Line #15 ItsTheSameNowItSucks/SuperSmashBros


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5	''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'', as a {{long runner\|s}}, has accumulated a wealth of content throughout its existence. However, large swathes of that content have garnered complaints for [[ItsTheSameNowItSucks remaining relatively static]] in contrast to the things that have changed around them both within the ''Smash'' series and in the various source materials.
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10	[[folder:Characters -- Movesets]]
11	In ''Smash''[='s=] early days,[[note]]''Smash 64'', ''Melee'', and - to a lesser extent - ''Brawl''[[/note]] movesets tended to be a lot more basic, with normal moves just being standard melee attacks while more varied and "wacky" options like projectiles, reflectors, recoveries, and SummonToHand weapons were reserved for special moves. Newer fighters,[[note]]''Smash 4'' and on[[/note]] by contrast, tend to be designed with more of an eye towards moves from and nods to their home series, with the aforementioned "wacky" moves often being normal moves on the newer characters. This often results in the older fighters being derided for their movesets compared to newer ones for having shallower portrayals that downplay their signature elements and abilities, being perceived as vanilla, outdated, and/or unfaithful by contrast. In general, Sakurai and the various development teams usually keep older fighters' movesets almost unchanged from when they were introduced presumably to avoid alienating people who enjoy those characters; this works out fine for some fighters,[[note]]Such as Captain Falcon and the ''Star Fox'' fighters, who have become fan-favorite fighters in spite of not drawing from their home games much - and perhaps because there wasn't much to work with for a fighting game anyway[[/note]] but for others it can cause the GrandfatherClause to show its ugly side, with characters having disliked movesets [[TheArtifact for decades]] while newer characters get to be TruerToTheText of their home franchises, with mechanics exclusive to them while the older characters lacked them, and things that made them more complete.
12	* '''Mario''' has traditionally been a basic JackOfAllStats {{Shotoclone}} with simple melee moves like punches, kicks, and headbutts. While this does result in Mario functioning like an obligatory "beginner's character" as standard in most fighting games, it also results in him feeling less like Mario and more like a standard brawler with only a few token Mario-relevant things tacked on via his specials [[note]]a fireball based on the Fire Flower from across the series, his cape based on the Cape Feather from ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld'', F.L.U.D.D. from ''VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine'', and the Super Jump Punch, which resembles the jump from the first ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1''[[/note]] and a minority of his normal attacks. [[note]]his jab combo is based on the signature punch-punch-kick, his down smash is based on the "breakdance" kick, and his back throw is based on [[HumanHammerThrow how he throws Bowser]], all derived from ''VideoGame/SuperMario64''.[[/note]] Another source of complaints is Mario's Final Smash, which ever since ''Brawl'' has been a generic [[PlayingWithFire fire-based]] KamehameHadoken. Given that Mario is Nintendo's flagship character and has a wealth of games to his name, it's incredibly easy to find complaints about his moves and conceptual reworks to make more nods to his franchise; his rather basic Final Smash, due to the mechanic's nature as a flashy finishing move, attracts these comments very frequently, with several people suggesting the [[WolverinePublicity highly-marketed]] ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' Capture from ''Odyssey'' due to Cappy being little more than a cameo throughout ''Ultimate''. Tellingly, when [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oPtfeD0Q8o a fanmade trailer]] for an 8-bit rendition of Mario as a separate fighter from his existing ''Smash'' version became popular in late 2020, many people commented that his moves, which incorporated several ''Mario'' powerups in unique ways, were more interesting than the actual Mario's moveset.
13	* While '''Donkey Kong''' has incorporated a few moves from his home series, like the roll as his dash attack or the RapidFireFisticuffs from ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongJungleBeat'' as a Final Smash, and some moves from ''Smash'' later made it to his actual games, the majority of DK's moveset consists of generic punches, kicks, and slaps. Typically his Headbutt and Spinning Kong moves get the most flak, since they're more likely to seen as baseless and uninteresting moves which could be replaced with something that better represents Donkey Kong's franchise and traits, such as [[VideoGame/DonkeyKong his penchant for throwing barrels]], [[VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry the usage of barrel cannons to travel]] (which are a recurring mechanic in ''Smash'' and were even an item in ''Melee''), or his [[VideoGame/DonkeyKong64 Coconut Shooter]]. Spinning Kong is also one of the worst recovery moves, as Donkey Kong barely even gets height from using it. The fan project ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosCrusade'' attempts to address this as of its 0.9.5 update by replacing Spinning Kong with a Barrel Cannon launch and replacing his Headbutt with a Barrel Toss.
14	* '''Link''', in spite of getting a few changes in ''Ultimate'', has garnered criticism for not being changed ''enough'', as he has not one, but two clones who use all the same equipment as him (a sword, shield, Bow, Boomerang, and Bombs) in spite of the ''[[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Zelda]]'' series being known for its varied arrays of items and gear. It's regularly suggested that his ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild Breath of the Wild]]''-centric rework should've been taken further (such as using different unique melee weapons like clubs and spears, Sheikah Slate powers like Stasis and Cryonis and Champion abilities like Revali's Gale and Urbosa's Fury), rather than having his ''[=BotW=]'' content amount to an outfit change, Remote Bombs in place of his impact bombs, and the ability to use two arrows with the Bow. Some have even suggested that "Champion/Wild Link" should have been a separate character from the "classic" Link (such as giving Link a full rework while keeping Young Link, who would no longer be a MovesetClone, the same as he was in ''Melee'', or changing both Link and Young Link while reintroducing ''Twilight Princess'' Link or even ''Ocarina of Time'' Adult Link to retain the moveset as it was shown in earlier installments), so that both those who wanted a ''Breath of the Wild''-centric revamp and people who wanted to keep the classic tools would be satisfied.
15	* '''Samus''' in ''Smash'' has traditionally been a slow, floaty, melee-based fighter who occasionally camps behind projectiles, when her portrayal in ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'' proper, though she does jump in a somewhat floaty, graceful manner, can be more of a LightningBruiser who uses her high mobility in tandem with a highly-varied projectile arsenal, which starting with ''[[VideoGame/MetroidSamusReturns Samus Returns]]'' became interspersed with quick melee attacks. Her new neutral aerial was based off one move in a certain game, but after ''Samus Returns'', one of the more popular things that many would want for her altered moveset would be giving her the Melee Counter, at least for up tilt, and giving her something more to stand out. The floatiness ''was'' an accurate portrayal of Samus's mobility back in her first three games, but as her home franchise has gone on, she's become more agile and started to fall faster- something ''Smash'' mainly represents via Zero Suit Samus. The majority of Samus's normal attacks are [[KickChick kicks]] with the rest using her ArmCannon to fire short-ranged explosions that are functionally melee attacks, all of which look basic and unimpressive. On the other hand, Samus only uses weapons typical of her franchise in her specials (Charge Shot, Missiles and Super Missiles, Bombs, and the Screw Attack) and her grab (Grapple Beam), and even then in ways that greatly diverge from their behaviors in the ''Metroid'' series. Her moveset design was considered acceptable at worst as late as ''Brawl'' since it kept to the ''64'' and ''Melee'' standards of basic melee for normals and projectiles/recoveries for specials, but later games added multiple characters[[note]]Mega Man, Mii Gunner, and to a lesser extent Villager and Bayonetta[[/note]] whose movesets show that projectile or pseudo-projectile normals can work, making many feel that Samus's melee-focused ''Smash'' moveset is off-base from her home franchise's abilities when compared to them. A minority argues that Samus's clunky ''Smash'' portrayal [[AudienceColoringAdaptation actively harms]] peoples' perceptions of ''Metroid''.
