Alternate costume (SSBB)

NOTE: Every claimed source needs a cross-reference link; claimed sources need to be plausible, not horrendously obscure; default costumes usually don't need descriptions since they are not alternate costumes; returning costumes original to Smash do not need references to their appearances in previous Smash games.

A battle between four Marios, each one in different colors. Masahiro Sakurai referred to the implementation of costumes as "one of the joys of Smash".

Four of Peach's alternate costumes. Note that one resembles Daisy.

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, players can pick different alternate costumes for their character by cycling through a list of up to six choices. The buttons used to cycle are 1/2 for the Wii Remote and Nunchuk combination, A and B for the Wii remote alone configuration, and pressing X/Y for the Classic Controller and GameCube controller.

Most characters have six alternate costumes, though Jigglypuff, Lucario, Pokémon Trainer, and Sonic only have five, and Pikachu has only four. Wario has twelve costumes; two different outfits with six costumes each, doubling his options and giving him two different outfits for each team in Team Battles.

Some characters, namely Lucario, Pokémon Trainer, and Sonic, have sets of alternate costumes that can be difficult to distinguish from each other in a match. As such, tournaments have the "colorblind rule" in doubles matches, where a player can choose which colours their team and their opponents' team are, if either team has one of the aforementioned characters on their team. While texture hacks are usually discouraged from being used in tournaments, if not flat-out disallowed, it is usually acceptable to use simple texture hacks on these characters to make the color difference between their team palettes more obvious.

When selecting characters in tournament mode, instead of displaying the character's colored image of the chosen costume, a colored bar is displayed in the player list. This color is usually an intuitive indicator of which costume has been chosen, but there are several cases where costumes are given strange colors, such as giving cyan to Ike's default blue-brown getup, or using orange or yellow when the opposite is clearly more correct.

In Wi-Fi, Tournament and Team Brawls, if two identical characters share the same alternate costume, the second character will have a lighter tint in their appearance. A third character on the same team uses a darker tint. The fourth character's tint is even darker than the third character's. It is generally quite difficult to distinguish from the third character's color scheme.

The order of the palette swaps for each character are sorted in the order in which they appear on the character selection screen.

Bowser

Green	G
Black
Red	R	Resembles his "right" color in Mario Golf.
Blue	B	Resembles his original design in Super Mario Bros.
White
Brown		Resembles Boom Boom's in-game sprite in Super Mario Bros. 3.

Captain Falcon

Indigo
Black		Based on his appearance in the Japanese commercial for F-Zero X.
Red	R	Based on Blood Falcon, Captain Falcon's evil clone and rival. It is his only costume with a unique logo on the back: a skull with "Blood Hawk" (the name of Blood Falcon's vehicle) written underneath.
Green	G
Blue	B	Resembles his appearance in the original F-Zero.
White		Resembles Jody Summer's original design in F-Zero X.

Diddy Kong

Red	R
Yellow		The vest is reminiscent of Diddy Kong's alternate outfit in Donkey Kong Country's Two-Player Contest mode.
Pink		Resembles Dixie Kong, Diddy Kong's girlfriend. Perhaps in recognition of the fact that Diddy Kong has no hair, his fur is yellow.
Purple		Resembles his appearance in Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest's Two-Player Contest mode.
Green	G
Blue	B	Resembles Kiddy Kong, Dixie's partner in Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble.

Donkey Kong

Brown
Black		Fur color resembles a real-life gorilla. The tie is reminiscent of Donkey Kong's appearance in Donkey Kong Country's Two-Player Contest Mode.
Red	R	Fur color resembles the in-game sprite of Donkey Kong from the original Donkey Kong.
Blue	B	Resembles one of his alternate colors from Donkey Kong 64's Multiplayer Mode, as well as his "right" color from Mario Golf.
Green	G
White		Referred to as "Yeti DK" on the Brawl DOJO!! Resembles the mythical yeti. It also resembles the Fire Mini Donkey Kongs from Mario vs. Donkey Kong, and Eddie the Mean Old Yeti from the Donkey Kong Country TV series.

