Smash Brothers PC Alternative Archives

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is out now for the Nintendo Switch. It features Nintendo staples such as Mario and Bowser alongside characters from other franchises like Sonic from Sonic the Hedgehog and Simon Belmont from Castlevania. With over 70 characters to choose from, Smash Bros. Ultimate may be daunting for some to get into and if you live in regions where Nintendo doesn't have an official presence, getting a Nintendo Switch and Super Smash Bros. may end up being an expensive proposition. Keeping these in mind, here are five fighting games you should check out if you can't play Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

1. Tekken 7
A fighting game list isn't complete without Tekken and Tekken 7 delivers a dark plot in its single-player mode, revamped critical attack mechanics, and a modified movement system all while sticking to 3D arena-styled levels and fluid combat that have been a series hallmark since the very first game in arcades and on the PS1. You can get it for Rs. 1,999 on PS4 and Rs. 989 on PC via Steam ($20 in the US).

2. Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition
Despite having a rocky launch back in 2016, Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition is the first major update to Street Fighter V that gives you new modes such as Extra Battle Mode, expanded single-player content and a revamped UI. If you already own Street Fighter V and haven't played it for awhile, this is a free update. Thanks to the myriad of fixes and additional game modes, there's more than a reason to give Capcom's fighting game a go. And if you're new to the series, this is a good starting point thanks to its many tweaks and changes since 2016. It's available on PS4 for Rs. 2,750 and PC via Steam for Rs. 2,450 ($20 in the US).

3. Dragon Ball Fighterz
Made by the studio responsible for BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle, Dragon Ball Fighterz features over the top action with an exceptionally easy to access control scheme that would have you pulling off flashy moves like a pro. Furthermore, its adherence to the source material makes it worth it if you're a fan of the long-running anime series. It's available on PS4 for Rs. 2,755 ($33.20 in the US).

4. BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle
BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle is a 2D fighting game featuring characters from games such as Persona 4 Arena and Under Night In-Birth and anime such as RWBY. It stands out thanks to its colourful cel-shaded visuals coupled with intricate animations and a story mode that's accessible even if you don't understand the lore of the various franchises. It's out now on PS4 for Rs.2,750 and PC via Steam for Rs. 1,099 ($38 in the US).

5. SoulCalibur 6
With a robust character creation suite, a generous single-player campaign, and an intuitive yet deep combat system, SoulCalibur 6 is an entertaining reboot of this weapon-based fighting series. Thanks to cameos from the likes of Geralt of Rivia from The Witcher series and 2B from Nier Automata, there's enough for fans and newcomers alike. With a greater focus on characters from other games, SoulCalibur 6 could very well be the mature version of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. The SoulCalibur 6 price is Rs.3,999 on PS4 ($48 in the US).

What's your favourite fighting game? Let us know in the comments.

This article is a work in progress. ...Well, all the articles here are, in a way. But this one moreso, and the article may contain incomplete information and editor's notes.

This game is receiving new content, by way of Expansion Packs and/or Downloadable Content. Be aware that any unused content you find may become used in the future. If this does happen, please specify as such!

To do: unused areas found in World of Light

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, EVERYONE AND (almost) EVERYWHERE IS HERE!

Subpages

Unused Series Names

Devil's Third, Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate, Jet Force Gemini, and Blast Corps are listed along other series in the game's strings. However, no form of content from any of these series appear in the game at all.

Nexon now owns the rights to Devil's Third and released Devil's Third Online for Windows, as a result causing Nintendo to shut down the servers for the Wii U version. Blast Corps and Jet Force Gemini are both Rare-developed Nintendo 64 titles, but the company and rights to all its original IPs are now owned by Microsoft. Though Banjo and Kazooie, also coming from a Rare-developed title, are a playable fighter, content from those games could appear in the future. It is currently unknown if Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate be represented in the future.

Unused Assist Parameters

Inside the param files for Assist Trophies characters are some various parameters that are rendered unused due to either their chance of happening being set to "0" or for other reasons.

Chef Kawasaki

Kawasaki will drop one of a number of different food items before he leaves the battlefield after being spawned. Inside Generate_Param_Assist.prc, every food item in the game is defined to be spawnable, however the following food items will never be spawned as their chance of being dropped are set to "0".

