Olimar (SSBB)

This article is about Captain Olimar's appearance in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. For other uses, see Captain Olimar and Pikmin (species).

Olimar
Olimar
Universe	Pikmin
Appears in	SSBB
Availability	Starter
Tier	Middle (18)

Olimar, also known as Pikmin & Olimar (ピクミン＆オリマー, Pikumin ando Orimā) is a playable character from the Pikmin series in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Olimar's fighter design in Brawl is collectively comprised of Captain Olimar himself, the main character of Pikmin, as well as his band of multi-colored Pikmin, coming in red, blue, yellow, purple, and white. Olimar is very weak on his own, and needs Pikmin to do Smash attacks and 4/5 aerial attacks and all throws. Each Pikmin has different effects for certain attacks.

He ranks 18th on the current tier list, and is speculated to rise in later updates once his tournament wins escalate. He is a quick-hitting, high-powered character, but his abysmal recovery keeps him out of the higher tiers.

Pikmin types and effects

Most types of Pikmin, will drown if the water isn't shallow. (Blue Pikmin are an exception.) Pikmin may survive if Olimar is quick to retrieve them from the water but, unfortunately, Red Pikmin will be destroyed immediately upon coming in contact with the water.

Red Pikmin File:Pikmin 080111b.jpg

• Deliver the most damage and has the second highest knockback.
• Attacks imbued with incendiary properties.
• Immune to fire.
• Are destroyed as soon as they make contact with deep water.

Yellow Pikmin

• Range of attack slightly longer than usual.
• Travel in slight arcs when thrown.
• Attacks imbued with electrical properties.
• Immune to electricity.

Blue Pikmin

• Does more damage and knockback when used in throws.
• Slightly more durable than average.
• Can swim and does not drown.
• Grab range increases when using them.

Purple Pikmin

• Doesn’t fly far when thrown.
• Fairly large and easy to land attacks on compared to the other pikmin. This is especially due to it's speed as well.
• Delivers the highest amount of knockback, although not the most damage.
• Slams into enemies instead of latching on when thrown. This can be used to knock an enemy off the ledge if they are grabbing it at the time.
• Very slow, in fact, the slowest of all pikmin

White Pikmin

• Flies very far when thrown.
• Quick and light.
• Normal attacks do little damage and knockback.
• When latched onto opponent, poison does additional damage.
• Most damaging Pikmin (can do up to 36% damage if thrown onto opponent, 54% if they don't move).
• Pummel damage is much higher than other Pikmin.

Role in the Subspace Emissary

In the Subspace Emissary, a cutscene shows Olimar using his Pikmin to try to destroy a gigantic, sleeping R.O.B. However, the robot wakes up, and performs an Arm Rotor, easily shaking off and kills most of the Pikmin. Olimar cringes, and a red Pikmin taps his side, pointing out the speeding object approaching them. The speeding object turns out to be the Blue Falcon, which Captain Falcon jumps out, and uses Falcon Punch to destroy the giant R.O.B. On landing, he slides, kills the remaining Pikmin, and poses victoriously, leaving only the red one by Olimar's side alive. Afterwards, he teams up with Olimar and the Pikmin. Later, they team up with Diddy Kong, then Donkey Kong, then Samus and Pikachu, then R.O.B., to fight Meta Ridley. Towards the end, Olimar, his Pikmin, and everyone else glimpse Tabuu. In a single, devastating act, Tabuu turns everyone into trophies. All are brought back to life due to the Dedede Badges and efforts of Kirby, Luigi, Ness, and King Dedede. With the aid of Sonic, Tabuu becomes vulnerable, and a final battle between the characters and Tabuu begins.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Most damaging projectiles in the game (White Pikmin can do up to 36% damage each).
• Pikmin Pluck is very fast.
• Tilts and smashes all have long range and decent knockback.
• Down Smash has little vertical and much horizontal knockback.
• Forward Smash, Pikmin Throw, his grab, and certain other moves have similar animations, making it difficult to tell what he is doing.
• Dependence on Pikmin Throw allows Olimar to be an effective "B-Sticking" character.
• Small target.
• Quick attacks.
• High priority attacks.
• Pikmin Order gives Super Armor Frames.
• Neutral Grab has the biggest range of all the characters, combine with very quick grab and little lag if missed, giving Olimar the best grab in the game.
• Side throw has great knockback, can KO with it.
• Powerful aerial attacks.
• Can perform a variation of the Ken Combo and is arguably better than Marth due to high stun with Yellow pikmin.
• Racks up damage really quickly.
• Pikmin Chain can be the longest tether recovery in the game
• Pikmin Throw creates a mental distraction as the player feels the need to get rid of them. Allowing Olimar to have good control of the match. Also when people are returning from off the edge Olimar can throw a pikmin on them racking up some quick damage.
• Has a decent easy to hit with spike.
• All Pikmin have the ability to Meteor Smash the opponent, making Olimar one of the most deadly meteor smashers in the game.
• If some of Olimar's attacks connect with a more overpowering attack, instead of taking damage, Olimar will just lose a Pikmin (or the Pikmin will just go flying off).
• Pikmin act like a miniature Sandbag, blocking projectiles and can even make Ike's Side special simply swing at a Pikmin, even if the Pikmin is on Ike himself.
• Olimar's throws still go through, even if Olimar is hit.

