Come back to the main Project M article here, or here for PMEX Remix.
Information on the Smash 64 and Melee veterans can be found here.
Information on the PMEX Remix-exclusive Melee, 3DS/Wii U, and Ultimate veterans can be found here.
Information on the PMEX Remix newcomers can be found here.
open/close all folders
Introduced in Demo 1.0
Lucas
Masked Man disguise
EarthBound 64 design (P+ / REMIX)
Voiced by: Lani Minella
The younger, shyer boy of a pair of twins from the Nowhere Islands now comes with PK-charged offensive abilities
. Like Ness, he can use Project M's new version of the double-jump cancel from Smash 64 and Melee.
- Calling Your Attacks: "PK Thunder!" Averted with the calls for PK Freeze and PK Fire, which have been removed. Lucas's side special is now PK Freeze, and he doesn't say its name.
- Charge Meter: Offense Up allows Lucas to use stronger versions of his smash attacks, which either have more power, more range, or both, depending on the move. The charge is retained if Lucas hits the opponent with the powered smash move. This property allows Lucas to continuously unleash the stronger versions of his smash moves as long as he lands the hits. In fact, it's the only one of Lucas's specials that he actually learns in Mother 3.
- Cool Sword: The Masked Man disguise switches out his stick for this.
- Difficult, but Awesome: Offense Up powers Lucas up to an absurd degree, but takes a while to charge and is lost if the player misses a Smash Attack.
- Divergent Character Evolution: His specials are now much more distinct from Ness's. His neutral special is Offense Up, and PK Freeze is his side special, though it's just a tweaked version of regular Brawl's PK Fire with the ice graphic effects.
- Dressing as the Enemy: Lucas has a costume resembling the Masked Man, which is inspired by a segment in Mother 3 where he is mistaken for the Pigmask Army's general.
- Easter Egg: As of 3.6, he has a Smash Taunt based on the Wess Dance that can be performed by lightly tapping down on the D-pad and pressing A. If this dance goes uninterrupted, it produces a shockwave that deals lots of damage and paralyzes opponents before launching them as a One-Hit Kill. What keeps it from being a Practical Taunt is its incredibly long duration—it exceeds 1,000 frames of animation.
- Energy Absorption: PSI Magnet can be used both as an attack and to absorb energy-based projectiles to restore Lucas' health.
- Glass Cannon: Due to Project M's universal mechanics and his new attributes, Lucas can be turned from a Jack of All Stats into this. With his Offense Up-boosted smash attacks, he can score reliable kills; his lowered traction gives him a long wavedash; he gains a sliding DACUS that improves his up smash's approach instead of having his momentum halted; and his combo game becomes more potent due to the option of double jump canceling. On the other hand, his endurance is significantly hindered due to his lowered weight, and he loses the charge of Offense Up if his smash attacks miss.
- An Ice Person: PK Freeze, which has been changed to his side special attack and functions much like his old PK Fire.
- Jack of All Stats: Although his attacks have decent power and speed, the ranges of most of his attacks are pretty low.
- Palette Swap: Project+ gives him a costume based on his appearance in the canceled EarthBound 64 and his Masked Man disguise was given new recolors, including one based on the character's true identity. His Z-secret costume is a onesie designed after the Ultimate Chimera, and his R-secret costume is the Masked Man himself.
- Pintsized Powerhouse: With his incredibly strong powered-up smash attacks. The rest of his moves are average-powered.
- The Pratfall: Holding the input to up taunt will actually make him trip, and he can follow up with a roll or a trip attack.
- Psychic Powers: Even more prominent than Ness. He uses PK energy for his normal and Smash attacks in addition to his Specials.
Snake
Tuxedo Snake (P+ / REMIX)
Metal Gear Solid design (P+ / REMIX)
Voiced by: David Hayter
Solid Snake was changed to be a true Tactical Espionage Expert, using both mind games and stage control to succeed. He is now in the same weight class as the other humans in Project M, and he gained several speed buffs. Also, he has two new knife attacks.
- Anti-Air: Up smash fires a mortar shell that covers a long distance above Snake.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: Project+ and PMEX Remix give him a fancy tuxedo as one of his alternate costumes.
- Bottomless Magazines: Averted. The tranquilizer has three rounds before it has to reload, leaving Snake highly vulnerable.
- Bowdlerize: Inverted. He has a taunt where he smokes a cigarette, along with being able to use his tranquilizer gun, things that were not used in Brawl proper due to the age groups the game was aiming for.
- Divergent Character Evolution: PMEX Remix adds Big Boss as a separate fighter from Solid Snake. Big Boss inherits Snake's Project M/Project+ moveset, while Solid is changed to be closer to his Super Smash Bros. Ultimate incarnation (and also gets a clean shave to more closely resemble his Metal Gear Solid self and distinguish himself from Big Boss).
- Easter Egg: Snake can walk while hiding in his cardboard box when the player presses left or right on the D-pad.
- Hyperspace Arsenal: Not only does he have an endless supply of mines and grenades, he can somehow produce a mortar to attack his opponents with.
- Instant Sedation: The tranquilizer gun goes into effect immediately no matter where it hits.
- Legacy Character: One of his costumes is Big Boss.
- Lightning Bruiser: While he isn't "lightning fast" (using DACUS notwithstanding), he was buffed in speed and reduced in weight, so he's more like this than the Mighty Glacier he was in Brawl.
- Meteor Move: Forward aerial, should his foot come in contact with the opponent.
- Mythology Gag: His new side-smash is a knife combo based on the CQC technique from Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater.
- One Bullet at a Time: Snake can only throw one Hand Grenade at a time, and it has a shorter delay time from three to 1.5 seconds, giving him less room for error lest he wants to be blown up.
- Palette Swap:
- Snake's blue costume was altered to be more distinctive in Team Battles.
- In Project+, his Z-secret costume is his Iroquois Pliskin disguise from Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, and his R-secret costume is Big Boss in his formal military suit at the end of Metal Gear Solid 3.
- Both P+ and PMEX Remix give him a set of costumes based on his Metal Gear Solid appearance.
- Scare Chord: The iconic "!" shows up a few times.
- From Project+ onward, sticking a C4 onto an opponent will display the exclamation point above Snake's head with the accompanying sound effect.
- Grab the cardboard box before Snake removes it himself, and said symbol and SFX will play.
- Shock and Awe: Cypher now emits electricity when used and damages and flinches nearby opponents.
- Shout-Out: His new up tilt is similarly animated to the crouching fierce uppercut used in Street Fighter. It's a replacement for Snake's incredibly disjointed Brawl up tilt.
- Smoking Is Cool: Snake smokes a cigarette for his up taunt that damages him for 1%, which he then drops in front of him, damaging opponents in the way. He can alternatively jump to keep the cigarette in his mouth, which can be removed by using up taunt again or losing a stock.
- Sticky Bomb: Sticking C4s on opponents is very important in Snake's game, as it provides one of his most potent finishers. In addition, the C4 no longer transfers between players (though it can still be dropped).
- Stuff Blowing Up: Grenades, the mortar, mines, and C4 packs, the man is just packed with explosives.
- Wall of Weapons: Besides the grenades, the mortar, mines, C4s, and the box, he also has a tranquilizer gun and the knife from Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater.
- Wrestler in All of Us: The wrestling-esque forward and back throws have set knockback to easily throw opponents into mines and C4s. Also, he can drag held foes if the player presses left or right on the D-pad.
