YMMV / Super Smash Bros.

All unlockable characters will not be spoiler-tagged, nor will characters that did not make it into a specific iteration of the game. View at your own caution.

YMMV tropes for specific games:

• Super Smash Bros. 64
• Super Smash Bros. Melee
• Super Smash Bros. Brawl
• Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U
• Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Tropes with their own pages:

• Broken Base
• Crack Pairing
• Franchise Original Sin
• Game Breaker
• High-Tier Scrappy
• Hilarious in Hindsight
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!
• Low-Tier Letdown
• Memetic Mutation
• That One Achievement
• Unexpected Character

The main games:

A

• Abridged Arena Array: Provides the page image for a reason. It's well documented how strict the requirements are in tournaments, especially with choosing stages. Tournament-legal stages tend to either have no gimmicks or very mild ones; stages like the Fountain of Dreams with its rising and falling platforms are generally acceptable. Common reasons for banning a stage include:
  • Potential for "camping" — hiding out in a closed-off or far-off area of the stage to stall the match or survive higher damage (Examples: Yoshi's Island 64, Temple, Palutena's Temple, The Great Cave Offensive)
  • An overly large or irregular layout, which can drag out a match (Examples: Sector Z, 75m, New Pork City, Temple, Palutena's Temple, The Great Cave Offensive).
  • Vertical walls, which easily allow infinite combos (Examples: Fourside, Shadow Moses Island, Temple, Palutena's Temple, The Great Cave Offensive).
  • Elements that give a significant advantage or disadvantage towards certain characters (Examples: Saffron City, Fourside (both against Ness), Temple, Palutena's Temple, The Great Cave Offensive (against anyone slow and/or lacking projectiles), Delfino Plaza, and The Halberd^note SSB4 only (towards characters with strong up throws)). This includes all stages with walk-off edges automatically, as they give an advantage to characters poor at recovery and/or knockback^note Little Mac in 3DS/Wii U is an extreme example, as on a walkoff stage, he instantly goes from rather poor to one of the best characters in the game due to his poor recovery ability no longer being a factor, along with giving anyone who's a victim of a throw no chance to come back from it.
  • Elements that cause one or more Game Breaking Bugs (Example: Fountain of Dreams (in Melee team matches only; the Scenery Porn causes lag) and any Dummied Out stages in the first game (known to have invisible walls and/or pull opponents past the boundaries randomly)).
  • Difficult-to-avoid or overly lethal hazards (Examples: Planet Zebes, Jungle Japes, Icicle Mountain, Rumble Falls, Summit, all of the Flat Zones, and Garden of Hope). Stages with predictable hazards that don't affect gameplay too heavily used to be acceptable (namely Rainbow Cruise, Poké Floats, and Halberd) but are increasingly frowned upon as well after several rules revisions.
  • Legal issues with streaming the stage's music (Example: Skyloft and Wuhu Island, as confirmed by EVO 2015 where Nintendo sponsored, though both of them would have been banned anyway.)
  • As most Ultimate tournaments are played with stage hazards turned off, certain rulesets ban Battlefield-clone stages like Dream Land, Fountain of Dreams, and Midgar for redundancy.
• Accidental Innuendo: Some characters' hurt sounds (especially Palutena) can be easily taken out of context.
• Adorkable:
  • Luigi was on the dorky side in 64 and Melee. Then his Lovable Coward persona started surfacing in his home series, and it carried over to Brawl, giving this effect. It's especially visible in stuff like his taunts and victory poses.
  • Palutena keeps her humorous, playful, trollish, and adorable personality from Kid Icarus: Uprising. To name a few examples, it's apparent during her trailer when she blushes after assuring she arrived for Divine Intervention, during her Palutena's Guidance Smash Taunt when Pit activates it, on her embarrassed expression on her face during her Screen KO, and even with her Star KO scream. She even blushes◊ during certain animations!
  • Male Corrin is so happy and excited when he wins, he lapses straight into this. The voice acting helps.
  • Chrom is known for being a little awkward at times in his home game, and this carries over into Smash. His reveal trailer depicts him trying to bring a large present crate to Lucina, only to take a tumble while carrying it in front of her, while his "Congratulations!" Classic Mode ending picture shows him falling flat on his butt in surprise as Mario and the rest of the Fire Emblem crew congratulate him for getting into the game.
  • Isabelle is just as cute and clumsy here as in her home game. When on the battlefield, she may dodge out of the way of incoming attacks in a shy manner. When she was an Assist Trophy, she'd cheer for her summoner when they manage to KO someone, and get sad if they get KO'd.
  • Spring Man. Just like in his own game, he says things like "Boiyoiyoing!" with total sincerity.
  • Otacon may be a designer and creator of robots big and small, but he's a shy guy that has no luck with women (largely because all the women he loves die) and he's a huge anime fan. In fact, he wanted to build Humongous Mecha and helped to develop Metal Gear REX because he wanted to build a robot like the ones seen in mecha anime.
• Americans Hate Tingle:
  • Dark Pit, who is absolutely despised by the American fandom for being a Moveset Clone of Pit, and is generally seen as an "edgy OC". He is also hated for presumably being an example of "Sakurai bias", and made him less popular in Uprising as a whole. However, in Japan, Dark Pit was a very requested character, and is loved there. Note that Dark Pit was very well-regarded in Uprising and the hate mostly comes from Smash Bros players, making this a case of Smash Fans Hate Dark Pit as well.
  • Many Western players hate that the Fire Emblem series gets far more attention than other franchises they consider more mainstream, since it took six games for one to get an English localization, and even then it never really left niche territory until Awakening and Fates started breaking sales records. However, Fire Emblem has always been a mainstream franchise in Japan, ever since the first game on the Famicom.
  • When The Hero was revealed for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate DLC, the Japanese fanbase, predictably, exploded with joy. The Western fanbase's reaction? Mostly "meh." Dragon Quest as a whole has suffered from this trope in the West for a long time, despite efforts to make it more popular in the region. Combined with the note on Fire Emblem above, there was quite a lot of bile toward seeing what they believed was "yet another generic anime swordsman" out of The Hero. This picked up even more after the Western-made Banjo & Kazooie were revealed later on, which received much more critical acclaim from Western fans compared to their reactions to the Japanese-developed and Japanese-favored Hero. To make matters worse, many Western fans believed that this trope was also in effect in Japan for the other way around because Banjo-Kazooie was a Western-developed and Western-favored game and Dragon Quest is a Japanese gaming treasure. But reactions like this one have proven that this is not the case.
  • Japan at least accepts Assist Trophies and Mii costumes for letting their favorite characters who didn't make the cut join the battle, while the West considers them a death sentence. It helps that out of the four Assist Trophies and Mii Costumes that have been Promoted to Playable, three of them are meant for Western appeal.
  • Sakurai himself has stated that Tingle's American reception is why he will not be a playable fighter.
• Animation Age Ghetto:
  • A common misconception among fans is that children are the primary audience for Smash (as with some of its constituent franchises, such as Pokémon, Kirby, and Minecraft), with the older fans and competitive players as a Periphery Demographic that Sakurai favors the younger crowd over. While there's no denying that the games are made to be accessible and enjoyable for kids, and that Sakurai favors casual players in general, much of the franchise's marketing (especially in the West) is aimed towards teenagers and older; some kid-oriented marketing is present, but it isn't as prominent as for other Nintendo franchises (being roughly on the same level as The Legend of Zelda's kid-focused marketing). There are elements in each game that are very clearly meant for the older crowd, including characters from franchises that kids ignore such as Fire Emblem, Bayonetta, Metal Gear, and Persona, retro gaming allusions, and Zero Suit Samus's, Shulk's, and Sephiroth's intentionally revealing outfits. The age-18-to-25 group, a mere subset of the older demographic, makes up 30% of the 3DS version's audience in Japan and 50% in the West.
  • This trope, as applied to the games' reputation, leads some fans to argue that "cartoony" characters (usually ones that fit with the Super Mario Bros. aesthetic) are more "deserving" to be represented in Smash than "realistic" ones, which is one reason why Ryu, Cloud, Joker, and Terry were such unexpected characters for quite a few fans. This is because the first game's roster mostly consisted of cartoonish, mascot-like characters; Mario and Pikachu were by far the most famous faces (as they continue to be), and the only realistically-proportioned humans were Link, Samus, and Captain Falcon, the former of which was the only one to come for a relatively "mainstream" series. It's speculated that the reason why the Kirby series didn't get any newcomers in for 3DS/Wii U and why Bomberman is an Assist Trophy in Ultimate is because they're too fitting for Smash Bros. While the fandom would be ecstatic to see those fighters added to the roster, the general public would be more surprised and excited about representation of "cool" franchises.
  • The notion of Smash as a "children's game" is one reason why the fanon of Smash being in a child's imagination is so widespread, and with it, exaggerations of the series' loose Living Toys concept to create similarities to Toy Story, Disney Infinity, and The LEGO Movie — works that are even more overtly family-friendly and marketed to children even more heavily than the Smash games — yet comparisons to the older-skewing Deltarune^note which similarly has a "world of imagination" of sorts where real-world inanimate objects manifest as colorful characters are nowhere to be seen.

