List of characters in the Super Smash Bros. series

This is a list of characters in Super Smash Bros., Super Smash Bros. Melee, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. In some cases, the characters listed, if they had any connections to the Metroid franchise outside of the Smash Bros. series, will be noted in their character descriptions.



Samus
Samus Aran is the main protagonist of Nintendo's science-fiction Metroid series and appears in all five Super Smash Bros. games to date. She was the fourth character to be introduced in the series. The series from Brawl onwards features an alternate form for Samus in the form of "Zero Suit Samus", which is the heroine in the form-fitting Zero Suit that first appeared in Metroid: Zero Mission. In Brawl, she transforms into Zero Suit Samus when she uses her Final Smash, the Zero Laser; in 3DS/Wii U and Ultimate, Zero Suit Samus is a separate character. In the gameplay portion of the A Piercing Screech trailer for Ultimate, Samus fights Ridley atop a mesa, briefly entering Morph Ball form to avoid several of his attacks and using a charge shot against him, only for him to knock her off the stage, and then use his Final Smash on her.

Zero Suit Samus
Zero Suit Samus is a form of Samus Aran from the Metroid series. She was the 29th character to be introduced in Super Smash Bros. Zero Suit Samus wears her form-fitting suit first seen in Metroid: Zero Mission, which has returned in every subsequent Metroid game. In Brawl, Zero Suit Samus becomes a playable character after using her Zero Laser Final Smash, which causes her suit to crumble. She can restore her suit using the Final Smash Power Suit Samus. She returns in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, this time as a separate character from suited Samus. She is now equipped with Jet Boots and a new Final Smash and recovery.

Prior to Zero Suit Samus's introduction into Super Smash Bros., Samus's suitless form had made cameos in the original game and as a trophy in Melee.

Ridley
Ridley is the archnemesis of Samus Aran and one of the major Space Pirate leaders in the Metroid series. Ridley has had a role in almost every previous Super Smash Bros. game (with the exception of Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS), but finally became a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate after years of fan requests. He was revealed in a CG animated trailer, titled A Piercing Screech.

Meta Ridley is also playable as an alternate costume for Ridley.

Dark Samus
Dark Samus is an evil doppelganger of Samus Aran as well as the main antagonist of the Metroid Prime subseries. Similar to Ridley, Dark Samus had a role in the series since Super Smash Bros. Brawl as both a standard trophy/sticker and as an assist trophy and skin for Samus, but eventually became a playable character for Ultimate. She is an Echo Fighter of Samus in that game, which marks her first playable appearance in any video game.

Introduced in Super Smash Bros.
The original 12 characters in Super Smash Bros. are referred to as the "perfect-attendance crew". They have appeared in every game in the series to date.

Mario
Mario is the main character of the Mario series and is Nintendo's mascot and the first character to be introduced in Super Smash Bros. In Ultimate, he is slightly redesigned to take into account his appearance in Super Mario Odyssey, including having his cap appear as Cappy. His interactions with the Metroid series do not just occur in the Super Smash Bros. series, in which he has appeared in all five.

In the 1986 manga, Mario can be seen briefly when Samus comes across an Air Hole and mistakes it for a Warp Pipe from Super Mario Bros. Samus appears in Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, sleeping in the Mushroom Castle's guest room bed if Mario returns before going to Land's End. If talked to, Samus will say: "......I'm resting up for Mother Brain." A doll of Samus can also be seen in Booster’s Tower, in a toy box. Mario vs. Wario, a Nintendo Power-published comic, depicts another Samus doll that Mario wants to buy for Peach, though it turns out Luigi had bought it instead. Lastly, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga was supposed to feature Samus and a few other Nintendo characters at the Starbeans Café, but they were removed and replaced by Professor E. Gadd at the last minute.

A man resembling Mario can be seen in the beginning of the Metroid 2002 manga.

Some possible connections to the Metroid series occur in Super Mario Bros. 3 and subsequent remakes and games, where Mario can get a Starman that causes him to be able to spin jump. If this is done he will be covered in rainbow colors, bearing strong resemblance to the Screw Attack. Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time also has an enemy called a "Snoozorb", which is similar to the Nightmare boss from Metroid Fusion in many ways.

A Paint Job based on Mario can be unlocked in the Blast Ball mode of Metroid Prime: Federation Force using his amiibo. In addition to the Super Smash Bros. series Mario amiibo, other amiibo of Mario from games in his series, and the Dr. Mario amiibo can be used. In addition, in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, playing the game while having save files on Super Mario Galaxy, Super Paper Mario, and Mario Party 8 will have Ship Bumper Stickers modeled after those games to be applied on Samus's gunship.

Samus and Zero Suit Samus acts as one of the Costume Marios in the game Super Mario Maker, which is supplied by scanning their respective amiibos into the game. The former uses music and sound effects from the FDS version of Metroid, while the latter uses music and sound effects from Zero Mission.

Mario appears in A Piercing Screech, Ridley's Ultimate reveal trailer, where he and Mega Man accompany Samus on patrol of a mechanical area. However, Mario ends up ambushed by Ridley, who presumably crushes his head, leaving only his hat behind. Ridley is then seen twirling it on his finger. The manner in which Ridley killed Mario resembles a PTSD-induced hallucination by Samus in the Metroid manga, where Ridley was seen crushing the heads of Rodney and Virginia Aran, her parents, in a similar manner. On a similar note, the manner in which Ridley twirled his hat resembled Mario's actions in the teaser for Super Mario Odyssey.

In Samus's gameplay trailer for Ultimate, Mario, alongside Luigi, attempts to fight Samus at Frigate Orpheon. However, Samus knocks him away by firing upward with her Arm Cannon shortly after defeating Luigi.

Donkey Kong
Donkey Kong (DK for short) is a character who originated in the Mario franchise. He has since gone on to become the protagonist of a franchise with the same name. He has been playable in every Super Smash Bros. game to date, and was the second character to be introduced.

In Adventure Mode: The Subspace Emissary, Donkey Kong meets Samus and Pikachu when he, along with Olimar, Captain Falcon, and Diddy Kong arrive to confront the Ancient Minister, although all six ultimately ally with him - or rather, R.O.B. - after Ganondorf backstabs the latter by forcing his fellow R.O.B.s to detonate the Subspace bombs enmasse, wiping out several members of the Subspace Emissary. Later, when they are forced to evacuate due to their being unable to disable the bombs, Captain Falcon proceeds to summon his ship, the Blue Falcon, to get them to safety, working with them to fight Meta Ridley as he pursues them.

In Samus's gameplay trailer for Ultimate, Samus kicks away Donkey Kong at the Lylat Cruise stage before entering freefall, also proceeding to charge her beam as she does so.

In the gameplay portion of the A Piercing Screech trailer for Ultimate, Ridley uses his fully-charged neutral Special move on Donkey Kong in the Boxing Ring stage.

Donkey Kong Country Returns and Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze were developed by Retro Studios, the developer of the Prime Series. In an IGN interview, Kensuke Tanabe revealed that in development of the environments for Returns, he came across what looked like a "Metroid palm tree", or a tree that had the detail of a Metroid Prime game. Similarly, Tropical Freeze briefly had a cameo of a Metroid in one of the levels.

Link
Link is the main protagonist of The Legend of Zelda series. Often, he must travel across lands and through dungeons to either stop Ganondorf from either stealing the Triforce or save Princess Zelda, occasionally both. He appears in all five Super Smash Bros. games, and was the third character to be introduced. In Event 3: Bomb-fest, Link appears as an opponent alongside Samus. In all his appearances until Ultimate, he wore his trademark green tunic and hat. In Ultimate, however, he wore his blue outfit from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. In the gameplay portion of the A Piercing Screech trailer for Ultimate, he is seen fighting Ridley on the Unova Pokémon League stage, with Ridley using his Special Down attack to impale Link in the chest from behind with his tail, and then watching as Link keels over before exploding.

He has had many connections with the Metroid series outside of Super Smash Bros. In the 1986 manga, he is seen when Samus is playing The Legend of Zelda on her Famicom Disk System while flying to Zebes. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Master Quest features a trailer for Metroid Prime, and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption and Metroid Prime Trilogy feature Ship Bumper Stickers that appear on Samus Aran's Gunship depending on what save data is on the player’s Wii. If the player has save data for The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, the symbol on Link's shield appears on Samus' ship. In addition, the plotline for The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past, which dealt with Link traversing between the Light World and the Dark World, served as the inspiration for the Light Aether/Dark Aether plot element for Metroid Prime 2: Echoes.

Link also shares several appearances with Samus in other Nintendo games, such as in Super Mario RPG, where he can be found sleeping in the Rose Town inn.