Sonic
Jet Set Radio Sonic
Racing Suit Sonic (P+ / REMIX)
Voiced by: Jason Griffith
Home series: Sonic the Hedgehog
Debut: Rad Mobile (cameo), Sonic the Hedgehog (1991) (in-series debut)
"Sonic's the name, speed's my game!"
Debut: Rad Mobile (cameo), Sonic the Hedgehog (1991) (in-series debut)
"Sonic's the name, speed's my game!"
The fastest thing alive in Brawl gets various changes to his arsenal in the mod designed to play like the fastest installment of Smash Bros.
- Always Accurate Attack: His Homing Attack now shoots straight for the opponent, unlike the easily missing arc in normal Brawl.
- Confusion Fu: Emphasized in his bait-and-punish playstyle with many mobility options and special cancels.
- Easter Egg: All of his taunts can be held indefinitely as long as the input is held.
- Fragile Speedster: He's the fastest runner in the game, made even faster by the Melee environment, but is also about as light as the space animals. To make up for the poor KO potential he had in Brawl, he's been given more reliable finishers.
- Lag Cancel: Homing Attack can be jump/special canceled.
- Mythology Gag: Several to his home series.
- Many have been taken from Sonic Battle: Forward-aerial is Sonic Eagle, down smash is Sonic Flare, and in 2.5, the new up-tilt is Sonic Up Draft.
- Neutral aerial is inspired by the Insta-Shield move in Sonic 3.
- From 2.5, the side special has now a secondary attack being the Slide Kick from the Sonic Advance series.
- Sonic has several random poses that he can do after hitting with Homing Attack. One of the poses is the one on the cover of Sonic Adventure.
- His new up taunt is his iconic Finger Wag.
- Palette Swap:
- Sonic was given a major overhaul in palette swaps instead of having his various shades of blue kept to make him more recognizable in multiplayer matches. Among his new alts are ones based on Shadow, Tails, and Silver, with the wristbands and/or shoes to match.
- Project+ gives him his racing suit from Sonic Adventure 2 Battle with recolors for Team Battles. His Z-secret costume is his Sonic Adventure design, and his R-secret costume is the Werehog but with Sonic's normal proportions.
- Rolling Attack: Spin Charge gained most of Spin Dash's nuances while still retaining its own properties. It can now damage foes when it's charging up, though it can no longer be held indefinitely.
- Shout-Out: He gets a costume based on Beat from Jet Set Radio. Project+ gives it additional recolors, with green inspired by Gum, red inspired by Cube, and cyan inspired by Mew.
- Super-Speed: Sonic's already impressive dashing speed was further increased.
Introduced in Demo 2.0
Wario
Biker Wario
WarioWare D.I.Y outfit (P+)
Dr. Wario (REMIX)
Voiced by: Charles Martinet
A new brutal and tech-chasing Wario joins the fight! Confusingly, the Wario in Brawl has a moveset based almost entirely on the WarioWare series. In Project M, his Wario Land moves and appearance became central to this outing.
- Acrofatic: Wario is agile and mobile for someone his girth.
- Ass Kicks You: His new Down Air is his signature ground pound.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: In Project+, he gains his suit from WarioWare D.I.Y., which comes with five additional recolors. One of them is based on the suit he wears from WarioWare: Snapped! as of version 2.3.
- Charged Attack: As of 2.5, forward throw makes him throw his opponent like in the Wario Land games, complete with charging.
- Clothes Make the Legend: His iconic classic overalls outfit is now default.
- Easter Egg:
- Holding a taunt button while he hits an opponent with his down-aerial adds the fart sound effect and graphic.
- In Project+ and PMEX Remix, quickly inputting the down taunt button for one frame will have him raise his left arm while holding three fingers in the shape of a W.
- Fartillery: His Wario Waft down special, which can become an "explosive fart" after enough time passes.
- Fat and Skinny: In Legacy XP and its derivative mods such as PMEX Remix, he's joined by his tall, lanky partner in crime Waluigi, who is treated as a Wario character precisely for the dynamic between the two.
- Foe-Tossing Charge: Wario's Shoulder Tackle serves as his side special, replacing the Wario Bike from the official games.
- Greed: A poster child for the trope; every time he pummels an opponent, a coin pops out of their head.
- Ground Pound: His new down aerial is specifically called this. Although it's considerably punishable from failure, it's very useful; it is a meteor smash, and Wario bounces off the airborne target upon contact, which makes recovery afterwards easier.
- Ground Punch: His new down smash is the Earthshake Punch from Wario Land: Shake It!. Compared to his previously unviable down smash, it can set up combos better and has reduced ending lag.
- Human Hammer-Throw: Back throw is now his former forward throw from Brawl; while he still spins the grabbed opponent away, Wario can now move around while doing so, as a nod to the Wild Swing Ding technique from Wario World.
- Lightning Bruiser: Very heavy, mobile, and powerful.
- Man Bites Man: Chomp has been changed to deal only a single bite and can be used to throw opponents backwards.
- Meteor Move: Ground Pound is a meteor smash.
- Mythology Gag: One of his victory poses has him strike a pose and flex his biceps, similar to what he did in Wario Land 4 after defeating a passage boss. This replaces the farting victory pose in Brawl.
- Original Flavor: His moveset was designed to be much closer to Wario Land, including his signature Shoulder Tackle and changing his default outfit to his overalls.
- Palette Swap:
- While he did not receive new costumes in the transition from Brawl to PM, his existing outfits traded places; his overalls are now the main outfit, fitting in line with Wario's Wario Land-based overhaul, while the biker gear from WarioWare is treated as the alternate costume.
- Project+ gives him his safari helmet from Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 and Virtual Boy Wario Land as a R-secret alt and a cowboy costume as a Z-secret alt. In version 2.5, his black biker recolor was also altered to be more distinct.
- Stout Strength: His appearance in PM and its successors puts a greater emphasis on his most defining trait as opposed to the official games, which largely downplayed it in favor of making him a Denser and Wackier Fighting Clown.
Pit
Retro Pit
Voiced by: Lani Minella, Antony Del Rio (PMEX 0.95+ only)
The hero of Kid Icarus. He disappeared from games for awhile, but he was brought back in Brawl (and again in Kid Icarus: Uprising, also by Sakurai's team).
- Annoying Arrows: Great for adding damage from a distance and can mess up some characters' recoveries, but don't expect to KO anybody with Pit's light arrows.
- Art Evolution: Pit's Retraux costume is revamped in Project+ version 2.3, now closely matching his artwork from the original NES game.
- The Artifact: In PMEX Remix, Pit remains the same as he was in the original Project M (with far fewer references to Kid Icarus: Uprising), while Palutena and Dark Pit draw directly from that game, like in their canon Smash appearances. However, his voice actor is properly updated to Antony del Rio as of version 0.95, and he also gets an alternate costume based on the Three Sacred Treasures.
- Attack Reflector: His Mirror Shield can reflect projectiles and is also a powerful bash for his up special.
- Dual Wielding: His bow splits into dual blades, much like in regular Brawl.
- Fallen Angel: One of his palette swaps is this, and in fact has been slightly recolored to resemble Dark Pit from Uprising — who appears as a separate playable fighter in REMIX.
- Flight: Subverted, he can't fly without Palutena's assistance or the Wings of Icarus. However, he does have a command-glide as his side special.
