Items are a large part of the gameplay of the Smash Bros. series. Items may appear at any time in designated spawning areas during a match. To pick up an item, press A while your character is near and facing it. There are several categories of items. Container items can be broken if thrown or hit, and will release other items when broken. Opponents hit by thrown container items will be damaged; occasionally, a container will explode, dealing greater damage but not releasing any new items. Battering items can be swung with A, f-tilt A, and f-smash A, and do damage to the opponent. They can be thrown, tilt-thrown, or smash-thrown with Z as well, and may also have certain special effects. Status affecting items are items that, if contacted or grabbed, give certain abilities to the holding character: for example, the Starman makes the character invincible as soon as one touches it. Healing items decrease your damage level when picked up. Certain "Gun" weapons can be picked up and shot using the A button. There is another class of items describable only as "offensive items", which have different special attacking effects that take effect after picked up and/or thrown; for example, the Motion-Sensor Bomb will attach the the first contacted surface, and will explode, dealing huge damage and knockback, if touched. The few non-categorizable items left are found under Other.
Items marked with a * appear in SSB, but not as items. Items marked with a + differ significantly in SSB and SSBM.
Container items
- Party Ball (SSBM only)
- Capsule
- Crate
- Egg
Healing items
- Food (SSBM only)
- Maxim Tomato+
- Heart Container+
Guns
- Ray Gun+
- Super Scope (SSBM only)
- Fire Flower
Star Rods can function as Guns in the tilt-A or smash-A attacks.
Battering items
- Beam Sword
- Home-run Bat
- Fan
- Star Rod
- Parasol (SSBM only)
- Lip's Stick (SSBM only)
Other offensive items
- Hammer+
- Green Shell
- Red Shell
- Flipper (SSBM only)
- Freezie (SSBM only)
- Mr. Saturn (SSBM only)
- Poké Ball+
- Bob-omb
- Motion-sensor Bomb
- Bumper (SSB only)
- Warp Star (SSBM only)
- Barrel Cannon (SSBM only)*
Status-affecting items
- Super Mushroom
- Poison Mushroom
- Starman
- Screw Attack (SSBM only)*
- Metal Box (SSBM only)
- Bunny Hood (SSBM only)
- Cloaking Device (SSBM only)
Other items can be produced only by certain characters, stages, or other items. These include: