Characters / Super Smash Bros. Brawl - 32 to 39

Super Smash Bros. characters index
Playable characters:
64: 01–04 (Starting Roster 1) | 05–08 (Starting Roster 2) | 09–12 (Unlockable Fighters)
Melee: 13–17 (Starting Newcomers) | 18–22 (Unlockable Fighters 1) | 23–26 (Unlockable Fighters 2)
Brawl: 27–31 (E3 2006) | 32–39 (Smash Bros. DOJO!! 2007) | 40–44 (Smash Bros. DOJO!! 2008)
For 3DS and Wii U: 45–49 (Pre-Smash Direct) | 50–55 (Smash Direct and E3 2014) | 56–59 (Remaining Roster) | 60–63 (DLC Fighters)
Ultimate: 64–69 (Initial Release) | New Echo Fighters | 70–75 (DLC Fighters 1) | 76–82 (DLC Fighters 2)
Mii Costumes
Individual Characters: Joker | Sephiroth
Non-playable characters:
Poké Ball Pokémon | Assist Trophies | Enemies | Bosses | Others

This page lists the fighters introduced in 2007 Smash Bros. DOJO!! reveals from Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

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32 – Ike

The Radiant Hero of Legend

^{Radiant Dawn}

^{3DS/Wii U}

^Brawl

Voiced by: Michihiko Hagi (Japanese), Jason Adkins (Brawl, 3DS/Wii U; English), Greg Chun (Ultimate; English)

Home Series: Fire Emblem

Debut: Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance [GameCube], 2005

Creator: Intelligent Systems

Publisher: Nintendo

Playable in: Brawl, 3DS/Wii U, Ultimate
Specials: Eruption, Quick Draw, Aether, Counter
Final Smash: Great Aether

"I fight for my friends."

Leader of the Greil Mercenaries, wielder of the legendary blade Ragnell, Radiant Hero of Legend, and Lord from Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn. Serving as the leader of the Greil Mercenaries after his father's passing, he's led them through several trials and ended the Mad King's War. Three years later, he would lead his band a second time, ultimately being the one to take down the goddess Ashera.

Despite wielding a sword, Ike is hardly anything like Marth or Roy before him. He wields Ragnell, a two-handed sword, with only one hand; as such, he's a good deal slower and heavier than the others, but a great deal more powerful as a result. His Forward Smash in particular is one of the strongest in the game, but one of the slowest as well, requiring him to read his opponent carefully before acting. Despite his speed issues, you shouldn't underestimate this man, lest you find yourself on the receiving end of an Aether-powered slash.

See Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance - Greil Mercenaries for more information on the character in his origin series.

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• Art Evolution: Went from his Path of Radiance Ranger design in Brawl to his Radiant Dawn Hero one in 3DS/Wii U. Ultimate uses his Path of Radiance design as his default appearance, with his Radiant Dawn design being an alternate costume, along with each design having different voice clips.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Ike's neutral special Eruption has him plunge his huge sword into the ground to create a powerful fiery explosion (which is even neon blue in 3DS/Wii U), and can be a One-Hit KO if timed and charged properly. However, it's a very slow attack and has a relatively small hitbox, and is generally hard to use. The move's only saving grace is that it has super armor, meaning Ike can go through certain attacks and land the move anyway. Ultimate significantly buffed the move by giving it massive range when charged, allowing it to edgeguard some characters and two-frame similar to Flare Blade, in exchange for lower knockback.
• Badass Cape: In Path of Radiance, he mentions a practical purpose for it, but in Smash Bros., it is just there to look badass.
• Baritone of Strength: In Ultimate, the older Radiant Dawn version of Ike has a deeper, more masculine voice than the Path of Radiance version. It's more obvious in the Japanese version, while it's less noticeable in the English version.
• Battle Intro: Warps in using warp magic, then slashes with Ragnell.
• The Big Guy: In Subspace Emissary for Marth and Meta Knight, being the powerhouse of the trio. In 3DS/Wii U, his Radiant Dawn design fits the part more than before.
• BFS: Ragnell, one of the biggest swords in Smash, rivaled only by Shulk's Monado, Cloud's Buster/Fusion Swords, and Ganondorf's claymore. It's constantly remarked that it's a two-handed sword wielded with only one hand. The sounds produced by it during attacks almost make it seem like a Telephone Polearm instead.
• Boring, but Practical:
  • One of Ike's custom move options allows him to replace Eruption with Tempest, which replaces the blue fiery explosion with a comparatively unimpressive gust of wind, but has more spacing utility by allowing him to push foes away.
  • His gameplay is this in a nutshell. He's a character that's honest to a fault, and being good with him requires a good sense of basic fundamentals. For this reason, a number of players recommend him as the character you use to learn how to play. A good sign of a good Ike is someone with the basic foundation to be good at the game in general.
• Breakout Character: Ike's games of origin sold rather poorly worldwide, but Smash made him into one of the most popular and iconic Fire Emblem protagonists of all; he gets a direct descendant in Fire Emblem: Awakening, and makes additional appearances via his amiibo in Codename Steam and Fire Emblem Fates alongside Marth, Robin, and Lucina (whose respective games of origin are more well-known and better-selling than Ike's). This is to the point where Ike's Fates appearance is largely based on Smash, in that he keeps his Mighty Glacier stats and one of his victory poses.
• Calling Your Attacks: He bellows the names of his signature moves as he performs them: "Aether!" and "GREAT AETHER!"
• Canon Welding: This specific incarnation of Ike is playable in Fire Emblem Fates by summoning him via his amiibo, just like how the Smash Bros. universe itself allegedly works.
• Charged Attack: Two: Quick Draw, which will propel him further and faster the longer it's charged (and works as a secondary, horizontal recovery), and Eruption. Eruption deals more damage as it's fully charged, but in a twist, it does the most damage if perfectly timed right before it's fully charged, where it becomes a One-Hit KO. If fully charged, it's still extremely powerful and will KO enemies at rather low percentages, but also deals recoil damage to Ike.
• Confusion Fu: Although he isn't designed with this playstyle in mind, Ike's Up Taunt has him swing his sword overhead before growling. The beginning of this animation looks very similar to his Forward Smash so it's possible to bait out shields or dodges from your opponents. This is particularly effective in Ultimate as all taunts had their animations sped up and can be canceled before the animation is finished.
• Counter-Attack: His down special, as is standard for Fire Emblem Lords in Smash.
• Dramatic Wind: Every time his down taunt animation plays, his Badass Cape briefly flows by an instant gust of wind.
• Dynamic Entry: Marth and Meta Knight are chasing after the Ancient Minister, who has an active Subspace Bomb. They both try and fail to stop him. All of a sudden, a sword twirls into frame, Ike leaps up and grabs it, destroys the bomb, and sends him packing.
• Flaming Sword: Ragnell, of course. From 3DS/Wii U onward, it sports the blue flames it had in Radiant Dawn.
• Force and Finesse: The Force to Marth's Finesse so the two Fire Emblem fighters (both Lightning Bruisers in their own series) can be differentiated. Where Marth is quick and powerful when spaced properly, Ike is big, slow, and hits hard regardless of where he connects. This is also reflected in Marth's Bishōnen status and princely armor vs. Ike's burly appearance and tattered mercenary armor.
• Glacier Waif:
  • Compared to most Brawl heavyweights being huge (Donkey Kong, Bowser, King Dedede), he's just an ordinary human. He uses his ranger appearance from Path of Radiance, where the glacier characteristics do not fit his Jack of All Stats spread from said game. The idea of making him so slow was to differentiate him from the already fast Marth.
  • 3DS/Wii U averts this both visually and gameplay-wise, with his design being updated to Radiant Dawn's Hero look for added size, muscle, and weight, as well as being faster (and a little weaker) in general. He's still not speedy, but is much more mobile and has less lag on his attacks, similar to Bowser.
  • Ultimate zigzags this by making both of Ike's designs available and identical in function, with the Path of Radiance design being the default, but also making him even faster than in 3DS/Wii U, now being comparable to Corrin in terms of speed.
• Heroic Build: In 3DS/Wii U, taken from his Radiant Dawn appearance. Certainly justifies how he's able to hold Ragnell in one hand.
• Home Stage:
  • Brawl: Castle Siege.
  • 3DS/Wii U: All stages from his series^note Arena Ferox in 3DS, Coliseum and Castle Siege in Wii U.
  • Ultimate: Castle Siege in Ultimate's website, his World of Light and normal unlock fights though both take place in Coliseum.
• Hunk: His Radiant Dawn design, which compared to his Path of Radiance self, sports plenty of muscle and a sharper face. Ultimate goes the extra mile and makes his skin more tan to boot.
• Iaijutsu Practitioner: Not really, given Ragnell has no sheath, but his side special is named "Quick Draw", after the concept.
• Idle Animation:
  • He hoists his sword over his shoulder.
  • He traces the surface of his sword with his fingers.
• Immune to Flinching: His Eruption Special and Aether Up Special have super armor. His Aether super armor is so good that it will resist Marth's Critical Hit.
• Leitmotif: "Eternal Bonds" as in his home series. Smash went as far as to rename it "Ike's Theme". 3DS/Wii U also introduces "The Devoted," which is the battle anthem of his mercenary company, and is used as his battle theme (as his Smash incarnation, no less) in Fire Emblem Fates.
• Limit Break: Great Aether, a flashier version of his Up Special.
• Mighty Glacier: Moves slowly (especially in Brawl), with plenty of startup and ending lag in many of his attacks, and hits like a truck. As noted, this isn't actually entirely accurate to his portrayal in his original games (where speed was actually one of his best stats), but he was developed this way to be differentiated from the previous Fire Emblem characters.
• Muscles Are Meaningful: Played with over the course of his appearances in Smash: it's averted in Brawl, where his scrawny appearance comes from his teenager self from Path of Radiance; then played straight in 3DS/Wii U, where his brawnier appearance comes from his adult self from Radiant Dawn; then zig-zagged in Ultimate, where both of his selves appear, and his skinny teenage self is just as powerful and slow as his burly adult self.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Some of his Palette Swaps reference characters from his home games, including green for Geoffrey, yellow-orange for his father Greil, and red for Zelgius. He additionally has a white and blue costume that acts as a reference to Sigurd, who partially inspired Ike's honest, quick to act, yet naive personality. Fittingly, he uses this costume in Sigurd and Seliph's Spirit battles, where he serves as Sigurd's vessel.
  • His Quick Draw is very reminiscent to his attack animation when he scores a Critical Hit when he's a lord in Path of Radiance.
  • Some of his victory screen dialogue in the Japanese version of Ultimate has him say certain lines verbatim from his home games, specifically from when he fights the Black Knight, Micaiah, and Ashera.
• Nerf: In Brawl, Eruption has armor frames just so long as you time it right. In 3DS/Wii U, the armor only occurs if it's fully-charged.
• One-Handed Zweihänder: Snake and the manual the game comes with emphasize the point that he's using that massive two-handed blade with only one arm.
• Out-of-Character Moment: One of Ike's victory poses includes him saying, "You'll get no sympathy from me"; odd for the guy who gives everyone sympathy, up to and including his father's killer. While he may have sympathy, Ike does repeatedly state that he'll show no mercy on the battlefield, even to former allies, so this may be more of a syntax problem. It does, however, call into question "I fight for my friends".
• Palette Swap: One that resembles the clothing of his father, Greil, and a blue one resembling Sigurd. 3DS/Wii U has a black alt reminiscent of his Arch-Enemy, the Black Knight, and a white and blue one that resembles Chrom (this latter one was removed in Ultimate when Chrom was Promoted to Playable).
• Playing with Fire: Some of his attacks involve setting his sword on fire. In Brawl, the fire was orange, but, in 3DS/Wii U, the fire was changed to blue, much like in Radiant Dawn.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: He's the aggressive and manly Red to Marth's cooler and more calculating Blue in Subspace Emissary, with Meta Knight as the mediator between them. Also reflected in their cape colors, despite them both being Primary Color Champions.
• Ret-Canon: Much like Ganondorf's Warlock Punch, Ike's Mighty Glacier nature in Smash carries over to his stat caps in Fire Emblem Fates rather than having Fates depict him as a Jack of All Stats as he was in the Tellius games. Justified in that he is unlocked in Fates via his Smash amiibo.
• Secret Character: For Ultimate: Have a Cumulative Wait Time of 2 hours and 10 minutes, beat Classic Mode with Mario or anyone in his unlock tree four times, or find and defeat him in World of Light.
• Shout-Out: His audience chant is, "We like Ike!," a reference to Dwight D. Eisenhower's campaign for U.S. President.
• Signature Move: Aether, his unique Mastery skill from his original games, which appears here as his Up Special. Those games as well as Smash solidified it enough that the attack is now irrevocably associated with him even despite versions of it appearing on later Fire Emblem protagonists Chrom and Lucina.
• Skill Gate Characters: At the lowest level of play, Ike can KO easily and is safe on his kill moves. Higher-skill players will find that his moves can be interrupted easily, but even higher-skill players will be able to use his range and ability to KO in a few hits to their advantage.
• Suicide Attack: Proper use of Aether allows him to pull opponents down with him, or Meteor Smash them.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Ike isn't a fire user in his home series, but some of his attacks (Eruption and Great Aether) were given red flame effects in Brawl, making him superficially resemble Roy in Melee, though their only actual mechanical similarities are Eruption and Flare Blade as well as Counter. 3DS/Wii U changed the flames to blue to better reflect Fire Emblem canon (Ike's empowerment by Yune at the end of Radiant Dawn), and the contrast is more apparent with Roy himself returning as DLC.
• Sword and Fist: Ike uses punches and kicks in his neutral combo attacks. His Final Smash also has him kicking.
• Sword Beam: A staple of his with Ragnell, but in Smash Bros. it is only seen at the start of Great Aether.
  • In Ultimate, a fully charged Eruption launches three pillars of fire.
  • Aether Wave, his secondary custom up special, behaves rather similarly to Kirby's Final Cutter. After Ike finishes the move via landing on the ground, his sword generates a shockwave but unlike Final Cutter, the shockwave is unable to be reflected at him.
• Sword Plant: One of his taunts has him planting the sword on the floor, and it is accompanied by a Dramatic Wind that overrides any wind already blowing on the stage. Also, his Eruption Special has him doing this to create columns of fire.
• Taking You with Me: Doing Aether or Great Aether off the edge will KO both Ike and the trapped opponents.
• Technicolor Fire: As of 3DS/Wii U and Ultimate, Ragnell produces blue flames. Doubles as a Mythology Gag to Radiant Dawn, when Yune empowered his Ragnell in order to take down Ashera.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Ike does so during his signature move, Aether, tossing it straight up and leaping up to catch it to serve as his recovery. Not only does this create a very uniquely ranged disjointed hitbox that can catch opponents by surprise, he has Super Armor as long as his sword is out of his hands, making it nearly impossible to interrupt the move.
• Unskilled, but Strong: His combat style certainly looks like wild flailing compared to Marth and Lucina's more refined fencing. That said, you don't want to be on the receiving end of any of his attacks, especially his forward-smash. Doubles as a Mythology Gag, as in his home series, other characters note how odd and unrefined his style is, yet note how absurdly strong it is regardless.
• Victory Pose:
  • Slashes Ragnell twice then places it on his shoulder. In Brawl and 3DS/Wii U he says, "I fight for my friends," while in Ultimate he says, "Your skills were... remarkable" (Path of Radiance) or "Don't stand in my way" (Radiant Dawn).
  • Plants Ragnell into the ground then crosses his arms. In Brawl and 3DS/Wii U he says, "You'll get no sympathy for me," while in Ultimate, he says, "I submit to no one" (Path of Radiance) or "I must move forward" (Radiant Dawn).
  • Performs Aether. In Brawl and 3DS/Wii U he does not say anything, while in Ultimate he says, "You'll get no sympathy from me" (Path of Radiance) or "I fight for my friends" (Radiant Dawn).
• Vocal Dissonance: In the English versions of Ultimate, his voice can be rather off to hear as it's really quiet, downright mellow, and strangely soft-sounding even if if it's coming from his burly and older Radiant Dawn design especially.
• Vocal Evolution: An unorthodox example. In Ultimate, his voice differs slightly depending on his costume, in order to reflect his age between the two games they're based on. The younger and more naïve Path of Radiance version sounds energetic and aggressive, while the older and more experienced Radiant Dawn version sounds deeper and more composed.
• Weapon Across the Shoulder: An idle animation has him striking this pose nonchalantly.

Pokémon Trainer

Wants to be the Very Best

^{Female Pokémon Trainer}

^Brawl

Male Trainer voiced by: Tomoe Hanba (Japanese), Michele Knotz (Brawl; English), Billy Bob Thompson (Ultimate; English), Isabel Navarro (Brawl; Spanish), Rodri Martín (Ultimate; Spanish), Virginie Demians (Brawl; French), Émilie Guillaume (Ultimate; French), Francesca Guidice (Brawl; Italian), Tania de Domenico (Ultimate; Italian), Dina Kuerten (Brawl; German), Maximilian Belle (Ultimate; German).