B-E

• Casual-Competitive Conflict: Very prevalent. The people who prefer the tournament standard and those who prefer the non-tournament standard are in bitter conflict with each other, which isn't helped by the game's creator favoring casual play.
• Catharsis Factor: A big enjoyment factor in these games is being able to beat the stuffing out of everyone. A special note goes to the Duck Hunt dog in 3DS/Wii U — many people were celebrating his inclusion because it gave them the opportunity to get revenge on the smug little bastard for laughing at them for decades. Also, with the inclusion of Miis, basically any human could be subject to this.
• Character Perception Evolution:
  • Characters who are near-identical clones to other characters (officially defined as Echo Fighters in Ultimate) have had a bumpy ride in the community's eyes. When these characters first showed up in 3DS/Wii U, they were generally derided by a large portion of the fandom for being a wasted slot.^note This criticism was mostly thrown at Lucina and Dark Pit Come the announcement of Ultimate, people were far more welcoming to the concept, as Sakurai had made it more clear that these characters were meant to be a side bonus, rather than taking up character slots, as well as the newly christened Echo Fighters introducing fan-requests such as Daisy, Dark Samus and Ken, on top of providing opportunities for other characters such as Shadow to be playable without really taking up a slot. However, over Ultimate's lifespan as people realized the inconsistency of who qualified as an Echo Fighter^note Ryu and Ken for example, have enough different features such as speed and kill power to be surprisingly different than at first glance, whereas Peach and Daisy are essentially the same character, with a patch even taking away the one difference they had. as well as the fact that the mechanic was relatively unused in the grand scope of the game, led to people perceiving it as an Underused Game Mechanic or wondering why it was even given as much attention as it was^note Aside from acting as an Author's Saving Throw.
  • When Assist Trophies first came out in Brawl, they were seen by many as a fun little way for characters who weren't on the roster to still have a more relevant role than a standard collectable trophy or sticker. When 3DS/Wii U came around, they started to gain more negative attention as Second Place Is for Losers, where they were seen as a disconfirmation of a character being playable and practically a death sentance. This was furthered with downloadable content where no characters that were assist trophies were promoted to playable, leading to the wide (though unconfirmed) belief that an assist trophy also prevent the character from being added in later. This is mainly in the West, while in Japan the more optimistic approach is still the general one.
• Character Tiers: One of the leading causes of the Broken Base, and often the tiers in these games specifically are often one of the first things brought up whenever the Casual-Competitive Conflict flares. This reached a zenith in Melee, and Brawl got chewed something fierce for having characters who were great in the last game nerfed to where they may as well be a joke when up against someone broken like Meta Knight ended up being (only making Anti-Brawl and Pro-Brawl arguments/flame threads even worse). Great lengths were fortunately taken in 3DS/Wii U and Ultimate to not only make them more competitive than Brawl was, but also ensuring each character in the roster is as balanced as can be so that hopefully no more overpowered characters like Meta Knight will crop up again.^note  Even when Diddy emerged as a top-tier character in 3DS/Wii U, he was nerfed in a patch.
• Complacent Gaming Syndrome:
  • The NO ITEMS! FOX ONLY! FINAL DESTINATION! meme. This spawned from the belief that all tournament players restrict themselves to the same characters and stages during regular play (though some of the more extreme ones, such as the notorious Dylan Tnga, actually did play this way). Interestingly enough, the "For Glory" mode in 3DS/Wii U encourages this.^note Well, not necessarily the "Fox only" part — though players can carry this out if they wish. Several matches have Little Mac selected due to his superior ground play.
  • While transforming characters were seen as a neat gimmick, many players often would stick to one form and one alone. The splitting of the forms into separate characters in the fourth game suggests the developers were aware of this Player Tic. While this seems to be the case for Samus^note For example, in Super Smash Flash, Zero Suit Samus is separately playable from Samus, but Zelda/Sheik is still one and the same, Zelda/Sheik's transformation (which is at will, compared to Samus) is still a favorite among another number of players, which is why the removal of the move is still questioned today. See Broken Base above.
  • Character-wise, expect to see lots of Pikachu and Kirby in 64, both Star Fox characters in Melee, Meta Knight in Brawl, Bayonetta, Cloud, Sheik, Zero Suit Samus, and Rosalina & Luma in For 3DS/Wii U, and Joker, Wolf, Lucina and Pokémon Trainer in Ultimate.
  • Some tournaments, mostly smaller or local ones, attempt to avert this by branding themselves as "low-tier"^note only low-tier characters are allowed, as the name implies or "mid-tier"^note high-tier characters are banned, but mid- and low-tiers are both allowed. In theory, this forces players with high-tier mains to drop out of their comfort zone while enabling a greater variety in character selection than what would be normally seen (since the high tiers in each game rarely make up even half of the cast). In practice, the trope is still in effect, since everyone just gravitates towards whoever's at the top of the highest allowed tier.
  • The GameCube controller remains the most popular control scheme for many a Smash player, to the point where a peripheral that allowed GameCube controllers to be connected to the Wii U was made just for the fourth game, followed by the reproduction of said controllers. And when Ultimate was revealed at E3 2018, GameCube controller compatibility was amongst the things they highlighted.
  • In the competitive scene, team damage is always on in team battles, as it allows, among other things, players to rescue teammates by exploiting a loophole to allow someone who has already used their recovery move to use it again, simply by damaging their teammate.
• Creepy Awesome:
  • Villager. He can blow up and beat the stuffing out of other people while still having the same cheerful smile on his face. He's seen as a Memetic Psychopath for a reason.
  • Greninja is a human-sized frog that sneaks up on its foes, uses its long, slimy tongue as a ninja scarf, and has creepy-sounding Pokémon Speak. It's also a pretty big fan-favorite, and its array of water weapons add to the "awesome" part.
  • Mewtwo, given its ruthless personality and deep, guttural voice. This is exaggerated even further in International versions of Melee and 3DS/Wii U, where its spoken lines were replaced with slightly animalistic Voice Grunting complete with an Evil Laugh.
• Crosses the Line Twice: Bayonetta's line of "If you want to learn how to talk to a lady, ask your mum," considering a significant portion of the cast^note Lucas, Ike, all three Links, Zelda, Sheik, Bowser Jr., Samus, Rosalina, Marth, Roy, Fox, Robin, Corrin, Shulk, Sonic, Cloud, Chrom, Terry, Byleth, Solo, Eight, Sephiroth, Kazuya, and even Bayonetta herself suffers Missing Mom syndrome, the majority of which are or are heavily implied to be dead (and some of whom had the misfortune of dying in front of their children), and the other two thirds are characters whose parents are hardly touched on (so whether their parents are around or not is a completely different issue). In fact, the number of characters whose mothers have been seen and have survived the events of their games is in the single digits^note Ness, Pokémon Trainer, the Luminary (if counting his adoptive mother), Erdrick, Sora (whose mother gets one line from offscreen in the first game), the Mario Bros. if you stretch the definition... and even Lucina's mother is technically dead; she just escaped into a timeline that had a living one and kept her from dying there. In fact, there are multiple comics and images showing certain members of the cast (namely Lucas) not taking this well.
• Crossover Ship: Given that this is the biggest crossover platform fighter series of all time, it's only inevitable that characters from different franchises end up being paired by the fandom. By installment...
  • 64: Kirby x Jigglypuff has had a long-standing history due to both of them being round, pink puffballs.
  • Brawl: Samus x Snake grew to be one of the fandom's biggest ships, mainly due to the Ship Tease between them in Snake's Codecs on Samus and Zero Suit Samus. Snake's exclusion in 3DS/Wii U caused the ship to die down, only to come back with a vengeance in Ultimate.
  • 3DS/Wii U:
    • Link x Viridi grew a decent following due to Viridi seeming to have a crush on Link in the Palutena's Guidance for him.
    • Due to being the first two fighters revealed, Villager x Wii Fit Trainer grew to have a strong following. Sometimes, the ship extended to Villager x Wii Fit Trainer x Mega Man to create a One True Threesome.
    • Because of Snake's exclusion from the game, Samus x Little Mac grew to be the next big Samus ship due to her heavy prominence in Mac's reveal trailer, playing them up as Tiny Guy, Huge Girl material.
    • Palutena x Lucina became a surprisingly large ship, seemingly for no reason other than having Les Yay material.
  • Ultimate:
    • Zelda x Pit was unheard of prior to Ultimate, but ended up exploding in popularity when Pit became smitten with her in the Palutena's Guidance for Zelda.
    • For reasons unknown, King K. Rool x Isabelle gained quite a bit of traction.
    • Falco x Kazooie became a rather popular ship due to the two being prime Birds of a Feather material, both figuratively and literally.
• Death of the Author: The fanbase tends to take Sakurai's statements not very seriously due to perceived Flip-Flop of God tendencies (in particular, Villager and Ridley were said to not fit well in Smash Bros. before they were made into playable fighters). The biggest example would be him not intending Smash Bros. (at least from Brawl onwards) to be competitive, whereas a large portion of the fanbase ignores this entirely.
• Evil Is Cool: Bowser, Ganondorf, King K. Rool, Ridley, Sephiroth, and Kazuya are some of gaming's most iconic villains and are also fan-favorite hard hitters in the Smash series. Wolf also deserves a mention, in that even though he's a mercenary and often an antagonist in his home series, he's more of a Wild Card when it comes to his loyalties.

