Language

The Language menu in the NTSC version of Super Smash Bros. Melee which shows options for English or Japanese.

Language is an option found in the Options menu on the PAL version of Super Smash Bros., all versions of Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and determined by system settings in the PAL version of Super Smash Bros. Brawl and all versions of Super Smash Bros. 4. As the name suggests, the player can adjust the language of their copy of the game.

In Super Smash Bros.

The language menu in the European version of SSB. In the image above, the language is currently set to German.

The original Super Smash Bros. is available in five languages: Japanese, English, French, German, and Simplified Chinese. The Simplified Chinese version of the game is available on the iQue Player, the Chinese export of the Nintendo 64, and was released a few years after Melee.

Language can only be adjusted in the European version of SSB; it can be set to English, French, or German through an extra section on the options menu. When the player hovers over a menu item in the Japanese, French, or German versions, a white box with its corresponding translation will display at the bottom of the screen. The Simplified Chinese version of the game is fully translated into the language, and is mainly based on SSB's English version (though some Pokémon characters have unique voice clips).

Most speaking characters in SSB have language-neutral voice clips and/or short bits of English dialogue, something that would continue in future games. The Pokémon may have different vocals depending on the game's language, but none of them speak any human languages; Pikachu in particular was not allowed to speak. Fox has spoken Japanese lines in SSB's Japanese version (the only character to have them), but these were removed from all the other versions. The announcer shares voice lines in the Japanese and English versions and is dubbed in French and German, though the German version does not have unique voice clips for "Captain Falcon", "Computer Player" or "Team Battle".

In Super Smash Bros. Melee

The "Language" option in the PAL version of Melee.

Super Smash Bros. Melee is available in six languages: Japanese, English, French, German, and two languages making their debut: Italian and Spanish. Japanese is only available in the NTSC versions while French, German, Italian, and Spanish are only available in the PAL versions. When the English language setting is active in NTSC versions, the "Language" option is written in Japanese.

Melee introduced a few firsts with its speaking characters. It is the first Smash entry with characters that speak either Japanese or English depending on which version is played; the characters in question are Fox, Falco, Peppy, and Slippy from the Star Fox series. It is also the first internationally-released Nintendo game with characters that only speak Japanese; those in question are Marth and Roy from the Fire Emblem series. Finally, it is the first Smash entry with a Pokémon character that speaks a human language, with it being Mewtwo. Mewtwo and Sheik speak Japanese in their victory quotes in Melee's Japanese version, but their dialogue is either muted or dubbed over with generic grunts in other versions.

In other European languages, a majority of the game's text is still in English, save for most of the "simple" text. Furthermore, despite the presence of the British flag on the English option, the text is largely unchanged compared to the NTSC's English language setting, and does not take the language's regional differences into account. Additionally, all the voice clips are reused from the NTSC English version in all languages (other than some Pokémon and Jigglypuff's announcer calls in the German and French versions).

Similar to the NTSC version, changing the language causes some minor changes in the game.

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Super Smash Bros. Brawl is available in seven languages: Japanese, English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, and for the first time in the series, Korean. NTSC versions can only be played in English, while PAL versions of Brawl can choose between five different languages (all aside from Japanese and Korean). The choices remain the same, and like before, aspects of the game can change. However, the language cannot be changed in-game and is instead based off system settings. Japanese text that includes kanji is displayed with furigana, which is a reading system designed to help those who aren't familiar with kanji understand how they're supposed to be read, by displaying the hiragana symbols that spell the kanji symbol. All text is translated to the language of choice and the announcer and crowd chants are fully dubbed into each language, though the PAL versions mainly use characters' voices from the English version.

On top of adding more characters that speak both Japanese and English, Brawl was the first entry with characters that also speak French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Korean. They are Pokémon Trainer and Lucario, who are also the first Pokémon characters in Smash that speak languages other than Japanese. Marth only speaks Japanese in every version of Brawl.

In Super Smash Bros. 4

Both versions of Super Smash Bros. 4 are available in nine languages: Japanese, English, French, Spanish, German, Italian and for the first time Dutch, Portuguese, and Russian. Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS is additionally available in Korean while Super Smash Bros. for Wii U lacks the option because the Wii U console was never officially released in South Korea. The NTSC version of both the Wii U and 3DS versions supports three languages; English, French and Spanish. The PAL version supports eight, adding German, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese and Russian. Like in Brawl, the language used by the game depends on the language set on the system itself, and cannot be changed in-game.

While the French, Spanish, German, and Italian versions continue to dub over the announcer, crowd cheers, and some character voices, the other versions do not. The voice tracks in the Dutch, Portuguese, and Russian versions are from the PAL English version while those in the Korean version are from the Japanese version. Lucario, Sonic, Shadow, and Wii Fit Trainer can speak French, German, Italian, and Spanish in addition to Japanese and English. Meanwhile, Marth, Takamaru, the Prince of Sablé, Roy, and Cloud only speak Japanese in every version. The returning Mewtwo is the same as it was in Melee, language-wise.

