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Critique my Bowser

D

Deleted member

Guest
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHhO-T70Jyg

So here's the match prior to me dropping Bowser. After losing to this tilter that I really shouldn't have lost to (shown by me losing my last two stocks in a row, which tilts me), I gave up with Bowser and picked up King Dedede, who fares way better.

Please tell me my flaws.
 

BowDown

Smash Rookie
Joined
Jul 12, 2015
Messages
7
3DS FC
0748-2738-5951
Judging by the random omega stage, I'm gonna assume that you were playing online and I can totally understand input lag johns. And no offense but after watching the whole video, it looks like there's quite a bit to unpack here.

---Specifics that caught my eye---
0:03
Alright so right off the bat, you approach with a full hop falling nair. I would argue that this was a very questionable approach mostly because the Ganon was simply standing there doing nothing. Your opponent could've done anything that beats out Bowser's nair, which doesn't have much priority anyways, like a sh uair or something which would have put you in a juggle situation--you definitely don't want to be put in this situation as Bowser. But luckily they inputted a down b instead and you landed the nair. Hooray!

But what you should've done after landing the nair is followup with a fair/bair (to push ganon offstage) or an uptilt/uair (to juggle the Ganon). Falling nair turns out to be one of, if not the best, combo starter for Bowser. There are many different hitboxes in Bowser's nair, but the ones that pop your opponent off the ground all true combo into the aforementioned followups until VERY HIGH percents with no DI except for uptilit.

The fact that you roll away after landing your nair makes it seem like you weren't aware of this.

0:06
Good job on reading the roll-in. It kinda looks to me like this isn't your first game with this Ganon, so props on getting a high-damaging read.

0:09
Fsmash was a very questionable option here. Somebody please correct me if I'm wrong on this, but depending on when you cancel the firebreath you'll be put in a frame disadvantage or both players will be able to act at the same exact frame at best? So either way the fsmash was a pretty poor option to take. Either reset to neutral after a firebreath, or if your opponent likes to jump out of firebreath, stuff it with an air-to-air.

0:16
You escape your opponent's juggle opportunity. But you give the opponent another chance at juggling you by double jumping and trying to land aggressively. Most of Bowser's landing options are highly punishable. If you're gonna land aggressively as Bowser, you better land with a well-spaced aerial. Otherwise, it's probably best to just retreat and reset to neutral.

0:25 - 0:26
Here, you have Ganon in the air and you're below him. a bair might've even killed at this percent + rage. If not, it would lead to an edgeguard situation--and with this matchup, a simple drop zone fair would do the job nicely after the Ganon burns his jump.

And sure, he nairs, but our bair vs. first hit of Ganon's nair would've resulted in a trade heavily in our favor.

Then when he lands with nair you dash towards Ganon, looking to punish the landing... but you never threw out an attack and instead eat a slow down b to the face. Granted, this is probably an online match so it's harder to react to things, but you still could've thrown something out regardless.

0:29
The Ganon was as good as dead, but instead of following up with a full hop bair, you shield. :(

0:33
I get it. You're at high percents and the ganon is chasing you down. But the Ganon burned his double jump, still whiffed his upair. and was nowhere near you afterwards. Your dair was ill-advised.

If I was feeling risky, I would've done a fast-fall nair, fishing for the back hit. Otherwise, it probably would've been best to just fast fall back onto stage and reset to neutral.

1:02
You have Ganon at the ledge. At this percent, he barely has invincibility frames from hanging on to the ledge. This is the prime time to ledge trap. My go-to ledge pressure tool are down-angled ftilts but I'm not so good at ledge trapping tbh.

Soon afterwards,
The moment Ganon chooses a ledge option, ledge jump, you double jump away from Ganon.
The moment Ganon regrabs the ledge, you're nowhere near the position to punish a ledge regrab.
Stand your ground. Abuse the fact that your opponent is disadvantaged when they hang from the ledge. React/Punish accordingly.

1:16
Ganon is offstage, he's way past kill percents, and he teabagged you recently.
You teabag in retaliation, understandable. But then you go for a nair to edgeguard??? That move pops people upward and has nonexistent kill power! This part irks me quite a bit because with proper edgeguarding, the Ganon should 9 times out of 10 be dead whenever he inclined to burn a double jump to recover.

1:28
Ganon's spamming jab in the wrong direction. He's at low percent, but you go for a down tilt instead. A better alternative would be to upthrow->fair/double jump nair. These combos output much more damage and keep you in the advantage state.

2:39
This sequence kind of hurt to visually see your roll progressively get staler and staler.

2:48 - 2:53
You're catching Ganon's landings. Good work. I'd like to see more of this in the future.

---Main Takeaways---
1) You need to familiarize yourself with Bowser's low-mid percent throw combos

1.5) In general, you don't push Bowser's advantage state as hard as you can be
- Bowser has really good tools to combat opponents in the air. If you decide to try out Bowser again, try to utilize his anti-airs more
- Like me, you should practice your ledge trap game if you wanna improve

2) You panic a lot when you're put in disadvantage.
- I saw many panic rolls
- You would spam jab as a panic get-off-me tool (e.g. You did jab 2 even though jab 1 whiffed)
- You almost always burn your double jump whenever your opponent puts you in the air (This got you killed on your last stock)

3) A teabagging opponent really gets under your skin
- Perhaps this is what caused you to play like this, but as most people will probably say, definitely try not to let it get to you

----------------------
But judging from your location, you really don't have to follow any of this advice at all. If King Dedede works better for you, more power to ya!
 
D

Deleted member

Guest
1.5) In general, you don't push Bowser's advantage state as hard as you can be
This is due to my fear of messing it up/getting punished. I try not to take life-threatening risks, especially with characters with below average recoveries.
2) You panic a lot when you're put in disadvantage.
- I saw many panic rolls
- You would spam jab as a panic get-off-me tool (e.g. You did jab 2 even though jab 1 whiffed)
- You almost always burn your double jump whenever your opponent puts you in the air (This got you killed on your last stock)
Another fatal flaw, similar to the previous. I'm aware of roll decay, but I still don't want too be to close to my opponent while in disadvantage. As for double jumping, I do it often to prevent whiffed recoveries from below the ledge, depending on my character.
3) A teabagging opponent really gets under your skin
- Perhaps this is what caused you to play like this, but as most people will probably say, definitely try not to let it get to you
Probs my biggest fatal flaw. My emotional wall isn't very sturdy, especially when video games are involved. If someone teabags or wails on me, I assume the player is a jerk/troll and I get really enraged and full of vengeance. Obviously, the result are poor.
But judging from your location, you really don't have to follow any of this advice at all. If King Dedede works better for you, more power to ya!
I'm seriously trying to improve, so this advice will be saved and noted, thanks. Bowser did so well for me before this loss.

King Dedede is a safer K. Rool to me, the latter of whom I dropped due to a long losing streak, but that's for another thread.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Qualudes

Smash Cadet
Joined
Nov 25, 2014
Messages
53
Location
Virginia
SHORT HOP... some of the time. You seem to have a pretty solid pattern with Bowser, but it is relatively predictable. You got beaten with some jank on that dair spike by ganon, but that's also a pretty common attempt by most ganons online. The reason I put short hop in all caps is because I didn't see a single short hop in this set, and you need to work on your spacing with Bowser if you intend to play him or almost any character. Also, your ledge option was by default set to full hop on stage which is easily punishable. And you were obviously tilted by that crouch spam as BowDown BowDown said.
 
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