"Opening" redirects here. For theMelee track, seeMusic (SSBM).

Theopening movie is a movie that is shown after the game is turned on. It is present in every game of the series, with the exception ofSuper Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS.

Super Smash Bros.[edit]

A shot from the opening ofSuper Smash Bros.

The opening movie starts, panning from the HAL Laboratory vanity card into a bedroom, whereMaster Hand flies about picking up toy versions of a random starter character, which he places over a dresser, whereupon a lamp shines on it like a spotlight. Master Hand, then, goes about rearranging various other objects to make it look like a stage while dropping another toy character upon it. Master Hand then takes to the center of the screen, counts down from three to one and snaps his fingers. The desk morphs into a full stage, and the camera zooms into the first character picked, which comes to life and strikes a pose. After quick flashes of the starting characters, scenes of each character performing a quick move in their home stages are shown, followed by a full scene of all eight of them running together. The opening then cuts to show each character again:

• Link is seen standing by a cliff playing the Ocarina of Time while the camera pans around him. He turns to face the camera once it closes in on him;
• Pikachu balances on aPoké Ball while aPokémon Trainer, only seen by the legs, passes by;
• A scene ofDonkey Kong andSamus fighting appears. Donkey Kong is having no problems, until Samus hits him with a fully-chargedCharge Shot, sending him flying into the sky;
• FourYoshis appear guarding some Yoshi eggs in a nest;
• Finally the Star Fox team'sArwings fly through space escorting theGreat Fox, which is shown to be commanded byFox.

After these scenes, the scene cuts toMario andKirby facing off against a dark, thunderous backdrop. They jump and cross-counter each other with aerial attacks, followed by the other six starter characters doing the same: Link vs. Pikachu, Fox vs. Samus and Donkey Kong vs. Yoshi, followed by a white splash in which the fourunlockable characters (Luigi,Captain Falcon,Ness, andJigglypuff.) are rapidly shown (or their silhouettes, if they have not yet been unlocked). Finally, thetitle screen appears as theannouncer shouts the game's name followed by theCrowd cheering.

Super Smash Bros. Melee[edit]

A shot from the opening ofSuper Smash Bros. Melee

Super Smash Bros. Melee largely uses the FMV scenes in its E3 trailer for its opening, with some changes.

The opening movie starts after the Nintendo and HAL Laboratory logos with atrophy ofMario that is thrown in the air by a human hand into a stadium. As soon as the trophy lands, Mario revives from it and facesLink.Pikachu andKirby also join the battle. Then, a shot ofPeach is shown and Mario performs some of his moves. After that,Bowser rises from a fire sea and thenDonkey Kong is seen running and jumping through a jungle andSamus fightsRidley holding a capsule containing a Metroid baby. Some shots of Link are shown with a moving background withZelda characters and many different coloredYoshis pass by. Then, theIce Climbers climb an ice mountain. Popo slips and almost falls off, but Nana saves him. After that, some gameplay shots are shown.Mario's eye quickly flashes onscreen as the transition to the next scene, in whichSheik plays on a harp while a ghostly image ofZelda is in the sky andKirby flies around on aWarp Star. When Kirby disappears, anArwing controlled byFox and aWolfen controlled byWolf O'Donnell are fighting andNess warps intoOnett. Then, severalPokémon appear whileJigglypuff peeps out from the bottom right corner. Then we seeCaptain Falcon andSamurai Goroh bumping into each other with theirBlue Falcon and Fire Stingray. Goroh’s vehicle explodes. A vortex appears, sucking in images of all the starter characters. Then, Bowser roars as he appears in a flash of lightning, while Mario, Yoshi, and Peach struggle to hold their ground. Some shots ofMelee characters are shown, the Great Fox,Falcon Flyer, and Samus'Gunship fly by. Next, aBob-omb appears and we see the ‘Get Ready’ text on a black screen for a single second before trophies of four fighters are blasted away by the Bob-Omb and thetitle screen appears while the announcer gives the game's name.

The music that plays during this opening movie isOpening.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl[edit]

A shot from the opening ofSuper Smash Bros. Brawl

Super Smash Bros. Brawl's intro usesscenes from theSubspace Emissary, along with a few selections ofVs. Mode matches.

