Unused content (SSB4)

The following unused content is known from the development of Super Smash Bros. 4.

Characters

Much like Brawl, SSB4 has a reasonable amount of unused character data. The reasons mainly include a combination of time constraints and hardware limitations. This is supported by the fact Sakurai himself stated this during a post-release interview^[1]. However, he refused to give any sort of information on what other scrapped characters were, other than stating that characters unlikely to appear in new games in the foreseeable future were given lower priority. It is unknown whether any of the downloadable characters were originally intended for the game's initial release.

Scrapped

Ice Climbers - The Ice Climbers were originally planned to return as characters. While reportedly functioning on the Wii U version, the Nintendo 3DS's technical specifications made it difficult to properly incorporate the two into the game.^[2] Sakurai stated in his Famitsu collection,Thoughts About Making the Video Games 2, that they even went as far as disabling gravity and other effects in attempt to get the Ice Climbers working. Since Sakurai wished for the two games to have identical rosters, the Ice Climbers were ultimately removed from the game, though they do appear in the games as a trophy.
Rhythm Heaven character - Data mining has revealed an unused emblem reference for a potential Rhythm Heaven character.^[3] The emblem reference appears in the emblem database on Smash for Wii U. Rhythm Heaven is, notably, one of the few universes to not have a representation other than a Smash Run enemy and collectible trophies,^[4] and the name suggests that a character from Rhythm Heaven was planned to be included before being scrapped at some point in development.
Alternate characters - Sakurai has stated that Dark Pit, Dr. Mario, and Lucina were originally going to be alternate costumes for Pit, Mario, and Marth, respectively. They were promoted to full characters due to either having a feature that made them unique, or because Sakurai wanted to add a feature to make them unique^[5]: Dr. Mario with his Megavitamins and Dr. Tornado, along with his down aerial; Dark Pit with his Electroshock Arm and Final Smash; and Lucina with her hitbox placement. In addition, Sakurai felt that Dr. Mario's fans would be upset if Dr. Mario was only a palette swap. Regarding the decision to make Lucina a full-fledged character, however, Sakurai stated in a Miiverse post that "whenever there is even a small difference in abilities, that character gets an actual roster slot."
Alph - Information from interviews and Sakurai's design documents shows that Alph was next in line to get his own roster spot as a clone, and would use Rock Pikmin. He was scrapped possibly due to time constraints and instead, became an alternate costume for Olimar.

Considered

Takamaru - In a Niconico interview, Sakurai states that Takamaru was briefly considered as a playable character, but didn't make the cut due to lack of fan familiarity, resulting in his Assist Trophy role.^[6]
Chrom - In Sakurai's weekly Famitsu Column after the reveal trailer for Robin and Lucina, Sakurai stated that he considered adding Chrom in the game. However, he instead chose Robin, feeling that Chrom offered nothing unique over Marth and Ike.^[7] Chrom appears as part of Robin's Final Smash, and a Mii Swordfighter outfit based off of him (the latter as DLC).
Heihachi Mishima - In Sakurai's Thoughts About Making Video Games 2 Sakurai states that Heihachi was considered as being a playable character, but was decided against since his moves would have been too difficult to implement.^[8] A Mii Brawler costume based on Heihachi appears as DLC.

Stages

Hidden with the games files exist stages that were planned to be included in SSB4, but were not implemented in the final release. For some stages, it remains unknown whether they were meant for the 3DS or Wii U version.

Some stages, apparently, were meant to have hazards or other elements. Within the game's data, there exists a file called SSB4\param\ui\ui_character_db, which refers to boss characters such as Ridley, the Yellow Devil, and Metal Face.

Text exists in the Wii U version suggests that the Gamer and Temple stages were once unlockable.

Differences

Magicant - the Flying Men were intended to be given unique three-dimensional models rather than the two-dimensional sprites they were given in the official release. In a weekly issue of Famitsu, Masahiro Sakurai stated that the sprites were used as to lessen the strain on the 3DS's hardware. An image of the Flying Man's 3D model also was featured in the column. The model itself was removed completely from the game during its development, as hacking reveals no further data of them; however, the model was recycled and turned into a paid DLC costume for the Mii Brawlers.
Mario Circuit - Toads driving karts were planned to appear in the stage, but just like Rainbow Road and Mario Circuit (Brawl), only Shy Guys in their Standard Karts appear in the final release.