Yoshi
Yoshi is a character who originated in the Mario series as the tritagonist but also has his own sub-series of games. He appears in all five Super Smash Bros. games to date and was the fifth character introduced.

Shigeru Miyamoto, due to his friendship with the Metroid series director Yoshio Sakamoto, named Yoshi after the latter. Using the Samus or Zero Suit Samus amiibo in Yoshi's Woolly World unlocks color schemes for Yoshi based on them.

In Samus's gameplay trailer for Ultimate, Samus uses her forward smash to knock Yoshi away before finishing him off with a charge shot on the Spear Pillar.

Kirby
Kirby is the main character of the series of the same name and is present in all five Smash Bros. games to date. He was the sixth character introduced. He has had interactions with elements from the Metroid series in his own games, outside of Super Smash Bros.

In Kirby Super Star, he can randomly became a statue of Samus Aran when he uses his Stone ability. The Screw Attack, known in-game as the Screwball, is also a treasure in the Great Cave Offensive game. The remake Kirby Super Star Ultra also features these cameos, though the Screw Attack is now named correctly.

Kirby’s Dream Land 3 also has a Metroid reference. In level 5-2, there are six Metroid larvae that Kirby can encounter. If he destroys them with an ice ability, Samus Aran will appear at the end of the stage without her helmet and give him a Heart Star (or a 1-up if she has already given him the Heart Star). If the Metroids are not destroyed, Samus will have her helmet on and will not do anything. Interestingly, the Metroids cannot harm Kirby, even if they latch onto him and try to feed.

In both the Kirby and Smash Bros. games, Kirby has the ability to swallow enemies and copy their abilities. If he swallows Samus, he will wear her helmet and be able to use the Charge Beam. If he swallows Zero Suit Samus, he will have her ponytail and be able to use the Paralyzer. In Ultimate, if he swallows Ridley, he copies his fireball move and wears a hat based on Ridley's head. Similarly, he wears Dark Samus's "helmet" if he swallows her.

In Zero Suit Samus's gameplay trailer for Ultimate, Kirby alongside Sheik fight Zero Suit Samus on the Big Battlefield stage, but she manages to deliver repeated blows to them both before knocking them both out of the stage.

In the gameplay portion of the A Piercing Screech trailer for Ultimate, Kirby fires his Charge Beam while using her helmet on the Mushroom Kingdom U stage before turning around to face Ridley just as he arrives and stands tall on his hind legs, making Kirby one of only two characters Ridley doesn't actually fight or defeat in the trailer (the only other being Pikachu).

In Dark Samus's reveal trailer for Ultimate, at the Lylat Cruise stage, both Kirby and Dark Samus (with the former wearing a hat modeled after her "helmet") enter freefall with the latter curled up, and Kirby briefly spins.

Fox
Fox McCloud is the leader of the Star Fox team and the main protagonist of the Star Fox series. He was the seventh character to be introduced.

Benimaru Itoh, who illustrated the Star Fox Nintendo Power comics in the early 90s, also illustrated the Super Metroid comics. Jeff McCloud from Metroid Prime: Episode of Aether shares the last name of Fox.

On the box art for Super Smash Bros., Fox is seen punching Samus hard enough to send her flying.

In Adventure Mode: The Subspace Emissary, a remix of the Sector 1 theme from Metroid Fusion plays when battling dopplegangers of Samus, Fox, Falco, Captain Falcon and Snake in The Great Maze.

In the Episode of Aether manga, there was a character named Jeff McCloud who was presumably named after Fox.

In the gameplay portion of the A Piercing Screech trailer for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Ridley proceeded to briefly use his downward Special ability on Fox, grab him, and then throw him into the air by throwing him onto his back while in the Lylat Cruise stage. Similarly he also ends up impaled via Ridley's Down Special and then knocked off the arena by Ridley's lunge at Palutena's Temple in Ridley's gameplay trailer.

In Dark Samus's reveal trailer, Fox is seen being fed on by a Metroid as Dark Samus appears near it.

Pikachu
Pikachu is the mascot from the Pokémon series of video games. He appears in all five Super Smash Bros. games to date, and is the eighth character introduced. Starting with Generation IV of the Pokémon franchise, Pikachu is given slight variations depending on its gender, with males having a whole tail, while females had a slightly notched tail that resembled a heart.

Samus is paired with Pikachu in The Subspace Emissary, a possible reference to her pet, Pyonchi, from the Metroid Manga. On a related note, Pikachu saving Samus from certain death from Ridley via a Thunderbolt and then causing Ridley to roar at them in anger after clutching its head when recovering just prior to his boss fight in Subspace Emissary was later reused for the beginning of the third phase of the Proteus Ridley battle from Metroid: Samus Returns (only Pikachu and its Thunderbolt was replaced by the baby and its life drain abilities, respectively). In addition, in the original game, Pikachu's electrical attacks were instrumental in causing a rather infamous glitch when used on Samus where her Power Suit is replaced with a silver polygon model. In one of the artworks, Pikachu was seen using headbutt on Samus, Donkey Kong, and Yoshi and launching them away (the last one being knocked far enough away that he was shown off-screen in a circle arrow).

In the gameplay portion of the A Piercing Screech trailer for Ultimate, Pikachu is seen doing its "Pika, Pika!" wave taunt as Ridley is being drained by a Metroid assist trophy on the Mario Galaxy stage (although no sound comes out from it), making it one of only two characters to not be attacked or even knocked out by Ridley in the gameplay portion (the only other being Kirby), although it was briefly shown to be dizzy just prior to the Metroid latching to Ridley.

Luigi
Luigi is the younger twin brother of Nintendo's mascot Mario, both hailing from the Mario series of games. Luigi serves as the deuteragonist in the Super Mario platformin titles, and is the protagonist of his own mini-series, Luigi's Mansion. The second game in that series, Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, was developed by Next Level Games after their prototype for a Nintendo 3DS Metroid title was shelved. They later developed Metroid Prime: Federation Force. On a related note, Adrian David Enciso acted as a conceptual artist for both games as well as Metroid Prime: Blast Ball. Luigi has appeared in every Smash game to date, and was the ninth character introduced. He was an unlockable character for all games except for Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U (although he is "playable" to a certain extent beforehand in the how to play section, as well as appearing as an opponent in 4-1 of the main game).

In Samus's gameplay trailer for Ultimate, Luigi, alongside Mario, attempts to fight Samus at Frigate Orpheon. However, Samus uses her grapple beam to throw him away from her, and dealing with Mario shortly thereafter.

In a Mario & Wario comic, he provided Peach with a Samus Aran doll for her birthday in the ending of the comic (as Mario and Wario were competing to get the same doll for her).

Ness
Ness is the main character from the game EarthBound (MOTHER2 in Japan). He has been present in all five Smash Bros. games to date and is the tenth character introduced. He was initially an unlockable character, although he was made playable from the start in Melee and later made unlockable again in Brawl.

The composer for Earthbound, Hirokazu Tanaka, had also done the score for Metroid.

Captain Falcon
Captain Falcon is the main protagonist of the futuristic racing series F-Zero and is a bounty hunter similar to Samus Aran. He appears in all Smash Bros. games to date and is the eleventh character introduced. He was originally an unlockable character, although in Melee, he was promoted to being available from the start, and ultimately was made unlockable again in Brawl.

In Melee, he appears in Event 17: Bounty Hunters, where Samus (the player's character) and Falcon compete to see who can K.O Bowser first.

In Adventure Mode: The Subspace Emissary, Captain Falcon meets Samus and Pikachu when he, along with Olimar, Donkey Kong, and Diddy Kong arrive to confront the Ancient Minister, although all six ultimately ally with him - or rather, R.O.B. - after Ganondorf backstabs the latter by forcing his fellow R.O.B.s to detonate the Subspace bombs enmasse, wiping out several members of the Subspace Emissary. Later, when they are forced to evacuate due to their being unable to disable the bombs, Captain Falcon proceeds to summon his ship, the Blue Falcon, to get them to safety, working with them to fight Meta Ridley as he pursues them.

Later in The Great Maze, a remix of the Sector 1 theme from Metroid Fusion plays when battling dopplegangers of Falcon, as well as Samus, Fox, Falco and Snake in The Great Maze. This is in spite of Falcon and Snake having no relation to Metroid.

In Super Smash Bros for the Wii U, Zero-Suit Samus is an opponent for Captain Falcon in Bounty Hunter Clash, and must be defeated alongside two Villagers to win the event, with the flavor text indicating that the two fought each other for a "priceless bounty."

In the gameplay portion of the A Piercing Screech trailer for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Ridley proceeded to use his upward Special attack on Captain Falcon and knock him away on a stage.