Falco

White
Orange		Resembles Katt Monroe, Falco's love interest, as she appears in Star Fox Command.
Blue	B	His clothing is reminiscent of an Arwing.
Red	R	Resembles his appearance in Star Fox: Assault.
Green	G
Black		Complementary to Fox's "Dark Fox" costume. Resembles a red-throated caracara, black pheasant or raven.

Fox

Grey
Black		Referred to as the "Dark Fox" on the Brawl DOJO!! It resembles a cross fox.
Red	R
Green	G
Blue	B
White

Ganondorf

Purple		Based on his appearance in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.
Black		Complementary to Link's "Dark Link" costume.
Blue	B
Green	G
Red	R
Brown		Resembles his appearance in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

Ice Climbers

Popo and Nana switch positions for their red, black, and white costumes, and their head icons change to match, but they do not switch positions on the selection screen like they did in Melee.

Purple
Red	R	Nana resembles her appearance on the American boxart for Ice Climber.
Blue	B
Black
Green	G
White		The colors of their mittens match those of their default colors. The parka color resembles their sprite after touching an enemy.

Ike

Indigo		Based on his appearance as a Ranger in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance.
Yellow
Red	R
Blue	B	Resembles Sigurd, one of the protagonists in Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War.
Green	G	Resembles Geoffrey, one of Ike's comrades, as he appears in Path of Radiance.
Brown		Referred to as an "ordinary soldier" on the Brawl DOJO!!

Jigglypuff

Pink
Red	R
White		Its hat is reminiscent of Leaf, the female protagonist of Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen.
Blue	B	Resembles one of the possible colors for a nicknamed Jigglypuff in Pokémon Stadium and its Shiny coloration. Its hat is reminiscent of the Bug Catcher Trainer class.
Green	G	Resembles one of the possible colors for a nicknamed Jigglypuff in Pokémon Stadium. Its cap is reminiscent of Kirby with the Sleep Copy Ability.

King Dedede

Red	R
Pink		Resembles his "Player 2" color in Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards' Multiplayer mode, but his skin is blue.
Green	G
Purple		Resembles his purple color in Kirby Air Ride. The obi is reminiscent of formal Japanese kimonos.
Blue	B	The obi features the same icons as one of the menu schemes from Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards.
Brown		Resembles his appearance on the monochromatic Game Boy screen in Kirby's Dream Land.

Kirby

Pink
Yellow		Based on and directly referred to as "Keeby" from Kirby's Dream Course. In addition, Yellow Kirby from various Kirby titles and Beam Kirby in Kirby Super Star have the same color.
Blue	B	Based on Ice Kirby in Kirby Super Star.
Red	R	Based on Fire Kirby in Kirby Super Star. His feet are now a pinker shade than before, causing him to resemble Red Kirby from Nightmare in Dream Land, The Amazing Mirror, and Squeak Squad.
Green	G	Resembles Green Kirby from Nightmare in Dream Land, Amazing Mirror, and Squeak Squad. His feet are now orange rather than darker green, matching the aforementioned games. Officially referred to as "kusa mochi Kirby".
White		Based on his monochromatic in-game sprite from Kirby's Dream Land.

Link

Green	G	Based on his appearance from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.
Red	R	Based on the Goron Tunic from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
Blue	B	Based on the Zora Tunic from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
Lavender		Based on his tunic with the Blue Ring equipped in The Legend of Zelda.
Yellow		Resembles his appearance after utilizing the Great Fairy's Tears in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. It also resembles an unused yellow tunic from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
Black		Based on Dark Link. It also resembles the Interlopers from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.

Lucario

Blue	B
Red	R
Cyan
White
Green	G

Lucas

Yellow
Orange		Resembles Claus, Lucas's twin brother.
Red	R
Blue	B	Resembles Ness's pajamas in EarthBound.
Green	G
Purple

Luigi

Green	G	Based on his current appearance in Luigi's Mansion.
Orange		His clothes resembles Mario's appearance on the North American boxart for Pinball.
Pink	R	The original Super Smash Bros. website referred to this costume as "Strawberry Luigi". It resembles his appearance in Wrecking Crew.
Blue	B	His clothes resembles Mario's appearance on the North American boxart for Mario Bros.
White		Resembles Fire Luigi.
Purple		Resembles Waluigi, the self-proclaimed "Luigi's rival".

