R.O.B. Matchup Analysis #35 - Bowser

[GwJ]

 

[Ze Diglett]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe a fully charged (or near-fully charged) launched Gyro breaks through Bowser's Flame Breath? I remember it happening in a match I had against the Bowz. If that's true, that means that both of our projectiles can bypass Bowser's only anti-zoning tool, which def helps us a lot.
Other than that, this MU isn't too complicated. Obviously, Bowz has lots of trouble with getting zoned out in general, not to mention Beep Boop works wonders at KO%. For the most part, our aerials either outspeed or flat-out beat Bowz's entire aerial kit, not to mention his air speed is pretty low, so we win in the air. So yeah, we definitely win by a large margin, probably 60:40 or 65:35 more or less.

 

[FalconXD]

ROB has a pretty good advantage against Bowser. The fully-charged gyro stops his flame breath and that along with our lasers can keep Bowser away and force him to approach. The only thing ROB needs to watch out when fighting Bowser is when Bowser is in close proximity since if Bowser gets a good hit on ROB it's going to hurt. That being said Bowser's hurtbox is around the same size as ROB's if not bigger. Also Bowser has a blind spot if he jumps (right below him) where he can only use down-b / dair (both slow and predictable attacks) or a mediocore nair. If ROB can get Bowser's blind spot he can beep boop him and pretty much combo him, plus while i'm not sure I think ROB does better than Bowser in the air. The best strategy imo for this fight is to zone / pressure Bowser until he approaches and then attack him accordingly. Just don't let him attack you while you're close and you should be alright.

This is definitely a favorable MU for ROB and I would say it's about 65:35.

 

[Gotmilk0112]

Yeah, in general I find 9/10 Bowsers in FG to be an easy win. Big hurtbox means easy hits with gyro and lasers, and very susceptible to Beep Bops due to his downward aerials being really slow and predictable.

 

[Jams.]

Probably around 65:35. We zone him pretty hard in neutral and can juggle him forever, like most characters.
Some notes about this matchup that hasn't been said already:

• Bowser is one of the characters that cannot escape the gyro ledge set-up with any of his get-up options (he gets hit by gyro after ledge dropping). His only options are to wait out the gyro hitbox, which is not possible at higher percents, or to tech the stage spike after getting hit by reverse gyro, which is pretty difficult. If he's on the ledge, it's pretty easy to trap him there.
  
• Bowser's upb is awful at sweetspotting the ledge. If he has burned his double jump and needs to upb, he can be consistently spiked out of it by dair.
• Be careful when juggling him. It's pretty easy, but getting hit by dair or downb kind of sucks. Don't let the stall from those moves bait you, and put yourself in a position where you can double jump uair and hit him even if he uses either of those options. It's also pretty easy to bait out airdodge, since Bowser's landing options are awful. Uair can occasionally beat Bowser's downb or dair, but I wouldn't risk it.
• Bowser doesn't really have tools to cover a low recovery, except flame breath, which can be stalled out unless you're super low on fuel. If he comes out for whatever reason, just uair him.
• His run is actually pretty fast. Be careful of powershield to dash grab and don't just throw out stuff in mid range and expect to get away scot-free, like with Ganondorf or something.
• For stages, I would ban Castle Siege if it's playable since I find it very difficult maintaining stage control there. Anything is fine for your stages, though I like BF and Dreamland because Bowser has extreme difficulties returning to neutral on those stages.
• If you're feeling stylish, Bowser's a great target for low percent uthrow->footstool->dair resets and fancy gyro combos.