God Robert's Cousin
Smash Hero
"When the planet's finest chefs hear about the kind of sorbets, pies, and parfaits you can make with the claw meat on this sweet beast, they'll clamor for every morsel we bring home!"
LOUIE
Music
Pikmin Adventure - Impact Site ~ Pikmin 2 - Boss Theme ~ Pikmin 2 - Titan Dweevil
Pikmin 2 - Credits ~ Pikmin 2 - Louie's Dark Secret
Overview
LOUIE
Music
Pikmin Adventure - Impact Site ~ Pikmin 2 - Boss Theme ~ Pikmin 2 - Titan Dweevil
Pikmin 2 - Credits ~ Pikmin 2 - Louie's Dark Secret
Overview
Olimar's partner and co-employee, Louie was the second playable character ever in a Pikmin game. He and Olimar share many strengths, but share vastly different priorities. Louie is a definite glutton and a klutz, and is known to get himself in trouble time and time again. Being the second player in Pikmin 2 and a potential tag-partner for Olimar in Pikmin 3's Bingo Battle, Louie is the second most recurrent character in the Pikmin series, right behind Olimar himself. Because of this, Louie has more veteranship than Alph and has more recognizability than the President, Brittany, and Captain Charlie, which is, practically speaking, every other potential Pikmin candidate for Smash Bros. Though he has many similarities to Olimar, his distinct personality gives him a plethora of moves his more experienced partner would never think to do. Being a glutton, a klutz, an inexperienced employee, and a gourmet bug chef, Louie has all the wrong things that makes him just right as Pikmin's most unique second representative.
Appearances
Pikmin 2 (2004, GCN) - Main character
Super Smash Bros. Brawl (2008, Wii) - Trophy, Sticker
Pikmin 3 (2013, WiiU) - Notable character
Background
[collapse="Major Pikmin 2 and Pikmin 3 spoilers"]Pikmin 2 (2004, GCN) - Main character
Super Smash Bros. Brawl (2008, Wii) - Trophy, Sticker
Pikmin 3 (2013, WiiU) - Notable character
Background
As a child, Louie lived with his grandmother. She made him play with bugs and even eat them every day of his life. Over time, he grew up experimenting with ways to cook the bugs he ate, making him the glutton he is today. Later in his life, Louie was hired by Hocotate Freight, Olimar's current employer. His first assignment in the long-haul, deep-space shipping company was to deliver a cargo-load of "Golden Pikpik Carrots". However, a "ravenous space bunny" had eaten his entire load, leaving him to return without any payment. This however, was a lie, as Louie himself ate the Golden Pikpik Carrots himself.
This caused Hocotate Freight to face major financial difficulties. Upon Olimar arriving back from his journey from PNF-404 in Pikmin 1, the company was filing for bankruptcy and the entire lot of property was being repossessed. So Olimar, along with his new partner, Louie, were sent back to PNF-404 to collect treasures that would pay off the entire 10,000 poko debt. And so the two Captains successfully paid off the debt... Unfortunately, Louie forgot to hitch a ride back home when it was time for them to go.
Just as Louie is about to be brought back into the safety of the Hocotate ship, a colossus creature, the Titan Dweevil, emerges from under the ground and holds Louie prisoner. The final boss fight commences as Louie safely watches from the top of the gargantuan spider's head. The creature is vanquished and Louie is returned to the ship with the newly found nickname, The "King of Bugs". Some theorize that Louie himself was controlling the Titan Dweevil's actions, on part of his close affiliation with bugs and complete lack of injury from residing near the giant insect for so long. Whether that holds true to this day is a complete mystery to Captain Olimar. The trio of Captains fly back home after their farewells to the Pikmin.
Come Pikmin 3, where time passed by, and the President decided to send Olimar and Louie back to PNF-404 once again to look for more treasure. Unfortunately, their ship becomes completely wrecked on re-entering the atmosphere. Olimar and Louie search for more treasure, but Louie shows much more resistance to helping Olimar with their objective, even jeopardizing the mission by eating three-times the daily food supply as Olimar. Eventually, Olimar ends up being captured by a strange entity as he went after a special piece of treasure. Louie had ditched Olimar before that point, leaving him to survive on his own. With no aid of the Pikmin, Louie was eventually captured once more, leaving the duo left for dead. Fortunately, the trio aboard the S.S. Drake finds Louie's signal and decide to save him, under the misunderstanding that Louie is Captain Olimar and that he holds the ship component the S.S. Drake lost. They save him from a sinister Scornet Maestro and its hive of littler Scornets and bring him back into the Drake. Come the next morning, where Louie runs off with the entire supply of juice his saviors earned throughout their days of harvesting the planet. He's later found captured, once again, by a living landmass known as the Quaggled Mireclops. Louie is rescued and tied up for interrogation later that night.
