This page lists all bosses, whether they be from single-player modes or unique to stages. Note that some may include Late-Arrival Spoilers for their home games.

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Debuting in N64

Giant Donkey Kong

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/01_giantdk.png

Home Series: Donkey Kong

Appears in: N64, Melee, Brawl, Ultimate

Giant Donkey Kong is, well, a giant Donkey Kong, and the first mini-boss of the original's one-player gauntlet. He's so big that when you face him in 1P Mode in the original, you get two CPU allies to help you. In Melee, he shows up as a boss in Adventure Mode, but you don't get any allies. However, in this game he is simply Donkey Kong under the effects of a Super Mushroom. He also appears in a few events in both Melee and Brawl, sometimes as the player character, sometimes as an enemy.

Artificial Stupidity: Fights with him in Jungle Japes tend to be hilariously short due to his tendency to fall through the platforms and self-destruct.
The Bus Came Back: As the Final Boss of Jigglypuff's Classic Mode in Ultimate, the first time since Melee where a fight against him is specifically scripted in a 1P mode.
Demoted to Extra: Super Mushrooms in Melee made him obsolete; as such, in the new random Classic Mode you might fight any character giant-sized. However he still gets a stage all his own in Melee's Adventure mode, which has you fight specific set pieces in a specific order like 64's Classic Mode.
Giant Mook: Fortunately, you get to fight him 3-on-1.
Mighty Glacier: He's big and slow, but he can take tons of damage and hit people from all the way across the screen.
Mini-Boss: In the original's 1P Mode and Melee's Adventure Mode. Notably faced earlier than the other player character-based boss in both games.
Recurring Element: Giant Donkey Kong started the trend of SSB's equivalent of Arcade Mode from other fighters featuring a special battle against a giant version of a character, with up to two characters helping you out.

Metal Mario Bros.

Metal Mario and Metal Luigi

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

Home Series: Super Mario Bros.

Debut: Super Mario 64 [N64], 1996

Appears in: N64, Melee, Ultimate

Metal Mario is the second mini-boss of the original game's 1P Mode. He is very different from Mario, as he is much slower, but can take far more punishment. In Melee, he is once again a mini-boss, this time in Adventure Mode. If certain requirements are fulfilled and Luigi is unlocked, Metal Mario will be joined by his brother Metal Luigi from that point onward. However, the introduction of the Metal Box, which could put any character in a similar state, lowered their importance, and they don't return as bosses in Brawl.

Achilles' Heel: All that heavy steel weighs him down, making it hard for him to stay airborne. Metal Mario will plummet to his doom if you can rack his damage up and launch him off the stage far enough.
Bash Brothers: In Melee, if you've managed to unlock Luigi, Metal Mario will then be joined by his brother Metal Luigi from that point on.
The Bus Came Back: After being absent since Melee, he returns as the Final Boss of Bowser's Classic Mode in Ultimate.
Canon Immigrant: While not really "canon" (he started life simply as a power-up in Super Mario 64), he has appeared in some Mario spin-offs as a separate character from Mario. Mario Kart 7 gives him a distinct, cockier personality from Mario.
Chrome Champion: He is Mario made out of shiny metal, clothes and all.
Damage-Sponge Boss: If you're unable to trick him into falling off the side, beating him by brute force will take a while. He doesn't start to be tossed around easily until you rack up the damage to around 200%.
Demoted to Extra: Metal Boxes in Melee made him obsolete; as such, the final fight in Classic Mode before Master Hand is against any random character metallized. In Brawl and 3DS/Wii U, Classic Mode will randomly set you up with a metal fight at any point in the game. However, he still gets a stage all his own in Melee's Adventure mode, which has you fight specific set pieces in a specific order like 64's Classic Mode. There he's again a boss, and the penultimate one at that. He finally returns as a boss of his own in Ultimate, but only in Bowser's Classic Mode route.
Dual Boss: In Melee's Adventure Mode, if you've unlocked Luigi, a Metal Luigi will assist Metal Mario in fighting you.
Final Boss: The final opponent of Bowser in Ultimate's Classic Mode.
Immune to Flinching: Downplayed. He does flinch some, but his flinches are very small compared to fighters' and it takes a lot more damage to make him flinch that it takes for anything else.
Implacable Man: In 64, he is the series' greatest example of this. He just keeps coming for you no matter what you do, never trying to fake you out or bait you. It doesn't help that he doesn't flinch, and until you've racked his damage up beyond 200%, even Smash Attacks will only serve to knock him back maybe several feet.
Mini-Boss: Like Giant Donkey Kong, though Metal Mario is typically fought much later. In fact, his appearance in the original 1P mode marks the end of facing standard fighters and stages and in Melee's Adventure Mode he, and Metal Luigi once you've unlocked him, are the penultimate bosses of that mode.
Recurring Element: Metal Mario started the trend of SSB's equivalent of Arcade Mode from other fighters featuring a special battle against a metal version of a character in all games until Ultimate.
Stone Wall: The fastest he goes is a brisk walk (unless you are playing on Very Hard), but he's an impressive damage sponge and it takes a lot of damage for him to even flinch compared to Mario himself.
Unskilled, but Strong: On the defensive side of things, anyway; he can take a massive walloping before suffering knockback, but he rarely puts up his shield.

Master Hand

"HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!"

Home Series: Super Smash Bros.

Debut: Super Smash Bros. [N64], 1999

Appears in: N64, Melee, Brawl, 3DS/Wii U, Ultimate

Voiced by: Jeff Manning (original), Dean Harrington (Melee), Pat Cashman (Brawl), Xander Mobus (3DS/Wii U, Ultimate)

A disembodied right hand who acts as the final boss of Classic Mode in all games, and is the creator of the Smash Bros. setting and scenarios. Master Hand makes things from his whims and plays with them to his heart's content.

Ambiguously Evil: The creepy laugh and Final Boss status aside, the only time he did anything really evil was when he was under the influence of two far less Ambiguously Evil entities. His new game mode in Wii U, the "Master Orders" mode, which has Master Hand giving you rewards for completing challenges (along with a big thumbs-up), only further adds to the confusion. This ambiguity fades away near the climax of World of Light, as it is revealed that Galeem imprisoned Master Hand to produce puppet copies of him. Upon being freed from his bonds, Master Hand directly aids the fighters in reaching Galeem and Dharkon — he tears a rift to both of them with Crazy Hand's help, then clears the way of puppet fighters for the real fighters to advance.
The Announcer: Master Hand shares the same voice actor as the announcer in each game, implying that they may be one and the same.
Art Evolution: In 64, you could see the brim of the glove, but from Melee onwards, it just fades into nothingness. In Ultimate, the inside of his glove has a space-like texture to it.
Ascended Glitch: Ultimate pays tribute to a very popular glitch associated with him in Melee by having you play as him late into World of Light.
Badass Finger Snap: His Sm4sh movepool now has this, which doubles as a call-back to the intro of the original. Damage-wise, it's a weak attack, but it can make your fighter dizzy long enough for Master Hand to get in another strike or two. More often than not, Master Hand will open with this. He, along with Crazy Hand, gains a second variant of this in Ultimate which rapidly teleports himself across the stage, although this one is more uncommon.
Bait-and-Switch Boss: Played with in regards to Master Hand, and played straight for Crazy Hand. The usual Dual Boss fight against Master and Crazy Hand in Wii U is this on Intensities above 6.0, where Master Hand transforms into the monstrous Master Core while Crazy Hand exits the stage in a portal of fire once they've taken enough damage.
Bash Brothers: With his opposite number Crazy Hand. This is best emphasized in the fourth game, where their boss intro shows a fist bump between the two. They also gain a lot more combined attacks than in the previous games. The strength of their teamwork is further demonstrated when Master Hand and Crazy Hand combine their strength to destroy the barrier separating Galeem and Dharkhon. Master Hand dives through the rift without Crazy Hand, though this may be due to one of them having to remain behind to hold it open. A further testament to their comradery is what happens before they tear open the rift; you free them one at a time, so whoever is freed first smashes the barrier to form a crack and then waits nearby for the other one, as though their thoughts are in sync even when just breaking free of mind control.
The Berserker: With wide-sweeping, hard-hitting attacks, this is his only possible fighting style when playable via glitch in Melee, which, in a balanced match that avoids Game-Breaking Bugs, is guaranteed to be his downfall, what with his extreme attack lag, inability to move from one spot, and the fact that he's been beaten a million times by even the average player. This is a downgrade from when he's hacked to be playable in 64, where his attacks are quicker, he can move freely, and he's even capable of some short combos. In Ultimate, he takes on 50 puppet fighters by himself near the climax of World of Light, with seven appearing at a time. Master Hand can make use of several large-range vicious attacks to assault all the fighters on stage at once without giving them room to retaliate.
Big Bad: Of Classic Mode, and more or less the entire series. His role as the Big Bad is sometimes used to reinforce the strength of new enemies, like Tabuu or Galeem. In World of Light, this is subverted in the climax, during which he ends up being a Big Good along with Crazy Hand, opening the path that finally allows the fighters to defeat Galeem and Dharkon.
Big Bad Duumvirate: With Crazy Hand starting from Melee.
Boss Remix: The fourth game gives Master Hand (and Crazy Hand) his own boss music. While rooted in the game's main theme much like the normal Final Destination music, this version goes for hard rock. Epic guitar riffs abound.
Canon Immigrant: Appeared in Kirby & the Amazing Mirror as a mini-boss and later as a Dual Boss with Crazy Hand in the ninth level, Candy Constellation. They both attacked like Master Hand rather than having the variation they show in Smash (with Crazy Hand appearing as a sprite-flipped Master Hand instead of having his usual finger spasms), though.
Combination Attack: Three, with Crazy Hand: clapping, the "fist in palm" gesture, and a fist bump. Sm4sh adds a couple more, the first of which involved smacking energy balls back and forth.
Counter-Attack: Brawl gives him a dismissive finger flick.
Covered in Gunge: In Ultimate, Master Hand gains a new attack where he creates a ball of ink, covering the player and camera in it.
Death Dealer: In the fourth game, he will flick several cards down on the ground, which rise up a moment after. While they don't deal damage, they can carry a fighter all the way off the screen, automatically KOing them.
The Dog Bites Back:
- After Ganondorf ended up freeing Master Hand from its... puppeteer strings of Tabuu, Master Hand's immediate action upon being freed is attempting to punch out Tabuu.
- Similarly, when freed from Galeem's control alongside his twin, the true Master Hand goes on a vicious spree and clears the way to help the fighters access Galeem and Dharkon.
Expy: Most of his and Crazy Hand's designs and movesets come from Wham Bam Rock, a boss from Kirby Super Star who fights with Giant Hands of Doom. Come Super Star Ultra, these traits would be used as the basis for Wham Bam Rock's Underground Monkey counterpart, Wham Bam Jewel.
Evil Laugh: Gives out an impressive laugh when he appears to fight the player.
Family-Unfriendly Violence: In The Subspace Emissary, after it's revealed that Tabuu is controlling him, he breaks out of the puppet chains and attacks Tabuu, only to be knocked back. Afterwards, he bears scorch marks that are deliberately framed to look like blood stains on his fingers where the chains were attached. This isn't too surprising coming from the creator of the Kirby series, which has its own share of that.
The Fettered: This is heavily implied by the differences between Classic Mode and World of Light. In Classic, he's always a challenging fight, but he always battles fairly and boasts a reasonable amount of HP for the difficulty level^note. In World of Light, however, when you take control of him, you end up with over twice as much HP as he's ever had in the series and can clean house with a variety of powerful attacks that do far more damage to the enemies than he ever does to you as a playable character. This all implies he's simply interested in testing your character's strength in Classic, and if he really wanted to, he could be far more powerful against you.
Final Boss: He's the final opponent of 1P Mode in the original, and has reprised this role for Classic Mode from Melee and onward. Should you fulfill certain requirements, he becomes a Dual Boss with Crazy Hand, or transform further into the monstrous Master Core. In Ultimate, he's a recurring one for most of the roster's Classic Mode runs.
Finger Gun: One that actually shoots bullets — his signature attack. From Melee onward, they can also fire laser beams. The guns can also fire thrice when Master Hand is low on HP. This is his Standard Special as a playable character in Ultimate.
Finger Wag: In Master Orders for the Wii U version; should you fail a ticket, he does this as the prize chest vanishes.
Fusion Dance: Although downplayed, he and Crazy Hand can combine to form the dog shadow puppet gesture in Ultimate, using it to "bark" three times like a dog. The first two "barks" produce small, minor damage dealing waves, whereas the third "bark" produces a larger wave that can stun your character.
Giant Hands of Doom: Giant glove of doom, in this case.
Giving Someone the Pointer Finger: His solo introduction in 3DS.
The Gloves Come Off: Pun not intended; in Ultimate, he dives into a rift he and Crazy opened in the barrier separating Galeem and Dharkon to clear the way for the heroes. He goes up against 50 Puppet Fighters at once^note and cleans house, implying he normally holds back a lot against the fighters in his boss fights.
Hammered into the Ground: Can do this from Melee onward.
Handshake Substitute: He gives a fist bump to Crazy Hand before both are fought in 3DS/Wii U.
Hit Points: The first character in the series to have these. Instead of building up his knockback percentage, you whittle down these points, and at zero, he will immediately fly off the stage with lots of explosions.
Hoist by His Own Petard: One of his attacks in Ultimate has him draw a small line on the floor which then turns into a deadly bed of spikes. If you manage to get him to slam downwards into it, it'll deal heavy damage to him, stun him and destroy the spikes.
I Am Not Left-Handed: Never mind the fact that he's (literally) a disembodied right hand. Ahem! It's implied that he's holding back his true strength in Brawl. In the next installment, we get to see what happens when Master Hand dials it up further through his Master Core forms. The possibility that he normally holds back during boss fights is all but confirmed in Ultimate before the climax of World of Light, where he alone is able to defeat 50 puppet fighters on his own, with seven attacking at a time — and that's without the extra power that comes with him working with Crazy Hand.
Interface Screw:
- One of his new attacks in Ultimate has him throw three paint balloons which cover the screen in cyan paint if they hit his opponent.
- Also in Ultimate, if Crazy Hand is present, he'll make a picture frame shape with him which temporarily zooms the screen in, like the new mechanic featured in Sudden Death.
Let's Fight Like Gentlemen: Implied to an extent from the way he holds back against the Fighters. While he does use some dirty tactics in combat, so do some of the fighters, so that's all fair there. The fact he holds back normally when fighting them seems to be for the sake of both sides having fun with the battle. After all, a one-sided confrontation in an arranged fight is no fun for anyone.
Lightning Bruiser: In 64. You have to hack him playable to see it, though, as in normal play, he just moves in slow boss patterns. He speeds up a fair amount in later games, particularly in Ultimate, and especially in his playable segment, in which he can move fairly quickly and can spam many of his powerful attacks to your heart's content.
The Man Behind the Man: When he's first seen in The Subspace Emissary, he seems to be Ganondorf's master. Later, we learn he's being involuntarily controlled by Tabuu.
One-Man Army: Demonstrated in Ultimate. After being freed from his mind control along with Crazy Hand, Master Hand ends up having to take on an army of 50 Clone Fighters that are coming for the real ones. Even with them attacking him seven at a time and consecutively replacing one another, the puppets not attacking those from the opposite faction as usual, and without his brother Crazy Hand to back him up as he frequently does against the true fighters, Master Hand still wins.
One-Winged Angel: If defeated under certain conditions in 3DS/Wii U, he transforms into the monstrous Master Core.
Original Generation: In the first game, he created the Super Smash Bros. setting by pulling toys out of a box, placing them on tabletops then snapping his fingers, bringing the toys to life and changing the tables into video game representations.
Pals with Jesus: This is implied to be his relationship with those he animates as fighters in his world. It's no secret Master Hand created the Smash Bros. reality, but despite always awaiting at Final Destination as the final contestant and hamming up the antagonist designation, the events of World of Light in Ultimate seem to indicate that he is holding back in these battles, simply testing the strength of the challenger, and is otherwise a sort of benevolent god to the rest of them, having created the world for them to fight in and fighting furiously on their side against the likes of Galeem and Dharkon when freed from mind control.
Promoted to Playable: After years of invoking this trope thanks to glitches and hacks, Master Hand is at last officially playable, right near the end of World of Light, where he faces off against 50 light and dark versions of the regular fighters to clear a path for the actual fighters to advance to the final battle.
Reality Warper: It's strongly implied (and outright shown in the first game) that he's responsible for animating the dolls/trophies to fight each other, and his home course is Final Destination, a battlefield that can travel between worlds, imaginary and otherwise. In World of Light, he takes this a step further by working with Crazy Hand to tear a rift through the barrier separating Galeem and Dharkon, two Reality Warpers in their own right.
Recurring Boss: In World of Light, second only to his brother with four possible battles. In World of Light, you fight one on the path to Galeem, and there are two more fights available in the Final Battle area.
Reflecting Laser: One of his new attacks in Ultimate is to produce several mirrors and fire a laser that bounces between them.
Rings of Death: He can throw a pair of rings in Ultimate, which sometimes has a boomerang effect.
Shock and Awe: A new attack he can perform with Crazy Hand in Ultimate is to rub each other to create Static Electricity and slam onto the battlefield. He also uses this with Crazy Hand to break a hole in reality in World of Light.
Spike Balls of Doom: One of his new attacks in Ultimate has him bowling spiked balls that roll or bounce across the stage.
This Is a Drill: His drill fingers attack.
This Banana is Armed: He can shoot bullets from his fingers.
Took a Level in Badass: The 3DS/U version retooled Master Hand, removing some of his former attacks, but making him faster and giving him new attacks, and altering some of his existing ones. He also got new combination attacks with Crazy Hand too. Taken to an extreme in Ultimate, where he not only tears through the barrier between Galeem and Dharkon with the aid of Crazy Hand, but dives through the rift to fight against an army of 50 puppet fighters by himself and wins. If he and Crazy Hand used that kind of power in Classic Mode, no single fighter would stand a chance.
True Final Boss:
- If you clear enough tickets in the Crazy Orders mode before fighting Crazy Hand, Master Hand will be fought alongside Crazy Hand.
- In Classic Mode in Ultimate, Master Hand teams up with Crazy Hand on higher difficulties^note and vice versa.
The Unfought: Though he appears in the storyline of The Subspace Emissary, the player does not fight him in that mode. He's just a puppet of the real final boss, Tabuu.
Villain Forgot to Level Grind: The introduction of the side dodge and air dodge make him much easier to deal with from Melee onward. To counter this, Master Hand can now team up with Crazy Hand.
White Gloves: The trophy says that even though he is a cleanly kept glove, he fights dirty.
Willfully Weak: After waking up and creating a path to Galeem and Dharkon with Crazy Hand, Master Hand goes on a rampage and takes down an army of 50 Clone Fighters while they're fighting seven-on-one. Given that he normally can be defeated by a single fighter, this strongly implies that he lets them win in such instances. Also, his HP in this battle is over twice as much as his HP as a boss, indicating that when he goes down during such fights, he still has stamina to spare. Additionally, his combat abilities are low enough when under Galeem's control that he is able to be freed by a single Fighter, suggesting he was actively resisting Galeem's mind control enough that his full power wasn't available for Galeem to use. The Fighters are very fortunate that Master Hand tends to hold back against them.

