Unused content (SSBB)

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The following is all unused content that is known to have been at least considered during development of Super Smash Bros. Brawl before being altered, rejected, cut, or abandoned prior to the final release.

Masahiro Sakurai noted that during the first year-and-a-half of development, the project plan was revisited in order to determine what elements were possible to include within the game's development schedule and scope. Many cuts and revisions to planned game content were said to occur during this point in time.

Fighters

Brawl's project plan was written on July 7, 2005, and featured all characters present in the final game but Sonic, who was a late addition. Masahiro Sakurai has confirmed that several characters present in the project plan were cut mid-development; though he generally avoided identifying them, he variously cited factors such as time constraints, rights issues, and general development considerations. Both leftover data in Brawl's code and interviews conducted after its release have been partial indications on the identities of these characters.

Many of the known cuts in Brawl appear to be clones or otherwise derivative of other characters in the game, inline with a directorial choice to de-emphasize clones in favour of emphasizing characters' unique characteristics.

Sakurai stated that characters present in the Subspace Emissary's storyline needed their inclusion confirmed from an early stage of development. Wolf, Toon Link, and Jigglypuff were all at risk of being cut, and excluded accordingly; their inclusion was confirmed later in development than the other characters. He further stated that "4-5 other characters" could have been included if they had extra time, and that there may have been more cuts if they had less. It can be reasoned the various other cut characters were similarly deprioritized at that early stage, but time and resources did not permit their development to resume.

All cut veterans, as well as some initially-dismissed newcomers, would be revisited for Smash 4 and Ultimate.

Scrapped

The following characters are known to have at least partially entered development, as empty fighter effects files (formatted as ef_(character).pac) referencing them exist on-disc. Sometimes colloquially referred to as "The Forbidden Seven", they consist of:

• "pra_mai"
• "mewtwo"
• "roy"
• "dr_mario"
• "toon_zelda"
• "toon_sheik"
• "dixie"

The Forbidden 7 appear in the game's Instance Slots between R.O.B. and Snake, in the above order. This section also encompasses the above-mentioned near-cuts Jigglypuff, Toon Link, and Wolf.

As the files themselves are empty, the filenames are the sole indication of their identities. Despite this, it can be argued that there is little ambiguity over them:

• pra_mai - Though ambiguous, evidence generally suggests it to represent the Pokémon species Plusle and Minun, serving as potential replacements for Pichu. Primary evidence includes that "PRAMAI" is grouped in the Instance Slots together with fellow Pokémon Jigglypuff and Mewtwo. Their Japanese names are pronounced as Purasuru and Mainan, and プラマイ (Puramai) is actually a Japanese colloquial word that literally means "plus or minus". Plusle & Minun appear in the final game as one of three Pokémon trophies with a special unlock criteria, a trait exclusively shared by cut veterans Mewtwo and Pichu. They share bodily proportions and an Electric-type skillset with the latter, who is the only cut veteran with neither presence in the files nor an explicit replacement in the final game (as Toon Link is to Young Link).
  • A frequent counterpoint states that the Ice Climbers have separate character files. While Popo and Nana have separate instance slots, Nana's separate effect file is empty; data referencing her is otherwise largely consolidated with Popo. The "PRAMAI" filename, though inconsistent with the full romanizations used for their trophy and other Pokémon filenames, is likely developer shorthand; Mewtwo's cut victory theme is simply "MYU2", and Toon Zelda's trophy also has a filename discrepancy.
• mewtwo - Can be reasonably assumed to be Mewtwo, who appeared in Super Smash Bros. Melee. "mewtwo" has the most unused data out of the other scrapped characters, all of which are empty: an unused fanfare, a graphics effect file (ef_mewtwo.pac), and a Wii Remote selection sound. As Mewtwo is the only removed character to not be a clone, its removal was highly contentious among fans. However, the relative extensiveness of its data suggests it was indeed strongly intended for inclusion in Brawl.
• roy - Can be reasonably assumed to be Roy, who appeared in Melee. "roy" has an unused fanfare, a trait only "mewtwo" shares of the 7.
• dr_mario - Can be reasonably assumed to be Dr. Mario, who appeared in Melee. Dr. Mario has less data than "mewtwo" and "roy", lacking a victory fanfare.
  • After Dr. Mario's return in Smash 4, it was discovered that several of his data files are named "mariod". This name matches a set of files found in Brawl's data; they mostly contain either duplicates of Mario's data or blank space. While initially assumed to be a debug version of Mario, this suggests that Mario's data was duplicated to recreate Dr. Mario at some point in Brawl's development, but left unfinished.
  • Interestingly, some of Yellow Alloy's moves have traits reminiscent of Dr. Mario's, most notably his forward aerial.
• toon_zelda - Can be reasonably assumed to refer to the cel-shaded Zelda from games such as The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, much like Toon Link. The name "Toon Zelda" would be used officially years later in Hyrule Warriors Legends, referring to the similarly designed Zelda from The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks. The Zelda (Wind Waker) trophy ingame is not actually referred to as "toon_zelda" in the code of the game, while the trophies for Mewtwo and Dixie are referred to as "mewtwo" and "dixie" respectively, but it is otherwise fairly unambiguous to whom the designation refers.
• toon_sheik - This has been subject to debate, as a cel-shaded variant of Sheik has never appeared in the Zelda series before or after Brawl's release. It is sometimes theorized that "Toon Sheik" may have been a codename for Tetra, Zelda's alter-ego in The Wind Waker. However, Tetra is explicitly a separate character from Sheik in-universe, and her trophy is not titled as such. Further, a Twilight Princess design for Sheik was specially-created for Brawl by the Zelda team, whom Eiji Aonuma cited as having supervised original design work for her and the other Zelda characters, leaving the possibility that the same could have been true for a bespoke Wind Waker incarnation of Sheik.
• dixie - Dixie Kong, a major character from the Donkey Kong Country series. She is the sole member of the Forbidden 7 whose removal was explicitly addressed by Sakurai; Dixie was intended to be teamed with Diddy Kong, so the two could be tagged out for each other in the midst of battle, similar to how they played in Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest. However, the idea was cut early in development due to technical issues with its implementation, so Diddy was left as a solo fighter instead. Dixie appears as a solo entry near the end of the instance slots, but has no further fighter data than her empty effects file.