16	* '''Kirby''' has been derided not only for his moveset's lack of ''Kirby''-relevant things and low use of the moves he has access to with his several Copy Abilities, but also for being a [[LowTierLetdown/SuperSmashBros Low-Tier Letdown]] starting with ''Melee'' and sticking there for the better part of a decade before returning here from "Smash 4" and the buffs he later received not alleviating his weaknesses. The majority of his moves are typical kicks that could be done by anyone and with only some of them matching the Fighter ability, with the Copy Abilities that are a staple of his series only making it into his jab, dash attack, forward smash, specials, and throws. Even some of his oldest moves, the Slide Kick and Air Bullet, barely come up in ''Smash''; the latter is frequently suggested as a change not just to give Kirby more of his signature moves, but to give him a decent projectile without needing to copy one, due to his infamous susceptibility to projectile camping, either that or the orb from his very first Copy Ability in the series, Beam. Even the Star Bullet was restricted to inhaling enemies prior to ''Ultimate'', and that game enabled him to spit back a minority of projectiles as Star Bullets too, while inhaling projectiles can heal him but not that much, causing Kirby to maintain his weakness against most of the others. His lack of moves from Copy Abilities also limits his options, like range in most of his attacks, with only a few disjoints on some moves, no proper projectiles and a lack of options to deal with pressure and projectiles. The worst issue for Kirby are his special moves, consisting in a more poorly performing set of special moves that don't mesh well with his other moves: Hammer Flip is way too slow to catch more experienced players, being considered one of the worst special moves, Final Cutter has slow startup that makes it useless as an out-of-shield option, it doesn't cover Kirby from directly above and he takes about two seconds to land and use the projectile of the move, Inhale gives him his Copy Abilities but could use more speed and range and Kirby can lose the copy ability without a chance to regain it in its star form if he gets hit too much and Stone has noticeable lag when Kirby transforms, grabs will ignore the move and it's risky to use to fight juggles because it has a notable startup in the air. As for how it functions as a moveset, his aerials are versatile but it's hard for him to use them to his full potential due to his infamously low-to-bottom-tier air speed without much to compensate, and most his grounded attacks, while solid moves, lack good range. While he is among the lightest characters in the series, characters that are just as light as him or lighter have a lot of things to compensate, such as very high speed and great approach, but while he does have a good advantage state and combo game and fast attacks, a powerful punish game and a long-reaching recovery, he lacks the range, the disadvantage state, a good set of special moves and the air mobility to make the most of his moveset, making it hard to get anywhere with him.
17	* '''Luigi''' started as a clone of Mario, and even though he was decloned into a semiclone from ''Melee'' onward to become more distinct from his brother, he always kept some weird animations that are generally comedic and can't be taken seriously, and those include two of his taunts, all his victory animations, the third hit of his jab where he hits with his butt, Green Missile and his dash attack, which has a flurry of punches with a rather childish animation, originally missing the hit-box for some of the punches in ''Melee''. ''Smash 4'' gave him a new Final Smash with the [[VideoGame/LuigisMansion Poltergust]], which was also used in ''Ultimate'', revamping his grab game to be based around it with ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion3'' about to be released, but he's still stuck with those weird animations. He also generally shares the same stats as Mario in the franchise, but in Smash, apart from being slower on the ground, the main issue with his mobility is that his air speed is terrible, the worst of the cast before ''Brawl'' and the second worst afterwards, while his air acceleration is too slow to compensate in a similiar way to Mario, who has a much better air speed than him, and considering that they have most of the same attributes, outside of jump height and traction, it doesn't make a lot of sense for him to be so much slower in mid-air. Sure, it might be for balance reasons to avoid making his combos too broken, as seen with his phenomenal air game and incredibly fast aerials, but it doesn't even match the games, unlike Kirby, who does move noticeably slower when he flies in his own games. His animations would make him a funny character, but when his awkward animations constantly get reused without meshing well with his personality, it gets old and becomes irritating over time, and that is a problem. This, combined with Luigi's overall powerful advantage state, fearsome combos, his amazing aerial attacks with high reward but with no risk and without much effort and his gimmicky Green Missile, which has RNG with its misfire mechanic, it doesn't exactly give people a positive impression of him and may have the side effect of alienating his fans. From what we know, his combos might not be the only reason why he was nerfed in ''Smash 4'''s 1.1.1 patch. Fans also would like to see some electric effects on some of his attacks with some lightning-based moves based off the [[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga Thunderhand]], similiarly to how Dr. Mario has an electric effect in his forward smash instead of a fire effect.
18	* '''Jigglypuff''' is similar to Kirby in that it's a pink puffball who, ever since after ''Melee'', has languished as [[JokeCharacter a reputedly terrible character]], for reasons including lack of speed (though on the ground rather than in the air), lack of range, light weight, and shield breaks affecting it worse than the entire rest of the roster due to it flying straight to the sky KO line and [[OneHitKill dying instantly if it happens with open air above]]. Infamously, not only did it get several nerfs from ''Brawl'' to ''4'' despite already being bad in the former game, but it received ''no'' balance changes and only a single bug fix throughout the entirety of ''4'''s lifespan. One particular point of contention is Jigglypuff's retcon to being a [[OurFairiesAreDifferent Fairy-type]] in the ''Pokémon''[='=]s [[VideoGame/PokemonXAndY sixth generation]], which has resulted in several calls for its moveset to have more Fairy-type moves like Play Rough or Dazzling Gleam to reflect the typing change.
19	* With ''Ultimate'', while the Pokémon Trainer returned with their transformation mechanic in tow (sweeping up Charizard with them) and a new transforming newcomer in Pyra & Mythra was later announced for DLC, '''Sheik''' and '''Zelda''' remain split apart, like in the 3DS game. The two of them have not fared well in ''Ultimate''[='s=] competitive scene, even with the buffs they both received in patches, which some attribute to the both of them still using the same movesets from ''Melee'' [[MultiformBalance which were designed to cover each other's weaknesses]] (lack of mobility and damage racking for Zelda, and lack of kill power and strong projectile options for Sheik); without the ability to transform, they just end up having to live with these major weaknesses and no way to fix them, resulting in suggestions to regroup Zelda and Sheik back into a transforming fighter, like in ''Melee'' and ''Brawl'', since the limitation of the 3DS game is gone.
20	* '''Young Link''' in ''Ultimate'' coexists alongside Link and Toon Link as a trio of Links who all use the same equipment in minor variations. Because any or all of them could be changed to diversify the lineup, it's often suggested that Young Link could add some of the [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask transformation masks]] into his moveset, as there aren't many shapeshifters in ''Smash'', and the various species of ''Zelda'' could easily enable attack options for a Hylian hero that none of the three use. Young Link also shares his Final Smash, the Triforce Slash, with Toon Link; the idea of having Young Link use the masks extends here into making Young Link use his Fierce Deity Mask for his Final Smash, similarly to his specials in ''VideoGame/HyruleWarriors''.
