Poor Bowser. My favorite character and he got gypped. While his model looks fierce and his thundering footsteps sound intimidating, the Koopa King has no real physical presence on the battlefield. He can be comboed across the stage with relative ease and flinches to even the tiniest punches and hits. Why?
Here are some solutions to fixing Bowser and transforming him into a physical tank that wants to stay close to his opponents and trade blows until he could smash them off.
1. Bowser needs some stun resistance at least until he goes over a certain percentage. In fact other heavyweights need a form of stun resistance for balance. Also Bowser should be able to take a barrage of tiny attacks, like Fox’s rapid kicks, without lifting off the ground.
2. Bowser should have two moves that go through shields regardless of their size. His forward smash and Down B. These moves are slow enough and predictable enough to avoid through many other means. Therefore, if you cannot simply walk, run, hop, dodge, or roll away then your shield shouldn’t be allowed to save you.
3. Bowser’s fire breath is interesting. If not designed properly it would be broken and a perfect edge guarding tool. But when too many restrictions are placed on it, the fire breath becomes worthless or at least very situational. Perhaps if Bowser has little ending lag on the breath it would be a tool to rake in opponents close for a quick shell whirl or scratch attack. Another possible move is a fireball, but I do like the creativity of the breath. It just needs better execution.
4. The last change is not directly related to Bowser, but would help his performance. Light characters are allowed strong moves just as strong characters are allowed quick move (like Gannondorf’s punch or Bowser’s spin). But when almost every fast, light character has a move that is stronger, faster, equipped with more range, and comes with less lag time then Bowser’s moves it really limits what the big man can do. The whole point of Bowser being laggy and slow is too balance out his incredible strength and weight. This fact needs to be kept in mind when developing moves for lighter characters. (ex: Sheik’s forward aerial is vastly superior to Bowser’s in nearly every way)