All seven characters have IC-Constants, but they appear to be placeholder values, with the exceptions of "Toon Sheik", who is able to wall-jump, and Dixie Kong, who can both wall-jump and wall-cling.

The inclusion of the character files led to the formation of a rumor that was later proven false.

Considered

The following characters were considered during the planning stages of the game - some more strongly than others - but ultimately discarded before development began.

• Villager - Animal Crossing characters were candidates to represent the GameCube era, with Sakurai even remarking with a laugh that he could envision them fighting with shovels and nets. They ultimately did not make it into the project plan, which expressly discluded Villager, as the prospect of Animal Crossing characters fighting each other didn't suit the image of that series. The series's popularity was instead acknowledged by extensive non-playable content, including a stage, several songs, trophies, and items. Villager was added to the next game with that very arsenal, and Sakurai reaffirmed the character had previously been dropped for "[not being] suited for battle".
  • On Melee's website, Sakurai had previously acknowledged the unsuitability of Animal Crossing characters fighting in Smash in response to a fan commenting on the cruelty of the idea. Sakurai then humorously snapped himself out into not rejecting the idea before trying to make it work, seemingly echoing his later stance that conceptual inappropriateness was the greater issue than the ability to conceive a moveset.
• Miis - Their inclusion was briefly acknowledged as a possibility, but dismissed near-immediately. They were rejected, along with other casual-focused elements of the Wii's system features, partially to differentiate Brawl from the system's existing casual-focused software lineup. After Miis became playable in Smash 4, Sakurai elaborated upon their previous rejection, stating that "it didn't seem right at the time for Miis to be punching and kicking". He further had concerns around online bullying, and that they were not yet considered as established characters in their own right. They reappear in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, which allows them to be played online, albeit without visible nicknames.
• Geno - He was considered for inclusion in Brawl, as Sakurai knew about the character's popularity, and he also felt that Geno could easily fit into Smash. Although he personally wanted to include him, his hopes ultimately fell through for unspecified reasons (presumably legal issues involving Geno's rightsholder, Square Enix). Geno's Mii Gunner outfit, appearing as DLC in Smash 4 and Ultimate, was added to those games as a consolation prize instead.
• Alternate Pokémon Trainer lineups - His Pokémon selection went through multiple iterations - one featured exclusively first-stage starters (i.e. Squirtle, Bulbasaur, and Charmander); and another featured exclusively final-stage starters (i.e. Blastoise, Venusaur, and Charizard). Sakurai chose the final lineup due to a strong desire to include Charizard, and finding Squirtle to have more personality than Blastoise. Selecting Ivysaur, who is typically overlooked, for the final spot allowed for a balance of sizes and evolution stages.

Other

• Krystal - When asked why she was not included in the game, but Wolf was, Sakurai explained that she would have been realistically impossible to include as a result of time and development constraints. Wolf could be developed using modeling expertise derived from Fox and Falco, requiring 70% of a standard character's time and effort - whereas Krystal would have needed to be created from scratch. Sakurai elaborated that a third Star Fox character likely would not have appeared in Brawl if Wolf wasn't both popular and easy to add; even he had barely made it into the game, indicating it wasn't strictly a matter of his inclusion coming at her expense.
  • Sakurai, though sympathetic to her fans, cautioned about the endless line of questioning regarding the disclusions of specific characters, rhetorically bringing up Waddle Dee, Dry Bones, and Baby Peach as examples of how far such questioning could go.
• Nintendogs - The series was dismissed from the start of development, and consistently cited during planning and post-release interviews, as being particularly inappropriate for a fighting game. Sakurai cited the inclusion of Assist Trophies from it and Animal Crossing as a way to please fans of their respective games instead; the project plan listed a Shiba Inu, together with Villager, as examples of characters who are unsuited for fighting, but could be potentially featured as items.
• Pac-Man - He was suggested by Shigeru Miyamoto to be a potential third-party character in Brawl, but Masahiro Sakurai, thinking of Pac-Man's iconic "pizza-shaped" design, politely dismissed the request as it seemed far-fetched. He was eventually added to the series in Smash 4.
• Ridley - Sakurai indicated, when asked if he was considered for inclusion as a playable character in Brawl, that he wasn't. He expressed doubt that his inclusion would have been feasible, though entertained the task's possibility had him and the development team put their best efforts into it. Additionally, Sakurai humorously noted that - even in such a circumstance - Ridley might have turned out slow.
• Young Link - He was confirmed as having been intentionally excluded from the beginning of development, and explicitly replaced by Toon Link, in order to instead represent the Zelda series's then-divergence into the Twilight Princess and Wind Waker streams. He is the only character from a previous game confirmed to have been deliberately removed from planning, and only he and Pichu have no reference in the game files.

