Bayzer0191
Member
Bowser is my favorite Mario character of all time, so I immediately gravitated towards this mod when I heard about it. As much as I love it, it has some issues (and possibly more I haven't discovered yet) I'd like to address, and add some ideas of my own on the moveset.
The Sliding Haymaker punch is hard, if not near 100% fatal to execute if there's very little ground, since it always launches you forwards. If you're doing it grounded, you have to pray you time the jump button press correctly to cancel it after hitting the enemy before you skid off the edge. If you're doing it airborne, it's even more risky since the Body Slam drifts forwards a bit on activation before it completely halts all horizontal movement. Being able to punch in place would remedy this, otherwise you'd have to slowly jump and land on the enemy, or if it's airborne, jump into it with a perfectly timed Body Slam so the shell hitbox destroys it... or jump and Shell Spin and pray you don't rebound too quick to stop before you also fall off the edge. Another thing about the Sliding Haymaker is if you input a Body Slam just as the punch is ending, the Body Slam doesn't come out, and you overshoot whatever you were trying to land on. That has lead to a couple deaths for me. Like stated in previous comments, the Sliding Haymaker should be a standstill punch if no directional keys are being held.
The Body Slam is mostly fine, but it's finicky to aim correctly since it doesn't immediately cancel all movement in midair. Trying to land it after a midair Sliding Haymaker over a horizontally moving platform is especially finicky if that delay in completely stopping makes you whiff the edge. Speaking of horizontally moving platforms, I don't know if it effects every instance of these, but after landing a Body Slam on one of them, if Bowser stays in his shell, he stays stationary. The platform will continue to move and literally slip out from underneath him. If he catches the edge of one of these platforms with the Body Slam, he might just end up falling anyway if he doesn't get out of his shell in time. Learned that in the hard way in Aerial Garden.
The Shell Spin, while faithful to how koopa shells behave in Mario games, is way too stiff. Having to constantly cancel it to turn just to launch again creates a slippery stop and go cycle, which can be exacerbated if you accidentally hold a diagonal movement (when playing automatic), or you don't aim the camera just right when strafing, and you don't shoot off in the exact direction you wanted to, resulting in hitting a wall and starting to ricochet out of control.
Seeing as this Bowser is based on his appearance/gameplay from Mario & Luigi Bowser's Inside Story, and looking at previous comments about implementing the Spike Ball, this is my idea for it. "Replace" (I'll get into this later) the Shell Spin with Spike Ball. Holding Spin makes Bowser curl up, and he'll roll forwards at the speed the vanilla characters do when running at normal top speed, and be able to move/turn left and right in the same way. Releasing Spin will cancel it. He can climb walls similar to Knuckles in this state, and unlike the Shell Spin, hazardous floors also won't hurt him (alongside the damage protection it already has). The tradeoff? He can't jump or punch during it, whether it's off the ground or off a wall. To climb walls, he has to reach the wall from the ground. Releasing Spin to uncurl will just make Bowser let go of the wall and drop.
What about the Shell Spin? First of all, remap it. Double tap Spin to Shell Spin (press it again during the punch windup/launch). Second, make it even faster, having a greater speed than the vanilla running speed. He can still jump out of it like normal, and holding Spin to enter Spike Ball cancels it. (EDIT 1: Another way to cancel it is to press Spin again to enter the punch windup, and then press Jump to cancel that. This also lets him chain Sliding Haymakers and Shell Spins back to back). Why do this? This gives Bowser a faster movement option than the Spike Ball with a tradeoff of worse control and being vulnerable to hazardous floors. This would also eliminate the need for Custom 1/2/3 mapping.
Springs are weird with Bowser. I don't know if it was an intentional design choice to get people to Body Slam onto them, but he just doesn't travel as far with some springs. This can be a problem, especially in custom maps if there's no distance leniency coded into the springs for characters with a lower top speed. Bowser sometimes cannot make it, or just fall into bottomless pits if he doesn't Body Slam into the springs. Sometimes increasing his speed with a Sliding Haymaker or Shell Spin doesn't always work as intended either.
Finally, the moment we've all been waiting for... FIRE BREATH. Bowser's staple... the very first attack he ever used against Mario way back in Super Mario Bros. It can be mapped to the Ringslinger mode buttons (Fire & Fire Normal), and it only works when he's outside of his shell. There's a variety of ways to code his fire breath, but I'd say tapping it has him shoot a fireball, and holding it has him breathe a continuous stream of fire at a standstill to deal with a group of closely packed enemies.
I'd like to see this mod grow into something incredible. I literally just made my account to share my thoughts about this mod because of my passion and love for it. Keep up the good work. I eagerly await the next update.
EDIT 2: Bonus idea to further flesh him out. Unique passive shield effects.
Attraction Shields give his fire breath a homing effect, making it easier to hit moving/speedy targets.
Force Shields boost the Body Slam, causing a shockwave (similar to Super Knuckles) upon hitting the ground.
Armageddon Shields give him explosive Sliding Haymakers, causing a small explosion whenever he hits/breaks an enemy or wall.
Whirlwind Shields increase the maximum distance of his Sliding Haymaker, and he rebounds a bit higher off of walls he hits during it.
Elemental Shields can be left alone as he already has access to its spin fire trail effect while moving in his shell, both the Shell Spin and Spike Ball.
Flame Shields upgrade his fire breath (perhaps more range or his firing rate is faster).
Bubble Shields let him rebound off the ground higher than his normal jump height by holding Jump during and after a Body Slam.