With the way param files are set up in the game, it's unlikely that this was simply a case of copied over data. More likely, it may have originally been planned for Kawasaki to give the player any food item in the game before it was decided to only have him gift the player baked foods and meals.

Rodin

Similar to Kawasaki, Rodin will gift the player a weapon item before he leaves the match after attacking. However, rather than have every item in the game defined for him in Generate_Param_Assist.prc, Rodin only pulls from a small list of battering and projectile weapons. The following items are set to be spawnable, but have their spawn rate set to "0".

Since Rodin is known for giving Bayonetta mostly guns rather than melee weapons, the developers may have decided to reduce the amount of melee weapons so they didn't outnumber the projectile weapons.

Unused Models

DK

barrelconga

Donkey Kong's bongo drums! While they were used for DK's Konga Beat Final Smash in Brawl and Smash 4, in Ultimate Donkey Kong received a new Final Smash based off of Donkey Kong Jungle Beat. The bongos still live on in two-dimensional form through the "Donkey Kong & Bongos" Spirit.

Interestingly, the bongo drums have had their textures upgraded since the Wii U installment, despite not being used at all.

Link

navy

A model of the fairy which appeared in the previous game when Link used his side taunt, completely unchanged from its appearance there. Link boasts a different, fairy-free side taunt in this game, and is consequently the only Link to not be accompanied by a fairy. It also retains its sole animation from the previous games, titled AppealS.

Joker

Mouth_result

There exists a result screen mouth and teeth model for Joker suggesting that his lips would had moved in any of his victory poses just like several fighters with result screen mouth models, the lip bones related to the two result screen models doesn't exist at all.

Dragonite (Unused Poké Ball Summon)

Dragonite, who appears in the Kalos Pokémon League stage, has another model in the folder for Poké Ball Pokémon, indicating that it was originally going to be summonable too, like Scizor. Intriguingly, this model has been modified slightly from the Dragonite model seen on Kalos Pokémon League, with a different, upscaled set of textures, and shading more in line with the assets newly created for Ultimate.

Unused Textures

R.O.B.

R.O.B.'s battle damage textures from Smash 4 remain unused. Similar to DK's bongo drums, the textures have been upgraded since the last installment, now with twice the resolution.

Yoshi

Yoshi's crafted costume appears alongside other color schemes used in his Stampede Final Smash, though no Crafted Yoshis can actually be seen in the stampede itself. (Note that these Yoshis use a different file than the playable character himself)

Little Mac

A early version of a hoodie thrown texture was in the files for little Mac's 6th and 8th alternative costumes which they don't throw their hoodie away in their entrance animation, this appears to be darker than the ones used in the game, a model exists for it but it is identical to the hoodie model used in the game. ^[1]

Unused Animations

To do: There's a lot more than what's already here. Is Wario's SpecialLwLandingFlyR unused? Animated GIFs and images for non-empty animations.

Playable Characters

Zelda

Zelda's Phantom (used in her Down Special move, Phantom Slash) has multiple animations from the previous game which are no longer used, as the move was reworked with a completely new set of animations. SpecialLwAttack, PhantomAttackAirS, PhantomAttackAirL, and PhantomAttackAirMax still exist in the Phantom's animation bank, despite not being used anywhere.

Zero Suit Samus

Animation archives involving Zero Suit Samus' Paralyzer & Plasma Whip contain leftover animations corresponding to attacks which previously involved those weapons, but which no longer do as of Ultimate. These include AttackS4S (which was also unused in Smash 4) and ThrowF, as well as a blank animation known as Whirlpool.

Pokémon Trainer

All 3 of Pokémon Trainer's Pokémon have animations for clapping on the results screen when losing a match. (titled Lose) However, as the actual Trainer appears on the results screen unaccompanied in this situation, they are never used at any point even if you hack the solo version of the Pokemon to be playable.

Olimar

All 5 Pikmin variations have 2 unused animations, labelled SpHiCliffWait and SpHiConnect. Both are leftovers from Olimar's Up Special move from Brawl (Pikmin Chain), and also remained unused in the previous game, as Olimar had received a new Up Special by then in the form of Winged Pikmin.

