Super Smash Bros. 4 - 56 to 59 / Characters

This page lists the fighters introduced after E3 2014 for Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, including Lucina, who would later be remarketed as an Echo Fighter in the next installment.

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21ε – Lucina

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lucinassbu.png

Warrior from a Doomed Future /
Defiant of Destiny

^{3DS/Wii U}

Voiced by: Yuu Kobayashi (Japanese), Laura Bailey (English)

LUCINA WAKES HER BLADE?!

Home Series: Fire Emblem

Debut: Fire Emblem: Awakening [3DS], 2012

Creator: Intelligent Systems

Publisher: Nintendo

Playable in: 3DS/Wii U, Ultimate

"The future is not written!"

One of the main characters of Fire Emblem Awakening, Lucina comes from the continent of Ylisse and is a very distant descendant of the Hero-King Marth. This young lady is quite the accomplished swordswoman, even holding her own against Captain Falcon in her reveal trailer. She wields a reforged version of the Falchion, named the Parallel Falchion.

In a Bad Future, the Fell Dragon Grima laid waste to the entire world with his colossal power and armies of Risen zombies. The Halidom of Ylisse in particular was in shambles, its rulers and best soldiers counted among the dead. Lucina, surviving princess of the kingdom, made it her mission to stop the Fell Dragon and save the world. However, with the majority of the kingdom's army dead and the loss of the gemstones that complete the sacred Fire Emblem, which was the key to defeating Grima, she could only hold back the devastation for so long. With no other option left, and with the blessing of the Divine Dragon Naga, she and several of her comrades traveled back into the past to stop this future from ever happening. In doing so, she took up the name of the Hero-King, both to conceal her identity and to raise morale amongst her friends.

In gameplay, Lucina is a Moveset Clone of Marth, fittingly enough. She shares his moves and animations but lacks the sweetspot on the tip of her sword (as well as the sour spot). As such, the damage her sword does is regulated and higher than Marth's without tippers, but Marth still does more damage when landing hits with the tip. This gives her better power at close range, but overall less potential than a Marth player who is skilled enough to consistently land tipper hits. Despite this, Lucina has become a preferred option for those who don't wish to bother with sweet or sour spots, giving her somewhat of an edge over her ancestor.

Special Moves^{Click to show}

See Fire Emblem Awakening: The Lords for more information on the character in her origin series.

Adaptation Personality Change: Downplayed, Lucina is significantly sassier than in canon in her taunts and victory quotes, particularly against Marth and Ike, but supplementary material shows that this isn't the norm for her in Smash.
Ancestral Weapon: Her Parallel Falchion is the same Falchion as Marth's, but reforged over thousands of years.
Armor-Piercing Attack: Shield Breaker, same as Marth. It busts the shield of anyone who tries to block it, leaving them stunned and wide open.
Art Shift: The introduction to her reveal looks like it came right out of her own game. Justified, as it was made by the same animators that made Awakening's cutscenes.
Attack! Attack! Attack!: The defining example in Ultimate. Her only real calling card is her ability to get in someone's face and suffocate them with nonstop pressure, but she's so damn good at it that it doesn't matter.
Badass Adorable: She's very strong-willed and skilled with a sword, but is also a young girl around Link's age who's affectionate and devoted towards her father. While not shown in the game due to a lack of story, she's socially clueless, acts childish at times, and takes things way too seriously, something that Viridi lies about sarcastically in the respective Palutena's Guidance conversation. Her voiceovers during Robin's portion of their reveal trailer make her sound like she's fangirling over Robin, almost to the point of Squee!
Badass Cape: As per the standard of Fire Emblem Lord characters, she wears a cape. In this game, it bears the Brand of the Exalt insignia.
Badass in Distress: She and her father got curbstomped by Captain Falcon, she couldn't land a solid blow on him and was about to eat a Falcon Punch when Robin intervenes.
Battle Intro: Warps in using warp magic, removes her mask, and unsheathes her sword.
Beware the Nice Ones: Lucina is a generally kind and sweet person in canon, but aside from being a skilled fighter, she acts somewhat harshly to her opponents in Smash (specifically in the English dub). While sometimes cited as an Adaptation Personality Change, her reveal trailer and Canon Welding with Fire Emblem Fates show that Smashverse!Lucina can still be as calm and friendly as her canon counterpart.
Birthmark of Destiny: A birthmark known as the Brand of the Exalt (also known as the Mark of Naga) appears on the body of almost every member of the royal family of Ylisse, as a symbol of the blood pact between their ancestor, the First Exlalt and the Divine Dragon Naga. In Lucina's case, her Brand is located on her left eye, overlapping and encircling the iris. This shows she and Chrom aren't exactly fully human.
Boring, but Practical: She doesn't have the highly damaging, explosively powerful sweetspots that Marth has, but as a result she has no sourspots, making her a more consistent character with a lot of safe moves. Attacks such as her forward smash and back air are always reliable kill moves.
Breakout Character: While Lucina is a very popular character in Fire Emblem, she was included in Smash as a low-priority Moveset Clone. However, while both Lucina and her more unique/higher-priority companion Robin got a lot of exposure from Smash, she went to overshadow Robin in becoming a major icon of Fire Emblem as a whole, receiving more merchandise and promotion than Robin as well as other franchise characters in Smash such as Ike and Roy. She even overshadowed Chrom, her future father, thanks to his exclusion in [1].
Canon Welding: This specific incarnation of Lucina is playable in Fire Emblem Fates by summoning her via her amiibo, just like how the Smash Bros. universe itself allegedly works.
Charged Attack: Shield Breaker. A fully charged one is guaranteed to shatter shields and is Lucina's most powerful non-Final Smash attack.
Cool Mask: She has a butterfly-shaped mask, and has a taunt which makes her put the mask on and take it off at the end. Kirby also dons the mask when he copies her ability.
Cool Sword: Wields the Parallel Falchion, which is the same sword as Marth's Falchion after being re-forged across the ages.
Counter-Attack: Just as Marth does.
Daddy's Girl: She's a Hero-Worshipper towards her father Chrom, having nothing but respect and love towards him. Her reveal trailer starts with her getting supremely angry with Captain Falcon for taking Chrom down.
Damn You, Muscle Memory!: Shield Breaker punishes this the same way Marth does, wrecking any players whose first instinct is to shield against charged attacks.
Dead Person Impersonation: She models herself after the legendary hero-king Marth who's long dead by her time; similar outfit and all. Granted, it doesn't do much good here, considering the real deal is also wandering around.
Distaff Counterpart: She uses a variation of Marth's moveset, making her a counterpart to him. The power of her sword being balanced throughout the whole blade is in contrast to his own, where the power is concentrated at the tip.
Divergent Character Evolution: Lucina was originally planned to be an alternate costume for Marth, sharing all of his gameplay elements. Later in development, she was given different properties than Marth, such as a shorter stature and a blade without a sweet spot, and thus she was given her own place in the roster as a Moveset Clone. Their eventual playstyles also became markedly different; while both are aggressive rushdown characters, Marth is reliant on careful spacing and baiting, while Lucina is all about ceaseless, never-ending aggression that doesn't give her opponent time to even breathe.
Dub Personality Change: The English dub re-interpreted Lucina's fairly polite and gentle Japanese quotes to sound more aggressive, condescending and stereotypically "badass".
Exotic Eye Designs: It's very subtle, but her left eye has the mark of Naga, which appears somewhere on the body of all Ylissean royalty.
Family Honor: In her reveal trailer, she is fighting Captain Falcon to avenge Chrom's defeat. Female Robin takes a jab at this if she beats her.
"For my father!"
Heroic Lineage: The First Exalt is her Famous Ancestor by about 1000 years and Marth is her distant ancestor by 2000 years.
Home Stage:
- 3DS/Wii U: All stages from her series.^note
- Ultimate: Coliseum in Ultimate's website, her World of Light and normal unlock fights though both take place in Arena Ferox.
Innocent Blue Eyes: Her big blue eyes highlight her heroism and naiveté. One of them has the Brand of the Exalt in it.
Irony: Lucina's alternate costumes all give her different hair colours to match the various female characters from Awakening. This is reminiscent of how the child characters in that game had hair colours determined by their non-fixed parent; however, only one of Lucina's hair colours is based on a woman that Chrom could marry (Sumia), and Lucina was actually the only child to have a fixed hair color herself.
Jack of All Stats: Lucina having balanced power throughout her blade gives her decent but not extraordinary attack power, as opposed to Marth being a Lightning Bruiser if he consistently hits with the tip of his sword but fairly weak if he doesn't. This leaves her with fairly balanced stats overall and excellent mobility. In Ultimate, this makes her one of the most capable swordfighters in the game, especially since the game's engine makes Marth's precise spacing much more difficult.
Kicking Ass in All Her Finery: Lucina fights while wearing her tiara and fancy outfit.
The Knights Who Say "Squee!": In her and Robin's reveal trailer, she sounds elated watching Robin in battle during his gameplay clips. She also acts this way towards Marth in the same trailer, but not in the English dub of the game itself.
Late-Arrival Spoiler: Smash is pretty blasé about revealing that Lucina is Chrom's future daughter, when in Awakening her true identity is a moderately important plot twist.
Leitmotif: Shares Fire Emblem (Melee) and Id (Purpose) with Robin in 4. Gets Destiny in Ultimate.
Limit Break: Critical Hit, same as Marth's.
Master of None: Prior to her Balance Buffs in 3DS/Wii U. Originally pitched as an 'easier to use' version of Marth as she lacked both his sweet tip and sour base mechanic. As of Roy's inclusion as DLC with his sour tip and sweet hilt, she's now a medium between the two, average all around, especially since she benefits most from using Marth's exact playstyle (with which Marth benefits from tippers). The few outright advantages that Lucina has are a few moves that are stronger than Marth's along with her attacks being safer on shield than both his and Roy's sourspotted attacks, which actually allow her to perform a bit better than Marth in some matchups.
Moveset Clone: Lucina's moveset is a carbon copy of Marth's, though she lacks the sweetspot/sourspot mechanic on her hitboxes. This makes her more consistent with her damage output and makes her a slightly easier to use character while also being slightly less powerful.
Mythology Gag:
- Her being a clone of Marth is appropriate given she masqueraded as him for the first part of her debut game, in addition to sharing his DNA and wielding his sword. Also in Awakening, the "real" Marth^note is a model re-use of Lucina's disguise without the mask.
- Her 3DS/Wii U official art shares the same pose as Awakening's official art of "Marth".◊ She also strikes this pose for her Counter, one of her taunts, and one of her victory animations.
- When her Counter is successfully activated, she'll sometimes say "You're mine!" or "My turn!". She could also say these lines when initiating a Dual Strike in Awakening.
- Just like in Awakening's cutscenes, she has the Brand of the Exalt in her left eye. It's rather easy to miss, and the only way to get a proper view of it is to zoom in on her face when she's under the effects of a Super Mushroom, or to use the camera's super zoom feature in Ultimate.
Noodle People: Lucina's design is a bit different from the other Fire Emblem characters, with skinny, lanky limbs and small feet (Robin doesn't show these traits because their clothes are baggier and thicker than Lucina's). Along with Joker, she's the skinniest human among the playable cast.
Open Secret: Despite being a unlockable character, she was revealed well before 3DS/Wii U were released. In fact, before Ultimate, she was the only unlockable first-party character to ever be revealed before release.
Palette Swap: Hers reference some of the other female characters from Awakening, specifically Nowi, Cherche, Cordelia, Tiki, Lissa, Tharja, and Sumia — and like Robin, she has a different hair colour for each palette swap. It goes so far as to even change the design on her cape: her normal, Sumia, Lissa, Cordelia, and Nowi palette has the Mark of Naga, the Tharja one has three vertical eyeballs a lá Grima, and the Tiki one has two drawings of Naga.
Perpetual Frowner: She doesn't smile at all on the battlefield, always keeping a serious, composed visage when idle. Those who have played Awakening will full stop understand why. That said, she briefly loses her frown if she misses a grab in Ultimate.
Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: She says the following line upon activating her Final Smash.
"Time to change fate!"
Screw Destiny: A big theme of her home game is the fight against destiny, which she brings up in some of her quotes.
"The future is not written!"
Secret Character: If one doesn't count the playable Pokémon characters in 3DS/Wii U and prior Smash games, she's the first female unlockable fighter in Smash Bros. If one counts 'model swap' characters, she shares this distinction with Wendy O. Koopa.
- For 3DS: Beat Classic Mode as Marth with no continues, or play 40 matches in Smash.
- For Wii U: Beat Classic Mode on 5.5 Intensity, or play 30 matches in Smash.
- For Ultimate: Have a Cumulative Wait Time of 3 hours and 40 minutes, beat Classic Mode with Yoshi or anyone in his unlock tree five times, or find and defeat her in World of Light.
Skill Gate Characters: She's this in comparison to Marth. Like most incarnations of Link and Kirby, Lucina is well-adjusted to casual play; she has good mobility, her lack of a sword sourspot allows the player to throw around her fairly quick attacks as they like, and her special attacks (particularly Counter) can be devastating. However, at higher levels, foes can take advantage of Lucina's lack of range and the lag on her attacks, which drives her towards an extremely aggressive rushdown gameplay style that simply doesn't allow them any time to exploit this.
Statuesque Stunner: Of the Your Size May Vary variety. Lucina was quite short in her game of origin, but here she's the same height as Marth and is taller than many other female fighters (including characters one would think would be taller than her, like Palutena and Zero Suit Samus).
Sword and Sorcerer: The Sword to Male Robin's Sorcerer in their trailer. Also doubles as an inverted Guys Smash, Girls Shoot as well.
Sword Drag: Does one while charging Captain Falcon head on in her trailer.
Walking Spoiler: Considering that this is her after being unmasked as "Marth", her identity is not so secret for players who know Lucina in Smash first before playing Fire Emblem: Awakening.
Warrior Princess: Being one of the princesses of Ylisse, she's one of many princesses to grace the Smash battlefield. She's also the only one besides Sheik to wear masculine clothing and take up a more masculine fighting style.
The Worf Effect: Inverted — her trailer starts with her getting her butt kicked by Captain Falcon.