F-G

• Fan Nickname: The Kirby hat for Shulk has earned the nickname "Monado Kirby". This is because Kirby just gets the Monado for this Kirby hat instead of also getting Shulk's hair.
• Fandom-Enraging Misconception:
  • Claiming Smash is canon to any series, or using character actions from Smash games as an example when discussing a character, is often a good way to ignite fires under the people who are fans of the series being talked about. This is because Smash often uses Composite Character, Broad Strokes, and other such changes to better fit the character's gameplay/representation of the series as a whole rather than any specific game or point in time. That said, exceptions are given for Kid Icarus and to a lesser extent Fire Emblem, Kirby, and Bayonetta due to the Canon Welding with Smash in those three series; they imply that Pit, Palutena, Dark Pit, and Bayonetta are their canon selves, while Marth, Ike, Robin, and Lucina are able to exist in the canon Fire Emblem Fates universe and went through some version of their original games' events. Likewise, any Kirby game that features the Smash Copy Ability (based on his moveset from Melee and later for 3DS and Wii U) will acknowledge that he has used these abilities together in a past title. People like to joke that due to the inclusion of Sora as the last DLC fighter for Ultimate it means that that game is now canon to Kingdom Hearts due to the tendency to make spin-off titles integral to the main plot of the series.
  • Exaggerating or pushing the characters' Living Toys aspect, such as labeling the characters as tangible, actual toys that come to life a la Toy Story^note and that they should therefore "look like plastic"/"look fake" like the characters in Disney Infinity, claiming that the in-game characters^note that is, their animate, playable forms as opposed to their static trophies are the size of amiibo, or claiming that the characters do not exist at all beyond their doll/trophy forms (which is directly disproven by the various bits of Canon Welding in 3DS/Wii U). Although the characters being imagined from trophies is confirmed via Word of God and The Subspace Emissary, the angle is mostly there to justify friendly/heroic characters fighting each other and characters not killing each other, and the Smash universe is shown to be a tangible fictional universe in its own right where trophies are simply the basis of its lifeforms; claiming that Smash is nothing more than tiny toys fighting each other can piss off some fans who claim that it devalues the crossover aspect and evokes the Animation Age Ghetto.
• Fandom Rivalry:
  • It is not uncommon for fans of Smash and fans of more conventional fighting games to clash with each other, often debating on whether Smash should be considered a proper fighting game. It doesn't help that many Smash fans and players only go to general fighting game tournaments for Smash, with many cases of them being disruptive towards other games. It gets especially heated when characters who do hail from conventional fighting games, such as Terry from the Fatal Fury series and Kazuya from Tekken were added to Smash, and the response from many Smash fans was confusion as to who they even were, much to the ire of their fans.
  • The debate over Ganondorf's portrayal has created a minor rivalry with Hyrule Warriors. As opposed to Ganondorf's Bare-Fisted Monk portrayal in Smash, Hyrule Warriors gave him the use of swords and his Dark Magic, both being things that Falcondorf detractors have been demanding for a long time. This has led fans of Hyrule Warriors Ganondorf to attack the Smash series for continuing to give him an unfaithful portrayal while pointing to Hyrule Warriors as an example on how to portray him correctly. On the other hand, there are quite a few Smash Ganondorf fans who wish that his brawling moveset was adapted into a weapon option for Hyrule Warriors in order to reconcile his portrayal between his own franchise and Smash.
  • There is a segment of Sonic the Hedgehog fans who don't get along with Smash Bros. fans at all and were quite angry at the reveal of Sonic's inclusion in Brawl. This is due to a larger rivalry with Nintendo as a whole, as they feel insulted that Sonic has been placed into a game celebrating Nintendo as a company.
• Fanfic Fuel:
  • Because the series is designed to be a simpler fighting game than most, it's a common practice for fans to craft movesets for fighters they want to get into Smash, or to retool the movesets of existing fighters (this typically applies to characters from the first two games, whose movesets tend to be made up whole cloth and don't really reference their home games). In later games, fighters started to have unique gimmicks and more complex moves (such as Mega Man having almost entirely projectiles, Ryu, Ken, and Terry utilizing traditional fighting game inputs, Hero getting a menu down special that has more than 20 different spells, Banjo & Kazooie only being able to use Wonderwing a set number of times per stock, and the multitude of characters that have their own exclusive mechanics, like Inkling [coating the enemy in ink that increases the damage they take], King K. Rool [Belly Super Armor that allows him to tank attacks when he uses certain moves, but with a limit to how much damage it can take], and Joker [the Rebellion Gauge that summons Arsene to fight alongside Joker when it fills]), opening the gates for fans to hypothesize roster reworks large and small, whether tweaking a few fighters or adding in their own as well.
  • People who are unsatisfied with how particular franchises are represented in Smash will often draft possible changes to things the franchise includes in the game, such as adding, removing, remixing, or replacing music, attacks, animations, characters, stages, and collectibles like trophies or spirits. This can be seen the easiest in fan games and game mods like Super Smash Flash and PMEX Remix, where, without having to worry about things like deadlines or copyright law, the only limits of the content are the creators' time, skill, and patience.
• Fanon: Has its own page.
• Fan Myopia: A common occurrence in the fandom. Smash fans will often treat the game as if their specific demographic (typically Nostalgia Filter-laden "hardcore" Nintendo fanboys in the United States whose most favorite game genre is the 2D or 3D Platformer) is its primary demographic, and that any decision that doesn't specifically cater to them is proof that Sakurai is delusional and/or a Troll who doesn't care about his fanbase. And when the above-mentioned Fandom Rivalries are mixed in, things get much, much worse. This is the biggest reason Steve's inclusion (at least initially) got so much ire. These fans grew up in The '90s during the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and Nintendo 64 era and not with Minecraft. They believe that the game should only feature characters from their childhoods, much to the dismay of people who grew up in succeeding or previous decades. Mention other genres like RPGs and Fighting Games and these same fans might be quick to dismiss their inclusions as "uncreative" or "unimportant" compared to their genre of choice.
• Fountain of Memes: Quite literally everything Captain Falcon says or has said is some kind of meme. Everything. The Announcers, Ike, and Shulk are no slouches either.
• Friendly Fandoms:
  • The Mario Kart series has a rather close relationship with the Smash series. This because they both are multiplayer Nintendo games (that later added online during the 7th generation) with large rosters. It helps that Smash Bros. carries a lot of Mario Kart related content and Mario Kart has crossover elements in its Downloadable Content, with it having characters and stages from outside of the Mario universe. They also share similar pet peeves with clone characters, High-Tier Scrappy characters, and annoying items.
  • Thanks to being a Gateway Series, Smash has allowed most Nintendo franchise and game communities to be closely linked due to the crossover nature. It even extends beyond Nintendo's home games when you include the 3rd-party characters: Snake, Sonic the Hedgehog, Mega Man, Pac-Man, Ryu, Ken, Cloud, Sephiroth, Bayonetta, Simon and Richter Belmont, Joker, the Dragon Quest Heroes, Banjo & Kazooie, Terry Bogard, and Steve, Alex, the Zombie and Enderman, Kazuya Mishima, and Sora. This especially applies to franchises that were ignored by their parent companies at the time, like Castlevania, Mega Man, and Banjo-Kazooie.
  • During the Smash 4 Ballot and the lead-up to Smash Ultimate's release, Ridley and K. Rool fans were very supportive of each other's characters and often created fanwork of the two as friends. When both characters were confirmed, there was much rejoicing.
  • With Sora being an especially popular request for Smash, a substantial overlap with the Kingdom Hearts fandom formed, with fans of the latter who haven't even played the former even saying that they'd like to see Sora included in Smash, with this eventually culminating in the hashtag "#Sora4Smash" trending on Twitter. Needless to say, fans of both franchises rejoiced when Sora was revealed as the final DLC character for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in October 2021.
  • Dante's jump in popularity as a candidate for Smash around early 2020 formed another overlap, this time with Devil May Cry fans, many of whom were eager to see Dante join the battle.
• Gateway Series:
  • Combined with Just Here for Godzilla. A few players come for Mario, Kirby, and/or Pokémon characters, but they wind up staying and playing as other characters, too. They'll quickly find themselves wondering who the heck this Marth guy is, why haven't they seen Lucas anywhere else, and who the guys in Shulk's Final Smash are, and go play those games and enjoy the crap out of them. In short, SSB is a giant gateway series as much as it is a hardcore series for dedicated Nintendo fans. The Assist Trophies added in Brawl further reinforce this, intended to make players ask "Who's that?" when the protagonist from a lesser-known Nintendo game drops by.
  • Invoked by Hideo Kojima, who wanted Snake in the game to expose Metal Gear to a new audience, in addition to his son being a fan of Smash Bros. and wanting to see one of his father's characters in the game.
  • Although he is no longer involved with the character, Mega Man's illustrator Keiji Inafune had similar excitement over the fourth game for similar reasons to Kojima.
  • The Smash Bros. series also helps bring fresh blood to more traditional fighting games due to its greater accessibility. A good amount of today's top fighting game players got started playing a Smash Bros. game. This increased greatly after the addition of Mr. Fighting Game himself, Ryu.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff:
  • Little Mac from Punch-Out!! was a highly-requested character reveal in much of the world, but drew mostly shrugs in Japan, where he is derisively known as "American Scrub".
  • Metroid and Donkey Kong receive more support and demands for representation outside of Japan than other franchises, to the point complaints about content usually have at at least one person claiming they aren't receiving enough attention, more often than not.
  • In particular, Ridley (the recurring villain of Metroid) is largely ignored in Japan, but has been so commonly requested in the West that it reached memetic levels. Sakurai himself even brought this up at E3 2018 when Ridley was finally Promoted to Playable for Ultimate, saying that requests for Ridley came mainly from other countries.
  • In Japan, Mario was popular than Link as a playable character for a long time. The reverse is true in the West, where Link is the more popular of the two, frequently wins popularity polls, and is a more common sight in casual play.
  • While Cloud's reveal drew a lot of attention worldwide, some Japanese gamers noted that he (and Final Fantasy VII in general) appeals more to audiences outside of Japan, and theorized that his inclusion was targeted towards overseas audiences.
  • When she was confirmed for Smash, Sakurai stated that Bayonetta was the most requested character in Europe, and within the top five in America. That's what made her the overall winner of the Smash Bros Fighter Ballot.
  • Suggesting Goku from Dragon Ball Z as a potential Smash newcomer is treated as a base-breaking if not outright flame-inviting joke suggestion in most parts of the world. However, a poll of Latin American fans showed that Goku is unironically popular as a character choice there because of how big the Dragon Ball franchise is in Latin America, with Goku being the most popular newcomer choice by far and outstripping more "conventional" suggestions such as King K. Rool and Bomberman.
  • Simon and Richter Belmont of Castlevania are not at all unpopular choices internationally, but reaction to the characters in Japan was decidedly more lukewarm, with several Japanese fans declaring they'd rather have Bomberman instead.
  • After seeing Banjo-Kazooie's reveal in the E3 2019 Nintendo Direct, many Western gamers believed that the Japanese didn't care for them and only preferred Dragon Quest. In actuality, the Japanese are just as hyped for the Bear and Bird as they are for Dragon Quest.
  • According to Sakurai, when choosing which Dragon Quest heroes to include, while the Luminary was from the most recent title and Erdrick is the face of the franchise, Eight was singled out for his popularity in the West compared to any other Dragon Quest Hero.

