Clone
A clone (officially known as an Echo Fighter in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate) is a character with a moveset and physics that are considerably similar to another character's. Often, the clone's moveset will have a few tweaks made, and may have their physics altered to a degree, but on the whole the characters are similar and typically have the same special move mechanics, to such a degree that both characters can be played optimally using a very similar or even identical play style. Clones are a common inclusion in various fighting games, as developing a character using an existing one's moveset and/or model as a base is less time- and resource-consuming than starting from scratch.
Semi-clone is a term used for characters who share some of their moveset with another character, with some similarity in physics, but have enough differentiating moves and characteristics that calling them a "clone" wouldn't be entirely accurate. "Semi-clone" status can differ among player's minds depending on their basis of the term; for example, one basis for dubbing a character a semi-clone would be their differences in special moves from whichever character they are clones from. This process of a clone breaking away from its roots and establishing its own identity as it divergently evolves is known in the Smash community as Luigification, named after how Luigi originally was a clone of Mario but eventually came into his own in both the Super Mario and Smash Bros. series. Jigglypuff is the only character who started as a semi-clone and eventually became its own completely unique character.
Super Smash Bros. 4 introduces alternate characters that act as alternate costumes, namely Alph for Olimar and the Koopalings for Bowser Jr. They have their own voice clips and the Announcer refers to them by name. However, since they bear no gameplay differences and are not treated as separate characters, they are not considered to be clones.
The term "clone" is also used to refer to individual moves cloned from another character's move. For example, Falco's Blaster is a cloned move of Fox's Blaster, with the former being the same general type of attack with animations taken from the latter, but with altered properties and functioning so that makes it its own move. Usually cloned moves share animations, while altering the cloned move's function and/or properties in some way, though sometimes the inverse happens, such as in the case of Ness' and Lucas' down tilts; Ness' down tilt is a low rapid kick where he pokes his foot out, while Lucas' involves him rapidly spinning around while kicking, but both have identical functioning as extremely fast but extremely weak low kicks that semi-spike with a high tripping chance. Cloned moves can also happen between characters who otherwise have no other aspects cloned, such as Charizard's Flamethrower being cloned from Bowser's Fire Breath, both being the same type of move with identical animations and functioning, but with a minute property difference (Charizard's Flame Thrower reaches farther with thinner hitboxes in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and in Smash 4 it flinches with all its hitboxes while Bowser's doesn't alongside his covering a larger area).
Clones or semi-clones are almost always unlockable or downloadable characters rather than starter characters. The only exceptions are Lucas in Brawl, Luigi and Toon Link in SSB4, and Ganondorf exclusively in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U.
Clones in Super Smash Bros.
Smash 64 only had one clone in Luigi, and a semi-clone in Jigglypuff, with the rest of its cast consisting of unique characters. All of the unlockable characters were created with the premise of reusing some of the pre-existing characters' movements and models.[1]
| Original | Clone | Differences |
|---|---|---|
| Mario | Luigi | As in the Super Mario games, Luigi jumps much higher than Mario, but has lower traction. His overall mobility is considerably worse due to his reduced dashing and aerial speeds. His attacks have somewhat greater range, but are weaker. Some of his attacks also have different properties, such as Super Jump Punch having a powerful sweetspot, or his fireball not being affected by gravity. |
| Semi-clones | ||
| Kirby | Jigglypuff | The two fighters have near identical physics, with similar size, shape, weight, and falling speed, and both have five midair jumps (while all ten other characters have one). Both share the majority of animations, such as certain normal attacks and cosmetic animations. Their special moves, however, are all completely different. |
Notes
- The Fighting Polygon Team is composed of complete clones, sans special moves, of all 12 playable fighters.
- Samus and Captain Falcon share neutral aerials, down smashes, floor attacks, forward and up tilts, and dash attacks, but have enough unique moves of their own, along with vastly different physics, to not be classified as semi-clones.
- Mario, Luigi, and Ness all share a polygon form, a neutral attack, a forward tilt and a floor recovery attack.