The 3D model of the Flying Man

Scrapped

Dr. Mario stage - A boss character named "Virus" exists in the character database which could possibly reference the main enemies in Dr. Mario. This implies that Dr. Mario was meant to have his own stage with a boss; however, no files have been found for a Dr. Mario stage. Character portraits for the Virus characters were found in the game, along with a darkened stock icon of Kirby's Melee design.^[9]
Brain Age stage - Another file exists called mark_30_braintraining.nut, with "brain training" being the Japanese name for Brain Age. This suggests that a stage based off the series was meant to be included in the game. The file is completely blank.
Kirby's Epic Yarn stage - reworked into The Great Cave Offensive when Yoshi's Woolly World was announced.^[10]
Super Mario Land stage - replaced with Dream Land for unknown reasons.^[11]
"Plankton" - Plankton refers to Electroplankton, implying that Hanenbow or another stage from the game was meant to be in SSB4. No files were found to reference plankton, or possibly Hanenbow. The only reference is in the emblem database. It could be leftover data from Brawl.
"Diary" - This stage could possibly refer to Swapnote (known as Nintendo Letter Box outside of the United States), a program for the 3DS serving as a parallel to Pictochat for the DS. The only reference to this is inside the emblem database, and no other files are present in the game.

Gameplay

When comparing the final game with earlier builds, as well as viewing unused data left on the game disc/cartridge, some differences have been found:

Stale-move negation was not present in earlier demo versions of the game showcased during E3 2013.
In the first trailer of the game, Link can be seen with his old dash attack, which has since been changed.
In the E3 demo build, Luigi could wall-jump, but in the final game, he cannot.
As seen in Mega Man's reveal trailer and in the Developer Direct video, his Leaf Shield originally had much faster start-up.^[12]
In the Super Smash Bros. Developer Direct, Bowser can be seen performing his old neutral attack, which has since been changed.
In Sonic's reveal trailer, his Spin Dash is shown to behave exactly like in Brawl, whereas in the final version, the short hop performed on release is much quicker.^[13]
In the Super Smash Bros. Direct, the Power Star Rosalina summons during her Final Smash stays at a constant size, whereas in the final game it grows gradually.
Also in the Super Smash Bros. Direct, Mega Man's Final Smash has a different animation, and it is slower. ^[14]
Trophy Rush originally had a longer maximum time.
Many attacks and Final Smashes originally dealt significantly more damage than in the final version.
At one point in development, it had been considered to allow characters to attack with their tail while under the Super Leaf's effect.
In Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS, unused graphics exist for clearing stages 8 and 9 of Classic Mode and/or All-Star Mode. In the final game, only stages 1-7 are used.
Stock icons were originally to the bottom right of the damage meter (and deplete from left to right), in the final game they are on the bottom left (and deplete from right to left).
When characters get KO'd and "-1" pops up, this animation was much faster than in the final release.
Banana Peels used their Brawl behavior.
Spiny Shells flipped slowly instead of spinning.
Even when launched at extreme speeds, characters could still get Star KO'd and Screen KO'd. They could also get Star and Screen KO'd in Sudden Death.
- As seen in the video linked above, Little Mac didn't originally need to just be knocked back to lose his KO Punch. He could even flinch and lose it.
X Bombs KO'd as early as 80%.

A screenshot of Trophy Rush with 3 minutes, 21 seconds left. This is impossible in the final version, as the maximum time possible is 2 minutes, 30 seconds.
The graphics for clearing stages 8 and 9, alongside stage 7, which is only used in All-Star Mode.

