Clone

In Melee, Mario and Dr. Mario's aerial attacks are
identical in animation, part of what makes them clones.

A clone is a character whose moveset, animations, and general properties are mostly derived from another character, as opposed to being unique to them. All clones have some sort of gameplay difference compared to their parent - as they would otherwise be relegated to being an alternate costume instead - but on the whole, they will generally be very similar to their parent, to the point where a casual player might play either in the same way. However, this is not to say that playing a clone like their parent will be successful: Roy may be a clone of Marth in Melee due to sharing all his animations, but as his movements and hitboxes are all altered, his playstyle is completely different.

Clones are a common inclusion in various fighting games, as it is significantly less expensive in time and resources to develop a character using another character as a base than it is to do everything from scratch, while still potentially forming a character of unique playstyle and fanbase. However, despite being easier to make and thus resulting in a larger roster overall, fans are quick to show disdain for clones, perceiving them as stealing resources from potential unique characters.

The term "clone" can also be used to refer to individual moves. For example, Charizard's Flamethrower is a clone of Bowser's Fire Breath, as even though the characters are not related, they are the same type of move with identical function.

It is uncommon for clones to be starter characters; they are more likely to be unlockable characters. If a clone's parent is also unlockable, it is very likely for the clone to be unlocked after their parent.

Subtypes

The term "clone" does not by itself sufficiently describe how similar two characters are. Perhaps two characters share all but one attack, while another pair has only half of their attacks in common while still clearly being a derivative overall. As a result, there is a spectrum of terms to describe how much of a clone a character might be.

• A full clone (often shortened to just "clone") will have unique taunts and victory poses, may have unique attributes or non-combat animations (such as running or jumping), and perhaps a unique attack or two. Otherwise, they share effectively all moves and animations with their parent. Dr. Mario in Melee and Lucina in SSB4 are examples of full clones.
• A semi-clone has several unique attacks of their own while retaining a significant amount from their parent. Luigi in Melee and Isabelle in Ultimate are examples of semi-clones.
• A pseudo-clone is for the most part their own unique character, but with enough moves or animations copied from their parent that it would be inaccurate to say they are not cloned to some degree. Wolf in Brawl is one of the few pseudo-clones.

It is not uncommon for a cloned character to receive further differentiating changes in later games, thus making them less of a clone. Some use the term Luigification for when a character is separated from their parent and forms their own identity, as Luigi has done in both his home series and the Smash Bros. series. However, it is generally very difficult to determine at what point a character who was once a clone is no longer a clone.

Ultimate introduces the term echo fighter to refer to certain clones. The term is used to determine which characters are grouped together on the character selection screen when the corresponding menu option is enabled, and also forces such characters to share the same Sakurai number with an appended epsilon (ε). Otherwise, it is simply a term used by the developers to denote a character as being low-budget; as a result, it does not fit into the spectrum of clone terms used by the community to discuss the degree of similarity in the final result.

The Japanese term for "echo fighter" is dash fighter (ダッシュファイター), and uses the prime symbol (′) instead of an epsilon. In Japanese, the prime symbol is pronounced "dash", hence the term "dash fighter"; in mathematics, the prime symbol is used to designate that something is derived from something else, such as x′ being derived from x.

Clones in Super Smash Bros.

While all four of the unlockable characters were created with the premise of reusing some of the pre-existing characters' movements and models, two of them (Captain Falcon and Ness) are unique enough that they are not clones of their parents (Samus and Mario respectively).

Clone	Parent	Category	Unique moves	Other notes
Luigi	Mario	Full clone	Luigi's only unique attacks are his dash attack and down tilt, though his taunt is unique among the cast in that is has a hitbox.	Luigi's special moves all have different purposes: his Fireball's lack of gravity alters where it controls space, while his Super Jump Punch and Luigi Cyclone are both one-hit power moves rather than trapping combo moves. In general, Luigi is slower than Mario and has less combos and approach ability, but has a better recovery and more KO moves.
Jigglypuff	Kirby	Semi-clone	Jigglypuff's unique attacks include its up smash, back aerial, up aerial, forward throw, and all special moves.	While Jigglypuff shares many of Kirby's animations and properties (such as having six jumps), it is generally difficult to compare the two, as the pair are historically not seen as a semi-clone in the same way that other characters are.