Clones in Super Smash Bros. Melee
The clone characters in Melee share the majority of their movesets and animations with the original character, but can have altered physics and parameters, such as attack power, jump height, weight and overall mobility. 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[2]. This led to Dr. Mario, Pichu, Young Link, Falco, Roy, and Ganondorf being added to the cast as clones. Luigi and Jigglypuff also returned, though Luigi was significantly decloned into a semi-clone, and Jigglypuff was decloned to the point of not even being a semi-clone anymore.
| Original | Clone | Main Differences |
|---|---|---|
| Mario | Dr. Mario | The pair share identical physics - with the exact same size, shape, weight (not in PAL regions), running speed, and falling speed, though interestingly Dr. Mario has faster air speed. Mario can wall jump, but Dr. Mario cannot. While all attacks have identical animations, many of them have different properties - such as forward smash lacks a sourspot while dealing electrical damage, a sex kick that gets stronger over time, and a forward aerial that is very strong but doesn't meteor smash. Dr. Mario's attacks are also much stronger in general. |
| Link | Young Link | Young Link has some slightly differing physics to his older counterpart - such as faster running speed and higher jumping height, and is generally a faster character with weaker attacks. Young Link is also a smaller character and can wall jump. Like the Mario/Dr. Mario pair, all animations are essentially identical, but some attacks act differently. Young Link's forward smash has weak, set knockback on the first hit and only combos into the second hit, while his arrows are on fire and his Spin Attack is a multi-hit move when grounded. |
| Fox | Falco | Falco's physics have been altered compared to Fox's - Falco is taller, slightly heavier, and has the best jump height in the game, but has a considerably lower running speed than Fox. All attacks have near identical animations and functions, though many have had their knockback altered, changing which ones are good for KOing, such as Falco's forward smash and down tilt being considerably stronger than Fox's, while Fox's up smash and up aerial are considerably stronger than Falco's. Falco's special moves also have different applications; as his Blaster shots are slower and make opponents flinch and his Reflector produces vertical knockback instead of horizontal knockback, Unlike Fox Illusion, Falco Phantasm can meteor smash. |
| Pikachu | Pichu | Pichu is drastically lighter (being the lightest character in the game) and has a much shorter attack range than Pikachu, and it's attacks are overall considerably weaker - damaging itself for every electrical attack it uses. Its up smash is a headbutt instead of a tail flip, its down smash emits no electricity while only hitting once, and its forward smash is a multi-hitting attack. Their special moves, while identical in name and animation, have some differences - Pichu's Skull Bash can be charged longer and gain more power, Thunder is a multi-hitting attack, and Agility travels further than Quick Attack, while not having hitboxes and being slower. |
| Captain Falcon | Ganondorf | Ganondorf's physics have been heavily altered compared to Falcon's - his jump height, movement and falling speeds, and jumpsquat are all worse than Falcon's but his endurance is considerably better, due to his increased weight. Although he shares almost all attack animations, many of them are carried out slower, and his attack power is considerably higher than Falcon's. Many of his specials have different properties - such as Wizard's Foot having the ability to spike. Ganondorf's forward air is unique (with an overhead punch instead of a knee) and has only one, powerful hitbox, and Ganondorf's up tilt is radically altered to a point where it can be considered unique, where Ganondorf "charges" with his leg up while smoke is generated, before crashing it down in a large and extremely powerful explosion.
This is the only clone pair where both characters do not come from the same universe. |
| Marth | Roy | Roy's physics, while similar to Marth's, also have some differences, such as Roy running slower, falling faster with a shorter jump. As Roy's sweetspot is at the hilt of his sword instead of the tip as with Marth's, even attacks that appear to be unchanged in animation and function (that is, almost all of them) must be used differently. However, almost all of Roy's moves have considerably worse frame data compared to Marth's, having lower attack and KO power as a result. Non-sweetspot differences include Blazer being a multi-hit move with set knockback, Counter having a multiplier for determining the strength of the counter strike (as well as a different counter strike animation), Roy's jab consisting of one hit only, Roy's down tilt hitting opponents vertically instead of semi-spiking, and Roy's up smash being a multi-hitting move.