56 – Robin (Reflet)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/robinssbu.png

The Tactician Magician /
Tome-totting Strategist

^{Female Robin}

^{3DS/Wii U (both genders)}

Male Robin voiced by: Yoshimasa Hosoya (Japanese), David Vincent (English)

Female Robin voiced by: Miyuki Sawashiro (Japanese), Lauren Landa (English)

ROBIN BRINGS THE THUNDER!

Home Series: Fire Emblem

Debut: Fire Emblem: Awakening [3DS], 2012

Creator: Intelligent Systems

Publisher: Nintendo

Playable in: 3DS/Wii U, Ultimate

Specials: Thunder (can charge to Elthunder, Arcthunder, and Thoron), Arcfire, El wind, Nosferatu

Final Smash: Pair Up

"Time to tip the scales!"

The Avatar of Fire Emblem Awakening, Robin woke up in a field one day with no recollection of their life other than their name. After proving their tactical and physical capabilities, Chrom recruited them to their current position as Ylissean Tactician A customizable character in their game of origin, here in Smash Bros. Robin uses the default name and male design, along with the default female design as an alternate costume.

In battle, Robin uses swords and magic tomes in tandem for both long range and close up attacks, making them distinct from the swordsmen that came before them. Robin uses the Levin Sword, a blade that utilizes their magic power for powerful attacks, as well as tomes that utilize a decent variety of spells. However, both the Levin Sword and the tomes also come with a durability mechanic, and if one of them breaks, it's out of the fight until a new one is conjured up. While overusing these attacks can leave Robin open for punishment, they're far from short of ways to tip the scales in their favor.

See Robin's page for more information on the character in their origin series.

