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Despite being boss characters in the game's 1P Mode, Giant Donkey Kong and Metal Mario are competitively considered some of the worst characters in the game and a clear downgrade from their root characters when modded into Vs. Mode.
Contributed by Wario Wario Wario on September 5, 2023
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In a 1999 interview with the game's director and designer Masahiro Sakurai published in Nice Games magazine vol.3, he was asked if he ran into trouble with getting permission to use Nintendo characters? He responded:

"The first person I asked for permission was Shigesato Itoi. Next was Shigeru Miyamoto. When he saw our work he said, “Hey, you’ve got Mario down pretty good!” The Pokemon characters took the longest to get permission, because their image is tightly supervised. I broached the subject with Pokemon Company president Tsunekazu Ishihara, but the impression I got from him was that it would probably be difficult. Satoshi Tajiri was more encouraging—he was like, “this looks cool!”"

"Personally, as the creator of Kirby, I understood how they felt: I would feel be really upset if Kirby was featured in a game that people ended up disliking, or if the people got his image and movements wrong. In fact, there had been times when I’d been kind of annoyed by the way Kirby was depicted in someone else’s illustration or as a game cameo. Smash Bros. was conceived, in part, as a reaction against that kind of sloppy handling. I imagine anyone who creates a character feels similarly protective, but Smash Bros. brought an unprecedented number of different characters together and it was of the utmost importance to us that we re-create their personalities and characteristics faithfully. I absolutely did not want to betray the original characters’ creators."
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Mario and his Special Moves in this game are based off of the "Shoto" style of Fighting Game characters, most specifically the character Ryu from Street Fighter. For example, like Ryu, Mario has a Hadoken-like "fireball" attack with his Neutral Special (Fireball), A punching uppercut similar to the Shoryuken via his Up Special (Super Jump Punch), and a spinning tackle akin to Ryu's Tatsumaki Senpukyaku in the form of his Down Special (Mario Tornado). However, while Mario's moveset would change in later games to be less Shoto-esque, Ryu himself would be added into the Smash series and make his debut as a fighter in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U.
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The 3D portraits on the character select screen are based on character artwork from some of their home games. Mario's render is from Super Mario 64; Link's is from his artwork for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time; Donkey Kong's Donkey Kong Country artwork is the basis for his Smash portrait; Yoshi's comes from Japanese artwork for Yoshi's Island; Kirby's is from Kirby's Adventure artwork; Fox's is taken from Star Fox 64; Captain Falcon has a 3D realization of artwork from F-Zero X; Pikachu and Jigglypuff are 3D versions of Pokemon Red & Blue concept art; Samus Aran's comes from Super Metroid; Ness's is a redone done version of his EarthBound art; And Luigi's appears to be taken from Mario Kart 64.
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Marth was originally going to be part of the roster, but was scrapped due to time constraints. He later made his appearance in Super Smash Bros. Melee as an unlockable character.
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Attachment According to his character bio, Kirby is only 8-inches tall.
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On Hyrule Castle, the Maxim Tomato item never appears, making the Heart Containers from The Legend of Zelda universe the only major healing item to appear. If it is the only item put on using the item switch, all boxes and capsules will either explode or be empty.
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The game's official US website refers to the Bob-omb item as "Bomb Soldier".
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The bedroom seen in the intro and in the scene shown after completing 1P Game has a door that is always completely unseen. Since the camera focuses mostly on the table where Master Hand puts the dolls on, the door stays hidden behind the camera.
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Captain Falcon and Samus share multiple attack animations.
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In the Japanese release, the attack sounds are real punching noises. It's likely this was changed to keep the game family-friendly.
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Attachment In the Mushroom Kingdom stage, pausing the game and looking off to the left or right of the stage to see outside of the standard gameplay field of view, it's possible to see walls with warnings signs reading "Danger" on them, warning the player of the stage's boundary. This appears in the stage in Super Smash Bros. Melee too.
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Attachment The banner in the background of Saffron City that says "Got a Catch 'em All!" in the Japanese version, missing the second T. This was changed to "Gotta catch 'em all!" in the Western releases. The font also appears to have been rewritten to accommodate this. Also, the Silph sign on the Building on the right is Romanised as Silf in the Japanese release.
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Attachment In an early version of the game, Saffron City's rooftop had a pink and purple color scheme.
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There is an unused sound of the announcer saying "draw game", suggesting this may be an early name for Sudden Death, or possibly that sudden death originally didn't exist.
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In the Japanese version, there is an unused voice clip of the announcer saying "Jigglypuff!", however Jigglypuff's Japanese name is Purin. This seems to hint that the developers planned to release the game in the west from the start, as Jigglypuff is the only character whose name is different in English and Japanese. This voice clip is also different than the one used in the international release of the game.
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The congratulation screens were absent in the Japanese version of the game.
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After the Super Smash Bros. release in Japan, Nintendo began a poll to gauge public interests for future roster additions. Of the top ten, seven have since been added, with the remaining three left out. James Bond was most likely left out due to legal reasons, as he is not originally a video game character and belongs to a more strict estate. While not playable, Mew and Toad both make cameos with Mew being a rare Pokeball result and Toad being used in one of Peach's attacks in later games.
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Attachment One of Peach's Castle's hazards is a bumper, which is mostly used as an item. Coincidently, this is the first stage to use an item as a hazard, and have a hazard outside of its own universe; Peach's Castle is from Mario and the Bumper is from Super Smash Bros.
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Attachment In an early version of the game, Peach's Castle lacked the sign, the bridge, and the sliding stone blocks.
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