Jigglypuff
Jigglypuff (Purin in the Japanese version) is a Pokémon hailing from the series of the same name, and was intended to be the weakest character in the game. It has appeared in all five games and was the twelfth character introduced. In most games, it acted as an unlockable character, with the exception of Super Smash Bros for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, where it was available from the start. According to the Japanese website for Melee, Sakurai was initially undecided as to whether to have Jigglypuff return for the game or not, but ultimately decided to have it return to not leave out fans of the character.

Jigglypuff appears in 65: Ridley, where Ridley does his upward grab and throw, and then uses his up special on it at Suzaku Castle.

Introduced in Super Smash Bros. Melee
Melee adds fourteen new characters to the roster.

Peach
Princess Peach, originally known as Princess Toadstool outside Japan, is a major character in the Mario series. Her interactions with the Metroid series have mostly occurred in the Super Smash Bros. series. She first appeared in Melee and has returned in every subsequent installment.

In Melee, Peach is one of the opponents in Event 15: Girl Power, alongside Zelda and Samus.

In the Nintendo Power-published comic Mario vs. Wario, Peach desired a doll of Samus that caused Mario and Wario to fight over it, hence the title. In the end, however, it is revealed that Luigi had bought it.

In Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, Samus ends up resting up at Peach's residence in the Mushroom Kingdom area in preparation for her fight against Mother Brain.

In Super Smash Bros. for the Wii U, the event match Peach in Peril has Zero Suit Samus, among other female characters, fighting against Bowser, with the flavor text indicating that Bowser was trying to "protect" Peach from being abducted by her and the others (although solely because he wanted to abduct her himself). Despite Peach being an AI opponent in the event match, KOing her would have the player lose.

A Princess Peach outfit is unlockable in the Nintendo Switch version of Bayonetta 1 & 2, alongside the Samus Aran suit.

A voice actress of Peach in some games, Leslie Swan, voices the Bottle Ship P.A. Announcer in Metroid: Other M.

Peach's amiibo can be used in Metroid Prime: Federation Force to unlock a special Paint Job based on her, for use in Blast Ball. Her amiibo from the Super Mario series can also be used to unlock the same Paint Job.

Bowser
Bowser, alternatively known as Koopa or King Koopa, is the main antagonist of the Mario series, who often kidnaps Princess Peach with the goal of marrying her and/or taking over the Mushroom Kingdom. In the Super Smash Bros. series, he first appeared in Melee and has returned in every installment since, either being available from the start or, in the case of Ultimate, acting as an unlockable character. He was originally going to be added to the original Super Smash Bros., but was cut due to time constraints. Likewise, he ultimately was one of only two proposed characters to actually be worked on (the other being King Dedede).

In Melee, he appears as the target in Event 17: Bounty Hunters. Samus is required to K.O Bowser before fellow Bounty Hunter Captain Falcon does, to avoid missing out on a bounty. In Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, the co-op event Peach in Peril sees Bowser (controlled by both players) having to defeat the female characters in the game, including Zero Suit Samus, to "protect" Peach from abduction. In fact, this is to eliminate other would-be kidnappers so that the Bowsers can seize her themselves.

Bowser's amiibo can be used in Metroid Prime: Federation Force to unlock a special Paint Job based on him, for use in Blast Ball. The Bowser amiibo from the Mario series, or the Hammer Slam Bowser amiibo from the Skylanders SuperChargers series can also be used to unlock the same Paint Job.

A Princess Peach outfit is unlockable in the Nintendo Switch version of Bayonetta 1 & 2, alongside the Samus Aran suit. Owing to this, Bowser makes a cameo as a "summon" in various cutscenes for the game when the Peach outfit is worn by the titular character, although he is never seen directly, only showing his fist and feet.

Bowser's stock artwork pose for Super Smash Bros. for the 3DS and Wii U was later reused for Ridley's stock art pose for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Bowser appears in Dark Samus's gameplay trailer, where, shortly after she knocked out Cloud Strife at the Battlefield stage, she proceeded to knock Bowser upward as he attempted to attack her from behind and then kick Bowser as he was falling back down, knocking him out (although not before he briefly glowed with electricity from the contact).

Ice Climbers
The Ice Climbers, consisting of a duo of Inuits (Popo and Nana), hail from the game Ice Climber. In Melee and Brawl, they appear as a duo; the player controls Popo while the computer-controlled Nana attempts to mimic all of the player's moves. They were scrapped from the 3DS and Wii U games, apparently due to difficulties which arose when they were used in the 3DS version of the game. While they functioned normally in the Wii U game, the decision was made to cut them to keep the character rosters between the versions identical. They will return in Ultimate for the Nintendo Switch.

Sheik
In Melee and Brawl, Zelda has an alternate form she can switch into: Sheik, her alter ego from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Similar to Zero Suit Samus, Sheik is a separate character in Nintendo 3DS and Wii U and Ultimate; the two characters can no longer transform into each other.

Much like Zelda, Sheik and Samus appear together in Event Matches, with Zelda having the ability to transform into Sheik in Melee and Brawl events. Identity Crisis in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U has the player initially controlling Sheik, who must defeat Samus and then Zero Suit Samus in a single-stock battle.

In Zero Suit Samus's gameplay trailer for Ultimate, Sheik alongside Kirby fight Zero Suit Samus on the Big Battlefield stage, but she manages to deliver repeated blows to them both before knocking them both out of the stage.

Zelda
Princess Zelda is the title character from the Legend of Zelda series who first appeared in Melee and has returned in every subsequent installment of Super Smash Bros.

Zelda and Samus appear together in numerous Event Matches throughout the series. In Melee, Zelda appears as one of the opponents in Event 15: Girl Power along with Peach and Samus. Co-Op Event 6: Unwanted Suitors in Brawl has Zelda and Zero Suit Samus fight against two invisible opponents on the Port Town Aero Dive stage (from F-Zero). In the Identity Crisis event of Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, in which Sheik must defeat Samus and Zero Suit Samus, the player character switches to Zelda if Sheik is KO'd.

Dr. Mario
Dr. Mario is a form of Mario that appears in a spinoff of the Mario series, Dr. Mario. He appears in Melee, Nintendo 3DS and Wii U and Ultimate, having been scrapped from Brawl. Dr. Mario was originally repurposed as an alternate costume for Mario in Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, but was reinstated as a separate character later in development. Similarly, Dr. Mario was created to act as a power-based clone of Mario, which had been supplied as a result of their original choice, Wario, being cut.

The composer responsible for the music of his debut game, Hirokazu Tanaka, also did the score for Metroid.

Dr. Mario's amiibo can be used in Metroid Prime: Federation Force to unlock a Mario Paint Job in Blast Ball.

Pichu
Pichu is a Pokémon and is Pikachu's pre-evolution. It only appeared in Melee as a playable character, although it did appear in Brawl and Nintendo 3DS as a trophy. It will return in Ultimate. Largely because of its absence in the aforementioned two games and Melee having uniform character entrances (specifically, having their trophies come to life), Pichu is one of only two characters to lack an actual entry animation (the only other being Young Link).

Falco
Falco Lombardi is a very skilled pilot and a deuteragonist from the Star Fox series. He first appeared in Melee and has returned in every installment since.

In Adventure Mode: The Subspace Emissary, a remix of the Sector 1 theme from Metroid Fusion plays when battling dopplegangers of Samus, Fox, Falco, Captain Falcon and Snake in The Great Maze.

Marth
Marth is the main character from both the first and third Fire Emblem games as well as the series' mascot. Marth appeared in Melee and Brawl, and 3DS/Wii U as a playable character. He was originally planned to appear in the original Super Smash Bros., but was ultimately cut due to time constraints. Because of the Fire Emblem series initially being a Japanese-exclusive franchise at the time of Melee, he was given a Japanese voicetrack in Melee, Brawl, and 3DS/Wii U (the last of which ironically occurred after his official debut game in the West, Shadow Dragons, was released), and is one of only two Fire Emblem characters to retain their Japanese voicetrack outside Japan even after being localized (the other being Roy). In Ultimate, he is now fully voiced in English.

Young Link
Young Link is Link's child form from certain Zelda games, most notably The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. He first appeared in Melee as a playable character and clone of Link. He was replaced by Toon Link in the two subsequent games, although he will return in Ultimate. Largely because of this and Melee having uniform character entrances (specifically, having their trophies come to life), Young Link is one of only two characters to lack an actual entry animation (the only other being Pichu).

Ganondorf
Ganondorf (also known as Ganon) is the main antagonist of the Legend of Zelda series. He has appeared in Melee, Brawl, 3DS/Wii U, and Ultimate. Ganondorf was originally not planned for Melee; however, due to his character model from the Zelda Gamecube tech demo being similar to Captain Falcon's, he was able to make it in, albeit as a clone. In Melee, his appearance was derived from the Space World Demo in 2000 (which in turn was based on his Ocarina of Time design); in both Brawl and 3DS/Wii U, his design was derived from Twilight Princess; and in Ultimate, his design was once again based on his appearance in Ocarina of Time.