21	* '''Ganondorf''' is easily the most notorious case of moveset retention throughout the ''Smash'' series. Throughout his home series, Ganondorf tends to be depicted as a MagicKnight, boasting skill with swords and tridents as well as powerful sorcery... but his portrayal throughout the ''Smash'' series is infamous for being none of that. Due to his addition to ''Melee'' being late in the game's development cycle, his moveset [[MovesetClone was cribbed almost entirely from another character]] with a similar body build, local {{Supernatural Martial Art\|s}}ist Captain Falcon, with Falcon's [[PlayingWithFire fire-element]] attacks swapped out for [[CastingAShadow darkness effects]]. Since then, the only moves that Ganondorf has had outright replaced are his smash attacks (in ''Ultimate'' only), where he wields the [=SpaceWorld=] 2000 tech demo sword - something that's also [[BrokenBase divided people]]; some think this was enough to make Ganondorf faithful to his character, and some think Ganondorf as a whole should be overhauled entirely. Fanmade ''Smash'' projects like ''VideoGame/ProjectM'', ''VideoGame/SuperSmashFlash 2'', and ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosCrusade'' tend to change a large number of moves and animations for Ganondorf in response to complaints about the official games leaving him relatively static.
22	* '''Mewtwo''', similarly to Samus, has perpetually been a floaty physical fighter in ''Smash'', despite its reputation as one of the most known Psychic-type Pokémon. It somewhat rarely actually lives up to the image of a badass psychic, as most of its moveset is devoted to {{Tail Slap}}s and [[CastingAShadow dark energy]], while the actual psychic powers from its brain only come up in a handful of special moves, a few telekinetic throws, and its item-holding animation.
23	* '''Dark Pit''' is frequently derogated for being a complete clone of Pit for every move except his Final Smash. His home game, ''VideoGame/KidIcarusUprising'', has all sorts of unique weapons that could be made into a different moveset, and he also brings the Dark Pit Staff as his Final Smash, which could be included in his other attacks to spice up Pit's moveset, similarly to how Chrom uses the Aether-like Soaring Slash instead of a move more akin to Roy's Blazer.
24	* Among ''Brawl'' veterans with minimal changes, no name will be heard more often than '''Sonic'''. Sonic’s primarily classic based moveset that continues in ''Ultimate'', with the most contested part being the number of moves he has where he spins in his ball form. Sonic has the Spin Dash as a side special, the very similar Spin Charge as a down special, and three more Spin Dashes as a down throw, a floor attack, and a ledge attack, while he also curls into a ball for up smash, neutral special, and neutral aerial. As for the rest of Sonic's moveset, the sole changes to it since his introduction are down smash (a split kick) and dash attack (a flying kick). [[WordOfGod Masahiro Sakurai]] has stated that Sonic's moveset partly took inspiration from ''VideoGame/SonicTheFighters'', which, while a notable game on its own, means that Sonic represents about three games from his very long-running franchise. Fanmade ''Smash'' projects typically work off of the base the real ''Smash'' provides, but add in moves from games like ''VideoGame/SonicBattle'' and the ''VideoGame/SonicAdvanceTrilogy'' like the Sonic Eagle or the Sonic Draft to widen what Sonic shows of his series. His description of a SimpleYetAwesome inspired play style of the Classic games has generally been frowned upon by those who prefer the post-''Adventure'' games with more dynamic moves, and when Sonic was shown to have way more attacks in ''VideoGame/SonicFrontiers'', it wasn't uncommon among ''Smash'' players to joke that that game would be the catalyst for the series to finally give him a moveset change.
25	* '''Toon Link''', as the third fighter in ''Ultimate'' to use the Hylian hero's moveset (and the second one to use the Triforce Slash), has attracted complaints about redundancy like the other two. Ideas to change Toon Link usually involve giving him normal ''Zelda'' items that have yet to appear in ''Smash'', whether from ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker The Wind Waker]]'' (like the Grappling Hook, Deku Leaf, and Skull Hammer) or from other games (like the Fire and Ice Rods, the various Canes, the Pegasus Boots, and the Roc's Feather and Cape).
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28	[[folder:Characters -- Other]]
29	* A few portrayals of characters throughout the series have garnered criticism for [[AdaptationPersonalityChange varying wildly]] from what they seem like in their home canon:
30	** Mario has infamously been portrayed as a gritty and serious PerpetualFrowner since ''Melee''. While his more serious portrayal can at least be explained with his experience in his adventures making him the veteran of the group, this is at the expense of his true personality as a character who takes on daunting adventures with enthusiasm, and the lower-pitched and raspier voice clips he got since ''Brawl'' also highlighted this. There are hints of the classic happy-go-lucky FunPersonified NiceGuy characterization of his home games, but most of them only started to come around during ''Ultimate''.
31	** Donkey Kong has had a few canon voices and a set personality for ages, but in ''Smash'' he's treated like an actual gorilla as opposed to the prime primate himself, making him utterly primal, which isn't how he's usually portrayed. His "voice" in ''Smash'' consists of realistic ape-like roars, and his boisterous and silly sides are usually constrained to a handful of animations. It's not uncommon to see people mod in one of his official voices, like [[VideoGame/DonkeyKong64 Grant Kirkhope]] or Creator/TakashiNagasako, just to get him a little bit closer to what he's really like.
32	** There are several voice clips that Yoshi uses in both his and the ''Mario'' series that he has yet to receive in ''Smash'', still being largely stuck with his original voice set.
33	** Luigi is, to some at least, a completely different character in ''Smash'', personality-wise. His expressions mainly show him either fearful or being a goofball, and he has several weird and awkward animations that make his attacks feel like desperate reflexes instead of being deliberate and focused like Mario's, as seen with two of his taunts, all his victory animations, the butt bump in third hit of his jab, Green Missile and his dash attack, which has a flurry of childish punches with an hysterical face. "Ultimate" gave him angrier and more serious faces when charging Green Missile or using forward aerial, but that's it for his facial expressions. Sure, Luigi is known for being shy and getting easily startled, but ''Smash'' {{flanderized}} him by portraying him as an awkward coward whose attacks look desperate attempts to protect himself and don't feel deliberate, while some other sources, like his Final Smash from ''Brawl'', the Negative Zone (which is described as the negative feelings he felt about being in Mario's shadow), his footstooling Mario in ''Melee'' and how often he's shown using his down taunt on him while he's hanging on the ledge in character trailers, or even his Congratulations screen in the original strongly hinting at some apparent desire to punch Mario in the head, make him come off as resentful of his brother, which is not true. While Luigi is known for being timid, [[TheKlutz clumsy]], not very confident and [[CowardlyLion a bit of a scaredy-cat with a dislike for danger]], they don't make his personality, and at the same time, those traits won him the love of many fans with his several funny moments. He's also a NiceGuy like Mario, [[UndyingLoyalty is loyal to him regardless of their fame inequality in-universe]] and isn't so cowardly to the point of having no spine and being unable to face his fears to protect his loved ones, nor is he so clumsy to the point that he's incompetent, making him the LovableCoward type that many knew and loved. ''Smash 4'' gave him a new Final Smash with the [[VideoGame/LuigisMansion Poltergust]], which was also used in ''Ultimate'', revamping his grab game to be based around it with ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion3'' about to be released, but he's still stuck with those weird animations, and with such a jarring and one-dimensional personality change, combined with his overall powerful advantage state, his amazing aerial attacks with high reward but with no risk and without much effort and his gimmicky Green Missile, which has RNG with its misfire mechanic, it doesn't exactly give people a positive impression of Luigi, especially since the animations generally lack his trademark charm that made him so loved by his fans. Fans also would like to see some electric effects on some of his attacks with some lightning-based moves based off the [[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga Thunderhand]], similarly to how Dr. Mario has an electric effect in his forward smash instead of a fire effect.
