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| [[File:UltimateAnnouncerGO!.jpg|thumb|In the ''Super Smash Bros.'' series, all matches officially start when the Announcer says "GO!"]] | | [[File:Super-smash-bros-brawl-20071207055708769.jpg|thumb|260px|In all Super Smash Bros. games, all matches officially start when the announcer says "GO!"]] |
| The '''announcer''' ({{ja|ナレーション|Narēshon}}, ''Narration''), called '''narration''' in-game until ''[[Super Smash Bros. Brawl]]'', is an unseen character whose voice is heard in all games of the [[Super Smash Bros. (series)|''Super Smash Bros.'' series]], exclaiming what has happened in the game. The voice is often heard in menus when selecting [[mode]]s and [[fighter]]s, as well as within a match to announce its start and end and other events like a player losing all of their [[stock]]s or [[Share stock|sharing stock]]. It also announces the winner on the [[Victory pose|victory screen]]. The only move in the series to involve the announcer in any way is [[Konga Beat]], [[Donkey Kong]]'s [[Final Smash]] in ''Brawl'' and ''Smash 4'', with the announcer saying "Ready? Go!" upon its activation. All of the announcer's voice clips can be heard in the [[sound test]].
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| The announcer has been voiced by 14 actors to varying degrees, for each game in the series as well as for different regions and [[language]]s. The English voice actor is considered to be the "primary" one in each game and is used by default in [[NTSC]] versions, as well as in Japanese, albeit with some minor differences in his lines, including character names. The English voice actor for the announcer has also always voiced [[Master Hand]] and [[Crazy Hand]].
| | An '''announcer''' is a voice that plays the role of a referee in the game. Different voice actors fill this role in different games in the ''[[Super Smash Bros. (series)|Smash Bros series]]''. |
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| ==Announcers== | | ==Actors and comparisons== |
| ===''[[Super Smash Bros.]]''=== | | ===Jeff Manning=== |
| {{iw|wikipedia|Jeff Manning}} was the first announcer in the series, starting many of the trends that would later be followed by the future announcers; in addition to his booming style and various exclamations during gameplay, such as [[Character selection screen|characters being selected]], Jeff Manning started a trend where both the Announcer and [[Master Hand]] are voiced by the same person. Manning's voice has a significant filter applied to it, causing his voice to echo, as well as increasing the intensity of his voice; his actual delivery, however, is relatively calm, and he does not generally hold out words for long periods of time.
| | [[File:JeffManning.jpg|thumb|200px|Jeff Manning is the voice of ''Super Smash Bros.'''s announcer.]] |
| | Manning's performance as the announcer foreshadowed a majority of the trends that would be followed by the two later incarnations of the announcer. |
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| Outside of Manning's voice, two other actors provide the announcer's voice in different regions; Frank Wölfel provides his voice in the German [[PAL]] version, and Jean-Marc Delhausse provides his voice in the French PAL version. The Chinese version of the game, released for the {{iw|wikipedia|iQue Player}}, reuses Manning's voice.
| | ===Dean Harrington=== |
| | [[File:DeanHarrington.jpg|thumb|200px|Dean Harrington voices the announcer in ''Super Smash Bros. Melee''.]] |
| | Harrington continues Manning's style of voice, often yelling in a form similar to that of an emcee at a wrestling or boxing match. Harrington's voice, however, has a "muffled" tone to it, leading to a slightly less intense voice than Manning's. |
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| ===''[[Super Smash Bros. Melee]]''=== | | ===Pat Cashman=== |
| Dean Harrington is the main announcer in ''Melee''. He takes on a different inflection than Manning; Harrington yells more similarly to an emcee at a boxing match, with his phrasing often lasting for long periods of time, as well as a generally more intense voice than Manning's. Like Manning, Harrington's voice has an echo filter applied to it; other filters applied to his voice, however, cause Harrington's voice to have a more muffled tone compared to the other announcers. With the introduction of [[Crazy Hand]] in the series, Harrington also began a trend where the announcer also voices Crazy Hand.
