List of rumors

A supposed image of Mewtwo appearing in Brawl's Subspace Emissary; faked images such as these are commonly made to spread rumors about the development of the game.

Like many other games, the Super Smash Bros. series has had various rumors spread about it, usually through the Internet, and sometimes magazines. A majority of rumors spread around the time of April Fools' Day, a day the gaming community is not unfamiliar with. Most of the time, rumors claimed to contain information concerning playable characters, though rumors concerning other aspects of gameplay, such as development scheduling, can also appear. Rumors can be proven true or false on arrival via fact-checking or by waiting for relevant information from official sources, though a majority are proven false; some rumors, however, can contain true information.

General

File:Ssbb-roster-2.png

An example rumored leak of Brawl's selection screen.

As with any game, the Smash Bros. series has had various works of fan art being passed off as supposedly leaked screenshots. Box art and character selection screens for Brawl were particularly common, though images of characters in the game also appeared. Shortly before and after the release of the game in Japan, these images had become more and more common, though the use of video streaming sites such as YouTube and Vimeo quickly disproved most of these rumors as more gameplay footage of the game became public.

Many character selection screens for Melee also made the rounds, though these screens were less credible due to the ability to quickly distribute images on the Internet being unfeasible during Melee's release; by then, all the unlockables had been well-known. Some of these fake rosters, however, were merely made as jokes, including a particularly famous image featuring over 108 characters and eight player slots. The inability to easily customize the character roster for the original game has prevented fake rosters from appearing, as there are no empty spaces, and the game was released before the Internet was widespread.

While extremely common, fake character rosters are relatively easy to debunk. For any unrevealed character, they use character images that are either unofficial, such as fanart, or by taking official art from other games. For example, in the image to the right, Luigi's image is a mirrored version of his official artwork from Super Mario 64 DS. Furthermore, hoaxers have sometimes made various oversights while creating faked character rosters. Prior to Super Smash Bros. 4's release, for instance, images featuring Chrom from Fire Emblem: Awakening became common, with most incorrectly using the American romanization of his name ("Chrom") instead of his Japanese romanization ("Krom"). An infamous character select screen leaked to the imageboard 4chan also featured an oversight involving the name of the player; the name displayed, "ESRB0083", was supposed to imply that an employee of the Entertainment Software Rating Board had leaked the information. In reality, employees of the organization review games via analysis of video footage of the game submitted by developers, not by playing the games themselves.

Rumors about Super Smash Bros.

Unlocking non-playable characters

Being able to play as characters such as Metal Mario, Giant Donkey Kong, Master Hand, or a Fighting Polygon was the main source of rumors during the game's era. As with other rumors of the time, the supposed criteria ranged from unusual (spinning the control stick 30 times) to ludicrous (completing the 1P Game as every character in a specific order on Very Hard with a stock of one). Many videos on YouTube continue to claim these rumors, but all of which supposedly work merely use the built-in cheat functions found within Project 64.

Cut characters

A popular rumor about Smash 64 that came around long after its release was that several characters were planned to be playable in the game, but cut due to time and/or memory constraints. The characters most often rumored to have been planned but cut are Bowser, King Dedede, Mewtwo, Peach, Wario, Pit, and Meowth. A page on the official Smash 64 website claims that Bowser, King Dedede, and Mewtwo were indeed planned to be playable in Smash 64, but the reason for their exclusion is not specifically stated. No sources, however, have been proven to support Pit, Meowth, Peach, Wario, or any other characters as having ever been planned to be playable in the game.

Rumors about Super Smash Bros. Melee

Unlocking Sonic and Tails

EGM's "proof" of Sonic and Tails appearing in SSBM

The Sonic and Tails rumor in Melee remains one of the most infamous rumors not just in the Super Smash Bros. series, but also in the world of video games. An April Fools' joke pulled by the gaming-themed magazine Electronic Gaming Monthly said that Sonic and Tails could be unlocked after defeating 20 enemies in Cruel Melee, then defeating the two in a two-against-one battle. The blurb also claimed that upon completing Classic Mode with either of the two characters, the player would get a "special surprise". While EGM was famous for its numerous April Fools' jokes, such as the infamous "Sheng Long cheat", many readers still fell for the rumor.

The rumor can be debunked through many pieces of evidence:

• The given unlock message does not follow the grammar patterns of other unlock messages, specifically the overuse of capitalized words, as can be seen by comparing the above image's notice with that of Pichu's.
• After unlocking all 25 characters, the player receives a notice that they have unlocked all characters, meaning that unlocking more characters should be impossible.
• Attaining all trophies gives the player a notice as well, but clearing any of the one-player modes with either character must yield more trophies, creating a paradox.
• The pair's positions on opposite sides of the character selection screen defies the general rule that characters of a series are grouped together once everyone is unlocked. Additionally, their presence blocks the random character functionality with no apparent replacement, an unlikely occurrence in terms of game design.
• In the screenshot claiming to show Sonic as a selectable character, Sonic's art is identical to one of his official renders from Sonic Adventure on the Sega Dreamcast; by comparison, all other characters in the game have completely original art for their character select portraits.
• At the time of the production of Melee, Sega and Nintendo were rivals both in the software and hardware businesses, making it unlikely that the two would team up for a game.
  • An interview conducted by EDGE with Sonic's creator Yuji Naka claimed that, on the topic of Sonic and Tails appearing in Melee, "it was very close, but time constraints did not allow us to continue with the idea."
• There is no data on the game's disc relating to the duo at all, and they cannot be selected from the Debug Menu.
• The method simply does not work; in addition to an infamous video featuring Jigglypuff garnering 565 KOs in Cruel Melee, numerous other videos have demonstrated that KOing more than 20 Wire Frames does not yield any new characters.
• Although subtle, EGM attempted to hint readers that the cheat was actually an April Fools' joke; previous jokes would feature a "1" and "4" in some way as to reference April Fools' Day (as the shorthand date for the day is 4/1 in America or 1/4 in Europe). Owing to this, the notice commemorating Sonic and Tails being unlocked had the date as "4.1.2002".