Stages

• Similar to some Melee early screenshots, the initial Pokémon Stadium 2 had no graphics on the jumbotron in the background.
• The outdoors area of Shadow Moses Island is fully modelled, but unviewable in-game without a hacked camera. Snake can be briefly seen in it during the Nintendo World 2006 trailer, presumably produced using debug features allowing for normally-impossible angles.
• In the E3 2006 trailer, Battlefield had no upper platforms when the Nintendog appears, being simply a flat version of the same stage. This would later be added in Smash 4 as Ω forms, where it was similarly shown unannounced at E3. Snake's cardboard box is also hidden in the background; though impossible in the final game, this is more explicably to create the scenes with his surprise appearance at the end.
• In Bridge of Eldin's files, a model of Colin tied up to a spear can be seen, referencing the scene where Link must rescue him after being kidnapped in Twilight Princess. However, it goes unused; the model also has an animated flag, and Colin himself is hidden by other models.

• 

  A scene from the 2006 trailer. Notice how Snake's box is located at a normally inaccessible part of the stage and how the upper platforms are missing.
• 

  Notice how the jumbotron behind Pokémon Stadium 2 is blank, while this never happens during normal gameplay in the final version.
• 

  An early screenshot of Shadow Moses Island, depicting a location inaccessible in the final version of the game.
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  Unused model of Colin tied up to a spear.

Gameplay

• A battle damage mechanic was dropped from the game. In the game's files, some characters have textures depicting it; Meta Knight has a large gash over his helmet, Captain Falcon has a cracked visor that would've revealed his face (evident by the unused eye texture he has) and sword wielders like Link and Marth have their weapons being cracked. In an article released shortly after Brawl, Masahiro Sakurai explained this mechanic to have involved breaking character equipment, causing disadvantages to skilled players if they broke and required a respawn to repair. While the idea was cut due to lack of time, the textures were incorporated in the Final Smash trophies of certain characters and the false characters of the Subspace Emissary (however, the glow around them makes it barely noticeable). Though not a universal mechanic, this would be revisited for certain characters in SSB4 and Ultimate.
• An unfinished Assist Trophy file with Ridley's name exists, suggesting that Ridley was at some point planned to be an Assist Trophy.
• Multiple characters had their attacks changed between the game's development and release:
  • Kirby, in the E3 2006 trailer, is showing attacking in midair with his Hammer as he did in Melee. However, the final build instead shows Kirby spinning horizontally.
    • Kirby also has unused animations of him walking with his hammer, along with releasing it with full force; this suggests Kirby's hammer was to have a mechanic that allowed it to be charged. In the final build, King Dedede has a similar ability with his Jet Hammer. This option was finally given to Kirby beginning in Super Smash Bros. 4, with the ability named Hammer Flip.
  • When Fox was revealed in the Nintendo World 2006 trailer, he has his Blaster in his hand during the whole battle despite the fact that he only uses the blaster when using his standard special move in the final release. Additionally, animations left in the game data show both Fox and Falco inspecting the environment before putting their blasters away; they appear to have been intended for a mechanic where overusing the Blaster would cause it to overload or misfire.
  • Link's Spin Attack was also changed over time. In the first and second trailers, it is given the appearance that there are two strikes on top of each other; in the final game, however, there is only one strike. The early Spin Attack also lacked the red overlay on the slashes.
  • Pikachu's Quick Attack was also altered; in the first trailer, it is shown making 2 "bip" sounds, one with each teleport as in Melee. However, in the final version, the sound was altered significantly, and it only makes one sound, on the first teleport.
  • Wolf has an unused animation that matches Fox's neutral infinite. This is a leftover from his development being derived from Fox.
  • Snake, in particular, had many differences from the final product. In early screenshots, he is shown grabbing some characters with more accuracy; one picture shows Snake grabbing Ike from his right arm and mouth similarly to how he performs stealth kill in the Metal Gear series, but every character gets grabbed by the head in the final version. Snake's mines also were considerably more realistic-looking, sporting a drab, dark grey-green look instead of the light grey seen in the final game.
• In trailers, characters were also shown to be Blast KO'd after they crossed the upper blast line. In the final game, normal characters can only be KO'd this way in The Subspace Emissary. This idea would later be implemented into Smash 4 and Ultimate, in which all characters have a random chance of being Blast KO'd via the upper blast line.
• E for All 2007 had a playable demo of Brawl available, with a pared-down version of the starting roster: Kirby, Zelda/Sheik, Pokémon Trainer, Ice Climbers, King Dedede, Wario, Olimar, and Lucas were all unavailable; Dedede, Sheik, and Olimar not yet having been announced. The demo did, however, allow Sonic to be playable, to celebrate him being announced in October 2007.

