Bowser (SSF2)

Bowser is a veteran starter character in Super Smash Flash 2. He was officially revealed at the end of the second McLeodGaming Direct in January 2015, and added to the game two years later in Beta 1.0. His sprites are custom-made and are based primarily on his appearance in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, with a couple of animations from Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U. His voice clips are also taken directly from Brawl.

Bowser is currently ranked 35th in the tier list for Version 1.3.1.2 of the game. His moves are extremely powerful and have great reach, giving him easy ways to deal large amounts of damage and secure early KOs. He also has a strong grab game, with throws that can combo into powerful finishers or KO outright, as well as a command grab that has long range and can be used for suicide KOs. His edgeguards are solid, with down air especially having strong gimping potential against characters with weaker vertical recoveries.

However, Bowser suffers from terrible mobility, with one of the slowest run speeds and the absolute lowest air speed in the game. Combined with poor frame data and a weak projectile, Bowser struggles to land hits against fast characters. His large size, heavy weight, and weak combo breakers and landing options give him a terrible disadvantage state, allowing opponents to combo him for days. He's also relatively easy to edgeguard due to his weak air mobility and his lackluster recovery, as his Whirling Fortress moves slowly and doesn't gain much height.

In spite of his glaring weaknesses, Bowser has had a decent amount of success in tournaments. However, that alone is not enough to keep him out of low tier.