Aesthetics

In pre-release material, there are multiple instances of characters using animations or sound clips from Super Smash Bros. Brawl that were later replaced for the final release.
- Ike's Eruption originally had red flames as in Brawl. In the final game, the flames are blue.
- In the Super Smash Bros. Direct, Diddy Kong and Lucario's portraits alongside their damage meters use their Brawl artwork, presumably as a placeholder. The final game appropriately uses their SSB4 artwork.
- The pose that Zero Suit Samus performs for Paralyzer was taken from Brawl in early shots. It has changed since then.
- In the Super Smash Bros. Developer Direct, the designs of the revival platforms and Capsules appeared unchanged from their appearance in Brawl, but they were changed in the final game.
- In the Super Smash Bros. Developer Direct, Kirby used his voice clips from Brawl; he has new ones in the final game.
- Link's old Spin Attack animation can be seen in the Villager trailer, at around 1:14. However, it is hard to notice, as the screen shakes violently.
- Link's Brawl fighting stance can be seen in the E3 Developer Direct.
- In the Super Smash Bros. Direct, Sheik could be seen with her standing idle animation from Brawl.
- In Sonic's reveal trailer, his back aerial and up aerial each use the Brawl animations.
While some characters have always been mirrored on the Wii U version, some characters such as Bowser and Kirby have been seen facing away from the screen (akin to Brawl) on the 3DS version in the Super Smash Bros. Developer Direct. This was fixed in the final version.
An early screenshot on the official website shows Villager using his up smash, with the firework canister having a simple red and white design. In the final game, it was changed to match the fountain fireworks from the Animal Crossing games.
Similarly, an early screenshot on the official website shows Donkey Kong using his down taunt, with his eyes being normal and his mouth not opening. In the final game, his eyes shrink, and his mouth makes its more iconic shape, forming a more humorous expression.
In the E3 2014 demo build of Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS, the character select screen displayed the names of the characters under their icons. In the final version, only the icons are displayed.
- Fox and Greninja's icons have different background colors in the final version.
In an early picture Link can be seen on the Spirit Train stage with the Spirit Tracks Link as the conductor, but in the final game, when Link is on the stage, Alfonzo will conduct the train.
Prior to Little Mac's reveal, screenshots and footage of the Boxing Ring stage featured brighter overall lighting compared to the final version of the stage.
Windy Hill Zone originally didn't feature the animal friends in the background.
In an early screenshot of Reset Bomb Forest, the image of Viridi that appears before the Reset Bomb is dropped is smaller and she has a pair of roses on her hairband.
Ridley originally had a thinner neck and thinner limbs, as seen in the Smash Direct.
Fox Illusion had more detailed afterimages.
During the results screen, when the winning character's name is displayed, a sound is played; the E3 demo build of Super Smash Bros. for Wii U used the splash art sound from the newcomer trailers. The final build uses the same sound effect as Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS.
In an early trailer, both the Smash and Team Smash selections in For Fun mode had the additional heading "For Fun" upon each of them. These headings are absent in the final version.
In the Smash Direct, songs in My Music are labeled with "Arrangement". In the final game, however, they are labeled with "Remix".
On the same image, the stage location for Skyloft is stated to be Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, while in the final it is The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.
In the E3 2014 Smash 3DS trailer, character names originally had lowercase letters in Classic mode. In the final game, however, all letters are uppercase.
In the E3 2014 Smash 3DS trailer, Samus was listed in the Sound Test, but in the final game she is not listed.
The trophy for Rayman originally had an eye partly open in a Director's Room post. Both eyes are wide open in the final game.
Kirby was originally less expressive when using moves such as Hammer Flip and Final Cutter. In the final game, he has "angry eyes", but he did not in pre-release screenshots.
During the E3 2014 Round Table, in which Pac-Man was first revealed, he had a placeholder victory theme, which differs from the final version.
In the E3 2014 demo, Pit's victory pose was shown at a different angle than in the final game.
- His clapping animation was also different.
Little Mac's trailer showed him using his down taunt with a more fierce expression on his face. In the final build, his mouth is slightly misplaced and his expression is less fierce.
Mario originally had his mouth closed when performing his neutral aerial. In the final game, his mouth is open.
In Mega Man's reveal trailer, he only had three emotions (normal, mouth open, and hurt); he has now been changed to better express feelings of anger and happiness. Also, he was originally shown to blink, but doesn't do so in the final game.
At E3 2014, the player originally had to press L, R, and X to start a match; in the final game, the player just has to press L and R.
At E3 2014, the large preview on the stage select screen showed the stage's game of origin on the top right corner of the preview. In the final game, it was moved to the top left corner.
Some characters' Screen KOs were changed for the final release, most notably with Pit, who showed no expression when he was Screen KO'd. Screen KOs were also changed to be less dynamic, this can be seen with characters such as Pikachu, who cannot have a sideways position when Screen KO'd in the final release.
The background of the stage did not fade away when Olimar used End of Day.
Greninja's KO voice clips and it's high knockback voice clips were swapped for the final release.
Characters only occasionally used their KO voice clips, other times, it's just the KO sound effect.
Blast KOs had a much smaller explosion.
Mushroom Kingdom U and Skyloft featured Star KOs.

