The fighting game series Super Smash Bros. from Nintendo, launched in 1999, features an assortment of video game characters from 40 different franchises. There are 89 playable characters across the series, mostly sourced from Nintendo franchises but with a number of third-party ones as well. There are also other non-player characters that take the form of enemies, bosses, and power-ups.
Each game in the series has a number of playable characters, referred to as "fighters", that are taken primarily from Nintendo franchises. There are 89 total fighters across the series. [1] Starting with Super Smash Bros. Brawl , characters from non-Nintendo franchises began to make playable appearances, [2] Each character has multiple alternate costumes, some, such as Villager, having both male and female costumes. [3] Each game has multiple unlockable characters that can only be used if certain conditions are fulfilled. [4] [5] [6] [7]
All games have featured fighters that largely share their moves and abilities with another fighter on the roster, but with minor differences in their presentation and gameplay. In Super Smash Bros. Melee , all of these characters, known as "model swap characters" according to the Japanese website, [8] were unlockable, but were distinguished from other unlockable characters in that their portrait was added next to the character they were based on instead of filling in one of the placeholder slots at the bottom of the select screen. In Ultimate, several of these characters were officially labeled as "Echo Fighters". They have an option either to be displayed next to or within the character portrait from which they are based on.
Originally designed as a prototype using only original characters, a prototype was later developed featuring Mario, Donkey Kong, Samus, and Fox. [9] Another idea considered was to make the roster entirely made up by Kirby characters or dogs. He found Pokémon characters the hardest to get permission for due to how their image is "tightly supervised." Sakurai remarked that part of his aim when creating the game was to ensure that the characters were handled appropriately. According to Sakurai, some people within Nintendo were concerned about the optics of the game, particularly the idea of Mario attacking Pikachu. [10]
Super Smash Bros. Melee features multiple characters that were considered for inclusion but ultimately turned down. During development, Sakurai wanted to include a character from a classic Nintendo game, including the protagonists of Balloon Fight , Excitebike , Clu Clu Land , and Urban Champion , before settling on Ice Climbers. Ayumi Tachibana from the Famicom Detective Club series was also considered, but was not included due to her lack of presence among international audiences. [11] Marth and Roy were both considered to be removed from international versions of Melee. Marth was originally included due to Sakurai's desire to include more sword users, specifically so Link would be able to "cross blades" with someone else. He also campaigned for Roy's inclusion. Sakurai stated that having characters speak Japanese in English releases was rare at the time, and that there was more dispute over Roy. He ultimately succeeded in convincing them to remain in international versions. [12] [13] Lucas was considered for Melee as a replacement for Ness, but he was kept out of the roster due to the cancellation of the Nintendo 64 version of Mother 3 . [11] Third-party characters, including Solid Snake and Sonic the Hedgehog, were considered as well. Snake's creator, Hideo Kojima, requested it, but it was too late in development. Time restraints similarly affected Sonic's inclusion according to Yuji Naka. [11] Wario was also considered, with Sakurai stating that he would have included him if he had more development time. [11]
According to Daniel Kaplan, a former business developer for Mojang, discussion about Steve's inclusion began in 2015. Sakurai stated that a Nintendo employee asked at one point about the prospect of including Minecraft in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, at which point he agreed. [14]
Each Super Smash Bros. game features multiple characters who were considered for inclusion as a playable character. Some of these characters were added in later entries after being decided against, such as Pac-Man and Villager.[ citation needed ]
Sakurai remarked that it was difficult to balance Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 64 due to certain characters being better in four-player matches and other being better in one-on-one matches. He also stated that he heard from tournament players that Kirby and Ness were too strong. He agreed about Ness, and one of Ness' attacks was nerfed in overseas versions to make it weaker. [10]
In competitive Melee, the top characters among the roster tended to include Fox, Sheik, Falco, Jiggypuff, Captain Falcon, Ice Climbers, Peach, and Marth. Yoshi, considered one of the worst fighters in Super Smash Bros. Melee, was used by competitive Melee player aMSa to win the first "super-major tournament" with a Yoshi ever. Donkey Kong, another low tier, was also able to perform better. This, combined with other low-tier picks, inspired other players to use characters like Yoshi and Donkey Kong in competitive play. It has also led to players reconsidering Yoshi and Donkey Kong's placement in the tier list, with competitive Melee player Hungrybox considering Yoshi among the best of the characters. [15]
The competitive Ultimate scene has had multiple characters experience bans, including Steve and Kazuya, due to how powerful they were though Steve was more commonly banned. [16]
In addition to the roster of playable fighters, several non-playable characters appear, some original and some from other games, including summonable characters like Pokémon species and bosses like Master Hand, an original Super Smash Bros. creation. [17]
Tetris Attack, also known as Panel de Pon in Japan, is a puzzle video game developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. A Game Boy version was released a year later. In the game, the player must arrange matching colored blocks in vertical or horizontal rows to clear them. The blocks steadily rise towards the top of the playfield, with new blocks being added at the bottom. Several gameplay modes are present, including a time attack and multiplayer mode.