This is the only clone pair where both the original and the clone are unlockable characters. |
| Semi-clones | ||
| Mario | Luigi | Luigi's many changes from Smash 64 to Melee have distanced him from Mario considerably. In addition to his previous differences, he now has a unique forward smash, up tilt, down tilt, neutral combo, forward aerial, and side special; his other specials have also been further tweaked, such as the Super Jump Punch going straight up and no longer giving horizontal distance. Additionally, Luigi's down smash and neutral aerial have been altered to hit vertically while Mario's hit horizontally, and Luigi's down aerial consists of one strong hit (that can also meteor smash), while Mario's is a multi-hitting attack. |
Notes
- In the transition from Super Smash Bros. to Melee, characters like Jigglypuff and Captain Falcon have been differentiated with new attacks. In Jigglypuff's case, it has kept some of its moves from Smash 64, while Kirby has received new ones.
- As Luigi and Dr. Mario share a "parent" in Mario, it stands to reason that both of these "child" clones are technically semi-clones of each other.
- Samus, Captain Falcon, and Ganondorf all share floor recovery attacks, and have dash attacks that are shoulder blocks and up tilts that are some form of axe kick.
- Bowser and Giga Bowser are clones, having identical movesets, although most of Giga Bowser's moves have additional effects along with altered knockback.
- Each clone characters' head sprites face the opposite direction than their original character's head sprite, including Giga Bowser's. This follows how Luigi's sprite faced the opposite direction than Mario's sprite in the original Super Smash Bros.
- The Male and Female Wire Frames are clones of Captain Falcon and Zelda, respectively. They lack special moves, however, and their moves lack any special effects that Falcon's and Zelda's equivalent have, such as electricity and flame.
- Master Hand and Crazy Hand can be considered clones, as they share most of their attacks.
- When deciding a clone for Mario during development, Wario was considered; ultimately, Dr. Mario was chosen instead.[3]
Clones in Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Among the Melee clones, four were completely cut from the roster (Pichu, Young Link, Dr. Mario, and Roy). The two clones that returned, Falco and Ganondorf, were significantly decloned to being semi-clones. Luigi was also slightly decloned further, though mostly through Mario being given new attacks. Among the 18 new playable characters, none are complete clones, with Toon Link and Lucas being semi-clones.
| Original | Semi-clone | Main Differences |
|---|---|---|
| Mario | Luigi | The main new difference is Mario Tornado changing from Mario's down special to his down aerial, which makes two more of their attacks completely non-cloned. For some additional new differences, Luigi's up smash has a clear sweetspot and sourspot hitbox while Mario's is the same strength throughout, Luigi has a slight tweak in animation of his neutral aerial, and Luigi's up aerial hits vertically while Mario's hits horizontally. Other previous similarities/differences not addressed still apply in Brawl. For an aesthetic change, Luigi has for the first time been given his own voice, instead of Mario's sped up voice samples. Luigi's general animations have also been differed from Mario's, most notably his helpless animation. |
| Link | Toon Link | As with Young Link, Toon Link's basic moveset is similar to Link's, but the pair have completely different physics - with Toon Link being considerably shorter, having better movement speed and jumping abilities, at the cost of being lighter, floatier and having lower attack power overall. Toon Link also has many unique normal attacks due to his shorter body frame, and many of his moves have different aesthetics and properties, such as Toon Link's bomb having particles from the Wind Waker, and having greater range, and his Hero's Bow charging quicker but travelling slower. |
| Fox | Falco | In addition to their differences in Melee, Falco now has a different dashing animation, neutral combo, up tilt, forward smash, neutral aerial, forward aerial, and up aerial, while Fox was given a different back aerial. Both Fox's and Falco's down throws were altered, where Fox's hits opponents far away diagonally, while Falco's hits opponents a short distance horizontally. Falco's down special now involves him kicking his Reflector, which can also trip opponents. Additionally, Falco's physics were altered, where he falls slower with faster air speed and less gravity in comparison to Fox (though their physics are still similar). |
| Captain Falcon | Ganondorf | In addition to their differences in Melee, Ganondorf's forward tilt, down tilt, up smash, up throw, and side special are now completely unique in function and animation. His final smash is also unique, where he transforms into Beast Ganon. Captain Falcon's down aerial is also now different, with a shorter duration and gained a hitbox that launches at the Sakurai Angle. However, other standard attacks, such as forward smash, up aerial, back aerial, back throw, down throw, and their special moves outside their side special and final smash remain similar in functionality. |
| Ness | Lucas | Ness and Lucas have very similar physics, proportions and overall attack power - with them having identical size, shape, weight, and falling speed. They additionally both suffer from 10 additional frames of lag when being grab released that no other characters in Brawl suffer from. Their special moves are also very similar in function, but have different properties, such as Lucas' variant of PK Thnuder travelling farther and acting as a multi-hit move, and PK Freeze being able to freeze opponents instead of dealing extreme amounts of damage. However, most of their standard attacks are completely different. Unlike Ness, Lucas has a tether grab.
