Super Smash Bros. Melee/Non-playable characters/Giga Bowser

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Giga Bowser (Giga Koopa in Japanese) is a fictional, nonplayable character from Super Smash Bros. Melee. He is the Secret Boss (A secret, stronger, and hard to reach Boss that comes after the "final" boss) of Adventure Mode, appearing directly after Bowser when certain conditions are met, which are as follows:

Be playing the game on Normal, Hard, or Very Hard difficulty.
Get to and defeat Bowser in under 18 minutes.
Do not use continues.
Any stock and character may be used.

Giga Bowser is also the main enemy of Event Match 51 (The Showdown), with Mewtwo and Ganondorf by his side, acting as bodyguards, in a sense. Giga Bowser is not actually substantially stronger than regular Bowser, but receives an enormous handicap in Adventure mode (Not in the Event Match, but in the Event Match he's slightly bigger than his default size). However, he is greatly intimidating and has one definite edge over Bowser: his reach. He has a reach so large, he can hit the player from virtually anywhere on Final Destination.

Description

Giga Bowser looks almost identical to the regular Bowser. However, he is about twice as big. His horns are much longer and his eyes are more insane than Bowser's concentrated expression. Giga Bowser's tail is plated and has many more spikes on it, as does his shell. His overall color, especially his shell, is somewhat darker. His size is very easily shown by the size of his spawn platform (The small, glowing, floating platform that characters stand on after dying). Most characters' spawn platforms are about as large as a party ball, and the Ice Climbers' is about 1.5 times the size of it. Giga Bowser's is nearly the size of the Battlefield Stage. If Giga Bowser were to be played in a giant melee and were to touch a Super Mushroom, he would almost be too big to fit on Final Destination. This can be attempted by using Debug Mode with an Action Replay (See Playable Giga Bowser below).

Moves

Giga Bowser controls identically to Bowser, although his moves have slightly different effects. Mostly, they are the types of damage. Firebreath obviously does Fire Damage, but other moves do different things, such as Electric Damage from his Up Smash.

Here is a list of what kind of damage which move does:

Fire damage:

Firebeath, Forward Smash

Electric Damage:

Up Smash, Neutral A in the air, Back A in the air, Down A in the air, Grab attack (press A while grabbing a character), Up throw (tap up while grabbing),

Shadow Damage:

Tilt Forward + A

Freeze:

Down Smash

Note: Fire Damage is the red-colored damage caused by attacks such as Roy's Up+B. Electric Damage is the light-blue colored damage caused by attacks such as Pikachu's B. Shadow Damage is the purple-colored damage caused by moves such as Ganondorf's B. Freeze is the encasing in ice of the target character, most famously from freezies.

Differences between Bowser and Giga Bowser:

Wavedash length: Giga Bowser's is longer

Giga Bowser is 25% heavier than Bowser

Their jumps are the same height

Giga Bowser falls faster

Giga Bowser can't be grabbed, but Bowser can

Giga Bowser receives less impact from many attacks than Bowser does. Giga Bowser is also immune to knockback from Mario's/Luigi's fireballs, Dr. Mario's pills and some characters' Neutral A attack when he's below 50% (in other words, when Giga Bowser is below 50%, the mentioned moves have the effect of Fox's Blaster)

Giga Bowser's up B goes twice the distance of Bowser's up B, both in the air and on the ground. This gives Giga Bowser the fourth best recovery in the game (beaten only by Peach, Samus and Mewtwo). This also gives him the ability to recover back onto Final Destination from anywhere not past the blast-line without having to grab onto the edge if he uses his second jump. If he doesn't use his second jump, he can still always make it back to the stage even if it means having to grab onto the edge.

Bowser is completely invincible during the first four frames of his up B. After the four frames are up, Bowser's up B starts to hit anyone who touches him, but he is no longer completely invincible. Some parts of his body becomes invincible occasionally, but he is still vulnerable to being hit by high priority attacks.