Notes

• The Fighting Polygon Team is composed of full clones of all 12 playable fighters, though they cannot use special moves.

Clones in Super Smash Bros. Melee

Originally, Masahiro Sakurai was going to include significantly fewer playable characters in Melee. However, with fans wanting more characters while time was constrictive, Sakurai decided to add clones later in development to pad out the roster, as these characters would take a lot less time to develop than unique characters. According to Pichu's page on the Japanese website, clones were known as model swap characters (モデル替えキャラ).. Clones are marked on ths character selection screen as recessed icons.

Luigi received many changes that distanced him from Mario considerably, changing him from a full clone into a semi-clone. On the other hand, Jigglypuff and Kirby both received changes significant enough that Jigglypuff is no longer considered any sort of clone.

Clone	Parent	Category	Unique moves	Other notes
Dr. Mario	Mario	Full clone	None.	Dr. Mario has stronger attacks in general, with some of them having unique properties: his forward smash is an electrical attack without a sourspot, his forward aerial is a non-meteor powerful finisher, and his neutral aerial is a sex kick with its strongest hit at the end instead of the beginning. Dr. Mario also cannot wall jump and has a worse recovery in general. Despite Dr. Mario's trophy describing him as "a tad slower" than Mario, the two have identical speed stats, with the exception of Dr. Mario's slightly faster air speed.
Falco	Fox	Full clone	None.	While Falco's moves all look the same as Fox's, they all have different properties and therefore applications. For example, Fox uses his up smash and up aerial as his main high-power KO moves, while for Falco it's his forward smash and down tilt. Fox's flinchless Blaster is ideal for tacking on damage for free, while Falco's can flinch and so is more suited for poking and interrupting approaches. The two both use their Reflector as the main focus in their strong combo game, but Fox's is a weak sideways hit that can also gimp, while Falco's knocks upwards and can loop into his single-hit down aerial.
Ganondorf	Captain Falcon	Full clone	Ganondorf has a single-hit neutral attack and a unique forward aerial.	Ganondorf is significantly heavier and much more powerful than Captain Falcon, and while his movement is slower, most of his attacks don't lose too much speed. Almost all of Ganondorf's attacks are a viable KO option and have some sort of property difference, such as aerial Wizard's Foot acting as a powerful spike. Most notably, Ganondorf's up tilt (the Volcano Kick) is the slowest-to-hit attack in the game and has correspondingly extreme power, whereas Falcon's up tilt is a simple attack not much different from anyone else's.
Luigi	Mario	Semi-clone	Luigi has a unique up tilt, down tilt, dash attack, forward smash, forward aerial, and side special. The final hit of his neutral combo is also different.	Luigi's Super Jump Punch no longer grants any horizontal distance. While his down smash, neutral aerial, and down aerial look the same as Mario's, they behave quite differently.
Pichu	Pikachu	Full clone	Pichu has a unique up smash.	Pichu is generally faster and weaker than Pikachu, which is excaberated by its electric attacks inflicting self-damage. Most special moves have minor differences; Skull Bash is stronger and can be charged for longer, Agility covers more space than Quick Attack but deals no damage, and Thunder is a multi-hit move.
Roy	Marth	Full clone	Roy only has one part to his neutral attack.	While Marth's sweetspot is at the tip of his sword, Roy's is at the hilt, which affects almost his entire moveset and so enforces a completely different style of play. Roy is also slower than Marth in most aspects. His up smash and up special are multi-hit moves, and his Counter does not deal fixed damage like Marth's.
Young Link	Link	Full clone	None.	Young Link is a smaller, faster, and weaker character overall. He can wall jump, his grounded Spin Attack is a multi-hit move, his arrows are on fire, and his forward smash's first hit is purely a setup for the second hit rather than a launching move by itself.

