On-screen appearance

An on-screen appearance is a short animation for fighters in a Super Smash Bros. match performs when the match begins. Each character has one different pose that they perform upon starting a match. They have appeared in all games except for Super Smash Bros. Melee, which has a uniform entrance animation for each character (specifically, their trophies coming to life).

Samus
Samus's on-screen appearance in Super Smash Bros. are the same in each game (Melee excluded) and is depicted as her emerging from a Save Station that disappears behind her.

Zero Suit Samus
In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, owing to her being an alternate form of Samus, her on-screen appearance depicts her as having the pieces of her Varia Suit fall off and Zero Suit Samus emerging from them. It is also one of the few entrance animations to directly relate to gameplay, as the various pieces of the suit can be picked up by her or any other fighters to use as weapons.

Starting with Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, Zero Suit Samus's on-screen appearance has changed, and instead depicts Samus Aran's Gunship flying overhead and Zero Suit Samus emerging and disembarking, similar to Fox and Falco's entrance animations.

Ridley
Ridley's entrance animation depicts him swooping down on the battleground, and while making a threatening pose, briefly utters a low roar.

Dark Samus
Dark Samus emerges from a dark blue wormhole that closes shut, similar to Ganondorf's on-screen appearance.