Alternate costume (SSBB)

Brawl changed the idea with color changes just a bit. While Melee added a few extra outfits to some characters, Brawl added six colors to most characters. However, all the playable characters of the Pokémon universe: Pikachu, Jigglypuff, Pokémon Trainer, Lucario; and Sonic lack six (they all have 5 colors except for Pikachu who has 4). The other exception is that Wario has two outfits each with multiple color choices, that effectively doubles his alternate costume choices. These are changed by clicking on the character (any controller), pressing 1/2 (Nunchuck), or pressing X/Y (Classic, GameCube).

A few characters (namely, Lucario and Sonic) have sets of costume changes that can be difficult to distinguish from each other in a match. As such, tournaments have a rule stating that in a doubles match, a partly colorblind Lucario or Sonic player may request to be given the blue team. In some cases, texture hacks are used to make the color difference more obvious.

Bowser

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Bowser's alternate costumes in SSBB

• Green (Default)
• Black
• Red: Resembles a Red Koopa Troopa or a Spiny.
• Blue: Resembles Bowser's appearance on the Japanese and European covers for Super Mario Bros.
• White: This costume turns Bowser's hair red and his shell and spiked collars to white, somewhat resembling Dry Bowser from New Super Mario Bros. and Mario Kart Wii. It also resembles Morton Koopa Jr.'s white and gold shell and darker skin.
• Brown: Resembles Boom Boom from Super Mario Bros. 3.

Captain Falcon

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Captain Falcon's alternate costumes in SSBB

• Blue (Default)
• Black: Falcon's costume from the F-Zero X Expansion set, as well as the F-Zero X commercial in Japan.
• Red: Nearly identical to his rival Blood Falcon's outfit, even the writing on his back changes to say "Blood Hawk" with a skull design around the lettering.
• Green: Resembles the color scheme of the Wild Goose, Pico's F-Zero vehicle.
• Light Blue: May be a reference to his original F-Zero appearances (his costume in the F-Zero games is more vibrant than his Super Smash Bros. outfits).
  • Used when Captain Falcon is on the Blue team.
• White: Resembles Jody Summers' outfit.

Diddy Kong

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Diddy Kong's alternate costumes in SSBB

• Red (Default)
• Yellow: Resembles the alternate outfit when the second player also played as Diddy Kong in the original Donkey Kong Country series.
• Pink: Resembles the outfit worn by fellow DK character Dixie Kong in Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest and Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie's Double Trouble. Diddy also gains Dixie's light yellow fur color.
• Purple: Resembles the alternate costume worn by Diddy when the second player used him in Donkey Kong Country 2.
• Green
• Blue: Somewhat resembles the outfit worn by fellow DK character Lanky Kong in Donkey Kong 64.

Donkey Kong

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Donkey Kong's alternate costumes in SSBB

All of Donkey Kong's color changes can be traced back to the multiplayer mode of Donkey Kong 64. DK had several alternate costumes that looked similar to the ones in Brawl.

• Brown (Default)
• Black In Donkey Kong Country, this color sprite is used for player 2.
• Red: May represent the original Donkey Kong from the arcade game with the same name who had reddish orange fur.
• Blue: One of the alternate colors in Donkey Kong 64.
• Green: One of the alternate colors in Donkey Kong 64.
• White: Makes DK look like a yeti, perhaps the character Eddie the Mean Old Yeti from the Donkey Kong Country TV series. It also looks like Snowflake, the only albino gorilla known to this day. A nearly-identical appearance, albeit with a blue necktie, would later appear in Donkey Kong Country Returns as the Super Guide version of Donkey Kong known as "Super Kong."

Falco

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Falco's alternate costumes in SSBB

• White (Default): Based off his character model from Star Fox: Command.
• Yellow: Looks like clothes from Star Fox: Assault's multiplayer. In addition, it slightly resembles his yellowish-white default outfit from Melee.
• Blue: Looks like clothes from Star Fox: Assault's multiplayer.
• Red: Looks like clothes from Star Fox: Assault's multiplayer.
• Green: Looks like clothes from Star Fox: Assault's multiplayer.
• Black: Looks like the clothes he wore from Star Fox: Adventures, excluding the black feathers. The black color is also to match Fox's (and by extension, Wolf's) dark costume. Also, it might be a reference to Falco's feathers on the box cover for Star Fox.

