Shiny RoboBowser is an enhanced version of Bowser and the final boss of Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam. After Mario, Luigi, and Paper Mario fight both the real-world Bowser and Paper Bowser for some time, Paper Bowser fuses with many of his paper minions, which Bowser then joins with to form the boss. Shiny RoboBowser is a giant version of the "real" Bowser, wearing cardboard armor in his own image (apparently formed from Paper Bowser and his minions). As Shiny RoboBowser takes damage, his armor breaks, ultimately destroying his helmet and allowing Bowser himself to be targeted. After his HP is fully depleted, the boss explodes and Paper Bowser and Bowser fall to the ground, but Bowser stumbles off the arena and falls out of his castle.
Attacks
One of Shiny RoboBowser's attacks involves clashing his fists a number of times before punching at the Mario Bros. After a few punches, he blows a stream of fire at Paper Mario, followed by a giant fireball that slowly goes across the screen. The player must jump as soon as the boss punches, shoots a stream of fire and then the fireball towards Paper Mario, or they will receive massive damage and will be blown off the screen. The amount of times Shiny RoboBowser clashes his fists is the amount of times he will hit the bros before unleashing the stream of fire towards Paper Mario.
Shiny RoboBowser's next attack involves him leaping off-screen and then landing on the targeted bro, squishing them. The player must hammer him back to avoid massive damage. The elliptical wind generated is a visual cue that helps the player figure out which target is Shiny RoboBowser landing on. If the player doesn't hammer at the right time, Shiny RoboBowser will smash one of the bros, dealing massive damage to the targeted bro and moderate damage to the rest of the party via a shockwave. Hammering him a few times will stop the attack. If his armor is intact, Bowser will turn his arms into wings and drop kick one of the Bros. Multiple presses of the character's button will fend off the attack and damage him.
Shiny RoboBowser can also chase the Mario Brothers using his paper wings. Paper Mario, as a paper airplane, should avoid the Fly Guys as Mario & Luigi jump over the incoming Goombas, Spiny Shells and should grab onto Paper Mario to avoid Bowser's fire breath. If the Fly Guys hit Paper Mario, he will be removed for a few seconds, leaving the bros. exposed to Shiny RoboBowser's fire breath. After a while, Bowser will home onto Mario or Luigi. Jumping on his head will deal massive damage to him.
Another one of Shiny RoboBowser's attacks turns his arms into massive cannons. He then jumps away and fires a barrage of projectiles; the purple crystal balls fired from his cannons are aimed at the Mario Bros. (the right cannon aimed towards Mario and the left cannon aimed towards Luigi respectively), while the fireballs from his own mouth will fly towards Paper Mario. Hammering back the projectiles at the boss damages him; if not, the player will suffer major damage and random status effects; the crystal balls inflict Dizzy and the fireballs can inflict Burn.
Shiny RoboBowser can also turn his arms into wheels and chase the trio down. As they run, Mario, Luigi and Paper Mario must jump over Goombas and run underneath Fly Guys who will knock them back at the boss and eliminate them from the chase. Shiny RoboBowser will also shoot fireballs at them, which has the same effect as the minions. At the end of the road, a Chain Chomp will come towards the playable characters, and they must dodge it to trick it into hitting Shiny RoboBowser, knocking him over and ending the sequence in success. If any of the characters gets hit by the Chain Chomp, it will prevent it from crashing into Bowser, which will allow him to speed up and hit any remaining characters at the end.