Piranha Plant

JumpAerialF2

Piranha Plant has an animation for a 2nd midair jump, titled JumpAerialF2, in line with characters like Charizard and Ridley, who have a similar ability. However, Piranha Plant is only able to jump once while in midair. However, Piranha Plant isn't properly coded to use multiple double jump animations like the Charizard and the others; so even if it is given more than 2 jumps through spirit effects or modding, Piranha Plant will just reuse its regular double jump animation.

Bowser Jr. Leftovers

This character has several of Bowser Jr's animations erroneously included in its own animation bank. These include:

• Attack100Start
• AttackEnd
• Attack3Hi/Attack3Lw (angled versions of Bowser Jr's forward tilt)
• Attack4Hi/Attack4Lw (angled variations of Bowser Jr's forward smash)
• SpecialNCharge/SpecialAirNCharge
• SpecialNShoot/SpecialAirNShoot
• SpecialS/SpecialAirS
• SpecialSSpin/SpecialAirSSpin
• SpecialSWallClash/SpecialAirSWallClash
• SpecialSCliffJump
• SpecialSLanding
• SpecialHiAttackLanding
• SpecialHiCliffCatch
• SpecialHiClownFall/SpecialAirHiClownFall
• SpecialHiDamageEnd
• SpecialHiJrAttack
• SpecialHiJrDamage
• SpecialHiJrEscape
• SpecialHiJrFall
• SpecialHiJrRise
• SpecialLw/SpecialAirLw

Min Min

Bizarrely, the animations labelled SpecialLw and SpecialAirLw in Min Min's animation bank contain the animations for Captain Falcon's Falcon Kick special move, performed both on the ground and in midair. Min Min's down B special move (ARMS Change) swaps out the weapon on her right arm instantaneously via a graphical effect as opposed to a unique animation, meaning no additional animations would need to be created for this move.

Kirby

Kirby, like in Smash 4, has unused animation for his inhale mouth.

In Ultimate, character expressions are different models and they swap, so Kirby's inhale expression can never be seen with animations that aren't his neutral B (Inhale).

Quirky smiles can be seen here and there on different animations, like with his side B (Hammer), shown below.

Mii Fighters

All 3 variations of the Mii Fighter (Brawler, Swordfighter, and Gunner) have an unused animation labelled MenuPose. The animation is a leftover from the previous game, and was a pose used for each Mii types' render on the character select screen, but a different pose (labelled MenuPose2) is used in Ultimate, more closely matching the new official renders for each Mii.

Bosses

Giga Bowser

Giga Bowser, normally fought as a boss in Classic and World of Light, actually has an expansive animation bank, containing the majority of his animations from when he could be controlled by the player in Bowser's Final Smash from previous games. Interestingly, various animations (such as those for his dash attack, down tilt, neutral aerial, down aerial, and all of his grabs) have been removed to correspond with his new role as a boss, but many more animations still exist for situations Giga Bowser would normally never experience even when controlled by the player in the past, such as getting electrified and having his shield broken.

The animations used in Brawl & Smash 4 when Bowser's Final Smash activates and ends (FinalStart and FinalEnd) still exist in Giga Bowser's animation bank too, in spite of the changes made to Bowser's Final Smash in Ultimate.

Unused Graphics

Early Boxing Ring Screenshot

Located in the texture files for Boxing Ring (in the stc_vision_1_set directory) is a fascinating screenshot depicting Mario and Link on an incredibly early incarnation of the Boxing Ring stage.

The graphic (a lower resolution version of which can also be found in the 3DS prequel ) appears to display one of the earliest existing builds of Smash 4, as various assets, including the timer and Mario & Link's character portraits, are re-used from Brawl, the jumbotron uses a graphic ripped directly from Super Punch-Out!!, and the HUD, audience, textures, and lighting are all in an incredibly primitive state.

Placeholder Giga Bowser Reticle

Located in Bowser's character files is a placeholder reticle for his Final Smash, Giga Bowser Punch. The Japanese translates to "temporary".