Air-Aided Acrobatics: Robin's recovery move Elwind uses the gust of the two Razor Winds fired from below to propel themselves even higher.
Alternate Self: Just like the other characters with alternate genders. Notably, Robin is the only character in the game with both male and female incarnations standing together in their official render for 3DS/Wii U.
Apologetic Attacker: If male Robin wins against Lucina, he'll say he hopes he didn't hurt her. Female Robin on the other hand will scold Lucina for losing to her.
Archaic Weapon for an Advanced Age: Robin brings a Bronze Sword to battle despite it being obsolete even by Fire Emblem standards.
Art Shift: Their reveal trailer is made with the graphical style of Fire Emblem Awakening, having been animated by anima, the studio that created Awakening's cutscenes.
The Artifact: In Ultimate, Chrom remains present in Robin's Final Smash despite Chrom himself attaining Promoted to Playable status as a Moveset Clone.
Assist Character: Chrom in their Final Smash.
Back Stab: Nosferatu drains more health from the opponent if they are struck from behind.
Back-to-Back Badasses: With Chrom in one of Robin's victory poses.
Badass Adorable: Both genders. Robin is fairly young and quite short in this game, the male version is unusually mellow and gentle, and the female version has twintails and a lovable spunky personality.
Badass Bookworm: They're the tactician of the Shepherds, and they use tomes along with melee.
Badass Longcoat: Wears a dark coat with a hood.
Bash Brothers: Male Robin with Chrom in his Final Smash.
Battle Intro: Warps in using warp magic.
Big Damn Heroes: The reveal trailer has male Robin show up just in time to stop Captain Falcon from Falcon Punching Lucina.
Black Mage: All of Robin's spells are offensive magic.
Black Magic: Nosferatu and Goetia, dark-elemental magic which slowly drains or zaps an opponent's life force as they struggle to escape.
Blow You Away: Elwind, their Up Special and recovery move, along with their jab attack.
Book Snap: Male Robin does this in his intro trailer right after driving Captain Falcon back from attacking Lucina with a Wind Tome. It's also part of their idle animations.
Breakable Weapons: Much like the Fire Emblem games, each of Robin's tomes have a limited number of uses before they become unusable. The same goes for the Levin Sword, but its place is taken by a Bronze Sword once it's gone. Unlike Fire Emblem, though, the weapons will eventually recharge on their own instead of being permanently broken. Also unlike Fire Emblem, the Bronze Sword is unbreakable. For your convenience, the tomes and sword will flicker darkly when near their breaking point. Ultimate, thankfully, adds a meter on their usage before it breaks.
Calling Your Attacks: Unlike in Fire Emblem, Robin calls out the names of the tomes when using them.
The Cameo: Chrom, the main Lord from Awakening and Robin's best friend (and possible husband if female), appears during the Final Smash to attack in tandem with them, and also appears in one of Robin's victory poses.◊
Canon Name: They, obviously, go by the name Robin. This is their default name in Awakening and also their name in most spinoffs and ancillaries. Notably they get to use this name in Smash instead of something like "The Avatar" unlike other characters like Pokémon Trainer, Joker, and Hero. They share this trait with Corrin, Byleth, and to some extent Link.
Canon Welding: This specific incarnation of Robin (specifically the male version) is playable in Fire Emblem Fates by summoning him via his amiibo, just like how the Smash Bros. universe itself allegedly works.
Casting a Shadow: Nosferatu, their Down Special. And also Goetia, one of its customs.
Chain Lightning: Arcthunder, when detonated, will form a X-shaped electrical chain around its target. Any other nearby fighters caught in the chain will be electrocuted as well.
Character Exaggeration: Like Lucina, female Robin's behavior is quite a bit harsher than in canon; if she wins against Lucina, she will deliver a harsh scolding to Lucina, who is very devoted to protecting Chrom, in stark contrast to male Robin's more apologetic one. This is even further out of character if she's interpreted as Lucina's parent, since it goes against her doting mother character. This entire behavior seems to stem from female Robin's support conversations with Chrom in Awakening, where she acted more violent, snarky, and cocky than usual (but was quick to apologize afterwards).
Charged Attack: When using their neutral special, it begins charging, which allows the Thunder spell to become more powerful (Thunder, Elthunder, Arcthunder, and Thoron), and pressing the button again releases the charge. Guarding during the charge mode cancels it and lets them keep the current charge.
Choice of Two Weapons: Robin uses swords together with magic tomes.
Cipher Scything: Originally, Awakening's Avatars could be deeply customized. In Smash, the name, default male character appearance, and voice is used as Robin's default appearance, with the default female design being selectable through Palette Swaps.
Color-Coded Elements: The tome that Robin holds in their left hand will always be the color of the last spell cast: yellow for Thunder spells, red for Fire spells, green for Wind spells, and purple for Nosferatu and Goetia.
Combination Attack: With Chrom during their Final Smash.
Cool Down: If used too much, the tomes will run out and the Levin Sword will break. Both will regenerate after a set amount of time.
Cool Sword: The Levin Sword, a lightning-shaped blade with electrical properties.
Curse: Nosferatu is described in the game as a dark curse that steals the life force of enemies.
Cutscene Power to the Max: In their debut trailer, male Robin is able to fight on equal footing against Captain Falcon, who had just taken Chrom out earlier and had Lucina on the ropes. He also floats in the air for a few seconds after firing Elwind at Captain Falcon, which is something that neither Robin is capable of doing in regular gameplay.
Dark Is Not Evil: They wear a dark purple hooded longcoat and have dark spells in their arsenal, but they're heroic despite that.
Death from Above: The Elwind spell, which drops two green wind slashes from above while propelling Robin up in the air. It can even meteor smash!
Difficult, but Awesome: Robin's difficulty comes from sheer complexity. The Breakable Weapons are a big factor here: the Levin Sword breaks after a number of smash attacks, leaving Robin with weaker smash attacks until it recharges. Overuse of the magic tomes will also destroy them, robbing Robin of specials (including recovery) until they recharge. Learning to juggle all these things in Smash's chaotic combat system will take time and finesse, but the payoff is a diverse moveset geared for any situation.
Dub Name Change: Known as Reflet in Japan, and Daraen in most other Latin languages.
Dynamic Entry: Robin's debut trailer has the male one interrupting Captain Falcon's infamous Falcon Punch by dropping two Elwind slashes on him while hovering in the air.
Elemental Powers: The tomes allow them to invoke several elemental magic attacks.
Elemental Weapon: Robin's Levin Sword is a lightning elemental sword.
Energy Ball: Both Elthunder and Arcthunder have now been changed to this, where they used to be just bolts of lightning striking from the sky.
Fireballs: Arcfire was changed from being a Fire-Breathing Weapon spell in Awakening to a large ball of fire cast at a forty-five degree angle that leaves a pillar of fire behind. It rather resembles the Elfire spell from the GBA Fire Emblem games.
Full-Contact Magic: Their jab combo has them attack with magic up-close to the opponent, using it to complement their sword strikes.
Gender-Blender Name: Fitting for a character with a gender selection and a name rather than a title.
Girlish Pigtails: Female Robin has her hair styled in fairly subtle twintails, which emphasize her cuteness and femininity but are also understated enough to make her look mature.
Guys Smash, Girls Shoot:
- Inverted in their reveal trailer, which showcases male Robin's magic-focused style and Lucina's swordplay.
- Played straight between Female Robin and Chrom in their Final Smash, where Chrom uses his Falchion while Robin blasts the enemies with her magic.
Hand Blast: Robin's Elwind and lightning spells are fired from their hands this way. Thoron in particular is the most blast-like of them all.
Hoist by His Own Petard: Whenever Robin discards a tome or the Levin Sword, anyone can catch the item before it disappears and use it as a throwing weapon.
Home Stage:
- 3DS/Wii U: All stages from their series.^note
- Ultimate: Arena Ferox in Ultimate's website, her World of Light and normal unlock fights though both take place in Castle Siege.
Hyperspace Arsenal: In Fire Emblem Awakening, all characters may only carry up to five items into battle. However, Robin brings to Smash well over five different tomes at a time, and their Levin and Bronze Swords.
Idle Animation:
- They close the current tome they have on their hand, then open it back up and glances at it.
- They slowly swing their sword in a circular motion.
In the Hood: In their reveal trailer, male Robin shows up to help Lucina fight while wearing his signature hooded longcoat with the hood pulled over his eyes.
Irony:
- One of male Robin's costumes is a Final Fantasy-style White Mage robe. That red-and-white garb on a purely offensive spellcaster is just so plain wrong it's funny.
- In Smash, the Levin Sword was changed from an Ornamental Weapon used to cast lightning magic to an actual sword used for physical attacks. This is the opposite of the treatment that fellow sorcerer Ganondorf's sword got apart from one of his custom specials.
Kaleidoscope Hair: Robin's alternate colors change their hair to match the outfit, leading to blue, green, bright red, and pink hair. The exceptions are their default colors and male Robin's white color (where his hair is black instead). This is just like how Robin's hair color can be changed in Awakening, although their Tactician outfit was always black unlike here.
Kamehame Hadoken: Robin's Arcfire, Elwind, and lightning spells are fired as magical projectiles. The latter can be charged for more power all the way up to Thoron, which is a wave motion beam capable of hitting multiple targets.
Lady of Black Magic: Female Robin. She has a composed and quiet demeanor in battle, and can use elemental tomes or the magic-infused Levin Sword.
Law of Inverse Recoil: Thoron can be fired without breaking a sweat, but Elwind turns this on its head, as the recoil of the attack is used to launch the user up in the air.
Lethal Joke Item: Robin has a very powerful tool that can be used to KO opponents earlier than any of their other projectiles. It's small, fast, and hard for anyone besides Robin to use. What is this item? A book. Robin's discarded spell tomes are surprisingly powerful items when thrown, meaning a clever or lucky Robin can take advantage of their Breakable Weapons system by using them. However, if an even more clever or luckier opponent gets a hold of one, let's say the scales will not tip in Robin's favor.
Leitmotif: Their theme from Awakening, "Id (Purpose)", is one of the songs present in both Arena Ferox and the Coliseum. The "Fire Emblem" theme from Melee plays during their shared trailer with Lucina. In their Ultimate character trailer, a new remix of "Id (Purpose)" plays.
Life Drain: The dark spell Nosferatu, much like in Fire Emblem proper. It also traps opponents while the draining occurs.
Limit Break: Pair Up, which is a reference to a mechanic from Fire Emblem Awakening allowing two characters to attack the same target. The two perform a Combination Attack which ends with Chrom performing an overhead swing and Robin spiking the victim with Bolganone.
Magic Knight: Carries a number of tomes, but supplements them with swordplay. Unlike other characters that conform to this trope, and unlike most swordfighters in this game, there's a clear preference for spellcasting over swordplay.
Master Swordsman: Averted: Robin is clearly more of a magic user than a swordsman, and if they don't have the magic-infused Levin Sword, their swordplay is the worst and most unorthodox of all swordsmen in the game. This can most clearly be seen in their dash attack; they don't swing the sword, but instead hold their arm rigid by their side to jab the opponent with.
Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Robin brings the Breakable Weapons system of Fire Emblem to the table. Their Specials and Smash Attacks can only be used a limited number of times before their corresponding items (specific tomes for each Special, the Levin Sword for all Smash Attacks) become broken and need to recharge. The Levin Sword also gives Robin the unique ability to use Smash Attacks in the air, something never before seen in the series.
