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 on the R.O.B. NES peripheral. He was unveiled in a mass leak prior to the Japanese release of Brawl. R.O.B. was confirmed on the DOJO!! March 6, 2008. He is currently the first and only inorganic character playable in the entire Super Smash Bros. Series. 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. Every time R.O.B. moves, he leaves small air circles on the ground, reinforcing the idea that he doesn't even use wheels to move on the floor. Ivysaur and Pit also have this property.

R.O.B. currently ranks 17th on the tier list, due to his great projectiles, great matchups, and excellent recovery. However, R.O.B.'s poor match-up with Meta Knight, fairly large size (making him a target for combos), and lack of reliable killing moves (due to him being prone to Stale Move Negation on his killers) are cited as obstacles to higher tier placement.

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

Attributes
R.O.B. plays the role of a long-range attacker very well, with projectiles and means to keep opponents at bay. His base up close is a blind spot, making it important to keep foes away. Many of his attacks balance moderate power and range with short lag-time. His moves with actual KO potential, though, have considerable start up lag or keep him airborne longer than desired. R.O.B. is also prone to Stale Move Negation on his killers, rendering him unable to kill at times. Despite his moves boasting only moderate knockback, R.O.B. can generally keep knocking his opponent away with superior range, and combine any of his moves together fairly easily. The resulting damage adds up rather quickly with an experienced player. R.O.B. is decently heavy and floaty (making R.O.B, Samus and Yoshi the only floaty heavyweights), but he is also a large target. He has two projectiles, both with decent knockback and unique properties, which usually mess up the opponent's approach. The major flaw with these projectiles is that they are not spammable (as they must be charged/recharged). His aerial game is also good, with his down air acting as a Meteor Smash (although it has a very slow start-up), and his back aerial's self-push effect aiding in his exceptional recovery. With the addition of Robo Burner, he is quite interesting to experiment with on certain combination of attacks and techniques such as a Wall of Pain. In fact, a technique sometimes called "burner flashing," which is initiated by first using Robo Burner, and then repeatedly pressing B, has been proven to be the farthest vertical traveling recovery move in one go. R.O.B.'s recovery does have its problems. He can't air dodge out of Robo Burner, making his recovery predictable for some characters, and he can be juggled because he is floaty in both jumping and recovery. His slow fast falling also makes his momentum canceling poor, getting KOed vertically at relatively low percents, especially for his weight class. R.O.B.'s side special reflects projectiles, but characters with more spammable projectiles can possibly overwhelm R.O.B. from afar. Overall, 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. 5% normally, but 8% if R.O.B.s "hand" hits the opponent.
 * Strong Up - Arms point upwards and his "torso" moves up on his "spine", causing this to pop up a bit. Can hit twice, first hit does 3% and has set knockback, second hit launches opponents upwards; 6%. Total 9%. Hitting with the first (R.O.B.'s elbows at the sides) can lock most fastfallers and heavys, and the lock has a 0-death on Fox.
 * Strong Down - Quickly pushes his arms forward along the ground. Quick, produces opportunity for multiple hits. May trip. 5%-6%.

Smash

 * Side Smash - Shoots a short beam from his eyes. Can be directed up and down like a shorter Robo Beam. May be considered a projectile, due to the fact that it can't break a Metal Box. 12%-19%.
 * Down Smash - Lowers torso on his spine and extends arms, spinning them. Low damage and knockback, but decent range and multiple hits. Is the fastest down smash, tied with Zelda's. 11%-18%.
 * Up Smash - Plants hands on ground and does a handstand, shooting boosters out of his base upwards. Very good knockback but is on the slow side and is predictable. 14%-19%.

