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Characters / Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - Echo Fighters

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This page lists all the newcomers marked as "Echo Fighters" in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Echo Fighters are Moveset Clones of another character, symbolized with an ε (epsilon) symbol next to the original's number, and in-game are placed next to their parent character instead of based on their own reveals.

On this page, they are listed in order of their reveals as opposed to their bases' numbers. For reference, Daisy was revealed a few minutes before Ridley, Ken was revealed right before Incineroar, and the other three were revealed between Simon and King K. Rool in the order they are listed.

Of note is that two veterans were given this label in Ultimate. For Dark Pit, see this page, and for Lucina, see this page.


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    13ε – Daisy 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sq0e14h.png
Voiced by: Deanna Mustard
Home Series: Super Mario Bros.
Debut: Super Mario Land [Game Boy], 1989
Creator: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo

Playable in: Ultimate
Final Smash: Daisy Blossom

The fun and extroverted princess of Sarasaland was saved by Mario from the evil alien Tatanga and since then has been a firm friend of the Mushroom Kingdom crew, joining them in everything from Go-Karting to Tennis. She's also Luigi's Implied Love Interest, similarly to how Peach is with Mario; fitting, as the two princesses are best friends.

First appearing as an alternate skin for Peach, Daisy finally throws her crown in the Smashing scene, being the first new Echo Fighter to be confirmed for Ultimate. Inexplicably, she fights exactly like her companion Peach, with no meaningful gameplay differences aside from some minor animation changes and altered aesthetics.

See Super Mario Bros.: The Princesses for more information on the character in her origin series.

  • Art Evolution: Her dress matches Peach's in terms of detail, being more intricate and layered than in the main Mario games.
  • Ascended Extra: Went from a Palette Swap of Peach and a trophy to an echo fighter.
  • Assist Character: Blue Toad appears in her moveset, serving the exact same roles that Red Toad does with Peach.
  • Ass Kicks You: In Daisy Bomber, her variant of Peach's Peach Bomber attack. The two can even collide for a flowery heart explosion.
  • Badass Adorable: The crown Princess of Sarasaland, with big blue eyes, an expressive face, an incredibly positive attitude with tons of energy to spare, and more than capable of throwing down with everyone in Smash. Daisy counts even outside of the series—particularly shown by that one time she sent Bowser flying with a single Bitch Slap.
  • Ballet: As expected from a Moveset Clone of Peach, whose Forward Tilt is called "Can-Can Kick" and Up Smash is called "Pirouette".
  • Battle Intro: Spins in a flurry of daisy petals while brandishing a parasol similar to Peach's own, then jumps and says "Yooooo~!".
  • Big "NO!": Like Peach, she lets one out when she gets star KOed, but hers is much louder, which is accurate with her character.
  • Butt-Monkey: In Daisy's Palutena's Guidance, Pit is pretty set on her being Peach with another name. Viridi "tries" to talk about her differences between her and Peach, but she seems unsure about it. Similarly, her origins as a Suspiciously Similar Substitute for Peach are reflected by her being a complete Moveset Clone of her.
  • Cat Fight: Played with; her Classic Mode campaign has her duking it out with fellow female monarchs. With the exception of Master Hand and Crazy Hand.
  • Combat Stilettos: Daisy keeps her high heels on when on the battlefield.
  • Cute Bruiser: She has big blue eyes and a cheerful smile, yet is as capable as anyone.
  • Dance Battler: She fights like a classically trained ballerina.
  • Fiery Redhead: Her hair color is just as vivacious and vibrant as her personality.
  • Flower Motif: Daisies, obviously.
  • Frying Pan of Doom: She can use a frying pan for her side smash like Peach can.
  • Genki Girl: Much like in her own series, she's very cheerful, upbeat, and tomboyish, not to mention very energetic. You just have to look at the "YEAH!" Shot in her render compared to the other Princesses to get a good idea of how much!
  • Hartman Hips: Daisy has rather large hips and a big butt, which she uses to her advantage in her moveset.
  • Home Stage: Ultimate: Mario Circuit in Ultimate's website. Her fight in World of Light though takes place in Mushroom Kingdom U, and her normal unlock battle takes place in Figure-8 Circuit.
  • Kicking Ass in All Her Finery: Daisy fights while wearing her crown, stilettos, and fancy dress.
  • Leitmotif: Classic Tennis from Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash.
  • Limit Break: Daisy Blossom, which is functionally identical to Peach's Final Smash, but instead of giant peaches, giant daisies appear on the stage—and has a floral theme with animated images of herself.
  • Moveset Clone: Daisy possesses the exact same moveset as Peach, with only aesthetic differences. The only real gameplay changes are some altered hurtbox shape due to a few of her animations being altered (mainly her idle and running animations). She formerly had a more meaningful gameplay difference distinguishing her from Peach (her turnips used to deal more knockback at lower percents, but less knockback at higher percents), but this was subsequently removed in patch 3.0.0.
  • Palette Swap: In 'Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U' she is an alternate outfit for Peach and her Toad has a blue-spotted head in contrast to Peach's having one with red spots.
  • Petal Power: Befitting her name, many of her attacks have flower petal effects trailing from them, much like in her other playable appearances in various Mario spin-offs.
  • Pimped-Out Dress: Her dress is much more detailed here than in the Mario series.
  • Promoted to Playable: Daisy has been present in the series since Melee—but only in the form of trophies, and as an alternate color option for Peach. As of now, she's branched out into her own playable character.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: She is the Red Oni of Rosalina’s Blue Oni and Peach’s Purple Oni.
  • Secret Character: For Ultimate: Have a Cumulative Wait Time of 4 hours and 30 minutes, beat Classic Mode with Fox or anyone in his unlock tree five times, or find and defeat her in World of Light.
  • Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Much like in her own series, Daisy is the more tomboyish Princess between herself and Peach—generally being the much more sassy, boisterous, and less formal of the two—but at the same time, still with a noticeable flower motif to her outfits and moves, which is added onto the rainbow and ribbon ones that Peach already had with hers. Due to being a clone of Peach in Ultimate however, she ends up being less tomboyish this time around compared to her usual appearances in the Mario series.
  • Took a Level in Badass: While she hasn't been nearly kidnapped as much as Peach and she's already been shown to have some fighting capability in her home series, Daisy is usually more involved in sports, parties and kart-racing and rarely gets to show it.
  • Vibrant Orange: The bright and enthusiastic Princess Daisy has orange hair, orange panniers at her waist, and orange frills at the base of her dress.
  • V-Sign: Daisy does a standard version as a taunt and a sideways version as a victory pose—complete with a playful Sailor Moon-esque wink in the latter.