- Icarus Allusion: With Kid Icarus naturally taking inspiration from the original Greek myth, Pit's Wings of Icarus start to burn as he loses gliding momentum.
- Idiot Hero: In PMEX Remix, he keeps one of his infamous KO lines from Ultimate."I never learned how to reeeeeead!"
- No "Arc" in "Archery": Justified. These arrows are made of light, though if you really wanted to, you could make them loop all the way around and come back to you.
- Non-Human Head: In Project+, Pit's Z-secret costume is a modified version of his retro design that replaces his head with an eggplant, the effect of being cursed by an Eggplant Wizard.
- Palette Swap:
- Pit's red recolor from Brawl was adjusted to be properly red instead of being merely red-tinted.
- In Project+, both Pit's modern and retro designs received recolors. His modern design gets swaps inspired by Viridi, the Eggplant Wizard, and the Centurion army, while his green retro design resembles Palutena. His R-secret costume gears him up with the Three Sacred Treasures.
- Retraux: Pit gained a costume based on his earlier Kid Icarus appearances as well as his trophy model in Melee, which also comes with a Fallen Angel variant.
- Shield Bash: His new up special is aptly called such, where he thrusts his Mirror Shield upwards. It's a powerful vertical finisher at high damages.
- Shout-Out: He has Roy's base-of-the-blade sweetspot system from Melee.
- Trick Arrow: It's possible to guide Pit's arrows, even to do loops.
Charizard
Armored Charizard
Luchador Charizard (REMIX)
Voiced by: Shin-ichiro Miki
AKA Lizardon in Japan/Japanese. In order to further develop the Pokémon Trainer's Pokémon (specifically, give them actual down-special moves), they were split to function as individual characters. Charizard is an aerial powerhouse that can punish foes on both land and sky.- Armored Dragons: Its alternate costume is the armored Charizard seen in the intro of Pokémon: Lucario and the Mystery of Mew.
- Battle Intro: Drops down onto the stage and roars.
- Continuity Nod: In REMIX, its armored costume render is in the same pose as its Super Smash Bros. Ultimate render.
- Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: Averted in that Charizard, like the Pokémon Trainer's other Pokémon, no longer has the elemental weakness mechanic from Brawl.
- Flying Brick: A super heavyweight that hits hard and excels at gliding and aerial combat.
- Flying Firepower: A Fire/Flying type who attacks with fire and, unlike in the official Smash games, it can fly to chase down opponents in and from the air.
- Lightning Bruiser: Charizard has several attacks that come out quick, and boasts overall good attack power. Its down special, Fly, allows it to quickly assault airborne opponents.
- Limit Break: In version 3.5, its new Final Smash is Fire Blast, which is essentially a modified version of the one it uses during Triple Finish; it sprays fire in a wide cone thrice, but leaves Charizard vulnerable above, behind, and below it.
- Masked Luchador: PMEX Remix gives it this outfit in the style of Pikachu Libre.
- Master of All: Fast, strong, durable, good range on its attacks, and has an excellent recovery and aerial capabilities. It keeps some of its weaknesses from the official Smash games such as susceptibility to combos and disjoints, but is now much more of a speedy flying tank rather than a Mighty Glacier with some Lightning Bruiser capabilities.
- Meteor Move: Up-throw is the Seismic Toss. Down-aerial is a meteor smash.
- Mon: The Flame Pokémon, and one of the fully-evolved starters of the Kanto region.
- Mythology Gag:
- Its up-throw is Seismic Toss, as portrayed in the anime. While Charizard was given the same throw in 3DS/Wii U and Ultimate, the animation in Project M and its derivatives is a bit more spectacular.
- One of its victory pose animations is Ash's Charizard's lazy pose, also from the anime.
- Our Dragons Are Different: Not Dragon-type, however, and it can't Mega Evolve here unlike in 3DS/Wii U. It's the only playable dragon in Project M unless one counts Yoshi, but PMEX Remix adds Ridley and Corrin (along with the Fire/Dragon-type Mega Charizard X as an L-load option), and out of the four it skews closest to the classic Western interpretation.
- Palette Swap:
- It gets more significant palette swaps than in Brawl. It receives alts based on its Shiny color, Aerodactyl, Golbat, Tyranitar, Salamance, and Aggron (first five for default, last one for armored).
- Project+ adds more recolors based on Dragonite, Naganadel, Krookodile, Flygon, Nidoking, Rayquaza, and Haxorus (first four for default, last three for armored). Its Z-secret costume turns it into Mega Charizard X, and its R-secret costume turns it into Mega Charizard Y.
- Playing with Fire: The most memorable Fire Pokémon, thanks to being the starter from the original generation.
- Pokémon Speak: Its roars vaguely resemble its Japanese name, Lizardon. They were left unchanged in the English dub.
- Shock and Awe: In some later mods like Project+ and PMEX Remix, Charizard's Flamethrower is replaced with Thunder Punch, which lets it slide forward on the ground or dive from the air while delivering an electrically-charged punch.
- Spin Attack: Fire Spin is its new up special, while Fly was remapped to its new down-special.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Charizard's Masked Luchador costume in REMIX is one to Pikachu Libre from Ultimate, being similar conceptually and aesthetically while Pikachu itself is instead given a costume based on Kyubey.
King Dedede
Shogun Dedede
Voiced by: Masahiro Sakurai
The portly king of Dream Land steps into the ring again, now packed with a few tweaks to make him a devastating fighter.
- Cool Mask: As an Easter Egg in game, quickly tapping the side taunt input for one frame will have him don the mask worn by his Masked Dedede persona. In versions of Project+ prior to 2.3.2, said persona served as his Z-secret costume.
- Double Jump: The number of midair jumps he can perform is reduced from four to three, nerfing his recovery and forcing him to be more cautious when using Super Dedede Jump.
- Evil Knockoff: Shadow Dedede appears in Project+ as his R-secret costume.
- Ground Pound: Super Dedede Jump has been buffed, gaining a hitbox on the rising portion of the attack, and canceling the move completely negates his momentum, giving it more versatility for recovering. It also received a nerf in the fact that it no longer has super armor on the rising portion.
- Mighty Glacier: He is big, heavy and hits hard, but is very slow compared to most of the cast.
- Nerf: Back in Brawl, Dedede could put his opponents in a Cycle of Hurting by grabbing them, performing a down throw, and grabbing them again for another down throw. In this mod, his down throw has altered knockback and sends opponents at a higher angle, removing its chaingrab potential and thus no longer shutting down certain fighters.
- Palette Swap:
- Among his new costume swaps in Project+ is a second green one with an obi patterned with Sparky sprites, a cyan-and-purple color based on concept designs for Parallel Dedede, and a red-and-black color with an obi featuring the eye shape of one of his possessors, Dark Matter.
- As of Project+ version 2.4, the Shogun Dedede costumes change the minions he tosses with Waddle Dee Toss; Waddle Dee is replaced with Key Dee, Waddle Doo with a composite of its Samurai Kirby appearance and King Doo, and Gordo with Blado.
- Red Shirt Army: The Waddle Dees and Waddle Doos can be used for mobility, walling enemy attacks, and generally being a nuisance, but die from basically anything. In other words, Royal Bodyshields.
- Retraux: His Z-secret costume in Project+ version 2.3.2 is based on his Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards appearance.