In Adventure Mode: The Subspace Emissary, Samus, alongside Pikachu and a newly-arrived Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, Captain Falcon, and Captain Olimar, briefly witnessed Ganondorf (who appeared via hologram) control the various R.O.B.s on the Ancient Island and have them activate the Subspace Bombs, as well as having them attack the Ancient Minister when he attempted to stop them.

In Zero Suit Samus's gameplay trailer for Ultimate, Ganondorf attempts to use his warlock punch on Zero Suit Samus as she's charging up her Paralyzer, but she ends up sidestepping the blow, using her Down Smash Attack to launch him into the air, and then drop kicks him at Suzaku Castle.

Mewtwo
Mewtwo is a legendary Pokémon from the series of the same name. He was originally going to be added to the original Super Smash Bros., but was cut due to time constraints. His only appearance as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. had been in Melee, though hackers determined that it was scrapped from Brawl. Mewtwo did not return in the initial release of Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, but was released as a downloadable character on April 15th, 2015, free for players who registered both versions of the game with Club Nintendo. Mewtwo was released to the general public on April 28th as a paid download. Samus appears in Mewtwo's character trailer, taking hits from its Neutral Attack.

Roy
Roy is the main character from the sixth Fire Emblem game. He was included in Melee as a playable character and clone of Marth (which means he had the same moveset with some changes). After being absent from Brawl, Roy returned in the 3DS and Wii U games as a downloadable fighter on June 14, 2015. Because of the Fire Emblem series initially being a Japanese-exclusive franchise at the time of Melee, he was given a Japanese voicetrack in Melee, which was retained in 3DS and Wii U. On a related note, Roy in at least the Japanese version of the game technically made his debut in Melee as his Fire Emblem debut, Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade, would not be released in Japan until four months after Melee. This would later be repeated with fellow Fire Emblem cast member Corrin, who debuted in 3DS and Wii U sixteen days before their official debut in the Fire Emblem franchise was released (as Fire Emblem: Fates was released on February 19th, 2016, while Corrin was released as a DLC character on February 3rd).

Mr. Game & Watch
Mr. Game & Watch is a representation of characters and objects that appear in the handheld Game & Watch series of video games. He appeared as the final unlockable character in Melee and returned in Brawl and 3DS/Wii U.

Introduced in Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Brawl adds nineteen new characters to the roster. Mewtwo, Dr. Mario, Roy, Pichu and Young Link do not return; while internal data suggests that the former three were planned to be included but scrapped, there is no evidence that the latter two were ever planned to make a return.

Charizard
Charizard is a flying, fire-breathing draconic/reptilian Pokémon from the Pokémon series. Originally appearing as a member of Pokémon Trainer's team in Brawl (see below), it became a full playable character in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, before returning to the Pokémon Trainer's team in Ultimate. Prior to Brawl, however, it was a randomly summoned Pokémon via the Poke Ball item in Smash and Melee, and when summoned will breath fire to its left and right.

Diddy Kong
Diddy Kong is Donkey Kong's sidekick from the Donkey Kong series. His first appearance was in Brawl. He returns in 3DS/Wii U.

In Adventure Mode: The Subspace Emissary, Diddy Kong meets Samus and Pikachu when he, along with Olimar, Donkey Kong, and Captain Falcon arrive to confront the Ancient Minister, although all six ultimately ally with him - or rather, R.O.B. - after Ganondorf backstabs the latter by forcing his fellow R.O.B.s to detonate the Subspace bombs enmasse, wiping out several members of the Subspace Emissary. Later, when they are forced to evacuate due to their being unable to disable the bombs, Captain Falcon proceeds to summon his ship, the Blue Falcon, to get them to safety, working with them to fight Meta Ridley as he pursues them.

Ike
Ike is the main character of Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, and appears in its sequel, Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn. He appears in Brawl and 3DS/Wii U. He is also notable as being the first Fire Emblem character to have an English voicetrack instead of simply using his Japanese voicetrack, which is most likely due to his debuting in a game that had been localized into English by the time Brawl was released.

King Dedede
King Dedede is a major antagonist from the Kirby series, though he does assist Kirby occasionally. He was originally going to be added to the original Super Smash Bros., but was cut due to time constraints. Likewise, he ultimately was one of only two proposed characters to actually be worked on (the other being Bowser). His first playable appearance was in Brawl, and he returned in 3DS/Wii U. Notably, he's one of the few fighters to have a different Final Smash in each appearance.

Lucario
Lucario is an Aura type Pokémon from the series of the same name and was the mascot of the fourth generation. His first appearance was in Brawl and he returns in 3DS/Wii U and Ultimate.

In Ridley's gameplay trailer, Ridley proceeded to use his side special attack to drag Lucario across the arena on the Coliseum stage.

Lucas
Lucas is the main character from the Japan-only game Mother 3. He first appeared in Brawl. While Lucas was not present in the release version of 3DS/Wii U, he was released as DLC on June 14, 2015.

One of the upgrades in his game, the Mystical Shoes, resembled the High Jump Boots in the Metroid franchise in design. Likewise, one of the enemies in the game, Einswine, had brain containers that had a resemblance to the Metroid larvae.

Meta Knight
Meta Knight is an anti-hero from the Kirby series. He appears in Brawl, and 3DS/Wii U.

An enemy from the Metroid series, the Holtz, bears some resemblance to Meta Knight.

In Zero Suit Samus's gameplay trailer for Ultimate, Zero Suit Samus proceeded to make repeated kicks on Meta Knight before knocking him out of bounds at Skyloft.

In Dark Samus's reveal trailer, Dark Samus uses her down smash on Meta Knight, then launches him into the air with her arm cannon and then side kicking him out of the arena at Magicant.

Olimar
Captain Olimar is the main character of the Pikmin series. He appears in Brawl and 3DS/Wii U. He uses Pikmin in combat.

In Adventure Mode: The Subspace Emissary, Captain Olimar meets Samus and Pikachu when he, along with Captain Falcon, Donkey Kong, and Diddy Kong arrive to confront the Ancient Minister, although all six ultimately ally with him - or rather, R.O.B. - after Ganondorf backstabs the latter by forcing his fellow R.O.B.s to detonate the Subspace bombs enmasse, wiping out several members of the Subspace Emissary. Later, when they are forced to evacuate due to their being unable to disable the bombs, Captain Falcon proceeds to summon his ship, the Blue Falcon, to get them to safety, working with them to fight Meta Ridley as he pursues them.

The ship log for the first game, in regards to the "Guard Satellite" part, has Olimar alluding to how the item saved him countless times from "Space Pirates", which may have been an indirect reference to the Space Pirates from the Metroid franchise. In addition, the Scornet Maestro boss creature in Pikmin 3 had a similar fighting style to Helios in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.

Pit
Pit is the main character of the Kid Icarus franchise. Kid Icarus and Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters both ran on the Metroid and Metroid II: Return of Samus engines, respectively (though Uprising had its own engine). In addition, both Kid Icarus and Metroid utilized the same composer for their music, Hirokazu Tanaka. He appears as a collectible trophy in Melee and is a playable character in Brawl, 3DS and Wii U, and Ultimate.

He shares numerous connections with the Metroid series. The Komayto enemies in his games resemble Metroid larvae, and the Unknown Items in Metroid: Zero Mission seem to have taken inspiration from the three Sacred Treasures in Kid Icarus. In Kid Icarus: Uprising, Pit remarks that Komaytos resemble Metroids, but Viridi states that the Kid Icarus and Metroid universes are unrelated. In addition, Pit also interacted with various Metroid characters in the NES crossover cartoon Captain N: The Game Master.

In Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, Pit is able to seek Palutena's Guidance on certain fighters. His conversation with Palutena and Viridi on Samus is as follows:
 * Viridi: "Oh, look. There's Metroid."
 * Pit: "That's not a Metroid! That's Samus!"
 * Palutena: "Just like Link isn't named Zelda."
 * Viridi: "And like Pit's name isn't Icarus!"
 * Pit: "OK, this joke has officially run its course."
 * Palutena: "Moving on, then. Pit, you can reflect Samus's Charge Shot with your Guardian Orbitars."
 * Palutena: "However, Samus can throw a storm of shots at you. If you use your Orbitars too often, she'll know what you're up to."
 * Palutena: "So try to reflect strategically, as opposed to your...usual game plan."

