Blue Bowser

[center][size=5][color=#5C74CC][i]In "Mario 2", Bowser's little brother was a strong enemy who had the same strength as Bowser's body doubles.[/i]
[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkXY5f8qKkk][img]https://i.imgur.com/0rjFkjh.jpg[/img][/url]
Blue Bowser[/color][/size][/center]

[color=#61ADE9]Blue Bowser is Bowser's younger brother, or so states various materials about the game until it was retconned/made unstated, from Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels. In Smash Brothers 4, Blue Bowser appears as an alternate costume to normal Bowser, which also happens to be his only reasonable character art to use. Seeing as he appears roughly twice in a single game, Blue Bowser's power set is rather limited, jumping in the air, spitting out fireballs and throwing hammers. Much like Lucas and Kumatora, though, Bowser has helped training Blue Bowser for his debut into Smash 4, so you can expect at least a few more techniques...

Given he is Bowser's forgotten little brother, is he the Luigi of the Bowser family?[/color]

[center][size=5][color=#5C74CC]Blue Statistics[/color][/size][/center]

[color=#61ADE9]Blue Bowser's stats are the exact same as Bowser's, with one difference: Thanks to the intense training regiment and exercise Blue Bowser has been doing, he weighs exactly 1 weight unit less than Bowser. Truly a game changer.[/color]

[center][size=5][color=#5C74CC]Blue Specials[/color][/size][/center]

[center][size=4][color=#5C74CC]Neutral Special: Blue Bowser Breath[/color][/size][/center]

[color=#61ADE9]Blue Bowser has two variants of the flame breath. One performed by tapping the button and the other by holding it. Let us begin with the tapped version. Rearing his head back, Bowser fires out a blast of blue fire which travels 2 Battlefield Platforms and is about the size of Ryu's Input Hadoken, although this move goes faster than said move. When striking the opponent, this move deals 6% damage and sets the opponent on fire, [b]burning[/b] them for 3 seconds. Opponents who are [b]burning[/b] take 1% non-flinching damage per second, so 3% in this case, and grant various more powerful effects to Blue Bowser's moveset if they strike a burning opponent. This move is on the slower end to come out, but it has fast ending lag, and serves as Bowser's primary projectile to throw out.

Holding down B will instead have Blue Bowser pull his head back a little and start firing off flame breath, which starts out red, and begins with only half the range of Bowser's flame breath, dealing the same amount of damage and speed. What's the deal, blue bro?! Well, the longer that Blue Bowser holds his breath out the bigger it gets, up to 1.5x the size of Bowser's breath (and changes color from red to orange to blue), and after reaching max size he can only hold it for 1.25 seconds before automatically stopping. Opponents are [b]Burned[/b] for 1 second for every 2 hits of the fire breath, which ONLY begins after the opponent has left the Blue Bowser Breath, and serves as a way to get the opponent nice and toasty. This move has fast startup, 12 frames compared to Bowser's Fire Breath's 23 frames, but it does have punishable ending lag.

This move has a finisher which can be performed by pressing B again, which causes Blue Bowser to let loose a somewhat wider and taller, single more powerful burst of flame, which deals 7%/11%/15% damage and kills at 250%/200%/150%, with each of those slashes indicating the level of fire breath: Red, Orange or Blue. These can combo off of the flame breath, but of course end the flame breath, and you usually need to cut short the opponent getting toasted by you, which means less burning too (the burst applies 1 stack of [b]burning[/b]). It also means not getting to "keep" the level of flame.

See, Blue Bowser doesn't lose all of his flame breath's gradual charge upon stopping it, it slowly lowers back to its base level over 5 seconds, or until Blue Bowser uses his Finisher OR a move which causes Burning. Using the finisher or a Burning move uses up the flame breath's powering up, but increases the Burning caused by that effect to 2% per second or 3% per second (Orange/Blue respectively). Note that this does not upgrade ALL burning on the foe. Alternately, if Blue Bowser begins using the held Blue Bowser Breath while he still has charge, he will retain the size it had from the start, which makes this starting move a lot better...but also means you have to periodically use the move to not lose this. So, it is all a very tricky balance to get down.[/color]