H-L

• It Was His Sled: All of the unlockable characters in every game — usually before the games even launch, to the point where Ultimate took pains to explicitly reveal its entire roster before launching. Taken for granted by the inclusion of Sheik as a transformation of Zelda.
  Tip: Sheik's real identity is Ze... I won't spoil it for you.
• Just Here for Godzilla:
  • The biggest example being Snake and Sonic in Brawl as Guest Fighters. This has attracted a large amount of fans to get the game just to use them. In the Wii U and 3DS games, this was the case as well with Mega Man, Pac-Man, and Sonic (again) being in the starting roster, as well as Ryu, Cloud, and Bayonetta being DLC. Ultimate features all seven characters previously mentioned, plus Simon, Richter, and Ken in the base game, and Joker, the Dragon Quest Heroes, Banjo & Kazooie, Terry, Steve, Alex, a Zombie and an Enderman, Sephiroth, Kazuya, and Sora as DLC. And that's just the third-party characters!
  • The series itself runs on this. Many players initially got into Smash Bros. not for the actual gameplay, but because it's a Massive Multiplayer Crossover of their favorite Nintendo characters.
  • Throughout the series' lifetime, many children and families have been drawn to Smash games because they apparently star Super Mario Bros. characters alongside other characters from other kid-friendly franchises such as Kirby, Yoshi and Pikachu and let kids play as their favorites^note the Palette Swap aspect is also a big draw for them, e.g. for kids who want to play as a blue or pink Yoshi; this causes some kids and their parents to treat the series as a multiplayer party game spinoff of Super Mario like Mario Kart and Mario Party^note This was actually the original intention for the series, minus the Mario part.. As these children get older and more capable of accessing other Nintendo franchises due to monetary means and age ratings, they tend to focus more on the Massive Multiplayer Crossover aspect.^note Although the Mario components still get a lot of love from older fans, it usually isn't as single-handedly focused on the franchise as it is with young kids. Advertising for the games reflect this, where ads directed towards children/families treat Smash as a Mario game (featuring other friendly characters like Olimar, the Inklings, and Isabelle) in all but official status, while ads aimed at older gamers focus more freely on the different series and characters in the game (such as Fire Emblem, Xenoblade Chronicles 1, and The Legend of Zelda). In fact, the inclusion of Piranha Plant as a fighter was initially met with confusion from most of the hardcore Smash community, but it makes sense from the perspective of someone who (mistakenly) views Smash as a Super Mario Bros. spin-off because such games usually include a Mario mook as a playable character.^note The key difference here is that Smash has many franchises to pull characters from, whereas Mario spinoffs have a more limited cast and are therefore more prone to add such characters as playable.
• Lady Mondegreen: Some serious misinterpretations in the worst possible way might come from Duck Hunt's name, which sounds like "da cunt" if said very fast. According to the announcer, Xander Mobus, this is why there's a noticeable pause in between the two words when he says it in-game.
• Launcher of a Thousand Ships:
  • Samus gets shipped both ways with many of the characters, especially as of the U/3DS roster. Lucina is also starting to experience this, though given her series, it isn't that surprising.
  • Peach gets shipped with practically every character in the series. Mario, Link, Luigi, Bowser, Samus, Palutena, Daisy, Rosalina, Bayonetta, Zelda, Captain Falcon, Wii Fit Trainer.....the list goes on and on and on.
  • On the male side, you have Link (who's an example of this in his home series), Captain Falcon, Marth, Snake, and Shulk.
  • The Villager deserves a special mention, as there are eight different designs (four boys, four girls), meaning that pairings where one of the pair is a Villager are particularly common. It also helps that they aren't stated to have an exact age, yet are legally allowed to purchase a house and live independently.
• LGBT Fanbase:
  • Many of the male characters have amassed quite the gay following. Ganondorf, Bowser, and Captain Falcon have been perennial Bara Genre "daddy" favorites since the beginning, as are Ike, Little Mac, Ryu, Ken, the Belmonts, Terry, Sephiroth, and Kazuya with their statuses as Hunks.^note Although Ike already had some of this going for him in his games due to his questionable and oft-debated sexuality. In addition to Link, Cloud, and the existing Star Fox fanbase, there's Shulk, whose swimsuit outfit makes him a poster boy for The Twink archetype. Snake exists in a tier of his own, considering he's already a huge gay icon in his own series.
  • Some of the female characters have this as well. Bayonetta is probably the biggest example, bringing over the Camp and flirtatiousness from her home series; Zero Suit Samus also gets lots of love due to her similar "sultry, sexy badass" design and seductive taunts and quotes. Palutena is in a similar boat with her Ms. Fanservice aspects and is very frequently shipped with Lucina, a character known for disguising herself as a man. Princess Peach also has a massive following, largely because of her more Hotter and Sexier portayal and Fanservice Pack redesign in these games. She also is a Launcher of a Thousand Ships who gets paired with the other female characters the most and is also adored by the community because of her extremely feminine and girly attacks, design and aesthetic. These characters also tend to be popular with male-to-female crossplayers, transgender cosplayers, and geek-themed Drag Queens. For example, on the trans side of things, professional Palutena main Iceninja (Karina Gan) regularly cosplays her and female Corrin to tournaments, and Twitch streamer Wyvu occasionally streams Ultimate while cosplaying as Zero Suit Samus or Mythra.

