Takamaru

Takamaru
Official artwork of Takamaru from The Mysterious Murasame Castle.
Universe	The Mysterious Murasame Castle
Debut	The Mysterious Murasame Castle (1986)
Smash Bros. appearances	SSB4 Ultimate
Most recent non-Smash appearance	Nintendo Land (Referenced, 2012)
Console/platform of origin	Famicom (Disk System)
Species	Human
Gender	Male
Voice actor	Tomokazu Sugita

Takamaru (鷹丸, Takamaru) is the protagonist of The Mysterious Murasame Castle.

Origin

Takamaru in The Mysterious Murasame Castle.

Takamaru is the protagonist of the 1986 Famicom game The Mysterious Murasame Castle: he is an apprentice samurai who must protect Edo Japan and four neighboring castle towns from an evil alien menace, residing in the titular Murasame Castle. Armed with only a katana and his wit, he sets off to rescue the people from the extraterrestrial's influence. The game worked similarly to The Legend of Zelda - being based on the same engine - and had several power-ups for Takamaru to use, including sandals that let him walk on water, fireballs, throwing knives and windmill swords. Takamaru and his game became rather obscure, owing to the lack of a worldwide release; prior to the Famicom disc for the game making a cameo in Pikmin 2, Takamaru was effectively unknown in the Western world. The character would later make his first international appearance in Samurai Warriors 3 for the Wii as a playable character, and after being featured in his own mini-game in the Wii U game Nintendo Land, his own game received an international release for the Nintendo 3DS via the eShop.

In Super Smash Bros. Melee

While he does not make any appearance in Melee, Sakurai stated that Takamaru was at least considered for a playable role during developement, but the idea was later scrapped, likely due to low current relevance.

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Takamaru's only appearance in Brawl is as a sticker.

Name	Game	Effect	Character(s)
Takamaru	Nazo no Murasame Jō	Attack +11

Takamaru (Nazo no Murasamejo)

In Super Smash Bros. 4

Takamaru as an Assist Trophy.

A Mii Swordfighter dressed as Takamaru.

Takamaru appears as an Assist Trophy in Super Smash Bros. 4. When summoned, he moves around swiftly with dashes and jumps, mimicking the animations of his original game with choppy body movements. He attacks either by throwing Windmill Swords that travel in an "X" shape and deal 3% damage to characters on contact, or with a flurry of repeated slashes using his katana, which traps opponents and deals up to 40% damage, with high knockback on the final hit. He can be defeated if he takes enough hits.

In an interview, Masahiro Sakurai stated that he briefly considered Takamaru as a playable character for Super Smash Bros. 4, but just like how Takamaru was scrapped in Melee, he felt that Takamaru's popularity was too low to make the cut, relegating him to Assist Trophy status.

He is also the basis of a downloadable Mii Fighter costume for Mii Swordfighters. Nintendo also released a QR code for those who wish to have the exact Mii used in the costume's advertising.

Trophy information

Takamaru's trophy appears in both versions. In Super Smash Bros. for Wii U it is part of the Memorabilia Trophy Box.

Trophy in for 3DS.

Trophy in for Wii U.

Takamaru

The main character of The Mysterious Murasame Castle. In this game, he dashes and jumps straight to the nearest opponent and shows off his swift sword skills. If he's got a bit of distance, he uses his special ninja techniques, based on the rock and the bishop in Japanese chess, to send projectiles spinning through the air.

: The Mysterious Murasame Castle (08/2014)

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Takamaru as an assist Trophy in Ultimate

Takamaru returns as an Assist Trophy. The Takamaru Wig and Takamaru Outfit also return.

Spirit

• 

  1,128. Takamaru Spirit

Gallery

• 

  Official artwork of Takamaru from Samurai Warriors 3

• 

  Takamaru fighting along side Diddy Kong, Fox, and Falco against Bowser.

• 

  Takamaru and Palutena

• 

  Takamaru and Ganondorf

• 

  Takamaru and a Mii Gunner.

• 

  Takamaru attacking Duck Hunt.

Trivia

• Despite being depicted as a samurai in all of his appearances before being an Assist Trophy in Super Smash Bros. 4, Takamaru is mislabeled as being a ninja in the English translations of his character Trophy. He is even shown wielding a ninjatō, a weapon associated with ninja, rather than wielding the katana like his previous incarnations.
• In the Wii U version, the "Game Releases" section of the trophy description only mentions The Mysterious Murasame Castle's international debut on the Virtual Console in 2014, and not its original Japanese release on the Famicom in 1986.