Distant Planet

Distant Planet
File:PikminSymbol.png
Universe	Pikmin
Appears in	SSBB
Availability	Starter
Crate type	Normal
Tournament legality Brawl Singles: Counterpick Doubles: Counterpick

Distant Planet is a stage in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. It is the first and currently only stage to represent the new Pikmin universe. Technically, all the fighters will be at most only a couple of inches tall when they are fighting on this stage.

Stage Description

The stage arena is comprised of a giant leaf with three smaller leaves above it. The small leaves sink when characters are standing on them; the heavier the character, the lower the leaf falls. When the player walks or jumps off, the leaves will spring back into position. To the left, there is a downward slope slanting into the lower blast line.

As the match plays, Pellets will be seen falling from the Pellet Posies around the stage. The player can grab one of these by attacking the Posie and throw it into a nearby Onion (Pikmin ship) to get items. Just as the Onions produce more Pikmin based on the number on the pellet and if the colors correspond in the games, more items will come out the higher the number on the pellet, and more still if it is thrown in the Onion of the matching color (these are red, blue, and yellow). The pellets start out as 1, and the longer they are left to stand, they will change to 5, and then 10. Onions will land on the leaf-platforms, and can be attacked to make them flee. This may be a good tactic if a player wishes to withhold items from their enemies.

Also, this planet experiences frequent torrential downpours. When things get wet, the left edge of the hill will have water sliding down, dragging players off the stage. The edge of the hill can still be grabbed during the rain effect. A Bulborb is to the right of the area; landing in its mouth will cause it to swallow the player. If this happens, the Bulborb will drag the player off the stage and this counts as a Self-Destruct (unless the player is tossed by a foe). While landing in the mouth will result in being eaten, players can grab the ledge of the Bulborb's mouth like any other ledge and walljump against the vertical part of his mouth. Sometimes the Bulborb will cry out or yawn, or stand with it's mouth gaping open. The Bulborb will wander on and off screen throughout the match. Furthermore, standing on top of the Bulborb for too long is dangerous as the Bulborb can walk off the stage.

Songs in My Music

• Main Theme (Pikmin)
• World Map (Pikmin 2)
• Stage Clear / Title (Pikmin)
• Forest of Hope
• Ai no Uta
• Ai no Uta (French Version)
• Tane no Uta
• Environmental Noises
• Title (Big Brain Academy)

Songs in bold must be unlocked

Origin

Pellet Posies in the Awakening Wood, from Pikmin 2.

In both Pikmin and Pikmin 2, Captain Olimar's adventures took place on a mysterious unknown world. Specifically, this stage is probably based off The Forest of Hope and The Awakening Wood from Pikmin and Pikmin 2, respectively.

Red Bulborbs are the most common enemy in the Pikmin series. Its characteristics are to sleep until disturbed, then march around its territory looking for Pikmin to eat. These traits are shown in Brawl by the Bulborbs in the foreground and background. There is also a Cloaking Burrow-nit, another enemy in the Pikmin games, in the background.

In Pikmin 2, the primary objective is to search for treasures to pay off a massive debt. These treasures mostly consist of pieces of everyday litter, but are considered valuable by the Hocotatians. The soda can in the background that has the Smash symbol on it is likely a homage to all of this. However in Pikmin, exposed pipes and tin cans were used as signals for the location of bomb rocks.

While the identity of the planet is never outright confirmed (hence the non-descriptive name for the stage), it is very heavily implied that it is Earth (going so far as to show recognizable continents in cutscenes), with the stage's file name in Brawl being "STGEARTH".

Tournament Legality

Distant Planet's legality is often debated. Some argue that the slope enables blastline camping, the stage layout overall encourages light circle camping, and getting eaten by the Bulborb causes SDs is enough to warrant a ban, but the BBR decided that the rainfall on the slope limits blastline camping and that the Bulborb does not drastically alter gameplay, therefore putting the stage as a counterpick group 3.

Trivia

• The rain that occurs is 2-D. If one pauses when it's raining on the stage, and moves the camera all the way left or right (angle), then they can see the rain is paper thin; a similar effect occurs in the rain effects for Pirate Ship.
• The Bulborb will close its mouth on a character under the effects of a Starman or a move that gives invincibility, like Super Sonic, but it won't trap the character and take them with it when it walks off the screen.[1]
• If Sonic wears a Bunny Hood on this stage, he can run fast enough to overcome the force of the downpour on the hill, even being able to run all the way to the blast line.
• Interestingly, despite the rainstorms that occur on this stage, it doesn't rain anywhere in Pikmin or Pikmin 2.
• If a wall clinging character clings on the Bulborb's mouth, they will be trapped instead of getting eaten alive.
• It's possible to avoid death on the Bulborb if the player jump the same frame it will eat them; however, this only occurs on the top with his mouth closed. It will still quickly run off the edge.
• Despite the maximum number on a pellet in this stage being 10 (although pellets in the Pikmin games can reach 20), a texture for a 20-pellet is still in the stage's files.
• Transformation Final Smashes, like the Landmasters or Giga Bowser, are not recognized as players when standing on Bulborb's mouth.
• CPU players, no matter what difficulty they are set to, will not recognize the Bulborb's gaping mouth as a hazardous place, allowing the player to lure them in for an easy KO.

Gallery

• 

  A Pellet and an Onion.

• 

  A rainstorm.

• 

  The Bulborb.

• Stage22 080115e-l.jpg

  The Bulborb about to eat the fighters.

External Links

• Dojo page