    66ε – Richter 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ssbu_richterbelmont.png
Voiced by: Kiyoyuki Yanada (Japanese), David Vincent (English)
RICHTER CROSSES OVER!
Home Series: Castlevania
Nintendo debut: Castlevania: Dracula X [SNES], 1995
Creator: Konami
Publisher: Konami

Playable in: Ultimate

A vampire hunter, Richter Belmont is Simon's hot-headed descendant, and considered one of the strongest in the Belmont Clan's lineage. In the late 18th century, when Dracula attacked his village while he was away, he set off to the haunted castle to rescue the villagers that Dracula kidnapped. Among them were his girlfriend Anette and his distant relative Maria Renard. Richter himself had to be saved by Dracula's son Alucard and Maria after ending up Brainwashed and Crazy at the hands of the sorcerer Shaft. His game is notable for having the first voiced cutscenes in the series, made even more famous as its playable final stage is in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night as a prologue, complete with hammy dialog between him and Dracula.

He's also the very first instance of a second fighter from a third-party series, as well as the first third-party character to become an Echo Fighter. In combat, his fighting style is the same as that of his ancestor's, with the only functional difference being that the flames from his Holy Water attack are of the "aura" element, and thus benefit from Spirit buffs that affect "aura" attacks rather than "fire".


Special MovesClick to show

See Castlevania: Rondo of Blood for more information on the character in his origin series.

  • Adaptation Dye-Job: The Faux Flames that are ignited from his own Holy Water are cyan in this game, unlike in his original debut Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, the flames had an emerald green tint.
  • Ancestral Weapon: Just like Simon, Richter wields the Vampire Killer, a holy whip used by the Belmont clan to defeat Dracula.
  • Art Evolution: His design meanwhile takes cues from his different versions. While generally using his Rondo of Blood appearance, he has white accents from his Dracula X look, the open collar from his Symphony of the Night look, and the upper part of his boots from his Dracula X Chronicles look. Him wielding the hybrid Combat Cross/Morning Star hybrid is taken from his pachislot render (which uses his Dracula X Chronicles look).
  • Battle Intro: Appears while surrounded by light, then swings his Vampire Killer along the ground, identically to Simon.
  • Big Damn Heroes: He first shows up in the reveal trailer to defend Simon from one of Dracula's fireballs.
  • Big "WHY?!": Yells out "WHY?!" when he's KO'd and one of his KO quotes.
  • Blue Is Heroic: He wears the famous blue tunic that distinguishes him from the other Belmonts, and his Holy Water produces blue flames in contrast to Simon's red flames. The Castlevania emblem in his character trailer is also blue in contrast to Simon's red.
  • Composite Character:
    • He's taking from Simon just as Simon takes from him. Richter has never been shown to be able to Building Swing, nor could he do the multi-directional whip attack.
  • Dash Attack: His Tackle move in Symphony of the Night is in the game as a dash attack — he moves forward while spinning his whip like a pinwheel. Somewhat nerfed in that unlike in his home series, he can't do it in the air.
  • Diving Kick: Like Simon, his downward aerial is the Jump Kick. Neither he nor Simon can do this in their own games, only in their Intra-Franchise Crossover game appearance in Harmony of Despair.
  • Fashionable Asymmetry: Only wears a single fingerless glove on his right hand, while his left hand are bare.
  • Faux Flame: The "flames" produced by his Holy Water are actually aura, accordingly receiving a power increase from aura boosting spirits and not reacting with certain objects as actual flame attacks would. This is the only functional difference that he has from Simon.
  • Glacier Waif: He shares the exact same speed and aerial acceleration as Simon, including his Holy Whip, that can deliver a nasty damage output with it's enormous range.
  • Guest Fighter: Notably the first third-party clone in the series, as well as making Castlevania the first third-party franchise to receive more than one fighter.
  • Heroic Lineage: A member of the Belmont Clan, and a descendant of Simon.
  • Home Stage: Ultimate: Dracula's Castle.
  • Hunk: Downplayed compared to Simon, as Richter's design has thinner, more Bishonen-like features, but he's still pretty muscular and all the more attractive for it.
  • Leitmotif: A remix of "Divine Bloodlines", the first stage music of his debut game, plays in his character video and when he is shown off during the trailer.
  • Lighter and Softer: When compared to Simon, at least. Richter is primarily based on Rondo of Blood, where he did such things as flash a "V for victory" sign and was a surprisingly cheerful man for a vampire hunter.
  • Limit Break: Originated the Grand Cross Item Crash that he and Simon use as their shared Final Smash here.
  • Moveset Clone: Of Simon, but as noted in the August 2018 Direct, some of Simon's moves are taken from Richter. Notably, he is the first clone to debut in the same game as his basis since Marth and Roy in Melee. The only functional difference between the two is in their Holy Water down specials. Richter's doesn't do flame damage, causing it to react differently to things with special interactions with fire such as Blast Boxes or Red Pikmin.
  • Mythology Gag:
    • During his reveal trailer, he throws a Holy Water on the Pikmin stage before being swept away by torrents of rainwater, a nod to his Hydro Storm Item Crash.
    • His reveal also had him say a variation of his memetic quote in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (Compare the above quote with "Die, monster! You don't belong in this world!")
    • His pose in his character render is a reference to the box art of both Rondo of Blood and Dracula X, where he's in a similar pose.
    • The end of his gameplay trailer shows Richter whipping a capsule and picking up the Heart Container that appears from it, similar to how whipping candles/vases/walls can spawn hearts.
    • His holy water flames being blue is a nod to Rondo of Blood being the first Castlevania game to deviate from the normal red-orange color that his predecessors Simon and Trevor use.
    • One of his victory poses is based on the V-Sign he did when he rescued Tera in Rondo of Blood.
  • Never Say "Die": His original iconic line from Symphony of the Night is "Die, monster! You don't belong in this world!" Ultimate, in contrast, renders it "Begone! You don't belong in this world, monster!"note 
  • Power Creep, Power Seep: While this iteration is based on his gameplay in Symphony of the Night, he can't spam the High Jump move nor use his tackle in the air, making his mobility much worse in Ultimate. On the other hand, he could use three sub-items without using up hearts and he can use the Diving Kick from Harmony of Despair.
  • Religious Bruiser: Like Simon, Richter wields several blessed relics to do battle with the forces of darkness.
  • Retraux: Not as much as Simon, since Richter is taken from his Rondo of Blood design. However, his latest non-ported appearance was Dracula X Chronicles for Playstation Portable, in which he was redesigned to be in style of Ayami Kojima's artwork and closer to his Symphony of the Night style, only younger (notably, he didn't have his headband there). In this game, however, he's designed similarly to his Animesque debut design in Rondo of Blood. He also has the same 8-bit whip sounds as Simon despite debuting on a 16-bit platform.
  • Secret Character: For Ultimate: Have a Cumulative Wait Time of 5 hours and 40 minutes, beat Classic Mode with Link or anyone in his unlock tree seven times, or find and defeat him in World of Light.
  • Shoryuken: The Uppercut move, which he does so with his whip. In the games, this isn't the Uppercut move (it is instead from Aria of Sorrow as a standing uppercut). Instead, this is Richter's High Jump move from Symphony of the Night and has the same "slash" effect that can be mistaken as a blade attack.
  • Slide Attack: One of the moves that originated from him in his Symphony of the Night incarnationnote , he slides to the ground with his legs out. He can also extend this with a leaping kick called Slide Jump.
  • Technicolor Fire: His holy water leaves behind blue flames, unlike Simon's red ones.

