Death Battle Analysis: Bowser

2 YEARS AGO

“All members of the Koopa Troop rise and salute the flag.”

“This is what I’ve been training for.”

*Vacant stare*

“Today you peons will get the honor of seeing a wonderful analysis on on the skills and abilities of his Evilness by esteemed g1s Lousy and Ultraguy. Make sure you pay attention, because there will be a quiz at the end of the presentation.”

“God I wish I didn’t wear this hat, now I really stand out.”

 

In case you were wondering...

We’re not including anything found in Mario Party 2, since it was explicitly shown and stated to just be a play with the characters (Bowser included) more or less ending with a cast line up in front of a crowd. In other words the whole game wasn’t real in the context of the series. Though many argue the Mario series in its entirety is a play, but that’s speculation, whereas we know this with Mario Party 2, so we can’t take anything that happened in it seriously.

We’ll be including some of Bowser’s equipment from his appearance in the game Super Mario RPG, but will not be including any of his equipment from Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story. This is because Bower’s arsenal in Super Mario RPG is significant more streamlined, and filled with clear-cut best weapons/armor/accessories while his arsenal in Bowser’s Inside Story is not. Because of this we can confidently pick and choose equipment from that game without getting into the whole customization issue that tends to come up in with RPG centric games.

Bowser won't be getting powers/abilities associated with pieces of equipment he’s stolen (like the Star Rod, Dream Stone, Royal Sticker, and Vibe Scepter), or powers/abilities that had been granted to him by an outside party, like his absorption/team up with antasma as a boss in Mario & Luigi: Dream Team.

A few of the special abilities and attacks we listed for Bowser involve instances of pseudo summoning, in a manner fairly similar to Peach and her sleepy time sheep in Zelda vs Peach (I.E. Bowser summons a single enemy that doesn’t do much outside one attack/action, then disappears). We’re not entirely sure how  Death Battle will choose to interpret such attacks if they pick up Bowser for an actual battle, but for the sake of being thorough we listed them anyway.

We won't be including any information from the long running Mario manga Super Mario Kun, due to the lack of scans and English translations available in the united states.

Background

Did somebody page the king of awesome?

Age: Probably late 20's or early 30's seeing as he was toddler when Mario and Luigi were both babies, and they’re around 26 years old.

Height: Bowser’s height varies wildly from game to game, but according to the size reference chartfor the Super Mario Bros. series his average is around 10 feet tall (Mario is normally 5’5). It’s not uncommon for him to push over 15 feet in individual games though.

Bowser is the king of the Koopa kingdom and one of the legendary 7 Star Children, people within the Mario universe who are imbued with an unusual amount of power. His personality is that of a power hungry affably evil manchild, and his ambitions often lead him to use his personal army, the Koopa Troop, for the purpose of conquering nearby kingdoms, countries, and on occasion entire universes. He has a particular obsession with a neighboring kingdom, the Mushroom Kingdom and loves to kidnap its ruler, Princess Peach, due to a crush of sorts on her. Unfortunately for him all of his world conquering and princess capturing escapades tend to get foiled by his arch nemeses, Mario and Luigi, the local heroes of the Mushroom Kingdom.

When not being evil Bowser tends to spend the majority of his time performing leisurely activities with his family, the heir to the Koopa Kingdom Bowser Jr. (whose mother is unknown), his childhood caretaker Kamek, and some high ranking Koopa Troop members called, the Koopalings. Some favorite activities include golfing, basketball, tennis, hockey and go karting…Often he does these activities alongside Mario and his friends for whatever reason. Bowser also shows himself to have a close relationship with most of his army,getting them to follow him often through sheer respect (albeit with a bit of fear sprinkled on), and sometimes fulfilling the “Father to His Men” trope.

Armor

Standard Shell

A large turtle like shell worn on Bowser’s back that he can tuck into to protect himself from physical strikes, fire, and ice based attacks. It’s tough enough to negate the striking force of falling oversized Thwomps of equal or greater height to his own (the Sniffle Thwomp being one example), that likely weigh upwards of 15 to 20 tons. While tucked into his shell Bowser can also move/spin horizontally along the ground to bash into opponents. He can also jump while moving horizontally in his shell if he desires.The shell has large sharp spikes covering it’s surface, which can impale opponents that try striking his shell or jumping on his shell when he is tucked into it.

Bowser can also remove his shell from his body and replace it with a stronger more durable shell if he desires, though he typically only does so in the RPGs.

Heal Shell

An alternate more durable turtle shell that Bowser can wear as a replacement shell for his standard shell in Mario RPG. It has the same standard properties as Bowser’s normal shell, but increases his resistance to physical and magic attacks by 15% and 13% respectively (this increase being presumed based on the ratio of Bowser's max stats in Mario RPG without armor compared to his max stats with the heal shell armor equipped).

Safety Ring

A protective charm Bowser could use in Super Mario RPG that gives him a variety of defensive and supportive upgrades. It prevents status effects like poison, silence (an ailment that prevents usage of special abilities), sleep, and fear (cuts offense/defense) from taking a hold of him. It also gives him limited immunity to forced transmutation, specifically the forced physical transformations of being made a mushroom or scarecrow by some enemies in Super Mario RPG. It also prevents death from “instant death” attacks, attacks that normally ignore a character's defense, and kill them regardless of their current state. For example the Harry Potter series’ Death Curse could probably be blocked by it.

Additionally it also completely nullifies damage from most minor, moderate, and highly damaging elemental attacks, including fire based attacks, electricity based attacks, and ice based attacks.Yoshi

 Safari Armor

Basically Bowser’s own impression of Iron Man.