Unusually, Lucas (the semi-clone) is a starter character, while Ness (the original) is unlockable, rather than the other way around as with most clone pairs. |
Notes
- The Alloys are all clones (sans special moves): Red Alloy of Captain Falcon, Blue Alloy of Zelda, Yellow Alloy of Mario, and Green Alloy of Kirby.
- Fox and Wolf are sometimes seen as semi-clones due to their special moves and Final Smash being mostly identical in operation. However, closer inspection of their full movesets shows that even calling them semi-clones is difficult to rationalize, as the characters' physics are radically different, none of their standard attacks are similar, and even their similarly named special moves have different particle effects and function differently.
Clones in Super Smash Bros. 4
Super Smash Bros. 4 reintroduces true clones, adding two new clones, Lucina and Dark Pit, and one returning clone from Melee, Dr. Mario. These clones, unlike the Melee clones, were originally developed as alternate costumes of the characters they were cloned from, similar to Alph and the Koopalings. Later in development, they were given moveset alterations from their originals - according to Sakurai, Dr. Mario had to have the differences from Mario he had in Melee in order to avoid disappointing fans of his previous appearance, Lucina was given no tippers to act as an easier-to-play version of Marth, and Dark Pit was given a different Final Smash, as Sakurai did not like the idea of him using the Three Sacred Treasures. Once these changes were made, however, it was decided that they each would be promoted to full characters, as "even a small difference in strengths" requires a unique roster slot due to fair record keeping. SSB4 groups these clones in their own area together on the character select screen, rather than placing them with their respective franchises.
None of the newcomers are semi-clones. Luigi, Falco, Toon Link, and Ganondorf remain as semi-clones, though they were only minimally decloned. Wolf, whose moveset partially derived from Fox, was cut from the roster, while Lucas and Roy return as DLC. Roy is now a semi-clone, as his moveset is further distinguished from Marth's.
Most clones and semi-clones also share at least one custom move, though true clones (Dr. Mario, Lucina, Dark Pit) have almost identical custom moves to their counterparts.
| Original | Clone | Main Differences |
|---|---|---|
| Mario | Dr. Mario | Despite still being classed as a clone, Dr Mario keeps his unique properties from Melee (except for the lack of wall jump), and Dr Mario's physics has been considerably differed from Mario's, fulfilling his original purpose of being slower and stronger than Mario due to having the unique trait of having passive equipment statistics baked into his character: his raw properties are modified as if he was Mario wearing equipment of +15 attack and -50 speed (walk/run/air speed and jump height), although some of his attack properties, such as aerial landing lag and knockback angles, were adjusted to compensate. Dr Mario also retains Mario Tornado and his down aerial from Melee, instead of inheriting FLUDD from Mario. Some of his attacks were also altered, such as Super Jump Punch dealing one strong hit instead of being a multi hit move. |
| Marth | Lucina | Marth and Lucina share effectively all the same physics, animations, normal attacks, special moves, and custom moves. Aside from Lucina being negligibly shorter, the only differences between them is that the hitboxes of almost all of Lucina's attacks are equally strong across her sword, whereas Marth's are more powerful at the tip. Lucina's down aerial is an exception, whereas instead the sweetspot placing is reversed. Lucina also has a different, more exaggerated charging animation for Shield Breaker, and has a faster dashing animation; however, this is purely aesthetic. Notably, Lucina is the first female clone introduced. |
| Pit | Dark Pit | Both characters have exactly the same proportions and physics, and use the same animations and weapon types for all attacks, and almost all are functionally the same, even dealing the exact same knockback with the exact same frame data. The few differences are Dark Pit having a smaller hitbox on his jab's rapid finisher, his forward tilt dealing weaker knockback, the arrows fired from his neutral special travelling with less control but being stronger and faster, and his side special dealing electrical damage with stronger knockback while hitting opponents at a horizontal trajectory. He also has a different Final Smash - though it is cloned from Zelda and Sheik's Light Arrow. Notably, Dark Pit is the only clone who is so similar to his base that multiple tier lists do not give him his own placing, instead simply having him share Pit's spot. Additionally, Pit can activate Palutena's Guidance on Palutena's Temple while Dark Pit cannot. |
| Semi-clones | ||
| Mario | Luigi | Luigi has a new down throw, where he throws opponents downwards and ground pounds them. He also has a new jumping animation that differs from Mario, now being his scuttle jump and new animations for his first two jabs. Luigi shares no custom moves with Mario, although one fireball variation makes his fireballs act like Mario's default ones. |