[center][size=4][color=#5C74CC]Side Special: Hammer Time[/color][/size][/center]

[color=#61ADE9]Blue Bowser pulls out a hammer, which he then throws at an angle which depends on if the control stick was tilted or smashed. Tilting the control stick sends it at a higher, shallower angle, while smashing it sends it at a shorter, more direct but longer angle and also faster. The lag of the move is the same either way: Somewhat laggy to toss out, not a lot of ending lag. The tilted version deals 8% damage and light knockback up or down (depending on if it is travelling up or down) upon striking a target, while the smashed version deals 14% damage and solid knockback (KOs at 140% or so) upon impact.

The key thing about the Blue Bowser hammers is their trajectory, as the smashed version is pretty perfectly placed to try and stuff shorthops. The tilted version is really good for catching out opponents high in the air, making it not only good for bothering aerial opponents and catching landings (a situation Blue Bowser LOVES to be in), but it can allow you to get those pesky full jumpers. A common gameplan for Blue Bowser is to mix up his basic fireball, his low hammer and his high hammer. His fireball can be jumped over easily, but in addition to forcing an option commitment, Blue Bowser can throw out a hammer after the fireball to try and catch the jump or force an air dodge which he can catch out with a move. The order Blue Bowser tosses the hammers it can be important: Tilt Hammer followed by Smash Hammer will have the hammers arrive at their destinations at around the same time, making it trickier in that moment, while smash hammer followed by tilt hammer causes the tilt hammer to land after, essentially making it trickier for the opponent to do stuff after the smash hammer but giving them less to dodge at once.[/color]

[center][size=4][color=#5C74CC]Down Special: Blue Bowser Bomb[/color][/size][/center]

[color=#61ADE9]Blue Bowser rises in the air for a moment as his fists are coated in blue flames, before he crashes down diagonally down and forwards at roughly the speed of the Bowser Bomb. Contact with Bowser during this dive deals rapid hits of 1% damage and drag opponents into his landing hitbox, an explosion that deals 18% damage and kills at 99%. Naturally, this move doesn't come out especially fast (although it is not as laggy as Bowser Bomb's start) and the move is very punishable if whiffed. This move crushes shields hard like Bowser Bomb, but unlike that move it has no ability to instantly break them, taking opponent's shields to around 1/4ths full or so if you hit. Note that unlike the Bowser Bomb, this has no hitbox on the way up, just the travel and crashing hitbox.

Blue Bowser crashing to the ground leaves behind a patch of fire which rises up about the height of Blue Mario and 1.2x the width of Blue Bowser. Entering the patch of fire adds 3 seconds of burning to the opponent, although it does not actually harm the opponents aisde from that. Continuing to stand in the patch of fire keeps the timer on burning from going down and adds time on their burning timer equal to however long they stay in the fire. The patches made from the Blue Bowser Bomb last 10 seconds.

If Blue Bowser uses his hammer moves inside of a fire (wait, with these hammer moves, maybe he is actually a Paper Luigi analogue?), then the hammer will be on fire when it is released, which adds different effects. For Hammer Time, the effect depends on the type of hammer thrown. The tilted hammer leaves behind a trail of fire which lingers for about 1/4th of a second after the hammer passes it, dealing half the damage and knockback of the hammer to anyone, making it a kind of aerial stage control and air dodge catching tool. The smashed hammer instead now deals 17% damage and kills at 120%.

If the fiery hammers from Hammer Time hit an opponent, they will cause a burst of flame on the foe, with the Smash Hammer dealing more knockback (enough to kill at 90%!) while the tilt hammer will instead deal more damage (12%). Perhaps minor, but still noteworthy. Blue Bowser's Blue Bowser Breath will begin a stage higher than normal (Red -> Orange or Orange -> Blue) while in a fire patch, with the resulting size increase, and it will not have its stages go down while in a fire patch. Pretty nice![/color]

[center][size=4][color=#5C74CC]Up Special: Burning Fortress[/color][/size][/center]

[color=#61ADE9]It's Whirling Fortress.

