Tendo City

I don't know anything about Magikarp outside of being a dud pokeball in Smash Bros. What does he do in Pokemon? I assume you already know your array of combatants in a battle, so he's not some random handicap there. Does he sometimes pop out when you find a pokeball in the wild?

Wait, no you capture Pokemon with the Pokeball, right? They aren't like some sort of egg that you find then it hatches. Eegad, how can I be so out-of-touch with a Nintendo touchstone like this? Oh fuck, I just made a pun. Now I'm an out-of-touch adult making Dad jokes before he's even had any children. I'm doomed. halp

Magikarp is famously the weakest pokemon. On purpose. There was an episode of the cartoon all about how utterly useless magikarp is. That fish isn't even good for eating, as it's pretty much nothing but skin and bones.

For some reason, Smash Bros swapped magikarp with goldeen for it's "useless pokemon". Even though fans have been asking for magikarp, it's become a smash tradition at this point.

i thought Jigglypuff was the useless* Pokemon character in Smash, though?

(* Not useless if you're ridiculously good and able to actually hit people with Sleep, but that is not something many can do)

The Jiggster is a playable character that can actually hit things. Goldeen does literally nothing but splash around. Again, shoulda been Magikarp, but that's the most useless one there. Mew and Celebi also don't really do anything, but they are so rare they can at least distract your opponent, and in newer games they occasionally will spawn another item, so that leaves Goldeen.

So apparently Nintendo/etc. recently released a Magikarp-raising cellphone game? Huh.