Alternate costume (SSBB)
Super Smash Bros. Brawl changed the idea with color changes just a bit. While Melee added a few extra outfits to some characters, Brawl added six colors to most characters. However, Sonic the Hedgehog and all the playable characters from the Pokémon universe (Pikachu, Jigglypuff, Lucario, the Pokémon Trainer and his Pokémon) have fewer - Pikachu has four, the others five. The other exception is that Wario has two outfits each with multiple color choices, that effectively doubles his alternate costume choices.
Palette swaps are chosen by clicking on the character when they're selected; additionally, pressing 1/2 in the Wii remote and Nunchuk combination, A and B in the Wii remote alone configuration, or pressing X/Y on the Classic Controller and/or GameCube Controller) will change the swap.
A few characters (namely, Lucario and Sonic) have sets of costume changes that can be difficult to distinguish from each other in a match. As such, tournaments have a rule stating that in a doubles match, a partially colorblind Lucario or Sonic player may request to be given the blue team. In some cases, texture hacks are used to make the color difference more obvious.
Bowser
- Green (Default)
- Black
- Red: Resembles a Red Koopa Troopa or a Spiny.
- Blue: Resembles Bowser's appearance on the Japanese and European covers for Super Mario Bros.
- White: This costume turns Bowser's hair red and his shell and spiked collars to white, somewhat resembling Dry Bowser from New Super Mario Bros. It also resembles Morton Koopa Jr.'s white and gold shell and darker skin.
- Brown: Resembles Boom Boom from Super Mario Bros. 3.
Captain Falcon
- Blue (Cyan): (Default) Interestingly, this is the only one of Falcon's costumes that does not have his sleeves reaching up to his gloves, instead only reaching his elbow.
- Black: Falcon's costume from the F-Zero X Expansion set, as well as the F-Zero X commercial in Japan.
- Red: Nearly identical to his rival Blood Falcon's outfit; even the writing on his back changes to say "Blood Hawk", with a skull design around the lettering.
- Green: Resembles the color scheme of the Wild Goose, Pico's F-Zero vehicle.
- Light Blue (Blue): May be a reference to his original F-Zero appearances (his costume in the F-Zero games is more vibrant than his Super Smash Bros. outfits).
- Used when Captain Falcon is on the Blue team.
- White (Pink): Resembles Jody Summers' outfit.
Diddy Kong
- Red (Default)
- Yellow: Resembles the alternate outfit when the second player also played as Diddy Kong in the original Donkey Kong Country series.
- Pink: Resembles the outfit worn by fellow DK character Dixie Kong in Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest and Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie's Double Trouble. Diddy also gains Dixie's light yellow fur color.
- Purple: Resembles the alternate costume worn by Diddy when the second player used him in Donkey Kong Country 2.
- Green
- Blue: Resembles one of Diddy Kong's alternate costumes in the multiplayer of Donkey Kong 64.
Donkey Kong
All of Donkey Kong's color changes can be traced back to the multiplayer mode of Donkey Kong 64.
- Brown (Default)
- Black: In Donkey Kong Country, this color sprite is used for player 2.
- Red: May represent the original Donkey Kong from the arcade game with the same name who had reddish orange fur.
- Blue: One of the alternate colors in Donkey Kong 64.
- Green: One of the alternate colors in Donkey Kong 64.
- White: Resembles a yeti. A Fire Mini Donkey Kong from the Mario vs. Donkey Kong series also has a similar appearance.
Falco
- White (Default): Based off his character model from Star Fox: Command.
- Yellow (Orange): Looks like clothes from Star Fox: Assault's multiplayer. In addition, it slightly resembles his yellowish-white default outfit from Melee.
- Blue: Looks like clothes from Star Fox: Assault's multiplayer.
- Red: Looks like clothes from Star Fox: Assault's multiplayer.
- Green: Looks like clothes from Star Fox: Assault's multiplayer.
- Black: Looks like the clothes he wore from Star Fox: Adventures, excluding the black feathers. The black color is also to match Fox's (and by extension, Wolf's) dark costume. Also, it might be a reference to Falco's feathers on the box cover for Star Fox.
Fox
- Gray (Brown) (Default): Based off his character model from Star Fox: Command.
- Black: Named the "Dark Fox" on the DOJO. Similar dark color schemes are also available for Falco and Wolf.
- Red: Looks like clothes from Star Fox: Assault's multiplayer.
- Green: Looks like clothes from Star Fox: Assault's multiplayer. Also resembles the outfit of his father, James McCloud.