- Rocket-Powered Weapon: Jet Hammer applies a momentum boost on swinging based on its charging level.
- Samurai: He obtained a costume based on his appearance in the Samurai Kirby minigame in Kirby Super Star.
- Throw the Mook at Them: He can toss Waddle Dees and Doos in three different angles with different strengths, and grounded Dees and Doos can be picked up via wavedash, thus improving Waddle Dee Toss to be an even better spacing tool.
Lucario
Gi Lucario
Voiced by: Bill Rogers
Lucario's new fighting style is heavily inspired by several traditional fighting games like Street Fighter and Marvel vs. Capcom. His "Magic Series" (a.k.a. the On-Hit Cancel) system allows him to combo extremely quickly. Also, his aura system was revamped to give Lucario power as he lands hits; after he attacks enough, he gains a charge. Directly hitting the opponent grants the most Aura points. A smaller number of points is gained by hitting shielding opponentsnote He can expend a charge to upgrade one of his moves. He can hold up to two charges at once.
- Battle Aura: Its aura charge is now based on dealing damage, rather than having been hurt (the Brawl mechanic). It also gains "meter" for dealing damage to opponents, which can be used to boost the power of its specials at the cost of one meter. These are gone after getting a Fall.
- Energy Ball: Aura Sphere. It also has a super version, The Aura Bomb.
- Expy: Its fighting style draws inspiration from Ryu's. Version 3.5 gave Lucario a karate gi that loosely resembles Ryu's attire, despite it being based on the Black Belt class from its own series.
- Flash Step:
- What was called "Double Team" in Brawl (down special) is now a command dash that's used for cross-ups, combos, and approaches. In Brawl, it was a counter attack.
- Extreme Speed (up-special), which is now a damaging move.
- Kamehame Hadoken: Aura Sphere and Aura Bomb.note
- Ki Manipulation: Lucario attacks by channeling an energy called aura, which is basically the essence of every living creature.
- Limit Break: It charges its Super Meter by dealing 50% damage per aura charge. It can hold up to two charges at once. The charges allow it to use alternate versions of its specials that are either more powerful or are cancellable.
- Mechanically Unusual Fighter: It's more like a traditional fighting game character than its Brawl counterpart. It's to the point where it's the only character with a Magic Series.
- Meteor Move: Aerial Force Palm is a meteor smash. Aerial Force Blast (the super version of Force Palm) is a spike.
- Palette Swap: Of its alternate costumes from vanilla Brawl, only its white alt remained unaltered in the transition to Project M. It also received its Shiny color as a new alt.
- Power Glows: Lucario's hands glow with aura when it gains a Super Meter charge.
- Practical Taunt: Lucario's gains one-tenth of an Aura charge near the end of its up taunt. Much like other moves in its arsenal, this was inspired by Street Fighter, specifically Akuma's taunt.
- The Rival: Just like in Pokkén Tournament, PMEX Remix introduces Blaziken as a rival of sorts to Lucario (as seen in promotional screenshots), where it has a different and simpler gimmick.
- Shotoclone: Hadouken neutral special, Shoryuken up smash, Hurricane Kick neutral aerial, and a combo system that is actually inspired by those found in Capcom fighters.
- Shout-Out: Lucario's playstyle is very much like that of a traditional fighting game character's, since it's focused on attack cancels. It has Tastumaki, Shoruyken, and a Spirit Bomb as attacks. Guilty Gear was also cited as an influence. It also has a taunt based on Akuma's that grants a small amount of Aura charge. Project+ also gives Lucario's karate gi new recolors that loosely reference Dan, Ken, and Sean. Funnily enough, the popular PMEX Remix derivative mod actually adds Ryu, Ken and Terry Bogard, all of which retain their respective movesets and gimmicks from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
- Signature Move: Its magic series system, which allows attacks to cancel into each other in a certain order:
- Jab-> Tilt-> Smash-> Special.
- Aerial-> Special.
- Stealth Pun: It's a Fighting type Pokemon that plays like in a traditional fighter.
- Telepathy: How it talks.
- Took a Level in Badass: Its new combo-centric fighting style is much more brutal than the Comeback Mechanic-reliant one from Brawl.
- Wall Jump: It lost the ability to wall cling like in Brawl, thus leaving it with only this.
Ike
Hector's armor
Greil's outfit (P+)
Voiced by: Jason Adkins
- BFS: Ragnell is a Zweihander. Ike can swing it with a single hand.
- Calling Your Attacks: "Aether!" and "Great Aether!".
- Easter Egg: If the player presses the special button right as he goes through an opponent with a fully-charged Quick Draw, the attack is an extremely powerful One-Hit Kill. After the target is sent flying away, Ike does his down taunt and shouts "You're through!". This is very, very difficult to pull off, which is why it's not ever seen in the regular play.
- Expy: His alternate costume does double-duty for both Hector (who Ike himself is an Expy of) and for the Black Knight (aka General Zelgius) (as they both canonically use a similar fighting style). Ike's sword is even switched to the silver Alondite instead of Ragnell while using that costume.
- Flash Step: Quick Draw (side-special). It differs from its Brawl incarnation in that the attack component is optional; Ike will only swing his sword if the player is holding the attack button while the target is in range. It also differs in that it no longer puts Ike in the helpless state when used in mid-air, allowing it to be chained with Aether and letting Ike recover from falling diagonally, which was one of his greatest weaknesses in Brawl.
- Immune to Flinching: Aether (up-special) still has armor properties, though they're different from Brawl's.
- Lightning Bruiser: He is a fairly fast character in PM thanks to his improved recovery options, putting him more in line with how he usually turns out in his home game, rather than his vanilla Brawl incarnation, who was more of a Mighty Glacier.
- Meteor Move: Down-tilt, down-aerial, Eruption, and down taunt are meteor smashes.
- Mythology Gag: In 2.5, Ragnell has now blue flames when doing Eruption, referring at Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn burning with a blue flame and Ragnell glowing blue at one point in the games. Amusingly, Nintendo themselves would later add this change to Ike starting from Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS & Wii U.
- Palette Swap: Besides Hector's armor, Ike received his father Greil's outfit with recolors based on Titania, Shinon, and Zihark in Project+.
- Playing with Fire: Blue fire, like in Radiant Dawn and 3DS/Wii U, and unlike in vanilla Brawl.
- Wall Jump: He can wall jump out of Quick Draw (side-special).
R.O.B.
Mario Kart DS R.O.B.
Virtual Boy R.O.B.
Wii R.O.B.
Home series: R.O.B.
Debut: Robotic Operating Buddy (1985) (as a peripheral)
Debut: Robotic Operating Buddy (1985) (as a peripheral)
The metafictional savior of the Nintendo Entertainment System, and possibly video games in general. His new fighting style is based on combining momentum with attacks.
- Air-Dashing: His new aerial side special, Robo-Booster, can boost him horizontally up to three consecutive times. Using any aerial during each boost increases its damage.
- Battle Tops: R.O.B. can charge up and launch a top from Gyromite. It stays in place and damages any other player who touches it. R.O.B. can move over and pick it back up to throw it again.
- Easter Egg: R.O.B.'s console-based costumes contain a lot of these.
- Manipulating the camera to look into his eyes while he uses the Virtual Boy costume shows a screencap from the Virtual Boy release of Mario Tennis. Also, on the base of the headset is the Nintendo of America support hotline.
