Super Smash Bros. Melee/Characters

 While each character in Super Smash Bros. Melee is evenly balanced, some are better suited for certain players than others. This section discusses every playable character in detail, providing an overall view of the character, his or her pros and cons, unique moves, and more. The format for each character is as follows (subject to change):


 * Summary of character, including background information
 * Games in which this character is featured
 * Button special moves for the character (standing still, left/right, up, down)
 * Helpful comments and tips relating to the character

Mario
Mario has been at the forefront of Nintendo for a long time. Mario was originally known as Jumpman in the original Donkey Kong arcade game. Since then Donkey Kong has become a hero and Bowser has taken his place as Mario's arch nemesis. Mario set the standard for 2D platformers, and, with Super Mario 64, the standard for 3D platformers.

Featured Games:
 * Donkey Kong
 * Super Mario Bros.
 * Super Mario Bros. 2 (US)
 * Super Mario Bros. 3
 * Super Mario World
 * Super Mario 64
 * Super Mario Sunshine
 * Super Smash Bros.
 * Mario Party Series
 * New Super Mario Bros.

Bowser
Mario's nemesis, appearing in most of the games starring the plumber. Known as Koopa in Japan, Bowser resembles a mixture between a dragon and a turtle. He is a large and strong character, and sligthly lacks in areas like running and jumping.

Featured Games:
 * Super Mario 64
 * Super Smash Bros.

Pikachu
Pokémon #25, a yellow mouse with electricity-based attacks. The most well-recognized of all Pokémon, and the most merchandized.

Pikachu's light weight makes it very easy to be knocked back by opponents, but its fast speed makes it hard to catch up with if retreats. It's best to be strategic and defensive when playing as Pikachu, waiting for the right item or harassing the opponent until they attack hastily.

Pikachu's + attack while jumping in the air has very good range, and while dealing only 4% can sometimes knock an opponent sideways similar to striking an opponent with a thrown Star Rod.

Featured Games:
 * Pokemon Red & Blue
 * Super Smash Bros.

Princess Peach
Princess Peach, Princess Toadstool or often simply, Peach is a character in Nintendo's Mario video games series, often playing the "damsel in distress" character of the adventure series. Peach is the princess of the fictitious Mushroom Kingdom, where many of the games are set.

Peach has appeared in many games, but is playable only in the following:
 * Appearances within Games
 * Mario Kart series
 * Mario Tennis series
 * Mario Party series
 * Mario Golf series
 * Super Mario Bros. 2 (US)
 * Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
 * Super Princess Peach

At any time, hold, , or to float horizontally for a short time.

Yoshi
Yoshi is a green dinosaur from the aptly named "Yoshi's Island." He is renowned for his ability to flutter in the air, throw eggs, and turn enemies into eggs. All of these and many other moves are retained in Smash Brothers.

Yoshi cannot use + as a third jump, but his second jump is a flutter jump and is quite large.


 * Taunt
 * Waves his hands (Like in Yoshi's Story) and says "Yoshi!"

Captain Falcon
Captain Douglas Jay Falcon is a character in the F-Zero series, Nintendo's fast-paced futuristic racing video game franchise. Captain Falcon races in a F-Zero machine called the Blue Falcon, arguably the most well-rounded vehicle in the games. He is the winner of the F-Zero X Grand Prix and if successful again during the F-Zero Grand Prix in F-Zero GX, according to an interview, he will use the prize money towards building another machine, the Neo Blue Falcon. When he is not taking part in races, he works as a bounty hunter. While most of his past is a complete mystery, it is known that his body and mind are honed from the many battles he has survived.


 * Appearances in Games
 * F-Zero
 * F-Zero X
 * F-Zero: Maximum Velocity
 * F-Zero GX
 * F-Zero: GP Legend


 * Taunt
 * "Show me your moves!"

Donkey Kong

 * Appearances within Games
 * Donkey Kong
 * Donkey Kong 64

Donkey Kong has the ability to carry his opponents on his back after grabbing them.

Fox McCloud

 * Appearances within Games
 * Star Fox
 * Star Fox 64
 * Super Smash Bros.
 * Star Fox Adventures
 * Star Fox Assault

Ness
Hero of the Earthbound game, Ness is a young, short kid with psychokinetic powers, some of which he learned himself, some he learned from friends. He also carries an arsenal of baseball bats and yo-yo's which make powerful smash attacks. While the majority of people only know him through Smash Bros, Earthbound has a vast amount of fans who adore his appearance.

Ness's tilt smash (+/) can be used to reflect some projectiles.


 * Appearances within Games
 * Earthbound
 * Super Smash Bros.


