After $hlmun attempts at the boss, and managing to get to the boss’s “second stage” many, many times only to lose the ball through no fault of my own, I finally managed to launch Bowser out of the castle and into the sky. Which, unsurprisingly, completed the game.
I’ve never known a game to be so easy all of the way through, and then have a boss so difficult (and very much reliant on sheer luck) at the end. Thankfully, though, this thorn that has been in my side for months is now removed. If only I could figure out what to do to get Super Princess Peach to allow me to play the end of game boss…
According to Edge this month, you need to rescue all three Toads on each level.
I suspected this would be the case. Bah.