Language

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.

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

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 Japanese, English, French, German, and Simplified Chinese.

Language can only be adjusted in the European version of SSB (uniquely, SSB has separate PAL versions for Europe and Australia). The language can be set to English, French, or German through an extra section on the options menu. When the player hovers over a menu item with the language set to either French or German, a white box with its corresponding translation will display at the bottom of the screen. The announcer is dubbed in both languages; however, the German version does not have unique voice clips for "Captain Falcon", "Computer Player" or "Team Battle", using the English clips instead.

The Simplified Chinese version of the game is only available on the iQue Player, the Chinese export of the Nintendo 64. While the game is fully translated, almost all voice acting is reused from the English version of the game. Jigglypuff and most non-playable Pokémon, however, receive new voice clips.

In Super Smash Bros. Melee

Super Smash Bros. Melee is available in Japanese, English, French, German, and two languages making their debut: Italian and Spanish. As the game was never officially released in mainland China, Simplified Chinese is unavailable.

NTSC versions

In the NTSC versions of Melee, the player can switch between Japanese and American English for their languages. Changing the languages has little to no effect on actual gameplay; almost all changes in the game are cosmetic when languages are switched.

When the English language setting is active, the "Language" option is written in Japanese. The opposite occurs if Japanese is set as the language instead.

List of differences in the Japanese version versus the American English version

• Bowser and Jigglypuff are given their Japanese names of "Koopa" and "Purin" in Japanese. All Pokémon, when released, will also say their original names depending on the version.
• The Ice Climbers have a caption of "Ice Climber", in the singular; in addition, the announcer refers to them as "Ice Climber" as well.
• Donkey Kong's caption in Japanese is spelled as "D.Kong"; in English, Donkey Kong's caption is "DK".
• The Collection mode will change depending on the language; a list of differences can be seen in the Collection article.
• Trophies will display what console the game was released for in Japanese; this indication doesn't appear in American English. Trophies are also referred to as "Figurines" in Japanese.
• Characters may or may not speak depending on the language. In American English, Mewtwo and Sheik do not speak, but in Japanese, the two speak in some cases.
• The camera angle in the Home-Run Contest is more zoomed-in when the language is set to Japanese.
• All distances in the game are recorded in feet in American English, due to America's use of the U.S. Imperial System. All distances are recorded in metres in Japanese, as Japan uses the metric system.
  • The latter is also the case with the PAL version, as Europe and Australia both use the metric system.
• The announcer says different phrases in some of the game modes, which are covered in the respective article.
• Most crowd chants are different in Japanese than they are in American English (except Mario, Luigi, Donkey Kong, and Young Link).
• The Sound Test features two kanji characters in place of the discs when set to Japanese; these characters also spin when music is played.
• There are various cosmetic changes to the menus. On the Character select screen, for instance, when set to Japanese, the "Ready to Fight!" banner says "Press Start/Pause", while in American English, it will simply say "Press Start".
• The lottery, in Japanese, will say "Get!" and "New Figure". In English, these messages will be replaced by "Got it!" and "A new trophy!" In addition, the Lottery also has a green "A" above the lever when the game is set to Japanese.
• Though the Japanese release has a different design for the Motion-Sensor Bomb and Topis, their design does not change if the language is set to Japanese on an American copy of the game.

PAL versions

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

In PAL versions of Melee, the player can choose between five different languages in the game, reflecting the multiple areas of the European Union. They are:

• English
• German
• French
• Spanish
• Italian

The quality of the European localization is questionable; while most of the "simple" text is translated, a majority of the game's text, notably of game modes and menu options, remain in English. 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 certain regional differences into account, such as the use of "color" over "colour". Additionally, the announcer voice clips are reused from English for all languages (other than Jigglypuff's foreign names, resulting in a disparity between voices).

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), like in Melee. 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.

Compared to Melee, all text is translated to the language of choice, and the announcer is fully dubbed into each language.

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, While Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS is available in Korean, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U lacks the option, because the Wii U console was never officially released in South Korea. Additionally, the Korean version borrows the announcer's voice clips from the Japanese version of the game, rather than recording new Korean voice clips.

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 five languages from Melee and Brawl continue to localize the announcer and a small number of character voices, the three new languages (Dutch, Portuguese and Russian) borrow their voice clips from the English language version.

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

The language menu in Ultimate

Ultimate supports 11 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 Smash 4, is no longer available, despite the Nintendo Switch 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.

For characters who are only voiced in English and Japanese, Asian language localizations typically use the Japanese voices, whereas Western language localizations use the English voices. As in previous titles, a small number of characters are also voiced in French, Spanish, German and Italian. 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 region is set to "The Americas", "Japan" or "Hong Kong/Taiwan/South Korea", or if the language is set to Japanese, Korean or Chinese; the PAL variants are used if the region is set to "Europe" or "Australia/New Zealand", or if the language is set to German, Dutch, Italian, Russian or Portuguese. 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. 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 voice of Wii Fit Trainer depending on the region, tips describing characters' first appearances being accurate to the release date in the region, and games mentioned in the names of certain spirits 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), while 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.

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 site lacking a Portuguese translation, official promotional content such as the Mr. Sakurai Presents series has full Portuguese subtitles available on Nintendo's Portuguese YouTube channel.

