Crowd

The crowd (群衆), referred to as Publicity in the debug menu of Super Smash Bros. Melee, is a group of unseen people that can be heard during matches in all games of the Super Smash Bros. series.

Causes of cheering

This article or section is incomplete. You can help SmashWiki by expanding or finishing it. The editor who added this tag elaborates: When does it stop in Ultimate?

The crowd can occasionally be heard cheering by shouting the name of a character that is used by a human player. The cause of cheering, however, is not entirely known; common trends include having high damage, the start of the match after the announcer gives the "GO!" signal, and doing something significant, such as KOing multiple opponents at once, or falling behind considerably during the course of a match. Every character has a unique cheer chant in each of the Smash Bros. games.

In addition to chants, the crowd can also vocalize during the match to a variety of events. In the original game, if a player can just make it back to the stage after being knocked far away from the stage, the crowd will cheer for the player. The crowd also cheers if Ness absorbs a projectile with PSI Magnet, as well as if a character hits multiple characters or lands a powerful hit. Since Melee, the crowd will gasp if the player gets close to the ledge after getting knocked off and cheer loudly if the player hits multiple opponents with a powerful attack. In addition, in Melee, the crowd cheers the player if they complete the Target Test, an Event Match or the Race to the Finish. However, they will groan should the player fail at any of these games. In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Super Smash Bros. 4, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the crowd will also gasp whenever a Smash Ball or Legendary Pokémon appears (only in Brawl), with the exception of Latias and Latios. In SSB4, the crowd will groan if a player finishes with no points in the Home-Run Contest or Target Blast. In Melee and Brawl, the crowd will be silent during Sudden Death.

Despite their presence, the crowd has no effect on gameplay outside of the Bonus mode of Melee: if the player earns the "Crowd Favorite" bonus from getting the crowd to cheer for them or the "Master of Suspense" bonus from causing the crowd to gasp at least three times in one minute, they will earn 2500 points from each.

Of further note, the crowd seems to "disappear" after a certain point is reached in some of the singleplayer modes. In Melee, the crowd disappears starting at Race to the Finish and at Stage 12: Final Destination in the Adventure Mode. In Brawl, the crowd disappears during the fight against Master Hand, and is only heard when certain stages are cleared in the Subspace Emissary. In SSB4, the crowd disappears during the fight against Master Hand and, if applicable, Crazy Hand and Master Core.

The Japanese cheers in the first Super Smash Bros. were recorded in HAL Laboratory's meeting room by the company's staff. The cheers in Super Smash Bros. Melee were recorded by Nintendo of America staff (for fighters in international versions as well as Mario, Donkey Kong, Ness, Luigi, and Young Link in all versions) and HAL staff (for most fighters in the Japanese version, also done in their meeting room). Melee's developers originally planned to use NOA's cheers in the Japanese version, but decided to do their own after finding NOA's to be too low-energy. Starting with Brawl, crowd cheers are performed in each language the announcer is also voiced in, and are appropriately localized using the names of the characters in each language. Certain cheers might also use entire phrases or language-specific puns and cultural references.

Trivia

• In Melee, Bill Trinen, Tim O'Leary, and Nate Bihldorff, who worked on the localization of the game, are also credited for providing the voices of the crowd cheers. In other games, it is not mentioned at all who performed the crowd cheers.
• In Melee, the crowd will always gasp if Peach performs an air dodge at the peak of her jump.

See also

• Announcer