How do you open people up?

[Karsticles]

One thing I struggle with as Bowser is defensive opponents. The kind that have more attack range than Bowser, and can space him out consistently. Not keep away, just turtles.

If I want to open these people up, I need to take a big risk. I hate taking risks unless it is to kill. What are some ways you all get in on a turtle with more range than Bowser? Dedede, for example.

 

[Steam]

I run up and grab them. if they're going to try to space me out I run in > shield and then punish. Ftilt and SHfair are good punishes for spaced moves. Don't be too afraid to trade hits, bowser has extremely high priority on a lot of ground attacks and benefits highly from traded hits anyways due to his weight and killpower.

 

[GanonDuck]

Utilize Bowsers amazing run stop animation to attempt to stop right outside their attack range and just stare coldly into their eyes and dare them make a move.

 

[Hitman JT]

If they lack a good projectile then make them respect the pipe Fire Breath. Use it at a range that will catch them if they try to roll toward you. Once they learn to respect it they'll likely take to an aerial approach. You can try to meet them in the air with your own aerial, pivot grab them as they land, or just shield their attack and punish it accordingly.

Or you can just let them think they can space you out. Let them whiff their main spacing tool, then run in there and dash attack, grab, or shield cancel and feel them out. Bowser's run speed is really damn good, ohmigosh. They may be desperate to get away and resume their spacing game so test them with a single jab, only going into the 2nd jab if you can hit confirm it in time. If they roll away/toward, spotdodge, mash buttons, etc. then react and punish as you see fit, doing whatever it takes to stay on dat ass.

 

[Mr. Bones]

Utilize Bowsers amazing run stop animation to attempt to stop right outside their attack range and just stare coldly into their eyes and dare them make a move.

This. For characters without a projectile at least. Sometimes doing nothing is the best option. lol. I catch so many fidgety people on For Glory that will dodge away while I stand there doing nothing or just walk towards them.

Even better players can be mind-gamed with this.

As far as projectiles go, just learn to perfect shield so you can react out of it immediately. Bowser has a lot of tools to punish rolls and stuff. Also Fire is nice for pushing people back and burning up weaker projectiles.

 

[Jerodak]

Similar to what TrootOrDair said, you may want to to stay where their roll towards will put them right in front of you and then attack the roll on reaction. Firebreath is a great option, for this and it's a good spacing tool so you can also throw it out as a poke. However, when you're looking for a kill, you can switch to down tilt. If you use it on reaction to a roll it will catch them rather easily and it'll usually get them offstage if it doesn't kill them outright. Actually even at low percents, down tilt isn't a bad punish, it won't kill but if they roll into both hits then they take a hefty 25% with a decent chance to trip. Dtilt is also good against players that like to run up and shield grab you on reaction when you mis-space your jab or Ftilt to zone them out, since if they reactively grab as soon as the first hit touches their shield, the second hit should beat the grab.

If your opponent is roll happy, then short hopped klaw is quite amazing, I've often found that if I follow the roll with the short hop klaw, even if I miss, it's fine because I can just klaw when I land and get the grab on them anyway, and if they rolled towards you instead it's whatever because they probably can't punish you anyway. You can use the klaw to move the opponent as close to the edge of the stage as possible. Getting the opponent cornered at the edge of the stage is generally what you'll want to be doing with Bowser, because most characters aren't able to safely back away from you anymore, which makes turtling more difficult, so you can space your attacks more freely and focus on punishing their escape attempts.

 

[GanonDuck]

On another note i play Bowser really different then i would say Wario. As Wario i can just short hop all over the place and keep myself mobile. But Bowser I treat more like a traditional big grappler where my goal is to slowly work my way into the opposition and understand their defense, and also understanding what sort of hits can make me go all in. I really think that against other characters who can space you out patience is imporant. In my own opinion Bowser can play the spacing game really well himself against any character, its just that against some characters you have to space your normals alittle more smart and not just throwing them out. Bowser also has some really far reaching grabs with both his normal dash grab and pivot grab that you can use to punish whiffed moves.

Also its sort of in the contract that you need balls of steel to play Bowser. :v
So sometimes you just need to take a big risk to create a edgeguarding situation or just get them closer to the edge.

 

[Zigsta]

I'm typically really nice to people when I first meet them. A great way to make friends is to ask a new person about whatever they want to talk about--whether it's their character, their work, their clothing. That's what I do to open people up.

Oh, Smash Bros.

Firebreath if they don't have a projectile. If they do and the porjectile can be jabbed, I usually jab projectiles while standing in place until the opponent gets annoyed and runs in. Really depends on the stage, too, as well as any habits you think the opponent might have when it comes to just YOLO running up there. You could run through and pivot grab their spotdodge, run up and upsmash, run up and Firebreath from a distance, or just run up and stand there. Just mix things up, and you'll be fine.

 

[Anragon]

I wish I wasn't living in France so I could move my ass and go to american smash tourneys.

Anyway back on topic :

Utilize Bowsers amazing run stop animation to attempt to stop right outside their attack range and just stare coldly into their eyes and dare them make a move.

this and this and this.

Just stay right out of their range and fist them with tilts and Jabs. If they're really too afraid, go for Firebreath and smart aerial approaches (spaced F-airs and Side-B cancel)

 

[Cassius.]

I don't even run towards them. in matchups where the character doesn't really have anything to force an approach (a mediocre projectile, sword normals etc) I just walk and wait for them to do something stupid. I have more access to options if anything comes up. His stop animation is fast, but it still requires you to stop in order to perform certain actions. You can't beat the subtle simplicity of walking.

Of course, if you have a sense of urgency unlike myself, you can start dashing or whatever lol