The rumor rapidly spread following its publication, to the point where rival publication Nintendo Power would publish an article about how the rumor was false, and the page on Melee in Nintendo's website also spoke about how the rumor was false. EGM would eventually confess in their next issue that the cheat was an April Fools' joke, and, like their previous April Fools' Day jokes, mock those who took it seriously. As a prize for people who sent in video proof of getting 20 or more KOs in Cruel Melee, however, they rewarded copies of Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, which was Sonic's first game on a Nintendo system.

Coincidentally, Sonic became a playable character in Brawl and Super Smash Bros. 4, and Tails made some cameo appearances in the former game.

Unlocking Toad

"Proof" of Toad appearing on the Character Select screen.

Another infamous rumor featuring Toad as a playable character in Melee was first spread in November of 2002. The Toad rumor, initially posted on a small GeoCities site that has since disappeared (an archive can be found here), stated that Toad could be unlocked as a playable character in Melee after obtaining a perfect score during the credits mini-game, which is played after completing any one-player mode; after hitting all the credits, the player would then have to clear Adventure Mode (with a requirement of "easily defeating" the Yoshis in the Mushroom Kingdom stage), after which they would be able to unlock him. The site also gave several fake screenshots depicting Toad in various in-game scenarios, propagating the rumor; it came to the point where the images had become more well-known than the site and the supposed method to unlock him, with explanations sometimes varying strongly from the original.

The method has been disproved by the same evidence as the Sonic and Tails rumor; additionally, the screenshots of Toad were made by taking images from Toad when he was running around the Mushroom Kingdom of the Adventure Mode of the game. Inconsistencies with the actual gameplay surrounding Toad also debunked the rumor; the site says that Toad has no accommodations in All-Star Mode, has no trophies, and has no videos for his Ending Sequence after finishing a 1-Player game. The site itself also contributed to the debunking of the rumor; it was hosted on GeoCities, a former web hosting site that allowed anyone to create their own pages, causing the rumor to be considerably less credible than the Sonic and Tails rumor (which was featured in a widely-read magazine). The site was also filled with incorrect information; for instance, when speaking about the game's Adventure Mode, the site claims that the ordeal is similar to unlocking Falco - Falco, however, is unlockable in Multi-Man Melee, not in Adventure Mode. Numerous spelling and grammatical errors were also present on the page, such as the misspelling of "taunt" as "taught", and a suspicious "THIS IS NOT A FAKE" statement.

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  An image of the "Challenger Approaching!" screen, with Toad as the challenger.

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  A supposed image of Toad's Notice message.

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  Toad fights against Mewtwo in Flat Zone...

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  ...and Yoshi's Island. These two images, however, were what caused the hoax to be debunked.

Lucas replacing Ness

A widespread rumor that came around some time after Melee's release was that Masahiro Sakurai planned to replace Ness with the new protagonist of Mother 3, Lucas. This rumor was confirmed by Sakurai himself, where he stated that he was going to replace Ness with Lucas, but the delay of Mother 3 (which ended up getting delayed to 2006, five years after the release of Melee) caused him to renege on the idea and keep Ness in.

“	Actually, at first, I planned to change him [Ness] into the protagonist of Mother 3 [Lucas], but for various reasons during the delay, I settled back on the original idea. (実は当初、MOTHER3の主人公に変更する予定でしたが、いろいろあって遠回りしながら、元のさやに収まりました。)	”
—Masahiro Sakurai, Smabura-Ken Ness page (Japanese)

Relating to this rumor, after Lucas was confirmed to be a newcomer in Brawl while Ness' confirmation had yet to be made, it was commonly speculated that Ness would not return, being replaced by Lucas, as was originally planned in Melee. A quote on the DOJO!! seemed to suggest this as well, claiming that "There’s a character named Ness who has appeared in the Smash Bros. series up until now, and Lucas is very similar". Such speculation ended up untrue however, as Ness returned again as a playable character in Brawl.

Rumors about Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Additions and removals of characters

Shortly after Brawl's announcement, a rumor claimed that in a radio interview, Masahiro Sakurai confirmed that Ridley, a cel-shaded Link (Toon Link), and Bowser Jr. would be playable characters. Coinciding with this was the rumor of Young Link, the Ice Climbers, and Mr. Game & Watch being dropped. This was proven to be false; while Toon Link does replace Young Link in Brawl as the second Link, Ridley appears as a boss instead of a playable character, Bowser Jr. only appears as a sticker and trophy, and Mr. Game & Watch and the Ice Climbers do return as playable characters in Brawl.

