Alright folks. I'm going to give a hot take, and I want you to convince me otherwise.
Let me preface this by saying...
- I love Pikmin.
- Olimar is a must have inclusion in Smash at this point. If he wasn't included in Brawl, he would have been a must have like Villager in Smash 4.
- I'm one of the whackos who thinks Olimar is fun to play as and fight against.
- Pikmin has grown significantly as a franchise and Pikmin 4 is a wild success. I expect a big bump in Pikmin content.
- I bought, played and beat Hey Pikmin. I don't want any accusations that I don't like the franchise.
Regardless I still maintain that...
Olimar is most likely going to be the only Pikmin character we ever get.
The way Olimar is designed encompasses pretty much the whole franchise. He perfectly encapsulates the feeling of Pikmin. While there are Pikmin types that go unused (Rock, Glow, Ice), I don't think they're major enough to warrant a brand new character. An echo of Olimar using those characters is possible but I still have two issues with that...
- Echoes are meant to be easy, late minute additions, and Olimar is a notoriously difficult character to design and balance.
- If they really wanted a Pikmin echo, they straight up shafted Alph (a perfect candidate) twice, when he was in a perfect position to be upgraded to an echo. (Alph got robbed.)
I also take issue with who a new character would even be. Most of the common suggestions are either too similar to Olimar to be a non echo (Louie, Alph, the new customizable captain) or are so minor that I don't think they'll ever be seriously considered (Plasm Wraith, Oatchi). I'm not going to be disappointed if Pikmin gets another character, but I don't think it will ever happen.
I think Pikmin is going to join Yoshi in the "healthy and thriving series that will always be represented by only one character" club.