Lightning Shields cause sparks of electricity to shoot out during his Shell Spin or Spike Ball, increasing his range slightly by zapping nearby enemies without having to directly run into them (also a nod to Giga Bowser in Smash Bros as his shell could become electrified).
The Sliding Haymaker punch is hard, if not near 100% fatal to execute if there's very little ground, since it always launches you forwards. If you're doing it grounded, you have to pray you time the jump button press correctly to cancel it after hitting the enemy before you skid off the edge. If you're doing it airborne, it's even more risky since the Body Slam drifts forwards a bit on activation before it completely halts all horizontal movement. Being able to punch in place would remedy this, otherwise you'd have to slowly jump and land on the enemy, or if it's airborne, jump into it with a perfectly timed Body Slam so the shell hitbox destroys it... or jump and Shell Spin and pray you don't rebound too quick to stop before you also fall off the edge. Another thing about the Sliding Haymaker is if you input a Body Slam just as the punch is ending, the Body Slam doesn't come out, and you overshoot whatever you were trying to land on. That has lead to a couple deaths for me. Like stated in previous comments, the Sliding Haymaker should be a standstill punch if no directional keys are being held.
The Body Slam is mostly fine, but it's finicky to aim correctly since it doesn't immediately cancel all movement in midair. Trying to land it after a midair Sliding Haymaker over a horizontally moving platform is especially finicky if that delay in completely stopping makes you whiff the edge. Speaking of horizontally moving platforms, I don't know if it effects every instance of these, but after landing a Body Slam on one of them, if Bowser stays in his shell, he stays stationary. The platform will continue to move and literally slip out from underneath him. If he catches the edge of one of these platforms with the Body Slam, he might just end up falling anyway if he doesn't get out of his shell in time. Learned that in the hard way in Aerial Garden.
The Shell Spin, while faithful to how koopa shells behave in Mario games, is way too stiff. Having to constantly cancel it to turn just to launch again creates a slippery stop and go cycle, which can be exacerbated if you accidentally hold a diagonal movement (when playing automatic), or you don't aim the camera just right when strafing, and you don't shoot off in the exact direction you wanted to, resulting in hitting a wall and starting to ricochet out of control.
Seeing as this Bowser is based on his appearance/gameplay from Mario & Luigi Bowser's Inside Story, and looking at previous comments about implementing the Spike Ball, this is my idea for it. "Replace" (I'll get into this later) the Shell Spin with Spike Ball. Holding Spin makes Bowser curl up, and he'll roll forwards at the speed the vanilla characters do when running at normal top speed, and be able to move/turn left and right in the same way. Releasing Spin will cancel it. He can climb walls similar to Knuckles in this state, and unlike the Shell Spin, hazardous floors also won't hurt him (alongside the damage protection it already has). The tradeoff? He can't jump or punch during it, whether it's off the ground or off a wall. To climb walls, he has to reach the wall from the ground. Releasing Spin to uncurl will just make Bowser let go of the wall and drop.
What about the Shell Spin? First of all, remap it. Double tap Spin to Shell Spin (press it again during the punch windup/launch). Second, make it even faster, having a greater speed than the vanilla running speed. He can still jump out of it like normal, and holding Spin to enter Spike Ball cancels it. (EDIT 1: Another way to cancel it is to press Spin again to enter the punch windup, and then press Jump to cancel that. This also lets him chain Sliding Haymakers and Shell Spins back to back). Why do this? This gives Bowser a faster movement option than the Spike Ball with a tradeoff of worse control and being vulnerable to hazardous floors. This would also eliminate the need for Custom 1/2/3 mapping.
Springs are weird with Bowser. I don't know if it was an intentional design choice to get people to Body Slam onto them, but he just doesn't travel as far with some springs. This can be a problem, especially in custom maps if there's no distance leniency coded into the springs for characters with a lower top speed. Bowser sometimes cannot make it, or just fall into bottomless pits if he doesn't Body Slam into the springs. Sometimes increasing his speed with a Sliding Haymaker or Shell Spin doesn't always work as intended either.
Finally, the moment we've all been waiting for... FIRE BREATH. Bowser's staple... the very first attack he ever used against Mario way back in Super Mario Bros. It can be mapped to the Ringslinger mode buttons (Fire & Fire Normal), and it only works when he's outside of his shell. There's a variety of ways to code his fire breath, but I'd say tapping it has him shoot a fireball, and holding it has him breathe a continuous stream of fire at a standstill to deal with a group of closely packed enemies.
I'd like to see this mod grow into something incredible. I literally just made my account to share my thoughts about this mod because of my passion and love for it. Keep up the good work. I eagerly await the next update.
EDIT 2: Bonus idea to further flesh him out. Unique passive shield effects.
Attraction Shields give his fire breath a homing effect, making it easier to hit moving/speedy targets.
Force Shields boost the Body Slam, causing a shockwave (similar to Super Knuckles) upon hitting the ground.
Armageddon Shields give him explosive Sliding Haymakers, causing a small explosion whenever he hits/breaks an enemy or wall.
Whirlwind Shields increase the maximum distance of his Sliding Haymaker, and he rebounds a bit higher off of walls he hits during it.
Elemental Shields can be left alone as he already has access to its spin fire trail effect while moving in his shell, both the Shell Spin and Spike Ball.
Flame Shields upgrade his fire breath (perhaps more range or his firing rate is faster).
Bubble Shields let him rebound off the ground higher than his normal jump height by holding Jump during and after a Body Slam.
Lightning Shields cause sparks of electricity to shoot out during his Shell Spin or Spike Ball, increasing his range slightly by zapping nearby enemies without having to directly run into them (also a nod to Giga Bowser in Smash Bros as his shell could become electrified).
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