Meteor Move: Three: An Elwind if done at point-blank range, a mid-air down smash, and the end of their Final Smash, where they and Chrom spike the opponent to the ground.
Mighty Glacier: Robin has the slowest run speed in 3DS/Wii U (with only Incineroar being slower in Ultimate), slower than even series Ur-Example Ganondorf, and middling combo potential and recovery that both rely on their limited-use spell tomes. That being said, they make up for it with a wide array of high-damage attacks, some of which are ranged and fairly quick — Thoron and their Levin-boosted aerials have lingering hitboxes and devastating KO power. They're also the character with the greatest ability to self-heal on command, even if it requires the opponent to be within arm's reach.
Mind over Matter: They're shown making their sword float around during a taunt.
Mirror Match: In Ultimate, despite Chrom being Promoted to Playable, he's still involved in Robin's Final Smash, and in fact Robin can use Pair Up to fight Chrom with Chrom.
Multiple-Choice Past: Their relationship with Chrom (summoned by their Final Smash) and Lucina. Male Robin could possibly be Lucina's husband, uncle, father-in-law, brother-in-law or a mere army comrade. Female Robin is potentially Lucina's mother, mother-in-law, sister-in-law, first cousin by marriage or, again, a mere comrade.
Mystical High Collar: The design of Robin's longcoat has this when the hood is down.
Mystical White Hair: The default hair color is white (which is also their default hair color in Awakening), and they're both prominent mages.
Mythology Gag:
- The way Arcfire is used mirrors the casting animation of the mage units from the Game Boy Advance Fire Emblem games.
- Excalibur-tome's reoccurring multiple wind slash animation◊ is used as a basis for Robin's jab combo◊.
- The default Nosferatu and the first custom Nosferatu look very similar to how the tome actually works, the spell appearing either close to the spellcaster for direct attacks in the default move, and appearing further away for indirect attacks on the custom move. Its second custom is basically Goetia: the most powerful dark tome, which makes it fitting that it does the most damage out of the three, but lacks the healing aspect (which belongs to the Nosferatu spell). Its max damage is also 19%, which is the number of its Might in its home series.
- Upon getting KO'd, female Robin may yell "I was careless!" Kjelle says this in Awakening should she be killed or simply defeated in battle.
- "Time to tip the scales!" and female Robin's gloating "Ha, checkmate!" reference two of their critical hit lines in Awakening.
- When Pair Up is successfully pulled off, Chrom's portrait cuts into the scene, just like when he activates a Critical Hit in Awakening. Chrom's lines at the beginning ("On my mark!") and end ("We're not done yet!") of the attack are taken from when he initiates a Dual Strike in Awakening.
One-Hit Polykill: A fully charged Thoron can go through multiple enemies while being shot across the screen.
Our Mages Are Different: In 3DS/Wii U, Robin is a combination of an Athlete and a Scholar, mixing close-up swordplay with ranged spells.
Palette Swap: You don't only get colors, but also the ability to play as female Robin through this. Their palette swaps reference several characters from their home series, namely Abel, Eyvel, Virion, Serra, and Anna. Male Robin also has a palette that gives him a white coat and black hair, a colorization that resembles a White Mage.
Pet the Dog: Male Robin kindly apologizes to Lucina should he win a match.
Pink Girl, Blue Boy: The pink Palette Swap is female while the blue one is male.
Pink Is Feminine: One of female Robin's alternate costumes include changing her hair and coat pink. This costume is based on Serra.
Playing with Fire: Arcfire, their Side Special. Bolganone is also used in their Final Smash.
Power Creep, Power Seep:
- In order to have a balanced moveset that references mages from a variety of games in Fire Emblem history, some spells and their animations have been altered.
- Robin normally can't use dark magic without reclassing into a Sorcerer and is unable to learn the Shadowgift skill in Awakening, yet here Nosferatu and Goetia can be cast, no sweat.
- The Levin Sword is used solely to cast lightning magic in its home series, but in Smash, Robin can use it to strike the enemy with shocking melee attacks. It wasn't until Awakening's sequel where characters were able to use the sword for melee attacks.
- Thoron has been made larger than◊ its original appearance◊, while getting rid of the Instant Runes.
- Goetia, the most powerful dark tome, is now a non-healing custom variant of Nosferatu. Granted, it's the most powerful of the three Down Special variants.
- In a non-magic example, the Bronze Sword is normally terrible Starter Equipment. In fact, the Bronze Sword is one of the few non-legendary blades to be used in Smash. As such, its power has been bumped up to only be slightly weaker than the swords other characters fight with. This is most notable with fellow Fire Emblem fighters Marth and Lucina, when just a glance at the weapon stats in those games shows that their sword, Falchion, is a much stronger weapon.
Power Floats: Male Robin is shown floating right before he's revealed in the reveal trailer — a subtle reference to Validar's abilities in Fire Emblem Awakening.
The Power of Friendship: Their Final Smash calls on Chrom as a reference to the Pair Up and Dual Strike commands from Awakening.
Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: Male Robin in their debut trailer:
"Time to tip the scales!"
"Smash has many powerful foes, Lucina... but I am no ordinary swordsman!"
Projectile Spell: All of Robin's special attack spells, with the exception of Nosferatu, are treated as projectiles.
Purely Aesthetic Gender: Robin's gender is up to the player, and neither gender has any effect on gameplay.
Purple Is Powerful: Wears a dark purple longcoat.
Razor Wind: The attacks from the wind tomes are generally in the form of wind slashes.
Secret Character: For Ultimate: Have a Cumulative Wait Time of 8 hours and 40 minutes, beat Classic Mode with Kirby or anyone in his unlock tree five times, or find and defeat them in World of Light.
Serrated Blade of Pain: The Levin Sword, shaped like a lightning bolt.
Shock and Awe: Robin's signature and preferred element. Their Neutral Special basically combines all the common Thunder spells (Thunder, Elthunder, Arcthunder, and Thoron) into one move, and the Levin Sword is infused with lightning. Male Robin is also shown using a Thunder tome and the Levin Sword in the official artwork and in the complementary artwork made by the artist for Awakening, while female Robin is shown with the Levin Sword and another tome in her hand. Lampshaded by the battle caption introducing male Robin:
ROBIN BRINGS THE THUNDER!
Shorter Means Smarter: Robin's the shortest Fire Emblem character in the game. Robin's also the only one who uses magic, and their intelligence is amply demonstrated in Awakening proper.
Shown Their Work:
- While Robin's lightning spells are all tied to the same special and the same type of spell book, the cover of the book they're holding changes as the attack charges and upgrades. This is a detail only reasonably visible by pausing and looking at Robin.
- Plenty of stuff in regards to Nosferatu and its customs: The default Nosferatu and Distant Nosferatu are cast like how the Nosferatu spell would have been cast if it was used at direct and indirect range respectively in the series it's from. Its last custom, Goetia, is another spell altogether. It does not heal, but is more powerful, like how it is in Awakening proper, but not only does it have more range and a vacuum aspect that helps it land more easily (Goetia is more accurate than Nosferatu), but the max damage it does to opponents is 19%, which is its Might (the number added to the character's Strength/Magic in order to determine damage) in Awakening.
Signature Move: Robin is the only character that can perform midair smash attacks thanks to the Levin Sword. Their moveset also features Thoron, which can be said to be their actual signature move from Awakening, as well as Thunder, which is their first spell proper.
Simplified Spellcasting: Just like in their home game, all Robin needs is the magic tome to have uses and they can instantly cast the spell.
Spell Book: The tomes used in special attacks are an important part of Robin's playstyle.
Spell Levels: Robin's Thunder spell is determined by how long the player lets it charge. It can go from the weak Thunder, to Elthunder, to Arcthunder, to its strongest form Thoron.
Squishy Wizard: Robin, while not terribly light, still has rather poor defensive options coupled with the third-slowest ground movement speed of any character in the series. This is made up for with powerful offensive tools at both long and short range and a Life Drain command grab.
Stab the Sky: Robin's downward taunt involves pointing their sword upwards with a bright gleam reflecting off of the blade.
Sticks to the Back: Or rather, hip in this case. While casting spells, the Bronze Sword is shown attached to their hip as if held on by a sheath.
The Strategist: Robin is known for being a brilliant tactician, and this is incorporated into their gameplay as well. Players have to be mindful of how much charge the tomes and Levin Sword have left so as not to suddenly lack them when they are most needed.
Summon to Hand: After Robin uses up a tome or Levin Sword, another one will automatically reappear back in Robin's hands a few seconds later.
Super Move Portrait Attack: As a reference to the famous Critical Hit portraits in Awakening, one appears in their Final Smash, but with a twist. Rather than Robin's portrait, it's Chrom's that cuts in.
Sword and Sorcerer:
- Male Robin is the Sorcerer to Lucina's Sword in his trailer, and the majority of both Robins' footage is of them casting a spell or about to cast one. Doubles as an inverted Guys Smash, Girls Shoot as well.
- In their Final Smash, Chrom plays the part of the sword. While he physically strikes the opponent multiple times, Robin fires a barrage of magical attacks.
Throw the Book at Them: Discarded tomes can hit and damage enemies. There's also a short window where anyone can pick up the discarded tome and use the book as a throwing weapon. They even do more damage than a thrown Levin Sword.
Throwing Your Sword Always Works: When Robin discards a broken Levin Sword, there's a short window where anyone can pick up the blade and use it as a throwing weapon. It does less damage than thrown tomes, oddly enough.
Unskilled, but Strong: Melee-wise, Robin doesn't exactly wield their sword with much finesse. Robin's also the only character that can use Smash attacks in midair.
Vancian Magic: Their spells are finite and will wear out after too many uses, though unlike in Fire Emblem, they will regenerate after a time.
Visual Pun: Robin's side special, Arcfire, fires in, well, an arc. The joke may be lost on those who haven't played Robin's home series before; Arc magic in Fire Emblem is just another tier, having nothing to actually do with arcs.
Wave-Motion Gun: Thoron from Robin's Thunder (and the Thunder+ custom variant) moveset. Holding down the special move button after firing further extends the beam adding more damage and KO power. Although not on the same scale as the other wave motion guns in the game, they're the only wave motion attacks that are not Final Smashes or an item.
Weapon Twirling: Robin tosses their sword up in the air spinning prior to casting Thoron and then catches it afterwards.
Weak, but Skilled: An unusual example: Robin's Bronze Sword is justifiably short and lacking, since it is an obsolete weapon from the Bronze Age compared to the other sword wielders, whose blades are longer and are forged from materials stronger than bronze. But they have an assorted repertoire of spells that can strike from afar, and the Levin Sword can be used to compensate for the Bronze Sword's weakness, provided it has uses left. The "Skilled" part comes from knowing when to use them and when to hold back, since both the tomes and the Levin Sword will expire and leave you with very few options if you blindly rush ahead.
Wind Is Green: The Elwind tome is colored green, along with their neutral "wind" jab.
Worthy Opponent: Male Robin refers to the legendary lords Marth and Ike this way in their reveal trailer.
Years Too Early: One of male Robin's taunts.
"You're not ready!"
Your Size May Vary: In Awakening, male Robin is taller than female Robin, but since they have to share the same attributes in Smash, they share the same height.
- In Ultimate, this results in male Robin being as tall as Lucina, despite being a head taller than her in Awakening.

