R.O.B. (Super Smash Bros. Brawl)


 * This article is about R.O.B.'s appearance in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. For other uses, see Ancient Minister or Robotic Operating Buddy

R.O.B., known in Japan as the Famicom Robot (, Robotto), is a newcomer in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. His full name is Robotic Operating Buddy, and he's based off the R.O.B. NES peripheral. He was unveiled in a mass leak prior to the Japanese release of Brawl. He currently ranks 9th on the tier list, due to his great projectiles and tournament matchups, as well as his excellent recovery.

R.O.B. was confirmed on the DOJO!! March 6, 2008.

How to Unlock
Complete one of the following:
 * Play 160 brawls, then defeat R.O.B.
 * Get 250 different trophies, then defeat R.O.B.
 * Get R.O.B. to join your party in The Subspace Emissary.

Role in the Subspace Emissary
The race of R.O.B.s appear under four roles in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. During The Subspace Emissary, they are a unit of the Subspace Army, and are used to activate the Subspace Bombs, as well as guard the Ancient Minister and come in different variations; R.O.B. Sentry, R.O.B. Launcher, and the R.O.B. Blaster. The bodyguards for the Ancient Minister are called The R.O.B. Squad. When a pair of R.O.B.s are used to activate a Subspace Bomb, they are destroyed in the explosions. In the Subspace Emissary, it is revealed that the Ancient Minister is actually R.O.B. and the whole reason he was destroying the Super Smash Bros. World was because Tabuu had killed a lot of R.O.B.s and he had become very depressed, and Tabuu black mailed R.O.B. to kill more unless he became the forfront of the SSE. It is also revealed that R.O.B., the Ancient Minister, was once the ruler of the world and he lives on a floating island along with the other ministers. Samus, Pikachu, Captain Olimar, Captain Falcon, Donkey Kong, and Diddy Kong were able to get in this same island. However, when they arrived, the Ancient Minister refused to battle with them.

A hologram of Ganondorf suddenly appeared and started commanding all the R.O.B.s except for the Ancient Minister. All the R.O.B.s attacked the Minister until his clothes and armour were burned off and the gang discovered he was R.O.B. After that, R.O.B. decided to stop destroying the world and teamed up with the gang to stop Ganondorf and Tabuu from destroying the World of Trophies.

Attributes
R.O.B is a surprising character. He seems like a joke character at first, but he has many assets that combine to make a good character that can really pressure the opponent up close or from afar. Many of his attacks are low lag, with moderate power and range. He has two projectiles, both with decent knockback and unique properties to usually mess up the opponent's approach. His aerial game is also good, with his down air acting as a spike, and his back aerial aiding in his exceptional recovery. With the addition to Robo Burner, he is quite interesting to experiment with on certain combos and techniques such as Wall of Pain or Ken combo. The good aerial game is combined with a very powerful up smash, a heavy weight, fast projectiles noted above, and a side special which reflects projectiles. Despite his moves boasting only moderate knockback, R.O.B can generally keep knocking his opponent away with superior range, and combo any of his moves together fairly easily. The resulting damage adds up rather quickly with an experienced player. R.O.B is a large target, however, and his own projectiles are not spammable. His base up close is also a blind spot. He can be juggled because he is floaty in jumping and recovery, and his moves with actual potential to kill have considerable start up lag or keep him airborne longer than desired. Additionally, aside from his up smash, his smash attacks are not reliable killing moves until 150% usually. Characters with more spammable projectiles can possibly overwhelm R.O.B. from afar as well. Still, with a very flexible ranged game, R.O.B can be a dangerous foe for many characters in the game.

Normal

 * Standard Attack/Combo - R.O.B. does a quick swing with each arm. Two hits; the first one deals 3% damage and deals slight upward knockback, with almost no KO potential. The second one also deals 3%, but has much more power and horizontal knockback. Total, 6%.
 * Dash Attack - R.O.B. thrusts his arms forward. 5% normally, 6% if initiated at the center of the opponent.
 * Strong Side - Leans forward and punches with an impressive range. Can be aimed up or down.
 * Strong Up - Arms point upwards and his "torso" moves up on his "spine", causing this to pop up a bit. Can hit twice.
 * Strong Down - Quickly pushes his arms forward along the ground. Quick, produces opportunity for multiple hits. May trip.

Smash

 * Side Smash - Shoots a short beam from his eyes. Can be directed up and down like a shorter Robo Beam.
 * Down Smash - Lowers torso on his spine and extends arms, spinning them. Low damage and knockback, but decent range and multiple hits. One of the faster smashes.
 * Up Smash - Plants hands on ground and does a handstand, shooting boosters out of his base upwards.