- When R.O.B. gets hit in his Wii alternate costumes, a different disc will pop out:
- For his default Wii costume, a Brawl disc will pop out.
- For his black Wii costume, a Wii Sports Resort disc will pop out.
- For his red Wii costume, a New Super Mario Bros. Wii disc will pop out.
- For his green Wii costume, a Super Mario Galaxy 2 disc will pop out.
- His Z-secret Nintendo GameCube costume in Project+ reveals a Melee disc under the cover when hit.
- His R-secret Nintendo 64 costume also in P+ has a copy of Smash 64 inserted.
- Eye Beams: Robo Beam takes a while to charge but is powerful and covers a great distance.
- Mighty Glacier: One of the heavyweight fighters.
- Palette Swap: Besides keeping his costumes from Brawl, R.O.B. has costumes based on his appearance in Mario Kart DS, the Virtual Boy, and the Wii. Project+ gives him recolors for his Mario Kart DS and Wii costumes.
- Spin Attack: Due to his aerial side special being changed to Robo-Booster, Arm Rotor can only be performed on the ground.
Toon Link
Outset Toon Link
Linebeck's outfit (P+ / REMIX)
Voiced by: Sachi Matsumoto
Toon Link gets a moveset revamp that mixes in elements from various Link incarnations over time.- Arrows on Fire: The arrows fired from Hero's Bow are based on Melee Young Link's Fire Arrows, complete with a hitbox that's left on the ground. In addition, it was upgraded to have a charge faster and a trajectory greater than Young Link's arrows.
- Battle Intro: Spawns from a bomb explosion like in Brawl, but it occurs in midair, and he falls screaming into the ground face-first, getting up afterward.
- Blow You Away: His up taunt's ending melody has a weak wind hitbox, which can gimp opponents' recoveries.
- Composite Character: Interestingly enough, Toon Link takes cues from multiple Smash titles, and then some:
- Smash 64 Link: Jumping slash forward smash attack note ; stabbing dash attack; and an aerial up special that's a powerful KO move, but with limited recovery.
- Melee Young Link: Neutral, up, and down aerial attacks; down smash physics; Fire Arrows; and Bombs with quick, multiple explosions.
- Brawl Toon Link: Forward and back aerial attacks.
- Other 3D Zelda titles: Grounded up special reminiscent of the Hurricane Spin from The Wind Waker, and down tilt reminiscent of the shield stab from Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask.
- Easter Egg: By quickly inputting up taunt, he can perform Tingle's dance. If the B button is pressed at the right time, he will put on the Hero's Charm.
- Glass Cannon: He has a more aggressive offense than Project M's Link, but his recovery is worse.
- Meteor Move: Down aerial has Young Link's fire hitbox, only this time it's a spike instead of a meteor smash.
- Palette Swap:
- He receives his casual clothing from his debut. Aesthetically, he wields the Hero's Sword, and his shield is changed to a wooden shield resembling Young Link's Deku Shield.
- In Project+, he gets Linebeck's outfit as another new costume. The Master Sword is changed to the Phantom Sword, and his shield is changed to its Phantom Hourglass design. His Z-secret costume is Conductor Link's outfitnote , and his R-secret costume replaces his trademark cap with Ezlonote .
- Spin Attack: Aptly called such. Toon Link's up special has retained its charge mechanic; given enough charge, it allows him to slide on the ground.
- Trademark Favorite Food: He loves his Grandma's Elixir Soup, which he drinks for his down taunt similar to Young Link's Lon Lon Milk taunt in Melee. It recovers 3% damage when uninterrupted. In Project+ version 2.3, his drinking taunt can alternate between Elixir Soup, a Red Potion, or milk, but the effect remains the same for all beverages.
Wolf
Star Fox 2 design (PM / P+)
Pilot Wolf (P+)
Voiced by: Jay Ward
The leader of Star Wolf, Wolf O'Donnell received various changes in his arsenal to challenge Fox and Falco in the Melee-inspired world of Project M.
- Absurdly Sharp Claws: Just like in his official Smash appearances, Wolf puts his claws to good use.
- Attack Reflector: His Reflector down special now can be used to slow down his air speed, can be canceled with a jump, and can start up combos, much like his fellow space animals' Reflectors. Unlike in Brawl, it no longer has intangibility.
- Backported Development: PMEX Remix gives him his Ultimate moveset as an L-load alt, and his costumes from that game also appear as a set of costumes here.
- Bayonet Ya: Averted as of Project+, which removes the bayonet hitbox on his Blaster.
- Easter Egg: If the player presses any taunt input when striking an opponent with a sweetspotted Wolf Flash, Wolf will howl.
- Energy Weapon: He can air-dodge out of his laser fire.
- Eyepatch of Power: His Brawl appearance (inspired by his Star Fox: Assault design) has a cybernetic eyepatch, but all his other costumes give him a more traditional eyepatch.
- Flash Step: Wolf Flash (side special). If Wolf hits with the end of the move, the opponent is struck hard, and he won't fall helplessly, thus allowing him to use another move to recover back to the stage.
- Glass Cannon: The changes to the game's physics engine and Wolf's attributes turn him into one of these like his fellow space animals, having a faster, more versatile moveset, a faster falling speed (in fact, the fastest falling speed of all fighters), and more options to combo and juggle opponents, at the cost of lower weight and poor defensive options.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: His Star Fox 2-inspired costume has a scar over his left eye that doesn't look like it went out cleanly.
- Hell-Bent for Leather: Especially with his Star Fox 2 design, which gives him a biker-styled vest.
- Palette Swap:
- Wolf's red, green, and white costumes from Brawl were edited to be more noticeable during gameplay, with the white one in particular having gold trim instead of red.
- He has an alt inspired by his appearance in Star Fox 2 with the eyepatch from Star Fox 64, complete with its own recolors.
- In Project+, he gets a pilot costume similar to Fox's, also with its own recolors; the design has the Assault head shape but with a traditional eyepatch like in 64. His Z-secret costume is a Melee-inspired design from another Brawl mod made to look and play more like Melee, Smash 2, itself based on his cameo in the Melee intro, and his R-secret costume is simply his Star Fox: Assault design unmodified.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: With the exception of his Assault design (which has a purple eye), all of his alts give his good eye a red pupil. The Star Fox 2 costume amplifies it by giving his eye yellow sclera.
- Rule of Three: He's the third Melee-style space-animal, made to play more like a Glass Cannon.
- Savage Wolves: His fighting style is more vicious compared to Fox's and Falco's.
- Spikes of Villainy: Falls on the antagonistic side, and some of his outfits have intimidating spikes.
Introduced in Demo 2.5
Zero Suit Samus
Justin Bailey Zero Suit Samus
Metroid Fusion design 1
Metroid Fusion design 2
Super Metroid design (P+)
Metroid: Zero Mission ending (P+ / REMIX)
Ultimate Zero Suit Samus (REMIX L-load)
Ultimate ZSS (REMIX L-load) - Sportswear
Ultimate ZSS (REMIX L-load) - Young Samus
Voiced by: Alésia Glidewell
The speedy, stealthy, and sexy Zero Suit Samus sneaks in and takes the rest of the Project M cast by surprise as she joins without her shiny alter ego. Without her power suit, Samus sports very high mobility, giving her a number of options in and out of any situation and an impressive combo-game.