34	** A big example of a personality change in ''Smash'' is Captain Falcon. In his home series, he is a blunt and calm bounty hunter who is also kind, only acting assertive when dealing with his enemies. In the ''Super Smash Bros.'' series, Falcon is a lot more aggressive, screaming frequently when he uses his special moves, and yells a lot in general. He may be assertively dealing with opponents in ''Smash'' after all, but some would say that personality like this would be more suitable for Samurai Goroh, Michael Chain, or Bio Rex. The fact that Captain Falcon has fire-based superpowers in ''Smash'' is also inaccurate to his character, since he was never shown to have powers in any ''F-Zero'' game before ''Smash''. It would work better for Super Arrow, a superhero, to have powers like this.
35	** Peach's personality in ''Smash Bros.'' is vastly different from her portrayal in her home series. She is normally a gentle and sweet person who cares for others, rarely getting angry (though pronounced such rare moments could be), but Smash makes her act more flirtatious and sassy, such as in her taunts and victory poses. She also has a few attacks (her back aerial, back throw, down throw, and Peach Bomber) that have her use her backside and/or hip, which, never seen isn't true to her character - save for, perhaps, her flippant behavior in the ''Strikers'' games, though most characters lose their cool far more in that game than in most others - and makes her seem a bit over-sexualized. There is also the cutscene in the Subspace Emissary where, despite Snake instructing her and Zelda to stay in their room, both of them (Zelda as Sheik) still recklessly go outside anyway, even though there is a dogfight with the Halberd and Fox's Arwing. Peach would not willingly endanger herself like this.
36	** There's plenty of people who were pleased to have Daisy in, but some of her fans weren't too happy with her being represented as almost identical to Peach (the only differences she has are a few animation and effect swaps; she originally had a difference in her turnips' knockback, but that was patched to be the same as Peach's in version 3.0.0). With Daisy being this similar to a {{girly girl}} like Peach, it minimizes her {{tomboy}} characterization from the ''Mario'' spinoffs, such as the [[VideoGame/MarioStrikers sport]] [[VideoGame/MarioTennis games]] she's known for, with her only significant difference being her [[GenkiGirl energetic personality]].
37	** Bowser is treated like a Godzilla expy in ''Smash'', being depicted as incredibly bestial and only emitting roars and grunts, despite usually having varying traits throughout the ''Super Mario'' franchise, such as a [[BoisterousBruiser boisterous attitude]], a LargeHam personality, and EvilOverlord elements complete with his EvilLaugh, which is absent from these fighting games. Despite his upright and more true-to-series coloring with his redesign in ''4'', he still comes across as "off" when compared to Jr. and the seven Koopalings, who retain much more of the color (both figuratively and literally) and cartoony design aspects of their home series.
38	** While Wario did get to show his villainous chops in ''Brawl''[='s=] Subspace Emissary, his portrayal outside of that mode tends to be derided for depicting him as a comedic FatSlob at the expense of his other character traits; a particular example of this is the announcement of his ''Smash'' debut (which for some was [[AudienceColoringAdaptation their first ever exposure to Wario]]), which spotlighted him crashing his motorcycle and then delivering [[{{Fartillery}} a mushroom cloud-level fart]]. His farts were used in one game before ''Brawl'', but this was just a trait and never the crux of his character. This is in contrast to both ''Wario Land'' and ''[=WarioWare=]'' as well as the spin-offs in the ''Mario'' franchise giving him distinct personality traits like [[BoisterousBruiser boisterousness]], {{greed}}, and making him a mischievous troublemaker, sometimes going too far when he causes trouble, but also a JerkWithAHeartOfGold depending on the occasion.
39	** Much like Donkey Kong, Diddy was deprived of his canon voice, instead receiving chimp-like screeches that also make him animalistic. While his animations do match his personality, his voice clips do not, and like with DK there are mods to replace Diddy's voice with Chris Sutherland's depiction from ''Donkey Kong 64''.
40	** Olimar's portrayal moreso focuses on the antics of the Pikmin rather than the character himself, and as a result, he tends to come off as an awkward buffoon and not an experienced space explorer with a job. His animations sends mixed messages on Olimar's character, as certain animations give Olimar the impression of a competent leader while others (namely his taunts and victory poses) portray him as silly. This is more egregious with ''Smash 4'' onwards, where none of his animations changed to reflect on Olimar's developed character in ''VideoGame/Pikmin3''. It is also where Alph is introduced an alternate skin for Olimar, and due to sharing the same animations, they also are inconsistent with Alph's character as well.
41	** Lucina is normally the same as the other ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' characters, but in her victory poses, if she wins against Marth or Ike, she comes off as more arrogant and cocky. She says to Marth "THIS is the Hero King?" and to Ike "And they call YOU the Radiant Hero?", It is quite out of character for Lucina to say this to two legendary swordsmen, and while she is a serious protagonist, this is jarring, especially in the Western versions.
42	** Just like Bowser, King K. Rool acts more bestial and emits realistic roars, instead of retaining his BadBoss and EvilIsHammy traits. His AxCrazy personality in his home series was minimal, but ''Smash Bros.'' turns this up to eleven, mostly when K. Rool runs on all fours when dashing, and in his reveal trailer, although one might guess the character does so from being excited to finally make it in these games.
43	* Fans were nonplussed to see Samus with her ''VideoGame/MetroidOtherM'' armor again instead of switching to the more well-received armor from ''VideoGame/MetroidSamusReturns'', especially since Mario and Link got aesthetic changes from their [[VideoGame/SuperMarioOdyssey latest]] [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild adventures]], Ridley is primarily based on his ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid'' appearance, and Dark Samus represents the ''VideoGame/MetroidPrimeTrilogy'' as a moveset clone of Samus. As Samus' Fighter Spirit uses her ''Samus Returns'' artwork and Nintendo has used her ''Samus Returns'' design as the "definitive" Samus design ever since that game's release [[note]]prior to its release and during most of the development of ''Ultimate'', they used her ''Other M'' design[[/note]], some fans speculated that this wasn't due to laziness or MagnumOpusDissonance, but rather the fact that ''Samus Returns'' was introduced too late in the development cycle for ''Ultimate'' for its elements to be properly incorporated beyond music and Spirits.