Convention Mode

Menu preview graphics exists for an unused online mode with the internal code name "convention". On January 30th, the official Nintendo Account on Japan revealed the mode. It’s basically a ladder Smashers can sign up for and then compete against other Smashers on in 1v1 matches, and anyone within the Top 8 will be invited to participate in a special tournament on February 24th in Tokyo, Japan.

Unused Ledgegrab Ranges

Unusually, there are a number of unused ranges for a character to grab the ledge in Smash Ultimate, known as ledgegrabs by the playerbase. These range from leftovers to completely new, albeit unused, ledgegrab ranges. This is a recurring thing in the series, with Smash 4 featuring unused ledgegrab ranges for characters like Zero Suit Samus and Olimar which were used in Brawl.

Link (ZAir / Grab aerial)

Link has an unused tether ledgegrab range which appears to be a leftover from Smash 4. This likely remained in the game due to Link's Smash 4 incarnation being imported to the new engine, prior to being changed to represent Breath of the Wild.

Incineroar (Helpless Cross Chop)

Incineroar's Cross Chop can actually lead him to become helpless, through means such as windboxes or simply being pushed off as he lands on stage. However, there is an unused ledgegrab range for this animation. Instead of using this range, it uses Incineroar's default ledgegrab range instead. This ledgegrab range appears to be unfinished, with it moving along with Incineroar's animation in a rather unusual manner.

Unused Audio

Unused Music

Persona

Aria of the Soul (Persona 5)

A direct rip of Aria of the Soul from Persona 5, labelled "ps10_p5_subetenohitono_tamashiinouta". A newly arranged medley based on renditions of the theme from various Persona games is used instead, incorporating elements from this version of the song.

Beneath the Mask

A direct rip of Beneath the Mask in Persona 5, appropriately labelled "ps11_p5_beneath_themask_original". This theme, like Aria of the Soul above, would instead receive an energetic new arrangement made specifically for Smash Bros.

Unused Sound Effects

vc_narration_characall_mii

This clip was used in the lastgame when selecting or winning with a Mii Fighter, though the previously unused Mii Brawler, Mii Swordfighter, and Mii Gunner are now used instead.

Filename Oddities

item_harisen_m

A battering sound which normally is used when Jigglypuff connects with its Pound special move, but the filename of which references the recurring Fan item (known as "Harisen" in Japanese). However, the Fan is not present in the game at all, indicating it was once possibly considered to be included following its absence in the previousgame but was removed for unknown reasons. Notably, this sound effect is different from the sound used by the Fan in previous games.

Unused Stage-Related Data

To do: Get the rest. Document the Stage Builder leftovers present before 3.0.0. Document the unused World of Light maps.

Labo VR Unused Stage Data

While there are 103 stages in the game, only 52 of them can be viewed in Labo VR mode. However, if you mod the game to make all the stages playable, it becomes apparent that Sakurai's team at least planned to have a few more of the stages playable. For many of the normally unplayable stages, the camera parameters are undefined leaving the camera stuck to the center of the stage. But for some of the stages, their camera parameters ARE properly defined allowing you to move around the stage freely in VR.

To do:

The following stages have properly defined camera data for the Labo VR mode:

Unused world of light maps

To do: Screenshots. Filenames for the unused maps.

Pipe Tower

This appears to be a debug room with 110 Owl Satatues and a pipe with Ground Theme - Super Mario Bros. (Brawl) as its background music in the map, the pipe and the music suggests that it was intended to be one of the Mario-themed maps.

Big Bottle

Magma Base

Unused Character-Related Data

To do: Compare Piranha Plant's, Joker's, and Hero's early parameters in 1.0.0 and 1.0.1 to their final parameters. EX: Piranha Plant used to be lighter and slower.

Boss Giga Bowser

The version of Giga Bowser used for its boss fight is unlike any other boss in the game, as it internally is classified as a fighter and he has placeholder data of camera content, a Kirby copy ability, a Final Smash, a result screen, and even alternate costumes! This seems to be a leftover from when it originally appeared as Bowser's Final Smash in Brawl and 4.

By hacking Giga Bowser into the match as a fighter, he appears to work with a full-on moveset and can be knocked back like in Melee. Before 2.0.0, winning as him outside of a team battle goes to the result screen briefly and crashes the game. And before 4.0.0, exiting a match early with Giga Bowser also crashed.