Potential Movesets
As Luigi is to Mario, Louie is to Olimar. Both make use of Pikmin to combat enemies, but Louie and Luigi take their own approach to the usual methods their partners use, usually involving more own-tempo and klutzy movements. Louie is also known for having survived long periods of time without the aid of Pikmin, making him a very independent captain who has the skills for survival on his own. Additionally, there are three known Pikmin-types currently not used by Olimar. Bulbmin, who are Pikmin-infected Bulborbs with immunity to all hazards but have no extra qualities; Rock Pikmin, which do a chunk of damage when thrown and cannot be killed via being stabbed or squished; And Winged Pikmin, who are very weak in combat but have excellent aerial-maneuverability. Louie can make use of these three Pikmin types along with his own moves to separate himself from Olimar as an entirely different character with a similar mechanic.
[collapse="Louie Moveset - God Robert's Cousin"]
More of Louie's moves do not require Pikmin than Olimar, as Louie is known to be very independent in survival. Additionally, save for four moves in the entire moveset, none of Louie's moves are like Olimar's, meaning Louie has a concrete foundation for being his own character from Olimar.
* = Indicates Pikmin are required for the attack to work
Neutral Special - Pikmin Pluck: Just like Olimar's Pikmin Pluck, this is Louie's main move for summoning Pikmin. The three Pikmin types are as followed:
Neutral Special - Pikmin Pluck: Just like Olimar's Pikmin Pluck, this is Louie's main move for summoning Pikmin. The three Pikmin types are as followed:
- Bulbmin, tiny Bulborbs with a Pikmin stem coming out of its head. They are immune to all hazards, including Fire, Electricity, Water, and Poison. However, they lack the extra attack power of Red and Purple Pikmin, the higher-arch of Yellow Pikmin, the extra durability of Blue Pikmin, and the speed of White Pikmin. This makes them much like Olimar's entire arsenal in a single unit without any of the extra utilities. An interesting compromise indeed.
- Rock Pikmin, which are exactly what they sound like. Like Purple Pikmin, they do not latch onto foes when thrown. Unlike Purple Pikmin however, they are not extraordinarily powerful nor are they slow. Instead, they deal heavy knockback to whomever they hit. They also have the benefit of having high resistance to physical attacks, but at the cost of dying quickly to special moves based on Fire, Electricity, Water, etc. Rock sturdy with a crippling weakness.
- Winged Pikmin, which are pink, flying Pikmin with big, blue eyes. They are excellent aerial attackers, being able to slightly home-in on opponents when thrown and having resistance to aerial-moves. This makes them good counters to fighters that rely more heavily on aerial attacks, such as Metaknight or Jigglypuff. Unfortunately, they have the weakest damage output of all eight types of Pikmin, meaning that Louie's attacks will be much weaker if he uses a Winged Pikmin for one. Additionally, like Rock Pikmin, they are vulnerable to all hazard-types, as well as have a weakness to grounded physical moves.
*Up Special - Pikmin Flick: Louie has each of the Pikmin form a line in front of him to swing one-another overhead to launch Louie like a catapult. If Louie has any Winged Pikmin while doing this, they will give him an additional boost in the air as well as fly to his safety. If Louie makes it onto the ground before the Rock Pikmin and Bulbmin fall to their deaths, they too will return to his side.
Down Special - Breadbug: An enemy from the Pikmin series, a Breadbug, pops out from underneath Louie if he is standing on the ground. Louie sits on top of the Breadbug while you can control the Breadbug's movements. It sprints around, damaging any fighters that touch the Breadbug while such happens. Additionally, if the Breadbug runs on top of any items, Louie will immediately pick up that item. If Louie is already holding an item when the Breadbug runs over something else, it eats it, making the item disappear. This is extremely helpful in matches where hazards such as Samus' armor pieces of Diddy Kong's bananas come into play. It really appeals to Louie's gluttony when you have the Breadbug run over healing items like food as well--they're automatically used on Louie! Jumping or using your Down Special again makes the Breadbug disappear.
Final Smash - Scornet Maestro: Right before Louie is about to unleash his ultimate power, six Scornets fly in and steal Louie off the screen. A big Scornet Maestro then comes down with a swarm of Scornets flying around it. During this, the player can control which attacks the Scornet Maestro uses. If no inputs are made, Scornets will simply fly around and attack opponents on their own. If the attack button is pressed, the Maestro will play its harp and cause the Scornets to form a cone, which will then launch the Scornets one-by-one in a machine-gun-like fashion. If the special button is pressed, the Maestro will send the Scornets to form a formation overhead much like the ships in the classic game Galaga, and have them bombard the opponents in a rain of stings. After a while, the Maestro flies away and Louie falls from the sky with his Pikmin, ready to fight once more.
