Bowser Stage - Paper Castle
Based on the first Paper Mario where Peach’s Castle is on top of Bowser’s Castle, Paper Castle will have 8 different sections to it. 4 from Bowser’s Castle, and 4 from Peach’s Castle. Each section will feature a single Star Spirit working together with a single partner from the original Paper Mario to perform a unique action.
The Star Spirits and Partners are always in the background. So while there is technically a chance that the unique action will not be performed, the odds of it not occurring are low.
The stage will always start on 1 of 2 specific sections out of the total 8. One of them is right outside the door to Bowser’s Castle. The Star Spirit and Partner for this section are Kalmar and Goombario.
Kalmar will raise up a bunch of stars from the bottom of the screen every once in a while. They’re at a kind of inbetween with being easy to dodge and being hard to dodge, though they are a fairly weak attack.
Goombario vanishes whenever Kalmar does this, and that’s because one of the stars has a chance of poofing out to reveal Goombario. Who then proceeds to fall down in a headbonk attack which is slightly more powerful than the stars.
Whenever the stage transitions to a new section, it does so via the screen moving in from the right hand side. Exactly like it does in the intro cutscene of Paper Mario.
The 2nd section has no bottomless pits. Just a lava river.
Anyone who is familiar with the classic Metroid stages knows how this lava works. Though occasionally, flows of it will fall down from the top of the screen. Not as powerful as the lava eruptions in Norfair mind you. Same strength as the lava on the floor. Just harder to avoid.
Unless of course you get some help from Bow. She will fly in from the background when the lava fall is about to start. Make contact with her and you’ll become transparent (and still able to move and fight like normal). This makes you immune to the lava falls, but other players can still damage you like normal.
As for Muskular, he’ll sometimes freeze the lava. Cooling it down to a point of where you can walk on it. During which the stage becomes a walk-off.
Do keep in mind that this is cooled lava. Not Ice. So there’s no ice physics.
The next section is in the cave that you need to light up to be able to see what you’re doing. Hence why Watt is here.
Skolar will rain down his Star Storm attack. Which is stronger than Kalmar’s stars, but they don’t take up the whole stage.
They fall in a set pattern. Though there are a few patterns to be chosen from at random.
Also at random, Watt will electrify the stars. Making them a bit more powerful and of course giving them the electric effect.
In case you’re wondering, the spikes at the bottoms of the soft platforms are just for decoration. They don’t have a hurtbox.
The final Bowser’s Castle section is just a simple walk-off. The only notable thing that happens here is Kooper using his Dizzy Shell attack to dart across the screen. Which does stagger a fighter in addition to doing damage if it hits them. He’ll often Zigzag back and forth. But since he’s using Dizzy Shell he will eventually make himself Dizzy and proceed to return to the background.
Unless of course Eldstar uses Refresh to cure Kooper of his dizziness. He doesn’t always do this, but the chance that he will is always there so don’t let your guard down.
This is the other section the stage could start in. Right outside the door to Peach’s Castle instead of Bowser’s.
The unique action for this section is that Bombette will jump in from the background to walk around for a bit, then unleash a big explosion. But she will only do this after Misstar has empowered Bombette with healing abilities.
Meaning instead of doing damage, Bombette’s explosion heals anyone in its radius. By a notable amount too. Usually at about 15%.
Next up we have the hallway where Mario first fights Bowser in both the game's opening and in the final chapter. Despite being a hallway, there are holes at the sides of the floor. So this section is not a walk off.
Sushi will use her Squirt attack to shoot a blast of water at fighters. Sometimes Klevar will stop time for this water blast. Making it sit in the air for a bit before it resumes its path. Even when frozen in time it still has a hurtbox. So don’t make contact with it.
The staircases that come after Mario defeats Bowser with the Star Beam make up the next section. They do go all the way to the edges of the screen, but there are holes in the walls. So you don’t have to rely only on Star KO’s to knock someone out. Speaking of which, there is a hole in the ceiling as well.
Lakilester, oh sorry, Spike will produce clouds to travel along the ground and attach themselves to a fighter. You can shake them off by moving, jumping, and attacking, but if you leave them on too long you’ll fall asleep.
Mamar can use her Lullaby to make anyone a cloud is attached to fall asleep faster.
There may only be 7 Star Spirits, but Twink plays more than an important enough role to join the final partner for the final section.
As you can tell, it’s a pretty standard Final Destination type of section. And given the simplicity of this area, Twink and Parakarry keep their unique action simple by dashing and shell shooting to randomly chosen areas. Obviously this functions as an attack that hurts any fighter it hits. Damage and Knockback are substantial enough to where you should be careful if you’re at a really high percent.
This should pass for a Bowser's Castle stage right?
Songs:
King of the Koopas
Ghost Gulping
Huffin' and Puffin'
Hooktail Battle
Sensible as Dry Bowser is and tempting as Midbus was, I ultimately decided to make Wart the Bowser Echo. He's faster and lighter than Bowser and his Neutral B uses a Bubble Breath instead of a Fire Breath. The Bubbles rise up into the air after Wart breathes them out. Giving them a trickier hitbox.
Bowser Spirits:
Novice
Stage - Super Mario Maker
Song -
Rolling Hills A
Opponents - Tiny Bowser Team
Rules - Defeat an Army of Fighters
Advanced
Stage - Mushroom Kingdom 2
Song -
Boss Theme - Super Mario Bros. 2
Opponent - Bowser (Red Color)
Rules - Hostile Assist Trophies will appear. Bowser’s assist trophy specifically.
Advanced
Stage - Peach’s Castle
Song -
Rocket Road
Opponent - Bowser (Default Color)
Rules - Enemy Starts the Battle with a Bob-omb, the enemy will occasionally turn metal
- Bowser (Mario Golf Super Rush)
Advanced
Stage - Delfino Plaza
Song -
Mario Tennis/Mario Golf
Opponent - Bowser (Red Color)
Rules - Stamina Battle, the Enemy favors back specials
