Super Smash Bros. Brawl - Playable Characters

Playable Characters

Brawl's character selection screen contains 35 buttons for characters, although a total of 39 characters are selectable via additional input by the player. Some are new, but others return from Melee—in some cases updated or refined, either in appearance, fighting capabilities, or both. For example, Link and Fox have adopted designs from more recent titles, while Samus has gained the ability to change into a new form, Zero Suit Samus. Dr. Mario, Roy, Young Link, Mewtwo, and Pichu are the first characters to not return from a previous game, though they do appear as stickers or trophies.

Some previously represented series have had more characters added to Brawl. Diddy Kong, from the Donkey Kong series, Ike, from the Fire Emblem series, and Lucas, from the EarthBound series make their first appearance in the Smash Bros. series. Other newcomers are the first to represent their series. These include characters such as Pit, representing the Kid Icarus series for the first time since the 1991 Game Boy game Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters, Olimar of the Pikmin series, and Wario, from Nintendo's WarioWare. Solid Snake, the main protagonist of Konami's Metal Gear franchise, and Sonic the Hedgehog from Nintendo's former rival Sega are the first third-party characters to appear in a Super Smash Bros. game.