Smash Advent Calendar - Day 4 - Bowser

Day 4 looks at Bowser in his third appearance in the series. Mario's nemesis, archenemy and tennis partner, this dinosaur turtle has always been a wrecking ball, with heavy damage and incredible launch power at the expense of speed and mobility.

He's changed a lot in each version of the game, and even more radically so in his 3DS/Wii U appearance. For starters, his stance is very different: he stands tall upright on his legs in a very humanoid way, a major change from his beast-like posture in previous games. This also affects his run, again, looking like a humanoid run instead of... well, vibrating across the arena as he did before. Never understood that one. He also seems to have recieved a ton of new standard attacks - his dash has become a flying kick that looks meaty and fast whilst his forward smash looks to have become a devastating drop kick. This gives Bowser a heavyweight wrestler kind of vibe which, combined with his more cartoony appearance, is certainly a very exciting and character building sort of change. It certainly goes with his wrestling slam Side+B, which he is confirmed to have kept. Players better still be wary of suicide dives, then!

It's no secret that Bowser has been ridiculously low on every tier list. Even as a 12 years old playing Melee casually, I just knew that Bowser didn't feel up to scratch and that his movement and attack speed made him almost completely nonviable against beasts like Fox and Falco. Brawl was a step in the right direction, giving him some tools to get by with like his now famous Side+B grab and slightly increasing his range and speed. Still, it was only enough to climb a couple of steps on the chaotic tier stairway of Smash Bros.

However, now is the time for change. Aesthetic differences aside, Bowser looks to be a very dangerous player in the new Smash Bros. with gameplay demonstrating that he is now significantly faster at running and attacking. This alone will make Bowser playable - but there's more. Close inspection of clips shows that Bowser has also been given an uppercut before his stomp in his grounded Down+B attack, allowing players to surprise enemies on the way up and even potentially combo them on the way down. Whilst this technically existed in Brawl, the uppercut hitbox was fairly small, so it wasn't a great attack overall. Combine these new characteristics with already awesome attributes like his fire breath which gives him a decent midrange game and we're talking about a potential new star of Smash Bros., or at least not a bottom player. Dedede paved the way for competitive heavy characters, can Bowser do the same?

Did you ever play Bowser? Did you ever use him for the challenge? Or did you main him against all odds? Leave a comment about Bowser and his changes below or over on the facebook page here.