M

• Mainstream Obscurity: A variation occurs within the fandom where one character would be an obvious pick for one fan but would be completely off-the-wall for another. Super Smash Bros is kind of a melting pot of various fanbases who may not normally interact with one another.
  • Simon Belmont would be a shoe-in for someone who grew up playing the Castlevania games^noteCastlevania games were a huge staple in Nintendo's library of games up until Konami started to divert resources into other ventures and effectively stopped producing new games during the 2010s and is a die-hard fan, but watching videos of fans reacting to the August 8th 2018 direct reveals that while they might have heard of Simon Belmont, they're utterly confused by the inclusion of Richter Belmont (despite being the one who gave the "Die Monster" speech) and other elements of the Castlevania series. Some fans would even admit that they haven't heard of the series at all and wonder why their inclusion was such a big deal.
  • There's also many common roster picks from hardcore fans that have a great deal of obscurity to mainstream gamers— for example, Geno is a common character in fan speculation despite having not having a significant in-game experience since 1996.
• Memetic Badass: Ganondorf is popularly known as the "King of Disrespect" due to how flashy and hard-hitting he is when punishing foes' mistakes, with some players going out of their way to be as flashy and hard-hitting as possible with him (even to the point of impracticality and overkill). Ultimate made him even more of one as he got a redesign and slight overhaul for the better, with his forward smash (also known as the DORIYAH) being treated as the strongest attack in the universe and a prime bringer of salt.
• Memetic Loser: Ganondorf in Brawl and Smash 4 is an extremely well-built and menacing Evil Overlord, but some fans liken him to a fat, out-of-shape elderly man due to his fatter build than in Melee^note Reality Is Unrealistic is at fault here, as Ganondorf's build is similar to real-life weightlifters, labored run animation, and overall slow movement speed. The official site for Brawl also joked that he pants while jogging, although it only likened him to a middle-aged man rather than elderly.
  • Little Mac ends up becoming this because of his terrible recovery and lack of a proper air game. Ultimate did a step forward for him in his recovery, but also a step backwards and the changes didn't help him enough, if anything, he got worse. It's even worse for Mac compared to everyone else because both casuals and competitive players hate him and consider him terribly-designed, the former because of his speed, fast frame data and strong attacks, including his KO Punch and the super armor on his smash attacks, and the latter because his flaws are too pronounced and easy to exploit. In Smash 4, even though he had the lowest success in a certain mode out of any character, the complains from casuals results in nerfs in patch 1.0.4 that worsened his jab's damage-racking ability and made aerial Jolt Haymaker even more pathetic, and while he did receive a few buffs in a couple of patches in both games, those didn't do nearly enough to compensate. All of this turned him in the laughingstock of the playerbase among the large cast.
• Memetic Molester:
  • Captain Falcon's Falcon Dive special is literally a Glomp Attack. As a consequence of this, Ganondorf is also a Glomp Attacker.
  • The Villager, believe it or not, as an extension of being a Memetic Psychopath.
  • The Wii Fit Trainer, to a much lesser extent, due to their blank facial expressions.
  • Robin's Nosferatu being more effective from behind has also caused them to be seen as this, especially due to their status as a canon Launcher of a Thousand Ships in their home game.
  • Bayonetta is often depicted as this towards Pit or Lucas (the latter due to how infamously had his mother killed and how one of her taunts has her say "If you need to learn how to talk to a lady, ask your mum").
  • Palutena also gets this. When it's not with Pit, she's often portrayed to be quite smittened with the rest of the female cast. Particularly with Lucina, and often Zelda or female Corrin.
• Memetic Personality Change: Thanks to certain characters debuting here or not having much of a personality in their home series, Smash Bros. is more than responsible for causing this trope for several characters.
  • Captain Falcon: Most Fan Works have him falling into some form of Pokémon Speak, being unable to speak in full sentences and instead mainly having him preference any word as 'FALCON 'X''; a far cry from his canon level headed bounty hunter portrayal in the games proper.
  • Fire Emblem: Marth goes from being a Reasonable Authority Figure prince to being a camp, prissy girly man narcissist.
• Memetic Psychopath: The Villager was hit with this mere hours after he was announced due to his smiling expression hardly changing, even while attacking. The Wii Fit Trainer also became this, as some found her porcelain white skin and gray eyes very unsettling.
• Misblamed:
  • It's Masahiro Sakurai's brainchild, yes, but he's not directly responsible for every last thing, good or bad, that makes it into the games. The man gets blamed for everything from game mechanics changes, to perceived "bias" towards or against certain franchises, to certain characters being larger than others on the box... all the way down to things that he himself admits he didn't do... hell, he even takes heat for certain decisions made in the games' English translations^note Sakurai neither reads nor speaks English fluently and requires a translator when hosting promotional videos and events for upcoming Smash Bros. titles. How exactly he would be responsible for translations into a language he doesn't know is a question that has yet to be answered.
  • Moveset Clones are often blamed for "wasting roster space" that such and such more popular character could have used to be in the game. In actuality, Moveset Clones are meant to be seen as small bonuses on top of the base roster made prior; if a character you like wasn't included, it was decided long before the moveset clones were drafted up. Sakurai compared complaining about clones to going to a restaurant for a steak and being presented with a small cake for free, only to complain that you weren't given a second steak. Clones were eventually redeemed in the eyes of many fans after being given the official moniker of "Echo Fighters", also providing the option to list them with their "source" characters instead of as a separate icon on the character select screen.
  • Assist Trophies and Mii Costumes are seen as a jerkish move to the character in question because they weren't given a playable position, but anyone who is aware of how the games are developed would know that ATs and costumes are always chosen after the game's roster is decided. If there were no Assist Trophies or Mii Costumes, a lot of the popular characters that aren't playable would be trophies or spirits at best. While it could be argued that Assist Trophies and Mii Costumes make DLC for the character impossible, it has not been proven or stated by the development team. If anything, they're meant to be nice deconfirms instead of harsh ones.
  • Prior to his inclusion to Ultimate, many (within reason) blamed Disney as to why Sora wasn't allowed to appear in the series despite his legendary status within the gaming scene. However, Disney was more than happy to include Sora in the roster... it was Tetsuya Nomura that was hesitant to include Sora in Smash Bros. at all, since he wasn't sure how his mere existence in the game would impact the greater lore of Kingdom Hearts (apparently, the thought of doing crossovers for dumb fun didn't cross his mind).
• Most Wonderful Sound:
  • The soothing KREEENG of the Home-Run Bat in all five games, which is also used for Ness' side smash bat in both Smash 64 and Melee. Unless, of course, you're on the receiving end of it.
  • The glass cracking sound when you complete a challenge on the Challenge Board, especially when you didn't see it coming.
  • The "COMPLETE!" and/or "A NEW RECORD!" announcement upon successfully finishing a Target Test, Board The Platforms, Race to the Finish, or Home-Run Contest session.
  • The announcer's call of "Wow! Incredible!" for clearing 1P Game (the original game)/Classic Mode (Melee onward) on the hardest difficulty!
  • Doing really well in a match, and hearing the audience cheer for you (unless they're cheering for your opponent). And the little bit of music at the end of a match played for the winner can be so satisfying and so rewarding.
  • Little Mac's ding ding noise that signals that his K.O. punch is ready. Especially fun for the opponent if it plays right as Mac gets knocked out himself. The sound that the KO punch makes upon connecting can be one of these as well (for the person playing Little Mac if it connects with a fighter, and for everyone else if it connects with an obstacle such as Duck Hunt Duo's can).
  • The retro "dee-ding" that plays when Limit Break is finished charging.
  Cloud: Genkai wo koeru!^note "Limits are meant to be broken!"
  • While hearing your character's win theme play after a hard-fought battle is always satisfying, extra mention goes to hearing the Final Fantasy VII Victory Fanfare play when winning with Cloud. It perfectly captures the feeling of getting stronger with every win and obtaining experience much like its source game.
  • If you actively hate a character and you manage to Star K.O. said character, his/her scream will be this for you.
  • "COMPUTER PLAYER DEFEATED!" Well, assuming that CPU opponent wasn't your teammate.
  • The triumphant flourish when you have unlocked a character in Smash 4 and Ultimate, especially unlocking your favorite character or your main.
  • Landing a Critical Hit Smash attack (or Hatchet Man) with Hero is accompanied by the Critical Hit sound effect from each Hero's respective Dragon Quest game. These sound effects truly emphasize just how powerful Hero's attacks are. Granted, your opponent who just got hit or even KO'd might not think so.
  • The ever so satisfying whang! of Princess Peach introducing someone's skull to her Frying Pan of Doom.

