Duration: 29:23

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The next character is Bowser.

Holy cow is Bowser hard to play. If it weren't for the fact that he gains a bajillion lives whenever he uses the fireballs, completing the Mario Challenge would have been pretty difficult. Note that by the end of the video I have been LPing for 2.5 hours straight (in total between Ninja Bomberman, Wario and this), so my speech starts to become a little disjointed. I kept in some footage from the first two levels even though I get nowhere because I wanted to show my first attempts at playing with him.

Some Observations:
-Bowser is probably the most likely character to be forced to reroll since he is the least maneuverable character in the game and can't make jumps that other characters find easy.
-Bowser *really* likes powerup blocks.
-One major advantage that Bowser has is that he will always gain a second-tier powerup from a powerup block, unlike other characters who will get a mushroom at low HP.
-This makes it really easy to reach a powerup state with Bowser, as there is often a powerup block towards the start of a level that other characters cannot capitalize on.
-Fireballs are really powerful, as they destroy virtually anything; I figure that they have the properties of a thrown shell.
-Fireballs also allow combos to get tons of lives. I'd guess that this is a bug rather than a feature, and I also suspect that everybody is already aware of this.
-The Leaf is great for Bowser, as it gives him some much needed mobility, and a really high vertical jump height.
-Strong powerup usage is probably Bowser's greatest strength.
-Bowser can punch by default, but it's so slow that you have to be very careful not to careen into something, or fall too low if in the water.
-Bowser doesn't like moving platforms since he finds it difficult to do the quick dodging that is often required, and if you punch it's very easy to fall off.
-Bowser's minion system is a really flavourful addition, but I struggle to find practical uses for some of his minions.
-The minions that just run forward usually don't do anything that I couldn't have done just by walking forwards and punching a little further ahead.
-Parakoopas could probably make a nice shield, but they're more effective if you have the chance to set it up ahead of time.
-Setting up the shield in the middle of combat (or to deal with Rinkas) is difficult because you have to do a slow punch to get it started.
-Minions don't help at all with platforming, which is Bowser's largest weakness.
-I still don't know what all the powerup types or minions do, but they aren't available in every level anyways, so I feel like I still have a pretty good idea of how Bowser plays on average.

Some Suggestions (no clue about their feasibility):
-I think Bowser should be tankier than he is. I'd imagine that Bowser would take more hits than other characters, not less. In my opinion, at least, the optimal system would be that Bowser would still get a second-tier powerup from every block (regardless of HP), but he'd gain two extra hits instead of one. This would solidify him as the tankiest character in the game without giving him four hits (which would be a boring idea).
-I think that Bowser should run by default (without having to hold Y) like Link does. Right now, you have to punch in order to start running, which is hilariously slow. Other characters like Klonoa (as mentioned in the other thread) have this problem as well, but it's to a lesser extent.