    25ε – Chrom 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ssbu_chrom.png
Voiced by: Tomokazu Sugita (Japanese), Matthew Mercer (English)
CHROM JOINS THE BATTLE!!!
Home Series: Fire Emblem
Debut: Fire Emblem: Awakening [3DS], 2012
Creator: Intelligent Systems
Publisher: Nintendo
Playable in: Ultimate
Specials: Flare Blade, Double-Edge Dance, Soaring Slash, Counter
Final Smash: Awakening Aether

The main character of Fire Emblem Awakening. Chrom is the leader of the Shepherds, Exalt of Ylisse following the sacrifice of his sister Emmeryn, and father to Lucina. Though he can be a bit reckless at times, he genuinely wishes to become a good ruler for his kingdom, and he certainly has the power and skill with a blade to take direct action in defending it. He's led his Ragtag Bunch of Misfits (and their children from the future) to do battle against the empires of Plegia and Valm, and even led them against the Fell Dragon Grima and his Grimleal cultists.

After being ousted from the roster of For 3DS/Wii U, presumably due to losing against Captain Falcon, Chrom finally gets his chance to fight alongside his daughter, as well as his strategist, Robin, though he'll still lend his hand in battle in Robin's Final Smash. In Smash, he shares Roy's aggressive, forceful moveset to contrast Lucina, but has a variant of Ike's Aether for his Up Special. Similarly to Lucina, his Falchion lacks sweet or sourspots, generally having the weighted average power of Roy's sweetspotted and sourspotted attacks, this allows him to fight well while keeping his foes at range.


Special MovesClick to show

See Fire Emblem Awakening: The Lords for more information on the character in his origin series.