Notes

• Wario was initially considered as a clone for Mario during development. Ultimately, Dr. Mario was chosen instead.
• As Luigi and Dr. Mario share a "parent" in Mario, it could be argued that they are technically semi-clones of each other.
• Giga Bowser is effectively a full clone of Bowser; he is omitted from the above list due to not being a playable character.
• The Male and Female Wire Frames are clones of Captain Falcon and Zelda respectively, though without special moves. Unlike the previous game's Polygons, they also have weaker movesets.
• Master Hand and Crazy Hand could be considered semi-clones, as they share most of their attacks while having some unique attacks and many unique animations.
• Coincidentally, all clones' head icons face the opposite direction as their parent's.

Clones in Super Smash Bros. Brawl

None of the newcomers in Brawl are full clones, though there are new lesser clones. In addition, most of the clones from Melee were cut, with the few that returned now semi-clones. As a result, there are no full clones in Brawl.

Clone	Parent	Category	Unique moves	Other notes
Falco	Fox	Semi-clone	Falco has a different neutral combo, up tilt, forward smash, neutral aerial, and forward aerial, while he also uses his down special differently.	Falco keeps many of his differences from Melee, such as his which attacks are more powerful than Fox's, while gaining a few new ones alongside his changed attacks. Most notably, he kicks his Reflector out instead of holding it in place, which can trip opponents but means he cannot hold it forever or use it as part of a combo engine.
Ganondorf	Captain Falcon	Semi-clone	Ganondorf has a unique neutral attack, forward tilt, down tilt, up smash, forward aerial, up throw, side special, and Final Smash.	Ganondorf's new Twilight Princess design gives him a wide variety of new animations, even for attacks that still mirror Falcon's. Flame Choke is the biggest change, giving him a new and mostly unique special move. Otherwise, Ganondorf remains slower and more powerful than Falcon.
Lucas	Ness	Pseudo-clone	Lucas's only similar moves are his dash attack, forward smash, up aerial, pummel, and special moves. The rest of his moveset is unique.	Having mostly a unique moveset of his own, Lucas's similarity to Ness is primarily in his special moves and attributes. His special moves are all essentially identical in function and operation, with minor functional differences such as PK Thunder being a multi-hit attack. More importantly are his attributes; he has mostly the same physical properties as Ness, and both suffer from an additional 10 frames of grab release lag that no other character has. This is the only clone pair where the derived character is the starter and the parent is unlockable.
Luigi	Mario	Semi-clone	Luigi has a unique neutral combo third hit, up tilt, down tilt, dash attack, forward smash, forward aerial, down aerial, side special, down special, and Final Smash.	Mario's Mario Tornado changing from his down special to his down aerial is the main new difference between him and Luigi, in addition to Luigi being able to crawl. Luigi has also been given some new animations and now has his own voice clips, rather than re-using a sped-up selection of Mario's.
Toon Link	Link	Semi-clone	Toon Link has a unique up smash, neutral aerial, forward aerial, back aerial, forward throw, and back throw.	Toon Link shares a similar set of differences from Link than Young Link did in Melee: smaller, faster, weaker, a forward smash that only launches on the second hit, a more controllable Boomerang, and a multi-hit Spin Attack and Bombs. As proof that Toon Link was derived from Link, there is an error where his forward throw is treated as a Foot attack like Link's even though it is a shoulder tackle.
Wolf	Fox	Pseudo-clone	Wolf's only similar moves are his forward throw, pummel, side special, and down special.	Historically, Wolf's status has been very unclear and heavily debated ever since Brawl's release. Like Lucas, his main similarity to his parent is in special moves; his side and down specials are identical in operation to Fox's, and his neutral and up specials are thematically similar but are unique moves, while the majority of his moveset is otherwise unique. In addition, the vast majority of Wolf's non-combat animations (such as dodges, getups, and item actions) remain exactly identical to Fox's, even in cases where they do not connect properly into his other animations as a result.

Notes

• The Fighting Alloy Team are all clones: Red of Captain Falcon, Blue of Zelda, Yellow of Mario, and Green of Kirby (with Jigglypuff's forward, back, and up throws). Like their predecessors, they lack special moves.

