Universe
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A universe is a term used by the Smash Bros. community to collectively refer to all the particular characters, stages, items, music, and other properties appearing in the fighting games that are thematically featured in another game franchise.
Main universes
These are the video game series and franchises that the Super Smash Bros. games classify as major enough that they assign each franchise its own unique "universe symbol" that appears with characters and stages belonging to that franchise. These franchises generally have characters, stages, items, and other properties that all appear in Smash Bros. games as part of their primary content. However, the minimum requirement for a symbol is to contribute one stage or one character to the games.
- The Super Smash Bros. universe: The "default" universe, this represents the Smash Bros. games themselves and accompanies all appearances of characters and stages that are thematically original to the fighting games themselves. Many original characters have been introduced here, but none thus far have been actually playable, with most serving as enemies and bosses in single-player content. The universe symbol seen here is also used as a "placeholder" by the games to indicate a minor universe without its own symbol.
- The Mario universe: Nintendo's flagship video game franchise. The company mascot at the head of this multi-genre series, Mario, is a primary playable character in Smash Bros. games, and has been accompanied by his brother Luigi, his alter-ego Dr. Mario, the Mushroom Kingdom princess Peach, the villainous king of the koopas Bowser, the dinosaur Yoshi, the gorilla Donkey Kong, and the bellicose anti-hero Wario as playable characters that heavily identify with Mario. The Mario universe is so expansive that Yoshi and Wario have been given their own sub Universes while Donkey Kong and Mario started off together and therefore are linked in that way.
- The Yoshi universe: Based on the more colorful and saccharine subset of Mario video games starring the dinosaur Yoshi, who is the main (and thus far only) playable character of the series in the Smash Bros. games. Several properties seen in Smash Bros. games can be identified as strictly belonging to this universe instead of the Mario universe.
- The Donkey Kong universe: A franchise from which Mario games were partially spun-off. The direction of British company Rareware, focusing on Donkey Kong and his many simian relatives and reptilian nemeses. Donkey Kong himself and his monkey-like nephew Diddy Kong are playable Smash characters.
- The Wario universe: A sub-series of Mario games whose main character is Mario's ill-mannered and nefarious anti-hero counterpart, Wario. The games in this series are either platforming titles or (more prominently) micro-game collections, and Wario as he appears in both of these two genres of games within his series is the one playable character.
- The The Legend of Zelda universe: A series of adventure titles portraying several incarnations and continuities of its main characters, primarily the young hylain hero Link (who is accompanied by Young Link in SSBM and Toon Link in SSBB), the eponymous princess Zelda, and the dark lord/warlock Ganondorf. These four, as well as Zelda's ninja-like alter-ego Sheik, are playable characters.
- The Metroid universe: A science fiction series in either the side-scrolling platforming or the first-person adventure genres. The series' silent protagonist, female bounty hunter Samus Aran clad in a versatile power suit (as well as without it in an alternative guise named Zero Suit Samus) is the primary playable character. In SSBB, another character from the universe appeared as a boss in the form of Ridley, and later as Meta Ridley.
- The Kirby universe: The game franchise headed by Masahiro Sakurai prior to and alongside his directorial involvement in his Smash Bros. series. The titular pink spherical hero Kirby, his menacing rival Meta Knight, and the greedy King Dedede have all been featured as playable characters.
- The Star Fox universe: A series of space shooting games that got its start as among the first games to popularize 3D polygonal graphics in the Super Nintendo era. All the games characters are anthropomorphic animals. The de facto leader of the "Star Fox" team Fox McCloud and ace wing man Falco Lombardi are playable characters. Wolf O'Donnell, Fox's rival and leader of the mercenary group "Star Wolf," is also playable in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
- The Pokémon universe: One of video gaming's most lucrative franchises, this multi-genre franchise emphasizes handheld role-playing games that focus on the training and battling of nearly five hundred distinctive species of creatures called Pokémon, from which the series derives its name. Playable characters consist of electric mouse mascot Pikachu and its younger form Pichu, the hypnotic pink puffball Jigglypuff, psychic feline humanoid Mewtwo, the jackal-like Lucario, and a generic Pokémon Trainer who commands his three Pokémon (Squirtle, Ivysaur, and Charizard)from the background to do battle in the foreground. It is the most heavily represented universe to date.
