The Rumble menu inSuper Smash Bros. Melee

Rumble can refer to either a function found in the variouscontrollers available for theSuper Smash Bros. series or to a menu found inSuper Smash Bros. Melee,Super Smash Bros. Brawl,Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, andSuper Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Controller function[edit]

A Rumble Pak, attached to a Nintendo 64 controller.

The idea of adding haptic feedback, more commonly known as vibration, to controllers was first introduced by theNintendo 64 console in 1997, following the release ofStar Fox 64. The peripheral, called the "Rumble Pak", connected to the expansion port built into the Nintendo 64 controllers and used a motor coupled with an unbalanced weight to enact its effects; whenever the motor spun its axle, the weight would cause rapid shifts in inertia in the controller, leading to the vibrating mechanism.

Initially expected to be a novelty, the "Rumble Pak" later spread, with many games later supporting the accessory, and some older games were actually re-released in order to take advantage of the peripheral. Among the games to feature Rumble Pak compatibility wasSuper Smash Bros.; the game would make the controllers rumble whenever the player's character was hit or performing an attack, amongst other events.

The laterGameCube,Wii, andWii U consoles all had controllers that would vibrate, but in these cases, the mechanism was built into the controller, as opposed to the Nintendo 64. TheClassic Controller andNunchuk, however, lack rumble mechanisms, though the Wii Remote they are connected to will still vibrate. In later games of the series, the controller began to rumble more often, such as before theResults screen and before starting matches in theClassic Mode.

Controllers for theNintendo Switch were created with a new feature calledHD Rumble. This feature has the ability to change the way the controller vibrates in real time depending on context. Aside from all uses of rumble from previously games,Ultimate uses HD Rumble in a few unique ways. The main way is that whiffed attacks cause a weak vibration while an attack that connects causes a much stronger vibration. This mechanic is mainly used as tactile confirmation of the attack connecting in case of ambiguous situations. The rumble feature is also used for many other minor interactions, such as landing from a jump, each step taken while on the ground, blocking attacks while holding shield, and during the splash animation of aVictory pose.Kazuya has a specific effect where the controllers will vibrate to simulate a heartbeat while he is in hisRage mode.

Menu setting[edit]

Melee,Brawl,Smash Wii U andUltimate have a "Rumble" settings in the Options menu, where the player can select whether or not they want their controllers to vibrate or not. Individual names also can have Rumble features on or off; in these cases, selecting the name overrides what the player's controller port is set to. The Wii, Wii U and Nintendo Switch have their own Rumble setting in the menu; turning this feature on is required to make Wii Remotes, the Wii U GamePad, Joycons and Wii U/Switch Pro Controllers (alongside GameCube controllers inUltimate) rumble in the respectiveSuper Smash Bros games.

InSmash Wii U andUltimate, it is not possible to disable rumble to specific ports, potentially due to how the game handles them on the character selection screen. Instead, the functionality is handled entirely by theControls menu, where a single button will disable rumble completely for all compatible controllers tied to aname. Similar toMelee andBrawl, names which have rumble enabled will override this option during gameplay.

As the Rumble Pak can simply be removed from the Nintendo 64 controller, there is no Rumble menu in the original game while rumble is not present in the Wii Virtual Console version. InUltimate, the ability to turn rumble on or off has been folded into the button settings screen in the Controls menu.

In competitive play[edit]

While Rumble is enabled by default in all games in theSmash series, players in tournaments can choose whether or not to enable the feature on their controllers. Some players disable Rumble, as they find the effect to be distracting, and somecontroller mods even focus on removing the rumble motor from controllers as to prevent the need to manually disable the feature before matches. Other players leave Rumble on, as it can potentially act as a stimulus forSmash DI, or simply because they do not find the feature distracting.

Gallery[edit]

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  The Rumble menu inSuper Smash Bros. Brawl.

Trivia[edit]

• InUltimate, the Joy-Con will rumble as soon as the game determines that a hit has occurred. Due to thedelay of 6 frames always present on top ofdisplay lag and potentiallyWi-Fi lag if playing online, the Joy-Con will rumble perceptibly earlier than the hit will be displayed on screen, and for fast enough attacks, even before the attack animation begins.
• Ultimate introduced some rumble-related errors in version 7.0.0 that persist to this day.Toon Link'sback aerial andCloud'sup smash, which both received balance changes in this update, no longer trigger the stronger "attack connect" HD rumble.
• InSuper Smash Bros. Melee, when the word "GAME!" appears after finishing a battle with theMaster Hand glitch, if Master Hand wins, the controller will vibrate constantly until the game is reset. This is because the controller vibrates until the character appears in theirvictory pose on the results screen, but as Master Hand does not have a victory pose, the game freezes and the controller never receives the signal to stop vibrating.
• InUltimate, it is impossible to use more than fourGameCube controllers locally exclusively with official hardware and have Rumble turned on for all of them without an USB port hub. This is due to the Nintendo Switch only having three USB ports, meaning only one controller adapter can have its gray USB cable plugged in.

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