  • Action Dad: He's Lucina's father and a warrior-king who leads a ragtag militia gang in defense of his kingdom.
  • Ancestral Weapon: He's the third character introduced in Smash to wield the Falchion, with the first being his ancestor Marth and the second being his daughter Lucina.
  • Ascended Extra: He went from only making a cameo in Robin's Final Smash during gameplay, lamenting being passed over as a playable character in Lucina's trailer and in the Palutena's Guidance for Robin — to being his own playable character.
  • Assist Character: He still keeps that role in Robin's Final Smash (despite being now playable on his own), even if he is already one of the fighters on stage.
  • Attack! Attack! Attack!: As with his daughter Lucina, Chrom can really get into an enemy's face and has a very deadly pressure game thanks to his fast attacks and great speed. Since his Sealed Falchion has consistent hitboxes compared to the sweetspots and sourspots that Roy's Binding Blade has, he can still keep a fair distance from his foe while maintaining the offensive.
  • Badass Cape: He has a tattered white and blue cape as part of his outfit. As with Lucina, the Brand of the Exalt is printed on it too.
  • Battle Intro: Warps in using warp magic, then pulls his sword from the ground, identical to Roy.
  • Birthmark of Destiny: As a member of the royal family of Ylisse, he has the Brand of the Exalt located on his body. Unlike with his daughter Lucina, his mark is located on his right shoulder and is actually visible during normal play.
  • Composite Character: He's primarily an Echo Fighter of Roy (making him share similarities with Marth by extension), though he also has a slightly different version of Ike's Up Special. Also, like Lucina, his primary difference from Roy is the lack of sweetspots.
  • Cool Sword: His Sealed Falchion is the same sword as Marth's, but being reforged over the ages has changed its appearance and power. Lucina's Parallel Falchion is the same sword, but from a less distant Bad Future.
  • Difficult, but Awesome: To sum him up, he's basically a more extreme, sword-wielding Little Mac. That said, unlike Mac, he's, otherwise, a Lightning Bruiser who's fast and powerful in both the ground and air.
  • Fashionable Asymmetry: His boots have different colours, and he only has one sleeve, leaving his right arm bare to show off his Brand of the Exalt.
  • Glass Cannon: Unlike Roy who is a Lightning Bruiser, Chrom has a different recovery move in the form of Ike's Aether (here named Soaring Slash). Because of this, his recovery is much worse than Roy's but he does have the benefit of having consistent hitboxes, which gives him better options for range.
  • Heroic Lineage: He's a distant descendant of Marth, and the direct descendant of the First exalt.
  • Home Stage: Ultimate: Coliseum in Ultimate's website, his fight in World of Light though takes place in Castle Siege, and his normal unlock battle takes place in Arena Ferox.
  • Irony: Back in Wii U, Viridi said it wouldn't make sense for him to be a fighter because he'd be a Moveset Clone of Ike, with Palutena mentioning he doesn't have an Aether recovery like he does. In Ultimate, the Aether-like recovery is the only thing he copied from Ike, and he retains his own version of Aether as a Final Smash on top of that. (Although, being an Echo of Roy, he has a down aerial similar to Ike's.)
  • Leitmotif: A new remix of "Id (Purpose)" from Fire Emblem Awakening plays in his reveal trailer. His character trailer uses the original version. Oddly, while Lucina and Robin get a version of "Id (Purpose)" as their unique victory theme, Chrom retained the standard Fire Emblem victory theme in early versions of Ultimate. Update 3.0.0 changed his victory theme to be the same as the other Awakening characters.
  • Male Might, Female Finesse: He's the Male Might to Lucina's Female Finesse, her being a Moveset Clone of the more graceful Marth, and he being a moveset clone of the more forceful retool of Roy (with one move taken from the always forceful Ike).
  • Moveset Clone: His moveset is taken from Roy (and thus indirectly from Marth) while pulling influence from Ike for his recovery, and having a wholly different Final Smash from the other Fire Emblem characters. This makes him one of the three Echo Fighters to have at least one new move from their source character (the other two being Ken and Dark Pit). That said, he also pulls from his daughter in that he and Lucina lack the spacing mechanics of their predecessors; not only that, but Chrom's Soaring Slash gives him a slightly better vertical recovery at the expense of the horizontal distance Roy's Blazer has.
  • Mythology Gag:
    • Aether is a skill learned by Great Lords in Fire Emblem Awakening, which is a promoted class exclusive to Chrom and Lucina. In Ultimate, it's been promoted to his Final Smash, and Chrom's animation is even similar to the activation animation in his home game. His Pre Ass Kicking One Liners when he activates it, "Anything can change!", "Now I'm mad!", and "Your end has come!", are also taken from his Critcal/Skill quotes in his home series.
    • Sakurai (and Palutena) mentioned one of the reasons why Chrom was passed over in favor of his daughter was because he didn't have an Aether-type recovery move like Ike did. In Ultimate he's mostly an Echo Fighter of Roy, but has a modified version of Ike's somersaulting Aether, named the Soaring Slash. Chrom's Soaring Slash is also a nod to his spin flipping stunt that he pulls during the "Two Falchions" cutscene that plays during Chapter 4 of Awakening, during his duel with Lucina.
  • No-Respect Guy: 3DS/Wii U really loved to insult this guy. Compared to Luigi, whom Snake and Pit wholeheartedly stood up for when he was mocked, Palutena and Viridi gang up on Chrom and mock him for not being a playable character and a clone. Thankfully, this mockery was gone after Ultimate.
  • Palette Swap: His alternate costumes reference other characters from Fire Emblem Awakening, much like Lucina's: red, after Walhart the Conqueror (or possibly Sully); green, after Stahl; yellow, after his nephew Owain, black, possibly after Lon'qu; purple, after either Yen'fay or Henry (it may also be based on Sumia); white, after Kellam; and a cyan with black and purple accents costume possibly based on Donnel (who has purple hair).
  • Promoted to Playable: He was part of Robin's Final Smash in 3DS/Wii U, but is now a fully playable character... who's still part of Robin's Final Smash.
  • Royals Who Actually Do Something: He's the Exalt of the Halidom of Ylisse, but is no less capable in battle.
  • Screw Destiny: Like his daughter, he firmly holds the belief that "fate" is something that can be defied. His Character Catchphrase, "Anything can change!", demonstrates this.
  • Secret Character: For Ultimate: Have a Cumulative Wait Time of 9 hours and 40 minutes, beat Classic Mode with Yoshi or anyone in his unlock tree seven times, or find and defeat him in World of Light.
  • Suicide Attack: Chrom's up special, Soaring Slash, has a meteor spike powerful enough to drag opponents to the lower blast zone if performed offstage, like Ike's Aether. What makes it different as a kill move compared to Aether is that not only is it faster than Aether, but Chrom packs the speed and combo game to chain into an offstage Soaring Slash. In the base game, this was an incredibly effective way to score a KO and win even on the last stock, as Chrom would die second, but this was later patched to tone down the effectiveness of the spike and make Chrom die first instead.
  • Sword Plant: Shares Roy's stage entrance animation of planting his sword in the ground. He also spins and plants his sword in one of his victory screens, just like when he wins a battle in Awakening.
  • Throw the Dog a Bone: He was mocked in Lucina and Robin's reveal trailer and in Robin's Palutena's Guidance in 3DS/Wii U for being relegated to a background role. Now he's a playable character.
  • Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Averted. Unlike Ike's Aether, Chrom holds onto his sword for the duration of Soaring Slash, making it faster than Ike's version but at the cost of no horizontal range.
  • Trailers Always Spoil: A strange zigzagged application: though most of the character demonstration videos on the Smash website end by showing off their Final Smashes, Robin's was among those that did not, meaning Chrom's presence in the game was completely unaccounted for up until his Promoted to Playable reveal. However, Robin's Final Smash remains the same and Chrom still assists them, even against the playable Chrom.

    04ε – Dark Samus 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ssbu_darksamus.png
DARK SAMUS JOINS THE BATTLE!!!
Home Series: Metroid
Debut: Metroid Prime [GameCube], 2002 (appearance in The Stinger and as Metroid Prime); Metroid Prime 2: Echoes [GameCube], 2004 (full debut as Dark Samus)
Creator: Retro Studios
Publisher: Nintendo

Playable in: Ultimate
Specials: Charge Shot, Missile, Screw Attack, Bomb
Final Smash: Phazon Laser

The main antagonist of the Metroid Prime Trilogy, Dark Samus is the reincarnation of Metroid Prime, a Metroid heavily mutated by the substance known as Phazon. Surviving her first defeat by stealing Samus' Phazon Suit, the being reborn as Dark Samus seeks to "corrupt" the universe at large by spreading Phazon wherever she goes. After appearing in the fourth game as an Assist Trophy, Dark Samus becomes playable in Ultimate as an Echo Fighter, fittingly of the real Samus.

Created by Retro Studios, Dark Samus is the first playable character from an American developer and second from a non-Japanese developer. In comparison to her progenitor, her movements are floatier, she uses more electric attacks, and has some slightly shifted hitboxes but her moveset is otherwise functionally indistinguishable from the original Samus.