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

The language menu in Ultimate

Ultimate supports eleven languages regardless of region: Japanese, English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Dutch, Russian, Korean, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese. Simplified Chinese is available for the first time since the original Super Smash Bros., and Traditional Chinese is entirely new to the series. However, Portuguese, which was present in SSB4, is no longer available, despite the Nintendo Switch system still having a Portuguese-language option. For the first time since Melee, language selection is available from an in-game menu rather than being automatically selected based on the system's region and language settings. This is due to the Nintendo Switch not having region locking, necessitating every language to be available on the same physical Switch cartridge.

For characters who are only voiced in English and Japanese, Asian-language localizations typically use the Japanese voices (except for Snake, Ryu and Ken being voiced in English in the Chinese and Korean versions, and Simon and Richter being voiced in English in the Korean version), whereas Western-language localizations use the English voices. Knuckles joins Sonic, Shadow, Lucario, Pokémon Trainer, and Wii Fit Trainer in being able to speak French, German, Italian, and Spanish. Meanwhile, Takamaru, the Prince of Sablé, Cloud, Yuri Kozukata, Akira Yuki, Sephiroth, and Kazuya only speak Japanese in every version. Newcomer Hero is similar to Mewtwo in that they speak Japanese in the Japanese version, but don't speak in other versions. The English/Japanese announcer, Xander Mobus, provides unique voice clips for the Korean version, while a mixture of his voice clips from both the English and Japanese versions are reused for both Chinese languages. New announcers also provide voice clips for the Dutch and Russian languages.

English, French and Spanish each have two different variants: an NTSC variant (American English, Canadian French and Latin American Spanish) and a PAL variant (Commonwealth English, European French and Castilian Spanish). The difference is affected by the system's region and language. The NTSC variants are used if the system's region is set to "the Americas", "Japan" or "Hong Kong/Taiwan/South Korea", or if the system's language is set to Japanese, Korean or Chinese; the PAL variants are used if the system's region is set to "Europe" or "Australia/New Zealand", or if the system's language is set to German, Dutch, Italian or Russian. In these cases, the system's language takes priority over its region. This effectively gives Ultimate a total of 14 language choices compared to the 11 selectable in the menu. Players can change the region in the Switch system settings to access these regional variants. In English, unlike in the previous game, only a few regional differences are still present, such as the name "Duck Hunt Duo" for Duck Hunt in PAL languages, the voices of Wii Fit Trainer depending on the region, tips describing characters' first appearances being accurate to the release date in the region, the Super Scope item being called the ”Nintendo Scope", some slightly different music track names, Find Mii being called "StreetPass Quest", some spirit names being different, and games mentioned in the names of certain spirits and music tracks being named differently based on the region (such as "Wandering Samurai (Rhythm Heaven Fever)" in the NTSC version differing from "Wandering Samurai (Beat the Beat)" in the PAL version). Other former differences, such as Boxing Ring character titles, spellings (such as color/colour and armor/armour), move names (such as Hammer Flip and Duck Jump), and text differing drastically have been standardized between English regional versions. The two Spanish and French versions, however, continue to exhibit significant text and character name differences, in addition to the Spanish voices for Wii Fit Trainer still differing between regions similarly to the English ones.

Unlike previous games, changing language settings in Ultimate reboots the game. As such, changing the language can be used as an alternate method (besides closing and reopening the game) to unlock characters in Smash battles more quickly by bypassing the ten-minute cooldown timer between challengers, particularly when using controllers that lack a HOME button.

Despite the game not being available in Portuguese and the official website lacking a Portuguese translation, official promotional content such as the Mr. Sakurai Presents/Battling With series has full Portuguese subtitles available on Nintendo's YouTube channel for Portugal.

Trivia

• In SSB4 and Ultimate, R.O.B.'s default costume depends on the language the game is set to. The Famicom colors are the default costume if the language is set to Japanese, Korean, or Chinese; otherwise, the NES colors are used, referencing how his real-life counterpart had different coloring between regions to match the NES/Famicom's body color.
• While the Asian versions share the announcer's voice actor in all games (except the Korean version of Brawl) with the English version, in Brawl, SSB4 and Ultimate, he pronounces some character names differently, namely those for King Dedede, Lucina, Simon, Richter and King K. Rool, to better reflect the Japanese pronunciation; Lucina, for example, is pronounced as "RU-ki-na" in Asian versions rather than "Lu-SEE-na" in the English version. However, Marth, Young Link, Lucas and Byleth do not share this trait (even in Melee), despite their Japanese pronunciations being slightly different from their English counterparts.
  • In the Korean version of Ultimate, the announcer switches between English and Japanese pronunciations depending on the character.
• In Ultimate, Mewtwo does not speak in any of its victory poses if the language is set to either Spanish, German, Dutch or Russian. This is because the game loads up the voice scripts from the Japanese version, which uses separate voice clips from the English version.