I fail at Bowser.

[Its Wispy]

Despite the pain it brings me, I think I might have to give up Bowser as my main. Also, I'm not saying he is a bad character at all; I just think he's incredibly frustrating and difficult to master.

I've been playing semi-competitively since about March of this year, and when I started, I instantly picked Bowser as my main. He was so much fun to play with for me, and I relished the fact that I knew no one else who played him. My first major tournament was on campus in March, and as far I know, there was only one other Bowser who entered out of the 64 players there. I didn't do so well at all at that tournament, but that first taste of blood I got from that tournament set me on a path to master King Koopa. I've been playing Smash on and off for the past months hoping to make up for Bowser's weaknesses using strategic defense, but I've encountered many problems in trying to win many of his matchups. I've come to several conclusions regarding what it will take to make your Bowser a fearful matchup to many players you encounter. I don't think I have those skills to make it happen.

Despite his defensive and great spacing capabilities aided by powerful moves like fortress and F tilt, it is not enough to make him a threat to most characters you encounter as Bowser. You need much more to utilize his strengths because many characters can find their way around his limited approaches. While his F tilt has great reach, many characters like G&W overpower his spacing moves by spamming his turtle. Firebreath immediately fills up the soulless demon's bucket, so my Bowser must resort to a very stale and predictable offense using fortress, grabs, and retreating F Airs. From my matches, Falco, Pikachu, and Ice Climbers eventually find that opening for the grab, for they have near infinite tries to grab. I can poke away with F Tilts, F Airs, and jabs, but eventually they get me because it's easy to make a mistake with Bowser's huge size and not so great spot dodge.

Also, the matchup with Snake is ridiculously hard for Booser because your tilts are outranged by Snake's long range two-hit brick wall. You can rack up damage slowly with grabs, firebreath, and jabs, but Snake seems to outrace me with grenades, his tilts, and grab shenanigans. Finishing him is perhaps the hardest part of the matchup, for your normal kill moves are negated by his beefiness and obnoxious quick f and up tilts. With all the difficulties, Booser encounters with mid to high tier characters, players need some kind of edge to overcome his weaknesses if you expect to win at the competitive level.



At the competitive level, Bowser is a technical character.

Because Bowser's weaknesses are amplified in certain matchups, I feel certain techniques are required to give Bowser a fierce fighting edge at the competitive level. Knowing the exact ins and outs of his chaingrab is a must, and I cannot get it down for the life of me. The timing of each bite and knowing when to dash and regrab again drives me crazy! At most, I can get two grabs in before screwing it up. It's too **** difficult to time it exactly right. Of course, versus some characters like Ness, Lucas, and Wario the combos you can do are easy to pull off. What about other characters like Snake, G&W, MK, and Falco? If a player can pull it off right each time in a match, then I can see Booser racking up damage very fast each stock.

Another technique is the infinite F Air and B Air loop using the koopa hop to stay in the air. If I could learn how to consistently B Air without touching the ground, then I think killing Snake would be a hell lot easier. It could also be used to leave Bowser less exposed when using retreating F Airs. I've tried to learn how to do it, but this also drives me mad. I got so frustrated at the game while practicing this move with a friend that I hated the game for a good two days after abandoning learning the technique. Personally, I hate fighting games that require you to learn technical moves that demand perfect timing to properly execute. They just make me lose interest very fast.

Because I can't master these moves, I think I'm going to move on to a lesser technical character like Donkey Kong, Lucario, Marth, or even the Falcon.

What do the Bowser boards say? I don't expect the majority to agree with me, so this all open for debate. Is Bowser a technical character? How essential are these advances moves to mastering Booser? What chance does Bowser stand in the competitive scene? Are Marth and Lucario more or less technical than King Koopa?

 

[Flayl]

I'm too clumsy to play Bowser properly. This goes for pretty much every character in the game, but I feel it a lot more with Bowser because of his size, lag and poor recovery.

Bowser isn't really a technical character, but if you don't have a good reaction speed your ability to play him is bottlenecked far more than any other Brawl character I've encountered. It's not just the grab release, it's spacing/timing his aerial klaw and decent-speed-but-laggy FTilt. Not even Fox has given me this much trouble.

But you should know that when you pick up Bowser, you're choosing to play a low tier character. You know that when you select him on the character screen. It should be no suprise that almost all your battles are going to be uphill.

As for your personal experience, have you considered that maybe you're approaching the matchup in the wrong way? A lot of the matchups you listed have klaw hopping as a necessity as opposed to spacing with FTilt. If you're not so great at power-shielding, like me, short hop air dodging into jab/fortress and klaw hopping on platforms should get you through most projectile walls and is enough for people of our skill level.

Also, like I keep telling everybody else on these boards, you should pick up a secondary to handle your bad matchups. Don't bother picking a secondary for Dedede, for example, if there isn't one in your area. From what I've read of your post, Marth would be a good secondary. But before you start using him, make sure there's nothing you can improve about your approach. I think you're going about the Snake matchup the wrong way, try getting some videos posted and we'll help you out.

As for grab release shenanigans, try the easy way out:
http://www.smashboards.com/showpost.php?p=8979712&postcount=758

Those are the most reliable ways to damage/kill someone without having top notch reaction speed.

So to summarize: Pick up Marth as a secondary, but first make sure you improve your Bowser as much as possible first. You're playing him because you like him, not because of his tier position.

 

[Cassius.]

From reading what you said, all I'm going to say is you're doing it wrong. Matchups, approaches, everything. You're doing it wrong, lol. I know my post isn't helpful at all but it's just the truth D:

 

[Its Wispy]

Even with klaw hopping, your opponent will quickly learn to avoid the increased hitbox in the air. It's mostly used as a surprise tactic. My opponents will start to spot dodge or use moves that outprioritize the aerial klaw. It helps vs many characters of course, but it's an approach that goes stale fast I think.

 

[-MCT-]

When I picked up Bowser, it was kind of a joke, but then I started to realize that he sucked much less than people would expect. I always liked playing Bowser but never had the guts to actually main him in the Melee competitive scene... even in Brawl, I would probably get better results with other characters (I currently secondary DK and Peach), but still...

But you should know that when you pick up Bowser, you're choosing to play a low tier character. You know that when you select him on the character screen. It should be no suprise that almost all your battles are going to be uphill.

...that's it, I dunno why but I just love that feeling, when you choose Bowser you know that you're probably at disadvantage even before the battle starts. One opponent once asked me if I was being serious when he saw I had chosen Bowser :D