Bowser (Super Smash Flash 2)

Bowser is a veteran starter character in Super Smash Flash 2. He was originally shown during the initial planning phases of the game, going through several different design iterations before finally resurging after being revealed at the end of the second McLeodGaming Direct. His sprites are custom-made and based on his appearance in  and his moveset is taken from the same game and he once again retains his realistic-monstrous roar voice clips from the same game. His color and dash animation, however are taken from.

Bowser is ranked 35th on the current tier list, placing him in the C tier. Bowser's moves have great range and strength, with all of his moves either dealing large amounts of damage, KOing his opponents early or generally putting his opponents in a disadvantageous position, most notably his up special Whirling Fortress, which can easily break shields. Bowser also possesses an incredibly strong grab game: he possesses a combo throw in the form of his up throw and his forward throw, which can KO opponents at high percents. His down throw can situationally chain grab and lead into damaging follow-ups and his back throw can be used to position foes offstage and set up for an edgeguard. In addition to this, he possesses Flying Slam - a powerful command grab which can be used to equalize stocks via a sacrificial KO, and a hitbox which can set up for good combos. Finally, Bowser has extremely powerful edgeguarding tools, with his forward air, back air and Fire Breath being especially powerful for edgeguarding and Bowser Bomb being able to powerfully punish opponents who do not sweetspot the ledge.

Bowser has a mediocre frame data, which gives him a poor attack as his grab range is short and Fire Breath is not a reliable projectile, with a niche use of making opponents jump in neutral and the aforementioned mobility techniques. Furthermore, his disadvantage state is terrible - his combo breakers are not particularly reliable, and his landing options are generally poor, leaving him vulnerable to characters with good juggling ability. Adding to that, his status as a heavyweight makes him easy combo fodder. Finally, his offstage game is one of the worst, as his only reliable recovery, Whirling Fortress, does not gain much vertical distance, and does not guard break very easily, meaning Bowser is very easily gimped.

While Bowser does have certain top players who use him, such as Gax and Miracle--7, Bowser's representation is not particularly spectacular due to the nerfs in patch 1.0.3 and the advent of being a much more powerful character in the metagame. Bowser's representation mostly revolves around him being used as a counterpick character for specific matchups.

Attributes
Bowser is a heavyweight whose main attributes are his fairly slow running and dashing speeds and his moves' enormous strength.

Most of the attacks in Bowser's moveset deal large amounts of damage individually, allowing him to quickly rack up damage to prepare his victims for a finisher, such as his forward smash. His moveset also grants him good anti-air options, mainly courtesy of his up tilt and up smash, which cover a large portion of his upper body and allows him to deny aerial approaches.

His grab game is also incredibly prominent. His up throw is an excelent combo throw that almost always can lead into a down aerial, and then into a re-grab, if the Bowser player manages to read the opponent's DI. His other throws are nowhere near as notable, although his back throw allows him to position his opponents offstage, setting them up for edgeguarding.

This leads into his powerful edgeguarding game, courtesy of his aerials. Excluding his back aerial, all of them have moderately fast startup for their power, and allow Bowser to easily KO fighters during an edgeguard. His up aerial is extremely strong, and can kill at moderately low percentages regardless of proximity to the lateral blast lines, due to its vertical knockback.

His special moves are also fairly useful; his neutral special move: Fire Breath, possesses a decently large hitbox and homes in on opponents slightly, a quality invaluable to his edguarding game. His side special move, Flying Slam, is extremely disjointed and has a great range, while also being a command grab, allowing him to bypass shields and use the move as a KO option, or, if Bowser is near a ledge, as a sacrificial KO. Whirling Fortress, his up special move, is a very potent out-of-shield option due to its quick startup. Additionally, it deals multiple hits, allowing Bowser to pressure shields easily. He can also move left or right during the move. Lastly, his down special, Bowser Bomb, functions as an incredible KO option and a useful edgeguarding option against careless recoveries.

Bowser also has decent mobility options despite his otherwise weak mobility stats. For instance, using Fire Breath while moving backward, such as from a reverse aerial rush, gives him high backward momentum. This technique, known within the community as Fireboosting, allows him to move quickly across stages for approaching or edgehogging. The move's ending lag can also be canceled when pushed off of a platform, which can be used for ledgestalling techniques or simply to make the projectile more reliable. He also has access to a technique known as slide-off instant landing (SOIL), in which holding the opposite direction before running off of a platform allows him to quickly perform an aerial attack before returning to the stage.

However, Bowser possesses multiple major flaws, including his overall mobility. Despite his various mobility techniques, Bowser suffers from having fairly slow running and dashing speeds, along with the overall slowest walking speed and air speed in the game. Coupled with his large frame and decently high gravity, Bowser is only sub-par when approaching, almost necessitating his relatively precise movement techniques. He is also heavily susceptible to combos and chaingrabs, and his main combo-breaking moves are not very reliable when up against a fighter with good combo ability, such as Sora.

Bowser's special moves, while being extremely useful to Bowser, have multiple flaws as well. Fire Breath is rather predictable despite its speed, allowing opponents to easily avoid, reflect, or absorb it, and thus deny Bowser's only long-ranged tool. Despite Flying Slam being a command grab, it has an extremely low amount of active frames. Additionally, despite Whirling Fortress having a fast startup, it also suffers moderate ending lag, much like the rest of Bowser's moves. Lastly, Bowser Bomb is very predictable, allowing opponents to easily avoid it. Bowser's offstage survivablity is quite terrible, too, as his low jumps and the relative lack of vertical distance Whirling Fortress provides do not give him much vertical recovery, leaving him open to gimps.

Overall, Bowser is a heavyweight character with respectable power. However, his susceptibility to combos and low speed greatly hinder his ability to become a formidable fighter.

Tier placement history
Bowser has been ranked 18 of B+ on the first Beta tier list due to taking down stocks easy from his brute strength, combo throw, and a decent kit. However, in 1.0.3.2, Bowser has been significantly dropped, due to his matchups being less powerful, and some nerfs like his running speed. In the current tier list, Bowser is ranked as 26 of B-.

Trivia

 * Steven stated that Bowser,, and were his hardest character projects and that Bowser is his proudest accomplishment.
 * In v0.9a and v0.9b, there exists several files relating to Bowser. He has an unused announcer's call, two different variations of a character select portrait (one in the pre-v0.9 style), palette data, and is referenced numerous times in the character code. This is shared with.