Female Trainer voiced by: Wakana Kingyo (Japanese), Kate Bristol (English), Tania Ugía (Spanish), Élisabeth Guinand (French), Giada Bonanomi (Italian), Lea Kalbhenn (German).

Home Series: Pokémon

Debut:

Male Trainer and Pokémon team: Pokémon Red and Blue [Game Boy],1996

Female Trainer: Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen [Game Boy Advance] 2004

Creator: Game Freak

Publisher: Nintendo

Playable in: Brawl, Ultimate
Final Smash: Triple Finish

"You all did great!"/"Everyone did great!"

While Pikachu may be the Series Mascot of Pokémon, the franchise stood out as not having an actual protagonist playable... until Brawl, when this seemingly generic Pokémon Trainer joined the battle. Hailing from the Kanto region, this Trainer is referred to by the vaguest of terms and comes in male and female varieties. The male Trainer, debuting in Brawl, is one of many incarnations of Red, the protagonist character from the original Pokémon Red and Blue. His outfit is taken from the Game Boy Advance remakes, Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen, only with fully voiced dialogue instead of an established name and personality, as he's meant to represent the player character rather than the specific canon character of Red, who appears in different forms across media with different depictions and personalities. Ultimate introduces Leaf, the female trainer from the same remakes, as a costume option.

Rather than fighting directly, this Trainer introduces versions of Kanto's famous Starter Mon trio of Squirtle, Bulbasaur, and Charmander as playable fighters by sending their different evolutionary stages out into battle: Squirtle itself, Bulbasaur's evolved form Ivysaur, and Charmander's final stage Charizard. All three have their own unique properties and special attacks, and can be cycled between at any time by using their down special move. During the trainer's original playable appearance, they came with mechanics that left them weaker to certain attacks and prone to fatigue as an attempt to mirror their series. With the trainer's return in Ultimate, both of these mechanics are removed and the playstyle is more streamlined to make room for more varied combos.

See Pokémon Red and Blue - Protagonists and Rivals for more information on the character in their origin series.

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• Actually Four Mooks: Not the only multiple-entity fighter in both their appearances, but the only one besides Olimar^note in non-Japanese versions, anyway to be represented and labeled solely under the "main" member.
• Adaptational Name Change: Both the male and female trainers are only referred to as "Pokémon Trainer" in the series, with no mention of their canon names from the Pokémon games, "Red" and "Leaf".
• All Your Colours Combined: The Final Smash, Triple Finish, combines beams of red, blue and green from the three Pokémon. Not so coincidentally, this matches the three Japanese Generation I Pokémon games (Blue was the updated version of Red and Green).
• Ambiguous Gender: Not the Trainers, but rather the Pokémon. Squirtle, Ivysaur, and Charizard all lack Secondary Sexual Characteristics to determine whether they're male or female, though male starters are always the far more common of the two (specifically, 87.5% vs. 12.5%). And as the Pokémon series in Smash takes personalities and other influence from beyond just the games, in most canons, all of Ash/Red's starters and Leaf's Venusaur/Blastoise are male.
• Ambiguous Situation: It's unclear whether the male and female Trainers are separate characters, just as Red and Leaf/Green are in most forms of canon, or if they are simply two alternate versions of the same individual, which would fit with their being as generic and vague as possible.
• Ascended Extra:
  • Before Brawl, Squirtle was used as a stage platform in Melee, and Charizard was a Poké Ball Pokémon in both the original and Melee. Charizard would ascend again for the fourth game, becoming its own fighter, before being downgraded back to the Trainer's team in Ultimate.
  • Leaf was a non-canon, female version of Red that only appeared in concept art and a single remake for 22 years. However, a version of her named Green appeared in game canon for the first time just under a month before Ultimate's release, so maybe it was planned all along. However, Leaf would later be established as a separate character from Green in Pokémon Masters.
  • Downplayed for Calem. He was one half of the "Pokémon Trainers (Pokémon X & Pokémon Y)" trophy in for 3DS, but is a playable Palette Swap for the male Trainer in Ultimate. Given the Featureless Protagonist nature of the Pokémon Trainer, it can even be said that the costume loosely represents Calem himself.
• Audience Surrogate: Their entire character concept is "the blank-slate Kanto protagonist" as opposed to "Red/Leaf the established character". Even moreso in Ultimate in 8-Player Smash and some single-player modes, as the Trainer doesn't appear on stage and they're essentially played from a first-person view.
• Badass Adorable: In their home game, Red canonically took down a dangerous criminal organization on his own and became the Indigo League Champion. And while he certainly counts due to being an 11-year-old Kid Hero, Leaf is especially this trope. Just look at how happy she is! Especially when she summons Charizard for the final blow and then cuddles up to it on the victory screen! D'awww!
• Balance Buff: They no longer have the stamina mechanic in Ultimate, allowing players to use whichever Pokémon they want as long as they like. They can also switch in the air and their switch speed is much faster, so fast they can even be done in the middle of combos.
• Battle Intro: Whatever Pokémon you selected comes out of a Pokéball thrown by the Trainer, who shouts "Go, Squirtle!", "Go, Ivysaur!", or "Go, Charizard!" depending on who's selected.
• The Beastmaster: Their "weapons" in battle are their trio of colorful pet reptiles.
• Benevolent Boss: Notably, the Trainers have exactly zero disappointed or frustrated lines explicitly directed at their Pokémon. The closest they come is their casual "dang it!" when one gets knocked out, but otherwise, the Trainers' tones are neutral at worst as they switch Pokémon, while mostly giving positive cheers or expressing concern for their current battler. Both genders of Trainer also have a victory pose for each of their three Pokémon where they show affection to the 'mon that won the battle, like any good pet parent.
• Big Brother Mentor: Red acts as emotional support for Lucas in The Subspace Emissary and helps him get over his cowardice. While Lucas and the Trainer are around the same age, the latter's artstyle makes him look a little older, which fits the dynamic between the two characters.
• Boring, but Practical: Triple Finish, especially in Ultimate, stands out for being one of the few Final Smashes to remove a Super Mode from a previous game — in this case, Mega Charizard X — and can come across as underwhelming compared to other Pokémon's Final Smashes that use Mega Evolutions and Z-Moves, especially considering how common the three moves that make it up^note Solar Beam, Fire Blast, and Hydro Pump are in the Pokémon series. However, it's also one of the more useful Final Smashes in the game, covering a wide area and trapping opponents with Squirtle's Hydro Pump while racking up damage from Ivysaur and netting the finishing blow with Charizard.
• Breakout Character: Originally one of many dodgily-designed gimmick characters in Brawl, the Trainer's much more polished incarnation in Ultimate made them one of the most hyped and widely-used fighters in Ultimate. Leaf herself deserves special mention, as she was presented as a "secondary" option to her male counterpart, but ended up actually overshadowing Red in some circles. Not bad for someone who had only appeared in one game for over 14 years; in fact, her appearance in Smash led directly to a resurgence of appearances by her in the Pokémon games, starting with a Post-Final Boss appearance in Pokémon Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee!, under the name "Green", and later in Pokémon Masters.
• The Bus Came Back: All of them come back in Ultimate, along with Charizard rejoining the group. Leaf is this to a greater extent, as Ultimate was her first appearance in any game for 14 years.
• Calling Your Attacks: Justified, since the Trainer's calls are orders.
  Pokémon Trainer: Take this!^note Brawl/ Take that!^note Ultimate, male / Go!^note Ultimate, female TRIPLE FINISH!
• Canon Foreigner: Not the characters themselves, but in 3DS/Wii U, Red's trophy makes a reference to Ash Ketchum, his counterpart from the anime.
• Combined Energy Attack: Fire Blast, Hydro Pump, and Solar Beam make up Triple Finish. It's super effective!
• Composite Character:
  • The Trainer uses the designs of Red and Leaf from FireRed/LeafGreen, but is meant to represent the idea of Pokémon trainers as a whole, consolidating the two as different versions of a single generic character who can select any of the three Kanto starters at the start of their journey. This is reflected in their alternate costumes in Ultimate that, thanks to the Trainer's blank-slate nature, let players play as Trainers from the first seven generations, kinda. See Featureless Protagonist, and as of Ultimate, Purely Aesthetic Gender.
  • Similar to other Pokémon characters, the male Trainer is also a composite of his game and anime counterparts. For instance, his lines are based on the flavor text from the Pokémon games, but they're delivered with Ash's gusto, rather than Red's characteristic stoicism. Especially in Ultimate, Charizard as his Signature Mon reflects Red's appearance in Pokémon Origins.
  • The Pokémon themselves are a Squirtle, Ivysaur, and Charizard, basically a what if of Ash's core Kanto team if Bulbasaur didn't cancel its attempted evolution. They're also all obtainable in Yellow and its remakes, or any other game with trades and gifts. Red uses all three in their final forms as an Optional Boss in sequels.
• Confusion Fu: In Ultimate, with the removal of the stamina and type advantage mechanics from Brawl, Pokémon Trainer players are now able to decide exactly when they want to switch out their Pokémon. With three very different movesets packed into one, opponents are forced to adjust to each switch as they come, which can be difficult when faced with a player proficient in all three Pokémon.
• The Cutie: Leaf gives off this vibe, being one of the youngest humans in the cast and coming across as innocent, cheery, sweet and adorable, in comparison to Red, who is more of a The Generic Guy Stock Shōnen Hero.
• Cutting Off the Branches: Inverted. The Pokémon Trainer represents the player in Red/Blue and FireRed/LeafGreen, and is therefore unnamed and given no backstory beyond being "the future Champion". As such, they eschew Red's and Leaf's later appearances as named NPCs with defined personality quirks; for example, this means that while this Red is meant to be the same one who challenged the Indigo League and fought Team Rocket, it's unclear whether his actual name is "Red" and he would later go into exile on Mt. Silver. This could be an issue of Writing Around Trademarks, given that no other human Trainers appear in Smash^note except for a very few trophies and an even more generic Rocket Grunt Mii Fighter costume and the Trainer's Fighter Spirits only use their Ultimate renders and not any of their home series artwork.
• Demoted to Extra: Squirtle, Ivysaur, and the Trainer himself were reduced to nothing more than trophies in 3DS. They come back in Ultimate.
• Difficult, but Awesome: As a whole, the Pokémon Trainer has a very high learning curve. Not only will you have to learn how to play well as each individual Mon, but you will also have to learn how to take advantage of switching between them for covering each Mon's weaknesses, mixing up the opponent, and exploiting the brief invulnerability that switching out gives. Once mastered, however, you'll be in control of one of the best users of Confusion Fu in the whole game, always forcing opponents to be on their toes as you control three very different archetypes of characters that allow for endless adaptability for any situation.
• Distaff Counterpart: Leaf appears as one to Red.
• Dull Surprise: In the English dub of Ultimate, the male Trainer retains almost the same unexpressive tone of voice for most of his reactions, from surprise to joy to disappointment, and it would be hard to tell his emotions without watching his character model. The female Trainer is a bit more expressive voice-wise.
• Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: In Brawl: Charizard receives additional knockback from water attacks, Squirtle from plant ones, and Ivysaur from fire attacks. Likewise, Charizard receives less knockback from plant attacks, Squirtle from fire attacks, and Ivysaur from water attacks.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The character is only referred to their title of "Pokémon Trainer" instead of their Canon Names of Red and Leaf here, with Smash going by the Hello, [Insert Name Here] route of Pokémon protagonists.
• Featureless Protagonist: Brawl does not identify him as Red, despite the fact that he has Red's exact design and the three Kanto starters. This turned out to be for the best, as "Pokémon Trainer" ended up referring to both him and Leaf as a single character when the team was reintroduced in Ultimate, aside from the introduction of more Featureless Protagonist fighters such as Villager^note who doesn't even have a Canon Name and Hero. This is actually faithful if Pokémon Red and Blue and their remakes are considered in isolation; unlike in other generations, no traits are given for the Trainer protagonist besides their designs, their hometown (Pallet Town) and their age of 10-11 years old.
• Home Stage:
  • Brawl: Both debuting stages from their series^note Pokémon Stadium 2 and Spear Pillar.
  • Ultimate: Pokémon Stadium 2 in Ultimate's website, their fight in World of Light though takes place in Battlefield, and their normal unlock fight takes place in Pokémon Stadium.
• Five-Man Band: In Ultimate, the five entities that share the Pokémon Trainer character slot roughly follow this dynamic.
  • The Leader: The male Trainer, Red, the literal leader of his team and the most commonly used "face" of the group.
  • The Lancer: The female Trainer, Leaf, whose role is nearly identical to the male Trainer but is presented as a secondary option.
  • The Smart Guy: Ivysaur, which uses its vines and plants to attack and is more of a zoning character that requires smart use of its projectiles.
  • The Big Guy: Charizard, the big, heavy hard-hitting fire-breathing Lightning Bruiser that mostly attacks by smashing and slashing.
  • Team Pet: Squirtle, who would be the weakest and most vulnerable of the team outside of Smash, and is the smallest and cutest. It's also the lightest and most frail one, but is more than a capable combatant.
• Foil: To Pikachu. Both can be considered the "main character" of Pokémon in different ways, and represent the franchise in Smash accordingly. Pikachu is the Series Mascot, fights independently, and is the only starter Pokémon option in Pokémon Yellow, while the Pokémon Trainer is the actual player character, does not fight directly, and instead sends out the three starter Pokémon from Pokémon Red and Blue that Pikachu replaced in Yellow. Both fighters received female costume options in Ultimate, and have very similar Classic Mode routes that pit them against the other Pokémon fighters, where they even act as each other's first opponent.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: The female Trainer's official press release art, as well as her appearance in the "The Ultimate Partnership" online tourney image, seem to imply that her Pokémon are canonically their default colors, like with her male counterpart. In gameplay, each of them uses a red palette swap that resembles their middle stage evolution (except for Ivysaur, a middle stage evolution itself, which has colors resembling some of its older sprites).
• Genki Girl: In contrast to Red's The Generic Guy presentation, Leaf is portrayed as cheerful, upbeat and perky, even winking as she starts a match and calls her first Pokémon.
• Girly Bruiser: Leaf is an adorable, cheery little girl who wears cute clothes and can sic a 200-pound fire-breathing dragon on the other fighters when she likes.
• Grandfather Clause: 3DS/Wii U removed transformation mechanics on all its returning cast (and featured Charizard as a standalone fighter), but since the Pokémon Trainer wasn't in it, they retained it for their Ultimate appearance, being the sole user of the mechanic until the introduction of Pyra and Mythra.
• Highly Specific Counterplay: In Brawl, the Trainer's Pokémon are affected by type effectiveness. However, Ivysaur's water resistance and Charizard's grass resistance are almost always useless outside of a Pokémon Trainer Mirror Match: The only other character who comes with a water move is Mario with his non-damaging F.L.U.D.D. You can also get Kirby to copy one of Squirtle's water moves or Ivysaur's grass moves, but that's a rare situation.
• Idle Animation: Both trainer genders have their own animations.
  • The male trainer rubs his palm on his leg.
  • The male trainer hops in place.
  • The female trainer wipes her brow.
  • The female trainer stretches her shoulder.
• Irony:
  • How each Trainer palette is grouped with their Pokémon's palette swaps. The default female Trainer is usually associated with blue or green in her home series^note In Japan, her canon name is "Blue", but it's "Leaf" in the West while "Blue" goes to the Gen I rival, who is "Green" in Japan., but uses red palette swaps for her Pokémon. The green Pokémon instead go to the male Trainer's Ethan costume, associated with gold, and the yellow/gold Pokémon go to his Lucas costume. At least the Hilda (white), Calem (blue), and Selene (purple) palette swaps use the colors that those Trainers are usually associated with for their Pokémon.
  • Unlike in SSB4 where it was a disobedient solo character, Charizard can't Mega Evolve in Ultimate, even though the entire premise of Mega Evolution is based on a Pokémon's bond with its Trainer.^note Though this is Gameplay and Story Segregation in the actual Pokémon games, as a Pokémon's Friendship level doesn't actually matter concerning Mega Evolution; you can even Mega Evolve a Pokémon you've mistreated enough for it to hate your guts, if you want to... You Bastard!.
• Kid Hero: All Pokémon Trainer protagonists have saved the day from some kind of evil organization, and these ones have stopped Team Rocket from using and stealing Pokémon for their nefarious deeds and have become the Indigo League Champion. All while being roughly 11 years of age.
• The Kid with the Remote Control: The Trainer's role is to run around in the background ordering their Pokémon around.
• Legacy Character: Smash takes this approach towards the Pokémon Trainer, similar to Link and Zelda. Rather than depicting them as the specific characters of Red and Leaf, Smash depicts them as vaguely as possible and gives them Mythology Gag palette swaps to treat the Pokémon series protagonists as a singular concept with multiple incarnations. In for 3DS, the trophy depicting Calem and Serena is labeled "Pokémon Trainer (Pokémon X & Y)" and essentially treats them as different incarnations of the same "character".
• Leitmotif: In Ultimate, they all share the Pokémon Main Theme.
• Limit Break: Triple Finish, which makes all three Pokémon do their most powerful attacks at the same time.
• Mechanically Unusual Fighter: The first fighter not to be directly playable, instead using 3 "transformations" while actively getting you to use all of them. There's an unseen stamina stat that depletes and makes your attacks weaker if you go for too long without switch, and you are forced to switch on losing a stock. They're also the only characters affected by Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors in Brawl. The removal of multi-form characters in 3DS/Wii U is probably one of the reasons he and his Pokémon (outside of Charizard) ended up Demoted to Extra, which in turn is why they got rid of the stamina and type mechanics when The Bus Came Back.
• Multiform Balance:
  • Squirtle is the fastest and most mobile of the Pokémon and excels at racking up combos, but has trouble scoring KOs and is easily KOed itself due to its weak smash attacks and light weight (it's the third lightest character in the game).
  • Ivysaur strikes a better balance between Squirtle and Charizard and has the most potent zoning game of all of them, but is a bit slow to attack against enemies who are up close.
  • Charizard is the Mighty Glacier of the bunch; it can stay alive at high percents with its heavy weight, good recovery options and great overall mobility (making it a Lightning Bruiser movement-wise), but being large and heavy means that it is susceptible to combos at low percents and many of its attacks are laggy.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The Trainers will quote various commands from the games when they send out Pokémon, depending on the damage dealt and/or received.
  • Pit refers to them as a "twerp" during the Palutena's Guidance segment in Ultimate, in much the same way that Team Rocket refers to Ash in Pokémon: The Series.
  • As an amusing consequence to the Promoted to Playable entry below, when selected in World of Light, it is very reminiscent of how the player plays a main series Pokémon game: the player controls and moves the Trainer on the overworld map (in recent games, they also have animations for climbing a ladder or jumping over a ledge) and when a battle occurs, the Trainer sends his/her Pokémon and the player commands it directly in battle.
  • Their Boxing Ring title is "Wants to be the Very Best", a reference to the opening line of the famous first English theme song from the anime. Also, with the fighter consisting of four characters, their crowd cheer in Ultimate isn't any of the characters' names but rather "I choose you!", declared by many characters in the anime when sending out a Pokémon and another famous franchise phrase.
• Non-Action Guy: Pokémon Trainers themselves don't fight; their Mons do it for them.
• Nice Guy: The Pokémon Trainer is a Benevolent Boss who gives their Pokémon lots of praise and affection, and doesn't seem to take it personally if they lose. In The Subspace Emissary, the male trainer shows more of this when he teams up with Lucas in cutscenes, helping him get over his insecurities.
• No Name Given: Their designs are based on the playable trainers from FireRed/LeafGreen, but are only referred to as "Pokémon Trainer", as they're specifically based on the Trainers' appearances in those games where they are nameable, similar to how the Heroes don't use their Canon Names such as "Luminary" and "Erdrick" in-game, or how Joker's real name, "Ren Amamiya", is never mentioned in-game.
• Offscreen Teleportation: Zigzagged in Brawl, where Red clearly teleports in an orange sphere of light to keep up with his active Pokémon as they navigate the stage, but Played Straight in normal matches and Ultimate, especially on traveling stages like Delfino Plaza or the Halberd, where the Trainer is clearly on the ground in the Halberd's hangar, but suddenly standing on the ship when the fighters arrive on it with no visual indication of this.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: While the Trainer is a great character in Ultimate (which can't be said about their Brawl incarnation), Pyra and Mythra take the general strengths of their three Pokémon with fewer of their weaknesses, condense them into two similar characters, add disjointed hitboxes, aren't forced to switch after every KO, and are generally considered slightly stronger in battle and far easier to learn out of the two transforming fighters. In particular, Mythra is heavier than Squirtle and only slightly lighter than Ivysaur while still being able to evade many moves, while Pyra has similar firepower to Charizard but on a smaller yet middleweight frame that's a bit harder to combo.
• Palette Swap:
  • In Brawl, Red's green outfit resembles Brendan from Emerald version. Another one looks similar to Leaf, his Distaff Counterpart, who'd later appear on her own come Ultimate.
  • In Ultimate, both of them have palette swaps based on other playable trainers from the series: Red has swaps based on Ethan, Lucas, and Calem, while Leaf has swaps based on May, Hilda,^note complete with a light gray costume for Charizard that coincidentally looks a lot like Reshiram and Selene. Because of how ambiguous and universal Pokémon Trainer is designed to be, it can even be argued that these costumes are said playable trainers, in a sense.
• Primary-Color Champion: Both the male and female Trainers dress in red, blue and green, which are also the original colors of the Kanto games and evoke the games' mascots Charizard, Blastoise, and Venusaur — different stages of which make up their team. The male Trainer's default Pokémon colors subvert this with Ivysaur's blue skin and Charizard's orange skin. However, the default female Trainer's team fully evokes this with her green-skinned Ivysaur and crimson Charizard, while Squirtle gets periwinkle skin like its evolution, Wartortle.
• Promoted to Playable: Sort of for the Trainers themselves in Ultimate. When selected during World of Light, the player takes direct control of the Trainer in the overworld map, which also gives them climbing, jumping and swimming animations like those of the other fighters. This happens even if the player bothered to select what Pokémon to come first during battle.
• Purely Aesthetic Gender: Ultimate adds Leaf, the female trainer from FireRed and LeafGreen as an alternate costume, who is functionally identical to the male trainer, though possesses her own animations and voice clips.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Inverted. The fiercest (Charizard) has blue eyes, while the immature Squirtle and Ivysaur have red eyes.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The male and female Trainers have contrasting personalities, as seen in their character select portraits and in-battle mannerisms in Ultimate. Red is more Hot-Blooded and competitive and is determinedly scowling in his character portrait, while Leaf is more laid-back and cheerful and has a big smile on in her portrait.
• Say My Name: In Ultimate, the Trainers now shout their 'mon's name in concern when they get stunned or buried.
• Secret Character: For Ultimate: Have a Cumulative Wait Time of 4 hours and 10 minutes, beat Classic Mode with Donkey Kong or anyone in his unlock tree two times, or find and defeat him in World of Light.
• Shout-Out:
  • Red's trophy description in 3DS references his appearance in Brawl with the lyrics of Pokémon: The Series' original English theme.
    Trophy: Back in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, he fought to be the very best - like no one ever was. To smash them was his real test - to launch them was his cause!
  • The male Trainer's voice is also modeled very closely to that of Ash's in Brawl, though it is not the same voice actor. Less so in Ultimate, see Vocal Dissonance below.
  • Their Boxing Ring title, "Wants To Be The Very Best", references the first sentence of the Pokémon anime's theme song.
• Signature Headgear: A signature aspect of most Pokémon Trainer designs, Red has a cool sports cap while Leaf has a cute boater/bucket hat.
• Signature Mon: Thanks to both genders' incarnations in other media, Red is associated with Charizard, to the point of summoning it in the "live banner" trailer and it being the only Pokémon the false Trainer uses in The Subspace Emissary. Going by this pattern, the female Trainer would be associated with Ivysaur, as Leaf uses the Bulbasaur line in most media where Red uses the Charmander line — and indeed, her appearance in an online tourney picture shows her with Ivysaur.^note Rival Blue, who isn't present in Smash in any capacity, always picks Squirtle in those scenarios. Also of note is the fact that in Pokémon Adventures and Pokémon Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee!, Red uses Venusaur and Green uses Blastoise, making Red/Squirtle and Leaf/Charmander the only combinations not seen outside of Smash. Despite this, the female Trainer and Charizard are the only entities in the group to appear during Sora's reveal trailer, giving her some much-needed screentime (however minor) while conversely feeding into Charizard's Wolverine Publicity.
• Sore Loser: Not the Pokémon, but the Trainers themselves.
  • During a match, they will put their cap down in disappointment should all of their stocks get depleted.
  • In the victory screen for Brawl, Red is also seen with his cap down while the last Pokémon to be defeated claps the winner. Averted in Ultimate, though, where the Pokémon no longer appear clapping, but the Trainers do clap the victor.
• Sprint Meter: In Brawl, in order to force players to use them equally, the three Pokémon all have an unseen stamina mechanic that drains over time. When this runs out, the Pokémon's attacks get weakened and they are more susceptible to knockback. This was removed in Ultimate, likely due to players' dislike for the mechanic.
• Stock Shōnen Hero: Downplayed for the male Trainer. While not as extensively portrayed as other incarnations of Red and his anime counterpart Ash, he is a Primary-Color Champion Kid Hero who comes across as a Nice Guy with slight Hot-Blooded and Japanese Spirit mannerisms, not to mention that Pokémon Trainer as a whole is basically The Power of Friendship: The Character.
• Suddenly Voiced:
  • Trainers are pure Heroic Mimes in the Pokémon games; this is even a character trait for Red, who the male Trainer is based upon. Notably, their voice commands are based on the in-battle text in the game. However, the male Trainer remains silent during the cutscenes of the Subspace Emissary, as does everyone else.
  • Interestingly, while there has been a fully-voiced incarnation of Red introduced between the releases of Brawl and Ultimate, the latter marks the first time that an incarnation of Leaf has been fully voice-acted. She would return in Pokémon Masters, once again with spoken dialogue (albeit with a different voice actress), and before that had text-based dialogue in the Let's Go games, unlike Red who keeps the Silent Protagonist quirk of his NPC self.
• Tag Team: Only one Pokémon can be onscreen at a time per individual Trainer.
• The Unseen: While he's shown to be captured in the World of Light opening scene and a Puppet Fighter of Red is spotted in the cutscene that introduces them, no Puppet of either Trainer is shown when fighting any of the Pokémon that make the fighter. Same when they're found alone in Ultimate's Classic. However, they still appear when any of the Pokémon do their Final Smashes.
• Vague Age: It's unclear what age the Trainers are supposed to be. The best guess is that they're 11 years old, the age that they're generally agreed to be in FireRed and LeafGreen. However, Red reappeared in Pokémon Gold and Silver and their remakes using the same design, which would make him around 14, along with Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 making him around 16. Given their Featureless Protagonist nature in Smash, it's likely that they aren't supposed to have a specific age, just as they don't have a specific name or backstory.
• Victory Pose: The victory screens differ slightly with the Trainer's gender. The Trainer will generically say "You all did great!"/"Everyone did great!".
  • Throws a Poke Ball up and catches it.
  • Cheers their Pokémon.
  • Pets their Pokémon.
• Vocal Dissonance: In Ultimate, both Trainers are around 11-14 years old, but Red sounds like a grown man imitating a child's voice (heavily contrasted by his more Ash Ketchum-like voice in Brawl)^note (or a boy going through puberty) while Leaf sounds like an older teenager.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Reacts with disbelief if their Pokémon's shield is broken.

