Bowser vs. Kirby Super Smash Bros. 4 tiers, match-up votes and discussion

I see this as an even matchup. Kirby can keep Bowser in the air and pull off long combos, but a few good hits from Bowser will kill Kirby.

This matchup is slightly advantaged for Bowser. Kirby gets kept out by Bowser's range, and despite Kirby being light, Bowser still combos him reliably from up throw. While Kirby has his own combos, they generally aren't as scary considering how Fire Breath and Bowser's spacing exploit Kirby's hot-and-cold neutral. As such, Bowser wins the neutral, damage racking, and killing. The Whirling Fortress buffs make it more difficult for Kirby to successfully gimp Bowser with his down air, while Bowser has his own set of strong aerials that can really put a recovering Kirby in a lethal situation. Kirby has to rely on punishes and reads more than in previous games to get safe hits. This can be difficult considering that Bowser's Tough Guy can cut through jab 1 until 74%, or 119% if Bowser is crouching. The entire jab infinite cannot penetrate Tough Guy, with the exception of the finishing hit. Overall, Bowser's power, surprising damage racking, and neutral give him a pretty solid 6/4 over Kirby, and more Bowsers believe it is 7/3 than 5/5.