The movie starts with a view of all the characters (except forZero Suit Samus andSheik) gazing at an "X" in the sky that was formerly theIsle of the Ancients. This also appears as the last scene in the SSE. This is followed by scenes ofMario,Link,Kirby,Pit,Zelda,Peach,Meta Knight,Donkey Kong,Diddy Kong,Fox, andKing Dedede. Then, a scene of Sheik in a VS match is shown, followed byPikachu using itsdown special onBowser,Samus, andLucas, followed by a VS match shot ofIke and a SSE shot of Zero Suit Samus and her Power Suit. After this comes SSE cutscenes ofWario,Olimar and his RedPikmin,Yoshi, theIce Climbers,Ness and Lucas,Pokémon Trainer, Lucas, andBowser. The next series of clips showsSonic,Snake, Wario, Lucas, the Ice Climbers, King Dedede, Yoshi, Donkey Kong, Pikachu, Peach, Meta Knight in VS matches. This is followed by SSE cutscenes of Mario, Pit, Yoshi, Link, and Kirby, anArwing flying towards theHalberd, Kirby and Zelda,The Great Maze being assembled,Charizard, Pokémon Trainer, and Lucas, as well as VS clips of Olimar and his Pikmin,Ivysaur attacking Pikachu with Pokémon Trainer in the background, Zero Suit Samus, Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, Mario picking up aSuper Mushroom, Kirby, Fox, and Zelda brawling. The movie continues with SSE shots ofSamus and Pikachu, Zelda, Diddy Kong, Ike,Squirtle and Pokémon Trainer,Marth and Meta Knight preparing to battle aSubspace Army, an Arwing flying towards the Halberd, Fox piloting, Kirby and Peach riding on aWarp Star, Bowser andhis minions, Mario and Link dodging lasers fired by theAncient Minister, Pit, Samus and Pikachu, Marth, Ike, and Meta Knight, and shots of the Halberd. The movie ends with thetitle screen being shown.

The music that plays during this opening music is theSuper Smash Bros. Brawl Main Theme.

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U[edit]

The beginning cinematic of the opening movie. This cinematic is used in manySmash 4 promotional videos and media.

There is no opening movie forSuper Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS, though in its place there is a character lineup that orders the roster in a similar fashion to thefighter numbers used in the next game, ordering the first-party starting characters, third-party characters, unlockable characters, clones, and DLC characters in their respective orders. There is a full opening movie in the Wii U version. It consists of footage from both gameplay and character introductiontrailers shown prior to the game's reveal, barringDuck Hunt's.

It begins with a black background, with two slices forming a fierySmash logo. The intro starts with a portion ofShulk's reveal trailer withLink andMarth, followed byMega Man's trailer, Shulk's again with a shot ofBowser, a shot ofRosalina & Luma's trailer withKirby, several shots from the first trailer ofSuper Smash Bros. 4, a screen ofGreninja in its reveal trailer,Samus's shot from the first trailer,Charizard flying around in Greninja's trailer,Wii Fit Trainer in their trailer,Bowser Jr. driving in his Koopa Car in his trailer, and a shot ofLucina fightingCaptain Falcon inRobin's trailer, finishing it off withMario in Greninja's trailer, as the Super Smash Bros. logo appears.

Gameplay footage soon follows, with a fight betweenDonkey Kong, Samus, Mario, and Link. Donkey Kong uses his side special while aBob-omb blows up behind him, followed byFox brawling withYoshi,Luigi avoidingGanondorf's neutral special attack by taunting, Pikachu landing on the ground, Mario using his side special on Samus, Link charging up his bow before firing, Ness using his side special onDiddy Kong and his side smash againstToon Link, with the latter later taunting his side taunt, Kirby standing up to find a Luma and Samus taunting inOrbital Gate Assault. We then get trailer footage intercutting with gameplay of the following newcomers:Villager, Greninja, Wii Fit Trainer,Little Mac,Palutena, Shulk, Rosalina & Luma, Robin, and Bowser Jr. The next following shots include Sheik taunting, Pit using his neutral special,Ike hitting Little Mac,Olimar and Alph using their up special with three different Pikmin,Zero Suit Samus entering,King Dedede taunting behindMeta Knight, Marth using his counter against Link, Ganondorf using his side special on Pit, Diddy Kong's on-screen appearance, Bowser using his down throw on a Villager,Zelda removing her Phantom, Charizard landing,Peach taunting, Captain Falcon activating his side-special on Fox, andLucario doing a recovery. After this, we're given the final smashes ofJigglypuff, Pit, aMii Gunner, Donkey Kong, Bowser Jr., Fox, Robin, Ganondorf, Shulk, Lucario, Wii Fit Trainer, Greninja, Peach, Zero Suit Samus, Little Mac, Luigi, Captain Falcon, and ending it off with Mario and Charizard.