33 - Squirtle (Zenigame)

^Brawl

Voiced by: Rikako Aikawa (Japanese), Michelle Knotz (English)

Home Series: Pokémon

Debut: Pokémon Red and Blue [Game Boy], 1996

Creator: Game Freak

Publisher: Nintendo

Specials: Water Gun, Withdraw, Waterfall, Pokémon Change (to Ivysaur)

The Tiny Turtle Pokémon and Water-type starter of Kanto. It hides in its shell to protect itself, firing powerful bursts of water from its mouth. Squirtle's line generally indicates a more medium level of difficulty in its debut game, as most major enemies don't have a terribly strong counter to it. In Pokémon media, Squirtle is often depicted as a partner to the Pokémon Trainer's rival Blue or his anime counterpart Gary Oak, but is also known for being Green's Signature Mon in the manga and was later consolidated as one for Leaf^note of whom Green may or may not be an incarnation via merchandise.

Squirtle is the smallest and fastest of the three fighters. Its movement and attack speeds are overall greater than the others and, true to Squirtle's usual nature, it also comes with plenty of defensive movement options that can make it good for a quick, effective playstyle.

See Pokémon: Generation I - Bulbasaur to Parasect for more information on the character in their origin series.

---

• Ambiguous Gender: Squirtle have no Secondary Sexual Characteristics and, unlike Pikachu and Jigglypuff, in Smash Bros., its species has no Tertiary Sexual Characteristics either. It's referred to with neutral pronouns in official material.
• Art Evolution: Its Brawl color scheme was a darker shade of blue, faintly resembling its Red and Blue artwork and Gold and Silver sprites. Its reappearance in Ultimate more resembles its more recognizable light-blue look seen in most games and the anime.
• Ascended Extra: Before its playable debut in Brawl, a float based on it appeared on the Poké Floats stage in Melee. It also appeared as a trophy in said game.
• Badass Adorable: It's a little water turtle. It comes with the territory as a non-evolved starter Pokémon.
• Demoted to Extra: Appears only as a trophy in 3DS/Wii U.
• Dub Name Change: From Zenigame in Japan.
• Flat Character: In The Subspace Emissary, its only role is to appear as its Trainer's starter and gets no additional appearances or development.
• Flipping Helpless: In Brawl and Ultimate, footstooling Squirtle while it's performing Withdraw on the ground will flip it on its back, rendering it stunned for a moment.
• Fragile Speedster: Squirtle is like a ninja, with good speed and air attacks, but it's lightweight and has the worst kill power of the trio.
• Idle Animation:
  • It jumps in place.
  • It waves its arms in front of its face.
• Irony: Squirtle has the fastest air acceleration among the Pokémon Trainer's team (the 8th fastest air acceleration in the game in fact), a tiny hurtbox, and lightning fast aerial moves. Meanwhile, Charizard has sluggish air acceleration and aerial moves, along with a very large frame and a heavy weight, making it susceptible to juggling. This results in this tiny turtle being a superior aerial fighter compared to the dragon with wings. Doubly so considering their home series: unlike in Smash, Squirtle's evolution line leans towards Mighty Glacier while Charizard's toes the line between Fragile Speedster and Lightning Bruiser.
• Limit Break: Hydro Pump, for its section of Triple Finish.
• Making a Splash: Squirtle is the only character in Brawl with damaging water attacks. (Mario's F.L.U.D.D. only pushes.)
• Mon: Its species name is "Tiny Turtle Pokémon".
• Shotoclone: Just like Charizard, it very vaguely fits the archetype, with a projectile (Water Gun), a horizontal-moving Spin Attack (Withdraw), and a rising tackle (Waterfall).
• Spin Attack: Spins around in its shell for Withdraw, and also spins in a cartwheel for its neutral air.
• Victory Pose: Pokémon Trainer will sometimes say "Good job, Squirtle!"/"We did it, Squirtle!"
  • Breakdances in its shell.
  • Spits water three times then backflips.
  • Pokémon Trainer holds Squirtle in their arms while petting them.
• Wall Jump: In fact, it is one of only four characters in Brawl capable of clinging to walls.
• Your Size May Vary: An average Squirtle is normally 1'8" tall in the regular Pokémon games. But in Brawl, he's much more closer to the size of 3'3" Ivysaur, as seen in the main profile picture.

34 – Ivysaur (Fushigisou)

^Brawl

Voiced by: Tomoko Kawakami (Japanese; Brawl), Inuko Inuyama (Japanese; Ultimate), Craig Blair (English; Brawl), Justin Anselmi (English; Ultimate)

Home Series: Pokémon

Debut: Pokémon Red and Blue [Game Boy], 1996

Creator: Game Freak

Publisher: Nintendo

Specials: Bullet Seed, Razor Leaf, Vine Whip, Pokémon Change (to Charizard)

The Seed Pokémon and middle evolution of the Grass-type Kanto starter, Bulbasaur. It's a reptile/amphibian of some sort with a bud on its back that absorbs sunlight to bloom, which it also uses plant-based attacks with. The Bulbasaur line is typically seen as the "easy mode" out of the three starters, as its Grass/Poison typing left it more than capable of dealing with most of the Kanto region's major opponents and makes it immune to the Poisoned status effect. The line as a whole has been depicted as a partner to both Red and Leaf in various continuities, with the most notable example being Red's Saur in Pokémon Adventures.

Fittingly, Ivysaur is in-between the other two fighters in terms of size and weight. It has several ranged options thanks to its vines and other plant-based attacks, giving a balanced option between speed and offense in comparison to Squirtle and Charizard.

See Pokémon: Generation I - Bulbasaur to Parasect for more information on the character in their origin series.