- The F-Zero universe: A futuristic racing game series featuring anti-gravity racing machines that zoom at extremely fast and intense speeds, with game play emphasizing speed boosts, cornering, and physically ramming each other's machines to lower life meters. The superhero-like bounty hunter Captain Falcon serves as the most recognizable racer and "mascot" of the series and is a playable character throughout the Smash series.
- The EarthBound universe: Also referred to by its Japanese title, the Mother series. A postmodern, satirical, and psychedelic take on role-playing conceived by Shigesato Itoi, with three games in the series. The protagonists of the second and third games, EarthBound's Ness and Mother 3's Lucas, have been playable as characters.
- The Ice Climber universe: An old classic NES game released focusing on a pair of parka-clad mallet-wielding children named Popo and Nana as they infinitely scale platformed mountains to retrieve vegetables from the Condor. The Ice Climbers feature together as one playable character.
- The Fire Emblem universe: A long-running series of tactical role-playing games set in sword-and-sorcery medieval fantasy settings and portrayed with numerous anime character designs. Formerly a series released only in Japan, it gained enough popularity in its cameo appearance in Super Smash Bros. Melee that the franchise turned international from then on, and has proven quite popular as such. Main heroes from the various unrelated installments in the series, including Marth, Roy, and Ike, have been featured as playable characters. It is the only series in which characters have actually made their debut.
- The Game & Watch universe: The Smash games' representation of one of Nintendo's earliest digital products, which is a series of LCD handheld consoles named "Game & Watch". A previously unnamed black-and-white character in several of these games is featured as a playable character under the name Mr. Game and Watch.
- The Kid Icarus universe: An old classic NES game released alongside the original Metroid by the same designer Gunpei Yokoi. It is the story of a young angel knight named Pit as he battles to save the goddess Palutena from the forces of the evil Medusa. Pit appears with a major graphical redesign as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
- The Pikmin universe: A real-time strategy game series that started on the GameCube. The main character, Captain Olimar, and the titular creatures, the Pikmin, cameo as separate, collectible trophies. The five different Pikmin types, red, blue, yellow, purple, and white, along with Captain Olimar, are combined into a playable character known as Pikmin & Olimar in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
- The Metal Gear universe: A third-party franchise. A series of stealth and espionage shooting games set on a fictional take of real-world Earth in somewhat apocalyptic time periods in the future where nuclear deterrence and various moral issues are dealt with as social commentary by the games themselves. The series' main star, Solid Snake, is a playable character.
- The Sonic universe: A third party franchise, one of SEGA's primary franchises, and a longtime rival franchise to Nintendo's Mario in the years before SEGA became a software developer for Nintendo and other companies. This world with anthropomorphic characters is the setting of many games covering multiple genres. Its eponymous mascot, Sonic the Hedgehog, is a playable character and a highly anticipated character.
- The R.O.B. universe: Not much is known about this universe, other than the fact that its symbol is a Gyro from Gyromite, and its only contributions are the character R.O.B. and a piece of music, Gyromite.As well as the fact it is an altered version of the sign for the Subspace Emissary.
- The Animal Crossing universe: This is a series of colorful life simulation games where the player's avatar lives in a woodland town featuring anthropomorphic animals as the town's residents and neighbors. No playable characters are from this universe, but there has been a stage and some other properties.
- The Nintendo DS universe: Super Smash Bros. Brawl dedicates an official universe symbol to what is merely the Nintendo DS platform itself. No characters appear in the game, and the only thing that this universe has is a stage named PictoChat.