• 

  Kirby using his side special (in the air) from Melee on Halberd in the E3 2006 trailer.
• 

  Kirby walks around with the hammer...
• 

  ...and stops to swing it.
• 

  Link's Spin Attack is considerably more slanted, and has no red effects to it.
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  Fox with his Blaster in his hand, as seen in the Nintendo World 2007 trailer.
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  Early screenshot showing Fox with his Blaster in hand.
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  Fox and Falco look around before holstering their weapons.
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  Snake's original down smash mine.
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  Snake has a considerably different grip on Ike than in the final game.
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  Mario and Link are Blast KO'd after passing the upper blast line, which doesn't occur in ordinary gameplay.
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  The E for All 2007 character select.
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  Meta Knight with a cracked mask.
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  Captain Falcon with a chipped visor.

Aesthetics

• Some of the series symbols were initially the same as in the previous two games, but they were revised as time went on; the Mario series mushroom icon was refined and given spots, the Poké Ball icon has the top half colored in to properly represent how it is usually red, the Screw Attack icon was given more bends and another outline, and the Yoshi egg's angle was changed, with a slightly different arrangement of spots.
• The game's reveal at E3 2006 included different renders for several characters. Most have their poses remain identical, but with different lighting and details. Most distinctly, Pit and Snake's renders depicted vastly different, higher-poly CG models, with Snake's pose also being totally altered. The renders were replaced with their final versions during the Dojo's relaunch in 2007.
• There also exists some unused palette swaps for characters on the game's disc. One such unused costume was a blue-colored Luigi, under the name FitLuigi02.pac/.pcs. Unusually, this costume has its shadow model integrated into the primary model, rather than having it as a separate model.
• Perry from Super Princess Peach was intended to appear as part of Peach's moveset, where she would use him as a parasol rather than her own in the final game. His trophy textures (PeachTexC through PeachTexF) are named after Peach's textures, and Peach's parasol model (WpnPeachKassar) contains his Japanese name (カッサー, Kassā).

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  Early artwork of Pit, with more feathers, heavier shading, and a different face.
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  Early artwork of Snake, with slightly different colouration.
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  Early artwork of Zero Suit Samus, with heavier shading and front lighting.
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  An earlier version of the characters' series symbols.
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  Luigi's unused blue palette swap (left), compared to the used one.

Solo

• Multiple scenes in The Subspace Emissary were cut due to time constraints, which leaves some parts of the story out; however, an update on the DOJO!! explained these removed cutscenes. Among the explanations include how the Subspace Army takes over the Halberd and King Dedede unintentionally stalls Meta Knight from preventing it from happening.
• A TV spot for Brawl also shows Mario instead of Kirby fighting Petey Piranha. This is likely because Petey was originally supposed to blast Kirby out of the arena, making players use Mario to duel him, although Mario and Kirby switched roles later. However, after completing the Subspace Emissary, players can revisit Midair Stadium using any character (including Mario) and face Petey.
• The font for enemies in The Subspace Emissary during development was slightly different and considerably more spaced out. Additionally, an early screenshot of "The Battlefield Fortress" shows a considerably less overcast and brighter sky.
• An early classic mode screen appears in the ISO file as well. Unusually, it uses a sound effect from Melee.
• In a screenshot of Brawl's Classic Mode on the DOJO!!, a battle against a giant Meta Knight is depicted with two allies, whereas in the released version of Brawl, there is only one ally on the Kirby stage in a giant battle there. Additionally, no giant battles past stage two give the player two allies.
• The Pokémon Trainer has unused jumping, falling, and landing animations that one can presume were intended to be used for traversing stages. In the final game, he simply Space Jumps when his Pokémon gets too far offscreen. This animation was later used in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate when playing as Pokémon Trainer in the hub world in Adventure Mode: World of Light.
• A file inferred to be part of controlling menu and display elements for the Subspace Emissary contains an unused display element, labelled "InfAdvLevel0000", which appears to display a level number and a bar labelled "pp" which is animated from full to empty in 50 frames. Based on other filenames, its purpose appears to have been to display a level number before beginning the stage.
• There is an unused collection of character portraits which can be found in nearly every one of the Great Maze shadow character battle rooms under the name bossmae01_2.
  • Most of the characters are just in a neutral pose, looking off in one direction or another, but Link, Kirby, Pikachu and Snake are using their E3 2006 portraits, Lucas is in his default T-pose, and Mr. Game & Watch is using his Melee artwork. Sonic, Jigglypuff, Toon Link, and Wolf are notably absent due to their later inclusion in the game.
    • Aside from Rayquaza, all of the bosses don't use their official artwork from Brawl. Petey Piranha uses artwork from Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour, Meta Ridley uses concept art from Metroid Prime, Ridley uses his artwork for Super Metroid, and Porky uses the original sprite from Mother 3. Both Galleon and Duon appear to use what is likely part of their official character design sheet, with Duon completely lacking shading.
• Text in the game's ISO indicates an online "beat-em up" mode referred to as "Slipspace" was planned, but for whatever reason cut from the game. Its name, as well as the surviving text around it, implies that it may have been intended to function as a continuous match, in which players could drop in and out of to be replaced by other players. The coding is very much primitive, with no existing servers in place, rendering it totally unplayable. Additionally, the mode is limited to "With Anyone", with no coding pertaining to a "With Friends" variant, and the flavor text in the friend's lobby uses the text for Home-Run Contest. The timer shown below can be toggled from 1 to 60 minutes.
  • In addition to the Slipspace mode documented above, every 1-player mode, including Event Matches, Training, Break the Targets, All-Star and Boss Battles, can be selected as an available option online, but none of them function correctly. For most of these, it is unlikely that they were ever planned to be allowed online, and were merely implemented as such to safeguard against crashing. Surprisingly, however, the online variant of Boss Battles appears to have been worked on quite considerably, with toggleable difficulty settings and a Co-Op High Score implemented, implying that it was a rather late omission from the game.
• Two unused cutscenes from The Subspace Emissary can be found in the ISO, but they're just heavily corrupted duplicates of the "Snake's Cardboard Box" and the "Lucario Discovers Snake" cutscenes in that order. They occur immediately after those respective cutscenes in memory, and have the filenames "13-00_end" and "33-01_end" (the non-corrupted cutscenes have the same filenames, only without "_end" in the titles).
  • Interestingly, the corrupted variant of "Snake's Cardboard Box" features completely different lighting, appearing much grainier than the cutscene used in-game.