Debuting in Melee

Crazy Hand

"GAAH-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!"

Home Series: Super Smash Bros.

Debut: Super Smash Bros. Melee [GCN], 2001

Appears in: Melee, Brawl, 3DS/Wii U, Ultimate

Voiced by: Dean Harrington (Melee), Pat Cashman (Brawl), Xander Mobus (3DS/Wii U, Ultimate)

The left hand to Master Hand's right, typically appearing alongside Master Hand at higher difficulties since Melee. In contrast to Master Hand’s steady hand and desire for creation, Crazy Hand flails around erratically and wants only destruction. Despite their differences, however, the hands seem to get along just fine.

Ambiguously Evil: The fact that Master Hand — the World of Trophies' "creative force" — works with him suggests that Crazy Hand's role as the "destructive force" is merely a job to him, rather than indicative of his moral alignment. This is further supported in Ultimate, where Crazy Hand works with Master Hand to tear a rift through the barrier separating Galeem and Dharkon, though this may be a case of Crazy Hand putting its urges aside to confront a much more dangerous mutual threat.
Ascended Extra: Crazy Hand compared to 3DS/Wii U is a downplayed example, but now in addition to retaining his final boss status in Classic Mode, he has several solo boss battles in Adventure Mode. In some specific routes of Classic Mode, there will be some characters who will always fight the duo and two characters (Falco and Ken) will only fight Crazy Hand on lower difficulties.
Ax-Crazy: If him Laughing Mad and his rather jittery movements don't tip you off, his fighting style will; he's sporadic, reckless, and violent in his attacks in contrast to Master Hand.
Badass Finger Snap: Along with Master Hand, he can snap-teleport in Ultimate.
Bait-and-Switch Boss: Played with in regards to Master Hand, and played straight for Crazy Hand. The usual Dual Boss fight against Master and Crazy Hand is this on Intensities above 5.0, where Master Hand transforms into the monstrous Master Core while Crazy Hand exits the stage once they've taken enough damage.
Bash Brothers: Often seen with Master Hand and does combination attacks with him. He and Master Hand gain far more combination tactics in Ultimate, and are able to alternate more seamlessly between solo and team attacks. Furthermore, in World of Light, he combines his power with Master Hand's to open a rift through the barrier separating Galeem and Dharkon. However, Master Hand dives through the rift without Crazy Hand and fights a puppet army by himself. Crazy Hand may have stayed behind to hold open the rift, or simply felt it was not necessary to help Master Hand, given the latter's triumph over the army.
Big Bad Duumvirate: With Master Hand in Classic Mode. In Ultimate, this is subverted during World of Light, with them serving as a Big Good duo, providing the final help needed for the fighters to take on the true Big Bad Duumvirate — Galeem and Dharkon.
Bootstrapped Leitmotif: When faced in Brawl's Boss Battles mode, Crazy Hand receives Giga Bowser's theme from the previous game, mirroring the use of the Melee Final Destination music for the battle with Master Hand.
Bring It: He does a motion like this when you select the option to fight him in Crazy Orders.
Canon Immigrant: Appears in Kirby & the Amazing Mirror as a Dual Boss with Master Hand again. It would be more accurate to call them two Master Hands, though, as it lacks all of Crazy's unique moves and animations, and two of the double team maneuvers.
Casting a Shadow: Can invoke darkness with some of his attacks. His repertoire of darkness-based attacks have increased in the 3DS/Wii U version.
Chekhov M.I.A.: In Ultimate, he's conspicuously absent in the first half of "World of Light" where Galeem has a massive army of Master Hand clones, yet none of them are copies of Crazy Hand. After Galeem's initial defeat, it's revealed that Dharkon's personal army is of Crazy Hand clones instead.
Combination Attack: Has several of them with Master Hand. See Master Hand's entry above.
Confusion Fu: Is very confusing compared to Master Hand due to his erratic animations, especially when using his own versions of Master Hand's moves.
Deadly Gaze: One new attack in Ultimate has Crazy Hand make an 'O' shape and projects an image of an eye in it. It constantly follows you until it creates a dark spotlight on you. You can avoid it by dodging at the exact moment.
Demoted to Extra: He loses his status as the True Final Boss to Master Core in the 3DS version, where Crazy Hand may only be fought in his entirety on intensities 3.0 to 5.0 on the optional path at the end of Classic mode. Any higher intensity on that route leads to Master Core hijacking the fight, while Crazy Hand abandons ship. It's the same deal with the Wii U version, but he gets compensation as the host and boss of his very own game mode, Crazy Orders.
The Dog Bites Back: When the true Crazy Hand is freed from Dharkon's control, he and Master Hand help the fighters access Galeem and Dharkon by tearing a rift through the barrier that separates them — allowing Master Hand to dive through and finish off the puppet army so the fighters may face the final battle uninterrupted.
Evil Laugh: And an erratic one at that, reflecting his more chaotic persona.
Evil Sounds Deep: In Melee, his laugh is identical to Master Hand's, albeit disorderly and irregular, but starting in Brawl, Crazy Hand receives a higher-pitched cackle to better suit his instability.
Final Boss: Of the Crazy Orders mode in the U version, which he hosts. To end it and get the loot you've earned from that mode, you must first fight and defeat Crazy Hand. He's also this on higher difficulties together with Master Hand if certain conditions are met, though the 3DS/Wii U versions simplify and/or do away with these requirements so long as you're playing on a high enough Intensity. In Ultimate, Crazy Hand serves as the sole final boss for Ken's route in Classic Mode.
Fire, Ice, Lightning: His three poke attack, though the "fire" part is actually "darkness". No longer applies in the 3DS/Wii U version, as he lost the three poke attack.
Giant Hands of Doom: Master Hand's left.
Giving Someone the Pointer Finger: In Ultimate, Crazy Hand will sometimes pull himself back as if he was about to point, then his finger extends to directly hit the player. If it connects, it'll deal damage and freeze the player.
Green Thumb: His grab move leaves behind a flower. His dimension-tearing move will also leave behind a flower if you get caught in it.
Handshake Substitute: He gives a fist bump to Master Hand before both are fought.
Laughing Mad: His laughter is more deranged sounding in accordance with his name.
Nervous Tics: Unlike Master Hand, who calmly "drums" his fingers on the air, Crazy Hand is constantly twitching his fingers and flexing his palm.
Orbiting Particle Shield: A new attack in Ultimate has him producing five blue fireballs that circle around him, which spread outwards, then back inwards, then outwards again.
Original Generation: The destructive spirit to Master Hand's creative one.
Out of Focus: In contrast to his right-handed counterpart, Crazy Hand doesn’t have nearly as strong of a presence in the Smash games. Notably, he's completely absent from the Subspace Emissary despite his brother's prominence in that story, and the player often has to work extra hard to be able to encounter him with Master Hand in Classic Mode.
- Ultimately downplayed in World of Light. While Crazy Hand still ends up overshadowed by his brother due to being unplayable, he makes up for it by being the most-fought boss in the entire mode, being fought three times in the Dark Realm, plus two more in the final map. He also becomes the most recurring of bosses alongside his brother throughout Ultimate's Classic Mode, so he's at least getting more recognition than before.
Playing Tennis with the Boss: A new attack in the Wii U game. Although, he actually ends up playing with Master Hand, instead of the player.
Reality Warper: As Master Hand's opposite and equal, he's this. Shown most prominently in the 3DS/Wii U version where one of his new attacks is to tear open a rift to another dimension that sucks your fighter in, launching them out afterwards. In Ultimate, these abilities are shown to be strong enough that by combining his power with Master Hand, the duo are able to overcome the barrier separating Galeem and Dharkon — two universal-scale Reality Warpers in their own right.
Recurring Boss: In the World of Light mode, he is fought the most out of all of the bosses. While each of the main bosses get a main fight and a refight before the True Final Boss, Crazy Hand gets five battles.
Rolling Attack: He sometimes seems to have muscle spasms on the Final Destination, and you had best avoid him when he does.
Screw This, I'm Outta Here: In 3DS/Wii U, on the intensities where Master Core is fought, Crazy Hand simply leaves the fight while Master Hand unleashes the Swarm from his glove.
A Sinister Clue: Taken to its Logical Extreme, as he's literally a left hand.
Sword Plant: One of his new attacks in the 3DS/Wii U version is to plant lasers into the ground to severely limit horizontal mobility, and which explode a while later. He can (and most certainly will) combo this with Master Hand's rising cards, which further increases their deadliness.
This Is a Drill: His drill fingers attack.
Throw Down the Bomblet: In place of the bullets, he drops a bunch of explosives in a piano playing gesture.
Took a Level in Badass: He was retooled in 3DS/U, losing some of his earlier attacks, but was made faster and has many new attacks, while some of his existing attacks were altered, making him as threatening (or even more threatening) as he was in Melee. In World of Light, he is able to overcome the barrier generated by Galeem and Dharkon with the help of Master Hand — an impressive feat given that just Galeem alone had enough power to wipe out every character in the universe with his own powers.
True Final Boss: He can typically only be fought when certain criteria are fulfilled during singleplayer modes.
- In Melee's Classic Mode, he appears on Normal difficulty or higher if you deplete Master Hand's health to half his HP within a certain amount of time.
- In Brawl's Classic Mode, he appears at the beginning with Master Hand on Hard difficulty or higher should the previous battles be completed under a certain time.
- For the fourth game on 3DS, he appears at the start with Master Hand if you pick the harder difficulty path, though it only appears on 3.0 and above, though he is also (initially) mandatory if the intensity is set to 8.0 or higher.
  - Averted in the Wii U version; he's always met together with Master Hand if the difficulty is set to 3.0 or higher.
Unrealistic Black Hole: One of his new attacks in Ultimate is to create a small black hole that hovers by itself. He can create two when his health is low.
White Gloves: Just like Master Hand, he is a white glove.
Willfully Weak: Implied by the events of World of Light. Crazy Hand is meant to be an equal and opposite counterpart to Master Hand, who himself was able to defeat an army of 50 Clone Fighters even when they ganged up on him seven-to-one. Yet, the actual Crazy Hand is able to be defeated and freed by a single fighter, implying he was actively resisting Dharkon's mind control enough that his full power wasn't available for Dharkon to use. If this weren't the case, Crazy Hand may have taken out most of the actual fighters himself once sent after them.

Giga Bowser

Giga Bowser (Giga Koopa)

Home Series: Super Smash Bros. ^note

Debut: Super Smash Bros. Melee [GCN], 2001

Appears in: Melee, Brawl, 3DS/Wii U, Ultimate

A hulking and monstrous version of Bowser, Giga Bowser is the True Final Boss in Melee's Adventure Mode, only appearing on certain difficulties and if you beat it within a certain time. With Brawl onward, he becomes the Koopa King's Final Smash, giving Bowser added power and elemental effects for a brief period of time. In Ultimate, Giga Bowser grows to gargantuan size and appears in the background to punch any unlucky fighters into a Screen K.O. In addition, he reprises his role as a boss in both Classic Mode and World of Light.

Alternate Self: Zig-zagged; during World of Light, beating him the first time unlocks Bowser, making it clear he's the playable one controlled. However, in the boss rush on the final stage, another Giga Bowser has to be beaten, similar to the Ganon and Ganondorf situation.
Art Evolution: In Ultimate, Giga Bowser now retains the color scheme of normal Bowser, verse a darker, greenish tone in previous games.
Artificial Stupidity: In Ultimate, Pac-Man's fire hydrants seem to mess with Giga Bowser's AI, leading to him trying to dash or jumping after using a Flying Slam. It can also, in a spectacularly confusing move, cause him to KO himself.
Background Boss: Albeit as a playable fighter. In Ultimate, he attacks from behind, like giant Baby Bowser in Yoshi's Island.
Boss Remix: Giga Bowser's theme in Melee and Ultimate is a distorted version of the regular Final Destination music (which was already a remix of the first game's credits theme).
Call-Back:
- Regular Bowser's stance and moveset got considerable overhauls in the jump from Brawl to 3DS/Wii U. However, Giga Bowser retains the more feral moveset and mannerisms from the previous games.
- Giga Bowser's appearance as a boss in Ultimate's Classic Mode starts off as a fight against regular Bowser, until he transforms into Giga Bowser, just like in Melee's Adventure Mode.
Camera Abuse: As a Final Smash in Ultimate, Giga Bowser's punch will send opponents flying into the screen if the conditions for its One-Hit Kill potential are met.
Casting a Shadow: Some of his attacks use this element.
Defeat Means Friendship: Becomes an equippable Spirit if beaten in World of Light. Beating him in World of Light also makes Bowser playable, unlike Ganon with Ganondorf.
Divergent Character Evolution: In the fourth game, Bowser has undergone an Anthropomorphic Shift, changing the animations and properties of his regular attacks. Meanwhile, Giga Bowser still uses the old bestial animations from Melee. He is still part of Bowser's Final Smash in Ultimate, but is utilized more akin to the fully assembled Dragoon unlike in Brawl and 3DS/Wii U. However, he does appear as a final boss in Classic Mode just like he did in Melee's Adventure Mode.
Dual Boss: He's one of the opponents faced within Melee's final Event Match, alongside both Mewtwo and Ganondorf.
Final Boss: He's Mario and Captain Falcon's final opponent in Classic Mode in Ultimate, following the defeat of regular Bowser. Unlike Melee, the player only needs to reduce his health to zero instead of sending him flying off the stage.
Fire, Ice, Lightning: His three smash attacks: forward smash, up smash, and down smash utilize Fire, Lightning, and Ice respectively. A couple of his other attacks utilize fire and lightning too.
Foreshadowing: The part of his scene in Adventure Mode where the lightning bolt strikes down on Bowser's trophy was actually briefly seen in Melee's opening movie, showing Mario, Yoshi, and Peach witnessing the event.
Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: An odd case for Melee, as while he appears in the game's final Event Match, the requirements for unlocking said battle don't include having defeated Giga Bowser before. This can lead to the player not having seen him prior to unlocking the match, and have him suddenly appear within it with zero fanfare or explanation. Beating the event doesn't even unlock his trophy, leading to even more confusion until the player battles him at the end of Adventure Mode.
Immune to Flinching:
- In Melee, it's downplayed — he can flinch and be launched, but it requires him to be at a much higher damage percentage than any other fighter in the game.
- As a Final Smash in Brawl and 3DS/Wii U, it's played completely straight.
- In Ultimate, it's downplayed, but only very slightly; as the move in question needs to be incredibly powerful in order to make him flinch, such as Cloud's Limit Break or countering one of his stronger moves (which is more doable on higher difficulties). Amusingly, it's possible to launch him with attacks that have exceptionally high knockback.
Implacable Man: As mentioned above, his Melee incarnation is ridiculously durable, requiring almost 300% damage just for most attacks to make him flinch. And in games beyond that (with the exception of Ultimate in some very specific circumstances), he doesn't flinch at all.
Limit Break: He appears as Bowser's Final Smash from Brawl onward.
Mighty Glacier: In Ultimate, he's noticeably slow, but his attacks pack a mighty punch.
Mirror Character: In "World of Light", he is the Galeem-aligned counterpart to Dharkon's Ganon, being a One-Winged Angel form of a character created by Shigeru Miyamoto.
Moveset Clone: In Melee, Giga Bowser appears as a separate character, but then becomes Bowser's Final Smash from Brawl on. In the fourth game, he still shares regular Bowser's specials, but not his regular attacks. In Ultimate, he's streamlined to no longer use Bowser's moveset at all, although he does as a boss.
One-Hit Kill: As a Final Smash in Ultimate, foes will be instantly KO'ed with no chance to escape should their damage percentage be high enough prior to Giga Bowser punching them.
One-Winged Angel: When you unlock the chance to fight him in Melee's Adventure Mode. Instead of ending with just Bowser's trophy falling off of Final Destination, it levitates back onto the stage where a bolt of lightning strikes the trophy, after which the trophy slowly starts cracking pieces off like a shell until Giga Bowser's face is revealed. In Ultimate, Bowser becomes engulfed in dark energy before transforming into Giga Bowser.
Original Generation: Even though he's technically Bowser, Giga Bowser is considered part of the Super Smash Bros. series, as this form was created specifically for the Smash Bros. series. His damage meter icon in Melee was the Smash Bros. logo instead of the mushroom icon for Mario characters, and his spirit in Ultimate is also listed under the Smash Bros. series as opposed to the other Bowser spirits that are listed under the Mario series.
Primal Stance: Giga Bowser always walks hunched over, much like Bowser did until 3DS/Wii U.
Promoted to Playable: Sort of. While Giga Bowser isn't a fully playable character like the other fighters, Bowser can briefly transform into him after breaking a Smash Ball from Brawl onwards. Giga Bowser uses Bowser's full moveset in Brawl and 3DS/Wii U, whereas in Ultimate, he merely moves to the stage background to punch opponents for a screen KO or instant KO.
SNK Boss: Downplayed in Melee; while he was made to be one (namely, greater attack reach, larger hitboxes, immune to grabs, unbreakable shields, recovery moves covering far greater distance than normal and his attacks having extra effects stacked on to improve their effectiveness), his AI can be exploited, meaning that skilled players can take him down if they know what they're doing.
True Final Boss: Of Melee's Adventure Mode if the player reaches Final Destination on Normal or harder in under 18 minutes. Additionally, he appears (alongside both Mewtwo and Ganondorf) in the game's final Event Match, "The Showdown", which is notable as the requirements for unlocking said battle include beating every other Event Match in the game — including the 50th one, which involves fighting both Master Hand and Crazy Hand, which can be read as Giga Bowser being considered the absolute final boss of the game as a whole.
Your Size May Vary: In Ultimate, the Giga Bowser used in Bowser's Final Smash is so massive he's bigger than some of the stages. The Giga Bowser used as a boss in Classic Mode, however, is closer to his size in previous games.