57 – Shulk

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/shulk_ssbu_1.png

The Visionary /
Has Visions of Victory

^{3DS/Wii U}

Voiced by: Shintarō Asanuma (Japanese), Adam Howden (English)

SHULK FORESEES A FIGHT!

Home Series: Xenoblade Chronicles

Debut: Xenoblade Chronicles 1 [Wii], 2010

Creator: Monolith Soft

Publisher: Nintendo

Playable in: 3DS/Wii U, Ultimate

Specials: Monado Arts (Jump/Speed/Shield/Buster/Smash), Back Slash, Air Slash, Vision

Final Smash: Chain Attack

"I'm really feeling it!"

A young Homs engineering student from Colony 9, Shulk took on the legendary Monado after a devastating attack by the Mechon brought chaos to his hometown. His affinity with the mysterious blade allowed him to access many abilities invoked by the Monado, including being able to get glimpses of the would-be future and the power to take on the Mechon's armies.

Shulk utilizes the Monado's various Arts to give an increase to his properties, but at the cost of a decrease in others. This makes him a more strategic character to play as, forcing players to think on the fly and use the correct Monado Art at the proper time and place.

Special Moves^{Click to show}

See the Xenoblade Chronicles: Protagonists character page for more information on the character in his origin series.

Assist Character: Dunban and Riki join him in his Final Smash for a Chain Attack. Ultimate adds Fiora to the gang, especially notable given that Chain Attacks could previously only be done with three characters maximum.
Ass Kicking Pose: When activating Monado Arts without moving, either on the ground or the air, Shulk pulls a quick pose as he shouts the name of the art, with each art having him pull a different pose. Kirby also does this when he copies Shulk's Monado abilities.
Back Stab: Back Slash. Used to send Bowser flying to the Mechonis in his reveal trailer, it's an attack that gets all the more powerful when it strikes the back of the opponent.
Badass Bookworm: He's a member of the engineering division of Colony 9's defense force. Before obtaining the Monado, his specialty was his brains, even if he knew how to handle himself in a fight.
Battle Intro: Falls from the air with the Monado active, before spinning and putting it on his back.
BFS: The Monado on its own is huge, and it gets even bigger once its Laser Blade is activated. It dwarfs Ike's Ragnell, and it was the largest blade in the hands of a playable character until Cloud came along with his Buster Sword and Fusion Sword.
Bilingual Bonus: The Monado symbols are kanji letters representing the power being invoked, and the bonus goes double here since for Shulk, they are just mysterious symbols. These kanji roughly translate as "Jumping", "Running", "Protect", "Attacking", and "Destroying/Smashing", respectively. When read in Chinese, they are roughly translated as "Flying", "Faster Than The Wind", "Shield", "Sword/Cutting", and "Destroying/Smashing", respectively.
Borrowed Catchphrase: Shulk gets to steal one of his friend Reyn's most famous catchphrases in his trailer and for one of his taunts.
"Now it's Shulk time!"
Breakout Character: Shulk's game was relatively obscure (especially in the West) before he debuted in Smash. Since his appearance in this series, Xenoblade has received far more love and coverage, to the point where Xenoblade Chronicles 1 not only received a spinoff and two sequels (with Shulk returning as a Guest Fighter in Xenoblade Chronicles 2), but was also ported to the Wii U (on the Virtual Console), the 3DS, and given a much needed overhaul when it was brought to the Nintendo Switch as Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition.
Calling Your Attacks: It was all over the place in his home game, so it's no surprise he also screams the name of several attacks here.
"Back Slash!"
"Air Slash!"
Canon Foreigner: The "Jump" and "Smash" Monado Arts are new abilities created specifically for Smash.
Canon Welding: He returns at the end of Pyra and Mythra's reveal trailer. As Xenoblade Chronicles and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 take place in parallel universes (as in, separate universes existing in tandem), this means that the Shulk in Smash is, or shares memories with, the instance of himself that visited the Land of Challenge in the sequel.
Captain Obvious: His in-game dialog.
When he loses a stock: "Not good!"
When he wins: "This is a good result!"
Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: Every Monado stance is coded with a different color for ease of recognition in the heat of battle. "Jump" is green, "Speed" is blue, "Shield" is yellow, "Buster" is purple, and "Smash" is red.
Combat Clairvoyance: His ability to see future events is brought up in his reveal trailer during his fight with Marth and Link, and it translates into his gameplay in the form of a unique Counter-Attack.
Combat Pragmatist: Decides to take out Bowser in his reveal trailer by sneaking behind him and doing a Back Slash, which is a perfectly valid and useful technique in his home game.
Combination Attack: His Final Smash invokes Xenoblade's Chain Attacks by bringing Dunban and Riki to attack in tandem with him. In Ultimate, Fiora joins in as well.
Cool Down: Each of his Monado Arts last for a set amount of time. After one is used, Shulk has to wait ten seconds before it becomes available again.
Cool Sword: The Monado is a laser-bladed BFS that, alongside several other powers, allows Shulk to see the future.
Counter-Attack: His down special, Vision, which has several unique properties. For one, it has a wide margin of error that becomes shorter the more times the attack is used. It also slows down the opponent that hit Shulk, making it so they can't get away from the counter. And finally, the move has two varieties that are not bound by customizable moves: The normal one where he attacks in place, sending the opponent forward; and a second one done by pressing forward, which makes Shulk dash forward and send the opponent flying backwards.
Cutscene Power to the Max: He takes on both Link and Marth on equal footing in his trailer.
Death or Glory Attack: Monado Smash greatly increases Shulk's launching power in his attacks, which is what you normally use to KO opponents. On the flip side, it also reduces his damage output and makes it easier for opponents to launch him off-screen as well, so if he has more damage than his opponent, Monado Smash can easily backfire.
Difficult, but Awesome: Shulk's entire game design in Super Smash Bros. can be attributed to this trope.
- His weapon, the Monado, is noted to have very long range for a sword-based fighter, outranging all of the Fire Emblem cast's attacks (sans Corrin and Byleth) and being among the biggest swords in the entire playable roster (alongside Cloud's Buster Sword). However, Shulk is also noted to be quite laggy in using several of his attacks (similarly to Ike pre-3DS/Wii U), which often makes him more vulnerable and punishable in both the startup and endlag of his attacks. Part of using Shulk's basic attacks well is to take advantage of the distance of which they can reach, and space his moves out against those that can't reach his length through their own attacks.
- His Monado Arts Stance System buffs some aspects of him, but debuffs other aspects, such as altering his ground speed, air speed, jump height, shield health, damage given/taken, and knockback given/taken. Essentially, he's a very strategic character that relies on being in the right mode at the right time, capitalizing on his buffs while also making sure his opponent doesn't exploit his debuffs.
- Of particular note is a technique known as "Art Cancelling". See, Shulk doesn't have to actually stand still in order to access his Arts (being the only character in the entire franchise with this distinction for using a special move). As long as it's not on the exact frame that he's being struck, he can even switch Arts while being trapped in hitstun. This means that he can activate his Monado Shield to resist a combo, and even escape said combo and retaliate with a Vision counter or Monado Buster combo of his own. Some dexterity is required to quickly switch Arts like this, however, and learning to get into the habit of switching to the correct Arts while under pressure (such as the aforementioned switching to Shield while under attack) can be quite tricky. Your reward for mastering this, however, is the potential to statistically be a Master of All that can screw up any foe's gameplan and turn the tides of battle to your favor.
- The first few frames of Shulk activating an Art and striking an Ass Kicking Pose gives him complete invincibility. So while this invincibility has a very small window, one can use this to make him seamlessy avoid quick projectiles, and dodge attacks and grabs at point-blank range, and then quickly retaliate with a strong move that gives the technique the impression of being a Counter-Attack without the actual use of his Counter-Attack through his Vision. With Ultimate giving him a Ring Menu for his Monado Arts, combined with the use of his "Dial Storage" advanced technique, this allows Shulk to more easily mitigate his often-telegraphed aerial attacks and feint enemies into attacking you and not succeeding in the process.
Dynamic Entry: His reveal trailer has Shulk making entrance via Back Slash to Bowser's back.
Easter Egg: On the Wii U/Ultimate version of Gaur Plain, Metal Face will say special lines if Shulk is on the stage.
Equivalent Exchange: All of his Monado stances increase one stat at the expense of other stats. Depending on the ability being buffed, different stats are negatively affected in different levels.
Finishing Move: Monado Smash is intended to be used to finish weakened opponents off, as the lower damage output makes it impractical to use against enemies that haven't taken much damage.
Fragile Speedster: His "Jump" stance gives him greater jumping height but also lowers his defense.
Glacier Waif: 4 only. Despite being of average height, Shulk is classified as a heavyweight, Smash Art notwithstanding. Averted in Ultimate, where Shulk is instead a middleweight (weighing the same as Luigi).
Glass Cannon:
- The Monado Art "Buster" increases the damage of his attacks, but lowers his launch ability and causes him to receive more damage.
- The Monado Art "Smash" gives him higher launch ability, but lowers his damage output and makes him more prone to being launched off. With Smash Art in Ultimate, Shulk becomes the lightest character in the game, being even lighter than Pichu. In exchange, a lot of his moves kill at around 60% on the ledge, which can increase due to the Rage Mechanic.
Home Stage:
- 3DS/Wii U: Gaur Plains in both versions.
- Ultimate: Gaur Plains.
Human Aliens: He may look human, but he's actually a Homs, one of the people of the Bionis.
Idle Animation:
- He puts his hand to his chin in a contemplative gesture.
- He takes a defensive stance and inspects his surroundings.
Jack of All Stats: By default, Shulk doesn't have any notable strengths besides his good range and above-average attack strength (and he also doesn't have any major weaknesses outside of his lousy frame data (which was improved upon in Ultimate)). Using his Monado Arts will cause him to become more specialized in the area of choice at the cost of becoming weaker in others, with the bonus of being able to change his specialty if the situation calls for it.
Laser Blade: When activated, the Monado extends to a big blue blade of light.
Laser-Guided Karma: In Shulk's reveal trailer, he attacks Bowser from behind, sending him flying. Almost immediately afterwards, Marth and Link jump him to do the same. Fortunately for Shulk, however, he has his Visions.
Late-Arrival Spoiler: In Ultimate, his Final Smash includes Fiora in her Mechon body.
Leitmotif: "You Will Know Our Names", which Smash has turned into a Bootstrapped Theme for Xenoblade. (It can be selected on Gaur Plains for both versions, is part of the Xenoblade Chronicles Medley, and serves as Shulk's victory fanfare.) "Gaur Plains" serves as his Ultimate character trailer music.
Mechanically Unusual Fighter: His moveset centers around a Stance System that's composed of five different sets of buffs and debuffs built for different situations.
Mr. Fanservice: Between his British Accent, shirtless costume, and Chick Magnet status in his home series, he's meant to be attractive. He's the only male human (well, Homs) character that shows more skin than Zero Suit Samus.◊
Multiform Balance: Unlike in Xenoblade, the Monado Arts give Shulk both buffs to one of his stats and debuffs to compensate those buffs.
Mythology Gag:
- Back Slash and Air Slash color the blade of the Monado red and pink respectively. While the Monado doesn't change color with those attacks in Xenoblade, those are the colors they are coded by in the game. ^note
- Nearly all of his lines in Smash are variations of or taken directly from his various battle quotes in Xenoblade.
- He appears on the light side on Bayonetta's official illustration, facing off against R.O.B. on the dark side, which references the Mechon.
- His side Smash resembles his other physical art, Slit Edge. A successful Vision counter has him use his first break art, Stream Edge.
Necessary Drawback: For every buff each stance grants Shulk with, there's always a debuff disadvantage.
Not the Intended Use: Shulk's Smash Art is designed to be a Death or Glory Attack mode, powering up his own launch power at the cost of becoming easier to launch himself. At low damage, Shulk can actually use the downside to escape combos via being launched too far for follow-ups.
Oh, Crap!: In World of Light, he has a vision of Galeem's light beams swallowing up everyone. He freaks out and turns to warn the others, but he gets swallowed up before he can.
One-Handed Zweihänder: Several attacks have him swinging the Monado with only one hand.
O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Implied. When he gets a vision of what will happen to the rest of the cast in World of Light, he simply turns to the crowd, which is strange considering that, in his home game, he stopped Egil from destroying all of Bionis, a titan, because he had a vision on it. It could have been that he was so shocked and powerless that he didn't know what to do, but it's possible that he did use a Monado Art offscreen.
Palette Swap: Besides his swimsuit alternate costume, he gets color alts based on his friends: Reyn, Fiora in her Mechon body, Sharla, Dunban, Melia, and Riki.
Power Creep, Power Seep: The Monado's abilities are greatly toned down in Smash. Instead of just granting buffs and debuffs, Shulk's Monado Arts in Xenoblade are powerful buffs and attacks. In their original forms, "Speed" allows its target to dodge any and all physical attacks, "Shield" allows the party to No-Sell the next enemy Talent Art, and "Buster" grows the Monado's blade even larger for a devastating attack.
Power Glows: Each of his Monado Arts make a part of Shulk glow with their respective colors while they're active. "Jump" and "Speed" make his feet glow, "Shield" his body, "Buster" the Monado, and "Smash" both the Monado and his hands.
Purple Is Powerful: "Buster", the Monado stance that sacrifices launching power for sheer damage, is colored purple.
Red Is Heroic: The hero of his home game. Appropriately, he wears a red outfit along with fighting using a red sword.
The Rival:
- Shulk goes up against R.O.B. in a few event matches and again in Bayonetta's illustration. To him, R.O.B. may represent the Mechon.
- Ultimate casts him as one to Pyra and Mythra, the second Xenoblade Chronicles fighter added to the game. Both characters come from separate worlds, but met (albeit dubiously canonically) in the Land of Challenge in Xenoblade Chronicles 2.
Screw Destiny: A big theme of his home game, some of his victory quotes have him bringing up his fight against the future he sees in his visions.
"The future is ours to decide."
"I can change the future."
Secret Character: For Ultimate: Have a Cumulative Wait Time of 3 hours and 30 minutes, beat Classic Mode with Pikachu or anyone in his unlock tree three times, or find and defeat him in World of Light.
Shorter Means Smarter: He's one of the shortest males in the main party in Xenoblade. He's also an engineering student.
Spider-Sense: In his trailer, Shulk foresees himself getting slashed by both Link and Marth, and then quickly reacts to dodge their attacks.
Spin Attack: His down smash has him spinning in place a few times while holding an active Monado at ground level, which could reference Reyn's own Spin Attack, War Swing, in his home game.
Stance System: While not as extreme as character transformations in previous Smash iterations, Shulk can use Monado Arts to buff one of his properties at the expense of another.
- 翔 ^*Sho (Jump): Increases jump height, but lowers defense.
- 疾 ^*Shitsu (Speed): Faster movement, but weaker attacks and lower jumps.
- 盾 ^*Tate (Shield): Higher defense. Slower movement, lower jumps, and weaker attack power.
- 斬 ^*Zan (Buster): Stronger attacks that deal more damage. Weaker launch ability and lower defense.
- 撃 ^*Geki (Smash): Stronger launch ability. Weaker attacks (damage-wise) and lower defense against launching.
Sticks to the Back: Like in his home game, the Monado has no visible strap to speak of, yet it hangs on his back just fine. This is even true in his shirtless costume.
Stone Wall: Via the Monado stance "Shield", he can increase his defense at the cost of his moving speed, jump height, and attack power. Unfortunately, this also means he'll drop like Little Mac if he's knocked off-stage in Shield form, so being able to quickly switch to Jump is an essential secondary skill.
Super-Speed: Using the Monado, Shulk can forgo attack power to allow him move much faster for a short time; and by using the Hyper Monado Arts custom move, he can reach a speed almost just below Sonic's.
Sword and Fist: Shulk's neutral combo has him punching and kicking before striking with the Monado.
Title Drop: Of his two Monado abilities that don't have a proper counterpart in Xenoblade, one is named "Smash".
Took a Level in Badass: In Ultimate, he doesn't need to cycle through all his Monado Arts; he just needs to press B and the correct direction for whatever art he needs at the time. He also got significant improvements to his frame data/attack speed — his one major, crippling weakness that his Monado Arts couldn't address — and the benefits of his Monado Arts have been strengthened (for instance, Speed makes him nearly as fast as Sonic).
Tron Lines: The Monado glows with lines of blue light, even when it's not activated.
Walking Swimsuit Scene: Straight from Xenoblade, he gets his swimming trunks as an alternate costume.
Weapon Across the Shoulder: He strikes the pose in his debut trailer's title card. Appropriate, considering the Monado's size.
Your Size May Vary: Shulk was somewhat short back in his own game, and most other humanoid characters were significantly taller than him. Here, though, he's on par with most of the other male characters, though he obviously looks tall compared to characters like Kirby and Pikachu despite being short by human standards.