 * Projectiles absorbed by PSI Magnet
 * Laser blasts
 * Super scope blast
 * Fire flower (although not a thrown fire flower)
 * Charizard's fire attack
 * Cydaquil's fire attack.
 * Staryu's swift attack.
 * Ice Climber's Ice Shot.
 * Pikachu's and Pichu's thunder jolt
 * Samus' charged shot
 * Fox's and Falco's blaster
 * Ness's (Ness can't heal himself using his own attacks) PK fire, PK Thunder, and PK Flash (or PK Pulse)
 * Zelda's Din's Fire
 * Bowser's Fire Breath
 * Star Rod's Star Attack
 * Mario and Luigi's Fire Ball
 * Dr.Mario's Pill

Kirby
Kirby is a light character, so he flies far, but using his five jumps and Final Cutter, he can recover from a really bad fall. if you go to Flat Zone, hang by the edge and Inhale, then spit off your opponents.

Ice Climbers
A special duo character. You control the one of them while the other, AI-controlled, attempts to follow. You always do the same attack. If the AI partner dies, you can still do your attacks, but their effect is weakened. The Ice Climbers are able to pick up one item each.


 * Appearances within Games
 * Ice Climbers

Samus Aran
Samus Aran is a bounty hunter who frequently encounters Space Pirates and Metroids.


 * Appearances in Games
 * Metroid
 * Metroid II: Return of Samus
 * Super Metroid
 * Metroid Fusion
 * Metroid Prime
 * Metroid Zero Mission
 * Metroid Prime 2: Echoes

Samus has a special move where she can extend her grapple move to 3 times the normal size perform by:
 * rotating the in a counter-clockwise direction
 * simultaneously tapping the button rapidly

if performed correctly when you use her grab move the grapple will be able to reach opponents much farther away.


 * Hold the button to have the grapple home in on the enemy and press  to grab.

Link
Link likes to wear green, fight monsters, and save Princess Zelda. Link is a slow mover but carries a lot of projectiles, such as bombs, bow, and boomerang.

Link's shield can block projectiles if you keep the control stick neutral. Link's hookshot can be used as an alternative to a third jump, by doing a hookshot on a wall.


 * Appearances in Games
 * See Zelda
 * Soul Calibur II (GameCube version only)

Link's hookshot (grab/Z) can be used to grab onto walls when he's in the air.

L-Canceling the + attack: If Link misses with the + attack, his sword sticks in the stage and takes a relatively long time for link to pull it out. If you press L exactly when the tip of his sword touches the ground or platform, then the animation for pulling the sword out of the ground runs twice as fast, allowing you to recover more quickly.

Princess Zelda

 * Appearances in Games
 * Most of the games Link's been in.

Sheik
To date, Sheik has only appeared in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Zelda has the more powerful attacks while Sheik is much more spry.

Hidden Characters
There are a total of eleven secret characters to unlock. Each character has two ways to be unlocked; one way is unique while the other involves you playing a certain number of Versus Mode matches. You can unlock any character by doing either; you don't have to do both. Special Mode and quitted matches don't add up to your VS Mode match total.

The secret characters are listed in order of how many VS. Mode matches it takes to unlock them. To view how many VS. Mode matches you've completed, go to Data: Melee Records: Misc. Records. In the seventh row will be "VS. Play Match Total."

Jigglypuff
Jigglypuff is the first character you'd unlock in the original Super Smash Bros., and will probably be the first one you'll unlock in this game.

A pink Pokémon, Jigglypuff is able to inflate itself like a balloon and thus float very high. A generally underestimated character, Jigglypuff does have a variety of powerful moves and combos at its disposal.


 * Unlocked by:
 * Complete Classic Mode or Adventure Mode once with any character with or without using a continue.
 * Play 50 Versus Mode matches.

Dr. Mario
Dr. Mario is an almost exact clone of Mario, but because he's so easy to unlock you probably won't be bothered too much by that.

He starred in the puzzle game Dr. Mario. Slightly slower and more powerful than Mario.


 * Unlocked By:
 * Complete Classic Mode or Adventure Mode with Mario without using a continue. However if you don't have Jigglypuff unlocked already, doing so will unlock her first, and you'll have to do it again to unlock Dr. Mario.
 * Play 100 Versus Mode matches.


 * Unlocked by playing 100 vs matches or completing classic mode with Mario (any difficulty).

Pichu
Pichu is possibly one of the weakest characters in the game and is a clone of Pikachu. It takes a lot of effort to unlock it the unique way, so doing the considerably easier VS. Mode mission may be preferred for such a weak character.

Pichu is the pre-evolved form of Pikachu, and therefore, has very similar attacks. Pichu's major advantage is that he is a smaller target and a little quicker. Unfortunately, any electric attacks will damage Pichu a little bit, which checks the fact that they mostly hit harder than Pikachu's. The main Pichu strategy is to avoid jumping into close combat, and to instead use Pichu's speed to focus on the collection and optimization of items on the field.