Giga Bowser's up B starts to hit enemies on the fifth frame, and he is completely invincible during the first 26 frames of his up B (out of a total of 74 frames). After the 26 frames are up, he is no longer completely invincible. Some parts of his body becomes invincible occasionally, but he is still vulnerable to being hit by high priority attacks.

Bowser is never completely invincible if he uses his up B in the air, while Giga Bowser is still invincible for 26 frames if he uses up B in the air.

On the ground, all the hits of Giga Bowser's up B can connect on one enemy (causing 49% damage), while only two hits of Bowser's up B may hit one enemy. Meaning, if an enemy gets hit twice by Bowser's up B and then walks into that same up B again, he'll not be hit. All the hits of Bowser's up B can still connect in the air, though.

Giga Bowser's invincibility for the first 26 frames of his Up B are different from the invincibility Bowser gets on the first four frames of his own Up B. In Debug Mode, Giga Bowser's collisional bubble is green during the first 26 frames of his Up B. This indicates that Giga Bowser is invincible during those frames. During Bowser's first four frames of Up B, his collisional bubble is blue, which ALSO indicates that he is invincible during those frames.

The difference between these two types of invincibilities is that if a character has the blue type (which is when a character is rolling, airdodging, climbing up from the edge, etc.), all enemy attacks go through the character. For example, if Fox shot his Blaster at a character with the blue type of invincibility, the Blaster shot will go through the character without harming him/her/it. And if a character is standing behind the character with the blue invincibility, the character behind will get hit.

But if a character has the green type of invincibility (which every character gets when they've just come back after being KO'd, or if they have a Starman), all enemy attacks will NOT go through the character, but the character will not be harmed. Fox McCloud's Shine (Reflector) (Down+B) is a move that hits for one frame only (the first frame of the attack). But if Fox's Shine actually HITS a character, Fox will be stuck in his first frame of Shine for three extra frames. This not only applies to Shine, but it also applies to every other attack. If they hit a character, there'll be 3 extra frames of lag than if it didn't. If a character attacks another character that has the green invinciblity, the attacking character will receive the 3 extra frames of hitlag that he'll normally receive if he hits a character, even though the character he is hitting is invincible. If the character being "hit" had the blue invincibility, the attacking character will not receive hitlag, unlike if the "receiving" character had the green invincibility. If Fox shot his Blaster at a character with green invincibility, the Blaster shot will not just simply go through the invincible character as it would with the blue invincibility. In this case, the Blaster shot will be cancelled out and disappear as soon as it comes in contact with the invincible character's green collisional bubble. Also, this might be off topic, but when Young/Link is standing still, his shield has the green invincibility, which explains why projectiles get cancelled out when they touch the shield.

Though, after the first 26 frames of his Up B are over, when Giga Bowser's body is no longer completely invincible (but he gets invincibility frames every now and then on different parts of his body), the occasional invincibility frames he gets are of the blue type, not the green type.

Giga Bowser's Smash Down freezes enemies if you hit them with a sweetspot (the back of the attack)

Giga Bowser's Firebreath never gets smaller over time, unlike Bowser's

All forms of Giga Bowser's rolls (regular roll, ledgeroll, getting up roll, ect) are twice as long as Bowser's

All of Giga Bowser's attacks except for Firebreath, his two "get up attacks" and forward B has twice the range of Bowser's. Giga Bowser's Firebreath has the same range as Bowser's initially, but Bowser's gets smaller over time. Giga Bowser's two "get up attacks" have the same hitbox size as Bowser's. They are located on the front and back of Giga Bowser when he gets up, so if you stand in the middle of Giga Bowser while he does his get up attack, you will not be hit. Giga Bowser's forward B range is the same as Bowser's, despite the fact that it doesn't look like it. Not counting projectiles, Giga Bowser's attacks have the longest range in the game (even longer than Marth's)

Bowser walks and runs slightly (almost non-existantly) faster than Giga Bowser. If they both raced across Final Destination, Giga Bowser would be half an inch behind Bowser when Bowser finishes.

