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This page lists the starter fighters of Super Smash Bros. Melee.


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     13 – Peach 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/peach_ssbu.png
3DS/Wii U 
Brawl 
Melee 
Voiced by: Jen Taylor (Melee), Samantha Kelly (Brawl onwards)
Home Series: Super Mario Bros.
Debut: Super Mario Bros. [NES], 1985
Creator: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo

Playable in: Melee, Brawl, 3DS/Wii U, Ultimate
Specials: Toad, Peach Bomber, Peach Parasol, Vegetable
Final Smash: Peach Blossom

"Oooh, did I win?"

The beloved princess of the Mushroom Kingdom and Love Interest of Mario. She's often kidnapped for her powerful magic (or in several cases, because Bowser or another villain has a crush on her), and has been saved by Mario more times than you can count. Usually, Princess Peach relies on Mario to fight for her, but since her debut in Melee, she's taken action and joined the battle. As out of place as it may seem at first, given the role she's known for, different games in her series have given her a playable role before Melee, which translated into a badass princess in the Smash series. She's even saved the Mario Bros. herself once!

Peach brings her innate magical powers and her trusted Toad assistant into the fray. Though she's overall slow and light, her offensive and defensive utility is not to be underestimated; whether it's throwing vegetables at opponents, countering with Toad, whacking people with a golf club or thrusting her royal hindquarters at them, there is no shortage of options for this pretty pink princess.

See Super Mario Bros.: The Princesses for more information on the character in her origin series.

  • Adaptational Curves: She's bustier, taller and her hips are wider here than in her home series.
  • Adaptation Personality Change: Peach is pretty much Purity Personified in her home series. Here, she's much more flirty and a mischievous Ditzy Genius, though she's also been shown this way in Mario spinoff titles like Mario Kart and Mario Tennis.
  • Ass Kicks You: Peach Bomber, which is her side special attack, along with her back aerial, down throw (prior to Ultimate), and back throw. Her back throw in Brawl provides the page image.
  • Assist Character: She summons Toad as part of her Neutral Special. He works as a Human Shield who will release damaging spores if hit by an opponent. Custom moves can change him from using his spores to put opponents to sleep if he's hit to changing him into a straight-up attack. Ultimate reworked this move a bit to have Toad willingly protect Peach and Take The Bullet for her, and even pummels and helps Peach throw grabbed opponents.
  • Art Evolution: In Melee, her dress was only slightly more detailed than it is in her own series, such as having a visible bodice. In Brawl, they ramped it up to a full Pimped-Out Dress. In 3DS/Wii U and Ultimate, it's less embroidered than in Brawl, but still much more detailed and embellished than her main series and Melee appearance.
  • Artificial Brilliance: Peach's Brawl A.I. can use the "low float" technique rather effectively to land some solid aerials.
  • Badass Adorable: She's cute, kind, and can kick your rear to next Sunday.
  • Badass Pacifist: Offering tea to two combatants to stop them from fighting is pretty badass.
  • Ballet: As if the official names of her Forward Tilt and Up Smash, as revealed in the Official Nintendo Player's Guide for the game, didn't make it obvious enough.
  • Battle Intro: Spins in a flurry of hearts while brandishing her parasol, then says "Hi!"
  • Big "NO!": She lets one out when she gets star KO'd in Brawl onwards.
  • Bling of War: While wearing a Pimped-Out Dress to a fight seemed impractical enough, Ultimate replaces her Daisy-themed Palette Swap due to Daisy herself being playable with a shiny gold dress.
  • Boring, but Practical: Her Final Smash is one of the best in the game. While it's nowhere near as cool looking as the cinematic ones, it heals 60% off you, leaves your sleeping opponent(s) open for a fully charged Smash Attack, is a certain death for any opponents off stage (since they tumble into freefall upon falling asleep in midair), and, unlike the rest, is not nerfed at all when using Final Smash Meter.
  • Character Exaggeration: She has been known to flirtatiously give plenty of kisses to those who rescue her (especially in Super Mario All-Stars) and had a playful side in Super Mario Bros. 3. Melee and the series in general put more emphasis on these parts of her personality than subsequent games.
  • Cloud Cuckoolander: She's quite goofy in Subspace Emissary cutscenes, such as offering tea to stop an ongoing fight while standing on a flying battleship in the middle of a battle.
  • Combat Stilettos: Even on the battlefield, she still wears her signature high heels.
  • Counter-Attack: Toad is used this way. He actually releases spores from his mouth to damage the opponent.
  • Cower Power: In Ultimate, rather than holding out Toad, she cowers behind him while he tries to protect her.
  • Cute Bruiser: To quote her 3DS/Wii U trophy's description, she "continues to prove that 'powerful' and 'cute' are not mutually exclusive". In fact, she has one of the more physical fighting styles amongst the female characters.
  • Damsel in Distress: The poster child for this trope in her home series. If you choose to save Zelda in The Subspace Emissary. They both become this eventually. This role also gets poked at by Snake and Viridi. Her Classic mode route in Ultimate also references this, being named Damsel out of Distress, where all of Peach's normal opponents are villains who have kidnapped a female character at least once in their home series (including, obviously, Bowser).
  • Dance Battler: Her fighting style is reminiscent of a classically trained ballerina.
  • Developer's Foresight: If she's holding a Parasol item in Melee, she'll use it instead of her own for her up special.
  • Dissonant Serenity: Her method of defusing the fight between Sheik and Fox is offering them both tea while they're on top of a battleship engaging in combat.
  • Early-Installment Weirdness: Uniquely, her neutral special move is a counter. In subsequent games it became standard for counterattacks to be mapped to the down special, but because Peach debuted in Melee, the first game in the series which includes counters, she remains the exception.
  • Edible Ammunition: Played with. The turnips she uses in combat cannot be eaten normally like Diddy Kong's peanuts, but Kirby, King Dedede and Wario can eat them using their respective neutral specials.
  • The Face: In Subspace Emissary, Peach makes herself useful by breaking up fights and turning potential enemies into friends, such as mysteriously producing tea for Fox, or playing nice with Mr. Game and Watch.
  • Fanservice Pack: Her breasts are larger and more visible in this series than they are in her home series. An example is her pose on the boxart for Super Smash Bros. for Wii U.
  • Fighting Clown: Peach wouldn't seem like much of a fighter considering her Damsel in Distress background, and many of her abilities are silly, like using sports equipment, radishes, and her butt. Nonetheless, she's still a strong and capable fighter.
  • Foil:
  • Frying Pan of Doom: She may pull either a tennis racket, a golf club or a frying pan to smack opponents when doing a Forward Smash. The frying pan is the most damaging but shortest-reaching of her three forward smash weapons. As an aside, said frying pan's strike power is a Shout-Out to her Infinity +1 Sword from Super Mario RPG, which has such high attack power that it puts her on par with Mario, Bowser, and Geno in terms of physical attack.
  • Game-Breaking Bug: In the early days of 3DS, there was an oversight with Peach's "Turnip Pull" Down Special, specifically its low chance to produce an actual item, even if they're not turned on, in place of the turnip (an ability she's had since Melee). This triggered the game's online match anti-cheat coding, getting players banned from online play. A hotfix was released in short order.
  • Girly Bruiser: Peach utilizes objects associated with traditional femininity (i.e. parasols, frying pans, rainbows, etc.) and wears a long dress with heels. Doesn't stop her from kicking as much butt as her more masculine counterparts.
  • Girly Girl: Is easily the most feminine out of all the female fighters in the game.
  • Girly Skirt Twirl: Her down taunt, neutral aerial, down smash, and up smash. Her gown spins in many moves and is sometimes even weaponized.
  • Glass Cannon: Peach has an odd mix of attributes — below average weight, slow walking and dashing speeds (which might be due to a combination of her gown and stilettos), high air speed, and generally high attacking power, with some of the most absurdly damaging moves in the game (in Melee, if all five hits of her fully charged Down Smash connect, the opponent will receive up to 65% damage).
  • Goofy Print Underwear: In Brawl, the trim of her panties appropriately has images of peaches.
  • Hammerspace: No one's really all that sure where she pulls Toad out of... Or the aforementioned frying pan, as well as a tennis racket and golf club for forward smash.
  • Hartman Hips: Is very curvaceous in her lower half, and she even uses this to her advantage by using her butt as a weapon. She actually has the curviest hips out of all the female characters game alongside her Echo Fighter Daisy.
  • Heart Beat-Down: She uses Heart-shaped magical beams in several attacks.
  • Home Stage:
    • Melee: Princess Peach's Castle and Mushroom Kingdom II, though the former is more used in single-player modes.
    • Brawl: All debuting stages from her seriesnote , minus Mario Bros. due to its association with R.O.B.
    • 3DS/Wii U: All stages from her seriesnote .
    • Ultimate: Princess Peach's Castle in Ultimate's website and her unlock battle, her fight in World of Light though takes place in Mushroom Kingdom U.
  • Hotter and Sexier:
    • She has a much more flirty personality as opposed to her completely innocent canon portrayal, with suggestive winks and Panty Shot-allowing attacks.
    • The promotional screenshots for 3DS/Wii U show her openly flirting with other male characters besides Mario, ranging from giving Marth sultry looks, to stealing Link from Zelda.
    • She is more anatomically realistic in this series compared to her home series, and her Adaptational Curves makes her more attractive in this regard.
  • Human Shield: Uses Toad as one from Melee to 3DS/Wii U, who also functions as a Counter-Attack. In Ultimate, this is revamped to Taking the Bullet.
  • I Know Madden Kombat: Her forward smash attack can potentially pull out either a golf club or a tennis racket.
  • Idle Animation:
    • She looks around and brushes something off of her skirt.
    • She puts her hands together and stretches.
    • She inspects her ring (which doesn't exist in her home series) on her left hand. This specific idle pose never plays if Peach is facing left.
    • She brushes her hair.
  • Improbable Weapon User: Turnips, a frying pan, a golf club, a tennis racket, her crown, and Toad.
  • Kicking Ass in All Her Finery: Peach fights while wearing her crown, stilettos, and a fancy dress.
  • Lady and Knight: The Bright Lady to Mario's White Knight.
  • Leitmotif: No song in particular is associated with her in any game besides Ultimate, which gives her Princess Peach's Castle's theme. However, the Super Mario Bros Lost Levels Medley prominently plays her theme from her home series at the start.
  • Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: In Subspace Emissary, Peach is the light feminine (cordial, lighthearted, feminine to a cartoonish degree) to Zelda's dark feminine (adorned in purple, mysterious, quiet, aloof). This is demonstrated at the Battleship Halberd Exterior stage of Subspace Emissary. After being freed, Zelda transforms into the lean and mysterious Sheik and exits the room she was in with stealth and speed, while Peach walks out blissfully, eyes closed and hand on her brooch.
  • Limit Break: Peach Blossom, a dance that doesn't cause any knockback, but deals good amounts of damage while putting her foes to sleep while spawning countless peaches to recover health with.
  • Made of Explodium: Her side special, Peach Bomber, sends her flying forwards hips-first. In Brawl and onward, it creates a flourish of hearts; in Melee however, it created a fiery detonation.
  • Meteor Move: Her down tilt will Meteor Smash opponents, but it is difficult to utilize because she needs to be at a ledge and the target airborne over a pit. It can't meteor smash aerial foes anymore as of 3DS/Wii U.
  • Ms. Fanservice: Not to the extent of most of the other fanservicey female characters but Peach still sports exaggerated Hartman Hips, a very defined and noticeable bust compared to her home series, hits opponents with her butt for several of her moves, can give the player upskirt Panty Shots in her first two appearances, and can even have the wind blow her skirt up and show her legs on the Icicle Mountain stage. Along with all of this, she is also much more of The Tease with her suggestive winks and kisses and overall more sassy, spunky and flirtatious demeanor.
  • Of Corsets Sexy: Her appearance in Melee shows her dress with a corset, an embellishment of her N64 era design, that was lost in future games that are based on her appearance on the Gamecube and onward.
  • Only Sane Woman: In the Subspace Emissary cutscenes, she's very intent on defying Let's You and Him Fight. Yes, a Cloud Cuckoolander and an Only Sane Woman.
  • Palette Swap: In Melee, she had a full Princess Daisy costume with a change in skin color and glove length, though in Brawl and 3DS/Wii U, it's her usual outfit just with Daisy's colors. Her white color swap is reminiscent of her wedding dress from Super Mario Adventures, Super Paper Mario, and Super Mario Odyssey. Brawl gave her a red dress, referencing Mario's original Damsel in Distress Pauline. 3DS/Wii U also adds Fire Peach from Super Mario 3D World. Because Daisy was Promoted to Playable in Ultimate, that game replaces her Daisy-inspired alternate costume with a golden dress, which resembles the form Peach takes after using a Golden Drink in Super Mario Party.
  • Parasol Parachute: She uses her parasol to slow down her fall, to beat the snot out of her opponents, or just to show her more feminine side.
  • Pain to the Ass: A self inflicted example, when Peach doesn't make contact with her Peach Bomber where she thrusts her butt forward and lunges then doesn't make contact when she lands on her butt she shows visible discomfort. Same with her back air where she thrusts her butt forward when she lands she shows similar recoil after once again landing on her butt. These can't be good for Peach's long term spinal health.
  • Pimped-Out Dress: Her dress is much more detailed here than in the Mario games. Her character model in Brawl makes her dress the most elaborate it's been yet. 3DS/Wii U tones it down a bit, but it's still rather elaborate.
  • Princess Classic: Pink dress, sunny attitude, kind and innocent nature. Yep, Peach fits the bill, alright.
  • Princesses Prefer Pink: Which is just as well, peaches can be pinky.
  • Really Gets Around: While some promotional images and cutscenes portray her as being with Mario as in her home series, she's also seen out with Link and flirting with Marth.
  • Royals Who Actually Do Something: As this is a fighting game, she takes a very active role, something she showed occasionally before Melee in her home series.
  • Secret Character: For Ultimate: Have a Cumulative Wait Time of 1 hour and 50 minutes, beat Classic Mode with Fox or anyone in his unlock tree three times, or find and defeat her in World of Light.
  • She-Fu: Her moveset consists of slaps, high kicks, attacks with her... ahem... peach, and hitting her opponents upside the head with a frying pan.
  • Skip of Innocence: Her normal walk cycle as of Brawl.
  • Super-Cute Superpowers: Her up tilt and side special in Brawl create pink heart effects, while her new up aerial in 3DS/Wii U creates a rainbow and adds a pink ribbon to her up smash.
  • Taking the Bullet: Ultimate changes her Neutral B to this. While in previous installments, Peach would hold Toad out in front of her as a Human Shield, Ultimate has her duck away in fear while Toad willingly defends her.
  • Took a Level in Badass: In Ultimate, instead of being held out unwillingly in front of Peach, Toad is now laying down the punches himself, willingly putting himself in front of the princess to protect her. Inversely, Peach herself now looks far more cowardly than she did before.
  • Troll: Peach has quite a few butt attacks, and half her taunts and victory quotes are very cocky and/or have her literally taunt the opponent(s).
  • Warrior Princess: A princess with an upbeat attitude that still kicks a lot of ass.
  • White Gloves: Like Mario and Luigi, only it makes more sense in Peach's case, as her profession would probably be more likely to keep her hands nice and shiny.
     14 – Bowser (Koopa) 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bowserssbu.png
3DS/Wii U 
Brawl 
Melee 
Home Series: Super Mario Bros.
Debut: Super Mario Bros. [NES], 1985
Creator: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo

Playable in: Melee, Brawl, 3DS/Wii U, Ultimate
Specials: Fire Breath, Koopa Klaw (Melee), Flying Slam (Brawl onwards), Whirling Fortress, Bowser Bomb
Final Smash: Giga Bowser (Brawl, 3DS/Wii U), Giga Bowser Punch (Ultimate)

The King of the Koopas, Arch-Enemy of the Mario Bros, and the biggest threat in the Mushroom Kingdom (when he's not go-karting, teaming up with his nemesis, or being controlled by another villain entirely). Bowser is an intimidating fire-breathing monster, feared by the populace, respected by his loyal minions, and adored by his son, Bowser Jr.. Whenever Peach is kidnapped, expect this guy to be the usual suspect.

Bowser holds the honor of being the first villain to be playable in Smash, and he certainly shows why. He's one of the biggest characters in the lineup, as well as the heaviest character overall, which serves as both a strength and a weakness; though he's much more powerful than most other fighters, he also ends up becoming a bigger target. In earlier installments, Bowser was incredibly sluggish to the point of being an absolute joke, but has since been made faster in reference to his later appearances. The increased speed combined with his massive strength and bulk can make him a fearsome force if you're careless.

Bowser also serves as the final boss of Melee's Adventure Mode, where he can transform into the much more versatile opponent, Giga Bowser, who becomes his Final Smash in later installments. For more information on this transformation, go here.