No more clones

Another popular rumor stated that Sakurai claimed clones would not exist in Brawl, implying that Dr. Mario, Roy, Pichu, Ganondorf, Falco, Young Link, and (to a lesser extent) Luigi, would be either removed or redesigned for Brawl. Despite initially being disregarded as false, the rumor became notable for having truth to it; Ganondorf and Falco returned, but with considerable differences from Melee, distancing them from the original characters of Captain Falcon and Fox respectively. Luigi had multiple changes to his character as well, though the original of Mario also had a few changes. Dr. Mario, Roy and Pichu were completely removed, though data for the former two exists in the game. Young Link was also removed, though he was essentially replaced by Toon Link; Toon Link, however, still has many differences from Link, and is not as complete a clone as Young Link was. Additionally, of the 18 new playable characters added, only Toon Link and Lucas had some considerable sort of cloning, and were semi-clones rather than complete clones. Overall, Brawl has no complete clones and five semi-clones out of 39 playable characters, compared to Melee's six complete clones and one semi-clone out of 26 playable characters, thus validating the rumor by having significantly less cloning.

Animal Crossing characters rumors

During the development of Brawl, multiple rumors suggested that a character from Animal Crossing, such as the generic playable character (termed an "Animal Crosser") or Tom Nook, would be playable in Brawl. A statement was reportedly made by Sakurai on the matter, which claimed that "On one hand, they have an innocent charm to them that could be ruined if they were in a fighting game"; the veracity of this statement, however, is disputed. Despite the lack of a playable character, Animal Crossing is strongly represented in Brawl by some music tracks, trophies, stickers, an Assist Trophy, a stage, and numerous cameos on said stage.

An Animal Crossing Villager eventually became a playable character in Super Smash Bros. 4; an interview with Sakurai also states that the Villager was considered for inclusion in Brawl, but the idea ultimately rejected because "he wasn't suited for battle".

Assist trophy rumors

Towards the end of 2007, the Whobby Game Festival occurred in Japan; among its primary points of interests was that a playable demo of Super Smash Bros. Brawl would be available for play by attendants. Due to the event taking place only in Japan, a region with relatively little representation in most English-speaking websites, such as Smashboards, updates on the game were sparse and difficult to confirm. The most well-known claim, however, stated that Assist Trophies of Rosalina from Super Mario Galaxy, Duster from Mother 3, and Muddy Mole from Mole Mania would be featured in the game.

Amid an increase in English-speakers that played demos at events, as well as the release of the game, the rumor was proven false, and further hacking of the game proved that no such evidence of the trio were even planned to be included. Some theories include that Rosalina was a mistaken Gardevoir.

A third third-party

Sakurai said that, after Sonic and Snake, there might be a third third-party character; prior to Sonic's announcement, he also claimed that "one or two" other third-party characters would appear. This led many smashers speculating that another third party character was guaranteed to be included.

After Pac-Man was revealed for Super Smash Bros. 4, Sakurai stated that, during the development of Brawl, Shigeru Miyamoto asked him if Pac-Man could be playable in the game. Thinking of Pac-Man's pizza shape, Sakurai rejected the idea, thinking at the time putting in Pac-Man with said shape was "a little too farfetched".

Capcom's Mega Man

One of the most popularly-rumored characters was Capcom's Mega Man, from his own self-titled series. The inclusion was considered plausible due to Mega Man having a very strong history with Nintendo consoles, as well as a resurgence in popularity with the Mega Man Anniversary Collection for the GameCube. Rumors claimed that a Japanese website from Nintendo was asking players which third-party characters they wanted to see, with Mega Man being second-most requested (behind only Sonic). No website, however, is known to exist to prove this.

While Mega Man ultimately did not appear in Brawl, he was eventually introduced to Super Smash Bros. by being included as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. 4. His appearance, however, led to a minor rumor about his lack of an appearance in Brawl; rumors claimed that Mega Man was intentionally left out of Brawl due to Nintendo's anger over Capcom's mismanagement over the Capcom Five campaign. No official source, however, has proven these rumors as true.

A second Sonic the Hedgehog character

After the announcement of Sonic appearing in Brawl, another rumored third-party brawler was another character from the Sonic the Hedgehog series; Tails, Knuckles, and Shadow were the most commonly speculated, as Tails was Sonic's partner and close friend, Knuckles was a partner and rival, and Shadow was among the most popular characters in the series. Additionally, all three had been playable in the Sonic series. While they did not become playable, Tails and Knuckles appear in cameos on the Green Hill Zone, while Shadow appears as an Assist Trophy.

Geno rumor

File:Geno in Brawl rumor.png

A fan hack that adds Geno to the game, "unlocked" by toggling the Random Character box.

