Captain Olimar

Captain Olimar (, Captain Olimar) is a character from the series. Due to an unfortunate encounter with a meteor during an interstellar vacation, Olimar's spaceship crash lands onto an unknown planet. By chance, he encounters an indigenous plant/animal hybrid species he dubs Pikmin, a species that he would unknowingly wind up befriending and then encountering on subsequent adventures.

After making a cameo in Super Smash Bros. Melee as a trophy, Olimar and the transitioned into playable characters in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and have remained as such since then.

Origin
Captain Olimar hails from the planet. As a Hocotatian, Olimar has a humanoid appearance that displays a number of distinct traits: he is extremely minuscule in size (being ≈1.9 cm, ≈0.75 in tall), has a large head-to-body ratio, a bulbous nose, pointy ears, small tufts of hair and hyphen-shaped eyes that, during moments of surprise, comically bulge out and appear similar to human eyes.

Facets of Captain Olimar's personality are revealed via his journal and voyage log: he is caring and dedicated to his family, values his camaraderie with the Pikmin to the point of worrying if they stray too far or feeling shame if an entire group of them is killed off, considers himself a patron of the arts, and mentions that he "always had a way with animals" (the latter of which is further reinforced via his entries). Although he has a generally nice personality, Olimar also shows signs of snark in some entries, and acknowledges in some journal entries that his dedication to his job can cause him to feel distant from his family.

Captain Olimar debuted in the Nintendo GameCube game, , where he is the playable character. His first adventure details how his vacation is derailed due to his ship, the, crash landing on an uncharted planet after it is struck by a meteor. Upon waking from unconsciousness, he discovers that the S.S. Dolphin has been severely damaged and that his life support system will expire in thirty days; this is further compounded by the planet's atmosphere being rich in Oxygen, which is poisonous to Hocotatians, and thus prompts Olimar to immediately begin repairing his ship.

Olimar stumbles upon a sentient, indigenous plant/animal hybrid species, which he dubs Pikmin; he effectively enlists them to help him find his ship's parts. Although there are three possible endings to Pikmin, the canon ending sees Olimar return home with the S.S. Dolphin fully repaired, segueing directly into the beginning of .

In the beginning of Pikmin 2, it is revealed that Olimar's employer,, wound up accruing a colossal debt during the events of Pikmin because of a falsified report by a fellow employee named. Upon Olimar's return, the company was forced to sell the S.S. Dolphin after he had spent weeks repairing it - lowering the debt to 10,100 s. The shock of the revelation of the company's fate causes Olimar to drop a bottle cap that he brought home as a souvenir for his son. However, an old Hocotate Freight Ship analyzes the cap and discovers that it is worth 100 pokos, an extraordinary amount (worth more than a year's salary); when learns about how there are more objects like the bottle cap on the distant planet, he makes Olimar and Louie return there in the Hocotate Freight Ship to gather treasure to pay off the company's debt. After obtaining 10,000 pokos' worth of treasure, Olimar accidentally leaves the planet without Louie, forcing Olimar to team up with the President to save him.

In , Olimar is not the main protagonist, although he still plays an important role in the game's story. Having returned to the distant planet (dubbed "PNF-404" by the tes) in search of more treasure in order to buy back the S.S. Dolphin and pay off Hocotate Freight's second instance of debt, Olimar salvages the dropped by the S.S. Drake, forcing Alph,  and  to seek him out so they can reclaim it and repair their ship. In the end, they find that he has been captured by the Plasm Wraith, which they defeat to save him before departing for their respective home planets.

In , some time has passed after the events of Pikmin 3 as Olimar is travelling in space. During his journey, however, he encounters an asteroid shower, which he is unsuccessful in avoiding. Upon being hit, his ship, the, crash lands on an unknown planet. Interestingly, this planet is similar to PNF-404 in regard to terrain and even some species, most notably Pikmin. Although he is assisted by the S.S. Dolphin II's artificial intelligence, Olimar must nevertheless ally with Pikmin yet again in order to return home, this time by acquiring enough in order to refuel the Dolphin II, and by regaining the ship's.