Basic Attack - Does two small punches, with a third slower yet much larger punch. A reference to the Rocket Fist.
*Up-Tilt - Tosses one of his Pikmin above him in a somersault and catches it.
*Side-Tilt - Swings a Pikmin horizontally at his side.
*Down-Tilt - Pushes a Pikmin in front of him, which sprints forward a small distance and runs back.
*Dash Attack - Falls flat on his face, making the Pikmin carry him forward like a battering-ram. A reference to the Napsack.
Up-Smash - Crouches and does multiple back-flips in the air. A nod to Olimar showing his excitement in the Pikmin games.
*Side-Smash - Sends his entire party of Pikmin charging forwards as a foghorn sounds. A reference to the swarming mechanic in Pikmin 3.
Down-Smash - Panics, frantically running back and forth in a short diameter from where he stands.
*Neutral-Aerial - Takes two Pikmin and spins them around like a helicopter.
*Up-Aerial - Olimar's Up-Aerial.
*Down-Aerial - Olimar's Down-Aerial.
Forward-Aerial - Dangles his arms and legs in front of him as if falling. Has a look of disapproval.
Back-Aerial - Lays on his back with a calm expression, as if falling asleep mid-air.
Grab - Latches onto the opponent like a bug, causing them to freak out.
Pummel - Headbutts the opponent.
*Forward-Throw - Calls the Pikmin to trip the opponent as Louie rolls and throws the opponent in style of Pikachu's Back-Throw.
*Back-Throw - The Pikmin juggle the opponent as Louie walks on top of them like a rolling log before he drop-kicks them backwards.
*Up-Throw - Tosses the opponent straight upwards a fixed distance before throwing a Pikmin at them.
Down-Throw - Rapidly stomps on the opponent like a tap-dance before doing a crushing two-foot stomp.
Up-Taunt - Louie's look of disapproval straight at the screen.
Side-Taunt - Turns around slowly as if stretching, making low-pitched and quiet "Oh" sounds as he turns each way.
Down-Taunt - Sits down and tries to eat a Pikpik Carrot, which snaps in half when pressed against his helmet. He looks down in disappointment and gets back up.
[collapse="Louie Moveset - Rebellious Treecko"]
He takes after Luigi, like Olimar takes after Mario, so there will be some allusions to him, such as comic relief, clumsiness, and an easter egg taunt.
Louie doesn't use Pikmin in his A moves nearly as much as Olimar, and he can fight well enough by himself, but having Pikmin around still helps.
----
Standard A: Brute Knuckles - Louie does a three-part combo ending with a hard wind-up punch.
Standard B: Pikmin Pluck - Works similarly to Olimar's, but has several notable differences:
-B both plucks the Pikmin and throws them. As such, Louie plucks as long as you hold down B, and pressing B again will make him throw. He can have 6 Pikmin at once, like Olimar.
-Louie plucks Pikmin slower than Olimar, and throws his Pikmin more clumsily and erratically, which makes his range more unpredictable and possibly harder to approach.
-Louie might rarely be unlucky and pluck a Puffstool zombie Pikmin from the first game, which will chase him and other fighters around and latch onto them and cause damage.
-My idea would've been for Louie to use the same types of Pikmin as Olimar, but your three suggestions are good too.
Side B: Super Bitter Spray - Louie burps a spray of gas forward, paralysis any fighters who touch it. The move can be charged to increase the paralysis time.
Up B: Bumbling Snitchbug - Louie shows his relation with insects by summoning a Snitchbug who rapidly (almost instantaneously) swoops down, grabs Louie, and drags him up through the air.
It works a lot like Snake's Cypher, both in the style of the recovery, and the fact that he can be hit out of it.
However, if an opponent gets in the way of the Snitchbug as it swoops down, he/she will be grabbed instead and thrown downwards, possibly burying the opponent.
If the move is done on the ground, Louie can quickly move out the way and purposely let the Snitchbug grab a nearby opponent.
If Louie is trying to recover from off the stage, and an opponent gets in the way, (above Louie as the Snitchbug swoops down) this will likely spell doom for Louie, however, the Snitchbug will throw the opponent down as well and spike them, potentially making the Snitchbug a sort of accidental kamikaze attack.