A popular rumor among some fans is that Nintendo had negotiated with Square Enix to receive a license for the inclusion of their character Geno, from Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (a game which was developed with Square, who disallowed direct sequels to the game without their permission or involvement), as a playable character in Brawl. This rumor suggested that Square declined to allow Geno's appearance, or they demanded a large amount of money to allow him. After the release of the game, rumors went as far as to suggest that the Random Character box on the character select screen was intended for Geno, which ties into the fact that it is located under the third-party characters of Snake and Sonic and a dedicated "random character" box had not previously been featured in the series. There is no evidence to support such a rumor, as there is no Super Mario RPG-related content in Brawl.

Leon S. Kennedy's voice actor and Brawl

Paul Mercier's name on the IMDB listing of Brawl; his name has since been removed from the page.

The IMDB page for Super Smash Bros. Brawl initially listed the voice actor Paul Mercier as one of the many voice talents recruited for the game; Paul Mercier's most well-known role as a voice actor was Leon S. Kennedy of Capcom's Resident Evil 4. Some fans claimed this gave evidence to Kennedy appearing in Brawl. Leon's possible appearance was considered plausible by these speculators; while he appeared in M-rated games, Snake had also done so, and he had appeared more often and more recently on Nintendo consoles than Snake: Kennedy appeared once on the Nintendo 64 in Resident Evil 2, two times on the GameCube for a port of Resident Evil 2 and the original game Resident Evil 4, once on the Wii for a remake of Resident Evil 4, and once on the Game Boy Color for Resident Evil Gaiden. IMDB, however, allows anyone to contribute content, causing the rumor to suffer from poor credibility. Mercier's name was later removed from the listing, and neither Leon nor Mercier appeared in the game.

Relating to the Mega Man and Leon S. Kennedy rumors, Sakurai said, in relation to the fourth Super Smash Bros. game, that he "can't say that it's entirely out of the realm of possibility that some Capcom character could appear in the next Smash Bros." Capcom's Yoshinori Ono also has stated he has an interest in creating a Nintendo vs. Capcom game, in a vein similar to the Marvel vs. Capcom series. [1] Mega Man was announced at E3 2013 to be in Super Smash Bros. 4, although it was not announced as to whether or not he would be the only Capcom character in the game.

Downloadable content rumor

Shortly after Brawl was released in America, a newspost appeared on the Internet, claiming that Brawl would feature four downloadable characters and two downloadable stages, as well as a new Wii Channel of "Wii Want More". The discovery of multiple unused character files present in the game also added credence to the rumor, under the assumption that the empty files render it easier to create add-on content.

The rumor was quickly proven as false; Masahiro Sakurai himself stated that downloadable content would never be coming for Brawl, as the Wii's flash-based internal hardware is incapable of patching or otherwise modifying a game based on a downloaded file. The supposed release date of 13 May 2008 also passed without a "Wii Want More" channel being released or announced. Additionally, in a vein similar to the Toad rumor, the site was hosted on 110MB, a hosting site where anyone on the Internet can publish content.

Brawl is the last game

During the development of Brawl, Sakurai reportedly said statements along the lines that he was making Brawl as the last game; additionally, some advertisements had the tagline of "One brawl to end them all!". This led several to believe that Brawl was the last game in the series. The rumor, however, is taken out of context; Sakurai stated he was making Brawl like it was the last game, not that it was the last game. Additionally, Sakurai said that Melee would have been the last game on Smabura-Ken, and that did not hold true. This rumor was ultimately proven false at E3 2011, where a new Super Smash Bros. title was announced for both the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U consoles; development started in February 2012.

Artificial intelligence rumors

While still suffering flaws like its predecessor, CPUs within Brawl came under scrutiny by members of the Brawl community after analyzing the behavior of them within fights. Two primary theories surrounding the AI eventually became commonplace:

1. That the CPU was able to read inputs from human players and thus have perfect reaction times, explaining the CPUs excessive propensity to perfect shield.
2. That a "learning system" existed within Brawl's code that allowed computer players to slowly learn to adapt to human players.

The former rumor was especially controversial, as many smashers thought that allowing the AI to "cheat" was an unfair tactic, as well as lazy developing. The American crew SLAPAHO attempted to see whether or not CPUs had perfect reaction times, but their results were eventually declared inconclusive, and more tests were intended to be carried out; inactivity by the group, however, caused these further tests to never occur. In 2013, Canadian smasher Toomai analyzed various animated GIFs of CPUs responding to aerial attacks; it was ultimately proved that CPUs had a reaction time of one frame, and thus, did not read button inputs to form decisions.

The second rumor was primarily spread by an AllisBrawl blogpost by American smasher Churro; entitled "The Wonders of Brawl's CPU Experience System", Churro claimed that CPUs in Brawl could learn from human players, with such changes being unique from different save files for Brawl. Churro provided video examples of these supposed changes, such as how a CPU Captain Falcon began to more frequently use Falcon Punch following an all-Captain Falcon match featuring overuse of the move. Other videos by other smashers also appeared to show CPUs using tactics such as dash dancing, DACUSes, and other tactics.