- Art Evolution: Version 3.6 of PM updates her design to incorporate elements from 3DS/Wii U and Metroid: Other M, though the game was canned before it could be released officially. Many subsequent mods based on PM, such as Project+ and PMEX Remix, keep this design.
- Artificial Limbs: Her "JUSTIN BAILEY" outfit sports a mechanical right arm.
- Backported Development: Her L-load is her Super Smash Bros. Ultimate self, complete with backported model and Combat Stilettos.
- Combat Stilettos: Only for her Ultimate variant; her default variant wears flats.
- Mechanically Unusual Fighter: In REMIX she is the only fighter with an L-load moveset from Ultimate whose model and portrait change completely, rather than just having her moveset change while having her Ultimate costume as an alternate skin (like with Roy). Presumably, this is because the Jet Boots are too well-ingrained into her Ultimate moveset for her PM moveset to work with her Ultimate model and vice-versa, along with the fact that her revamped PM model and her Ultimate model are very similar aside from the shading, shoes, bracelets and Paralyzer.
- Palette Swap:
- One of her new costumes is based on her appearance should the password "JUSTIN BAILEY" be entered in the original Metroid, and two of them are inspired by her appearances in two of the endings of Metroid Fusion.
- Project+ implements her new design with her alternate costumes modified to match it. Additionally, two new costumes were added based on her appearances in the best endings of Super Metroid and Metroid: Zero Mission.
- In PMEX Remix, her cadet uniform from Other M (also her Z-secret alt in Project+) also appears as a new costume.
- Shed Armor, Gain Speed: Unlike in Brawl, she no longer spawns with discarded Power Suit pieces as items in her Battle Intro or from her transformation from Samus.
- Shout-Out: Her new Flipstool down-special is one to Cammy's Hooligan in Street Fighter. (As such, "Hooligan" is the PMDT's unofficial name for the move.)
- Transformation Sequence: She retains her old Final Smash, although it will only give her the Power Suit if the B button is held for the duration of the attack.
- Wall Jump: She can perform one to cancel the animation for her Flip Jump, improving her recovery.
Diddy Kong
Hooded Diddy (P+ / REMIX)
He's back again and about time too… and this time, he's in the mood! Diddy Kong cartwheels into Project M with more Donkey Kong Country flavor.
- Ash Face: Occurs briefly whenever Diddy Kong charges his Peanut Popgun attack for too long. The weapon explodes in Diddy Kong's face and startles him, rendering him immobile for some seconds.
- Bamboo Technology: A gun and a jetpack that somehow work despite being made of wood.
- Banana Peel: Produced with his down special. A thrown banana no longer trips an enemy, but instead sends them at a low angle, towards the ground, to cause a ground bounce.
- Cool Shades: As an Easter Egg in battle, pressing A when his hat lands on his head for his down taunt will summon sunglasses over his eyes. He also wears shades during his boombox victory pose.
- Edible Ammunition: His Peanut Popgun is the Trope Namer, thanks to Solid Snake.
- Glass Cannon: His speed has been greatly upgraded to make him both viable in Project M's fast environment and true to his Donkey Kong Country self, though his endurance is reduced due to his lowered weight, which combined with his higher falling speed and gravity, makes him more vulnerable to combos.
- Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Only a hat and a shirt (or a hoodie over these for his new costume) and that's it.
- In the Hood: Project+ gives him a new costume where he wears a hoodie.
- Jet Pack: Rocketbarrel Boost, his up special. His falling speed while charging has been greatly reduced, he can achieve desired angles much faster, and he now has a sideways movement feature that allows him to change angle mid-boost.
- Mythology Gag:
- Two of his victory animations are inspired by the Donkey Kong Country series:
- His sunglasses and boombox win pose are from Diddy's Kong Quest.
- The beginning of his Rocket Barrel win pose starts off identical to its Brawl animation, but then Diddy flips his hat in the air and winks like he does after he wins a bonus game or beats a boss in the first Donkey Kong Country.
- His up taunt has him juggling balls, which is another nod to his idle pose from DKC2.
- His revamped hoodie costumes in Project+ have logos based on some of his appearances in the Mario sports games.
- Two of his victory animations are inspired by the Donkey Kong Country series:
- Palette Swap: The only new alt he received in the transition from Brawl to Project M is an orange recolor that resembles Funky Kong from the Donkey Kong Country cartoon. Project+ gives him more alts, among which is a cyan alt that appeared in 3DS/Wii U and Ultimate. His Z-secret costume is his Mario Strikers Charged attire, and his R-secret costume is a Donkey Kong Jr.-inspired design.
- Rolling Attack: Like Donkey Kong, he now has the classic cartwheel dash attack that can roll off edges. While his version doesn't have light armor, landing an aerial hit allows him to do a quick follow-up attack.
- The Voiceless: He only makes chimpanzee noises, despite being greatly capable of speaking in other games.
- Wall Jump: Plus wall clings.
Ivysaur
Substitute Ivysaur (P+ / REMIX)
Voiced by: Craig Blair
AKA Fushigisou in Japan/Japanese. Ivysaur, now an independent fighter, is reintroduced with a very versatile and unique moveset with emphasis on dealing status effects, healing, and powerful finishing moves.
- Anti-Air: One of the applications of Seed Bomb, as it has an upward trajectory similar to Snake's up smash.
- Battle Intro: Unearths itself from the ground.
- Charged Attack: Solar Beam can be charged with Neutral B or by landing attacks that involve Ivysaur's bulb. The Final Smash grants three free uses of it.
- Continuity Nod: In REMIX, its Substitute doll alternate costume render is in the same pose as its Super Smash Bros. Ultimate render.
- Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: Averted in that Ivysaur, like the Pokémon Trainer's other Pokémon, no longer has the elemental weakness mechanic from Brawl.
- Female Monster Surprise: According to its official character profile, the Project M team considers this Ivysaur a female, in keeping with its voice Japanese version of Brawl. This leads to
Cross-Dressing Voices in the English dub. - Green Thumb: The evolution of Pokémon's very first Grass starter.
- Larynx Dissonance: Invoked; this Ivysaur is considered a female by the PMDT, but keeps its gruff male voice from Brawl where it was merely treated as Ambiguous Gender.
- Life Drain: As references to the Grass-type draining motif in the Pokémon games, its new grab-pummel and bulb moves heal Ivysaur while damaging the opponent.
- Limit Break: In version 3.5, its new Final Smash is Sunny Day, which fully heals Ivysaur of 66% damage and gets three full charges of Solar Beam.
- Living Toys: Project+ and PMEX Remix give it an alternate costume based on the Substitute doll, which has fuzzy felt-like properties, visible stitches, and other doll-like qualities one would expect to see.
- Meteor Move: Down-aerial spikes enemies downwards.
- Mon: The Seed Pokémon, and the evolved form and middle stage of Kanto's grass starter line.
- Palette Swap: It received more distinct alts than in Brawl, though unlike Squirtle and Charizard, it has no alts that reference anything outside of its green alt, which is based on its Shiny color. Project+ gives it two additional alts based on Bayleef and Tropius. Its Z-secret alt is a Vileplume-based design, and its R-secret alt is a desert-inspired design with a cactus replacing its flower bulb.
- Planimal: It's a vaguely reptilian Cartoon Creature whose bud is fully integrated as part of its anatomy.