Fox

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Fox's alternate costumes in SSBB

• Grey (Default): Based off his character model from Star Fox: Command.
• Black: Named the "Dark Fox" on the DOJO!!. Similar dark color schemes are also available for Falco and Wolf.
• Red: Looks like clothes from Star Fox: Assault's multiplayer.
• Green: Looks like clothes from Star Fox: Assault's multiplayer. Also resembles his the outfit of his father, James McCloud.
• Blue: Looks like clothes from Star Fox: Assault's multiplayer.
• White: Appears to be derived from his outfit from Star Fox Adventures.

Ganondorf

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Ganondorf's alternate costumes in SSBB

• Black (Default): Based off his most recent character design in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.
• Grey
• Blue
• Green
• Red: May or may not be referencing the fact that he wore red in the original The Legend of Zelda (in his Beast Ganon form).
• Brown: This costume has the same colors as his Spaceworld 2000 and Super Smash Bros. Melee designs, slightly darkening his red hair, using the same design of cape, and giving his armor the same kind of design seen in the demo.

Ice Climbers

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The Ice Climbers' alternate costumes in SSBB

Popo and Nana switch positions for their red, black, and white costumes, but they do not switch positions on the selection screen like they did in Melee.

• Pink and Dark Blue (Default)
• Red and Light Blue
• Blue and Blue
• Black and White:
• Green and Yellow
• White and White The only one that gives them different mitt colors.

Ike

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Ike's alternate costumes in SSBB

• Brown (Default): Based on his Ranger class outfit from Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance.
• Yellow: Resembles the outfit of his father, Greil, from Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance.
• Red: Resembles the outfit of Mia from Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn.
• Blue: Based on his third-tier vanguard class in Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn. It also greatly resembles Sigurd from Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu.
• Green: Based on allied units from the GBA Fire Emblem games.
• Tan: Based on the mages in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance.

Jigglypuff

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Jigglypuff's alternate costumes in SSBB

Jigglypuff's alternate costumes are mostly feminine accessories, which is one of the reasons why this Jigglypuff is considered to be female.

• Pink (Default)
• Red: The same red flower Jigglypuff had in Melee. It also resembles Phoebe's flower from Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire.
• White: Gives Jigglypuff a hat like the one that Leaf, the female hero of Pokémon FireRed & LeafGreen wears, just as Pikachu wears the hat of the male hero of Pokémon FireRed & LeafGreen.
• Blue: Jigglypuff's shiny color. The hat resembles those worn by the Bug Catcher and Lady trainer classes from the Pokémon games. It also resembles the hat worn by Yellow from the Pokémon Adventures manga.
• Green: Very similar to the hat worn by Kirby when he has his Sleep ability.

King Dedede

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King Dedede's alternate costumes in SSBB

• Red (Default)
• Pink: Similar to an alternate costume in Kirby Air Ride.
• Green: Similar to an alternate costume in Kirby Air Ride.
• Purple: Features a very ornately decorated belt, similar to one on a formal Japanese kimono. This costume is also similar to an alternate costume in Kirby Air Ride.
• White: Features a belt that contains the same icons as one of the menu schemes from Kirby 64.
  • Used when King Dedede is on the Blue team.
• Brown: Mirrors Kirby's white costume, making him appear like he did in Kirby's Dream Land for the Game Boy.

Kirby

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Kirby's alternate costumes in SSBB

All these colors are also similar to different Kirby colors in games such as Kirby Air Ride and Kirby & the Amazing Mirror. They are all also usable in Kirby: Squeak Squad, where color variations are distinct and each have their own names.

• Pink (Default)
• Yellow: Shigeru Miyamoto originally wanted Kirby to be yellow, but Masahiro Sakurai was determined to make him pink. Sakurai won, but the yellow Kirby design later appeared as Keeby, the character controlled by Player 2 in the Kirby games. Yellow Kirby also resembles Beam Kirby from Kirby Super Star, sans the hat.
• Blue: The same as when Kirby is Ice Kirby in Kirby Super Star, sans the hat.
• Red: The same as when Kirby is Fire Kirby in Kirby Super Star, sans the hat. Also used for Player 3 in recent multiplayer games.
• Green The same as when Kirby is Plasma Kirby in Kirby Super Star, sans the hat. Also used for Player 4 in recent multiplayer games.
• White: Based on Kirby's monochrome appearance from the original Kirby's Dream Land. It is also similar to Kirby's appearance on the North American box cover. In addition, it resembles Ice Kirby from Kirby's Adventure. It also resembles Shadow Kirby from Kirby & the Amazing Mirror. It is most similar in appearance to the alternate "Chalk" palette in more recent Kirby games.