Initially widely believed, advances in the hacking scene for Brawl ultimately disproved the existence of a learning system for CPUs:

• Tests showed that there were no differences in CPU behavior from save files that were over several hundred hours old versus fresh save files; comparisons of two files with significant playtime also showed no differences, when such a case was supposed to have radically different playstyles.
• Disassembling Replay files showed that no CPU inputs are saved in the file, only human inputs; as such, this meant that whenever a replay was played back, it meant that the CPU would have to react the same way every time in order to prevent desyncing. A learning system could potentially cause CPUs to react differently in replays, thus further disproving the rumor.
• Disassembling the Brawl save file showed that there were no flags or other notes about the AI.
• Among Project M's changes to Brawl's engine included revamping the AI to take advantage of tactics newly-introduced for the mod; disassembly of the game's AI, however, demonstrated no coding for learning from human players.
• Videos demonstrating that the AI could learn are thought to have suffered from confirmation bias; what were thought to be cases of the AI learning were cases of the AI performing as expected, including specific overuse of some attacks.

Rumors about Super Smash Bros. 4

Super Smash Bros. Universe rumor

A picture of the document leading to the Super Smash Bros. Universe rumor.

Shortly after the official announcement of the fourth Super Smash Bros., an image circulated around the Internet detailing what appeared to be an advertisement or design document that was said to be from the official Nintendo headquarters in Japan for "Super Smash Bros. Universe"; multiple imageboards worked to translate the document, leading to some supposed preliminary idea for the games. However, Sakurai stated that he had not begun working on the new Smash Bros. at the time and was focusing on Kid Icarus Uprising.

"2 out of 3" rumor

Shortly after the release of Kid Icarus Uprising, a multitude of screen caps appeared on All is Brawl, showing a conversation on social site Twitter between Sakurai's official account and a Canadian fan. The conversation began with the fan asking for Geno from Super Mario RPG, Isaac from Golden Sun, and Mega Man from his eponymous series to appear. Sakurai's response was "2 out of 3", which the blog author claimed gave credence to the possibility of two of the three aforementioned characters appearing. However, the author also claimed that the Tweet in question from Sakurai was deleted only half an hour after being posted.

The rumor was proven false almost immediately; images showed that in both Sakurai's real Twitter feed (where the Tweet did not appear) and the image showing Sakurai's feed with the "2 out of 3" Tweet both had a Tweet count of 8807. The plausibility of the situation of Sakurai revealing very notable information, then immediately retracting it, was also doubted.

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  The original Tweet in question; loosely translated, it says "Be sure to include Geno from Super Mario RPG, Isaac from Golden Sun and Mega Man."

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  Sakurai's reported response; loosely translated, it says "2 out of 3".

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  Sakurai's supposed Twitter feed during the announcement...

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  ...and after it had supposedly been deleted. Note how his number of Tweets remains stuck at 8807.

Super Smash Bros. Memories rumor

According to an anonymous source who wrote to Zelda Informer, Super Smash Bros. 4 for the Nintendo 3DS would be called Super Smash Bros. Memories. The letter outlined that Nintendo has confirmed that both Super Smash Bros. games – for Wii U and Nintendo 3DS - will not be identical, and the source also claimed that it knew the main difference between the two.

According to the rumor, Wii U's Super Smash Bros. would focus on modern characters while Super Smash Bros. Memories would star retro characters, such as Donkey Kong Jr., Ridley, Pac-Man, Takamaru, Mach Rider, Dig Dug, and Stanley the Bug Man. The source also claimed that Nintendo would put the game on store shelves in the fourth quarter of 2013, around December.

This rumor ended up proving false, with the E3 2013 reveal stating that the main difference between the two versions of the game would not be between characters, but between stages, and that the 3DS version would be called Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS. Sakurai also later confirmed that both versions would have the same playable cast. The rumor's set time frame of Q4 2013 was also proven false, as the game was later set for release on October 3rd, 2014.

Namco worker rumor

On 12 December 2012, a thread on GameFAQs was started by a user named Halibuton; the user claimed that he worked for Namco and had some information told to him by his co-workers concerning the development of Super Smash Bros. 4.

Halibuton claimed that there would be a Nintendo Direct on the fifth anniversary of Brawl's Japanese release (31 January 2013) and said it would be centered around Smash 4, though likely more of a series retrospective with minor new info than a full-blown reveal trailer. He also said that he knew a bit about the early roster and claimed to know a few newcomers: Takamaru from The Mysterious Murasame Castle and Little Mac (chosen as recent-popularity classics and an "East vs. West" concept supposedly due to previous games being too Japan-only-series-centric) as well as King K. Rool and Ridley (chosen due to popular demand and having movesets based on more recent games). Other claimed, less-finalized newcomers are Shulk from Xenoblade, Dillon from Dillon's Rolling Western, Ghirahim from the Legend of Zelda series, a "Debu" from the at the time rumor-only Yoshi's Woolly World (supposedly a partner of Yoshi, with "Debu" possibly being just a nickname or placeholder), and a Platinum Games character possibly from The Wonderful 101. Aside from characters, multiple stages were listed: Starship Mario (Super Mario Galaxy 2, later confirmed as background scenery in Mario Galaxy), Giant Chasm (Pokémon Black 2/White 2), Pushmo Park (Pushmo), and Cookie Country (Kirby's Return to Dream Land).