- The Power of the Sun: Ivysaur's moveset now revolves around this, instead of simply contributing one sun-based move to its Trainer's Final Smash. Its neutral special move is Synthesis, which heals it as it collects solar energy, and when fully charged it can unleash said energy as a powerful Solar Beam. Its new Final Smash is Sunny Day, which heals it greatly and gives it three fully charged Solar Beams (to reflect how sunny weather removes Solar Beam's charge turn in the Pokémon games).
- Rocket Jump: Down-aerial, as a recovery option.
- Status Effects: As references to Ivysaur's design in the source material Pokémon games, they make up a great part of Ivysaur's design; Seed Bomb causes dizziness to grounded opponents, and bulb attacks attach Leech Seeds, which deal gradual damage.
- Vine Tentacles:
- The sweet-spotted Vine Whip has the Smash Bros. series' "powerful attack" sound effect.
- Jab-attack is a good spacing move, again using Vine Whip.
- Forward and Down Tilt also employ the vine whips. The latter can be followed with Forward or Back Aerial, which, again, use that appendage.
- Wave-Motion Gun: Solar Beam. It can charge by either hitting targets with bulb moves (up-smash, up-air, and down-air, up-throw) or by using Synthesis (the neutral-special when there currently isn't a charge) as an auto-charge.
Squirtle
Shinobi Squirtle
Voiced by: Michelle Knotz
AKA Zenigame in Japan/Japanese. The Tiny Turtle Pokémon is ready to slip and slide in high speed and deal Water-type attacks.
- Battle Intro: Arrives on stage with Withdraw.
- Bubble Gun: Its new down-special is Bubble, which could be used for gimping recovering opponents or tripping grounded opponents. It's one of three moves in Project Mnote that cause tripping.
- Continuity Nod: In REMIX, its Ninja alternate costume render is in the same pose as its Super Smash Bros. Ultimate render.
- Easter Egg: The "Squirtle Squad" sunglasses from Ash's Squirtle in the anime. Can be even equipped during the battle too! Do its up taunt and press the special button in time when it lands. Be careful though, they break once you get hit and they can't be equipped again until you lose a stock.
- Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: Averted in that Squirtle, like the Pokémon Trainer's other Pokémon, no longer has the elemental weakness mechanic from Brawl.
- Fragile Speedster: It's very fast, and lightweight. It has the same weight as Sonic.
- Immune to Flinching: Withdraw has armor that allows Squirtle to bypass flinching from weak attacks (specifically with projectiles in mind).
- Limit Break: In version 3.5, its new Final Smash, Hydro Cannon, produces two large columns to Squirtle's left and right to launch opponents upward with great strength.
- Making a Splash: Many of its attacks, such as the new up-special Aqua Jet, which could only be done out of a midair Withdraw (side-special).
- Ninja: It received a Shinobi ninja costume with its own recolors. Its Z-secret alt in Project+ is a different ninja outfit that makes it resemble one of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
- Palette Swap: Like Charizard and Ivysaur, it received more distinct palette swaps.
- In Project M, it got recolors based on Turtwig, Torkal (with Charmander's eyes), Lickitung, and a Shiny Blastoise. The only recolor that does not reference a Pokémon is its yellow alt, which is inspired by a Koopa Troopa instead.
- Project+ gives it more alts based on Carracosta, Turtonator, and Oshawott. Its new green alt does not reference a Pokémon, but rather the kappa from Japanese Mythology. Its R-secret alt gives it the blue scarf it wears from Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team.
- Shout-Out: PMEX REMIX gives it alternate costumes based on all four of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
- Wall Jump: It can also wall cling.
Introduced in Demo 2.6
Meta Knight
Dark Meta Knight
Morpho Knight skin
Galacta Knight skin (P+ / REMIX)
Samurai Meta Knight (P+)
Retro Meta Knight (REMIX)
Maskless Meta Knight (REMIX)
Voiced by: Eric Newsome
The masked swordsman known for being the most controversial fighter in the series now arrives to Project M with several nerfs to his kit, albeit not without a few buffs.
- Badass Boast: "Now, my power is without rival."note
- Cape Wings: He even provides the image for that page.
- Cool Airship: The Battleship Halberd is just awesome.
- Cool Mask: Which he never wishes to be seen without. Too bad one of his alts in PMEX Remix has him maskless.
- Dark Is Not Evil: The whole "dark knight" vibe he gives off is just to hide the fact he is an anti-hero who is about as cute as Kirby himself.
- Double Jump: His recovery has taken a hit with the number of midair jumps he can perform reduced from five to three.
- Evil Knockoff: Dark Meta Knight appears as one of his new costumes.
- Glass Cannon: Just like in Brawl proper, Meta Knight is fast and can rack up damage quickly, but his light weight makes it just as easy to dispatch him, especially when dealing with the revamped cast.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: His Dark Meta Knight semi-alt has a scar over the left side of his mask, and his samurai costume has one over the right side, which has seemingly taken out his right eye as well.
- Mythology Gag: One of his new costumes is a butterfly-like original concept art for the canceled GameCube Kirby game that came with Kirby's Dream Collection: Special Edition — which in turn would later become the basis for Morpho Knight in Kirby Star Allies.
- Nerf: Due to his notorious
Game-Breaker status in vanilla Brawl, many of his attributes and attacks have been knocked down several pegs. - Palette Swap: In Project+, his Morpho Knight costume received adjusted alternate colors, one of which resembling Morpho Knight EX and another resembling Phantom Meta Knight since version 2.3. His default appearance had a recolor resembling Parallel Meta Knight before it was relegated to one of his samurai costumes. The R-secret alt has also been changed to Galacta Knight.
- Purposely Overpowered: In PMEX Remix, his L-load variant is his dreaded Brawl incarnation, infamous for being the most overpowered character in Smash Bros. history - albeit with more competition this time with other Purposely Overpowered fighters like Wario-Man and the Mega-Evolved Pokémon hanging around.
- Retraux: His Z-secret costume in Project+ is based on his Kirby's Adventure sprite. It also appears in PMEX Remix as a set of his base costumes.
- Samurai: His R-secret costume in prior versions of Project+ is his appearance in the Samurai Kirby minigame in Kirby Super Star. It has been adapted to one of his base costumes in version 2.3.
- Sword Plant: Prior to version 3.5, his down aerial was a stall-and-fall sword plant that nods to the down thrust move the Sword ability has in his own games. It has since been reverted to the Brawl down aerial.
- Teleport Cloak: Dimensional Cape can be used with a strong hit (using the neutral attack) or a weak, immediate and fast hit (C-stick). This change also fixed the infinite cape glitch from Vanilla Brawl.
- This Is a Drill: Drill Rush was sped up but reduced in duration and flexibility, making it a higher-commitment move that's less effective for recovery.
- Tornado Move: While Mach Tornado can still be used for recovering, it has been significantly downgraded. It now has transcendent priority, making it lose to every hitbox in the game instead of nullifying certain moves.
Introduced in 3.0
Giga Bowser
While still available via Smash Ball, the ultimate enemy in Super Smash Bros. is available independently for the first time by holding the shield button when Bowser is chosen in the character select screen. He's gotten numerous upgrades and balances from when he was just a mere Final Smash, and has truly become a fearsome competitor, albeit not used in tournament play. Though he is technically playable in Melee by using the debug menu (accessible via a cheating device), he's placed in this section because Brawl was the first official Smash game to intentionally have him available to the players.
