You remember the first time you saw the commercial? Four people in mascot suits—Mario, Donkey Kong, Yoshi, and Pikachu—skipping through a meadow to "Happy Together" by The Turtles before absolutely pummeling each other. It was 1999. There were only 12 fighters. Fast forward to the final update of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and the Super Smash Bros all characters list has ballooned into an impossible museum of gaming history featuring 89 combatants.
That is a lot of frame data to memorize. Honestly, it's a miracle the game even functions.
When Masahiro Sakurai and his team at Sora Ltd. decided to go "Everyone is Here," they weren't just making a marketing tagline. They were signing up for a balance nightmare. Bringing back every single veteran from Melee, Brawl, and Smash 4 meant reconciling wildly different engine physics. You’ve got characters like Pichu, who was literally designed to be bad in 2001, suddenly needing to be viable in a high-speed modern meta. It's a logistical circus.
The Evolution of the Super Smash Bros All Characters Roster
The jump from 65 characters at Ultimate's launch to the final 89 wasn't just about padding numbers. It was about legacy.
Think about the "Echo Fighters." It was a clever way to pad the Super Smash Bros all characters count without starting from scratch. Daisy, Richter, and Dark Samus are basically skins with slightly different properties—though don't tell a Peach main that Daisy's turnip RNG feels the same, because they will argue with you for three hours. This distinction allowed Nintendo to represent more franchises without the three-year development cycle required for a completely unique moveset like Steve from Minecraft.
Steve is a great example of the technical debt these characters carry. To make Steve work, the developers had to go back and rework every single stage in the game to include "materials" for him to mine. Every. Single. One. That’s over 100 stages. It shows that the roster isn't just a list of names; it’s a deeply integrated web of code that gets more fragile every time you add a guy with a sword or a sentient block of pixels.
The DLC Tiers and Power Creep
We have to talk about the "Pay to Win" accusations. It's a common trope in fighting games. You look at Joker, Hero, or Aegis (Pyra/Mythra), and you see mechanics that the base roster just doesn't have.
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Joker has Arsene. It's essentially a "comeback mechanic" on steroids. If you're losing, you get better. This design philosophy shifted throughout the DLC cycles. While the original 12 (Mario, Link, Samus, etc.) have relatively "honest" kits—you press a button, a punch happens—the newer additions to the Super Smash Bros all characters lineup rely on gimmicks.
- Sephiroth: Longest reach in the game, but he's lighter than Kirby. High risk, high reward.
- Kazuya: He's playing Tekken while you're playing Smash. He has "Tough Guy" armor and auto-turnaround, which feels inherently "unfair" to a traditional player.
- Min Min: She doesn't even approach. She just punches from the other side of the screen.
Is it balanced? Sort of. In high-level tournament play, you still see "honest" characters like Palutena or Wolf doing well. But the sheer variety means you can't just be "good at Smash" anymore. You have to know the specific matchup quirks for nearly 90 different entities.
Why Some Favorites Never Made the Cut
People are still salty about Waluigi.
Let's be real: the selection process for the Super Smash Bros all characters list is dictated by more than just fan polls. It's about licensing, "uniqueness," and corporate synergy. Sora (Kingdom Hearts) was the most requested character for years. Sakurai admitted in his Famitsu columns that getting Disney on board was a Herculean task. The "Mickey" charm on the Keyblade had to be handled with extreme legal care.
Then you have the Assist Trophy graveyard. Isaac from Golden Sun, Skull Kid, and yes, Waluigi. Being an Assist Trophy is basically a death sentence for a character's hopes of being playable in that specific entry. It’s a way for Nintendo to say, "We see you, but we don't have the budget to give you a full move-list."
Sorting the Archetypes
If you're trying to pick a main among the Super Smash Bros all characters, don't look at tier lists. They change every patch. Instead, look at how you actually like to play.
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- Zoners: Samus, Link, Mega Man. You like to stay away and be annoying.
- Rushdown: Fox, Sheik, Roy. You want to be in their face, pressing buttons constantly.
- Grapplers: Incineroar, Donkey Kong. You live for the "ding-dong" and the satisfaction of a cargo throw.
- Fummies: This is a term for the weirdos. Mr. Game & Watch, Duck Hunt, Piranha Plant. You win by being unpredictable and confusing your opponent.
The nuance here is incredible. Take the "Spacies" (Fox, Falco, Wolf). On paper, they have the same moves. A blaster, a reflector, a side-B dash. But in practice? Fox is a glass cannon. Falco is an air-combo specialist. Wolf is a fundamentals-based brawler. This depth is why people are still playing this game years after the final character, Sora, was released in 2021.
The Competitive Meta vs. Casual Chaos
There is a massive rift in how people perceive the Super Smash Bros all characters list.
If you play with items on, a character like Rosalina & Luma is a nightmare because she can "gravitate" items toward her. In a competitive setting (no items, Final Destination only), she's a technical puppet character that requires insane precision.
The community often points to the "Top Tiers" like Sonic or Steve as "lame" to watch because they encourage defensive, non-interactive play. Steve can literally build a wall and just sit there. It’s a far cry from the fast-paced, aggressive movement of Melee. But that’s the price of a massive roster. You get variety, but you also get some strategies that feel like they belong in a different genre entirely.
Unlocking the Full Roster
If you’re just starting Ultimate, you start with the original N64 eight. It’s a grind.
The game triggers a "New Challenger" every 10 minutes of active play. If you want to speed-run the Super Smash Bros all characters unlocks, the old trick was to play a match, beat the challenger, close the software, and restart. It reset the internal timer. Nintendo patched some of these exploits, but the "Classic Mode" route remains the most consistent way to target specific fighters you want.
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The Future: Where Do We Go from 89?
There is a legitimate concern that the next Smash game will have to be a "reboot." How do you follow "Everyone is Here"? You can't.
If the next console features a roster of only 40 characters, fans will riot. But from a development standpoint, maintaining 89+ characters is unsustainable. The "Sora" deal might have been a one-time thing. Snake and Cloud have already disappeared once before (between Brawl, Smash 4, and Ultimate).
The likely path? A smaller, more refined roster with completely overhauled movesets. Mario has been using the same cape and fireballs for decades; maybe it's time for him to use Cappy from Odyssey more prominently.
Actionable Tips for Mastering the Roster
Don't try to learn everyone. It’s a trap.
- Pick a "Main" and a "Secondary": Your main is your ride-or-die. Your secondary should cover your main's weaknesses. If you play a slow heavy like Ganondorf, your secondary should probably be someone fast who can deal with projectiles.
- Watch the Pro Replays: Use the in-game "Vault" or YouTube to watch players like MkLeo or Sparg0. Don't just watch the hits; watch how they move when they aren't attacking.
- Learn the "Out of Shield" options: In Ultimate, knowing which move you can use fastest after blocking is the difference between being a "scrub" and being a "player." For Mario, it's his Up-B. For Link, it's usually his Up-Smash or Spin Attack.
- Lab the "DI" (Directional Influence): If you're getting hit, hold the stick away or toward the blast zone to survive longer. Every character has a different weight, meaning you'll need to feel out the "survival percentage" for the characters you play most.
The Super Smash Bros all characters list is a celebration of gaming, but it's also a complex toolset. Whether you’re playing as a literal plant or a legendary demon slayer, the game rewards curiosity. Stop sticking to the same three characters. Set the random select, jump into a match, and see why this weird crossover experiment became the biggest fighting game in the world.