Opening movie
- "Opening" redirects here. For the Melee track, see Music (SSBM).
The opening movie is a movie that is shown after the game is turned on. It is present in every game of the series, with the exception of Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS.
Super Smash Bros.
The opening movie starts, panning from the HAL Laboratory vanity card into a bedroom, where Master Hand flies about picking up toy versions of a random starter character, which he places over a dresser, whereupon a lamp shines on it like a spotlight. Master Hand, then, goes about rearranging various other objects to make it look like a stage while dropping another toy character upon it. Master Hand then takes to the center of the screen, counts down from three to one and snaps his fingers. The desk morphs into a full stage, and the camera zooms into the first character picked, which comes to life and strikes a pose. After quick flashes of the starting characters, scenes of each character performing a quick move in their home stages are shown, followed by a full scene of all eight of them running together. The opening then cuts to show each character again:
- Link is seen standing by a cliff playing the Ocarina of Time while the camera pans around him. He turns to face the camera once it closes in on him;
- Pikachu balances on a Poké Ball while a Pokémon Trainer, only seen by the legs, passes by;
- A scene of Donkey Kong and Samus fighting appears. Donkey Kong is having no problems, until Samus hits him with a fully-charged Charge Shot, sending him flying into the sky;
- Four Yoshis appear guarding some Yoshi eggs in a nest;
- Finally the Star Fox team's Arwings fly through space escorting the Great Fox, which is shown to be commanded by Fox.
After these scenes, the scene cuts to Mario and Kirby facing off against a dark, thunderous backdrop. They jump and cross-counter each other with aerial attacks, followed by the other six starter characters doing the same: Link vs. Pikachu, Fox vs. Samus and Donkey Kong vs. Yoshi, followed by a white splash in which the four unlockable characters are rapidly shown (or their silhouettes, if they have not yet been unlocked). Finally, the title screen appears as the announcer shouts the game's name followed by the Crowd cheering.
Super Smash Bros. Melee
Super Smash Bros. Melee largely uses the FMV scenes in its E3 trailer for its opening, with some changes.
The opening movie starts after the Nintendo and HAL Laboratory logos with a trophy of Mario that is thrown in the air by a human hand into a stadium. As soon as the trophy lands, Mario revives from it and faces Link. Pikachu and Kirby also join the battle. Then, a shot of Peach is shown and Mario performs some of his moves. After that, Bowser rises from a fire sea and then Donkey Kong is seen swinging through a jungle and Samus fights Ridley. Some shots of Link are shown with a moving background with Zelda characters and many different colored Yoshis pass by. Then, the Ice Climbers climb an ice mountain. Popo slips and almost falls off, but Nana saves him. After that, some gameplay shots are shown. Mario's eye quickly flashes onscreen as the transition to the next scene, in which Sheik plays on a harp while a ghostly image of Zelda is in the sky and Kirby flies around on a Warp Star. When Kirby disappears, an Arwing controlled by Fox and a Wolfen controlled by Wolf O'Donnell are fighting and Ness warps into Onett. Then, several Pokémon appear while Jigglypuff peeps out from the bottom right corner. Then we see Captain Falcon and Samurai Goroh bumping into each other with their Blue Falcon and Fire Stingray. Goroh’s vehicle explodes. A vortex appears, sucking in images of all the starter characters. Then, Bowser roars as he appears in a flash of lightning, while Mario, Yoshi, and Peach struggle to hold their ground. Some shots of Melee characters are shown, the Great Fox, Falcon Flyer, and Samus' Gunship fly by. Next, a Bob-omb appears and we see the ‘Get Ready’ text on a black screen for a single second before trophies of four fighters are blasted away by the Bob-Omb and the title screen appears while the announcer gives the game's name.
The music that plays during this opening movie is Opening.
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Super Smash Bros. Brawl's intro uses scenes from the Subspace Emissary, along with a few selections of Vs. Mode matches.
The movie starts with a view of all the characters (except for Zero Suit Samus and Sheik) gazing at an "X" in the sky that was formerly the Isle of the Ancients. This also appears as the last scene in the SSE. This is followed by scenes of Mario, Link, Kirby, Pit, Zelda, Peach, Meta Knight, Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, Fox, and King Dedede. Then, a scene of Sheik in a VS match is shown, followed by Pikachu using its down special on Bowser, Samus, and Lucas, followed by a VS match shot of Ike and a SSE shot of Zero Suit Samus and her Power Suit. After this comes SSE cutscenes of Wario, Olimar and his Red Pikmin, Yoshi, the Ice Climbers, Ness and Lucas, Pokémon Trainer, Lucas, and Bowser. The next series of clips shows Sonic, Snake, Wario, Lucas, the Ice Climbers, King Dedede, Yoshi, Donkey Kong, Pikachu, Peach, Meta Knight in VS matches. This is followed by SSE cutscenes of Mario, Pit, Yoshi, Link, and Kirby, an Arwing flying towards the Halberd, Kirby and Zelda, The Great Maze being assembled, Charizard, Pokémon Trainer, and Lucas, as well as VS clips of Olimar and his Pikmin, Ivysaur attacking Pikachu with Pokémon Trainer in the background, Zero Suit Samus, Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, Mario picking up a Super Mushroom, Kirby, Fox, and Zelda brawling. The movie continues with SSE shots of Samus and Pikachu, Zelda, Diddy Kong, Ike, Squirtle and Pokémon Trainer, Marth and Meta Knight preparing to battle a Subspace Army, an Arwing flying towards the Halberd, Fox piloting, Kirby and Peach riding on a Warp Star, Bowser and his minions, Mario and Link dodging lasers fired by the Ancient Minister, Pit, Samus and Pikachu, Marth, Ike, and Meta Knight, and shots of the Halberd. The movie ends with the title screen being shown.