Link

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Link's alternate costumes in SSBB

• Green (Default): Based off his latest character design from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.
• Red: Directly based on the Goron Tunic that featured in Ocarina of Time, although red costumes for Link in general can be traced back to the Red Ring in the original The Legend of Zelda game. It is the only one of Link's Brawl color schemes to change the color of his belt.
• Blue: Can be traced back to the Zora Tunic used during The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
• Lavender: Based on the Blue Ring from The Legend of Zelda for the NES.
• Yellow: A reference to an instance in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess; when he drinks either Rare Chu Jelly or Great Fairy's Tears, it would give him a golden appearance.
• Black: Based off Dark Link who originated from Zelda II: The Adventure of Link and appeared again in Ocarina of Time. Due to the red eyes, some people believe this particular design comes from the Dark Links that Lanayru used to symbolize the Dark Interlopers in his vision in Twilight Princess.

Lucario

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Lucario's alternate costumes in SSBB

• Tan (Default)
  • Used when Lucario is on the Blue team.
• Red
• Blue: It is sometimes considered that Lucario's blue costume may resemble Riolu, its pre-evolution.
• White/Silver
• Green

Lucas

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Lucas's alternate costumes in SSBB

• Yellow (Default)
• Orange: Makes Lucas's hair orange, and also changes his shirt to blue and yellow stripes, making him resemble the color scheme of his twin brother Claus.
• Red
• Blue
• Green
• Purple

Luigi

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Luigi's alternate costumes in SSBB

• Green (Default)
• Orange
• Red: Based around what Luigi wore from Wrecking Crew, in which he wore pink.
• Blue: Probably resembles Mario on the American cartridge art for Mario Bros. It is also one of the 'flashing colors' when using star power in an underground stage of the original Super Mario Bros.
• White: Based on Fire Luigi. This costume replaced the white version that appeared in SSB and SSBM, which was based off Luigi's colors in Super Mario Bros.
• Purple: Makes Luigi resemble Waluigi, his rival.

Mario

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Mario's alternate costumes in SSBB

• Red (Default)
• White: Based on Fire Mario's appearance dating back to Super Mario Bros. onward.
• Blue: Based on Mario's overalls colors from when he was Jumpman from Donkey Kong, though he wore a red hat with that outfit. It's also based upon one of the promotional images for Mario Bros., although it's not what he wore in the actual game. It is also similar to Balloon Fighter's color scheme.
• Yellow: Based on Wario, just as in the previous Smash titles.
• Brown: Based on Foreman Spike from Wrecking Crew '98, which was confirmed on the original SSB Japanese site.
• Green: The color inverse of his traditional colors. Contrary to popular belief, it is not a reference to Luigi, however it does coincidentally resemble Luigi's colors from the arcade version of Mario Bros. It also appeared as part of the "flashing" animation from a Starman in the original Super Mario Bros.

Marth

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Marth's alternate costumes in SSBB

• Blue (Default)
• Red
• Green
• Black
• White: Based on Leaf, the protagonist of Fire Emblem: Thracia 776.
• Light Blue: Closely based off the official artwork for Fire Emblem: Monsho no Nazo (even the hair color changes to match the said artwork). It closely resembles the color scheme used for the non-promoted male Lord class in many Fire Emblem games, especially when coupled with the abnormally blue hair and bright red cape lining.
  • Used when Marth is on the Blue team.

Meta Knight

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Meta Knight's alternate costumes in SSBB

All of Meta Knight's costumes are similar to alternate costumes from Kirby Air Ride.

• Purple (Default)
• White
• Red
• Green
• Blue: Although believed by some fans to be inspired by Kirby and the Amazing Mirror's Dark Meta Knight, it actually resembles his official art from his first appearance in Kirby's Adventure, where his mask and shoes were depicted as a dark puple color, his body was close to black, and his cape was red. However, in this appearance, his eyes were not red and his gloves were white, unlike the palette swap.
• Pink

Mr Game & Watch

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Mr. Game & Watch's alternate costumes in SSBB

All of his colors are in the first color Game & Watch, Spitball Sparky. It is alo possible that the colors refer to the Tabletop and Panorama lines of Game & Watches, which had multi-colored LCD screens.

• Black (Default): Based on the G&W characters from the games Fire and Parachute.
• Red
• Yellow
• Blue
• Green
• Light Blue

Ness

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Ness's alternate costumes in SSBB

• Red (Default)
• White: Features a white T-shirt with red sleeves, the same as the shirt Fuel wears in Mother 3.
• Yellow: The yellow/black color scheme resembles that of the Hanshin Tigers, a Japanese baseball team.
• Green
• Blue: Is based on Ness's younger self that he encounters briefly in EarthBound, who was wearing a blue hat. Some also consider this outfit to be a reference to EarthBound's final battle against Giygas, where a reflection of Ness's face wearing a blue-purple hat appeared in the Devil's Machine.
• Purple/Black: Has a Mr. Saturn sprite drawn on the front of his shirt.