58 – Bowser Jr. (Koopa Jr.)/Koopalings (Seven Koopa Bunch)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bowserjrssbu.png

Prince of the Koopas /
Like Father, Like Son

^{3DS/Wii U}

^Larry

^Roy

^Wendy

^Iggy

^Morton

^Lemmy

^Ludwig

Bowser Jr. Voiced by: Caety Sagoian
Larry, Morton, Wendy, and Lemmy Voiced by: Lani Minella
Iggy and Ludwig Voiced by: Mike Vaughn
Roy Voiced by: Dan Falcone

BOWSER JR. CLOWNS THE COMPETITION!

Home Series: Super Mario Bros.

Debut:

Bowser Jr.: Super Mario Sunshine [GameCube], 2002

Koopalings: Super Mario Bros. 3 [NES], 1988

Creator: Nintendo

Publisher: Nintendo

Playable in: 3DS/Wii U, Ultimate

Specials: Clown Cannon, Clown Kart Dash, Abandon Ship!, Mechakoopa

Final Smash: Shadow Mario Paint

Bowser's beloved son, Bowser Junior is a crafty, scheming young prince who holds a strong emotional attraction to Peach and a thirst to defeat Mario to make his father proud of him. He first made his mark on the Mario universe by framing him for graffiti on Isle Delfino, disguised as the paintlike Shadow Mario, under the assumption that Peach was his mama. Though he may be a Spoiled Brat, he is one of Mario's most dangerous opponents, second only to Bowser himself. Junior rides into battle in his Junior Clown Car, a smaller, heavily modified version of his dad's Clown Car that he rides in the New Super Mario Bros. series.

Jr.'s Clown Car has no shortage of versatility to it, having access to all sorts of weapons that can make fighting him somewhat tricky. However, he has a very obvious weakness to anyone who's played a New Super Mario Bros. game: hitting the clown car does less damage, while attacks on Jr. himself do more, so attacks from above can do a lot more damage if they hit. However, good luck landing a hit on him while he's firing cannonballs, charging at high speeds, and deploying Mechakoopas to make hitting him all the more difficult.

The Koopalings (Larry Koopa, Roy Koopa, Wendy O. Koopa, Iggy Koopa, Morton Koopa Jr., Lemmy Koopa, and Ludwig von Koopa), a group of young Koopas who often help Bowser Jr. and his father in their evil schemes (and Bowser Jr. is hinted to be their boss), are playable through alternate skins.

See Bowser Jr.'s page for more information on the character in his origin series.

See the Koopaling's page more information on the characters in their origin series.