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

  • Absurdly Sharp Claws: His Koopa Klaw in Melee, where he slashes the air, accompanied by a sword clashing sound effect while moving a tad bit forward. In 3DS/Wii U, he uses a similar attack for one of his custom moves called Dash Slash, although Bowser slides across the stage. The attack itself only deals about 8% with the exchange of having decent knockback.
  • Action Dad: The first to be in Smash in fact, being the father of Bowser Jr. (And formerly the Koopalings before they were Retconned into merely being his minions.)
  • Actually Pretty Funny: In Kazuya's tie-in release artwork to commemorate his joining the roster in Ultimate, he has a beaten Ryu poised to drop off a cliff. Everyone around them is clearly not onboard with this, with Min-Min stretching an ARM out to catch Ryu and Mario, Captain Falcon, Samus, Link and Pit all taking stances to beat down on Kazuya for going too far. Then there's Bowser, who's folding his arms looking impressed and having a laugh.
  • Adaptation Personality Change: Generally speaking, while by no means a mindless savage, Bowser is much more bestial than in the Mario games. In the Mario games, he could talk and was much more emotive, and would often make plans to kidnap Princess Peach. In Smash, however, he only growls like a Kaiju, doesn't show much emotion (though later games like 3DS/Wii U and Ultimate make him more expressive), and doesn't really rely on evil plans - not that he needs them, though. Also, in most Mario games with another villain, Bowser usually opposes them, preferring to be the only bad guy around. In The Subspace Emissary, however, he willingly serves Master Hand and expresses sadness when he finds him defeated.
  • Anthropomorphic Shift: To reflect his increase in agility, Bowser's stance and proportions have been changed in 3DS/Wii U to be much more humanoid to match his usual appearance from the Super Mario Bros. series, as opposed to the more bestial look Melee and Brawl gave him. He also uses more conventional punches and kicks instead of the more reptilian claw strikes and headbutts he once had. However, he still uses realistic roars as in previous Smash entries instead of the more cartoony growls he makes in his home franchise. Bowser returns to his previous feral stance as Giga Bowser in 3DS/Wii U.
  • Arch-Enemy: The eternal foe of Mario and Luigi, kidnapping their princesses and generally opposing the brothers since 1985.
  • Armor-Piercing Attack: In 3DS/Wii U, the Bowser Bomb is remarkably good at destroying even full shields if all parts of the move connect. If you don't have a counter attack, you'd best get out of the way.
  • Art Evolution: In Melee, he has a visually updated version of his Super Mario 64 design with a more bestial stance, a very muscular physique and tanned skin as opposed to bright yellow. Brawl kept his stance but changed his colors and made his body look softer to match his current main series appearance from Luigi's Mansionnote  onward. In 3DS/Wii U, he has a more upright stance, and in Ultimate, his scales are of similar shading to his Brawl self while keeping said stance, possibly to keep in line with Giga Bowser.
  • The Artifact: While characters like Luigi and Peach received new voice clips in later Smash games to match their Vocal Evolution, Bowser is still stuck with the growls, grunts, and roars based upon his N64 era and (as of Ultimate) still hasn't been updated to match his current voice actor, Kenny James.
  • Ass Kicks You: The Bowser Bomb technically counts as an attack like this. Even the 3DS/Wii U manual says: Drop down, and smash opponents with your rump.
  • Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Whenever he transforms into Giga Bowser, he hardly leaves any room for other characters to stand on. Especially his Final Smash in Ultimate where he's large enough to fill the background.
  • Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Watching a butterfly is enough to distract him in Shulk's trailer. It doesn't end well for him.
  • Battle Intro: Walks out of a wall of flames onto the battlefield.
  • BFG: His Dark Cannon in Subspace Emissary.
  • Batman Gambit: It's likely more than implied that the Koopa King purposely sent his troops to steal the banana hoard from Donkey Kong's possession, which forces DK and Diddy to go on another quest to find them. At first, it seemed far too easy for the primates to find the piles of fruit on such short notice... as soon as Bowser shows up it was basically a trap to draw both of them out and have them become trophies. Well one of them did.
  • Blow You Away: Turbulent Bomb enables the Koopa King to form surrounding horizontal gusts of gale force from the impact of his weaker Ground Pound, sending opponents away from the extreme force as a result.
  • Breaking Old Trends: Holds the honor of being the first playable antagonist.
  • Breath Weapon: His Fire Breath neutral special move.
  • Butt-Monkey: After his addition, he literally became the punching bag in Melee, Brawl, and 3DS/Wii U's How-to-Play videos. Many screenshots shown during Brawl and 3DS/Wii U's development also have him getting the short end of the stick, and in Shulk's trailer, he's the very first victim of Shulk's Back Slash.
  • The Brute: He's the powerhouse of the villain team in Subspace Emissary.
  • Co-Dragons: He and Ganondorf serve directly under Master Hand, with Bowser commanding his Koopa Troop as well as going out onto the battlefield himself and Ganondorf remotely controlling the R.O.B.s and other mechanisms of the Subspace Army.
  • Composite Character: As time went on, each game gave him a design that was a mixture of his most recent appearance and his more bestial appearance from the NES games, as well as monstrous roars most similar to Super Mario 64.
  • The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: The Bowser in Melee's Adventure Mode has a natural advantage in size and power over the playable version, most noticeable when your character is another Bowser. And then he evolves into Giga Bowser...
  • Crosshair Aware: In Ultimate, his Final Smash has the user controlling a large crosshair around the stage not unlike the Dragoon's crosshair, aiming where his Megaton Punch will hit.
  • Death or Glory Attack: His spike has him retreat into his shell and drops down to hit the enemy below. If you perform this above the ledge, failing to hit the enemy will guarantee your plummeting death into the abyss.
  • Dinosaurs Are Dragons: More like Turtle Kaiju Monsters Are Dinosaurs And May or May Not Be Dragons. The games go out of their way to declassify Bowser from being a dragon; for example, he and his son are excluded from Marth's Classic Mode route in Ultimate, "A Kingdom of Dragons", while King K. Rool (a crocodile with even fewer draconic features) gets to be in. On the other hand, the games have used both vanilla and Giga Bowser as a stand-in for Godzilla, a kaiju most famously portrayed as a mutant dinosaur, and he is fought in Yoshi's dinosaur-themed Classic Mode route, "Jurassic Journey" and used as a Spirit Battle stand-in for the dinosaurian Groudon.
  • Disney Villain Death: When he gets cornered by Mario and co. Pit shoots his Palutena Bow at Bowser which caused him to tumble off of a nearby cliff. It gets subverted since his Koopa Clown Car was intentionally placed for him to fall into that allows to escape and fly off into Halberd to seal Peach (or Zelda).
  • Divergent Character Evolution: In Melee, Giga Bowser was just a bigger, freakier Bowser with a buffed but fundamentally identical moveset. Brawl made Giga Bowser a One-Winged Angel form with immunity to flinching. Finally, 3DS/Wii U saw Bowser and Giga Bowser take on two very different movesets; Bowser underwent Anthropomorphic Shift, while Giga Bowser's fighting style remained distinctly primal and generally unchanged from Brawl. In Ultimate, Giga Bowser isn't directly playable, instead being a 2.5D style attack from the background; he also appears as a boss character again, but this time, he operates like a boss in every respect, including having significant wind-up on his attacks, having finite health, and being completely Immune to Flinching.
  • The Dog Bites Back: Bowser ends up exacting revenge on Ganondorf's trophy when finding it after the latter, prior to being turned into one, had shot Bowser in the back with the only Trophy Gun left.
  • Do Not Go Gentle: He's notably one of the few characters to try fighting off the beams of light in World of Light. He fails, but the effort is admirable.
  • Dub Name Change: From Koopa in the Japanese versions. Lampshaded in the Bowser + Flame Runner trophy:
    Incidentally, Bowser is known as Koopa in Japan, but the Japanese name for this bike is Super Bowser. How rare.
  • Enemy Mine:
    • He joins the heroes in Brawl's adventure mode once he realizes that Tabuu had manipulated everyone. He's distinguishable from Wario or Ganondorf in that he is the only antagonistic fighter who is required to join you.
    • Ultimate's World of Light mode has him teamed up with Mario and company against Galeem from the beginning.
  • Evil Is Bigger: Easily the most iconic video game villain of all time, and the biggest and bulkiest playable character in Smash (Ridley is slightly taller than him in Ultimate when not slouching, but is very Lean and Mean in comparison).
  • Evil Is Burning Hot: One of the few villainous characters in the series, and with a lot of fire attacks and motifs to back it up.
  • Evil Laugh: Even though his voice was replaced with growls and roars in this series he does let out a nasty snicker at the heroes when he takes off in his Koopa Clown Car after kidnapping either princess.
  • Evil Overlooker: In Mega Man's illustration poster for Smash 4 as a stand-in for Dr. Wily, Bowser is seen in the background looking at the other fighters below him with Mega Man in the center as an homage to many of the Japanese boxart of the classic Mega Man era.
  • Evil Sounds Deep: In Melee and Brawl, his roars and bellows sound much deeper than his roars in the N64 games. This gets taken even further whenever he gets a Super Mushroom or transforms himself into his powerful Giga Bowser form for his Final Smash, as his already terrifying roars are shifted into a lower-pitch where he sounds less like a monstrous Koopa and more like a demon.
  • Evil Red Head: Has a flaming red mohawk and is Mario's incredibly well-known Arch-Nemesis, who's mostly the constant Big Bad in their own series to boot. If there isn't any other enemy that Mario is fighting, chances are it's going to be Bowser.
  • Final Boss: In Adventure Mode in Melee, though the boss Bowser is slightly larger than the playable one, which is particularly noticeable if you're playing as Bowser yourself. He reprises this role in Ultimate for Mario and Captain Falcon's Classic Mode runs.
  • Fireballs: Fire Shot makes Bowser launch spherical burning flames but unlike his default Neutral Special, it doesn't momentarily weaken and has extended range beyond it, but the fireballs themselves deal less damage than usual.
  • Furry Reminder: Bowser's voice clips are comprised of a dinosaur's roaring and growling, as opposed to his more human-sounding, cartoony voice in the main Mario games.
  • Glowing Eyes of Doom: When he gets defeated in Adventure Mode (without any continues), a quick cutscene is shown where his trophy ominously floats right back on Final Destination and a lightning bolt strikes it, causing his trophy to shed off his entire skin to reveal Bowser's downright demonic form as his eyes start to flash and glow brightly. Good luck trying to take him down.
  • Ground Pound: Bowser's down special move, Bowser Bomb, which is identical to the Ground Pound he performs in the final battle of Super Mario Bros. 3. In 3DS/Wii U, his down aerial is reworked into being a second one, retracting into his shell and slamming downwards.
  • The Heavy: Although he is not the main antagonist of The Subspace Emissary, he's the most recurring nuisance after the Ancient Minister.
  • Hitbox Dissonance: His grab range in 3DS/Wii U was buffed considerably, though his hands don't reach out any farther, leading to him grabbing beyond where his hand actually reaches. Especially noticeable in his pivot grab, whose range is comically large. Unsurprisingly, this was toned down in Ultimate.
  • Home Stage:
    • Melee: Princess Peach's Castle and Battlefield when as an opponent in Classic Mode, Yoshi's Island in All-Star Mode and Rainbow Cruise in his All-Star Match event.
    • Brawl: All debuting stages from his seriesnote , minus Mario Bros. due to its association with R.O.B..
    • 3DS/Wii U: All stages from his series.note 
    • Ultimate: Mushroomy Kingdom in Ultimate's website, though his normal unlock fight takes place in Mushroom Kingdom U.
  • Human Shield: In Subspace Emissary, he holds either Zelda or Peach in front of one of Link or Mario's attacks to get them to stop.
  • Idle Animation:
    • He leans back and exhales steam while growling.
    • He clenches his fists and roars.
  • Immune to Flinching: Bowser gained the exclusive "tough guy" ability in 3DS/Wii U, where if he is struck by hitboxes with negligible knockback, such as the first hits of most jabs, he will not be flinched. This will only work on lower percents however.
  • Implacable Man: He still takes damage when attacked as Giga Bowser in Brawl and 3DS/Wii U, but is completely Immune to Flinching and knockback.
  • The Juggernaut: A core part of his design in Ultimate, as his newfound super armor on most of his heavier attacks allow him to power through weak attacks, which further establishes his core "ignore what the opponent throws at you and send their ass flying into another dimension with a good, solid hit" identity.