Olimar

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Olimar's alternate costumes in SSBB

• Tan (Default)
• White
• Red
• Black: Makes Olimar look like the President of Hocotate.
• Green: Makes Olimar resemble his son.
• Blue: Makes Olimar look like Louie.

Peach

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Peach's alternate costumes in SSBB

• Pink (Default)
• Yellow: Resembles Daisy. However, unlike Melee, this is only a re-coloring. Her earrings, crown, brooch, and skin remain unchanged.
• Red: Makes Peach appear similar to Pauline from Donkey Kong.
• Blue: Resembles Peach's outfit from NES Open Tournament Golf. Also gives Peach's crown the same color scheme as the crown of Rosalina from Super Mario Galaxy and Mario Kart Wii.
• Green: Resembles Daisy's outfit from NES Open Tournament Golf.
• White: May be a reference to her appearance at the end of Super Mario Bros. and her wedding dress from Super Paper Mario. The white color of her dress isn't as bright as her Melee white costume, and this one doesn't include tights anymore.

Pikachu

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Pikachu's alternate costumes in SSBB

Pikachu is the only character to have only four costume choices in Brawl.

• Yellow (Default)
• Red: Includes Red's hat, the protagonist of Pokémon Red and Blue. Pikachu's fur color also changes to look akin to a shiny Pikachu.
• Green: Includes Brendan's headband as it appeared in Pokémon Emerald.
• Blue: Has the goggles worn by Pichu in Melee, which are possibly a reference to those worn by the Swimmer class of trainer in the Pokémon series.

Pit

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Pit's alternate costumes in SSBB

• White (Default)
• Yellow: Similar to his outfit in the Captain N comic.
• Red: Similar to an outfit in Kid Icarus.
• Green: Similar to an outfit in Kid Icarus.
• Blue: Similar to an outfit in Kid Icarus.
• Black: Makes Pit look like a fallen angel, according to the DOJO!!

Pokémon Trainer

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The Pokémon Trainer's alternate costumes in SSBB

• Standard (Default)
• Red: The trainer's hat resembles that of Leaf, the female trainer in Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen.
  • Charizard resembles its pre-evolution, Charmeleon
  • Squirtle resembles its evolution, Wartortle.
• Green: The trainer takes on the color scheme of Brendan as he appeared in Pokémon Emerald.
  • Ivysaur and Squirtle resemble their respective shiny colors.
• Blue
  • Charizard's purple colour is similar to that of its shiny color from Generation II.
  • Squirtle's blue colour is possibly inspired by its original sprite in Generation I, particularly Pokémon Yellow.
• White:
  • Charizard's yellow tint resembles the shiny colors of its pre-evolutions, Charmander and Charmeleon.

R.O.B.

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R.O.B.'s alternate costumes in SSBB

• Red (Default): Based on R.O.B.'s Japanese color scheme for the Famicom. This design also was the source for the R.O.B. Sentry.
• Grey: Makes R.O.B. look like North American versions of R.O.B.s. Even the words on his base change from "Family Computer Robot" to "R.O.B. - Robotic Operating Buddy", the same as the American design. R.O.B.'s gray costume also appears similar to the R.O.B. Blaster from the Subspace Emissary.
• Yellow
• Purple: Resembles the North American SNES color scheme.
• Blue: Gives R.O.B. colors similar to a R.O.B. seen in Startropics.
• Green: Similar to the R.O.B. Launcher from the Subspace Emissary, though lacking the same bright blue cord.

Samus

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Samus's alternate costumes in SSBB

• Orange (Default): Based on the Varia Suit.
• Blue: Based on the Fusion Suit from Metroid Fusion.
• Pink: Based on the appearance of the Varia Suit of the original Metroid when missiles are selected.
  • Used when Samus is on the Red team.
• Brown: Based on the Dark Suit from Metroid Prime 2: Echoes.
• Purple: Based on the Gravity Suit as it first appeared in Super Metroid and most games in the series since. The Gravity Suit costume was previously used as Samus' blue team color.
• Green

Snake

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Solid Snake's alternate costumes in SSBB

Most of these are based on different camouflage suits worn by Naked Snake (a.k.a. Big Boss) in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater.

