Franchise: Super Smash Bros.

The trophy representing Meowth in Super Smash Bros. Melee is a reference to his appearance in a tech demo shown off at Spaceworld 2000 called "Meowth's Party", which itself was based on a recurring ending musical number from the Pokémon anime. In his trophy he is holding the same red guitar that he performs with in the tech demo. The flavor text for his trophy even directly mentions this tech demo:


A version of Meowth's Party eventually made its way into the GameCube release of Pokémon Channel.

According to series creator Masahiro Sakurai in a 2024 video, ideas for the series' name were first brainstormed by team members at HAL Laboratory, while the "Bros." part of the name was picked out by its president Satoru Iwata during a meeting with him, Sakurai, and Ape Inc. founder Shigesato Itoi. Iwata's reasoning for adding Bros. to the title was that despite the game's roster not all being "brothers", he believed the word added the nuance that they were "friends who were settling a little disagreement" instead of just simply fighting.

When asked if they would approve of Cooking Companions content appearing in the Super Smash Bros. series, Deer Dream Studio said no, claiming "I've seen the best minds of my generation destroyed by Smash."

In all games in the series since Super Smash Bros. Melee, you can choose which victory animation the winning character can do, though the button combinations differ by the game:

• In Melee, you can change the victory animation by pressing X, Y, or B before the result screen appears.
• In Brawl, holding either X, Y, or B, or Up, Left, or Right on the D-Pad of the GameCube controller will determine the victory animation.
• In the 3DS and Wii U games and Ultimate, holding Up, Left, or Right on the D-Pad will determine the victory animation.

Although he appears to be a flat sprite, Mr. Game & Watch is actually a 3D model designed to look 2D from the perspective of the camera.

Ganondorf's design in Super Smash Bros. Melee is based on his appearance in the Spaceworld 2000 tech demo which showcased a fight with Link and himself where he wields a large sword. This large sword only ever appeared in that tech demo and in one of his win animations in Melee. This specific sword would not be used in Ganondorf's moveset until the release of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in 2018, where his design is based on that same Spaceworld 2000 tech demo as well as elements from his appearance in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

There are 17 stages in the Super Smash Bros. series that (intentionally) contain the full title of a video game in their English name: Balloon Fight, Duck Hunt, Find Mii, Luigi's Mansion, Mario Bros., Minecraft World, Pac-Land, Paper Mario, Pokémon Stadium, Pokémon Stadium 2, Super Mario Maker, Tomodachi Life, Wii Fit Studio, Wrecking Crew, both stages titled Yoshi's Island, and Yoshi's Story.

Additionally there are Miiverse and the Pictochat stages but their source material’s status as "video games" are debatable.

In an interview with Miketendo64, Nihon Falcom president Toshihiro Kondo stated that if Nintendo ever decided to ask the company to use one of its characters in Super Smash Bros., he would most like to see Adol Christin from the Ys series. His reasoning was that unlike many other characters created by the company, Adol has been the main character of several games and has been around for a long time. He also noted how unlike The Legend of Heroes: Trails series where the protagonist changes every arc (i.e. Van Arkride being the main character of the Calvard arc started in The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak), Adol has had a consistent presence in his series, thus making him more recognizable as a character.

Though Donkey Kong's neutral special Giant Punch has no specific origin, Donkey Kong performs a similar wind-up punch in "Bad Hair Day", the first episode of the 1997 animated series "Donkey Kong Country", which first aired 17 months prior to the Japanese release of Super Smash Bros.

Pichu (in Ultimate), Shulk, Pac-Man, Cloud, Simon, Joker, Kazuya and Sora are the only characters in the entire Smash Bros. series to not have a green palette swap option.

In each iteration, Fox's voice has been provided by the same voice actor who played him in the most recent Star Fox game.

N64 - Shinobu Satochi - Star Fox 64 (Japanese Voice Actor)
Melee - Steve Malpass - Star Fox Adventures
Brawl - Jim Walker - Star Fox: Assault
Wii U/3DS - Mike West - Star Fox 64 3D
Ultimate - Mike West - Star Fox Zero

Jigglypuff is the only character in the series to be instantly K.Oed when its shield breaks.

Series creator, Masahiro Sakurai, has stated that each game in the series except the original were developed with the mindset that there were to be no more sequels after them.

Mentioning Project M, the name of an unofficial modified version of Super Smash Bros. Brawl to reintroduce elements from Super Smash Bros. Melee, by name on any of Nintendo's Miiverse channels will trigger an automatic ban for discussing "criminal activity".

When performing Bayonetta's forward throw Tetsuzanko, she'll occasionally say "Juu'nen Hayain Dayo!" which in English translates to "You're Ten Years Too Early!".

This is a reference to one of the the win quotes of Akira Yuki from the Virtua Fighter series in which the Tetsuzanko is also one of Akira's signature moves. This move was also possible in Bayonetta.

In the November 2014 issue of GameInformer, it was revealed that Masahiro Sakurai takes photos of a pose-able action figure to create the moves for new characters whenever one is being made. The image shown is the action figure poses used to make the Mii Fighters' moveset.

In German versions of the Super Smash Bros. games, Popo had his name changed to "Pepe" because the word "popo" means "butt" in German.

Like the actual Pikmin series, blue Pikmin are the only variety of Olimar's Pikmin that can swim in water. If any other of Olimar's Pikmin go in water, they will die instantly.

In the Super Smash Bros. series, Yoshi is usually one of cast's heavier fighters. He even outweighs Samus and Ganondorf in the PAL versions of Super Smash Bros. Melee and is on par with Wario in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Despite this, Yoshi is usually labelled as a lightweight or middleweight character in the Mario Kart and Mario Tennis spin-offs.

Masahiro Sakurai wanted Geno to appear as a playable fighter in both Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, and thought the character felt suited for the series since he has a gun for a hand. However, in the end he wasn't included, but instead appearing as a Mii Costume in both the latter game and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.