Cons:

• Dependant on Pikmin for all of his smashes, grabs, specials, and 4 out of 5 aerials.
• Very steep learning curve due to Pikmin organization.
• Recovery length entirely dependent on number of Pikmin and can fail if there is not enough. Being a tether makes his recovery easily edgeguarded.
• Very Light, and therefore easy to knockout.
• Easy to juggle due to being Floaty.
• Bad air speed.
• If Olimar is fighting on a stage with water such as Jungle Japes and The Summit he will lose all of his Pikmin except the Blue Pikmin when he lands in the water, making him extra vulnerable (although stages with water that's shallow enough to walk in like Rumble Falls will not cause the non-Blue Pikmin to drown).
• Dependence on tether makes him easy to edgehog against. This can be averted by having the Purple Pikmin in front to hit the enemy while edgehogging and grab the ledge, but the Purple Pikmin must be last in the Pikmin line-up.
• Slow walking speed.
• Gains no Super Armor from grabs.

Standard Moves

Olimar Attacks

Normal

• Neutral attack - Olimar headbutts twice. 15% damage.
• Dash attack - Olimar does sort of a tripping cartwheel. 11% damage.
• Strong Side - Olimar kicks both legs forward, falling to the ground. 6% damage.
• Strong Up - Olimar jumps a little and spins in place, hitting multiple times. The last hit has significant knockback. Similar to his neutral aerial. 11% damage.
• Strong Down - Olimar does a headbutt along the ground. 8% damage.

Aerial

• Neutral Aerial - Olimar spins in place, hitting multiple times. The last hit has significant knockback. 12% damage.

Pikmin Attacks

All of the Following moves use the next Pikmin in the Order to perform the given attack, and the knockback and damage are dependant on the Pikmin type. That Pikmin then goes to the back of the order. Same happens for grabs. A Pikmin runs forward a bit, and if it touches an opponent it grabs him/her and bring him/her to Olimar.

• Forward smash - throws a Pikmin in front of him, has some projectile like properties, it just deals damage and knockback, rather than latching on.
• Up Smash - Tosses a Pikmin a short distance in to the air
• Down Smash - Throws out Pikmin a short distance to either side (uses the next two in order). Has no vertical knockback, making it useful against heavyweights and/or characters with strong recovery.
• Forward Aerial - Smacks a short range with a Pikmin. Swings in an arc
• Back Aerial - Similar to the forward aerial, only behind Olimar and more of a horizontal arc
• Up Aerial - Throws a Pikmin a short distance over his head. (multi-hit, with the last hit having some knockback.)
• Down Aerial - Holds a Pikmin under himself. Short ranged. The first few frames can spike, but the sweet spot for spiking is diagonally below the Captain.