- Blue: Looks like clothes from Star Fox: Assault's multiplayer.
- White: Appears to be derived from his outfit from Star Fox Adventures.
Ganondorf
- Black (Purple) (Default): Based off his recent character design in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.
- White (Black)
- Blue
- Green
- Red: May or may not be referencing the fact that he wore red in the original The Legend of Zelda (in his Beast Ganon form).
- Brown: This costume has the same colors as his SpaceWorld 2000 and Super Smash Bros. Melee designs, slightly darkening his red hair, using the same design of cape, and giving his armor the same kind of design seen in the demo.
Ice Climbers
Popo and Nana switch positions for their red, black, and white costumes, but they do not switch positions on the selection screen like they did in Melee. The first color is the color of the leading (human-controlled) Ice Climber.
- Blue and Pink (Purple) (Default)
- Red and White
- Blue and Blue
- Black and Grey
- Green and Yellow
- White and White: The only one that gives them different mitt colors. It also resembles the color of any Ice Climber when touched by an enemy in the NES game, Ice Climber.
Ike
- Brown (Cyan) (Default): Based on his Ranger class outfit from Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance.
- Yellow: Resembles the outfit of his father, Greil, from Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance.
- Red
- Blue: Based on his third-tier vanguard class in Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn. It also bears a very loose resemblance to Siglud, one of the leads of Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu.
- Green: Based on allied units from the GBA Fire Emblem games.
- Tan (Brown): Based on the mages in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance. Referred to as an "ordinary soldier" by the DOJO.
Jigglypuff
Jigglypuff's alternate costumes are mostly feminine accessories, which is one of the reasons why this Jigglypuff is considered to be female.
- Pink (Default)
- Red: The same red flower Jigglypuff had in Melee. It also resembles Phoebe's flower from Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire.
- White: Gives Jigglypuff a hat like the one that Leaf, the female hero of Pokémon FireRed & LeafGreen wears, just as Pikachu wears the hat of Red, the male hero of Pokémon FireRed & LeafGreen.
- Blue: Jigglypuff's shiny color. The hat resembles those worn by the Bug Catcher and Lady trainer classes from the Pokémon games. It also resembles the hat worn by Yellow from the Pokémon Adventures manga.
- Green: Very similar to the hat worn by Kirby when he has his Sleep ability.
King Dedede
- Red (Default)
- Pink: Similar to an alternate costume in Kirby Air Ride.
- Green: Similar to an alternate costume in Kirby Air Ride.
- Purple: Features a very ornately decorated belt, similar to one on a formal Japanese kimono. This costume is also similar to an alternate costume in Kirby Air Ride.
- Blue: Features a belt that contains the same icons as one of the menu schemes from Kirby 64.
- Brown: Mirrors Kirby's white costume, making him appear like he did in Game Boy Color version of Kirby's Dream Land for the Game Boy.
Kirby
All these colors are also similar to different Kirby colors in games such as Kirby Air Ride and Kirby & the Amazing Mirror. They are all also usable in Kirby: Squeak Squad, where color variations are distinct and each have their own names.
- Pink (Default)
- Yellow: Shigeru Miyamoto originally wanted Kirby to be yellow, but Masahiro Sakurai was determined to make him pink. Sakurai won, but the yellow Kirby design later appeared as Keeby, the character controlled by Player 2 in the Kirby games. Yellow Kirby also resembles Beam Kirby from Kirby Super Star, sans the hat.
- Blue: The same as when Kirby is Ice Kirby in Kirby Super Star, sans the hat.
- Red: The same as when Kirby is Fire Kirby in Kirby Super Star, sans the hat. Also used for Player 3 in recent multiplayer games.
- Green The same as when Kirby is Plasma Kirby in Kirby Super Star, sans the hat. Also used for Player 4 in recent multiplayer games.
- White: Based on Kirby's monochrome appearance from the original Kirby's Dream Land. It is also similar to Kirby's appearance on the North American box cover. In addition, it resembles Ice Kirby from Kirby's Adventure. It also resembles Shadow Kirby from Kirby & the Amazing Mirror. It is most similar in appearance to the alternate "Chalk" palette in more recent Kirby games.
Link
- Green (Default): Based off his latest character design from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.
- Red: Directly based on the Goron Tunic that featured in Ocarina of Time, although red costumes for Link in general can be traced back to the Red Ring in the original The Legend of Zelda game. It is Link's only Brawl color scheme that changes the color of his belt.
