Announcer
An announcer (also known as the narrator) is a voice that plays the role of a referee in the game. Different voice actors fill this role in different games in the Super Smash Bros. series.
Actors and comparisons
Jeff Manning
Manning's performance as the announcer foreshadowed a majority of the trends that would be followed by the three later incarnations of the announcer.
Dean Harrington
Harrington continues Manning's style of voice, often yelling in a form similar to that of an emcee at a wrestling or boxing match. Harrington's voice, however, has a "muffled" tone to it, leading to a slightly less intense voice than Manning's.
Pat Cashman
Cashman's announcer ends the emcee style, and in general, his voice is considerably calmer in sound. Cashman's voice is not as muffled as Harrington's, and he has a deeper voice than either of his two predecessors.
Xander Mobus
Mobus's voice is similar to Cashman's voice. However, he speaks more "enthusiastically", similar to Jeff Manning and Dean Harrington.
Quotes
Super Smash Bros. (Voice: Jeff Manning)
- "Super Smash Brothers!"
- "Failure"
Super Smash Bros. Melee (Voice: Dean Harrington)
- "Super Smash Bros. Melee!"
- "Melee!"
- "Decision!"
- "Super Sudden Death!"
- "Camera!"
- "Multi-Man Melee!"
- "Break the targets!"
- "Grab the coins!"
- "Bonus Stage"
Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Voice: Pat Cashman)
- "Multi-Man Brawl!"
- "Basic Brawl!"
- "Rotation!"
- "Tourney!"
- "Special Brawl!"
- "Team Battle!"
- "Spectate!"
Super Smash Bros. 4 (Voice: Xander Mobus)
- "Smash Run!"
- "Choose your fighter!"
- "Training!"
- "Target Blast!"
- "Trophy Rush!"
SSB & SSBM
SSB, SSBB & SSB4
- "Free for all!"
- "3, 2, 1... GO!"
SSBM, SSBB & SSB4
- "Ready? GO!"
- "Home-Run Contest!"
All Four Games
The following quotes are from the Japanese and English versions of all four games.
Both Versions
- "A New Record!"
- "5, 4, 3, 2, 1..."
- "Choose your character."
- "(Character Name)!"
- "Sudden Death!"
- "Vs. (Character or Team)!"
- "Continue?"
- "Complete!"
- "Failure!"
- "Game Over!"
- "Congratulations!"
- "Player #/Computer Player, defeated!"
- "Wow! Incredible!"
Japanese Version Only
- "Game Set!" (also heard in the English version in Super Smash Bros.)
- "Battle Royale!"
- "Purin!"
- "Zenigame!"
- "Fushigisou!"
- "Koopa!"
- "Lizardon!"
- "Murabito!"
- "Koopa Jr.!"
- "Rosetta & Chiko!"
- "Gekkouga!"
- "Reflet!"
- "Rockman!"
- "Time Up!" (also heard in the English version in Super Smash Bros.)
USA / English PAL Version Only
- "Game!"
- "Free for all!"
- "Jigglypuff!" (also Italian and Spanish)
- "Squirtle!" (also Italian and Spanish)
- "Ivysaur!" (also Italian and Spanish)
- "Bowser!" (also for all PAL languages)
- "Charizard!" (also Italian and Spanish)
- "Villager!"
- "Bowser Jr.!"
- "Rosalina & Luma!"
- "Greninja!"
- "Robin!"
- "Mega Man!"
- "Time!"
Trivia
- In the PAL versions of Super Smash Bros. and Brawl (though strangely, not Melee), the announcer speaks whichever language the game is set to.
- In at least Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS, this is also true of the French, German, Spanish and Italian localizations; the Dutch, Portuguese and Russian localizations retain the English announcer.
- In the PAL version of Super Smash Bros., the French announcer is voiced by J.M. Delhausse and the German announcer is voiced by Frank Wölfel.
- Master Hand is voiced by the same person as the announcer, regardless of game. This has led to theories that Master Hand is the announcer. This may also be backed up by the fact the announcer has no dialogue during the fight with Master Hand, unlike in other classic and VS. matches, where the announcer will shout out "Go!" and "Game!" etc. In the PAL versions of Smash 64 and Brawl, any language other than English is an exception from this.
- The quote "Ready? Go!" is also used upon the activation of Donkey Kong's Final Smash, Konga Beat, making it the only attack in all the series to involve the Announcer in some way.
- Brawl contains unused, empty announcer files for what appears to be the announcer shouting the title's name. In the final game, there isn't any voice clip for this. Another unused file is heard during the countdown to the end of the match starting at ten seconds, rather than five.
- The only difference in narration in the PAL version of Melee when not set to English is when selecting Jigglypuff. Two different announcers will say "Pummeluff" or "Rondoudou" when the game is set to German or French, respectively.
- Brawl's announcer, Pat Cashman, was previously the announcer on the children's show Bill Nye the Science Guy.
- The announcer of Super Smash Bros. 4 is also the narrator of the Super Smash Bros. for Wii U 50-Fact Extravaganza, which showcased more than fifty new features the Wii U version has to offer, as well as the spokesperson for the commercials for both versions.