The announcer (also known as the narrator) is an unseen character that has appeared in all the games of the series, existing to (often but not always) exclaim what is happening in the game or what has happened. Though they have no direct effect on gameplay, the voice does act as an auditory signal for multiple events in the games, both within matches and the various menus (such as saying "Ready? Go!" upon the activation of Konga Beat, Donkey Kong's former Final Smash in Brawl and Smash 4, which is the only attack in all of the series to involve the Announcer in some way). All of the announcer's voice clips can be heard in the sound test.
The identity of the announcer (real or plot-based alias) has never been revealed within any of the games, and his specific role in the series beyond mechanical has never been clarified, if there is one. The voice actor for the announcer has also always voiced Master Hand and Crazy Hand, but this relationship has never been elaborated on, if a deliberate relationship between the three even exists.
The announcer has been voiced by approximately 13 actors to varying degrees, for each game in the series as well as for different regions and languages. The English voice actor is considered to be the "primary" one in each game and is used by default in NTSC versions, which means he is also used in Japan, albeit with some minor differences in his lines, including character names.
Announcers
Super Smash Bros.
Jeff Manning 1999 was the first actor for the series, starting many of the trends that would later be followed by the future announcers; in addition to his booming style and various exclamations during gameplay, such as characters being selected, Jeff Manning started a trend where both the Announcer and Master Hand are voiced by the same person. Manning's voice has a significant filter applied to it, causing his voice to echo, as well as increasing the intensity of his voice; his actual delivery, however, is relatively calm, and he does not generally hold out words for long periods of time.
Outside of Manning's voice, two other actors provide the announcer's voice in different regions; Frank Wölfen provides his voice in the German PAL version, and Jean-Marc Delhausse provides his voice in the French PAL version. The Chinese version of the game, released for the iQue Player, reuses Manning's voice.
Super Smash Bros. Melee
Dean Harrington 2001 is the second announcer in the series. He takes on a different inflection than Manning; Harrington yells more similarly to an emcee at a boxing match, with his phrasing often lasting for long periods of time, as well as a generally more intense voice than Manning's. Like Manning, Harrington's voice has an echo filter applied to it; other filters applied to his voice, however, cause Harrington's voice to have a more muffled tone compared to the other announcers. With the introduction of Crazy Hand in the series, Harrington also began a trend where the announcer also voices Crazy Hand.
In the PAL version, when choosing Jigglypuff, two different announcers will say the character's name when the game is set to German or French (the names being "Pummeluff" and "Rondoudou", respectively). The identities of these two announcers are unknown.
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Pat Cashman is the third announcer in the series. He ended Harrington's emcee style, and in general, his voice is considerably calmer in sound, more akin to Manning. Cashman's voice is not modified to the extent of Manning's or Harrington's, leading to a cleaner sound quality from him; Cashman also has a deeper voice than either of his two predecessors. Cashman's voice also features more personality from the announcer, such as his quizzical inflection when the player selects Luigi as a playable character.
Outside of Cashman's voice, five other individuals voice the announcer in Brawl, for the game's PAL and Korean releases. Achim Barrenstein provides the German announcer, Carlos Lobo provides the Spanish announcer, Jean Faure provides the French announcer, Luigi Fantino provides the Italian announcer, and Choi Han provides the Korean announcer.
Cashman was the oldest announcer at the age of 58 when he recorded his lines for the game.
Super Smash Bros. 4 / Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Xander Mobus is the fourth announcer in the series. He acts and sounds similarly to Pat Cashman in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, with his voice being deeper than those of Manning and Harrington, as well as having few filters applied to his voice. Compared to Cashman, however, Mobus's announcer is less relaxed and reserved, though he still does not act as intense as Harrington.
Mobus also provided his voice in the 50-Fact Extravaganza presentation for Nintendo Direct, explicitly introducing himself as "the announcer" and proceeding to narrate the video; he also voices the announcer in a few commercials for the games.
Outside of Mobus's voice, four other announcers voice the announcer in the PAL release of Smash 4. It's important to note that all of these actors were retained from Brawl: Achim Barrenstein (German), Carlos Lobo (Spanish), Jean-Louis Faure (French), and Luigi Fantino (Italian). The Spanish and French announcers also provide voices for the Latin American and Canadian localizations, respectively. The Dutch, Portuguese, Korean, and Russian localizations use the English announcer.
Mobus was by far the youngest of the Smash Bros. announcers, recording his lines for SSB4 at the age of 21; the previous three announcers were in their 50s at the time of their respective games' release.
In a series first, Mobus reprises his role as the English and Japanese announcer in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate; he also provides voice clips specific to the Korean language option, while the Chinese options reuse his Japanese voice clips.
Mobus would portray the Announcer in an overview trailer for Ultimate in a similar manner to his performance in the 50-Fact Extravaganza.
Additionally, the previous foreign language announcers retain their roles from Brawl and SSB4 along with two new announcers for the Dutch and Russian language options.
Gallery
| Jeff Manning (SSB64) | Dean Harrington (Melee) | Pat Cashman (Brawl) | Xander Mobus (SSB4, Ultimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
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Trivia
- Jean-Marc Delhausse, who provides the French announcer in Smash 64, later reappeared as a voice actor in subsequent games in the series, voicing Lucario, Ivysaur, and various Poké Ball Pokémon in the French localizations of the games.
- Carlos Lobo, who provides the Spanish announcer in Brawl, Smash 4 and Ultimate, also voices Lucario in the Spanish localizations of the games.
- Xander Mobus, who provides the English announcer in Smash 4 and Ultimate, also voices Joker in the English localization of Ultimate.
- Brawl contains unused, empty announcer files for what appears to be the announcer shouting the title's name; in the final game, there are no voice clips for this. Other unused files also feature the countdown at the end of a match starting at ten seconds, rather than five.
- Xander Mobus booked his role with the same microphone Kenny James (Bowser's current voice actor outside of Super Smash Bros.) gifted him, when he was performing theater alongside James.
- In spite of Brawl using a Korean announcer, Ultimate uses the English announcer and translates certain names into Korean, while using the Japanese translations for others.
- In Super Smash Bros., a German voice line for when selecting Captain Falcon is completely missing so the game uses the English version instead.