A Child Shall Lead Them: A villainous example, in that Bowser Jr. is by and far the youngest member of Bowser's troops, and yet he's already the second-in-command for the entire army. He's also hinted to be the Koopalings' boss, which is especially apparent in his trailer when the band of seven slowly arise behind him.
Adaptational Badass: At least, in his trailer. While Jr. is certainly no pushover in his series, his beat-down of Mario, Mega Man, Link, Kirby, Samus, and Rosalina is absolutely brutal. Especially pronounced when the Koopalings arrive behind him, complete with Full Moon Silhouette and Jr. giving a cocky glare as he orders his minions to attack.
Adaptation Dye-Job: A minor change about Bowser Jr. is the color of his ponytail. In many of his appearances in the Super Mario series, it's the same color as his father's hair. In 3DS/Wii U and Ultimate, his ponytail has an orange tint.
Art Attacker: For his Final Smash, Junior transforms into Shadow Mario and paints a toxic X across the screen that damages everyone it touches.
Ascended Extra: Before their playable debut, Junior was a trophy in Brawl, the Koopalings were mentioned in Melee in Bowser's trophy, and Ludwig appeared as a sticker in Brawl.
Attack Its Weak Point: He has two hurtboxes: one for Junior himself, and the other for the Clown Car. If Junior is hit, he'll take a bit more damage from an attack than normal, while if the Clown Car is hit, he'll take a bit less damage than normal.
Badass Adorable: Bowser Jr. is already a formidable opponent from the day of his debut, and he's just an adorable little Koopa. The Koopalings also count, to an extent.
Badass Driver: His driving skills come into play in his Side Special attack, where the Clown Car transforms into a go-kart and rushes forward. One of his taunts has him do a donut with the Clown Car in this form.
Battle Intro: The Koopa Clown Car flies in from the foreground, and then your selected Koopa pops out and makes a face at the camera.
Beat: The announcer lets in a noticeable one while announcing his name. This is to stress that the "Bowser/Koopa" part of the name is more intimidating while the "Jr." part is more fun.
Beware the Silly Ones: Despite being a little kid in a goofy Clown Car with toy hammers and boxing gloves as weapons, his reveal trailer has him utterly wreck a group comprised of Mario, Samus, and Mega Man. Same goes to his Koopaling fellows.
Car Fu: His Clown Car can transform into a go-kart that rams into enemies.
Charged Attack: His neutral special move, Clown Cannon. Fires a cannonball, dealing more damage and moving faster the longer it's charged.
Cool Ship: The Clown Car. It may be smaller and more innocent-looking than Bowser's, but it is a shockingly diverse and effective weapons platform.
Cutscene Power to the Max: In the Mario series, Bowser Jr. is presented as a legitimate threat, but usually never enough to be able to take on Mario by himself. In his intro trailer, he takes on Mario and Link, Samus, Mega Man, and Kirby single-handedly before calling in his Koopaling reinforcements for a coup-de-grace.
Dark Action Girl: Wendy, one of Bowser Jr.'s alts. Notable for being the first playable female villain.
Death Glare: Unusually for him, Junior seems to glare intensely while he fights, rarely ever making his usual immature thumb-nosing at his opponents.
Difficult, but Awesome: His post-Up Special hammer has around as much knockback as a smash attack, but he can only use it in the air after the special move.
Dub Name Change: Reflecting his father, he's referred to as "Koopa Jr." in the original Japanese version of the game. In the Spanish version, he's instead known as "Bowsy"; a rare instance where he's not referred to as Junior.
Enemy Mine: If saved during World of Light, that will mean assisting Mario and potentially other Mushroom Kingdom residents against a common threat.
Expressive Accessory: The Clown Car changes expression depending on the situation. It puts on an angry face when attacking, a crying face when being attacked, and even falls asleep when its pilot does.
Fork Fencing: Another of the many odd weapons he can pull from his Clown Car.
Home Stage:
- 3DS/Wii U: All stages from his series.^note
- Ultimate: Mushroom Kingdom U in Ultimate's website, his fight in World of Light though takes place in Mushroomy Kingdom, and his normal unlock battle takes place in Delfino Plaza.
Hoist by His Own Petard: Just like in the final battle of Super Mario World, opponents can pick up the mecha-koopas Junior can summon and throw them back at him.
Idle Animation:
- He inspects the surroundings with a hand raised.
- He hops in place.
Improbable Use of a Weapon: In Ultimate, the Koopalings use their Magic Wand they have had ever since Super Mario Bros. 3 in place of the hammer Bowser Jr. uses. Which means that they use it to whack people around with instead of casting spells like they used to.
Interface Screw: His Final Smash has him paint a giant damaging X across the entire screen. If anyone is in the X area, they take damage.
In-Series Nickname: One for Bowser Jr. and all of the Koopalings:
- Junior: Prince of the Koopas / Like Father, Like Son
- Larry: The Youngest / Leader of the Seven Minions^note
- Roy: The Cool One / Fear the Shades
- Wendy: The Bold Beauty / Bold, Bossy, and Big-Headed
- Iggy: The Laughing Prankster
- Morton: The Enforcer / He'll Make You See Stars
- Lemmy: Wacky War Machine / Let's Get Wacky
- Ludwig: Pompous Prodigy
- Their original Japanese nickname was "All Purpose Chariot".
Late-Arrival Spoiler: Bowser Jr. being Shadow Mario was The Reveal in Jr.'s debut game, Super Mario Sunshine. In this game, Shadow Mario is his Final Smash.
Leitmotif:
- His 3DS/Wii U reveal trailer uses two versions of "Airship Theme", one being the ''Brawl'' remix and the other being a part of "Paper Mario Medley". "Bowser Jr.'s Fort" from Super Mario Galaxy 2 is used when the Koopalings appear, though this isn't in the game itself.
- His Ultimate gameplay trailer uses a remix of "Delfino Plaza" from Super Mario Sunshine.
Lightning Bruiser: He's among the heavier characters in the game, racks up damage quickly, takes less damage when the Clown Car is hit instead of Junior directly, and is decently fast for a character of his weight class. His main drawbacks are taking more damage when directly struck, and lacking a reliable KO move.
Limit Break: Shadow Mario Paint. Bowser Junior transforms into Shadow Mario and paints an X onto the screen. If any of his opponents make contact with the X marking, they take damage and knockback. While Shadow Mario was strictly Bowser Jr.'s alter-ego in the Mario series, any of the Koopalings can transform into him too.
Mecha-Mooks: One of Bowser Jr.'s special attacks launches a mecha-koopa from the Clown Car's bomb hatch.
Mechanically Unusual Fighter: He has higher defense on the Clown Car than his body, making him the only character with "sweetspot" hurtboxes. On using his up special, he loses the car entirely and gains a new aerial move until the car respawns.
Multipurpose Tongue: The Clown Car can not only emote, but it can apparently lick people to death, too.
Mythology Gag:
- Junior's side special has the Clown Car sprout wheels and exhaust pipes while rushing forward. This is not only a general Mario Kart reference, but the Clown Car is a selectable vehicle part in both Mario Kart 7 and Mario Kart 8. Ironically, Junior was not playable in either of those entries until the Nintendo Switch Deluxe port of 8.
- Junior's down special has the Clown Car spawn an exploding Mechakoopa, which can be picked up by enemies and thrown at him to deal damage, just like the Final Boss fight with Bowser in Super Mario World.
- Junior's Final Smash is the Shadow Mario disguise he used in his first appearance in Super Mario Sunshine, complete with the magic paintbrush he used to spread toxic paint across Isle Delfino, which he uses to paint an "X" shape onto the screen.
- In Ultimate, the Koopalings, instead of the hammer Junior uses for his up aerial, up taunt, and air attack after self-destructing the Clown Car in his up special, use the magic staffs that have been associated with them ever since their first appearance in Super Mario Bros. 3.
- On the character selection screen, the Koopalings are ordered in the same order they are typically fought in the platformer titles where they appear.
No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: His trailer can basically be summed up as "Junior beats the ever loving crap out of various other fighters". Even before he calls in the Koopalings.
Overlord Jr.: The clue is in the name. Junior is a spoiled, mischievous little Koopa that greatly looks up to his father.
One-Steve Limit: Averted in Roy Koopa's case, as both he and Roy from Fire Emblem appear together. The announcer even says the "Roy" name twice, each in a different way.
Palette Swap: Averted, instead of getting alternate color schemes, he gets the other Koopalings as alternate costumes. In the case of the Clown Car itself, this trope is played straight, as the stripe around the top of the car changes color to reflect the Koopa currently driving it. The Koopalings' Clown Cars also have a more distinctly mechanical appearance to them, with visible headlights for eyes and two rows of bolts running down the face.
The Precious, Precious Car: In one of his victory poses, Bowser Jr. jumps out of his car and pets it affectionately, showing he's quite attached to it... except when using his up special move.
Power Fist: His Clown Car has Boxing Gloves that he uses for close range attacks.
Retcon: Bowser's Melee trophy mentioned his "seven children", in line with the established information that the Koopalings were his seven children. In 3DS/Wii U and Ultimate, the Koopalings' relationship to Bowser is said to be a complete mystery, in line with Shigeru Miyamoto's statement that he no longer considers them to be Bowser's children.
Secret Character:
- For 3DS: Clear Classic Mode on Intensity 6.0 or higher as Bowser or play 100 matches in Smash to unlock him.
- For Ultimate: Have a Cumulative Wait Time of 10 hours, beat Classic Mode with Fox or anyone in his unlock tree six times, or find and defeat him in World of Light.
Sibling Team: Although Junior isn't known to be their biological sibling, the Koopalings are this towards each other.
Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Official screenshots and trailers suggest that Roy Koopa and Roy from Fire Emblem have this kind of relationship with each another.
Smug Smiler: In his reveal trailer, but given the Curb-Stomp Battle he just delivered and the team he's bringing on the way, he has every right to be smug.
The Smurfette Principle: Wendy, the only female Koopaling and the only female Clown Car rider. This also applies for the villains, as she's the first playable female villain in Smash Bros. as a series, and the only one in 3DS/Wii U.
Stock Audio Clip: All of the Koopalings' voice clips are recycled from New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Especially glaring for Larry, Wendy, and Ludwig, as Mario Kart 8 brought in new voice actors for them. Junior himself uses his voice clips from Mario Kart Wii.
Swiss-Army Weapon: His Clown Car has drills, boxing gloves, mecha-koopas, a go-kart form, the car's tongue, a cannon, buzz saws, wrecking balls, mechanical claws, a giant fork, a self-destruct mechanism, and a bladed propeller.
This Is a Drill: One of the many gadgets on his Clown Car is a set of drills, with a single drill pointed downward used for the down air and the forward smash using two on mechanical arms.
Warrior Prince: Bowser Jr. is the Koopa King's only son (after retcons decided the Koopalings were not Bowser's kids after all), and not afraid to get on the fight himself.
Your Size May Vary: To use the same animations as Junior, some of the Koopalings have been resized in For 3DS. Heavyweights Roy and Morton are noticeably much smaller than normal, while small fry Lemmy is much bigger than normal. Iggy is shorter than usual and has the same body shape as he did before his New Super Mario Bros. Wii character redesign. Ludwig's impressive hairdo also lost some of its bulk to prevent Hitbox Dissonance. For Wii U and Ultimate adjust their appearances to better match their current sizes, but they are still slightly shorter/taller than usual to properly accommodate Junior's animations and hitboxes.

59 – Duck Hunt

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/duckhuntssbu.png

Bark, Quack, Boom! /
The Most Unlikely of Partnerships

^{3DS/Wii U}

DUCK HUNT TAKES AIM!

Home Series: Duck Hunt

Debut: Duck Hunt [NES], 1984^note

Creator: Nintendo

Publisher: Nintendo

Playable in: 3DS/Wii U, Ultimate

"Hehehehehe!"

A trio composed by the player's canine hunting partner from Duck Hunt, whose legacy lived on after the NES era for mocking the player after missing their target, a duck that has left behind its life as a target, and an unseen marksman armed with the NES Zapper who aids the team from afar. They jump into the fray with the help of several other NES Zapper games and elements.

As a collective fighter, the trio are rather nimble due to the dog's quick ground movements and the duck's surprising level of practicality, such as flying the dog out of incoming fire. However, their greatest strength is how versatile they are at a distance; their smash attacks and specials provide plenty of ranged options to keep opponents at arm's length with proper aiming, whether it be shooting them from the front or pelting them with an exploding can. Utilize the trio's moveset to its fullest, and that darn dog will be laughing with you instead of at you.