Clones in Super Smash Bros. 4

Super Smash Bros. 4 re-introduces full clones, adding one such veteran and two such newcomers. These clones were originally developed as alternate costumes, but it was later decided to give them a difference in moveset, resulting in them being split into their own characters - as "even a small difference in abilities" requires a unique roster slot. There are no new semi-clones, and returning semi-clones were not given much in the way of new differences. Clones are marked on the character selection screen by being listed outside of the rest of the characters from their series.

Most clones and semi-clones share at least one custom move, though full clones have more custom moves in common.

Clone	Parent	Category	Unique moves	Other notes
Dark Pit	Pit	Full clone	Dark Pit has his own Final Smash, though it is still cloned from another character (Zelda).	Dark Pit was made into a clone because Sakurai did not like the idea of him using Pit's Three Sacred Treasures for his Final Smash. Somewhat as a result, his other differences from Pit are extremely minimal - he has a smaller hitbox on his neutral attack rapid finisher, his forward tilt deals weaker knockback, the arrows fired from his neutral special travel with less control but being stronger and faster, and his side special deals electrical damage with stronger knockback while hitting opponents at a horizontal trajectory. Due to his extreme similarity to Pit, most tier lists do not even give him his own placing, instead having him share Pit's spot.
Dr. Mario	Mario	Full clone	Dr. Mario retains his down aerial and down special from Melee, which due to changes to Mario since, are now incidentally different attacks.	Dr. Mario was made into a clone because Sakurai felt fans of his Melee incarnation would be disappointed to lose his uniquenesses. Concurrently, he retains most of his differences: while he can now wall jump (removing a difference), he now acts as a slower but stronger Mario due to built-in equipment multipliers. However, he is still very similar to Mario; his Final Smash and custom moves are all direct copies of Mario's (or Luigi's, in the case of Dr. Tornado).
Falco	Fox	Semi-clone	Falco has a different neutral combo, up tilt, forward smash, up smash, neutral aerial, forward aerial, up aerial, and down special.	Not much has changed for Falco; aside from his up smash and up aerial being slightly different, he retains most of his difference from Fox from the previous game. Notably, while he shares no custom moves with Fox, he and Fox both have custom neutral specials that replicate the other's default.
Ganondorf	Captain Falcon	Semi-clone	Ganondorf has a unique neutral attack, forward tilt, down tilt, up smash, forward aerial, up throw, side special, and Final Smash.	Ganondorf has not received any major changes that affect how much of a clone he is, though he did get a few minor animation tweaks. His most notable difference is that he shares no custom moves at all.
Lucas	Ness	Pseudo-clone	Lucas's only similar moves are his forward smash, up aerial, pummel, and special moves. The rest of his moveset is unique.	Lucas has a different dash attack, but he otherwise has not changed much from Brawl in terms of being similar to Ness. In fact, he now shares some non-attack animations with Ness despite having unique ones in Brawl, such as his Final Smash animation, dash ending animation, idle animation when holding items, and his clapping animation. In addition, all of Ness's special moves have custom variants that cause them to act like Lucas's (whereas Lucas, like all DLC characters, has no customs).
Lucina	Marth	Full clone	None.	Lucina was made into a clone because Sakurai decided to have her act as an easier-to-play version of Marth, with equal power across her sword instead of a sweetspot at the tip. Concurrently, all of Lucina's attacks deal damage somewhere between Marth's swwetspots and sourspots, giving her a more consistent playstyle. But aside from a different Shield Breaker animation and a few other minimal changes, she is completely identical to Marth in all other ways. Players tend to refer to both characters by the term Marcina.
Luigi	Mario	Semi-clone	Luigi has a unique neutral combo, up tilt, down tilt, dash attack, forward smash, forward aerial, down aerial, down throw, side special, down special, and Final Smash.	Luigi's jumps are animated differently, being a scuttle instead of a block-punch. He also doesn't share any customs with Mario, aside from one that makes his Fireballs act like Mario's default ones.
Roy	Marth	Semi-clone	Roy has a unique neutral attack, forward tilt, up tilt, dash attack, forward smash, and down aerial.	Roy is the most decloned character in SSB4, featuring several new moves and different animations on similar ones, mostly by holding his sword in a reverse grip. While as a DLC character he has no custom moves, Marth's customs do not mimic his specials like Ness's do to Lucas, even though they could have.
Toon Link	Link	Semi-clone	Toon Link has a unique dash attack, up smash, neutral aerial, forward aerial, back aerial, forward throw, and back throw.	Link being given a new dash attack makes Toon Link's more distinct, though Toon Link himself has received few decloning changes. The two Links do not share many custom moves.

