All-Star mode is a gameplay mode available in both Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. Brawl series that pits the player against every playable character in the game.
Super Smash Bros. Melee
First introducted in Melee, All-Star mode is unlocked by unlocking all of the characters in the game. In this mode, the player fights through every character in the game with one life.
Between matches, the player enter the Rest Area. Here there are 3 Heart Containers, which is the only way to regain health. Sometimes, random trophies may be found as well.
All matches have the characters (other than Mr. Game & Watch) at random for each play. However in the last one, the player have to defeat 25 Mr. Game & Watches in the Flat Zone stage. Finishing the mode will earn the player the Smash Blue trophy of the character that they playing.
All characters will use their first 3 alternate costumes. However, if the human player uses one of the 3 alternate costumes of that character, then one of the computer opponent might use the other 2 alternate costumes or the default costume of that same character. The only exception to this rule is Mr. Game & Watch in which all 25 opponents will use his default black costume (unless the human player uses his default costume; only then the other Mr. Game & Watches will use his alternate red costume instead).
The stages at based on the opponent's home stage. However, if their are two or more opponents, the stage will be based on the the first opponent's home stage. Some characters don't have an exact home stage and therefore use others. However, these characters will have more appropriate music playing based on their own universe (except for Ganondorf, in which the normal music for Brinstar Depths will play). For example, Young Link uses Jungle Japes as his home stage, but the music that plays when fighting will be Saria's Song from The Legend of Zelda series.
If the music is different to the stage's default theme, that music will be listed italic and in brackets on the list below. The home stages for each character are:
| Stages in All-star Mode | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First Opponent | Home Stage (Music) | ||||
| Dr. Mario | Mushroom Kingdom II (Dr. Mario) | ||||
| Mario | Rainbow Cruise | ||||
| Luigi | Mushroom Kingdom | ||||
| Bowser | Yoshi's Island (Super Mario Bros. 3) | ||||
| Peach | Princess Peach's Castle | ||||
| Yoshi | Yoshi's Story | ||||
| Donkey Kong | Kongo Jungle | ||||
| Captain Falcon | Mute City | ||||
| Ganondorf | Brinstar Depths | ||||
| Falco | Venom | ||||
| Fox | Corneria | ||||
| Ness | Onett | ||||
| Ice Climbers | Icicle Mountain | ||||
| Kirby | Green Greens | ||||
| Samus | Brinstar | ||||
| Zelda | Temple | ||||
| Link | Great Bay | ||||
| Young Link | Jungle Japes (Saria's Song) | ||||
| Pichu | Fourside (Battle Theme) | ||||
| Pikachu | Pokémon Stadium | ||||
| Jigglypuff | Poké Floats | ||||
| Mewtwo | Battlefield (Poké Floats) | ||||
| Mr. Game & Watch | Flat Zone | ||||
| Marth | Fountain of Dreams (Fire Emblem) | ||||
| Roy | Final Destination (Fire Emblem) | ||||
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
The All-Star mode Rest Station in SSBB, with the player as Lucario.
All-Star mode has returned in Brawl, and again needs to be unlocked. It is mostly unchanged from Melee. The player still gets 3 Heart Containers, random Trophies (however, they will not appear as a question mark if the game is paused), and fight through every character in the game. The player still only has 1 life, and they do not regain health between matches without a Heart Container, although the player can now enter the teleporter without having to wait for their health to fully recover.
However, instead of the matches having a progressively large enemy team, the opponents are based on their series of origin. 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 the player KOs one of the opponents. This means that stages for Kid Icarus, Ice Climber, and Pikmin will be easier than Mario, Legend of Zelda, and Pokémon. In the latter's case, there are a total of six opponents, as the Pokémon Trainer will send out each Pokémon separately. On the Metroid stage, the player may randomly battle either Samus or Zero Suit Samus, and on the Zelda stage, they may battle Zelda or Sheik.
Another note is that the player doesn't fight a team randomly, but on stages with multiple opponents, the order of the opponents is random. This essentially means that while the mode is always in a set order, on stages like the Mario universe, multiple characters will be fought in any order. The stages are chronologically ordered by series' first release in Japan. As such, the player will always fight Mr. Game & Watch first, and Olimar last.
