Color Changing

In the Super Smash Bros. series, each character can alter his or her outfit's color scheme to avoid confusion if he or she is facing the same character that they are using. Every character has at least 4 alternate colors, including a red, blue and green costume representing the three colors available in Team Battles. Super Smash Bros. Melee introduced characters with more than 4 outfits, and Brawl promises for each character to have around 6 outfits.

SSB
Super Smash Bros. introduced the basic color changes, the first four that could be changed with the C-Button.
 * Mario:
 * Mario's yellow costume is based on the yellow-and-purple outfit of his rival, Wario.
 * Mario's blue costume is what he originally wore in his first few games, such as Donkey Kong and Mario Bros., an inverted version of his normal color scheme.
 * Yoshi:
 * All of Yoshi's costumes are different variations of the Yoshi species in many of his games.
 * Captain Falcon:
 * Captain Falcon's red costume is nearly identical to his the outfit of his rival, Blood Falcon.
 * Captain Falcon's white costume is the same color as Jody Summer's outfit.
 * Kirby:
 * Kirby's yellow costume is Keeby. It is also similar to his colors scheme when he is Beam Kirby, sans the hat.
 * Kirby's red costume is the same as when he is Fire Kirby, sans the hat.
 * Kirby's blue costume is the same as when he is Ice Kirby, sans the hat.
 * Samus:
 * Samus' pink costume is her Varia Suit. Also, the blue visor indicates that she is using missiles at the time.
 * Samus' blue costume is her Gravity suit.
 * Link:
 * Link's red costume is his Goron Tunic from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. It is also the same as when he used the Red Ring in the Legend of Zelda, when he used the shield spell in Zelda II, and his Red Mail in A Link to the Past.
 * Link's blue costume is his Zora Tunic from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
 * Link's white costume is the same as when he used the blue ring in The Legend of Zelda, and his Blue Mail in A Link to the Past.

SSBM
Super Smash Bros. Melee altered the buttons used to change costumes to X and Y.
 * Mario:
 * Mario's yellow costume is based on Wario, the same as his previous yellow costume.
 * Mario's blue costume is what he originally wore in his first few games.
 * Peach:
 * Peach's yellow costume changes nearly her entire appearance to that of Daisy, including her hair color, hair style, earrings, dress style, gloves, crown and even skin color.
 * Peach's white costume imitates her Nurse Toadstool costume from Dr. Mario.
 * Yoshi:
 * All of Yoshi's costumes appear as different variations of the Yoshi species in many of his games.
 * Captain Falcon:
 * Captain Falcon's red costume is nearly identical to his rival Blood Falcon's outfit.
 * Ice Climbers:
 * The Ice Climbers' orange and red costumes will place Nana in the lead, making Popo follow. The voice samples are swapped to match up with the change.
 * Kirby:
 * Kirby's yellow costume is Keeby. It is also the same as when he is Beam Kirby, sans the hat.
 * Kirby's red costume is the same as when he is Fire Kirby, sans the hat.
 * Kirby's blue costume is the same as when he is Ice Kirby, sans the hat.
 * Kirby's white costume mirrors his appearance in the original Kirby's Dreamland.
 * Samus:
 * Samus' pink costume is her Varia Suit. Also, the blue visor indicates that she is using missiles at the time.
 * Samus' blue costume is her Gravity suit.
 * Zelda:
 * Zelda's red costume is the same color as she was in her first two games, with more detail.
 * Zelda's blue costume is the same color as she was in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
 * Link:
 * Link's red costume is his Goron Tunic. It is also the same as when he used the Red Ring in the Legend of Zelda, when he used the shield spell in Zelda II, and his Red Mail in A Link to the Past.
 * Link's blue costume is his Zora Tunic.
 * Link's white costume is the same as when he used the blue ring in The Legend of Zelda, and his Blue Mail in A Link to the Past.
 * Mewtwo:
 * Mewtwo's green costume is the same as his shiny variation in Pokemon Silver/Gold and onwards.
 * Marth:
 * Marth's white costume is based on Leaf,the protagonist of Fire Emblem Thracia 776.

SSBB
Brawl changed the idea with Color Changes just a bit. Instead of the original four, all characters have about six costumes instead. Also, some characters such as Wario have special color changes.
 * Mario:
 * Mario's blue costume is what he originally wore in his first few games.
 * Mario's yellow costume is based on Wario just as before.
 * Mario's white costume has his shirt white and his overalls red. This is based on Fire Mario.
 * Peach:
 * Peach's yellow costume changes nearly her entire appearance to that of Daisy, including her hair color, hair style, earrings, dress style, gloves, crown and even skin color.
 * Donkey Kong:
 * Donkey Kong's white costume makes him look like a yeti, perhaps the character Eddie the Mean Old Yeti from the Donkey Kong Country TV series.
 * Fox:
 * One of Fox's costumes is based on his outfit in Star Fox Adventures.
 * Samus:
 * Samus' blue costume is based off her Fusion Suit.
 * Zelda:
 * Zelda's pink costume is based off her outfit in Melee.
 * Zelda's black outfit is a Dark Zelda.
 * Link:
 * Link's red costume is his Goron Tunic from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. It is also the same as when he used the Red Ring in the Legend of Zelda, when he used the shield spell in Zelda II, and his Red Mail in A Link to the Past.
 * Link's blue costume is his Zora Tunic from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
 * Link's white costume is the same as when he used the blue ring in The Legend of Zelda, and his Blue Mail in A Link to the Past.
 * Link's black costume is based of Dark Link.
 * Pikachu:
 * Pikachu's red costume is Red's hat, the protagonist of Pokemon Red and Blue.
 * Pikachu's blue costume are the goggles worn by Pichu in Melee or possibly Go-Goggles from R/S/E.
 * Pikachu's green costume is Brendan's headband from Pokemon Emerald.
 * Meta Knight:
 * Meta Knight's black costume is based off Dark Meta Knight.
 * Pit
 * Pit changes to black and is called a Fallen Angel.
 * Pit can also change to a golden color.
 * Snake
 * Snake uses different kinds of camoflauge.
 * Pokémon Trainer
 * The Trainer's outfit takes the color scheme of Brendan from Emerald
 * Ivysaur's bulb changes to green.
 * Charizard changes to an olivey-green color.
 * His black costume makes him Black & White.
 * His white costume makes his hat look like the hat Leaf, the female hero of Pokémon FireRed & LeafGreen, wears.
 * Wario
 * Wario has a "special" outfit, his classic overalls, that effectively doubles his alternate costume choices.
 * Interestingly, one of Wario's alternate colors for his "classic" overalls resembles the color scheme of Mario's outfit, albeit with the shirt and overall color swapped, similar to one of Mario's alternate costumes. This somewhat mirrors the way that Wario's "classic" outfit appears as one of Mario's alternate costumes. Two of Wario's other alternate colors for his "classic" look appear similar to alternate costumes for Mario and Luigi (specifically, Mario's green costume and Luigi's black costume).
 * King Dedede
 * He has a Pink Costume.
 * Link
 * His white costume is based on Fire Luigi.
 * Yoshi:
 * All of his coatumes are based on different color variation of the Yoshi-species.
 * Toon Link:
 * His black costume is based off a toon-version of Dark Link.

Images (Smash Bros. DOJO)