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• Ambiguous Gender: Like with Squirtle, Ivysaur doesn't have Secondary Sexual Characteristics. Its evolved form Venusaur does, however, have a pistil growing from its flower if it's female.
• American Kirby Is Hardcore: As demonstrated in the final Nintendo Direct before Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's release, Ivysaur's voice in the English dub is considerably deeper than it is in the Japanese version.
• Anti-Air: Ivysaur is especially good at stuffing approaches from the air with quick, long-ranged moves like back air, Bullet Seed, and Razor Leaf, and it also possesses some downright oppressive hard-hitters like up smash and up air that can KO from as low as 70%. Most of its other ground moves are comparatively less effective as a result and leave it vulnerable to being rushed down by more ground-oriented characters like Little Mac.
• Art Evolution: Ivysaur originally had a faint green skin tone in Brawl to coincide with most of its in-game sprites (specifically, from Gen 1 to Platinum, not counting FireRed and LeafGreen). This is in spite of trophies for Bulbasaur and Venusaur having the more well-known blue skin tone instead. Ultimate updates its look so it's more in-line with the more modern games and the anime.
• Bullet Seed: Fires seeds from its bud as an Anti-Air.
• Cartoon Creature: The Ivysaur family is based on toads, but rather than being a direct analogue to a real animal like Squirtle or a traditional fantastical beast like Charizard, they're more like made-up critters that also incorporate aspects of lizards, dinosaurs and cats. Ivysaur's Japanese name is even a play on the phrase for "that's right, it's strange".
• Cutlass Between the Teeth: Ivysaur carries items and wields some weapons in its mouth, being a quadrupedal Pokémon. For some items, it uses its vines instead.
• Demoted to Extra: Appears only as a trophy in 3DS/Wii U.
• Dub Name Change: From Fushigisou in Japan.
• Flat Character: In The Subspace Emissary, its only role is to be captured by the Trainer and gets no additional appearances or development.
• Four Legs Good, Two Legs Better: Averted. Unlike Squirtle and Charizard, Ivysaur defaults to using all four legs for mobility, and only for mobility^note save for a single exception: grabbing ledges, as even the Duck Hunt dog has to use its front paws to use most items. In Ivysaur's case, it utilizes its mouth and vines for more dexterous tasks, making it the only purely quadrupedal fighter.
• Green Thumb: The only character in the cast to use Grass-type attacks.
• Idle Animation:
  • It stomps from side to side.
  • It shakes its bud.
• Jack of All Stats: Ivysaur seems to be this way, as it balances out the strengths and weaknesses the other two Pokémon have.
• Kryptonite Is Everywhere: Thanks to the Pokémon Trainer's odd Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors system in Brawl, Ivysaur receives additional damage and knockback from fire attacks. It gets it the worst out of the three, since more than half the playable roster has fire attacks. In Ultimate, thanks to the Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors system being removed, the prevalence of fire-based attacks is no longer a problem for Ivysaur.
• Limit Break: Solar Beam, for its section of Triple Finish.
• Long-Range Fighter: Has the longest overall range of the three with its tendrils and projectile specials.
• Master of None:
  • Ivysaur is meant to be a balance between Squirtle and Charizard with the range advantages listed above. In Brawl, at least, it ends up being easier to knock out than Squirtle due to its awful recovery and weakness to fire and less nimble than Charizard due to its terrible air game, while its ranged moves are too weak to be threatening and inconsistent to hit with at best, giving Ivysaur no real advantages over the other two.
  • Averted in Ultimate, where its strengths are much more pronounced and its weaknesses have been either toned down heavily or removed altogether.
• Mon: The seed Pokémon.
• Planimal: The seed on its back begins to bud and will eventually flower as it grows.
• Poisonous Person: Is part Poison type, and, despite never having been corrupted in any way in its home series, makes an appearance in the fourth round of Dark Samus's Classic Mode route, due to this.
• Prehistoric Monster: Starting a trend all Grass-type starters would follow, it resembles no longer existant mammal-like reptiles... with curious amphibian traits that become more pronounced as it evolves (and are the likely source of its secondary Poison typing)... Coincidentally, Ivysaur highly resembles the prehistoric frog Beelzebufo, but it was described in 2008 — well after the Bulbasaur line's conception.
• She's a Man in Japan: Sort of. It has a feminine voice in the original Japanese version of the game, but a masculine voice in the English dub. However, Venusaur is the only member of the line to actually have gender differences, meaning that Ivysaur's gender cannot be determined.
• Shoryuken: In Ultimate, Vine Whip has been reworked to serve as a rising uppercut-like anti-air attack that also propels Ivysaur itself a short distance into the air.
• Shotoclone: Even more loosely than its teammates, but its projectile (Razor Leaf) is the closest to a typical shoto projectile, while its Vine Whip is vaguely similar to a Shoryuken and it has Spin Attacks in the form of its forward tilt and neutral aerial.
• Victory Pose: Pokémon Trainer can say "Way to go, Ivysaur!"/"You did great, Ivysaur!"
  • Runs forward, backflips, then poses.
  • Whips twice, then poses.
  • Ivysaur jumps at its Trainer, who pets it.
• Vine Tentacles: It uses its whip-like vines in place of arms and uses Vine Whip as a recovery.

35 – Charizard (Lizardon)

Blazing Fury

^{3DS/Wii U}

^Brawl

Voiced by: Shin-ichiro Miki

CHARIZARD FIRES IT UP!

Home Series: Pokémon

Debut: Pokémon Red and Blue [Game Boy], 1996

Creator: Game Freak

Publisher: Nintendo

Playable in: Brawl (with Pokémon Trainer), 3DS/Wii U (solo debut), Ultimate (with Pokémon Trainer)
Specials: Flamethrower, Rock Smash (Brawl, 3DS/Wii U), Flare Blitz (3DS/Wii U, Ultimate) Fly, Pokémon Change (to Squirtle, Brawl and Ultimate)
Final Smash: Triple Finish (Brawl and Ultimate, via Pokémon Trainer), Mega Evolution (3DS/Wii U)

The Flame Pokémon, the final evolution of the Fire-type Kanto starter, Charmander, and the version mascot of Pokémon Red, and Pokémon FireRed. It's easily one of the most popular Pokémon next to Pikachu, and has been a key partner to several trainers, including Blue, Ash, Leon, Sebastian, Red (of course), and — thanks to Ultimate — Leaf. Despite being considered the hard mode in the original Red and Blue due to the vast amount of early obstacles its line faces, Charizard is a fearsome fire-breathing dragon-like Pokémon that is always in search of new opponents to battle — and as 3DS/Wii U puts it, where better to find them than in Smash?

Charizard is the brawn of the trainer's team, specializing in slow but powerful attacks that make for excellent finishers when landed. Due to its wings, it serves as one of the faster heavyweight characters, but not by a huge amount. It's not as mobile as Squirtle, or as versatile as Ivysaur, but when you just need that massive amount of damage done, Charizard's your 'mon.

Starting out as a member of Pokémon Trainer's team in Brawl, it makes its solo debut in 3DS/Wii U and gains its powerful Mega Charizard X form as a Super Mode. It would later return to Pokémon Trainer's team in Ultimate, apparently having returned from a bout of disobedience just like Ash's Charizard (though this doesn't explain how the newly-introduced female Trainer uses it).

See Pokémon: Generation I - Bulbasaur to Parasect for more information on the character in their origin series.

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• Acrofatic: It's a bit chubby (not as much as Bowser), but has the best grounded mobility out of the super-heavyweights.
• All There in the Manual: According to the official Pokémon website, Charizard's solo appearance in 3DS/Wii U was due to a stint of disobedience. Guess its Trainer used their one-game break to gather a few more Gym Badges.
• Ambiguous Gender: Its gender isn't specified outright, like most other playable Pokémon, but a tip in the PAL 3DS version refers to it using masculine pronouns.
• Art Evolution: In Brawl, Charizard's design was a bit Off-Model, with a huge head and smaller wings (see here◊). By 3DS/Wii U, its design more closely matches the model in Pokémon X and Y and other 3D Pokémon games.
• The Artifact:
  • In Ultimate, Charizard goes back to being a member of Pokémon Trainer's team despite having developed enough Wolverine Publicity since Brawl to have more than enough merit as a playable character in its own right. This is partly addressed by making it the most prominent member of the Trainer's team (such as the "live banner" trailer), and replacing it with Incineroar as a playable standalone Fire-type starter, not to mention that each of the three Pokémon are still characters in their own right that appear separately from the Trainer in-game and in marketing on multiple occasions.
  • Charizard keeps its amiibo and Palutena's Guidance conversation from 3DS/Wii U, despite the fact that none of the three Pokémon had a separate Metal Gear Codec conversation in Brawl. Instead of going the Brawl route and only giving the Trainer a Palutena's Guidance (and likely having their amiibo replace 3DS/Wii U Charizard), the Trainer not only gets their own amiibo and Guidance conversation while Charizard keeps its own, but Squirtle and Ivysaur get one each too!
• Ascended Extra: Charizard went from being a non-playable Poké Ball assist in the first two games, to being part of the Pokémon Trainer's team in Brawl, to going on its own in 3DS/Wii U. While it returned to Pokémon Trainer's team in Ultimate, it still got slightly more focus than its two buddies in marketing and elevated the Trainer's team as a whole.
• Assist Character: As a Poké Ball Pokémon in the first two games. It was Promoted to Playable in subsequent installments.
• Awesome, but Impractical: In 3DS/Wii U, Flare Blitz is a very cool-looking attack and, as established in the Skill Gate Character entry, fast and powerful. However, Charizard cannot stop when the move begins and players can block it simply using their shield, without even dodging and making the move very punishable. The worst thing is that Charizard will get extra damage, as the shield counts as a wall; as a result, the move isn't nearly as spammable as it first appears, and is best used as a punishing or carefully spaced recovery move rather than a rushdown option. Its custom variant, Blast Burn, is even more damaging to both Charizard and its opponent. However, the other custom variant, Dragon Rush, gets around this by eliminating the self-damage and recoil and by not being stopped by shields, at the cost of a bit less damage and being stopped more easily by projectiles. In Ultimate, with Charizard being regrouped with its Trainer, Flare Blitz is much more useful due to its unpredictability and its ability to score surprise KOs after Squirtle and Ivysaur have softened up foes.
• Badass Adorable: Averted for the most part, as Charizard is the least "cute" out of Pokémon Trainer's team (if still cartoonish), but during one of its victory poses, it and its Trainer snuggle up to each other and it purrs like a cat. Awww!
• Bare-Fisted Monk: Rock Smash is a Fighting-type move.
• Battle Intro: As a solo character in 3DS/Wii U, it pops out of a Pokéball, then stomps.
• The Big Guy: What its role in the team ultimately boils down to: with its mix of Mighty Glacier, Lightning Bruiser and Stone Wall attributes, Charizard doesn't unequivocally adhere to any of those three archetypes but rather fills the general role of "big and tough", being fast in some areas and slow in others, but with its most notable attributes being its heavy weight and powerful attacks.
• Blow You Away: Charizard's secondary type. It also has Fly as its recovery.
• Breakout Character: Enforced. Because it had become recognized as a Breakout Character in its home series prior to 3DS/Wii U, Charizard received heavy publicity in that game, down to being the only one of the Pokémon Trainer quartet to return and getting its own introduction splash screen in Greninja's trailer.
• Breath Weapon: Its neutral special move is Flamethrower, which more or less functions like Bowser's Fire Breath.
• Bruiser with a Soft Center: Breathes fire, pulverizes boulders with it's head, a Blood Knight, and is one of the fastest and strongest fighters of the series but whenever it wins a fight in Brawl, one victory animation shows the Pokémon Trainer hugging the dragon's neck and Charizard can't really help but feel appreciated by him if you listen to its bemused growls and it even scratches its head as well.
• Call-Back: The Fire attack Charizard uses while in its Mega Evolution is Fire Blast, the same attack it used in Triple Finish.
• Cast from Hit Points: Flare Blitz, its new Side Special move in 3DS/Wii U. It's a powerful and pretty fast horizontal attack with good range, but just using the attack causes Charizard to suffer some recoil damage, with even more damage being received if it hits something.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Becomes black with blue flames as Mega Charizard X.
• Decomposite Character: Charizard is no longer part of Pokémon Trainer's team in 3DS/Wii U... only to change back to a Composite Character in Ultimate like it was in Brawl.
• Demoted to Extra:
  • A mild case, in that it was re-integrated into the Pokémon Trainer's team in Ultimate after spending 3DS/Wii U as a solo character, although it has its own fighter number (as do the other two Pokémon) and was shown as the Trainer's ace Pokémon in the "live banner" trailer.
  • Played straight with Mega Charizard X, becoming a Spirit and no longer being playable in any form.
• Dinosaurs Are Dragons: It has some dinosaurian features and its Japanese name is Lizardon, suggesting that it may partly be based on dinosaurs. It's also used as a dinosaur stand-in in some cases; in 3DS/Wii U, it was Yoshi's opponent in the "Cretaceous Clash" Conquest, and it also shows up in Yoshi's Ultimate Classic Mode route, "Jurassic Journey".
• Discard and Draw: Due to fighting solo in 3DS/Wii U, Rock Smash is re-assigned to its down special, and it gains Flare Blitz as a new side special. When it returns to Pokémon Trainer's team in Ultimate, it retains Flare Blitz as its side special, but loses Rock Smash and regains Pokémon Change for its down special.
• Divergent Character Evolution: As a standalone character, it and Greninja were introduced as "rivals" of sorts in 3DS/Wii U, as fully-evolved starter Pokémon from different generations with opposing elements; this dynamic would seep into other Pokémon media such as the anime, with the rivalry between Ash's Greninja and Alain's Charizard. In Ultimate, with Charizard being back in the Pokémon Trainer's team, its relationship with Greninja is toned down while Incineroar takes its place as Greninja's Fire-type "rival".
• Dub Name Change: From Lizardon in Japan.
• Final Boss: A purple Charizard appears at the end of the Hero's route in Classic Mode. It shows up right after male Robin is defeated, referencing the One-Winged Angel transformation of the Dragonlord.
• Fire Is Red: Subverted in Ultimate. Charizard's default costumes are orange and red for the male and female Trainers respectively, but all its other costumes completely replace its orange with a different color (retained from 3DS/Wii U), unlike Squirtle and Ivysaur who become different shades of blue or blue/green respectively.
• Flat Character: In The Subspace Emissary, its only role is to be captured by the Trainer and gets no additional appearances or development, aside from representing the Shadow Bug version of the Pokémon Trainer.
• Flying Firepower: As Mega Charizard X, it flies around while launching Fire Blasts or performing spinning tackles.
• Foreshadowing: During Charizard's introduction in the "Challenger from the Shadows" trailer, it flies towards the Smash veterans with flames forced out the sides of its mouth — which is what its X-type Mega Evolution is doing all the time. Sure enough, said Mega Evolution appears later in the trailer as its Final Smash.
• Good Wings, Evil Wings: Bayonetta's character illustration puts it on the dark side and Super Dragon Yoshi, with feathery white wings, as its light side counterpart.
• Hammered into the Ground: Sinking Skull, which acts and functions similarly to Donkey Kong's Headbutt, as Charizard plows its draconian cranium into opponents so hard, that they're heavily bludgeoned into the soil.
• Home Stage:
  • 3DS/Wii U: All stages from its series.^note Unova Pokémon League and Prism Tower in 3DS, Kalos Pokémon League and Pokémon Stadium 2 in Wii U.
• Hot-Blooded: It roars ferociously and excitedly while briefly flying around for its side taunt, and for one its victory animations, has many fiery attacks at its disposal, and its seen to be highly pumped-up while duking it out with the other fighters in matches.
• Idle Animation:
  • It leans back and stomps the ground.
  • It turns away and breathes a small flame.
• Immune to Flinching: Using Fly makes it capable of ignoring attacks while being in the middle of its recovery animation at around frames 4 to 13. In 3DS/Wii U, Rock Smash also grants Charizard plenty of super armor while its shattering the boulder in front of its foes.
• Kill It with Water: In Brawl, it took more knockback from water-based attacks. While this was taken out of the next two games, in Ultimate, it now takes gradual damage while it's swimming.
• Leitmotif: Battle! X and Y shared with Greninja in their joint trailer. It's as relevant to Charizard despite being a Gen I Pokémon as Mega Charizard X was a major selling point of Gen VI as much as any newcomer.
• Lightning Bruiser: Despite its laggy attacks and overall sluggish feel, its run speed and (in Ultimate) initial dash speed are extremely high, giving it mobility in addition to power.
• Limit Break: As a part of Pokémon Trainer's team in Brawl, Fire Blast for its section of Triple Finish. Its solo debut in 3DS/Wii U gives it Mega Charizard X. Then Ultimate reverts it back to Triple Finish.
• Man Bites Man: It lowers itself to the ground with its mouth and bites for its down tilt in Brawl. Uses its fangs to bite into its opponents for its pummel. The dragon also uses its mouth to powerfully chuck anyone off the stage for its back and forward throws.
• Make Me Wanna Shout: While not used as an attack by any means, its down taunt in Ultimate includes a warbling "shockwave" effect while its aggressively roaring.
• Meteor Move: Strikes with a mid-air two-footed stomp in Brawl as its standard Meteor Smash. In a similar vein to Donkey Kong's Meteor Smash, the animation was changed to a singular one-foot stomp in 3DS/Wii U and Ultimate.
• Mighty Glacier: To its teammates in Pokémon Trainer's group. Charizard has the strongest and slowest attacks of the three Pokémon, and its heavy weight gives it great survivability, although its very fast dash speed and excellent recovery edge it more towards Lightning Bruiser than most of the other super-heavyweights. Although its size and weight make it susceptible to combos, this is why it's meant to be used at higher damage percentages, where it can survive blows that would be fatal to Ivysaur and especially Squirtle.
• Mighty Roar: Lets these out frequently, particularly during its taunts and victory poses.
• Mon: The flame Pokémon.
• Mythology Gag:
  • One of its alternative color schemes in 3DS/Wii U is its original purple-with-green-wing-membranes Shiny form from Gold, Silver, and Crystal.^note Its current Shiny coloration first appeared in Ruby and Sapphire.
  • In 3DS/Wii U, its Up Throw was changed to Seismic Toss, and (minus flying around the world several times) it acts just like it does when Ash's Charizard uses it in the anime.
• Our Dragons Are Different: Out of the four playable dragon characters^note Yoshi, itself, Corrin, and Ridley, Charizard best fits the classical mold, as an archetypical flying fire-breather, although it's a (sometimes) loyal pet rather than an intelligent legendary beast. As such, nearly every dragon-like Spirit in the game uses it as its puppet/possessed fighter, and it even serves as the Final Boss for Hero's Classic Mode route, as a stand-in for the Dragonlord's One-Winged Angel form. The Smash games forego the overscrutinization of its Fire/Flying typing and openly and freely refer to it as a dragon, like with the Rathalos boss.
• Playing with Fire: Mainly attacks using fire.
• Pokémon Speak: Averted. Unlike in the anime, where Charizard had Non-Dubbed Grunts of "Lizardon!", this Charizard's grunts and roars are more realistic and don't sound like its name.
• Power Creep, Power Seep:
  • In the Pokémon games, Charizard has unimpressive physical prowess and defenses but an above-average Special (basically magic) stat, making it more akin to a Squishy Wizard. In Smash, it's almost exclusively physical and a Mighty Glacier move-wise with Lightning Bruiser mobility and durability.
  • Rock Smash is a very weak field move in its home series, but upgraded in Smash to a powerful attack where Charizard breaks a rock with its face, deals massive damage, and grants Super Armor.
• Promoted to Playable: Charizard was originally a PokéBall in the first two games, but became playable in Brawl as a part of the Pokémon Trainer's team. This would make it the first of four summon characters^note Charizard, Little Mac, Isabelle, and Dark Samus to receive this status.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: As Mega Charizard X.
• Shotoclone: Surprisingly, three of Charizard's special moves are loose analogues to, and combinations of, archetypical shotoclone moves. Charizard has a fiery short-range projectile (Flamethrower), while its up and side specials combine aspects of the Shoryuken and Hurricane Kick in different ways; Fly is a vertical, linear rising Spin Attack, while Flare Blitz is a flying horizontal tackle. Being a fairly hefty winged dragon, its fighting style in general is more sluggish and less human-like than one would expect from the archetype.
• Signature Mon: It's the most prominent and heavily marketed member of the Trainer's team, and was the only one to make an appearance as a standalone fighter in an official Smash game and is also the only one to appear in the "animated banner" trailer for Ultimate. Being the member who represents final-stage starter evolutions, it's also meant to be regarded as their most powerful Mon, though this isn't always the case in gameplay.
• Skill Gate Characters:
  • In 3DS/Wii U, Charizard is fast, strong, has easy-to-use throws and subsequent combos, and has a devastating long-ranged move in the form of Flare Blitz. At lower levels of play, it can wreck foes fairly easily, but at higher levels, it becomes combo fodder like most other heavyweights, and Flare Blitz becomes far more situational due to how risky and punishable it is.
  • This holds true in Ultimate if the player chooses to focus primarily on Charizard while minimizing use of its teammates. While it's perfectly capable on its own in more casual settings, being able to "nope" out of battle and replace itself with a completely different fighter is what lets it be a threat (as part of its Trainer's team) in higher-level matches.
• Stout Strength: Charizard has a bit of a belly on it, but is the physically strongest of the playable Pokémon aside from Incineroar.
• Super Mode: Its Mega Charizard X Mega Evolution is featured as its Final Smash in 3DS/Wii U.
• Suplex Finisher: Its Up Throw is Seismic Toss, depicted like it was in Pokémon: The Series.
• Tail Slap: Has several moves that utilizes its tail for attacking foes such as its side tilt, neutral aerial (at the very start) and back aerial. Respectively, the burning tip is sweetspotted and deals more damage.
• Technicolor Fire: Mega Charizard X has blue flames emanating from its mouth and tail.
• The Unintelligible: The only playable Pokémon with cries that don't consist of Pokémon Speak, human-like speech, or human-like Voice Grunting.
• Use Your Head: Charizard's Rock Smash is used by breaking a boulder with its skull. Flare Blitz sends Charizard charging forward and ramming into opponents head-first.
  • Its Forward Smash involves lashing out its hard head that'll bash anyone away, as it does the same for swinging its head upwards for its up aerial. Sinking Skull, as its name entails, makes Charizard slam headfirst into anyone within range, with the result of them getting engraved into the ground.
• Whole Costume Reference: Possibly. In Ultimate, if the female Trainer's Hilda Palette Swap is selected, Charizard gets its light gray costume that originated in 3DS/Wii U. Its blue eyes, red tail flame, Fire typing and draconic appearance are reminiscent of Reshiram, the Pokémon used by Hilbert/Hilda in Pokémon Black to battle N's Zekrom, to the point that this Charizard is used for Reshiram's Spirit battle.
• Wolverine Publicity: Charizard is well-known across its home franchise, namely due to it being the mascot of Pokémon Red and several trainers' first Pokémon, as well as it being a fierce flying, fire-breathing draconic beastie. Its popularity led to it getting two Mega Evolutions (the only other one to do so next to Mewtwo), and for 3DS/Wii U only, it was made into its own separate character away from the Pokémon Trainer, Squirtle, and Ivysaur. Even in Ultimate where each of the three Pokémon gets roughly equal focus again, Charizard is the only one of its teammates to be summoned in the "Everyone is Here" banner trailer, and the only one to serve as a Final Boss in a Classic Mode route (Hero's).

36 – Diddy Kong

The Acrobat /
Trigger Happy with His Peanut Popgun

^{3DS/Wii U}

^Brawl

Home Series: Donkey Kong

Debut: Donkey Kong Country [SNES], 1994

Creator: Rare

Publisher: Nintendo

Playable in: Brawl, 3DS/Wii U, Ultimate
Specials: Peanut Popgun, Monkey Flip, Rocketbarrel Boost, Banana Peel
Final Smash: Rocketbarrel Barrage (Brawl, 3DS/Wii U), Hyper Rocketbarrel (Ultimate)

Donkey Kong's little buddy, and at one point co-savior (also being saved himself in a couple of games). Wherever DK goes, Diddy is sure to follow suit, unless he's off saving Timber's Island.

Diddy is a surprisingly balanced fighter for his size, lending a decent amount of speed in the air and on the ground with quick yet powerful strikes. He also brings his Peanut Popgun and Rocketbarrel Jetpack to the fray for added versatility, and can even set up banana peels to set his opponents up for a nasty fall. When Diddy gets going, he can be quite the tricky opponent to deal with.

Originally created for Donkey Kong Country by Rare, Diddy was the sole playable character in Smash Bros. to not have been created by a Japanese company, until Dark Samus, King K. Rool, Banjo & Kazooie, and Steve/Alex joined the roster.

See Donkey Kong: Kongs for more information on the character in his origin series.

---

• Ash Face: Occurs briefly whenever Diddy Kong charges his Peanut Popgun attack for too long. The weapon explodes in Diddy Kong's face and startles him, rendering him immobile for some seconds.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: His eyes are either black or blue in his home games. In this series, they're brown.
• Badass Adorable: A cheery little hairy guy that nonetheless can still kick as much ass as his huge uncle.
• Bamboo Technology: His guns and jet packs are made from old barrels.
• Banana Peel: His down special attack has him drop up to two of them, but only in Brawl; following games limit him to one.
• Battle Intro: Bursts out of a DK Barrel, clapping.
• Charged Attack: Both Peanut Popgun and Rocketbarrel Boost. The former fires peanuts faster and with more damage the longer it's charged, but can backfire for harsh ending lag (as well as being a powerful hit on enemies that are nearby) if charged for too long, while the latter sends Diddy flying farther depending on how long it's charged.
• Combat Parkour: Invoked with his ability to wall cling/jump and his side special, Monkey Flip. Given his game plan of making use of his great mobility to overwhelm his opponent, this tends to come into play during competitive matches as well.
• Conjoined Eyes: Look closely, he essentially has one eye and two pupils.
• Edible Ammunition: His Peanut Popgun, which fires peanuts, is the Trope Namer. In Brawl, it occasionally, left behind edible bits that will restore a little health. Since ''3DS/Wii U" however, fallen peanuts will occasionally land on the floor and become weak throwable projectiles instead.
• Guns Akimbo: He dual wields Peanut Popguns during his Final Smash and in some Subspace Emissary cutscenes.
• Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: One of the only three fighters with this trope, along with Banjo and Incineroar.^note Albeit, subverted for the latter as its "tank top" is just part of its natural fur. Diddy wears a shirt and hat, but no pants. At least he did better than his big buddy.
• Home Stage:
  • Brawl: Both debuting stages from his series.^note Rumble Falls and 75m.
  • 3DS/Wii U: All debuting stages from his series.^note Jungle Japes in 3DS, Jungle Hijinxs, Kongo Jungle (64) and 75m in Wii U.
  • Ultimate: Jungle Japes in Ultimate's website, his fight in World of Light though takes place in Kongo Falls, and his normal unlock battle takes place in Kongo Jungle.
• Idle Animation:
  • He scratches his rear, then shakes himself off while stretching.
  • He hops in place.
• Jack of All Stats: Has a well-rounded moveset with quick yet strong attacks, versatile projectiles, and good weight for his size.
• Leitmotif:
  • Bramble Blast, as the only song from his starring game to be featured.
  • In Ultimate, he gets Bonus Room Blitz.
• Limit Break:
  • Rocketbarrel Barrage, which combines his jetpack and two popguns to cause chaos across the stage.
  • Ultimate removes the popgun and instead has Diddy speed around the stage before finishing off with a final charge resulting in a tremendous explosion.
• Mythology Gag: In 3DS/Wii U, his arms are much more stretchy, almost to Lanky Kong levels.
• Nerf: He received the largest nerf in the 1.0.6 patch, with knockback and damage reductions to his up and forward aerials as well as his down and up throws and Monkey Flip. Patch 1.0.8 nerfed him yet again, adding more knockback to his down throw and more frames to his up air to make combos more difficult to pull off.
• Oh, Crap!: Has this reaction along with Donkey Kong when he see King K. Rool in the reveal trailer.
• Pain to the Ass: As Diddy can use the banana item as part of his kit his opponents can expect to be landing flat on their rump a lot. This was worse in Brawl where characters could already fall flat on their rear ends just by suddenly running without a banana causing it.
• Palette Swap: One includes Dixie Kong's color scheme, and a yellow alternate from his 2P colors in Donkey Kong Country.
• Personal Space Invader: If Diddy opts not to go into a kick for his Side Special, he will latch onto his opponent's face, dealing continuous damage for as long as he is able to latch on.
• Primal Chest-Pound: In some Subspace Emissary cutscenes, some alongside his big buddy Donkey Kong.
• Rocket Jump: His up special involves him taking out his barrel jetpack.
• Signature Headgear: He's never without his classic red cap featuring the Nintendo logo. He even flips it up into the air for one of his taunts.
• Secret Character: For Ultimate: Have a Cumulative Wait Time of 6 hours, beat Classic Mode with Donkey Kong or anyone in his unlock tree seven times, or find and defeat him in World of Light.
• Sore Loser: In Brawl, he doesn't clap for the winners, he just looks away in shame. In the next games, this is averted, as he will clap if he doesn't win.
• Spam Attack: He uses his tail for it in Brawl and 3DS/Wii U. He loses it in Ultimate for unknown reasons.
• Suicide Attack: A detached barrel rocket hurts. Attack Diddy during his up special at your own risk.
• Victory Pose:
  • Shoots his Peanut Popgun three times, rolls, then shoots the camera.
  • Rises up with his Rocket Barrels, lands, then dances.
  • Does a spin kick, a slap, flips, and lands on a handstand.
• Wall Jump: Plus wall clings. Fitting for a nimble animal.
• You Have Researched Breathing: Diddy Kong normally has a peanut gun and a rocketbarrel jetpack. He can only use both at once with his Final Smash in Brawl and 3DS/Wii U.

37 – Lucas

Boy from Nowhere/
The Tazmilian Devil

^{3DS/Wii U}

^Brawl

Voiced by: Lani Minella

LUCAS COMES OUT OF NOWHERE!

Home Series: EarthBound

Debut: Mother 3 [Game Boy Advance], 2006

Creator: HAL Laboratory, 1-Up Studio (formerly known as Brownie Brown)

Publisher: Nintendo

Playable in: Brawl, 3DS/Wii U (DLC), Ultimate
Specials: PK Freeze, PK Fire, PK Thunder, PSI Magnet
Final Smash: PK Starstorm

"PK... STARSTORM!!!"

The youngest of a set of twins from Mother 3, Lucas is a kind but timid boy from the Nowhere Islands. After his mother died and his brother went missing, he took it upon himself to stop the evil Pigmask Army, pull the seven needles, and befriend the Dark Dragon.

Like Ness, he comes with an assortment of everyday items (though it's just a stick) and powerful PSI abilities, this time taught by his ally, Kumatora. Lucas is just as unconventional as Ness, though a little bit easier to use as most of his attacks come out faster and deal a little bit more knockback. He also comes with his own tether grab in the form of the Rope Snake, borrowed from his other ally, Duster. Despite Lucas's overall weaker disposition, he still makes do with his abilities and manages to make a name for himself while overcoming his own anxieties. And after initially missing out on the very next installment, Lucas returns to the series as DLC, now more confident than ever.

See the Mother 3 character page for more information on the character in his origin series.