After many trials and tribulations, the S.S. Dolphin II's AI finally manages to pinpoint the location of the Sparklium Converter. Upon defeating the, Olimar and the Pikmin regain the Converter, which Olimar later discovers to have inadvertently caused the 's parasitic tendencies to go out of control because of an influx of energy. After fully repairing the ship, Olimar bids farewell to the Pikmin before launching into space, with the Pikmin boarding their Onion and following him in order to see him off. Olimar and the Dolphin II's AI both say one final goodbye to the Pikmin and, upon activating the ship's warp, Olimar manages to return to Hocotate after some time, thankful for being helped by Pikmin once again.

In Super Smash Bros. Melee
Captain Olimar makes only one minor appearance in Super Smash Bros. Melee.

Trophy
Captain Olimar's trophy is uniquely obtained by booting up Melee while having a save file of Pikmin on the same memory card. The trophy is unlocked as soon as the game is started.

As a playable character
The universe is established as a main universe in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, with Olimar becoming a playable character. Captain Olimar is featured along with the as a single playable character entity. Like in his home series, Olimar is very weak on his own and needs to summon Pikmin to his side with his Pikmin Pluck neutral special move in order to use stronger attacks with them, and he needs at least one to use most of his attacks.

Due to his great damage racking capabilities, very good camping game, and being quite unpredictable due to the different types of Pikmin, Olimar is currently ranked 3rd on the tier list.

As a playable character
Olimar returns as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. 4. Aesthetically, his design is now based on his appearance in : he has a on the bottom of his helmet, the two top buttons on his spacesuit are blue instead of red, and both of his sleeves feature a  patch. Like the Koopalings, Alph from Pikmin 3 also appears as an alternate character; unlike them, he has his own alternate costumes, which reference fellow Pikmin 3 protagonists and, as well as Olimar himself. Olimar was the first veteran to be confirmed after those revealed at E3 2013.

Olimar is currently ranked 21st on the tier list, placing him at the top of the C tier. He was notably nerfed, as the number of Pikmin he can have by his side was halved from six to three, which weakens his overall damage output and camping potential. However, he received various buffs in other areas, with the most beneficial one being Winged Pikmin replacing Pikmin Chain as his recovery move. In comparison to Pikmin Chain, Winged Pikmin is capable of much greater recovery distance, as it is not a tether. Other buffs include a more powerful forward tilt, and a stronger forward smash. Despite his nerfs, Olimar is still seen as a relatively viable choice for competitive play, and he has gained some decent representation.

As a playable character
Olimar returns alongside every other fighter in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, this time as an unlockable character. Olimar is classified as fighter #40, and Alph returns as an alternate character. Olimar uses Pikmin to assist him in attacking his foes, with a core playstyle revolving around managing and using his various Pikmin combinations to his advantage. Thanks to the Pikmin gaining overall higher damage outputs, improved grab utility, and transcendent priority when they are used for aerials, Olimar has improved significantly since his appearance in SSB4 and gained impressive tournament results to reflect his improvements.

Trivia

 * At ≈1.9 cm (≈0.75 inches) tall, Olimar is canonically the shortest playable character in the Super Smash Bros. series as of Super Smash Bros. Brawl. This distinction was previously held by Kirby, who was listed at 20 cm (8 inches) tall in Super Smash Bros. Melee (which was previously canonized in ) before the sizes of characters and structures in the Kirby series became depicted very inconsistently following The Crystal Shards.
 * Although numerous playable characters feature different characters as alternate costumes and essentially share their playable slot with them, Olimar, Bowser Jr., and Steve are the only ones who are listed as distinctly different from their respective alternate characters when they are selected on the character selection screen.
 * Olimar has the most non-damaging special moves in the entire Super Smash Bros. series, with a total of three. He is also the only fighter to have more than two non-damaging special moves.