Grabs & Throws

Olimar himself does not do grabbing and throwing, instead he has the next Pikmin in order dash forwards and do the Grabbing and throwing for him. All Pikmin have decent grabbing range, except for the Purple Pikmin.

• Pummel - Pikmin attacks using its element. Red Pikmin burn, white Pikmin do significant poison damage, etc.
• Forward Throw - Pikmin leaps into the air, latches onto the opponent, and then pushes itself off.
• Back Throw - Pikmin latches onto opponent and jumps backwards while slamming them into the ground.
• Up Throw - Pikmin leaps into the air (while holding opponent), turns the opponent upside-down, then slams them into the ground.
• Down Throw - Pikmin slams opponent on ground, then jumps quite high, to jump on top of opponent.

Special Moves

Taunts

Up: Jumps joyfully as if he had gained a new part for the Dolphin.

Side: Lays down on the ground as if he were asleep, then rolls over and gets up.

Down: Plants feet and spins his hips twice.

Trivia

• There is a glitch concerning Olimar that, when performed correctly, makes Kirby's Final Smash last a notable amount of time. Olimar must have 4-5 Pikmin plucked, and must either be away from Kirby when he uses his Final Smash, or be on the same Team. A moment after Kirby executes his Final Smash, Olimar must rapidly Pluck Pikmin with the Special button. If performed correctly, there will be a continuous line of Pikmin being sucked into Kirby's cooking pot. If done long enough, the damaging part of Kirby's Final Smash will start. If only one kind of Item pops out, it's possible that the game will begin to Lag, simply because of the sheer number of on-screen items.
• Olimar never makes noises, but his Pikmin do.
• In the Home-run Contest, Olimar can only use purple Pikmin.
• When Snake uses his Codec on Olimar, Mei Ling makes a reference to Ai No Uta, by stating that Pikmin fight, get eaten, and etc...in the same order that the song does.
• If Kirby uses his Final Smash while Olimar is hanging by his Tether--even if Kirby and Olimar are on a Team--the Tether will "break", and Olimar will fall in a helpless state. Strangely, it doesn't count as Friendly Fire. If Olimar uses his Tether in mid-air when this happens, Olimar will completely freeze in place.
• As soon as Olimar's tether latches onto a ledge, Olimar will hold his arms out in a "T" (blind position) , the position used by game producers while designing characters.
• Olimar's eyes do not glow yellow when he obtains a Smash Ball, even when his eyes show after being hit.
• There is a glitch in the Green Greens stage, where if Olimar throws a red, blue, or white Pikmin towards three star blocks stacked on top of each other, the Pikmin will keep spinning. Interestingly, if one slows the game speed down, red and blue Pikmin that were stuck spinning will stop and fall.
• When giant or tiny, Pikmin's voices do not change while being thrown or when they die, although they do change when Olimar plucks them. Oddly, a Pikmin's voice changes when Kirby throws a Pikmin.
• Similarly to Luigi's Fire Jump Punch, after he uses his tether, Olimar turns upside-down on his head, but it has less lag than Luigi's attack.
• If Olimar's Final Smash starts, and he Star KO's another character (off the top screen) you can actually see the character go through the blast line and begin their 'fly into the background' animation.
• Olimar can only successfully use his tether three times before hitting the ground, or else it will stop working.
• If Olimar uses his Final Smash and lands where Mushroomy Kingdom "loops", he will fall through and KO.
• Olimar holds the world record for Level 1 Target Smash (3.93 seconds).
• Olimar's Final Smash, when the ship lands for the Final Smash to start, is actually the strongest Meteor Smash in the entire game, KO's at 0% every time, if it used as such.
• Olimar can't Crawl normally but his down tilt can be used for Crawling
• Even though Olimar's purple Pikmin don't latch on to the opponent, if Olimar grabs an opponent with a purple pikmin, it will latch on.
• Olimar can drown despite wearing an air helmet.
• In the Pikmin games, Olimar never used his helmet to actually attack like his Standard A, Olimar actually did a chop.

External Links

• Combo video by Magzillas
• Pikmin & Olimar's page at the Smash Bros. DOJO!!