  • Kaiju: Giga Bowser is an archetypical Japanese giant monster. Regular Bowser also qualifies, if a smaller example than usual.
  • Leitmotif: The Airship Theme played in many of his appearances in Subspace. In addition, his Ultimate character trailer played King Koopa Battle, his boss fight theme from Super Mario Bros. 3.
  • Lightning Bruiser: Has had shades of this since 3DS/Wii U.
    • 3DS/Wii U zig-zags on this and Mighty Glacier, as seen below. Bowser's weight and endurance were improved, becoming heavier and impervious to attacks with very low knockback. However, his mobility was buffed, and his attacks have also reworked to be reasonably quicker. His more upright stance in that entry reflects this.
    • In Ultimate, he is very much this, averting for the first time the Mighty Glacier archetype he is known for. Although Bowser remains in the pantheon of big, slow heavy hitters with Ganondorf, Dedede, and K. Rool (who makes up for their speed and large frames by being able to end stocks with one good hit and take one hell of a beating), Bowser's mobility was buffed even further from the previous game, all the while being even more heavy and powerful while having less landing lag. This makes him one of the hardest-hitting characters in the game and frighteningly fast to boot.
  • Limit Break: Giga Bowser. He grows huge and has all of his attacks buffed on top of being immune to knockback during the transformation. In Ultimate, he instead turns into a Background Boss and charges a massive punch, which heavily damages anyone it hits. note 
  • Man Bites Man: Had this attack for his side special in Melee whenever he uses his Koopa Klaw in close-range. It was basically his secondary grab where he can bite into the flesh of his victims up to 8 times.
  • Megaton Punch: In Ultimate, Giga Bowser unleashes a punch so powerful that anyone that gets hit by it instantly goes splat against the screen if their damage is high enough.
  • Meteor Move: His down aerial in Brawl (towards the end of the attack) and 3DS/Wii U (towards the beginning of the attack), and his down tilt attack while he's Giga Bowser (first claw strike) will Meteor Smash targets.
    • A well-timed Bowser Bomb is highly capable of slamming enemies downward in Ultimate, but right as soon as Bowser begins to drop his mass after leaping into the air. This attack can also be used as a possible method for edgeguarding.
  • Mighty Glacier: One of the first characters to embody this archetype.
    • In Melee, he is the most powerful character after Ganondorf, but was also abysmally slow, with among the slowest movement speed, and by far the slowest and laggiest attacks in the game.
    • Brawl improved his mobility and his attacks' speed, though he was still an overall slow character who relies on his great power to make up the difference.
    • 3DS/Wii U zig-zags on this and Lightning Bruiser. Bowser was actually made much faster, outrunning Mario (who previously ran as fast as him) and his attacks were made reasonably faster and more in-line with the cast. However, his mobility is still not amazing, and his attacks remain overall slow and punishable; along with a lack of options to approach an opponent, Bowser is more content forcing the opponent to come at him. Especially since his already great endurance was helped by making him even heavier and granting him slight armor against attacks with negligible knockback, like the first hit of most neutral attacks.
    • Averted in Ultimate, see Lightning Bruiser above.
  • Mighty Roar: His taunt in Melee involves doing a brief roar in a dominant manner as steams exits his mouth. It later became his up taunt staring with Brawl. In Shulk's trailer, while roaming around in Gaur Plains, he rises his head and roars into the heavens... and sees a butterfly catching his attention.
  • Mix-and-Match Critters: He's a monstrous turtle with some elements of oxen, dragons, and dinosaurs.
  • Mythology Gag:
    • His Fire Breath move can be customized into either a stream of flames or to spit large fireballs, both variations of Bowser's fire breath that he is able to do in his own series.
    • The Bowser Bomb is based on his attack pattern in Super Mario Bros. 3.
    • His revamped Final Smash in Ultimate has him transform into Giga Bowser, but he turns even more enormous while delivering a powerful punch towards the screen and is surrounded by a swirling background, much like the final boss of Super Mario Galaxy 2. Sakurai himself compares it to the boss fight against Baby Bowser in Yoshi's Island.
  • Nerf:
    • In 3DS/Wii U, prior to the 1.0.4 patch, an opponent dragged offstage by Flying Slam would always be KO'd before Bowser, which besides making it inescapable if dragged offstage, always ensured Bowser would win if he did the move on his and the opponent's last stock. The 1.0.4 patch changed it so, depending on the height at which the move was initiated, will either result in Bowser and the opponent being KO'd at the same time, or Bowser will die first (despite Bowser being visibly above the opponent). This change means not only will Bowser risk losing if he attempts a suicide KO on his last stock, but his opponent can actually now recover and survive it if Bowser dies first and their recovery is good enough to make it back to the stage. This does not work at all in Ultimate, as Bowser will always be KOed first.
    • Within the final patches for 3DS/Wii U, his Up Throw became a monstrously-useful combo throw, turning him into a surprisingly combo-heavy Grappler who could easily combo into his various aerials (including one of his kill moves, his Up-Air). In Ultimate, this is no longer the case.
  • Not Zilla: Bowser's monstrous behavior in Smash is more reminiscent of Godzilla than usual, and one event in Melee even has a Giant Bowser face off against a Giant Donkey Kong as a possible homage to King Kong vs. Godzilla. Even more so with Giga Bowser, who's pretty much a dead ringer for the King of Monsters, and has the size too.
  • One-Winged Angel: Giga Bowser, the True Final Boss in Melee and his Limit Break in Brawl. Just think of Bowser, only bigger, more muscular, and more monstrous. In Ultimate, he grows to giant size like he does in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island.
  • Our Dragons Are Different: Subverted; Bowser is a big reptilian monster with some dragonlike characteristics, but Smash doesn't classify him or his son as dragons as it does with Yoshi, Charizard, Corrin, Ridley, and (strangely) King K. Rool.
  • Out of the Inferno: His Big Entrance in Brawl and onwards during multiplayer matches.
  • Palette Swap: His red, blue, and white swaps are inspired by the sprites of the Koopalings Wendy, Iggy, and Morton respectively in Super Mario Bros. 3.
  • Perpetual Frowner: His default expression in virtually any appearance.
  • Playing with Fire: Several of his attacks come with fire effects.
  • Primal Stance: His normal form in Melee and Brawl. He has a more humanoid stance in 3DS/Wii U and on, though he reverts to this when transforming into Giga Bowser in 3DS/Wii U.
  • Purple Is Powerful: For his Final Smash in Ultimate, the background turns into a swirling dark purple void.
  • Recurring Boss: Fought or faced multiple times in the Event Matches after the first one, where he serves as the Warm-Up Boss. His Giga Bowser transformation was the True Final Boss in Melee, while normal Bowser is faced alongside other villains as one of the Final Bosses in the lastnote  event of the sequels. Giga Bowser returns to his boss role in Ultimate.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: Especially as Giga Bowser.
  • Royals Who Actually Do Something: He is the king of the Koopas, and he's no slouch in battle.
  • Saved for the Sequel: Bowser, along with Mewtwo, King Dedede, and Marth, was planned to be playable in the first Smash game, but was unable to get in due to time and budget constraints. In the next game, he finally got to show the Smash world what he's made of.
  • Secret Character: For Ultimate: Have a Cumulative Wait Time of 20 minutes, beat Classic Mode with Donkey Kong or anyone in his unlock tree once, or defeat Giga Bowser in World of Light.
  • Signature Move: In 3DS/Wii U, it was his new side smash, a powerful dropkick, in order to show off his more athletic revamped moveset.
  • Skill Gate Character: In 3DS/Wii U. Bowser is very strong, very fast, extremely durable, is fairly easy to use, and can be quite difficult to deal with for inexperienced players (as seen in his domination of pre-release tournaments). At higher levels of play, he can still be used competently, but is much easier to deal with and is susceptible to combos due to his size and weight.
  • Spikes of Villainy: He's loaded with spikes, noted by his Melee classic trophy.
  • Spin Attack: His down smash, neutral aerial, down aerial, and Whirling Fortress.
  • Spin to Deflect Stuff: 3DS/Wii U gives his Whirling Fortress the ability to deflect weaker projectiles if they hit the top part of the shell.
  • Spinning Piledriver: In Ultimate, his Flying Slam has been given an additional animation. He now spins while dropping with the enemy. The move also explodes upon impact.
  • Stock Sound Effect: In Melee and onward, some of his roars come from Kaiju movies, which only proves his ferocity.
  • Stout Strength: Bowser isn't obese like Dedede or Wario, but he has a typical "giant reptile" build with both muscle and fat, and is one of the hardest hitters in the series.
  • Suicide Attack: Bowser can use Flying Slam to hurl himself right off the stage, carrying a hapless opponent along for the ride. If both Bowser and his target are on their last life when this is used in Brawl, Bowser will be declared the winner in a last stock situation instead of initiating Sudden Death if he's being played on a lower player port due to the port priority system. It's also possible to do in 3DS/Wii U, though as covered in the nerf section, it became a lot less reliable after the 1.0.4 patch, and was nullified in Ultimate altogether.
  • Super Mode: His (temporary) transformation into Giga Bowser for his Final Smash in Brawl and 3DS/Wii U is basically a powerful Kaiju version of himself as he's far more monstrous in size, high attack strength, has Elemental Powers for some of his physical attacks, and has Immune to Flinching properties by being able to tank an absurd number of hits, which makes it impossible to outright KO him.
  • Tough Spikes and Studs: The King of the Koopas is one of the sturdiest, resilient, and likely stubborn fighters to ever take on since he's deemed as the heaviest character who's also fashioned with many spiked bracelets around his wrists and forearms, along with a choker around his neck. Even the official name for his Super Armor in 3DS/Wii U and Ultimate is referred to as "Tough Guy", given that he's highly unaffected by knockback from weaker hits from his enemies as he can literally walk through puny attacks without ever having to shield himself.
  • Truer to the Text: His revamp in Smash 4 replaced his T-rex-esque proportions and Primal Stance with more humanoid proportions and expressive animations closer to his portrayal in canon. Most notably, the inexplicable sliding he did as his "run" was replaced by an actual run, something that Bowser has been able to do in many games. He still has the stock Kaiju growls instead of his regular voice, however.
    • Ironically, Sakurai considers his primal Smash Bros. designs to be the more accurate interpretation of the character, based on his own childhood perception of Bowser in the 8-bit installments as a legitimately intimidating, draconian villain rather than the increasingly kid-friendly, buffoonish depictions used later in the Mario series.
  • Unskilled, but Strong: In Melee and Brawl, his overall fighting style was rather sluggish and brutish, such as violent claw slashes, headbutts, and even gnawing his opponents up close and personal. Thanks to 3DS/Wii U, the Koopa King gained an Anthropomorphic Shift, making his moveset more versatile along with superior mobility. He still fights like the brute that he is, but because he's a monstrous draconian turtle-like beast, who says he needs technique and finesse to show his foes what for?
  • Victorious Roar: For most of his playable appearances in the series, he'll usually roar in a highly triumphant manner for one of his victory poses.
  • Vocal Evolution: For his playable debut in Melee, his roars (which are stock) sounded completely "animalistic", where the same can be said for his Brawl appearance, since some of his growls even sounded slightly human-like for a couple of his attacks, for such sounds as his Up Smash for example. For 3DS/Wii U, most of his vocalizations were re-worked as Bowser's "voice" sounds a little higher-pitched in some regard as it's nowhere near as deep as he originally sounded.
  • Wrestler in All of Us: In Brawl, he gains the Flying Slam (a flying suplex he performs on an opponent) in place of the Koopa Klaw (which was nothing more than a glorified grab). And in 3DS/Wii U, he gains a drop-kick as well for his side smash and back aerial.
  • Warm-Up Boss: The first events in Melee, Brawl, and Wii U feature him as one of the first opponents to be fought, facing Mario.
  • Your Size May Vary: Bowser's height has varied from being the same height as Super Mario to enormous, but in Smash, he's roughly twice as tall as Mario, but transforms into Giga Bowser as a reference to him being huge in certain boss battles.
     15 – Ice Climbers 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/iceclimbers.png
Brawl 
Melee 
Voiced by: Sanae Kobayashi
Home Series: Ice Climber
Debut: Vs. Ice Climber [Arcade], 1984
Creator: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo

Playable in: Melee, Brawl, Ultimate
Specials: Ice Shot, Squall Hammer, Belay, Blizzard
Final Smash: Iceberg

From the old NES game Ice Climber, Popo and Nana are a mountain climbing duo with a seemingly unbreakable bond. As their name suggests, they climb icy summits in their spare time. In their game, they pursued a condor that was in possession of various vegetables.

In Smash, they work together to take down their opponents with teamwork-based attacks and ice-based powers. The two of them attack individually, though both of their moves are accessed with the press of a button. Together, the two of them can be absolutely devastating, and crafty usage of the duo can turn the fight in the user's favor. The Ice Climbers have quite the exploitable weakness, however; if Nana gets KO'd, it will take until Popo meets the same fate for them to be a team again. And one Ice Climber can only do so much.


  • Achilles' Heel: Losing the second Ice Climber (typically Nana) severely cripples the character's attack and recovery options; and unlike Rosalina, whose Luma partner respawns after a few moments, the Ice Climbers won't become a duo again until the lead climber falls.
  • Adaptational Badass: Much like Captain Falcon, they never displayed any cryokinetic abilities in their home game.
  • Adventure Duo: Whatever the exact nature of their relationship is, what's clear is that they are indeed a duo that scale icy cliffs and collect vegetables together.
  • Ambidextrous Sprite: Ultimate provides a rare 3D example. Unlike other weapon-wielders, the Ice Climbers will exchange their hammers to their other hands depending on which way they're facing.
  • Ambiguously Related: They're depicted as having a very close lover-esque relationship, described as "rarely seen apart". The Melee intro at one point even shows Popo and Nana giving each other a high five, with a heart coming out where their hands meet. However, given that they look and sound like children (too young to be lovers), and that they have identical features, many believe that they are actually siblings, while still others believe that they are Just Friends. Word of God states that the nature of their relationship is up to the player's interpretation. However, the Japanese title of Event 21 in Melee roughly translates to 'Those Who Interfere People's Romance', and an update to the Japanese Melee website explains that they're "more than friends, but not quite lovers".
  • Back-to-Back Badasses: Popo and Nana will shoot Blizzard in opposite directions while together when the move is started on the ground. Averted when in the air in Melee and Brawl and in all cases in Ultimate, where they shoot in the same direction.
  • Badass Adorable: They're mountain-climbing experts and powerful fighters in their own right, and they just look so adorable in the process.
  • Barely-Changed Dub Name:
    • In Japan, the name of the team is Ice Climber without the S, reflective of their game origin.
    • In Germany, Popo is known as "Pèpè". His name was changed because "popo" is a German word for "ass".
  • Battle Intro: The duo ride in on the Condor from the end of stages in their original game, then high-five.
  • Black Bead Eyes: Both climbers sport these, similarly to Kirby.
  • Blush Sticker: Permanently rosy cheeks do kind of make sense in the climate they are usually seen in, though.
  • Cheaters Never Prosper: Apparently happened In-Universe according to Pit on their Palutena's Guidance entry in Ultimate. Aside from the real-life hardware limitations of the 3DS (which was why they were cut in the first place from Smash 4), the duo were actually temporarily suspended from participating when their dual-fighter playstyle was deemed against the rules. Since they're back, it's likely that said playstyle was now determined to be legal.
  • Cheerful Children: They're left with a Vague Age in the original Ice Climber game, but are most certainly these here.
  • Combination Attack: All of them except Iceberg become stronger with the presence of both of them, but Belay and Blizzard depend on both the most.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle: "Wobbling". Unlike in most fighting games, players can attack enemies during grab attacks before tossing them. This works heavily in the Ice Climbers' favor, given that there are 2 of them. The player can grab the opponent and repeatedly tap the attack button to have the Climbers attack in immediate alternating succession. If done properly, the round becomes hilariously one-sided, as the Climbers can rack up damage and the opponent can only sit there and take it until they're finished off (by inputting for a smash attack, Popo may wind up to throw the sucker, but Nana simply does the smash attack, knocking them from Popo's grasp and sending them to their doom).
  • Cycle of Hurting: In Melee, the Ice Climbers can perform a technique known as "wobbling" where a desynced Climber grabs their opponent and pummels them in rapid succession with the other Climber. It's nearly impossible to get out of unless the Ice Climbers decide to throw.
  • Demoted to Extra: They hold the dubious honor of being the only character that has appeared in multiple installments in a row to be cut from the roster in 3DS/Wii U, since their team gimmick couldn't work in the 3DS version due to hardware limitations. However, a trophy of them remains on both versions.
  • Difficult, but Awesome: It's possible to "de-sync" them for short periods of time to pull off some Combos, like having Nana do a Smash attack while Popo is in the middle of a grab.
  • Dub Name Change: An odd variation. In Japan, they're simply known as "Ice Climber" after their game of origin, while the states make it plural to refer to the Ice Climbers as characters. It's notable because the announcer always distinguishes between "Ice Climber" and "Ice Climbers" depending on the set language.
    • The Russian version chose to Take a Third Option and call them Alpinists, without referencing the game's title.
  • Enemy Mine: Seeing the bond they share in SSB, it's hard to believe they were rivals in the original game.
    • Despite being the de-facto villain of "Ice Climber", the Condor assists them during their entrance and their Final Smash.
  • Failed a Spot Check: Palutena's Guidance always assumes the lead Ice Climber is Popo, as she suggests isolating him by defeating Nana first to make the fight easier, despite half of the palette variants allowing the opposite.
  • Feet-First Introduction: In the E3 2018 trailer showing all the returning fighters, we first see the Ice Climbers' shoes before the camera pans to show the rest of their bodies.
  • Freak Out: Nana has an adorable one when Popo is nowhere to be seen in Ultimate.
  • Glass Cannon: They can hit hard, but if they are separated, or especially if the computer-controlled Climber is KO'd, their defensive and recovery options become severely limited.
  • Home Stage:
    • Melee: Icicle Mountain.
    • Brawl: Summit.
    • Ultimate: Summit.
  • An Ice Person: For no reason other than to give them more battle options, as they did not have ice powers in their own games.
  • An Ice Suit: Parkas that resemble Eskimo dress.
  • Identical Twin ID Tag: Aside from the color of their parkas, the only other physical difference between them is the shape of their bangs.
  • Idle Animation:
    • They twirl their hammers while raising them.
    • They look behind themselves briefly.
  • Just Friends: Sakurai describes them as being close since childhood, more than friends but not quite lovers (or that one has unrequited feelings depending on the translation).
  • Kaizo Trap: If you KO the lead character (usually Popo, depends on the Palette Swap), the following character disappears shortly afterwards. In the hands of a good player, and especially if they were KO'd by a smash attack with a lot of ending lag, and especially if they were star KO'd, the following character can definitely land a KOing blow before they disappear.
  • Leitmotif: Icicle Mountain, which got another remix in Brawl simply called Ice Climber, which got reused in Ultimate.
  • Limit Break: For their Final Smash, they'll summon a giant Iceberg that covers most of the stage. It freezes enemies upon contact.
  • Mechanically Unusual Fighter: They're effectively two characters being controlled at once. This can lead to some shenanigans when grabbing or being grabbed, as the second Ice Climber can still attack normally in Melee and Brawl (but not in Ultimate).
  • Meteor Move: Their forward aerial will Meteor Smash targets, though in Brawl, only the CPU-controlled one can do this.
  • Mythology Gag:
    • The player controls both of the Ice Climbers at all times. This is a reference to Ice Climber being the first Nintendo console game with two player simultaneous co-op.
    • Unlike other one-handed weapon wielders in Smash, the Ice Climbers use an Ambidextrous Sprite and switch their weapons between hands, mirroring the flipped animations common in NES era sprites (with even the famously southpaw Link using a right-handed attack if he was facing the eastern direction).
  • Nerf: Their return in Ultimate came with some significant nerfs. Their grab game is far less fearsome due to the removal of chain grabbing, the other Ice Climber no longer pummels the enemy during a grab, and if the lead Ice Climber is grabbed, the other one will panic and do nothing, similar to Rosalina and Luma.
  • No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: "Wobbling" is the process of grabbing the opponent and repeatedly pummeling them.
  • Not Quite Dead: In Versus mode, you can still control the partner while the lead one is flying off screen.
  • Oh, Crap!: In Ultimate, if the lead Ice Climber is grabbed, the other will stand in place panicking.
  • Palette Swap: Notably, half of the outfits allow the player to control Nana instead of Popo; the leader is indicated on their select-screen portrait in Melee and Ultimate. One is based on their original sprites (a more washed-out blue for Popo and red for Nana), and another clads them both in white (with their gloves color-coded accordingly).
  • Pink Girl, Blue Boy: Their default outfits. Blue for Popo, and pink for Nana.
  • The Power of Friendship: All of the Climbers' special moves are enhanced when both are in play, but Belay in particular relies on it. The AI climber will use some rope to throw the lead Climber higher, potentially sacrificing themself in the process depending on the height needed to recover.
  • Puppet Fighter: Downplayed. If the Ice Climbers are "de-synced", the player can alternate between which character is acting, allowing them to be controlled separately. This is also the reason the Kaizo Trap mentioned above works. The problem is that if the lead character is safe but too far away from the following character, the following character will stop acting and automatically chase the lead one down, so the player has to be careful when doing this trick. This in contrast to Rosalina, who can control the Luma regardless of the distance between them.
  • Put on the Bus: Were cut from 3DS/Wii U due to the Nintendo 3DS's hardware limitations, then they returned in Ultimate.
  • Secret Character: For Ultimate: Have a Cumulative Wait Time of 1 hour and 30 minutes, beat Classic Mode with Link or anyone in his unlock tree two times, or find and defeat them in World of Light.
  • Sore Loser: In reference to the "No bonus" animation in their home game, they sob when defeated instead of clapping.
  • Spin Attack: Their Side Special, Squall Hammer, has them spin around while swinging their hammers. The move can give them some airtime, assisting in horizontal recovery.
  • Vague Age: They may be Cheerful Children, they may be adults in a cutesy artstyle, or anything in-between.
  • We Cannot Go On Without You: Whichever one is in the lead (Popo as the default) is the only one whose life counter matters; if the lead Ice Climber is KO'd, the other Ice Climber disappears.
     16 – Sheik 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sheikssbu.png
3DS/Wii U 
Brawl 
Melee 
Voiced by: Jun Mizusawa (Melee through 3DS / Wii U), Ayumi Fujimura (Ultimate)
SHEIK APPEARS ON THE SCENE!
Home Series: The Legend of Zelda
Creator: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo

Playable in: Melee, Brawl, 3DS/Wii U, Ultimate
Specials: Needle Storm, Chain (Melee, Brawl), Burst Grenade (3DS/Wii U, Ultimate), Vanish, Transform (Melee, Brawl), Bouncing Fish (3DS/Wii U, Ultimate)
Final Smash: Light Arrow (Brawl, 3DS/Wii U), Sheikah Dance (Ultimate)

"It's over!" (Translated from Japanese)

The alter ego of Princess Zelda from Ocarina of Time. In order to avoid capture by Ganondorf's minions, she disguised herself as a Sheikah male, though later appearances give her a more feminine look, including the 3DS remake. In her game of origin, she would help Link by leading him to the temples and teaching him songs to warp to them. In Smash, Sheik finally gets a chance to show off her training as a Sheikah warrior and attacks with Ninja techniques.

Befitting a ninja, Sheik's movement speed is incredibly fast and her movement options put her at a formerly unmatched level. She also carries plenty of versatility in her moveset, including swift needles, grenades and smoke bombs. Recent games made her overall weaker in terms of offense and defense compared to earlier installments, but despite her lack of reliable kill moves, it shouldn't be too hard to rack up percentages with her speedy attacks. Sheik started out as merely a transformation for Zelda, but starting with 3DS/Wii U, Sheik became a separate character.

Sheik is unique among the Zelda cast in that she is the only playable character to appear in a single Zelda game (remakes and spinoffs notwithstanding). Melee uses her Ocarina of Time design, Brawl and 3DS/Wii U use an an original design created by the artists of Twilight Princess, and Ultimate takes influence from Link's Sheikah-made Stealth outfit in Breath of the Wild.

See The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time character page for more information on the character in her origin series.

