Super Smash Bros. Melee/Version Differences

This is a sub-page of Super Smash Bros. Melee.

To do: More differences; see talk page for details. Also more differences can be found from this webpage:https://www.ssbwiki.com/List_of_regional_version_differences_(SSBM)

usa.ini

Many regional changes can be seen in the North American and Japanese versions of the game by switching the language to in the options menu. However, certain changes are not reflected by the language change, but are still present and accessible on the disc.

The North American (and Korean) releases of Super Smash Bros. Melee contain an empty file in the root directory titled usa.ini. If this file is deleted from either of these versions of the game, the Japanese version of the game will be loaded instead, complete with changes exclusive to the Japanese version such as the Proximity Mine item, an unlockable Tamagon trophy, seal Topis instead of yeti Topis, and the Japanese logo on the title screen. Alternatively, the usa.ini file can be added to the Japanese release to load the North American version of the game with changes such as the Motion-Sensor Bomb, the yeti Topis, the international logo on the title screen, and the removal of the Tamagon trophy.

This is possible because the North American, Japanese, and Korean releases of Super Smash Bros. Melee contain both .dat and .usd files for almost every file in the game. If usa.ini is present, the .usd files are loaded. If usa.ini is not present, the .dat files are loaded. The presence of usa.ini (or lack of) does not change the Special Movie or How to Play movie, as there is only one file of each within each release. Additionally, usa.ini does not change opening.bnr, meaning that usa.ini can be removed in the North American or Korean release of the game and work with North American or Korean save data or cheat codes (and vice versa with the Japanese release).

Title Screen

Japan	North America	Europe

• The Japanese version has a different title screen, known as Dairantou Smash Brothers DX. This cannot be seen in the English or Korean releases (even if the language is set to Japanese) unless usa.ini is removed.
• In the European version, they updated the copyright year and added the slash mark on the right of HAL Laboratory, Inc. and Ape inc.

Character Names

Japanese	English

The Ice Climbers are simply called Ice Climber in Japan, either due to the Japanese name coming from the game itself, or the fact that the Japanese language doesn't care so much about plurals.

Japanese	English

In Japan, Bowser is referred to as Koopa.

Japanese	English/Spanish/Italian	French	German

In Japan, Jigglypuff is referred to as Purin. It should be noted that "Purin" is pronounced "Purrin'" here, as opposed to the correct "Pooreen" pronunciation that would be used in later games. It has different in-game voice clips in the Japanese, English/Spanish/Italian, French, and German versions to reflect this different name, as is the case in every other Super Smash Bros. game.

The "Rondoudou" and "Pummeluff" announcer voice clips are the only ones not spoken by the Melee announcer. They were taken from the French and German versions of Pokémon Stadium 2 and given an echo.

Japanese	English

DK's icon was altered between Japanese and English languages, but his narration is still "Donkey Kong".

Young Link has different written names in Japanese ("Kodomo Link" in Japanese letters), French ("Link Enfant"), and German ("Junger Link"), but the announcer still says "Young Link" in English in every language. The same is true for Mewtwo and Sheik, who have different written German names ("Mewtu" and "Shiek").

Narrator

While most of the narrator's lines are the same in every version, there are some that are different in the Japanese version. The other non-English versions use the English version's narrator lines, save for the French "Rondoudou" and German "Pummeluff" selection lines.

Japan	English
"Battle Royale!" "Get the coins!" "Game Set!" "Time Up!"	"Melee!" "Grab the coins!" "Game!" "Time!"

Trophies

Tamagon, from the obscure Famicom game Devil World (which wouldn't be released in North America until 2023 through Nintendo Switch Online), is only obtainable in the Japanese version. It is still present in the North American & European versions, but cannot be acquired without cheat devices. The character would later see representation in Smash as a sticker in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, with the Devil from the same game appearing as a recurring Assist Trophy throughout the series from Brawl onwards. Devil World is erroneously referred to as "Demon World" here - the game's original title would be retained as of Brawl.

The special Samus Unmasked and Mario & Yoshi trophies were originally given out at special events in Japan, where they would be written onto your memory card alongside the Captain Olimar trophy. Though Captain Olimar is obtainable in the North American and European versions by having Pikmin save data on a memory card, the other two trophies are unobtainable in those versions outside of using Action Replay.

Additionally, certain facts were simplified between the Japanese and English text, such as the removal of a mention that Yoshis lack biological sexes or Mario stated to be "about 26 years old".

• 

  Tamagon

• 

  Mario & Yoshi

• 

  Samus Unmasked

Gallery

Switching the language from English to Japanese alters the background of the Trophy collection.

