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.
Playable characters 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. Starting with Super Smash Bros. Brawl, characters from non-Nintendo franchises began to make playable appearances. Each character has multiple alternate costumes; some, such as Villager, have both male and female versions. Each game has multiple unlockable characters that can only be used if certain conditions are fulfilled.
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, 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.
Fighter N64 Melee Brawl for 3DS/Wii U Ultimate Franchise Banjo & Kazooie data-sort-value="Y (DLC)" Banjo-Kazooie Bayonetta data-sort-value="Y (DLC)" Bayonetta Bowser Mario Bowser Jr. Byleth data-sort-value="Y (DLC)" Fire Emblem Captain Falcon F-Zero Charizard Pokémon Chrom Fire Emblem Cloud data-sort-value="Y (DLC)" Final Fantasy Corrin data-sort-value="Y (DLC)" Fire Emblem Daisy Mario Dark Pit Kid Icarus Dark Samus Metroid Diddy Kong Donkey Kong Donkey Kong Dr. Mario Mario Duck Hunt Duck Hunt Falco Star Fox Fox Ganondorf The Legend of Zelda Greninja Pokémon Hero data-sort-value="Y (DLC)" Dragon Quest Ice Climbers Ice Climber Ike Fire EmblemIncineroar Pokémon Inkling Splatoon Isabelle Animal Crossing Ivysaur Pokémon Jigglypuff Joker data-sort-value="Y (DLC)" Persona Kazuya data-sort-value="Y (DLC)" Tekken Ken Street Fighter King Dedede Kirby King K. Rool Donkey Kong Kirby Kirby Link The Legend of Zelda Little Mac Punch-Out!! Lucario Pokémon Lucas data-sort-value="Y (DLC)" Mother/EarthBound Lucina Fire Emblem Luigi Mario Mario Marth Fire Emblem Mega Man Mega Man Meta Knight Kirby Mewtwo data-sort-value="Y (DLC)" Pokémon Mii Brawler Mii Mii Gunner Mii Min Min data-sort-value="Y (DLC)" Arms Mr. Game & Watch Game & Watch Mythra data-sort-value="Y (DLC)" Xenoblade Ness Mother/EarthBound Olimar Pikmin Pac-Man Pac-Man Palutena Kid Icarus Peach Mario Pichu Pokémon Pikachu Piranha Plant data-sort-value="Y (DLC)" Mario Pit Kid Icarus Pyra data-sort-value="Y (DLC)" Xenoblade Richter Castlevania Ridley Metroid R.O.B. R.O.B. Robin Fire Emblem Rosalina & Luma Mario Roy data-sort-value="Y (DLC)" Fire Emblem Ryu data-sort-value="Y (DLC)" Street Fighter Samus Metroid Sephiroth data-sort-value="Y (DLC)" Final Fantasy Sheik The Legend of Zelda Shulk Xenoblade Simon Castlevania Snake Metal Gear Sonic Sonic the Hedgehog Sora data-sort-value="Y (DLC)" Kingdom Hearts Squirtle Pokémon Steve data-sort-value="Y (DLC)" Minecraft Terry data-sort-value="Y (DLC)" Fatal Fury Toon Link The Legend of Zelda Villager Animal Crossing Wario Wario Wii Fit Trainer Wii Fit Wolf Star Fox Yoshi Yoshi Young Link The Legend of Zelda Zelda Zero Suit Samus Metroid Total 12 26 39 51 (+7 DLC) 76 (+13 DLC) 40 different franchises
Roster development Originally designed as a prototype using only original characters, a second prototype was later developed featuring a roster of Mario, Donkey Kong, Samus, and Fox. Other ideas that were considered included making the roster entirely of Kirby characters or dogs. Sakurai remarked that part of his aim when creating the game was to ensure that the characters were handled appropriately. He found Pokémon characters the hardest to get permission for due to how their image is "tightly supervised." According to Sakurai, some people within Nintendo were concerned about the optics of the game, particularly the idea of Mario attacking Pikachu.