Down B: ??? - Well, I'm thinking Pikmin Order, with a slight tweak as to make the whistle radius shock or stun opponents and lack super armor, but Louie doesn't really rely on Pikmin like Olimar does, so I'm not sure if the whistle move is necessary.
Maybe something more original?
Final Smash: King of Bugs - Something involving either the Titan Dweevil, or the Raging Long Legs. Not sure which. (because in my ultimate 200+ character wishlist roster, Titan Dweevil is a character)
Grabs - Well, he has a very short grab range without Pikmin, and a long grab range with Pikmin, so he doesn't exactly need Pikmin to grab. His throws aren't as powerful as Olimar's, though.
Taunts:
-Turns his head toward the screen and makes his signature (the way I see it) ಠ_ಠ expression. Louie used the "look of disapproval" before it was cool.
-Lies down and wiggles on the floor like Olimar did in the first Pikmin and like both characters in Pikmin 2 can do once they get the Five-Man Napsack.
If Louie has at least three Pikmin following him, they will pick him up and toss him slightly forward, causing damage and knockback to opponents who are hit. This takes after Luigi's damaging kick taunt.[/collapse]
[collapse="Louie Moveset - The Salamander Within"]Entrance: He rides in on a random Dweevil
Jab: Double headbutt, like Olimar
Ftilt: Leans back and punches
Utilt: Jumps up and hits with his head
Dtilt: Spins around on his helmet
Fsmash: A Bulbmin appears and chomps
Usmash: A Bulbear appears, opens wide, and chomps hard
Dsmash: Sheargrubs attack on either side of Louie
Dash Attack: Trips and stumbles, spilling a basket of damaging Pikpik carrots
B: Juice: Drinks some fruit juice. It takes a while, but each time heals him by 3%.
F-B: Iridescent Flint Beetle: He rides on top of a Iridescent Flint Beetle, ramming foes, lasting max 5 seconds
U-B: Swooping Snitchbug: Louie rides on the longer legs of the snitchbug while it carries him up
D-B: Puffstool: The Puffstool appears behind Louie and sprays short-range gasses that make opponents drowsy. The opponent falls asleep about 5 seconds after the initial exposure
Nair: Spins around similar to Diddy Kong
Fair: Holds on to a fiery Blowhog, which spews flames in front of him
Bair: Swings a random Dweevil behind him
Uair: Throws a Wollywog up, then it comes back down to Louie
Dair: Random Dweevil spikes down with its legs
Grab Attack: Headbutts in a similar fashion to Mario
Fthrow: A random Dweevil carries the opponent away, then attacks once
Bthrow: Tosses backward
Uthrow: Chucks straight up, then a Burrowing Snagret rises to chomp on them
Dthrow: Swooping Snitchbug throws the opponent on the ground
Taunt 1: He pets a Bulbmin as it yawns
Taunt 2: He snacks on Pikpik carrots
Taunt 3: Yawns and sits down
Final Smash: Titan Dweevil: Louie summons the Titan Dweevil to wreak havoc. All Louie must do is sit back and watch. No setup necessary.
*The random Dweevils each have their own elemental properties, like Olimar's Pikmin. There are fire, water, electric, and poison varieties of Dweevil.[/collapse]
Counter-arguments
This is definitely Louie's strongest opposition towards being playable in Smash Bros. Many people say that the Pikmin series is already completely represented with Olimar and the first five types of Pikmin. While this is true, Louie would still be a distinct addition that adds to the roster rather than shoehorns in another series representative.
While the main concept of Pikmin, the Pikmin themselves and a leader, are represented by Olimar, many aspects of the series is left out. The Pikmin-types that haven't made an appearance, the undertones of Greed and Gluttony throughout the games, the concept of more than one Pikmin faction in the series, and the bugs themselves in the series are all, for the most part, completely left out of Olimar's moveset. Louie is an excellent personified synopsis of all these aspects and therefore would bring about much representation that Olimar could not do alone.
Additionally, the Pikmin series itself is definitely already large enough to warrant another character. Star Fox, which was only a trilogy at the time of Melee, introduced Falco. Earthbound, which is still only a trilogy at the time of Brawl, introduced Lucas. Despite both series being relatively small compared to more plentiful series with one character like Yoshi's Island, F-Zero, and Metroid, they were each able to execute a second character without causing issues for the Smash Bros. fanbase nor the roster's balance. Pikmin itself has shown to be a commercially successful and critically acclaimed series, much like the aforementioned Star Fox and Earthbound. Pikmin 3 has had plentiful sales in both Japan and the West and is still fresh on everyone's minds. Pikmin is already over 10 years old now, the series has aged into a veteran first-party series and has just as much of a right to a second character as they do. If Falco and Lucas can exist with Fox and Ness as semi-clones under the conditions of being neither incomparable to others nor quintessential to their series, then surely Louie could be added on the same grounds.
