Unused content (SSBU)

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

Considered for the base game

 * Alucard - In a Famitsu interview, Masahiro Sakurai stated that Alucard was considered for the spot of the playable Castlevania character, due to him being arguably the most recognizable Castlevania protagonist, but he decided to go with Simon and Richter, feeling that fans would prefer the Belmonts, resulting in his Assist Trophy and cameo roles.
 * - In an interview with Nintendo Dream, Sakurai revealed that when deciding which new Gen 7 Pokémon would be playable, the decision came down to between Decidueye and Incineroar. He ended up choosing Incineroar, as Sakurai had a desire of creating a character with a professional wrestling-based moveset.
 * Fighters from and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 - In an interview with Nintendo Dream, Sakurai confirms that due to Ultimate's playable roster being decided with the game's project plan finalization in December 2015, long before the announcement of both games in January 2017, no characters from either Xenoblade Chronicles 2 or ARMS could be made playable in the base game, resulting in Rex, Nia, Spring Man, and Ribbon Girl becoming Mii Fighter Costumes and spirits (with Spring Man also being present as an Assist Trophy). Both games would eventually get playable characters through the  with  and /.
 * Steve - After Steve was announced as a DLC fighter, former Minecraft production director Daniel Kaplan revealed that negotiations between Nintendo and Mojang for Steve to appear in Smash had been going on "at least" since 2015, suggesting the possibility of him being planned for the base game at one point.

Considered as DLC

 * Slime - In a Dragon Quest XI S livestream interview, Sakurai had said he would have dropped Hero in favor of Slime if Square Enix had not allowed him to use the Hero.
 * Other Dragon Quest protagonists as alternative character costumes for the Hero - in the same Dragon Quest XI S livestream interview, Sakurai wanted to include eight different character alternative costumes for the Hero; however, poor development time left him with half of the alternative costumes to be re-colours of the previous four instead of fully implemented characters.
 * Ninjara - During 's reveal on June 22nd, 2020, Sakurai mentioned that he considered either Min Min or Ninjara serving as the fighter. However, Min Min was ultimately picked over Ninjara for the spot on request from Kosuke Yabuki, the game's producer.
 * Rex - At one point in development, Rex was planned to fight alongside Pyra and Mythra similar to the, but he was removed due to technical issues with the implementation of the idea, like getting both characters to move at the same time which was impossible to do, Sakurai also stated that Rex as the main fighter with Pyra/Mythra behind him was also too difficult. Rex ended up being delegated to a supporting character, appearing in Pyra and Mythra's up taunt, Final Smash, and victory poses.
 * Heihachi Mishima - In, Sakurai revealed that Heihachi, who was previously considered to be playable in Super Smash Bros. 4, was almost chosen to be the Tekken fighter for Ultimate. Instead he chose Kazuya, as he thought that because Kazuya has the Devil Gene, there was a better potential moveset for him than his father.

Mii Fighters

 * An unused Mii with the codename “sordsman” [sic] exists in the game’s files. It appears identical to the default, albeit with a red favorite color rather than royal blue. It was possibly intended to be a placeholder Mii for the default Mii Swordfighter.

Differences

 * During the "Everyone is here!" segment of the E3 2018 Direct, the background of Fourside features a skyscraper with the text "Department" going down its facade. In the final release, the skyscraper is still present; however, the text is absent.
 * Lylat Cruise in the E3 2018 demo appears to use its stage select image from Super Smash Bros. for Wii U.
 * In 's character trailer, he is seen climbing up a ladder in 75m. The stage appears to be identical to its Brawl and Wii U incarnations in this trailer, but in the final release, the stage's platforms are angled differently to make the "3D" effect seem less prominent and the stage has been recolored, to better reflect its appearance from its game of origin.
 * In one screenshot, Knuckles appears as an Assist Trophy on Green Hill Zone. In the final game, this is impossible and he will only appear on the stage as a background character.
 * A few stages' images have differences on the stage select screen in the August 8, 2018 Nintendo Direct from the final game.
 * 's image is zoomed in more in the final game.
 * Spear Pillar in the Direct depicts the green hue that normally appears when Cresselia is present, but doesn't actually have any Pokémon in the image, while the final game depicts the image with the purple hue with Palkia in the background.
 * Reset Bomb Forest's image is zoomed out more in the final game.
 * The position of the clouds in Onett's image are in slightly different spots in the final game.
 * A few elements of the Princess Peach's Castle and Town and City stages are in slightly different spots in the final game.
 * The Battlefield stage had at least 18 different conceptual designs settling on the final design.
 * The Battlefield stage originally had two flags like in Smash 4.
 * In 's reveal trailer, Gruntilda can briefly be seen flying around Spiral Mountain on her broomstick in a static, unanimated pose, as opposed to the final game in which she jovially bounces around as she flies in the background.
 * Within the files for Garreg Mach Monastery, there's two files which have an unmapped portion. One for the Golden Deer and another for the Blue Lions, suggesting and  respectively were planned to appear on the stage at some point in development. Sylvain has files for both color and material properties, whereas Ignatz has a file for material properties but his color file is solid grey.
 * Minecraft World's lighting was tweaked during development to make it fit with 's lighting engine instead of Ultimate's.
 * Cloud Sea of Alrest was noticeably different between production and release, such as platforms having different textures, few models moved to the foreground, and cloud animations.
 * Mishima Dojo featured less details in both its inside and outside views during production. A desaturated filter was added in order to fix some details that were not visible due to the stage being set at night.
 * The easter egg from  in Mishima Dojo was missing during production, being engraved names of Heihachi and Kazumi.