- The Electroplankton universe: Likewise, a stage named Hanenbow is the main and only representation of this "universe" based on the Nintendo DS musical "toy" game, Electroplankton.
Minor universes
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These are the various franchises that have not been recognized as primary universes by any Smash Bros. game, and this is indicated by the fact these franchises do not carry their own universe symbols. As a general rule, such universes lack any playable characters or stages in the games, but if any of the following franchises contributes an item, assist trophy, music, or some other minor element to a given Smash game, the game assigns the property and its respective franchise the default Smash Bros. universe symbol.
- 1080° Snowboarding/Avalanche: Snowboarding games released for the Nintendo 64 and GameCube. A character from the first game (but not the second), Kensuke Kimachi, cameos as a collectible trophy in Melee. Additionally, the song Golden Forest (1080° Snowboarding) appears in Brawl in the My Music for Port Town Aero Dive.
- Advance Wars: Various soldiers and tanks from the series appear from an Assist Trophy in Brawl where they fire projectiles at all foes.
- Balloon Fight: An NES game whose titular character cameos as a collectible trophy in Melee, and the Flipper obstacle is featured as an item from Melee. In addition, Balloon Fighter was one of the candidates, along with Excitebiker and Urban Champion fighter, to be a playable character in Melee; however, the position eventually went to the Ice Climbers. Interestingly enough, the Balloon Trip music from the NES game was put into Melee as an alternate song for Icicle Mountain, the Ice Climbers' home stage. Balloon Fighter artwork is also a Sticker in Brawl, and the fish from the original game also appears in the Ice Climber stage, Summit. Also available on the stage is a remix of the Balloon Trip theme from the game.
- Big Brain Academy: Artwork of Dr. Lobe from the Big Brain Academy games appears as a Sticker in Brawl, as well as the song Title (Big Brain Academy) appearing in the My Music for Distant Planet.
- Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day!: Music from this game appears as a My Music option in PictoChat.
- Card Hero: A trading card game based on a Game Boy Color game; both were not released outside Japan. One of its characters, Maruo Maruhidge, cameos as a collectible trophy in Melee.
- Chibi-Robo: Kind-of simulation game whose titular character cameos as a collectible trophy in Brawl.
- Clu Clu Land: An NES game whose main character, Bubbles, cameos as a collectible trophy in Melee. Additionally, a song with the same name as the source game appears in the My Music for the stage Summit in Brawl.
- Cubivore: A simulation Gamecube game released in 2002. The Alpha trophy in Melee represents a denizen of this game world.
- Custom Robo series: Three robot combatants, Ray MK II, Bayonette, and Annie, cameo as collectible trophies in Melee. Ray MK III also appears as an Assist Trophy in Brawl.
- Daigasso! Band Brothers: A Nintendo DS game that was never released outside of Japan, Barbara the Bat, one of the characters in the game, appears as an Assist Trophy in Brawl, where she plays her guitar that sends out damaging shockwaves.
- Densetsu no Stafy: Stafy appears as an Assist Trophy in Brawl. He uses spinning attacks to damage his foes, but is also one of the few Assist Trophies that can be knocked out of the arena.
- Devil World: Tamagon, the game's protagonist, appears as a trophy in Melee, though it cannot be obtained unless the game is hacked in the North American version, and it is completely absent from the PAL version. Only in the Japanese version is it fully obtainable. In addition, the Devil from the game is an Assist Trophy in Brawl.
- Doshin the Giant: The two forms that the Giant can take, Love Giant and Hate Giant, cameo as collectible trophies in Melee.
- Drill Dozer: Jill, along with her Drill Dozer, appears as one of the Assist Trophies that a character can summon in Brawl.
- Duck Hunt: A classic shooting game for NES that made use of the NES gun perpheral. A pair of the unfortunate ducks involved cameo as a collectible trophy in Melee.