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  A less gloomy version of The Battlefield Fortress.
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  A early image from The Plain of the SSE. Note that the font for the enemy name (Primid, here) is different.
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  A screenshot of Classic mode on the DOJO!! depicting two allies in a battle against giant Meta Knight.
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  Unused jump animations for the Pokémon Trainer.
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  A mysterious "level" bar.
• 

  bossmae01_2.

Names

• Wario Bike, Drill Rush, Summit, Halberd, Rainbow Cruise, and "Flower Blooms in the Echoes" were originally named on the Dojo as Wario Chopper, Triple Dash, The Summit, Battleship Halberd, Rainbow Ride, and, "Flowers Bloom on the Notes" respectively. These are presumably early translations; the NTSC version of Brawl reverted Rainbow Ride's name for consistency with Melee, rather than Super Mario 64.
• The description for the My Music options originally said, "Adjust how often a song will appear on this stage." It has since been revised in a general tone to say, "Adjust how often songs appear on stages." Along with this, one piece of music that was planned for the Delfino Plaza stage was later moved to Luigi's Mansion, that track being Castle / Boss Fortress (Super Mario World / SMB 3).
• One minor change was made to the Friend roster before release. In a pre-release version of Brawl, the friend roster would display friends as "on-line" and "off-line", but in the final release, the hyphen was removed. This meant that the friend roster would instead display friends as "online" and "offline".

• 

  An early version of Delfino Plaza's My Music with a track later moved to Luigi's Mansion.
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  An early version of the sticker album.
• 

  An early version of the Friend roster.

Masterpieces

• In all versions of the game, a Masterpiece of Donkey Kong Country was intended to be in included.
• Masterpieces of Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem and EarthBound were removed from non-Japanese releases, but their leftover data remains on the disc.

Sounds

• Sound effects from the Melee version of Link's special moves can be found in the game's data, possibly as a placeholder until new sound effects were made.
• Unused sound effects can be found in Mr. Game & Watch's sound folder. These sound effects are distinctly different than Mr. Game & Watch's usual sound effects, as they aren't comprised of bleeps but rather unusual noises.
• Multiple characters have unused victory quotes that can be found in the game files, such as Captain Falcon saying "Yes!" in a more calm manner, Meta Knight saying "Now, my power is without rival.", Pikachu shouting "Pikapi!", and Sheik doing a victory cry.
• Mario still had his Super Mario 64 voice clips from Melee in the E3 2006 and Nintendo World 2006 trailers. He later received unique, newly-recorded clips for the final release, as of the "Snake Joins the Brawl" trailer.
• Kirby has two alternative voice takes for his Hammer move alongside an unused voice line for his initial jump.
• Ike has two unused voice lines for his Counter where he says "Gotcha!" (can still be heard in his Sound Test) and "You're through!" upon activation. In the final game, Ike only says "You're open!" when his counter is successful. He additionally has an unused "Take this!" clip.
• Lucario saying "The Aura is stored." can be found in the game files. The quote is grouped next to the quote where Lucario says "Watch the power of the Aura!", implying it was going to be another voice clip for Aura Storm. The clip sounds unusually choppy, seemingly indicating it was sped up post-recording.
• The Announcer has two unused narrations for "Fighting Alloy Team" and "Stage Clear". They were removed in the PAL regions.
  • The announcer counted down the final ten seconds of the match in every battle.^{[citation needed]} This was reduced to five seconds in the final game.
  • The announcer additionally has an unused line for speaking the name of the game at the end of the opening movie. Pat Cashman even stated he was unsure why this was removed from the final version.
• More sounds like one of Mario's grunts, Pikachu screaming, and one of Zelda's grunts are in the Sound Test. Others like Pit saying "Here we go!" and Snake saying "There!" are in the game's files, but missing in the Sound Test.
  • Some of these sounds are later used in subsequent games; Meta Knight in Super Smash Bros. 4 uses one of his unused yells for his down smash, and Snake in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate may say "There!" when detonating the C4.
• Like the first two games, most characters were planned to grunt when they were hit by a strong attack that resulting in medium or high knockback. However, characters only grunt after a second in the actual game, preventing these yells from being heard. These sound effects can still be found within Brawl's data, and they later returned in SSB4 for heavy knockback if the character reused their old voice clips; however, these will only play for heavy knockback as the Screen KO in that game is silent.

