The Team Battle option as shown on the character selection screen inMelee. The current setup shows a 2 vs. 1 vs. 1 team setup, with Players 1 and 2 fighting solo and Players 3 and 4 on a team.

Team Battle is aVersus Mode setting present in all games of theSuper Smash Bros. series. As the name suggests, players (whether human or CPU) fight alongside others on their team, against the opposing team(s). Team Battle can be toggled on and off in the upper left-hand corner of thecharacter selection screen by selecting the word "Free-for-all" inSmash 64, or the word "Melee"/"Brawl"/"Smash" in subsequent games.

Gameplay[edit]

A team battle can contain red, blue, and green teams. Prior toSuper Smash Bros. 4, characters are required to usealternate costumes matching their team color; if two or more players are using the same character on the same team, they will be differentiated by a lighter or darker tint. InSmash 4 andUltimate, a character's allegiance is instead indicated by a colored outline, thus enabling the player to use any color costume of their choice for their character. Once a game that features teams is completed, theannouncer will announce the winning team color on theresults screen instead of the last character standing. The following team setups are possible (not counting combinations with only one player per team):

Additionally, with the introduction of the8-Player Smash mode inSuper Smash Bros. for Wii U, made a default option inSuper Smash Bros. Ultimate, an additional yellow team color can be selected. With a maximum of eight characters that can participate in a match, further team setups become available. The setups done with 5 or more players are:

Since team battles are a regular type of Versus Mode, the usual options ofTime,Stock, andCoin Battle matches can be selected, along withSpecial Smash rules as well. In Time and Coin matches, the score (or coins collected) of each team is the combined score of its members and if multiple teams have the same total by the end of the match, thenSudden Death will occur between all members of the tied teams. Stock matches are played in essentially the same manner; each player starts with a set number of lives and the objective is to deplete the stock of the opposing team(s). However, in Team Stock matches there is a feature known asShare Stock where, when one player on a team loses their last stock and has a teammate with two or more stocks, the fallen teammate may borrow one of their teammate's stocks and re-spawn as usual.

With the default setting, members of the same team cannot attack each other. However, turning onFriendly Fire on the options screen will allow players to damage their allies. This can lead to techniques such as easily usingMr. Game & Watch'sOil Panic move, givingKirby a copy ability usingInhale, healingNess orLucas withPSI Magnet, or hitting a recovering ally with a low-knockbackprojectile, allowing them to reuse theirup special move after becominghelpless.

Team battles are also available when playingWith Anyone online. This requires four players, who are randomly split into red and blue teams for a two-minute time match with Friendly Fire disabled.

In all games exceptSmash 4, all members of the winning team will perform theirvictory poses simultaneously. InSmash 4, only one of the characters (the player with the highest score/stock count) will perform a complete victory animation and even then, only one of their animations can ever play, usually being the least special effects-heavy (Mewtwo, for example, can only use the victory animation where it turns its head towards the screen after facing away, and can never use its other two). InUltimate, ifJoker orSephiroth poses in front, no other team members will appear. Furthermore, if a solo player wins a Team Battle, the character will perform their victory pose, as in a regular Free For All match.

InUltimate, players have the option to toggle whether their teammate is translucent or not in Local Wireless andOnline battles, so that they can focus more on their battle, not the other teammate.

In competitive play[edit]

Team Battle is sometimes used during tournaments for specific events. The most common use by far is fordoubles, or a 2v2 format, butSmash 4 allowing 8 players introduced the possibility for triples, quadruples, and any other team setup mentioned above. While not as popular as the singles format due to logistical issues inherent to relying on other people to compete, dedicated tournaments andexhibition matches using this mode are commonplace asside events.

Gallery[edit]

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  Team Battle flags inBrawl.

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  The final five seconds of a team battle inSuper Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS onYoshi's Island.

Trivia[edit]

• InSuper Smash Bros. Brawl andSuper Smash Bros. 4, enabling team attack will make theshield color for human players based on port number, rather than team color (i.e. Player 1 has red shield, Player 2 has blue shield, Player 3 has yellow shield, and Player 4 has green shield). This also affects their blastKO's explosion color. This was fixed inUltimate.
  • Brawl also erroneously gives the green team a yellow shield.
  • InSmash 4, both Player 3 and Player 4 will have their shield, launch trail, and blast KO explosion colors swapped from their normal port colors.
• In the originalSuper Smash Bros., selecting the blue team was the only way to useSamus' orCaptain Falcon's blue color, and selecting the green team was the only way to get Captain Falcon's,Mario's,Kirby's, andDonkey Kong's green color, which were not selectable otherwise.
• During 2 vs. 1 or 3 vs. 1 battles inSuper Smash Bros. Melee, despite there being only one opponent to attack, the Bully, Predator, and Stalkerpenalties will still be given out to the members of the multi-player team for only attacking a single participant.
• BecauseWario inBrawl has two sets of outfits, each with its own team setup, he is the only character who has a choice of clothing in team battles prior toSmash 4.
• According to codes,Melee has two unused Team Colors that normally only apply to 1P game modes. When Port 3 is the only controller to select modes in the main menu, Player 3 will be their assigned number and color for all solo modes, with Classic mode using an exclusive Yellow Team for their CPU allies in 2 vs. 2 matches or Giant Battles. Their other unused Team Color is Gray, which applies exclusively to all CPU opponents in nearly every solo game mode.

• Multiplayer modes
• Options
• Modes (SSB)
• Modes (SSBM)
• Modes (SSBB)
• Modes (SSB4)
• Modes (SSBU)