Halibuton's claimed date for the reveal of 31 January 2013, however, ultimately passed without a Nintendo Direct presentation, significant news about Smash 4, or mentions of any of the aforementioned characters, thus ultimately disproving the rumor after two months of speculation. Out of the speculated newcomers, Takamaru, Dillon, and Ghirahim would later be confirmed as Assist Trophies.

Gematsu leaks

Before E3 2013, the owner of the gaming site Gematsu, Sal Romano, claimed to have received an email from an anonymous source claiming to know which newcomers would be introduced at E3 2013. Initially doubting the veracity of the letter, Romano jokingly posted the list to NeoGAF as a "unlikely prediction". Among the predicted newcomers were an Animal Crossing Villager; Capcom's Mega Man; the female trainer from Wii Fit; Little Mac from Punch-Out!!; Nintendo's Mii; and Namco's Pac-Man.

To the surprise of many observers, including Romano himself, the leak successfully predicted the reveal of the Villager, Mega Man, and female Wii Fit Trainer. This successful prediction, especially of the Wii Fit Trainer, would lead to a following of the leak and the subsequent leaks reported by Romano. With the leaks getting every newcomer right except for Rosalina, and failing to get any character completely wrong for over a year, the majority of observers treated the leaker as fully legitimate, with many people seeing the characters implicated by the leaker as inevitable. The leaker's credibility was eventually scrutinized when one of the newcomers it was implicating, Chrom, was disconfirmed as playable in the July 14th reveal trailer, while Robin and Lucina were revealed playable, two characters never implicated by the leaker.

Lucina rumor

Mario and Lucina appear to fight on the Great Sea.

An AllIsBrawl post made early on the 25 June 2013 claimed that an image had been leaked on the Smash 4 website, presumably from the "image of the day". The image shows Mario and Lucina (from Fire Emblem Awakening) on a Fairy Isle in the Great Sea. There was no evidence on the site, however; the image of the day instead featured Link doing an aerial Spin Attack in Skyloft.

This image, while initially appearing to be legitimate, was actually compiled using a variety of elaborate hacks available for Brawl. The stage seen in the image is a Fairy Isle hacked stage, and the Mario in the image uses a texture hack to make his model more closely resemble his newer model in Super Smash Bros. 4; Lucina herself is identical to a PSA hack seen in "The Lucina PSA". While not particularly widespread outside All is Brawl, this was the first known rumor to showcase the level of elaboration that Brawl hacks bring to rumor producers.

Lucina was confirmed to be a playable character on July 2014, over one year after the faked image was first posted.

Ness and Jigglypuff rumor

File:Ness and Jigglypuff hoax.pngFile:Ness SSB4 Hoax.png

Left Image: The false image of Jigglypuff and
Ness in the 3DS version of SSB4.
Center Image: False official artwork of Ness from SSB4.
Right Image: An image comparing the Ness and Jigglypuff
leak with an official screenshot, proving the leak as false

In November 2013, two supposedly leaked images of Ness and Jigglypuff in Super Smash Bros. 4 began to circulate on Smash-related message boards and other resources. One of these images depicted the "official" artwork of Ness for Smash 4, while the other picture featured both Ness and Jigglypuff standing on the Battlefield stage in the 3DS version. The gameplay image, however, was proven fake after cross-checking it with an actual image of Link and Toon Link standing on the same stage; numerous graphical differences could be seen between the two images, primarily in regards to the rendering of the outlines and shadows in the faked image.

Palutena rumor

The purported images of Palutena.

On 22 January 2014, two supposedly leaked images of Palutena in the 3DS version of Super Smash Bros. 4 began to spread around the internet. The veracity of the images were immediately questioned, though some observers noted that the model and poses used by Palutena were not seen in any previous photo, and unlike the Lucina rumor, no hacks available for Brawl could replicate the image seen. Of particular note is that after the two images were released, a series of Kid Icarus-related images were released on Miiverse, leading some observers to speculate that Sakurai was aware of the Palutena images.

During the 2014 E3 event, Nintendo confirmed Palutena's inclusion in the game with a trailer; despite this, several differences between the models used in the rumored photos and the actual game were observed. While this points to the images having been merely well done fakes, observers have pointed out that models can go through significant changes during development, leaving the veracity of the images unclear.

Falco rumors

File:Falcossb4rumor.jpeg

Left Image: Falco appears alongside confirmed
characters in this image posted on Examiner.com.
Right Image: The image posted to All Is Brawl; note the
differences in Falco's head between the two images

On 3 February 2014, a supposedly leaked image, first posted by the local news site examiner.com, depicted a screenshot of the Japanese version of the Smash Bros. website containing an image of Falco's head. The leak claimed this confirmed Falco's return in Super Smash Bros. 4. The image, however, was later proven false with the reveal of Little Mac as a playable character; the characters in the faked image follow a chronological order, with the most recently revealed characters appearing closer to the left. With Falco's image on the far left, this implied that Falco would be unveiled as a playable character directly after Lucario; in reality, Little Mac was revealed on 13 February 2014, thus disproving the rumor. Adding to this, the rumor suffered from a similar problem to the Toad rumor from Melee and the Wii Want More rumor from Brawl. While operating as a compiler of news from different sources, Examiner.com allows any "pro-am contributor" to submit news or articles, harming the rumor's credibility.