Mario

Red	R	Based on his current apperance in Luigi's Mansion and Super Mario Sunshine.
White		Based on Fire Mario.
Blue	B	Based on his appearance in promotional artwork for Mario Bros., with the colors of the overalls and shirt swapped.
Yellow		Based on Wario's classic design.
Black		Originally based on Foreman Spike from Wrecking Crew, though the palette has become more monochromatic compared to the original Super Smash Bros. and Melee.
Green	G	Resembles Luigi's appearance from promotional artwork for the arcade version of Mario Bros., with the colors of the overalls and shirt swapped. It also resembles Jinbe from Mole Mania, another game developed by Shigeru Miyamoto.

Marth

Navy
Red	R
Green	G
Black		Resembles Camus, one of Marth's allies, as he appears starting with Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem.
White		Based on Leif, the protagonist of Fire Emblem: Thracia 776.
Blue	B	Resembles his appearance in the Fire Emblem Trading Card Game.

Meta Knight

Purple
White		Resembles one of his alternate costumes in Kirby Air Ride.
Red	R	Resembles his red color in Kirby Air Ride.
Green	G	Resembles his "yellow" color in Kirby Air Ride.
Blue	B	Resembles his original appearance in Kirby's Adventure, but with red eyes.
Pink		Resembles his "green" color in Kirby Air Ride, as well as Kirby.

Mr. Game & Watch

Black		Resembles the characters from the Game & Watch games Fire and Parachute. He has the general color of the LCD frames in most of the Game & Watch handhelds.
Red	R	Reminiscent of characters and objects as depicted on the Virtual Boy.
Yellow		Reminiscent of characters and objects as depicted on the original Game Boy.
Blue	B
Green	G
Cyan		Reminiscent of the backlit display of the Game Boy Light.

Ness

Red	R
White		Resembles Fuel from Mother 3, but with a cap.
Yellow		Based on the uniforms of the Hanshin Tigers, a Japanese baseball team. The shirt's pattern is reminiscent of the Gigantic Ant enemy from EarthBound.
Green	G	His clothes resemble the color scheme of Everdred’s outfit in EarthBound.
Blue	B	Resembles his younger self that he encounters briefly in Magicant.
Purple		The shirt features a sprite of Mr. Saturn on the front.

Olimar

Tan
White		Resembles a Navy Mark IV space suit.
Red	R
Black
Green	G
Blue	B	Resembles Louie, Olimar's partner in Pikmin 2.

Peach

Pink
Yellow		Resembles Princess Daisy. This costume is less complex than it was in Melee, as it simply changes the colors of her clothing and hair.
Red	R	Resembles Pauline's original appearance in Donkey Kong.
Blue	B	Somewhat resembles her "right" color from Mario Golf and Daisy's appearance on the title screen of NES Open Tournament Golf.
Green	G	Somewhat resembles her "left" color from Mario Golf and her appearance on the title screen of NES Open Tournament Golf.
White		Based on a wedding gown. The dress is reminiscent of the wedding dress Paper Peach wore in Super Paper Mario.

Pikachu

At four costume choices, Pikachu has the least amount of alternate costumes in Brawl.

Yellow
Red	R	Resembles one of the possible colors for a nicknamed Pikachu in Pokémon Stadium and its Shiny coloration. Its cap is reminiscent of Red's appearance in Pokémon Red and Blue.
Green	G	Resembles one of the possible colors for a nicknamed Pikachu in Pokémon Stadium. Its headband is reminiscent of Brendan's appearance in Pokémon Emerald.
Blue	B	Its goggles are reminiscent of the Swimmer Trainer class and Pichu's Blue Team costume from Melee.

