KEEPING UP WITH THE BOSSES #2: KING BOWSER

If I'm running a series about video game bosses, I should definitely dedicate an episode to what is probably the most iconic gaming antagonist there is.


To IGN, he's only the runner-up to GLaDoS.

But what should I talk about during the article? He has many different boss fights across countless games. Well, while the boss battles often stay fresh and innovative, there's one base rule that they all follow (unless you bring powerups, even then there's a few exceptions):

Your own character's abilities don't work.

This is the main reason he's threatening: Your main method of attacking in Mario games is jumping, which doesn't work on Bowser. Instead, there's usually something in the boss arena you have to use.


I wonder what happens if I grab that axe...

In Super Mario Bros. 3, you make him break the arena until he falls into the abyss. In Super Mario 64, you throw him into bombs. In Super Mario Sunshine, you shatter his arena. And so on. Even Super Mario RPG, which is a turn-based battle with timed hits, follows this rule.


"Mario! Aim for the chain!"

As I mentioned in a footnote before, using powerups changes this up - many powerups do hurt Bowser. Most notably, you can shoot him with fireballs in the 2D platformers, beat him faster in SMB3 with hammers or just run him over with a Mega Mushroom. This also extends to Mario Party 4 - on his board, he'll extort money from you when you walk past him. If you have a Maxi Shroom, however, you'll face him in a wrestling match (which involves a minigame).


You can also do a catfight in this minigame.

Starting with New Super Mario Bros. Wii, several Bowser boss fights feature a chase segment after an easy 'fight' reminiscent to the original game. In it, you run across an autoscrolling segment (which could involve dodging Bowser's attacks) and try to hit something at the very end - usually a switch, but it's a massive POW block in one instance. This focuses the boss fight onto platforming, allowing it to play out like the levels before and therefore not require the player to use any new skills.

Speaking of skills, some Bowser battles involve utilizing a move or a control input that's shown/explained early on but doesn't really have any use until you fight Bowser. In Super Mario World, throwing items upwards rarely has any use after Yoshi's Island 1 explains it, but you need to do it to hit Bowser with his Mechakoopas. Grabbing and spinning around enemies is explained in Super Mario 64's manual. Guess who's the only enemy it can be used on. Spin Attacks can be used in Super Mario Galaxy to knock over enemies (which are usually beaten by just jumping on them once), which is how you make Bowser vulnerable to a ground pound (after using the arena to stagger him, of course).

So that's a 30 year long-running villain done. Leave a comment if there's any requests for a boss you want me to write an article about.