Music

Scrapped

Many unused tracks exist on Brawl's disc. All tracks in this list point to a dummy stream file that produces no sound when played back; similar to the unused character files, the track's alphabetical prefixes (shared with all other songs from their universes) and filenames are their only direct indicators. While the former are fairly concrete due to being shared with all other songs from their respective universe, the filenames are more equivocal and have created difficulty and debate around identification. Speculative song assignments, including fanmade remixes, had circulated in the fanbase in the years since release, contributing to confusion around their identities.

During development, Sakurai developed a pre-selected list of songs and had the music team choose which songs they would like to arrange from it. The track list was informed partly by developer preference, and partially through fan requests collected through a survey conducted on the Japanese Dojo. Copyright negotiations and contract clearances were vastly complicated even for songs in the final game; at least some of the removed tracks can be reasonably attributed to known legal issues regarding them, while others were simply not chosen.

Songs in the game's file order tend to follow a loose chronological trend, which can assist in identifying certain tracks. However, this is not universal, as multiple discrepancies exist across most categories, due to either development error or some songs seemingly having been added later.

File Title in Brawl's code	Category (based on prefix)	Track Identity Theories
snd_bgm_A11_MLRPG02	Mario	Unknown track assumed to be from the Mario & Luigi series (titled Mario & Luigi RPG in Japanese). It follows Gritzy Desert, whose filename is likewise simply "MLRPG01".
snd_bgm_A12_MORINOKINOKO	Mario	The identity of this track has been contentious due to known rights issues, but its filename most directly corresponds to the Japanese name of Forest Maze's theme from Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, "森のキノコにご用心". The song is owned by Square Enix, who were not involved in the final release of Brawl; while the primary source of debate, inability to successfully negotiate its rights would explicably prevent the track from use. A long-standing alternative suggestion is that the track, due to its placement after Gritzy Desert and the above missing Mario & Luigi track, is the Toadwood Forest theme from Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time. However, in addition to multiple chronological discrepancies in Mario tracks' file order, the filename more concretely lacks their "MLRPG0x" naming scheme, and the area's Japanese name "キノープルの森" matches incorrectly. Though still absent in-game, the original Forest Maze theme later accompanied the reveal trailers for Geno's Mii Costumes in both 4 and Ultimate.
snd_bgm_C06_KAZENOSAKANA	The Legend of Zelda	"Ballad of the Wind Fish", a key song from The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. Its filename is the Japanese name of the Wind Fish itself, and it is placed before "Tal Tal Heights", also from Link's Awakening.
snd_bgm_E04_COCKIE	Yoshi	Unknown track assumed to be from Yoshi's Cookie.
snd_bgm_G06_COMMAND	Star Fox	Unknown track assumed to be from Star Fox: Command.
snd_bgm_J01_STAGECHANGE	Fire Emblem	Assumed to be used for the stage transitions for Castle Siege, which do not affect music in the final game. It is placed before all other Fire Emblem songs and has no direct correspondence in the series.
snd_bgm_J05_ERABARESHI	Fire Emblem	Assumed to be a shortened form of the Japanese "Erabareshimono-tachi" (選ばれし者達), which translates to "The Chosen Ones", a track from Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem.
snd_bgm_K02_SENTOUONIISAN	Mother	Directly translates to "Hippie Battle" from Mother; "Oniisan" is The Hippie's Japanese name. Also used for the New Age Retro Hippie in EarthBound. Likely not included due to the track's similarities to Johnny B. Goode by Chuck Berry.
snd_bgm_K03_EIGHTMELODIES	Mother	"Eight Melodies", a term describing two different tracks: one from Mother and one from EarthBound. Potentially, as with the two below, not included due to copyright clearances with composer Keiichi Suzuki. Mother's Eight Melodies were later remixed for Super Smash Bros. 4.
snd_bgm_K04_SMILEANDTEARS	Mother	"Smiles and Tears", the ending theme from EarthBound, which is based on the game's "Eight Melodies". Like above, this song would later be remixed for Smash 4.
snd_bgm_K06_BECAUSE	Mother	Assumed to be "Because I Love You", a track from EarthBound. Notably, this song is the basis of "Fourside" from Melee, which is absent from this game.
snd_bgm_M14_WARIOSTAGE	Wario	"WARIOSTAGE" is the filename shared by "WarioWare, Inc." and its stage's microgame themes, the latter of which are grouped together as tracks M9 through M18. Presumably a cut microgame theme.