The music that plays during this opening music is the Super Smash Bros. Brawl Main Theme.
Super Smash Bros. 4
There is no opening movie for Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS, though in its place there is a character lineup that orders the roster in a similar fashion to the fighter numbers used in the next game, ordering the first-party starting characters, third-party characters, unlockable characters, clones, and DLC characters in their respective orders. There is a full opening movie in the Wii U version. It consists of footage from both gameplay and character introduction trailers shown prior to the game's reveal, barring Duck Hunt's.
It begins with a black background, with two slices forming a fiery Smash logo. The intro starts with a portion of Shulk's reveal trailer with Link and Marth, followed by Mega Man's trailer, Shulk's again with a shot of Bowser, a shot of Rosalina & Luma's trailer with Kirby, several shots from the first trailer of Super Smash Bros. 4, a screen of Greninja in his reveal trailer, Samus's shot from the first trailer, Charizard flying around in Greninja's trailer, Wii Fit Trainer in their trailer, Bowser Jr. driving in his Koopa Car in his trailer, and a shot of Lucina fighting Captain Falcon in Robin's trailer, finishing it off with Mario in Greninja's trailer, as the Super Smash Bros. logo appears.
Gameplay footage soon follows, with a fight between Donkey Kong, Samus, Mario, and Link. Donkey Kong uses his side special while a Bob-omb blows up behind him, followed by Fox brawling with Yoshi, Luigi avoiding Ganondorf's neutral special attack by taunting, Pikachu landing on the ground, Mario using his side special on Samus, Link charging up his bow before firing, Ness using his side special on Diddy Kong and his side smash against Toon Link, with the latter later taunting his side taunt, Kirby standing up to find a Luma and Samus taunting in Orbital Gate Assault. We then get trailer footage intercutting with gameplay of the following newcomers: Villager, Greninja, Wii Fit Trainer, Little Mac, Palutena, Shulk, Rosalina & Luma, Robin, and Bowser Jr. The next following shots include Sheik taunting, Pit using his neutral special, Ike hitting Little Mac, Olimar and Alph using their up special with three different Pikmin, Zero Suit Samus entering, King Dedede taunting behind Meta Knight, Marth using his counter against Link, Ganondorf using his side special on Pit, Diddy Kong's on-screen appearance, Bowser using his down throw on a Villager, Zelda removing her Phantom, Charizard landing, Peach taunting, Captain Falcon activating his side-special on Fox, and Lucario doing a recovery. After this, we're given the final smashes of Jigglypuff, Pit, a Mii Swordfighter, Donkey Kong, Bowser Jr., Fox, Robin, Ganondorf, Shulk, Lucario, Wii Fit Trainer, Greninja, Peach, Zero Suit Samus, Little Mac, Luigi, Captain Falcon, and ending it off with Mario and Charizard.
We are later given the following shots for the third-party characters, which include Pac-Man, Sonic, and Mega Man. It ends with more shots of the character trailers and gameplay footage, followed by scrolling through various colored panels with character art before concluding with the game's title logo.
The music that plays during this opening cinematic is a variation of the Battlefield theme with a different intro, as well as missing most of the guitar solo at the end.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
The opening movie of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate mostly uses clips from Vs. Mode spliced between segments of cutscenes from Adventure Mode: World of Light.
The music that plays during the opening is Lifelight performed by Abby Trott in English and Erina Koga in Japanese, albeit missing the seventh through eleventh verses, most of the ending instrumental, and replacing the instrumental after the sixth verse with one from the tenth verse.
It starts with the shot of Kirby staring at the aftermath of Galeem's attack in the World of Light cinematic, then transitioning to in-gameplay individual shots of Mario, Link, Samus, and Kirby. The next shot is a group shot of male Robin, Marth and Lucina attacking; which is followed by individual shots of Mega Man and the Inkling girl to then cut to a cinematic shot on a cliff with most of the game's cast as the game's logo appears, then after showing Galeem and his army of Master Hands.