---

• Adaptational Badass: Invoked just like Ness. As he is essentially a Ness expy in his home series, he lacks many offensive special moves. Kumatora taught him PK Fire, Thunder, Freeze, and Starstorm in preparation for Smash.
• Assist Character: Rope Snake, a character and item from Mother 3, functions as his grab. Kumatora and Boney also assist Lucas in Ultimate's version of PK Starstorm.
• Attack Reflector: It's amazing how good his stick-bat is at reflecting attacks. And it's faster than Ness', making the timing a bit easier.
• Badass Adorable: Admit it, you want to give the little guy a hug.
• Battle Intro: Rides in on a coffee table◊ styled after Mr. Saturn.
• Big Damn Heroes: He introduces himself in 3DS/Wii U by saving a thoroughly beaten Ness from Bowser. A little return of the favor Ness did for him in Subspace Emissary.
• Black Bead Eyes: In Mother tradition.
• Breakout Character: A little less than Ness's extent. Before Brawl, very few people knew who Lucas was, but once he was added to Brawl, Mother 3 got a lot of attention and requests for localization. When he was initially cut for 3DS/Wii U, he was among the top requested characters for DLC which was granted in the April 2015 Nintendo Direct. Lucas was the only cut character from Brawl to return.
• The Bus Came Back: Lucas had a relatively short break in this case, being absent from 3DS/Wii U's initial roster but added back in as DLC about 9 months later.
• Calling Your Attacks: Much like Ness. "PK Freeze!" "PK Fire!" "PK Thunder!" "PK STARSTORM!!!"
• Canon Name: Lucas did not have an official name in English until Brawl came out.
• Carry a Big Stick: His forward smash uses a stick, his melee weapon from Mother 3. Contrasting the rest of his slow-but-strong moveset, the stick is weaker than Ness' bat but comes out faster.
• Character Development: Goes from being too timid to take on Wario to brave enough to fight boss characters during the events of Subspace. Accurate references to his portrayal in his own game that also carries over to his return in 3DS/Wii U, where he dons a confident smile.
• Combos: Contrasting Ness' more rounded moveset, several of Lucas' attacks focus on multi-strikes and immobilization to compliment his slow KO moves.
• Composite Character: All of Lucas' special moves belong to Kumatora. She likely taught him Freeze, Magnet, Thunder, Fire, and Starstorm in the same vein that Paula and Poo did for Ness. Moreover, he wields Rope Snake, which originally was in Duster's possession.
• Cowardly Lion: His timidness in Brawl is offset by his strong Psychic Powers. He exudes a braver air in 3DS/Wii U on par with Ness, but his expressions during some of his animations still hint at the timid boy within.
• Death from Above: PK Starstorm, his Final Smash, calls down a hail of psychic meteors.
• Demoted to Extra: He's reduced to a trophy for the vanilla versions of 3DS/Wii U, with his special moves returning as custom moves for Ness. Later, however, he returned to the fray as a DLC character.
• Difficult, but Awesome:
  • Like Ness, Lucas' moveset is rather nonstandard (perhaps even moreso) and takes a fair bit of practice to get right, but has a very large number of tools. And also like Ness, his PK Thunder is one of the most powerful recoveries in the game.
  • His PSI Magnet can be used to drastically improve the range of his wavebounce, allowing skilled players a great deal of mobility as well as a way to quickly get into attacking range. And the PSI Magnet does damage to enemies if it's released while they're inside it, meaning he can launch himself at someone and deal damage and knockback almost immediately once he's in range.
• Downloadable Content: In 3DS/Wii U, he's the second character to be released as DLC, released in June 14, 2015.
• Energy Absorption: PK Magnet, except he holds it in front of him instead of surrounding himself with it like Ness does. Trying to hit Lucas in the back doesn't work, though, since he automatically turns around to absorb energy shots from behind.
• Extremity Extremist: He basically attacks in two ways: either he hits you with his PSI powers, or he kicks you.
• Fire, Ice, Lightning: Three of his specials: PK Freeze, PK Fire, and PK Thunder.
• Glacier Waif: Despite his small and timid appearance, Lucas has several powerful attacks and set-ups, and his regular and tether recoveries can make him a chore to KO. On the flip side, his strong attacks come out rather slow and his movement speed is below average.
• Grew a Spine: After running away from Wario during his initial encounter, Lucas can't stop thinking about it. When he meets Wario again, he decides he's had enough running and faces him head-on.
• Hammered into the Ground: Lucas' down throw causes this for a brief moment before he stomps on them.
• Home Stage:
  • Brawl: New Pork City.
  • 3DS/Wii U: Magicant in 3DS, Onett in Wii U.
  • Ultimate: New Pork City.
• Idle Animation:
  • He taps his shoes on the ground.
  • He holds his finger in front of him and swipes his palm. It's similar to his down taunt.
• Inertia Is a Cruel Mistress: Like Ness, if Lucas mistakenly PK Thunders himself off the stage, he's left completely helpless to falling into the blast zone. This problem is made worse in 3DS/Wii U where Lucas's PK Thunder sends him further, making it much easier to self-destruct by misfire.
• Jack of All Stats: In 3DS/Wii U. He's largely the same as in Brawl, but was given a decent improvement to his run and recovery speed. The added mobility makes a surprising amount of difference, turning him very beginner-friendly and less of a Squishy Wizard.
• Kid Hero: Though his trophy says that he grows into a man^note ...well, mentally in his own game.
• Kill It with Ice: Equivalent to Ness' PK Flash, he has PK Freeze; it's less powerful, but travels faster and traps the enemy in a block of ice. This move suffered from Awesome, but Impractical in Brawl and 3DS/U due to the ice block's upward trajectory, but this was changed in Ultimate where the ice block now flies sideways.
• Leitmotif: ''Mother 3'' Love Theme, his theme from his home series, unique credits theme in Brawl, and played during the intro and outro of his comeback trailer in 3DS/Wii U. Unfounded Revenge / Smash Song of Praise also plays during the action portion of his trailer and his Ultimate character trailer.
• Light 'em Up: Like Ness, his Final Smash is PK Starstorm, with a couple of differences: In Brawl, at the cost of them being less powerful, Lucas drops about twice as many and has them fall straight down. Getting hit by one will likely send you barrelling into others, either leaving you with a very high damage percentage or outright KO'd. The differences were removed in 3DS/Wii U, since it was changed to match Ness' new version of PK Starstorm. In Ultimate, Lucas' PK Starstorm has the meteors already spread out upon being summoned but converge towards the center (the opposite of Ness').
• Limit Break: Again, PK Starstorm.
• Lovable Coward: He may not be the bravest guy out there, but he's still adorable. Though he does become braver as Brawl's story develops, and as of 3DS/Wii U, he appears much more confident.
• Meteor Move: The last kick of his down aerial and a sweet-spotted back aerial can both meteor smash opponents. Notably, Lucas used to be the only character in the entire series with a meteor smash on his back aerial — the only other in the present day is K. Rool.
• Meteor-Summoning Attack: His Final Smash, PK Starstorm, calls down a hail of blazing asteroids that bombard the stage, dealing considerable damage to any fighter they hit.
• Mind over Matter: Lucas uses PSI in his attacks far more than Ness does. Only his basic combo, Forward Smash, Down Tilt, and Up Aerial aren't influenced by his powers.
• Moveset Clone: Downplayed. The majority of Lucas' moves are different from Ness. While they do share special moves and final smashes, they all have different properties. The only things that are identical are some of their animations such as their dodges and clapping animation, and their weight values.
• Mythology Gag:
  • One scene in his 3DS/Wii U trailer has his Masked Man Palette Swap holding a Beam Sword over his weak, normal self who is wearing a Franklin Badge. This mirrors the final battle in Mother 3.
  • His Classic Mode ending picture shows Lucas holding hands with his brother Claus in the pink clouds.
  • The very last shot of his ending video in Wii U, while not so obvious at first, tries to make it look like his whole family is there: Peach wearing her alt. color (Hinawa), the dog from the Duck Hunt duo (Boney) next to her and making a wild gunman appear (Flint), and lastly the more obvious Claus alternate color.
  • "Comes out of Nowhere." He's from the Nowhere Islands.
• Nerf: Zig-zagged. While the nerfs and buffs are mostly mixed, in 3DS/Wii U, his PSI Magnet's healing ability went from healing far better to healing a little worse than Ness's. Of course, it's still extremely effective.
• No-Sell: His down special absorbs energy projectiles.
• Not Allowed to Grow Up: As mentioned in his non-DLC trophy in 3DS/Wii U.
  Trophy: To fans of the Mother series, both Lucas and Ness might be young boys for all eternity.
• Older Than They Look: Lucas is anywhere from 12 to 14 years old, though considering he and Ness both speak English, Lucas' better diction would indicate that he may be older.
• Outside-the-Box Tactic: Lucas' PK Magnet has a less obvious use than just to absorb energy projectiles: it deals a fair bit of damage and knockback if he drops the magnet when an enemy is inside it. This can KO at high percentages and can be fired off very quickly, making it risky to approach a savvy Lucas player from the front. 3DS/Wii U adds another trick where if Lucas uses PK Magnet in the air, all of his horizontal momentum is cancelled out and his fall speed is slowed, giving a better degree of control over his floaty jump mechanics.
• Painfully Slow Projectile: Lucas' stronger attacks have a noticeable buildup before they peak, making it hard to line up KO blows without a setup. His Up Smash in particular is one of the most powerful moves in both Brawl and 3DS/Wii U, but is also one of the slowest smash attacks to emerge, with a very long starting lag after its charge finishes.
• Palette Swap: One of them is of his twin brother Claus. 3DS/Wii U gives him one based on the Masked Man, one of the main antagonists of Mother 3 as well as the brainwashed Claus, one based off of his pet dog Boney while in disguise as a human, one based off of Duster (with the same shirt as one of his original costumes in Brawl), and one with a Baby Drago sprite.
• Perpetual Frowner: He gets perhaps a couple of smiles in the Subspace Emissary and that's about it. The rest of the story is spent being a mope. Averted by 3DS/Wii U and Ultimate, however, where he sports a confident grin.
• Pintsized Powerhouse: Especially when compared to the same-aged but much taller Pokémon Trainer.
• Player-Guided Missile: Like Ness, Lucas's PK Thunder is fully steerable and inflicts damage on anyone it hits. The player can also guide his PK Freeze left or right before setting it off.
• Playing with Fire: His PK Fire is a pure explosive move rather than multi-hit like Ness', and can only be fired straight (Ness' goes downward while airborne). Like Ness, Lucas's PK Starstorm in 3DS/Wii U creates a flame effect whenever the meteors hit the opponent(s).
• Psychic Children: Despite his young age, Lucas has a rather good grasp of his psychic abilities and uses them in most of his attacks.
• Psychic Powers: Like Ness, he has a number of them, though he uses them differently.
• Secret Character: For Ultimate: Have a Cumulative Wait Time of 5 hours and 50 minutes, beat Classic Mode with Kirby or anyone in his unlock tree seven times, or find and defeat him in World of Light. Lucas has the distinction of being the only character in the series to be a starter, DLC, and an unlockable fighter.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: The Sensitive Guy to Ness' Manly Man.
• Shock and Awe: PK Thunder; Lucas' multi-hit PSI attack instead of PK Fire, both as a regular attack and as a recovery move.
• Skill Gate Characters: Compared to Ness, Lucas tends to be pretty popular with casual players due to the insane power of his Smash attacks, wide arrange of projectiles, a healing move and more recovery options. He doesn't have the same luck in competitive settings, however, as pro players can easily deal with his laggy moves and Ness is often agreed to have an overall better toolset for the tournament scene.
• Snake Whip: Lucas uses Rope Snake as his grab attack. In addition to serving as a way to grab distant characters and pull them closer, Rope Snake can be used to grab ledges from which Lucas can swing or to prevent him from falling into bottomless pits.
• Stealth Pun: The 3DS/Wii U tagline is one that would fly over the heads of players that never played Mother 3. Lucas comes from Tazmily Village, which is located in the Nowhere Islands.
• Super-Strength: Lucas' downward throw is so strong that it buries the victim's head in the floor. Must be using Offense Up...
• Took a Level in Badass: In Brawl, he has a relatively neutral expression, and he starts off squirrely in Subspace Emissary. In 3DS/Wii U, he not only saves Ness as opposed to the other way around, but also fights with a confident grin on his face. This is even reflected in his character select art; his original art had him running with a neutral expression, his new art has him striking an action pose. He also frowns for some of his attacks.
• Took a Level in Cheerfulness: Perhaps thanks to the events of The Subspace Emissary increasing his confidence, he wears a confident smile when he returns in the next game and beyond.
• Tranquil Fury: Don't let his smile fool you, it's his way of saying your ass is grass.
• Use Your Head: Lucas' up aerial bashes opponents with his rather large cranium.
• Victory Pose:
  • Pulls out one of the Seven Needles then dons a battle-ready pose.
  • Pokes something on the ground with his stick before turning to the camera with a confused expression.
  • Waves his right hand and shoots a bunch of PSI energy.
• Vocal Dissonance: Some of his clips, such as the one when he is star KO-ed, can sound... a bit out of place coming from him.

38 – Sonic

The Blue Blur /
Speed is His Game

^{3DS/Wii U}

^Brawl

Voiced by: Jun'ichi Kanemaru (Japanese), Jason Griffith (Brawl; English), Roger Craig Smith (3DS/Wii U, Ultimate; English), Alexandre Gillet (3DS/Wii U, Ultimate; French), Jonathan López (3DS/Wii U, Ultimate; Spanish), Renato Novera (3DS/Wii U, Ultimate; Italian), Marc Stachel (3DS/Wii U, Ultimate; German)

Home Series: Sonic the Hedgehog

Debut: Sonic the Hedgehog [Sega Mega Drive/Genesis], 1991^note A stylized Sonic head appeared earlier the same year in the arcade game Rad Mobile, but the character himself would debut in his own game. Interestingly, this is the only fighter's Early-Bird Cameo to be acknowledged by the Super Smash Bros. series

Nintendo debut: 'Sonic Advance [GBA], 2001

Creator: Sonic Team

Publisher: Sega

Playable in: Brawl, 3DS/Wii U, Ultimate
Specials: Homing Attack, Spin Dash, Spring Jump, Spin Charge
Final Smash: Super Sonic

"Sonic's the name, speed's my game!"

Sega's mascot, Mario's former metafictional rival, and the protagonist of the Sonic the Hedgehog series. A resident of South Island, Sonic and his friends have stopped the plans of the ever-persistent Dr. Eggman/Robotnik on numerous occasions. He has defeated several other villains, including gods, in his home series, and now he's joined Smash to show you just what he's made of.

Predictably, he's the fastest character in Super Smash Bros. without question. So much so, in fact, that he can outmaneuver everyone else on the roster. In addition, all of his attacks come out quick and can deal a decent amount of damage when landed, and he's full of evasive tactics in the forms of his special attacks that can get Sonic out of a jam when needed. As a downside, the hedgehog is rather weak in the defensive department, being easily KO'd if you're careless. That being said, utilizing Sonic's abilities to their fullest will make even scraping the Blue Blur an ordeal.

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Special Moves^{Click to show}
Neutral Special: Homing Attack

Originally introduced when Sonic made the jump into 3D with Sonic Adventure, the Homing Attack allows Sonic to quickly hone in on nearby opponents with a quick attack. While a whiff leaves him open to a counterattack, it also has good utility as a recovery when used properly.

Side Special: Spin Dash

Sonic curls into a ball on the ground and charges up power for a forward-rolling attack. When released, Sonic charges forward and hits his opponents. When partially charged, he performs a short hop upon release, but stays rooted to the ground with a fully charged attack. He can also jump when Spin Dashing.

Up Special: Spring

Sonic summons a spring to launch himself into the air. Unlike other Up specials, Sonic can use his normal attacks after using his move. When used on the ground, the spring can also be used by opponents; but used in the air, the spring drops down to the ground, making for a quick projectile in a pinch.

Down Special: Spin Charge

This move is similar to the Spin Dash in function, but with its own characteristics: it is charged by repeatedly pressing the special attack button, and hits multiple times instead of just once.

Final Smash: Super Sonic

With the power of the Chaos Emeralds, Sonic transforms into Super Sonic, making him invulnerable, granting him flight, and letting him inflict serious damage on enemies by simply flying into them. In Brawl and 3DS/Wii U, the player has complete control over his flight while in Ultimate, he automatically flies back and forth with the player limited to controlling his vertical trajectory.