| Link | Toon Link | Link now has a new dash attack, being his jump slash, his up aerial has an altered animation, and his backwards dodge is now his back flip from Ocarina of Time. Toon Link's Spin Attack now produces green attack trails, and has a new edge attack where he rolls onto the edge and swipes his sword at the ground. Toon Link's down aerial now goes through opponents instead of bouncing on them like Link's. All of Toon Link's custom moves are distinct from Link's, except for Quickfire Bow/Piercing Arrow which is shared between them though the charging speed, range, and hitting animation are different. |
| Fox | Falco | A few of Falco's moves were altered; up smash has an altered animation and now hits twice, Falco flips on the horizontal axis when using up aerial, and his back aerial is a new move, being a backward kick similar to Wolf's back aerial. The latter two moves however were no longer cloned in Brawl, so these changes did not affect Falco's cloned status. No custom moves are shared, although one Blaster variation makes Falco's blaster act like Fox's default one and vice versa. |
| Captain Falcon | Ganondorf | While Ganondorf did not receive any new moves, he did receive minor functional and animation changes that further distinguish him from Captain Falcon. His grounded Warlock Punch and dash attack received some super armor and invincibility, respectively. Ganondorf's pivoted forward smash no longer has extra reach. His down smash now flips opponents. Dark Dive and Warlock Punch were also further decloned in animation. On the other hand, his down aerial and neutral aerial now behaves almost exactly like Captain Falcon's, albeit the latter having no set knockback on its first hit and an added hitbox on the foot with increased knockback. Captain Falcon's up aerial now deals vertical knockback like in the original Super Smash Bros, and his down tilt now semi-spikes instead of vertical knockback, making these attacks no longer functionally similar to Ganondorf's equivalents. Unlike other semi-clones, neither characters share any custom moves. |
| Ness | Lucas | Lucas retains his moveset and attributes from Brawl, with only a few changes being made to his down throw, which temporarily buries his opponent, though this is merely aesthetic. His Down-tilt no longer trips the opponent, and unless its the tip of the foot, it no longer semi-spikes which can be arqued this move is not that similar to Ness' down tilt. His PSI Magnet also has a some changes which the end hitbox now only hits around the shiny part of the orb, instead of the whole orb. His Up-air is no longer connected to his head, though it shares more of a similar animation compared to Brawl's. PK Freeze is also much quicker than all variants of Ness' PK Flash variants since it falls faster, moves more distance horizontally and doesn't fully charge before it touches the ground. Additionally his PK Freeze does not have fixed knockback unlike Ness' PK Freeze. He also shares some extra Ness animations despite having unique ones from Brawl such as his Final Smash animation, run Stopping animation, item idle animation, and his losing animation. Ness has several custom moves that act similarly to Lucas's default ones while Lucas, like all DLC characters, has none. |
| Marth | Roy | Roy's physics have been changed from Melee- he now runs much faster than Marth, but falls faster. He now has a different jab, dash attack, forward tilt, up tilt, forward air, down air, and forward smash, while his other moves received alterations in animation and visual effects. Roy's retains his neutral special, Flare Blade's, overhead slash from Melee, but it can now be considered unique due to the radical altercations to Marth's Shield Breaker starting in Brawl. Roy's up special, Blazer is now performed while holding his sword with a reverse grip and can be angled, unlike Marth's. However, Roy's Double-Edge Dance no longer has exceptional knockback on the forward third hit, meteor smash hitboxes on the upward third hit, and multi-hitting properties on the low third hit (removing a difference). and as of Brawl, Marth's Counter works on a multiplier as well, albeit by a lesser factor. Roy's physics are also different from Marth's; with faster air and dashing speed, though with much faster falling speed in comparison to Marth. None of Marth's custom moves have any identical function to Roy's special moves. His final smash while sharing the same name, is also unique, where instead of dashing forward to deliver an instant KO, Roy stands in place spinning his blade around before slamming it downwards to deliver a massive fiery explosion. |
Notes
- As of Smash 4, Luigi's position as semi-clone of Mario is heavily debatable, as the characters' physics are noticeably different, over half of their standard & special attacks are unique, and even several of their shared moves have different hitbox placements and function differently from each other.
