Squirtle (PM)

Squirtle is a playable character in the Brawl mod Project M. Like and, it has been separated from the  and so fights alone. Its down special move, Pokémon Change, has been replaced with. Since his Brawl incarnation has also been given significant buffs.

Squirtle is ranked 31st out of 41 on the official tier list and is placed toward the lower half of the C tier. This is roughly the same as its placement as part of the Pokémon Trainer in Brawl, where it ranked 29th out of 38.

Attributes
In Project M, Squirtle's kit puts a strong emphasis on movement. Able to out-maneuver most opponents, Squirtle can play evasively while looking for an opening before launching into fast-paced combos to carry opponents to the side blastzones or kill off the top. Squirtle's access to fast burst movement options through its unique run turnaround animation, shellshift, and low friction on the ground enable it to quickly chase down escaping opponents even offstage, where its remarkable up-special allows it to effectively gimp opponents and return to stage from practically anywhere.

However, the trade-off is that Squirtle has generally unimpressive range on his attacks and grab. Squirtle plays similarly to in his short range, low profile, good mobility and powerful up smash, and shares the weakness of light weight, but is generally more grounded as a result of his wider variety of ground movement options and advanced techniques.

Changes from Brawl to PM
In Brawl, Squirtle was tied to the and was considered the strongest Pokémon in its party by far. Squirtle has now been separated from its trainer and its moveset has been significantly revamped. As a result, Squirtle received a mix of buffs and nerfs. Squirtle's mobility has been improved further due to its increased speed and the introducution of various mechanics such as wavedashing. The strength of many of its attacks has also increased and the general changes to Project M's physics further improve Squirtle's combo game. Squirtle's specials moves have also been heavily revamped to make them more effective. Due to being a solo character, Squirtle has a new down-special move, Bubble. Bubble's hitboxes are transcendent, similar to 's lasers, and will trip the opponent like 's banana, making it a valuable tool to combat crouch cancel. In addition, using Bubble while airborne will cause Squirtle's vertical momentum to stall for a short period, making it situationally usable as a recovery tool.

Another major change is the addition of the move Aqua Jet as a powerful kill option. Aqua Jet can be activated by using Squirtle's side-special move, Withdraw. If Squirtle is in contact with an opponent during the first five frames of Withdraw and the player is holding B, the initial move will be canceled with a strong hit upwards and a water particle effect, sending Squirtle into special fall. Though this move is similar to Rest in terms of usage, it is nearly identical to 's up-aerial in terms of damage and knockback, but sends at an angle that is five degrees shallower. Squirtle's neutral-special, Water Gun, was also improved. It now produces damaging hitboxes and is overall a more effective tool at walling out opponents.

However, Squirtle did also receive some nerfs. The most notable nerfs come from its separation from the Pokémon Trainer. Because of this, Squirtle can no longer switch out with or  to improve its endurance, kill power and generally cover up its bad matchups. This also means that Squirtle is no longer affected by type effectiveness greatly hindering its endurance against fire attacks. As for direct nerfs, Squirtle's air acceleration was decreased making it harder to weave in and out in the air and Squirtle's aerials have considerably less range making it harder for Squirtle to wall out its opponents in mid-air. Some of Squirtle's moves including down smash and down aerial also have reduced KO power despite the improvements Squirtle's other KO moves received. The first hit of Squirtle's neutral attack has considerably less utility as it's slower and it can no longer lock opponents.

Overall, Squirtle is a more viable choice for competitive play due to no longer being bogged down by stamina, extremely slow and punishable switching between its party and its trainer's other less effective Pokémon which it was forced to switch between. Despite this, according of the latest tier list, Squirtle is now worse than its previous party members Ivysaur and Charizard. While Squirtle is lower in tier list than it was in Brawl (as predicted if judged as a standalone character) Squirtle in PM is overall much more viable thanks to the better balance.

Moveset
Up to date as of version 3.6.

Notable tech
Labbing Discord Tech Post

Notable players

 * - Ranked 39th on PMRank 2019.
 * - The best Squirtle player in the world. Ranked 13th on PMRank 2019.
 * - The best Squirtle player in Europe.
 * - Placed 17th at Undertow.

Project M
Like Ivysaur and Charizard, Squirtle received more significant alternate costumes for Project M. It now uses its default costume for the Blue Team.

Each of Squirtle's new color schemes are mostly based on other Pokémon.
 * The green one (used for Green Team) is based on.
 * The orange one (used for Red Team) is based on.
 * The yellow one is based on Koopa Troopa.
 * The pink one is based on Mew.
 * The purple one is based on a Shiny . Fittingly, this recolor emits sparkles in Project+ like in the mainline games.

In addition, it also has an alternate costume where it is dressed out as a Shinobi ninja, as well as a white recolor for said costume. Additional recolors were added in Project+.

Project+
Squirtle gains a new recolor that references the mythical kappa, a Japanese demon that takes the form of a turtle, as well as recolors that reference other turtle Pokemon and, as well the Generation V water starter. The Shinobi costume also gains team colors, and a black costume that resembles.



Z-Secret Costume: Alternate Ninja Squirtle: A costume that may be a reference to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise.

R-Secret Costume: Rescue Team Squirtle: Based on Squirtle's appearance in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team, and their remake, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX.

Trivia

 * Unlike the two other Final Smashes, Squirtle's new Final Smash, Water Spout, is a move in the original Pokémon games that can only be learned through breeding (specifically chain breeding).
 * Project M also has Squirtle use the move in a different fashion compared to its primary users in most Pokémon-based media (where water is normally fired from a blowhole).