Debuting in Brawl

Petey Piranha

Petey Piranha (Boss Packun)

Home Series: Super Mario Bros.

Debut: Super Mario Sunshine [GCN], 2002

Appears in: Brawl, Ultimate

A giant, mutated Piranha Plant and one of Bowser's strongest and most prominent minions. In Subspace, Petey manages to capture Zelda and Peach in cages, forcing the player to save one of them as Kirby.

After skipping out on the fourth game, Petey returns in Ultimate as Piranha Plant's Final Smash.

Adaptational Superpower Change: Ultimate gives Petey the ability to breathe fire. While fire is a common power for most Piranha Plants, this isn't the case with Petey, who normally spits toxic goop instead.
Battle Theme Music: A remix of the Airship theme from Super Mario Bros. 3 plays during his battle in Brawl.
Boss-Altering Consequence: Whichever cage you break first will determine which princess will be saved and which will be kidnapped, and affects later cutscenes involving the princesses and the protagonists of their respective franchises.
The Bus Came Back: He was completely absent from the fourth game, but Ultimate brought him back as Piranha Plant's Final Smash, still using his cages to attack.
Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: He went to from being a boss in Brawl to being completely absent in the next installment. The only trace of him are unused animations; not even a model of him appeared in any form. However, The Bus Came Back in Ultimate, where he serves as Piranha Plant's Final Smash.
Death from Above: One of his attacks is to jump into the air and try to crush the player upon landing.
Defeat Means Friendship: Slightly more extreme than other examples on this page: Petey can be obtained as not one, but two different Spirits in Ultimate ^note. Subverted on the one based on his default appearance, though, which is obtained by Enhancing the Nipper Plant Spirit.
Dual Wielding: Sweeps around with two cages.
Eyeless Face: Yet it does not seem to hinder him at all.
Feather Fingers: Leaf fingers? He is able to grab and apparently close cages with those leaf edges.
* Grievous Harm with a Body: He attacks the player with cages containing the captive Peach and Zelda in his boss battle.
Improbable Weapon User: Uses two cages for most of his attacks.
Limit Break: Appears as Piranha Plant's Final Smash in Ultimate.
Monster Modesty: His Goofy Print Underwear.
Mutants: While his trophy makes no mention of it, several bios in his home series mention he's a mutated Pirahna Plant. In Super Mario Sunshine, Isle Delfino had some kind of pollution that had mutated version of Mario enemies coming out of it and Petey spit the stuff out.
Plant Person: He's a giant humanoid Piranha Plant from Super Mario Bros.
Roar Before Beating: To Kirby, who's the only remaining fighter in the stadium after he catches Peach and Zelda while the Halberd shoots off Mario.
Sadistic Choice: Petey forces Kirby through one when he captures Peach and Zelda. Whoever Kirby chooses to save, the one who doesn't get saved ends up captured and turned into a trophy by Wario. If Kirby tries to Take a Third Option by only attacking Petey directly (which damages both cages equally), the princess' situations are chosen at random.
Took a Level in Badass: In looks and voice, at least. Unlike the cartoonish voice he has in most Mario games, Petey has a pretty scary roar in Brawl.
Turns Red: When either of the cages goes down to half HP, Petey will glow red momentarily and speed up his attacks.
Villainous Breakdown: He briefly snaps before turning red.
Warm-Up Boss: The first boss and the most simplistic boss of The Subspace Emissary.

Rayquaza

Home Series: Pokémon

Debut: Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire [GBA], 2002

Appears in: Brawl

Voiced by: Katsuyuki Konishi

The Sky High Pokémon and leader of the Weather Trio from Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, living in the stratosphere and only coming down to quell the quarreling Groudon and Kyogre. It appears in The Subspace Emissary, where it attacks Fox and Diddy Kong because they got too close to the lake it was residing in. It reappears in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U as a stage hazard in the Kalos Pokémon League stage where it flies around, doing electrified corkscrews in the Dragonmark Chamber.

One-Hit KO: Subverted. It looks like it went down in one hit from being struck by a reflected attack in a cutscene, but as soon as said cutscene ends, the Boss Battle starts.
Adaptational Villainy: In its home series, it minds its own business unless directly challenged and actually helps resolve a crisis that would have resulted in The End of the World as We Know It. In The Subspace Emissary, it attacks Diddy Kong just because he got too close to the lake it was residing in.
Adaptational Wimp: Originally one of the most powerful Legendaries in the Pokémon World, to the point where it is banned in official tournaments and Battle Facilities in its home series. It gets beaten by an anthropomorphic fox and a monkey with a peanut gun.
Battle Theme Music: A remix of "Victory Road" from Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire plays during its battle in Brawl.
Bullfight Boss: During its boss fight, one of its attacks is charging across the screen.
Damage-Sponge Boss: Analysis of Brawl's code reveals that while it technically has lower health than later bosses, its battery of resistances gives the impression of a high health bar. The only attack type that it does not resist are ice-type attacks, but with there being very few ice attacks in the game, this weakness can rarely be exploited.
Defeat Means Friendship: Appears as an obtainable Spirit in Ultimate.
Demoted to Extra: It goes from being a boss in Brawl to a mere stage hazard in Wii U's Kalos Pokémon League. It retains that demoted status in Ultimate, keeping its role in the Kalos Pokémon League stage while also being a Spirit.
Energy Ball: Used one in a cutscene and another kind when the player(s) fight it.
Flight: Its secondary type is Flying, much like Charizard's, and as a boss its aerial mobility not nearly as limited.
Gameplay and Story Segregation: Unlike in Pokémon proper, it doesn't take extra damage from ice attacks (which should be quite damaging to a Dragon/Flying type, which would take quadruple the damage). Even more oddly, it doesn't resist darkness attacks from characters like Ganondorf, when in its home series, it takes neutral damage from Dark-type attacks.
Garnishing the Story: Probably the reason it even appears is for the chance to fight a sky dragon.
Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: It is not a villain or known for being antagonistic to any playable character, and it is found far from its supposed native habitat attacking for unclear reasons.
Glowing Eyes of Doom: When it uses Focus Blast, its eyes flash and glow for a moment.
Harmless Electrocution: One of its attacks involves shocking you with a pillar of lightning from the sky to deal damage. It doesn't have any knockback outside of lifting you off of the ground slightly when you get hit and doesn't cause any flinching.
Lone Wolf Boss: It's not part of the Subspace Army at all, and fights the heroes because they're invading its territory.
Misplaced Wildlife: Appears out of a lake like it's some sort of water monster. It's supposed to live in the ozone layer.
No Biological Sex: Like most Legendary Pokémon, it's genderless.
Olympus Mons: The Legendary Pokémon that rules the skies, revered since ancient times in the Hoenn region, and the only individual able to stop the titanic conflict between Groudon and Kyogre.
Our Dragons Are Different: Its design is based on eastern dragons.
Out of Character: Appears in an antagonistic capacity, resides in a lake, uses a move (Dig) it can't learn in its home franchise, is not affected by Limited Move Arsenal, and doesn't put up much of a fight despite being an Olympus Mon.
Roar Before Beating: It always starts out with a roar when fought, and in its introductory cutscene it roars before shooting off its energy attacks.
Shock and Awe: Employs use of several lightning attacks.
Spin Attack: When Rayquaza uses Iron Tail, it spins its whole body like a top.
Tail Slap: Knows Iron Tail. It's the only physical attack that keeps it in the same place.
Tron Lines: In this case, they are invoking the movement of fluid.
Wake-Up Call Boss: In contrast with Petey Piranha, who was a simple boss with only two attacks, Rayquaza is the first boss to be a challenge, having a larger variety of attacks and a massive battery of resistances, and it has a notable speed boost on higher difficulties.

Porky

Porky Minch

Home Series: EarthBound

Debut: EarthBound [SNES], 1994^note

Appears in: Brawl

The bratty next-door neighbor of Ness in EarthBound, who later becomes an unlikely servant of Giygas. He later serves as the main antagonist of Mother 3 (which this appearance is based on), becoming the founder and leader of the Pigmask Army and one of the generals of the Subspace Army, encountered by Ness and Lucas in The Ruined Zoo. Despite his time-traveling shenanigans turning him into an immortal, Really 700 Years Old mastermind, he still acts like the same Spoiled Brat who lived in Onett.

Adaptational Karma: He gets beaten up here, whereas in Mother 3, he got off well all things considered, just sealed inside of the indestructible Absolutely Safe Capsule, which he didn’t seem to understand couldn’t be reopened once used.
Advancing Wall of Doom: Before his fight, he stalks Lucas from within the Pig King statue.
Battle Theme Music: "Porky's Theme" plays during his battle.
Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: He doesn't appear at all in Ultimate^note, not even as a spirit. The closest thing we get is the Absolutely Safe Capsule, the indestructible and inescapable capsule that Porky seals himself inside at the end of Mother 3, as a spirit. However, the Capsule's spirit uses the sprite for when it is empty.
Collision Damage: Has two attacks where he hurts the player just by walking into them; the one where he hops, and the one where he charges are extremely strong and dangerous.
Death from Above: Jumps up and tries to land on the player. If his health is depleted while he initiates this move, the sound of his machine breaking down will be heard, but he will then jump anyway, possibly damaging the player one last time before collapsing.
Demoted to Extra: Went from being a boss in Brawl to a mere item in Wii U's Smash Tour mode.
- While the other bosses in Subspace were this somewhat compared to their home series, Porky in particular goes from being the main villain of Mother 3 to an early boss with only a couple minutes of screen time.
Egopolis: New Pork City is a stage in this game, though the only sight of Porky there is a statue of him.
Fat Bastard: There is a reason he is called Porky.
Flunky Boss: Creates a few Porky Bots that trip and explode after a couple seconds. Projectile attacks make them trip early.
Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: Shows up rather abruptly in one early level, is defeated quickly, and doesn't show up again.
It's All About Me: Says his Brawl trophy.
"A self-centered, rotten brat who lives next door to Ness."
Kaizo Trap: When the final blow is struck, one of the legs on the spider bot will fall and can hit hard enough to knock a highly damaged character off the screen.
Late-Arrival Spoiler: You're fighting Mother 3's main villain. Brawl was not kind to that title's bigger surprises. His trophy also spoils the events of EarthBound. Bizarrely, his trophy in 3DS/Wii U tries to provide as little information about his role in Mother 3 as possible, despite the fact that the trophy uses his appearance from that game and his mere presence is a Spoiler.
Ontological Inertia: Just because you have beaten Porky does not mean that one of the Porky Bots will not blow up on you.
Really 700 Years Old: He looks pretty young for his vast age when seen from afar, appearing very similar to his child self. However, closer examination of his model shows his skin is purple and wrinkly, his hair is gray, and he has a moustache.
Shock and Awe: His hovering thunder attacks and sweeping electric thing.
Silent Antagonist: Like all the other bosses, he doesn't say anything, though unlike the others, he did speak (at times rather extensively) in his home series.
Spam Attack: Can rapidly jab the player to rack up damage.
Spider Tank: Though not all of the limbs are used for walking.

Ridley

Ridley / Meta Ridley

^{Click to see Ridley in Brawl}

^{Click to see Meta Ridley in Brawl}

Home Series: Metroid

Debut: normal Ridley: Metroid [NES], 1986; Meta Ridley: Metroid Prime [GCN], 2002

Appears in: Brawl, Wii U

The undying alien dragon (literally and trope-wise) of the Metroid series, and the leader of the Space Pirates. After making cameos in 64 and Melee, Ridley is finally fought in the Subspace Emissary in Brawl. He is first battled with Samus and Pikachu. Later, he shows up again in his Meta Ridley form, and is fought by Samus, Pikachu, Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, Captain Falcon, Olimar, and ROB.

In Wii U, his clone from Metroid: Other M appears as the boss character in Pyrosphere, where players can recruit him to fight as their ally, or KO him for a point in Time Matches. He can also transform into "Meta Ridley" after absorbing special energy.

Ridley was finally Promoted to Playable in Ultimate; for tropes on that incarnation of the character, see here.

Adaptational Wimp: Ridley's clone in Wii U is considerably less badass than the real deal's appearances in the rest of the Smash Bros. series, and his own appearance in Other M. For instance, Ridley's apparent willingness to be beaten into submission by the other fighters is a far cry from his characterization as a vengeful being towards those who do him wrong, particularly when he went after Anthony Higgs when he attacked him in an attempt to save Samus, leaving Ridley with a huge scar on his chest. He also needs to drain power from the purple tubes attached to the Pyrosphere stage in order to transform into "Meta Ridley", an ability that he was already able to do on his own in the original boss fight, and doing so does not render him invulnerable to everything except Super Missiles (this is due to the fact that "Meta Ridley" is actually "Black Ridley" in Japan).
Art Evolution: His appearance in Wii U is based on his Metroid: Other M incarnation, which is justified considering that Other M’s incarnation of Ridley is a clone of the original.
Ascended Extra: Went from a background cameo in the original game to a trophy and a cameo in Melee's intro, to two boss characters in Brawl, and a more elaborate stage boss doubling as an Assist Character in the Wii U version. This is only averted with the 3DS version, where he is oddly absent from the game. As mentioned in the description above, he became a fully-playable character in Ultimate.
Battle Theme Music: Vs. Ridley, a metal remix of Ridley's leitmotif from his home series. This plays during both boss battles in The Subspace Emissary, and is the default most-played track of the Pyrosphere in Wii U.
Beware My Stinger Tail: Ridley's tail swipe covers the entire stage and can do around 70% damage on a 0% target.
Blow You Away: By flapping his wings. The very first flap can damage you, but avoid that and his wind is so weak that it counts as free hits for the player.
Boss Battle: In addition to his role as a boss in Subspace Emissary and appearing as a "boss hazard" on the Pyrosphere stage, Ridley will sometimes appear as a boss encounter during Smash Tour; here, the objective is to KO him (though being the last fighter standing will net the same result). Whoever scores the finishing blow gains a huge stat boost. During this event, he cannot be recruited onto your side. Also the case for one of the event matches where Samus must fight Dark Samus and Ridley. Even the Co-Op event match has Ridley being battled, but made harder due to having a Giant Yoshi and a Giant Charizard assisting Ridley.
The Cameo: Before finally being fought in Brawl, Ridley first appeared in the background of Planet Zebes in 64, and appeared in the introduction movie and as a trophy in Melee.
Composite Character: The Wii U incarnation of Ridley is mostly based on Other M. As a Dub Name Change in the English 50-Fact Extravaganza, his unnamed powered-up form from that game (where his skin turns darker and he is surrounded with a purple aura) is named "Meta Ridley" after his incarnation from Metroid Prime Trilogy.
Dinosaurs Are Dragons: The comparison is made in his Brawl trophy.
Dub Name Change: The reason why "Meta Ridley" in Wii U is In Name Only is because it wasn't originally Meta Ridley to begin with. The Japanese version of the 50-Fact Extravaganza names this form 黒リドリー, which translates more accurately to "Black Ridley" (Meta Ridley's actual Japanese name is メタリドリー). The connection to Meta Ridley is an addition made by the English translation, although considering that this form lacks any of the cybernetic enhancements that defines Meta Ridley, it's more of a Dub-Induced Plot Hole.
Enemy Mine: Attacking Ridley in the Wii U version of the fourth game will cause him to fight alongside you, not unlike touching the Flying Men in Magicant. This means you can have Ridley team up with his eternal nemesis Samus!
Fireballs: As Meta Ridley. He has a quick rapid shot version and a slow three shot version and a real big explosive version. In the Wii U version, "Meta Ridley" gains the ability to shoot his fireballs in a three-spread shot or a single large burst that creates a fiery shockwave upon impact.
Four-Fingered Hands: Regularly; Meta Ridley has three fingers.
I Fight for the Strongest Side!: In Wii U, Ridley will team up with the character that inflicts the right amount of damage to him. However, the character in question can still KO him for an extra point if they so choose.
Informed Ability: The Ridley trophy states it attacks with fire, and the Meta Ridley trophy states it has a multimissile system and bomb launcher. This is all true for the regular Metroid games, but not for Brawl — Meta Ridley uses the fireball breath, and regular Ridley has no projectiles whatsoever. The description for Ridley's trophy is finally played straight in Wii U, since regular Ridley regains his ability to shoot fireballs.
In Name Only: "Meta Ridley" in the Wii U version, who is just Other M Ridley with dark skin and a glowing aura, rather than the cyborg form he took in the Metroid Prime series. This is the result of a Dub Name Change, since this specific form is not named Meta Ridley in the Japanese version.
Kill It with Ice: Meta Ridley's trophy information says that Ice attacks are particularly effective on him. Analysis of the game code confirms both forms of Ridley have a 150% damage vulnerability to ice.
Last Lousy Point: Trophy stands spawn a little bit more frequently with Meta Ridley than some other bosses. This is because they NEED to in order to spare your TV and controller from tantrums. Meta Ridley is one of the few bosses that positions himself to make their use more difficult as the fight goes on, and one does not have all day to use them. It doesn't help that he's at the end of a long and difficult stage, so if you KO him or miss the trophy (as by the time he's weak enough to become a trophy, he'll be hovering over a bottomless pit)... welp. Have fun spending several minutes just getting back to him in order to try again.
Late-Arrival Spoiler: The trophies for Little Birdie and the Mystery Creature from Other M spoil that they are the juvenile forms of the Ridley clone, despite that being a plot twist for that game.
Lean and Mean: He is skinny, especially around the neck and wing joints. His Other M clone is slightly bulky but no less mean.
Mythology Gag: One of his attacks is a diving, twirling swoop from background to foreground, performed in Super Metroid.
Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: As Meta Ridley, a Cyborg Dragon Space Pirate.
Not as You Know Them: Sakurai has confirmed that this is the reason Ridley was never made playable before Ultimate; he would need various adjustments made to make him a viable balanced character, but the end result wouldn't feel like Ridley at all. Ironic, considering Ridley's Adaptational Wimp status in Wii U. Ultimate would finally make him playable, keeping him hunched over so his size remains consistent and retaining his sadistic streak from his home series, which essentially makes this trope a bit outdated for the character.
Out-of-Character Moment: Despite Sakurai's expressed desire to stay faithful to Ridley's character, suddenly joining the side of whoever beats him up doesn't seem like something he would normally do. It's especially glaring if that person is (Zero Suit) Samus.
Promoted to Playable: Finally in Ultimate, after years of requests from fans and many memes about his size.
Purple Is Powerful: When Ridley Turns Red in Wii U, he is surrounded by a purple aura.
Razor Wings: Meta Ridley, which might catch some players off guard since the Metroid games purposefully avoided that kind of thing. Pretty telegraphed once one is used to it, however. Regular Ridley's wings can hurt, too, but he does not directly attack with them, so the player who gets hit has to be an overzealous one.
Sapient All Along: According to Ridley's Melee trophy, he comes off as a mindless beast but is truly quite intelligent. However, his non-playable appearances in Smash don't get to show his intelligent side all that much. To be fair, though, neither does his home series all that much.
Time-Limit Boss: As Meta Ridley in the second Subspace Bomb Factory stage, due to said bombs being set to go off. Oddly, there's no time limit when fighting him in the Great Maze or Boss Battles mode.
Turns Red: In Wii U, after Ridley takes a certain amount of damage, he will absorb energy from the stage, transform into "Meta Ridley", and become a more vicious fighter. This is based on one of his abilities from Other M, which he will start doing after taking enough damage.
Video Game Cruelty Potential: Even if he's on your side, you can still KO him for a point.
Weaksauce Weakness: Meta Ridley can be taken out very quickly if a character can maintain an Attack Reflector right in front of his mouth when he shoots small fireballs — he fires enough to deplete his entire health in one volley. The problem is that, barring a lucky item drop, nobody present for the fight outside of Boss Battles/stage replaying can actually do that.
You Cloned Hitler!: The Ridley in Wii U looks more like the Ridley clone (nicknamed Little Birdie) from Other M which, considering the stage he appears in is the Pyrosphere where he was fought, is more than likely the case.
Your Size May Vary: He was noticeably smaller in the introduction to Melee than how he appears in Brawl. In it, he was only slightly larger than Samus, but in Brawl he's more than twice her size. He is slightly smaller than his Brawl counterpart in the Wii U version. And of course, when made playable in Ultimate, he's even smaller, though he's still the physically largest fighter in the game.