- Blue: Can be traced back to the Zora Tunic used during The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
- Lavender (White): Based on the Blue Ring from The Legend of Zelda for the NES.
- Yellow: A possible reference to an instance in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess; when he drinks either Rare Chu Jelly or Great Fairy's Tears, it would give him a golden appearance.
- Black: Based off Dark Link who originated from Zelda II: The Adventure of Link and appeared again in Ocarina of Time. Due to the red eyes, some people believe this particular design comes from the Dark Links that Lanayru used to symbolize the Dark Interlopers in his vision in Twilight Princess. His shield is similar to the Mirror Shield from a few Zelda games.
Lucario
- Blue (Default)
- Used when Lucario is on the Blue team.
- Red
- Cyan
- White
- Green
Lucas
- Yellow (Default)
- Orange (Brown): Makes Lucas's hair orange, and also changes his shirt to blue and yellow stripes, making him resemble the color scheme of his twin brother Claus.
- Red
- Blue: Is somewhat similar to Ness's pajamas from Earthbound.
- Green
- Purple
Luigi
- Green (Default)
- Orange
- Red: Based around what Luigi's color scheme in Wrecking Crew, in which he wore pink.
- Blue: Probably resembles Mario on the American boxart for Mario Bros. It is also one of the 'flashing colors' when using a star in an underground stage of the original Super Mario Bros.
- White (Gray): Based on Fire Luigi. This costume replaced the white version that appeared in SSB and SSBM, which was based off Luigi's colors in Super Mario Bros.
- Purple: Makes Luigi resemble his rival, Waluigi.
Mario
- Red (Default)
- White: Based on Fire Mario's appearance dating back to Super Mario Bros. onward.
- Blue: Based on Mario's overalls colors from when he was Jumpman from Donkey Kong, though he wore a red hat with that outfit. It's also based upon one of the promotional images for Mario Bros., although it's not what he wore in the actual game. It is also similar to Balloon Fighter's color scheme.
- Yellow: Based on Wario, just as in the previous Smash titles.
- Brown (Black): Based on Foreman Spike from Wrecking Crew '98, which was confirmed on the original SSB Japanese site.
- Green: The color inverse of his traditional colors. Contrary to popular belief, it is not a reference to Luigi, however it does coincidentally resemble Luigi's colors from the arcade version of Mario Bros. It also appeared as part of the "flashing" animation from a Starman in the original Super Mario Bros.
Marth
- Royal Blue (Cyan) (Default)
- Red: Similar to his palette swap in Melee, this costume is the only one that changes the colour of Marth's tiara.
- Green
- Black
- White: Very loosely resembles Leaf Faris Claus, the protagonist of Fire Emblem: Thracia 776.
- Blue: Closely based off his official artwork for Fire Emblem: Monsho no Nazo (even the hair color changes to match the said artwork). It closely resembles the color scheme used for the non-promoted male Lord class in many Fire Emblem games, especially when coupled with the abnormally blue hair and bright red cape lining.
Meta Knight
All of Meta Knight's costumes are similar to alternate costumes from Kirby Air Ride.
- Purple (Default)
- White
- Red
- Green
- Blue: Resembles his official art from his first appearance in Kirby's Adventure, where his mask and shoes were depicted as a dark puple color, his body was close to black, and his cape was red. However, in this appearance, his eyes were not red and his gloves were white, unlike the palette swap.
- Pink
Mr. Game & Watch
All of his colors are in the first color Game & Watch, Spitball Sparky. It is also possible that the colors refer to the Tabletop and Panorama lines of Game & Watches, which had multi-colored LCD screens.
- Black (Default): Based on the G&W characters from the games Fire and Parachute.
- Red
- Yellow: The yellow is more greenish compared to the yellow color seen in Melee, when Game & Watch charges a Super Scope shot.
- Blue
- Green
- Cyan
Ness
- Red (Default)
- White: Features a white T-shirt with red sleeves, the same as the shirt Fuel wears in Mother 3.
- Yellow: The yellow/black color scheme resembles that of the Hanshin Tigers, a Japanese baseball team.
- Green
- Blue: Is based on Ness's younger self that he encounters briefly in Magicant in EarthBound, who was wearing a blue hat. Some also consider this outfit to be a reference to EarthBound's final battle against Giygas, where a reflection of Ness's face wearing a blue-purple hat appeared in the Devil's Machine.
- Purple (Black): Has a Mr. Saturn sprite drawn on the front of his shirt.
Olimar
- Tan (Yellow) (Default)
- White: Resembles a realistic spacesuit.