N-P

• Narm:
  • Because Greninja made its first fully-voiced appearance in Smash, some fans attested that its slightly silly voice and Pokémon Speak made it sound unthreatening when juxtaposed with its badass design and moveset. This only applies to its Stitch-esque English voice acting, as in Japan it leans more towards baritone.
  • Some of male Robin's dialogue comes off as this, which isn't that surprising considering the spotty voice acting which has, up until much later, plagued the series he hails from. "It would seem our fates are joined" in particular has a very similar inflection to Ike's infamous "I fight for my friends" (itself a source of Narm) and is noticeably worse than Robin's voice acting in Awakening proper. Thankfully averted for Female Robin, though.
  • Fox's voice acting in U/3DS is provided by Mike West, the man who previously voiced him in Star Fox 64 and its remake. The problem is his voice has clearly aged beyond the youthful voice Fox has in the original Star Fox 64, making the character sound nasal, strained and dorky rather than cocky and energetic. Notably, his lines were re-recorded in Ultimate despite being the same voice actor, matching his performance from Zero, and this time, his performance was much better received. His voice in 64 and Melee, provided by Shinobu Satouchi, isn't much better, considering he sounds exactly like a Japanese man speaking English with an accent^note It doesn't help much that Fox and Falco's voices are clearly English in the respective Adventure mode cutscene, instead of using those entirely outside Japan, though this is also the same reason why most fans love the former. His Brawl voice, Jim Walker, is generally considered fine.
  • Bayonetta's screams when she is hit. Granted, she also does this in her original games, but unlike there, where you don't hear it well nor very often, here you're gonna hear it a lot.
• Narm Charm:
  • Ike's lines are poorly-delivered and very Narmy (his most famous line is "I fight for my friends" said in a very flat monotone), but just like Captain Falcon, his quotes reached memetic status and made him into a popular character.
  • The villager's Dutch name, Dorpsbewoner, is hilarious because it's overly long, even for a native person.^note The translation comes down to "village inhabitant". A shorter name would be "Bewoner" or "Dorpeling" This made the name itself into a meme, even though it's meant to be nothing special.
• Newer Than They Think: For all the fans clamoring for Ganondorf to use a sword in his moveset to stay true to his character, it's easy to forget that Ganondorf was never seen using a sword until the Space World 2000 demo, just two years before the release of Melee. Even then, it was just a non-canon tech demo, and the first canonical Zelda game where Ganondorf uses swords (The Wind Waker) would not be released until after Melee.^note While he does wield swords in his beast Ganon form in Ocarina of Time, his appearance in Super Smash Bros. has always been based on his human Ganondorf form. Additionally, Ganon's weapon of choice has typically been the trident, not the sword. It's just that Ganondorf's swordfights in The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess have left such a positive impression on fans that they would like to see it integrated into his depiction in Super Smash Bros.
• Older Than They Think:
  • Nintendo characters have crossed over in Captain N: The Game Master and the Nintendo version of Tetris.
  • Despite many detractors insisting that Ganondorf is not a brawler in his home series, he has used brawling moves ever since Ocarina of Time (albeit as a Shockwave Stomp instead of a direct punch), used a kicking attack as the final boss of Wind Waker, and used an elbow strike (like his F-smash) and a kick as the final boss of Twilight Princess as well as moves resembling the Flame Choke and Melee Warlock Punch in an earlier cutscene.
  • Many players are critical of the amount of Moveset Clones in Brawl and 3DS/Wii U, but often forget that the roster having a good percentage of it being clones started back in Melee, and was significantly more than the amount in the other games, where almost a quarter of the cast has a Moveset Clone of themselves, such as Young Link for Link, Roy for Marth, Ganondorf for Captain Falcon, Pichu for Pikachu, and Falco for Fox(who were in fact closer to clones than the similar characters of the first game). Ignoring returning characters, Brawl only introduced two more clone characters in the form of Wolf and Lucas(who were not as carbon copy as the Melee additions), while 3DS/Wii U brought in Lucina and Dark Pit, while also bringing back Doctor Mario and Roy (the latter as DLC).
  • Wario's Smash moveset is not Westerners' first exposure to the idea that Wario is gross, and neither is the WarioWare series. The Wario Land 4 manual featured a section describing a day in the life of Wario, and it features such gross details as Wario using his hat as a handkerchief after using it to wipe pigeon poop.
• Once Original, Now Common: Character additions suffer from this down the line, especially third-party characters; the hype that they generate eventually dies down, leaving them to be treated like any other character. The most extreme example is Sonic the Hedgehog, who went from the single most hyped and rejoiced addition to Brawl to a very divisive High-Tier Scrappy and one of the less popular third-party characters in 3DS/Wii U, as he retains most of of his attacks in every iteration (including two variations of his Spin Dash) instead of being updated to include more attacks from Sonic Battle. Many of Sonic's detractors forget how much of a phenomenon his Brawl announcement was (or weren't even aware of the hype at the time). This continued into Ultimate, where he remains a High-Tier Scrappy despite some nerfs to what made him infamous in 3DS/Wii U.
• One True Pairing:
  • Snake/Samus. Others will attest to Captain Falcon/Samus, however, due to both of them being space-faring bounty hunters and having many other similarities. This was supplemented by an arc in Brawl in the Family, with Samus dating the Captain and Snake having an Alternative Character Interpretation as a Casanova Wannabe and Abhorrent Admirer for Samus.
  • There are those who will attest to Ike/Samus, Ike/Zelda, Marth/Samus, Link/Samus, Marth/Peach, Little Mac/Samus, etc.
  • Ness/Lucas was almost omnipresent among fans of Brawl, and it only got bigger once Lucas was set to return for 3DS/Wii U. The situation has become so bad that the ship has even leaked into the Mother fandom itself, despite Mother 3 being set an indefinitely long time after EarthBound (1994).
  • Shulk/Robin (called Shobin by its shippers) has been picking up steam ever since the former's reveal, and it was already considered to be a somewhat popular ship in the fandom. Interestingly enough, Shulk is shipped almost exclusively with male Robin due to their similar appearances and both being unique swordfighters.
  • Lucina/M!Robin are a popular pairing, especially since they can actually marry and have a child together in the game they come from, with many shippers coming straight from the Fire Emblem: Awakening fandom where the ship is extremely popular. Same goes with Chrom/F!Robin, with her Final Smash being a demonstration of how well they work together as a Battle Couple. Inevitably, this also applies to Chrom/M!Robin as well, even if they can't actually marry in-game.
  • Marth/Rosalina had a few fans before the fourth game even came out. It has gained a larger following since the release of the game.
  • Marth/Zelda was popular due to their similarities and became even more so after games played up the rivalry between Marth and Link, including an event where Marth (not Link) protects her.
  • Kirby/Jigglypuff is popular pairing largely due to their appearances being similar to one another. Brawl in the Family may have also something to do with it...
  • Lucina/Palutena became quite popular among Yuri Fans, due in large part to a somewhat suggestive image◊ posted on Lucina's page from the official site.
  • Samus/Wii Fit Trainer is also a fairly popular pairing with the yuri crowd, by virtue of one being an incredibly fit warrior while the other is... well... a trainer.
  • If you're looking for femslash, 9 times out of 10 it will be Samus/Zelda or Samus/Sheik.
  • Ike/Marth and Marth/Roy are extremely popular among yaoi shippers.
• Periphery Demographic: There are plenty of competitive gamers playing what was originally meant to be a party game first and foremost.

