Pikmin (universe)

File:PikminSymbol.png

The Pikmin universe (ピクミン, Pikumin) refers to the Super Smash Bros. series' collection of characters, stages, and other properties that hail from the popular Nintendo series of colorful real-time strategy games, Pikmin. The series was personally developed by Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto and is one of the Nintendo GameCube's notable standout franchises. The series, which contributed minor content in Super Smash Bros. Melee, was established as a major franchise in Super Smash Bros. Brawl with the inclusion of its main characters, Captain Olimar and the Pikmin, as a playable character entity (registered as "Pikmin & Olimar"), who also made a playable appearance in Super Smash Bros. 4.

Franchise description

Prior to the launch of the Nintendo GameCube, Shigeru Miyamoto promoted the system's processing power by releasing a tech demo titled "Super Mario 128" at Nintendo's Space World trade show in August 2000, which demonstrated rapid generation techniques in order to display 128 separate Mario models on screen at once. Meanwhile, Miyamoto and his development team worked on an original project, working title "Adam and Eve", that was planned to be a game where one could watch the development and proliferation of two starting characters. Eventually, this idea was found to be far too lacking in interactivity for the player and was scrapped. But then, a completely new aesthetic was brought in and incorporated into a marriage between some of the concepts of Adam and Eve and the technicalities demonstrated by Super Mario 128. The now-familiar Pikmin series' characters, setting, and real-time-strategy gameplay style were introduced to the Nintendo brand with the December 2001 release of Pikmin as a near-launch title for the GameCube. (Incidentally, the name "Pikmin" was derived from Miyamoto's sheepdog, Pikku).

Pikmin received positive reception, both for its charming aesthetics and characters and for its unique spin on real-time strategy, and quickly earned a devoted fanbase. However, Japanese sales were not enthusiastic after the first week. In an attempt to stimulate sales, the virtual band Strawberry Flower was hired to write and perform an image song featured in Japanese commercials for the game. Ironically, the single, "Ai no Uta" (Song of Love), became incredibly popular and actually outsold the game it advertised, and it most certainly did its part to surge weekly sales of the game itself. This likely helped secure Pikmin's future status as an established Nintendo franchise, and the first sequel, Pikmin 2, was released in August 2004 for the GameCube. It garnered near-universal acclaim from gaming publications and was noted to be a marked improvement over the original in many important regards, and often makes appearances near the top of published lists of the best GameCube games released over the system's lifespan. Despite what had already become a glowing track record for the franchise and its official featuring in 2008's Super Smash Bros. Brawl, though, Pikmin would experience a nine-year hiatus that would only end with the August 2013 release of the third game, Pikmin 3.

The Pikmin games are set on an unknown planet that has been stated by Miyamoto to represent Earth after the extinction of the human race. The player takes control of a visiting astronaut from a tiny, spacefaring species, most famously Captain Olimar, as he explores the littered wilderness, takes command over armies of native plant-like species he dubs Pikmin, and has them secure and bring back important objects to his home base. A cornucopia of hostile wildlife and environmental hazards does not make things easy for him or his followers; oftentimes, he must willingly sacrifice his minions by hurling them at large enemies so that they whittle the enemies' health down, and must rely on the harvesting of enemy carcasses (and naturally-occurring pellets) to resow his Pikmin and pluck them up to replenish his standing forces. The different colors of Pikmin lend themselves to different on-the-spot battle strategies, and are also important to solving puzzles and opening up important pathways in the environment itself.

In the original game, Captain Olimar, from the planet Hocotate, is taking a vacation on his rocket, the S.S. Dolphin, in outer space when a comet hits his rocket and causes him to crash-land onto the Distant Planet. Olimar cannot breathe the environment's oxygen and has only thirty days worth of life support remaining, and in that time he must befriend and take command of the native Pikmin to help him gather all the broken-off pieces of his Rocket so that he may make a return flight back home. Immediately upon his return home in the second game, he finds that the company he works for, Hocotate Freight, is in severe debt, so the company president sends Olimar and his co-worker Louie to scavenge valuable goods from the Distant Planet. In Pikmin 3, another spacefaring race is introduced, and three new main characters - Alph, Brittany, and Charlie - arrive at the Distant Planet and enlist the aid of the Pikmin to help them harvest fruit seeds to save their starving homeworld, Koppai.

In Super Smash Bros. Melee

Pikmin, having been released right before Melee in Japan, cameos as a pair of collectible trophies, but is not a full-fledged universe. However, in fact, the original Pikmin is the only title in existence that Melee actually features connectivity with; the Captain Olimar trophy is acquired only if there is Pikmin save data on the same Memory Card with Melee saved data.

Trophies

• Captain Olimar
• Pikmin

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Some content of the Pikmin series from Brawl include: one playable character, a stage, some music, and a decent amount of trophies.

