I dug up an old article I wrote and posted in various places sometime in October 2005. I thought it might be fun for everyone to read how I thought of Olimar back when the Wii was called the "Revolution".
If you want to see the original article, you can see it here: "Captain Olimar (SSB3)" It's on MySpace, though I posted it at the now defunct Nsider, too.
For those of you who don't want to click on links, I can copy and paste the article here.
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Back when I was playing Pikmin 2 for the first time, I got the "Rocket Fist" and it powered up Olimar's punch so he can strike three times when attacking, and the third one is a big fist that hits for double damage. I couldn't help but be reminded of Mario's A-A-A combo in SSBM. Recently, I started doodling Olimar and Pikmin and thinking about how they could be used in SSB...
Meet Olimar
Olimar is very tiny; he could use a Game Boy Micro for a bed. You may wonder how such a character could work in Smash Bros., but not to worry! Other characters have unusual sizes, Kirby being the most obvious, but they work out fine. The first reason is because no one really cares once they start playing the game. The other reason is because in the game the characters are actually toys brought to life by Master Hand to battle at his whim. So, while Olimar may still be smaller than, say, Bowser, he won't stay to-scale.
Basic Statistics
Weight-wise, Olimar could be anywhere from light to medium. It depends on how small or large he is "scaled" to the other characters. He could be light-weight if he's as big as Pichu, or about Mario-weight if they make him fairly large. Personally, I'd like to see him a little heavier than Pikachu, and standing shorter than Mario. Olimar's speed, on the other hand, shouldn't be very impressive.
He's not too fast in the Pikmin games, even after finding power-ups. He would equate to about the speed of maybe Dr. Mario or Link. I'm guessing Olimar's jumping wouldn't be very good either. His stubby legs don't look like they'd take him up very high, nor very far. There's always the off chance that his jumps could be augmented by some fancy gadget, as seen with Samus' suit. He might also have a rather slow fall, much like Samus, like some sort of low gravity effect. Both these options could help our treasure-seeking friend recover from attacks and avoid an early loss.
Olimar's attacks don't seem very impressive, either. The only way to really help out your Pikmin in taking down a Bulbos was to try to get a few punching in on it. The afore mentioned Rocket Punch helped out, but Olimar was little stronger than a Pikmin himself. It's likely that he'd follow the same model as Mario with punches and kicks, but they're not as likely to be as effective as the Italian pugilist's practiced punches.
Grabs with Captain Olimar don't conjure up much of an impressive scenario. It seems he would have a rather generic "grab and punch" formula, with the choice of throwing opponents forward, backward, up, or down without anything too special.
Overall, it looks like we have a rather weak character. Not too heavy, not too fast; lacking in both power and finesse. So the question is, what good is a character like this? Well, there's a very entertaining possibiity of Pikmin improving Olimar's seemingly poor statistics. For instance, picking up a Pikmin and striking with it could improve both damage and reach. Then there's the possibility of the Pikmin acting by themselves, such as while grabbing someone, the Pikmin could swarm him and attack inflicting damage. Possibilities could even include having your Pikmin pick up Olimar and carry him faster than what he could accomplish on his own two feet. There are many more things the Pikmin can do, but we'll discuss those in the next few sections.
Pikmin Horticulture
In his games, Captain Olimar used the Pikmin for help, recruiting them by pulling them up out of the ground. He's able to direct large numbers of these creatures at once and can do many different things with them such as throwing them at enemies or having them work together to perform such tasks as building ladders or moving heavy objects. It's a sad fact, but many Pikmin will meet their ultimate demise while helping their friend Olimar, and in SSBM I don't see why it wouldn't be any different.
Olimar himself is a rather defenseless character, but would be able to pull up Pikmin during the match to help him in a variety of ways. The Pikmin themselves would act much like Nana to Popo, following after Olimar automatically, and attacking when the opportunity arises. It would also be amusing to see if Pikmin operate by themselves if they get separated from the group, walking around, attacking things or investigating the scenery until reunited by Olimar.
One question crops up: how does Olimar get his Pikmin? Details would be better off left to game designers, such as how many he can control at once, or how many Olimar starts with for each life. But everyone would agree that Olimar should have to plant and pick his own Pikmin. It's easy to see Olimar starting with no Pikmin, just as he does in his game, and having to plant Pikmin before pulling them out of the ground and using them.
This leaves Olimar rather weak to begin with, but over time he could build up his army to become a more formitable foe. A simple way of raising Pikmin would be to push Down + B to plant a Pikmin and Up + B to pull it out of the ground, once sprouted. It wouldn't take very long to sprout, and alternately, it could be left in the ground to bud or bloom, just like in the Pikmin games. Pikmin with buds and flowers are faster and more competant than other Pikmin, so picking your Pikmin as soon as they sprout might not always be the best strategy.
101 Uses for Pikmin
Now that you've raised an army of Pikmin, what can you do with them?
Well, the major benefit to having Pikmin running around would be that they can automatically smack your opponents when they get near. It's easy to visualize using the Revolution's new controller with Olimar: when you press and hold down B, Olimar blows his whistle and the Pikmin stand ready to take orders. Free-style your controller left or right and the Pikmin scramble in that direction, blocking off an enemy's approach, or swarming a foe.
