Patient or Aggressive?

[Vincey_Boi]

Is Bowser Patient or Aggressive is a question i have been hearing from some of my friends and i think i may know the answer to it. I think Bowser fits best as a patient character. due to the fact that if he attempts a risky edgeguard theres a chance he cant recover back from it because one of the only good edgeguarding tools bowser has is foward air. But honestly it is the only thing he needs to edgeguard due to its shear range and huge hitbox to K.O opponents at %70 or more. Also bowser is really good as being patient also because of his smash attacks being super read heavy and being super effective. As the heaviest character in the game he can play some dirty mindgames on his opponents on where he will smash attack when he will get a grab or a side b and his dash dance is straight up dirty so i think bowser works best as a super patient character. But i came here to see if anyone has other thoughts what do you guys think of the king of the koopas.

Bowser is amazing

 

[Ez Quinn]

Bowser is a passive aggressive fighter. Bowser can play to both play styles and has options for both. I know more people who play bowser offensively than defensively. Like you said, if sit and get a good read then by all means play to your strengths and play defensively, but bowser has offensive options for a reason. Your character is going to be combo food, so trying to wait and out space your opponent will be hard. Be passive aggressive, wait out the combo, quickly reset neutral then go after them.

 

[Love Tap]

Hey! It's my first post in this forum. I'm kind of all fan girly about bowser right now. I had only dabbled with him but the past two days I decided to actually go in and try to learn this character. He. Is. RIDICULOUS.

Personally, in terms of approach, I think he's best played patiently. I don't try to rush people down unless they're already in disadvantage or if I have a percent lead. Patient play is more effective since he has so much kill power, people panic and press buttons, or go for really risky, ballzy plays to get rid of you. A lot of it has depended on what stage I'm on, too. I'm forced to play much more carefully on flat stages like FD where people have more room to sort of get away from bowser's pressure and strategize their approach, but on plats? You can really chase a ****** down!

 

[Xelrog]

I'm naturally a very aggressive player and that will generally be the case when I play Bowser. Is this the best way to play him? Well, he has plenty of ways to punish an opponent's approach... but in neutral game I find he usually has more reason to approach the opponent than they have to approach him. Against zoners it's completely mandatory that you be extremely aggressive and keep them from setting anything up.

I do wish he had some more offstage options, as he has some trouble punishing low. The best he can manage is a Bair into the underside of the stage, which is risky because his feet are also a hitbox. Oh, but when you pull it off...

 

[DeDeDIke]

Not a bowser main here (he's one of my secondaries), but I also play him patiently and wait for openings and hard reads. I play D3 (one of my mains) the same way. Being too aggressive sometimes doesn't work, since your opponent can pretty much download you after a few trades in neutral. So it's probably best to play patiently, not too aggressively or defensively.

 

[Xelrog]

Not a bowser main here (he's one of my secondaries), but I also play him patiently and wait for openings and hard reads. I play D3 (one of my mains) the same way. Being too aggressive sometimes doesn't work, since your opponent can pretty much download you after a few trades in neutral. So it's probably best to play patiently, not too aggressively or defensively.

Patiently is defensively.

 

[Love Tap]

Patiently is defensively.

Not necessarily. Patience and aggression aren't mutually exclusive. SUch as inching your way in with forward air or throwing out baiting hitboxes that you think your opponent will have enough time to punish but they won't. Or dropping your combo if you know your opponent has a combo breaker in the form of a fast neutral air or some such. The smash community seems to have really liberal definitions for playing patiently, defensively, or camping, with people conflating all three to mean the same thing. If I'm playing defensively, I'm not necessarily camping (Which I interpret as guarding a single space on the stage with your best hit boxes/projectiles and refusing to engage the opponent whatsoever) but rather and I'm focused on turning the opponents inertia against them, I'm still moving and shimmying around quite a bit but trying to out space them for whiff punishes or get out of shield combos started. If I'm playing patiently, I'm not committing to any one single option, I'm still engaging the opponent, but the options I'm picking are relatively safe. Rush down/aggressive play should be reserved for when your opponent has exposed a pattern and revealed that they don't have an answer to how you're pressuring in a given situation.

 

[Xelrog]

Not necessarily. Patience and aggression aren't mutually exclusive.

Yes they are.

If I'm playing defensively, I'm not necessarily camping

Yes you are.

If I'm playing patiently, I'm not committing to any one single option, I'm still engaging the opponent

No you're not.

If you're making any motion to approach the opponent, you're playing aggressively. If you're waiting for them come to you, you're playing defensively. It's very cut and dry.

 

[Aquamentii]

Not a bowser main but I like to play him aggressively. I find the most success in really throwing myself at the opponent because I know bowser can take it. I like to use the character's speed to punish my opponent's defensive options, which only makes them more scared, and so on. It is when they are most under pressure that they will make mistakes with their offensive options: they will do something like rapid jab / poorly space an attack that bowser can then counter with tough guy / fsmash intangibility respectively (or up smash invincibility, too...)
I think in such a momentum-driven game it is important to keep on the pressure, because if you are playing defensively, opponents can collect themselves and start advancing with safe approaches for which bowser may not have good counterplay. Just by spacing safe options in neutral your opponents can pick up steam and gain confidence, whereas if you are (reasonably and unpredictably) always swinging, they stay on edge.

 

[Love Tap]

Yes they are.


Yes you are.


No you're not.

If you're making any motion to approach the opponent, you're playing aggressively. If you're waiting for them come to you, you're playing defensively. It's very cut and dry.

I like how you just ignore all of my examples that clearly illustrate fighting styles in smash fall a long a spectrum and opt for "is not" and "is too" as a counter argument. Running up to your opponent and shielding, or wave dashing next to opponent to juke them out for an opening, are other illustrations of what could be considered aggressive and simultaneously defensive play. Baiting and conditioning are also strategies that don't fit neatly into the aggressive or defensive camp.

But feel free to try and rebut me with a few more mind blowing one liners.

 

[TehMud]

I like to play Bowser both passive and aggressive. He's able to switch on the fly and it can really mess with your opponent. For example playing fairly passive and then suddenly going just running off the ledge for a killing F-air that catches them completely off guard.

 

[whitesnake]

Aggressive ftw!!