A large piece of body armor used by Bowser during the final boss battle of Yoshi’s Safari. The metal it is made out of is unknown, but it’s durable enough withstand shots from Mario’s Super Scope (basically an energy gun). Both arms and eyes of the armor contain built in cannons that can shoot large green cannonball like projectiles at opponents. The stomach of the armor also contains a hatch that can open to reveal a 5th cannon.

Despite having decent offensive and defensive properties, it has a few major weakness however. Shooting directly into the cannons on the arms and middle body with a powerful projectile attack can disable them and cause internal damage to the armor that can cause it to explode.

Weapons

Hurley Gloves

A pair of brown throwing gloves Bowser uses to amplify his throwing strength in Mario RPG. They increase Bowser's max physical attack stat in that game by 10%.

Spiked Link

A studded ball and chain weapon with retractable spikes used by Bowser in Mario RPG. The weapon is utilized by swinging it around Bowser’s body and throwing it at the opponent. It increases Bowser’s max physical attack stat in that game by 15%.

Drill Claw

A glove like metal claw attachment used by Bowser for more powerful slashing attacks in Mario RPG. They increase Bowser’s max physical attack stat in that game by 20%.

Metal Bat

That can’t be a regulation bat

A large metal baseball bat with protruding metal spikes that Bowser used in Momotar? the 1st episode of the Amada Mario Bros anime series and later several of the Mario Sports games. It’s mainly used for swinging at opponents, although it logically could be used to hit any projectiles/small objects Bowser may have on his person at opponents, or to redirect projectiles directed at him in another direction. Such as when he deflected a bullet bill in Mario Super Sluggers.

Throwing Hammers

Metal hammers Bowser can chuck at his opponents as projectile attack. Bowser typically throws them in an arch like fashion and can get 6 hammers into the air simultaneously. They tend to vary in size with the smallest being around the size of small tomahawks and the largest being as large as full grown human beings.

Handheld Hammer

A large handheld hammer Bowser used as a child in Partners in Time. Bowser could use it to hit opponents, to smack solid objects towards opponents or to redirect solid projectiles at his opponents. It’s unknown if Bowser still kept the hammer as an adult, or if the hammer became too small for his adult body to wield effectively, but nothing specifically suggests either, so it could still be considered for a DEATH BATTLE.

Soccer Ball Bombs

Exploding white soccer balls that Bowser can roll at enemies like bowling balls in Super Mario 3D World (though logically he should also be able to throw them at opponents too if he wants). They detonate based on a timer that activates shortly after being thrown and will change from a white coloring to a red coloring when the timer is about to expire. Bombs that have begun blinking red will explode instantly upon touching an enemy, but bombs that are white still can still be picked up or kicked safely by opponents. Though said kick will instantly make them blink red.

Bowser has two variants of these bombs. Ones with long timers that stay white for several seconds after being throw, and ones with short timers that turn red immediately after leaving his hands. 1 bomb alone can destroy walls of solid brick and about 9 of them have enough power to completely destroy Bowser’s over-sized pimpmobile.

Spiked Balls

Large spiked balls slightly larger than that of a human that Bowser could throw as a projectile attack in Mario 3D Land and Mario Party 6. These spiked balls fall to the ground almost immediately after being tossed, but continue to roll along the ground until they hit a solid object and can damage any opponent they touch. Bowser has two sizes of spiked balls. Small spiked balls that fit in the palm of his hands, and giant two handed spiked balls around the size of his own body.

Barrels

Giant wooden barrels slightly bigger than Bowser himself, that he could summon and throw at opponents as a projectile attack in Mario 3D Land. They fall to the ground shortly after being thrown and can roll along the ground to hit opponents until they are stopped by a solid object.

Koopa Shells

Green turtle shells Bowser could throw at Mario during the final boss fight of Yoshi’s Safari. These koopa shells are around 1-2 feet long and can slide along the ground and bounce off solid objects along the ground to smash into opponents.

Bowser Shells

Larger turtle shells modeled after Bowser’s own shell that he and his son could use as their racer exclusive item in Mario Kart Double Dash. These shells starts off small enough to hold in one hand, but enlarge when thrown to form a spiked shell roughly 12 feet in diameter that slides along the ground and collides with opponents for physical damage. They break apart after bouncing into a solid object 15 times.

Flame Boomerangs

Pyrokinetic boomerangs Bowser could throw at his opponents during the final boss fight in Mario Party 4. These boomerangs generally encircled the immediate areas once, before flying off in random directions.

Killer Ball/Bullet Bill

In Mario Super Sluggers, Bowser could summon a single bullet bill to throw at his opponents as a special move. He could also somehow transform baseballs into bullet bills temporarily when hitting them with his bat.

Magic wands/scepters

Bowser has used several different magic wands/scepters in the American made Super Mario Bros. cartoons. They all tend to have individual effects and applications, but collectively they’ve been able to create lightning bolts that turn objects/opponents into square blocks, turn people into giant ninjas and into dogs/animals. They can also be used to communicate with other wand/scepter users over long distances(in a manner similar to a TV phone).

Magic Spell Book

I know this is a blog about Bowser but that comment about peach is kinda weird for the Mario franchise.

In the White Knuckle Scoring comic it was revealed that Bowser had a magic book filled with spells that could be recited by pretty much anyone to cause various effects, such as teleportation and illusion creation. Bower’s understanding of the book is implied to be limited however, though he clearly can use it to some extent.

