• Welcome to Smashboards, the world's largest Super Smash Brothers community! Over 250,000 Smash Bros. fans from around the world have come to discuss these great games in over 19 million posts!

    You are currently viewing our boards as a visitor. Click here to sign up right now and start on your path in the Smash community!

Moveset Changes You Would Like For Bowser

Murder Space Dragon

Smash Cadet
Joined
Dec 4, 2019
Messages
35
While I don't play a lot of Bowser myself, I do have fun with him every now and then and I think it's safe to say Ultimate is the best Bowser yet not just in terms of viability, but also having a healthy playstyle.

One thing that generally bugs me which also applies to Bowser is when characters have moves that don't make good use of their design or reference things they've done. An example of this being DK not having Barrel Cannon as his Up-B or a move to throw/roll barrels. I'd like to ask what Bowser players would like to see changed about his moveset, if anything, and also what you might think of my ideas.


F-Smash (Windup Punch)
While Bowser's current f-smash does a good job looking powerful, I can't help but feel that there's a huge missed opportunity to have a fan-favorite move directly inserted into Smash Bros., the big wind-up punch from Bowser's Inside Story. Bowser leaning back on one leg and some squash and stretch will have this move selling just as much if not more power than the dropkick, and his arm can be invincible to keep it functionally similar.

Neutral B (Flame Shot/Flame Breath)
Bowser's Flame Breath is a great move, with its good reach and ability to rack up huge damage, but I find it a bit questionable that in Smash he breathes it flamethrower-style rather than shooting fireballs, as he shoots fireballs FAR more often. Changing his neutral special to this would not only make Bowser closer to his source material, it would also diversify the existing roster by giving him a unique move, rather than one that's nearly identical to Charizard's Flamethrower.

It would be similar to the Fire Shot custom move from Smash 4, but receive some tweaks. For starters it would travel slightly farther and travel more slowly, making it useful as a pressure tool to follow after. Second, it would become significantly more powerful. It'd be no Samus Charge Shot or Belmont Axe, but it would do solid damage and have moderate launch power able to kill mid-weights at the ledge around 160% and do somewhere around 12% damage.

Finally the most important change, the fireballs would be slightly smaller but their path can be adjusted by inputting on the control stick during the move's start-up. No input or a sideways input will have the fireball travel in a straight line. If up or down is inputted during startup however, the fireball will briefly travel at an upward or downward angle before straightening out. The low variant will be useful for catching players on the ledge or characters with exceptionally short hurtboxes or crouches (Snake, G&W, Inkling, etc.) while the high variant will give Bowser some control of the air, catching short hops or high recoveries. Not only would this make the move more interesting and versatile, it also directly references how in the original Super Mario Bros. the fireballs travel at one of three heights.

B-Air (Shell Bash)
Bowser's new b-air is functionally better, but like his new f-smash it's also a bit on the generic side not making use of Bowser's design. Bowser's old b-air was weak primarily due to its short range, but with some changes it could be not just a viable, but powerful tool in Bowser's kit. All that really needs to be done is to take the Project M approach and implement more defense into his moveset.

It would come out a frame or two slower than his current b-air and have several frames more end lag and landing lag, but in exchange it would have invincibility on Bowser's Shell from around frame 6 all the way to a few frames after the hitbox disappears while being just as powerful. This would give Bowser two distinct horizontal aerials, one for offense with f-air and a more defensive one with b-air. This might sound a bit busted, but remember Palutena is allowed to have full shield/arm invincibility on her b-air, and it's safe on shield.

https://www.ssbwiki.com/images/thumb/4/47/BowserSSBBBair(clean).png/200px-BowserSSBBBair(clean).png


So would you all like to see move changes like this in the next game? Or maybe you'd like to see different ones? I'm interested to see what others think Bowser's ideal moveset would be.
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom