Q&A [Q&A + FAQ] Clown Car 101 - Bowser Jr and The Koopalings

[MisterVisceral]

One thing to remember is that the Cannonball has stopping power for days. Days.
Because of this, I usually use it to anticipate players landing from vulnerable status, or rushes. Or smash charges.

 

[Kushamo]

It depends. I believe it depends on the amount of knockback you do. If you do a strong hit, he can get it back, if it isn't strong, he can't? That's what if feels like, and he will always get the car back before landing, hit or not

I believe this is true - if you hold your mechakoopa in training and up-b, the explosion will always allow you to get the kart back no matter the timing, yet there are situations in battle where you can't get it back even after being hit out of kart. Unless there's something I'm missing, I definitely feel like this has been an under-investigated issue of Jr's. Right now I suspect it's a damage threshold, but without 2-player training it's not exactly convenient to test.

 

[WeirdChillFever]

On what moment does the Side B have Super Armor, if at all?

 

[Kushamo]

On what moment does the Side B have Super Armor, if at all?

As I understand it, the car hitbox has super armor, but Junior doesn't.

 

[Christhewolf63]

And the super armor is mostly on the spin out

 

[Yeerk]

A lot of times when I aerial up B and the clown car collides with them in the air, the explosion won't hit them. Anyone know why? Is it DI dependent?

 

[Sonsa]

I have a question, um, how come there's no stickied Bowser Jr. matchup thread? I think it's pretty important to analyze Bowser Jr's place in the meta, tactics to employ & stages to go when fighting certain characters, and have it be easily accessible and ready to welcome more and more players interested in Bowser Jr. No? I think we need a stickied Bowz June matchup thread. I know we have a matchup thread below somewhere but it doesn't seem to have frequent visitors or discussions. Am I being too pushy? Sorry if so! Just feel like Bowz Jr is a little under-utilized for his interesting potential!

 

[Vincent21]

What he said.

Also, what in the world does this character do to come back from disadvantage state?

Like yay you have a pretty sick neutral game with basically PM Ike style side-b canceling into SH things and all sorts of mix-ups on top of his hitboxes actually being good and his projectile game and it's variation being pretty stellar but...

Then say Falcon dash-grabs you and starts juggling you... your UpB can be stuffed, pretty easily, dair isn't disjointed enough to protect your landings, side-b from air is way more linear, committing to UpB if it doesn't get stuffed kills all your options and so I find like the only viable strategy at that point to be DI'ing away and trying to safely grab ledge and even then while from ledge, fair/bair helps, I still find myself wanting.

 

[Sonsa]

What he said.

Also, what in the world does this character do to come back from disadvantage state?

Like yay you have a pretty sick neutral game with basically PM Ike style side-b canceling into SH things and all sorts of mix-ups on top of his hitboxes actually being good and his projectile game and it's variation being pretty stellar but...

Then say Falcon dash-grabs you and starts juggling you... your UpB can be stuffed, pretty easily, dair isn't disjointed enough to protect your landings, side-b from air is way more linear, committing to UpB if it doesn't get stuffed kills all your options and so I find like the only viable strategy at that point to be DI'ing away and trying to safely grab ledge and even then while from ledge, fair/bair helps, I still find myself wanting.

Well, she, but usually when I'm being juggled I'll try to air dodge and then when they think I'm going for a landing I just surprise them by attempting to juggle instead with my up-air. Works surprisingly well. Or you can just fast fall nair if you wanna get grounded. Won't always work, but it's a pretty good option! Good coverage, lasts most the time, not much endlag.

In other disadvantaged states, remember Jr weighs the same as Charizard, rather heavy, so even at high percents you're harder to kill than other characters. So in certain matchups, you need to be around 110% to be killed easily while Jr could kill a lighter character with a surprise up-b bomb at 70%. If the up-b bomb is too much of a commitment you can try and make a good read with smashes, side-b to up-air kills at higher percents, etc. Main point, Jr may have lots of percent, but don't feel disadvantaged! He has the staying power to balance that out.

 

[Vincent21]

To be fair with the he/she distinction I play Larry so I was pretty sure he would be correct. Guess I could've mentioned it earlier.

And yeah that's kind of what I figured, that basically the gift we get in weight without a direct loss in mobility is meant to compensate this rather poor disadvantage state, which is fine and all but this character feels super juggle-prone. Also is it me or can the cart just like... not pivot grab?

 

[Sonsa]

To be fair with the he/she distinction I play Larry so I was pretty sure he would be correct. Guess I could've mentioned it earlier.

And yeah that's kind of what I figured, that basically the gift we get in weight without a direct loss in mobility is meant to compensate this rather poor disadvantage state, which is fine and all but this character feels super juggle-prone. Also is it me or can the cart just like... not pivot grab?

Hey, thats fine, though, while Im a girl I like playin Bowz Jr and occasionally Wendy then Iggy then maybe Roy.
Mhm! It's meant as balance, while we die late we're rather easy to get damage on. You wouldn't think cause we don't look as heavy as Charizard or Dedede or anyone up there, but we are. Also, random bit of advice, I guess only go for an exploding up-b surprise when your opponent is at kill percents or you're sure it'll work, punishing a roll or something - Bowser Jr by himself outta the cart is quite vulnerable and I'm not sure about knockback, but he takes 3x damage I think?
Pivot grab trouble? Umm, I think he can, just run and turn while hitting z almost like a smash attack, no?

 

[_Killager_]

Top of my head: YES thats what i do! There are a lot of things u can do with the clown car, BUT you have an even bigger hit box but you can catch them off guard really easily. And also i found out that u get super armor if u get hit from the clown kart


Low percentages;
car, dair, bair (does like 39%)
utilt, utilt, usmash
utilt, utilt, uair
usmash, uair (wait for airdodge -> uair again)

Others
uair, jump nair
Car, upb
car jump, nair/uair
Utilt, uair
(last hits of) dair, fsmash
Dair, fair/bair
(last hit of) dair, dash usmash
mechakoopa explode/any aireal
Upb (hit with car), hammer
mechakoopa throw (item) from above, fair/bair
uthrow, combos (not sure needs testing, but seems like you can combo into it at a higher %)

 

[Rizen]

Hi, I'm still a total Bowser jr noob. How should I approach characters who out camp and play keep away like Fox and Mega Man?

 

[Duck SMASH!]

Megaman is a pain to approach but you need to stay close to avoid being zoned out and camped by the metal blades, Fsmash, and his crash bomb...
He can interrupt Kart dash with his neutral attack so you may want to try aerial approaches, or starting your kart dash in the air. Do be careful of his Fair and Bair, as they have good range and damage and can wall you out if you are not careful.
Or, approach on the ground and powershield the projectiles. The crash bomb is useless against shield and the blade can actually be caught if you time it right. He can only have one blade out at a time...
Use your mechakoopa if you approach on the ground. It can block Fsmashes, though it doesn't stop his other projectiles, and will force megaman to shield or dodge, giving you a small window to approach or punish if close enough....

Fox is a royal pain though...
If you approach from the air be sure to do something NOT laggy.... or he will shieldgrab/attack you... Speed is crucial here. Fox is fast enough to punish anything you do, so you need to minimize the time you're vulnerable...
Mechakoopas can cover your ground approach. If the Fox is silly enough to reflector, punish it with a kart dash and a follow up of your choice. He falls fast and is combo'd easily, so make every punish count.
Unfortunately I don't have enough experience against good Fox players to comment further...

 

[Duck SMASH!]

I have a question, um, how come there's no stickied Bowser Jr. matchup thread? I think it's pretty important to analyze Bowser Jr's place in the meta, tactics to employ & stages to go when fighting certain characters, and have it be easily accessible and ready to welcome more and more players interested in Bowser Jr. No? I think we need a stickied Bowz June matchup thread. I know we have a matchup thread below somewhere but it doesn't seem to have frequent visitors or discussions. Am I being too pushy? Sorry if so! Just feel like Bowz Jr is a little under-utilized for his interesting potential!

We do not have enough information to create a proper matchup thread. We need to test more matchups first. This will come with time and practice.
I have made several match up threads for specific characters to get the ball rolling. Once we have enough information somebody can create a unified match up thread with all the necessary information for Jr. mains.

