed to be a tournament level Bowser.

  • A breakdown of all bowsers default moves as well as important customs
  • How to play in the neutral
  • How to chase opponents in the air
  • How to edge guard
  • How to punish opponents on the ledge
  • How to reset to neutral when you are in the air
  • How to get back to the stage when being edge guarded
Read more about this guide...

Please let me know if any of this information is wrong, the collective Bowser Boards know a lot more than I do!
 
Last edited:

Chyunman98

Smash Rookie
Joined
Jul 12, 2015
Messages
6
I am really thankful for this. I haven't seen a single Bowser guide (or any at all) that's even touched how much detail you've put in this.

I'm not sure if this really works that well for other players, but would Bowser's dash attack also be a good move to punish landings from far away?
 

Big Sean

Smash Journeyman
Joined
Jun 3, 2003
Messages
484
Location
Berkeley
Yeah I realized I didn't include anything about dash attack. I also skipped dash grab and only had only a little on pivot grab.

I think dash attack is honestly pretty awesome at punishing landings. The cool thing about dash attack is that if you buffer it out of the startup of a dash, it can go really far really fast. It's like a 10 damage projectile almost. It's been my experience too that it just straight beats or trade with most aerials. This means that usually the only thing that beats it is an air dodge. People air dodging into the ground just sets them up for an even better punish next time: bowser bomb. I recommend paying careful attention to whether or not they have their second jump though. Even if you're relatively safe if they double jump, you might be missing a larger opportunity to trap them into an up smash or RAR bair by simply empty dashing towards their recovery.

Note that the first actionable frame of dash attack is 56 frames, meaning that if they air dodge into the ground they can often still punish the dash attack after the air dodge landing lag. So in that sense it's medium risk medium reward. The value I think though is in conditioning your opponent into air dodging their landing.
 

Cronoc

Smash Journeyman
Joined
Jan 14, 2015
Messages
211
Location
California
NNID
Cronoc
Great guide, goes far beyond what previous ones have offered. Since you go into detail and cover things other guides haven't, I'll add a few things you didn't mention that are part of my experience playing Bowser:

-utilt now chains into itself, you can spam it, hit the first, have them airdodge the 2nd and hit the third. A character with lower airspeed like Little Mac is pretty helpless in this situation.

-The famous "Bowser bomb between Sheik's ftilts" only works at percentages low enough to not take you off the ground. A good Sheik never really gives you the opportunity to use this OOS, ftilt usually comes while you're in the air already because of a throw/fair. It's worth mentioning, but I would be surprised if any tournament Bowser player has successfully done it.

-I'd add Rosalina as a Bowser bomb to ledge exception, her uair disjoint will always hit Bowser out of the move. Unfortunate as Bowser is completely outclassed offstage by her already.

-Regarding ftilt, I'd like to see a warning about using it too much in the neutral. It may be safe on shield, but it is not safe on whiff. I've caught many a smash that wouldn't have hit me by trying to poke with ftilt and having them hit Bowser's extended fist.

-On tough guy, it may go beyond the scope of your guide but there are so few characters the move works in our favor for that it might be worth mentioning we can tough guy through Little Mac and Sheik's jabs, and Ness' PK fire at low percents.

-Flying slam has a problem you didn't mention, it whiffs if the opponent is too close (along with ftilt, though that is less of a problem). If they are partially inside Bowser, it's not the move to use. It's possible to accidentally whiff against a stationary opponent if one takes this for granted.

-You briefly mention the problem of Bowser's aerial fortress not snapping to the ledge when his back is to the stage, but don't mention the solution - use klaw to turn back around before getting back. Certain characters' downthrows (Sonic, Toon Link, probably others) will always put your back to the stage, and in those situations it's really better to turn around so you don't get punished at the ledge. But we shouldn't impatiently mash side b while still in hitstun, that will result in sending us further out.

-Sorry if I missed it, but something that I've gotten good mileage out of after hitting an opponent offstage is hanging on the ledge and timing a drop-off bair when they recover low. Not saying it's the best or worst option, but it is an option.

-Ledge trumping could have a little more time given to the mechanics of it. It's legitimately difficult to do with Bowser compared to many other characters so any explanation of what works most consistently for you or the alternatives might be helpful.

These are all kind of picky things and you're not obliged to add any of them, but some might find some of them useful to know.
 
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Jerodak

Smash Lord
Joined
Feb 10, 2013
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1,098
Location
North Carolina
NNID
Jerodak
3DS FC
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When mentioning down b between Shiek's Ftilt, might want to mention that you have to block the first one. Even if that might be more or less implied. Also, I'm not too sure if Dtilt is actually better than Ftilt, both buttons have about the same level of usefulness, also Down angle Ftilt over dtilts for "snapbacks" a.k.a hitting frame 1 ledge snap vulnerability actually has many merits over Dtilt. The Ftilt can hit from further away, it's less laggy, and while it's one frame less active, the frames are all in a single five frame cluster, as opposed to two 3 frame chunks with a 7 frame gap. Not as much power, but it's a lot safer when you miss, since you can usually recover in time if they snap the ledge, and it shouldn't be too prone to delay up b unless you're timing it way too early or getting mixed up, and in the latter case, the Dtilt is also prone anyway, only with more lag for them to work with, though I guess you could argue that the second hitbox might be able to at least trade.

Dtilt is still a good snapback and edgeguard of course, but learning to Forward tilt can make getting those snapbacks easier and saves the dtilt for when it can K.O.
 
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