- Red
- Black: Makes him resemble The President of Hocotate Freight from Pikmin 2. His icon shows his helmet as clear, and his suit as black, however.
- Green: Makes Olimar resemble his son.
- Blue: Makes Olimar look like Louie.
Peach
- Pink (Default)
- Yellow: Resembles Daisy. However, unlike Melee, this is only a re-coloring. Her earrings, crown, brooch, hair length and skin remain unchanged.
- Red: Makes Peach appear similar to Pauline, Mario's girlfriend from Donkey Kong.
- Blue: Resembles Daisy's outfit from NES Open Tournament Golf. Also gives her a crown similar to that of Rosalina from Super Mario Galaxy.
- Green: Resembles Peach's outfit from NES Open Tournament Golf.
- White: May be a reference to her appearance at the end of Super Mario Bros. and her wedding dress from Super Paper Mario. The white color of her dress isn't as bright as her Melee white costume, and this one doesn't include tights anymore.
Pikachu
Pikachu is the only character to have only four costume choices in Brawl.
- Yellow (Default)
- Red: Includes Red's hat, the protagonist of Pokémon Red and Blue. Pikachu's fur color also changes to look akin to a shiny Pikachu.
- Green: Includes Brendan's headband as it appeared in Pokémon Emerald.
- Blue: Has the goggles worn by Pichu in Melee, which are possibly a reference to those worn by the Swimmer class of trainer in the Pokémon series.
Pit
- White (Default)
- Yellow: Similar to his outfit in the Captain N comic.
- Red: Similar to an outfit in Kid Icarus.
- Green: Similar to an outfit in Kid Icarus.
- Blue: Similar to an outfit in Kid Icarus.
- Black: Said by the DOJO to be a "fallen angel".
Pokémon Trainer
- Standard (Default)
- Red: The trainer's hat resembles that of Leaf, the female trainer in Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen.
- Charizard resembles its pre-evolution, Charmeleon.
- Squirtle resembles its evolution, Wartortle.
- Green: The trainer takes on the color scheme of Brendan as he appeared in Pokémon Emerald.
- Ivysaur and Squirtle resemble their respective shiny colors.
- Blue
- Charizard's purple colour is similar to that of its shiny color from Generation II.
- Squirtle's blue colour is possibly inspired by its original sprite in Generation I, particularly Pokémon Yellow.
- White (Brown):
- Charizard's yellow tint resembles the shiny colors of its pre-evolutions, Charmander and Charmeleon.
R.O.B.
- Red (Default): Based on R.O.B.'s Japanese color scheme for the Famicom. This design also was the source for the R.O.B. Sentry.
- Gray (White): Makes R.O.B. look like North American versions of R.O.B.s. Even the words on his base change from "Family Computer Robot" to "R.O.B. - Robotic Operating Buddy", the same as the American design. R.O.B.'s gray costume also appears similar to the R.O.B. Blaster from the Subspace Emissary.
- Yellow
- Pink: Resembles the North American SNES color scheme. Also the only color where the cord on the back is a different color.
- Blue
- Green: Similar to the R.O.B. Launcher from the Subspace Emissary, though lacking the same bright blue cord and the missle-launching eye.
Samus
- Orange (Yellow) (Default): Based on the Varia Suit and the Power Suit.
- Cyan (Blue): Based on the Fusion Suit from Metroid Fusion.
- Pink (Red): Based on the appearance of the Varia Suit of the original Metroid when missiles are selected.
- Used when Samus is on the Red team.
- Brown (Black): Based on the Dark Suit from Metroid Prime 2: Echoes.
- Purple: Based on the Gravity Suit as it first appeared in Super Metroid and most games in the series since. The Gravity Suit costume was previously used as Samus' blue team color.
- Green
Snake
Most of these are based on different camouflage suits worn by Naked Snake (a.k.a. Big Boss) in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater.
- Gray (Cyan) (Default): Based on Snake's standard camouflage suit from Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty.
- Red: Based off the Fury's Fire camouflage. Also resembles Snake's outfit from Snake's Revenge.
- Blue: Based off the Splitter camouflage. Also resembles Snake's outfit from the MSX version of Metal Gear.
- White: Based off the Snow camouflage.
- Green: Based off the Tiger Stripe camouflage. Also resembles Snake's outfit from the NES version of Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake.
- Brown: Based off Major Ocelot's Animal camouflage.
Sonic
Sonic is the only non-Pokémon character to have fewer than six palette swaps. The stripe on his sneakers is white in all palette swaps, and, in all but the default palette swap, the rest of his sneakers match his wristbands.