False Fighters

Home Series: Super Smash Bros.

Debut: Super Smash Bros. Brawl [Wii], 2008

Appears in: Brawl

Evil clones of various fighters in service of the Subspace Army.

The Assimilator: They're shadow bugs whom envelop and then copy their target's appearance and abilities.
Dark Is Evil: They're darker-looking copies who serve the Subspace Army.
Dual Boss: A pair of false Samus is fought by the original and Pikachu in the research center while a false Peach/Zelda duo are fought on the Halberd by Meta Knight, Lucario, and Snake.
Evil Knockoff: They are created when a swarm of shadow bugs envelop a fighter in trophy form, taking on a darker and more shadowy form of them with identical movesets. The ones that appear in cutscenes include Peach, Zelda, Diddy Kong, Samus, Mr. Game & Watch, and Bowser. The Great Maze houses ones of every fighter in the main story, all of whom you must defeat in order to reach Tabuu.
Make My Monster Grow: The false Diddy Kong grows to a gigantic size during its fight with the original, Fox, and Falco.
Mini-Boss: They serve as these during various parts of the story.
No Body Left Behind: They become trophies when defeated, then dissolve back into shadow bugs seconds later.
The Voiceless: They're completely silent, not even making any sort of sound while fighting.
Yellow Eyes of Sneakiness: They all possess these, and aren't above pulling surprise attacks.

Galleom

Home Series: Super Smash Bros.

Debut: Super Smash Bros. Brawl [Wii], 2008

Appears in: Brawl, Ultimate

A Humongous Mecha boss that can transform into a tank. In Brawl, Galleom is fought twice in a row — once with Marth, Meta Knight, and Ike, and then with Lucas and Pokémon Trainer.

He returns in Ultimate, serving as a boss in the World of Light adventure mode and a Final Boss for certain characters in Classic Mode.

Battle Theme Music:
- "Boss Battle Song 1" in Brawl, which is shared with Duon.
- "Boss Battle", originally from Brawl, plays during his boss fight in Ultimate.
The Bus Came Back: Galleom makes a surprising return in Ultimate despite being destroyed in Brawl (fan speculation suggests he may have been revived by Galeem due to him being a Galeem-aligned boss in World of Light). This is referenced in Wolf's Classic Mode route, "Reunited Roster," which features Galleom as the last opponent following fights against fighters from Melee and Brawl who had similarly been absent for at least 10 years.
Collision Damage: When he is jumping or in tank mode.
Death from Above: When his health gets low, he follows up his vehicle-mode charge by dropping on top of the player.
Defeat Means Friendship: Becomes a Spirit that can help your party if you beat him in World of Light.
Final Boss: One of the many final bosses that can show up at the end of Ultimate's Classic Mode. Snake, Wolf, Dark Pit, R.O.B., King K. Rool, and Min Min face him as their Final Boss, while he's the penultimate opponent for Mega Man.
Glowing Eyes of Doom: When seen in the darkness underground.
Goomba Stomp: Two of them, a big one and a lot of little ones. Players struck by them are Hammered into the Ground.
Grapple Move: He gains this attack in Ultimate. If he succeeds at grabbing the player, he'll crush them and slam them into the ground unless they break free.
Hoist by His Own Petard: His missiles can be reflected back at him, dealing considerable damage to himself.
Macross Missile Massacre: Downplayed; whether in normal mode or tank mode, he fires four non-homing missiles at a time.
Mirror Character: In "World of Light", he serves as the Galeem-aligned counterpart to Marx, both being characters created by Masahiro Sakurai.
Original Generation: Created for The Subspace Emissary. One of his trophies says he is a Subspace warmonger.
Recurring Boss: The only boss in The Subspace Emissary fought more than once, excluding the rematches near the end of the game.
Shockwave Stomp: Actually done with his fists, but the shockwave effect is the same.
Shoulder Cannon: Where the tank's missile launchers end up.
Spin Attack: His "ballerina" move where he twirls like a tornado, sucking you towards him for major damage.
Suspiciously Similar Substitute: A giant mech that serves as a mobile nuclear warhead? This may very well be the closest we'll ever get to fighting a Metal Gear in Super Smash Bros. Fittingly, he's the Final Boss of Snake's Classic Mode in Ultimate, he is encountered in Snake's sub-world in the World of Light mode, and his arena in that mode is similar to Metal Gear REX's hangar. He also appears in exactly the same Smash Bros. titles as Solid Snake does.
Taking You with Me: He activates a Subspace Bomb after being beaten twice.
Tank Goodness: His alternate form is a hovering tank.
Transforming Mecha: He can turn into a missile launching hover tank.
Turns Red: In Ultimate, he quite literally turns red after he takes a certain amount of damage and changes up his attacks.

Duon

Home Series: Super Smash Bros.

Debut: Super Smash Bros. Brawl [Wii], 2008

Appears in: Brawl

A two-sided robot fought on the Halberd. Duon's two sides have different specialties — the pink side mainly uses ranged laser attacks and the blue side uses melee blade attacks. Duon is fought on the Halberd’s deck by Snake, Lucario, Fox, Falco, Peach, and Zelda/Sheik.^{Click here to see spoilers}

Arm Cannon: The pink side has them.
Battle Theme Music: "Boss Battle Song 1", which is shared with Galleom.
Blade Below the Shoulder: The blue side has blades instead of hands.
Collision Damage: Only when it's rolling, though. Otherwise, the player can stand on top it unharmed. Not a smart idea generally, but it can be useful if done just for a touch.
Death from Above: It can jump and land on players despite not having legs.
Defeat Means Friendship: It has an obtainable Spirit in Ultimate.
Demoted to Extra: It only appears as a Spirit in Ultimate.
Dual Wielding: The blue and pink sides have their own arsenals to make use of.
Energy Weapon: The pink side can fire lasers from its head.
Homing Projectile: The pink side's missiles. They can be directed back at it.
Misguided Missile: The pink side's missiles can be guided back into it, and they will do more damage to it on higher difficulties.
Multi-Armed and Dangerous: An odd case, as it has two sets in opposite directions.
Multiple Head Case: One head on both sides of its body, and they both have weapons.
No Ontological Inertia: The homing missiles will explode in mid-air if Duon is defeated, thankfully, so no Kaizo Trap for this boss.
Original Generation: It's created by a bunch of Mr. Game & Watch shadow bug clones, though its color scheme references Dialga and Palkia.
Piercing Attack: The pink side's head lasers can break through all defenses save an Ike/Marth Counter or Pit's Mirror Shield if it is correctly angled.
Razor Wind: While not a projectile, the blue side has a slash that creates a very damaging shock wave.
Shoulder Cannon: Both sides have them, and they both shoot a different kind of explosive.
Spin Attack: It can push down any player that happens to be below the stage.
Spread Shot: Pink shots rapid fired from the pink side, which can be absorbed by Ness or Lucas to heal off damage, or sent back at him by Fox, Falco, or Wolf.
Throw Down the Bomblet: The blue side's only projectiles are mines.
Use Your Head: The blue side has a sharp curved blade on its head.

Tabuu

Home Series: Super Smash Bros.

Debut: Super Smash Bros. Brawl [Wii], 2008

Appears in: Brawl

The main villain of The Subspace Emissary, who attempts to drag the entire Smash world into his own world, Subspace. As the Final Boss of The Subspace Emissary, the player has the option of fighting him with any character obtained prior who was saved in the Subspace levels.

Achilles' Heel: The first time he appears, the Smashers can't even touch him and he wipes them all out in one move. Later, when he tries it again, Sonic ambushes him and shatters his wings, and this weakens him enough for the Smashers to defeat him.
Badass Armfold: His default pose.
Bald of Evil: Though he has so few features, his lack of hair does not stand out too much.
Barrier Warrior: In the cutscene with Ganondorf, he creates a black barrier around himself to deflect Ganondorf's attack. He then uses a barrier that resembles Fox's Reflector to defend against an enraged Master Hand.
Battle Boomerang: He can throw giant shurikens which can fly across the screen before returning to him.
Battle Theme Music: Boss Battle Song 2, which exclusively plays during his boss battle in Brawl. It plays again during his Spirit Battle in Ultimate.
BFG: He can create one that resembles the Dark Cannons that Bowser, Ganondorf, and Wario use. This one fires a beam that travels across the stage.
Big Bad: He's the main villain of The Subspace Emissary, setting off its plot with his attempt to conquer the World of Trophies and pull it into Subspace.
Blade Below the Shoulder: He can transform his arm into a Laser Blade for one of his attacks.
Bullet Seed: His Bullet Rain attack, which is followed by an Energy Ball.
Call-Back: Via his leitmotif, the baseline is taken straight from the baseline of the Wire Frames' theme in Melee. This and his appearance make him something of a King Mook to the mysterious fighting teams/small fry corps.
Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: The Wii U and 3DS games make almost no mention of Tabuu whatsoever. The most he gets is the return of his boss battle music as a selectable track for Final Destination, and even that doesn't reference him by name. It's not until Ultimate that he returns, as a spirit.
Crossover-Exclusive Villain: Tabuu has no relations to any of the franchises and only appears as a villain in Brawl itself.
Curb-Stomp Battle: His Establishing Character Moment has him utterly humiliate Ganondorf and Master Hand all without even moving his arms or moving from his spot. He later does the same to the entire cast with his Off Waves.
Cutscene Power to the Max: The shield-based attacks he uses to defeat Master Hand and Ganondorf are not used during the actual boss fight. (Then again, maybe Sonic disabled them.)
Defeat Means Friendship: In Ultimate, Tabuu appears as a Spirit that can be defeated and equipped like any other. This can be unintentionally funny if you recruit him while playing as any character who was playable in Brawl (besides Toon Link, Wolf, or Jigglypuff).
Deflector Shields: One not seen in gameplay, but his electrical attack still acts like one.
Demoted to Extra: He was the final boss of Brawl, but is only a spirit in Ultimate.
Doppelgänger Attack: He shoots out a bunch of copies of himself in random directions.
Energy Ball: He launches one to follow up on his Bullet Rain attack, mostly to further punish players caught in the rain. It travels fast, explodes, and hurts.
Final Boss: The final challenge of The Subspace Emissary and Boss Battles mode.
Final-Exam Boss: The player absolutely must know how to dodge and roll properly to avoid the Off Waves. There are a couple ways around it, but if the player hasn't mastered these two skills, they will get hit.
Generic Doomsday Villain: Subverted. Supplementary material provided by both the trophies and the Dojo elaborate on his character, explicitly stating him as being unable to ever leave Subspace. When all you can do is stare at a world full of life and be forever unable to live there yourself, you may get a bit… desperate.
Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: Shows up all of a sudden near the end of The Subspace Emissary with zero foreshadowing or explanation, and proceeds to take over from there as the Big Bad. His trophy and the Dojo explain him a little bit, but he's still a bizarre and out-of-nowhere figure.
Glass Cannon: Tabuu possesses powers worthy of the most terrible and mighty cosmic horror. Yet, he is none too good at taking a punch. Even his most powerful asset, the Off Waves, were undone by a single Spin Dash to the wings.
God of Evil: He's the living embodiment of Subspace and more powerful than Master Hand, who more or less created the Smash Bros. universe out of dolls/trophies and tables.
Hero Killer: As soon as Mario and company finally find him, he wastes absolutely no time in one-shotting the entire lot of them. That's right, nearly thirty fighters of superhuman prowess, all offed in the blink of an eye. Thankfully, Death Is Cheap in the World of Trophies, and Dedede's one clever fellow.
Humanoid Abomination: His trophy says he is a being born in a vastly foreign realm and who is unable to exit Subspace. External sources say he is the embodiment of Subspace, but that's all we've got on exactly what he is.
Keystone Army: The Subspace invasion ceases the moment he's destroyed. Justified, as he is Subspace.
Laser Blade: He turns his arm into one then dives against the stage with it.
Light Is Not Good: He is bright blue, has rainbow-colored wings, and has a few light-based attacks. Doesn't stop him from being the epicenter of everything bad that happens in the Subspace Emissary plot.
The Man Behind the Man: To Master Hand, until Ganondorf frees him. Given that Master Hand was the man behind Ganondorf, and Ganondorf was this to Bowser, he pulls this off fourfold.
Manipulative Bastard: Manipulating Ganondorf, Bowser, and the Ancient Minister by controlling Master Hand.
Near-Villain Victory: Had it not been for Dedede's backup plan, he would have easily carried out his planned scenario in The Subspace Emissary without a hitch. And had Sonic not disabled his wings before the final battle, he would have been able to fix that oversight without much issue.
No-Nonsense Nemesis: Tabuu does not screw around. The moment the Smashers catch up to him, he immediately one-shots them with his Off Waves.
Nothing Is Scarier: While no one really speaks in game, Tabuu makes absolutely no sound aside from the sound effects of his attacks; no dialogue, no Evil Laugh, no Roar Before Beating…
One-Hit Kill: His Off Waves attack on Normal+ deals enough knockback to instantly KO any fighter hit from 0%, while his golden chains and golden bracket attack are instant kills only on Intense. He wiped out nearly the entire roster when they found him using his Off Waves.
Orbiting Particle Shield: He has a particular attack where he separates his core into numerous shards and electrifies them, before having them orbit him rapidly for a couple of seconds.
Original Generation: He counts as one, and is also behind the creation of all the Subspace Army soldiers.
Power of the Void: His Subspace Bombs are an artificial version of this trope and an integral part of his plan. With them, he can draw any part of the World of Trophies into Subspace. Later, it's revealed that he has created a Subspace Gunship that replicates the same function as the Bombs.
Precision-Guided Boomerang: It has blades on it.
Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: More like hand slashes.
Reality Warper: In purest form. There is no limit ever shown to his powers, and supplementary material via trophies and Dojo info suggest he has none, period. Honestly, if it weren't for the fact he had a physical body to beat on… However, his reality-altering powers are limited in scope to his own small dimension, which is why he pulls spheres of land from the World of Trophies into his own.
Sequel Non-Entity: Does not appear or even get a mention by name in Wii U/3DS. However, he does return in Ultimate as a spirit.
Shock and Awe: Can have sparks of electricity orbit around him.
Signature Move: His Off Waves.
Sizeshifter: He can turn into a giant when he uses his Eye Beams.
Stuff Blowing Up: Without the stuff part; Tabuu can cause explosions just by pointing at an area. Always five in a row and telegraphed by glowing sparks, for the player's benefit.
Tele-Frag: Sometimes, his teleports leave behind damaging red explosions, discouraging players from trying to chase him around too recklessly.
Teleport Spam: He tends to do it during his boss battle.
Tron Lines: Which make him look like the character in question.
Unskilled, but Strong: Almost all of Tabuu's attacks are ridiculously powerful and are difficult to recover from due to the huge amounts of damage and knockback they cause, to the point where a good portion of them will usually be OHKOs on harder difficulties. However, said attacks are also heavily patterned and extremely predictable, so savvy players who know his attack patterns can handily avoid pretty much anything he throws at them. The main exception to this are his Off Waves, which require pinpoint timing to dodge and are a One-Hit Kill.
Variable-Length Chain: He can fire one for his attacks, which grabs players struck and slams them into the ground (or, if there are 2 players, each other) for a lot of damage and knockback. Can knock lighter characters off the stage with it on one successful hit and knock fighters into each other for a two for one. Ganondorf bumping into one instantly turns him into a trophy, but this frees Master Hand, who had several of Tabuu's chains buried under his skin to make him into a puppet.
Voluntary Shapeshifting: One move has him turn into a sharp object with a face on it, and his grab move involves him turning into a golden bracket that crashes into the stage and explodes.
Walking Spoiler: He only shows up in the very last portion of the game. Beforehand, the audience is led to believe that Master Hand is the Big Bad.
The Worf Effect: In Ultimate, doubling as an offscreen Make Way for the New Villains. Despite being the most powerful entity in The Subspace Emissary, Tabuu only shows up as a Legendary Spirit in the Dark Realm of the World of Light adventure mode, implying that he was Killed Offscreen by Galeem and then his enslaved soul was stolen by Dharkon. He's on the path to a mandatory boss fight against Marx, ensuring that the player will see what became of him.

