Multi-Man mode

Ness fights in the 100-Man Melee.

Multi-Man mode (組み手 Kumi-te, Paired Karate Form) is a single-player mode that appears in Super Smash Bros. Melee (as Multi-Man Melee), Super Smash Bros. Brawl (as Multi-Man Brawl), and Super Smash Bros. 4 (as Multi-Man Smash). They challenge the player to defeat as many opponents as possible in a six-player battle, under various pretenses, before falling from the stage or self-destructing. The opponents vary between the three games; Melee challenges the player to defeat Fighting Wire Frames, Brawl challenges the player to defeat Fighting Alloys, and SSB4 challenges the player to defeat the Mii Fighters. During a Multi-Man Brawl, every 25th character spawned is a character, rather than an alloy. In Brawl and Smash 4, it is possible to play Multi-Man Brawls and Multi-Man Smashes (respectively) with up to two players, and Brawl's compatibility with the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection allowed one to play the mode online.

List of Multi-Man Challenges

Sonic fights in the 100-Man Brawl mode.

• 10-Man, which challenges the player to defeat ten opponents. This is the shortest of all Multi-Man challenges, usually taking between 10 and 20 seconds to complete for an amateur player, though world records are all within roughly 6 and 7 seconds.
• 100-Man, which challenges the player to defeat one hundred opponents. This usually takes a few minutes for players to clear, and can get quite difficult on higher difficulties, when the option exists.
  • In 100-Man Melee, the last wire frame fought will always sustain noticeably less knockback than the others
  • In 100-Man Brawl, the last character fought is always a color change of the player's character.
  • In all games, clearing 100-Man will give the player an opportunity to face an unlockable character, Falco in Melee and Brawl and Wario in Smash Bros. for 3DS, where victory will result in unlocking the character. There are also some other challenges involving this mode.
• 3-Minute, which challenges the player to defeat as many opponents as possible within 3 minutes.
• 15-Minute, which challenges the player to defeat as many opponents as possible within 15 minutes. This is arguably one of the more difficult Multi-Man challenges, though simple strategies such as spamming a certain move or evading the opponents altogether will suffice.
  • Clearing 15-Minute Melee will result in unlocking the Kongo Jungle stage, which originally appeared in Super Smash Bros.
  • Clearing 15-Minute Brawl unlocks the Green Alloy Trophy.
• Rival Smash replaces 15-minute mode in SSB4. This mode challenges the player to defeat more opponents than their Rival (a clone of the player character) before they are themselves defeated in an otherwise endless match. If the Rival is defeated, they will respawn. The player's final score is equal to the number of opponents they defeated minus the number defeated by the Rival.
• Endless, which challenges the player to defeat as many opponents as possible before being knocked out, themselves. It has no time limit, nor does it have a knock-out limit, unlike other Multi-Man challenges, and as such can go on for an infinite amount of time.
  • Defeating 50 and 100 enemies in Endless Brawl unlock the Mach Rider (Melee) CD and Yellow Alloy Trophy respectively.
• Cruel, which challenges the player to defeat as many opponents, with high handicaps and increased aggressiveness, as possible before being knocked out themselves. It is unarguably the most challenging Multi-Man challenge, as the opponents faced are immensely harder than those who appear in the other modes, and no items appear.
  • Defeating five opponents in Cruel Melee will result in unlocking the Mr. Resetti trophy.
  • Defeating five opponents in Cruel Brawl will result in unlocking a trophy depicting the Red Alloy and defeating ten opponents in Cruel Brawl will result in unlocking a sticker depicting Liquid Snake.

Items

Prior to SSB4, items spawn normally in Multi-Man modes. However, several items are disabled from appearing; the reasons are varied, though in general, such items would be too powerful in respect to the mode, and some are removed as to prevent the Alloys from potentially using them. The following items do not spawn in Multi-Man modes:

• Dragoon - Completing Dragoon before the Alloys do would be too difficult, as a greater number of characters on the stage can control more areas of the stage. Dragoon would also guarantee a KO for the Alloys if they had the ability to complete it.
• Hammer and Golden Hammer - Too powerful for both the player's character and enemies.
• Food, Heart Containers, and the Maxim Tomato - Would trivialise the survival aspect of the modes.
• The Smash Ball - Alloys have no Final Smash programmed; as such, the item is removed from gameplay as to prevent them from shattering it.
• Sandbag - Constant state as a moveable barrier, adding protection to the player as well as potentially hindering their own attacks
• Container items - Similar to Sandbag, they act as moveable barriers. Capsules, however, do appear in the modes.

Additionally, while Poké Balls appear in the mode, they cannot spawn legendary Pokémon.

In SSB4, items no longer spawn randomly in Multi-Man Smash. Instead, specific items will float by on platforms at fixed intervals.

Other Multi-Man scenarios

• The first part of the Battlefield stage in Melee's Adventure Mode is a match against fifteen Fighting Wire Frames.
• The Melee Event Match Legendary Pokémon is also sometimes dubbed a Multi-Man Melee, due to the goal of defeating several Fighting Wire Frames.
• Stage 11 of the 1P mode of Super Smash Bros. pits the player against a Fighting Polygon Team of 30; while the game existed prior to the "Multi-Man" moniker, the term is applied retroactively to this scenario due to the similarity between the two modes.
• In Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS, the fifth battle in Classic Mode will always be a Multi-Man match against ten opponents, usually the Fighting Mii Team.

Trivia

• In cooperative Multi-Man Brawl, there can be up to 7 characters playing at a time. This is impossible in any other mode in the series outside of hacking.
• In the eShop game Kirby Fighters Deluxe, Team Dedede is the final boss. It consists of up to 61 small versions of King Dedede, two medium sized versions, and then a large King Dedede, modeled after Multi-Man Mode.