Placeholder Fighter Slots

To do: Check if the placeholder slots are removed or not in the World of Light character selection screen file in upcoming DLC fighter updates.

A whopping 30 placeholder character slots existed in the files of the character selection screen at launch before being removed in the 2.0.0 Update. There are also a slightly smaller 16 placeholder character slots in the files for the World of Light and in the 'attack_log_parameter.prc' file, Piranha Plant and Joker from Persona 5 replaced the two placeholder slots from the World of Light and the 'attack_log_parameter.prc' file, the Hero from Dragon Quest XI and Banjo and Kazooie did not replace of any of the placeholder slots in the World of Light, two more placeholder slots were removed in 6.0.0, Byleth from Fire Emblem: Three Houses did not take any of the placeholder slots in 7.0.0, and Min Min took one in 8.0.0, it is unknown if this applies to the rest of the DLC fighters or not.

More unrevealed DLC fighters were confirmed to be in the works as of the September 2019 Nintendo Direct. A total of 6 more (Min Min from ARMS, released on June 29th 2020, and the five that have been announced as coming but not yet revealed) were confirmed in the January 2020 presentation, coming right after the first six DLC fighters (Piranha Plant, Joker, Hero, Banjo and Kazooie, Terry Bogard from Fatal Fury, and Byleth), it is unknown if the game will receive 18 or 6 more DLC fighters beyond this, however.

Ditto Final Smash, Entrance, and Victory Pose model leftovers

Ditto material data exists for Final Smashes, Victory Pose models, and entrances, but Ditto cannot do any of those. Even if Ditto breaks a Smash Ball, it'll be given to the player who had summoned Ditto.

Fighter movies

A reference to what it seems to be a leftover from the fighter ending movies used since Super Smash Bros. Melee, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U.

Unused Custom Special Move Data

Inside every character's parameter file is data for 4 variations for each of their 4 special moves. This data would have been used if custom special moves had returned from the previous entry. While it is possible that custom specials were planned to return, it's most likely just a leftover as the data for the extra special moves are 0'd out for every character.

Leftover glide data

Pit, Dark Pit, Meta Knight, Charizard, and even Ridley all have glide data leftover from Brawl and Smash 4, but Ridley's glide data is identical to Charizard's which suggests that Charizard was used as a base for Ridley.

Internal Project Name

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is referred to internally as "Cross2", as a continuation of the previous game's internal name "Cross".

Unused Strings

To do: Find more unused strings within this text dump.

Audio Strings

Dates

The earliest date appears in most audio files, while the later dates suggests that there were one or more revisions with several audio files and/or new audio files added. The times at the ends of the dates vary from file to file.

Program Name

In every soundbank file, metadata of Sound Forge Pro 11.0 can be found. This is most likely the 3rd-party program the sound team used to create the game's sounds before packing them into banks.

Autodesk Maya 2016 strings

Leftover strings from the PC version of Autodesk Maya 2016.

Placeholder mode data

Gaps in string name numbering within the file 'common.msbt' suggest the existence of four unknown modes; one Smash mode, and three Online modes. It is currently unknown if these modes will be included in future updates, or if these gaps represent modes scrapped during development.

Official Tourney Qualifiers Mode

The file 'menu.msbt' contains text related to the unused "convention" mode; referred to as 'Official Tourney Qualifiers'.

Unused Mii data

There are four Mii data files in the \root\spirits\mii\ folder: "mii_fighter.bin" for Mii Brawler, "mii_gunner.bin" for Mii Gunner, "mii_swordsman.bin" for Mii Swordfighter, and "mii_sordsman.bin" for an unused Mii (note the lack of a "w" in the unused Mii's filename compared to Mii Swordfighter's). This section will go over all data that either isn't used by the game or isn't seen by the player.

The Wii, Wii U/3DS, Mii Studio, and Nintendo Switch all use different formats of a Mii data file. However, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for some reason created its own format, requiring it to be documented as well. It appears to share many qualities with the Mii Studio and Nintendo Switch formats, appearing to be some strange mix between the two.