- Elite Beat Agents: A music-based rhythm action game and parody developed by iNiS for the Nintendo DS, where agents in black sing and dance famous rock songs to assist people in need. Several of the agents that count as the main characters, including Agents "J", "Morris", and Commander Khan, are stickers in Brawl.
- Excitebike: A side-scrolling racing game whose depiction of a motorcyclist racer is a collectible trophy in Melee and an Assist Trophy in Brawl.
- Famicom Detective Club: Ayumi Tachibana cameos as a collectible trophy in Melee.
- Famicom Disk System: A disc-based add-on for the Famicom, the Japanese NES. Its simplistic mascot, Diskun (aka Mr. Disk), cameos as a collectible trophy in Melee.
- Golden Sun: A series of fantasy RPGs for Game Boy Advance, developed by Camelot Software Planning and thematically based on the four classical elements. The first game's silent protagonist, the young Earth-based warrior Isaac, appears as an Assist Trophy in Brawl. In addition, the song Battle Scene / Final Boss (Golden Sun), based off of two battle themes from the second game, Golden Sun: The Lost Age, can be unlocked for the My Music selection for Norfair.
- King Fu: A Kung Fu game that is represented in Brawl.
- Kuru Kuru Kururin: Heririn cameos as a collectible trophy in Melee. The Helirin also appears as as an Assist Trophy in Brawl, where it acts as a rotating platform that characters can stand on.
- Mach Rider: A driving game that was one of the launch titles for the original NES. The titular character, Mach Rider, appeared in Melee as a collectible trophy. Also, music from Mach Rider can sometimes be heard on the Big Blue stage in Melee, whereas in Brawl the track moved to Port Town Aero Dive. The character is also a sticker in Brawl.
- Nintendo hardware: A number of game consoles, a GameCube trophy and the item Super Scope in Melee, the item Super Scope and the songs Mii Channel and Wii Shop Channel through My Music in Brawl for the stage PictoChat all are based off of Nintendo hardware of no specific universe. The Nintendo DS universe is also based of Nintendo hardware.
- Nintendogs: A pet simulation game released in multiple versions for the Nintendo DS. The puppies from Nintendogs appear as an Assist Trophy character in Brawl. A Nintendog is also a Sticker and a Trophy in the same game.
- Panel de Pon: The Lip's Stick item is a tool from this game.
- Perfect Dark series: Sci-fi stealth-based FPS games by former Nintendo developer Rareware (now known simply as "Rare"). The Motion Sensor Bomb and Cloaking Device, featured as items, were listed as based off of this series in beta versions of Melee, though the are considered non-universal in later versions.
- Pinball: A pinball game that is represented in Brawl.
- Punch-Out!!: A boxing game on the NES, represented by Little Mac as an Assist Trophy.
- Shaberu! DS Oryouri NAVI: A Japan-only digital cookbook for the DS. A song from the game appears in Brawl in the My Music for PictoChat.
- Sheriff: A 1979 arcade game whose main character and enemy sprites cameo together in a collectible trophy for Melee. Also, artwork of the Sheriff appears as a Sticker in Brawl.
- Shin Oni Ga Shima: A game retelling of a Japanese folktale. The main characters, Donbe & Hikari, cameo together as a collectible trophy in Melee. Additionally, the song Shin Onigashima appears in the My Music for Summit in Brawl
- SimCity series: Dr. Wright cameos as a collectible trophy in Melee. He also appears as a Assist Trophy in Brawl.
- Sin & Punishment: Saki Amamiya appears as an Assist Trophy in Brawl.
- Tennis: A Tennis game that is represented in Brawl.
- Wave Race series: A series of jet-ski racing games released for Game Boy Color, Nintendo 64, and GameCube. The flagship character of the latter two, Ryota Hayami, cameos as a collectible trophy in Melee.
- Wild Gunman: A first-person shooter that is represented in Brawl as a sticker.
- X: A Japan-only Game Boy game which is represented by a music track in Brawl on the Lylat Cruise stage's My Music.