| | [[File:PatCashman.jpg|thumb|200px|Pat Cashman announces in ''Super Smash Bros. Brawl''.]] |
| | Cashman's announcer ends the emcee style, and in general, his voice is considerably calmer in sound. Cashman's voice is not as muffled as Harrington's, and he has a deeper voice than either of his two predecessors. |
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| {{SSBM|Jigglypuff}} has different German and French announcer calls to match its regional names ("Pummeluff" in German, "Rondoudou" in French). Both come from ''{{iw|bulbapedia|Pokémon Stadium 2}}'' and were originally done by Kai Taschner (German)<ref>''Pokémon Stadium 2'' credits (German version, under "Stadium Announcer")</ref> and Jean-Claude Donda (French).<ref>''Pokémon Stadium 2'' credits (French version, under "Commentaires")</ref> Both clips are lower in quality compared to the others, but have the same echo filter applied to them.
| | ==Quotes== |
| | ===''[[Super Smash Bros.]]'' (Voice: Jeff Manning)=== |
| | *"''Super Smash Brothers''!" |
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| ===''[[Super Smash Bros. Brawl]]''=== | | ===''[[Super Smash Bros. Melee]]'' (Voice: Dean Harrington)=== |
| {{iw|wikipedia|Pat Cashman}} is the main announcer in ''Brawl''. He ended Harrington's emcee style, and in general, his voice is considerably calmer in sound, more akin to Manning. Cashman's voice is not modified to the extent of Manning's or Harrington's, leading to cleaner sound quality from him; Cashman also has a deeper voice than either of his two predecessors. Cashman's voice also features more personality from the announcer, such as his quizzical inflection when the player selects {{SSBB|Luigi}} as a playable character.
| | *"''Super Smash Bros. Melee''!" |
| | *"[[Versus mode|Melee]]!" |
| | *"Decision!" |
| | *"[[Super Sudden Death]]!" |
| | *"[[Camera]]!" |
| | *"[[Multi-Man Melee]]!" |
| | *"[[Home-Run Contest]]!" |
| | *"[[Target Smash!!|Break the Targets]]!" |
| | *"[[Coin Battle|Grab the coins]]!" |
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| Outside of Cashman's voice, five other individuals voice the announcer in ''Brawl'', for the game's PAL and Korean releases. Achim Barrestein provides the German announcer, Carlos Lobo provides the Spanish announcer, Jean-Louis Faure provides the French announcer, Luigi Fantino provides the Italian announcer, and Choi Han provides the Korean announcer.
| | ===''[[Super Smash Bros. Brawl]]'' (Voice: Pat Cashman)=== |
| | *"[[Multi-Man Brawl]]!" |
| | *"[[Basic Brawl]]!" |
| | *"[[Rotation]]!" |
| | *"[[Tourney]]!" |
| | *"[[Special Brawl]]!" |
| | *"[[Team Battle]]!" |
| | *"Spectate!" |
| | *"PERFECTO! Incredible!" |
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| Cashman was the oldest announcer, being 58 when he recorded his lines for the game.
| | ===''SSB'' & ''SSBM''=== |
| | *"[[Race to the Finish]]!" |
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| ===''[[Super Smash Bros. 4]]'' / ''[[Super Smash Bros. Ultimate]]'' === | | ===''SSB & SSBB''=== |
| {{iw|wikipedia|Xander Mobus}} is the main announcer in ''Smash 4'' and ''Ultimate''. He acts and sounds similarly to Pat Cashman in ''Super Smash Bros. Brawl'', with his voice being deeper than those of Manning and Harrington, as well as having few filters applied to his voice. Compared to Cashman, however, Mobus's announcer is less relaxed and reserved, though he still does not act as intense as Harrington. Some of Mobus's portrayals also bear similarities with Cashman's, such as a sinister tone when selecting {{SSB4|Bowser}} and {{SSB4|Ganondorf}}. His inspirations for using this voice came from a combination of {{iw|wikipedia|Gary Owens}} and some old [[Disney]] characters like {{iw|khwiki|Goofy}} (who is voiced by {{iw|wikipedia|Bill Farmer}}).<ref name="cc2">{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeEeBVV8fAw|title=Xander Mobus Unveils His Trickiest Voice Acting Moments!|publisher=YouTube|accessdate=June 1, 2024|date=June 1, 2024}}</ref>
| | *"Free for all!" |
| | *"3, 2, 1... GO!" |
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| Mobus also provided his voice in the [[Nintendo Direct#Super Smash Bros. for Wii U: 50-Fact Extravaganza|50-Fact Extravaganza presentation for Nintendo Direct]], explicitly introducing himself as "the announcer" and proceeding to narrate the video. He also portrayed the announcer in an [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLu7e8RZoYc overview trailer] for ''Ultimate'' in a similar manner to his performance in the 50-Fact Extravaganza. In this particular video, his voice is deeper than usual and has more of a "growl" when stressing key phrases.