Roy is a fictional character from Nintendo and Intelligent Systems' Fire Emblem video game series, who first appeared in the 2001 crossover fighting game Super Smash Bros. Melee as a representative character from the Fire Emblem series, along with Marth. He is the lead character of Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade; within the story, he is the son of Eliwood and heir presumptive of Pherae, who eventually becomes a major military leader.
Mr. Game & Watch is a 2D generic stick figure-styled silhouette character, created by Nintendo as an amalgamation of various characters that appeared in the Game & Watch handheld consoles. He was created by Gunpei Yokoi, with an intention of representing the Game & Watch collection, as the consoles had no main mascot, rather characters designed for the minigames. He debuted in Ball from Game & Watch. Mr. Game & Watch has appeared as a cameo in several other Nintendo games, such as Donkey Kong Country Returns, WarioWare: Touched!, Rhythm Heaven Fever and Super Mario Odyssey.
Balloon Fight is an action video game developed by Nintendo and HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was originally released for arcades as VS. Balloon Fight, with the console version releasing in Japan in 1985 and internationally in 1986.
Ridley, also known in-universe by the alias Cunning God of Death, is a major antagonist in the Metroid series. An evil and aggressive draconic extraterrestrial, he became Samus Aran's archnemesis after murdering the latter's parents as he led a Space Pirate raid on her homeworld. Though having been destroyed numerous times by Samus, he is always resurrected, due in equal part to Space Pirate engineering and his natural regenerative ability, which allows him to swiftly recover from what would otherwise be fatal wounds as long as he is able to consume enough biomatter from his fallen adversaries.
Super Smash Bros. is a crossover platform fighting game series published by Nintendo. The series was created by Masahiro Sakurai, who has directed every game in the series. The series is known for its unique gameplay objective which differs from that of traditional fighters, in that the aim is to increase damage counters and knock opponents off the stage instead of depleting life bars.
Meta Knight is a fictional character and antihero in Nintendo's Kirby video game series created by Masahiro Sakurai and developed by HAL Laboratory. He first appeared in the 1993 video game Kirby's Adventure before appearing in multiple subsequent entries as either a boss or playable character. The character also appears in several Kirby comic books, in the 2001 anime series, and as a playable character in the Super Smash Bros. series. He has received mainly positive critical reception since his introduction. He was also the most controversial character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and has been banned from several tournaments due to his overwhelming dominance in competitive play.
Ike is a character from the Fire Emblem series of video games. He is the central protagonist and Lord-class character of the ninth game in the series, Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, and one of the central characters in Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn. Ike is one of the most popular characters in the Fire Emblem series, and has appeared in other media, most notably the Super Smash Bros. fighting game series.
The Mysterious Murasame Castle is a 1986 action-adventure game developed by Nintendo and Human Entertainment and published by Nintendo. It was originally only released for the Family Computer Disk System in Japan as the second original game for the platform. The Mysterious Murasame Castle was later released worldwide on the Virtual Console in 2014 and for the Nintendo Switch Online service in 2023.
A Mii is a customizable avatar used on several Nintendo video game consoles and mobile apps. The name Mii is a portmanteau of "Wii" and "me", referring to them typically being avatars of the players. Miis were first introduced on the Wii console in 2006 and later appeared on the DS, 3DS, the Wii U, the Switch, and various apps for smart devices such as Miitomo.
Super Smash Bros. Brawl is a 2008 crossover fighting game developed by Sora Ltd. and Game Arts and published by Nintendo for the Wii. The third installment in the Super Smash Bros. series, it was announced at a pre-E3 2005 press conference by Nintendo president Satoru Iwata. Masahiro Sakurai, director of the previous two games in the series, assumed the role of director at Iwata's request. Game development began in October 2005 with a creative team that included members from several Nintendo and third-party development teams. After delays due to development problems, the game was released worldwide in 2008.