Olimar and Louie are much like Mario and Luigi, being loosely based on them after all. There are obviously many parallels between the brothers/partners. However, parallels have shown to be not an issue since the very beginning of Smash Bros.
Let's start off with the famous brothers themselves. They perform very similarly if not the exact same in most games where they are both playable. Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, New Super Mario Bros., New Super Mario Bros. 2... You get the idea. They both have the same jumps and handling as one another. In addition to that, they look extremely similar (occasionally being lampshaded in the Mario RPG games), looking the exact same except for shirt/hat color, face shape, and slenderness. Despite all of this, Luigi's very different personality is what helped separate him from Mario, and the two have been very different characters since Super Smash Bros. Melee because of it. This has shown that similar body-builds can have very different playstyles based on personality alone.
Take Earthbound as another example. Ness and Lucas share many extremely similar aspects. They're both dot-eyed boys with striped shirts and shorts. They carry a blunt piece of wood and have PSI powers. In their respective games, they are both one-time protagonists that specialize in signature moves, PK Flash, and healing PSI. The similarities between the two are uncanny and their playstyles in Earthbound and Mother 3 are almost identical. Despite this, Sakurai was able to give Lucas his own moveset from Ness. They share similar special moves and a down-tilt, but they are otherwise completely different characters in every sense of the word. Despite having many, many comparisons, the two have been made into unique characters from one-another.
All of this can easily apply to Olimar and Louie. They share similar body-builds, but have extremely different personalities. They have very similar gameplay mechanics, but transition into entirely different characters in a Smash Bros. setting. That said, Louie has plenty of potential to be different from Olimar. If Sakurai could make it work with the Mario Bros. and the Mother protagonists, he could certainly do the same for Louie.
Alph is currently the most recent face of the series so far, being considered the main protagonist of the trio in Pikmin 3 as well as being all over Pikmin 3 advertisement. However, being flavor of the month does not necessarily make Alph more familiar to audiences than Louie. The Pikmin themselves and Captain Olimar are still the main faces of the series, without a doubt, so that honor does not go to Alph nor Louie.
However, Louie does have two major advantages over Alph: recurrence and seniority. Louie has appeared in Pikmin 2, the New Play Control of Pikmin released on Wii a few years back, and Pikmin 3. In addition to all of this, Louie was a trophy, a sticker, and a name in another sticker ("Olimar & Louie's Ship") in Brawl. In other words, Louie has made appearances over the course of nine years before Alph ever did. Because of this, veterans of the series, those who have played Pikmin 3, and those who have only known Pikmin through Smash Bros. alike are all likely to recognize Louie better than Alph.
Let me immediately start off by saying the Smash Bros. isn't canon. Unless you want to spend time talking about how Ness and Zelda don't actually have most of their moves in the games they come from, let's move on.
In Pikmin 3's Battle Bingo, Louie is a playable character for the second player in 2v2 matches. In Battle Bingo itself, every Pikmin type, including Rock Pikmin and Winged Pikmin, are available to both players. That being said, Louie has actually handled both types of Pikmin and would be indeed canon for Louie to have access to them.
Using such Pikmin does not clash with Louie's personality, either. Louie is very independent and closely affiliated with bugs, shown with his moveset and the Bulbmin respectively. However, Louie has experience with Pikmin, being a co-leader over them for a majority of Pikmin 2, meaning that although he is the "King of Bugs", using Pikmin in his moveset is no less fitting than Olimar's use of them. All of this said, Louie using the three Pikmin-types Olimar doesn't is completely fitting and is not a boon to Louie's character whatsoever.
Pictures and Fan-art
Louie-related Videos
[collapse="Pikmin 2 and Pikmin 3 spoilers"][/collapse]
Louie's Supporting Connoisseurs
God Robert's Cousin ~ FireEmblemnier ~ Primid ~ Rebellious Treecko ~ cephalopod17 ~ Crap-Zapper ~ Rinnin ~ Kimura ~ Davidreamcatcha ~ Accursed ~ WingedSnagret ~ The Salamander Within ~ PlasmWraith
God Robert's Cousin ~ FireEmblemnier ~ Primid ~ Rebellious Treecko ~ cephalopod17 ~ Crap-Zapper ~ Rinnin ~ Kimura ~ Davidreamcatcha ~ Accursed ~ WingedSnagret ~ The Salamander Within ~ PlasmWraith
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