- Blue (Default)
- Black: Gives Sonic black bracelets and shoes and darker skin.
- Yellow: Gives Sonic the bracelets of Silver the Hedgehog.
- Green
- Red
Toon Link
- Green (Default): Based on the character design from The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.
- Red: Based on the red Link copy from the Four Swords saga.
- Blue: Based on the blue Link copy from the Four Swords saga.
- Purple: Based on the purple Link copy from the Four Swords saga.
- Brown: Based on the color scheme of Link in the original The Legend of Zelda. The brown hair and sleeves with the more traditional green tunic resembles some of the older iterations of Link in games such as The Legend of Zelda and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link.
- Black: Based on a toon version of Dark Link, who appeared closer to this color scheme in Four Swords Adventures.
Wario
Unlike all other characters, Wario has two outfits each with multiple color choices: his biker costume from the WarioWare games, which is his default costume, and his classic overalls. This doubles his alternate costume choices. There are a total of 12 costume choices for Wario in Bawl.
- Yellow (Cyan) (Default)
- Red: Resembles the color scheme of Fire Mario with the white helmet and red jacket.
- Orange (Yellow) Resembles the color scheme of his overalls, with a yellow jacket and purple shirt.
- Green
- Black
- Blue
Wario's overalls closely resemble the cartoonish look in both the Mario and Wario games, in contrast to Mario, Luigi, and Waluigi, who were given more realistic-looking overalls.
- Yellow (Default)
- Red: Resembles how Mario looked like in the early Mario games where he had red overalls and a blue shirt instead of the blue overalls and red shirt he wears today. This somewhat mirrors the way that Wario's "classic" outfit appears as one of Mario's alternate costumes.
- Blue: Resembles Mario's appearance in Japanese art for Mario Bros.
- Green: Similar to Mario's green costume.
- Brown: Perhaps, like Mario's brown outfit, a reference to Foreman Spike as he appeared in Wrecking Crew '98.
- White: Makes Wario look like his appearance in the Wario Land games until Wario Land 4, since those games were in black and white.
Wolf
- Gray (Default): Resembles his default attire in Star Fox: Assault.
- Red
- Black
- Green
- Blue
- White
Yoshi
All of Yoshi's costumes are different variations of the Yoshi species in many of his games, specifically Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, Yoshi's Story, and Yoshi's Island DS. The soles of his shoes, the saddle on his back, and his scales stay the same color, no matter what color he is.
- Green (Default): A standard Green Yoshi.
- Red: A Red Yoshi.
- Blue: A Blue Yoshi.
- Yellow: A Yellow Yoshi.
- Pink: A Pink Yoshi.
- Cyan Blue: A Cyan Yoshi.
Zelda/Sheik
- Purple/Light Blue (White) (Default): Based on her character model from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.
- Red: Based on Zelda's early appearances in The Legend of Zelda and Zelda II: Adventure of Link. This is also the only one of her color schemes in which she doesn't wear gloves.
- Blue: Official art for A Link to the Past shows Zelda with a blue dress, while Sheik seems to be based on Tetra with the blue costume and red scarf.
- Pink (Purple): Based on Zelda's appearance in Ocarina of Time and, by extension, Melee. The only one of her Brawl costumes to show her with blonde hair.
- Green: If the original Zelda is beaten without a ring, Zelda's dress will be green.
- Black
Zero Suit Samus
- Cyan (Default)
- Blue: Based on her outfit she wears upon completion of Metroid Prime 2: Echoes.
- Pink (Red): A reference to her first appearance in the original Metroid after clearing it 100% or by entering JUSTIN BAILEY into the password screen.
- Used when Zero Suit Samus is on the Red team.
- Black: Similar to the outfit she wore in the Japanese Super Metroid commercial.
- White (Purple)
- Green: May be a reference to her appearance in the Captain N comic.
Stats
- There is a total of 216 palette swaps.
- The average number of costumes per character is exactly 6.
- The character with the least amount of alternate colors is Pikachu, and the character with the most is Wario.
Glitch
There is a glitch in Brawl that allows multiple players to be the same character with the same color scheme, without the shading seen in Team Battles. To perform the glitch, one must simply follow these steps:
- P1- choose a character and color scheme
- P2- choose that same character
- P1- turn to N/A
- P2- change to color scheme that P1 was using
- Turn Team Battle on
- P1- turn to human
- Turn Team Battle off
Note: The glitch deactivates after the match ends.
Alternate costumes | |
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