Lucas (Super Smash Bros. Brawl)


 * ''This article is about Lucas' appearance in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. For other uses, see Lucas.

Lucas (リュカ) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. The first EarthBound newcomer since the original Super Smash Bros., Lucas is the main character of MOTHER 3, the sequel to EarthBound released only in Japan. Lucas' Special Moves are very similar to Ness'; his physical attacks, however, are all completely different. Lucas relies on his PSI powers far more than Ness, using them for all his attacks but his forward smash, up aerial, and down tilt.

Lucas uses Duster's Rope Snake from MOTHER 3 to perform a Tether Recovery. The Rope Snake is also a taunt, where Lucas looks at the snake and argues with it. Lucas also utilizes Duster's Rope Snake for his grabs, giving him a ranged grab, much like Link, Samus, and Olimar. Like Ness, all of his Special Moves, as well as his Final Smash, derive from in-game attacks that are instead learned by another character, Kumatora, not Lucas himself.

Lucas ranks 29th on the tier list, now the lowest ranked newcomer, due to his poor matchups and tourney rankings. Unusual long grab release animation makes him the target for infinite chain-grabs from Marth, Donkey Kong, and Charizard.

Attributes
Lucas is a character with slow but strong, high priority smashes and slightly above average dash speed. His aerials are generally quick, and two of them can meteor smash opponents: his b-air and d-air. His u-air also has a visible sweetspot. His smashes are very strong: his Up-Smash can be charged for massive damage and knockback, his forward smash is a decently strong and fairly quick smash attack, and his down smash is very strong and can hit three times, but has a bit of startup lag. Two of his special moves can be “controlled”, PK Freeze and PK Thunder. PK Thunder is Lucas’ main recovery move, and if it hits Lucas, it will shoot him in an angle depending on the part of Lucas' body which it hits, and can deal a large amount of damage if all it's hits connect. PK Freeze can be controlled from side to side and can freeze opponents and do a good amount of damage if "charged", but the vertical nature of its knockback limits its use. His side special, PK Fire, is a single hit move that pushes Lucas back a little, making it great for Wavebouncing. It can also be used to Zap Jump, which gives Lucas’ recovery a substantial boost. His down special, PSI Magnet, can absorb energy based projectiles, such as Ray Gun bullets, Fire Breath and even Pikachu's Thunder, and if it used right after PK Fire, can push him back even further called the Magnet Pull, giving him a great horizontal recovery. His grab range is great and is far longer than Ness' range since it's a tether, but it is quite laggy if missed. His throws are also powerful with good KO potential. In addition, his second jump is the 3rd highest in the game, falling a little shy of Ness who is also exceeded by Yoshi. As stated above, the jump can be significantly lengthened by performing a PK Fire 1 frame after a midair jump has been inputted.

As was mentioned, being infinite-chaingrabbed by multiple characters is a major flaw in his game. He, like Ness, suffers from 10 additional frames of lag when he escapes from grabs, enough to be re-grabbed or open for certain attacks. In addition, Lucas does not have particularly good range on many of his moves, and two of his smash attacks (Up-Smash and Down-Smash) tend to have enough ending lag to be easily punished in many situations, leaving him using only his forward smash for easy on-stage kills, which gets predictable. Also note that both of his two aerial meteor smashes are hard to hit with in the fact that one can only meteor smash an enemy downwards with a certain "spot" of the attacks (Tip of his foot for the B-Air, 4th and final kick for his D-Air, which is easier to land but the much weaker of the two). Another weakness is that PK Thunder Recovery can be interrupted by certain attacks, making it only to be used as a last resort recovery move. PK Thunder and PK Freeze both leave Lucas very vulnerable because he can't move or attack when controlling these projectiles. It should also be noted that Lucas' aerial range is quite low, his forward and backward aerials having very low range, and his down aerial having terrible horizontal range.