Giga Bowser is over twice the size of Bowser (it doesn't look like it, but his hitbox is actually over twice the size of Bowser's)

Bowser's Up B, Smash Forward, Tilt Up and Tilt Down has more knockback than Giga Bowser's

Giga Bowser's Down B and Smash Up has more knockback than Bowser's

Because Giga Bowser's Tilt Down has less knockback than Bowser's, it becomes much easier for Giga Bowser to connect with both hits of Tilt Down.

All moves not mentioned have the same knockback

Giga Bowser's grab is harder to break out of (a character being grabbed by Giga Bowser at 0% cannot avoid taking a Grab Attack + a throw)

Bowser's jump is 9 frames before he leaves the ground, while Giga Bowser's is 7 frames

All of Giga Bowser's aerial attacks have twice the lag of Bowser's when he lands

Unlike Bowser, Giga Bowser cannot grab onto the edge backwards with his Up B.

Bowser's best fighting style involves SHFFLing aerial attacks (mainly Forward Air) and throwing in Forward B in the air occasionally for shieldgrabbers. Bowser has an incredibly hard time against many characters, particularly Marth (who outranges him, making it very difficult for Bowser, who is slow and doesn't have good range, to hit him). Due to his falling speed and size, he can be combo'd from 0% to death by many characters. His up B allows him to break combos occasionally and get KOs, but his up B only works as a combo breaker on the ground. Unfortunately for Bowser, most combos involves getting Bowser up in the air and hitting him just before he lands (e.g. chain throws), so his Up B still doesn't really help him a lot.

Giga Bowser, though is way different. Due to his huge range, he can just use Tilt Forward (which has more range than any of Marth's moves) for approaching without having to worry about being punished like Bowser's Forward Air, since Giga Bowser's Tilt Forward has more range, is faster and has less lag. His Dash Grab has even more range (it can ALMOST grab someone from halfway across Final Destination!), and once he throws someone off the edge with Back Throw, then they've lost a Stock, since Giga Bowser has insane edgegaurding abilities. His Up B on the ground, though it doesn't send the enemy out of the stage very far, outprioritizes every character's up B thanks to the invincibility frames. So he can just up B every time the character he is edgegaurding comes close without having to worry about timing and getting hit by their up B. And the character being edgegaurded can't sweetspot the edge either, as they'll still be hit. Giga Bowser's game is just simply throw them off the edge, and then edgegaurd them to death.

Contrary to Bowser, Giga Bowser is actually the hardest character to combo. Why? Since he can't be grabbed, this kills off a lot of combos that could have worked on him ( e.g. chain throws). And due to the fact that Giga Bowser receives less impact from attacks, combined with his weight, fast falling speed and his size (since he's so big, his feet touches the ground faster after he's sent up in the air), he can just land back onto the ground if he is hit and immediately use Up B before the enemy could follow up with another move. Bowser, on the other hand, is lighter than Giga Bowser, falls slower, flinches more and is smaller, so if he is hit, he'll most likely be launched up into the air and into the "tumbling animation" (which sets him up for combos). Giga Bowser, however, is much harder to be sent into "tumbling mode".

Damage List

A moves

Neutral A: Bowser: 5% Giga Bowser: 5%

Neutral A (second): Bowser: 6% Giga Bowser: 6%

Tilt Forward: Bowser: 14% Giga Bowser: 12%

Tilt Up: Bowser: 13% Giga Bowser: 13%

Tilt Down: Bowser: 22% Giga Bowser: 18%

Dash A: Bowser: 11% Giga Bowser: 13%

Neutral Air: Bowser: 13% Giga Bowser: 13%

Forward Air: Bowser: 14% Giga Bowser: 13%

Back Air: Bowser: 13% Giga Bowser: 12%

Up Air: Bowser: 17% Giga Bowser: 17%

Down Air: Bowser: 24% if all hits connect Giga Bowser: 24% if all hits connect

Smash Forward: Bowser: 24% uncharged, 32% charged Giga Bowser: 20% uncharged, 27% charged

