Bowser's Tank Terror

Bowser's Tank Terror
General information
Games	Mario Party 10
Type	Boss (major)
Time	Infinite
Availability	Unlocked by completing Chaos Castle
In-game information
Description	Attack with the 2 button! Power up with Mushrooms!
Controls	D-pad - Move 2 - Fire

Bowser's Tank Terror is one of ten boss minigames in Mario Party 10. It is featured as the final boss minigame, being featured in Chaos Castle; after the player clears the board, the minigame can be selected for free play. Bowser appears as the players' opponent here, hence the name.

Introduction

The characters are shown piloting four tanks matching their respective colours. Bowser is lifted up into the battlefield with a larger, purple tank as he laughs evilly. After laughing at the players, Bowser sits at the controls and roars, beginning the minigame.

Gameplay

This minigame is unique due to the gameplay changing drastically between phases when Bowser loses half his health.

Phase 1

Bowser initially attacks by firing shots from his tank and spinning with flame jets. The characters have to retaliate by shooting Bowser's tank with bombs fired from theirs. Each hit deals 1 point of damage. Super Mushrooms float into the arena via Bubbles, granting their wielder an attack boost (two points per strike) while lowering the wielder's speed. Any character that gets hit in big form will revert back to their normal size, losing two points. He can also launch flame jets from the four cannons on the corners of the vehicle—at this point, he usually rotates in place to try to catch players offguard. Being hit by any of Bowser's attacks deducts two points from the player's total.

For every 12.5% of his health bar Bowser loses, one flame jet is disabled for the rest of the game, including its side cannons while disabling one of his flame jets. However, at 75% HP, Bowser will gain a charging attack. When his health is nearing the halfway point, Bowser begins using a charge attack that takes away two points from any player it hits.

When Bowser loses half of his health (and when the point counter without deduction reaches 143), Bowser's tank blows up and hurls into the lava north of the arena as the characters head to set positions along the middle row. A cutscene then plays showing Dry Bowser emerging from the lava, enlarging himself and destroying the outer edges of the arena with a monstrous and enraged roar.

Phase 2

Now on a smaller, rectangular arena, players must continue to fire at Dry Bowser to earn points and deplete his health. Mushrooms still spawn periodically, enabling players to double their damage output until they get hit.

Dry Bowser mainly attacks by breathing large blue fireballs and/or throwing bones across the stage. He can also jump out of range of the characters' attacks and bombard the stage with fireball meteors. These attack patterns are repeated one after another. All of Dry Bowser's attacks take three points from anyone they hit; his fireballs can redirect the Super Mushrooms' movement that touch them, but his bone attack knocks the mushrooms out of the arena entirely.

The player who lands the finishing blow gets 10 extra points before the result screen is shown. The player with the most points overall wins the minigame.

Ending

Upon reaching zero health, Dry Bowser clutches his stomach in pain while a light inside his torso glows brightly before exploding.

Trivia

• Bowser has 286 hit points in total, across both phases, which means 143 hit points between the two phases. Since the player who lands the finishing blow gets 10 extra points, the perfect or maximum score for this boss minigame is 296 or 297.
• Whether Dry Bowser is another mecha piloted by Bowser himself or actually Bowser transformed is unknown.
• This is the only boss minigame where the icon changes.
• When listening closely to Dry Bowser's voice clips, they sound more menacing due to the bones of his body rattling and his voice having a booming quality when he roars like those found in Mario Kart Wii or Mario Tennis Open, compared to other instances.
  • Said boss also contains a reused voiceclip where one of Dry Bowser's losing voicelines from Mario Kart Wii were later used when Dry Bowser is fully defeated.