Unlockable character
An unlockable character or secret character is a character that is not available at the start of the game (unlike a starter character), but instead must be unlocked.
A unique criteria must be met in order to unlock a certain character, as outlined below. Once the player has met this criteria in-game, a message will display; in all cases, the player is given this screen after completely finishing gameplay.
"Warning! Challenger Approaching!" screen
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In all games, the text "Warning! Challenger Approaching!" is shown prior to fighting the character. All the games have different screens.
NTSC versions of the game had a silhouette of the character merely displayed in a blue box in front of a black background, with an exclamation point in a red circle on the top of the screen, and the phrase "Challenger Approaching" next to it. PAL and Japanese versions had the approaching challenger fully revealed. The original game also uses similar music to the 1P-Game's intro, with the only difference being the absence of drums for the "challenger approaching" tune. Melee added the phrase "A new foe has appeared!," and also had a silhouette of the approaching challenger. The poses for the challengers were silhouettes of their renders when selected on the Character Select screen (some, however, like Ganondorf's and Luigi's, were their renders from inside the boxes). The game also added animations to the screens, with an undulating matrix effect in the background, while the exclamation point, text and silhouette would be eased in. Original music was also provided solely for the screen, which took the sound of a slow, ominous siren. Brawl returned to the plain black background (there would be a silhouette of an unlockable character the player would face), but still had animations that would ease in, and when the player pressed any button, the images would fade to black, while the "Challenger Approaching!" text would scatter all over the screen; the siren is also considerably faster and more panicky in its sound than how it sounds in Melee.
After the "Challenger Approaching!" screen, the unlockable character will then be fought in an ordinary one stock match with no time limit, on a pre-determined stage and pre-determined music. The player uses the last character played as, as well as the same palette swap; in the case of multiplayer battles, the player who won the match will fight the challenger. If a CPU won the match, then the player is not given the option to fight.
By defeating the opponent, the character becomes playable. If the player fails, however, they will not unlock the character, but in the next battle they win, they are guaranteed to meet with the challenger again.
The "Challenger Approaching!" screen has become somewhat of a meme in the Smash community. Many digitally manipulated versions of these screens have appeared, often featuring characters who do not appear in the games, mostly using artwork of the character from another game instead of original artwork (which gives away its falseness). The screens became so popular that they were featured as part of the DOJO!!; in earlier updates, whenever a new character was introduced, a banner that said "Warning! Challenger Approaching!" would appear above the entry.
Smash 64's challenger alarm.
Melee's challenger alarm.
Brawl's challenger alarm.
Super Smash Bros.
Characters
| Character | How to unlock | Unlock location |
|---|---|---|
| Captain Falcon | Beat the single player mode with any character on any difficulty level in less than 20 minutes. | Planet Zebes |
| Jigglypuff | Beat the single player mode with any character on any difficulty level. | Saffron City |
| Luigi | Complete Bonus 1 (Break the Targets!) with all 8 starting characters. | Peach's Castle |
| Ness | Complete the single player game on normal difficulty or higher with three stocks or less and without continuing. | Dream Land |
Captain Falcon challenging the player in Smash 64.
Jigglypuff challenging the player in Smash 64.
Luigi challenging the player in Smash 64.
Ness challenging the player in Smash 64.
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Super Smash Bros. Melee
Characters
| Character | How to unlock | VS matches required | Unlock Location | Music |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jigglypuff* | Complete Classic or Adventure Mode | 50 | Pokémon Stadium | Pokémon Stadium |
| Dr. Mario* | As Mario, complete Classic or Adventure mode without continuing | 100 | Princess Peach's Castle | Dr. Mario |
| Pichu | Complete Event 37: Legendary Pokémon | 200 | Pokémon Stadium | Battle Theme |
| Falco | Complete 100-Man Melee | 300 | Battlefield | Corneria |
| Marth | Play Classic Mode with all 14 starter characters, or use them all in VS. mode | 400 | Fountain of Dreams | Fire Emblem |
| Young Link | Complete Classic Mode with Link or Zelda after completing Classic Mode with 10 different characters. Or complete Classic Mode with Ganondorf after completing Classic Mode with 8 different characters. | 500 | Great Bay | Saria's Theme |
| Ganondorf | Complete Event 29: Triforce Gathering | 600 | Final Destination | Great Bay |
| Mewtwo** | Play VS. mode for a combined total of 20 hours* | 700 | Final Destination | Poké Floats |
| Luigi | Complete Stage #1 of Adventure with time ending in a "2" in the seconds meter. After that, beat Luigi and Peach in less than a minute, and then complete the Adventure mode | 800 | Mushroom Kingdom II | Mushroom Kingdom II |
| Roy* | As Marth, complete Classic or Adventure mode without continuing | 900 | Temple | Fire Emblem |
| Mr. Game & Watch* | Complete Classic, Adventure, or Target Test with all other 24 characters. | 1000 | Flat Zone | Flat Zone |
*If the player had previously used the Erase Data > Hidden Characters option in the Options menu, these characters can be unlocked again if All-Star Mode is cleared under the established conditions.