Note that the names under the character selection slots are not present in the final versions of Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS. Also note Greninja and Fox's different background colors on the screen.
Villager's original up smash design.
Ike's red-flamed Eruption.
Link on Spirit Train with the Spirit Tracks Link as the conductor. Alfonzo would instead be the conductor in the final version if Link and/or Toon Link are present.
The My Music menu as it appeared the April 2014 Nintendo Direct.
An early screenshot of the Boxing Ring, showing off brighter overall lighting.
A more finalized screenshot of the stage, with darker lighting.
Windy Hill Zone without the animal friends in the background.
Viridi with roses on her headband.
Shadow of Ridley's old model.
The more detailed Fox Illusion.
Zero Suit Samus's Paralyzer pose before it was altered.
The capsule before its redesign.
Beta Classic Mode screen with lowercase letters in Zelda's name.
Rayman's trophy when it initially appeared.
RaymanTrophy.png

Rayman's trophy in the final version.
Pre-release screenshots of Kirby showed him as less expressive when using some moves.
Samus listed in the Sound Test.
Mario performing his neutral aerial with his mouth closed.
The stage select screen in the E3 2014 demo. Note the placement of the Skyward Sword logo.

Sounds

Some sound files were found that had Kirby call out all three of Palutena's neutral special moves.^[15] Eventually, his voice clips for Explosive Flame and Heavenly Light would become unused as he cannot copy custom moves. He will, however, use Olimar/Alph's custom side special moves for copying their neutral special.
A sound clip was found in the files of the Wii U version features the announcer saying "Super Smash Bros. for Wii U" at the end of the opening cinematic, in a similar vein to the announcers for Smash 64 and Melee respectively.^[16] Xander Mobus even stated he was unsure why this was removed from the final version.^[17]
Unused files exist for Lucina saying "My turn!" or "You're mine!" that were meant to be used for Counter and Marth's exclamations from previous games upon countering. In the final build, the two simply grunt; however, after the 1.0.8 patch, Lucina will speak upon countering.
The sound effect that played during Sheik's entrance in Brawl exists as an unused file in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U.
The "Forest Stage" track from Kirby Air Ride was found in the April 16th, 2015 patch on the 3DS version, along with the music for N64 Dream Land, indicating it was meant to be the alternate music on that stage. While it is indeed used as a My Music option on the Wii U version, it is absent from the 3DS where it was originally found, with a remix of "Ice Cream Island" from Kirby's Adventure taking its place.
- Also in this patch was the original victory theme from Street Fighter II, however, in the final game, it is replaced with a remix of the same theme.

Minor elements

A major amount of content for SSB4, revealed in Famitsu or leaks, were either removed or revamped.

Scrapped mode features

Co-op play for Smash Run (3DS) was planned, but had to be scrapped due to limitations with the hardware.
Co-op power-ups for Smash Run were also planned.
Special rule-sets for 8-Player Smash were planned, apparently similar to the online mode Light vs. Dark in Kid Icarus: Uprising.

Custom Moves

Some custom moves were awarded in the E3 demo build of Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS. Only neutral and side specials were awarded, but they were presented as up and down special moves, respectively.
Hacking has revealed that characters were intended to have three custom move options for each special, instead of two in the final game^[18]. Through hacking these scrapped custom moves can be accessed, though they're significantly incomplete, lacking sounds, visual effects, animations, some of them even freezing the character or crashing the game, and all except Mario's lacking any sort of hitboxes: a Fireball variant with ice properties(like Luigi's Iceballs), a Cape variant that deals very little damage but very much shield damage, and a F.L.U.D.D. variant that deals electric damage.