- 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 considered semi-clones of each other.
- Many standard and special attacks of the Mii Fighters are cloned moves from existing characters. Several of Mii Gunner's moves are similar to Samus's or Fox's (with a couple similar to Ness's and Robin's). Similarly, Mii Swordfighter shares moves with the swordsman characters (specifically Link and Ike), while Mii Brawler shares moves with Mario, Little Mac, and Captain Falcon.
- The Fighting Mii Team operate like Mii Fighters but lack special moves like previous Enemy teams.
Clones in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
True clones are now known as Echo Fighters (ダッシュファイター, Dash Fighter). These clones are defined by having their movesets directly based on another fighter, and sharing very similar or the same basic attributes, such as walking/running speed, jump height, general attack power, weight, and size. Dark Pit and Lucina are the only returning characters to be marked as Echo Fighters, while Dark Samus, Daisy, Chrom, and Richter are added as new Echo Fighters. Certain other characters that were previously identified as true clones — Dr. Mario, Young Link, and Pichu — are not listed as Echo Fighters, due to their basic attributes being more drastically different from their original character.
Echo Fighters are marked with an epsilon (ε) internationally and a prime symbol (′) in Japanese added to the number of their parent fighter on the character numbering system (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, for example x′ would be derived from x). In a Famitsu column, Sakurai noted that during development, newcomer Echo Fighters first receive unique taunts and victory poses, then have their remaining attributes and properties adjusted where necessary.[4]. In theAugust 8th, 2018 Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Direct, it was revealed that players could optionally choose to stack echo fighters with their original counterparts, although they have seperate selection slots by default.
| Original | Echo Fighter | Differences |
|---|---|---|
| Samus | Dark Samus | Dark Samus constantly hovers instead of standing or walking, with it being floatier than Samus herself to reflect this. Its attack animations that use its arm cannon have it using the arm cannon without stabilizing it with its free hand. Dark Samus's Charge Beam and Final Smash have a much darker appearance. Additionally, Dark Samus's roll does not turn it into a morph ball and its bombs propel it sideways in contrast to Samus's upwards movement. |
| Peach | Daisy | Daisy's basic moveset is the same as Peach's. However, the two princesses have different personalities in the Mario games, which translates into visible gameplay differences in Smash Bros. —such as her aerial side special having considerably reduced startup, and among the fastest in the game. Daisy also has various aesthetic differences, such as flower effects in place of heart effects, a new idle stance, different taunts, and her Toad has blue spots on his mushroom head instead of red ones like Peach's. |
| Marth | Lucina | As in Smash 4, Lucina is largely identical to Marth, but her Parallel Falchion does not have a tipper. She has unique taunts and victory poses, and she has different though functionally identical animations on her Shield Breaker and Counter. |
| Roy | Chrom | Chrom's up special appears to be a faster version of Ike's Aether. Like Lucina, Chrom's Falchion lacks a sweetspot, doing equal damage at all parts. Unlike Roy, Chrom's attacks lack a flame effect. Chrom also has his own unique Final Smash, Awakening Aether, different from those of both Roy and Ike. |
| Pit | Dark Pit | As in Smash 4, Dark Pit moveset and abilites are mostly identical in animation and properties to Pit's, but he keeps his Electroshock Arm, which deals electric damage and knocks back opponents horizontally. The Silver Bow also travels faster and deals more damage but is harder to control. Dark Pit also has a different Final Smash to Pit, keeping his Dark Pit Staff from Smash 4. Whilst his active taunt frames are identical to Pit's, his taunts, victory poses and theme are unique. |
| Simon | Richter | Like alternate characters such as Alph and the Koopalings, the two vampire hunters do not have any differences that affect gameplay, and even share a taunt. Unlike alternate characters, Richter has a few animation differences, having two unique taunts and unique idle animations. Richter's Holy Water is a blue color as opposed to Simon's red color. |
