Why doesn't Olimar\Alph speak\have a voice in Smash?

[Dededekage Kira]

I was thinking how strange it is that Olimar is completely silent in Smash even though he has a voice in the Pikmin games (which is done by Kazumi Totaka). Is that a reason for that?

 

[Louie G.]

Not saying this as an endorsement of the decision, but I assume it's in part because the Captain is treated as secondary to the Pikmin.

Olimar takes more of the role of a vessel, where as demonstrated in Smash 4 he can be substituted for Alph (and in the future, maybe the Rookie) due to being kind of a blank slate. Meanwhile, something backed heavily by Nintendo's own marketing of the series, the Pikmin are the stars. Olimar is here as a means to represent the series' gameplay essence, less so to represent himself as a character.

So extra care put into stuff like his voice is probably a bit of an afterthought. Perhaps since the Pikmin already have voices, it was treated as less necessary... not a great excuse when Rosalina & Luma both have voices, but it's the only reason I can think of. It's quite odd but Olimar isn't the only one, personally Isabelle lacking any voice is a pretty significant blow. Here's hoping they'll reconsider in the future.

 

[Northsouthmap]

This video explains it where it would be too annoying

 

[ninjahmos]

Probably because Olimar's voice sounds so deep...