Debuting in 3DS/Wii U

Yellow Devil

Home Series: Mega Man Classic Series

Debut: Mega Man [NES], 1987

Appears in: 3DS/Wii U, Ultimate

The first combat robot created by Dr. Wily and an infamous boss character from the original Mega Man makes an appearance as a stage hazard in Dr. Wily's Castle. He appears at some point in the stage and if he is defeated, he will explode and damage every player but the one who landed the final blow, for whom the explosion will count as an attack. Notably the first boss in the series to originate from a third-party franchise.

Attack Its Weak Point: It can only be damaged by hitting its eye.
Blob Monster: He attacks in the exact same manner he did in the original game: by separating himself into blobs and reassembling himself on the other side of the arena. Except it's faster.
Boss Battle: In addition to appearing as a "boss hazard" on the Wily Castle stage, the Yellow Devil will sometimes appear as a boss encounter during Smash Tour; here, the objective is to KO it (though being the last fighter standing will net the same result). Whoever scores the finishing blow gains a huge stat boost. Also the case for one of the event matches, where defeating the Yellow Devil is required. Some players would expect the event match to end after defeating the Giant Pikachu and Giant Pac-Man, only to discover that they must defeat the Yellow Devil too.
Defeat Equals Explosion: When he's beaten, he causes a huge explosion that counts as an attack for the player that landed the final hit.
Defeat Means Friendship: In Ultimate, Yellow Devil has his own Spirit, who, if beaten, will join your collection and can be used in your party.
Eye Beams: Fires one to three energy balls from its eye when stationary, which hit pretty hard and are difficult to dodge.
Go for the Eye: The Yellow Devil can only be damaged by attacking its eye.

Dark Emperor

Dark Emperor (King of All Darkness)

Home Series: Find Mii / StreetPass Quest

Debut: Find Mii II / StreetPass Quest II

Appears in: 3DS, Ultimate

The True Final Boss of Find Mii II, or StreetPass Quest II in Europe. He appears as the "stage boss" of the Find Mii / StreetPass Quest stage, being able to empower or depower fighters and directly attack them.

Collision Damage: Touching the Dark Emperor when he's in the foreground will damage you.
The Computer Is a Lying Bastard: His trophy in the European version of the 3DS game mentions that "no matter what, though, you can't attack him back". This isn't entirely true; when he's in the foreground, he can be attacked and even "defeated" if damaged enough.
Defeat Means Friendship: Complete his Spirit Battle in World of Light, and the Dark Emperor's Spirit will be yours to use as you wish.
Dub Name Change: Interestingly averted; despite being known as "Dark Lord" in the European version of StreetPass Quest II, Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS calls him "Dark Emperor" even in the European version. Oddly enough, his theme music is titled "Dark Lord" in both the US and European versions.
Screw This, I'm Outta Here: If a player sends the imprisoned Mii's cage flying away on the stage, he promptly leaves for a short while.
Status Effects: He inflicts buffs or debuffs on fighters at random. If he is "defeated" by a fighter when he's on the foreground, he gives a buff to that fighter before going back into the background.

Metal Face (Xenoblade Chronicles Spoilers!)

Metal Face (Black Face) / Mumkhar

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/metal_face_ssb4.png

"Fancy meeting you here, Monado Boy!"

Home Series: Xenoblade Chronicles

Debut: Xenoblade Chronicles 1 [Wii], 2010

Appears in: Wii U, Ultimate

Voiced by: Norio Wakamoto (Japanese), Tim Watson (English)

The first main antagonist of Xenoblade Chronicles; showing up during the assault on Colony 9, Metal Face is the first Face Mechon encountered by Shulk and company. He's a sadistic and smug brute that appears during the night in the Wii U version of Gaur Plains, assaulting the fight with his gigantic presence.

Adaptational Wimp: In Xenoblade Chronicles, Mechon can only truly be hurt by the Monado. And thanks to Face Mechon being piloted by captured Homs, it took an upgrade from Zanza for the Monado to seriously hurt Metal Face in particular, among other Mechon. Here, anyone can send him falling into the abyss.
Backpack Cannon: He has a large cannon on his back that he uses to fire a giant laser.
Boss Banter: He's the only boss in the series so far to have full voice acting, and boy does he have a lot to say. In fact, ignoring characters with hidden dialogue like Snake and Pit, he's the most talkative character in the whole series.
"I think I've got the best seat in the house!"
"Hey, hey, time to DIE!"
"Whatever you're doing, it looks smashing! Ha ha ha ha ha!"
"If there's one thing I like to see, it's carnage!"
Boss Battle: In addition to appearing as a "boss hazard" on the Gaur Plains stage, Metal Face will sometimes appear as a boss encounter during Smash Tour; here, the objective is to KO him rather than KO your rivals. Whoever scores the finishing blow gains a huge stat boost. Also the case in the event match where he must be defeated after he shows up. Oh, and this is a Timed Mission too for the event match.
Defeat Equals Explosion: Once defeated, he's covered in several explosions before falling, hurting anyone around him in favor of the player that dealt the final blow.
Evil Brit: Xenoblade Chronicles was dubbed in the UK, and Metal Face keeps the heavy Cockney accent he had in his home appearance.
Evil Laugh: Part of several of his lines.
Incoming Ham: As if a giant robot flying directly into the fight wasn't enough, he also has an assortment of hammy lines he shouts when making his entrance.
"I hope I'm not interrupting!"
"Oi, make way! Come on!"
Large Ham: If somehow you fail to notice the giant Mechon heading straight for the stage, his ham-tastic lines will certainly make sure of it.
Late-Arrival Spoiler:
- A very minor one, all things considered, but one nonetheless. His appearance here reveals the fact that Face units are capable of speech. In Xenoblade Chronicles, it takes the second encounter with a Face Mechon for this to be revealed.
- Zigzagged in regards to Metal Face's true identity. While some of the Xenoblade trophies spoil the revelation that Face Mechon are actually Mini-Mecha piloted by captured and brainwashed cyborg Homs, Metal Face's trophy only describes him as a stage boss on Gaur Plain without bringing up his story relevance. However, if Shulk is present on Gaur Plain when he shows up, one of his unique lines makes mention of "Dunban [not being] far behind", the only hint in this game to his identity as Mumkhar and thus knowing Dunban personally. This is taken further with the Mumkhar Spirit, which can be turned into Metal Face when upgraded.
Mechanical Lifeforms: Comes with being a Mechon, the race born of the Mechonis. In reality, as a Face Mechon, he's actually a cyborg piloting a Mini-Mecha.
Power Creep, Power Seep: In Xenoblade Chronicles, not even the Mechon-killing Monado is able to leave more than a scratch on him initially. Here, anyone can defeat him.
Savage Setpiece: Interestingly, Metal Face will actually ignore the fighters once he lands on the stage and is content to just commentate, but will gladly join if fighters get too close.
So Long, Suckers!: If he's not K.O'd quickly enough, he simply takes off and leaves the arena, sometimes making his way out by flying through the stage, sending anyone in his way flying.
"Oh, just look at the time. See ya, kiddies!
Transforming Mecha: Like all Face units, he can transform into a flying mode that he uses to enter and exit the stage.
Tron Lines: He has red glowing lines in his mechanical body. According to his home game, they're actually artificial arteries for pumping the pilot's blood through the mech.
Vocal Evolution: His English voice is somewhat less raspy than it was in his home game.
Wave-Motion Gun: He can fire a gigantic blue laser on the fighters that can destroy entire platforms on the stage.

Master Core

Home Series: Super Smash Bros.

Debut: Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS [3DS], 2014

Appears in: 3DS/Wii U

An opponent that bursts out of Master Hand when he takes enough damage at high intensities in 4's Classic Mode, cutting short the Hands fight. He is a massive collection of dark energy called "the swarm" that can take one of several forms, and is perhaps even more powerful than the Hands are. His forms are a giant humanoid similar to Tabuu from Brawl called "Master Giant", a scorpion-like creature with spikes and a stinger tail called "Master Beast", a set of gigantic floating swords called "Master Edges" (or "Master Sabres" in Europe), a shadowy version of your character called "Master Shadow", a giant landmass called "Master Fortress" exclusive to the Wii U version, and finally, Master Core himself, a singular orb that cannot fight back… unless you take too long to KO him. (Nice job breaking it, hero, if you dare to trigger that.)

Acid Pool: These show up as hazards in Master Fortress. They count as Danger Zones, so touching them at 100% or higher counts as a K.O.
Amazing Technicolor Battlefield: The normal Final Destination background gets replaced by a swirling vortex of colors when this monster makes his entrance shows up.
Ambiguously Evil: As with Master Hand, it serves as an obstacle for the player to overcome, but its intentions aren't explored beyond that, though its grotesque, malleable appearance and vicious attacks give off an evil vibe even more so than the laughing giant hands before it.
Animalistic Abomination: Master Beast takes the shape of a disfigured monstrosity with parts of its body only vaguely resembling those of real animals. It seems to have the head of a crocodile, the tail of a scorpion, and the body of a dog. Master Giant somewhat resembles a gorilla.
Attack Its Weak Point: Master Giant can only be damaged by attacks to the head.
Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Master Giant. There's also Master Fortress, who's the size of Palutena's Temple.
Background Boss: Master Giant.
Battle Theme Music:
- Master Core, a Dark Reprise of Master Hand's theme which plays during the actual battle with the Core's various forms.
- Master Fortress: First Wave, which plays when facing the Master Fortress. This is a rather stoic, dark track. This changes to the more triumphant Master Fortress: Second Wave once you take out half of Master Fortress' cores.
Big Bad: He plays this for Classic Mode, being the one who sets up the battles the way they are and being the final opponent in most cases.
Bishōnen Line: Possibly, if it takes the form of a humanoid character when it becomes Master Shadow.
Beware My Stinger Tail: Master Beast has a scorpion-like tail.
Body Horror: Master Giant and Master Beast are rather messy. Master Giant has a left arm that has two elbows, two extra arms bursting from his torso in his arm grab attack, a tumor-like growth sprouting on its head that it bursts into mines by headbutting the stage, and rips its own face open to create a black hole. Master Beast sprouts sharp and stabbing… everything. The list goes on. And then there's Master Fortress, where players have to go inside the guts of an Eldritch Abomination while fighting shadow clones of enemies and avoiding lava-like stomach acid, all to destroy the fleshy, pulsating hearts within.
Boss Arena Recovery: The developers were merciful enough to give you a Heart Container once Master Fortress shows up. You don't have to use it right away, either; if you happen to have a low damage percentage, you can just leave it there and and come back for it later.
Boss Remix: Its theme is a creepy, off-kilter remastering of the Final Destination theme, already one of several arrangements of the fourth game's main theme. At one point, the music grinds to a near-inaudible halt as Morse code spells out the monster's name.
Clipped-Wing Angel: Considering that its final form is a Smash Ball which cannot fight back, and the timer and music stop, this trope is invoked. And then it's promptly subverted if you sit around instead of KO'ing it, and it starts to fire One-Hit KO moves similar to Tabuu's Off Waves. However, by surviving the onslaught, Master Core eventually self-destructs.
Colossus Climb: In the Wii U version, he has an additional form called Master Fortress that is so huge it's actually a dungeon you travel through to destroy four heart-like structures.
Creator Thumbprint: Its forms mechanic, with all of them only showing up at 7.5 or higher Intensity (8.0 in Wii U, thanks to the additional Master Fortress form), exactly mirrors that of the Thanatos boss battle from Kid Icarus: Uprising.
Dark Is Evil: Surely that incomprehensible and shadowy being wouldn't hurt a fly?
Defeat Means Friendship: All of Master Core's forms (except for Master Shadow and Master Fortress) appear as Spirits in Ultimate. Subverted with Master Core's true form, which is obtained by summoning it with the cores of its other forms.
Demoted to Extra: Went from being the True Final Boss in 3DS/Wii U to being mere Spirits in Ultimate, with only four of its forms covered as such. Master Fortress only gets a passing mention with its music themes while Master Shadow is not referenced at all.
Developer's Foresight: The Master Shadow has the same custom special moves as the player. If the player is using an alternate costume that affects the character's model, Master Shadow also reflects it.
Didn't Need Those Anyway!: Some Swarm breaks off at certain health intervals. Breaking the third core of Master Fortress will tear off a huge chunk of the fortress.
Dub Name Change: The name of its swords form differs between the PAL and NTSC versions. The PAL version of the game refers to it as "Master Sabres", while the NTSC versions calls it "Master Edges".
Easter Egg: Look closely at Master Core's final form. Master Hand's silhouette is visible within it. (Best to do in a recording, not during actual gameplay.)
Early-Bird Cameo: The transformation sequence can be seen in the E3 2014 trailer, at the time dismissed as Master Hand's defeat animation.
Eldritch Abomination: An incomprehensible mess of dark matter that takes on many wildly different and unpredictable forms. Almost all of those forms can be easily considered abominations on their own, with no shortage of elements like Body Horror and the like. In Wii U, it can even turn into a gigantic fortress that the player has to clear out, in an odd take on Womb Level.
Eldritch Location: Bar none the most accurate description for Master Fortress.
Energy Weapon: Master Fortress contains enemies that attempt to hit the player with laser beams.
Evil Is Visceral: The first two rooms of Master Fortress are modeled after a human(oid) mouth, sinuses, esophagus, and stomach. The weak points are covered in red pulsing arteries, and a heartbeat can be heard when standing next to them. After that, the rooms get… even weirder.
The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: A mild variation: Master Core's most basic flexing of its powers is to conceal its life bar on the 3DS' bottom screen under its writhing black mass. The life bar does not show up in the Wii U version.
Genius Loci: Beating the Master Core at 8.0 intensity or higher in the Wii U version turns it into a full-fledged level, Master Fortress, which the player will need to traverse in order to finish off the boss for good.
Hard Mode Perks: Master Core only appears starting from intensity 5.1, and gains more forms as the intensity increases; Master Beast appears in 6.0 and up, Master Giant in 7.0 (Wii U)/7.5 (3DS) and up, and Master Fortress in 8.0 and up on the Wii U version only.
High-Pressure Blood: When its current form takes enough damage, some of its dark energy that makes up its body gushes out in this fashion.
Humanoid Abomination: Master Giant is humanoid-shaped with some warped proportions, almost like a gorilla.
Interface Screw: In the 3DS version, its HP display is obscured by dark energy until its final form is revealed^noteas a damage percentage (in the Wii U version, there is no HP display at all). It's also the second boss in the series to be able to do various attacks by moving the stage itself.
Jagged Mouth: Master Beast has crocodilian jaws lined with jagged black teeth.
Know When to Fold 'Em: If the player survives the final form's One-Hit KO attacks, the Master Core simply just gives up and explodes.
Marathon Boss: With several forms, each with its own significant amount of health, strong attacks that force more flight than fight, and a quick bout with Master Hand and Crazy Hand before the actual fight starts, the battle against Master Core can take several minutes to complete, whereas previous bosses (even Tabuu and Giga Bowser) were lucky to last for two. Exactly how long depends on the intensity level, as certain forms only appear on higher intensities.
Mirror Boss: Master Shadow is a larger, pitch-black clone of the first (if you're playing Co-Op on the Wii U version) player character, and the fight with it functions like a regular versus match. It can be defeated either by ring-out, like a normal fight, or by whittling down its HP until it can't shrink anymore and explodes.
Mix-and-Match Critters: Master Beast is some bizarre fusion between a dog and a scorpion. Giant-sized, of course.
Not-So-Harmless Villain: The final form is a joke, right? Well, not if you take your sweet time in knocking it off the stage — it will start firing up attacks that can cause an instant KO if you take too long.
Nothing Is Scarier: The final form turns off the timer and the music.
Oh, Crap!: When you're on the home stretch in destroying Master Fortress, the hearts begin to beat faster and faster, as though Master Core is in a panic.
One-Hit KO: If you take too long to deal with its final form, it will fire an expanding wave that covers the screen and instantly KOs the player(s).
One-Winged Angel: Master Hand's. In fact, it can have up to four of these (five on Wii U), depending on the intensity level.
Power of the Void: Master Giant can rip its face open to create a vortex to suck in the player and then deal out a load of damage.
Reality Warper: See that black, writhing mass? It's called "the swarm", and it was inside Master Hand. Remember all the things they can do; ripping open black holes, generating matter, so on and so forth? Well, Master Core exploits the seeming removal of prior limitations to combine this with You Cannot Grasp the True Form and Body Horror.
Recurring Element: The Swarm that composes Master Core's forms is this to the Shadow Bugs used in Subspace Emissary. A black mass of tiny objects that forms multiple different bosses and shadow forms of the player characters.
Sealed Evil in a Can: This... thing was inside Master Hand. Taken even farther once its true form is revealed.
Sequel Non-Entity: In Ultimate, Master Core doesn't appear as a boss.
Sequential Boss: Has two to five different forms (not counting the Clipped-Wing Angel) depending on the intensity level and what version you are playing. And that's on top of the fact that you have to fight Master Hand and Crazy Hand for a short while before it appears to begin with.
Shock and Awe: Master Beast has an attack that is nearly identical to Pikachu's Thunder.
Shows Damage: It's a little hard to tell, but when more damage is done to The Swarm around Master Core, it actually disperses more and more. Seeing how "solid" it looks is a good way to bypass the fact that it hides its life bar, with the "innards" being more visible when the given form is nearly finished. The Mirror Boss is a little more obvious, as it gets smaller and smaller as it gets closer to dying.
Sinister Scimitar: Master Edges is this trope multiplied by five, with one sword bigger than the others. The PAL version even calls it Master Sabres.
SNK Boss: Much more so than Giga Bowser; although he was a very difficult boss, his faulty AI could be exploited to defeat him much more easily. Master Core has no such weakness, and the battle against it having access to all its forms is as hard as it is long.
Storm of Blades: Master Edges is one, being formed by several swords that float together and attack in tandem.
Super-Scream: One of Master Giant's attacks has it attempting to blow the player off the stage by screaming.
Surprisingly Creepy Moment: While creepy Eldritch Abominations that come out of nowhere are not a stretch for something out of a game from Masahiro Sakurai, one of this scale is a first for Smash.
Theme Naming: All of its forms have "Master" in their name.
This Was His True Form: This is the force that animates the Hands. It turns out, somewhat fittingly, to be a Smash Ball.
True Final Boss: Of Classic Mode.
- 3DS: You must take the Master Hand/Crazy Hand route at Intensity 5.1 or higher, with 6.1 and 7.1 each adding more forms for you to fight. The fight becomes mandatory at 7.1 and above.
- Wii U: Simply reach the final stage at Intensity 5.0 or higher. 6.0 and 7.0 once again add new forms, but there is an extra form at 8.0 and up provided you aren't playing co-op.
Turns Red: Its apparently-harmless Smash Ball form turns gradually more red the longer it survives. If it goes completely blood red, it will start retaliating.
Underground Monkey: The enemies in Master Fortress are pre-existing enemies from Smash Run, only made out of Master Core Swarm.
Version-Exclusive Content: Master Fortress can only be encountered in the Wii U version.
The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: Manages to be this itself when it transforms into Master Fortress.
Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: Sure, Smash has characters who cover a wide spectrum from cheery to gritty, but the overall tone of the series is a fun time for all… And then there's this.
Villainous Breakdown: As the fight with Master Fortress draws on, a player can notice the hearts beat faster as the fight progresses, as if Master Core is slowly realizing how absolutely screwed it is.
Womb Level: Master Fortress, exclusive to the Wii U version. Master Core morphs into a full-fledged adventure level where the player has to seek out and destroy four heart-like structures.
You Cannot Grasp the True Form: Master Core is a nightmarish shapeshifting abomination to the point where even its various forms can only be vaguely likened to a creature or element; and none of its forms have any similarity or connection other than that they're made of pure darkness. In Smash 3DS, it even obscures its own life bar until it gets defeated, and in Smash U, you get no life bar at all. It's eventually subverted, however: by breaking through the black mass, its true form can be revealed.