At any given moment when the armor's helmet is active, or whenever Paper Mario uses his Trio Attack Hammer on the same condition, Shiny RoboBowser will unleash his own version of Paper Mario's Trio Attacks, summoning a giant hammer to transform the trio into paper sheets while trapping them in a paper version of the arena. A unique cutscene will play only once when selecting a Trio Attack in which Shiny RoboBowser will mock the heroes for thinking that their Trio Attack will work, before creating a Trio Attack Hammer of his own to smack Paper Mario's away. During this sequence, Shiny RoboBowser will shoot a stream of fire towards any of the three characters, and the targeted character must jump to avoid the fire. If his eyes are looking up, Shiny RoboBowser will not breathe fire for a while before shooting at the targeted character, which causes the player to lose timing. Jumping too early or jumping as a different character will attract the boss' attention, and release the fire on them after they jump. If any character still remains after the fire attacks, Shiny RoboBowser will get frustrated and unleashed a body slam on all remaining characters. If all characters jump at the right moment, they'll avoid damage. Regardless of whether the Mario Bros. were able to dodge it or not, Starlow will appear once the attack has finished to point out that Shiny RoboBowser's helmet flashed when he used his Trio Attack, and to inform the group to save their Trio Attacks until the helmet has been destroyed.
While the helmet of his armor is active, Shiny RoboBowser is considered a shiny paper enemy; as such, fire attacks deal critical damage to his armor. However, when his helmet is destroyed, he counts as a normal enemy, thereby taking normal damage from all attacks until his armor is regenerated.
During the fight, various shiny paper minions (e.g. Goombas, Koopa Troopas, and Shy Guys) will occasionally enter the fight. While they don't actually attack, Shiny RoboBowser can absorb them at any time to repair his armor and recover health at around 25 HP per minion. These enemies do not give out Sparkle Cards as they are fought alongside the final boss, they do give healing items however. If Shiny RoboBowser's helmet is destroyed, all of the minions run away from the fight.
Additionally, if the armor is destroyed, Shiny RoboBowser can absorb minions to restore the armor with 650 HP. If he's enraged, he'll only restore 476 HP when using this attack.
Stats
| Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam enemy | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bowser (2) | ||||||||||
|
HP | 2145 | POW | 350 (300) | Defense | 358 (300) | Speed | 229 | ||
| Role | Boss | Type | Paper, Shelled | Weakness | None | Location(s) | Neo Bowser Castle | |||
| Level | 40 | Experience | 0 (0) | Coins | 0 | Item drop | None - 0% None - 0% | |||
| Notice: Stats in parentheses are from the game's Easy Mode. | ||||||||||
| Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam enemy | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shiny RoboBowser | ||||||||||
|
HP | 850 | POW | 350 (300) | Defense | 358 (300) | Speed | 229 | ||
| Role | Support | Type | Paper, Shelled | Weakness | None | Location(s) | Neo Bowser Castle | |||
| Level | 40 | Experience | 0 (0) | Coins | 0 | Item drop | None - 0% None - 0% | |||
| Notice: Stats in parentheses are from the game's Easy Mode. | ||||||||||
Names in other languages
| Language | Name | Meaning | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Japanese | クッパアーマー[?] Kuppa āmā |
Bowser Armor | |
| German | Glitzer-Rüstung[?] | Shiny Armor | |
| Italian | Bowser corazzato[?] | Armored Bowser | |
| Portuguese (NOE) | Bowser com Armadura[?] | Bowser with Armor | |
| Russian | Бронебоузер[?] Bronebouzer |
Armored Bowser | |
| Spanish (NOA) | Bowser Cartorazado[?] | "Cartorazado" comes from Cartón (cardboard) and Acorazado (armored) |
Trivia
- Shiny RoboBowser is the third final boss in the Mario & Luigi series to be a fusion of Bowser with another character (or in this case, multiple characters).
- Additionally, Shiny RoboBowser continues the series' trend of the final boss being a different form or derivative of Bowser, following Bowletta (Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga), Shrowser (Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time), Dark Bowser (Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story), and Dreamy Bowser (Mario & Luigi: Dream Team).
- Shiny RoboBowser is similar to the final boss of Yoshi's Safari, which was also Bowser wearing a suit of mechanized armor.
- Shiny RoboBowser is the second enemy and first final boss in the Mario & Luigi series to not use 2D sprites like most characters, and is instead a 3D model, along with the Dark Block enemies from Mario & Luigi: Dream Team and Cackletta's spirit form from Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions.
- Counting the armor's HP (as the armor is required to be to destroyed to defeat the boss), Shiny RoboBowser has the highest total stats of all mandatory bosses in the Mario & Luigi series (not counting Chakron).