Normal

 * Neutral Attack - Kicks with his right leg twice, then does a roundhouse kick with his left. Very fast. Three hits of 3%, 3%, then 4% for a max of 10%.
 * Dash Attack - Lucas slides forward, shooting PSI energy out of his hands. Has a bit of startup lag, but decent range. 12% normally, 10% if hit at the tip.
 * Strong Side - Lucas does a back hand and creates a shock of PSI. Can be aimed up or down slightly. If aimed down, it can trip foes. 11% normally, 9% if the opponent is a bit behind Lucas.
 * Strong Up - Lucas does a one-handed stand flipkick charged with PSI. Can chained into itself at lower percents. Two hits of 3%, then 8% for a max of 11%.
 * Strong Down - Lucas crouches and spins with his leg out. The tip of this attack trips. This can be used multiple times in a row, like Ness's Strong Down, then be chained into a fast attack. Has a 100% chance of tripping when tipped. 6%.

Smash

 * Side Smash - Lucas swings his stick. Like Ness' Forward Smash, it is a reflector, but is faster yet weaker (though it still has decent knockback). 15% uncharged, 21% fully charged. Dubbed "Better Stick", which is one of Lucas' standard stick weapons in MOTHER3, by players.
 * Up Smash - Lucas releases a burst of PSI that erupts above his head, but also hits to the sides and damages any breakable floors Lucas may be standing on. It has a very slow start-up and leaves horrid lag afterwards rendering it very easily punished. It is however compensated by its extremely large knockback and godly range, which if hit can easily KO lightweight foes on relatively small percentages. At the same time, its range is wide enough to hit two character lengths to the side of him, and able to hit foes on the very top platform of Battlefield from the bottom. Two hits of 2% (does not connect if opponent is far away), then 19% for a max of 21% uncharged, 27% for a max of 29% fully charged. This is believed to be, or derive from, his PK Love attack, since he uses a move looking like this to pull a needle both in MOTHER 3 and in one of his victory poses, and he can only pull needles if he has learned PK love.
 * Down Smash - Lucas points at the ground in front of him, "shooting" three bursts of PSI energy at his feet. Though each hit is progressively weaker, their hitboxes gradually grow. It is unlikely that two of the hits will connect on the same enemy. Great for edgeguarding. Has minimal protection from behind, thus leaving Lucas very vulnerable. Three hits of 17%, 14%, then 11% uncharged, 23%, 20%, then 15% fully charged,for a total of 58%. If this move was used while he is on a destructible platform, the destruction of the platform would cause him to be in the air and the attack ends without lag. It is very possible to hit with more than one hit if Lucas is on a moving platform, like the one on Smashville. This is probably derived from PK Ground, where Kumatora would use PSI to shake the ground, making multiple hits.

Other

 * Ledge Attack - Lucas flips onto the stage, then does a sweep kick. 8%.
 * 100% Ledge Attack - Lucas slowly climbs up with his fist drawn back, then delivers a powerful punch. 10%.
 * Floor Attack - Lucas gets up and spins on one hand while sticking a leg out. 6%.
 * Trip Attack - Lucas gets up on his hands and kicks backwards, then thrusts his legs between his arms in a kick forward. 5%.

Aerial Attacks

 * Standard Air - Lucas spins in a gyro pattern with PSI energy around him. Seven hits of 2%, then a hit of 3% for a max of 17%.
 * Forward Air - Lucas kicks his foot forward with PSI. 12% normally, 10% if the enemy is a bit behind Lucas, 8% if the enemy is hit with the final frames of the move.
 * Back Air - Lucas thrusts his feet behind him and hooks them downwards with a stream of small PSI. Knocks backwards, if one hits with the tip of his foot or the final hexagon during the attack's animation, it is a decent meteor smash. Regular, non-meteor smash, knockback is extremely low. 10% damage.
 * Up Air - Moves upwards a little and does a headbutt. Has quite a bit of ending lag. 13% damage.
 * Down Air - Lucas thrusts his feet downwards and creates several quick-flashing PSI energy. Multiple-hit attack with some ending lag. The fourth hit can weakly meteor smash. Up to 20% damage.
 * Rope Snake - Lucas thrusts his Rope Snake forward. No damage; for recovery purposes only.