Debuting in Ultimate

Dracula

Count Dracula Vlad Țepeș / Mathias Cronqvist

First Form

^{Second Form}

Home Series: Castlevania

Debut: Castlevania [NES], 1986

Appears in: Ultimate

The main villain of the Castlevania series. Originally born as Mathias Cronqvist, Dracula was driven mad by his first wife's passing and became an immortal vampire thanks to the Crimson Stone, then went on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge against the people of Wallachia centuries later after his second wife was burned at the stake for alleged witchcraft. Reborn every 100 years (or sooner if his worshippers do the necessary rituals), he arises with his army of monsters and the titular fortress Castlevania, frequently being thwarted by the Belmont Clan and their allies (including his own son Alucard) whenever he does.

Dracula appears as a boss in Ultimate as part of World of Light and acts as the Final Boss of Classic Mode for certain characters, using his character design from in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. He's notable as one of the very first boss characters in Super Smash Bros. to come from a third-party franchise.

Achilles' Heel: As with his previous appearances, it seems like the only way to reliably damage him is to target his head. Since he's also designed to fight like how he does in Castlevania, Simon and Richter tend to be very good at dispatching him. Subverted with his monster form, which can be damaged anywhere. In a clever nod to a standard vampire ability used by his own son, attacking him anywhere but his head will result in a mist effect, implying he can use a mist form similar to Alucard and can make any part of his body below his head intangible using similar abilities, explaining why his head is his only weak point.
Arch-Enemy: The eternal nemesis of the Belmont clan, having battled against them for many generations. Fittingly, he's the final boss in the Classic Mode routes for both of the playable Belmonts; Simon and Richter.
Bat Out of Hell: Drac can transform into a swarm of bats to cross the stage, damaging fighters caught in the middle. His second form also resembles a giant, demonic bat.
Battle Theme Music: "Nothing to Lose" and "Black Night" from the first Castlevania play during his Classic Mode fights against Simon and Luigi, and in World of Light, while the famous "Dance of Illusions" introduced in Rondo of Blood plays during his Classic Mode fight against Richter. His Classic Mode fight against Pac-Man plays the original Famicom version of "Dwelling of Doom" from Castlevania II: Simon's Quest in keeping with the Retraux theme of Pac-Man's route.
Bishōnen Line: Averted during his boss fight, which has him progress from his humanoid first form into his monstrous second form and then ends before he can transform further. However, the spirits received from defeating Dracula in World of Light play this straight: maxing out and enhancing his first form doesn't yield his monster form (which is a separate spirit received at the same time), but instead turns him into Soma Cruz, Dracula's Bishōnen reincarnation who refuses to become the Dark Lord.
Bowdlerise: The artwork for his spirit is that of his Symphony of the Night illustration, except with the blood puddles beneath his cloak edited out.
- The wine glass he breaks in his intro cutscene is empty, as opposed to being filled with blood like in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, which the scene homages.
Breath Weapon: His monster form can spit fireballs, fire blasts of electricity, or blasts of dark energy that home in on players.
Casting a Shadow:
- He can fire orbs of dark energy from his cape. His monster form can fire blasts of dark energy that home in on players.
- In a case of half Our Vampires Are Different, half Shout-Out to Bram Stoker's Dracula, Dracula's presence is made known by his shadow appearing on the walls of the stage. As a vampire, he normally isn't able to cast one, but it could be that he has a Living Shadow in his form appearing as such.
Classical Movie Vampire: Zigzagged. His dark clothes with the long cape and raised, pointy collar, along with his bat transformation powers, owe quite a bit to Bela Lugosi's portrayal of Dracula. His long white hair and beard, in contrast, owe more to Bram Stoker's description of him in the novel, while his predominantly fire-based magic attacks and One-Winged Angel form are original to Castlevania.
Defeat Means Friendship: Two Spirits based on Dracula are obtained when you beat him in World of Light.
Evil Is Bigger: As a throwback to his retro appearances, Dracula towers over Simon and every other character.
Evil Is Burning Hot: Contrary to what the uninitiated would expect from a vampire, he mainly uses fire to attack.
Final Boss: Serves as this for Luigi, Pac-Man, and the Belmonts in their Classic Mode runs.
Ground Punch: One of his attacks in monster form is to leap into the air and punch the ground, sending out a damaging shockwave.
Mirror Character: He is the Dharkon-aligned counterpart to Galeem's Rathalos, being a boss from a third-party franchise.
Mythology Gag:
- As a Spirit, he can be enhanced into Soma Cruz, his reincarnation from Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow.
- His boss intro cutscene pays homage to his boss intro from Castlevania Chronicles.
One-Winged Angel: Upon losing all his health in human form, he'll change into his monster form (as depicted in Castlevania: Rondo of Blood), marking the next phase of the battle against him.
Our Vampires Are Different: He's more of a Satanic Archetype than a vampiric one, and it shows.
Playing with Fire: His signature fire attacks are intact. He can shoot three fireballs from his cape or summon pillars of fire from the ground.
Poisonous Person: His monster form can inflict poison through spitting out homing spirits or claw slashes.
Public Domain Character: Yet another interpretation of Bram Stoker's classic literary villain. Despite Masahiro Sakurai's opposition to non-video game characters getting into Smash Bros., Dracula bypasses his literary origins by being in the public domain and being based on an iteration purely from a video game series rather than his original portrayal.
Red and Black and Evil All Over: He wears black clothes with predominantly red trimmings.
Sequential Boss: Phase 1 involves fighting his humanoid form, and Phase 2 involves fighting his One-Winged Angel form. Unlike Giga Bowser, there's no period of recovery between the two phases.
Vampire Monarch: The supreme ruler of all vampires, and commands many other types of monsters too.
Villain Teleportation: During the first phase of his battle, he teleports across the stage in a beam of light between attacks.
White Hair, Black Heart: He has the long white hair and beard that he sports in most Castlevania games from Symphony of the Night onward.
Wicked Cultured: Dracula is an aristocratic figure, and when he appears he is seen sitting on his throne, sipping a wine glass of blood — a reference to his "What is a man?" quote.

Rathalos

Rathalos (Liolæus)

Home Series: Monster Hunter

Debut: Monster Hunter, 2004

Appears in: Ultimate

The King of the Skies and Series Mascot of the Monster Hunter series. Rathalos are territorial male wyverns who utilize their poisonous claws, fiery breath, and sheer size to take down prey and would-be challengers to their crown alike.

Rathalos appears as a boss in Ultimate as part of World of Light and acts as the Final Boss of Classic Mode for certain characters. There's also a chance that he will emerge from an Assist Trophy. He is notably the only third-party boss not to have any playable representative from their own series.

Ascended Extra: Before making his proper debut in Ultimate, armor crafted from Rathalos materials appeared as a DLC costume for Mii Swordfighters in 3DS/Wii U.
Assist Character: He can be summoned to aid you via Assist Trophy, and is the only boss character to do so.
Battle Theme Music: "Rathalos Howling" from the original Monster Hunter plays during his boss battle.
Bowdlerise: While still a weak point, his tail can't be severed as it can in his home series. Rather than being destroyed, it drops an item.
Defeat Equals Explosion: The only boss in Ultimate to avert this, instead dropping to the ground and flailing before lying still.
Defeat Means Friendship: His Spirit is only obtained if you beat him in World of Light.
Final Boss: He shows up at the end of Classic Mode in Ultimate against Yoshi, Marth, Duck Hunt, and Piranha Plant. He's also the penultimate opponent in Bowser's run and the fourth opponent in the Hero's run.
Garnishing the Story: He makes up the entirety of the Monster Hunter franchise's representation in Ultimate, having been chosen over, say, a playable Hunter because he's just that awesome. This does get averted with the release of four Monster Hunter spirits, but it's downplayed in that Rathalos is the only one with an active role in the game.
"Get Back Here!" Boss: Not during a fight, but when you encounter Rathalos in World of Light, you have to chase him down throughout the area he appears in before he finally lands on a peak and stays there.
Mighty Roar: One of his attacks is a loud roar that damages and stuns characters momentarily in a radius around his head.
Mirror Character: He's the Galeem-aligned counterpart to Dharkon's Dracula, being a boss that hails from a third-party franchise.
Mythology Gag: During the boss battle against him, certain items can spawn that function like items from the Monster Hunter series. For example, the Pitfall from Animal Crossing can trap him in the ground like the Pitfall Traps from Monster Hunter. The aforementioned chase sequence also feels like tracking prey down before finally cornering it for a proper fight in Monster Hunter.
Our Dragons Are Different: Rathalos is a large Flying Wyvern that specializes in Fire-type attacks. In Ultimate, he pelts the stage with exploding fireballs.
Playing with Fire: He has two fireball attacks, one from behind the action that hits the ground and causes large lingering explosions, and one from the action plane that is targeted at characters and explodes on impact.
Poisonous Person: His claws can poison you if he hits you with them in the air.
Subsystem Damage: Targeting his tail or head does extra damage and can stun him.
Tail Slap: His tail damages fighters when he turns around.

Marx

Marx (Mark)

Home Series: Kirby

Debut: Kirby Super Star, 1996

Appears in: Ultimate

The antagonist of the "Milky Way Wishes" mode of Kirby Super Star; he manipulated Kirby into allowing him to wish on Galactic Nova for the ability to rule Planet Popstar. After being defeated by Kirby, he was largely absent until making a surprise reappearance as a Dream Friend in Kirby Star Allies.

In Ultimate, Marx appears as a boss in World of Light and acts as the Final Boss of Classic Mode for Kirby, Rosalina & Luma, and Inkling.

An Arm and a Leg: After he's beaten, his wings pop off and he reverts back to his original form.
Art Evolution: Averted compared to most other legacy bosses. Marx's model in Ultimate is more or less a straight interpretation of his appearance in the original Super Star just touched up with detailed rendering, as opposed to Star Allies' cuter and less creepy redesign^note. His feet don't even bop up and down like in Ultra.
Badass Adorable: He's standard Dream Land cute before he transforms; of course, Cute Is Evil. However, his combat form is not really adorable.
Battle Boomerang: As with his debut appearance, he can launch a set of four cutters to attack. He can also launch two sets.
Battle Theme Music: "Vs. Marx" from Kirby Super Star, specifically the Brawl remix.
Body Horror: Many, many of his attacks involve this in some form, whether it's splitting himself in two, doing terrible things to his own eyes, or sprouting vein-like "wings".
Breath Weapon: He can fire a massive beam of energy from his mouth so powerful the recoil sends him flying across the screen.
Bright Is Not Good: Easily the most brightly-colored boss in the Smash games, but no less evil than the others.
Composite Character: Downplayed. Some of his attacks resemble the tactics of Kirby Super Star Ultra's True Final Boss, Marx Soul. Specifically, he throws out two consecutive sets of Battle Boomerangs at low health, and he tries to hover over the player when using his Ice Bomb, which itself resembles the Soul version of it rather than the original one. His scream upon defeat is also similar to Marx Soul's death screech, but their defeat animations are drastically different.
Court Jester: He's got the jester's cap and the clown-like demeanor to match.
Defeat Means Friendship: Not to the apparent extent of it that he shows in his home series^note, but in World of Light, beating him will grant you Marx as a Spirit.
Demonic Possession: Implied, though never outright stated. Unlike the other bosses (including the ones under Galeem's control), Marx's new attacks^noteand even some of his old ones seem to have the same "dark/thorn/eye" motif that Dharkon has, not unlike what Dark Matter does to its victims in the Kirby games. This along with a dark flame flickering out upon beating him suggests that Marx was directly possessed by Dharkon. After all, if Dharkon was able to control Crazy Hand, it's hard not to imagine him doing the same to his other top minions in order to recruit them...
Detachment Combat: His strongest attack is to split in two and open a black hole that absorbs the player. It deals massive damage and spikes the player if they get caught in it.
Eye Scream: One of his attacks involves him growing Extra Eyes, which fall out of their sockets to bounce at you.
Eyes Do Not Belong There: One of his attacks has him spawn Extra Eyes on his eyes to perform a barrage of Eye Beams.
Final Boss: Serves as this for Kirby, Inkling, and Rosalina & Luma in Classic Mode.
Giggling Villain: Likes to make childlike, distorted-sounding giggles while fighting.
Green Thumb: One of his moves is to drop five small seeds that disappear into the ground. Large thorny vines will sprout upward from where the seeds landed.
Hell Is That Noise: Like in Super Star Ultra, Marx lets out a piercing scream upon defeat. Only he doesn't split in half this time around.
An Ice Person: His bombs send out shockwaves that can freeze the player when they explode.
Mirror Character: He is the Dharkon-aligned counterpart to Galeem's Galleom, both being characters created by Masahiro Sakurai.
Mythology Gag: Aside from most of his attacks being lifted straight from his boss battle in Kirby Super Star, his death animation has his body being ripped apart while he lets out a piercing scream similar to his Soul Form from Super Star Ultra.
Nightmare Face: He perpetually shows a wide grin and bulging eyes.
One-Winged Angel: His introductory cutscene shows him standing behind the playable character in his normal form before transforming into his monstrous form for the boss fight.
Playing with Fire: Marx has an attack that's not seen in his original game: he moves to the middle of the screen and retracts his wings, and grows strange, veiny appendages that spread out across the screen, which does fire damage.
Right Behind Me: When you face him, it seems like there's no opponent... when in reality he's behind you, ready to go into his One-Winged Angel form.
Super Spit: He can spit freeze bombs.
Surprisingly Creepy Moment: His vs screen image is of his cute basic form rather than his boss form. People unfamiliar with the Kirby games are immediately treated to him transforming into his eerie boss form complete with creepy laugh.
Teleport Spam: Very fond of teleporting around the arena randomly, especially after he Turns Red.
Tom the Dark Lord: Named "Mark" in Italian^note and "Max" in French and German. Both of them sound very mundane for a deceptively cute jester.
Turns Red: After he gets low on health, Marx will start teleporting more often and throw out new attacks.
Unrealistic Black Hole: Marx can split in two and create a dark vortex between the two halves of his body, sucking in any player and dealing large amounts of damage.
Waddling Head: He doesn't waddle so much as float, but he nonetheless carries on the typical Kirby character design motif of "take a sphere and add shoes."
Walking Spoiler: The biggest alongside Dharkon, as neither of those two appeared in any prior Smash game (Master Hand, Giga Bowser, Crazy Hand, Galleom), didn't appear in prerelease or promotional materials for this game (Dracula, Rathalos, Galeem, Galleom), and didn't appear in this game's opening (Ganon).

Ganon

Ultimate

^{Brawl / Smash 4}

Home Series: The Legend of Zelda

Debut: The Legend of Zelda, 1986

Appears in: Brawl, 3DS/Wii U^note, Ultimate^note

The boar-like demon form of Ganondorf; all he was known as until The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time revealed his human form. In Brawl and 3DS/Wii U, he acted as Ganondorf's Final Smash, taking on his Twilight Princess form (known as "Beast Ganon"). In Ultimate, he was changed to his Ocarina of Time form (referred to as "Demon King Ganon") to match Ganondorf's own change in appearance.

Like Giga Bowser, Ganon serves as a boss in World of Light and the Final Boss of several characters' Classic Modes (specifically, Link, Zelda, Young Link, and Toon Link). For his playable appearance as Ganondorf, see here.