See Metroid - The Metroids for more information on the character in her origin series.

  • 11th-Hour Ranger: In Ultimate, she's one of the last four characters to join you in the World of Light adventure, being found in The Very Definitely Final Dungeon.
  • Adaptation Dye-Job: Not Dark Samus herself unless you use a palette swap, but rather, Phazon. All of Dark Samus' phazon-based attacks are given a distinct black/dark blue coloration in comparison to the typically ethereal light blue in the Metroid Prime Trilogy.
  • Adaptational Wimp: Downplayed since she's still a capable fighter, but since she's a Moveset Clone of Samus, her flight is much less powerful than in her home games, and she lacks some of her Phazon attacks, seeming to be based primarily on her outing in Echoes.
  • Arm Cannon: This comes with being a figurative and literal Samus clone, but befitting her appearance, it's actually a part of her body. Her final boss fight in Prime 2 gives a view of her skeleton, and concept art of her skeletal structure shows the "cannon bones" in more detail.
  • Art Evolution:
    • In 3DS/Wii U, she was based on her appearance in Corruption, which had the effect of making her look smoothed out and almost mechanical. Ultimate significantly overhauls her design, generally eschewing the smooth nature of the suit in favor of emphasizing her alien nature, such as some parts of her body being more spaced out from each other, pronouncing her organic Tron Lines, looking skeletal and slimier, more noticeably popping veins, and also features a thinner visor identical to the one seen in Echoes.
    • The appearance of her Morph Ball form has also evolved. In Echoes, her Morph Ball was much more organic-looking and had an eye on each half, and Corruption reused the same model despite Dark Samus' design changing to a slightly more mechanical look. In Ultimate, the Morph Ball's design matches her Corruption appearance, being more technological with visible veins, and having blue lights in the middle of the hemispheres instead of eyes.
  • Ascended Extra: First appearing in Brawl as a collectible trophy, then in 3DS/Wii U as an Assist Trophy, Dark Samus becomes playable in Ultimate.
  • Atomic Superpower: Phazon, of which she is both powered by and composed of, is radioactive and either grievously harms or horrifically mutates whatever it touches.
  • Battle Intro: Floats onto the stage from a dark blue portal.
  • The Bus Came Back: Similarly to K. Rool, Dark Samus hasn't made an appearance in a non-Smash game since her death in Metroid Prime 3 back in 2007.
  • The Comically Serious: Dark Samus is one of the more frightening playable villains in Smash, but she's just as equally subjected to the same silliness as the rest of the playable cast. For example, one of the Challenge Board images shows her with a Bunny Hood.
  • Composite Character: Dark Samus' design is based on her Corruption appearance, but her coloration and much of her body language hearken back to her increasingly-unstable and insane Echoes self.
  • The Corruptor: Her Classic Mode route involves her fighting against heroic characters alongside allies of theirs who she has corrupted and given a more evil-looking palette swap (e.g. alongside Robin against Chrom and Lucina, alongside Ivysaur against the other Pokemon Trainer Pokemon and Pikachu). This is a reference to Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, where Dark Samus infected Samus' fellow bounty hunters with Phazon and turned them against her.
  • Dark Action Girl: She's a villainous counterpart to Samus.
  • Dark Is Evil: She's a Humanoid Abomination whose body is a black biomechanical version of Samus' power suit, and who's composed of the corruptive mutagen Phazon. Fittingly, her Charge Beam and Zero Laser are predominantly black.
  • Dance Battler: She spawns a "Dark Echo" clone from herself and briefly performs an identical dancing duet with it for one of her victory animations.
  • Divergent Character Evolution:
    • Inverted. When she became a playable character, she lost her rapid fire blast and Phazon tendrils she used as an Assist Trophy, in favour of a playstyle more resembling Samus'.
    • Design-wise, her Corruption design was used in 3DS/Wii U when she was an Assist Trophy, the design of which was very similar to Samus. While Ultimate still takes after Corruption's design, it also drops much of the mechanical nature of the design in favor of looking slimmer and more alien, and redesigning the visor to be more like the thinner version seen in Echoes.
  • Enemy Mine: She is likely one of the fighters that opposed Galeem in the intro despite not being seen. However, as she is one of Dharkon's messengers on the Final Battle map, her awakening is required to get the best ending.
  • Evil Is Visceral: Her armour has a veiny, slimy exoskeleton look that gives it a grosser vibe than Samus', her beam attacks have a tentacle motif, and her missiles have a slimy, diseased look much like her body.
  • Evil Knockoff: She's effectively the result of the Metroid Prime trying to copy Samus' physical form.
  • Eyeless Face: Doesn't contain any set of eyes within her "visor", although this doesn't primarily affect her vision to fight other powerful combatants. Subverted for one of her victory screen animations, where she quickly turns herself around to display an eerie pair of glowing retinas at the camera.
  • Firing One-Handed: Dark Samus adopts a "firing from the hip" posture when using her version of the Charge Beam, where Samus steadies her Arm Cannon with her off hand.
  • Glowing Eyes of Doom: One victory animation has the camera zooming in all the way to her face, showing nothing but a pair of disturbing, blank, and creepy yellow eyes, which are brightly illuminating from her visor.
  • Home Stage: Ultimate: Brinstar Depths in Ultimate's website, her World of Light and normal unlock fights though both take place in Frigate Orpheon.
  • Humanoid Abomination: Unlike the real Samus, there's no girl hidden underneath that Powered Armor — Dark Samus was once the Metroid Prime, assuming her current form after being overloaded with Phazon and absorbing Samus' Phazon Suit. Much of this is conveyed in her animations, which give the sense of a creature that's not used to having a humanoid form — floating instead of walking, throwing her whole body into her movements, getting into awkward poses, and generally not showing Samus' usual professional restraint.