• Grey (Default): Based on Snake's standard camouflage suit from Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty.
• Red: Based off the Fury's Fire camouflage.
• Blue: Based off the Splitter camouflage.
• White: Based off the Snow camouflage.
• Green: Based off the Tiger Stripe camouflage.
• Yellow: Based off Revolver Ocelot's Animal camouflage.

Sonic

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Sonic's alternate costumes in SSBB

Sonic is the only non-Pokémon character to have fewer than six palette swaps. The stripe on his sneakers is white in all palette swaps, and, in all but the default palette swap, the rest of his sneakers match his wristbands.

• Blue (Default)
• Black: Looks like Dark Sonic from the anime series Sonic X.
• Yellow: Gives Sonic the bracelets of Silver the Hedgehog. It could also be a reference to how in every Sonic game, Sonic collects gold rings. It's also possible that this is a reference to Shadow the Hedgehog's bracelets.
• Green
• Red

Toon Link

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Toon Link's alternate costumes in SSBB

• Green (Default): Based on the character design from The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.
• Red: Based on the red Link copy from the Four Swords saga.
• Blue: Based on the blue Link copy from the Four Swords saga.
• Purple: Based on the purple Link copy from the Four Swords saga.
• Brown: Based on the color scheme of Link in the original The Legend of Zelda. The brown hair and sleeves with the more traditional green tunic resembles some of the older iterations of Link in games such as The Legend of Zelda and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link.
• Black: Based on a toon version of Dark Link, who appeared closer to this color scheme in Four Swords Adventures.

Wario

Unlike all other characters, Wario has two outfits each with multiple color choices: his biker costume from the WarioWare games, which is his default costume, and his classic overalls. This doubles his alternate costume choices.

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Wario's WarioWare costumes in SSBB

• Yellow (Default)
• Red: Resembles the color scheme of Fire Mario with the white helmet and red jacket.
• Orange
• Green
• Black
• Blue

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Wario's overall costumes in SSBB

Wario's overalls closely resemble the cartoonish look in both the Mario and Wario games, in contrast to Mario, Luigi, and Waluigi, who were given more realistic-looking overalls.

• Yellow (Default)
• Red: Resembles how Mario looked like in the early Mario games where he had red overalls and a blue shirt instead of the blue overalls and red shirt he wears today. This somewhat mirrors the way that Wario's "classic" outfit appears as one of Mario's alternate costumes.
• Blue: Resembles Mario's appearance in Japanese art for Mario Bros.
• Green: Similar to Mario's green costume.
• Brown: Perhaps, like Mario's brown outfit, a reference to Foreman Spike as he appeared in Wrecking Crew '98.
• White: Makes Wario look like his appearance in the Wario Land games until Wario Land 4, since those games were in black and white.

Wolf

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Wolf's alternate costumes in SSBB

• Grey (Default)
• Red
• Black
• Green
• Blue: Resembles the outfit worn by Panther Caroso in Star Fox: Assault.
• White

Yoshi

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Yoshi's alternate costumes in SSBB

All of Yoshi's costumes are different variations of the Yoshi species in many of his games, specifically Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, Yoshi's Story, and Yoshi's Island DS. The soles of his shoes, the saddle on his back, and his scales stay the same color, no matter what color he is.

• Green (Default)
• Red
• Blue
• Yellow
• Pink
• Light Blue

Zelda/Sheik

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Zelda's and Sheik's alternate costumes in SSBB

• Purple/Light Blue (Default): Based on her character model from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.
• Red: Based on Zelda's early appearances in The Legend of Zelda and Zelda II: Adventure of Link. This is also the only one of her color schemes in which she doesn't wear gloves.
• Blue: Official art for A Link to the Past shows Zelda with a blue dress, while Sheik seems to be based on Tetra with the blue costume and red scarf.
• Pink: Based on Zelda's appearance in Ocarina of Time and, by extension, Melee. The only one of her Brawl costumes to show her with blonde hair.
• Green: If the original Zelda is beaten without a ring, Zelda's dress will be green.
• Black

Zero Suit Samus

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Zero Suit Samus's alternate costumes in SSBB

ZSS' color swaps differ greatly from those with her suit on.

• Light Blue (Default)
• Blue: Based on her outfit she wears upon completion of Metroid Prime 2: Echoes.
• Pink (red): A reference to her first appearance in the original Metroid after clearing it 100% or by entering JUSTIN BAILEY into the password screen.
• Black
• White
• Green: May be a reference to her suitless appearance in the Captain N comic.