Adaptational Badass: Ganon in Ocarina of Time was a purely physical fighter who attacked exclusively with his swords. In Ultimate, Ganon has some more magical attacks added to his arsenal and is much faster and more agile here than he was in Ocarina of Time, where he was a clear-cut Mighty Glacier.
Alternate Self: In World of Light, this Ganon is a different spirit from the playable Ganondorf, even though beating Giga Bowser unlocks Bowser. Getting Ganondorf is even required to make Ganon appear.
Ascended Extra: Originally, he only appeared as Ganondorf's Final Smash transformation, but he eventually became a full-blown boss battle in Ultimate.
Attack Its Weak Point: Like in Ocarina of Time, the only way to damage Ganon is to attack his glowing tail. When stunned, his head becomes another weak point.
Battle Amongst the Flames: As a nod to Ocarina of Time, Ganon is fought in the flaming ruins of Ganon's Castle.
Breath Weapon: At lower health, Ganon will start firing beams of dark energy from his mouth. He can also spit a fireball that homes in on the player, which references an attack used by Calamity Ganon in Breath of the Wild.
Composite Character: While Ganon's appearance is taken from Ocarina of Time, many of his new attacks in Ultimate take cues from other incarnations of the character. The lightning discs are a reference to Demise, his precursor from The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword; the music that plays during the fight and the homing fireball are references to the fight against Calamity Ganon from Breath of the Wild; and the dark laser attack is a reference to Dark Beast Ganon from the same game. He also has a Foe-Tossing Charge, the same one in Ganondorf's Final Smash and a reference to Ganon's incarnation in Twilight Princess.
Deadly Lunge: In addition to his Foe-Tossing Charge, Ganon can perform a lunging slash with his greatswords.
Defeat Means Friendship: Beating him in World of Light grants you his Spirit, which you can have assist you.
Dual Wielding: In contrast to Ganondorf, who wields a single blade for smash attacks, Ganon uses two huge swords as his primary method of dealing damage.
Final Boss: Naturally, he serves as one to all the playable Links and Zelda in Classic Mode.
"Get Back Here!" Boss: He leaps around the arena a bit, which can make it hard to get behind him and attack his tail.
Ground Pound: One of Ganon's attacks has him leap into the air and crush the player underfoot.
Lightning Bruiser: Unlike in Ocarina of Time where he was a Mighty Glacier, Ganon is much faster and more agile here, often leaping across the arena to make it hard to attack his tail.
Mirror Character: He is the Dharkon-aligned counterpart to Galeem's Giga Bowser, being the One-Winged Angel form of a villain created by Shigeru Miyamoto.
Morphic Resonance: Much like in Ocarina of Time, Ganon retains elements of his human form, from his red Gerudo hair to bits of his clothing.
Mythology Gag: The Calamity Ganon spirit appears just before this boss, making this referencing how the boarlike Dark Beast Ganon is the real final boss of Breath of the Wild.
One-Winged Angel: Ganon's introductory cutscene has Ganondorf transform into his demonic form. In Zelda's Classic Mode, this is after the player defeats Ganondorf first.
Pig Man: A bipedal Animalistic Abomination with a strong resemblance to a boar.
Ramming Always Works: Like Ganondorf's Final Smash, Ganon will attempt to charge at players.
Shock and Awe: Ganon can electrify his swords to fire discs of lightning. At low health, he'll fire off two.
Spin Attack: Ganon can do this as one of his attacks.
Sword Beam: Ganon can charge his swords with lightning and fire spiraling disc-shaped energy waves from them in reference to Demise from Skyward Sword.
Sword Plant: When stunned, Ganon stabs one of his swords into the ground and leans on it to prevent himself from collapsing. This is a reference to his common defeat pose in various Zelda games.

Galeem

Galeem (Kiira)

The Ultimate Enemy/Lord of Light

Home Series: Super Smash Bros.

Debut: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate [Nintendo Switch], 2018

Appears in: Ultimate

On that day, when the sky fell away,
Our world came to an end...

A mysterious, godly being made entirely out of light; with the power to destroy, capture, or imprison fighters and spirits, trapping the fighters and using captive spirits to create red-eyed slave copies of them called "Puppet Fighters" which he uses as an army. With his powers, Galeem single-handedly causes the apparent death of all life and engulfs the universe in light, before remaking it in his image.

All There in the Manual: The Smash website briefly refers to Galeem as a "him," something that wouldn't be easily discernible just from looking at his utterly unearthly form.
Angelic Abomination: A monstrously powerful Eldritch Abomination that looks like an angel, with six wings and an orb of light akin to the sun as his main body.
Arch-Enemy: Dharkon's. The two can't stand one another. Even when the two form an Enemy Mine, they utterly loathe each other to the point of not even trying not to hurt the other, and if one is stunned, the other will deliver a massive blow to them without a second thought.
Attack Its Weak Point: His core serves as a weak point fighters need to attack.
Awesomeness by Analysis: When asked about the presence of Kirby puppet fighters in World of Light, Sakurai explained that Galeem had managed to "analyze" Kirby at some point after his escape, allowing the creation of a puppet in his likeness.
Awesome, yet Impractical: As seen in World of Light's opening, he has an attack that can one-shot any and all forms of life (and death) in the universe... but the attack requires him to absorb the life force of his entire army to use it and takes about 20 seconds of straight-up charge time to unleash it at its full potential. He only pulls it off in the intro because he has the advantages of distance and surprise, and his only chance to do it again is in a Bad Ending where you focus solely on Dharkon and permit Galeem the time to power up.
Ax-Crazy: Due to Galeem having no personality or known reasons for killing and enslaving everyone, one can only assume it's because they're crazy.
The Bad Guy Wins: If you defeat only Dharkon in the final battle, Galeem will destroy his nemesis and engulf the universe in light.
Battle Theme Music:
- "Galeem", a remix of Lifelight which makes use of orchestral and choral elements to emphasize his nature as the angelic Lord of Light.
- He shares "Galeem/Dharkon" with his counterpart during the final battle with both of them.
Beam Spam: How he disposes of/imprisons all manner of life in the universe (besides Kirby); he absorbs the life force of all the Master Hands flanking him, and fires countless beams of light that disintegrate the physical forms of every character found in the game (playable and non-playable). Only Kirby managed to escape by pushing his Warp Star to its limit.
Beehive Barrier: Has one up for the first half of World of Light, preventing players from reaching him. It needs to be taken down by defeating the other three bosses residing in the Light Realm.
Big Bad: The main villain of Ultimate, appropriately referred to as "The Ultimate Enemy" by the official website. But…
Big Bad Ensemble: He's revealed to share the Big Bad role with Dharkon, while they are fighting each other, they’re also fighting the heroes.
Character Title: He's described as the ultimate enemy in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, also fitting with Antagonist Title. The actual title that he's referred to as in World of Light is the Lord of Light.
Color Contrast:
- The undersides of his wings go from reddish-orange to blue.
- When he makes temporary puppet fighters in his battle, they keep the red eyes of his "normal" fighters but have bright cyan bodies.
Contrasting Sequel Antagonist:
- Whereas Tabuu waited until the endgame of Brawl's Subspace Emissary to reveal himself, Galeem makes his existence known immediately; Tabuu's motif overall favored a realm full of darkness, Galeem's motif is light; Tabuu's ultimate attack is a shockwave-like ripple that spreads in all directions, Galeem's is a Beam Spam that precision targets its enemies; and Tabuu was somewhat humanoid-looking, while Galeem appears completely inhuman.
- He can also be considered one to Master Core, who is represented as a dark, chaotic creature, while Galeem by contrast is a calm being of light... who is no less evil and can easily be much worse.
Creative Sterility: Unlike say Tabuu, Galeem relies totally on copying and enslaving already existing entities.
Crossover-Exclusive Villain: Galeem has no relations to any of the franchises and only appears as a character in Ultimate itself.
Cruel and Unusual Death:
- In the dark ending, he gets his wings pierced and pulled open before his core is stabbed with multiple spikes. He also inflicts this on his nemesis Dharkon in the light ending by blowing him into pieces with lasers before atomizing him with lethal light flashes.
- He suffers another one in Sephiroth's trailer, being bisected vertically.
Curb-Stomp Battle: His Establishing Character Moment has him deal one out to the entire playable roster (except for Kirby, who only escaped because he was able to warp away from the attack), and the non-playable Spirit characters, wiping them all out in a matter of mere seconds.
Disc-One Final Boss: After he's defeated, Dharkon takes his place as top antagonist... At least until he returns once Dharkon is beaten, and they "team up".
Dub Name Change: Known as Kiira in Japanese, Kilaire in French, Kyra in German, Lúmina in Spanish, Kiaran in Italian, and Siyan in Russian.
Eldritch Abomination: Some kind of thing represented as a core of light surrounded by gargantuan wings with unknowable power and an ambiguous goal.
Enemy Mine: Galeem forms an alliance with Dharkon at the true final battle, although how allied they are is up to debate; not only are their puppet CPU-controlled fighter armies at war with each other as well as the Smash fighters, when one gets knocked out, the other will not miss the opportunity to land a massive blow on their stunned and helpless counterpart, so at best, it's a very Teeth-Clenched Teamwork.
Establishing Character Moment: Within minutes of his introduction, he immediately starts charging up massive power and unleashing a wave of spirit-stealing death and destruction upon the entire universe, killing off (or at least holding in an unconscious state) the entirety of the cast (playable and non-playable)... sans Kirby.
Evil Is Petty: He literally cannot cooperate with Dharkon if his life depends on it, taking pot-shots at Dharkon during their True Final Boss battle until the very end.
Evil Versus Evil: Is enemies with Dharkon, the Embodiment of Chaos and Darkness, who's just as malevolent as him.
Eye Lights Out: Once he is finally defeated for good, his core flickers several times before it completely goes out as it plunges into the ocean.
- His core also fades to black when Sephiroth slices him in two in his reveal trailer.
Fatal Flaw:
- While his attack which decimates the entire universe is shown to be very powerful, it doesn't work if one of your targets can, say, have access to a mode of transport which has the ability to blink themselves out of reality for a few moments. (Not counting access to Purgatorio since that's still part of reality.)
- His mutual hatred with Dharkon. When the two team up, they hate each other so much that even when technically working together, the two are still actively trying to kill each other as much as the Fighters, which naturally makes the fight far easier than it would otherwise be.
Four Is Death: He has four sets of wings swirling around his core, and he is a horrifically powerful entity capable of destroying and remaking the universe as he pleases.
Generic Doomsday Villain: It has very little personality to go off of; although its motives are known, the most you get of its personality are that it will steal the essence of life across realities and hates Dharkon.
God of Light: Galeem is a godly being of light who serves as the Big Bad of Ultimate's Adventure Mode before turning out to actually be the Disc-One Final Boss and afterwards being in a Big Bad Ensemble with his Darkness counterpart Dharkon, enslaving all the fighters except Kirby under his control and remaking the world into a light utopia in his image.
Good Wings, Evil Wings: Made mostly out of giant wings, he is definitely the latter since he's an Angelic Abomination that wants to destroy the universe — or at least cover it in his light and remake it in his own image.
Half the Man He Used to Be: Gets completely cleanly sliced in half vertically by Sephiroth during his reveal trailer.
The Heavy: Shares Big Bad Ensemble status with Dharkon, but is the one who kick-starts the conflict.
This Is a Drill: Can morph his wings into drills to impale fighters.
Hero Killer: His kill count, so to speak (as one of Sakurai's websites refers to the fighters having "perished" together, but they appear to be simply unconscious for producing clones), includes not only the entire playable roster (bar Kirby and most DLC fighters) — it also consists of every other character found in the game who is embodied as a Spirit.
Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: His fate in the dark ending — his wings are pulled open and he's impaled on spikes, hung like a war trophy... and then starts bleeding.
In Their Own Image: According to the intro cutscene, Galeem seeks to create a new world using his army of Master Hands, corrupted Spirits, and puppet fighters being energized by said Spirits.
Karmic Death: Galeem's Establishing Character Moment in World of Light was murdering all the non-DLC characters sans Kirby in the intro in a roster-wide case of The Worf Effect that also established him as an Omnicidal Maniac. Numerous Smash updates later and Galeem finally gets a taste of his own medicine when Sephiroth, a fellow Omnicidal Maniac who - in his home series - hasn't just had one instance of being on the giving end of The Worf Effect but several also establishes himself as an all powerful threat to the world of Smash the very moment he's introduced by crossing Galeem off his Worf hit list in his reveal trailer. To add on to the irony, Sephiroth himself also did the job with just a single slice of his sword in the same One-Hit Kill fashion as Galeem's waves of light used in the World of Light intro.
Kick Them While They Are Down: Should Dharkon get knocked out by the fighters while Galeem is present, Galeem will form a needle to impale Dharkon's eye.
Kill One, Others Get Stronger: During the final battle with Galeem/Dharkon, killing Dharkon first will let Galeem start using more powerful variants of his normal attacks. This also applies if fighting him solo.
Kill Steal:
- Galeem tries to do this to the player and heroes after they defeat Dharkon for the first time at the end of the World of Dark, only failing because Dharkon escapes at the last moment. He successfully pulls it off when Dharkon is completely defeated in the light ending, swooping in to finish Dharkon off after he had been sufficiently weakened.
- Sephiroth doles this out to Galeem in his reveal trailer, likely because Cloud was about to be attacked and he would rather defeat him himself.
Knight of Cerebus: He's instantly shown to be an even more dangerous threat than Tabuu ever was. The opening cutscene is easily the darkest moment in Smash Bros. history, as it begins with him obliterating all of the fighters (sans Kirby), and every non-playable character embodied as a Spirit in the game, and then proceeds to take over the universe.
Know When to Fold 'Em: After some of the Smash roster defeats him the first time, Dhar kon immediately enters the scene with his own army to capitalize on Galeem's weakened condition, forcing Galeem to flee the scene being unable to take on either group for the time being.
Laser-Guided Karma: Both Galeem and Dharkon become Spirits for your use after you clear the True Final Boss for World of Light.
Leitmotif: It's subtle, but Galeem is represented by the first half of the verse of "Lifelight". (On that day, when the sky fell away / Our world came to an end / In our eyes, did a fading sun rise in the dark? / Glimmering shadows). Both the map themes and Galeem's Battle Theme Music are entirely based around this section of the main theme.
Light 'em Up: Being known as the Lord of Light, it's pretty obvious that Galeem's powers are nearly entirely light-based. In battle, he mostly attacks using lasers, bright energy blasts, fireballs, and the like.
A Lighter Shade of Black: Make no mistake, Galeem is a rather ruthless in his take over of the World of Fighters, and the subsequent creation of Puppets using spirits. In spite of this, at least some kind of life actually continues and his World of Light, despite being mashed together, is populated and livable. Dharkon however lives in a broken abyss full of jumbled ruins and random elements, and his victory means everything but him and his darkness will live on. He mostly seems to have his Crazy Hands and Puppet Fighters to counter Galeems established forces.
Light Is Not Good: He's known as the Lord of Light, he seems to be comprised entirely out of light, and he's the Big Bad of Ultimate's Adventure Mode. Him killing off/capturing every character (playable and non-playable) with the exception of Kirby shows that he's definitely not a good being.
Logical Weakness: Galeem has an attack which is immensely powerful and devastating, but it also has a massive wind-up to actually use and Galeem needed to absorb the life force of his entire present army to use it, unlike Tabuu's Off Waves, which he could use at will so long as his wings were intact (and could still utilize in a watered-down form after losing them). As a result, Galeem needs a large amount of prep time to use it and never uses it at all during his boss fights. He's only able to truly utilize the attack to its full potential when a huge amount of distance is separating him and his target and they don't realize what he's doing, or in the case of his Bad Ending, the fighters are distracted fighting Dharkon. The wind-up to use the attack is also what allow Sephiroth to kill him in the latter's reveal trailer.
Meaningful Name: "Galeem" sounds like a corruption of "gleam", or to shine brightly. Its shape of wings surrounding a bright light may bring to mind imagery of ophanim, which are also known as "galgalim". His name in Japanese is a similar corruption of the onomatopoeia for twinkling (kirakira), and also sounds similar to "killer".
Mirror Character: Dharkon may be his dark counterpart with different goals in mind, but they share similar powers and methods (albeit mostly of differing elemental aspects), such as their capture and cloning of both Master and Crazy Hand, both possessing a world-wrecking wave that destroys everything in their paths, and they cannot stand the other to the point of effectively rendering whatever alliance they have ineffective.
Mêlée à Trois: All three phases of the final battle feature Galeem and Dharkon primarily attacking each other rather than the player. In the first phase, both summon puppet fighters that attack each other, the second phase has the boss icons attacking each other, and the third phase starts with them fighting each other directly, and all of their attacks can harm the other.
Musicalis Interruptus: When using his Tabuu-like shockwave attack, the background music briefly stops, punctuated only by the player's moves and the bell-like chimes of the waves going off. No other boss in the game has a mechanic like this.
Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Not quite his English name, but especially his Japanese name, which fits with his Establishing Character Moment.
Near-Villain Victory:
- He succeeds in wiping out Ultimate’s entire playable roster, and the non-playable Spirit character, and he takes over the universe. The plot of the Adventure Mode is Kirby attempting to free everyone from his control and stop him. If only Dharkon gets taken down, you can take the "Near" out of this trope.
- Once again he has the Smash roster at his mercy before Sephiroth cleaves him in two.
Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: This ends up being both Galeem's and Dharkon's undoing. Because the two are still primarily focused on taking each other down, when the Fighters manage to defeat the lone Crazy Hand clone that Dharkon had sent to deal with them, Galeem jumps on the chance to finish Dharkon off by summoning the real Master Hand to the battlefield. All this accomplishes is letting the Fighters free him, and he along with the real Crazy Hand end up instrumental in both Galeem's and Dharkon's downfall.
No-Nonsense Nemesis: Upon encountering the army of Smash fighters opposing him and his Master Hand army, he quickly absorbs the life force of his Master Hands and unleashes his ultimate attack to destroy them before they're even in range to counterattack. When it comes to dealing with Dharkon in the light ending, he first shreds him with multiple lasers before completely obliterating him, in contrast to Dharkon's own method of dealing with Galeem.
Oculothorax: Although you can't tell at first glance, one cutscene does show that the core is Galeem's eye. One attack Galeem uses in his rematch (with or without Dharkon) is to summon a light version of Dharkon's eye and project a wave similar to Tabuu's Off Waves.
One-Hit Kill:
- His beams of light instantly wipe out anyone and anything that they touch in the opening cutscene of World of Light.
- He ends up on the receiving end of one via Sephiroth in the latter's reveal trailer.
Omnicidal Maniac: His Establishing Character Moment is on the verge of destroying the entire universe and then remaking it as he desires. As mentioned above, there's also the matter of his kill count, which includes not only the entire playable roster (bar Kirby), but also consists of every other character found in the game who is embodied as a Spirit. He pulls it off again, this time for keeps, if he survives Dharkon's destruction.
Order Is Not Good: Galeem wishes to bring order to the world — the catch is that it's his own twisted sense of order, rather than something more benevolent.
Order Versus Chaos: He is a being of light and values order, in contrast to Dharkon, who is a being of darkness who seeks to plunge the world into chaos.
Original Generation: Another enemy original to Smash.
Our Angels Are Different: Galeem could be described as an "angelic being", one that resembles several disembodied colored wings/staircases/piano keys wrapped around a glowing core (which could be fairly close to the strange depictions of angels found in The Bible or Bayonetta; in particular, the multiple wings surrounding a core of light calls to mind a seraph or an ophanim).
Playing with Fire: Has an attack where he divides his core into three and begins shooting fireballs. Unlike most of his other moves, these can be reflected or absorbed to turn them on him. In his second battle, he can shoot a considerably larger fireball that homes in, cannot be negated, and explodes violently.
Red Eyes, Take Warning: While he himself lacks red eyes, the puppet fighters he uses have red eyes.
Satanic Archetype: An eldritch, light-themed angelic being with multiple wings described as the "Ultimate Enemy" who seeks to mangle the world to fit its preferred image? He pretty much screams "Lucifer" with most of the serial numbers filed off.
Skewed Priorities: When "working" with Dharkon, both sides and their puppet fighter armies often directly prioritize attacking each other instead of defeating the main threat to them: The player.
Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Even when theoretically allied with Dharkon, he takes no effort to avoid friendly fire and will actually attack him given the opportunity.
Turns Red: Once he gets down to half-health, his core erupts with light like it's a star about to go supernova.
Unblockable Attack: His shockwave and laser attacks will cut through shields like they aren't there, but they can still be dodged.
Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: The Smash Bros. series is a fun time for all characters from goofy to gritty despite slightly mature themes. This thing, however, is a massive contrast to the series's tone, kicking off the plot of World of Light with what sure looks like, at least, an astronomical kill count.
The Worf Effect: Gets this in Sephiroth's reveal trailer, where he's sliced in half in a Single-Stroke Battle.
World of Silence: What Galeem reduces the world of trophies to: a stagnant, frozen theme park like combination of the various Nintendo worlds.
World-Wrecking Wave: What happens in the story mode; Galeem unleashes a colossal burst of light that engulfs absolutely everything, leaving only the planet where the fighters faced him. He does this again in his bad ending, after vaporizing Dharkon. We don't see the aftermath or just how damaging this light spread quickly across a galaxy is, however.
Your Size May Vary: Galeem is a lot bigger in the cutscenes than when you're actually fighting him.