Each Super Smash Bros. game features multiple characters who were initially considered for playable inclusion, but were either decided against or omitted due to limited development resources. Some of these characters were later added in subsequent entries; for example, Bowser and King Dedede were originally planned for the roster of the first game, but did not get added to the series until Melee and Brawl respectively. During development of Melee, multiple characters 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. 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 to include Roy, whose game would not be released until after Melee. 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. 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. Third-party characters, including Solid Snake and Sonic the Hedgehog, were considered as well. Snake's creator, Hideo Kojima, requested the character's inclusion for Melee, but the game was too late in development. Time restraints similarly affected Sonic's inclusion according to Yuji Naka. Wario was also considered, with Sakurai stating that he would have included him if he had more development time.
Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U introduced the ability for players to create their own Mii Fighters, which use customizable moves from one of three different fighting styles (Brawler, and Gunner). These Miis can be further customized with costume pieces unlocked through gameplay or purchased as downloadable content. Several of these costumes are based on characters and franchises not otherwise represented, such as Sans from Undertale, Shantae from the eponymous series, and Doom Slayer from Doom. According to Sakurai, the addition of Miis and Mii costumes was made to allow players to simulate playing as characters that would not otherwise be included in the game.
Following the release of Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, an open ballot was held to allow fans to submit their requests for new character inclusions. These votes would go on to influence the roster of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, with several characters being added as a direct result of their popularity in the fan ballot.
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.
Competitive use 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 others 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.
In competitive Melee, the top characters among the roster tended to include Fox, Sheik, Falco, Jigglypuff, 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.
Some tournaments have banned characters from competitive use in the past due to being particularly imbalanced, such as Meta Knight in Brawl and Steve and Kazuya in Ultimate.
Non-playable characters In addition to the roster of playable fighters, several non-playable characters appear, some of which were created for the Super Smash Bros. series. These can take the form of bosses, summonable characters, enemies, and other minor appearances.
Original characters
Master Hand is a glove-like being that appears in all games to date, frequently serving as the final boss of the games' single player modes. In Melee, Master Hand is playable via a system glitch. He is also briefly playable in Ultimate Adventure Mode if certain requirements are met. Super Smash Bros. Melee introduces a left-hand counterpart to Master Hand named Crazy Hand, who appears alongside him in all subsequent games under certain conditions. Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U features a new form, Master Core, a mass of black particles that emerge from Master Hand and Crazy Hand after their defeat and shapeshift into multiple forms. Master Hand and Crazy Hand share a voice with each game's announcer, who provides commentary over the game's menus and battles and frequently narrates promotional videos for the series.
Tabuu is the primary antagonist and final boss of Super Smash Bros. Brawl story mode, "The Subspace Emissary". He is the humanoid embodiment of Subspace, a void-like alternate dimension, and seeks to consume the world. He takes possession of Master Hand to manipulate others into doing his bidding, with his Subspace Army forces pulling parts of the world into Subspace at his behest. Though he is temporarily able to turn all the fighters into trophies using his "off waves" attack, he is weakened by the sudden arrival of Sonic the Hedgehog, and the revived fighters destroy him, restoring the world to normal.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate story mode, "World of Light", introduces Galeem, an evil entity described as the "Lord of Light". Aided by an army of Master Hand puppets, he destroys the Smash Bros. world and captures the spirits of the world's inhabitants, placing them under his control. Only Kirby is able to escape, exploring Galeem's recreated world to free the other fighters and restore the captured spirits to normal. After Galeem is defeated, its dark counterpart Dharkon emerges, and it uses its Crazy Hand puppets to take control of the remaining spirits, attempting to consume the world in darkness. Upon Dharkon's defeat, it and Galeem escape to a new world, with their forces waging war against one another. Defeating only Galeem or Dharkon individually will result in an ending in which the survivor consumes the universe. However, by defeating an equal amount of light and dark Spirits on the final map, players are able to challenge and destroy both of them, freeing the Spirits from their control.
Others