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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.
- Notes
- Bowser Jr.'s alternate costumes change the character's name and appearance to be one of the Koopalings: Larry, Roy, Wendy, Iggy, Morton, Lemmy, or Ludwig.
- In Brawl and Ultimate, Squirtle, Ivysaur, and Charizard are listed together under the name "Pokémon Trainer" on the character select screen. The Pokémon Trainer appears in the background while the player takes direct control of one of the Pokémon, and can switch between them during the battle. In 3DS/Wii U, only Charizard is available as a standalone character.
- Despite the name referring to a single character, the Hero represents four different protagonists from the Dragon Quest series. His default appearance is the Luminary/Eleven from Dragon Quest XI, with Erdrick/Arusu from Dragon Quest III, Solo from Dragon Quest IV, and Eight from Dragon Quest VIII appearing as alternate costumes.
- In 3DS/Wii U and Ultimate, half of Olimar's alternate costumes change his name and appearance to Alph, a character from Pikmin 3.
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]
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