A Starter Character is a character who is already available for play immediately after turning the game on for the first time; the player does not have to unlock, challenge or download that character in order for him or her to be selectable (as one must do to select unlockable characters and downloadable characters).
List of Starter Characters[]
The following characters appear as starter characters:
Super Smash Bros.[]
Super Smash Bros. starters.
Super Smash Bros. Melee[]
Super Smash Bros. Melee starters.
- Bowser
- Captain Falcon
- Donkey Kong
- Fox
- Ice Climbers
- Kirby
- Link
- Mario
- Ness
- Peach
- Pikachu
- Samus
- Yoshi
- Zelda/Sheik
Super Smash Bros. Brawl[]
Super Smash Bros. Brawl starters.
- Bowser
- Diddy Kong
- Donkey Kong
- Fox
- Ice Climbers
- Ike
- King Dedede
- Kirby
- Link
- Lucas
- Mario
- Meta Knight
- Olimar
- Peach
- Pikachu
- Pit
- Pokémon Trainer
- Samus/Zero Suit Samus
- Wario
- Yoshi
- Zelda/Sheik
Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS/Wii U[]
Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS starters.
Super Smash Bros. for Wii U starters.
- Bayonetta (DLC Purchase)
- Bowser
- Bowser Jr.*
- Captain Falcon
- Charizard
- Cloud (DLC Purchase)
- Corrin (DLC Purchase)
- Diddy Kong
- Donkey Kong
- Fox
- Ganondorf*
- Greninja
- Ike
- Jigglypuff*
- King Dedede
- Kirby
- Link
- Little Mac
- Lucas (DLC Purchase)
- Lucario
- Luigi
- Mario
- Marth
- Mega Man
- Meta Knight
- Mewtwo (DLC Purchase)
- Mii Fighters**
- Ness*
- Olimar
- Pac-Man
- Palutena
- Peach
- Pikachu
- Pit
- Robin
- Rosalina & Luma
- Roy (DLC Purchase)
- Ryu (DLC Purchase)
- Samus
- Sheik
- Shulk
- Sonic
- Toon Link
- Villager
- Wii Fit Trainer
- Yoshi
- Zelda
- Zero Suit Samus
* Characters that are only starter characters in the Wii U version
** While Mii Fighters don't appear on the roster at the start of the game, the ability to create them is available at the start.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate[]
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate starters.
In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, only the characters from the Original 8 in the original Super Smash Bros. are starter characters. Ultimate has the same number of starters as Smash 64 (the first installment). The other 4 characters from the Original 12 (Captain Falcon, Jigglypuff, Luigi, and Ness) are reverted back to being unlockables.
- Banjo & Kazooie (DLC Purchase)
- Byleth (DLC Purchase)
- Donkey Kong
- Fox
- Hero (DLC Purchase)
- Joker (DLC Purchase)
- Kazuya (DLC Purchase)
- Kirby
- Link
- Mario
- Min Min (DLC Purchase)
- Mii Fighters**
- Piranha Plant (DLC Purchase)
- Pikachu
- Pyra/Mythra (DLC Purchase)
- Samus
- Sephiroth (DLC Purchase)
- Sora (DLC Purchase)
- Steve (DLC Purchase)
- Terry (DLC Purchase)
- Yoshi
** While Mii Fighters don’t appear on the roster at the start of the game, the ability to create them is available from the start.
Trivia[]
- Super Smash Bros. for Wii U is the first game where all of the original 12 characters appear as starters.
- Sakurai considered on having all characters available from the start in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, but decided to add unlockable characters due to the fans looking forward to the “Challenger Approaching!” segments.
- Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS has the same number of starter characters as the number of total characters in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
- Sakurai stated that in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, only the original 8 characters from Super Smash Bros. will be starter characters.[1]
- The number of starting characters in both Super Smash Bros. and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate are the same number as how many unlockable characters there are in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, 8 (If excluding Mii Fighters).