44	* Dark Samus' move-set is also missing some attacks seen in ''Echoes'' and ''Corruption''. The character being an Echo Fighter/clone in ''Ultimate'', and thus, despite likewise not having thrown any form of kick or punch [[note]]except to start an elevator at one point[[/note]] notwithstanding, as this doppelganger would more or less have to copy Samus' A button attacks, Dark Samus, in those ''Prime'' games, has never used the (Morph Ball) Bombs, but did charge up and use the Boost Ball to rocket around ala Yoshi's Egg Roll or Jigglypuff's Rollout, for instance. Also, rather than the Screw Attack, Dark Samus would jump up, charge energy, and end up careening in and crashing in a strong explosion, and then pausing in a Phazon shield before resuming mobility. That her Charge Shot and Missiles could also have been made to act like they do in her boss battles could also reduce the feeling of playing as a boss that fans have enjoyed battling. Nonetheless, fans of the ''Prime'' games might be less perplexed here in that Dark Samus was made from stealing one of Samus Aran's armored suits, and it could make sense for her to use Bombs, or other attacks not seen used in her home series, like the Grapple Beam.
45	* While many people were elated for the Pokémon Trainer to return, some fans were disappointed that their Final Smash was mostly unchanged from ''Brawl'', largely because it resulted in the removal of the popular Mega Charizard X from ''Smash 4'' — one of the very few cases where a SuperMode was ''removed'' from a Final Smash. This is especially notable given that its first appearance in ''any'' Pokémon media was under Red's control in ''Anime/PokemonOrigins'', and that keeping Charizard's Mega Evolution would have allowed for an additional MythologyGag. However, more people give them a free pass compared to Mario's and ''especially'' Young Link's Final Smashes, since Charizard is no longer a solo character and the unchanged Triple Finish allows all three {{Starter Mon}}s to be treated equally, and that it's considered a BoringButPractical attack that is ultimately more potent than Mega Charizard X in ''Smash 4'' and many other Final Smashes in general.
46	* Sonic's alternate costumes tend to be derided for almost all being varying shades of blue. While Sonic did get a white alt and his black bracelet alt was changed to have black fur in ''For 3DS/Wii U'', that still has left him with six different costumes that all have similar colors. While there is a mandate that says that Sonic has to be blue, the existence of characters who wear accessories on their alternate costumes like Pikachu and Jigglypuff has led to many a suggestion to apply the same to Sonic, given that games like ''Adventure 2'', ''Riders'' and ''Rivals'' have very prominent differences beyond just the cuffs of his gloves.
47	* Pac-Man's alternate costumes don't get a lot of respect for being very hard to distinguish [[note]]five of them give Pac-Man different colors of the same accessories, one gives him slightly different accessories, and one makes his gloves and shoes plaid. Unlike similar accessory-gaining characters like Pikachu, Jigglypuff, and Sonic, Pac-Man's body color doesn't change at all[[/note]], and he retains the same alts in ''Ultimate'' that he had in ''Smash 4''. Not only does Pac not receive any self-referential costumes like other characters do, but he gets to have incredibly annoying {{Mirror Match}}es due to the changes being minimal at best.
48	[[/folder]]
49
50	[[folder:Franchise Representation]]
51	* ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'':
52	** The paltry ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' representation got this upon ''Ultimate''[='s=] launch, with no new content whatsoever and the only representation being Cloud ([[BilingualBonus still voiced in Japanese]] even with Marth and Roy receiving English voices)[[note]]Although this is not entirely Nintendo/Bandai-Namco or Square Enix's fault as there are certain difficulties with acquiring Cloud's English voice actor Steve Burton due to his contract with Square-Enix and it's unknown if Cody Christian falls under the same category. Even if Cloud's English VA was acquired, there is still the chance that Sephiroth's English VA's might be unattainable, making their voices extremely dissonant, so even if Sephiroth's VA was attainable but Cloud's wasn't, it was better and safer to just keep them both dubbed in Japanese for consistency.[[/note]], his stage, his Fighter Spirits, and two music tracks. With the release of Sephiroth in late 2020, most of these complaints have been alleviated with the iconic villain bringing proper ''[=FF7=]'' representation with him via an extra stage, more music tracks and a proper array of Spirits, though some fans are disappointed that both he and Cloud remain undubbed because no other fighters besides Min Min and Kazuya[[note]]who each only have one voice actor worldwide[[/note]] speak non-English languages in the English version of the game.[[note]]This goes hand-in-hand with the TheyChangedItNowItSucks complaints surrounding Mewtwo's and Hero's Japanese lines being outright ''removed'' in international versions of the game, since Cloud and Sephiroth make it seem even more unnecessary and arbitrary, whereas having all four characters speak Japanese would at least seem less out of place.[[/note]]
53	** Since Cloud was included as DLC for ''3DS[=/=]Wii U'', fans of the ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' franchise outside of ''[=FF7=]'' have felt left out in the cold, seeing it as yet another symptom of Creator/SquareEnix's favoritism towards ''[=FF7=]'' over the other titles. Even with the Sephiroth update, ''Ultimate'' makes virtually no effort to represent ''Final Fantasy'' outside of ''[=FF7=]''. No music tracks from any other game in the franchise are present, and even the spirits of franchise-spanning characters Chocobo and Moogle, Ifrit, and Shiva are still based on how they appeared in the [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIRemake remake]]. Fans of the series other than ''[=FF7=]'' find this glaring seeing as other [[NonLinearSequel non-linear]] [[EasternRPG JRPG]] series such as ''Franchise/{{Persona}}'', ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles'', and fellow Square Enix series ''Franchise/DragonQuest'' have representation of multiple games in their respective series. This is a sore point in particular to fans of ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyI FF1]]'' to ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI FF6]]'', when the franchise was released exclusively for Nintendo consoles; while many of the post-''[=FF6=]'' games would later see release on the Switch, this means that the era of ''Final Fantasy'' with the greatest ties to Nintendo history is completely excluded.
54	* ''Franchise/DonkeyKong'': While ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong'', ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry'', ''[[VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry2DiddysKongQuest Donkey Kong Country 2]]'', ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong64'', ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountryReturns'', and ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountryTropicalFreeze'', have decent representation, ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry3DixieKongsDoubleTrouble'' has close to no representation to call for, only having Dixie Kong and Kiddy Kong in their hovercraft, Ellie the Elephant, and Baron K. Roolsenstein as Spirits in ''Ultimate'', and King K. Rool using his Propellerpack as his recovery move with no other sign of his mad scientist personality, to boot when his Blunderbuss/Pirate Cannon has him put on a captain's hat. There are no songs at all or any stages from ''Donkey Kong Country 3'' either, which is disappointing.
55	* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' not getting a single newcomer since Toon Link in ''Brawl'', and by extension, the series not getting a non-MovesetClone fighter since Zelda and Sheik in ''Melee''. To compare, the other big names of Nintendo each received a new fighter in each new entry; ''Super Mario Bros.'' added Rosalina, Bowser Jr., & the Koopalings in ''Smash 4'' and Daisy & Piranha Plant in ''Ultimate'', ''Pokémon'' added Greninja in ''Smash 4'' and Incineroar in ''Ultimate'', and ''Fire Emblem'' added Robin, Lucina & Corrin in ''Smash 4'' and Chrom & Byleth in ''Ultimate''. To make matters worse, after not getting any newcomers in ''Smash 4'', the ''Donkey Kong'' series gained King K. Rool and the ''Metroid'' series earned 2 fighters, Ridley and Dark Samus in ''Ultimate''! And yet the ''Zelda'' series has had a good portion of its unique characters, both heroes and villains, relegated to Assist Trophies. This makes the franchise's playable representation in ''Smash'' seem very limited since all of the playable characters are incarnations of the main trio of Link, Zelda, and Ganon, all of whom have controversies of their own.[[note]]The three Links for sharing a base moveset with minor variations, Zelda for her consistently poor moveset design, Sheik for being TheArtifact while other ''Zelda'' [[OneShotCharacter One-Shot Characters]] remain Assist Trophies, and Ganondorf for remaining based on Captain Falcon with little of his magical prowess and swordsmanship.[[/note]] Impa and Skull Kid are two of the most popular picks for newcomers of the series, and although Skull Kid has been an Assist Trophy since ''Smash 4'', Impa has only been a spirit in ''Ultimate''. Many fans speculate that the lack of characters beyond incarnations of Link, Zelda, and Ganon are due to the developers' reluctance to include any OneShotCharacter from the franchise on the grounds or the idea that they are only important to their games of origin and not the franchise as a whole; Sheik's presence has divided this perception between those who feel her presence disproves this as another "fan rule" and those who feel Sheik is merely a case of EarlyInstallmentWeirdness that the developers are reluctant to repeat.