snd_bgm_N04_RADIOTAISO	Animal Crossing	"Radio Taisō" translates to "Radio Exercises", a track from Animal Crossing.
snd_bgm_Q03_SPORTSMEDLEY	NES/GameBoy tracks	Assumed to be a medley of tracks from the generic sports titles on the NES, such as Soccer.
snd_bgm_R01_WILDTRACKS	Miscellaneous tracks	Japanese name for the game Stunt Race FX; assumed to be a track from that game.
snd_bgm_S01_MAINTHEME	Metal Gear	Likely the main theme of Metal Gear Solid, due to its starting placement prior to "Encounter" from that game. Likely not included due to plagiarism accusations related to the theme, which also caused it to be removed from Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops and Metal Gear Solid 4.
snd_bgm_S09_BEATMANIA	Metal Gear	Assumed to be the remix of the Metal Gear Solid main theme from Beatmania. Likely not included for the same reason as the above track.
snd_bgm_T04_HOWTOPLAY	Super Smash Bros. series remixes	Categorization and placement suggests a remix of Melee's "How to Play" theme. That theme is remixed for Brawl's "How to Play" video, but does not have its own music file, due to being baked into the video. A second empty "HOW2PLAY" file exists in Brawl's category (see below); as neither are used, it is ambiguous which of the two would have referred to the track. The Melee version of "How to Play" was later remixed as an in-game My Music theme in Ultimate, more similarly to the other tracks in this category.
snd_bgm_U05_UCANDO	Sonic the Hedgehog	Assumed to be "Sonic - You Can Do Anything", the main theme of the Japanese and PAL releases of Sonic CD; it is placed before its North American replacement, "Sonic Boom". Likely not included due to copyright issues regarding the lyrics, which caused the 2011 version of Sonic CD to replace the song with an instrumental cover.
snd_bgm_W22_DX55	Super Smash Bros. Melee	A removed rip from Super Smash Bros. Melee. All filenames in this category use their numbering from that game's Sound Test, in which track #55 is "Menu 2". The final game features a unique remix of "Menu 2", categorized as a Brawl-original track instead.
snd_bgm_W32_DX81	Super Smash Bros. Melee	It is unclear what the track was specifically meant to be, as Melee's sound test only has 79 tracks. Of note is that "Giga Bowser", which was absent from its sound test, is newly numbered as "DX80" in Brawl.
snd_bgm_X12_SIMPLEINTRO	Super Smash Bros. Brawl	Assumed to be used in the intros for Classic Mode; it is followed by "SIMPLERESULT" which refers to Classic Mode's result screen.
snd_bgm_X14_ENDING	Super Smash Bros. Brawl	Assumed to be used in the endings for Classic Mode, per the previous.
snd_bgm_X24_HOW2PLAY	Super Smash Bros. Brawl	Assumed to be an alternate unused track for the How to Play video (see above).

Along with the above music files, unused song files intended for use in The Subspace Emissary were found. Their intended purpose remains unknown; tracks related to the Subspace Emissary are not specifically named in the files, as they all use the "ADVxx" format.

• snd_bgm_Y06_ADV06
• snd_bgm_Y12_ADV12
• snd_bgm_Y18_ADV18
• snd_bgm_Y19_ADV19
• snd_bgm_Y20_ADV20
• snd_bgm_Y21_ADV21
• snd_bgm_Y22_ADV22
• snd_bgm_Y23_ADV23
• snd_bgm_Y24_ADV24
• snd_bgm_Y25_ADV25
• snd_bgm_Y26_ADV26
• snd_bgm_Y27_ADV27
• snd_bgm_Y28_ADV28
• snd_bgm_Y29_ADV29
• snd_bgm_Y30_ADV30

Other

• The November 2006 Nintendo World trailer features a unique remix of the main theme, not found in the game files. It is seemingly an early version of Menu 1.
• An image on the project plan, discussing My Music, suggests "The Legend of Zelda (March)" and "Saria's Song" as music options for Temple. The latter song is completely absent from the game; no song by the former name exists in the game, though it could have been a proof-of-concept title for the marching band-style "Main Theme (The Legend of Zelda)" remix.
• A18 and A19 are completely missing from the game data, Mario tracks jump straight from A17 (Mario Bros.) to A20 (Mario Circuit). Incidentally, two tracks originating from Mario games ("Chill (Dr. Mario)" and "Mario Tennis / Mario Golf") are categorized within the files and final game as generic Nintendo universe tracks.
• "Climb Up! And Get The Last Chance!"'s filename is "LONGDISTANCE", which instead refers to the Red Canyon theme from F-Zero X, "The Long Distance of Murder".
• T05 is the alternate version of "Final Destination" used for fights with Master Hand, but its filename ("DXTERMINAL", "terminal" being a direct translation for 終点) and placement (the "T" category collects Smash Bros. series remixes) imply a remix of Melee's Final Destination. A direct rip of the song appears in the final game, though its file is out of order from its placement in Melee's sound test, indicating it was added later.