On Zero Suit Samus:
 * Pit: "Who's that woman?"
 * Palutena: "That's Zero Suit Samus."
 * Palutena: "She usually wears heavy armor, but not in this incarnation. Even so, she's still pretty powerful."
 * Pit: "She has some pretty hurty-looking equipment. Getting kicked by those Jet Boots has gotta sting!"
 * Palutena: "You have a good deal of "hurty-looking equipment" yourself, Pit."
 * Pit: "Yeah, and can you believe that there are some fighters that battle empty handed? Crazy!"
 * Palutena: "It's all about discipline, not weaponry. Don't worry, though. When we get home, I'll enroll you in Palutena's Boot Camp. That'll fix you right up."
 * Pit: "Or I can just keep my weapons. Yeah, let's do that."
 * Palutena: "Anyway, Zero Suit Samus is a difficult target to hit. Keep your attack sure and ready."

The Samus variant featured a humorous reference to the misconception regarding the name of the franchise Samus hailed from, Metroid, being a reference to Samus, rather than the titular threat she has to deal with (and similar misconceptions regarding The Legend of Zelda regarding Link and Zelda, and Kid Icarus regarding Pit), while the Zero Suit Samus variant has Pit alluding briefly to how Samus and to a lesser extent Pit have to gather various equipment to get stronger throughout the game.

In the gameplay portion of the A Piercing Screech trailer for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Ridley proceeded to knock Pit away via a vertical spin attack with his tail on the Umbra Clock Tower stage.

Pokémon Trainer
Pokémon Trainer, appearing in Brawl, is based on the male protagonist of the Pokémon: Fire Red and Leaf Green games (canonically named Red). He does not take part in any battles himself and instead commands his three Pokémon: Squirtle, Ivysaur, and Charizard. The Pokémon Trainer and the former two Pokémon do not appear in the fourth game. In 3DS/Wii U, Charizard appears as a full playable character; see above. The trainer, however, will return in Ultimate, and will also come with a new skin based on the female protagonist from Pokémon: Fire Red and Leaf Green games (unofficially named Leaf). In addition, the Pokémon Trainer will no longer have a stamina drawback for the currently assigned Pokémon, meaning the player can stick with only one if they wish.

R.O.B.
The Robotic Operating Buddy (known better as R.O.B.), also known as Robot in Japan, was an accessory for the Nintendo Entertainment System (and in the case of Japan, the Famicom.). One appears in Brawl and 3DS/Wii U as a playable character while several more appear as enemies in Brawl ' s Adventure Mode: The Subspace Emissary. the playable character version in the latter mode also acted as the true identity of the mode's false main antagonist Ancient Minister. In one of the cutscenes for the game, Samus attempted to use the Grapple Lasso (or at the very least a similar technique) in a failed attempt at removing a R.O.B. from a Subspace Bomb. R.O.B. also appears in Kirby’s Dream Land 3 along with Samus Aran.

R.O.B.'s Final Smash in Brawl is called "Diffusion Beam". This is also the name of one of Samus' beam upgrades.

Snake
Solid Snake is the main character of Konami's Metal Gear Solid series. He appeared in Brawl and will return in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. He was originally planned to appear in Super Smash Bros. Melee at the request of Hideo Kojima. However, at the time he made the request, the development for Melee was at its late stages, meaning they could not appropriately add him in. He has a set of secret taunts that involve him having a conversation with another Metal Gear character about the fighter he is facing. Below are the conversations for Samus in both of her forms.

Samus:
 * Snake: Hey, Otacon. I got a woman here in a Power Suit...
 * Otacon: Huh? How'd you know she was a woman? Yeah, that'd be Samus Aran, the most renowned bounty hunter in the galaxy. Her Arm Cannon packs quite a wallop. If you get hit with a charged shot from that thing, you can kiss your butt good-bye.
 * Snake: Sounds like my kind of woman...
 * Otacon: Yeah, well, just don't get too close, Snake. Samus is deadly. After Space Pirates killed her parents, she was raised by the Chozo and trained in the fighting arts. She's been places and seen things that you and me can't even begin to imagine.
 * Snake: But underneath that cold, metal exterior beats the heart of a woman...

Zero Suit Samus:
 * Snake: Mei Ling, Samus took her clothes off!
 * Mei Ling: That's just her in the Zero Suit, Snake.
 * Snake: Without that bulky Power Suit, she's gotten a lot more agile... You know, I bet if I took off all this heavy gear, I could catch her.
 * Mei Ling: Um, yeah, you wish. Even without the Power Suit, all that training she did with the Chozo has made her a super athlete. I don't think a normal human could ever keep up. Just look at her.
 * Snake: ...Her loss.

The conversations implied that Snake had an infatuation with Samus. Ironically, when encountering similar characters to Samus in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Snake held the exact opposite views to them.

The NES version of Metal Gear, similar to Metroid, featured a password save system.

In Event Match 36: High-Tech Special Forces, he was targeted by Samus, alongside Captain Falcon and Wolf O'Donnell of the F-Zero and Star Fox series, with the flavor text for the mission revealing that they had been hired by Snake's former unit FOXHOUND to take him out.

In Adventure Mode: The Subspace Emissary, a remix of the Sector 1 theme from Metroid Fusion plays when battling dopplegangers of Samus, Fox, Falco, Captain Falcon and Snake in The Great Maze. This is in spite of Snake and Captain Falcon having no relation to Metroid at that time.

Although he is not present in Super Smash Bros. for the 3DS and Wii U, certain elements of his character in the game were reused with various characters: In particular, the secret taunts that involve contacting a character's immediate allies (as well as someone otherwise unrelated to that character) was reused with the character Pit via the Palutena's Guidance easter egg at Palutena's Temple, as well as Zero Suit Samus's Final Smash having some similarities to Snake's Grenade Launcher Final Smash. He will, however, reappear in Super Smash Bros Ultimate, where David Hayter will reprise the role as Solid Snake, marking the first time he voiced the character since Metal Gear Solid Bande Dessine 2 in 2013. In his trailer, he is briefly seen in the Frigate Orpheon stage, where he placed a C4 explosive on a stunned Bowser Jr. before detonating it.

Elements of Snake's home franchise, the Metal Gear series, also proceeded to influence parts of the Metroid franchise. In particular, the game Metroid: Other M sometimes had Commander Adam Malkovich calling Samus's name repeatedly if she dies, alluding to the famous "Game Over" phrase from the Metal Gear series where the various characters call the main protagonist's name (Solid Snake, Big Boss, Raiden, and Venom Snake) in a similar manner. The scene where the Super Zebesians and Rhedogian ambushed Samus aboard the Materials Transfer Lift resembled a similar scene from Metal Gear Solid and its remake Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes where Solid Snake was ambushed by four Genome Soldiers. Several of the people and production studios (such as XAX Entertainment Inc., Shirogumi Inc., and Digital Frontier) who were involved in the creation of Metroid: Other M also had worked on Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, and Metal Gear Solid V. The concept art for The Colonel also resembled that of the character Colonel Roy Campbell from the Metal Gear series.

Sonic
Sonic the Hedgehog is the main character of Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog series as well as Sega's mascot. He appears in Brawl, acting as the second third-party character to appear in the game (the first being Snake from the Metal Gear Solid series by Konami) and returns in 3DS/Wii U as well alongside fellow Sega protagonist, Bayonetta, and later returns in Ultimate.

Sonic appeared alongside Samus, Mario, and Pit on the Duck Hunt reveal artwork, being sent flying by an explosion that was presumably caused by the dog and duck duo. Unlike the other characters, owing to Sonic's origins at Sega, he was the only one of the characters (including the eponymous duo) who did not use his NES sprites. Instead, he used his Sega Master sprite.

In the gameplay portion of the A Piercing Screech trailer for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, he is knocked away by Ridley's side Special attack in the underground portion of the Castle Siege stage.

In Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1, one of the bosses, the Egg Catcher, has an attack that resembles the Screw Attack from the Metroid franchise. In addition, one of the ships in Sonic Colors, Frigate Orcan, is presumably a reference to the Frigate Orpheon from Metroid Prime. The same game had a Wisp transformation called "Pink Spikes" that operated similarly to the Morph Ball, or more specifically the Spider Ball.

Toon Link
Toon Link is a character from the Legend of Zelda series. He is the cel-shaded version of Link from some Zelda games such as Wind Waker. He first appears as a playable character in Brawl, and returns in 3DS/Wii U.

In Dark Samus's reveal trailer, Toon Link is one of the fighters hit by Dark Samus's Zero Laser at the Battlefield Stage.