| | ===''SSBM'' & ''SSBB''=== |
| | *"Ready? GO!" |
| | *"Game!" |
| | *"[[Home-Run Contest]]!" |
| | *"Grab the Coins!" |
| | *"Success!" |
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| Outside of Mobus's voice, four other announcers voice the announcer in the PAL release of ''Smash 4'', all of whom were retained from ''Brawl'': Achim Barrenstein (German), Carlos Lobo (Spanish), Jean-Louis Faure (French), and Luigi Fantino (Italian). However, they act slightly different than in ''Brawl'': Faure and Lobo's voices are more audible and energetic, Barrenstein plays more powerfully, and Fantino plays more playfully. The Dutch, Portuguese, Korean, and Russian localizations use the English announcer.
| | ==All 3 Games== |
| | The following quotes are from the Japanese and English versions of all 3 games. |
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| The Spanish and French announcers also provide voices for the Latin American and Canadian localizations respectively, with subtle differences similar to the ones seen in the English and Japanese versions; for example, [[Rosalina & Luma (SSB4)|Rosalina]] is called "Estela" and "Harmonie" in the respective PAL versions but retains her English name in the NTSC versions. The French announcer also tends to pronounce several character names such as {{SSB4|Bowser}} and {{SSB4|Toon Link}} in a closer way to English, while others such as {{SSB4|Jigglypuff}} and {{SSB4|Corrin}} retain the pronunciation in Parisian French. Meanwhile, the Spanish announcer also differs pronunciations in some way; examples include the differences of intonation for {{SSB4|King Dedede}}, and merged pronunciation of the C's and Z's with S's, such as {{SSB4|Zelda}} pronounced as "'''S'''elda".
| | ===Both Versions=== |
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| In a series first, Mobus reprises his role as the English and Japanese announcer in ''Super Smash Bros. Ultimate'' (as well as the voice for both {{SSBU|Master Hand}} and {{SSBU|Crazy Hand}}); he also provides voice clips specific to the Korean language option, while the Chinese options reuse his Japanese voice clips.
| | *"A New Record! |
| | *"Choose your character." |
| | *"(Character Name)!" |
| | *"[[Sudden Death]]!" |
| | *"Vs. (Character or Team)!" |
| | *"Break the Targets!" |
| | *"Continue?" |
| | *"Complete!" |
| | *"Failure!" |
| | *"Game Over!" |
| | *"Congratulations!" |
| | *"Player/Computer Player, defeated!" |
| | *"The Winner is..."/"This game's winner is..." |
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| Some lines are also re-recorded between ''SSB4'' and ''Ultimate'': for example, "Computer player" has more emphasis on "-puter play-" in ''Ultimate'' than in ''SSB4'', and both "Victory" and "[[Tourney]]" are spoken in a drastically energetic tone in ''Ultimate'', compared to the ''SSB4'' versions being spoken in a reserved tone (similar to the latter's ''Brawl'' counterpart). Other lines, however, were reused, such as the names of the playable characters returning from the previous game.