Tharja trophy

A trophy for the Fire Emblem Awakening character Tharja was initially planned for the game, and the trophy was visible in leaked ESRB footage. Following the release of the game in Japan, however, Tharja's trophy was not found by players on Twitch, and later hacking showed that there was no data for the trophy in the final game, suggesting that it was removed some time after the ESRB footage. The reason for the removal of Tharja's trophy is considered to be related to the game's rating; her outfit as a Dark Mage was likely considered too suggestive and revealing for SSB4's intended E10+ rating, compared to Fire Emblem Awakening's T rating. As the leaked images showed a counter of 686 and there were 685 trophies prior to Mewtwo's release in the final build, Tharja's trophy was the only such trophy removed.

Tharja's scrapped trophy.

Super Smash Bros. Masterpiece

There is an unused file consisting of text that refers to a Masterpiece of the original Super Smash Bros. for the Nintendo 64, suggesting it was playable at one point. This would've been the only N64 Masterpiece in SSB4 and the first Masterpiece in both Brawl and SSB4 that was actually a game from the Smash Bros. series.

The unused text

Hidden icons

Separate character select icons for each Mii Fighter were found in the 3DS version's files. Oddly, the Mii Brawler icon is present in Prima Games' guide on page 292 in place of the regular Mii Fighter icon.
Various stage-like preview icons for All-Star Mode, Home-Run Contest, Trophy Rush, and Target Blast were found in the 3DS and Wii U version's files. A Smash Run icon and a zoomed in version of the Battlefield icon can be found in the 3DS version's files.
A Miiverse preview icon exists within the Wii U version's files with a darker background.

The zoomed in Battlefield icon.
The Battlefield icon as seen in the game.
The Smash Run icon in the 3DS version.
The All-Star Mode icon in the 3DS version.
The All-Star Mode icon in the Wii U version.
The Trophy Rush icon in the 3DS version.
The Trophy Rush icon in the Wii U version.
The Home-Run Contest icon in the 3DS version.
The Home-Run Contest icon in the Wii U version.
The Target Blast icon in the 3DS version.
The Target Blast icon in the Wii U version.
The Miiverse icon with the darker background.
The Miiverse icon as seen in the game.

Unused boss icons

The file SSB4\param\ui\ui_character_db contains unused icons of bosses in the game (which includes Virus of the Dr. Mario series).^[19] A majority of them belong to Master Core, who notably has its health shown on the 3DS version but not on the Wii U version. Given that a few stage bosses in Super Smash Bros. 4 can take damage (namely the aforementioned bosses), these icons suggest that at one point, a player could see how much more damage a boss could take before its defeat (similar to how bosses from Super Smash Bros. Brawl had a health gauge in the Subspace Emissary and Boss Battle.)

Cross-version Leftovers

Several unused gameplay elements can be found within the data of the 3DS version of the game, some of which ended up becoming integrated into the final build of the Wii U version.

Announcer clips for "Yellow team", "Master Orders", "Crazy Orders", and "Special Smash". The lattermost still exists in the 3DS version's Sound Test, as clip 84 for the Announcer.
Amidst the unused clips is a sound clip for "Smash World", which could be a beta name for Smash Tour as "Smash World" is the final name for said mode in at least one version of Super Smash Bros. for Wii U (as the Spanish-language releases for North American and European territories incorporating the term "Mundo Smash"), as well as being similar to the mode's final name in Japanese, "World Smash".

Names

Early in development, the song Saria's Song / Middle Boss Battle was named only "Saria's Song" without Middle Boss Battle in the title, the song Ballad of the Goddess / Ghirahim's Theme being referred to as just "Ballad of the Goddess", and Main Theme / Underworld Theme (The Legend of Zelda) being referred to as "Main Theme". It can be seen in this image. The reason is unknown. It can also be noted that the words "Arrangement" in the image were changed to say "Remix" in the final game.

Unused content (SSB4)

Contents

Characters

Scrapped

Considered

Stages

Differences

Scrapped

Gameplay

Aesthetics

Sounds

Minor elements

Scrapped mode features

Custom Moves

Tharja trophy

Super Smash Bros. Masterpiece

Hidden icons

Unused boss icons

Cross-version Leftovers

Names

References

See also