Other

 * Ledge attack - R.O.B. leaps onto the edge and swings both arms over-head. 7%
 * 100% ledge attack - Rotates so that his right arm is directly pointing the stage and lunges his right arm forward. 10%
 * Floor attack - Quickly gets up and spins with both arms extended in each direction. 6%
 * Trip attack - R.O.B. lowers his torso, withdraws it's left arm and extends it's right arm to sweep the floor around. 5%

Aerial Attacks

 * Neutral Aerial - Shoots his boosters out diagonally down in front of him, and spins with them going, deals about 11% damage with a good knockback and easy to hit with, slow coming out but when it does it's good, at low damage. R.O.B. can short hop and use this move a lot to hit enemies with.
 * Down Aerial - Boosts R.O.B. up a little bit, shooting his boosters down where he was. Powerful, yet slow, and can spike, yet not quickly. Keeps him stationary in the air shortly.
 * Up Aerial - Raises arms repeatedly above his head, hitting multiple times with good damage if used right
 * Forward Aerial - Looks like his dash attack, just in the air, fast and strong. Works as en excellent wall of pain.
 * Back Aerial - Aims his base behind him and fires his boosters. Pushes R.O.B. forward a little bit. The hitbox affects targets both in front of and behind R.O.B. each with decent knockback. This can be used for recovery in between Robo Burners, creating virtually the best horizontal recovery move in the game along with Pound.

Grabs and Throws

 * Down Throw: Drills opponent into the ground in front of him. 10%
 * Up Throw: Grabs opponent, flies them into the air a short distance, turns them upside down, then crashes them into the ground (Similar to Kirby or Meta Knight's up throw). 10%
 * Forward Throw: Tosses opponent forward. 10%
 * Back Throw: Quickly swings opponent backward. 10%

Taunts

 * Up taunt: Faces forward and spins his head and arms in opposite directions. (Similar to his Mario Kart DS pose)
 * Side taunt: Faces towards the screen, tilts his head to the side and moves it in a full arc, all the while his eyes glow and spark. R.O.B. subtly claps twice.
 * Down taunt: Faces forward, ratchets his arms down his spine and spins them back up to their original position. (This is a reference to how R.O.B. was powered up when ready to play)

Trivia

 * R.O.B.'s standard colors are his Japanese Famicom appearance with red arms. The words on his base say: "Family Computer Robot". When R.O.B. uses his gray and white North American colors, the words on his base change to say: "R.O.B. - Robotic Operating Buddy".
 * R.O.B. is the only character without a stage representing his universe. Instead, the Mario Bros. stage doubles as his stage. Delfino Plaza is used if Mario Bros. has not been unlocked yet.
 * According to the last update on the Smash Bros. DOJO!! website, R.O.B.'s symbol is to both represent one of his Gyros, and an altered version of the mark for the Subspace Emissary.
 * Giant robotic cranes resembling R.O.B. appear in the Port Town Aero Dive stage. These also appeared in F-Zero GX, the game the stage is based off of.
 * R.O.B.'s entrance animation may be a reference to Kirby's Dream Land 3, where the player must get pieces of R.O.B. throughout the level for Professor Hector so he can build him.
 * An "on and off" switch can be seen on the back part of his base.
 * During his down taunt, his wire appears to simply spin in mid-air, disconnected from his body. This also happens in all moves where he spins his torso.
 * R.O.B. is the only playable "accessory". Most accessories are items, like the Super Scope.
 * R.O.B. is the only character in Brawl who can hold 3 consecutive charges at the same time; a fully charged Gyro, Robo Beam, and the automatic replenshing of his fuel capacity for Robo Burner.
 * R.O.B. can eat food, despite being inorganic. In a similar vein, R.O.B. is also apparently capable of feeling sadness and pain (a good example is during his Ancient Minister role), can fall asleep and he can swim, much like every other character in the game. This also signifies that R.O.B. is waterproof.
 * While some characters, like R.O.B., cannot be put in helpless, their helpless state can be seen via hacking. R.O.B. is the exception, as the game freezes if he is put in helpless state, meaning he wasn't programmed to have one.
 * Certain chacters such as R.O.B. will have certain glitch effects when there Final Smash is used on the Bridge of Eldin in the middle of the regenerating bridge, this is called the Diffusion Beam Glitch.
 * Although it looks like R.O.B. is using wheels to move on the ground, he is actually using small jet bursts from his Robo Burner. These have no effect on the fuel for the special move Robo Burner, however.
 * When Screen KOed, if you pause just as R.O.B. looks in front of the screen, you will see that his eyes resemble the Matrix.