Bowser Jr.

Junior is ready to joust! Toy and tussle with your foes with this fresh yet familiar take on the Koopa King’s heir!

Bowser Jr. plays not too differently from how he does in the Super Smash Bros. series, although this iteration comes with a few surprises.

While not his central gimmick by any means, Bowser Jr does have a hover mechanic that works very similarly to Pomme’s. He can hover in midair left and right if the jump button is held down in the air in any passive aerial state, and the fastest way to activate hover is by holding down while jumping.

He may attack during this hover, and while he’ll continue to hover during some of these attacks, others will make him stop automatically.

Ditching the mechakoopa, Bowser Jr. utilizes another obstacle often seen on his airship: a cannon. When deployed, it targets the closest opponent and fires weak cannonballs their way. If they were to be parried, they’ll blow up the cannon when it touches it again. If the cannon were to be blown up by any means, it’ll take a second for him to be able to call for a new one.

Much like his neutral special in Smash, the Junior Clown Car will deploy a cannon from its mouth and fire a large cannonball from it. The move can be charged, and the cannonball’s speed, distance, and active time will depend on the shot’s charge. Charge can be stored by dodging out of the attack, although if Bowser Jr. were to be hit during charge, KO’d, or parried, he’ll lose whatever charge he has stored. Furthermore, he can hover during this attack, and firing in the air with charge will send him backwards a bit.

The cannonball itself will eventually fall down either after a certain amount of time depending on its charge, or after it bouncing off of a wall or opponent. Parrying the cannonball will launch it back in Junior’s direction (although he can parry it back). Lastly, the cannonball can even be loaded into the homing cannon, which will fire it at the nearest opponent at the same speed and charge it was loaded in with. However, this will cause the cannon to explode.

This move is pretty much identical to its Smash counterpart, whereas the Junior Clown Car’s bottom half transforms into a kart and begins to charge forth, hitting anyone in his way. Pressing attack, special, or the opposite direction will make the Clown Car spin out and deliver a hard hit to anyone nearby, and even knock forth the homing cannon if its in reach.

Junior can also make the car jump once both on the ground and airborne, and may be cancelled with a double jump (which will be restored through this move’s use) or a wall jump. This attack will also cancel his hover, and he cannot hover after finishing/canceling the attack in the air.

Similar to its iteration in Smash, Bowser Jr. will launch high out of the Junior Clown Car and go into a state where he can only airdodge, walljump, and swing his paintbrush, as the Clown Car will explode around where the move was used. In Rivals, however, holding left or right will make him launch more prominently in that direction while the clown car falls in the opposite way. Junior will get the clown car back either by touching the ground again, getting KO’d, or pressing attack or special after getting hit.

If he were to land in the homing cannon during his mechless state, he’ll be launched out of the cannon with his clown car back towards the nearest opponent. This will cause the cannon to explode though.

– Junior can be rather vocal when attacking and taunting, so if you’re not a fan of his voice, you may press the mute button on the character select screen
– Holding jump during aerial attacks can make Junior hover after the attack ends
– BAir is a very commital aerial that has a lot of range, a powerful sweetspot, and will turn Junior the other direction on use
– Holding the other direction when finishing FSpecial in the air will make him travel less horizontal distance, which can be useful offstage
– FStrong can spike opponents in the air, making for a very funny edgeguarding tool if timed right
– NSpecial’s cannonballs can hit opponents when falling down, too, and they’ll be knocked away and can hit Junior when they’re hit by an opponent’s hitbox
– USpecial will automatically restore Junior’s air dodge and wall jump in exchange for being relatively helpless otherwise

All Coding and Animation – TheSmashWaffle
Additional SFX – New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Super Mario Galaxy, Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and Team Fortress 2
Notable Beta Testers – VVizard, Salmon Ry, and Zay

Flophawk for hosting the RoA (from mario) Jam
Zay for additional color pallets and trailer clips
Short King for showing me a more convenient method of making animation sketches

Dedicated to Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of Super Mario Bros. and Bowser Jr’s mother, Caety Sagoian, the voice of Bowser Jr, the many other minds and talents behind the Mario series, and to the Rivals Workshop community, for continuing to motivate and support me throughout my projects.