Icon Analysis: Pikmin Flower

[Dei Enyt]

Udpate: 1/9/08.  Added the Trophy Mode image from SBD.  I'll keep looking around for more stuff.

With a new character comes an icon to represent his or her series.  With Captain Olimar's announcement today, we have this:



The Pikmin Flower.  An icon on it's own can mean quite a bit.  Currently, we've got:

Captain Olimar
Pikmin: World Map Theme (music)

Lets branch out to what else this could potentially include, shall we?  Surely those two updates alone, let alone the icon itself, mean a lot is in store for Brawl.

Lets start with the obvious one, characters.  In all of Pikmin, there have been two playable characters (Three if you include the Company President, for the Pikmin Veterans)

Louie:


What could this mean for him?  He was fairly important to Pikmin 2, but there's one thing that makes me doubt him appearing as playable: something I call the "Obvious Clone".  Off the top of my head, I don't remember much difference between Olimar and his associate, other than Whistle sounds.  There's possibility for creativity, but I'm just looking at the big picture for now.  Odds are, Olimar's going to be the sole representative of Pikmin in terms of playables.

Moving on... lets look at revealed things that could be hinting to something.

We've already seen a Spotty Bulborb in a screenshot for the Trophy mode.



Could this mean a possible Pikmin-related Assist Trophy?  Considering the Bulborb is the trademark enemy in Pikmin, I think that one's a possibility.

Now, the music.  Music goes with stages.  That's more or less a good way of saying "Pikmin Stage in Brawl", but not entirely confirmation.  After all, music from Balloon Fighter was heard in Icicle Mountain in Melee.

But assume there IS a Pikmin stage?  What are the possibilities there?

Well, there's one thing that comes to mind when I think Pikmin stages, and that's the Crash Site.  This is where Olimar crash-lands his ship, the Dolphin, in Pikmin 1.  This is where he first encounters Pikmin and learns that they could potentially help him rebuild his ship.  It later returns in Pikmin 2 as the Wispy Wilds.

Now, one last thing to look at: Subspace Emissary

I remember it being said that every character will have to "relive" some moments in their games when we play SSE.  Olimar's first game didn't have a lot of enemies I can classify as "bosses", but one thing does come to mind: the Emperor Bulblax.  This creature easily dwarfs both Olimar and the Pikmin in size, and is a perfect candidate.

WARNING: PIKMIN 2 SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

In Pikmin 2, however, there's a "Final Boss" as well; a large four-legged spider called the Titan Dweevil, being ridden by none other than Louie (Louie gets accidentally left behind after fulfilling the first main requirement of Pikmin 2, which is how the Company President becomes playable).  The Titan Dweevil too dwarfed Olimar and the Pikmin, possibly moreso than the Emperor Bulblax.  However, the Titan Dweevil could also arm itself with large treasures that it used as weapons, including a water faucet and a blowtorch.  The question with Louie is: Was he controlling it... or just a helpless passenger?  With that alone, the Titan Dweevil surges to the top of the list of possible SSE Pikmin Bosses.

END SPOILERS

That's all for now.  I'll see about adding images in later.

[DededeCloneChris]

I need to see that later.

[JrDude]

Louie is probably an AT if anything, but maybe he has somethin' to do with Olimar's moveset? Doubtfull but possible.

[Cornwad]

Yeah, Bulborb should be an AT.
Louie and CP colors should be alt. costumes for Olimar.