Crowd

The crowd, referred to as Publicity in the debug menu of Super Smash Bros. Melee, is a group of unseen people that can be heard during matches in all games of the Super Smash Bros. series.

Causes of cheering

The crowd can occasionally be heard cheering by shouting the name of a character that is used by a human player. The cause of cheering, however, is not entirely known; common trends include having high damage and doing something significant, such as KOing multiple opponents at once, or falling behind considerably during the course of a match. Every character has a unique cheer chant in each of the Smash Bros. games.

In addition to chants, the crowd can also vocalize during the match to a variety of events. In the original game, if a player can just make it back to the stage, after being knocked far away from the stage, the crowd will cheer for the player. The crowd also cheers if Ness absorbs a projectile with PSI Magnet, as well as if a character hits multiple characters or lands a powerful hit. Since Melee, the crowd will gasp if the player gets close to the ledge after getting knocked off; they will also cheer loudly if the player hits multiple opponents with a powerful attack. In addition, in Melee the crowd cheers the player if they complete the Target Test, complete an Event Match or the Race to the Finish. However, they will groan should the player fail at any of these games. In Brawl and SSB4, the crowd will also gasp whenever a Smash Ball or legendary Pokémon appears, with the exception of Latias and Latios. In SSB4, the crowd will groan if a player finishes with no points in the Home-Run Contest or Target Blast. If Sudden Death occurs, then the crowd will be silent during this situation.

Despite their presence, the crowd has no effect on gameplay. A sole exception exists in the Bonus mode of Melee; if the player earns the "Crowd Favorite" bonus from getting the crowd to cheer for them, or the "Master of Suspense" bonus from causing the crowd to gasp at them at least three times in one minute, they will earn 2500 points from each.

Of further note, in Melee and Brawl, the crowd seems to "disappear" after a certain point is reached in some of the single player modes. In Melee, the crowd disappears starting at Race to the Finish and at Stage 12: Final Destination in the Adventure Mode. In Brawl, the crowd disappears during the fight against Master Hand, and is only heard when certain stages are cleared in the Subspace Emissary.

Certain characters have noticeably different names in Japan (such as Jigglypuff as Purin and R.O.B. as Robot); their names are adjusted accordingly in the cheer.

Trivia

• Ike's cheer, "We Like Ike!", is a reference to catchphrase used in support of candidate Dwight "Ike" Eisenhower in the 1952 US presidential elections.
• Snake's cheer is a reference to Snake's death sequence from the Metal Gear Solid franchise, in which Otacon can be heard repeating Snake's name in the same manner as the crowd cheer; the phrase itself is also used in Snake's Smash Taunts.
• Meta Knight's crowd cheer is the only crowd cheer to be unchanged from the the Japanese version to the American version of Brawl.
• In Brawl, the Ice Climbers' cheer is different based on which climber is human-controlled. When playing as Nana, the cheer is the Back sound on the menu.
• In SSB4, Donkey Kong's crowd cheer is a reference to the chorus of the DK Rap from Donkey Kong 64.
• In SSB4, Ness's English crowd cheer is a reference to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, colloquially known as the Super NES or SNES, which itself is a reference to the fact that Ness's name is an anagram of SNES, and the "NES" part is often pronounced "ness".
• Link and Toon Link are the only characters in Smash 4 who share the same cheer.
• In the Japanese version of Super Smash Bros. 4, the chant for Villager was believed to be the Ice Climbers's chant from Brawl ("Nana! Popo!") because of the sounding, but it was later found out to be "Mura no cho-cho", which means "The villagers - mayor".