Dharkon (UNMARKED SPOILERS)

Dharkon (Darz)

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

Embodiment of Chaos and Darkness

Home Series: Super Smash Bros.

Debut: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate [Nintendo Switch], 2018

Appears in: Ultimate

In our eyes, did a fading sun rise in the dark?
Glimmering shadows...

Galeem's dark counterpart, and the one which he wages war with. Like Galeem, he has the ability to ensnare and control fighters under his will, seizing the puppet fighters under Galeem's control for his own use. Unlike Galeem, he seems less about plans to shape the universe, and more about wishing to destroy it and plunge it into darkness instead.

Apocalypse How: While Galeem wishes to remake the world as he sees fit, and Dharkon does as well with darkness instead of light, how much either just wants to kill everyone on top of it may be up to a bit of speculation. Nonetheless, Dharkon will plunge the planet — for starters — into darkness if he wins.
Arch-Enemy: He's Galeem's. The two can't stand one another. Even when the two form an Enemy Mine, they utterly loathe each other to the point of not even trying not to hurt the other, and if one is stunned, the other will deliver a massive blow to them without a second thought.
Ax-Crazy: Just like his rival, Galeem, he seems to be just as insane and murder happy.
The Bad Guy Wins: Like Galeem, if you defeat his foe in the final fight but not him, Dharkon will emerge victorious. In this case, if Dharkon wins, he viciously kills Galeem by drawing him out with chains and impaling him with his tentacles before covering the world in a shroud of darkness.
Battle Theme Music:
- Dharkon, a Dark Reprise of Lifelight that uses orchestral elements, vocals, and electric guitar to make it sound downright menacing.
- Shares Galeem/Dharkon with his counterpart during the final battle with both of them.
Big Bad Ensemble: He's one of the two main baddies along with Galeem, although they are as focused on fighting each other as they are on fighting you.
Brilliant, but Lazy: Compared to Galeem, who took initiative, Dharkon simply waited for the fighters to weaken Galeem so he could steal puppet fighters and the originals not found on the first map, rather than take on the heroes himself.
Bullet Seed: He borrows an attack from Tabuu where he fires a spread of bullets to attack the player and potentially Galeem. At lower health, he follows this with a massive Energy Ball. Neither type of projectile can be reflected or absorbed.
Casting a Shadow: As the Embodiment of Chaos and Darkness, it's only appropriate that Dharkon wields powers centered around darkness.
Chaos Is Evil: "The Lord of Chaos and Darkness" who seeks to destroy the universe, or at least remake it in darkness amidst a huge cataclysm. He will successfully do so if he survives Galeem's demise.
Combat Tentacles: His body is made up of tentacles studded with red crystalline spikes, which he uses to attack.
Crossover-Exclusive Villain: Dharkon has no relations to any of the franchises and only appears as a character in Ultimate itself.
Cruel and Unusual Death: In the light ending, he's ripped into by multiple lasers right before Galeem utterly vaporizes him. He also inflicts this on Galeem in the dark ending, messily yanking his wings open before impaling him upon multiple spikes and stringing him up high as if he was a new war trophy.
Dark Is Evil: He's dark to contrast Galeem's light appearance. But one trait he shares with Galeem is being evil, a personification of callous greed with no redeeming qualities seen.
Dark Reprise: Has a very dark version of Ultimate's overall main theme, accompanying heavy metal with orchestra and choir.
Dub Name Change: Known as Darz in Japanese, Sumbra in French, Dhars in German, Lúgubra in Spanish, Teneber in Italian, and Murak in Russian.
Eldritch Abomination: More blatantly than its nemesis Galeem, Dharkon is a monstrous eyeball surrounded by a mass of twisted tentacles, and strongly resembles the Malice eyes from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and the Dark Matter monsters from the Kirby series. Not to mention the demonic, dark Ing horde from Metroid Prime 2: Echoes having what seems to be a twisted family resemblance with this dark lord. It also looks like something Bayonetta would summon.
Eldritch Location: The domain he hails from is a spatial apocalypse with its own sub-dimensions, one being a tripped-out dimension of what appear to be gigantic toys and artistic craft found in a child's home, as well parts of a city a cemmentery, an arena and even parts of spaces like satellites and a moon being consumed by a black hole, Dracula's Castle being another (itself another eldritch location in its own right), and the third being the Sacred Land, which is two-thirds hostile territory (the Lost Woods and Gerudo Desert/Valley recreations).
Evil Is Petty: He literally cannot cooperate with Galeem if his life depends on it, taking pot-shots at Galeem during their True Final Boss battle until the very end.
Evil Is Visceral: Compared to the sleek and cloth-like appearance of Galeem, Dharkon appears to be more organic in appearance. Another comparison can be made when you knock either Galeem's core or Dharkon's eye to the ground; Galeem's core makes a glass-like sound when it hits the floor, whereas Dharkon's eye sounds like meat being bludgeoned.
Evil Twin: Granted, Galeem is no better than him, but besides a few substitutions, Dharkon looks just like him. Swap the core for a beastly eye and the wings for tentacles and you got Dharkon.
Evil Versus Evil: Is enemies with Galeem, the Lord of Light, who's just as malevolent as him.
Eye Lights Out: Once he is finally defeated for good, his eye's color slowly dulls into a grayish hue before completely fading away as he plunges into the ocean.
Faceless Eye: Dharkon's core, much like Planet Meteo from another Sakurai-designed game, is a slit eye.
Fatal Flaw: His mutual hatred with Galeem. When the two team up, they hate each other so much that even when technically working together, the two — and by extension, their armies of clone fighters — are still actively trying to kill each other as much as the Fighters, which naturally makes the fight far easier than it would otherwise be.
Foreshadowing: His entire existence is only foreshadowed by "Lifelight" — specifically, the lyrics featured at the top of this section. Though an astute player would doubt something is off by one of the achievements in the Challenges section outlining the "Light Realm" and the fact they would still be missing a huge chunk of fighters to collect yet they're nowhere to be found in the Light Realm. There's also the fact that Galeem's army of Master Hands does not contain any Crazy Hands.
The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: As there is no one else left alive after Dharkon's assault — save the possibility he only "drugs" them with poison to use them if he needs the fighters alive to keep building his armies, say — in his ending, he gazes intently at the screen, possibly with the intent of letting the player know that they've failed to stop him.
Generic Doomsday Villain: Dharkon has very little personality to go off of; although his goals are known, the most you get of his personality is that he wants to plunge existence into a very dark place and that he hates Galeem.
God and Satan Are Both Jerks: Although it's more like "Archangel Michael and Satan Are Both Jerks" in this case (although many people see Galeem as being closer to fallen angel of Light Lucifer than Archangel Gabriel, making this a strange Civil War of Satanic Archetypes). You've got a Light Is Not Good antagonist on one hand and a Dark Is Evil antagonist on the other, and both are godlike entities out to use stolen life essences to engulf existence in their image.
God of Darkness: Dharkon is the embodiment of darkness and chaos, and the opposite and equal his light counterpart and enemy Galeem.
Go for the Eye: While Galeem's got his glowing core as a weak point, Dharkon's got an eyeball the fighters need to attack.
The Hedge of Thorns: The visual cue his extensions coalesce to create at rest, much like Galeem's "wings", resembling a snarl of bloody-thorned brambles.
Hell Is That Noise: Whenever his eye moves or appears, it is usually accompanied by a low warble that sounds like a deeper and slower version of the Cloister Bell.
Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: During the True Final Boss fight, Galeem will turn into a needle and impale Dharkon if he gets the opportunity.
Kick Them While They Are Down: Should Galeem get knocked out by the fighters while Dharkon is present, Dharkon will form a hammer to smash Galeem's core.
Kill One, Others Get Stronger: During the final battle with Galeem and Dharkon, killing Galeem first will let Dharkon start using more powerful variants of his normal attacks. This also applies if fighting him solo.
Kill Steal: Dharkon tries to do this to the player and the heroes the first time Galeem is beaten, and only fails because Galeem has the sense to flee while he can. He successfully pulls it off after Galeem is truly trounced in the dark ending, swooping in to finish Galeem off after he had been sufficiently weakened.
Laser-Guided Karma: Both Galeem and Dharkon become Spirits for your use after you clear the True Final Boss for World of Light.
Late-Arrival Spoiler: Despite being a Walking Spoiler for World of Light, he appears front and center in the opening shot of Hero's trailer, having taken control of several fighters again.
Leitmotif: Subtly, Dharkon in general is represented by the second half of the verse of "Lifelight" (These little sparks, cling on to life, / Everyone caught in the struggle, / And then the storms of change, they fan the flames / scattering ashes to the wind). To contrast Galeem's use of the first half of the verse, Dharkon's Battle Theme Music and the map themes for the World of Darkness are based around this snippet of the song.
Logical Weakness: His ending appears to strongly imply he has a very similar (if not outright identical) universe-spanning attack to Galeem's, but it seems to have the same drawback of charge-up time, especially considering how he seems to only be able to utilize it at its full potential once the heroes are busy fighting Galeem.
Lovecraft Lite: Certainly looks the part, being a floating, gigantic, and multi-tentacled beast that looks akin to a fusion between Yog-Sothoth and Azathoth. He's introduced ripping his way out of a jagged hole in the sky, as if invading from another reality. As for the "Lite" part, it's entirely possible for the fighters to pummel him to death. If only Galeem dies, upgrade to full-blown Cosmic Horror Story.
The Man Behind the Man: The Crazy Hands are his minions – much like how the Master Hands are the minions of Galeem.
Meaningful Name: Contrasting his counterpart, Dharkon's name sounds like a combination of the words "dark" and "archon," the ruling class of demons according to Gnosticism. It's also a corruption of "darken", as in to make something darker.
Mêlée à Trois: All three phases of the final battle feature Galeem and Dharkon primarily attacking each other rather than the player. In the first phase, both summon puppet fighters that attack each other, the second phase has the boss icons attacking each other, and the third phase starts with them fighting each other directly, and all of their attacks can harm the other.
Mirror Character: Galeem may be his light counterpart with different goals in mind, but they share similar powers (albeit mostly of differing elemental aspects) and methods, such as their capture and cloning of both Crazy and Master Hand, both possessing a world-wrecking wave that destroys everything in their paths, and they cannot stand the other to the point of effectively rendering whatever alliance they have ineffective.
Names to Run Away from Really Fast: What better title to give a tentacled Eldritch Abomination than "Embodiment of Chaos and Darkness"? "Dharkon" itself isn't subtle, either.
Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: This ends up being both Dharkon's and Galeem's undoing. Because the two are still primarily focused on taking each other down, when the Fighters manage to defeat the lone Master Hand clone that Galeem had sent to deal with them, Dharkon jumps on the chance to finish Galeem off by summoning the real Crazy Hand to the battlefield. All this accomplishes is letting the Fighters free him, and he along with the real Master Hand end up instrumental in both Galeem's and Dharkon's downfall.
Obviously Evil: A dark purple multi-tentacled Eldritch Abomination with a single Hellish Pupil, has the title of "Embodiment of Chaos and Darkness", uses darkness-based powers, and seeks to plunge the world into darkness.
Oculothorax: Has one slitted eye.
Omnicidal Maniac: Just like his rival, Galeem.
Opportunistic Bastard: The very instant Galeem is defeated the first time around, Dharkon wastes absolutely no time jumping on the chance to take him out, and though Galeem bails, knowing he cannot defeat his dark counterpart at the moment, Dharkon simply seizes many of the spirits and fighters Galeem once controlled and hurriedly marches on to destroy and at least darken the universe. Also, he sends three Crazy Hand clones after you moments after you first venture into the Dark Realm.
Order Versus Chaos: He is a being of darkness and values chaos, in contrast to Galeem, who is a being of light that seeks to remake the universe as he desires.
Original Generation: Another enemy original to Smash.
Pillar of Light: He creates beams of darkness that erupt from the ground.
Purple Is Powerful: His tendrils glow a couple shades of purple.
Purple Is the New Black: Aside from actual black, Dharkon's main colors are shades of purple, magenta, and occasionally red, and like most "darkness" attacks (e.g. those Ganondorf uses), Dharkon's dark magic has a purple cast to it.
Rotten Rock & Roll: A dark, menacing villain whose theme prominently uses an electric guitar.
Satanic Archetype: Bears more of the stereotypical satanic tropes compared to Galeem. He is an abominable, multi-tentacled monstrosity which is always accompanied with darkness, wishing to drown the universe in hellish darkness. In other words, if Galeem is Lucifer, then Dharkon is Satan.
- Unlike Galeem, this also extends to Dharkon's generals. Each of the three boss characters who serve him (Ganon, Marx, and Dracula) all serve as a Satanic Archetype in their home series somewhat.
A Sinister Clue: While having no hands to speak of, he has an army of Crazy Hands in tow and is often depicted on the left side of the screen.
Skewed Priorities: When "working" with Galeem, both sides and their puppet fighter armies often directly prioritize attacking each other instead of defeating the main threat to them: the player.
Spikes of Villainy: His tentacles end with glowing red spikes, which have smaller spikes branching off of them. They’re not just for looking intimidating, as some of his attacks involve attempting to stab the fighter with them.
Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Even when theoretically allied with Galeem, he takes no effort to avoid "friendly" fire and will actually attack him given the opportunity.
Time Master: Has the ability to slow down time, seemingly by ripping the space-time continuum in certain shapes due to the the platforms and background being ignored.
Turns Red: Quite literally — his eye turns bright red once you knock him down to half health.
"Uh-Oh" Eyes: He sports several of these tropes at once; an unblinking, blue sclera and a yellow iris with a single hellish pupil is his default appearance, and in battle when he Turns Red — so too does his sclera as his iris becomes pale purple. Oh, and it glows.
Unblockable Attack: He has an attack where he spreads around the screen as waves of darkness. It is identical to Galeem’s waves of light attack, including the property of ignoring your shield.
Walking Spoiler: While not exactly walking, Dharkon's very existence pretty much spoils the second act of the Adventure Mode; hence his entry being in unmarked spoiler territory.
World-Wrecking Wave: In Dharkon's ending, the very first thing Dharkon does after ripping Galeem to shreds is unleash a pulse of darkness that expands infinitely, steadily swallowing everything until no light remains save for the pale glow of Dharkon's eye. Judging by Mario's reaction, this darkness isn't just pitch-black, it's downright anathemical to life.
Your Size May Vary: Dharkon is a lot bigger in the cutscenes than when you're actually fighting him.

Characters / Super Smash Bros. - Bosses

Debuting in N64

Giant Donkey Kong

Metal Mario and Metal Luigi

Master Hand

Debuting in Melee

Crazy Hand

Giga Bowser (Giga Koopa)

Debuting in Brawl

Petey Piranha (Boss Packun)

Rayquaza

Porky Minch

Ridley / Meta Ridley

False Fighters

Galleom

Duon

Tabuu

Debuting in 3DS/Wii U

Yellow Devil

Dark Emperor (King of All Darkness)

Metal Face (Black Face) / Mumkhar

Master Core

Debuting in Ultimate

Count Dracula Vlad Țepeș / Mathias Cronqvist

Rathalos (Liolæus)

Marx (Mark)

Ganon

Galeem (Kiira)

Dharkon (Darz)

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Index

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Characters / Super Smash Bros. - Bosses

Edit Locked

Debuting in N64

Giant Donkey Kong

Metal Mario and Metal Luigi

Master Hand

Debuting in Melee

Crazy Hand

Giga Bowser (Giga Koopa)

Debuting in Brawl

Petey Piranha (Boss Packun)

Rayquaza

Porky Minch

Ridley / Meta Ridley

False Fighters

Galleom

Duon

Tabuu

Debuting in 3DS/Wii U

Yellow Devil

Dark Emperor (King of All Darkness)

Metal Face (Black Face) / Mumkhar

Master Core

Debuting in Ultimate

Count Dracula Vlad Țepeș / Mathias Cronqvist

Rathalos (Liolæus)

Marx (Mark)

Ganon

Galeem (Kiira)

Dharkon (Darz)

Previous

Index

Next