A second image of Falco in gameplay appeared on AllisBrawl the next day, appearing to be fighting on the Mario Galaxy stage in the Wii U version of Smash 4. This image, however, uses a different model and texture for Falco's head than that from the Examiner.com post, harming the credibility of both images; furthermore, Falco lacks the standard headgear that he wore in both Melee and Brawl. As Fox wears such headgear, it is considered unlikely by some that Falco would not be donning such an accessory. In the image posted, Falco's left leg also looks somewhat misplaced.

Raiden "leak"

In early April 2014, Reuben Langdon, a voice actor known for voicing Ken Masters in the Street Fighter series and Dante in the Devil May Cry series, claimed in an interview that he had voiced Raiden from the Metal Gear series in Super Smash Bros.. Since Raiden's only appearance in Brawl was as a sticker, this seemed to leak Raiden having some sort of role in Smash 4, as well as indirectly confirming the return of Snake. When the news was first announced, some observers believed he was mistaking Super Smash Bros. for PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, a Sony equivalent to Super Smash Bros. that featured Raiden as a playable character. This potential confusion, however, initially was eliminated when it was demonstrated that Raiden's voice actor in the game was Quinton Flynn, not Reuben Langdon. Langdon, however, would later reignite this confusion himself:

“	Oh, the all-stars battle Royale was the one I was in. Lol! Yep. Totally got them confused.	”
—Reuben Langdon, http://www.gonintendo.com/s/225510-raiden-not-appearing-in-smash-bros-wii-u-3ds

Langdon, who also does motion capture work for video games, additionally claimed he was referring to motion capture work. However, no official source credits Langdon as having done any such work in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, and the credits of that game do not list individual actors that performed motion capture work. As such, there has been some speculation that Langdon may have been trying to cover up an inadvertent leak by falsely confirming the mix-up, though this remains unconfirmed.

Smash Direct trophy quizzes

During the April 8th Smash Direct, there were multiple "trophy quizzes" throughout the presentation, where a part of a trophy was shown, with the viewers being given a few seconds to guess the character the trophy is of, before revealing it. The trophies used in the quizzes were Tiki from Fire Emblem: Awakening, Fi from The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, Pseudo-Palutena from Kid Icarus: Uprising (who was presented in a way to make it appear to be Palutena's trophy, before revealing it to be Pseudo-Palutena), and King Kihunter from Metroid: Other M. With these trophies being from series that are seen as highly likely to get a new playable character in Smash 4, and with Sakurai seemingly dropping many hints or outright teasing the audience during the direct (such as the aforementioned Pseudo-Palutena fakeout, only briefly showing the contentious Ridley's shadow in an ambiguous manner during the boss presentation, instead of outright confirming his role, and outright stating Zero Suit Samus was cut before showing her off in the game), a widespread theory developed that these "trophy quizzes" were to hint at some of the new characters being added to the playable cast. The characters associated with the trophies are; a character from Fire Emblem: Awakening (most often speculated to be Chrom), a new character from The Legend of Zelda series (most often speculated to be Ghirahim or Impa from The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword), Palutena from the Kid Icarus series, and Ridley from the Metroid series.

So far, Palutena, Lucina, and Robin have been confirmed to be playable newcomers, and Chrom and Ghirahim were disconfirmed, though none of the other speculated characters associated with the revealed trophies have been confirmed nor disconfirmed yet, leaving it to remain to be seen if the trophy quizzes were actual hints.

Chunky Kong Assist Trophy

During the E3 2014 demo and ensuing Smash-Fest, people reported seeing many previously unrevealed Assist Trophies, such as Shadow, Tingle, and Magnus. While these reports ended up being later confirmed by video evidence, one particular character implicated in these reports, Chunky Kong from Donkey Kong 64, completely eluded any sort of video or photographic evidence. Despite the lack of evidence, people initially generally believed this report, as it came from multiple independent sources, that even fully described his effect as "slamming the ground to make bananas fall from the sky". However, as the Smash-Fest demos passed without any sort of video or photographic evidence, and the lack of any confirmation from Sakurai, it became doubted if these reports were entirely telling the truth. Chunky Kong later became a minor meme within the Smash community; with the lack of any sort of concrete evidence to prove the character's existence despite multiple claims to the contrary, the character was jokingly compared to the famed Cryptid of Bigfoot.

After Comic-Con 2014 came to pass, with there still being no visual evidence of Chunky Kong despite the tens of hours of new gameplay footage being seen, the Chunky Kong Assist Trophy is generally regarded as having been a false report all along, whether from people intentionally making false information up, or people genuinely mistaking something within the game as Chunky Kong, such as when some attendants of the 2007 Whobby Game Festival may have mistook Gardevoir in Brawl as Rosalina. However, as all Assist Trophies are still not known, it remains unconfirmed if the Chunky Kong Assist Trophy reports were factual or false.