Notes

• As Luigi and Dr. Mario, as well as Lucina and Roy, share a common "parent" character in Mario and Marth respectively, both pairs can be argued as semi-clones of each other.
• Many standard and special attacks of the Mii Fighters are cloned moves from existing characters. Several of the Mii Gunner's moves are similar to Samus's or Fox's (with a couple similar to Ness's and Robin's). Similarly, the Mii Swordfighter shares moves with the swordsters (specifically Link and Ike), while the Mii Brawler shares moves with Mario, Little Mac, and Captain Falcon.
  • The Fighting Mii Team operate like Mii Fighters but lack special moves, much like previous enemy teams.

Clones in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

As stated above, Ultimate uses the term "echo fighter" to refer to certain characters based on development budget.

With Ultimate bringing back all veterans, many clones that were originally cut return. However, most such clones did not receive many decloning changes.

Clone	Parent	Category		Unique moves	Other notes
Chrom	Roy	Full clone	ε	Chrom has a unique up special mostly inspired by Ike's, as well as a unique Final Smash.	Like Lucina, Chrom is designed as an easy Roy, with his attacks being equally powerful across the blade. Other than this, however, Chrom's attacks are all fairly identical to Roy's. Chrom is the first "second-generation" clone, being cloned from a clone.
Daisy	Peach	Full clone	ε	None.	Daisy has some unique non-combat animations such as standing and running, and many different aesthetics, but is otherwise practically identical to Peach in every way.
Dark Pit	Pit	Full clone	ε	Dark Pit has his own Final Smash.	Dark Pit's hitbox differences have been removed from his non-special attacks, making him even more similar to Pit. His Final Smash is unchanged, though since Zelda and Sheik have both received new ones, it can be argued whether it is still a cloned move.
Dark Samus	Samus	Full clone	ε	None.	Most of Dark Samus's properties and hitboxes are the same as Samus's, with the most major difference being most flame attacks are now electric ones. Dark Samus also has a large variety of unique non-attack animations.
Dr. Mario	Mario	Full clone		Dr. Mario has a different down aerial, back throw, and down special.	Aside from his new back throw, Dr. Mario is mostly unchanged, aside from both him and Mario receiving new differing animations for their identical-in-operation side specials. He retains his equipment multipliers, which have been made slightly more extreme.
Falco	Fox	Semi-clone		Falco has a different neutral combo, up tilt, forward smash, up smash, neutral aerial, forward aerial, up aerial, down throw, and down special.	Both Fox and Falco received the same new Final Smash, so other than Falco's new down throw, he did not get any further decloning.
Ganondorf	Captain Falcon	Semi-clone		Ganondorf has a unique neutral attack, forward tilt, down tilt, forward smash, up smash, down smash, forward aerial, pummel, up throw, side special, and Final Smash.	Ganondorf received a new set of smash attacks involving his sword, so even though his Ocarina of Time design makes some of his attacks more similar to Falcon's, he is less like Falcon than ever before.
Isabelle	Villager	Semi-clone		Isabelle has a unique neutral attack, up tilt, forward smash, up smash, down smash, neutral aerial, side special, and down special.	Isabelle is the only new semi-clone in Ultimate, with her shared moves mostly being inspired by Villager rather than being copied from him. She is faster, lighter, and floatier than Villager, without the ability to wall jump. Sakurai has noted that Isabelle could not be an echo of Villager due to her being too different a home series character.