 * Unlocked By:
 * Clear Event Match #37: Legendary Pokémon. Note that to even reach this event match, you'll have to complete all 30 previous event matches and have Jigglypuff, Falco, Young Link and Luigi already unlocked.
 * Play 200 Versus Mode matches.

See also: Pichu's Movelist

Falco
Falco is another member of the StarFox team and a clone of Fox in terms of moves, but with some important differences (including the difference in speeds, lasers, reflector properties, and distance gained by recoveries) mostly caused by higher power and lower speeds.

One noticeable difference in the two space pilots, is their aerial down A. Falco's performs one of the greatest Spike's (according to the Smash community). Whereas Fox's does a multi-hitting attack, and can only perform a (weak) spike if only the first of many attacks hit.


 * Unlocked by:
 * Clear the 100-Man Melee with any character.
 * Play 300 Versus Mode matches.

Prince Marth
Marth is a character from the previously Japanese-only series Fire Emblem. All his moves involve his sword (except his grabs) and he speaks Japanese.

Marth relies on hitting the enemy with the tip of his blade to maximize damage. Despite his lack of long range attacks, Marth remains a top tier character because of his domination in close combat.


 * Unlocked by:
 * Use all fourteen of the initial non-secret characters in Versus Mode at least once.
 * Play 400 Versus Mode matches.

Young Link
Young Link is unsurprisingly a clone of Link, except slightly more agile and less powerful.


 * Unlocked by:
 * Complete Classic Mode or Adventure Mode with ten different characters. Winning with Link and Zelda/Sheik was believed to be required, but this is not true.
 * Play 500 Versus Mode matches.

See also: Young Link's Movelist

Ganondorf
Ganondorf is very slow and powerful, but otherwise he is a clone of Captain Falcon. He is the only clone to not be part of the same series as the one he is cloned from. He is connected to the Legend of Zelda cast by being one square above Young Link, making him the only character to be joined to his party by columns.


 * Unlocked by:
 * Clear Event Match #29: Triforce Gathering, which features Ganondorf.
 * Play 600 Versus Mode matches.

Mewtwo
Mewtwo is the only cloned Pokémon. With dangerous attacks, Mean Strategies, Psychic abilities, Deadly combos, and a scary appearance. However, Mewtwo has a fatal weakness! Because he spends most of his time floating, he's sent flying further then usual, to avoid this; rely on confusion, then Darkball! (/, then .) Only Pros are capable of doing this on the edge of the arena as Darkball will Recoil.

Here is a tip when playing as Mewtwo: Hit your opponent up slightly, then teleport above them, (and if necessary, jump a couple of times first.) then smack them down with +. This will then send them crashing down on to the arena.

Note: With four people playing, only five hours of play time are required because each player's play time is added to the total. Therefore, theoretically, it is possible to battle three other people in a five-hour battle and still unlock Mewtwo. Also, it is important to realize that only time spent battling counts toward play time.
 * Unlocked by:
 * Play a total 20 hours of Versus Mode, or play a total of 20 hours of Single Player Mode. To see how long you've played VS. Matches, go to Data: Melee Records: Misc. Records. In the fifth row will be "VS. Play Time."
 * Play 700 Versus Mode matches.

See also: Mewtwo's Movelist

Luigi
At first glance, Luigi may seem like a mere clone of Mario, but any advanced player will learn how unique he really is. When unlocked, he takes Pikachu's place on the roster to go next to all his Mario Bros. buddies. Pikachu travels down to the bottom row to join the other Pokémon.

Some players think that Luigi is the most fun character in Super Smash Bros Melee. Luigi tries to use his grabs, the fire punch, and the wenis (side-B) to make the other characters seem boring.


 * Unlocked by:
 * Fight him in the Mushroom Kingdom stage of Adventure Mode. To do this, you must finish Part 1 of the Mushroom Kingdom stage with the last large number of the time limit being a 2. For example, 1:52: 48 . This will make him replace Mario in the following fight. Then complete the Adventure Mode without using a continue.
 * Play 800 Versus Mode matches.

Roy
Roy is a clone of Marth, but with a few differences, the most obvious of which is how his sword burns his opponents and his B can be charged into a giant explosion. He is quite easy to unlock after you get Marth.


 * Unlocked by:
 * Complete Classic Mode or Adventure Mode with Marth without using a continue. However if you don't have Jigglypuff unlocked already, doing so will unlock her first, and you'll have to do it again to unlock Roy.
 * Play 900 Versus Mode matches.

Mr. Game & Watch
Mr. Game & Watch is based on the entire Game & Watch series and is considered the final secret character in the game, as there is no way to unlock him without first unlocking all other characters. Once you get him, you'll be able to easily earn Flat Zone. Mr. Game & Watch relies on his especially fast moves and the sense of chaos instilled in the opponents when in the arena.


 * Unlocked by:
 * Complete Classic Mode, Adventure Mode or Target Test with all other 24 characters.
 * Play 1,000 Versus Mode matches.