Rayman "leak"

On August 1, 2014, Nintendo of Canada held a session for Super Smash Bros. 4, where Matt Ryan, a manager of communications, marketing, and alliances of the Canadian division of the company, said the following statement during the session that suggested Rayman was in the game as a playable character:

“	So Pac-Man is one of the new characters we announced at E3 2014, people are pretty excited about that, most excited about that. Rayman and a whole bunch of others.	”
—Matt Ryan

This led to new speculation that Rayman was in Smash 4 as a playable character, rather than just the trophy depicting him. However, it is also speculated it may have been an honest slip-up (with confusion stemming from the common suffix of "Man"). A couple days after the leak, Nintendo of Canada would later clarify that Matt Ryan was referring to the previously seen Rayman trophy. However, like with the Reuben Langdon slipup above, some observers think it may have been a false confirmation to cover up an inadvertent leak.

Ninka/Vaanrose/ESRB "leak"

On August 19, 2014, a user came forward on 4chan's /v/ imageboard, posting a picture of what he claimed to be the full character select screen for Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS. This character select screen was shown to feature all of the characters announced up to that point, along with twelve fighters not yet confirmed for the game, bringing the total roster to 49 (including Mii Fighters). According to the alleged roster, all the characters featured in Super Smash Bros. Brawl would return, with six exceptions: Ice Climbers, Squirtle, Ivysaur, Lucas, Wolf, and Snake. Furthermore, in addition to all previously-announced newcomers, this roster featured the return of Dr. Mario, who was absent in Brawl, and the first-time additions of Shulk from Xenoblade Chronicles, Bowser Jr. from the Super Mario franchise (riding atop his miniature Koopa Clown Car from New Super Mario Bros. U), Dark Pit from Kid Icarus: Uprising, and the Dog and Duck from Duck Hunt (operating as a single character, under the name "Duck Hunt"). These images featured character icons not consistent with any existing CG artwork, along with entirely new renders for Bowser Jr., Ness, and Duck Hunt. Subsequently, this user claimed via text that the Ice Climbers, Lucas, Wolf, Snake, and the Chorus Men would all be appearing as post-launch downloadable content, explaining the gaps in the character select screen and bringing the total character count to 54. However, he did not offer any pictures to corroborate this claim. These images are believed to come from footage that was sent to the ESRB for review in order to decide the game's rating, as evidenced by the 3DS username "ESRB0083" and the lack of a gap between the top and bottom screen images, suggesting they are not being displayed on an actual 3DS unit.

Shortly thereafter, a second user on /v/ came forth with four new images, which showed new renders for Dr. Mario and Shulk, a menu for Mii Fighters independent of the character select screen, and a supposedly complete stage select menu. This stage menu featured several unrevealed Past Stages such as Corneria, Yoshi's Island and PictoChat, as well as completely new stages such as Gaur Plains from Xenoblade Chronicles, Magicant from Mother, and an unknown stage based on the original F-Zero. Later, a third user, this time on the GameFAQs message board for Smash for 3DS, posted a set of pictures of his own. These featured a team battle on Yoshi's Island with Charizard and Ganondorf fighting Shulk and Lucina, along with the latter team posing on the subsequent victory screen, which used the same Shulk render as the second user and a Ganondorf render consistent with the icon seen in the supposed character select screen.

These images are consistent with the roster claims made by SmashBoards users Ninka and Vaanrose, posted a month prior to the leak following the reveals of Lucina and Robin. Vaanrose had previously created custom color pallets for Mario and Bowser in Brawl based on information he'd received from his source regarding new pallets they would be receiving in Smash 4, posting them prior to these pallets' existence being revealed in the E3 2014 demo of the game, which lent credence to the belief that his information was legitimate. These posts elaborated that each character would have eight alternate color pallets or costumes, Shulk would have multiple "stances" that would affect his stats, Bowser. Jr would fight using the Koopa Clown Car and would be replaced by the Koopalings in his alternate outfits, Dr. Mario and Dark Pit would appear as clones, Olimar would be replaced by Alph from Pikmin 3 in half of his outfits, and the Dog would fight using the Ducks as part of his attacks. Several users have claimed Ridley, Dixie Kong, and Mewtwo were part of this list as well, but these claims were made by an anonymous user on 4chan separate from Ninka and Vaanrose.

Since the screenshots were first posted, they have spread to several websites and been the subject of much debate. Many have claimed the images to be falsified, citing the questionable placement of characters such as Yoshi, Dr. Mario, Dark Pit, and Lucina on the character select screen, the lack of separation between returning and new stages on the stage select screen, the similarity of Shulk's face in his render to that of Little Mac in a previous screenshot (suggesting it was used as a base for a photoshopping attempt), and other similar inconsistencies. Those who believe the images to be genuine have pointed out the presence of obscure UI details consistent with those seen in the E3 demo (including a rare graphical glitch on the bottom screen character renders), the inability to source the renders used on the character select screen, the presence of details that were only very recently revealed at the time (such as Meta Knight's new render, which was less than a week old, and Brinstar, which had only been shown half a day prior), and the stage select icon for Tomodachi Life featuring an apartment design that was not present in any past screenshots but appeared at a different angle in an image from Famitsu magazine that came out the day after the leak. Despite heavy debate and analysis by both sides, no one has been able to definitively prove the images to be real or fake, leaving their legitimacy inconclusive as of now.

External links

• Sonic & Tails Hoax picture
• Toad rumor on Detstar
• The Master Hand Rumor