Rosalina & Luma

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**Rosalina & Luma** (ロゼッタ&チコ, *Rosetta & Chiko*), known simply as **Rosalina** (ロゼッタ, *Rosetta*), are playable characters in *Super Smash Bros. All Stars*. A duo consisting of Rosalina and a Luma, the player primarily controls Rosalina, while additional moves and inputs control the Luma's position and attacks. They were announced on August 23rd, 2018 during a Nintendo Direct, which coincided with Rosalina's reveal in *Mario Kart 8*. Rosalina & Luma were the first newcomers announced after E8 2018, as well as the newest *Mario* representatives alongside Bowser Jr. Kerri Kane, who first voiced Rosalina in *Mario Kart 7*, reprises her role.

**Luma** (チコ, *Chiko*) is a member of the star-shaped species of the same name that is under the care of Rosalina. It fights in tandem with Rosalina, similarly to how Nana fights in tandem with Popo, and utilizes hit points (HP) like Captain Olimar's Pikmin do. However, Luma differs from Nana and the Pikmin due to it never being controlled by the AI, even when separated from Rosalina, and having a set respawn time upon being KO'd. Rosalina is always accompanied by a yellow Luma at the beginning of each battle, and while the yellow Luma can respawn upon being KO'd, it is possible for a differently colored Luma to take its place. The other Lumas are colored blue, green, red, cream (who appears almost identical to Baby Luma), and blackish brown (who is actually Polari).

Rosalina & Luma are ranked 8th out of 58 on the tier list, placing them in the A tier and making them the third highest ranking newcomers. The pair are known for their strongly defensive neutral game: Rosalina can invalidate projectiles using Gravitational Pull, Luma can tank hits on behalf of Rosalina and is immune to status effects, and either character can help the other ward off pressure by individually punishing opponents. The duo also have impressive KO potential, thanks to Luma's power and many of Rosalina's moves having disjointed ranges. By extension, their respective moves are both quick and useful, such as Rosalina's up aerial having impressive juggling potential, and Luma's aerials boasting approach and combo potentials thanks to their Lunar Landing technique. Lastly, Launch Star is a useful recovery move, as it covers impressive distance and can be angled, thus making it capable of providing purely vertical, nearly horizontal, or diagonal recovery.

However, Rosalina suffers from poor endurance due to her tall height and very light weight, while she has somewhat poor attack power and hitbox placements when Luma is KO'd. Despite its positives, Launch Star is linear and, due to lacking any hitboxes, unprotected. While Luma can be very difficult to KO, it can be very prone to being rendered inactive or KO'd outright due to it being unable to act out of a tumble until landing. Without Luma, Rosalina is less capable of defending against and especially defeating incoming threats for 13 seconds, after which Luma will respawn.

Overall, Rosalina & Luma's strengths noticeably outweigh their weaknesses, and they are considered among the best characters in the game with strong tournament results to supplement their reputation. While Rosalina only received a small weight reduction in update 1.1.4 and the duo have remained unchanged since then, their fellow top-tier characters, Sheik and Zero Suit Samus, received noticeable nerfs in update 1.1.5. Additionally, Bayonetta, who was initially perceived to be the best character in the game following Sheik and Zero Suit Samus' nerfs, was subsequently nerfed in update 1.1.6. As a result of their fellow top-tier characters having been worsened to the point of having their tier rankings become debatable, Rosalina & Luma's top-tier position has become further reaffirmed.