The Low-Down on the Slow Down: A Discussion on Walking as Koopa King

[Corgian]

With Smash 4, many changes have occurred from previous renditions of the Smash universe. One of the more notable changes was to our character of choice, Bowser, whose mobility and speed changed more than any other character. He's now bigger, faster, and stronger too, he's the first member of the cast to be noticed by universally by the meta with the release of the game. That being said, I want to discuss a useful tool that I don't see that many Bowsers do that apparently helps in quite a few matchups, but slows down everything to a snail's pace.

Walking.

Now, I understand that while Bowser's walk speed is the fastest it has ever been, he has the 4th slowest walk in the game. This makes walking far more situational than for other characters such as Fox or Marth. That considered, since walking, unlike running, allows us to retain the use of all of our moves, I can definitely see it being helpful considering his big meaty tilts and smashes. I haven't experimented enough with walking with Bowser, but I want to hear what others think when it comes to strolling with the Bowz.

I've been thinking about this often ever since Nick Riddle told me about a month or two ago that a good way to deal with characters such as Samus and Link is to walk more. We lose quite a few frames by running into a perfect shield against projectiles, but is it enough to justify the overall loss of speed? For reference, while Bowser has the 4th slowest walk in the game, he has the 14th fastest run. That is a massive change in the speed of approach. Is it possible that we can use this to our advantage? What can be done with walking by Bowser that we can't do by running into shield and then doing an immediate action OoS?

 

[UltimaLuminaire]

The reason why Nick Riddle mentioned walking against projectile users is more because you can shield at anytime. If you run, you can't shield in the initial dash frames. Like you already said in the final paragraph: judge when it's safe enough to gap-close with a run, otherwise walk. That's all it really comes down to. It's never "only walk in this MU," or "only run in this MU."

 

[Corgian]

Makes sense. I figured I'd look for some more insight. Thank you as always, @ UltimaLuminaire !

 

[Zigsta]

The only time I ever walk is to intimidate opponents. Sometimes against projectile users I'll walk and jab their prohectiles to make them think their spammy tactics are useless against me. It can make some players rush in and make dumb mistakes.

Obviously this doesn't work against everyone, though.

 

[Duck SMASH!]

Most of the time I'm slowly plodding towards my opponents. Walking vastly improves my chances of successful powershields and scares most of my opponents (especially on FG) into doing something stupid and punishable.

Bowser is a huge target, and you must have patience when using him. If you make a mistake, you can't just duck under the punish like Kirby can. Chances are, your opponent will be able to use your mistake to start a deadly string or at least rack up a ton of %.
The extra few seconds it takes to walk to an opponent are worth not suffering and getting punished (then having to start over from neutral) by comparison.

 

[MrEh]

I walk a lot more in matchups when Jabs and anti-air Ftilts are more relevant.

 

[Cassius.]

If I have a good read on my opponent, whether it's from a tech situation or whatever, I'm going to dash. I have to seize the moment. If I really want to maintain positional advantage (ie if I have backed my opponent into a corner and am seeking to bait something out), I will use walking as opposed to a dash. It's very important that you stand your ground. If you are expecting something outlandish from your opponent, getting out of there by dashing back may be a better idea, but if you are in a good position, just stay put. You have nothing to be afraid of--you are in the advantageous position, and it is up to your opponent to commit to an action in order to escape that disadvantageous spot.

This has been known for a while, but out of a dash, you really only have access to your special moves, shield (after a few frames), dash attack, USmash, Pivot FSmash, the new addition of the pivot FTilt in this game, or jumping to really get anything going. With walking, you can access your shield immediately, and jab/tilts, which are good tools for controlling the space directly in front of us--immediately as well, which is similar to what Chad mentioned. Of course, Bowser's skid animation is basically non-existent, so going into a full dash instead of fox trotting does have its merits.

If you're in a tense situation where you need access to your shield to block some attacks successfully without giving up stage control (or if you want a little more of it!), you're going to want to just walk and shield. You may not have enough room/time to afford a dash into a shield. It does take a while.

The intimidation factor that Zigsta mentioned works really well against certain kinds of players. I generally tend to find that it works almost too well against low-level players who aren't fundamentally solid, or players who tend to be heavily invested (mentally and emotionally). Walking against characters that have access to projectiles (TJolt, Boomerangs, Fireballs, etc) is really good, and is actually a key factor in gaining the upper hand in neutral in those match ups. As I mentioned before in the MU thread, you have to walk more in those MUs. The advantages you get from perfect shielding a projectile or attack, which all of you should be good at by now, are great. Probably almost as good as a neutral jump over a whiff/jump-in in other fighting games. Almost.

Smash is a variable game anyway, you can't judge or list every single situation where walking will be better than dashing. You will need to assess a lot of other things like stage positioning, % leads etc. it sucks that it's never a simple answer and all we can give is general ideas, but you really should never be hesitant in slowing your game down.

 

[UltimaLuminaire]

To add to Cassius' last line, if you have the stock lead, you really have no reason to rush and every reason to slow your game down. In many MUs, our opponents want us to approach, but suddenly, with a stock advantage, the tables have turned and you can legitimately threaten your opponent with a time-out in order to make them approach, projectile or no. This kind of mental warfare is incredibly effective against most players and can lead to interesting openings you normally wouldn't get if you had kept playing like it was your last stock.

 

[Godzillionaire]

The only time I ever walk is to intimidate opponents. Sometimes against projectile users I'll walk and jab their prohectiles to make them think their spammy tactics are useless against me. It can make some players rush in and make dumb mistakes.

