Super Smash Bros./Regional Differences

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Name Changes

• Donkey Kong's name is abbreviated as "D. Kong" in the Japanese version, as opposed to "D.K." in other versions.
• The Fighting Polygon Team is called Dummy Corps in the Japanese version.
• Jigglypuff is referred to by Purin, its Japanese name, in all instances.
• Some terms in the Vs Mode player settings, Item Switch menu, and Training Mode are different.

Japanese	International
MAN	HMN
COM	CPU
NOT	N/A
Slow	Speed
Nothing	None
Escape	Evade
HomerunBat	HomeRunBat
Harisen	Fan
LayGun	RayGun
BombTrooper	Bob-omb
MonsterBall	PokéBall
Near	Close-up

If the first three look familiar, it's because these are the terms used by the games' battle debug menu documented here.

• English translations of the original stage names can be seen on the stage select screen, differing to some extent from international releases. Dream Land and Saffron City are named Pupupu Land and Yamabuki City to reflect their names in Japanese, whilst Sector Z and Peach's Castle gain additional subtitles, the former being "Sector Z: Aboard a Great Fox" and the latter being the rather silly "In the sky of Castle Peach".

Menu Changes

Japan	International

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

Japan	International

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.

Japan	International

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

Japan	International

The Japanese 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 likely changed in international versions to better accommodate the red line below the highlighted option.

Japanese Audio

To do: Upload the missing files.

Free-for-All

Japan	International

Free-for-All is referred to as Battle Royal in the Japanese release.

Fox

Japan	International

• "Fox" is said slightly differently in the Japanese release, more quietly compared to international releases.
• Fox has a few instances of Japanese audio which were totally removed in international versions, which 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.

Fighting Polygon Team

Japan	International

Fighting Polygon Team is announced as Dummy Corps.

Bonuses

Japan	International

Break the Targets and Board the Platforms are, similarly to Fox, said with less enthusiasm than in international releases. Also, "targets" and "platforms" aren't on plural.

• Race to the Finish is called "Hurry to the battle stage!" in the Japanese version.

Beam Sword

Japan	International

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

Saffron City

To do: Images.

The banner in the background which says "Gotta catch 'em all!" in the international versions is missing the second T and has a space there instead, making it "Got a Catch 'em All!". The font also appears to have been rewritten to accommodate this.

Japan	International

Silph on the main building is "Silf" in the Japanese version. Both are acceptable romanizations, but "Silph" is consistent with the English Red and Blue.

Attack Sounds

In the Japanese version, the sound effects for attacks that connect sound more like high-pitched punches and slaps. These have been changed to small explosion sounds, and deeper "punch" sounds in the US and European versions. The sound effects for the Japanese version are still inside the other two versions, available in the debug menu as sound effects 142 to 147.

Miscellaneous

To do: More images and videos, cleanup.

• The "Characters" section of the Data menu is different in numerous ways. Certain console abbreviations and game names their Japanese equivalent (including EarthBound becoming MOTHER 2 and SNES becoming SFC) and release dates mentioned by year and month similarly to NTSC versions of Melee, but in some cases the game listings are slightly different: Pikachu and Jigglypuff list Pokémon Red & Green instead of Red & Blue, and Luigi's section mentions Super Mario USA whereas international releases use Mario Kart 64 for whatever reason.

Japan	International
File:SSBJapanWin.png	File:SSBWins.png

An extra S was added to the Results screen to make it grammatically correct in international versions.

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

Japan	International
File:SSBJapanPressStart.png	File:SSBPressStart.png

The "PRESS START" alert is "PRESS START BUTTON" in the Japanese version.

• The "Newcomers" option in the Backup Clear section of the Option menu is "New Comers" in the Japanese version. Obviously, this was changed to make it more grammatically correct.

• Unusually, the "How to Play" video is slightly different in Japan. 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

Parlez-vous français?

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.

(SmashWiki: Name of the announcers)

Changed Attributes

Every playable character had some differences in various aspects. The changes below are listed in comparison to the Japanese version of the game.

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.
• Can't do a glitch known as momentum slide, which causes the character to teleport.

Donkey Kong is considered almost the same in both versions.

Link

• Walks slower.
• Faster falling speed.
• Slightly larger shield (Z move).
• 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.

Link is the character which received the most changes; however, these changes made his recovery worse and made his moves such as Boomerang and up tilt, which was one of the best moves in the game in the Japanese version, worse.

Samus

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

Samus is the character which received the least changes.

Yoshi

• Faster speed in the air.
• Faster falling speed.
• Down smash does 1% more damage.
• Can't do a glitch known as momentum slide, which causes the character to teleport.

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.
• Can't do a glitch known as momentum slide, which causes the character to teleport.

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.
• Can't do a glitch known as momentum slide, which causes the character to teleport.
• 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.

Falcon Dive having less distance, along with his first and second jump being lower and having a faster falling speed in the US version, makes his recovery better in the Japanese version.

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

• Can't do a glitch known as momentum slide, which causes the character to teleport.
• Down smash has more range on both sides.
• Rest (down special) deals 6% more damage.

(Source: SmashWiki)