I never said to stick to Melee techniques and aspects; in fact, I'm the very last person to suggest going back to Melee fare (on just about any character, mind you; especially Bowser, who I mained in Melee for many years). I just don't think that the Up-B change is nearly as crippling to his gameplay as people are suggesting. You generally have time to put yourself in position to easily do it while attempting to edgeguard. The hitbox is still pretty large. Bowser still has the earliest IASA in the game on his ledge jump (by a LOT, actually). He's still one of the most potent edgeguarders in the game, and this only hinders him in cases where people haven't practiced it OR when speed is of the absolute essence (which is actually an extension of people not practicing; his Up-B movement isn't faster than his run speed).
All very true, plus I have a profound respect for anyone else masochistic enough to main Bowser in melee - high five.
When you do it perfectly, you are just as fast, if not faster, than its previous iteration. You still get all of its benefits in an overwhelming majority of cases (where you don't have to get to the edge ASAP during an edgeguarding situation). This is a game where we want longevity--You should have to practice to be able to squeeze the absolute most out of strong options, and it's still quite lax in comparison to the strictness of the cast's required tech skill as a whole. You have an alternative (in rolling to the edge first). What's missing?
Again, it's not about edgeguarding at all -- I don't believe edgeguarding with it ever even entered the discussion. The complaints (which, again, I've mostly gotten over, but still think are worth discussing) regard Bowser's already crippling lack of safe options
onstage. As you certainly know as a longtime Melee Bowser player, your safest option most of the time was to up-B - and then, if the opponent shielded or dodged it, you had to either mindgame him, or retreat to a ledge to cancel Fortress's significant endlag.
The situation hasn't changed at all in PM, except that now Bowser's hurtbox is unmissably huge. The stage is
never safe for him normally because he's so slow, and it's
never safe for him after an up-B, because he can
never actually place himself in a safe position after using up-B on most stages: the obvious exception being a retreat to the ledge. Fortresshogging to the ledge is now extremely unreliable because of how finicky it is about how fast you can be moving when approaching the ledge in Fortress; combined with how suddenly his momentum changes and the fact that
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JndHdWYgeo doesn't work in PM.
Obviously,
yes, Bowser's tech skill is for the most part inordinately easy, and allows Bowser players at lower levels of play to absolutely crush their friends. Yes, the players on this board are (for the most part)
entirely okay with his tech becoming more difficult to level with the rest of the cast - preferably as a side-effect of him having more options. The 3.0 change doesn't really affect low level play much regardless, but it
does screw Bowser pretty hard at high level play by effectively removing one of his
very very few safe options.
It is possible to slowhog offstage perfectly. It's also possible to do so ten times in a row. But being absolutely required to do so dozens of times under high pressure in a serious tournament setting, with a guaranteed lost stock every time you mess up slightly? But Bowser is the
only character in the game who is literally punished with a lost stock for very slightly messing up tech that is
absolutely essential for him to use on a regular basis in the course of normal, solid gameplay. This is in addition to him already being one of the worst characters in the game. It does nothing to help how unfun Bowser is to play against, and also serves to frustrate Bowser players and make our favorite character even less viable.
I admire the hell out of you, Reflex.
Please don't tell me that you seriously think that this is an acceptable state of affairs.