Trivia

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• The Japanese, Chinese, American and Australian versions of Super Smash Bros. 64 and the Japanese, Korean and American versions of Brawl are the only games that possess a singular language option.
• In non-English Western language versions of Brawl, SSB4 and Ultimate, most characters retain their voices from the English version. Exceptions include most Pokémon characters (apart from ones who use their Japanese voices internationally, such as Pikachu, Pichu, Charizard, Mewtwo and a few Poké Ball Pokémon), the Wii Fit Trainers, and Sonic (in SSB4 onwards). This is due to the Pokémon anime and spinoff games, the Wii Fit series, and Sonic games (from Sonic Generations onwards) being dubbed into many languages, while the other represented series are either unvoiced or retain the English voices with translated text and subtitles. However, Zelda (in World of Light's intro), Fox, Falco, Wario, Ike and Sora still speak English, even though each of them featured in at least one game dubbed into multiple languages, and Cloud Strife and Sephiroth speak Japanese in all versions even though almost all of their home series appearances have been dubbed in English and some in additional languages.
  • In Sora's case, this is likely due to non-English European language dubs for the Kingdom Hearts series being discontinued from 2008 onwards, including for re-releases of older games.
  • As such, Star Fox Smash Taunts, Codec Conversations, Palutena's Guidance, and the few cutscenes in Adventure Modes with voiced dialogue are always voiced in either English or Japanese, with subtitles in the game's language.
  • Mewtwo and Hero actually speak in the Japanese version; however, this is replaced with generic grunts in other languages.
• 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 colorings between regions to match the NES/Famicom's body color.
• Bayonetta in the Japanese version has a unique trait: she uses her Japanese voice with her Love Is Blue costumes, while in her Witch With No Memories costumes, she speaks English, referencing how the original Bayonetta did not have Japanese voice acting until the Wii U version's release. Because of this trait, she has two entries in Ultimate's Sounds, even though both are largely identical on other language versions.
• Kirby in the English version of SSB4 and Ultimate also has a unique trait: while most of his voice clips are shared with the Japanese version, he has dubbed English clips for when he copies Palutena (Autoreticle), Robin (Thunder), Shulk (Monado Arts) and Byleth (Failnaught). These voice clips are still provided by Kirby's usual voice actress, Makiko Ōmoto.
• Pokémon Trainer utilizes unique property of voice clips; The trainer is voiced in English, Japanese, Korean (Brawl only), French, Spanish, German, Italian; Squirtle and Ivysaur use their English voice clips in Spanish and Italian; and Charizard uses the same voice clips across all languages.
• In tournament play, many tournaments in non-English-speaking Western regions choose to set the game to English rather than the regional language, presumably due to English being the standard game language setting in national tournaments in the Americas, Europe and Oceania. Thus, playing in English allows players to better condition themselves for tournaments abroad - a sentiment reinforced by the controversy over Hero's Command Selection and potential language barrier issues.
  • The "Master Hand" Melee tournament series in Japan uses the game's English language option, as most of the Melee competitive scene is in the West.
• Bowser, Bowser Jr., Rosalina & Luma, Piranha Plant, Sheik, King Dedede, Jigglypuff, Mewtwo, Squirtle, Ivysaur, Charizard, Greninja, Incineroar, Robin, Corrin, R.O.B., Isabelle, Duck Hunt, Mega Man, Pyra and Mythra are the only playable characters to have their proper names changed in another language.
  • In the cases of Bowser, Bowser Jr., Corrin, R.O.B., Mega Man, Pyra and Mythra, their English names are changed from the original Japanese but are also used in all other Western languages.
  • Others with a name change just translate titles or descriptors (like Captain Falcon), and/or have it specified for gender (like Wii Fit Trainer). Palutena and Sephiroth are a unique case in French localizations; their names only differ in the addition of an acute accent, but in Palutena's case it is treated as an alternate name on her American amiibo packaging.
  • The SSB4 Pokémon amiibo for Jigglypuff, Charizard and Greninja do not have their French names displayed on their American packaging (even when reprinted for Ultimate), although they are present on their European packaging; this may be related to the fact that the French Canadian translation of the Pokémon franchise simply reused the English names prior to 2010. However, the Ultimate Pokémon amiibo for Squirtle, Ivysaur and Incineroar have their French and Japanese names displayed on their American packaging.
  • Byleth's name is the same in Japanese, but it is spelled differently depending on gender (ベレト for male, ベレス for female); all other languages use the same name between genders.
• 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 pronounce 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. Interestingly, 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; for example, King K. Rool uses the Japanese pronunciation, while Richter uses the English pronunciation.
• While still based off of the Japanese version, the Metal Gear characters use their English voice clips in both Korean and Chinese versions of Ultimate; in the former, this also applies to the Street Fighter and Castlevania universes.
  • Despite this, the usage of English and Japanese voices does not appear to be consistent: from the Metal Gear series, Snake uses his English voice and Gray Fox uses his Japanese voice, while from the Street Fighter series, Ryu and Ken use their English voices and Guile uses his Japanese voice.
• In the Chinese version of Ultimate, some names are not transliterated into Chinese, even though some of them have official transliterations; examples include Mr. Game & Watch, Snake, Ryu (traditional only), Ken (traditional only), Cloud (Prior to update 10.0.0), Bayonetta, Inkling and Joker. For Ryu and Ken, this is also the case in Korean. Kazuya also has his name not transliterated in Korean, however he does have a transliteration of his name in both Chinese versions.
• In Ultimate, there exists three inconsistencies for the victory poses of all characters who only have an English or Japanese voice when setting the game to different languages:
  • Setting the language to either Spanish, German, Dutch or Russian causes all those characters to use their English voices, but the game loads up the voice scripts from the Japanese version, causing some victory quotes to play earlier/later then in the English version.
  • Setting the language to either Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese or Korean will cause all those character to use their Japanese voices, but the game loads up the English version of the victory pose.
• Oddly, in Ultimate, Mewtwo does not speak in any of its victory poses if the language is currently 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.
• Ever since Brawl, Japanese text that includes kanji is displayed in 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.