| | ===Japanese Version Only=== |
| | *"Game Set!" (also heard in the English version in [[Super Smash Bros.]]) |
| | *"Battle Royale!" |
| | *"[[Jigglypuff|Purin]]!" |
| | *"Zenigame!" |
| | *"Fushigisou!" |
| | *"[[Bowser|Koopa]]!" |
| | *"[[Charizard|Lizardon]]!" |
| | *"Time Up!" |
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| Additionally, the previous foreign language announcers retain their roles in ''Ultimate'' from ''Brawl'' and ''SSB4'' along with two new, unknown announcers for the Dutch and Russian language options. The Dutch announcer's portrayal somewhat resembles Pat Cashman's voice in ''Brawl'', with more relaxed voice clips similar to the French version. Meanwhile, the Russian announcer's voice is deeper and plays slower than those of the rest of the announcers.
| | ===USA / English PAL Version Only=== |
| | | *"Game!" |
| Unlike the previous two announcers, Crazy Hand uses a radically different voice from Master Hand and the announcer, somewhat akin to {{h2|Koopalings|Iggy Koopa}}'s voice clips from the same games.
| | *"[[Jigglypuff]]!" (also Italian and Spanish) |
| | | *"[[Squirtle]]!" (also Italian and Spanish) |
| In another series first, ''Ultimate'' is the first game in the series to feature an alternate voice for the announcer in the same language, with {{SSBU|Kazuya}} having the ''Tekken 7'' announcer announce his victory on his victory screen instead, voiced by Josh Keller.
| | *"[[Ivysaur]]!" (also Italian and Spanish) |
| | | *"[[Bowser]]!" (also for all PAL languages) |
| Mobus was by far the youngest of the ''Smash Bros.'' announcers, recording his lines for ''SSB4'' at the age of 21, and recording his lines for ''Ultimate'' at 25; by comparison, Manning was 43 in 1999, Harrington was 53 in 2001, and Cashman was 58 in 2008.
| | *"[[Charizard]]!" (also Italian and Spanish) |
| | | *"Time!" |
| ==Gallery== | |
| {|Class=wikitable style="text-align:center;"
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| !Jeff Manning<br/>(''SSB64'', 1999)!!Dean Harrington<br/>(''Melee'', 2001)!!Pat Cashman<br/>(''Brawl'', 2008)!!Xander Mobus<br/>(''SSB4'', 2014 and ''Ultimate'', 2018)!!Josh Keller<br/>(''Ultimate'', 2021) | |
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| |[[File:JeffManning.jpg|x150px]]||[[File:DeanHarrington.jpg|x150px]]||[[File:PatCashman.jpg|x150px]]||[[File:XanderMobus.jpg|x150px]]||[[File:JoshKeller.jpg|x150px]]
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| |[[File:Mario SSB64.ogg]]||[[File:Mario SSBM.ogg]]||[[File:Mario SSBB.ogg]]||[[File:Mario SSB4.ogg]]||[[File:KazuyaVictory.ogg]]
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| |}
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| === Foreign announcers ===
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| ====''SSB''====
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| {|Class=wikitable style="text-align:center;"
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| !Jean-Marc Delhausse (French)!!Frank Wölfel (German)
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| |[[File:Jean-MarcDelhausse.jpg|x150px]]||[[File:FrankWölfen.jpg|x150px]]
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| |[[File:French Announcer (SSB).ogg]]||[[File:German Announcer (SSB).ogg]]
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| |}
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| ====''Brawl''====
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| {|Class=wikitable style="text-align:center;"
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| !Choi Han (Korean)
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| |[[File:ChoiHan.jpg|x150px]]
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| |[[File:Korean Announcer (Brawl).ogg]]
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| |}
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| ====''Brawl'' onwards====
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| {|Class=wikitable style="text-align:center;"
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| !Jean-Louis Faure (French)!!Luigi Fantino (Italian)!!Achim Barrenstein (German)!!Carlos Lobo (Spanish)
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| |[[File:Jean-LouisFaure.jpg|x150px]]||[[File:LuigiFantino.jpg|x150px]]||[[File:AchimBarrenstein.jpg|x150px]]||[[File:CarlosLobo.jpg|x150px]]
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| |[[File:Vc narration gameset FR.wav]]||[[File:Vc narration gameset ITA.wav]]||[[File:Vc narration gameset DE.wav]]||[[File:Snd se narration Gameset ES.wav]]
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| |}
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| ====''Ultimate''====
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| {|Class=wikitable style="text-align:center;"
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| !Dutch!!Russian
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| |[[File:Vc narration gameset NL.wav]]||[[File:Vc narration gameset RUS.wav]]
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| |}
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| ==Trivia== | | ==Trivia== |
| *''64'' and ''Melee'' are the only games in the series to have the announcer shout the game's title at the title screen. | | *In the PAL versions of ''Super Smash Bros.'' and ''Brawl'' (though strangely, not ''Melee''), the announcer speaks whichever language the game is set to. |
| **''Brawl'' contains unused, empty announcer files for what appears to be the announcer shouting the title's name; in the final game, there are no voice clips for this. Other unused files also feature the [[Match timer#Final countdown timer|countdown at the end of a match]] starting at ten seconds, as opposed to five.
| | *In the PAL version of ''Super Smash Bros.'', the French announcer is voiced by J.M. Delhausse and the German announcer is voiced by Frank Wölfen. |
| **''Smash 4'' announcer Xander Mobus shouts the title's name during the [[Super Smash Bros. for Wii U 50-Fact Extravaganza]] and during Ultimate Overview Trailer, but in these final games of Smash 4 and Ultimate, there are no voice clips for those games. | | *[[Master Hand]] is voiced by the same person as the announcer, regardless of game. This has led to theories that Master Hand ''is'' the announcer. This may also be backed up by the fact the announcer has no dialogue during the fight with the Master Hand, unlike in other classic and VS. matches, where the announcer will shout out "Go!" and "Game!" etc. In the PAL versions of ''[[SSB]]'' and ''[[SSBB]]'', any language other than English is an exception from this. |
| *So far, four announcers have voiced a character other than Master Hand and Crazy Hand.
| | *The quote "Ready? Go!" is also used upon the activation of [[Donkey Kong]]'s [[Final Smash]], [[Konga Beat]]. |
| **Jean-Marc Delhausse, who provides the French announcer in ''Smash 64'', later reappeared as a voice actor in subsequent games in the series, voicing [[Lucario]], [[Ivysaur]], and various [[Poké Ball]] Pokémon in the French versions of the games.
| | *''Super Smash Bros. Brawl'' has been the only game in the series in which the announcer does not shout out the game's title. |
| **Carlos Lobo and Luigi Fantino, who provide, respectively, Spanish and Italian announcement in ''Brawl'', ''Smash 4'' and ''Ultimate'', also voice Lucario in their respective localizations.
| | *The only difference in narration in the PAL version of ''SSBM'' when not set to English is when selecting Jigglypuff. Two different announcers will say "Pummeluff" or "Rondoudou" when the game is set to German or French, respectively. |
| **Xander Mobus, who provides the English announcer in ''Smash 4'' and ''Ultimate'', also voices [[Joker]] in the English localization of ''Ultimate''.
| | *There has never been a female announcer. |
| *Xander Mobus booked his role with the same microphone {{iw|mariowiki|Kenny James}} ([[Bowser]]'s current voice actor outside of ''Super Smash Bros.'') gifted him, when he was [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkSGdDBpyvE performing theater alongside James]. | |
| *In ''Super Smash Bros.'', German voice lines for "Captain Falcon", "Computer Player" and "Team Battle" are missing, so the game uses the English version instead.
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| *In spite of ''Brawl'' using a Korean announcer, ''Ultimate'' uses the English announcer and translates certain names into Korean (such as the {{SSBU|Ice Climbers}} being called "Eol'eum Tagi", the duo's Korean name from ''Brawl'', and {{SSBU|Rosalina & Luma}} having a new announcer call, which refers the former with her English name and the latter as "Chiko", its Japanese name), while using the Japanese translations (such as {{SSBU|Robin}} still being called Reflet) for others.