R-S

• Recurring Fanon Character:
  • Sara Osborne is an Original Character who is a homophobic, ultra-conservative fundamentalist Christian and originates from the infamous Troll Fic Supper Smash Bros: Mishonh From God. Due to the popularity of the original fic, she has become relatively popular among the Crack Fic community and Smash Bros. fans, appearing in fanfics such as The Hot Topic Krew and Tingles Raveng The Tingling.
  • Bigley is a badly-drawn stick figure with a beak and wings that became very popular on the Super Smash Bros. Series Community on Miiverse. He parodies Ridley, who at the time was a popular request for the game but was claimed to be too big for inclusion. He was one of the most popular reoccurring memes on Miiverse, where he was treated like a god.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
  • R.O.B. was originally considered to be a rather forgettable Trojan Horse that was used to sell NES consoles and operated quite slowly with the two games he worked with. Brawl, however, earned him a number of fans; the fact that he was the most tragic character in The Subspace Emissary probably didn't hurt.
  • The Ice Climbers' debut game was seen as forgettable, but their introduction in Melee netted the duo a much more positive reception, with much disappointment when it was announced they wouldn't be in For 3DS/Wii U, and similar levels of excitement when they returned for Ultimate.
  • Bowser was one of the worst characters on the roster several games in a row. From his release in Melee all the way up to For Wii U, Bowser was a sluggish and ineffective Stone Wall whose terrible normals and mediocre specials made it difficult to compete with the rest of the cast, to say nothing of his massive size making him a similarly massive target. For Wii U and later Ultimate made him more viable via speeding him up considerably and making him hit like a train, as well as remaking several of his normals into significantly more effective attacks. His transformation into a Mighty Glacier has been well received, and Bowser's days at the bottom of the tier list are no more.
• Scrappy Mechanic:
  • Every game in the series has Star KOs. They're visually interesting, flashy, and satisfying, but there's a good two- or three-second delay between the time the character leaves the screen and the time the KO is actually counted. Maybe not so bad for casual play, but in the timed matches often found in competitive environments, this could very well spell the difference between victory for one player and loss for the other. Alleviated in the fourth game, where Star KOs are specifically programmed to no longer occur within the final seconds of a match. Also new in Smash 4, Screen KOs are designed to take the same length of time as Star KOs.^note This avoids the possibly frustrating scenario of two players hitting each other at the same time off the top of the screen, and one loses only because they received a (previously faster) Screen KO and lost faster than the other player who is still spinning into the horizon.
  • The Multi-Man modes in Melee and Brawl had items. Sure, things like Pokéballs and Home-Run Bats were useful, but many find that the true danger of both modes isn't trying to beat all the opponents (in 100-man) or survive (in 15-minute), but hoping that a rogue Bob-omb or explosive capsule doesn't spawn right next to you. This is alleviated in 3DS/Wii U, where items are instead granted via a separate floating platform instead of the usual random spawning, and even then, these items are far less disruptive to your run than previously.
  • The Z-axis. In a game that's entirely set on a two-dimensional plane, it's possible to whiff an attack that otherwise would've connected because a character entered a non-spotdodge animation that caused part of their body to move into the background or foreground.
• Scrub: With so many characters, stages, tactics, and ways to play, Smash Bros. is commonly subjected to this and is also notable for the rabid fanbase the series has garnered over the years.
• Self-Fanservice: The male and especially female characters both get this in fan art, but it's especially notable for causing characters who otherwise had very little or non-existent fan art before their debut in Smash to skyrocket in popularity among the artists.
  • One of the best examples of this is the Wii Fit Trainer, who has an article on Destructoid pointing out the fact that she gained a ton of fan art after she was revealed in a trailer for the fourth installment.
  • Zero Suit Samus is the game's resident Ms. Fanservice, but fanart tends to depict her as rather cute, a stark contrast from her very hardened and tough persona in-game. Despite this, some fanart^{Slight Warning}The art's safe for work, but the artist's portfolio mainly consists of erotica & pornography shows that she can look cute without changing her design or personality.
  • In Ultimate, there are fans making drawings and cosplay of what Dark Samus would look like in a Zero Suit, portraying her as looking like Samus with dark/alien physical features while still appearing attractive and often with the White Hair, Black Heart trope in play. This in spite of Dark Samus canonically looking like a horrifying monster under the Phazon Suit.◊ Oddly enough, this would be somewhat accurate to the SA-X, another Metroid villain similar to Dark Samus, which has been shown in both its original game and flashbacks in Metroid Dread to be mimicking Samus' human face underneath its visor.
  • The "official" Mii Gunner (Sophia) has far more fanart than one would expect a Mii to have, especially considering she has nothing in the way of sexuality in-game. The one from Ultimate (Shagekio) also qualifies.
  • Isabelle is a cute Funny Animal that has zero things sexual about her. That said, it's been noted on how fanart often makes her curvier, especially if she's around other more humanoid characters like Wolf.
  • In keeping with The Beautiful Elite, some fanworks focusing on the attractive, young human characters depict the non-human characters, such as Kirby and Greninja, as attractive young individuals in their own right.
• Self-Imposed Challenge:
  • Melee has the "Ganondorf Challenge", invented by ProJared. The rules: one-on-one 3-stock match against a CPU Level 9 Ganondorf, his handicap set to 9, yours set to 3, on the Temple stage (Jared's recommended stage).
  • Melee's pro community also has the Bowser Challenge, where 4 players engage in a 1v3 battle with the lone player playing their main against a team of three Bowsers in an untimed 4-stock match on the Fountain of Dreams stage.
  • Challenges like this can really be escalated in Wii U. Like fighting all seven Koopalings at once in a 1v7 on the normal Battlefield (as opposed to the big one).
• Ship-to-Ship Combat: While the vast majority of the Smash fanbase does not focus on shipping, there is a notable schism between those who support canon pairings vs. pairings that would make sense given canon (such as Samus/Captain Falcon) vs. Crack Pairings, opposite-sex pairings vs. same-sex pairings, and so on. Lucina/Palutena vs. Lucina/M!Robin is a notable example; the former pairing became explosively popular simply due to a slightly suggestive image posted on the official website, while the latter is popular due to canon and the fact that the pairing has lots of context in Fire Emblem: Awakening to near Official Couple levels. As such, fans of either pairing will argue in support of theirs and against the other.
• Silent Majority: Players who weren't particularly upset about the revised game mechanics introduced in Brawl or Melee. Sakurai has stated he prefers these players and specifically designed Brawl with them in mind. Often defined as the "casual fanbase" which, while it can and often is a self-identifier, is commonly used as an insult due to being often erroneously perceived by the other side as Scrubs.
• Spiritual Adaptation: The series' concept of a Massive Multiplayer Crossover of Nintendo and third-party series is similar to Captain N: The Game Master. The key difference, aside from format, is that most of the characters have more development and history behind them, and as an official Nintendo franchise, Smash has more synergy with its constituent series. Additionally, while Captain N had an original character (Kevin) and an existing character (Mother Brain) as The Hero and the Big Bad respectively, Smash has no definite lead character but has Nintendo's pre-existing mascot Mario (who was absent from Captain N) as the closest thing to one, and created an original character (Tabuu) as the Big Bad of The Subspace Emissary and another one (actually two) as the Big Bad of World of Light (Galeem and Dharkon). Both franchises also created their own depictions for Pit due to his lack of clearly-defined characteristics in his home series; while Captain N depicted him as a quirky imp named "Kid Icarus", Smash depicted him as a Bishōnen warrior Kid Hero, which became his canon depiction.
• Spiritual Successor:
  • Smash was originally called Dragon King: The Fighting Game, before the concept of using already existing characters was introduced.
  • Although it’s probably the most popular crossover fighting game, it’s not the first. That honor belongs to Marvel vs. Capcom.
  • Smash is however the first Platform Fighter. It predates others in the genre and it is the most successful. Other notable games in the genre include Punch Time Explosion, PlayStation All-Stars, Brawlhalla, Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl, and Multi Versus
• "Stop Having Fun" Guys: The series is often looked down on for having one of the most notable subcultures of this trope. In a meta example, several competitive fans of other fighting games have looked down on people who play Smash Bros.
• Superlative Dubbing: Brawl and for 3DS/Wii U have the German announcer, played by Achim Berrenstein, and his voice is simply beautiful, comparable to Xander Mobus, being better than Pat Cashman, and outdoing all of the other European announcers. The main reason for this is probably that his delivery, especially in for 3DS/Wii U, makes him seem incredibly happy just to be there, and makes German-speaking players happy to play the game. So happy!
• Suspiciously Similar Song: The Fire Emblem characters' victory theme sounds similar to the last notes of the credits theme of the Peanuts special Is This Goodbye, Charlie Brown?.

T-U

• Take That, Scrappy!: A lot of people like the Duck Hunt dog's inclusion because it means that they'll finally have revenge on the damn animal for laughing at them for 30+ years.^note The Famicom version of Duck Hunt was released in 1984, the NES version came out in America a year later, and in Europe two years after that. Oddly enough, this also overlaps with Rescued from the Scrappy Heap — the character seems to have entered a Love to Hate status of some kind, especially since now the dog can laugh with the player rather than at them.
• That One Level: The "Cruel" multi-man matches in all the games from Melee onward. You're forced to fight against several relentless and powered-up AI opponents at once and you are very likely to lose within seconds. The game acknowledges that just defeating one opponent is an accomplishment.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
  • Ganondorf's portrayal as a Moveset Clone of Captain Falcon is somewhat infamous for being the least canon-adhering of the character movesets in Smash, mainly due to Melee having a rushed development. It was originally created as a last-minute convenience for Ganondorf to get in thanks to his popularity, but it entirely ignores his proficiency with bladed weapons and magic blasts that he has always been known for in the Zelda series. While steps have been taken to make Ganondorf's animations more rigid to better represent his canon, the Smash team's seeming refusal to completely revamp the moveset has progressively angered some fans more and more. This was more directly addressed in Ultimate by having him use his sword exclusively in his Smash attacks, though fans are divided on whether this is good enough or if it is a half-measure. On the other hand, Ganondorf's new Smash attacks in Ultimate angered other fans who wanted him to keep his moveset, seeing the sword smashes as blatant Pandering to the Base and an insult to the "disrespect" that Ganondorf's image in Smash has been built around.
  • Excluding the Wario Bike and Wario-Man, Wario's Canon Foreigner moves get this reaction for replacing his actual moves from Wario Land and Wario World for some weird choice of moves and animations. In particular, the removal of Wario's Signature Move as a forward Smash, the Shoulder Bash, for a generic backhand punch, has angered many of Wario's fans. Possibly because of this, the Shoulder Dash was eventually brought back for Ultimate, though it is now his dash attack, which replaces his old tripping attack.
  • The crowd cheers in Smash 4 and Ultimate were considered disappointing overall by the fans, especially coming from Brawl, where the cheers were the clearest overall, while 64 had the voices being covered up by the cheers and Melee had cheers that lacked emotion and felt monotone. Smash 4 and Ultimate's crowd voices are not very clear during the cheers, seeming covered up or compressed, and this is especially glaring on the Switch for being a more advanced hardware. In some languages, like Italian, the crowd cheers are clearer overall, but even then, that can be inconsistent, being somewhat hit-and-miss.
  • Since Dark Samus is an Echo Fighter of Samus in Ultimate, she inherits Samus's moveset. This was received rather poorly not just for it being a bad moveset for Samus herself, but also because the Dark Samus Assist Trophy in Smash 4 used attacks that were more faithful to the character's origins, such as a Beam Spam attack and Phazon tentacles summoned from the ground. Meanwhile, the playable Dark Samus simply ended up as a Samus Moveset Clone with animations and hit effects (usually swapping out fire for electricity) being the only difference between the two; as a result, a common refrain when talking about Dark Samus's depiction in Ultimate is "she was better as an Assist Trophy".
  • Non-voice sounds missing from the Sound Test in Smash 4 and Ultimate.
  • Transformation Final Smashes being cut from Ultimate, (especially Super Sonic, which has been altered). Word of God says the change was made so matches can be more streamlined, and the pacing of the fight won't abruptly halt as everyone just runs and hides from the transformed character. However, some fans say this takes away a lot of the variety and potential that Final Smashes had, with most of them now being either a Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs, Blade Spam, Wave-Motion Gun, or Cutscene Power to the Max move.
  • Several characters having different color palettes or different designs compared to their home games; Mario's overalls and shoes, starting in Melee, are much darker in color, Captain Falcon, since Brawl, wears his scarf outward, which only Dr. Stewart and Blood Falcon do, and Ken's red-orange karate gi has been changed to a burnt orange color. Changes like these don't sit well with fans of their franchises. Some changes in colors and style, like Mario's darker colors, skin tone included, were somewhat removed later on, especially after Brawl, due to not using the realistic style anymore, but other changes, not so much.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: A few of several examples:
  • Samus not having any sign of her iconic Ice Beam in her moveset, or the fact that she never gets her basic yellow Power Suit as an alternate costume, which would easily represent Metroid better.
  • Both Young Link and Toon Link having mostly the same kind of moves, instead of moves from their respective games, like Young Link's transformation masks and Toon Link's Deku Leaf, Hurricane Spin, and Skull Hammer, along with their Final Smashes both being Triforce Slash rather than a more faithful move, making them boring to play as since they both share most of the same moves as normal Link, just with different properties.
  • Neither DK nor Diddy getting a Special Move that allows them to throw a Barrel, which they do often in their home games, along with DK not getting to use his Coconut Shooter from Donkey Kong 64, which would give him a projectile attack, or a Barrel firing move for his recovery.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Despite being hailed as one of the greatest crossover fighting game franchises, Smash's main weakness as a crossover is the lack of character interactions that make such a crossover fun to experience. Outside of Subspace Emissary (which is silent for the most part), character reveal trailers (which don't appear in-game), and a few Smash Taunts (which mostly consist of a non-playable characters giving commentary over the fight), special interactions between the actual fighters are few and far between. Even then, it mostly consists of characters from the same franchise trash talking at each other.
• Ugly Cute:
  • Greninja is a human-sized bug-eyed frog that acts like a super-serious ninja, but it has enough whimsical charm to qualify for this trope, from its cartoonish Pokémon Speak to its tongue scarf to its adorable Substitute plushie.
  • Incineroar, likewise, is a very buff Top-Heavy Guy anthropomorphic tiger wrestler that happens to be topped off by very expressive Pokémon Speak and animations and an endearing Looney Tunes-esque design.
  • Wario is a stout, obese mustachioed man with a permanent snarl and disgusting habits, but his cartoony design and hilarious moves make him endearing to some people.
• Underused Game Mechanic: In all five games, Yoshi is the only character with a non-standard shield.
• Unfortunate Character Design: Captain Falcon has two buttons on his jacket (golden for his default outfit) that look like nipples. That said, this only added to the fanbase's loving mockery of his character.
• Unpopular Popular Character: Luigi is portrayed in Super Smash Bros. as somebody living in the shadow of Mario and trying way too hard to be cool while also being portrayed as a borderline depressed goofball whose attacks have weird and wacky animations that tend not to feel like they're deliberate, and his Brawl crowd cheer has few people cheering for him. In the Smash community, he's considered to be a Memetic Badass and Memetic Troll due to his unorthodox yet strong moveset. It says something that people were more concerned about him dying in the Belmonts' reveal trailer than both his brother and Mega Man dying in Ridley's reveal trailer.