Minimizer

A magic staff that shrinks opponents and was used by Bowser in Mario Party 3DS.The effects of the shrinking can be undone if the minimizer staff is broken. Technically this staff was broken at the end of that game however, so whether or not it would be considered for a death battle is questionable.

Special Abilities

Fire breath

Bowser's most iconic ability is arguably his ability to breathe fire from his mouth in a manner resembling dragon. Most Mario games display Bowser using his fire breath in 2 distinct ways. The first being by breathing out large streams of fire in a manner resembling a flamethrower and the second way being by breathing out single fireballs that travel in a straight trajectory unaffected by gravity. The flamethrower-style fire can be charged for a few seconds to increase its intensity. It also typically spreads the farther it gets away from Bowser, though he can keep the stream more focused/narrow if he wants.

It’s maximum total range in any (notable) game is about 3-4x Bowser’s body length (so around 30 to 40 feet) and about 3x his width in Bowser’s Inside Story. It can generally be breathed out continuously without stopping in most games, but it tends to get weaker and cover less distance the longer it is done. The fire ball breath can vary in size, ranging from slightly smaller than Mario, to the same size as Mario or slightly smaller than Bowser himself. It will also normally dissipate if it hits a solid, none flammable object, though this is not always the case. On top of these two most used methods of using fire, Bowser's has also developed many different variants and alternate ways to use his fire breath.

Super Mario 3D Land let him breathe more powerful giant white fire-balls around the size of his own body that could pierce through multiple layers of fragile stone material. They also traveled in a single direction unaffected by gravity. In New Super Mario Bros. U he could breathe his normal fireballs straight up into the air and make them rain back down on the opponents in the immediate area like a meteor shower. In Super Princess Peach he could breathe small balls of fire that would erupt into tall pillars of flame slightly taller than himself after hitting the ground. He could also spit out a large, Kamehameha-esque beams of fire across the entire battle field in that game as well.

Then there’s Mario Sports Mix that let him produce a ball of flame that erupted into a larger, bomb like explosion upon making contact with a solid object. He could create balls of fire that would devolve into small circular pools of lava (around the diameter of 6-10 feet) whenever they hit a solid object in Super Mario 3D World, something that made it more difficult for his opponents to traverse the environment.

Finally, we have Super Mario 64 where he could shoot small balls of fire that would home in on opponents for several seconds before extinguishing. Exhale large clusters fireballs that would scatter, fall to the ground and then persist on the battlefield for a few seconds to limit enemy movement before extinguishing. Then finally breath blue balls of flame that would scatter, fall to the ground, and split into 3 bouncing balls of fire as well.

Additionally when it comes to heat/effectiveness of his fire based attacks, Bowser has been shown to be able to easily burn through full grown trees in seconds in the RPGs, and to even burn through stone in the Mario Peach Hime OVA. This should put the temperature of the flame at least at over 2000 fahrenheit if you draw comparisons to Charizard’s ability to melt stone in the Pokemon royal DEATH BATTLE.

*Huff* *Huff* We’re almost done talking about his fire breath, we promise! Finally Bowser can also use his fire breath underwater (somehow), and can cause a “burn” status effects in some games (mostly RPGs), which causes opponents to take damage periodically, and be unable to move/defend themselves.

Meteorite breath

Okay, we’re not quite done because Bowser could breathe large fiery meteorites out of his mouth in Super Mario Galaxy too! These that had enough power to destroy stone platforms.

Inhale

After eating the “Vacuum Mushroom”, Bowser gained the ability to violently inhale things into his mouth, Kirby-style. The move is a great way to pull opponents to his position or to disarm them of objects they may be holding. Objects or opponents that approach Bowser’s mouth when he is inhaling usually shrink...Somehow, allowing Bowser to devour a wide variety structures both small and large. It is important to note however that opponents devoured by Bowser are not killed instantly, and can often force Bowser to regurgitate them, and return them to normal size, after persisting or causing enough trouble in his stomach. The inhale ability can draw objects larger than Bowser himself to his position and covers around the same size and distance as his flame throwerish fire breath.

Super Smash Bros & Close Quarters Moves

Bowser isn’t all weapons and fire. He has plenty of close-quarters moves that utilize his shell, claws, and other body parts at his disposal.

There’s the Whirling Fortress, a rapid spinning move were Bowser will withdraw into his shell and quickly spin around to either gain altitude, quickly cover short distances of space,change directions quickly, reflect minor projectiles or attack opponents. The move moves much faster than Bowser’s normal ground or air movements in his shell, but only lasts a few seconds. The inertia from the spinning can also be used to increase the strength of melee weapon strikes.

The Bowser Bomb, an attack where Bowser jumps into the air and performs a downward butt-slam on anything underneath him. The attack has enough strength to break through solid brick in Super Mario Bros 3.

The Koopa Claw attack were Bowser will grab opponents and gnaw and slash at him with his fangs and claws. In the Paper Mario series Bowser was also able to infuse his claws and fangs with a toxic aura, allowing him to poisons opponents upon contact with said claw and fang attacks. When poisoned these opponents will periodically take damage for a short periods of time.

The body slam, Bowser’s own pro-wrestling move is exactly what it sounds like. He grabs an opponent before jumping into the air with them and body slamming them back into the ground.

The punch and sliding punch, a powerful winded up standing punch and a more powerful forward moving punch that has enough inertia to stay airborne for a few seconds respectively. Both moves can shatter stones larger than Bowser himself.