Grabs and Throws

 * Grab - Pulls out his Rope Snake which extends and grabs the opponent. Long range and less laggier than other tether grabs, especially when it's pivot grab.
 * Pummel - Headbutts the foe. When done in the correct rhythm, it deals 9% per second, the best pummel in the game. -- 3% each
 * Forward Throw - Psychokinetically tosses opponent ahead. 10% damage.
 * Back Throw - Psycokinetically blasts opponent back. Very high KO potential. One of the strongest back throws in the game. 10% damage.
 * Up Throw - Psychokinetically tosses opponent straight up. 10% damage.
 * Down Throw - Psychokinetically slams opponent down, and stomps on the opponent. 7% damage. High vertical knockback. This is Lucas' strongest throw. Combines with Strong Up until 35% (average).

Taunts

 * Up Taunt - Lucas trips, shakes his head, and gets back up. Probably derived from Fassad's banana peels.
 * Down Taunt - Lucas creates PSI sparks with his fingers, moving his arms in a sideways motion.
 * Side Taunt - Duster's Rope Snake taps him on the shoulder and has a brief conversation with Lucas, as Lucas shrugs towards it.

Role in Subspace Emissary
Lucas is seen walking alone in an abandoned zoo, until several Primids show up. Then, suddenly, the gigantic Porky Statue appears and chases after Lucas. Lucas runs from it, until he gets caught in a snag and is about to be crushed when Ness comes to his rescue by attacking the statue with a PK Thunder. Ness blows up the Porky Statue with his PK Flash, which reveals Porky Minch himself (based on his MOTHER 3 appearance). Ness and Lucas defeat him, but no sooner do they do so when Wario shows up and attempts to shoot Ness with his Dark Cannon. Ness dodges each time, so Wario eventually aims at Lucas and shoots. Ness pushes Lucas out of the way and gets turned into a trophy himself. Terrified, Lucas runs away as Wario cackles in the rain.

Later on, Lucas runs into the Pokémon Trainer as more Primids show up. After they are defeated, the Pokémon Trainer leaves, but Lucas decides to join him after remembering what happened to Ness. Lucas and the Trainer encounter and defeat Wario in the desert wastelands outside of an abandoned temple, but Lucas gets depressed when Ness is still nowhere to be seen. Along the way, the Pokémon Trainer catches Ivysaur and Charizard. After Charizard is caught, Galleom falls into the ruins, having been knocked down there by Marth, Meta Knight, and Ike. A battle ensues between Lucas, the Pokémon Trainer, and Galleom.

After the battle, Galleom grabs Lucas and the Pokémon Trainer, jumping high into the sky and out of the ruins. Galleom then attempts to detonate a Subspace Bomb as a last-ditch effort. Lucas, finally gaining his courage, uses PK Thunder to sever Galleom's arm, causing the two to plummet to the ground. Just before they hit the bottom, Meta Knight grabs the two and takes them to Marth and Ike. When there, Lucas shakes hands with the Trainer as a sign of their friendship.

Lucas and the other heroes confront the Subspace Gunship, and then journey into subspace to battle Tabuu. Lucas is defeated by Tabuu, but later revived by Ness and his companions. He accompanies the heroes into the Great Maze, and can be used to defeat Tabuu at the final battle.

Exclusive Stickers
Lucas can use any sticker that has a PK attack bonus, similar to Ness. He can also use ice, fire, and electric attack bonuses for his special moves.

Trivia

 * Ironically, while Lucas' game (MOTHER 3) was released only in Japan, his in-game voice in Brawl speaks with a North American accent. Whereas Ness, whose game (EarthBound) was also released in North America, speaks using a Japanese accent.
 * Lucas, like Ness, is 13 years old despite their childlike appearance.
 * However, Brawl's version of Lucas may be based off of his 13-year-old life, and the three years beforehand in MOTHER 3. Futher evidenced on his character development in the Subspace Emissary, where he went from a timid crybaby to a young, brave hero like Ness.
 * Lucas is one of the only characters that talks in the subspace emissary. He yells "PK Thunder!" while using the move to free both the Pokémon Trainer and himself from Galleom.
 * The hexagonal sparks are derived from PK Love, whereas the effects resemble simple hexagons.