Super Smash Bros./Regional Differences

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

Name Changes

• 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:

Japan	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 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:

Japanese Translation	Stage
IN THE SKY OF CASTLE PEACH	Peach's Castle
SECTOR Z ABORD A GREAT FOX	Sector Z
CLASSIC MUSHROOM KINGDOM	Mushroom Kingdom
CASTLE OF HYRULE	Hyrule Castle

Menu Changes

Japan	International

• 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.

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. The PAL version also has this feature if the language is set to French or German.

Japan	International

• 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.

Japan	International

• 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.

Japanese Audio

To do: Upload the "Race to the Finish!" and "Hurry to the Battle Stage" clips. What does the Fox say?

Narrator

Japan	International
"Battle Royal" "Dummy Corps"	"Free-for-All!" "Fightin' Polygon Team!"

• 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.

Japan	International

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

Japan	International

• "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.

Character	Japan	International
Mario
Donkey Kong
Link
Samus
Yoshi
Kirby
Fox
Pikachu
Luigi
Captain Falcon
Ness	300px	300px
Jigglypuff

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

Japan	International

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

Japan	International

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.

Character Sizes

Japan	International

• Mario is, appropriately, a little bigger.

Japan	International

• Luigi is also a little bigger.

Japan	International

• Kirby is very slightly smaller.

Saffron City

To do: Images.

• 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.

Japan	International

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

Miscellaneous

To do: Upload two videos showing the Japanese and international "How to Play" tutorial, cleanup.

• 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

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. 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.

(Name of the announcers: SmashWiki)

Changed Attributes

Along with Mario, Luigi and Kirby having different sizes, the game also has various changes applied to the playable characters, some being very drastic. Among the changes, moving the control stick to any direction during "impact stall," a short moment where a character freezes after a attack, is more useful and allows the position of the character to be altered more easily.

Character	Changes
Mario	Fireball (neutral special) deals 1% more damage, but it travels a shorter distance and makes the attacked character unable to act for a shorter time. Super Jump Punch travels more distance. Rolls are longer.
Donkey Kong	Very, very slightly heavier.
Link	Walks slower. Faster falling speed. Slightly larger shield. Some of his attacks deals less damage and have some other changes applied to them: Up tilt deals 5% less damage, is much easier to attack while vulnerable 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 travels 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 percentage. Neutral aerial has more knockback and more diagonal angle. Back aerial's first hit strikes 1 frame slower, and 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 lateral movement speed in the air. Faster falling speed. Very slightly smaller jumps. Down smash does 1% less damage.
Kirby	Some of his attacks deals less damage: Up smash deals 2% less damage. Down smash deals 2% less damage. Up aerial deals 2% less damage at the beggining, and deals 1% less damage shortly after it. Stone (down special) deals 2% less damage. Final Cutter (up special) travels less distance.
Fox	Some of his attacks deals more damage and have some other changes applied to them: Down tilt deals 2% more damage. Fire Fox (up special) deals 3% more damage, causes less knockback, and doesn't have any frames where he is invencible to attacks. Blaster (neutral special) deal 1% more damage and has less knockback. Reflector (down special) has a different projectile damage multiplier, making the reflected projectile's damage much higher, and deal less knockback.
Pikachu	Thunder Jolt (neutral special) travels less distance. Dash attack has more knockback. Forward smash has more range.
Luigi	Slower lateral movement speed in the air. Fireball (neutral special) deals 1% more damage, but travels less distance and makes the attacked character unable to act for a shorter time. Super Jump Punch (up special) travels more distance, has slightly less knockback and sends attacked opponents to the side. Rolls are longer.
Captain Falcon	Runs faster. Jumps are lower. Faster falling speed. Forward tilt deal 1% less damage. Falcon Dive (up special) travels less distance.
Ness	Some of his attacks deals different damage and have some other changes applied to them: PK Fire (neutral special) deals 9% more damage in total. All smash attacks deal 2% less damage. Up tilt deals 1% less damage and has more knockback. Up aerial deals 2% less damage. When launched by his own PK Thunder, Ness deals 5% less damage, flies shorter, and takes more time to be able to act when he lands.
Jigglypuff	Down smash has more range on both sides. Rest (down special) deals 6% more damage.

(Source: SmashWiki)