He can't use smash attacks...BUT!

[egaddmario]

what about strong attack/dash attacks? Olimar still has a ton of potential without the Pikmin!

 

[~N9NE~]

Apart from his smash attacks I think Olimar will be able to perform the rest of his a attacks.

 

[Lone Spectator]

Well I dont know. I think we should wait. The Special Moves update should be tomorrow and if so, we'll find the answer. Sakurai should mention how would a Pikmin-less Olimar could do.

 

[Dragonbreath]

I could imagine. Olimar probably couldn't win a one-on-one with someone like Mario or Bowser, but that's not his style. His style is to command a large number of separate forces to achieve a certain goal, without doing to much of the physical work himself.

Remember in Pikmin, how if you'd try to run headfirst into battle by yourself, Olimar would end up as a bulbulb turd a few days later? I think it's going to be similar in Brawl. If you don't have pikmin handy, Olimar's fighting abilities will be barely enough to defend himself. So powerful, offensive moves likes smashes, special attacks and the Final Smash will probably require some form of pikmin. Perhaps if you don't have pikmin, your special moves will be centered around making more pikmin?

Olimar is a very interesting character and I look forward to experimenting with him. But he's not Conan the Astronaut. If he doesn't have his pikmin to back him up, he'll almost certainly be very, very weak.

 

[Florida]

I could imagine. Olimar probably couldn't win a one-on-one with someone like Mario or Bowser, but that's not his style. His style is to command a large number of separate forces to achieve a certain goal, without doing to much of the physical work himself.

Remember in Pikmin, how if you'd try to run headfirst into battle by yourself, Olimar would end up as a bulbulb turd a few days later? I think it's going to be similar in Brawl. If you don't have pikmin handy, Olimar's fighting abilities will be barely enough to defend himself. So powerful, offensive moves likes smashes, special attacks and the Final Smash will probably require some form of pikmin. Perhaps if you don't have pikmin, your special moves will be centered around making more pikmin?

Olimar is a very interesting character and I look forward to experimenting with him. But he's not Conan the Astronaut. If he doesn't have his pikmin to back him up, he'll almost certainly be very, very weak.

Right, it's most likely that without the Pikmin, Olimar will suck big time. But I imagine that when he does have the Pikmen, he'll be a little more powerful than the usual characters. Sort of like the Ice Climbers situation: both together, and they dominate; while if one or the other lost, then they're just useless.

 

[Dragonbreath]

Right. To beat him, you'll have to find some way around his formation of pikmin and attack the astronaut himself. The more skilled the olimar player is at coordinating pikmin, the more difficult this will be. So Olimar will likely be a very unconventional character. Possibly the most unique of the bunch.

I bet his Final Smash is awesome, though. Like Dedede's on crack.

 

[ZMan]

It said without Pikmen you can't do a smash attack. So no pikmen= no smash attack

 

[Hitzel]

Perhaps if you don't have pikmin, your special moves will be centered around making more pikmin?

I hope one of his B moves plucks Pikmen from the ground (kinda like Peach's down-B, but maybe not so fast). If Olimar is as weak w/o Pikmen as you say, and it takes too long or is too difficult to replace lost pikmen, it'll ultimately break him.

On the other hand, I'm betting that if your Pickmen live long enough to flower, they become VERY powerful.

 

[tutata]

I bet captain Olimar will play like a low tier withouthis pikmin. I think som playes will explore this and be able to beat ppl without the pikmin. They will probably utilize the spike and maybe good air game or groud game depending on that he has. I think the Pikmin will just add on to him, i think captain Olimar is going to be a great character.

 

[Hitzel]

I'm guessing that the first 20 seconds of a fight will determine A LOT for Olimar. If his down-B is to pluck Pikmen, hell need to raise his opponent's damage enough early on to be able to bash an opponent away, pluck, bash, again, rinse and repeat. If his opponent breaks this cycle and kills off his Pikmen, Olimar'll be at a serious disadvantage. He'll need to rack up damage early on and keep as many as his starting Pikmen as possible top achieve a solid advantage.

Add that to the possibility that his Pikmen grow over time and turn to flowers, and keeping your starting 5 alive is going to be big for Olimar.

 

[Zek]

You can see his F-Air right there in the update and it uses a Pikmin. I think practically all of his attacks will use them, and all he can do without them is a standard combo and N-Air or something.