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, dealing about 11% damage with good knockback. It's slow coming out but when it makes contact it's good when the opponent's at a low damage percentage. 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. It's powerful, yet slow, and can Meteor Smash. Keeps him stationary in the air shortly, although he can fast fall with it as long as he's in knockback after getting hit. 11%. This attack has a very odd hitbox, because when performed nearly at the sides of the opponent (at the sourspot), the move will deal upward knockback and will do 13%. When Tiny, R.O.B. can use this move instead of Robo Burner to recover. Provides him an unlimited Recovery move, because it pushes him upward, and can be used infinitely to fly up the upper Blast line infinitely without getting Star KO'd, making it also the only unlimited non-Bomb recovery and the only infinite recovery (when Tiny) of every Smash Bros. installment. Can also perform every Hyrule Jump (only when tiny).
 * Up Aerial - Raises arms repeatedly above his head, hitting multiple times with good damage if used right. About 20% worth of damage.
 * Forward Aerial - Looks like his dash attack, just in the air. It's fast and strong. It works as an excellent wall of pain. 10% (if sweetspotted).
 * Back Aerial - Aims his base behind him and fires his boosters. Pushes R.O.B. forward a little bit, although while he keeps the knockback after getting hit, it does nothing to increase or reduce momentum. 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 longest horizontal recovery move in the game along with Pound and Glide. 11%.

Grabs and Throws

 * Pummel: Squeezes opponent with his hands. 2%. Very fast and no ending lag.
 * 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 Olimar, 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. He also subtly claps twice.
 * Down taunt: Faces forward, ratchets his arms down his spine and spins them back up to their original position. His wire appears to simply spin in mid-air, disconnected from his body. This also happens in all moves where he spins his torso. This is a reference to how R.O.B. was powered up when ready to play.

Crowd Cheer
"R-O-B, ROB!"

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, which upset the Ancient Minister. Tabuu then threatened to extinguish the rest of the R.O.B. race if the Ancient Minister would not aid him in his plan. 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 on this same island. However, when they arrive, the Ancient Minister refuses to battle with them.

A hologram of Ganondorf appears and commands the R.O.B. minions to detonate all the Subspace Bombs in the building, only to have the Ancient Minister tell him off. Ganondorf then orders the R.O.B.s to attack the disobedient Minister. They burn the Minister's robes away to discover that their target is a R.O.B. himself. At that point, R.O.B. decided to stop destroying the world and joined the heroes. After he and his friends defeat a flock of Auroros sent in by Ganondorf, he mourned at the fact that the Subspace Bombs are about to selfdestruct, along with the R.O.B.s that set them off. Realizing that they cannot pull the R.O.B.s away from the bombs, Captain Falcon calls in the Falcon Flyer, DK grabs the melancholic R.O.B. and the Smashers depart, despite Meta Ridley getting in their way.

Captain Falcon drives the Falcon Flyer straight into the Subspace along with everyone else. Unfortunately, Tabuu uses his Off Waves to reduce them all into trophies; R.O.B. among them. King Dedede, Ness,  Luigi and  Kirby, who were revived by the Dedede Brooch, find them and bring them back to life. With all heroes reunited, they endure the Great Maze and fight Tabuu.

R.O.B. is one of the few characters who has two names displayed throughout the story. The first time is as the Ancient Minister and the second time as R.O.B.  Zelda and Samus also have different names displayed, labelled at different times as " Sheik" and " Zero Suit Samus", respectively.

Trivia

 * The entirety of R.O.B.'s "voice" is composed of NES-style noises, although this is difficult to discern during a fight.
 * R.O.B. is the only character without a stage representing his universe. Instead, the Mario Bros. stage is used as his home stage. Delfino Plaza is used if Mario Bros. has not been unlocked yet; this could be because he has been playable in the Mario series (in Mario Kart DS) or simply because Mario Bros. and Delfino Plaza are from the same series.
 * 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.
 * R.O.B. is the only character in Brawl who can hold 4 consecutive charges at the same time; a smash attack, a fully charged Gyro, Robo Beam, and the automatic replenishing of his fuel capacity for Robo Burner.
 * While some characters cannot be put in helpless naturally, 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. Some have reportedly seen what looks like a helpless animation, but it has not been confirmed.
 * R.O.B. is the only character to spin horizontally when using a Screw Attack. Despite this, the graphical effect continues to spin vertically.
 * R.O.B.'s eyes turn green as his "pain" facial expression (whereas most characters have their eyes closed or wincing).
 * R.O.B. has an ON - OFF switch on his base.
 * R.O.B, is the only robot playable in the Super Smash Bros. Series.
 * R.O.B. is the only character that actually exists in the real world, but as a Nintendo Accessory instead of an actual manufactured machine.
 * R.O.B, King Dedede, Mario, Diddy Kong, and Ness are the only characters to wear their default costumes in team battles, when they are on the red team.
 * R.O.B. is the only character to have an alternate form that is not playable.