  • Ambiguous Situation: Sheik's relation to the greater Zelda timeline is hard to pin down in Ultimate. While Melee's Sheik is unambiguously the one from Ocarina of Time, transforming from that game's Zelda, and Brawl's Sheik transforms from Twilight Princess Zelda and is influenced by the game's artstyle, from 3DS/Wii U onward Zelda and Sheik are now separate characters on the roster, so they could now be entirely separate people as well. While 3DS/Wii U has them both keep their Twilight designs and the Wii U version's "Identity Crisis" event has Sheik turn into Zelda upon defeat, suggesting they probably still are the same person in that game, Ultimate makes things complicated by having Sheik dress in clothes from Breath of the Wild despite not appearing in that game, while the playable Zelda is the A Link to the Past or A Link Between Worlds Zelda, who has nothing to do with Sheik whatsoever. Despite this, they still share a voice actor. So while it's clear the playable Zelda and Sheik are now separate characters (made explicit in Sora's reveal trailer), exactly which Zelda this Sheik is remains ambiguous. Possibilities range from her being Ocarina of Time Zelda (who was the one to actually have Sheik as an identity in canon and in Melee), Twilight Princess Zelda (who Sheik was in the previous two games), and Breath of the Wild Zelda (because of the Stealth Set, and that Zelda being absent from the game beyond a Spirit). Another possibility is that the playable Zelda and Sheik are the Zelda of A Link to the Past and the Zelda of A Link Between Worlds, but which Zelda is which depends on who's talking.
  • The Artifact:
    • Sheik remains the only One-Shot Character from the Zelda franchise in the series to be playable in Smash due to being incorporated as Zelda's gimmick in her Smash debut.note  Other popular one-shots from the same series, such as Midna and Ghirahim, have been relegated to Assist Trophies at best. Even with the inability to transform characters in 3DS/Wii U, Sheik's popularity has allowed her (alongside Zero Suit Samus) to appear as Decomposite Characters. It's also likely due to her Smash popularity that the incarnation of Zelda in the non-canon Hyrule Warriors uses Sheik as an alternate identity. Ultimately, Sheik has now appeared in more Smash games than games in her own series.
    • Her blonde hair became this in Brawl, when the design of her alter ego switched to her Twilight Princess incarnation, which had prominent brown hair. Maybe Zelda puts on a wig to transform into Sheik?
    • In 3DS/Wii U, Zelda and Sheik were split into entirely separate characters due to the difficulty of implementing the character switching on the 3DS. However, while other changes and removals made due to the 3DS' limitations were reverted in Ultimate (such as the removal of the Ice Climbers and the Pokémon Trainer, with Charizard being relegated from a solo character back into the latter)note , Sheik and Zelda remain unable to change into one another like they could in Melee and Brawl. This became especially notable after the introduction of Pyra and Mythra via DLC, who do have a switching mechanic similar to what Zelda and Sheik used to have.
  • Art Evolution: Despite only appearing in one game in Zelda canon, Sheik's design continues to evolve with eras the character never existed in. In Melee, her design was based on her Ocarina of Time appearance. Beginning in Brawl, she's given a unique design to match a Twilight Princess appearance. In Ultimate, she wears the Stealth Chest Guard and Stealth Tights from Breath of the Wild.
  • Battle Intro:
    • In Brawl, she appears in a shower of sparkles.
    • In 3DS/Wii U and Ultimate, she appears in a spiral of smoke.
  • Bifauxnen: She's a woman disguised as a man. Later games make her femininity more clear, however.
  • Blade Spam: Sheik's Final Smash in Ultimate has her rapidly assault the enemy from many angles by Flash Steping with her sword.
  • Chain Pain: Her side special in Melee and Brawl has her attack with a chain with slight electric properties.
  • Charged Attack: Neutral B, Needle Storm, which can be stored. The longer it's charged, the more needles Sheik sends out when it's fired, each one dealing low damage. They are fired diagonally downwards in midair.
  • Composite Character: In Brawl and 3DS/Wii U, this Sheik is an original incarnation based on Twilight Princess' artstyle, and a non-canon alter-ego of Twilight Princess Zelda. In canon, only Ocarina of Time's Zelda was able to transform into Sheik, and Sheik's Final Smash still uses the light arrows Zelda had in Twilight Princess. In Ultimate, her bodysuit and armor have been updated to match the design of Link's Sheikah Set from Breath of the Wild. Interestingly, she keeps her ponytail from her Brawl design rather than the short hair used in Shiek's mask in the same game.
  • Damsel out of Distress: She takes matters in her own hands once she's imprisoned on the Halberd in the Subspace Emissary.
  • Death by a Thousand Cuts: Has always leant towards this archetype, with her moves being very fast but rather weak in both damage and power.
  • Decomposite Character: By removing all mid-game transformation mechanics, 3DS/Wii U splits Sheik off into a stand-alone character, but still mostly based on her Twilight Princess-inspired design and the Brawl incarnation that could switch back and forth. Ultimate goes a step further by having Sheik and Zelda from different eras (Breath of the Wild and Link Between Worlds, respectively), so they may not even be the same person at all anymore.
  • Difficult, but Awesome: Sheik has a high learning curve, as her best killing options are hard to pull off, and she needs to be both quick and patient to react to her opponent's actions. Pull her moves off, however, and she can defeat her opponents quickly.
  • Flechette Storm: Needle Storm, which is also a charged attack.
  • Fragile Speedster: Has incredibly fast movement and attacks, but fairly low weight. Melee's incarnation edged more towards Lightning Bruiser, however, due to her surprisingly high weight and falling speed.
  • Home Stage:
    • Melee: Temple.
    • Brawl: Both debuting stages from her series.note 
    • 3DS/Wii U: All stages from her series.note 
    • Ultimate: Gerudo Valley in Ultimate's website and her unlock battle, her fight in World of Light though takes place in Final Destination.
  • Idle Animation:
    • She holds her hand up to her face and swipes it away.
    • She turns away and balances on one foot.
  • Kick Chick: Her kicks are slightly slower than her fists, but they hurt.
  • Late-Arrival Spoiler: Sheik is Zelda in disguise. 3DS/Wii U has some fun with this by having trophy descriptions and some tips spoiler-warn this relation. Pit outright says it in Palutena's Guidance in Ultimate.
  • Leitmotif:
    • In Melee, she shared Temple with Zelda.
    • In Brawl, the Ocarina of Time Medley, again shared with Zelda.
    • In 3DS/Wii U, the Gerudo Valley played during the April Direct to introduce her as a separate character from Zelda. The same theme was reused for her Ultimate trailer.
  • Light 'em Up: With the light arrows she uses in her Final Smash in Brawl and 3DS/Wii U.
  • Lightning Bruiser: In Melee, she was one of the fastest characters, with one of the most powerful aerial movesets, along with one of the strongest up smashes and a surprisingly dangerous forward aerial. She's also great at taking a hit due to her relatively high weight for her size and high falling speed, which allows her to survive strong attacks well. Later games turn her into more of a Fragile Speedster, though her up smash is still her most powerful move.
  • Limit Break:
    • In Brawl and 3DS/Wii U, Sheik fires a Light Arrow forward. Differs from Zelda's by having opponents hit by it be launched more horizontally.
    • In Ultimate, her Final Smash has been changed to a lightning-fast blitz of sword slashes and kicks from all angles.
  • Nerf:
    • In Brawl, she had all of her aerial attacks weakened, especially her forward aerial, along with a weakened up smash, the removal of her down throw chain throw, and sustaining more knockback, making her more of a Fragile Speedster.
    • In 3DS/Wii U Sheik remained a Fragile Speedster with incredible combo potential and good kill confirms. In Ultimate, her damage was gutted, her kill moves are vastly worse, and a basic bread and butter combo for Sheik can deal less damage than the moves of heavyweights such as Bowser or Ganondorf. Granted, they do hit harder than many other characters, but Sheik's doing double digit, long combos. This means Sheik has to win about double the engagements to get the same results, and considering she's so light, it can actually take more than double the effort in certain match-ups because she will die way earlier than her opponent would against a move that has the same killing power.
  • Ninja: Extrapolated from Ocarina of Time, where she and Impa were the last of the Sheikah and were known to ninja vanish.
  • Ornamental Weapon: Since Brawl, she has a small tantō that she never uses. Zigzagged in Ultimate, where she no longer has the tantō on her model, but she does draw a short sword for her new Final Smash.
  • Pronoun Trouble: While the Smash series almost always refers to Sheik with female pronouns in trophies and other descriptions, the Smash Ultimate Blog uses the "his" pronoun when talking about Sheik's speed. In Ultimate, Palutena and Viridi both refer to Sheik with male pronouns, much to the confusion of Pit (who reminds them that Sheik is just Zelda in disguise). Note that all other Ultimate media refers to Sheik with female pronouns, making these two instances the only outliers.
  • Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: Her basic stationary attack.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: A fearsome Ninja with the traditional red eyes of the Sheikah tribe.
  • Royals Who Actually Do Something: The disguised form of Princess Zelda, who also happens to be a ninja.
  • Sarashi: Wears chest wraps across all of her appearances.
  • Scarf of Asskicking: Sheik gains a long scarf in her design in Ultimate.
  • Secret Character: For Ultimate: Have a Cumulative Wait Time of 7 hours and 40 minutes, beat Classic Mode with Donkey Kong or anyone in his unlock tree five times, or find and defeat her in World of Light.
  • Significant Double Casting: She shares a voice actress with Zelda. Take a wild guess why.
  • Smoke Out: Her recovery has her pause to release a smoke bomb before reappearing elsewhere.
  • Stance System: Used to be able to switch into Zelda at will until 3DS/Wii U, where the two are separated from each other and given new down-specials.
  • Sweet Polly Oliver: A woman disguised as a man, and perceived and presented as such in her original appearance. Her design in Brawl onwards makes her femininity clearer, though. This trope leads to Palutena and Viridi referring to Sheik as male during Palutena's Guidance in Ultimate, although the game otherwise refers to Sheik as female.
  • Technicolor Eyes: Zelda has blue irises, while Sheik's are red.
  • Third Eye: Her primary emblem is the Eye of Truth, a stylized eye with a teardrop associated with the Sheikah tribe. Her Final Smash in Ultimate flashes a big one of these across the screen before she attacks her opponents.
  • Throw Down the Bomblet: Her side special in 3DS/Wii U has her using grenades.
  • Walking Spoiler: Unless you've only played 3DS/Wii U before even touching Ocarina of Time. The first of her tips in Ultimate tries to hide her identity as Zelda. Poorly.
  • Wall Jump: Can also cling to walls in Brawl.
  • Voice Grunting: In the first 3 games she appears in, she only utters wordless vocalizations, similar to Link. Her dialogue in the Zelda series is entirely conveyed through written text, which is absent here. However, in Melee, one of her Japanese victory quotes has her say, "It's over!" in Japanese.
     17 – Zelda 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/zeldassbu.png
3DS/Wii U 
Brawl 
Melee 
Voiced by: Jun Mizusawa (Melee through 3DS/Wii U), Ayumi Fujimura (Ultimate), Brandy Kopp (Ultimate, English, World of Light intro only)
Home Series: The Legend of Zelda
Debut:
Zelda in name debuts in: The Legend of Zelda [NES], 1986
Zelda from Melee debuts in: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time [N64], 1998
Zelda from Brawl and 3DS/Wii U debuts in: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess [GameCube/Wii], 2006
Zelda from Ultimate debuts in: The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past [SNES], 1991
Creator: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo

Playable in: Melee, Brawl, 3DS/Wii U, Ultimate
Specials: Nayru's Love, Din's Fire, Farore's Wind, Transform (Melee, Brawl), Phantom Slash (3DS/Wii U, Ultimate)
Final Smash: Light Arrow (Brawl, 3DS/Wii U), Triforce of Wisdom (Ultimate)

The Legacy Character princess of Hyrule, boasting magical attacks. A descendant and incarnation of the Goddess Hylia who is reborn throughout the ages. Zelda has used her powers to assist the various reincarnations of Link, the Hero of Hyrule, countless times — though often not before having to be saved herself.