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

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• 11th-Hour Ranger: In Subspace Emissary, as he only shows up right before the final battle.
• Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal: Shoes, socks, White Gloves, and nothing else.
• Adaptational Badass: Not in most circumstances, but just his ability to swim. He is shown fully capable in Brawl and 3DS/Wii U. Ultimate replaces his swimming and panicked animation with panicked and more panicked, however, and he now takes damage when in water.
• Adaptational Skill: His inability to swim in water is notoriously his biggest weakness in other forms of media over the years. Whenever he's fully submerged in water, he's forced to go through Walk, Don't Swim situations in 2D games or an instant death in other 3D installments. For this series other than the Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games (and even then, he's shown wearing a life jacket and his style of swimming is "Underwater Running"), he can swim greatly in arenas that involve deep bodies of water but just like every character, he's susceptible to drowning if he doesn't get out in time either by staying still or if his damage percentage is too high. This is downplayed in Ultimate, which plays the same as other characters, but he is visibly struggling and will gradually gain damage.
• Always Accurate Attack: He has his signature Homing Attack as his neutral special, but it's ironically rather inaccurate and easy to avoid. Or at least it was until Ultimate, which not only made the Homing Attack more accurate, but also made it behave like a charge-up move, with its range and damage increasing the longer Sonic takes to release it.
• Art Evolution: His design in Brawl was taken directly from Sonic and the Secret Rings (though slightly modified to fit Brawl's art style). His design from the fourth game onwards resembles his post-Sonic Unleashed model but also takes some elements from Yuji Uekawa's artwork.◊ His Ultimate appearance also adds the slight detailing to the quills like in later pre-rendered artwork and Sonic Boom, as well as more detailed fabric on his gloves.
• Art-Style Dissonance: In the promotion for 3DS/Wii U, the special artwork for Pac-Man◊ and Duck Hunt◊ depict 8-bit scenes... featuring a 16-bit Sonic. This is especially odd because Sonic has been in 8-bit games on the Game Gear and Neo Geo Pocket, albeit obscure ones.
• Badass Adorable: He's quite adorable whenever he shows his snarky attitude, but has defeated various machines and monsters over ten times his size. He’s no less capable of fighting in Super Smash Bros. than he is in his home series.
• Battle Intro: As a ball, he bounces onto the battlefield from the foreground before assuming a standing pose and giving a thumbs-up.
• Big Damn Heroes: Sonic makes his entrance in the Subspace Emissary by crippling Tabuu's Off-Wings.
• Blow You Away: His element of choice in his home series. A custom version of the Spin Charge, called the Gravitational Charge, makes him create a vortex that sucks in enemies, slightly reminiscent of Sonic Wind in appearance.
• Blue Is Heroic: He's a blue hedgehog and the main character of his home franchise. His nickname is even "The Blue Blur".
• Breaking Old Trends: He's the first, and so far only, character that had his premier game on the Sega Genesis. He's also the first character that represents Sega.
• Charged Attack: Both Spin Dash and Spin Charge can be charged for more damage and speed. Homing Attack also becomes one in Ultimate.
• Cheeky Mouth: Zig-zagged in Brawl. It's played straight in his official artwork, but his in-game model averts it. Played completely straight in 3DS/Wii U onward.
• Cheerful Child: Notably, in Brawl, he has many expressions of anger and boredom. The subsequent entries have all replaced every instance when he frowns with more positive expressions.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: When Galeem unleashes its attack to turn everyone into spirits, Sonic slows down to try and save Pikachu. It turns out to be a Senseless Sacrifice, as Pikachu is caught in a pillar of light, followed immediately by the Blue Blur.
• Close-Range Combatant: Fighting with him constantly requires getting in close with the opponent, attacking, then running away to avoid damage.
• Composite Character: Like Ryu and Ken, his design is based on the more recent games in the series, but his moveset is designed to bring to mind the oldest games in the series. Specifically with Simple But Awesome functionality that brings to mind a one-button game.
• Confusion Fu: Around and around he goes, which Spin Attack he uses, nobody but the person playing as him knows! 3DS/Wii U takes it further by having the charging animations of both Spin Dashes be completely indistinct, aside from their auras (Brawl's Spin Dashes had very similar, but still slightly distinct charging animations). Ultimate gave his Homing Attack charging properties, allowing him to mix up his targets by varying his Homing Attack charges.
• Crosshair Aware: A cosmetic change in Ultimate gives the opponent the Homing Attack reticle from the 3DS version of Sonic Generations when Sonic uses his neutral special move.
• Dance Battler: His down taunt makes him perform a breakdance. In 3DS/Wii U, he even does the splits for his new down smash.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: In the Subspace Emissary mode, Sonic takes out Tabuu's wings, impairing his Off-Waves to the point of merely sending its victims flying instead of killing them outright. It's certainly not the first time he helped take down a higher power. And it wouldn't be the last.
• Difficult, but Awesome: He is the fastest character in the series, but misusing his speed without practice can make one unable to land hits on the opponent or even cause a self-destruct. By mastering his speed, one can rack up massive damage through hit-and-run tactics, then use a smash attack when the opponent least expects it.
• Dynamic Entry:
  • His Brawl trailer has him rushing past Mario, sending him spinning off-screen. Even in the Subspace Emissary he plows in out of nowhere to blast off Tabuu's wings to prevent his One Hit Kill move.
  • His trailer in 3DS/Wii U has him making his entrance via his Down Air, sending both Mario and Mega Man flying while they were in the middle of fighting each other.
• Fake Shemp: In 3DS/Wii U and Ultimate, a majority (if not all) of his voice clips of Roger Craig Smith are recycled from his home series (specifically from Sonic Generations and the London and Sochi installments of the Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games series).
• Final Boss, New Dimension: Referenced. Upon turning into Super Sonic in Ultimate, the background turns into a dimensional void similar to several final bosses in his series (such as Solaris, Alf-Layla-Wa-Layla, and the Time Eater).
• Finger Wag: He waves his finger in one of his idle poses (this animation actually comes from Sonic 3).
• Fragile Speedster: Perfectly fits the mold in that his playstyle completely revolves around his mobility and having poor defensive abilities.
• Furry Reminder: He weaponizes his quills for his up throw, and his Spin Attack (and any variant thereof) is derived from the fact that hedgehogs curl up into a ball as a means of defense.
• Golden Super Mode: Super Sonic.
• Gratuitous English: True to his character, he performs this in the Japanese version of the game.
  Piece of Cake! 楽勝だぜ^note Pronounced ”Rakusho Daze”, meaning "an easy victory"
• Guest Fighter: The mascot of Sega, and Mario's former metafictional rival; alongside Snake, he was the second non-Nintendo character to show up in Super Smash Bros, and the first Sega fighter to be introduced in the franchise. His appearance in the fourth game gave him the distinction of being the first third-party veteran in the series.
• Hit-and-Run Tactics: A common strategy among Sonic players, as he has to rack up damage with his fast but weak attacks before being able to send opponents flying.
• Home Stage:
  • Brawl: Green Hill Zone.
  • 3DS/Wii U: Green Hill Zone in 3DS, Windy Hill Zone in Wii U.
  • Ultimate: Green Hill Zone.
• Idle Animation:
  • He puts his hands to his hips and taps his foot impatiently, like his idle animation in the 2D Sonic games.
  • He leans back and wags his finger while smirking, like the introduction for various 2D Sonic games.
• Irony: Fastest thing alive, so late to the show he's the last (non-secret) character you unlock literally right before the final boss fight in the Subspace Emissary. Though him being late to things despite his speed is a Running Gag (Hah.) in his own series.
• Improbable Weapon User: His Spring acts as a falling projectile when used in the air, which can be useful for gimping opponents.
• Item Get!: One of his victory poses has him nab the blue Chaos Emerald out of the air and display it to the camera.
• Jiggle Physics: His cranial quills in Brawl have this. In 3DS/Wii U, it's toned down and harder to see, but still present. In Ultimate, it returns to the same level of physics as in Brawl, as well as also being applied to his back quills and his tail.
• Kid Hero: He's 15 years old. Commonplace in his own series, as most of his friends are teenagers, and some, like his sidekick Tails, aren't even 10 yet.
• Kill It with Water: In Ultimate, Sonic’s canon inability to swim is reflected by taking gradual damage when swimming, and constantly being in his drowning animation.
• Leitmotif:
  • Live and Learn, which is Modern Sonic's most recurring theme in his home series, and used in his Brawl reveal trailer. Sonic Heroes is his unlock music in Brawl, however, and used in his reveal trailer for 3DS/Wii U, so it can be seen as a second theme. However, for Ultimate, Green Hill Zone is used instead.
  • His victory theme is taken directly from Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), which itself is an orchestral remix of the Sonic 3 zone clear jingle.
• Limit Break: Sonic turns into Super Sonic and starts to fly around the screen, knocking everyone in his path. Despite his rather hard-to-control speed, in Brawl, this was one of the most powerful Final Smashes available, having some impressive K.O. power. 3DS/Wii U tones it down by making him harder to control, and making the transformation last a shorter time. Ultimate alters the move entirely, ramping up its speed to the point that it effectively functions as a screen-wide projectile.
• Mascot: Famously one for Sega, made to rival Mario in the Console Wars before the two buried the hatchet and went to multiple Olympics together.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Sonic's moveset is partially based off of his attacks from Sonic the Fighters. His forward aerial in particular is even a homage to one of his attacks from said game called Emerald Dive. Similarly is his side smash, which is another move from the same game, the Wind-up Punch. His Neutral attack is also named "P / PP / PPK", with "P" and "K" being short for "Punch" and "Kick". This is a reference to Sonic's most basic moves in Sonic the Fighters.
  • In 3DS/Wii U, he's gotten several new colors. His purple costume is a reference to NiGHTS, though the bracelets on his wrists are a clear homage to Void from Sonic Shuffle. The white coloration is seemingly based off of Silver, and his cyan color sports light blue colored rings around his gloves that look identical to the Crystal Ring power-up from Sonic Adventure.
  • Several animations are taken from the original Sonic the Hedgehog. Examples include his idle animation for tapping his foot, his teetering, walking, and crouching.
  • His sprinting animation has his feet move in a figure-eight trajectory, the same way as in his Super Peel-Out ability from Sonic CD.
  • One of his victory poses features him running in the same direction and pace as the famous SEGA start-up logo from Sonic the Hedgehog 2.
  • Some of his victory quotes in the Japanese version are taken from Sonic Adventure and Sonic Heroes.
  • His stock icons in Ultimate are shaped like the Sonic Team logo, albeit in a slightly darker shade of blue.
  • He's one of the few characters that takes damage while in water, referencing the fact he can't swim in his home games.
  • Spin Charge, his Down Special, is performed the same way as the Spin Dash in the Genesis games.
• Non-Indicative Name: His first custom neutral special moves is called Stomp, which can be rather off-putting to say the least since Sonic is primarily still in his curled up spin-ball animation, not to mention that his down aerial is basically a lunging downwards stomp attack that'll Meteor Smash opponents.
• Non-Standard Character Design: The promotional posters for Pac-Man and Duck Hunt for 3DS/Wii U feature classic 8-bit sprites for many Smash characters. Sonic, however, uses his iconic 16-bit Genesis sprites instead, making him stick out due to his more detailed features. Possibly due to being more iconic.
• Out-of-Character Moment: Sonic expressed distaste for guns in Shadow the Hedgehog (and even had a Sonic Says segment about the subject in Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog), but he doesn't have a problem using gun-like weapons here. Then again, the guns in Smash are significantly more outlandish than most of the guns in Shadow.
• Playing with Fire: A custom version of the Spin Dash, called the Burning Spin Dash, makes it a burning attack, similar to the Fire Somersault from Sonic Adventure 2.
• Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: In all his apperances, when he transforms into Super Sonic.
  Now I'll show you!
  Super Sonic style!
• Rolling Attack: Uses his trademark Spin Attack/Spin Dash for a lot of his moves.
• Secret Character:
  • In Brawl: Have him join you in The Subspace Emissary by clearing "The Great Maze", beat Classic Mode with 10 characters, or play 10 hours of brawls or 300 VS. matches. Notably, he's the only character with four options.
  • For Ultimate: Have a Cumulative Wait Time of 2 hours and 40 minutes, beat Classic Mode with Mario or anyone in his unlock tree once, or find and defeat him in World of Light.
• Signature Move: While his official signature moves, the Spin Dash and Homing Attack, are special moves, the one that gets the most ad focus is his Down Air, likely due to his visibility during the attack and its penchant for Dynamic Entry. It even got a name in Ultimate, being called the Shooting Star Kick.
• Simple, yet Awesome: One of the basis for his moveset. Word of God states it was to match the style of the Genesis games that had only one action button
  Masahiro Sakurai: After thinking about it for a while, I decided to utilize the first version of Sonic—the one from Sega Mega Drive. The first Sonic the Hedgehog is a game that can be played with one button. Even though it's simple, it still feels invigorating.
• Shoryuken: The Springing Headbutt variation of his Up Special functions like one of these.
• Shown Their Work:
  • The in-game tips state that Sonic's first appearance wasn't his titular game, but in Rad Mobile.
  • His moveset can have him switch from fast-paced to slow-paced moves on a dime. And then right back to fast. While Sonic is usually thought of as fast exclusively, the Mega Drive games are also about mastering Sonic's movement and speed.
  Masahiro Sakurai: With that important piece (of basing him on the Mega Drive games), I decided that Sonic wouldn’t just be fast. You might have the wrong initial impression of Sonic if you think he is always fast. Sonic has times where he can be slow, but because of that freedom, players feel almost dizzy when he speeds up.
• Smug Super: As is his characterization. His (in)famous "You're too slow!" taunt reminds everyone that, yes, Sonic can really move, has an attitude, and is the fastest thing alive.
• Spectacular Spinning: Many of his attacks use his "spinball" form, making them unpredictable without some observation.
• Spiky Hair: Has a head full of long and spiky cobalt blue quills that's practically fashioned almost like an anime hairstyle that usually comes with being an anthropomorphic hedgehog as the same can be said for other hedgehogs from his own series such as Shadow and Silver, who also possess their own distinctive and stylized spiked hair/quills as well.
• Spin Attack: Sonic's trademark Spin Dash and Homing Attack involve him curling up and rolling into his enemies. He also has two variations of the former as his side and down specials.
• Spring Jump: His Up Special, the uh... the Spring Jump. It even provides the current page image.
• Super Drowning Skills: Since Sonic can't swim, he and water do not a good combo make. In fact, in Ultimate, he takes damage from swimming, and is constantly in his drowning animation.
• Super-Speed: His trademark. He's not called "the fastest thing alive" for nothing, and in fact has the highest running speed in each Smash game he appears in^note Surpassing Smash 64 and Melee's previous speed champion Captain Falcon. When equipped with the Bunny Ears item that increases speed and jumping height, he can outrun the cars on Big Blue and the train on Spirit Train, and barely keep up with the former without it. If any other character steps on the road or tracks, they are KO'd from not being able to keep up with the screen scrolling. Sonic with the Bunny Hood can actually die by outrunning the screen scrolling. "Gotta go fast", indeed.
• Take My Hand!: In the intro cutscene for World of Light, he reaches for Pikachu as the two of them try to run from Galeem's streams of light. They both get swallowed up too quickly for it to do any good.
• Too Fast to Stop: Actually, he can stop on a dime, but it's hard to get the hang of it.
• Truer to the Text: In Brawl, 3DS, and Wii U, Sonic was able to freely swim unlike in canon. Ultimate modified this by removing the normal swim animation for a more panicked one and damaging him while swimming.
• Use Your Head: He performs a rapid horizontal drilling motion by spinning his body around like a corkscrew headfirst for his forward aerial. It's also similar to the animation of Pikachu's forward air, but minus the zapping. This attack looks strikingly identical to his Emerald Dive in Sonic the Fighters.
• Victory Pose:
  • Zooms past the screen twice (similar to the iconic Sonic 2 opening) before stopping and giving a thumbs up. He says "That was almost too easy!"^note In Brawl, he instead said "Sonic's the name, speed's my game!". The change was likely due to the change in voice actor from Jason Griffith to Roger Craig Smith.
  • Runs up and catches the blue Chaos Emerald before saying "Piece of cake!"^note In Brawl, he instead said "Too easy, piece of cake!"
  • Breakdances and strikes a pose saying "Let's do that again sometime!"^note In Brawl, he instead said "We should do this again sometime!"
• Wall Jump: Although he was capable of using the Triangle Jump in Sonic Heroes to travel forward along walls, he was not capable of vertical wall-jumps. Brawl gave him a more traditional variation of the move that later carried over to his own games, starting with Sonic Unleashed.
• Wolverine Publicity: Despite being an unlockable character, in fact one of the last unlockable characters, and not appearing in the Subspace Emissary's plot until literally the last second, he appears prominently in advertising, probably due to his fame as a gaming icon and the wow factor of him appearing in a game with his rival Mario for the very first time. He was also the only unlockable character available in the E for All demo, unlike fellow guest, Snake. This is downplayed but repeated in 3DS/Wii U, as he is one of the few returning characters to get his own trailer, though he's been promoted to opening roster this time. It increased slightly in Ultimate by making him the first third party character revealed and making him the most prominent third party character in the World of Light cutscenes ^note  more specifically, he appears in the beginning showoff of characters, has his own scene in the same cutscene with Pikachu, and appears in the scene of heroes taking on Galeem and Dharkon .
• Worthy Opponent: One of his victory poses will have him say "We should do this again sometime!", meaning he enjoyed the battle and that he wants to friendly spar with the loser(s) again (whether this is to give them another chance or purely for fun is up to debate).

39 – King Dedede

Self-Made King /
The King of Dream Land/
Says He's King, and That's That

^{3DS/Wii U}

^Brawl

Voiced by: Masahiro Sakurai

Home Series: Kirby

Debut: Kirby's Dream Land [Game Boy], 1992

Creator: HAL Laboratory

Publisher: Nintendo

Playable in: Brawl, 3DS/Wii U, Ultimate
Specials: Inhale, Waddle Dee Toss (Brawl), Gordo Toss (3DS/Wii U), Super Dedede Jump, Jet Hammer
Final Smash: Waddle Dee Army (Brawl), Dedede Burst (3DS/Wii U), Dede-Rush (Ultimate)

Kirby's on-again off-again rival and the (self-proclaimed) king of Dream Land. Although King Dedede is greedy and gluttonous, he is not all bad and has helped Kirby save Dream Land many times against many powerful foes. He possesses many of the same abilities as Kirby, including his inhaling and floating abilities, and brings his trusty Dedede Hammer into the fight.

He is an "already perfect" example of a Mighty Glacier, being far too heavy to be launched easily, with great range on his attacks courtesy of his hammer and multiple jumps of his own, but slow mobility to compensate. Though Dedede's attacks can be used against him like in his boss fights, he's still capable of turning his own bad situations back around through proper timing with his powerful hammer swings. Despite his heavy nature, Dedede's attacks can provide a surprising amount of utility under the correct circumstances, punishing those that play it safe.

See King Dedede's page for more information on the character in his origin series.

