Bowser's Tank Terror
Bowser's Tank Terror is a boss minigame that appears in Mario Party 10. The boss minigame of Chaos Castle, it pits the players against Bowser himself.
Intro
The minigame takes place in a volcanic landscape, in the middle of a sea of lava. The players are shown piloting small tanks on a square arena resembling a small castle. The camera focuses on the center of the arena as Bowser is lifted in by an elevator, piloting a large purple tank with five cannons. After laughing at the players, he sits at the controls and roars, beginning the minigame.
Gameplay
Unlike most boss minigames, the gameplay changes drastically between phases.
Phase 1
Initially, players must fire bombs at Bowser's tank, gaining one point per hit. Mushrooms will periodically float into the arena in bubbles; touching one will supersize the player, doubling their damage but reducing their ability to dodge Bowser's attacks. If hit while giant, the player will shrink back to normal.
Bowser mainly attacks by firing spiked bombs from his tank's main cannon, but he can also launch jets of flame from the four cannons on the corners of the vehicle - at this point, he will usually rotate in place to try and catch players off-guard. Being hit by any of Bowser's attacks deducts 2 points from the player's total. Touching Bowser's tank does no damage, but it can still shrink a giant player.
As Bowser takes damage, his tank will begin losing parts of its armor, including its side cannons (which disables one of his flame jets). When his health approaches the halfway point, Bowser will begin using a charge attack that takes 2 points from any player it hits - look for the tank to rev up before it charges and get out of the way.
When Bowser loses half of his health, his tank will explode and hurl him into the lava north of the arena. However, he will quickly return as Dry Bowser, supersizing himself and destroying the outer edges of the arena.
Phase 2
Now on a smaller, rectangular arena, players must continue to fire at Dry Bowser to earn points and deplete his health. Mushrooms will still spawn periodically, enabling players to double their damage output until they get hit.
Dry Bowser mainly attacks by breathing large blue fireballs or throwing bones across the stage. He can also jump into the background (out of the range of the players' cannons) and bombard the stage with fireballs; players should watch for the blue spots and move to another part of the stage. All of Dry Bowser's attacks take 3 points from anyone they hit; his fireballs can redirect the movement of Mushrooms that touch them, but his bone attack will knock them out of the arena.
When Dry Bowser's HP drops to 0, he glows brightly before exploding. The player who landed the finishing blow gets 10 extra points before the result screen is shown; the player with the most points overall wins the minigame.