All of these Miis have what's currently called "unknown Mii info" - it is information found only in the Nintendo Switch Mii data file format (and of course, the Smash Ultimate format as well), and its use is currently unknown, but it's possibly related to system information.

(Note: to render the images of these Miis, their Mii data files were converted to the Mii Studio format, and imported into the site directly. No further editing occurred.)

Mii Brawler

Mii Brawler's Mii data file is at mii_fighter.bin and contains some unknown Mii info. This is the 16 byte long string:

Mii Brawler also has a Mii name set. The original Japanese name is "かくとうF", which can be translated to "Kakuto F". While kakuto means hand-to-hand combat, the meaning behind the "F" is unknown.

Mii Gunner

Mii Gunner's Mii data file is at mii_gunner.bin and contains some unknown Mii info. This is the 16 byte long string:

Mii Gunner also has a Mii name set. The original Japanese name is "しゃげきお", which can be translated to "Shagekio". Minus the O, "Shageki" means shooting.

Mii Swordfighter

Mii Swordfighter's Mii data file is at mii_swordsman.bin and contains some unknown Mii info. This is the 16 byte long string:

Mii Swordfighter also a Mii name set. The original Japanese name is "けんじゅつぅ", which can translated to "Kenjutsu". Kenjutsu being the art of sword fighting, it's only fitting.

Unused Mii Sordsman

There is one more Mii data file contained in this folder, named mii_sordsman.bin (note that the real Mii Swordfighter has a "w" in "sword", and this one does not). It only contains two differences from the real Mii Swordfighter, the first being some unknown Mii info:

The second difference is quite apparent - the favorite color is red instead of royal blue. Other than that, the two Miis are identical, including even the Mii name, "けんじゅつぅ".

Oddities

Individual Mii Fighter Victory Themes

Since all three Mii Fighter types are defined as separate fighters in the game's data, they each have code to have unique victory themes. However, in their parameter files, all three are only directed to use the same victory music file, z00_f_miifighter, leaving this functionality unused.

Charizard Victory Theme

Charizard has his own victory theme in z59_f_lizardon like in SSB4. While it is technically still used by the fire dragon itself, the theme is identical to the other Pokemon victory themes. Pokemon Trainer, Squirtle, and Ivysaur all use z28_f_ptrainer indicating that Charizard's victory theme could be an early development leftover before Charizard was added back to Pokemon Trainer.

King K. Rool's Gut Check Belly Super Armor damage multiplier

King K. Rool's Gut Check was intended to have him take damage, defined in "damage_mul_special_lw". On Frame 7 of Gut Check's counterattack, the game will request for a damage number. However, due to the parameter for the multiplier being 0, the damage will never actually occur. ^[2][3]

Sans' Glowing Blue Eye

In the texture of the Sans mask, there is an unused space for his blue glowing eye, and there is another for the glow effect similar to the Gaster Blaster's eyes which have this trait. It was probably going to be visible at the time of the costume's development, but then dropped for some reason.

Music Quality Oddities

There are higher quality versions of each song beyond what the file header suggests. Only some segments of each song are actually stored in this higher quality and is not fully available in the higher quality. Nothing in the game points to these versions of the music, and this oddity doesn't happen with any of the DLC music tracks. Some tracks in the Joker DLC have remixes. These remixes have the original song stored in their file, but are never actually mentioned in the file header.

Mr. Game & Watch's Down Smash Typo

In the game's internal code, hitboxes have certain effects that define what visual effects should play when they hit a character (fire, electricity, etc.). If no special effect is used, the effect is listed as "collision_attr_normal". However, the sweetspot of Mr. Game & Watch's down smash instead has its effect listed as "collision_attr_noamal", a typo. Normally, the move buries opponents, which uses its own effect, so this is not seen. However, if the move hits an opponent who is unable to be buried (due to being in the air or in a prone state, for instance), no visual effect plays at all, instead of the one associated with collision_attr_normal.

Typos in King K. Rool's model and animation files

To do: Check updates to see if they are changed.

In the majority of King K. Rool's body files, there are a few internal typos starting with Kool, being Kool_EyeL_VIS_O_OBJShape and Kool_EyeR_VIS_O_OBJShape, most likely these were going to start with Krool as the majority of animations in his files are titled that way. ^[4]