- Battle Intro: Roars while being Wreathed in Flames.
- Bigger Is Better: He may be severely shrunken down from his Brawl counterpart, but he's still noticeably larger than the already-huge Bowser.
- Breath Weapon: Like his base form, and it has a naturally bigger range.
- Casting a Shadow: His forward tilt, up tilt, and forward aerial all generate dark energy.
- Collision Damage: Able to damage foes while dashing or landing. This means that yes, he can damage opponents while wavedashing.
- Crippling Overspecialization: He may be a monster on even footing against one opponent, but he suffers in casual play from the fact that he's a huge target.
- Divergent Character Evolution: As of Project+, Bowser has a new running animation and the ability to shoot fireballs as his retooled neutral special, while Giga Bowser still retains his old Fire Breath and running animation.
- Easter Egg: The official site doesn't mention him or how to play as him at all.
- Ground Pound: His Bowser Bomb is upgraded to be a Shockwave Stomp.
- An Ice Person: Down smash has freezing properties.
- Immune to Flinching: Not to the extent of his completely unflinchable Brawl counterpart, but still present in a number of his attacks.
- Implacable Man: His greatest strength is the fact that he's extremely difficult to knock away for long.
- Lightning Bruiser: His speed is easy to underestimate, especially with an upgraded Whirling Fortress.
- Mechanically Unusual Fighter: On top of his grab immunity and being able to deal Collision Damage to his opponents, his shield can't break, instead shrinking to the smallest possible point, he couldn't swim or use items until version 3.6, and breaking a Smash Ball just replays his transforming animation. Also unique to him is that he can never be knocked down onto the floor like other fighters and will instead land on his feet, though he can still tech like everyone else.
- Nerf: While still incredibly powerful, the lack of infinite super armor means he can now flinch since he can be played independently of Bowser transforming into him.
- One-Winged Angel: His original appearances had him burst out of Bowser's trophy, and he's definitely a more powerful, more psychotic version of his source.
- Palette Swap: He shares his regular counterpart's costumes, including a costume for Dry Bowser, Dry Giga Bowser.
- Promoted to Playable: First a True Final Boss, then a Limit Break, now an independent fighter.
- Purposely Overpowered: While a playable character on his own, he still has the properties of Bowser's Final Smash and is completely unbalanced as a result.
- Shock and Awe: Neutral aerial, back aerial, down aerial, up smash, and up throw have electric hitboxes.
- Shockwave Stomp: How his Ground Pound was upgraded.
- Slasher Smile: His most distinguishing feature.
- Spin Attack: His Whirling Fortress and his down smash are some of the most effective tools in his arsenal.
- Stuff Blowing Up: Forward smash and the forward throw of Koopa Klaw create massive explosions.
- Sturdy and Steady Turtles: Bigger, stronger, and heavier than his normal counterpart, sporting armor on more of his attacks.
- Super Mode: He is usually a Final Smash.
Olimar
Pikmar (P+)
Mushroom Pikmar (P+ / REMIX)
Deep Space Olimar (P+)
Pikmin voiced by: Kazumi Totaka
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: The light on his antenna reflects the color of the next Pikmin in line.
- Damage Over Time: Flowered White Pikmin leave damaging flowers on opponents' heads for all their attacks.
- Immune to Flinching: He had this in Brawl while performing Pikmin Order, but not here, greatly hindering his defensive game.
- Jet Pack: His lackluster recovery move from Brawl is replaced with a far more reliable one where he uses an Ionium Jet to blast upwards.
- Magikarp Power: Pikmins' strength is now tied to the flowers on their heads. If it's blooming, they will do more damage and survive more attacks.
- Mushroom Man: Project+ gives him a variant of his Pikmar costume that makes him resemble a Mushroom Pikmin, as if he got afflicted by a Puffstool's spore cloud.
- Nerf: The changes Olimar got in the transition from Brawl to Project M hurt him hard. The most debilitating change was the reduction of Pikmin he can have out at one time, from six to four. With the introduction to the physics in Melee indirectly buffing nearly everyone else, Olimar suffers more than every other fighter from them.
- Palette Swap:
- He has a clearer blue alt, his black costume has darker skin instead of a darker helmet, he has a new purple alt, and his Louie-inspired costume now has blonde hair to further the resemblance.
- Project+ gives him a new costume that resembles a real-world astronaut's outfit, called Deep Space Olimar. His secret costumes turn him into two other Pikmin characters, the President as his Z-secret costume, and Louie as his R-secret costume.
- Plant Person: His Pikmar costume inspired by the bad ending of the first Pikmin game appears in Project+ as a new alt.
- Suicide Attack: White Pikmin now die after being thrown, exploding in a poisonous mist that damages the opponent once the attack ends.
Introduced in 3.6 Open Beta
Wario-Man
Voiced by: Charles Martinet
While still available via Smash Ball, Wario's superhero persona from the WarioWare franchise is available independently for the first time by holding the shield button when Wario is chosen in the character select screen.
- Battle Intro: Wario spins and transforms into Wario-Man in a flash of light.
- Double Jump: Gains two midair jumps.
- Easter Egg: The official site doesn't mention him or how to play as him at all. In fact, in the 3.6 Changelist, they only said that they had "Wario Man reworked for a more enjoyable experience :-)".
- Fan Disservice: Wario-Man has a set of shirtless costumes that correspond to regular Wario's tycoon outfits in Project+. His fat and flabby pecs are on display, for better or worse.
- Fartillery: More of his attacks use his flatuence than his normal counterpart's.
- Hammered into the Ground: His Earthshake Punch can bury opponents.
- An Ice Person: The innermost hitbox of his up smash can freeze opponents.
- Lightning Bruiser: Wario is already fast, heavy, and strong, but as Wario-Man, his strengths become more improved.
- Nerf: Like how Giga Bowser no longer has infinite super armor, Wario-Man has to sacrifice his invincibility in order to be on even footing with the other fighters, though his moveset and attributes have been improved to compensate.
- Not Quite Flight: Neutral and up aerials can give him limited height when spammed.
- Our Vampires Are Different: His R-secret costume in Project+ is the Vampire Wario form from Wario Land 3 and Dr. Mario 64. It returns in PMEX Remix as a set of base costumes that correspond to Wario's overalls outfits. As it's simply a skin, the typical vampire weaknesses don't apply here.
- Practical Taunt:
- His up taunt has him temporarily increase in size while taking longer to fix his jaw, but if it goes uninterrupted, all grounded opponents will be stunned and sent flying with light upwards knockback.
- His side taunt pushes opponents away with his flatuence. If an opponent is close to him, the startup of the taunt becomes a devastating attack akin to Jigglypuff's Rest, though its timing is tricky to pull off.
- Promoted to Playable: First a Final Smash, now an independent fighter.
- Purple Is Powerful: All fart animations emit purple gas.
- Purposely Overpowered: Considering he's still Wario's Final Smash.
- Slide Attack: His grounded Shoulder Tackle can be canceled with a crouch, sliding himself forward with a fart. It deals minimal damage and knockback.
- Super Mode: He's usually a Final Smash…
- Use Your Head: When his Shoulder Tackle is used in the air, he flies headfirst similar to Luigi's Green Missile. It additionally has a chance to misfire, rocketing himself via farts and dealing more damage and knockback.
- Wearing a Flag on Your Head: His white palette swap references the colors of the Italian flag.