Gameplay footage is shown of Snake detonating an explosive on Galleom’s stage, Cloud doing a summon in Midgar and Mr. Game & Watch getting attacked by Bowser, then showing off Bowser Jr. along the rest of the Koopalings, followed by both the male and female Pokémon Trainer as they release Charizard, Ivysaur, and Squirtle into battle. Sonic is then shown running and jumping and is followed by battles between Pac-Man against the Ice Climbers and Roy against the Radiant Dawn iteration of Ike, to then show a closer look at Galeem. Peach and Daisy are shown in Delfino Plaza and then evade a giant Yoshi landing where they were as the stage changed into Palutena's Temple. Dr. Mario is seen throwing a Fairy Bottle to a helpless Little Mac who returns to fight after healing. Olimar is seen using Winged Pikmin while carrying other Pikmin. Both the female and male Wii Fit Trainer are shown chasing a soccer ball, to then cut to a shot of the default Mii Brawler and Mii Swordfighter, before showing various puppet fighters in a cinematic.
Fox is shown standing on Final Destination. Pit is seen using the Power of Flight, followed by a brief glimpse at the trees of Reset Bomb Forest. A sole shot of Meta Knight is shown, followed by one of Luigi trying to make a distracted Wario fall through one of Yoshi's Island Turning Blocks. Wolf and Falco are shown fighting, transitioning to R.O.B. and the Villager staring at a gyro. The default Mii Gunner is shown using Flame Pillar to help Mr. Game & Watch cook, followed by Duck Hunt flying away from another fire, with more brief shots from the World of Light opening cutscene.
Paired shots of Donkey Kong with King K. Rool and Lucas with Ness are seen and then one of Link facing Ganon. Shots for Bayonetta, the Path of Radiance iteration of Ike and Chrom, Shulk with Metal Face, Ridley and finally Lucario fighting Greninja are shown, followed by Incineroar performing its Final Smash on Ken. All of the Inklings’ alternate costumes are shown, followed by Simon as Richter falls behind him, Captain Falcon doing a Falcon Punch and King Dedede doing his Final Smash on Wario. Zero Suit Samus is seen fighting Dark Samus, followed by a shot of Palutena along Dark Pit, Rosalina & Luma dodging an attack from Diddy Kong, then brief scenes of male Corrin, Zelda, Rathalos, Jigglypuff play before female Corrin is seen on Final Destination, ready to fight Master Hand.
Shots of Ken and Ryu and Mewtwo with a pair of Pichu are seen before a glimpse of Giga Bowser. Toon Link, Young Link, Ganondorf and Sheik are shown fighting in Ganon’s boss stage, followed by a shot of Isabelle and the Villager with various items. Some seconds of a match between Mario, Link, Inkling, Snake, Kirby and King K. Rool are shown, then a shot of Simon performing Grand Cross.
Lastly, Pikachu is seen landing on Battlefield and sees the stage transitioning into others, ending off on the variant of Final Destination encountered at the start of The Final Battle's boss fights. The screen then cuts to a brief glance of Galeem and his engulfing of the universe into the light as the game's title screen appears as they play the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate title screen sound effect theme at the title screen.
Videos
Trivia
- Super Smash Bros. and Melee are the only games that have the announcer shout the game's title at the end of the opening movie in the final game.
- There is at least one unlockable character shown in each movie:
- SSB: The four hidden characters appear as a flash near the end, in shadows if not unlocked.
- Melee: Young Link and Ganondorf appear in the Ocarina of Time segment, and Jigglypuff and Pichu are in the Pokémon segment. Additionally, Mewtwo's Shadow Ball can be seen charging and shocking Donkey Kong.
- Brawl: Not counting the lineup at the beginning, the clips shown contain Ness, Marth, Sonic, and Snake.
- Super Smash Bros. for Wii U: Lucina appears in a clip from her and Robin's trailer.
- Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: Every base game character (and thus all the unlockables) appears in the opening movie.
- The opening for SSB is the only one in the series to be rendered in real-time, as opposed to all other games whose openings are pre-rendered videos.
- The opening for SSB is the only one in which every playable character appears.
- This does not include Brawl, as only the lineup at the beginning shows the roster in full, and is dependent upon how much of the roster is unlocked.
- In the lineup at the beginning of Brawl's opening movie, more characters will appear once they are unlocked.
- Prior to v1.0.6 in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, there was a 10% chance that the opening movie wouldn’t play and instead bring the player directly to the start screen.
- If the lineup at the beginning of Brawl's opening is not counted, Ness is the only one of the original 4 unlockable characters to appear in every opening movie.
- SSB's opening is the only ones that contains original cinematic content made specifically for it. Melee's is primarily just the E3 2001 trailer, SSB4 uses trailers used for newcomers, and Brawl and Ultimate use cutscenes from their respective adventure modes.
- The lead singers of the Runaway Five, who appear in Melee's opening movie during Ness's introduction, appear with their Japanese design from Mother 2. In EarthBound, they wore red and green suits.
- Yoshi's Final Smash in Ultimate, Stampede!, is based on the Yoshis scene from Melee's opening.
- With the exception of Marx and Dracula, every boss in Ultimate is either represented in its opening movie by their stage or actually being present. Master Hand, Rathalos, Ganon, Galeem, and Giga Bowser are all present. Galleom, Crazy Hand, and Dharkon are not present, but their respective boss stages are.
- A shot of Ultimate's opening movie possibly is a reference to the internet meme, No items, Fox only, Final Destination.