**The time required to unlock Mewtwo in calculated in "player-hours" (eg. 2 human players gives 2 hours for every hour of game-time, 3 human players give 3, and four players give 4).
Gallery
Jigglypuff challenging the player in Melee.
Dr. Mario challenging the player in Melee.
Pichu challenging the player in Melee.
Falco challenging the player in Melee.
Marth challenging the player in Melee.
Young Link challenging the player in Melee.
Ganondorf challenging the player in Melee.
Mewtwo challenging the player in Melee.
Luigi challenging the player in Melee.
- RoyApproaching.png
Roy challenging the player in Melee.
Mr. Game & Watch challenging the player in Melee.
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Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Masahiro Sakurai once stated that he feels that it would be appropriate that third-party, or "guest" characters, like Solid Snake or Sonic the Hedgehog, would be unlockable. This became true when Brawl was first released in Japan.
In addition to the challenges and versus match method of unlocking, all unlockable characters can be unlocked by playing through The Subspace Emissary. The majority of these characters are unlocked as part of the linear story of SSE. However, Jigglypuff, Wolf, and Toon Link are only unlockable after the main SSE gameplay is completed by finding a secret area while replaying levels. Once a character joins a group of playable characters, the character will be instantly unlocked for normal play (without requiring a "Challenger Approaching" battle). However, some characters, as per the SSE's story, must be battled before they will join the player's party, such as Bowser.
Characters
| Character | How to unlock | Subspace Emissary method | VS matches required | Unlock location (if Subspace Emissary method is not used) | Music |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ness | Reflect 10 Projectiles. | Complete Subspace (Part I) | 5 | Onett | Mother (Melee) |
| Marth | Complete Classic Mode. | Complete Battlefield Fortress | 10 | Castle Siege | Fire Emblem (Melee) |
| Luigi | Complete Classic Mode using no continues. | Complete Subspace (Part I) | 22 | Luigi's Mansion | Luigi's Mansion Theme |
| Falco | Complete 100-Man Brawl | Complete The Swamp | 50 | Lylat Cruise | Area 6 |
| Captain Falcon | Play through Classic Mode on Normal or higher and beat it in 12 minutes or less. | Complete Outside the Ancient Ruins | 70 | Port Town Aero Dive | Mute City |
| Lucario | Clear Target Smash!! on levels 1-5 with any single character. | Complete Glacial Peak | 100 | Spear Pillar | Victory Road |
| Snake | Play 15 Vs. Matches on Shadow Moses Island. | Complete Battleship Halberd Interior | 130 | Shadow Moses Island | Encounter |
| R.O.B. | Collect 250 different trophies | Complete Subspace Bomb Factory (Part II) | 160 | Mario Bros | Mario Bros. |
| Ganondorf | Clear Classic on Hard with Link or Zelda. | Collect both Link and Zelda's trophies in Subspace (Part II) | 200 | Final Destination | Hidden Mountain & Forest |
| Mr. Game & Watch | Clear Target Smash with 30 different characters on any single difficulty level | Complete Battleship Halberd Bridge | 250 | Flat Zone 2 | Flat Zone 2 |
| Sonic*** | Complete Classic Mode with 10 characters, or brawl for 10 combined total hours. | Complete The Great Maze | 300 | Green Hill Zone | Sonic Heroes |
| Jigglypuff** | Beat 20 or more events after beating the Subspace Emissary. | After completing The Great Maze, defeat it in a secret room in The Swamp. (video) | 350 | Pokémon Stadium 2 | Pokémon Center |
| Toon Link** | Complete Classic Mode after beating the Subspace Emissary. | After completing The Great Maze, defeat him in a secret room in The Forest | 400 | Pirate Ship | Dragon Roost Island |
| Wolf** | Complete Boss Battles mode with Fox or Falco. | After completing The Great Maze, defeat him in a secret room in The Ruins | 450 | Lylat Cruise | Star Wolf |
**Toon Link, Jigglypuff and Wolf are not part of the main plot of Subspace Emissary; players must beat the main story first then revisit certain stages to find them that way.
***Sonic is the only character who can be unlocked 4 different ways.
Ness challenging the player in Brawl.
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Marth challenging the player in Brawl.
Luigi challenging the player in Brawl.
Falco challenging the player in Brawl.
Captain Falcon challenging the player in Brawl.
Lucario challenging the player in Brawl.
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Snake challenging the player in Brawl.
- Challenger Approaching R.O.B. Brawl.png
R.O.B. challenging the player in Brawl.
Ganondorf challenging the player in Brawl.
Mr. Game & Watch challenging the player in Brawl.
Sonic challenging the player in Brawl.
Jigglypuff challenging the player in Brawl.
Toon Link challenging the player in Brawl.
Wolf challenging the player in Brawl.
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Trivia
- Jigglypuff and Captain Falcon had their unlock conditions swapped for the international release of Super Smash Bros. for unknown reasons.
- Luigi and Jigglypuff are the only two characters to be unlockable in currently all the Smash Bros. games.
- Captain Falcon and Ness are the only two characters to have both been starter characters and unlockable characters in separate iterations of the series.