We are later given the following shots for the third-party characters, which includePac-Man,Sonic, and Mega Man. It ends with more shots of the character trailers and gameplay footage, followed by scrolling through various colored panels with character art before concluding with the game's title logo.

The music that plays during this opening cinematic is a variation of theBattlefield theme with a different intro, as well as missing most of the guitar solo at the end.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate[edit]

A shot from the opening ofSuper Smash Bros. Ultimate

The opening movie ofSuper Smash Bros. Ultimate mostly uses clips from Vs. Mode spliced between segments of cutscenes fromAdventure Mode: World of Light.

The music that plays during the opening isLifelight performed by Abby Trott in English and Erina Koga in Japanese, albeit missing the seventh through eleventh verses, most of the ending instrumental, and replacing the instrumental after the sixth verse with one from the tenth verse.

It starts with the shot ofKirby staring at the aftermath ofGaleem's attack in the World of Light cinematic, then transitioning to in-gameplay individual shots ofMario,Link,Samus, and Kirby. The next shot is a group shot of maleRobin,Marth andLucina attacking; which is followed by individual shots ofMega Man and theInkling girl to then cut to a cinematic shot on a cliff with most of the game's cast as the game's logo appears, then after showing Galeem and his army ofMaster Hands.

Gameplay footage is shown ofSnake detonating an explosive onGalleom’s stage,Cloud doing a summon inMidgar andMr. Game & Watch getting attacked byBowser, then showing offBowser Jr. along the rest of theKoopalings, followed by both the male and femalePokémon Trainer as they releaseCharizard,Ivysaur, andSquirtle into battle.Sonic is then shown running and jumping and is followed by battles betweenPac-Man against theIce Climbers andRoy against theRadiant Dawn iteration ofIke, to then show a closer look at Galeem.Peach andDaisy are shown inDelfino Plaza and then evade a giantYoshi landing where they were as the stage changed intoPalutena's Temple.Dr. Mario is seen throwing aFairy Bottle to a helplessLittle Mac who returns to fight after healing.Olimar is seen usingWinged Pikmin while carrying otherPikmin. Both the female and maleWii Fit Trainer are shown chasing a soccer ball, to then cut to a shot of the defaultMii Brawler andMii Swordfighter, before showing variouspuppet fighters in a cinematic.

Fox is shown alone standing onFinal Destination,with no items in sight.Pit is seen using thePower of Flight, followed by a brief glimpse at the trees ofReset Bomb Forest. A sole shot ofMeta Knight is shown, followed by one ofLuigi trying to make a distractedWario fall through one ofYoshi's Island Turning Blocks.Wolf andFalco are shown fighting, transitioning toR.O.B. and theVillager staring at agyro. The defaultMii Gunner is shown usingFlame Pillar to help Mr. Game & Watchcook, followed byDuck Huntflying away from another fire, with more brief shots from the World of Light opening cutscene.

Paired shots ofDonkey Kong withKing K. Rool andLucas withNess are seen and then one ofLink facingGanon. Shots forBayonetta, thePath of Radiance iteration of Ike andChrom,Shulk withMetal Face,Ridley and finallyLucario fightingGreninja are shown, followed byIncineroar performing its Final Smash onKen. All of the Inklings’ alternate costumes are shown, followed bySimon asRichter falls behind him,Captain Falcon doing aFalcon Punch andKing Dedede doing his Final Smash on Wario.Zero Suit Samus is seen fightingDark Samus, followed by a shot ofPalutena alongDark Pit,Rosalina & Luma dodging an attack fromDiddy Kong, then brief scenes of maleCorrin,Zelda,Rathalos,Jigglypuff play before female Corrin is seen on Final Destination, ready to fight Master Hand.