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• Acrofatic: Dedede is able to float like Kirby despite his weight.
• Adaptational Villainy:
  • Event 51: The Showdown in Melee pitted the player against the game's only antagonistic characters: Ganondorf, Bowser, and Mewtwo^note Though even then, Mewtwo counts as an Adaptational Villain there, as well. The Final Battle in Brawl and For Wii U has Dedede replacing Mewtwo because the latter was not part of the former game's roster and initially wasn't in the latter game's either. Dedede is usually more of a big bully at worst like in Kirby's Super Star Stacker (where he shoots Kirby's star friend with a cannon), and he turns out to be an Anti-Villain in Subspace Emissary like he usually tends to be.
  • The cross-promtional Splatfest that Ultimate had with Splatoon 2 also puts him on the villain team.
• Adaptational Wimp: In the Kirby games, Gordos are invincible and making contact with them hurts Kirby. When King Dedede's side special is changed to throw only Gordos in 4 and Ultimate, any character can attack the gordos to send them back to King Dedede or at least avoid damage. The opponents don't even need a counterattack, Franklin Badge or projectile.
• Adipose Rex: The "king" of Dream Land has a bit of a gut to him, and a few of his moves involve throwing his weight around.
• Ass Kicks You: Similar to Peach his down throw is him just him jumping and sitting on his opponent's back. Unlike Peach both in the game's weight value system and realistically he is much heavier than her. Worse in Brawl as he could infinite many characters with his down throw meaning he could sit on someone's back until he got bored.
• Anti-Hero: Though at first it seems he's just another villain siding with Tabuu, in the end it turns out he's a Double Agent as the medallions he placed on the trophies he captured turn them back to normal, allowing them to rescue the others so they can have a second chance at defeating Tabuu.
• Anti-Villain: Within his own series, he's greedy and selfish, but not irredeemable. Sure, he stole all the food in "his" kingdom, but since then, he's helped Kirby save it far more often than he's ever put it in danger. This is played with in Subspace Emissary: he turned Luigi into a trophy and stole Ness' trophy from Wario, imprisoning the heroes against their will; however, it was as a temporary measure for their protection as well as the protection of the world. In the end, his motives are selfless and so was his plan to save the day sound.
• Art Evolution: He's far more expressive in 3DS/Wii U than he was in Brawl. A comparison: same attack, different games◊.
• Ascended Extra: He went from a stage cameo in Dream Land in 64, to a trophy in Melee, to finally a playable character in Brawl.
• Assist Character: Waddle Dees, Waddle Doos, and Gordos appear in his side special move and Final Smash in Brawl. Since 3DS/Wii U, his new side special exclusively throws Gordos and his Final Smashes don't involve summoning minions.
• Attack Reflector: Among his many other buffs in Ultimate, Dedede's Inhale now functions as a reflector. Unlike Kirby, Dedede immediately spits out projectiles without turning them into stars, and spat projectiles - including his own Gordo - are given a 1.5x damage and speed multiplier.
• Authority in Name Only: Repeat: He's the self-proclaimed king of Dream Land. It's lampshaded in his Red Baron in the PAL version. In the Japanese versions, he's not even called "King", and referred to as simply Dedede, though this is the case for all royal characters (i.e. Peach, Daisy, and Zelda aren't called "Princess"). His Japanese title, Dedede Daioh, literally translates to "Great King Dedede"; however, in this context it's clearly self-appointed, translating more figuratively to "Dedede the Great".
• Author Avatar: His Bait-and-Switch in King K. Rool's reveal trailer makes him appear as one for Masahiro Sakurai, considering that Sakurai voices Dedede and is known for teasing fans about character reveals.
• Awesome, but Impractical: His forward smash. It's one of the strongest forward smash moves in the game, being capable of KOing everyone at really low percents, and it has incredible range, but it has so much start-up and ending lag even without charging that landing it is really hard.
• Balance Buff: In Ultimate, he was made faster mobility- and moveset-wise, has greater range on some moves which allows them to match their trails, and was given many overhauls to his moveset, including his Inhale becoming an Attack Reflector (which alleviates some of his vulnerability to projectile camping) and allowing him to reverse his up and down tilt attacks on their startup.
• Battle Intro: He is carried onto the battlefield by a palanquin carried by four Waddle Dees, before jumping off and scattering them. Quite fitting for a "king".
• Beware the Silly Ones: Like in his home series, just because he's a doofus doesn't mean he doesn't have skill with that hammer of his. One well-placed swing from it, and it's lights out for sure.
• Big Eater: Like his rival Kirby, he can swallow foes, but he can't gain their power.
• Big Fun: One of the largest, heaviest characters and a generally hilarious fellow to play and watch, unlike the aggressive and serious Bowser, Ganondorf and Charizard.
• Big Good: Ultimately turns out to be this in The Subspace Emissary. Although he looks like he would be working for Tabuu after he transforms Luigi into a trophy and steals Ness' and a princess' trophy^note either Peach or Zelda, depending on who was rescued first from Wario (along with his bike), at his castle, he cleans the trophies and, knowing Tabuu could wipe out everyone in a single shot of his Off-Waves, he equips them with a special brooch that, after a timer ended, would revive them, allowing them to serve as back-up to save the day. He even gives the princess' his own brooch after he runs out of them! D'aww.
• Bitch Slap: After winning a duel with Bowser, Dedede brings him out of his trophy state again, but instead of showing appreciation, Bowser just roars at his face. As a response, the penguin lightly smacks his snout out of annoyance and shows him the stairway to The Great Maze.
• Boisterous Bruiser: He is generally a big, loud guy who tends (and likes) to throw his weight around.
• The Cameo: Appears in the background of the Dream Land stage in 64 before he became playable. The same occurs when this stage returns in 3DS/Wii U, but only if Dedede isn't battling (although a glitch can avert this).
• The Cavalry: Leads it in Subspace Emissary.
• Carry a Big Stick: Dedede's signature weapon is his massive hammer. It's even got rockets and precision bearings!
  Snake: I don't think I could even lift that thing, yet he's swinging it around like it's nothing!
• Charged Attack: His down special, Jet Hammer. He slowly charges it up with jet force, and can move slowly and jump while doing so, then powerfully swings it to strike opponents away. While at full charge it deals MASSIVE damage and knockback, charging for too long will begin to deal recoil damage to him for as long as the charge is held (until 150%^note in Brawl/100%^note in 3DS/Wii U and Ultimate).
• Creator Cameo: Voiced by Smash and Kirby creator Masahiro Sakurai.
• Cruel to Be Kind: His actions and priorities at first glance looked undeniably questionable especially when he absolutely one-shotted Luigi into oblivion with a swing of his mallet for no reason. Him stealing Wario's hover machine after sending his army of Waddle Dees to attack the former and snatching up the other trophies for his "collection", as one of which included either Zelda or Peach in the pile that the 5 protagonists (Mario, Yoshi, Kirby, Pit, and Link) were trying to deliberately rescue, looked more like he's outright kidnapping the characters. But as it turns out, he was actually just looking out for everyone else as one scene shows him putting on his emblems on the characters' trophies which became incredibly useful to an outstanding degree, since right after Tabuu trophified every major character, Luigi and Ness are fully revived by Dedede's emblems which states that there's a glimmer of hope to bring everybody back to their former conscious selves and stand up to Tabuu. Who would've thought that someone like King Dedede can be such a brainy and kind-hearted person?
• Deliberately Monochrome: His grey palette swap is based on his Game Boy appearance.
• Denser and Wackier: Dedede is all around much goofier in 3DS/Wii U. Sakurai even mentions his "evocative facial expressions" in a Miiverse post. He gets even goofier in Ultimate!
• Dual Wielding: When he grabs either a Hammer or a Golden Hammer, he swings both the item and his own at once. His own hammer, however, does not actually deal damage, even if the Hammer's head falls off or if the Golden Hammer is a fake.
• Dub Name Change: He's called "Roi DaDiDou/Dadidou" in the French versions. In the German version of Melee, his trophy labeled him as "König Nickerchen", but this was changed to "König Dedede" for his playable appearance in Brawl.
• Early-Bird Cameo: He first appears as a background character in 64, nearly a decade before his playable debut.
• Evil Laugh: Downplayed since he's nowhere near as wicked as the the other Nintendo villains, although he does emit a downright sinister chuckle whenever he does his side taunt.
• Extreme Omnivore: Like Kirby, he can swallow foes whole with his Inhale and spit them as a star. Ultimate also allows him to spit inhaled projectiles back.
• Eye Pop: After disguising himself as King K. Rool to mockingly deceive and troll Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong, he received a brutal sideways claw strike to the back of his cranium from the real King K. Rool so hard, that both of his eyes cartoonishly bulged out of his sockets, in complete slow-motion, before getting sent flying offscreen.
• Fat and Proud: He gives his gut a few hearty smacks during his idle animation, his down taunt, and one of his victory animations. It's justified because his bulk and gluttony help him keep up with Kirby.
• Finger Poke of Doom: He gets fed up with Bowser's unnecessary roaring (after defeating him in a fight) by casually smacking his face without even putting any ounce of effort into it and makes the Koopa King rear back as he's seen clenching his snout. It's also one of the rarest times where Dedede doesn't use his hammer to attack.
• Fist Pump: Raises his groped fist (dominantly) around his mallet while twirling the head during his up taunt.
• Furry Reminder: Dedede's vocalizations are provided by Sakurai himself, but as of 3DS/Wii U, they're somewhat distorted to resemble an Emperor Penguin's call.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: He won't appear in the background if he's fighting on Dream Land.
• Good All Along: As seen in Big Good above, in the Subspace Emissary, Dedede goes around turning heroes into trophies and stealing others. It turns out that he's doing this so there would be heroes left to save the world after Tabuu's attack.
• Grievous Harm with a Body: His side special involves using his minions as projectiles.
• Ground Pound: His up special, Super Dedede Jump, ends in one unless cancelled.
• Guile Hero: To unparalleled levels in The Subspace Emissary. Dedede figures out about Tabuu's one-hit kill waves before the story even starts, and throughout the entire game, he's working towards keeping the heroes alive and well while undermining the efforts of the other villains like Wario, using his brooches to revive the fallen fighters. As it turns out? These brooches save the day in the end.
• Hitbox Dissonance: In Brawl, his grab range extended some distance from where he could conceivably grab according to his animation. This was toned down come 3DS/Wii U, and actually inverted in certain cases. Some of his moves are prone to missing, including his down tilt attack and his new back aerial, whose swing does not match its trail. Both were averted in Ultimate, though his grab range remains the same.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: In the Subspace Emissary, he is introduced sneaking up behind poor Luigi and pounding him in the back. Dedede himself gets the same treatment from King K. Rool during the latter's reveal trailer for Ultimate.
• Home Stage:
  • Brawl: Halberd.
  • 3DS/Wii U: 3DS/Wii U: All stages from his series.^note Dream Land in 3DS, The Great Cave Offensive and Halberd in Wii U, and the DLC stage Dream Land (64) for both.
  • Ultimate: The Great Cave Offensive in Ultimate's website, his fight in World of Light and normal unlock fights though take place in Fountain of Dreams.
• Idle Animation:
  • He hoists his hammer over his shoulder.
  • He pats his stomach.
• In a Single Bound: His up special move, the aptly named Super Dedede Jump. It allows the king to leap very high in the air, then crash down upon his foes when he lands. It's a very potent, if linear, recovery move because of the sheer distance it covers, on top of Dedede's several midair jumps, and even has super armor on the way up and the way down. If he hits anyone on the way down, he'll hit his target with a powerful meteor smash. Of course, to capitalize on this meteor smash, Dedede needs to cancel the attack to redirect where he'll land, lest he plummet off-stage with his opponent.
• Informed Species: Inverted; despite looking a lot like one, he is not a penguin. Snake gets really confused about it in his codec call with Colonel Campbell.
• Leitmotif: King Dedede's Theme, obviously.
• Limit Break:
  • Brawl gives him "Waddle Dee Army", which has a barrage of Waddle Dees, Waddle Doos, and Gordos cover the arena.
  • 3DS/Wii U gives him "Dedede Burst": he inhales his foes, smacks them thrice with his hammer, and then drops an enormous Crash Bomb to blow the enemies away.
  • Ultimate gives him Dede-Rush: he summons his caged battle arena from Revenge of the King and knocks his foe against the fence as he turns into Masked Dedede — blasting his foes with a volley of giant homing missiles from his hammer before smashing them right through the fence and sending them flying with a spinning jet-powered hammer blow.
• Meteor Move: His down aerial, predictably enough (in 3DS/Wii U and Ultimate), as well as the descent of his Super Dedede Jump.
• Mighty Glacier: A pure power character, Dedede doesn't move very fast. In Brawl, he has greater mobility than any of the game's other Glaciers due to his "flying" ability and up special. His speed is effectively balanced by great range and a deadly chain throw. He loses the chain throw in 3DS/Wii U, but in exchange most of his attacks were made deceptively quicker and given greater priority. In Ultimate, he is part of the "big, slow, bulky heavy hitter" pantheon with Bowser, Ganondorf, and K. Rool, though his niche within that milieu revolves around disjointed hitboxes, zoning, and punishing overly defensive players.
• Nerf: In 3DS/Wii U. His direct nerfs stem from his mobility and moves being slower than in Brawl. His indirect ones stem from the removal of chain grabbing from Brawl, as well as Gordo Toss not allowing him to combat projectile camping.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: According to Word of God, a deleted scene from the Subspace Emissary would have shown him trying to commandeer Meta Knight's ship in order to fight Tabuu's forces. Meta Knight puts up a fight, and Tabuu's minions take the Halberd while they're distracted.
• Palette Swap: Based on the ones he had in Kirby Air Ride, as well as a "classic" color scheme that mirrors his monochrome look from the first games. The swaps also change the patterns on his obi, with one introduced in 3DS/Wii U having Waddle Dee sprites from Kirby Super Star Ultra on it.
• Pragmatic Hero: Initially sides with Tabuu but as it turns out, Dedede had forseen that Tabuu would be initially too powerful to defeat and arranged for the trophies he collected to be restored via special medallions as a contingency plan so the characters could have a second chance at saving their home.
• Promoted to Playable: Cameoed in the Dream Land stage in the first two games and as a trophy in Melee before becoming playable in the third.
• Rocket-Powered Weapon: His hammer has a jet engine to give it an extra punch during his down special. This feature also appears in one of his victory pose in Ultimate.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: The royal part is questionable, but he is a lot more active than he would have you believe. And in Smash, he definitely no longer needs a monstah ta clobbah dat dere Kirby.
• Saved for the Sequel: He was one of four characters (along with Bowser, Mewtwo, and Marth) who were going to be in 64, but was unable to make it due to time and budget constraints. He did not join Melee either, due to Sakurai not wanting to overrepresent his own series. By the time Brawl came around, the "good" King would finally throw his cap into the ring.
• Secret Character: For Ultimate: Have a Cumulative Wait Time of 4 hours and 50 minutes, beat Classic Mode with Donkey Kong or anyone in his unlock tree four times, or find and defeat him in World of Light.
• Stout Strength: He's quite possibly the fattest character in the game, but that hammer of his can and will pound you into oblivion.
• Throw the Mook at Them: His side special in all of his appearances:
  • In Brawl, this is Waddle Dee Toss. He throws a Waddle Dee as a projectile at the opponent, which can block other projectiles as well. He has a chance of throwing Waddle Doos — which deal electric damage and attack with their signature laser beam — or Gordos — which deal much higher damage and are more powerful, but appear very rarely.
  • From 3DS/Wii U onward, this is Gordo Toss. He now exclusively throws Gordos, which also now behave more like hazards than mooks, but remain powerful projectiles that can keep the pace of the match. Their hitbox was even buffed in Ultimate, making them more reliable, and he can even Inhale the Gordo and spit it back faster. Unlike Gordos in Brawl, however, opponents can reflect his Gordos back at him by simply attacking them with any move that deals 2% or more. He can reuse the move to volleyball the Gordo right back at them, or in Ultimate, Inhale it and spit it back.
• Toothy Bird: Becomes this in 3DS/Wii U, as a result of having a wider range of facial expressions compared to Brawl.
• Troll: In King K. Rool's trailer, King Dedede dresses up as the Kremling leader to frighten Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong — teasing the reveal of K. Rool due to being shown in silhouette — before revealing that it was just a disguise. He then bursts into hysterical laughter at the Kongs' (and the viewers) reactions... before being blindsided by the real King K. Rool.
• Unnecessary Combat Roll: His down tilt attack in 3DS/Wii U and Ultimate, amusingly enough.
• Use Your Head: His pummel involves bashing his head into his enemy. As for his up tilt, he stands on top of his mallet, jumps, and performs an upward headbutt. The latter attack has decent range, good knockback/KO power, and it works great as an Anti-Air in Brawl. In 3DS/Wii U and Ultimate, his up tilt, while still strong, was sort of nerfed as it just makes him headbutt regularly without using his mallet as a stepping stool.
• Vacuum Mouth: His neutral special move, Inhale. It works like Kirby's own Inhale, he can inhale targets and spit them up as a star; unlike Kirby, he can't absorb their powers. As one of his tip screens in 3DS/Wii U puts it, "Dedede is already perfect.". In Ultimate, the move is massively buffed so it works as an Attack Reflector as well: unlike Kirby, who spits out projectiles as stars of scaled damage, any inhaled projectiles will be spit back raw — 1.5x times faster and stronger to boot.
• Victory Pose:
  • Swings his hammer twice and poses with it.
  • Laughs and slaps his belly while a Waddle Dee walks onto the screen.
  • Twirls his hammer then charges up the Jet Hammer.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: During the Subspace Emissary, he commands a group of Waddle Dees to ambush Luigi, then turns him into a trophy via a nice swing of his hammer. He then later steals the Ness' and a princess' trophy from Wario, and takes the three trophies AND Wario's hovercraft to his castle. There, however, he not only cleans the trophies, but equips them with a special brooch with a timer to revive them, in case Tabuu used his Off-Waves to wipe out the rest of the roster, and so that there was some hope at saving the world.
• Weapon Twirling: Has a likely notorious habit and knack for rapidly spinning the enormous head of his powerful wooden mallet, as he's seen doing that technique for his side taunt and for one of his victory animations. Hell, it's even used as his standard neutral attack combo whenever the A button is held, as well as his side tilt and up aerial.
• World's Strongest Man: The game guide for Brawl calls him the strongest character in the game, capable of stealing KOs at less than 50% damage.

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