Character

• 
  Olimar: The protagonist of the Pikmin series, Captain Olimar has been greatly graphically enhanced, like the other characters of Super Smash Bros. Brawl. However, he's quite weak on his own -- without Pikmin, he can't even do a Smash Attack. All his special moves involve the Pikmin that he plucks from the ground. There are five different types: Red (which have high attack power, burning properties in their attacks, and immunity to all fire-based attacks), Yellow (which have a slightly larger range of attack, making it easier to hit opponents with, travel in slight arcs when thrown, and have electrical properties in their attacks, as well as being immune to electrical attacks), Blue (which are stronger when thrown and slightly more durable than average, and the only Pikmin type that can enter water without dying), Purple (which are heavy and slow, impeding flight distance, have high attack power, and slam into opponents instead of latching on to them), and White (which are light and quick, as well as poisonous to opponents when latched on). He can have up to six different Pikmin at once. He can use them to attack and latch on to opponents, draining their health, use them as a life-saving tether recovery, and call them back if separated. He can also alter their order by whistling. Whichever Pikmin is following him first is the one he will use first in combat. He currently ranks 3rd on the Brawl tier list, only behind Meta Knight and the Ice Climbers and ranks in the A+ tier.

On the final character select screen (after all characters are unlocked), Olimar joins the Kirby characters as part of the fifth column.

Stages

• 
  Distant Planet: Based off The Forest of Hope and The Awakening Woods from Pikmin and Pikmin 2 respectively. Technically, all the fighters will be under an inch tall when they are fighting on this stage. The stage has a slope on the left hand side, three leaves in the center which act as platforms, and another larger platform beneath the leaves, which is bouncy. A gigantic Bulborb appears at the right hand side of the stage, serving as both a platform and stage hazard. It occasionally rains, and the slope on the left hand side becomes a hazard as water gushes down it. Characters can also pick up pellets that fall from Pellet Posies and throw them into Onions that appear on the stage to get Items.

Music

See List of SSBB Music (Pikmin series)

• Main Theme (Pikmin) - Taken directly from the original Pikmin, it is the title screen music from said game. It is used on the Distant Planet stage.
• World Map (Pikmin 2) - A remixed track featuring elements of both the map screens of Pikmin and Pikmin 2. It is the theme of the Distant Planet stage.
• Stage Clear/Title (Pikmin) - A medley of both the End of Day music from Pikmin, as well as a remix of the title screen theme. It is used on the Distant Planet stage. This track is also played during Olimar's Classic Mode credits.
• Forest of Hope - Taken directly from the original Pikmin, this was the background music to the Forest of Hope, the second area that Olimar could explore. It is used on the Distant Planet stage.
• Ai no Uta - A promotional image song performed by the Japanese band Strawberry Flower that was used in commercials for the original game. It is used on the Distant Planet stage.
• Ai no Uta (French version) - A French version of the previously mentioned image song. It is used on the Distant Planet stage.
• Tane no Uta - Similar to Ai no Uta, this was an image song performed by the Japanese band Strawberry Flower that was used in commercials for the second title, Pikmin 2. It is used on the Distant Planet stage.
• Environmental Noises - Not an actual song, per se, but basic environmental noises giving the impression of being in a vast wilderness. It is used on the Distant Planet stage.
• Olimar's victory theme - The tune the Pikmin hum in Pikmin 2 when all the treasure has been acquired in an area.

Trophy

• Captain Olimar
• End of Day
• Red Pikmin
• Yellow Pikmin
• Blue Pikmin
• Purple Pikmin
• White Pikmin
• Louie
• The President
• Hocotate Ship
• Onions
• Creeping Chrysanthemum
• Red Bulborb
• Empress Bulblax
• Fiery Blowhog
• Careening Dirigibug
• Burrowing Snagret
• Iridescent Flint Beetle
• Wollywog
• Swooping Snitchbug
• Pellets

Stickers

• Blue Pellet
• Blue Pikmin
• Bulborb
• Crimson Candypop Bud
• Louie
• Olimar & Louie's Ship
• Olimar's Daughter
• Onion
• Reclining Red Pikmin
• Red Pikmin
• Red Pellet
• The President
• Yellow Pellet
• Yellow Pikmin

In Super Smash Bros. 4

The Pikmin series also offers a stage for Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, as well as the return of Olimar as a playable character.

Character

Official artwork of Olimar in Super Smash Bros. 4.

• Olimar: Olimar returns as a playable character for Super Smash Bros. 4, using all five Pikmin he used in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

Stages

Garden of Hope.

Garden of Hope: Set in the second area in Pikmin 3, the Pikmin universe has a stage in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U.

Games with elements from or in the Super Smash Bros. series

Pikmin

• Captain Olimar appears as a trophy in Melee and Brawl.
• Pikmin also appear as trophies in both games.
• The main character, Olimar, is a playable character in Brawl alongside the Pikmin.
• Distant Planet appears as a stage, and incorporates elements of the Forest of Hope from Pikmin, along with the Onions and Bulborb enemies.
• Various Songs are also taken from this game, such as the Forest of Hope, the main theme from the game, and a remix of the main theme incorporating the Stage Clear tune.
• There are numerous trophies from the series.
• Olimar's Final Smash, End of Day, reflects the feature in the game of when Olimar had to leave the planet at the end of each day to avoid him and the Pikmin being eaten.

Pikmin 2

The White and Purple Pikmin introduced in this game are two of the Pikmin Olimar can pick using his Pikmin Pluck move.

In addition, the space ship Olimar and Louie use to fly in this game is part of Pikmin & Olimar's Final Smash, End of Day. Olimar's partner, Louie, was first introduced in this game and appears in SSBB as a trophy.

Pikmin 3

Olimar uses his appearance from Pikmin 3 in Super Smash Bros. 4, and the second area in the game, the Garden of Hope, appears as a stage in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U.

External links

• Pikipedia