A little slow or unwieldy of a special attack? Well, this B button is one of Olimar's most fun and versatile abilities. With a sufficient number of Pikmin, Olimar can wreak havok on an opponent who gets caught in the swarm.
Better yet, you can use Olimar's whistle when knocked off the stage with Up-B. As he whistles, his descent slows and you can throw your Pikmin over to the ledge and, from there, they'll build a Pikmin "chain" which you can use to swing over to the ledge.
Another handy use for Pikmin would be throwing them. Use left or right plus the B button to throw Pikmin, or a "Smash B" to throw them farther. This is useful to get Pikmin closer to opponents to have them attack, but it's even better to get the Pikmin to land on them.
If an opponent has a Pikmin stuck on them, the effects are simiar to a "Lip's Stick" where they take damage every turn until the Pikmin is shaken off. With the Revolution's new Free-Style controls, you could aim the direction you want to throw your Pikmin simply by pointing in the desired direction.
One drawback to Pikmin is that they're rather fragile creatures. So, while Olimar might be able to pull up large numbers of these fellows to help out, an opponent can easily make attacks against them and wipe them out. They might not be so fragile as to die from a few attacks, they get knocked down quite a bit, but Pikmin have a strong fighting spirit. Eventually, though, even some of the tougher ones will fall victim to the attacks. Furthermore, Pikmin are very susceptible to natural hazards such as fire, water, electricity and poison. Unless revived by Olimar's whistle, they're usually a gonner with one hit from one of these types of attacks, so watch out for Bower's firey breath, Pikachu's electricity, and various Pokemon attacks.
The good news is that Pikmin come in a variety of colors, usually Red, Blue, and Yellow. The chances of pulling up one of these Pikmin is about even, and they each have their own special property. Red Pikmin will resist fire, Blue Pikmin resist water, and Yellow resist electricity. There are other colored Pikmin, but the chances of pulling up one of these is much rarer.
White Pikmin are immune to poison, and maybe they could inflict "Lip's Stick" style poison on characters, such as after a direct hit when thrown (or after being eaten, such as with Kirby or Yoshi). Purple Pikmin are large Pikmin. They don't have any special resistances but they are very heavy and could feasibly KO someone with a direct hit when thrown.
Afterword
Overall, Olimar is not a very impressive character. He's slow and has short limbs and is rather average in other respects. His true strength comes from his loyal Pikmin followers who he can use to quickly rack up damage, distract an opponent, and use in a variety of ways.
If you want to see the original article, you can see it here: "Captain Olimar (SSB3)" It's on MySpace, though I posted it at the now defunct Nsider, too.
For those of you who don't want to click on links, I can copy and paste the article here.
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Captain Olimar
A Speculative Look at SSB3
Back when I was playing Pikmin 2 for the first time, I got the "Rocket Fist" and it powered up Olimar's punch so he can strike three times when attacking, and the third one is a big fist that hits for double damage. I couldn't help but be reminded of Mario's A-A-A combo in SSBM. Recently, I started doodling Olimar and Pikmin and thinking about how they could be used in SSB...
Meet Olimar
Olimar is very tiny; he could use a Game Boy Micro for a bed. You may wonder how such a character could work in Smash Bros., but not to worry! Other characters have unusual sizes, Kirby being the most obvious, but they work out fine. The first reason is because no one really cares once they start playing the game. The other reason is because in the game the characters are actually toys brought to life by Master Hand to battle at his whim. So, while Olimar may still be smaller than, say, Bowser, he won't stay to-scale.
Basic Statistics
Weight-wise, Olimar could be anywhere from light to medium. It depends on how small or large he is "scaled" to the other characters. He could be light-weight if he's as big as Pichu, or about Mario-weight if they make him fairly large. Personally, I'd like to see him a little heavier than Pikachu, and standing shorter than Mario. Olimar's speed, on the other hand, shouldn't be very impressive.
He's not too fast in the Pikmin games, even after finding power-ups. He would equate to about the speed of maybe Dr. Mario or Link. I'm guessing Olimar's jumping wouldn't be very good either. His stubby legs don't look like they'd take him up very high, nor very far. There's always the off chance that his jumps could be augmented by some fancy gadget, as seen with Samus' suit. He might also have a rather slow fall, much like Samus, like some sort of low gravity effect. Both these options could help our treasure-seeking friend recover from attacks and avoid an early loss.
Olimar's attacks don't seem very impressive, either. The only way to really help out your Pikmin in taking down a Bulbos was to try to get a few punching in on it. The afore mentioned Rocket Punch helped out, but Olimar was little stronger than a Pikmin himself. It's likely that he'd follow the same model as Mario with punches and kicks, but they're not as likely to be as effective as the Italian pugilist's practiced punches.
Grabs with Captain Olimar don't conjure up much of an impressive scenario. It seems he would have a rather generic "grab and punch" formula, with the choice of throwing opponents forward, backward, up, or down without anything too special.