Zelda is a good deal slower and a tiny bit heavier than her Sheik transformation, but certainly has the greater focus on offense overall. Her main method of attack is via her magic, which generally allow for a more varied way of fighting. When applied effectively, Zelda can keep opponents at bay and limit them to attempting a more direct approach, essentially subjecting foes to mind games in the correct hands. It's certainly a fitting way to fight as the bearer of the Triforce of Wisdom.

Melee uses the incarnation who helped the Hero of Time defeat Ganondorf in Ocarina of Time. Brawl and 3DS/Wii U uses her Twilight Princess self instead, while Ultimate bases her design off of her A Link to the Past and A Link Between Worlds appearances.

See The Legend of Zelda: The Triforce Wielders for more information on the character in her origin series.

  • A-Cup Angst: An official Ultimate picture sees Zelda with a relaxing Palutena holding her arms up and Zelda seemingly looking jealous of Palutena's bigger breast size.
  • Adaptational Badass: Most incarnations of Zelda do not fight directly, and even when they do, they tend to stick to a more supporting role with a bow. Her Smash incarnation, on the other hand, is a Kung-Fu Wizard who can and will get in your face.
  • Age Lift: A variation. Since Zelda has changed incarnations over the years, her age has also changed with them. In her Ocarina of Time and A Link to the Past appearances, she appears to be around sixteen; in her Twilight Princess design, she's in her twenties.
  • Animated Armor: Her Phantom Slash summons the enchanted Phantom Armor to attack foes.
  • Armor-Piercing Attack: One of the custom moves for her Phantom Slash special in 3DS/Wii U is Phantom Breaker, which can break full shields if charged enough.
  • Assist Character: Her Down Special summons a Phantom for both defensive and offensive purposes. Custom moves in 3DS/Wii U change how the Phantom acts.
  • Attack Reflector: Nayru's Love, her neutral special, can reflect projectiles.
  • Badass Adorable: While Zelda's always been a beautiful young princess, her Ultimate design being based on her appearance from A Link to the Past makes her look younger, cuter, and more cheerful, but no less capable in battle than she ever was.
  • Badass Cape: Zelda gains one in Ultimate, with the crest of the Hylian Royal Family on the back. It previously featured on a few different Zeldas, including the Link to the Past, Link Between Worlds, Oracle, and Four Swords Adventures incarnations. Ultimate Zelda is based on the Link Between Worlds one.
  • Balance Buff: The Zelda in Ultimate is faster (both in mobility and attack speed), has much more useful special moves than previously, and Din's Fire doesn't remove her momentum or leave her in freefall as they did previously. Her Final Smash is also miles better than the Twilight Princess, to the point of being one of the best in the game.
  • Battle Intro: Teleports in, focusing magic in her hands.
  • Beauty Equals Goodness: The beautiful young princess of Hyrule — who also happens to be one of the kindest and wisest rulers anyone could ever hope for.
  • Brainy Brunette: In Brawl and 3DS/Wii U, she has brown hair, which fits with her status as "Hyrule's Wise Princess" and keeper of the Triforce of Wisdom, and as a counterpart to the blonde and bubbly Peach.
  • Bridal Carry: The 3DS/Wii U and Ultimate incarnations assume this pose while Boss Galaga is taking them away.
  • Combat Stilettos: She has heels in Melee, but switches to more practical boots in Brawl. Interestingly, in all games after Melee, she has received higher walking and dashing speeds, though they are still slow. Ultimate goes back to the trope, giving her sandal-like heeled boots.
  • Composite Character:
    • In Melee, her design is based on her Ocarina of Time appearance. In Brawl and 3DS/Wii U, she has her Twilight Princess appearance as well as the light arrows she used in said game. In Ultimate, her design is based on her appearances from A Link to the Past and A Link Between Worlds, albeit with realistic proportions as opposed to her Super-Deformed look in those games. Despite being different characters from different eras in the Zelda canon, all three princesses have counted as "Number 17 - Zelda" to represent the character as a whole.
    • In Melee, her specials all use the magic Link can learn in Ocarina of Time.
    • Despite Brawl having a Twilight Princess design, she can still turn into Sheik a la Ocarina Of Time.
    • 3DS/Wii U separates the two characters, but gives Zelda the ability to summon Phantom Zelda from Spirit Tracks, adding more composites to the character.
    • Her Ultimate look is a composite of her appearances from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, with conflicting sources regarding which one she is specifically based upon.note  However, her Fighter Spirit is her Link Between Worlds look. Her moveset is the same as previous games, with her Final Smash being different and being based off her Ocarina Of Time usage of the Triforce of Wisdom to hold down Ganondorf (while the Zelda from A Link Between Worlds also had the Triforce of Wisdom, she gets kidnapped and her Triforce piece taken from her before she can get a chance to use it). According to the reveal video for Ultimate, Zelda's incarnation from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was passed over because that Zelda was more focused on research than action, while Sakurai said in the subsequent Treehouse stream that they also wanted to give a broad range of representation for the Zelda franchise rather than focus on a handful of games.
  • Confusion Fu: Ultimate's rework of her Phantom Slash adds a significant degree of unpredictability to her playstyle. To wit, the move has six different attack variations depending on how long it's charged... and only the person playing Zelda knows which one she's going to use.
  • Cute Bruiser: Is this in Ultimate, with her more cheerful demeanor and brighter color scheme.
  • Damsel in Distress: If you choose to save Peach in The Subspace Emissary. They both become this eventually.
  • Decomposite Character: Sheik was an alternate form of Zelda in Melee and Brawl, but became her own character in 3DS/Wii U and is depicted from a different era than Zelda altogether in Ultimate.
  • Difficult, but Awesome:
    • In the air, at least. All but one of her aerials have to be landed exactly right to get the most damage and distance out of them. Otherwise, they're pretty weak, knocking the opponent back about as far as a jab combo would have. When they are sweetspotted, however, they will hurt.
    • Farore's Wind can attack an opponent from multiple angles. However, its distance has to be calculated almost perfectly when it is used as an attack, otherwise Zelda can end up plummeting to her doom or getting beaten up easily, as she is completely defenseless and unable to jump when she reappears. Using it as its own simple two-hit combo is even more difficult, but if Zelda starts the teleport right next to an opponent, the attack's knockback can move the opponent to where she will reappear, which also sends the opponent flying.
  • Emotionless Girl: Played as straight as a line in Melee and Brawl. Zelda doesn't emote much, almost always keeping a serene demeanor (unless she attacks or). Justified, given both incarnations have gone through serious crap in their gamesnote . She's more expressive in 3DS/Wii U (though she still doesn't smile much), and Ultimate averts the trope in great fashion.
  • Everything's Better with Sparkles: Many of her magic attacks involve sparkles.
  • Fanservice Pack: 3DS/Wii U maintained her already attractive Twilight Princess incarnation, but with the addition of a softer and more expressive face (though still not as far as characters like Peach or Palutena), brighter eyes, and a slightly larger — though still reasonably-sized — chest.
    • While the fanservice-iness is toned down a little in Ultimate thanks to using her more conservative and younger Link to the Past design instead, she still looks gorgeous in a cuter way; particularly with regard to her newfound expressiveness and cheeriness, adorkable smiles and poses, and new cut-away boots that reveal her lower legs and toes.
  • Flash Step: Her recovery is a magical version of this, though it requires a short delay to cast.
  • Flashy Teleportation: Farore's Wind, which allows her to teleport to cover some good ground with green swirls around her on entrance and exit.
  • Full-Contact Magic: Zelda's attacks are often magically enhanced kicks, knifehand, and palm strikes.
  • Genki Girl: Played with in her Ultimate incarnation. While overall much more cheerful and expressive (even accompanying her waving taunt with a playful giggle), she manages to maintain the serene and graceful air of her previous incarnations while doing so. Compared to said previous incarnations, however, this trope is definitely played straight.
  • Girliness Upgrade: Went from The Stoic from Twilight Princess to the Genki Girl seen in A Link Between Worlds between 3DS/Wii U and Ultimate. She's no less of a badass, however.
  • Girly Run: Zelda in Smash is rather odd here. Every new incarnation her run becomes even more girly yet even faster. In Melee, Zelda wore high heels and actually had a pretty good run animation but was only faster than Jigglypuff. In Brawl and 3DS/Wii U, she wore wore boots yet somehow had a much more girly run and was faster than her predecessor. In Ultimate, this is played perfectly straight, and she wears heeled sandals yet is faster than both of her predecessors.
  • Glacier Waif: Despite being on the light side, something visible in her design, she is tall, moves slowly, and hits hard. Ultimate downplays it with the fact that Zelda is way faster than past incarnations, but not as fast as Sheik.
  • Graceful Ladies Like Purple: In Brawl and 3DS/Wii U, in-keeping with her more mature Twilight Princess look.
  • Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: In Melee and Ultimate, she has golden-blonde hair like any other number of kindhearted fantasy princesses — including Peach — taken respectively from her Ocarina of Time and A Link Between Worlds appearances. One palette swap in Brawl and 3DS/Wii U can also give her this.
  • Hartman Hips: Like in Twilight Princess, she has fairly prominent hips in Brawl and 3DS/Wii U, but not to the same extent as Peach.
  • High-Class Gloves: She wears them in most of her appearances to date, the sole exceptions being her red costume in Brawl and her design in Ultimate.
  • Home Stage:
    • Melee: Temple.
    • Brawl: Both debuting stages from her series.note 
    • 3DS/Wii U: All stages from her series.note 
    • Ultimate: Temple.
  • Humans by Any Other Name: Apart from the Pointy Ears, Hylians are virtually indistinguishable from real-life humans.
  • Idle Animation:
    • She flips her hair back.
    • She taps her finger on her chin in contemplation.
  • Informed Attribute: Nintendo insist that despite being different princesses the Zelda family as a whole is more action oriented than the pink princess who can be kidnapped by cake, however in every appearance in cutscenes and story modes and also considering 2 different incarnations of the character Zelda has been just as much of a damsel as Peach has.
  • Kick Chick: Her Lightning Kicks and down aerial — since Brawl — are potentially the strongest attacks in her arsenal, provided the timing and spacing are done correctly.
  • Kicking Ass in All Her Finery: Zelda fights while wearing her tiara and a fancy dress.
  • Kung-Fu Wizard: She can fight barehanded, which is accentuated by her magic.
  • Lady of Black Magic: Very much capable of knocking back opponents with powerful spells, and while maintaining her princessly grace.
  • Lady of War: While Zelda is very elegant, even moreso than Rosalina and Palutena, she is just as powerful and graceful in battle with her magically enhanced blows.