Ken	Ryu	Semi-clone	ε	Ken has uniqueness in his neutral attack, forward tilt, forward smash, neutral aerial, up aerial, back throw, and Final Smash. He also has two entirely new moves only accessible via command inputs.	Ken is the only echo that is a semi-clone rather than a full clone, with his various differences being taken from Super Street Fighter II Turbo. As such, some of Ken's attacks involve fire, his Hadoken is a different shape, and his Focus Attack is a kick. Some of Ken's standard attacks, including his forward smash, neutral aerial, and back throw, are different from Ryu's, most notably in the inclusion of his "crazy kicks," roundhouse kicks that can be canceled into his Inazuma Kick. His Heavy Shoryuken has a flame effect while hitting multiple times with high knockback as opposed to hitting once, and his Tatsumaki Senpukyaku hits multiple times though having lower knockback compared to Ryu's. Ken also walks and runs slightly faster.
Lucas	Ness	Pseudo-clone		Lucas's only similar moves are his forward smash, pummel, and special moves. The rest of his moveset is unique.	With Ness getting a new up aerial, Lucas is arguably the least similar of any clone on this list, with only two shared normal attacks. However, he still shares his entire set of special moves, and his lesser attacks (floor and edge attacks) are perfectly identical.
Lucina	Marth	Full clone	ε	None.	Lucina is effectively unchanged, with the same lack of differences from Marth as in SSB4. Players tend to refer to both characters by the term Marcina.
Luigi	Mario	Pseudo-clone		Luigi has a unique neutral combo, down tilt, dash attack, forward smash, forward aerial, down aerial, grab and most throws, side special, down special, and Final Smash.	Luigi now has an extended grab, which alters most of his throws as well. He also has a new running animation. However, his up tilt has been changed to greatly resemble Mario's.
Pichu	Pikachu	Full clone		Pichu has a unique up smash and neutral aerial.	Pichu has not changed much; it has a different neutral aerial due to Pikachu gaining a new one, but its new forward tilt is the same as Pikachu's, and the rest of its moveset is mostly the same as before.
Richter	Simon	Full clone	ε	None.	The only difference Richter has is that his Holy Water uses aura rather than flame, purely for aesthetic purposes (though minor gameplay differences do arise from it). Unlike most clone pairs, Simon and Richter were designed alongside each other, taking inspiration from each others' home series abilities; Sakurai notes in the August 8 2018 Nintendo Direct that they arguably echo each other. Players tend to refer to both characters by the term Belmont.
Roy	Marth	Semi-clone		Roy has a unique neutral attack, forward tilt, up tilt, dash attack, forward smash, and down aerial.	Roy has not changed; he is just as much of a semi-clone as in SSB4.
Toon Link	Link	Semi-clone		Toon Link has a unique dash attack, forward smash, up smash, neutral aerial, forward aerial, back aerial, grab, forward throw, back throw, and Final Smash.	Toon Link has a new one-part forward smash, but Link also received his own changes, most notably losing his Clawshot. Overall however, Toon Link remains about the same character compared to Link.
Wolf	Fox	Pseudo-clone		Wolf's only similar moves are his neutral aerial, back aerial, pummel, and all special moves.	While Wolf does not retain the wholesale unaltered reuse of Fox's non-attack animations, many of them remain quite similar. In addition, Wolf has received changes that make some of his attacks more like Fox's, specifically his dash attack and neutral aerial, and got the same Final Smash rework of having Landmaster replaced with an airstrike attack. Aesthetically, he also now holds a device in his hands to use his Reflector, just like Fox does.
Young Link	Link	Full clone		Young Link has a unique dash attack, grab, and Final Smash.	Young Link did not receive many changes at all, effectively acting as a legacy version of the changed parent Link. As a result, he is still a faster and weaker Link with not many differences.

Notes

• In the Nintendo Direct of November 1, 2018, when Sakurai was talking about Ken, he noted that Luigi (although technically a pseudo-clone as of Ultimate) was the "original" echo fighter, as he was initially introduced as a simple palette swap of Mario in 1983's Mario Bros. Likewise, Luigi was originally a full clone of Mario in the first SSB.