  • Iconic Sequel Character: She's the sole playable Metroid Prime character in Smash Bros, yet she only appeared in the first game as an Early-Bird Cameo.
  • "It" Is Dehumanizing: Even though she's referred to with feminine pronouns in her home series and in trophies from previous installments, the Super Smash Blog originally referred to Dark Samus with gender-neutral pronouns to emphasize how alien she really is.
  • Leitmotif: While Dark Samus does have her own unique leitmotif in Echoes and Corruption, she is associated with other Metroid songs that have been remixed in Ultimate:
    • A remix of the Parasite Queen boss theme from Metroid Prime plays in her character trailer.
    • Her reveal during the August 8, 2018 Smash Direct is accompanied by a new remix of "Brinstar Depths" (a clip of which was uploaded to the music section of the Smash website).
  • Lightning/Fire Juxtaposition: Where Samus Aran uses fire and explosion attacks, Dark Samus uses electric attacks instead. Their color schemes even reflect this; Samus' Varia Suit is stereotypically flame-colored, while Dark Samus has glowing electric blue Phazon accents that match her blue electricity.
  • Limp and Livid: Many of Dark Samus' animations play up her inhuman nature by having whatever parts are not being used in an attack more or less hanging there limply, most commonly her non-cannon arm.
  • Me's a Crowd: Performs a sort of synchronized dance with one of her Dark Echoes as a victory animation.
  • Moveset Clone: Of Samus, having different animations but the same moveset as her. Functionally, they are identical, with the exceptions being elemental properties (Samus deals fire damage with certain moves, while Dark Samus deals electric damage), and some shifted hitboxes (Dark Samus' forward-smash has slightly less range, while her up-smash can reach opponents slightly lower to the ground).
  • Mythology Gag:
    • Her reveal includes a clip of Dark Samus and Meta-Ridley ganging up on Samus, referencing her being the leader of the Space Pirates in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, as well as a shot of her next to a Metroid, referencing her true nature as the Metroid Prime.
    • One of her victory animations has her split in two, referencing the "Dark Echo" move she used in the final battle of Corruption.
    • Another victory animation has a close up to her visor, revealing her milky white, glowing eyes, which is similar to the image of the SA-X from Metroid Fusion. Additionally she has a gold alternate color with a green visor, referencing SA-X.
    • Her status as an Echo Fighter. Not only is she both a literal and Moveset Clone of Samus, she officially debuted in a game called "Echoes", and in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, she was able to make duplicates of herself called "Echoes".
    • In the Japanese version, clone fighters are referred to as "Dash" Fighters, Dark Samus being 4'. The proper name of the dash is a prime, used in mathematical notation to indicate that a variable is derivative of the original. Dark Samus is literally Metroid Prime imitating Samus.
    • Unlike Samus' Zero Laser (which can, at best, be argued to be an exaggeration of her Hyper Beam), Dark Samus' Final Smash has some basis in her home series; one of her moves in the final battle with her in Echoes is a large Phazon beam.
    • One of her alternate colour schemes resembles concept art of Dark Samus from Echoes, which originally depicted her as silver with red highlights.
  • No Biological Sex: Being Metroid Prime, Dark Samus is biologically genderless, but is referred to as a female in both Super Smash Bros. and her home series due to her resemblance to Samus, having absorbed her Phazon Suit and some of her genetic material.
  • Organic Technology: Her armour and physical projectiles have visible veins and shell-like textures showcasing how she's actually a Humanoid Abomination.
  • Power Floats: Unlike Samus, Dark Samus floats in place for various animations, giving her a much more ethereal "phantom-like" feel. Of particular note is her dodge roll, which is simply a hovering backstep, similar to how she moves around in Corruption in contrast to Samus' morph ball roll.
  • Power Glows: She emanates Phazon, complete with a brilliant blue glow, in two of her taunts.
  • Powered Armor: In order to survive its defeat, Metroid Prime stole Samus' Phazon Armor and used it for its reincarnation, Dark Samus.
  • Promoted to Playable: She was an alternate costume and an Assist Trophy in 3DS/Wii U, but is now a fully playable character. This is not only the first time she has been playable, much like with Ridley, but also the first time any Metroid has been playable. This would also give her the title of being the fourth summon character to receive this trope, after Charizard, Little Mac, and Chrom.
  • Secret Character: For Ultimate: Have a Cumulative Wait Time of 8 hours and 10 minutes, beat Classic Mode with Samus or anyone in her unlock tree five times, or find and defeat her in World of Light.
  • Shock and Awe: Where Samus uses fire in her attacks, Dark Samus' equivalent moves use electric damage dealing blasts of Phazon. These attacks deal slightly greater stun than Samus' and are less vulnerable when blocked at the cost of making it easier for the opponent to escape combos by influencing their own knockback.
  • Silent Antagonist: As in the Metroid Prime series, she never speaks. Unlike the Prime games, she doesn't even have Voice Grunting (barring her star KO clip, which is the same as Samus').
  • The Smurfette Principle: She's the only villainess among all the non-alternate costume fightersnote .
  • Starfish Alien: She may look humanoid, but she's actually a heavily mutated jellyfish-like Metroid that managed to stuff itself into a humanoid suit of armour.
  • Token Evil Teammate: The only Echo Fighter to be totally unambiguously evil.
  • Unskilled, but Strong: Her animations show a distinct lack of finesse and discipline when compared side-by-side with Samus' own, but she keeps up anyway by dint of raw power.
  • Uplifted Animal: She started off as a Metroid before being exposed to enough Phazon to turn it into Metroid Prime, which then absorbed Samus' Phazon Suit and her DNA, giving her both a humanoid form and sapience.
  • Wave-Motion Gun: Her Final Smash is a Phazon variant of Samus' Zero Laser.