Pit

White
Yellow
Red	R	Resembles his chiton after obtaining the Gold Arrow and reaching Level 4 strength in the original Kid Icarus.
Green	G	Resembles his chiton after obtaining the Bronze Arrow and reaching Level 2 strength in Kid Icarus.
Blue	B	Resembles his chiton after obtaining the Sacred Arrow and reaching Level 5 strength in Kid Icarus.
Black		Referred to as a "fallen angel" on the Brawl DOJO!!. It became the basis for Dark Pit.

Pokémon Trainer

Default
Red	R	The Pokémon Trainer's cap is reminiscent of Leaf, the female protagonist of Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen. Squirtle resembles the Pokémon Wartortle, its evolved form. Charizard resembles the Pokémon Charmeleon, its pre-evolved form.
Green	G	The Pokémon Trainer resembles Brendan as he appears in Pokémon Emerald. Squirtle and Ivysaur resemble their respective Shiny colorations.
Blue	B	Squirtle resembles its in-battle sprite from Pokémon Yellow.
White		Charizard resembles the Shiny colorations of Charmander and Charmeleon.

R.O.B.

Red	R	Based on the Japanese version of R.O.B. released for the Famicom - the "Family Computer Robot".
Grey		Based on the western version of R.O.B. released for the NES. The text on his base reads "R.O.B. - Robotic Operating Buddy" instead of "Family Computer Robot".
Yellow		Resembles Spike, a glitch enemy from Stack-Up.
Pink		Resembles Flipper, a glitch enemy from Stack-Up.
Blue	B
Green	G	Resembles the R.O.B. Launcher enemy from the Subspace Emissary.

Samus/Zero Suit Samus

Orange		Based on the Varia Suit as it appears in Super Metroid with embellishments taken from the Legendary Power Suit from Metroid: Zero Mission. It no longer corresponds with Samus's red team color, most likely because it is now paired with her cyan Zero Suit.
Blue	B	Based on the Fusion Suit from Metroid Fusion.
Pink	R	Based on the Gravity Suit's in-game sprite from Super Metroid, though it more closely resembles the in-game sprite of the Varia Suit in the original Metroid when missiles are selected.
Brown		Based on the Dark Suit from Metroid Prime 2: Echoes.
Purple		Based on the Gravity Suit's appearance in Metroid Prime.
Green	G	The original Super Smash Bros. website referred to this alternate costume as "mass-produced Samus", a reference to the MS-06 Zaku II from the Gundam franchise.

Zero Suit Samus's costumes are complementary to Samus's respective costumes.

Cyan		Based on her designs from Metroid: Zero Mission and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.
Blue	B	Resembles the Zero Suit at the end of Metroid Prime 2: Echoes.
Pink	R	Resembles her leotard at the end of the original Metroid.
Black		Resembles her outfit at the end of Super Metroid.
Purple
Green	G

Snake

Most of Snake's costumes seem to be based on different camouflage uniforms worn by Naked Snake in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater.

Grey		Based on the sneaking suit worn by Solid Snake in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty.
Red	R	Resembles the Fire camouflage.
Blue	B	Resembles the Splitter camouflage.
White		Resembles the AUSCAM Desert camouflage.
Green	G	Resembles the Tiger Stripe camouflage.
Brown		Resembles the Animals camouflage.

Sonic

Sonic is the only non-Pokémon character to have fewer than six alternate costumes.

Blue	B	Based on his modern appearance in Sonic Adventure.
Black
Yellow		The cuffs somewhat resemble Silver the Hedgehog's gloves.
Green	G	His cuffs are reminiscent of the thumbs-up that appears in Knuckles the Echidna in Sonic the Hedgehog 2's Special Stage.
Red	R	His cuffs are reminiscent of the thumbs-up that appears in Sonic the Hedgehog 2's Special Stage.

Toon Link

Green	G	Based on his appearance in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.
Red	R	Red Link from The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords and The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures.
Blue	B	Blue Link from The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords and The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures.
Purple		Purple Link from The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords and The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures.
Brown		Resembles Link's appearance in The Legend of Zelda.
Black		Resembles Dark Link and the Dark Interlopers from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.