56	* The ''Franchise/{{Kirby}}'' series often receives complaints for perceived "Sakurai Bias", or the emphasis on ''Kirby'' content from the games that Sakurai was Director and Game Designer on; ''[[VideoGame/KirbysDreamLand Dream Land]]'', ''[[VideoGame/KirbysAdventure Adventure]]'', ''[[VideoGame/KirbySuperStar Super Star]]'', and ''[[VideoGame/KirbyAirRide Air Ride]]''. More than half of the music for the franchise comes from those four games, while most other games only get direct ports of their tracks, and only four remixes incorporate games he didn't lead for. [[note]]Boss Theme Medley, [[VideoGame/Kirby64TheCrystalShards 02 Battle]], [[VideoGame/KirbyAndTheAmazingMirror Forest/Nature Area]], and [[VideoGame/KirbySqueakSquad the Squeak Squad Theme]].[[/note]] Additionally, all of the ''Kirby'' stages are based on games he worked on; Dream Land GB is based on ''Dream Land'', Fountain of Dreams debuted in ''Adventure'', and Dream Land, Green Greens, Halberd, and The Great Cave Offensive all take inspiration from various subgames of ''Super Star''. [[note]]It's worth noting that [[http://sourcegaming.info/2016/05/11/sakuraifanmisconception505/ according to Sakurai]], Dream Land GB was [[WhatCouldHaveBeen/SuperSmashBros originally]] going to be based on ''VideoGame/SuperMarioLand'', while The Great Cave Offensive began as a ''VideoGame/KirbysEpicYarn'' stage, but was retooled to avoid redundancy when they decided to make a stage based on the then-recently-announced ''VideoGame/YoshisWoollyWorld''.[[/note]] This is the only Nintendo-owned franchise with such a limit to the timespan of stages chosen, as even later games of now-long abandoned franchises have gotten stage representation, such as [[VideoGame/Mother3 New Pork City]] or [[VideoGame/FZero Port Town Aero Dive]], while Kirby is still using the year 1996 for its threshold. [[note]]WordOfGod says The Great Cave Offensive was chosen due to ''Super Star Ultra'' (2008), but the stage's graphics reflect more on the original's artstyle for most areas. ''Melee''[='s=] Green Greens stage does however, have hints of ''VideoGame/Kirby64TheCrystalShards'' (2000) on its artstyle though.[[/note]] The selection of items and Assist Trophies that hail from the ''Kirby'' series all debuted in Sakurai's games as well, and even with the advent of adding spirits from games released after ''Ultimate'' in updates, ''VideoGame/KirbyAndTheForgottenLand'' goes completely unmentioned. This is also suspected to be the reason why the series has only ever had 3 playable characters, as most of the requests for new ''Kirby'' fighters are from games Sakurai didn't design. Bandana Dee, though he debuted in ''Super Star'', only became an AscendedExtra in ''VideoGame/KirbysReturnToDreamLand''; Gooey, the Animal Friends, Adeleine, and Ribbon are all part of the Dark Matter Trilogy [[note]]which designer Shinichi Shimomura directed instead, before he apparently went AWOL after directing ''Nightmare in Dream Land''[[/note]]; and Sakurai left HAL after ''Air Ride'', so anyone who debuted after that game, like Daroach and the Squeaks, Magolor, [[VideoGame/KirbyTripleDeluxe Taranza]], and [[VideoGame/KirbyPlanetRobobot Susie]], has no involvement from him.
57	* Although ''VideoGame/WarioWare'' is a significant part of Wario's history, fans of the ''VideoGame/WarioLand'' series, and some fans of both series, dislike that Wario's representation has always put ''[=WarioWare=]'' first and ''Wario Land'' second, with the latter being treated as a bit part of both Wario's character and his franchise's representation despite it being a well-received series, as well as where Wario first got his start as a playable character. It's not uncommon to see people wish that Wario had been introduced in ''Melee'', so that the ''Wario Land'' series could've gained a foothold in ''Smash'' before it fell by the wayside. Major fan works like ''VideoGame/ProjectM'', ''VideoGame/SuperSmashFlash 2'', and ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosCrusade'' generally agree with this perception, as Wario on the whole usually pulls in more ''Wario Land'' content and ends up either as a ''Land''-centric character, or a balance between ''Wario Land'' and ''[=WarioWare=]''. All of them rework or replace several of Wario's moves and animations to add more references to the platforming games, make his default outfit his overalls instead of his biker outfit, and have stages based on content from his platforming adventures; ''Project M'' replaces the [=WarioWare=] Inc. stage with "Wario Land" (which resembles Wario's treasure-filled castle from ''VideoGame/WarioWorld'' with a layout based on [=WarioWare=] Inc.'s elevator section), ''Flash 2'' recreates [=WarioWare=] Inc. and adds Emerald Cave, a stage based on Palm Tree Paradise from ''VideoGame/WarioLand4'', and ''Crusade'' as of its 0.9.4 update aims to compromise both ''Land'' and ''Ware'' by having both the Bike as a side-special and shoulder bash as a forward-Smash, giving Wario a DK-like Cargo Throw, and having Rice Beach and [=WarioWare=] Inc. as stages. Even outside of the scope of fangames and mods, it's not that hard to find videos describing hypothetical overhauls to ''Wario'' content as well.
58	* The ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' franchise is a frequent source of complaints due to an intersection of disappointing representation aspects; Sonic himself has a moveset only based on classic games, his franchise has an infamous dearth of music and still only has one remix as of ''Ultimate'' (20 songs total, 19 of them ported from Sonic's home games), his two stages have the same GreenHillZone aesthetic in the face of a variety of available landscapes -- including the likes of carnivals and even casino-themed areas -- and Sonic is his franchise's only fighter while everyone else from his games has been relegated to consolation prizes (stage cameos, Trophies, Assist Trophies, Mii Costumes and Spirits). This has become easier to notice as ''Smash'' has gone on, since many other third-parties garnered much more content than ''Sonic'' in the span of two games, or even just one; ''Mega Man'' got 17 remixes in 31 songs as well as two new Assist Trophies, ''Castlevania'' got 13 remixes in 34 songs plus an Assist Trophy (and a cameo of Alucard in Richter's Palutena's Guidance), the entirety of Creator/{{SNK}} got 17 remixes in 50 songs as well as 20 stage cameos, and even ''Final Fantasy'', previously the poster-child for lame third-party representation, got a second fighter, a second stage, four new remixes and five new ported songs, three new Mii Costumes, a new victory theme for Sephiroth, and a visual change to Cloud's [[LimitBreak Final Smash]] when wearing one of his ''Advent Children'' alternate costumes.
