Mario's on-screen appearance inBrawl.

Mario andCaptain Falcon enterPeach's Castle inSuper Smash Bros.

Theon-screen appearance, also known as anintro orentrance and asEntry (orEntryL andEntryR) internally, is a short animation that shows each character entering astage before the beginning of a match. Except inSuper Smash Bros. Melee, each character has a unique appearance that usually relates to their universe, such asMario entering through a warp pipe the way he does at the beginning ofSuper Mario 64. On-screen appearances may not occur in some modes or for non-playable characters, in which case they will stand idly before the match begins.

InSuper Smash Bros., they are used inVS Mode and the standard matches in1P Game except for the battle withMaster Hand. InMelee, they are used in all modes. In subsequent games, they are only used in multiplayer modes.

While the characters appear, the camera will either pan far enough away from the stage to show each entrance on-screen, or zoom in between each character during the first few frames of their entrance. InSuper Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS, the screen will occasionally only focus on the player's own on-screen appearance.^[1] InSuper Smash Bros. for Wii U, the camera may sometimes not focus on every character, instead focusing on just one, depending on the number of players.

On-screen appearances typically do not occur all at once, but instead one after another for the sake of giving every character a moment in the spotlight. The order is typically decided byPort priority, with the lowest port always going first, essentially left to right. The only exception is inBattle Arenas, where the host always appears first.

Besides characters, the on-screen appearances may also show other entities being summoned alongside them:Zero Suit Samus inBrawl scattersPower Suit Pieces,Olimarplucks three Pikmin, andSteve has a crafting table placed at his position.

Lists of on-screen appearances[edit]

InSuper Smash Bros. Melee[edit]

TwoMarios "coming to life".

Unique on-screen appearances are absent inMelee. Instead, all playable characters briefly start as trophies that "come to life" before the match begins. Only Master Hand and Crazy Hand have "true" on-screen appearances, where they both gradually enter the stage from the background, laughing.

Sheik has the same on-screen appearance as every other character, but it additionally plays the sound effect heard when usingTransform.

Giga Bowser, when fought inThe Showdown andAdventure Mode, has no on-screen appearance. He does have an introduction clip before being fought in Adventure Mode, which consists ofGiant Bowser's trophy being flung back onto the stage, transforming into Giga Bowser. When playing as Giga Bowser in Vs. Mode viahacking, he can be forced into the regular on-screen appearance when the "Must be ON"Action Replay code is not turned on. He will be in aT-pose upon appearing,freezing the game if he's fought on stages outside theSmash universe.

CPU players inEvent matches (including allies) and the Hands inEvent 50: Final Destination Match do not go through their on-screen appearances. InAll-Star Mode, the player will only go through their on-screen appearance in the first stage, while CPU enemies (barring theMr. Game & Watch team in the final stage) will always go through them normally.

Sakurai stated in response to a submission onSmabura-Ken's questionnaire that character-specific entrance animations were removed because of the GameCube's hardware limitations; unlike the Nintendo 64, which could freely retrieve character data from the cartridge, the GameCube’s optical disc format required all necessary data to be preloaded into RAM, and including additional entrance assets like Mario’s Warp Pipe would have increased memory usage and potentially led to longer load times.^[2]

Trivia[edit]

• InSuper Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS, if there is at least one human player in the battle, then only Player 1's on-screen appearance will be focused on onscreen, before showing the other fighters standing in place. However, if the battle consists of only CPUs then all on-screen appearances will be shown one after another.
  • When in a battle tounlock a fighter, however, the opposing fighter's on-screen appearance is focused on onscreen instead.
• Link,Zero Suit Samus, andSheik are the only characters to have their on-screen appearances change between games.
  • Of these, Link is the only one not to change fromBrawl toSSB4. Link is also the only one to change in multiple games.
• InSuper Smash Bros. Brawl, there was a small error regardingToon Link's entrance. If one looks closely at the explosion, one can clearly see that both his sword and shield are not sheathed even though they should be. This was fixed inSuper Smash Bros. 4.
• AlthoughLittle Mac's entrance animation shows him flinging off his pink sweatshirt, he does not do so if his currently chosenpalette swap has him wearing it permanently (both wireframe and non-wireframe versions included).
  • InSuper Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS, Little Mac's gloves only change color to match his currently chosen palette swap after he throws his sweatshirt off, meaning he always enters the stage wearing green gloves and a pink hoodie when not using a wireframe costume, and pink gloves with a green hoodie when using a wireframe costume. InUltimate, Little Mac's green hoodie in his wireframe costume becomes pink when he throws it off during his on-screen appearance.
• Mario,Luigi,Peach,Snake,Pokémon Trainer, andKen are the only characters that speak during their on-screen appearances.
  • Of these characters, Snake is the only one to not always speak during his on-screen appearance. This only applies inBrawl.
  • Pokémon Trainer has different lines depending on which Pokémon is sent out first.
  • Daisy, Pichu, Wario, Ike, Lucario, Duck Hunt, and King K. Rool also vocalize during their on-screen appearances but do not actually speak real words.
  • Additionally, Pichu, Ike, and Duck Hunt are the only characters who do not use a specific voice clip for their on-screen appearance, as Pichu's is also used for its side taunt, Ike uses one of his attack voice clip, and Duck Hunt's is shared with one of their victory poses.
• Captain Falcon (sinceBrawl), the Ice Climbers (inBrawl only), Pyra, and Mythra are the only characters whose on-screen appearance animations significantly differ depending on which direction they are facing.
• Chrom, Dark Pit, Ken, and Richter are the only characters inUltimate to completely share their on-screen appearance animations with other characters. Coincidentally, all of them areEcho Fighters.
• The spellHero uses for his on screen appearance is also one of the main moves he can use as part of hisCommand Selection, making him the only character to use a move in his on-screen appearance that can be used during gameplay.
• Some series’ characters have a pattern where many of them use a similar on-screen appearance, even if the animation is not exactly the same:
  • Mario and Luigi both emerge from Warp Pipes.
  • Peach and Daisy both appear from thin air with theirparasols.
  • Donkey Kong andDiddy Kong both jump out of a DK Barrel.King K. Rool does not, making him the onlyDonkey Kong character with a different on-screen appearance.
  • TheStar Fox characters all jump out of their respective ships.
  • AllFire Emblem characters exceptCorrin appear using warp magic.
  • Pit and Dark Pit both appear from a beam of light, though the color of the beams differs between the two. Palutena does not, making her the onlyKid Icarus character with a different on-screen appearance.
  • Ryu and Ken both walk on stage from some mist in the background.
  • Simon and Richter both appear on stage surrounded by light.
  • AllPokémon characters exceptMewtwo andLucario emerge from aPoké Ball.
  • Villager and Isabelle both exit from a building, though the building they exit from differs between the two. Villager’s building is a house, while Isabelle’s is the town hall, the same buildings they use for their Final Smashes.
  • Pyra andMythra both catch their swords that are thrown to them byRex. Unlike the other characters listed above, Pyra and Mythra are a transformation duo, akin toSheik andZelda fromMelee andBrawl.

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Compilation of on-screen appearances inSuper Smash Bros.
• Compilation of on-screen appearances inSuper Smash Bros. Brawl
• Compilation of on-screen appearances inSuper Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS (Japanese version)
• Compilation of on-screen appearances inSuper Smash Bros. for Wii U
• Compilation of on-screen appearances inSuper Smash Bros. Ultimate

• Gameplay
• On-screen appearances