Goodness! Captain Olimar joins the fray with five colours of Pikmin in tow! He plucks Pikmin from the ground and they fight as his allies.

Without Pikmin, Olimar can’t even do a Smash Attack. And the short-lived Pikmin tend to scatter. Theirs is a fated symbiotic relationship.

Captain Olimar is among the most specialised characters within the cast of Smash Bros. Brawl.

In order to really unleash Olimar’s full potential, you’ve got to have a good knowledge of his helpful cohorts, the Pikmin!

Standard Special Move: Pikmin Pluck

Pluck, pluck, pluck up Pikmin.

First, uproot a few Pikmin from the ground. You can have up to six Pikmin at one time. As long as there is ground beneath your feet, you can reach down and pull up a Pikmin, but be aware that certain Pikmin are more likely to appear in specific types of flooring.

There are 5 types of Pikmin to use!

- Red Pikmin -

• High attack power
• Attacks imbued with incendiary properties
• Immune to fire

- Yellow Pikmin -

• Range of attack slightly larger than usual;
  easy to hit enemies with
• Travel in slight arcs when thrown
• Attacks imbued with electrical properties

- Blue Pikmin -

• Strong when thrown
• Slightly more durable than average

- Purple Pikmin -

• Doesn’t fly far when thrown
• Slow
• High attack power
• Slams into enemies instead of
  latching on when thrown

- White Pikmin -

• Quick and light
• When latched onto opponent,
  poison does additional damage

You can work out which Pikmin you will attack with next by looking at the order they are lined up in.

You’ll use a Red Pikmin in your next attack.

In order to perform a Smash Attack, certain mid-air attacks, and even throws, you’re going to need Pikmin!

Anyhow, just do your best to not kill off your platoon. Olimar doesn’t stand much of a chance by himself.

Pikmin don’t have graves, you know.

Side Special Move: Pikmin Throw

Throw Pikmin that latch on to your opponent!

They’ll cause an enemy’s damage percentage to slowly rise!

Up Special Move: Pikmin Chain

If you think you’re about to plunge to your doom, this right here is your best chance for survival.

The recovery distance for this technique is dependent upon the number of Pikmin currently in your troop!

Just imagine what would’ve happened
if you had had one less Pikmin!

Down Special Move: Pikmin Order

Call back Pikmin who have managed to separate from you. You can also use this technique to shift a new Pikmin to the front of the line.

Tweeet! Line up, everyone!

So there you have it. I bet you’re a little confused by his eccentric play style.

But don’t fret! It’s easier than it looks. Spend some time playing around with him. That’s key.

Whoa, the battlefield sure is crowded today...

End of Day

Captain Olimar always makes sure to return to his spaceship before nightfall when he’s out exploring new planets. Why is that?

That’s because night-time on these planets is absolutely teeming with scaaary wild beasts! To avoid an encounter with those creatures, Olimar takes to the safety of space during the night.

So how could we represent this idea in Brawl...?

First things first. Get that Smash Ball!

There’s Olimar’s ship!

Blast off! The ship soars higher and higher into the stratosphere.

Stars fill the sky above.

Wild beasts everywhere! Aaaah!

Characters left behind on the ground take lots and lots of damage.

But dishing out damage alone won’t score you points. The more people in the brawl, the more damage you can expect this attack to do, but beware – another opponent may steal the KO you’ve worked so hard to set up.

In a one-on-one match, this Final Smash won’t deal as much damage, but hey, there’s no worry that someone else will steal your KO, either.

I guess you could call this balancing the gameplay, huh?

The ship comes crashing back to the battlefield
with a huge explosion! Maybe, if you’re lucky,
you’ll catch someone in the blast?