Super Smash Bros./Regional Differences

Below are the changes from the Japanese version to the international versions of the game.

Name Changes
If the first three look familiar, it's because these are the terms used by the games' battle debug menu documented here.
 * Donkey Kong's name is abbreviated as "D. Kong" in the credits and character selection screen, but it was changed to "DK".
 * Before the segment where Donkey Kong uses Hand Slap on Kongo Jungle in the opening, and on his biography in the "Characters" section of the Data menu, his full name is shown but it was abbreviated to "DK".
 * "Hurry to the Battle Stage" was renamed to "Race to the Finish".
 * "Dummy Corps" was renamed to "The Fighting Polygon".
 * "Battle Royal" was named to "Free-for-All".
 * The "New Comers" option in the Backup Clear section of the Option menu is "Newcomers".
 * Purin is referred to by Jigglypuff, its English, Spanish and Italian name in all instances.
 * Some terms in the VS Mode player settings, Item Switch menu, and Training Mode are different:


 * English translations of the original names of the stages can be seen on the stage select screen in the Japanese version, though some stages gain additional subtitles or have a different translation than those used in international versions:

Menu Changes
The Japanese logo is less colorful (and a lot wordier) than the logo used in international versions. The title translates to ''Nintendo All Star! Dairanto Smash Brothers''. Additionally, "Inc." is "inc." in the last row of credits below the logo.

Since the menus are in English in all versions, the Japanese version has a text box at the bottom providing the translation for the currently highlighted option. The PAL version also has this feature if the language is set to French or German.

The background used in the main menu and the screen shown after unlocking a feature was changed to reflect the title used, along with some other cosmetic changes.

The Training Mode menu does not have spacing between the letters in the meaning of the options, and the options themselves are closer to their meanings; the red arrows between the option have much less spacing. This was changed likely to better accommodate the red line below the highlighted option.

Narrator

 * Some of the narrator announcements change depending on the version of the game. These changes were made to reflect the different names Free-for-All, Fighting Polygon Team, and Race to the Finish have.


 * "Break the Targets" and "Board the Platforms" are, similarly to "Fox", said with more enthusiasm. Also, "target" and "platform" were changed to plural.


 * "Fox" is said less quietly.

Crowd
The crowd cheering noises were changed, obviously because characters such as Link and Ness have different pronounciations in Japan... or simply because they sounded very weird.

Fox
Fox has two instances of exclusive audio which were totally removed in international versions, both can be heard in the Japanese version's debug sound test as FGM no. 351 and 358.


 * It is unknown where this particular clip is used, as it does not appear as a taunt or a victory quote. It may actually be unused entirely.


 * This audio piece, on the other hand, is used during one of Fox's post-match victory animations, particularly the one where he points his gun side to side before facing the camera straight on.

Jigglypuff
Jigglypuff's Pound uses an original sound effect, but it was changed to the sound used when hitting someone with a Fan.

Attack Sounds
The sound effects for attacks that connect sound like high-pitched punches and slaps. These have been changed to small explosion sounds, and deeper "punch" sounds. The sound effects of the Japanese version are still present in the other two versions, available in the game's system debug menu as FGM no. 142 to 147.

Beam Sword
The Beam Sword has totally different sound effects. It sounded very similar to a lightsaber from the Star Wars trilogy which were changed, likely due to copyright. The same happened in Super Smash Bros. Melee.

Saffron City

 * The banner in the background which says "Got a Catch 'em All!" is missing the second T and has a space there instead, so it was changed to "Gotta catch 'em all!" to fix that problem. The font also appears to have been rewritten to accommodate this.


 * "Silf" on the main building was changed to "Silph". Both are acceptable romanizations, but "Silph" is consistent with the English Red and Blue.

Miscellaneous

 * The "Characters" section of the Data menu mentions the year and month a game was released in the "Works" section, but this feature was removed in international versions.


 * "(Character) Win!" was corrected to "(Character) Wins!" in the after-match results screen, though it is spelled correctly if the match was a Team Battle. Above the results of the match, the name of the selected mode of the match is displayed along with "Mode" at the end ("Battle Royal Mode", for example), but it was removed, leaving only the name of the mode.