| Semi-clones | ||
| Mario | Luigi | Luigi has a new dashing animation. Luigi's forward tilt is now a side kick instead of a reverse roundhouse. His new up tilt, however, is a front-facing uppercut more similar to his brother's equivalent attack than before. |
| Dr. Mario | As with SSB4, Dr Mario has increased attack power compared to Mario, but has reduced overall movement speed and jump height. Mario's Cape and Dr Mario's Super Sheet have new and distinct animations emphasising their different hitboxes. Dr. Mario has a new down aerial attack where he stomps downwards, though the two Marios already had different down airs in Smash 4. It is unknown if Dr. Mario has been further decloned. | |
| Link | Young Link Toon Link |
Contrary to most declonings, it was Link who received most of the moveset changes to differentiate him from his derivatives, reflecting his overhauled appearance in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. He now possesses the ability to pick up his fired arrows and multi-shoot them, has replaced traditional bombs with the Remote Bomb Rune, and no longer has a hook/clawshot for a tether. He also now wields his sword right-handed, while the other two remain left-handed. Link also has a new Final Smash, Ancient Bow and Arrow, while Toon Link keeps Triforce Slash. His Boomerang however, lost the gale effect, removing a difference. Young Link's neutral attack is now an infinite with a finisher hit, while Toon Link received a new forward smash that hits once and swings upward. All three Links now have different visual effects on their Spin Attacks. It is unknown if Young Link has been further decloned beyond Link's own BoTW-based changes. |
| Fox | Falco | As with previous games, including SSB4, Falco is faster in the air and jumps higher than Fox, although he runs slower.
Both characters have a new Final Smash, replacing the Landmaster from previous Smash games. Fox/Falco aims a single crosshair, calling his fellow teammates from the Star Fox team in their Arwings, who slam into any player caught in the crosshair's general area, activating a brief cinematic involving the bombardment of the caught player by Fox/Falco and his teammates. Falco's variation has a more erratic laser and flight pattern than Fox's in addition to launching opponents at a different angle, but is otherwise identical. |
| Pikachu | Pichu | As with Melee, Pichu is considerably lighter than Pikachu and has considerably less range and attack power. It still continues to damage itself when performing electric attacks. Pichu also has new animations giving it a bouncier feel overall. |
| Captain Falcon | Ganondorf | As with Melee, Ganondorf has considerably stronger attacks, but much slower movement speed when compared to Captain Falcon. Many of their special moves and normal moves also differ greatly in their animations and properties.
Ganondorf now uses his sword from the SpaceWorld 2000 demo in his smash attacks, giving them completely different animations and functionality from Captain Falcon's smash attacks. On the other hand, some of his moves were reverted to their Melee animations, such as his down aerial and Wizard's Foot, incidentally causing them to resemble Captain Falcon's equivalent moves once again. |
| Ness | Lucas | As with SSB4, Ness and Lucas share similar physics and size. Their specials, whilst similar, have altered properties - such as Lucas' PK Thunder being a multi-hit move. However, Lucas's normal attacks are all completely different.
Ness's PK Starstorm has the meteors fan outwards, while Lucas's variant has them converge inwards. They are also assisted by two of their respective teammates (Paula and Poo for Ness, Kumatora and Boney for Lucas). |
| Marth | Roy | As with SSB4 Roy has his sweetspot at the hilt of his sword, instead of the tip. He is also heavier and has a faster running speed compared to Marth and Lucina. Roy now has more fiery effects on his attacks. Also, Shield Breaker can be angled while Flare Blade can be reversed mid-charge. |
Notes
- As with Fox and Falco, Wolf's Final Smash, instead of Landmaster, is now an airstrike attack involving his team. How it differs in function is still unknown.
- Several of Simon's moves in Ultimate, including his Final Smash, Grand Cross, were originally used by Richter instead. As Sakurai noted in the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Direct of August 8, 2018, Simon arguably echoes Richter as a result. This makes Simon and Richter the first clone pair where both characters use moves from each other.