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| **''Ultimate''{{'}}s Korean version also mixes English and Japanese announcer clips to accommodate for the language's pronunciation; for instance, {{SSBU|King Dedede}}, {{SSBU|Simon}} and {{SSBU|Richter}} use English pronunciations, while {{SSBU|Lucina}} and {{SSBU|King K. Rool}} use Japanese. Oddly, {{SSBU|R.O.B.}}'s announcer call also uses his Japanese name ("Robot"), despite his English name being displayed in the Korean version.
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| *In ''Smash 4'', some lines in the German version, such as "Perfect" and "Replay Channel", sound [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7JB_TT2xO4&t=16m54s unusually different] compared to other lines.
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| *Oddly, the NTSC French version of ''Smash 4'' and ''Ultimate'' features several minor inconsistencies on the pronunciation of character names. For example, "[[Ice Climbers]]", "[[Roy]]", "[[Toon Link|Link Cartoon]]", "[[Robin|Daraen]]", "[[Koopalings#Larry Koopa|Larry]]", "[[Koopalings#Roy Koopa|Roy]]", "[[Koopalings#Morton Koopa Jr.|Morton]]" and "[[Ryu]]" are pronounced with an "R" which is more akin to the English R, while most other characters (even "[[Rosalina]] & [[Luma]]", with the former referred to as "Harmonie" in the PAL version) are pronounced with a typical "{{iw|wikipedia|guttural R}}" in Parisian French, which is prominently used in the PAL version.
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| **[[Corrin]] is a rare case in that they have different pronunciations between regions in the French translation of ''Smash 4'', but use the same pronunciation as ''Smash 4''{{'}}s PAL version in ''Ultimate'' for both regions, albeit re-recorded.
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| *[https://youtu.be/sen_43HXOd4?t=1060 Xander Mobus stated] that despite being the announcer, he was always made unaware of both ''Smash 4'' and ''Ultimate''{{'}}s launch rosters or DLC until their release, since in order to prevents leaks, he records for multiple red herrings and random character names in order to obscure who is being included, such as naming titles, random characters that would never be considered, and non-video game characters. Whether or not this is true for other language announcers or before ''Smash 4'' is unknown. | |
| **When recording for {{SSB4|Duck Hunt}} in ''Smash 4'', he was conditioned to believe he was reading it as the title of the NES game and assumed it was fake. He also believed that when recording for [[Snake]], that he was reading it as the animal rather than the character.
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| **[https://twitter.com/XanderMobusVO/status/664984767591411712 He also stated] he did not know Cloud would be in ''Smash 4'' until his announcement.
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| **For Joker, Xander first thought it was a joke before [[List of voice actors#M|Cassandra Lee Morris]], [[Morgana]]'s English voice actress, confirmed the crossover to him before the reveal trailer at [[The Game Awards|The Game Awards 2018]].<ref name="cc">{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OS-OhZr0tss|title=Caught Off Guard: Wild Tales from Persona 5 English VAs!|publisher=YouTube|accessdate=May 18, 2024|date=May 18, 2024}}</ref>
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| **The development team asked Xander to call each character in three different pitches, then picked one of the three. This explains why some characters have their names called in a deeper, less enthusiastic voice than others, like [[Alex]] and [[Steve]] for example.<ref name="cc"/><ref name="cc2"/>
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| *Oddly, in ''Ultimate'', {{SSBU|Dark Samus}} and {{SSBU|Byleth}}'s announcer calls are slightly louder in the Japanese version, despite otherwise being the same.
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| *[[List of voice actors#F|Jean-Louis Faure]], the French announcer from ''Brawl'' to ''Ultimate'', is the first announcer in the ''Super Smash Bros.'' series in any language to pass away, on March 27, 2022.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.malcolm-france.com/actualites/articles/jean-louis-faure-la-voix-francaise-de-bryan-cranston-sest-eteinte/|title=Jean-Louis Faure : la voix française de Bryan Cranston s'est éteinte|language=fr|date=March 27, 2022|publisher=malcolm-france.com}}</ref>
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| ==References==
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| {{reflist}}
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| ==See also==
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| *[[Crowd]] | |
| *[[List of voice actors]]
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| [[Category:Characters]]
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| [[Category:Features]] | | [[Category:Features]] |
| [[Category:Super Smash Bros. universe]]
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