 * The character selection screen in VS Mode, similarly to the change mentioned above, displays the name of the selected mode in the upper-left corner of the screen accompannied with "Mode" at the end, but it was also removed.


 * The "Congratulations" screens you are presented with after clearing 1P Game do not exist at all within the Japanese version. Perhaps to include a "reward" of sorts for clearing the mode, they were added.


 * Luigi's Super Jump Punch when sweetspotted and Jigglypuff's Rest uses a normal attack sound effect, but those have been changed to the famous "Ping!" sound.


 * The "PRESS START BUTTON" alert shown after selecting the character(s) in the selection screen is "PRESS START".


 * A glitch known as "momentum slide" was removed.


 * Unusually, the "How to Play" video is slightly different. The on-screen movements are less refined than in international versions and are often performed slightly out of sync with the controls shown directly below, resulting in a rather crummy tutorial. International versions made the gameplay sync up more smoothly with the instructions as a result.

Language Select
The PAL version contains a language select screen which can be set to English, French, or German. Each language has its own announcer, with Jean-Marc Delhausse as the French announcer and Frank Wölfen as the German one. Changing the language to French or German also changes Jigglypuff's name to Rondoudou and Pummeluff respectively, due to its name being different in these regions.

Mario

 * Notably larger.
 * Fireball (neutral special) deals 1% more damage, but it travels a shorter distance and has less hitstun.
 * Super Jump Punch has more distance.
 * Rolls are longer.

Donkey Kong

 * Very, very slightly heavier.

Link

 * Walks slower.
 * Faster falling speed.
 * Slightly larger shield.
 * Some of his moves deals less damage:
 * Up tilt deals 5% less damage, is much more punishable after shielding, and has a more sideways knockback.
 * Up smash deals 2% less damage in total.
 * Forward aerial deal 1% less damage.
 * Down aerial deals 2% less damage.
 * Spin Attack (up special) deal 1% less damage and has less distance in the air.
 * Bombs (down special) deal 1% less damage when thrown down and 2% less damage when thrown any other way, but has more knockback at any percent which makes comboing easier.
 * Neutral aerial has more knockback and more diagonal angle.
 * Back aerial's first hit strikes 1 frame slower; second hit has a more diagonal angle.
 * Boomerang (neutral special) travels less distance and only causes knockback past 100% damage.

Samus

 * Up smash hits two times while grounded instead of one.

Yoshi

 * Faster speed in the air.
 * Faster falling speed.
 * Very slightly smaller jumps.
 * Down smash does 1% more damage.

Kirby

 * Smaller.
 * Some of his moves deals less damage:
 * Up smash deals 2% less damage.
 * Down smash deals 2% less damage.
 * Up aerial.
 * Stone (down special) deals 2% less damage.
 * Final Cutter (up special) has less distance.
 * Rolls are shorter.

Fox

 * Some of his moves deals more damage.
 * Down tilt deals 2% more damage.
 * Fire Fox (up special) deals 3% more damage, but doesn't have invincibility frames and causes less knockback.
 * Blaster (neutral special) deal 1% more damage and has less knockback.
 * Reflector (down special) has a different projectile damage multiplier and deal less knockback.

Pikachu

 * Thunder Jolt (neutral special) has less distance.
 * Dash attack has more knockback.
 * Forward smash has more range.

Luigi

 * Notably larger.
 * Has lower lateral air movement.
 * Fireball (neutral special) deal 1% more damage, but travels less farther and has less hitstun.
 * Super Jump Punch (up special) has more distance, has slightly less knockback and sends opponents to the side (while Mario's sends opponents upwards).
 * Rolls are longer.

Captain Falcon

 * Runs faster.
 * First and second jump are lower.
 * Faster falling speed.
 * Forward tilt deal 1% less damage.
 * Falcon Dive (up special) has less distance.

Ness

 * PK Fire (neutral special) deals 9% more damage in total.
 * Some of his moves deal less damage.
 * All smash attacks deal 2% less damage.
 * Up tilt deals 1% less damage, but has more knockback.
 * Up aerial deals 2% less damage.
 * Ness being launched by his own PK Thunder deals 5% less damage, lasts shorter, and has more landing lag.

Jigglypuff

 * Down smash has more range on both sides.
 * Rest (down special) deals 6% more damage.