A forward dashing attack ripped off from the Wario Land series with enough speed and power to crash through brick and solid stone statues.

Finally the spin attack, a move where Bowser will outstretch his arms, infuse them with some sort of dark energy and spin around while standing for a physical strike.

Mario RPG Moves

Bowser had 4 special attacks available to him in the game Super Mario RPG. Some of them are questionably summoning moves however, as they involve bringing arguably sentient beings onto the battlefield to perform limited action. That being said given the fact that Peach could still summon her sleepy time sheep in her fight, and that those sheep probably perform actions similar to and as complex as Bowser’s pseudo summons, there is a possibility DEATH BATTLE would allow Bowser to have them in a fight anyway.

First up on our list is Terrorize, were Bowser will momentarily summon a giant boo (basically a ghost), that instills the fear status ailment in his opponents (which cuts their attack and defense in half).

Poison Gas is another poison based move Bowser has that creates a big cloud monster thing called a Mokura that emits green gas in the immediate area and poisons foes.

Crusher, a Geokinetic attack where Bowser will summon a spire of rock from under an opponent and impales them.

Finally there’s Bowser Crush, where Bowser will summon a giant green mech-koopa toy that stomps on nearby opponents before disappearing shortly after.

Sports games abilities

Bowser’s developed several different special moves for use during the various sports games. While generally these moves are not meant for combat, they logically could be applied to it.

There’s Bowser’s Breath Swing, a Power Shot where he sets a tennis ball on fire, then sends it back towards his opponents with his racket as a fiery projectiles. Logically he should be able to do the same with any flammable projectile with his bat as a substitute for the racket.

In Mario Hoops 3 on 3 and Mario Mix Bowser could turn a sports ball into a red sphere of fire energy around it with the Bomber Dunk. The resulting projectile would then travel faster when thrown and could damage/stun enemies it made contact with. Sadly it is nowhere near as powerful as the Chaos Dunk.

And then there is the Mega Strike, a powerful striking attack Bowser used to get a goal in Mario Strikers Charged.

Spike Ball Shell Attack

Bowser can somehow create another shell to place across the under and over side of his body turning him into a rolling spiked ball of death. It’s basically a better version of his Boulder Attack. While in this form he gains the defensive strength of his shell on all sides and can easily bash into opponents for physical strikes. He can also climb up walls with this move, as long as the wall in question is not too hard for his spikes to protrude it.

Boulder Attack

Another Geokenetic move at Bowser’s disposal that covers the top of his body in rock turning him into a human-er-turtle boulder, allowing him to crash through foes. Though the unprotected portion of him is still naturally vulnerable to attacks.

Shockwave Creation

In Mario 64, 3D Land and Mario Galaxy Bowser could make ring like shockwaves of energy to attack opponents by jumping up and down in the air with short hops.These shockwaves generally come in pairs of two per jump in 64 or one in 3D Land/Galaxy.Regardless of the amount generated, each extend from Bowser's body for a length of a few dozen feet in all directions.  

Movement Abilities

Bowser has gained a couple of special abilities specifically tailored for movement over the years. He has displayed the ability to Teleport both short and long distances in several games and could also fly (somewhat slowly) specifically in Shirayuki-hime the 3rd episode of the Amada Mario anime series and in Mario Galaxy 2. He can also use his spiked ball attack while flying in the air to dash into people in the later instance.

Shapeshifting

In the anime movie Super Mario Bros: P?chi-hime Kyushutsu Dai Sakusen! Bowser had the ability to shapeshift into various inanimate objects and living things. Some notable examples including a teddy bear, a ballerina, and a scarecrow. He never really applied the ability in battle however, so useful it may not be in a fight and whether there are any strict limitations to his transformative powers is unknown.

Power ups

Recently Bowser has wizened up and has decided to make use of several of the items and abilities Mario has been using to pummel him for over 25 years.

Double cherry

A cherry shaped power up that creates a clone of Bower on the immediate battlefield. This clone has the same physical properties, fighting skills and power-ups that the original had upon its use. Bowser can create up to 5 clones of himself with this power up, and unlike the clones created by Mario and other such characters each is capable of moving and attacking independently from one another.  If any clone is hit with a significantly powerful attack however they will dissipate.

Super Bell

A bell shaped power up that transforms Bowser's into the great (and adorable) Meowser. While in this form Bower gains increased agility and can climb up vertical surfaces using newly gained claws on the end of his hands and feet. He can also swipe at his opponents with his claws or tails, with enough power to break through solid stone.

Transformations

Giant Bowser

Over the course of the Mario Bros. series Bowser has displayed an utterly bizarre ability to spontaneously change size, anywhere from between twice as tall as his normal height to as large as Peach's castle (about 4-5 stories tall). Most of his size alterations stem from his body’s natural response to influxes of adrenaline (confirmed by Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s inside story), with him typically becoming a giant automatically as a defense mechanism to being put in life or death situations.

Other size changes are artificially induced through a variety of different means, such consuming growth potions, magical growing meat, having enlarging spells cast on him (generally by his minions), and absorbing super powered energy structures called Grand Stars. Obviously these means would not be allowed, or at the very least the ones that require outside help (Kamek’s magic), but there are plenty of instances where he has become large naturally, presumably via adrenaline.

After becoming a giant Bowser retains his prior abilities and gains an immense increase in physical strength and defense, most likely proportional to that of the size increase. As a giant he also tends to gain new special powers he does not have access to at his default/smaller sizes.

Listing off yet another long series of examples...