    60ε – Ken 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kenssbu.png
Voiced by: Yuji Kishi (Japanese), Reuben Langdon (English)
KEN TURNS UP THE HEAT!
Home Series: Street Fighter
Debut: Street Fighter [Arcade], 1987
Nintendo debut: Street Fighter II [SNES], 1992
Creator: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom

Hailing from the Street Fighter series, Ken Masters is the former sparring partner and Friendly Rival of Ryu. Being trained in the ways of the Ansatsuken martial art, Ken shares many moves with Ryu, but with his own fiery flair put to them. Though he shares many similarities to his friend, being honorable and hard-working, he's also a bit more arrogant and hot-headed in contrast to the more stoic Ryu. He also wishes to seek strong opponents, but is always taking care of his wife, Eliza, and his son, Mel.

Considered the archetypal Moveset Clone, Ken makes his Smash debut as an Echo Fighter of Ryu, ironically being the last proper Echo to be revealed prior to the game's launch. Much like in their home series, Ken and Ryu both use the same fighting style, but with their own unique flairs. In comparison to Ryu, Ken favors rushing down his opponent with furious kicks and a Shoryuken that boasts greater horizontal range in addition to packing a fiery punch.

See Street Fighter for more information on the character in his origin series.

  • The Ace: Surprisingly enough, Ken was born with the natural talent of being a martial artist, unlike Ryu, who trains day in and day out. During the time between Street Fighter and Street Fighter II, he even took a year off training to spend time with his family and was able to match Ryu's skill after only a few months of retraining.
  • Action Dad: Ken is Happily Married and has a kid, and yet he's still able to kick just as much ass as in his debut.
  • Adaptational Dye-Job: In his home series, Ken's hair is a blonde color, but in Ultimate, it is instead a dirty blonde/brownish color. Even his trophy in 3DS/Wii U gave him his correct hair color (likely for reusing the model from the 3DS version of Street Fighter IV.).
  • Armor-Piercing Attack: Just like Ryu, his Focus Attack ignores shields completely. In addition, while not quite as powerful as Ryu's Collarbone Breaker, his Inazuma Kick can easily destroy shields that aren't fully charged.
  • Art Evolution: While his trophy in 3DS/Wii U was more akin to his Street Fighter IV look, his appearance here follows the more realistic design Ryu has and bears more similarities to his incarnation from III.
  • Ascended Extra: Ken was a DLC trophy in 3DS/Wii U, and he becomes a fighter in Ultimate. Of note is that he is the only third-party fighter to make a non-playable appearance in the series prior to his playable debut.
  • Battle Intro: Walks onstage from some mist in the background while saying, "I'm ready for ya! Bring it on!", then adopts a battle-ready stance.
  • Bring It: Dares his opponent(s) to fight him in his proximity while he's initiating a beckoning gesture for his down taunt. He even says "Bring it on!" as he's taunting.
  • But Not Too Foreign: Despite the blonde hair and the fact that he's always billed as being from the United States in every game he's been in, Ken's actually 3/4 Japanese.
  • Composite Character: While based primarily on his outing from Super II Turbo, he has some attacks and increased speed from his later appearances that diversified him from Ryu.
  • Difficult, but Awesome:
    • The Nata Otoshi Geri. Its unorthodox input is one of the hardest moves to get consistently, especially for players not used to traditional fighting games. However, it is one of the best moves in Ken's arsenal, capable of whittling down shields, racking up damage and confirming into kill options.
    • Like Ryu before him, Ken, in general, has the complexity of a traditional fighting game character, but translated to the somewhat less complicated Smash. That said, that complexity comes with versatility, on top of him, in some ways, being much more combo-centric than Smash's designated King of Combos, Ryu.
  • Divergent Character Evolution: Lampshaded by Sakurai, who notes that his moves have grown more and more distinct from Ryu's as time has gone on, but this iteration borrows heavily from Super Street Fighter II Turbo where the differences were more minute. In general, Ken here is meant to be a more aggressive version of Ryu, trading in stronger knockback and a more versatile neutral game in exchange for more damaging multi-hitting specials and faster ground movement.
  • Eagleland: One of the distinctly identified American fighters in Smash alongside Little Mac, Terry and Snake, since he represents the country in Street Fighter.
  • Extremity Extremist: Many more of his attacks are kick-based compared to Ryu's, and the ones he shares often hit multiple times. Examples include his various tilts like the Inazuma Kick and his Focus Attack, his replacement for Shakunetsu Hadouken being his various Roundhouse Kick variants and the Shippu Jinrai Kyaku as his equivalent to the Shin Shoryuken.
  • Foil: To Luigi, They both went into Divergent Character Evolution just before differentiating into their own characters with a unique personality. They both were originally considered Moveset Clones in their first fighting game appearances to an already existing character, (Ken was this to Ryu in the original Street Fighter game, while Luigi was this to Mario in the original Super Smash Bros. game on Nintendo 64), only for them to be given changes to their movesets in later titles. However, Ken appears as an Echo Fighter, despite some of his moves functioning differently to Ryu. Luigi, while having a similar projectile and Recovery Move than Mario, Luigi is a Semi-Clone that acts as his own Fighter.
  • Friendly Rivalry: Ken is both Ryu's best friend and rival, just as he is in Street Fighter. His entire Classic Mode run is actually dedicated to the less friendly variant of this by fighting against other rival characters, ending with Ryu himself.
  • Guest Fighter: The third Capcom character in Smash, after Mega Man and fellow Street Fighter character Ryu.
  • Home Stage: Ultimate: Suzaku Castle in Ultimate's website, his World of Light and normal unlock fights though both take place in Boxing Ring.
  • Hunk: Just as muscular as Ryu, and arguably more handsome.
  • Hurricane Kick: As with Street Fighter, Ken's Tatsumaki consists of multiple weak hits with little knockback in contrast to Ryu's.
  • Informed Attribute: His status as an Echo Fighter, despite having enough obviously distinct moves and mechanics from his base fighter that he is considered his own character in tourney settings, unlike other Echoes. Sakurai even admits that his Echo Fighter label was a personal preference regardless of definition, likely done in honor of Ken being the fighting game genre's poster boy for the Moveset Clone. To be fair, while he does have tons of gameplay differences from Ryu, they are not as vast as the ones between Ness and Lucas, or Fox, Falco and Wolf.
  • Irony: Ken is the most iconic Moveset Clone in gaming history, and yet he's the last Echo Fighter to be revealed for Ultimate. Most ironic, he has the most distinct moves from his base character out of all the Echo Fighters.