Japanese	English

When set to English, the Family Computer becomes a NES, the (rather dark) Super Famicom becomes a SNES, the picture above the shelf changes from reading "Dairantou Smash Brothers" (the series' name in Japan) to reading "Super Smash Bros.", and the Virtual Boy next to the plant is removed (even though the Virtual Boy did get released in North America).

Japanese	English

The box and cartridge with the N64 also become the regional counterparts of Super Smash Bros. Oddly enough, the Super Famicom seems to have a Super Smash Bros. cartridge as well.

Home-Run Contest

Japan/Europe	North America

The Japanese and European versions have a very slightly larger platform than the North American version, which also affects the stadium in the background.

In a spectacular underestimation of the SSBM community's home-run contest skills by the developers, in Version 1.0 the size of the stadium was only 4990.0 ft (1521.0 m), and hitting the sandbag beyond 4556.9 ft (1389.0 m) in the North American version or 2920.0 ft (890.0 m) in the Japanese version would cause the game to register No Distance instead.

In later versions, the stadium's size was increased to 16371.0 ft (4990.0 m) with no arbitrary distance limit - while the counter stops counting at 9999.9 ft higher scores will register properly in the highscore. However, since the collision ends at 11347.2 ft (3458.5 m) the sandbag will fly through the stadium into an endless void if hit further than this point, which is easily possible to perform with Ganondorf.

Lottery

Japan	English

The Japanese trophy machine informs you to push the A button, while the English one leaves you helpless. The logo was also changed from "FiguPon" to "Lottery".

Sensor Bomb/Motion-Sensor Bomb/Proximity Mine

Each version of Melee has a slightly different take on the infamous mine item. It's the Sensor Bomb (センサー爆弾) in the Japanese version, the Motion-Sensor Bomb in the North American version, and the Proximity Mine in Europe.

The design used in the North American and European versions is based off the Proximity Mine from GoldenEye 007. However, the Japanese version takes its design from the Perfect Dark Proximity Mine; additionally, the text below the Trophy description (where the game of origin's name goes) translates to "Perfect Dark (N64)" ("Perfect Dark 5/00" when set to English). The American and European versions, instead of attributing its game of origin to "GoldenEye 007 (N64)", say "TOP SECRET". This is also the case for the Cloaking Device.

According to director Masahiro Sakurai, the change to omit Perfect Dark references in the international version was made because Perfect Dark received an "M" ("mature") rating in North America, whereas Melee was directed at a family audience. However, Perfect Dark and Rare are still mentioned at the end of the credits.

Japan	North America	Europe

Interestingly, the European description contains a typo; it's missing a chunk of text that splurges two sentences into each other. What is also interesting is how it mentions the "Carrington Institute", the main corporation in Perfect Dark.

North America	Europe
The perfect accessory for ambushes, the Motion-Sensor Bomb has been a favorite covert weapon of spies and other stealthy operatives. It adheres to any surface, and once armed, detonates with incredible force when it detects motion within its range. In the frantic world of Super Smash Bros., it doesn't take long for it to go.	The perfect accessory for ambushes, the proximity mine has long been a favorite covert weapon of the Carrington Institute _____________ any surface, and once armed, detonates with incredible force when it detects motion within its range. In the frantic world of Super Smash Bros., it doesn't take long for it to go.

The European text is also in the Japanese version when set to English; conversely, the Japanese language select was removed in the European release in favor of four other languages (Spanish, Italian, German, French). The only difference in the Trophy description is that it is properly credited to Perfect Dark.

This detail does not revert when the North American release is set to Japanese. While the files for both the Proximity Mine and Motion-Sensor Bomb trophies exist in both the North American and Japan versions of the game (as TyMbombJ.dat and TyMbombU.dat), only the trophy that corresponds to the region is available in-game.

Topis

In the Japanese version, the Ice Climber Topis were seals as in the original Famicom version. In other releases, they are yeti. Interestingly, the English Trophy description is exactly the same due to its ambiguous wording. The seal model was also relatively poor in comparison.

Japan	International

Like the Proximity Mine, this detail does not revert when the North American release is set to Japanese.

Daisy's Third Eye

To do: Is this specific eye texture used anywhere in the game?

In the Japanese and early American versions, positioning the camera through the hair in the back of the Daisy trophy reveals a third eye which looks different from her other two. This was fixed in the European and 1.2 North American versions. Interestingly, the eye texture is patterned all over her head; the developers just made all of the eyes invisible, but they missed the one in the back. This can be seen by removing Daisy's hair and forcing the game to make the eyes visible. It is a mystery why the eyes are there in the first place.

