Dark Link

Dark Link (, Dark Link), or Shadow Link (, Shadow Link), is a dark doppelgänger of Link that appears in multiple titles, including Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and . While Dark Link and Shadow Link are considered separate entities in the Zelda series, the Super Smash Bros. series reconciles elements of both characters in its representation of Dark Link.

Origin
Dark Link's origin is shrouded in mystery, and he is sometimes believed to be a creation of Ganondorf. Dark Link's strength and abilities differ in the games he has appeared in. In most of Dark Link's appearances, he appears to know every technique Link knows or has learned and can effectively match and counter his attacks; other games also show that he is capable of using Link's items as well.

Dark Link's design varies between games. In his earliest appearances, such as The Adventure of Link and Ocarina of Time, he appears as a completely black version of Link, sometimes with glowing red eyes. After the Dark Interlopers used Dark Link's likeness in , he started being depicted with various gray shades in his color scheme, occasionally including white hair and lighter-colored underclothes; this color scheme was first directly associated with Dark Link himself in Super Smash Bros. Brawl before retroactively being featured in Zelda titles such as Ocarina of Time 3D. While Dark Link himself does not appear in , the Dark Armor Set is based upon his updated appearance in Ocarina of Time 3D.

 features dark versions of many characters, including Young Link and Toon Link.

In Super Smash Bros. Melee


In Melee, Dark Link is fought by the player controlling a red-colored in the event match Event 18: Link's Adventure. This version of Dark Link is an allusion to the Shadow Link final boss of , ; the playable Link's red palette swap likely references the Reflect spell from Zelda II, which turned his tunic from green to red. An all-black character does not appear anywhere else in the game, and aside from the texture and lack of voice effects, he is identical to Link. However, this texture can be applied to any character via the or the black character glitch. If playing as Dark Link through these methods, his icon and voice will be the same as regular Link; the event match's settings can be recreated in the debug menu by setting his sub-color setting to 3 and status modifier setting to 18 (respectively, dark icon and no voice).

In addition to Dark Link himself appearing, a Dark Link-inspired alternate costume is available for both Link and Young Link. Unlike later installments, only Link's tunic changes, with his eyes, skin, and hair remaining unchanged.

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Dark Link appears as an alternate costume for. Rather than the traditional completely-black Dark Link, this costume resembles the design of the Dark Interlopers in .

Dark Link also reprises his role as the enemy of Event 18: Dark Link Duel. However, the Dark Link in said event is shown as being completely black, like Shadow Link in Melee and Zelda II. Despite that, Dark Link uses the damage meter icon for the normal palette swap. Co-Op Event 7: Battle of the Dark Sides features the players as Link and versus Dark Link and Dark Samus.

also has an alternate costume that resembles a toon version of Dark Link, such as from , while likewise featuring a similar color scheme to that of the Dark Interlopers.

In Super Smash Bros. 4
The Dark Link s from Brawl return in Super Smash Bros. 4 for and. In, Link in his Dark Link costume is appears in the Final Battle Team-Up event match and two Links with the same costume appear in in the A Fated Battle event match.

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
In addition to the Dark Link for  returning from Brawl, 's black costume has been overhauled to make him highly resemble Dark Link as he appeared in Ocarina of Time 3D. Due to the Hero of the Wild succeeding the Hero of Twilight in Ultimate, his Dark Link alternate costume is based on a combination of his 's design and his ' color scheme.

Trivia

 * Although each playable incarnation of Link has a black alternate costume that makes them virtually identical to Dark Link, the Hero of Time is canonically the only one among them who actually fought him.
 * While the Hero of Winds did not fight Dark Link, his successor in  can do so via the minigame.
 * While Dark Link does not make an actual appearance in ', the Hero of the Wild can obtain an armor set that makes him appear virtually identical to Dark Link's appearance in '.
 * Dark Link and are the only "dark" characters to be alternate costumes instead of unique fighters.
 * Coincidentally, the Dark Link Event Matches in both Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. Brawl are Event 18.