In Super Smash Bros. Melee, All-Star Mode is an unlockable 1-player mode which pits the player up against every character in the game. The battles consist of a set amount of randomly picked characters teamed against the player, and the last fight is always against a team of 25 Mr. Game & Watches. The characters are fought on the "home stages" of the first member on the list (if there are teams). (Roy and Mewtwo, notably, use Final Destination as their stages.)
However, the player does not automatically regain health in between battles, with only way to heal being one of three Heart Containers available in between matches. These Heart Containers, unlike normal containers, heal the player up to 999% (restoring the player to 0%) instead of only healing 100% damage. However, if the player enters the portal while damage is being healed, then the damage will not heal any further, and the next match will start with the same amount of damage the player had when he or she entered the portal. The player can also absorb damage with Ness' PK Magnet and create food with Mr. Game & Watch's Judge. The player can also collect random trophies that sometimes appear after they finish a battle against another character or a team.
In order to unlock All-Star mode, one must unlock every character.
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
All-Star Mode has returned in Brawl, and again needs to be unlocked. And it's mostly the same except for a few details. You still get 3 Heart Containers, random Trophies, and fight through every character in the game. You still only have 1 life, and you do not regain health between matches without a Heart Container (although you can now enter the teleporter without having to wait for your health to fully recover).
However, instead of the matches having a progressively large enemy team, the opponents are based by series released in chronological order. The highest count of enemies on the stage at a time is two. When a series has more than two opponents a new fighter will appear a few seconds after you KO one of the opponents. This means that stages for Kid Icarus , Ice Climbers, and Pikmin will be easier than Mario , Legend of Zelda, and Pokémon. In the case of Pokémon, there are a total of six opponents, as the Pokémon Trainer will send out each Pokémon separately. On the Metroid stage, you will randomly battle Samus or Zero Suit Samus, and on the Zelda stage, you will battle Zelda or Sheik. Another note is that you don't fight a team randomly. It is always in a set order. It is ordered by series origin. You will always fight Mr. Game & Watch first.
This is the order for All-Star Mode:
Battle 1: Game & Watch - Mr. Game & Watch
Battle 2: Mario Bros. - Mario, Luigi, Peach, Bowser
Battle 3: Donkey Kong - Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong
Battle 4: Ice Climber - Ice Climbers
Battle 5: R.O.B. - R.O.B.
Battle 6: The Legend of Zelda - Link, Toon Link, Ganondorf, Zelda or Sheik
Battle 7: Metroid - Samus or Zero Suit Samus
Battle 8: Kid Icarus - Pit
Battle 9: Metal Gear - Snake
Battle 10: Mother - Ness, Lucas
Battle 11: Fire Emblem - Marth, Ike
Battle 12: Yoshi - Yoshi
Battle 13: F-Zero - Captain Falcon
Battle 14: Sonic the Hedgehog - Sonic
Battle 15: Kirby's Dream Land - Kirby, Meta Knight, King Dedede
Battle 16: Star Fox - Fox, Falco, Wolf
Battle 17: WarioWare, Inc. - Wario
Battle 18: Pokémon - Pikachu, Squirtle, Ivysaur, Charizard, Lucario, Jigglypuff
Battle 19: Pikmin - Olimar
As a reward for completing this mode, the player will earn their character's Final Smash trophy (a trophy of their character using their Final Smash).