Overall, it looks like we have a rather weak character. Not too heavy, not too fast; lacking in both power and finesse. So the question is, what good is a character like this? Well, there's a very entertaining possibiity of Pikmin improving Olimar's seemingly poor statistics. For instance, picking up a Pikmin and striking with it could improve both damage and reach. Then there's the possibility of the Pikmin acting by themselves, such as while grabbing someone, the Pikmin could swarm him and attack inflicting damage. Possibilities could even include having your Pikmin pick up Olimar and carry him faster than what he could accomplish on his own two feet. There are many more things the Pikmin can do, but we'll discuss those in the next few sections.
Pikmin Horticulture
In his games, Captain Olimar used the Pikmin for help, recruiting them by pulling them up out of the ground. He's able to direct large numbers of these creatures at once and can do many different things with them such as throwing them at enemies or having them work together to perform such tasks as building ladders or moving heavy objects. It's a sad fact, but many Pikmin will meet their ultimate demise while helping their friend Olimar, and in SSBM I don't see why it wouldn't be any different.
Olimar himself is a rather defenseless character, but would be able to pull up Pikmin during the match to help him in a variety of ways. The Pikmin themselves would act much like Nana to Popo, following after Olimar automatically, and attacking when the opportunity arises. It would also be amusing to see if Pikmin operate by themselves if they get separated from the group, walking around, attacking things or investigating the scenery until reunited by Olimar.
One question crops up: how does Olimar get his Pikmin? Details would be better off left to game designers, such as how many he can control at once, or how many Olimar starts with for each life. But everyone would agree that Olimar should have to plant and pick his own Pikmin. It's easy to see Olimar starting with no Pikmin, just as he does in his game, and having to plant Pikmin before pulling them out of the ground and using them.
This leaves Olimar rather weak to begin with, but over time he could build up his army to become a more formitable foe. A simple way of raising Pikmin would be to push Down + B to plant a Pikmin and Up + B to pull it out of the ground, once sprouted. It wouldn't take very long to sprout, and alternately, it could be left in the ground to bud or bloom, just like in the Pikmin games. Pikmin with buds and flowers are faster and more competant than other Pikmin, so picking your Pikmin as soon as they sprout might not always be the best strategy.
101 Uses for Pikmin
Now that you've raised an army of Pikmin, what can you do with them?
Well, the major benefit to having Pikmin running around would be that they can automatically smack your opponents when they get near. It's easy to visualize using the Revolution's new controller with Olimar: when you press and hold down B, Olimar blows his whistle and the Pikmin stand ready to take orders. Free-style your controller left or right and the Pikmin scramble in that direction, blocking off an enemy's approach, or swarming a foe.
A little slow or unwieldy of a special attack? Well, this B button is one of Olimar's most fun and versatile abilities. With a sufficient number of Pikmin, Olimar can wreak havok on an opponent who gets caught in the swarm.
Better yet, you can use Olimar's whistle when knocked off the stage with Up-B. As he whistles, his descent slows and you can throw your Pikmin over to the ledge and, from there, they'll build a Pikmin "chain" which you can use to swing over to the ledge.
Another handy use for Pikmin would be throwing them. Use left or right plus the B button to throw Pikmin, or a "Smash B" to throw them farther. This is useful to get Pikmin closer to opponents to have them attack, but it's even better to get the Pikmin to land on them.
If an opponent has a Pikmin stuck on them, the effects are simiar to a "Lip's Stick" where they take damage every turn until the Pikmin is shaken off. With the Revolution's new Free-Style controls, you could aim the direction you want to throw your Pikmin simply by pointing in the desired direction.
One drawback to Pikmin is that they're rather fragile creatures. So, while Olimar might be able to pull up large numbers of these fellows to help out, an opponent can easily make attacks against them and wipe them out. They might not be so fragile as to die from a few attacks, they get knocked down quite a bit, but Pikmin have a strong fighting spirit. Eventually, though, even some of the tougher ones will fall victim to the attacks. Furthermore, Pikmin are very susceptible to natural hazards such as fire, water, electricity and poison. Unless revived by Olimar's whistle, they're usually a gonner with one hit from one of these types of attacks, so watch out for Bower's firey breath, Pikachu's electricity, and various Pokemon attacks.
The good news is that Pikmin come in a variety of colors, usually Red, Blue, and Yellow. The chances of pulling up one of these Pikmin is about even, and they each have their own special property. Red Pikmin will resist fire, Blue Pikmin resist water, and Yellow resist electricity. There are other colored Pikmin, but the chances of pulling up one of these is much rarer.
White Pikmin are immune to poison, and maybe they could inflict "Lip's Stick" style poison on characters, such as after a direct hit when thrown (or after being eaten, such as with Kirby or Yoshi). Purple Pikmin are large Pikmin. They don't have any special resistances but they are very heavy and could feasibly KO someone with a direct hit when thrown.
Afterword
Overall, Olimar is not a very impressive character. He's slow and has short limbs and is rather average in other respects. His true strength comes from his loyal Pikmin followers who he can use to quickly rack up damage, distract an opponent, and use in a variety of ways.