The stage the player fights each character on will be a home stage from Brawl, randomly selected if there are more than one. Battlefield and Final Destination are not considered home stages, while Mario Bros. is R.O.B.'s home stage. However, if Mario Bros. has not yet been unlocked, he appears in Delfino Plaza instead.
This is the order for All-Star Mode:
| All-Star Mode order | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Series | Characters | Years | |||
| Game & Watch | Mr. Game & Watch | 1980 | |||
| Mario | Mario Luigi Peach Bowser |
1981, 1983, 1985 | |||
| Donkey Kong | Donkey Kong Diddy Kong |
1981, 1994 | |||
| Ice Climber | Ice Climbers | 1984 | |||
| Robot | R.O.B. | 1985 | |||
| The Legend of Zelda | Link Ganondorf Zelda/Sheik Toon Link |
1986, 1998, 2000 | |||
| Metroid | Samus/Zero Suit Samus | 1986, 2004 | |||
| Kid Icarus | Pit | 1987 | |||
| Metal Gear | Snake | 1989 | |||
| Mother/Earthbound | Ness Lucas |
1990, 2001 | |||
| Fire Emblem | Marth Ike |
1990, 2003 | |||
| Yoshi | Yoshi | 1991 | |||
| F-Zero | Captain Falcon | 1991 | |||
| Sonic the Hedgehog | Sonic | 1991 | |||
| Kirby | Kirby King Dedede Meta Knight |
1992, 1993 | |||
| Star Fox | Fox Falco Wolf |
1993, 1996 | |||
| WarioWare | Wario | 1992 | |||
| Pokémon | Pikachu Squirtle Ivysaur Charizard Jigglypuff Lucario |
1996, 2007 | |||
| Pikmin | Olimar (Two Olimars in Co-op mode) | 2001 | |||
Clearing the All-Star takes about 5-20 minutes depending on the character used, the player's skills, and the difficulty setting chosen.
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). Additionally, the player will see an interesting congratulatory picture that plays to what their fighter is.
Co-op mode
In Brawl, All-Star mode may be played with up to 2 players. When playing Co-op, the player receives a total of 5 heart containers, but if either player dies, the player will get game over. The opponents are the same until the last battle, where the players face 2 Olimars instead of one (a possible nod to Louie from Pikmin 2). One advantage of playing All-Star with 2 players is that if the players both are 2 different characters, beating All-Star will get them the Final Smash trophy for both characters at the same time.
Note: Obtaining Final Smash trophies through Co-op will not clear the Challenges for All-Star Mode, such as clearing it with ten characters.
Rewards
In Super Smash Bros. Melee
- Clearing All-Star mode one time will result in unlocking the Battlefield. stage, as well the Battlefield trophy.
- Clearing All-Star mode on Hard or Very Hard gives the player the Mew trophy (they can use continues).
- Clearing All-Star mode without using continues gives the player the Wario trophy.
- Clearing All-Star mode with all characters gives the player the Meowth trophy.
In Super Smash Bros. Brawl
- Clearing All-Star mode on Easy gives the player the Tal Tal Heights Music.
- Clearing All-Star mode on Normal gives the player a sticker of Phyllis.
- Clearing All-Star mode on Hard gives the player the Birdo trophy.
- Clearing All-Star mode on Very Hard gives the player the Dyna Blade trophy.
- Clearing All-Star mode on Intense gives the player the Mewtwo trophy.
- Clearing All-Star mode with 10 characters gives the player the Gekko trophy.
- Clearing All-Star mode with all characters gives the player the Kyle Hyde trophy.
- Clearing All-Star mode with all characters (including alternate characters that can be switched in) gives the player the Plusle & Minun trophy.
- Clearing All-Star mode without using continues gives the player the Pichu trophy.
Music
In Melee
All-Star mode is heavily based on Kirby Super Star's Arena. In Melee, the music comes from The Great Cave Offensive Save Room in Kirby Super Star. Interestingly enough, in Kirby Super Star Ultra, this music is used in The Arena between boss fights. The 3 songs can be compared here.
In Brawl
In Brawl, the music is a light, relaxed remix of Brawl's main theme.