59	* ''VideoGame/PacMan'' is one of the few series with a fighter in ''Smash'' to receive ''no'' new content for their home franchise between ''4'' and ''Ultimate'' (though there are three new songs from non-''Pac-Man'' Namco franchises); in fact, their already-small amount of content was reduced in the latter. ''Ultimate'' only has three ''Pac-Man'' songs (and 11 songs from all of Namco, only one more than ''Wii U''), one stage (down from two, one in ''3DS'' and one in ''Wii U''), and five spirits (down from 15 trophies between ''3DS'' and ''Wii U''), all of which were also trophies.
60	* ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'', compared to other Creator/SquareEnix series represented in ''Smash'', is considered a slight improvement but still suffers from lesser versions of the same pitfalls that ''Final Fantasy'' did. While Sora is voiced in both English and Japanese, most of his voice clips are VoiceGrunting and CallingYourAttacks with no longer quotes, making him come across similar to the HeroicMime characters. There are more than 2 music tracks, but they consist of a very limited selection of songs from ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI'', with two exceptions;[[note]]The remix of "Fragments of Sorrow" is from ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'', though the song originated from ''[=KH1=]'', and one can obtain a swing remix of "Dearly Beloved" from an OldSaveBonus of ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsMelodyOfMemory''.[[/note]] they are also the orchestrated versions from ''1.5'' and ''2.5 [=ReMIX=]'', which is a step above ''Dragon Quest''[='s=] music representation. Sora's alternate costumes[[note]]which nonetheless use his ''[=KH1=]'' face and hairstyle[[/note]] and the Spirits added to the game at least offer a nice selection, but the limited music selection can feel awkward for some of the Spirit battles related to characters who usually have their own {{leitmotif}}. And while the big OriginalGeneration characters are represented in ''Smash'' (something not addressed with ''FF'' until Sephiroth's addition), anything related to Disney characters and worlds is ExiledFromContinuity, causing the series' representation to feel even more limited.
61	[[/folder]]
62
63	[[folder:Stages]]
64	* ''Wii U'' and ''Ultimate'' feature stages from the original Nintendo 64 title, which were conspicuously absent from ''Brawl''. However, with the exception of Mushroom Kingdom (which more closely resembles the graphics of ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1''[[note]]and, gameplay-wise, allows the pipe above the abyss to be entered[[/note]]), they're straight ports, with no attempt to graphically improve them (other than a higher video resolution), making the high-definition fighters and items look out-of-place against the bare polygonal shapes and blurry textures. This is especially annoying considering the gorgeous remakes of these stages featured in ''VideoGame/ProjectM'', including [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0lSBbOzftA Hyrule Castle]] and [[http://youtu.be/rcJHZCuaG84?t=1m20s Peach's Castle]]. Adding fuel to the fire, even though ''Ultimate'' gives most stages from ''Melee'', ''Brawl'', and ''3DS'' updated appearances a la ''VideoGame/MarioKart8'', the Nintendo 64 stages ''still'' look more or less the same as they did in 1999.
65	* A common complaint across the series is that the majority of the ''Super Mario''-series levels are either fairly basic and non-hostile early-game levels [[note]]Peach's Castle 64 and Melee, Mushroom Kingdom 64 and Melee, Mushroom Kingdom II, Delfino Plaza, Mushroomy Kingdom, Figure-8 Circuit, 3D Land, Golden Plains, Mario Galaxy, Mario Circuit, the initial phase of Mushroom Kingdom U, Super Mario Maker[[/note]] or levels that otherwise lack standout settings. The ''Mario'' series has a whole wealth of unique locations over its decades of life, from [[TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon Bowser's Castle]] (a highly-requested stage throughout the entire franchise, which has to date only appeared in the background of the Paper Mario stage), to [[LevelsTakeFlight Bowser's airship fleets]] or [[RemilitarizedZone tank and ship armadas]], to the RPG areas which haven't been touched upon like the Beanbean Kingdom or the [[CosmicMotifs Star-tied]] places like Star Hill, Star Road, Star Haven, and the Star Shrine, to spinoff locations like the other tracks of ''Mario Kart'', boards of ''Mario Party'', and non-standard playing fields of the sports games, to even the various unique settings of the 2D and 3D games, but ''Smash'' rarely delves into the vast majority of these areas. It's quite telling that Bowser's Castle by itself is guaranteed to appear in every well-known mod and fangame of ''Smash'' such as ''Project M'', ''Flash 2'', ''Smash Remix'', and ''Crusade'', in addition to being a very common Stage Builder subject in ''Ultimate'', but there's still no standalone iteration of such in an official ''Smash'' game.
66	* Pac-Land continuing to be the sole ''Pac-Man'' stage in ''Ultimate'' as it was in ''Smash Wii U'' has garnered complaints and backlash from fans who wished that the 3DS Pac-Maze stage was chosen as his stage instead. Although ''VideoGame/PacLand'' is the game that Pac-Man's moveset is derived from, many claim that although the game was groundbreaking for the side-scrolling platformer genre, it isn't nearly as popular as the original ''Pac-Man'' arcade game which featured the iconic maze used in the 3DS stage, a setting that is seen as better fitting for Pac-Man's home stage.[[note]]Sakurai has gone on the record saying that Pac-Land was chosen over Pac-Maze due to the technical aspect of the stage with the Power Pellets and ghosts which was supported by multiple screens across multiple consoles, which the Wii U and Switch would be unable to replicate, complicated by 8-player battles. A solution from fans is to simply mark the ghosts with player icons like the Poké Balls and Assist Trophies, or alternatively to simply do away with that mechanic altogether and keep the stage as-is. Another complaint is that the original music from the ''Pac-Land'' arcade game wasn't even used or added for its respective stage ([[ScrewedByTheLawyers by legal purposes]] from Creator/HannaBarbera owning the music), making the stage's inclusion feel even more pointless.[[/note]]
67	[[/folder]]
68
69	[[folder:Music]]
70	* Although the music used throughout the series wasn't particularly criticized prior to ''Super Smash Bros. Ultimate'', the leadup and release of that game saw much more scrutiny of the song list, particularly in regards to what was ''not'' on it this many years into ''Smash''[='s=] lifetime.
71	** A large number of ''Mario'' games have managed to fly under the radar when it comes to music:
72	*** In regards to the Nintendo 64 era, ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'' has four songs (two remixes, one of Slider ported from ''Melee'' and one of the Bob-omb Battlefield theme ported from ''4'', as well as the original versions of those songs ported from ''[=SM64=]'' itself), and ''VideoGame/MarioKart64'' has one song (a remix of Luigi Raceway, recycled from ''Brawl''). No other music from that console exists for the plumber, mainline or spinoff.
73	*** The [=GameCube=] era hasn't fared much better, consisting only of ports of the Delfino Plaza and Ricco Harbor themes from ''VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine'' (with a remix of the former being the sole new track from that era), a port of the Rainbow Road theme from ''VideoGame/MarioKartDoubleDash'', a medley/remix recycled from ''Brawl'' of the title screen themes from ''[[VideoGame/MarioGolf Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/MarioTennis Mario Power Tennis]]'' ([[NonIndicativeName named for the franchises instead of after the specific instalments, no less]]), and the [[VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor Rogueport]] section of the Paper Mario Medley.