Obviously this doesn't work against everyone, though.

I do this so much too. It feels awesome slowly walking towards the opponent and waiting for them to make their move, or sometimes they're afraid to let their guard down and end up making some huge misplays. Man it feels so awesome to be a horror film monster!

 

[Big-Cat]

Walking is great with Bowser. I like playing slow and hard.

 

[pitfall356]

Of course, Bowser's skid animation is basically non-existent, so going into a full dash instead of fox trotting does have its merits.

This is why I question walking. Seems like it's more of a mind game thing, really, since basically all of our attacks can come out quickly after a dash.

 

[Big-Cat]

There is a very brief period where you can DA at the end of the skid.

 

[trombonophone99]

I actually still like trotting as Bowser. You can never have too many movement options.

 

[Jerodak]

This is why I question walking. Seems like it's more of a mind game thing, really, since basically all of our attacks can come out quickly after a dash.

Walking is still much lower commitment than running because it's basically the same as standing except you're moving forward, there's no delay for when you can shield or access your standing options. Bowser's run is probably the safest run in the game, but it's still a commitment. Neither option is outright better than the other, there are appropriate times in every match to use either one, it's just important to recognize those moments.

I actually still like trotting as Bowser. You can never have too many movement options.

As far as movement options are concerned, Bowser's turning animation might to be somewhat useful as well, it turns out that if you hold forward for a bit after turning then return the stick to neutral, you end the turning animation early. This can probably be used for some mind games, movement mix-ups, and micro-spacing.

 

[trombonophone99]

As far as movement options are concerned, Bowser's turning animation might to be somewhat useful as well, it turns out that if you hold forward for a bit after turning then return the stick to neutral, you end the turning animation early. This can probably be used for some mind games, movement mix-ups, and micro-spacing.

I'm fairly certain every character can end their turning animation like that. It's an option, but it's also a little risky because you're left vulnerable during that entire turning animation, and even more vulnerable if you dash out of it.

To elaborate on the trotting, I've noticed that Bowser can do a lot more trots per minute in comparison to the rest of the cast. Like, you can get crazy if you start dance trotting like that. Maybe I'll make a lil video if I get the chance. Anyway, that's why I like using that for mind games over the turn-cancel.

 

[Jerodak]

I'm fairly certain every character can end their turning animation like that. It's an option, but it's also a little risky because you're left vulnerable during that entire turning animation, and even more vulnerable if you dash out of it.

To elaborate on the trotting, I've noticed that Bowser can do a lot more trots per minute in comparison to the rest of the cast. Like, you can get crazy if you start dance trotting like that. Maybe I'll make a lil video if I get the chance. Anyway, that's why I like using that for mind games over the turn-cancel.

Yeah, it's true, every character can, I didn't mean to imply that it was Bowser-specific. As far as fox-trotting, do you actually mean run-stopping? Where you use Bowser's skid animation to stop running before doing something else? If so, that is in fact a valuable technique. However, the use of turning would be applied in tandem for your movement mix-up. The idea would be to maybe do a few run-stops normally then occasionally throw in a turn to throw the opponent off your rhythm or to bait something out for a punish, also since you can start turning sooner than you can do a skid, it could also be useful for stopping short mid-dance when you think someone will try to catch you with something. You could also use turning by itself in a few ways since it can be used as a relatively quick and easy way to brake very early out of a run, such as when trying to chase someone who is attempting to land and keeping up with changes in direction a bit easier, maintaining an ideal spacing, ect. It's admittedly not the outright best option for movement or anything, but it is an option, and I do believe it has it's niche.

 

[trombonophone99]

@ J Jerodak It might be run-stopping, but I don't return the stick to neutral. What I'll do is I'll be running, then hit forward like I'm doing a dash but quickly hit the stick in the opposite direction, which maintains a dash in the opposite direction without turning. It's like when you do a dash dance except you just use those two inputs to suddenly change the direction of your dash. Same function as run stopping but i think it's a little faster. I find this also useful for doing pivot fsmashes, on the rare occasion i need to use one.

And you're right I need to heed my own advice when I say you can never have too many movement options. Lol.

 

[Jerodak]

I think I know what you mean, you're talking about doing an initial dash then canceling that into a second dash right? I played a Mac player named J.A.P.A.N who was pretty good at doing those.

 

[trombonophone99]

Yeah, and when you do it consecutively--as in back to back, no running in between, just the dash animation--I think it's called a dance trot.

 

[trombonophone99]

I was testing it out a little, I don't think my method is faster than returning the stick to neutral to run-stop. Which is kinda a good thing, because it's a little easier.

 

[EarthenPillar]

Two words: Micro Spacing

 

[Karsticles]

The only time I ever walk is to intimidate opponents. Sometimes against projectile users I'll walk and jab their prohectiles to make them think their spammy tactics are useless against me. It can make some players rush in and make dumb mistakes.

Obviously this doesn't work against everyone, though.

Also, some people will develop an attitude of "Oh, he jabbed the projectile? Let's see how consistent he is about that." Then they will spam their projectile over and over while we jab it. If you let it go for a good 5-10 seconds, your opponent sometimes gets tunnel vision and just mashes B. This can be a great moment to jump in and use Fire Breath or Dash Slash. That is, while they are repeating a mindless activity, we are thoughtfully timing ourselves for the jabs - we are gearing our minds up, while they are slowing theirs down. Similar to APS in RTS games.