Wario
Wario is a recurring antagonist in the Mario series. He also has two series of his own called Wario Land and WarioWare. The former series included a Metroid as one of his treasures in Wario Land II as well as having reused sound effects from Metroid II: Return of Samus in Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 (specifically, the sound when Wario jumps the final boss's head was the same sound uttered by all Metroids except for the Omega and Queen when they are hit with Missiles in the former game. ), while the latter series has featured numerous Metroid-themed microgames, which are eight-second minigames based on moments from the Metroid games. On a similar note, playing Metroid Prime 3: Corruption with a save file from WarioWare: Smooth Moves will result in a Ship Bumper Sticker being unlocked that referenced the latter game. Zero Suit Samus and Wario were both featured in the E3 2006 reveal trailer for Brawl. As he loses control of the Wario Bike, Zero Suit Samus and Pit jump out of its way before it crashes. When Wario grins in embarassment, Zero Suit Samus is one of the fighters who looks on in shock as he unleashes his Wario Waft attack, which forms an explosive mushroom cloud of flatulent gas. In addition, various copies of Brawl include on its packaging a stock photo depicting Zero Suit Samus using her Paralyzer Gun's whip function on Wario as the latter is lunging at her with his Chomp attack. Although Wario as a character made his debut in Brawl, he was referenced in earlier entries to the Super Smash Bros. series as an alternate palette for Mario (and in the case of Melee, a trophy). Until Ultimate, Mario used this palette swap despite Wario becoming a playable character. Because of him having two alternate costumes, he technically had the most palette swaps in Brawl. In addition, it was initially planned that Wario act as a more power-based clone of Mario for Melee, although by the final release, this had been relegated to Dr. Mario instead.

Wolf
Wolf O'Donnell is the leader of the nefarious Star Wolf team, Fox McCloud's relentless rival, and an antagonist in the Star Fox series of games. He first appears in Brawl. In Event 36: High-Tech Special Forces, Solid Snake has to defeat Samus, Wolf, and Captain Falcon in a fight (which is implied in the mission statement to be due to the three being hired by FOXHOUND to take him out). He is listed in the mission to be a bounty hunter, even though unlike Samus Aran or Captain Falcon in their respective franchises, Wolf was not shown to be of the profession in the Star Fox series or anything beyond a mercenary (and ironically, was actually subject to a bounty himself in Star Fox: Command.). Wolf is not a playable character in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, but his Trophy is featured in the game, and Fox's purple palette swap is a subtle reference to Wolf. Wolf's voice actor in Brawl, Jay Ward, also provided narrations for Main Theme (Metroid) and Opening/Menu (Metroid Prime) (the latter being a subtle reference to the cut opening narration for Metroid Prime). He was cut out from Super Smash Bros. 4, but will appear in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, with his design being derived from his appearance in Star Fox Zero.

Introduced in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U
The Nintendo 3DS and Wii U games introduce nineteen new characters. The Ice Climbers, Pokémon Trainer, Snake and Wolf were all cut from this game, although Charizard returns as a separate character. The Ice Climbers were intended to return but scrapped due to hardware limitations, while it is likely that Snake was not retained due to copyright issues with Konami. Prior to the game's release, his creator Hideo Kojima had stated that Snake's return was unlikely.

They are also the first games to introduce downloadable fighters. Seven fighters were released between early 2015 to early 2016, including returning veterans Mewtwo, Lucas and Roy, and newcomers Ryu, Cloud, Corrin and Bayonetta.

Bayonetta
Bayonetta, alternatively known as Cereza, is the protagonist of the series of the same name. The winner of the Smash Bros. Fighter Ballot, Bayonetta was announced as the final DLC fighter for Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U in November 2015, and released in February 2016. She is the second character to hail from an ESRB "M" rated franchise, the first being Snake, and is also the second third party character to hail from Sega, the first being Sonic. Prior to her reveal, one of Zero Suit Samus's congratulations screens was a direct reference to Bayonetta. She returns in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Samus also appears in Bayonetta's reveal artwork, where she is seen glaring at Bayonetta.

Bayonetta and Bayonetta 2 on Wii U and Nintendo Switch feature a costume based on Samus Aran's original Power Suit from Metroid. See here for more information.

Bowser Jr.
Bowser Jr. (Koopa Jr. in Japan) is Bowser's son. He appears in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U. Bowser Jr.'s trailer, "The Future of Evil", featured CG animation done by Digital Frontier, whose studio was where the motion capture for Metroid: Other M was recorded. Samus appears in this portion of the trailer, dodging an attack from Bowser Jr.'s Koopa Clown Car, and proceeding with other fighters (specifically Mario, Link, Kirby, Mega Man, Rosalina, Meta Knight, and the Villager) to do battle with Bowser Jr. and the Koopalings. In the gameplay portion, Zero Suit Samus is at one point seen standing on a step on the Skyloft stage, firing a Steel Diver at Bowser Jr., who ducks and avoids it. She and the other fighters in the trailer also appear in Bowser Jr.'s reveal artwork.

In Dark Samus's reveal trailer, Dark Samus uses her grapple beam on Bowser Jr. and throws him down, then proceeds to use her air kick before topping it off with her screw attack at New Pork City.

His amiibo can be used in Metroid Prime: Federation Force to unlock a special Paint Job based on him, for use in Blast Ball.

Cloud
Cloud is the protagonist of Square Enix's Final Fantasy VII. He was announced as a future DLC character for Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U on Nov. 12, 2015. Despite having an English voice actor ordinarily, his Japanese voice was utilized for the games, which was due to his English VA, Steve Burton being a union-based voice actor. Until it was revealed in the September 13 Nintendo Direct that Final Fantasy VII was going to appear on the Nintendo Switch, he was also the only third party fighter where his debut game did not appear on a Nintendo console. Samus appears in Cloud's debut trailer, where she, Kirby, and Charizard face off against Cloud at Midgar in a similar manner to various battles from his home series before they rushed at each other, and later on at Palutena's temple, where Samus tries to fire a Super Missile at Cloud, only for him to slide under her and then do his Up Aerial against her. Cloud also appears in Dark Samus's gameplay trailer, where he attempts to jump down to attack her on the Battlefield stage, only to be knocked out of the ring by her forward smash, followed subsequently by Bowser.

Cloud shares a similar backstory to Samus Aran, notably in that he had been a mercenary whose hometown, Nibelheim was destroyed by his archnemesis Sephiroth with him acting as one of the few survivors of the disaster, similar to how Samus Aran had been the sole survivor of a raid conducted by her archnemesis Ridley against the colony K-2L.

Corrin
Corrin (Kamui in the Japanese version) is the main protagonist of Fire Emblem Fates, and a DLC character for Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U. Corrin is playable as a male or female character, similar to Robin and Villager. (S)He's also the second character to technically make their debut in Super Smash Bros. before their home series (as (s)he was released as DLC on February 3rd, 2016, while Fates was not released until sixteen days afterward), such having previously been done by fellow Fire Emblem character Roy. Zero Suit Samus appears in Corrin's reveal poster, which was illustrated by Fire Emblem Fates art director Yusuke Kozaki. Kozaki also illustrated Robin and Lucina's poster, which does not feature Samus or Zero Suit Samus. In his/her trailer, "Corrin Chooses to Smash!", the male Corrin is seen impaling Samus and then kicking forward, driving through her.

Dark Pit
Dark Pit (known as Black Pit in Japan) is a recurring character in Kid Icarus: Uprising who appears in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U as a playable character. He is a clone of Pit, meaning he shares much of Pit's move-set and animations. In Ultimate, he'll act as an echo fighter for Pit.

Duck Hunt
"Duck Hunt" (Duck Hunt Duo in Europe) consisting of the dog and one duck from the game of the same name, appear as a playable duo in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U. The dog was rather notorious for his frequently popping up and laughing at the player if they missed shooting a duck. Samus appears in the debut trailer for the duo "One Dog, One Bird, One Zapper", alongside Mario, Link, Bowser, Pit, and Donkey Kong, both in their NES versions and their usual appearances in the game. In the gameplay portion of the trailer, the dog is seen headbutting and then kicking Samus during a fight. Samus also appears on the reveal artwork for the characters, alongside Sonic, Mario, and Pit, where they are launched by an explosion that was presumably caused by the duo. They appeared in their NES appearances in the artwork (or in the case of Sonic, his Sega Master appearance).

In Metroid Prime, there are birds that appear in the skies of the Chozo Ruins. While ingame they explode into feathers when shot, they have an unused death animation where they fall spiraling from the sky, similarly to the ducks in Duck Hunt.

Greninja
Greninja is one of the then-newest Pokémon and a newcomer in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U.

Little Mac
Little Mac is the protagonist from Punch-Out!!. He was featured as an Assist Trophy in Brawl, but appears in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U as a newcomer and returns in Ultimate.

Samus appears in Little Mac's debut trailer, "Champion of the Ring", in a hand-drawn animated scene. She compares her towering height to his, before getting sent flying by a K.O. Uppercut. In the gameplay portion, he is seen uppercutting her again, and then countering another move in a different match. Samus also appears at the end of his trailer during another animated scene, rolling across the screen in Morph Ball form.