74	*** The entire subseries of ''Mario'' [=RPGs=] only has ten songs to its name. ''VideoGame/PaperMario'' in particular, despite having been around for 18 years by the time ''Ultimate'' released, only has the Paper Mario Medley from the previous ''Smash'' (consisting of Blue Skies, White Clouds from ''[[VideoGame/PaperMarioStickerStar Sticker Star]]'', Rogueport from ''[[VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor The Thousand-Year Door]]'', and Battleship from ''Sticker Star'') and a port of the ''[[VideoGame/PaperMarioColorSplash Color Splash]]'' battle theme, with ''Sticker Star'' and ''The Thousand-Year Door'' not getting a single non-medley song, ''Color Splash'' only getting a fairly basic song, and ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario'' and ''VideoGame/PaperMario64'' not getting songs at all. ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigi'' fares a bit better, with eight songs total[[note]]the [[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiPartnersInTime Gritzy Desert]] remix from ''Brawl'', direct ports of [[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiBowsersInsideStory Tough Guy Alert! and The Grand Finale]] which were also ported to ''For Wii U'', the [[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiDreamTeam Try, Try Again]] remix from ''3DS/Wii U'', and direct ports of [[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiPaperJam Time's Running Out!, Mixed-Up Scramble, Attack and Run!]], and [[VideoGame/MinionQuestTheSearchForBowser This is Minion Turf!]] that are new to the series[[/note]], but just like with ''Paper Mario'', their only remixes are ports, and an entire game (''[[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga Superstar Saga]]'' in this case) is shafted, resulting in an incredibly limited selection from a series that's been going on for 15 years. ''VideoGame/MarioPlusRabbidsKingdomBattle'' also has no music from either the main game or the Donkey Kong Adventure DLC, and ''VideoGame/SuperMarioRPG'' has nothing either (not even with the Geno Mii costume, in spite of the reveal for it using "Beware the Forest's Mushrooms").
75	** VideoGame/{{Wario}} holds the dubious honor of being one of the few fighters whose series received ''no'' new music whatsoever; ''VideoGame/WarioLand'', as in ''For Wii U'', only has a port of the Stonecarving City theme from ''VideoGame/WarioLandShakeIt'', while ''VideoGame/WarioWare''[='s=] ten songs are all ports from the last two ''Smash'' games.
76	** There are no new songs from the original ''VideoGame/MetroidPrimeTrilogy'', with only one new remix ("Vs. Parasite Queen") of a song previously featured in ''Brawl'' and ''Wii U''. Once again, there's only one song from ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime2Echoes'' (a straight port of the multiplayer song "Hunters", itself a remix of Upper Brinstar from ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid'') and no songs from ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime3Corruption'' among the listed tracks, which is very disappointing given that both games have very impressive soundtracks. This also means that, despite being PromotedToPlayable, Dark Samus's {{leitmotif}} is completely absent from ''Ultimate''.
77	** ''Pokémon'' still has no tracks from non-mainline games and all the sourced tracks are from one game being from ''[[VideoGame/PokemonXAndY X & Y]]''.
78	** Sonic still has only one remix, the [[VideoGame/Sonic3AndKnuckles Angel Island Zone]] track that accompanied him in ''Brawl''. His remaining music mostly consists of his home games' main themes and a few level themes. While Sonic did get ports of Lights, Camera, Action! from ''[[VideoGame/SonicMania Mania]]'' and Fist Bump and Sunset Heights from ''[[VideoGame/SonicForces Forces]]'', fans have bemoaned that even his victory theme is taken directly from ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006'', leaving him the only character to not have a victory theme composed specifically for ''Smash''.
79	** While the Namco music in this game has gotten much love thanks to its new hits in the ''VideoGame/{{Galaga}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Mappy}}'' Medleys plus the ''Dragon Spirit'' track, the actual ''Pac-Man'' franchise still has just the three songs it had in ''3DS/Wii U'', with no tunes from anything beyond the arcade titles, such as ''VideoGame/PacManWorld'' or ''VideoGame/PacManChampionshipEdition''.
80	** System software is still represented only by the Mii Channel and Wii Shop Channel themes and their remixes, as opposed to their [=DSi=], 3DS, and Wii U successors, not helped by the fact that ''Ultimate'' was released shortly before the Wii Shop Channel shut down.
81	* The decision to continue to classify the ''Melee'' Yoshi's Island stage as a ''Yoshi'' universe stage in ''Ultimate'' (despite being based on ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld'') means that because of how music selection works, most of the music taken or remixed from ''World'' can't be played on it, unlike in the previous games.
82	* Several songs which were shortened for ''Smash 4'' remain abridged in this game; among others, the [[VideoGame/DonkeyKong64 iconic DK Rap]][[note]]which removed the Lanky Kong and Chunky Kong verses, as well as the "take it to the fridge" ending portion[[/note]], [[VideoGame/EarthBoundBeginnings Pollyanna]], [[VideoGame/Metroid1 Brinstar (Melee)]], and [[VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry King K. Rool]] / [[VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry2DiddysKongQuest Ship Deck 2]] all remain shortened. This is in spite of the level of music added in DLC going heavily against the claims of the music space being too tight, like Terry's 50 songs or Sephiroth's six-minutes-long "Advent: One-Winged Angel"; even if there was genuinely no space in the base game, ''Ultimate'' has received plenty of free post-launch updates that the original songs could've been included in.
83	[[/folder]]
84
85	[[folder:Other]]
86	* When Snake was confirmed to be a returning veteran for ''Ultimate'', there was hope among the ''Metal Gear'' fans that the "Snake's Codec Calls" would gain new conversations for the characters that weren't in ''Brawl''. Sadly, that wasn't the case due to several reasons, one of them being the fact that Creator/HideoKojima retired the character Roy Campbell from the ''Metal Gear'' series out of respect for Creator/TakeshiAono, his original Japanese VA, who passed away in 2012. Despite Creator/DavidHayter himself being active in promoting ''Ultimate'', Snake's performance was entirely archive footage because of this. There were also a few inconsistencies within the conversations recycled from ''Brawl'':
87	** Alph and the female Pokémon Trainer are referred to as if they're Olimar and the male Pokémon Trainer respectively.
88	** Sheik and Zero Suit Samus are referred to as transformations, which was the case in ''Brawl'' but not in ''3DS/Wii U'' onward.
89	** Diddy Kong's conversation refers to an element of his moveset which was removed after ''Brawl''.
90	** ''Brawl'' is still mentioned by name in Jigglypuff's and Sonic's English-language conversations. This isn't the case in Japanese, which used the series name.
91	* There still isn't a character other than Yoshi with a non-standard shield (hence the spotted egg). Dark Samus having used a quick Phazon Shield that does minor damage, [[note]]think Powdered Toast Man's down special in ''VideoGame/NickelodeonAllStarBrawl''[[/note]]but was not seen providing protection from attacks from above, would be just one example of different shields' potential.
92	[[/folder]]

Context ItsTheSameNowItSucks / SuperSmashBros