Wario

Unlike all other characters, Wario has two outfits each with multiple color choices: his biker costume from the WarioWare games, which is his default costume, and his classic overalls. This doubles his alternate costume choices. There are a total of 12 costume choices for Wario in Brawl.

Cyan		Based on his appearance in the WarioWare series.
Red	R	The red jacket, white pants, and goggles match the color scheme of Jimmy T, one of Wario's friends.
Yellow		Loosely based on his original Overalls color scheme.
Green	G
Black
Blue	B

Wario's overalls closely resemble the cartoonish look in both the Mario and Wario games, in contrast to Mario, Luigi, and Waluigi, who were given more realistic-looking overalls.

Yellow		Based on his appearance in the Mario and Wario Land series. Referred to as "Overalls Wario" on the Brawl DOJO!!.
Red	R	Resembles Mario's appearance in Donkey Kong, Super Mario Bros., and others.
Blue	B	Resembles Mario's appearance on the Japanese (resale version) and European covers of the NES version of Mario Bros.
Green	G	Resembles Luigi's appearance from promotional artwork for the arcade version of Mario Bros., with the colors of the overalls and shirt swapped. It also resembles Jinbe from Mole Mania, another game developed by Shigeru Miyamoto.
Brown		The color scheme is the opposite of Mario's Foreman Spike-inspired costume in the original Super Smash Bros.
White		Resembles his in-game sprite from the early Wario Land titles on the Game Boy.

Wolf

Grey
Red	R
Black		Complementary to Fox's "Dark Fox" costume. Resembles a black wolf. While the portrait depicts the suit with black sleeves, they are white in-game.
Green	G
Blue	B
White		Similarly to his black costume, the portrait depicts the suit with black sleeves, but they're white in-game.

Yoshi

All of Yoshi's costumes appear as different variations of the Yoshi species in Yoshi's Story.

Green	G	Based on a Green Yoshi.
Red	R	Based on a Red Yoshi.
Blue	B	Based on a Blue Yoshi.
Yellow		Based on a Yellow Yoshi.
Pink		Based on a Pink Yoshi.
Cyan		Based on a Light Blue Yoshi.

Zelda/Sheik

Purple/Light Blue		Zelda is based on her appearance in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. While Sheik does not appear in Twilight Princess, she is based on unused concept art of her from the title.
Red	R	Zelda resembles her in-game sprite when Link rescues her with the Red Ring equipped in The Legend of Zelda.
Blue	B	Zelda resembles her in-game sprite when Link rescues her with the Blue Ring equipped in The Legend of Zelda.
Pink		Zelda is based on her appearance in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, but more closely resembles the color scheme of her appearance in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Sheik does not resemble her appearance from Ocarina of Time and instead matches Zelda's color scheme.
Green	G	Zelda resembles her in-game sprite when Link rescues her with no ring equipped in The Legend of Zelda.
Black		Complementary to Link's "Dark Link" costume.

Stats

• There are a total of 222 alternate costumes.
• The average number of costumes per character is 6.
• There are only 6 characters that do not have 6 color swaps: Pikachu has only 4, Jigglypuff, Pokémon Trainer, Sonic and Lucario have 5, and Wario has 12 (with two sets of 6 costumes each, one from the WarioWare series, and the other from the Wario Land series and Mario franchise).

Glitch

There is a glitch in Brawl that allows multiple players to be the same character with the same color scheme, without the shading seen in Team Battles.

This glitch can also occur when every player selects random, and multiple players end up playing as the same character.

Trivia

• Captain Falcon's red outfit actually has one file for each available PAL language in the game (English, French, German, Spanish, Italian). While presumably done so localizers could edit the "Blood Hawk" on the back to match the current language, this appears to have been skipped or glossed over, as there is no difference between the files.
• Mr. Game & Watch only has one file for his model and textures. This indicates that the color variations come from tinting or blending the textures, instead of pre-rendered bitmaps.
• Luigi has an unused blue costume in the game's data; this costume is slightly lighter in color than the used one, and the reason for its removal is unknown.