Multi-Man mode

Ness fights in the 100-Man Melee.

Multi-Man mode (組み手 Kumi-te, Group Combat) 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, and the enemies get knocked back very easily. 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 and Smash, every 25th character spawned is a character, rather than an alloy or a Mii Fighter. During Multi-Man Smash, the 50th and last character are giants. 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.

Multi-Man Modes

Multi-Man Melee

Sonic fights in the 100-Man Brawl mode.

Players will fight the Fighting Wire Frames. Multi-Man Melee is a single-player affair.

• 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. The last wire frame fought will always sustain noticeably less knockback than the others. In all games, clearing 100-Man will give the player an opportunity to face an unlockable character, where victory will result in unlocking the character.
  • In Brawl and SSB4, every 25th character fought is spawned as a character. In SSB4, the 50th character is a giant.
  • The last character is a Wire Frame in Melee, a color change of the player's character in Brawl, and a giant version of the player's character in SSB4.
  • Clearing 100-Man for the first time gives the player the opportunity to unlock a character; Falco in Melee and Brawl and Wario in SSB4
• 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.
• 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.
• 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 at least one opponent in Cruel Smash in the Wii U version gives the player opportunity to unlock Duck Hunt.
    • This is also the only method to unlock the Duck Hunt stage.

Multi-Man Brawl

No new modes are introduced. Players will fight the Fighting Alloys. Multi-Man Brawl can be played with two players locally or over Wi-Fi.

Multi-Man Smash

Removes 15-Minute mode. Players will fight the Fighting Mii Team. Multi-Man Smash can be played with two players locally, but no longer over Wi-Fi.

• Rival, which 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.

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 Parts - Would present no challenge to complete unless non-Alloy rivals are on the map, and would break up the pace of battle.
• Hammer and Golden Hammer - Too powerful for both the player's character and enemies.
• Food, Heart Containers, and the Maxim Tomato - Would make most of the modes too luck-based, due to heavy emphasis on survival.
• 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 aside from Capsules - Similar to Sandbag, they act as movable barriers.

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

In SSB4, instead of normal item spawns, specific items will float by on platforms every 30 seconds in a set order: the items are POW Block, Ray Gun, Smart Bomb, and Killer Eye. However, items spawn normally when Multi-Man battles appear during Classic mode.

Appearances outside of Multi-Man Mode

• 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.
• 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 with reduced gravity.
• In Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS, round 5 in Classic Mode will always be a Multi-Man match against ten opponents, usually the Fighting Mii Team.
• In Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, round 6 in Classic Mode will always be a Multi-Man match against a Fighting Mii Team of 20, with five appearing on-screen at a time.

Trivia

The Egg Lay glitch in Multiplayer Multi-Man Smash (3DS)

• 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.
• When facing the Fighting Mii Team in any mode, the Miis that spawn use appearances based on the Miis saved on the player's 3DS, along with a selection of pre-loaded/guest Miis if there aren't enough Miis in the system's memory to fill every slot in-game.
• In SSB4, the Fighting Mii Team will attempt to recover by Footstool Jumping off each other.
• In Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS, there was a glitch involving Yoshi: If Yoshi uses Egg Lay on any giant opponent, this opponent will grow even larger. This was fixed in version 1.0.4.
• The Fighting Mii Team do not have defined heads in either version. When inflicted with the flower ailment, the flower will instead sprout from the Mii's neck, and the Mii's facial expression will never change.
• In SSB4, if you select "Quit" quick enough after beating any mode in Multi-Man Smash, you can see the words change to "Change Fighter", meaning the option would've sent the player back to the character roster instead of the Multi-Man Smash menu.