Smash Up: Bowser: 20% uncharged, 27% charged Giga Bowser: 20% uncharged, 27% charged

Smash Down: Bowser: 20% uncharged, 27% charged Giga Bowser: 20% uncharged, 27% charged

B moves

Neutral B: Bowser: up to 23% in one tap of the B button Giga Bowser: up to 23% in one tap of the B button

Forward B: Bowser: 12% Giga Bowser: 12%

Forward B Bite: Bowser: 3% Giga Bowser: 3%

Forward B Forward Throw: Bowser: 13% Giga Bowser: 12%

Forward B Back Throw: Bowser: 10% Giga Bowser: 9%

Up B: Bowser: 17% on the ground. In the air, it can do up to 32% if all the hits connect. Giga Bowser: 22% normally on the ground. If all hits connects, it can do up to 49% (on the ground). If all hits connect in the air, it can do up to 32%.

Down B: Bowser: 21% Giga Bowser: 25%

Throws

Forward Throw: Bowser: 10% Giga Bowser: 10%

Back Throw: Bowser: 10% Giga Bowser: 10%

Up Throw: Bowser: 9% Giga Bowser: 9%

Down Throw: Bowser: 12% Giga Bowser: 12%

Grab Attack: Bowser: 3% Giga Bowser: 5%

Note: Almost all of the Bowser/Giga Bowser differences and damage list were found by Dragon Champion.

Differences Between Giga Bowser and other Nonplayable Characters

Giga Bowser is the only nonplayable character who is a clone (Save Dark Link, who is just Link with a different skin)
Giga Bowser is the only nonplayable character who controls just like any regular character (Once again, save Dark Link). Master Hand and Crazy Hand control completely differently from anyone else and can only be controlled by a controller in a certain socket. The Fighting WireFrames don't use the B button. Sandbag freezes the game if he tries to do anything other than move and single jump. Giga Bowser controls just like regular Bowser.
Giga Bowser is the only nonplayable character who does not have to be beaten in order to receive his corresponding trophy (Unless clearing the Multi-Man Melee counts as beating the Fighting WireFrames).

Giga Bowser's Frame Data

Giga Bowser, Defualt size

LAII = Legs and Arms are Invisible and Invincible. or as it looks without debug, his arms and legs are inside his body.

Punch 1

Total: 24 Hits: 7-10 IASA: 21 Window of the second puch: 3-25 Second punch starts: 13 (or later)

Punch 2

Total: 30 Hits: 10-12 IASA: 27

F Tilt Total: 47 Hits: 12-16 IASA: 3

D Tilt

Total: 59 Hits: 14-18, 27-31 IASA: 55

U Tilt

Total: 54 Hits: 7-10 IASA: 50

Dash attack

Total: 59 Hits: 10-17, 28-29 (the second hitbox is from when Giga Bowser Lands) IASA: 55

F Smash

Total: 69 Hits: 29-33 Charge frame: 10 IASA: 66

U Smash

Total: 59 Hits: 16-21 Charge frame: 10 IASA: 53 Invincible: 16-17

D Smash

Total: 69 Hits: 14-15, 17-18, 20-21, 23-24, 26-27, 29-30, 32 Charge frame: 8 IASA: 68 LAII: 14-48

N-air

Total: 49 Hits: 8-23 Auto cancel: <7 39> Landlag: 45 Lcanceled: 22

Legs/arms invisible/invincible: 7-36

LAII from landing (Landlag): 1-26 LAII from landing (Lcancel):1-13

U-air

Total: 47 Hits: 22-25 Auto cancel: <9 40> Landlag: 45 Lcanceled: 22

BTW, it's impossible to do an SHed U-air with Giga Bowser (defualt size)

B-air

Total: 49 Hits: 9-10 Auto canceled: <8 45> Landlag: 45 Lcanceled: 2

D-air

Total: 79 Hits: 14-15, 17-18, 20-21, 23-24, 26-27, 29-30, 32-33, 35-36, 38-39 Auto cancel: <13 70> Landlag: 45 Lcanceled: 23 LAII: 14-49 LAII from landing (Landlag): 1-30 LAII from landing (Lcancel): 1-15