In New Mario Bros. Wii Bowser could produce roars with enough pressure behind them to press Mario and Luigi backwards a few feet. His fireballs increased in strength to the point of having enough power to destroy fairly large segments of solid brick fairly easily.

In Mario Galaxy 2 he could summon meteors from the sky to crush opponents. These meteors also create ring like shockwaves of energy where they hit, which extended for a few dozen feet. His punches could also cause vertical and horizontal shockwaves.

In Super Princess Peach he could summon 8 human sized hammers in the sky to send crashing towards his opponents.

In Mario Party 5 he could create giant balls of dark energy about the size of his hands he could lob at his opponents as projectile attacks. He has two variants, ones surrounded by electric fields and ones that aren't.Balls with electric fields explode and create circular shockwaves of electricity that extend across the immediate battle field when they hit the ground. Ones without the electric fields turn into small circular rock like objects when they hit the ground. If these rock like objects are set on fire they also begin to glow with a whitish aura and can be picked up and thrown at enemies for damage.

Finally in Mario Galaxy 2 Bowser could summon pseudo black holes to drag opponents into the air while he was a giant in the final boss fight.

Additionally in Dream Team Dreamy Bowser could actually stack his biologically activated gigantism and an enlarging spell from his followers to become an even Gianter (we’re certain that’s a word) Giant Bowser! Whether he can stack his biological growing with his other artificial enlarging methods is unknown.

Giga Bowser

A transformation that Bowser could use in the Smash Bros. series after absorbing the power of a Smash Ball. While in this form Bowser’s size increases to roughly 2x his normal, bullshit Smash size, and his claws, horns, and spikes grow considerably in length. Bowser’s physical strength also increases and he gains the ability to infuse many of his melee attacks with lightning, darkness, and ice attributes. The latter is capable of flash freezing opponents in blocks of ice leaving them temporarily vulnerable. Many of his attacks in the form hit so hard they cause explosion like busts of energy upon contact, and hit with enough force to embed opponents in solid ground. To top it off Bowser is incapable of being knocked around in this form, and does not flinch from any form of attack. He isn’t invincible however, as he does still incur damage from his opponents attacks in Smash Bros. in this form. Finally the transformation only lasts for about 12 seconds.

Dry Bowser

Most villains kick the bucket when their flesh is removed from their body. Not so for Bowser. He becomes a SKELETON MAN...Turtle. This form is technically his “undead form”, in the sense that he technically needs to die to obtain it, making him more or less a zombie. This form has all the same abilities as his default form, except all his flames are blue, and he can throw the bones from his body as a projectile attack. He also gains a slight defensive upgrade, as can draw his bones back to himself to rebuild himself after getting hit by major physical attacks and has complete immunity to fire(if his normal form didn’t give him that already). He’s not exactly “invincible” in this form however and can be knocked out with enough physical force, and logically could be “ringed out” if the bones that constitute his body were blown apart a large enough distance. Bowser can still become a giant as dry Bowser through artificial means, but his ability to do so through his natural biological means in unknown, since he lacks the internal organs that would distribute adrenaline for the size growth.

Blockhead Bowser

If neither of those transformations were weird enough for you, here’s Bowser becoming a bunch of blocks. Bowser took on this form after equipping a transformative belt called, The Megamorph Belt. During it Bowser transforms into a series of interconnected squared blocks capable of arranging themselves into different configurations. These include: A giant top, a giant square box and a long snake like creature. The top can spin around an immediate area to ram into opponents, the square form can roll across an area to crush opponents, and the snake form can slither across the immediate area with greater dexterity than the other forms. All forms contain a special golden Bowser block that can breath fire at an opponent. Attacking this golden Bowser block is the only way to damage Bowser when he is in this form. The square and snake forms also have 5 and 3 blocks with a Bowser insignia respectively, that are also capable of breathing fire.

Vehicles

True evil villains ride in style, and Bowser is no exception. We doubt he would receive any of these in a 1-on-1 fight, except maybe the Clown Car, but they’re worth mentioning, and it would be useful to know about if DEATH BATTLE ever decided to put him in an evil villain army fight akin to Dr. Eggman VS. Dr. Wily.

Bowser-Mobile

We weren’t joking when we said Bowser rode in style.

A large tricked-out muscle car that Bowser uses as his main form of transportation in Super Mario 3D World. It’s not particularly fast, but it can move and jump based on some sort of autopilot, allowing Bowser to attack from it without looking where he’s going. It’s also fairly sturdy. It took the combined destruction of 9 of Bowser’s own Soccer Ball Bombs before being destroyed.

Clown Car

Perhaps Bowser’s most commonly used vehicle. The device has a propeller on the bottom that somehow produces flight. It’s capable of flying long distances (at least a few miles) before running out of fuel (which can happen as shown in Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door), and should at least be faster than an average car. The vehicle itself is resistant to ice, physical, and fire-based attacks, and has been highly modified over the years with various offensive weapons.

Bowser has used an endless supply of Mecha-Koopas, robotic wind up toys shaped like him that he can throw at opponents as projectiles, while operating the vehicle.These mecha koopas actively follow and attempt to attack any nearby opponents when they reach the ground and in some games can breath streams of fire at opponents to burn them. They are sturdy enough to withstand most minor physical strikes without being destroyed. They will however get stunned for a few seconds, and can be picked up and tossed by opponents while there not moving. Particularly powerful attacks can break them apart however. There was also a large supply of Bob-ombs that could be thrown at opponents in Mario Golf as well.