Little Mac and Dark Samus are the only two Assist Trophies in Super Smash Bros. to later become playable characters.

One of Little Mac's concept artists for the 2009 Punch-Out!!, Adrian David Enciso, had also done conceptual artwork for Metroid Prime: Federation Force and Metroid Prime: Blast Ball.

Lucina
Lucina is a character from Fire Emblem Awakening. She appears in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U as an unlockable character and clone of Marth. She will return in Ultimate, acting as an Echo of Marth. Samus briefly appears in Lucina and Robin's trailer, "By Book, Blade, and Crest of Flame", being attacked by Lucina. Lucina is also seen fighting Luigi on Pyrosphere in the same trailer.

Mega Man
Mega Man is the main character from the series of the same name and the mascot of Capcom. He appears as a newcomer in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U as a playable character. He is the franchise's third 3rd-party character.

Mega Man has previously interacted with Mother Brain and other Metroid enemies in the NES crossover cartoon Captain N: The Game Master.

The card game Rockman X: Mega Missions featured several plot similarities to Metroid Fusion, namely via similarly behaving, ability-copying parasites who revive past adversaries and create a powerful, evil clone, to the hero's infection leading to translucent, partly organic armor, even down to how the final battle plays out.

Samus appears in Mega Man's reveal trailer several times, first by fighting the Blue Bomber on the Boxing Ring stage by attempting to use her charge shot on Mega Man, only for the latter to sidestep her and uppercut her; then on the Battlefield stage where she attempts to hit him with a forward smash only for him to duck; and finally during the Special Weapons segment, where she is hit with the Flame Sword.

Mega Man appears in A Piercing Screech, accompanying Samus and Mario on a patrol when he is suddenly ambushed, and killed by being impaled with Ridley's tail. The manner in which Ridley killed Mega Man resembled how Ridley dispatched Grey Voice in the Metroid manga. He also appears in Dark Samus's gameplay trailer, where he is rammed, thrown down to the ground by Dark Samus's grapple beam, and then launched out of the ring by her upward smash.

Mii Fighters
Mii Fighters are playable fighters in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U. Three variants can be chosen from: Mii Brawler, Mii Swordfighter and Mii Gunner. They also could have selectable costumes released via DLC which allow them to technically cosplay as characters who never made the cut, as well as to a certain degree characters that have made the cut. One of these costume sets involved Samus Aran herself, both while in her suit, and unmasked.

A Mii Bobblehead was previously featured in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. The Mii Gunner bears a resemblance to Samus and shares a similar moveset. A DLC costume based on Samus is available for the Gunner as well.

Pac-Man
Pac-Man is the eponymous character of the Namco series of the same name and Namco's mascot. He is playable in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U. Samus, or rather, her 8-bit self, also appears alongside Bowser, Mario, Link, Peach, Kirby, Mega Man, Donkey Kong, and Sonic (the last of whom uses his Sega Master sprite) in Pac-Man's reveal artwork, where she is being chased by Speedie/Pinkie, one of the four ghosts that antagonize Pac-Man in his home franchise. Zero Suit Samus appears briefly in Pac-Man's reveal trailer, "Red, Blue, Yellow", where, aside from Pac-Man, she also fights Marth and Yoshi.

Palutena
Palutena is a goddess who has been a central character in the Kid Icarus series. She made cameo appearances in Brawl (in particular, she's the one who dispatches Pit to deal with the threat of the Subspace Army) and made her debut as a playable character in the 3DS and Wii U Smash games. Aside from her playable role in these games, she also acted as one of the characters who conversed with Pit via Palutena's guidance, with her giving various pieces of advice for the various opponents when making a certain taunt at Palutena's Temple (although she will be at a loss on how to deal with any characters who were included via DLC). She returns in Ultimate.

Robin
Robin, also known as the Avatar, is the default name for the main protagonist of Fire Emblem Awakening. Robin appears in 3DS/Wii U as a male and female variant. Samus briefly appears in Lucina and Robin's trailer, "By Book, Blade, and Crest of Flame", being attacked by Lucina.

Rosalina & Luma
Rosalina is a recurring character in the Mario series who first appeared in Super Mario Galaxy. She appears in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U and Ultimate, alongside a Luma. They are a duo referred to as Rosalina & Luma.

They acted as the opponent for Zero-Suit Samus in the Event Match A Situation of Some Gravity with intense gravity affecting the arena. The flavor text for the match indicated that Samus discovered the planet that Rosalina and Luma were on, and viewed them as hostile alien lifeforms.

Rosalina's amiibo can be used in Metroid Prime: Federation Force to unlock a Paint Job based on her for use in Blast Ball.

Ryu
Ryu is the main protagonist of Capcom's Street Fighter series. He was revealed as a DLC playable character in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U on June 14, 2015, after his inclusion in the games was leaked through datamining of an update. This marked the first time two different characters from a third-party publisher appeared together in Smash (Mega Man and Ryu are both owned by Capcom). This feat would later be repeated with Sega's Sonic and Bayonetta. In Ryu's reveal trailer, Samus is one of three characters to challenge him as he makes his entrance. He is later seen attacking Link on the Pyrosphere stage.

Zero Suit Samus appears in Ryu's reveal poster on the official website. This poster is a direct imitation of a piece of promotional art for Street Fighter II: The World Warrior, with Smash characters taking the place of the other fighters from that game. Zero Suit Samus replaces Ken Masters. The poster is illustrated by Akira "Akiman" Yasuda, a former Capcom artist who was the character designer for Street Fighter II.

Ryu will return in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Shulk
Shulk is the main protagonist of Xenoblade Chronicles, who joins the cast as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U.

Some of the Nintendo of Europe localizers for Xenoblade Chronicles were the same ones who localized Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.

Villager
Villager refers to the human player character in Animal Crossing, whom as the name indicates acts as a villager in most of the Animal Crossing games (exempting New Leaf where the player instead acts as the mayor of the village). Villager can be played as a boy or girl, and appears in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U as a playable character. Some of the furniture, wallpaper, and even clothing he or she can get references Metroid. The Varia Suit, or at least pieces of it, can also be acquired by the player via fortune cookies in Animal Crossing: New Leaf.

In Super Smash Bros for the Wii U, Two Villagers act as opponents to Captain Falcon after Zero-Suit Samus is defeated in Bounty Hunter Clash, and must be defeated to win the event. The flavor text for the event implied that the Villagers were staking out to challenge whoever won the earlier struggle to pick the winner off so they could get the priceless bounty for themselves for a "quick buck."

In Dark Samus's reveal trailer for Ultimate, although not directly seen, his Gyroid attack was briefly seen as one of the objects Dark Samus dodges at Suzaku Castle.

Wii Fit Trainer
The Wii Fit Trainer is a holographic representation of a human female in Wii Fit. She appears in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U as a playable character. Her male counterpart is playable as an alternate costume. Samus appears in the Wii Fit Trainer's trailer, being attacked by the character's Final Smash attack (aptly titled Wii Fit). Samus also appears in silhouette alongside Pit, Kirby, Donkey Kong, Link, and Mario in the Wii Fit Trainer's reveal poster, where she and the others are mimicking the Wii Fit Trainer's current pose.

Although the Wii Fit game itself does not have any connections to the Metroid series beyond the Smash series, having save files for two games from the same series as Wii Fit, Wii Sports and Wii Play, while playing Metroid Prime 3: Corruption will have Samus unlocking two Ship Bumper Stickers composed of the logos for those two titles.

Introduced in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is the first game in the series to see the return of every single fighter in its history, including those that did not return in subsequent installments. Consequently, there will be fewer newcomers than before, with only nine being revealed as of September 13th, 2018.

Inkling
Inklings are a species of squid-like humanoids and playable protagonists of the Splatoon games. On March 8, 2018, they were featured in the surprise trailer for Super Smash Bros. (its working title at the time), confirming them as the first new playable characters for the game. Samus also appeared on the teaser poster for Inkling, where she aims her arm cannon at the Inkling. Prior to their formal debut as a fighter in Ultimate, they were quasi-playable as costumes for the Mii Fighters.

Daisy
Princess Daisy is a character from the Mario series, who often appears in spinoff sports games. She was confirmed as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, appearing as an Echo of Peach. Prior to her formal debut, however, Peach had always had an alternate costume turning her hair auburn, and dress yellow and orange to resemble Daisy, and trophies of Daisy could be unlocked in Melee and Brawl, the latter game also using her as a series of stickers. Similarly, Super Smash Bros. for the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U had a bonus outfit for the Mii Fighters that was modeled after Daisy, thus making her quasi-playable at that time.