Version 1.0 Exclusive Glitches

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• The projectiles Mewtwo shoots right after a forward throw can be caught as if they were items. The shadow ball can then be thrown back and forth; the game will crash if the shadow ball leaves the playfield.
• If Peach is holding an item (such as a turnip), then uses the up special to get her parasol out and gets hit on the first frame of the move animation, the item will be frozen in mid-air. In the case of a turnip, it will stay forever and retain its hitbox until it hits an opponent, but can be re-grabbed and thrown to reactivate the hitbox. Every time the turnip is grabbed it will successively increase the grab range until it eventually spans the entire screen. (Mr. Game and Watch can also perform this glitch with his down tilt.)
• If the Name Entry glitch is used to start a 0-Second Melee on the Poké Floats stage, every Pokémon will appear at the same time as soon as the stage is loaded, usually crashing the game.

Version 1.0 and 1.1 Exclusive Glitches

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• If Bowser hits the ground on the first few frames of his Fire Breath move, it will cancel the animation and Bowser will breathe fire instantly.
• Mr. Game and Watch can carry items that cannot normally be carried in one's hand by sliding into the item's grab range with a neutral attack and getting stunned or hitting a mushroom before finishing the item grab animation.
• Link and Young Link can catch a boomerang while grappled to a wall, which allows them to do actions such as jumping or attacking while still being grappled to the wall.

European Differences

The European version is essentially the American 1.2 with further differences:

European	American

• The ability to select Japanese as a language (and the Japanese language itself in the game's files, too) was completely removed in order to fit other languages.
• The 15-minute-long "Special Movie" was removed for the same reason. Interestingly, the movie file for the Special Movie (MvOmake15.mth) still exists in the European version, but instead contains a duplicate of Captain Falcon's clear movie.
• Two Japan-only trophies (Mario & Yoshi, and Samus Unmasked) are unavailable without hacks, but still exist in the game's code, and are translated into the other languages available in the European version, strangely.
  • Tamagon (another Japan-only trophy) also still exists in the game's files, but does not appear to have had its flavor text translated into French, German, Italian or Spanish, despite Devil World being released in European versions.

European	American

• The Rainbow Cruise stage is renamed to "Rainbow Ride", likely for consistency with the international versions of Super Mario 64.
• The playable characters were also slightly rebalanced.
  • Some attacks were weakened or strengthened in power.
    • Captain Falcon's forward aerial (knee) attack deals less damage and less knockback.
    • Fox's up smash, down smash and up special deal less damage. Fire Fox (his up special) also gains less distance than it did in all of the North American and Japanese versions.
    • Ganondorf's forward aerial deals less knockback and his down aerial does less damage.
    • Kirby's dash attack deals slightly more damage.
    • Marth's down aerial, when "tipped" (when he hits an opponent with the tip of his sword), was changed from a powerful spike to a less powerful meteor smash (meaning that its knockback can now be negated).
    • Sheik's up smash deals less damage and her up aerial deals both less damage and knockback. Her down throw's effectiveness has been reduced, too; she can't chain throw with it anymore.
    • Yoshi's forward smash and up smash deal more damage, but his down aerial deals significantly less damage if all hits connect.
  • Weights have also been altered.
    • Fox, Mario and Marth's weights have been reduced slightly.
    • Bowser, Kirby and Yoshi's weights have been increased. (Interestingly, the European version made Kirby very slightly heavier than Fox; Fox has a weight of 73 and Kirby has a weight of 74.)
  • Some glitches have been fixed, and other things have been altered.
    • Bowser's down throw can now hurt Jigglypuff and Mr. Game & Watch; in all non-European versions of Melee, it did not hurt them.
    • The freeze glitch has been fixed.
    • If Donkey Kong has been hit whilst using Spinning Kong (his up special), he does not lose his charge from Giant Punch (his neutral special) in the European version.
    • Samus cannot extend her grappling beam in the European version. Also, she isn't able to use her bomb (down special) as a jump after using the grapple beam mid-air. She could in all the other North American and Japanese versions.
    • Falco's down aerial behaves differently from how it does in the North American and Japanese versions; in these versions, Falco's down aerial acts as a spike for its whole duration. In the European version, this was changed: the attack can only spike for the first half of its duration; after that, the attack hits at the "Sakurai angle".
    • In the main menu, when going to the next screen and switching to a different entry too quickly, the North American and Japanese versions would show the wrong information at the bottom of the screen. This was fixed in the European version.

(Falco's down air properties: SmashWiki)