  • Kamehame Hadoken: His Hadouken has different visuals than Ryu, and is weaker to boot, as it is in Street Fighter proper.
  • Laser-Guided Karma: In his introductory trailer, he beats Little Mac by knocking him into the arena's big-screen display. Incineroar later turns around and beats him the same way.
  • Leitmotif: His ever-present stage theme from Street Fighter II follows him here.
  • Moveset Clone: Of Ryu, and arguably the Trope Codifier himself. Funnily enough, he's the least clone-y of all the Echo Fighters; he walks and runs a little bit faster than his source character and he packs several new moves that Ryu lacks and vice-versa. Not only does this make him the most distinctive Echo, but he's also almost a fully-fledged semi-clone on par with Melee-era clones like Falco and Ganondorf:
    • Although his Hadouken's power is only just slightly weaker than Ryu's, Ken can't zone opponents out as well as Ryu due to his fireball speeds not being as controllable, as Ryu can fire Hadoukens that can be much slower or faster than Ken in addition to the Shakunetsu Hadouken being exclusive to him.
    • Ryu's Tatsumaki can be used as a kill option due to it being a one-hit attack with more knockback, but it's much more punishable in the process. Ken needs proper close-range spacing to make use of his Tatsu to land all of its individually weaker hits with little knockback, but all its variants deal more damage than Ryu if every hit lands.
    • While Ryu's Shoryuken can kill much earlier if he connects with the sweetspot at the start of the move, Ken's own has a higher damage output, and the sweetspot being at the tail end of the move means that it serves as a more viable anti-air kill option.
    • Ken has better combo options due to having both of his Roundhouse Kick variants (including one that has a special motion Ryu doesn't have altogether), each of which can be held down to transition into an Inazuma Kick for shield damage, although not to the extent of Ryu's Collarbone Breaker.
    • This also goes for his normals and Smash attacks as well. His forward Smash attack has the same sweetspot on the foot as Ryu's, but he doesn't move forward as much while performing it compared to Ryu's Donkey Kick. His held forward tilt is a fierce punch that can launch opponents backwards, but doesn't have the shield-breaking properties as Ryu's Collarbone Breaker. Ken's neutral aerial has better reach than Ryu's own, but his up tilt is a one hit kick that is just slightly less effective for combos and anti-airs than Ryu's equivalent.
  • Mythology Gag: A bunch, just like his buddy:
    • One of his taunts has him throw a thumbs-up at the camera, mimicking one of his recurring round win poses which he also does here. Another is him sticking his fist out much like Ryu's, likely a nod to their fist bump intro from the Street Fighter III series. His last taunt has him beckon his opponent with his index finger, an intro pose that began in Street Fighter Alpha and has nearly been retained in almost every subsequent appearance he's ever made.
    • He has two Final Smashes, again a reference to the Ultra Combo Double mechanic from Ultra Street Fighter IV. Much like Ryu though, one of them isn't actually an Ultra he can perform from that game but is a Super Combo that is very close to it in spirit; in this case, it's the Shippu Jinrai Kyaku which acts as a stand-in for the Guren Senpukyaku.
    • The Shinryuken has the amplified vacuum and large pillar effects seen in the Marvel vs. Capcom games.
    • While not a perfect recreation, Ken parrying Little Mac in his trailer and then retaliating with the Shippu Jinrai Kyaku may be a nod to EVO Moment 37. Ken's pose upon activating the Shippu Jinrai Kyaku here is nearly identical to his parry animation, only cementing the reference further.
    • His character video starts with him destroying Wario's bike, a reference to the iconic bonus game from Street Fighter II where the player must destroy a car.
    • His debut text "TURNS UP THE HEAT" is a reference to Street Fighter V, where Ken says "Come on! Let's turn up the heat!" during his pre-battle intro.
    • Performing a half-circle special input here (which would normally yield Ryu's Shakunetsu Hadoken) has him perform the Oosoto Mawashi Geri, which originated in Super Street Fighter II Turbo, while a reverse quarter-circle forward (a command Ryu doesn't have here) leads to a Nata Otoshi Geri, again from the same game. Smash actually marks these moves' fourth major appearance in Ken's movelist, following Super Turbo, Street Fighter: The Movie and the SNK vs. Capcom games. The presence of the latter moves technically grants Ken six special moves, with only characters like Hero and Terry surpassing him thanks to their own unique mechanics.
    • His on-screen appearance line above is taken word-for-word from his own intro in Street Fighter IV.
    • As with Ryu, his other palette swaps here are all based on Street Fighter II save one: a black alternate from Street Fighter III that brings to mind his non-canon Superpowered Evil Side, Violent Ken.
  • Oddly Visible Eyebrows: Ken's official render has his black eyebrows visible over his blond hair. This does not go for the in-game model, however.
  • Playing with Fire: His Shoryuken is wreathed in flames, and the Shinryuken creates a spiraling tower of them. It's for this exact reason he faces Incineroar in their debut trailer.
    Ken: So, you wanna fight fire with fire, huh?
  • Secret Character: For Ultimate: Have a Cumulative Wait Time of 9 hours and 20 minutes, beat Classic Mode with Yoshi or anyone in his unlock tree eight times, or find and defeat him in World of Light.
  • Ship Tease: In his reveal trailer, despite already being married or at least in a committed relationship, he shows some interest in Zelda... at least until Link steps in.
  • Shoryuken: Ken's specialty. His input Shoryuken is a fiery, multi-hitting variant, and Ryu's Shinku Hadoken is replaced with the Shinryuken, an extremely far-reaching Shoryuken engulfed in a pillar of flames. While Ryu's has more knockback initially and can kill earlier if hit with the sweetspot, Ken's Shoryuken deals more damage if all hits connect and retains a very strong amount of knockback with the end, allowing it to be used as an anti-air kill option... exactly like Street Fighter.
  • Shotoclone: One of the two original Shotoclones alongside Ryu, Ken has the Hadoken, Tatsumaki Senpukyaku, and Shoryuken as part of his moveset.
  • Technician Versus Performer: The archetypal Performer, Ken has more flashy, multi-hitting moves to contrast with Ryu's focused precision.
  • Token Minority: He's one of the very few playable characters to be clearly defined as Asian, being 3/4 Japanese - the others being his buddy Ryu, Joker, Min Min and Kazuya.
  • Trash Talk: In contrast with Ryu's Warrior Therapist win quotes, Ken's... a lot more boastful about his victories:
    Challenge me after some practice! (English) / Come at me as much as you like! (Japanese)
    I knew I'd win! Ha! (English) / It feels good to win a spat! (Japanese)
  • The Worf Effect: Is on both ends in his very own trailer. He beats Little Mac easily only to fall against Incineroar.

Alternative Title(s): Super Smash Bros Echo Fighters

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