A Princess Peach outfit is unlockable in the Nintendo Switch version of Bayonetta 1 & 2, alongside the Samus Aran suit. Like in the Super Smash Bros. games before Ultimate, a palette swap for the outfit exists that was based on Princess Daisy.

Simon

 * "Simon" redirects here. For other uses, see Simon (Disambiguation)

Simon Belmont is the protagonist of the Castlevania series. He first appears in Ultimate, and was the first confirmed newcomer in the August 8, 2018 Nintendo Direct. His descendant, Richter, is an Echo Fighter. They appear alongside fellow Konami protagonist Solid Snake. This marks the first time that three characters from a third-party company have appeared in Super Smash Bros., as well as the first time two characters from a third-party franchise are playable in Smash. In his debut trailer, Samus briefly fights Simon, being subject to his grab-down move and then tossed aside after a failed attempt at using her Grapple Beam on him. Similar to Ridley, he also has his own debut trailer, which he shared alongside Richter.

Castlevania games, beginning with Symphony of the Night, heavily took inspiration from Super Metroid and formed a new genre of game called Metroidvania. MercurySteam, the studio that developed Metroid: Samus Returns, previously developed Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, Mirror of Fate, and Lords of Shadow 2. Simon Belmont is one of the playable protagonists in Mirror of Fate.

In addition, Simon Belmont also had previously interacted with Mother Brain, Pit, Mega Man, and various other Metroid enemies in the NES crossover cartoon Captain N: The Game Master. On a related note, their brief encounter in the gameplay portion of Simon Belmont's debut trailer marks the first time that Samus Aran and Simon Belmont actually encounter each other; Simon and Samus, while being main characters of Captain N, were exclusive to the cartoon and comic book, respectively, and thus never actually encountered each other between mediums of that franchise.

Richter
Richter Belmont is a descendant of Simon Belmont in the Castlevania series. He is referred to by Masahiro Sakurai as Simon's brother in the August 8, 2018 Nintendo Direct. He appears in Ultimate as an Echo Fighter of Simon. Similar to Ridley, he also has his own debut trailer, which he shared alongside Simon. In Richter's gameplay trailer, Samus attempts to fire a missile at Richter, only for his spinning the Vampire Killer whip to cause the missile to detonate before it even came close to him, and then had him whipping Samus away before she could fire a second shot.

Dummied data for Rondo of Blood featured an enemy meant for the game's first stage that resembled the Super Metroid boss Crocomire, although it was colored green instead of red. This enemy was discovered via a data mine on March 2015. Similarly, one of the items found in Symphony of the Night, the Gravity Boots, featured a similar name and design as the High Jump Boots powerup in the Metroid series and also had a similar function to them.

Chrom
Chrom is the the protagonist of Fire Emblem Awakening. He was considered for Smash 4, but passed over in favor of Robin since his fighting style would have been too similar to Marth and Ike. Despite this, he appears as part of Robin's Final Smash, and also appeared in the Palutena's Guidance conversation relating to Robin, where he served a similar role to that of Slippy Toad from Brawl 's Codec conversations in regards to being an otherwise unrelated character in the home franchise directly interacting with the representative character, and was quasi-playable as a Mii Fighters costume. He eventually will make his full debut in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as an Echo Fighter for Roy, with his being unveiled at the same time as Dark Samus, who acted as an echo fighter herself (in her case, with Samus Aran). According to Sakurai in his column for weekly Famitsu, the reason why Chrom was added in was due to the character's popularity in Japan, with Dark Samus having a similar reason for being added in, only it was due to her popularity overseas in her case.

King K. Rool
King K. Rool is the king of the Kremlings and main antagonist of the original Donkey Kong Country trilogy. He makes his debut in Ultimate as a playable fighter, after being confirmed at the end of the August 8, 2018 Direct. Prior to this, he acted as a collectable trophy in the series starting with Melee, was a random name for custom stages in Brawl and also was quasi-playable as a DLC outfit for the Mii Fighters (which was also given a subtle reference in his debut trailer, The Rivals, where King Dedede initially appeared wearing the DLC outfit as a prank). He had been a highly requested character for many years, which was the main reason why he was ultimately included in Ultimate.

It is also to be noted that this was his first physical appearance in over a decade. Retro Studios, which had previously worked on the Metroid Prime games, did not bring back the Kremlings in their use of the Donkey Kong franchise.

In his debut trailer, The Rivals, Samus and Ridley make a cameo in the beginning as part of a montage of various heroes and either villains or otherwise rivals fighting each other.

Isabelle
Isabelle is a major character in the Animal Crossing series from New Leaf onwards. She serves as the Villager's secretary in their capacity as mayor. She was confirmed to be the 74th (68th if discounting Echo Fighters) playable character in Ultimate at the end of the September 13, 2018 Nintendo Direct, which also confirmed a mainline Animal Crossing game for Nintendo Switch in 2019. Largely because of the trailer's dual purpose of both announcing her appearance in Ultimate as well as teasing the new Animal Crossing game, her Ultimate trailer is the only trailer to not feature any conflicts (the gameplay portion non-withstanding), and instead was depicted in a similar manner to standard Animal Crossing games. It also did not have the Smash Bros. logo opener during its premiere for the same reason, although it was later included in the individual release. The Direct, and by extension, her announcement, was originally intended to air on September 6, 2018, but was delayed out of respect for those impacted by the Hokkaidō earthquake that day. While not an Echo of Villager, her moveset is similar to theirs. In her debut trailer, "All in a Day's Work" ("A Hard Worker's Dream" in the UK version), she is briefly seen on Planet Zebes: Brinstar, pouring water on Falco as he attempts to use his Fire Bird attack.

Isabelle was previously an Assist Trophy in Super Smash Bros. 4, and is the third character in Smash history (after Little Mac and Dark Samus) to later become playable. She is the second former Assist Trophy to become playable in Ultimate, after Dark Samus. Similarly, she's also the fourth summonable character to later become playable (as the first was Charizard, who had originally acted as a Poke Ball summon until Brawl and especially Smash 4). Aside from this, she was also quasi-playable in the same game as a costume set for the Mii Fighters.

Scrapped or considered characters
Certain characters were planned or considered for a particular installment, but were scrapped and have yet to debut as a playable fighter in the series. This section does not count characters who were scrapped for an installment but made their debut in a later one.
 * A number of characters were considered to represent the NES era of Nintendo in Melee, including the Balloon Fighter from Balloon Fight, the protagonist of Urban Champion, Bubbles from Clu Clu Land and an Excitebiker from Excitebike. Ultimately, the Ice Climbers were chosen. The Excitebiker became an Assist Trophy starting in Brawl.
 * Ayumi Tachibana from Famicom Tantei Club: Kieta Kōkeisha was considered for Melee, but scrapped as Masahiro Sakurai knew that she would be unfamiliar to Western audiences since her games were exclusive to Japan. She appears in-game as a trophy.
 * Unused, mostly empty character data files referencing "dixie", "toon_zelda" and "toon_sheik" are present in the internal data of Brawl. These are assumed to refer to Dixie Kong from the Donkey Kong franchise and Toon Zelda, the cel-shaded equivalent of Princess Zelda, with an accompanying cel-shaded version of Sheik, which has never been seen in the Legend of Zelda franchise. Sakurai stated that Dixie was intended to appear with Diddy Kong as a playable duo, but the idea was scrapped after running into technical issues.
 * Geno from Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars was considered for inclusion in Brawl, and was popularly requested. He was not implemented, likely due to copyright issues with Square Enix, who co-own the character rights of Geno with Nintendo.
 * Blastoise was considered for inclusion as part of the Pokémon Trainer's team in Brawl, but Sakurai chose Squirtle instead, partially to establish a balance in size and stages of the trainer's Pokémon.
 * Krystal from Star Fox, another popularly requested character, was considered for Brawl but passed over due to time constraints in favor of Wolf, who could be more quickly implemented based on Fox and Falco's models. Sakurai stated that Krystal would have required her own model and moveset. She appears as an Assist Trophy in Ultimate.
 * Data mining of the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U games has revealed an unused emblem reference for a Rhythm Heaven character, potentially the Chorus Men.
 * Alph from Pikmin is implied from interviews and design documents to have been intended as a clone of Olimar. He appears as an alternate costume of Olimar in the final games.
 * Takamaru, the protagonist of The Mysterious Murasame Castle, was briefly considered for a playable role in both Melee and Smash 4, but scrapped due to his low current relevance. He appears in Smash 4 and Ultimate as an Assist Trophy.
 * Heihachi Mishima from the Tekken series was briefly considered as Bandai Namco Entertainment's representative in Smash 4, but Pac-Man was chosen instead; partially because Sakurai felt that implementing his moveset would be difficult.