F-air

Total: 45 Hits: 8-11 IASA: 42 Auto cancel: <8 30> Landlag: 45 Lcanceled: 22

Ledge stand <100%

total: 32 Invincible: 1-30

Ledge stand 100%>

total: 59 Invincible: 1-55

Ledge roll <100%

total: 49 Invincible: 1-33

Ledge roll 100%>

total: 79 Invincible: 1-59

Ledge attack <100%

total: 54 Hits: 7-34 Invincible: 1-34 LAII: 4-34

Ledge attack 100%>

total: 69 Invincible: 1-40 Hits: 44-48

Ledge jump <100%

total: 37 Invincible: 1-3 Soonest FF: 23 LAII: 4-21

Ledge jump 100%>

total: 47 Invincible: 1-17 Soonest FF: 23

Grab

Total: 40 Grab: 8-9

Running Grab

Total: 50 Grab: 9-11

G.bowser Bomb

Total: 92 or more Hits: 30-32 (32 is the 'falling frame') Lag from Landing: 60

Fire Breath

Total: 92 or more Startuptime: 22 frames fire comes groups of seven on (after the startup animation): 2, 4, 7, 10, 13, 15, 18 then a new group. a minimum of 2 groups per flame. 20 frames per group. End animation: 30 frames

Btw, G.B. has unlimited fire

G.Koopa Klaw

Total: 59 Hits: 16-18 Grabs: 16-18 Hits on frames 18-19 while holding and attacking the enemy. Total attacking time while holding the enemy: 30. frame 30 is the 'holding' frame. Total throwing time: 40 Hits on the frames 18-19 of the throw.

Whirling Fortress

Total: 79 Hits: 5-46 Ivincible: 1-26

Legs/arms invisible/invincible: 6-49

Landspeciallag: 50 LAII until you land.

Taunt

Total: 140 GROWL!: 13

Jump: airborne on frame 6

Air time: 41 Earliest FF: 19 FF air time: 38

SH air time: 17 Earliest FF: 8 SH FF air time: 13

2nd jump earliest FF: 17

LAII on the first 38 frames of the 2nd jump.

Air dodge Invulnerable 3-29 out of 49 LAII 3-49 -> you land. 10 frames of landfallspecialag as usual.

Ground dodge Invulnerable 4-24 out of 42

Roll Invulnerable 4-19 out of 39 LAII: 8-22

Landing stun: 30 frames

Dash becomes run at frame 14 Turn-jump threshold: 24 Run turnaround: 45

Note: The frame data were found by Nigzel on SmashBoards.

Trophy

A Giga Bowser trophy can be obtained by beating Adventure on Hard or Very Hard with no continues, but not nessicarily in under 18 minutes. Giga Bowser, strangely enough, does not actually have to be beaten to get the trophy. His trophy is seen at the top of this article.

Giga Bowser's Trophy Data Is As Follows:

An even more imposing figure than

the original King of the Koopas.

Giga Bowser is roughly twice the

size of his scaly, fire-breathing,

spike-studded Super Smash Bros.

Melee counterpart. Predictably, this

monstrous creature's offensive and

defensive powers are a grade

higher than those of regular

Bowser. Good luck defeating this

colossus!

Super Smash Bros. Melee

12/01

Playable Giga Bowser

Giga Bowser can be played by using Debug Mode (Activated with the Action Replay), although many people are disappointed at not having his handicap and essentially using a larger Bowser. There is also a hoax (although no one has ever been able to disprove it, it is not generally accepted as true) that Giga Bowser can be unlocked by getting anywhere from 5,000 to 1,000,000 feet on the Homerun contest using Captain Falcon.

Voice

In the American version, Giga Bowser is voiced by Scott Burns, who also voices the regular Bowser.

External links

Super Mario Brothers Monster Compendium - Giga Bowser