 

[Sonsa]

We do not have enough information to create a proper matchup thread. We need to test more matchups first. This will come with time and practice.
I have made several match up threads for specific characters to get the ball rolling. Once we have enough information somebody can create a unified match up thread with all the necessary information for Jr. mains.

Other matchup threads just sorta discuss as they go along though, like your above Megaman and Fox advice would be dandy for a matchup thread. I like that we want a very organized final product, but right now people are interested in Bowser Jr, come here for advice and info, can't really find much and potentially drop Jr for another character. If we have a sort of work-in-progress matchup thread with a proper chart and links to user's advice they can feel greatly helped and encouraged to contribute to the work-in-progress with their unique experiences.

 

[Duck SMASH!]

Other matchup threads just sorta discuss as they go along though, like your above Megaman and Fox advice would be dandy for a matchup thread. I like that we want a very organized final product, but right now people are interested in Bowser Jr, come here for advice and info, can't really find much and potentially drop Jr for another character. If we have a sort of work-in-progress matchup thread with a proper chart and links to user's advice they can feel greatly helped and encouraged to contribute to the work-in-progress with their unique experiences.

We have a good guide made by @Balloonicorn that showcases Jr's moveset. It also has some info on some of his matchups, but not enough to stand on its own.
Edit: Here is the guide.
http://smashboards.com/guides/koopa-kid-circus-general-bowser-jr-guide.19/

But you are right. A WIP Matchup thread would definitely help, andthese important things should be stickied. You may want to ask @ Abyssal Lagiacrus about that though, as I cannot sticky threads.

 

[Abyssal Lagiacrus]

I can definitely get that arranged. It would be good to help boost Bowjow's subforum.

 

[divade]

I knew nothing of the guide until recently, I thought the moveset project was the only form of movelist and WIP post about the moves of Bjr. i think the guide should'a could be in that OP yet.

 

[Kantrip]

As far as I understand it, at low percents I kart>dair, and then I can usually follow up with another kart that I either dair again, fair, or string uairs after depending on the character and their percent. Then at mid percents I kart>uair and attempt to get a string of them if possible. Finally, if they're in the ~90-120% range (again, char dependent), I kart>abandon ship>hammer for the kill.

Is this about right? Are there ever situations where those aren't the best options, or is there ever any reason to attempt to follow a kart hit up with something else? Also, is kart>abandon ship>hammer a true combo or is it escapable? So far on CPUs and wi-fi I have yet to miss one assuming I execute the timing properly and the opponent was in the correct percent range.

 

[Yeerk]

It is not ever a combo, in my experience. Also, kart>dair does not work at all on lighter characters, afaik.

 

[Kantrip]

It is not ever a combo, in my experience. Also, kart>dair does not work at all on lighter characters, afaik.

I have yet to have an opponent avoid a hammer follow-up on a kart>up B when they're in the right percent range. Mind you, this is on wi-fi, I'll have to see if I get the same results at an irl tourney.

 

[Yeerk]

Yeah, I always used to get them on wifi too. But everyone I play live seems to get out of it.

 

[divade]

I usually don't react soon enough bc I dunno the percent it would work until its too late. :/

 

[krazyzyko]

How much % can his side B landing super armor resist?

 

[Reaper Talk]

Hello fellow Koopalings
I am currently making a character guide and was wondering what are Bowser Junior's strongest and weakest stages?
Any feedback is welcome and will be appreciated !
Thank you in advance!

 

[krazyzyko]

Hello fellow Koopalings
I am currently making a character guide and was wondering what are Bowser Junior's strongest and weakest stages?
Any feedback is welcome and will be appreciated !
Thank you in advance!

http://smashboards.com/threads/stage-selection.397641/

 

[Funkermonster]

When fighting against Junior and he uses the UpB onstage, is it possible to just roll past the exploding car and then smack his turtle body afterwards? Or will I still get caught in the explosion. Even though I'm told its real easy to punish and leaving his car puts Junior closer to death since he takes more damage, I find myself blocked by his exploding car as a barrier so I am tunnel visioned on how I can bypass it and get to Junior before he lands back in his car.

And also as Junior, how do you do SideB to UpB and at what percents? Been hearing cool things about it, but could never pull it off.

 

[Kantrip]

When fighting against Junior and he uses the UpB onstage, is it possible to just roll past the exploding car and then smack his turtle body afterwards? Or will I still get caught in the explosion. Even though I'm told its real easy to punish and leaving his car puts Junior closer to death since he takes more damage, I find myself blocked by his exploding car as a barrier so I am tunnel visioned on how I can bypass it and get to Junior before he lands back in his car.

If Jr. drops the kart right beside you, you do have time to roll away from it so you don't just have to sit in shield and wait for it to explode. Bowser Jr. suffers a fair bit of landing lag when he lands on the ground out of the Clown Car which is probably when you want to punish. Challenging in the air is possible too, but the hammer can be scary.

And also as Junior, how do you do SideB to UpB and at what percents? Been hearing cool things about it, but could never pull it off.

When you hit with side B, just immediately jump cancel the kart and up B. On most characters, between around 75-110%, this will allow you to follow up with a hammer hit. It is dependent on weight, DI, and rage though so it's hard to know exactly when to try it. Kind of just have to feel it out.

 

[Vult Redux]

okay how can Jr. beat Rosalina when
- her jab and Luma's jab beats Clown Kart
- GP has like no endlag and unbelievable range - she can pick up and throw a stray Mechakoopa immediately after using it
- even if the Mechakoopa does hit her, the second hit doesn't connect because she is too light
- her Usmash, Uair, Nair make it impossible to approach from above
- she is fast enough to punish our entire toolkit* on shield
- Jr. can't gimp her

please help me this matchup is a disaster

* okay maybe an exaggeration but at time of writing I can't think of anything that is safe to poke her with, which is why I'm asking for advice I suppose

 

[Sonsa]

Vs Rosalina you gatta really amp up the pressure, try not to give her time to breathe. Mecha-koopas constantly, yeah she can throw them away easily, but that keeps her busy. Clown Kart in! Make sure to super short hop before doing so to be even faster (I think this is in the AT thread?) Now she's ganna be like "wait wait wait!" cause she wants to deal with this mechakoopa first.

Now, of course combo when you can, Bowz Jr has some great combos. But! When she pops out from good DI, being too light, or whatever else: Go for Luma. It'll likely be in the air. It can't do anything while it's falling, Rosalina will only get control again once it hits the ground. Jr can quickly and rather easily juggle it off stage with up-air and forward-air.

Now Rosalina is on her own. A good one will run away until Luma is back. If not, there's no Luma or star bits to fear, you're tools are much safer here, short hop nairs will be good, short hop fairs are disjointed enough to be safe. If they are smart and just tries to wait, Mechakoopas and Clown Kart are still great pressure and she'll havta run really well,dealing with your pretty strong stage control. They may want to go for a back-throw, so mind your disjointed hitboxes and don't get grabbed.

You can't gimp her (usually) but her recovery has no hitbox, so you can shove her off stage enough to prepare for a 50-50 situation. They'll either aim for the ledge or predict an edgeguard and try to go right over you onto the stage. Here, you just need to follow them with your eyes closely and react quick.

Other things - your up-b, dropping the clown car, can be pretty predictable and easy to shield, but Luma doesn't have a shield, so this can be a great tool to seperate them and kill Luma.
Landing can be tricky, Rosa's up air is pretty great, but Jr. is heavy enough to live longer and can usually air dodge and fast fall to a safe landing while Rosa kinda floats, she can't land as quick as Jr I believe.
Jr's Neutral B is pretty useless in this MU however, but if you see a unique opportunity - go for it.

Maybe I should put this in the matchup thread instead, but yeah, I think this matchup is actually 55:45 for Jr. Or maybe just 50:50 even...
I've had my own trouble with Rosa, but after going all out with pressure and speeding up clown car, Rosa has a kinda tough time keeping up.

 

[Duck SMASH!]

Vs Rosalina you gatta really amp up the pressure, try not to give her time to breathe. Mecha-koopas constantly, yeah she can throw them away easily, but that keeps her busy. Clown Kart in! Make sure to super short hop before doing so to be even faster (I think this is in the AT thread?) Now she's ganna be like "wait wait wait!" cause she wants to deal with this mechakoopa first.

Now, of course combo when you can, Bowz Jr has some great combos. But! When she pops out from good DI, being too light, or whatever else: Go for Luma. It'll likely be in the air. It can't do anything while it's falling, Rosalina will only get control again once it hits the ground. Jr can quickly and rather easily juggle it off stage with up-air and forward-air.

Now Rosalina is on her own. A good one will run away until Luma is back. If not, there's no Luma or star bits to fear, you're tools are much safer here, short hop nairs will be good, short hop fairs are disjointed enough to be safe. If they are smart and just tries to wait, Mechakoopas and Clown Kart are still great pressure and she'll havta run really well,dealing with your pretty strong stage control. They may want to go for a back-throw, so mind your disjointed hitboxes and don't get grabbed.

You can't gimp her (usually) but her recovery has no hitbox, so you can shove her off stage enough to prepare for a 50-50 situation. They'll either aim for the ledge or predict an edgeguard and try to go right over you onto the stage. Here, you just need to follow them with your eyes closely and react quick.

Other things - your up-b, dropping the clown car, can be pretty predictable and easy to shield, but Luma doesn't have a shield, so this can be a great tool to seperate them and kill Luma.
Landing can be tricky, Rosa's up air is pretty great, but Jr. is heavy enough to live longer and can usually air dodge and fast fall to a safe landing while Rosa kinda floats, she can't land as quick as Jr I believe.
Jr's Neutral B is pretty useless in this MU however, but if you see a unique opportunity - go for it.

Maybe I should put this in the matchup thread instead, but yeah, I think this matchup is actually 55:45 for Jr. Or maybe just 50:50 even...
I've had my own trouble with Rosa, but after going all out with pressure and speeding up clown car, Rosa has a kinda tough time keeping up.

It is DEFINITELY not even. Rosalina is a tough MU by any means, and she has the advantage due to Luma's tricks, better range on her disjoints, super strong Uair and Dair that cannot be challenged, excellent recovery, and strong grab game.
To deal with Luma, I will direct you to the Rosalina MU thread on this board, and Particularly this post, for ideas. This Rosa user knows her weaknesses better than anybody on this board.
But yeah. Don't let Rosa control center stage. If you want to kill Luma you need to keep her near the ledge.
I know Side B is great, but don't abuse it. Sonic mains have learned a while ago that approaching with spin dash is a bad idea because it restricts their options and opens them up for punishes. We need to do the same thing.
Side B should be used to close distance, and move fast enough to get a punish in, but not always as a general approach option - it's easily punishable as you are reporting.
Granted, our attack has more versatility than Sonic's because we can freely act out of our jump, but it still cannot be abused because all of Jr's aerials are laggy on landing.

 

[Snailtopus]

How can I reliably put my opponent into a trip state with Down-air?

 

[divade]

It's probably at a specific percentage, I don't know though.

 

[-Grimm-]

How can I reliably put my opponent into a trip state with Down-air?

It's a matter of not hitting the final hitbox of the dair (similar to offstage gimp). It's usually easiest to do this by doing a fastfall and land your hits on the opponent's back. Hit just enough for hitstun but make sure your last hit is on the ground, not them. It's difficult to pull off, though

 

[krazyzyko]

How can I reliably put my opponent into a trip state with Down-air?

It depends whether your opponent DI's down or not.
So it's not reliable.

@ WeirdChillFever
You get super armor on spinout and when the clown kart lands and bounces after landing. Jr is vulnerable though.

 

[kenniky]

Hi there,

So apparently Bowser Jr. has weak and strong hitboxes on his fair. Do any of you have a diagram outlining where each is, or have a reliable way to always hit the sourspot?

 

[Neku ネク]

Does Bowser Jr. have any good combos or strings that come from grabs? His down throw literally screws up everything I could think of except for d throw to dash attack (at low percentages).

 

[Snailtopus]

Does Bowser Jr. have any good combos or strings that come from grabs? His down throw literally screws up everything I could think of except for d throw to dash attack (at low percentages).

As far as I know, nothing is guarenteed. You have to chase them and go for a follow up

 

[ArikadoSD]

bjr is a very weird character. I got a couple questions:

Does the side B have invincibility frames/super armour?

How does getting the cart back when using up B off-stage work exactly? Sometimes I see bjr get it back after getting hit, sometimes I don't. So what makes it 'respawn' ?