Flatzone

Bowser

General gameplan

  • In neutral, Bowser will try to fight you in neutral with patience, good positioning and using up B oos as a zone bursting option. He will spend his time in neutral playing grounded bc he has access to quick grounded buttons like jab and ftilt.

  • He has very little ways to directly contest sh ff nair besides these options.

  • Bowser up B oos is a good zone disrupting tool and can be annoying if we mispace an aerial on his shield. But, he is open for a huge punish afterwards. At low percents we can get dash grab, nair or usmash as a combo starter and at higher percents we can get usmash/dsmash oos.

  • Bowser's disadvantage is horrible. Harass him as hard as you can with up air and try to push him to the corner for a ledgetrap/edgeguard.

  • Be weary of Bowser dair if you are at high percents, but this option loses to our up air.

  • Ledgetrap Bowser outside of roll distance. His getup attack is huge, and can catch poorly spaced chef setups.

  • You can bait him to getup attack by purposefully doing mispaced chef into dtilt oos. But, look out for dropdown side B.

  • Most bowsers will be looking for ledgejump nair into bair kill confirm as their escape option. Catch their jumps with nair or up air and keep the pressure going.

  • When bowser is offstage, he has decent mixups if he has his double jump. Use up B as an edgeguarding option to push him offstage if you have to.

Disadvantage

  • Disadvantage vs Bowser is tough, because of his ground speed. Retreat to the corner and avoid landing on spots where he can catch your landing with utilt or usmash.

  • He can use flame breath to catch your landings, but this works if he knows you like to land aggressively!

  • Getting off ledge vs Bowser is tough because he can react to every option besides jump with up B oos. Getting off the ledge with jump is your best option, then you slowly mix in other escape options.

  • When recovering, please do not overshoot up B as a recovery. He will punish you on the way down with usmash, utilt or up air.

  • When you are at KO percents, look out for Bowser side B. He will catch you with this when he knows you are scared and become shield heavy.

Bread and Butter kill confirm percents

  • Nair -> Dtilt kills at 114% at ledge

  • Nair -> Ftilt kills at 124% at ledge