Victory Themes

Among the unused music files are various victory themes that are specifically attributed to one character, but they are completely empty. This suggests that characters were supposed to have their own victory theme independent of their series, or simply that the files were consolidated for efficiency. In the final product, only Meta Knight has a different fanfare than other characters of his universe. A 2006 Dojo post, responding to an inquiry about per-character fanfares, had Sakurai confirm that Meta Knight would have one, but he did not acknowledge or specify if other characters would.

Per-character fanfares would be revisited more fully in 4 and Ultimate.

Two of these unused fanfares, snd_bgm_Z38_FMYU2 and snd_bgm_Z39_FROY, refer to the above-mentioned Mewtwo and Roy, who were cut. Wolf, curiously unlike them or his fellow near-cuts Toon Link and Jigglypuff, lacks a fanfare with his name in the files completely.

The files are as follows:

• snd_bgm_Z09_FLUIGI
• snd_bgm_Z12_FKUOPA
• snd_bgm_Z13_FPEACH
• snd_bgm_Z14_FZELDA
• snd_bgm_Z15_FSHEIK
• snd_bgm_Z19_FFALCO
• snd_bgm_Z20_FGANON
• snd_bgm_Z24_FZEROSAMUS
• snd_bgm_Z26_FLUCAS
• snd_bgm_Z27_FDIDDY
• snd_bgm_Z28_FPOKETRAINER
• snd_bgm_Z32_FDEDEDE
• snd_bgm_Z33_FLUCARIO
• snd_bgm_Z34_FIKE
• snd_bgm_Z37_FPURIN
• snd_bgm_Z38_FMYU2
• snd_bgm_Z39_FROY
• snd_bgm_Z41_FTOONLINK

Along with this, there are two other unused fanfares, snd_bgm_Z52_JCLEAR1 and snd_bgm_Z53_JCLEAR2. Their intended use is unknown, though it is believed they could have been used as stage clear themes.

Trophies

Some characters have unused trophies with "R2" in the filename, showing them in various poses (most in possible gameplay poses, some not). It is possible that these were intended to be a third trophy for each character, similar to how every character in Melee has three trophies, and the concept was scrapped for an unknown reason. Out of all of the R2 trophies, only 15 can be hacked by replacing the R1 trophies to the game. For unknown reasons, Pikachu freezes the game if viewed. A version of LuigiR2 is used in cutscenes for the Subspace Emissary (albeit with his hat on), instead of his regular trophy.

Additionally, there are several unused trophies from the Donkey Kong series alongside an unused trophy for Samurai Goroh. Donkey Kong Jr. and Samurai Goroh's trophies are leftovers from Melee.

• 

  Mario
• 

  Luigi
• 

  Donkey Kong
• 

  Diddy Kong
• 

  Zelda
• 

  Sheik
• 

  Zero Suit Samus
• 

  King Dedede
• 

  Falco
• 

  Pikachu
• 

  Jigglypuff
• 

  Pokémon Trainer
• 

  Lucario
• 

  Captain Falcon
• 

  Pit
• 

  Snake
• 

  Donkey Kong
• 

  Diddy Kong
• 

  Dread Kong, a boss from DK Jungle Beat.
• 

  A Helper Monkey from DK Jungle Beat.
• 

  Donkey Kong Jr.
• 

  Samurai Goroh

Scrapped enemies

The game's effects files show names for enemies initially planned to appear in The Subspace Emissary:

• ef_arrians
• ef_bladeknight
• ef_blossa
• ef_blowm
• ef_bonkers
• ef_brontoburt
• ef_bubot
• ef_byushi
• ef_dyeburn
• ef_gunnatter
• ef_karon
• ef_kyan
• ef_met
• ef_mizuo
• ef_ploum
• ef_torista
• ef_waddledee
• ef_waddledoo
• ef_whauel
• ef_wiiems

Only seven of those enemies were dubbed in the English version. Those are:

• Aliian
• Allians
• Blowm
• Bublit
• Mechaboom
• Melorin
• Plowm

"Allian" could have been either entirely unique alien-like creatures, or an early name for the Primids.

Notes:

• Five of the known cut enemies come from the Kirby series.
  • The textures for Waddle Dee and Waddle Doo fall in line with the naming convention for enemy data, further suggesting this. As King Dedede can summon both of them, and they function identically as in the Kirby series, it is effectively possible their data became incorporated into his moveset during development.
• Two of the known cut enemies come from the Mario series; Karon and Met are the Japanese names of Dry Bones and Buzzy Beetle, respectively.
• Mizzo, Waddle Dee and Waddle Doo are the only cut enemies that appear in Brawl through other means (excluding Dry Bones, who appears as a trophy).

See also

• Unused content
• Unused content (SSB)
• Unused content (SSBM)
• Unused content (SSB4)
• Unused content (SSBU)