Okay, more seriously, it looks like Whirling Fortress, but it has a lot of differences. It starts a bit later (Frame 9) with similiar ending lag. While the damage is mostly the same, Blue Bowser creates blue fire (presumably by breathing it out his shell hole?) as he spins around, which serves as a single hit hitbox which deals 8% damage and has low knockback, enough to be safe but combos are hard to come by due to the ending lag. The knockback is vertical. The move has stronger horizontal range, but in return it does not go quite as far vertically.

If this move is used on a fire patch, it will cause the fire to join with Blue Bowser's and explode outwairds 0.5 Battlefield Platforms to both sides, dealing damage based on the amount of time remaining on the fire patch and snuffing said fire out. For every second left on the fire patch, and it will always round up (IE 9.4 seconds = 10 seconds), 1.2% damage is added to the move, which combined with the single hit hitbox (which also hits through that range) deals a total of a whopping 20% damage! The knockback is quite strong at that point, enough to kill at 84%, although this of course assumes a max level fire patch, which can only be created by the laggy Down Special and has to be used within a second...so, a bit predictable. Of course, less damaging/killing amounts are still quite good, and coming out on Frame 9 makes it quite amazing in its own right. A spooky, scary tactic.[/color]

[center][size=5][color=#5C74CC]Blue Smashes[/color][/size][/center]

[center][size=4][color=#5C74CC]Forward Smash: Kerulean Koopa King Klaw[/color][/size][/center]

[color=#61ADE9]Blue K. Rool slashes forward with one of his claws, leaving behind Cerulean slash marks as he does so, which has two hitboxes: A sweetspot really close to Blue Bowser, which actually functions as a grab hitbox, and the normal hit on the rest of the slash. Lets start with slashing. The slash deals 14%-19.6% damage and moderate knockback to that opponent that fails to kill until 171%-148%. This is fairly weak, especially considering that it takes a somewhat long time to start, although fortunately the ending lag is not bad. Since the move isn't ultra laggy to start, simply somewhat long, and it has solid range, it can be used as a poking smash but is not the best for that.

If Blue Bowser uses this move while inside of his fire, his claws will be ignited with fire and will leave behind fire instead of slash marks, which linger for 2.5 to 5 seconds depending on how long the smash was charged. Touching the fire, aside from Blue Bowser of course (I guess normal Bowser just doesn't have Blue Bowser's fire resistance: No wonder we don't have Dry Blue Bowser!), it will explode for half of the damage of the Forward Smash's normal hitbox. If the opponent is Burning, the reaction is stronger, and it deals the same amount of damage that the normal hitbox would deal! This can catch out spot dodges, but also makes approaching Blue Bowser briefly awkward, which for example gives Blue Bowser a good spot to throw out a fireball or a hammer if the opponent was pushed away by shielding the attack: In particular, your Hammer Time moves can cover jumps over the slash marks and put opponents in an annoying spot for approaching.

Now then, about that sweetspot. It is a grab hitbox which will bring the opponents into Blue Bowser's klutches, Koopa Klaw style, after which Blue Bowser gets in their face and shoots a blast of fire into their face for 17%-23.8% damage that kills fairly fast, 105%-77% depending on the charge, making it a noticeably strong move compared to the base attack. Note that Blue Bowser will not create slash marks or finish the move if he grabs an opponent with the Command Grab, as that is a seperate hitbox made after the sweetspot. With the anti-shield properties of being a grab and increased damage, this is your primary reason for landing the move, but it has a small hitbox.

That's not all, though! If the opponent is Burning, then Blue Bowser's flame blast will not only be a bit stronger, but it will react with the foe's burning fire to create a noticeable, fiery explosion that deals massive damage, 27%-37.8% damage that kills a twinge FASTER than ordinary ol' Bowser's Forward Smash. A terrifying kill move that can hit through shields, it is still a slower move to start-up with a specific sweetspot, so Blue Bowser needs to get into position well to even go after the opponent with it, and reads are key. Opponents also need to be wary of defending against Blue Bowser while burning, and especially on overly relying on shields, as Blue Bowser can quite hard punish with this move.[/color]

[center][size=4][color=#5C74CC]Down Smash: Hammer Bro Time[/color][/size][/center]