Shots of Ken andRyu andMewtwo with a pair ofPichu are seen before a glimpse ofGiga Bowser.Toon Link,Young Link,Ganondorf andSheik are shown fighting in Ganon’s boss stage, followed by a shot ofIsabelle and the Villager with various items. Some seconds of a match between Mario, Link, Inkling, Snake, Kirby and King K. Rool are shown, then a shot of Simon performingGrand Cross.

Lastly,Pikachu is seen landing onBattlefield and sees the stage transitioning into others, ending off on the variant of Final Destination encountered at the start ofThe Final Battle's boss fights. The screen then cuts to a brief glance of Galeem and his engulfing of the universe into the light as the game's title screen appears as they play the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate title screen sound effect theme at the title screen.

Videos[edit]

Trivia[edit]

• Super Smash Bros. andMelee are the only games that have the announcer shout the game's title at the end of the opening movie in the final game.
• There is at least one unlockable character shown in each movie:
  • SSB:Thefourhiddencharacters appear as a flash near the end, in shadows if not unlocked.
  • Melee:Young Link andGanondorf appear in theOcarina of Time segment, andJigglypuff andPichu are in the Pokémon segment. Additionally,Mewtwo's Shadow Ball can be seen charging and shockingDonkey Kong.
  • Brawl: Not counting the lineup at the beginning, the clips shown containNess,Marth,Sonic, andSnake.
  • Super Smash Bros. for Wii U:Lucina appears in a clip from her andRobin's trailer.
  • Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: Every base game character (and thus all the unlockables) appears in the opening movie.
• The opening forSSB is the only one in the series to be rendered in real-time, as opposed to all other games whose openings are pre-rendered videos.
• The opening forSSB is the only one in which every playable character appears.
  • This does not includeBrawl, as only the lineup at the beginning shows the roster in full, and is dependent upon how much of the roster is unlocked.
• In the lineup at the beginning ofBrawl's opening movie, the lineup initially shows only the starting characters. When the player unlocks more characters and later turns the game on again, they are added to the cliff side.
• Prior to v1.0.6 inSuper Smash Bros. for Wii U, there was a 10% chance that the opening movie wouldn’t play and instead bring the player directly to the start screen.
• If the lineup at the beginning ofBrawl's opening is not counted,Ness is the only one of the original 4 unlockable characters to appear in every opening movie.
  • Inversely, if the lineup at the beginning ofBrawl's openingis counted,Luigi is the only one of the original 4 unlockable characters to not appear in every opening movie, as he is absent inMelee's opening.
• SSB's opening is the only ones that contains original cinematic content made specifically for it.Melee's is primarily just theE3 2001 trailer,SSB4 uses trailers used for newcomers, andBrawl andUltimate use cutscenes from their respective adventure modes.
• The lead singers of the Runaway Five, who appear inMelee's opening movie during Ness's introduction, appear with their Japanese design fromMother 2. InEarthBound, they wore red and green suits.
• Yoshi'sFinal Smash inUltimate,Stampede!, is based on the Yoshis scene fromMelee's opening.
• With the exception ofMarx andDracula, everyboss inUltimate is either represented in its opening movie by their stage or actually being present.Master Hand,Rathalos,Ganon,Galeem, andGiga Bowser are all present.Galleom,Crazy Hand, andDharkon are not present, but their respective boss stages are.
  • Additionally, the opening movie is the only time where Galleom and Galeem/Dharkhon’s boss stages can be seen without the bosses actually being present. Ganon technically counts too, as he is not seen on his stage until the player defeatsGanondorf at the end ofZelda's Classic Route.
• A shot ofUltimate's opening movie possibly is a reference to the internet meme,No items, Fox only, Final Destination.
• The order the characters' first appear on screen in theSuper Smash Bros. andMelee opening movies are what their placement in thecharacter selection screen inUltimate is based on, as that is considered the order they joined the series.
  • The randomly assigned character in the first few seconds of theSSB opening does not count as its first appearance and instead goes by the order their names are flashed on-screen.
  • This caused some peculiar decisions about the select screen order, such as the unlockableSSB characters being revealed fractions of a second apart, andSheik technically appearing beforeZelda in theE3 2001 trailer the final opening is based on.

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