  • Lady and Knight:
    • The Bright Lady to Link's White Knight.
    • Her Phantom Knight attack in 3DS/Wii U creates a rather paradoxical case of this, as her "knight" is her Spirit Tracks incarnation in a Phantom's armor.
  • Late-Arrival Spoiler: Sheik and Zelda are the same. 3DS/Wii U has some fun with this by having trophy descriptions and some tips spoiler-warn this relation.
  • Legacy Character: A version of Zelda is reincarnated alongside every legendary hero.
  • Leitmotif:
    • In Melee, she was mostly associated with Temple.
    • In Brawl, the Ocarina of Time Medley, showcased on the Dojo pre-release and used as her unique credits theme. It also prominently plays Zelda's Lullaby, her theme from her home series.
    • In 3DS/Wii U, the Menu portion of the Great Sea / Menu medley played during the April Direct to introduce her as a separate character from Sheik.
    • In Ultimate, her character trailer uses Hidden Mountain & Forest as her theme.
  • Light 'em Up: The light arrows she used in her pre-Ultimate Final Smash are composed of holy light, and she uses her divine sealing magic in her Ultimate Final Smash.
  • Limit Break:
    • In Brawl and 3DS/Wii U, Zelda fires a large Light Arrow straight forward. Opponents hit by it are launched more vertically than Sheik's version.
    • In Ultimate, she switches to using the Triforce of Wisdom to trap enemies and deal damage before knocking them back, and can instantly KO enemies whose damage is 100% and above.
  • Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: In Subspace Emissary, Peach is the light feminine (cordial, lighthearted, feminine to a cartoonish degree) to Zelda's dark feminine (adorned in purple, mysterious, quiet, aloof).
  • Love Triangle: In the lead-up to the release of 3DS/Wii U, several images showed her being jealous of Link and Peach spending time together. This carries into the actual game, since one of the clips for her Classic/All-Star Mode clear movie shows Peach flirting with Link again and Zelda teleporting into her with Farore's Wind and knocking her away from "her man".
  • Mystical White Hair: She gets white hair when she is using her "Dark" palette swap in Brawl onwards. It gives her a faint resemblance to a Sheikah.
  • Meteor Move: Her down tilt attack and down aerial will Meteor Smash targets. Like Peach, her down tilt attack is difficult to land the Meteor Smash with because the opponent needs to be airborne to produce the effect, and it was removed entirely in the fourth game.
  • Modesty Shorts: She wears white tights under her dress in Melee, and then leggings in Brawl and 3DS/Wii U. She still wears leggings in Ultimate, but to go with her new cut-away sandal boots, they only go up to her lower knees.
  • No Body Left Behind: Essentially what becomes of her enemies, who're trapped within the Triforce of Wisdom that are over 100% damage.
  • Non-Dubbed Grunts: In Ultimate, she has a single English line in the World of Light intro, but her voice in-gameplay is left alone, similar to Fox and Falco in Melee.
  • Not Even Bothering with the Accent: As opposed to her Breath of the Wild incarnation's Received Pronunciation accent, Zelda's one voiced line in the World of Light intro cutscene has her speaking in an American accent. Justified however, as they're separate incarnations of the character.
  • Palette Swap: In Brawl, she has an alt that resembles her look in Ocarina of Time and by extension, Melee. 3DS/Wii U adds one based on A Link To The Past/Between Worlds, which is very similar to the Ocarina look, but with blue embroideries instead of purple, even lighter hair and more saturated colors. Her Ocarina look is also updated to even deeper purples to match Ocarina of Time 3D. In Ultimate, she has a new assortment of swaps — her red palette is given darker hair to resemble her original design, the Ocarina design is retained, and she also has designs based on Skyward Sword and Twilight Princess.
  • Perpetual Frowner: In Brawl, she's mostly serious or "sad", save for her first cutscene in Subspace Emmisary, where she's smiling alongside Peach while greeting the crowd. If you played Twilight Princess, you'll probably know why she doesn't smile very much. In 3DS/Wii U, Zelda is more expressive. For example, she scowls when performing certain attacks (such as her neutral attack), appears alarmed when teetering on a ledge, and winces sadly when laying prone. Ultimate inverts this, with her default expression being a graceful and cheerful smile.
  • Pink Girl, Blue Boy: In Ultimate, her default outfit is white and pink as it was in A Link Between Worlds, while Link's is blue as it was in Breath of the Wild.
  • Player-Guided Missile: Din's Fire, her side special. Works differently from the Sphere of Destruction that it was in Ocarina of Time.
  • Playing with Fire: Her up aerial, Din's Fire, and Farore's Wind (Brawl only, when reappearing) will set enemies on fire when making contact. 3DS/Wii U also adds the custom moves Din's Flare, Din's Blaze, and Nayru's Passion, and her down throw was also changed to have a fire effect.
  • Princesses Prefer Pink: She sports some pink in Melee, but not to the extent of Peach. It is later one of her palette swaps since Brawl. She also sports some pink in Ultimate, as she did in A Link Between Worlds.
  • Princesses Rule: Yes, she's the princess of a kingdom with not often visible kings. Justified in her Twilight Princess iteration, as her Brawl trophy states that she was in the process of becoming queen before Zant attacked.
  • Psychic Strangle: All Zeldas appear to be doing this, but the Ultimate incarnation compared to her predecessors restrains her opponent with one hand and has said hand at a higher angle at around neck level of her opponent. Her pummel where she just appears to casually add a little extra force to her magic is also a lot faster than the Melee or Brawl incarnation. She also keeps her adorable smile while doing this to her opponent.
  • Purple Is Powerful: Wears purple in her default costume in Brawl and 3DS/Wii U and she has some very potent attacks if you land them just so. Her backward, forward, and downward aerial attacks in particular can knock opponents pretty far away even at 0%.
  • Real Is Brown: Her Brawl design reflects the desaturated, somewhat sepia-toned look she had in Twilight Princess; both Brawl and Twilight Princess were released in the heyday of this trope. Her colors, like all characters, were brightened in 3DS/Wii U.
  • Religious Bruiser: One of her victory poses is a praying gesture while looking up to the sky. In her home series, she occasionally talks about following the will of the goddesses, and her royal lineage is descended from the gods. In fact, the chronologically first Zelda was a reincarnation of the goddess Hylia.
  • The Rival: A lot of the pictures for 3DS/Wii U depict her as being this to Rosalina. Maybe because they're both serene Ladies Of War?
    • This gets a Continuity Nod in a pre-release screenshot for Ultimate depicting what looks like the two ladies high-fiving each other. Either they buried the hatchet between games, or Rosalina's rivalry exists purely with Zelda's Twilight Princess incarnation.
  • Royals Who Actually Do Something: She started to take more active roles after her Ocarina of Time incarnation, which just so happens to be the first one featured in Smash.
  • Secret Character: For Ultimate: Have a Cumulative Wait Time of 10 minutes, beat Classic Mode with Kirby or anyone in his unlock tree four times, or find and defeat her in World of Light.
  • Sexy Backless Outfit: Her back is fairly exposed in Brawl and 3DS/Wii U, but not in Melee and Ultimate.
  • Shock and Awe: In Melee and Brawl, her neutral attack, up tilt, dash attack, forward smash, up smash, Lightning Kicks, pummel, down throw, neutral aerial, and sweetspotted down aerial (in Brawl) all had electric properties. They were all changed to be purely magical in 3DS/Wii U except for down throw, which received a fire effect instead.
  • Significant Double Casting: She shares a voice actress with Sheik. Take a wild guess why. Strangely, this still holds true in Ultimate, even though this Sheik and Zelda are now two entirely separate incarnations of the princess (Zelda being the one from Link to the Pastnote , and Sheik being based on her Twilight Princess-inspired design while wearing clothes from Breath of the Wild).
  • Silk Hiding Steel: A beautiful, serene, and kind-hearted princess who can defend herself, with or without her hero.
  • Squishy Wizard: She mainly attacks with magic, but is quite slow and light.
  • Stance System: Switching into Sheik amounts to this. Changed in 3DS/Wii U, where the two are separated from each other and given new down-specials to further differentiate them from each other.
  • Statuesque Stunner: Her Brawl and 3DS/Wii U qualifies, where she's taller than Peach (who is reportedly 6'1" tall), and she rivals Zero Suit Samus in height, who is 6'3".
  • The Stoic: She does not convey much emotion in Twilight Princess because of the Twilight invasion, a portrayal that carries over to Brawl and 3DS/Wii U. The latter game, however, made all characters more expressive, including her as explained above. Ultimate moves away from this by making her more cheerful and expressive.
  • Suddenly Voiced: She has a brief line in the introductory cutscene for World of Light. This is the first time that Zelda has a fully-voiced line of dialogue in the Smash series, since she usually "speaks" in grunts like the rest of the Zelda characters. It's also the first time that any incarnation of Zelda featured in Smash has spoken dialogue, since they are not fully-voiced in their respective games (Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess, and Link Between Worlds).
    Zelda: Stow your fear. It's now or never!
  • Summon Magic: Zelda's new down special in 3DS/Wii U allows her to summon a Phantom to either attack or act as a meat shield. If it breaks, it takes 9 seconds for it to respawn.
  • Supermodel Strut: She sways her hips when she walks in Brawl and 3DS/Wii U. Ultimate Zelda trades this in for a more girly walk than her predecessors.
  • Tele-Frag: In 3DS/Wii U, one could pull off a version of this using Farore's Wind. By warping right on top of opponents, she can cause considerable knockback, and even KO opponents under 50%.
  • There Is No Kill Like Overkill: In her Final Smash in Ultimate, Triforce of Wisdom, she damages the enemies caught inside. It then instantly KOs enemies that have 100% damage or higher upon the end of the attack.
  • Took a Level in Cheerfulness: The new, younger Zelda in Ultimate is a lot more expressive and happy when fighting compared to her more stoic previous incarnations — with her default expression now being a confident smile. This is likely a nod to the design change to her A Link Between Worlds look, whose Zelda was shown to be quite upbeat.
  • Voice Grunting: Only utters wordless vocalizations, similar to Link. Her dialogue in the Zelda series is entirely conveyed through written text, which is absent here.
  • Walking Spoiler: A meta example; she was deliberately absent from the E3 trailer for Melee and other pre-release content, which is why Sheik comes before her in the fighter list.
  • Warrior Princess: A calm, gentle, quiet, and polite young princess who happens to be a wise ruler and powerful spellcaster, and is more proactive than many other Nintendo princesses, even if she herself is vulnerable at times. In fact, Zelda actually tends to deal more knockback than Sheik!
  • When She Smiles: In 3DS/Wii U, she manages to give out a genuine smile during her down taunt and during her clapping animation when she loses. Keep in mind this is her incarnation from Twilight Princess.

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