As if the weird hammer space within the Clown Car wasn’t weird enough, in Super Mario World, Bowser could drop Big Steelies, large metal wrecking ball like objects, by turning the car upside down and dropping them out of the opening. Bowser appears to disappear into the car the dropping process (hence the hammer-space).

Among the modifications Bowser has outfitted the device with are 2 cannons attached to each side that could shoot either homing bullet bills or faster moving explosive bullets as seen in Mario Golf Toadstool Tour and Mario Party 8. Speaking of Mario Party 8 the mouth contained a laser cannon that could shoot rapid bursts of thin laser energy shots at opponents.

When used by the Koopalings in New Super Mario Bros 2, it contained an auto piloting system, and within the creepy eyes lies some sort of device that can produce a flash of light capable of turning opponents to stone. Said flash requires several seconds to charge though. Additionally, within the mouth is a large cannon that shoots explosive spiked balls around the size of steelies that explode after 10 or so seconds.

Finally in the Nintendo Power Super Mario comics the clown car had a built in magical fusion of a wand and microphone similar to the wands used by Bowser in the American cartoon. It could be used for singing (badly) or to shoot bolts of lightning that turn people into stone on contact. The effects of this petrification are not permanent, but are difficult to undo without a specific counter. It took a week for a “massage” specialist to nullify when Bowser cast the spell on Mario in the comics.

Feats

Durability

The first, and perhaps most inconsistent element of Bowser’s durability is ability to resist various degrees of heat. Many of the side-scrolling games, Dream Team and New Super Mario Bros. show his resistance to only be slight, with Bower being defeated from Mario’s fireballs, taking slight damage when submerged in lava and being able to have his flesh melt off in lava respectively. However, other games show it to be much higher, such as when he was fully submersed in lava in games like Super Mario 64 and New Super Mario Bros 2 and Wii (as a giant). He also has heat resistance feats that imply outright immunity such as his infamous surviving falling into his created sun in Mario Galaxy, being immune to fireballs in Mario is Missing, and taking an acid bath in order to relax in Super Mario Sunshine.

Heat resistance aside, Bowser’s many ass-kickings have given him durability feats galore! He has survived being thrown into large explosive bombs and off 50 tall platforms repeatedly in Mario 64, having multiple smaller bombs going off directly in his face during the final boss fight of Yoshi Topsy Turvy, falling out of a floating tub hundreds of feet in the sky at the end of Super Mario Sunshine, and getting electrocuted multiple times during his boss battle in Mario Party 4.

He’s also a glutton for enduring the destruction of his own property and the property of others. After getting defeated by Mario at the end of New Super Mario Bros Wii, he survived having his castle tilt and collapsed on top of him. Once after Mario had thrashed him by the end of Paper Mario, Bowser survived an explosion that flung him hundreds of feet into the air, he was unharmed by an exploding ship in the beginning to Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, and not only had 2 different castles smashed on top of him (his and Peach’s), but was decked by a speeding train over the course of Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story. We’ll note he was put in critical condition in the last 2 scenarios, but the fact he wasn’t instantly killed is still impressive.

Other miscellaneous punishment the Koopa King has survived include being shot out of a cannon into a mountainside in Mario is Missing,his flying castle falling into an ocean hundreds of feet below and exploding and quite literally breaking the 4th wall (all of this was after getting beaten up by the Mario Bros), and various attacks from common enemies in Bowser’s Inside Story, including attacks from flying humanoid mech robots, lasers, cannonballs, bombs, and more.

It's assumed with his size increase, Giant Bowser’s endurance increases as well. This could allow us to scale his durability based on what he can handle as at his normal sizes (IE if he’s 50x larger than normal, his endurance would probably increase by 50x as well in most respects).

Speed/Agility

Bowser isn’t exactly going to be winning marathons, but has some solid feats of speed to look at.

His jumping prowess is impressive with him able to leap at least  at least 24-36 feet horizontally in Mario 3D World, and 4-5 stories into the air in Super Mario 64 after being thrown off the main platforms in his second boss fight. He might have been able to jump even higher in the 3rd boss fight of that game, but the ground underneath the platform in that fight can’t be seen, so the height can’t be measured.

He could perform short spurts of fast charges in Mario 64 and 3D Land.The later game which showed he can run straight through brick like it was made out of cardboard. He seems to have trouble stopping and changing direction in his charges in 64 however, as he’ll often run towards the edge of a fighting platform and nearly fall off it.

Bowser’s whirling fortress and spiked ball attack moves are fairly fast, and allow for relatively quick travel in the games they appear in. And while not exactly speed or agility, his ability to teleport should negate his general slow movement speeds to a degree. His ability to make shockwaves on the ground, homing fire, fire pillars, spread fire on a battlefield and make pools of lava on the ground also helps limit enemy movement.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t entirely negate the fact that Bowser is simply a slow character most of the time. Though he’s surprisingly light on his feet in the dancing game Mario Mix. But it goes without saying it’s fairly easy for him to be outmaneuvered by opponents smaller than him, that can move around relatively quickly without stopping.

Oh, and his speed as a giant is probably similar to his norm, except scaled based on his size.

Strength

art by Hugo-H2P

Strength meanwhile is where Bowser is really at. His Bowser Bombs can break through solid brick, he can easily swipe away at large section of platforms made out of brick in his giant form, pulled a small island a few dozen feat, pushed a giant stone statue twice his size against a dozen of his own minions, can punch various metallic/stone enemies to death and threw a large metal ball at least 10x his size hundreds of feat into the air (granted in these 3 cases he received a strength boost from the Mario Bros), can dash through large stone statues in super princess peach, held up the ceiling of booby trapped room with side character o chunks in Super Paper Mario until the floor beneath him collapsed completely and almost stopped a large train from moving on his own power, simply by pushing against it. He only failed at the last minute due to losing his footing.