V-W

• Vanilla Protagonist: Mario, as the closest thing to a "main protagonist" of the series, has a basic shotoclone Jack of All Stats moveset that's barely changed since Smash 64 and wasn't fully updated with later entries to reflect newer Super Mario games. This has caused many players to pass him up in favor of more interesting and/or flashy fighters with more fun or creative movesets. Indeed, a Japanese popularity poll for Ultimate had him place in 34th, which while not terrible, is a surprisingly low placement for Nintendo's company mascot and has him even beaten out by Incineroar.
• Viewer Gender Confusion:
  • Samus, especially in 64 and Melee where the Zero Suit didn't exist. Many people unfamiliar with the Metroid games have mistaken her for a male robot or space marine and gotten highly confused when seeing her referred to with female pronouns — which was kind of the point in the first place.
  • While Mewtwo is genderless, there were two separate masculine and feminine Mewtwo characters in the Pokémon anime. Since small, lithe Mega Mewtwo Y was heavily associated with the latter when the Mewtwo DLC was first released, some people were confused as to why the "manly" Mewtwo had a "feminine" Final Smash form.
• Visual Effects of Awesome:
  • Final Destination. In all of its incarnations, it seems to be an excuse from the devs to make the most insane trip across dimensions as possible, with each trumping the last in sheer eye candy.
  • Mr. Game And Watch looks convincingly like a 2-D model, despite the fact that there actually is a 3D model subjected to that visual trickery.
  • Of the vast amount of returning stages for Ultimate, most of them received amazing remakes and look stunning, with Kongo Jungle and Princess Peach's Castle from Melee in particular receiving giant upgrades from their GameCube-era visuals.
• Vocal Minority:
  • The fans who are upset when mechanics, characters, or stages they like are removed or changed in each sequel. These fans are usually passionate about their playstyles with different characters. Often defined as the "hardcore fanbase" which, while it can and often is a self-identifier, is commonly used as an insult due to being often erroneously perceived by the other side as "Stop Having Fun" Guys.
  • An even smaller minority consists of the fans who complain about the influence of Pokémon: The Series in the series and, similarly, SSB4 Samus being based on Metroid: Other M design-wise. While most fans are content with what they have, both the Pokémon anime and Other M are known to stir up controversy within their home fanbases, so these kinds of complaints are inevitable.
  • A notable minority consists of fans of the Donkey Kong and Metroid series unhappy that both franchises only have two characters in the fourth installment while series like Fire Emblem and Kid Icarus got more. They were especially bothered since Lucina and Dark Pit are clones (now known as Echo Fighters). However, Sakurai explained that the clones are supposed to be seen as small bonuses, so they didn't take up slots that would otherwise go to characters build from scratch.
  • There is a small group of Kirby fans who believe that Sakurai is biased against the later Kirby games (Sakurai was the original creator of the series, but stopped working on it after Kirby Air Ride, and even then he did not work on all Kirby games prior to leaving). All the levels are based on games he personally worked on, especially Kirby Super Star and Air Ride, with only minor nods to games like Kirby's Return to Dream Land; case in point, the two Kirby stages on the Wii U version are both based on Super Star. Most of these fans tend to be supporters for a new Kirby fighter like Bandanna Dee. ^note That the Great Cave Offensive stage was originally going to be based on Kirby's Epic Yarn until Yoshi's Woolly World was announced may throw a wrench into this theory, though.
  • Character popularity in general is affected by this, often to the point of Fan Myopia. Among the core fandom, obscure characters like Captain Falcon, Ike and Pyra/Mythra are absolutely adored and are among the most popular characters, but they're just that — obscure characters — and aren't as popular or well-known with more casual audiences, who stick to more famous and familiar characters such as Link and Kirby.
• Win Back the Crowd: After trying to get Melee blocked from being streamed at EVO 2013 (which did not go over well with the gaming community in general [particularly because of Nintendo's notoriously strict protectiveness of their products], but the Smash community in particular who had fought tooth and nail to even get Melee added to the pool of competitive fighting games at EVO), many people feel that Nintendo hosting the very first Smash 4 tournament during E3 2014, inviting well known Smash Bros. players such as Ken, HungryBox, etc. as well as surprisingly supporting the very same game they tried to block a year prior during EVO 2014 is their way of apologizing for what they tried to do.
• Woolseyism: The taglines in the character reveal trailers for 4 and Ultimate are always just "(character) JOINS THE BATTLE!" in Japan and Europe. However, with the exception of Mega Man, Dark Samus and Chrom, the American trailers have different ones for each character. Given how memetic they are, it's no surprise that most of the fandom prefers it this way.
• WTH, Costuming Department?: In a game where most alternate costumes mostly or completely change a fighter's coloration, a few fighters have minimal changes on some of their alts:
  • Sonic's alternate costumes in Brawl are all only slightly different shades of blue, and the main thing distinguishing them is the color of their shoes and wristbands, which can be hard to see in the chaos of a fight. This can make Sonic vs. Sonic matches incredibly confusing and even irritating for everyone involved, especially on dark stages like the ever-popular Final Destination where the costumes are even harder to tell apart. Smash 4 helped alleviate this by giving him a wider array of costumes, but they're still all visibly bluish.
  • Pac-Man has no alts that change the color of his body in either For 3DS/Wii U or Ultimate; his second through sixth costumes only give him different colored wristbands and shoe accessories, his seventh just gives him arm and leg warmers, and his eighth makes his gloves and shoes plaid, leaving the latter costume as the only one with any significant and easy-to-see changes.
  • While Cloud's normal and Cloudy Wolf outfits are distinct enough from each other, their own colors have very few noticeable differences, with the only changes being the shirt colors (all very dark colors that blend in with the predominately black outfits), lighter straps, and the second outfit having a variation that bares Cloud's left arm.
  • Sephiroth, like Cloud, features his Walking Shirtless Scene design from Final Fantasy VII as his seventh and eighth alternate costumes, which looks different enough from his default Advent Children-inspired design. However, the colors of the outfits themselves only change the hue of his coat and pauldrons (or pants in the FFVII design's case), and all to very dark and muddy colors. Of course, he's a villain, so it wouldn't make sense for him to be wearing a gaudy pink coat, but it still makes it pretty hard to tell two Sephiroths apart in a ditto match—especially on stages with dark backgrounds like Final Destination or Midgar.

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What's this? A YMMV subpage? No subpages, objective tropes only, Final Destination!

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