Little Mac is a fictional boxer and the protagonist in Nintendo's Punch-Out!! series of video games. He first appeared as a nameless boxer in the Arcade game Punch-Out!!, then was given a name and redesigned in the NES game of the same name. He is the smallest and youngest of all the boxers in the games, being only 17 years old across all Punch-Out!! games. His signature attack is the "STAR Punch". His design was changed again for the SNES Super Punch-Out!!, but reverted to his NES appearance in the Wii title, wich was then used in the Super Smash Bros. series. In the NES and Wii games, Little Mac is accompanied by Doc Louis, his trainer.
Super Smash Bros. Melee is a 2001 crossover fighting video game developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the GameCube. It is the second installment in the Super Smash Bros. series. It features characters from Nintendo video game franchises such as Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Star Fox, Pokémon, and Donkey Kong among others. The stages and gameplay modes reference or take designs from these franchises as well.
Totakeke, more commonly known as K.K. Slider or K.K., is a fictional character within the Animal Crossing franchise. One of the franchise's most popular characters, he debuted in the title Animal Crossing, and has appeared in every installment since. K.K.'s main role is as a folk rock musician who performs to the townsfolk, through live performances and purchasable in-game albums. He is based on Nintendo video game voice actor and composer Kazumi Totaka – his Japanese nickname "Totakeke" being a contraction of "Totaka K." – and has been said to be an animal caricature of Totaka.
Super Smash Bros. is a 1999 crossover fighting game developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. It is first game in the Super Smash Bros. series and was released in Japan on January 21, 1999; in North America on April 26, 1999; and in Europe on November 19, 1999.
Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, both commonly referred to together as Super Smash Bros. 4 or Smash 4, are 2014 crossover platform fighter video games developed by Bandai Namco Studios and Sora Ltd. and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U video game consoles. It is the fourth installment in the Super Smash Bros. series, succeeding Super Smash Bros. Brawl. The Nintendo 3DS version was released in Japan on September 13, 2014, and in North America, Europe, and Australia the following month. The Wii U version was released in North America, Europe, and Australia in November 2014 and in Japan the following month.
Chrom is a character in the video game Fire Emblem Awakening and its related Fire Emblem franchise. He is the prince of the Kingdom of Ylisse and the father of Lucina. He is in charge of the state-sponsored militia force known as The Shepherds investigating the actions of an enemy state, and wields the legendary Falchion. Chrom has also appeared in other games in the Fire Emblem series and in crossover video games such as Project X Zone 2, Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. He is voiced by Tomokazu Sugita in Japanese and by Matthew Mercer in English.
Professional Super Smash Bros. competition involves professional gamers competing in the Super Smash Bros. series of crossover fighting games published by Nintendo. Organized tournament competition began in 2002 with Super Smash Bros. Melee, released for the GameCube in 2001; however, in the series' native Japan, there have been tournaments as early as 1999 with the original Super Smash Bros. for the Nintendo 64. Later tournaments have featured the other games in the series, with the two largest and most popular Smash Bros. scenes revolving around Melee and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for the Nintendo Switch. Smaller scenes exist for the original game and Project M, a popular fan modification of Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii, and to a lesser extent, Brawl itself. Major Smash Bros. tournaments include the GENESIS, Evolution Championship Series (EVO), Super Smash Con and The Big House annual series. Major League Gaming (MLG) has also previously included Smash Bros. games in its Pro Circuit.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is a 2018 crossover fighting game developed by Bandai Namco Studios and Sora Ltd. and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. It is the fifth installment in the Super Smash Bros. series, succeeding Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U (2014). The game follows the series' traditional style of gameplay, in which players control one of the various characters and use attacks to weaken their opponents and knock them out of an arena. It features a wide variety of game modes, including a single-player campaign and multiplayer versus modes. Ultimate features 89 playable fighters, including all characters from previous Super Smash Bros. games as well as newcomers. The roster ranges from Nintendo characters to those from third-party franchises.
Robin, also known in the game as Avatar, is a player avatar from Nintendo's Fire Emblem video game series, who first appeared in Fire Emblem Awakening as its lead character. In the story of Fire Emblem Awakening, the Avatar awakens in a grassy field and is found by Chrom and his sister Lissa, but suffers from amnesia. Despite this, Robin is a skilled fighter and serves as the main tactician in the army. Robin is the eventual parent of Morgan and the child of Validar. Following their appearance in Awakening, Robin received more widespread attention from their playable appearances, including the Super Smash Bros. series.
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