As far as his giant form goes Bowser was able to lift up both his own and Peache’s castle as a giant in Bowser's Inside Story, and could also match them in power when the assumed giant mech forms. This is fairly impressive considering both would have to weigh thousands of tons based on appearance alone. It could also be assumed that as a giant he could perform similar feats to his normal form, but scaled. Purely going off of stats, Bowser tends to have high strength/power stats in most of the Mario Sports games, almost always surpassing the other characters.

Tactics

Uh how did he do this again?

One would think Bowser would have to be a complete idiot to be defeated by the same plumber on more than 50 different occasions. They wouldn’t be entirely wrong, but the spiked turtle has shown some competence and the ability to strategize before.

He has been the pawn to some villains in some stories (usually due to possession and amnesia), but showed some nifty deception skills when working with Antasma. Realizing that the antagonist to Dream Team would see his brutish and angry personality as non-threatening and ignorant, he played a dumb sidekick role to him for most of the game, only betraying him when Antasma was weakened, and had nothing more to gain from working with him.

He actually managed to set a decent trap for the Mario Bros in the Nintendo Power comics, byluring them into a ghost house when they were tired and seeking easy shelter, had the genre savviness to attempt to use Mario’s own power ups against him during his boss fight in 3D World, and was the one who grew concerned that machine Eggman had made was dangerous and could backfire in Mario and Sonic London 2012 Olympic Games (rather than the other way around).

Most baffling is Bowser somehow orchestrated placing a castle underneath Peach’s castle with nobody noticing, so he could lift it into the sky along with her when she was the most unexpected. This was probably via the Star Rod that he stole in the beginning of the game, which also let him create many castles and strongholds throughout the Mushroom kingdom to keep the imprisoned Star Spirits safe guarded. Why he didn’t use said rod to just smite Mario when he learned that he was still alive is beyond us (we’d guess plot shielding).

And as the King of the Koopas Bowser commands an entire army filled with infantry, engineers, wizards, airships, spaceships, tanks, all sorts of mechs and various sci-fi monsters/machines. Said army is also fairly competent when they want to conquer something and Mario isn’t in the way. His forces were able to take over the Mushroom Kingdom in games like New Super Mario Bros U, The Lost Levels, Paper Mario (to an extent), Mario 64, as well as countries in Super Mario Bros 3, and nearly the entire galaxy in Super Mario Galaxy 1 & 2. Even if you assume most of Bowser’s plans and decisions are created or mediated by smarter members of his troop, the fact that he’s the leader must count for something, especially when you consider the combination attacks he has formed that he uses when fighting alongside his troops.

All that aside we’re not here to say Bowser is the fat, dragon-turtle incarnation of Sun Tzu. According to the White Knuckle Scoring Comics, Bowser prefers ”Brute force and a bad attitude to smarts and an education”.

Art credited to Brawl in the Family’s Matthew Taranto.

What’s more he often fights in arenas that put him at a blatant disadvantage by choice in most of his appearances. We probably don’t need to list many examples of this, but the many bridges with collapsing buttons over pits of lava is one. Thankfully, provided he’s on neutral terrain when fighting in a DEATH BATTLE, his incredibly poor taste in arenas probably won’t factor into the fight.

But even that won’t save the Koopa King from his distinct lack of common sense and incredible impulsiveness. Some examples of this include: Accidently ground pounding himself through a floor in super marios bros 3, eating the “Vacuum Mushroom” without a second through when it was offered to him by a person he didn’t know in Bowser’s Inside Story (word of advice kids: Don’t accept food from strangers), having access to time travel on multiple occasions but never utilizing it in a meaningful way, accidentally setting off a huge bomb on himself with his fire breath in Paper Mario, ETC.

Training and experience

Bowser was instructed how to use his inhale ability by the character Broque Monsieur, but besides that he seems to have learned on his own when it comes to the rest of his abilities. Whatever the case he’s knowledgeable in various kinds of magic, physical attacks, and weapons.

He has fought Mario, one of the most well-known video game characters in history close to a hundreds times at this point in the series, in all sorts of different settings like space, his own castles, sports games, fighting tournaments, and all sorts of other weird situations.

He’s regularly fought against other world domination aspiring villains and their henchmen in the series, sometimes even by the side of Mario himself. Some notable examples include Smithy, some X-Nauts in Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door, the Shroobs, Fawful in Bowser’s Inside Story, and Count Bleck in Super Paper Mario.

Whenever he steals or gains control of some all powerful magic macguffin (The Star Rod, Royal Sticker, ETC) he normally wields it with relative ease.

The best thing that can be said about Bowser’s experience and training is he has been causing trouble and fighting the Mario Bros and co since he was a toddler. He’s fought previous DEATH BATTLE victor Yoshi 4 times at both normal size and a giant in Yoshi’s Island, Yoshi’s Story, Yoshi’s Island DS, and Yoshi’s New Island. He also made his first attempt at kidnapping Peach as a toddler in Mario and Luigi Partners in Time and was fairly active during the rest of that game, fighting alongside his future self on one occasion and actively seeking out the Cobalt Star (the magic macguffin of that game) along with the Mario Bros and the games main villains, the Shroobs.

Finally he’s also teamed up with Yoshi briefly in Yoshi’s Island DS, to take on his future self’s army and showed himself to be quite capable at taking them out (with Yoshi’s help of course).