Special Moves^{Click to show}

Acrofatic: The dog's pretty chubby, but it's also pretty agile.
Adaptational Badass: In their original appearances, the dog was a total noncombatant, and the ducks were just targets. Not so much in Smash, though.
Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: In their game of origin, the unseen marksman and the dog worked together to shoot the ducks. In Smash, all three work together.
Ascended Extra: A trophy of two ducks was featured in Melee and a single duck was featured as a sticker in Brawl. The trio made their first playable appearance in 3DS/Wii U.
Ascended Meme: For a long time, fans took the dog and duck as the closest analogue to Banjo-Kazooie. In Banjo & Kazooie's trailer, Duck Hunt is used in a Bait-and-Switch before the real deal show up.
Assist Character: The Wild Gunmen from Wild Gunman assist in some attacks, and their Final Smash also adds the gang from Hogan's Alley as part of the shootout that ensues.
Badass Adorable: Both animal members of the trio. The duck remains with the dog at all times, most of the time perched on its back; and the dog is adorable largely because, signature laughter aside, it acts mostly like a normal, non-anthropomorphized dog.
Battle Intro: The dog and duck both jump into a pixelated bush, followed by the dog rising up and pantomiming his infamous laugh while the duck's head pokes out from behind the dog.
Blast Out: Their Final Smash is a shootout between the Wild Gunmen and the Hogan's Alley gang, with the opponents caught in the crossfire.
Breaking the Fourth Wall: The animals of the trio reacts to their title splash in their trailer as if they're shocked, or even hit by the words.
Calling Your Attacks: The Wild Gunmen do this, shouting "Fire!" whenever they appear.
The Comically Serious: In one of their taunts, the dog does a handstand while balancing the duck. The duck quacks angrily and glares at the dog to knock it off.
Composite Character: Takes aspects not only from Duck Hunt, but 2 other NES Zapper Games as well: Hogan's Alley and Wild Gunman.
Crosshair Aware: The marksman uses the NES Zapper, and its reticle appears in a number of their attacks.
Difficult, but Awesome: On the Difficult side, they're a Zoning Character in a Rushdown-centric fighter. On the Awesome side... they're a Zoning Character in a Rushdown-centric fighter.
Disturbed Doves: Or, well, ducks. Ducks can be seeing flying dramatically across the screen during their Final Smash, complete with a brief Ethereal Choir.
The Dividual: Unlike other dual characters like the Ice Climbers and Rosalina & Luma, the dog, duck, and marksman are unnamed and are identified collectively. The European version cuts out the marksman in favor of naming the dog and duck as a duo, but they are still identified collectively and are never given individual names.
A Dog Named "Dog": Quite literally. A trophy depicting the 8-bit Dog lists his name as "Dog".
Dub Name Change: They are known as "Duck Hunt Duo" in the European version.
Enemy Mine: The hunters and the hunted have joined forces to fight with the best of them.
Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": As neither of the characters involved have any official names, the trio are just called Duck Hunt.
Fat and Skinny: A plump dog and a skinny duck.
The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: Inverted. The fourth wall will not protect the in-game characters from the marksman's Zapper, or their own reveal title card text.
From Beyond the Fourth Wall: The unseen Zapper wielder participates in Duck Hunt's attacks, aiding them in the fight.
The Ghost: The marksman with the zapper, naturally, doesn't appear ingame, just shooting whenever the dog or duck call on them. It's to the point that the PAL version entirely ignores their presence by calling the fighters "Duck Hunt Duo."
He Who Must Not Be Seen: The person with the Zapper doesn't appear in person, except for his hand in the trailer. Palutena's Guidance on Duck Hunt doesn't elaborate on him much, either.
Hoist by His Own Petard: The can is treated as a neutral explosive even while controlled by Duck Hunt, so they can be damaged by the explosion. It doesn't help that it's their strongest special move.
Home Stage:
- 3DS/Wii U: Duck Hunt in both versions. Amusingly, it wasn't an available stage in 3DS until it was later added for free in an update, so in early versions of the game they are associated with the miscellanous series stage list^note and are unlocked in Battlefield.
- Ultimate: Duck Hunt.
Idle Animation:
- The dog sniffs at the ground.
- The dog sits down and scratches its neck with its hind leg.
Improbable Weapon User: They use clay pigeons and exploding tin cans for a few moves.
Interspecies Friendship: Previously, the duck and dog were adversaries, however, the two species team up here to fight their opponents. They even high five each other in their trailer.
I Shall Taunt You: That laugh of the dog can now be used as a deliberate taunt to irritate your opponents.
Leitmotif: "Duck Hunt Medley", a mix of Game A and B from Duck Hunt. He gets a new one for Ultimate.
Lethal Joke Character: Continues the tradition left by Jigglypuff in 64, Mr. Game & Watch in Melee and R.O.B. in Brawl (as well as the retro-fighter tradition from the latter two). It's the dog that used to mock you for failing to shoot a single duck from the sky in its debut game. Except it, the duck, the Wild Gunmen and whoever is shooting all Took a Level in Badass and are now teaming up to kick your butt.
Limit Break: The cast of Wild Gunman get into a shootout with the cast from Hogan's Alley, with the opponents getting caught in the crossfire and the dog's 8-bit sprite laughing from the sidelines.
Logo Joke: When their title card slides in from offscreen, the dog and the duck are hit by it. This is the only time anyone interacts with it in any of the trailers.
Long-Range Fighter: As you'd expect from a character based on the NES Zapper, Duck Hunt, like Mega Man, goes against the grain and prefers ranged combat over Smash's usual close combat. A number of its moves are meant for keeping the opponent as far away from them as possible, and their forward Smash attack has very long reach.
Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Attacks don't always have to come from the duck and dog themselves, but also from the unseen hunter. The tin can may be used as a landmine, anti-air, anti-ledge, or as a suicide bomb. The clay pigeon does most of its damage when hit by the zapper, so deflecting or countering it is no big deal compared to other projectiles. And the Wild Gunmen can be used as both a projectile barrier and to punish charge-up moves (the opponent must either release the move early and waste it, get hit by the gunmen and waste it, roll out of the way to keep their charge (assuming that the move actually allows it) and risk either getting hit by the gunmen or being hit by a follow-up attack or shield to keep their charge and risk getting grabbed).
Multi-Ranged Master: They have an arsenal of cans, gunmen, clay pigeons, and most of all, the gunshots that are based on the NES Zapper that give them some remarkable range.
Nearly Normal Animal: Aside from some obvious cartoony animations, both the dog and the duck are entirely normal.
No Name Given: They are all unnamed.
Odd Friendship: The three get along just fine, despite the duck being hunted for the past 30 years.
Palette Swap: Other dog breeds appear as its, such as a Dalmatian or Rottweiler. The duck also changes color with the dog.
Power Trio: One Dog, One Bird, One Zapper as proven via the reveal trailer. Despite this, the European version refers to the character as Duck Hunt Duo. That version of the trailer is instead called An Unlikely Team.
Retraux: The dog summons the 8-bit Wild Gunmen to attack, and in its Final Smash, it appears in its 8-Bit form and performs its signature snicker as its opponent is riddled with bullets.
Secret Character:
- For 3DS: Beat Classic Mode with 8 different characters or play 110 matches in Smash.
- For Wii U: KO 1 member of the Fighting Mii Team in Cruel Smash or play 100 matches in Smash.
- For Ultimate: Have a Cumulative Wait Time of 9 hours and 10 minutes, beat Classic Mode with Donkey Kong or anyone in his unlock tree eight times, or find and defeat them in World of Light.
Silent Snarker: The duck. It gives an annoyed quack when the dog gets distracted by one of its own taunts, it's just shooting an Aside Glance in the duo's promotional artwork◊…
Slasher Smile: The dog wears a psychotic grin before it kicks an exploding can.
Smug Smiler: It's what we know it for. In general, the dog has a very nonchalant attitude.
Stone Wall: Though they're not exactly heavy characters, their large amount of projectile moves and long recovery give them strong defensive abilities. On the other hand, their ability to knock out their opponents is generally below average.
Shout-Out:
- Their moveset pays tribute to Hogan's Alley and Wild Gunman. The only NES Zapper game missing in the moveset is Gumshoe.
- One of the palette swaps portrays the duck with bright red feathers (a color present in Duck Hunt) and the Dog with dark brown fur, a combination reminiscent of Banjo-Kazooie. It's even used by them in Banjo & Kazooie's first Classic Mode route fight in Ultimate as another acknowledgement.
Troll:
- The dog was already considered this out-of-universe, and in-game, the amount of laughing he does only reaffirms it. It's also the trio's encouraged playstyle, as their best attacks aren't useful at close range, so they're supposed to play keep-away and fill the screen with as many inconveniences as possible until the enemy is at KO percentage.
- In the Banjo-Kazooie reveal trailer for Ultimate, the duck and dog pretend to be them, laughing when Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, and King K. Rool apparently fall for it.
Use Your Head: The duck uses headbutts in some of the duo's attacks. It's surprising how much a little duck's head can hurt.
Wall Jump: Being a quadruped, the dog's ability to do this maneuver is somewhat surprising.

Characters / Super Smash Bros. 4 - 56 to 59

Voiced by: Yuu Kobayashi (Japanese), Laura Bailey (English)

Male Robin voiced by: Yoshimasa Hosoya (Japanese), David Vincent (English)

Female Robin voiced by: Miyuki Sawashiro (Japanese), Lauren Landa (English)

Voiced by: Shintarō Asanuma (Japanese), Adam Howden (English)

Bowser Jr. Voiced by: Caety Sagoian
Larry, Morton, Wendy, and Lemmy Voiced by: Lani Minella
Iggy and Ludwig Voiced by: Mike Vaughn
Roy Voiced by: Dan Falcone

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Characters / Super Smash Bros. 4 - 56 to 59

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Voiced by: Yuu Kobayashi (Japanese), Laura Bailey (English)

Male Robin voiced by: Yoshimasa Hosoya (Japanese), David Vincent (English)

Female Robin voiced by: Miyuki Sawashiro (Japanese), Lauren Landa (English)

Voiced by: Shintarō Asanuma (Japanese), Adam Howden (English)

Bowser Jr. Voiced by: Caety SagoianLarry, Morton, Wendy, and Lemmy Voiced by: Lani MinellaIggy and Ludwig Voiced by: Mike VaughnRoy Voiced by: Dan Falcone

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Bowser Jr. Voiced by: Caety Sagoian
Larry, Morton, Wendy, and Lemmy Voiced by: Lani Minella
Iggy and Ludwig Voiced by: Mike Vaughn
Roy Voiced by: Dan Falcone