Weaknesses

Bowser is pretty much the Doctor Doom of the Mario Bros. series in the sense that he gets his ass kicked constantly despite having WAY more resources, powers, and abilities than his arch nemeses. Also while it doesn’t happen often, games like Mario Galaxy show that knocking him on his back can incapacitate or take him off guard for a second or two much like a real world turtle. Finally if he designs or commissions the fighting arena he’s in he’ll probably add some stupid structure or function that gives his opponent an advantage.

Summary

Advantages

• His shell provides him with adequate and immediate protection against most physical attacks and elemental attacks.
• He can presumably use his bat to hit back or protect himself against some projectile attacks.
• Strong enough to stop fully sized trains and can survive having his own castle fall and/or explode on him.
• You technically need to kill him twice to put him down for good, since he can still fight opponents in his undead form of Dry Bowser.
• He can limit enemy movement somewhat with shockwaves, homing fire and creating pools of lava.
• Giant and Giga Bowser transformations vastly increase his size, defense and grant him a host of powerful new abilities.
• Has a lot of attacks that cause status effects in opponents, such as poison, fear and burning.
• Can draw opponents to him or pull weapons/items off them with his inhale ability.
• He can shapeshift, which could be useful if applied strategically/creatively (though that’s not likely coming from Bowser).
• Can turn people to stone blocks or animals with his magic wands.
• Safety Ring prevents most negative status effects, instant death and nullifies most fire, ice and electricity attacks (assuming it will be allowed).
• He’s pretty much immune to heat even without the Safety Ring.
• Logically he should be able to apply most of his special throwing moves/abilities from the sports games to his thrown projectile weapons in the rest of the series. Likewise the hurly gloves in Mario RPG should amplify his ability to throw his projectiles in the rest of the series as well.
• Bowser’s basically a fully realized avatar. Not only does he have various fire based attacks, earth based attacks, and the ability to fly in his normal form, but as giga bowser he has iced based attacks as well.
• The Double Cherry Powerup can be REALLY broken under the right circumstances. Not only can it suddenly turn a 1 on 1 fight to a 1 on 5 fight, but the amount of havoc Bowser could cause if he used it while giant would be immense. Fighting 1 Giant Bowser is difficult, fighting 5 at once would be impossible for most average opponents (though this is assuming Bowser would have the smarts and means to do this).
• Teleportation, Whirling Fortress, Spike Ball and various enemy movement hampering moves help overcome his normally slow speed.
• Very large weapon arsenal with various close range melee weapons and long range projectile weapons. Even limiting his arsenal would give him a lot to use.
• His clown car is a really good mode of transportation, being able to move fairly quickly in the air and having various offensive projectiles and armets.
• Very experienced and does have good ideas and plans on average.
• A really good dancer.

Disadvantages

• He’s generally a slow character in most games, and even in situations where his speed is amped up he tends to have acceleration and control issues.
• He’s clearly clueless when it comes to the art of interior design.
• His impulsive brute force mentality often backfires on him, with him often doing stupid things or being tricked into doing stupid things that put his life in danger.
• A few weapons/abilities like the minimizer and handheld hammer could be left out of Death Battle due to being broken,or not commonly used in his adult stage.
• Despite common belief Bowser is not immortal or completely invincible. Plenty of Boss fights in the series end with him getting knocked out through pure physical force, and he has not only had his life put in danger several times in the past during some of his larger endurance feats, . Even transformations like giant,giga and dry bowser don’t make him truly invincible,as each can be damaged, or potentially even ringed out under the right conditions.

Conclusion

Contrived plan upon contrived plan, confrontation upon confrontation, and defeat upon defeat, Bowser has been through it all, and is a better man-er-turtle for it! No matter how many asskickings he takes he’ll always be back to take the Mushroom Kingdom once more.

Suggested Fights

K. Rool

http://i.imgur.com/X0JktCv.jpg

by Krayon

Granted we’re pretty sure Bowser could take this match, but K. Rool from the Donkey Kong series could probably put up a decent fight against the king of koopas before going down. He can actually match Bowser in some respects having fairly impressive super strength, agility, and durability feats of his own, and even has many similar stupid ass powers like shockwave creation, invisibility,and teleportation. He also contrasts with Bowser on some levels being a bit more unbalanced,generally more serious and technologically oriented compared to bowser being fairly sane, affably evil and a bit more magic oriented.

Also believe it or not but in dk jungle climber K.Rool could actually become giant himself with the help of an all powerful plot mcguffin called a crystal banana, which could lead to a really cool giant Bowser vs giant K.Rool Kaiju-ish fight if they ever met each other on the field of battle.

Dedede

DeDeDe from the Kirby series is also another interesting opponent that Bowser could face. He, similar to K.Rool, is a king in charge of a boatload of minions and if his repeated fights with Kirby he could probably keep up with our even surpass Bowser in a one on one duel.

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I hope you guys enjoyed our Bowser collab blog! It took awhile to put together, given that Bowser’s been 5 hundred billion games by this point, but I think it came out fairly well and was really enjoyable to read.

Anyway hopefully this won’t be the last collab blog we do, as there's a slight chance we update one of our previous prediction blogs sometime down the line. Ultraguy specifically also plans to do a blog for a gundam user in honor of the upcoming Death Battle between zechs and Tommy Oliver, so you can look forward to that!

Sincerely, Sir Hershel Lousyton Von Karmistico Armandago Gantson McDowell IV and Ultra…..uh Guy.

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