Considered

 * Mount Huji along with other areas from the Dragon Quest series were considered to be replacements for Yggdrasil's Altar during development.
 * Small Battlefield was at the very least considered to have forms for every stage, similar to Battlefield and Ω forms.
 * Masahiro Sakurai's original concept for Minecraft World was to include a level editor that would allow stages built in Minecraft to be imported and played in Ultimate. The concept was abandoned early on, as technical issues made it impossible. Minecraft World's texture sheet shows multiple textures that go unused, such as carved pumpkin blocks, gold and diamond blocks, and the command block. These unused textures may be related to Sakurai's original concept.

Removed

 * The Miiverse stage was intended to return, and a Rhythm Heaven stage was intended to be introduced. Looking into the  file, it includes Rhythm Heaven (rhythm) and Miiverse, this could be a carryover from Smash 4, and while the save file index for the list of series is in the same order as it was in Smash 4, they have two omissions, Brain Age (braintraining) and Swapnote (diary) . Rhythm Heaven and Miiverse are in close proximity to other stage exclusive series in the parameters, this would suggest they were purposefully left over in the series database to be used for their own stages.
 * Smash 4s was used in the development environment of Ultimate. Although it is not present in its release, there has been screenshots of the stage shown by Masahiro Sakurai, depicting what the stage may have looked like with Ultimates lighting engine. Besides the lightning being different and used as a test stage for that, there are noticeable differences between the two games.

Gameplay

 * The route files for  and  each contain data specifying a stamina HP value of 120, but have stamina mode disabled. This implies that these fighters' Classic Mode routes may have once been planned to use stamina battles. In the final game,, , , , , /, , and  are the only fighters whose routes uses stamina battles, with a HP value of 150 for Ryu, Hero, Terry, and Pyra/Mythra, while Byleth, Steve, Kazuya, and Sora start with 100.
 * In an interview, Sakurai stated that he had planned to lower the run speed for a campy playstyle. However, it was eventually scrapped because he believed it was nearly impossible to tell what was campy.
 * The usage of rollback netcode for online gameplay was considered, but was ultimately decided against due to each implementation attempt creating multiple side effects.
 * Unlike other bosses, Giga Bowser can be used as a fighter with the works of hacking, many unused elements can be found for him like a copy ability, a full moveset (albeit without access to certain moves), and many other elements that go unused. With all this in mind, it seems that Giga Bowser was ported over from Smash 4 where he was a transformation Final Smash for.
 * Chef Kawasaki, after being summoned (assuming at least one person is trapped in his attack), will always leave behind a food item before disappearing. However, inside the folder "Generate_Param_Assist.prc", there are some food items Chef Kawasaki can never generate due to spawn rate being set to "0", despite them all being defined to be spawnable. The reason for this is not yet known. The following are food items Chef Kawasaki can never spawn:
 * Cherries
 * Pears
 * Milk
 * Tea
 * Cola
 * Sushi
 * Tenshin
 * Corn Potage
 * Chocolate
 * Popcorn
 * Salad
 * Kiwi
 * Mont Blanc
 * Pasta
 * Grape
 * Candy
 * Lemon
 * Fried Egg
 * Apple
 * Roasted Chicken
 * Steak
 * Steamed Bun
 * Pizza
 * Pineapple
 * Doughnut
 * Cheese
 * Peach
 * In a similar case, Rodin has weapons he can never gift the player due to their spawn rate being set to "0". The following are weapons Rodin can never generate:
 * Fire Flower
 * Gust Bellows
 * Fire Bar
 * Golden Hammer
 * Hammer
 * Homerun Bat
 * Lip Stick
 * Star Rod
 * Dragonite, despite already having a model used in the Kalos Pokémon League stage, has a different model that can be found in the folder that contains Poké Ball Pokemon in the game files. This version of Dragonite has upscaled textures and shading that makes it look more in line with the assets created for Ultimate. Due to this, it can be assumed that Dragonite was once going to be a summonable Pokémon, but was cut from the game for unknown reasons.
 * Another Pokémon, Scizor, has a case similar to this. However, unlike Dragonite, Scizor can actually be summoned (unless the player is on the Kalos Pokémon League stage, in which case it can never be summoned).
 * Leftover data implies that Ditto was originally meant to have an entrance, victory pose(s), and perform Final Smashes. However, Ditto cannot do any of these things in the final game.
 * Out of the current 115 stages in Ultimate, only 59 stages can be viewed using the Nintendo Labo VR headset. However, modding the game to make all stages playable in VR reveals that some of the unavailable stages have defined camera parameters, implying that they were intended to be played in VR mode, but aren't available in the final version of the update. The current stages confirmed to have working camera parameters are:
 * 75m
 * Midgar
 * Mementos

Fighter movesets

 * In the E3 demo, was able to use After Burner Kick, Downwards After Burner Kick, and then gain another After Burner Kick before landing.
 * An unused model for 's bongo drums can be found in the game files. Donkey Kong used bongo drums in Konga Beat, his Final Smash in Brawl and Smash 4, and due to its updated design and textures (despite not being used), it can be assumed that Konga Beat was meant to return for Ultimate. However, Donkey Kong has a new Final Smash in Ultimate, that being Jungle Rush.
 * In ’s character trailer, he is shown able to actually attack the water from his Fire Hydrant, making it completely disappear. However, this is impossible to do in the final game, as the water functions exactly how it did in the previous game.
 * Also in his character trailer, it is shown that attacking the trampoline would turn it green, and it would also put enemies into a helpless state when they jumped on it (regardless of the current level). Both of these changes were removed in the final game.
 * Datamining Piranha Plant's character data (before its official release) reveals that it was originally supposed to have three jumps instead of the standard 2. The parameter that controls its max amount of jumps, "jump_count_max", had its number decreased from 3 to 2 in the day one patch for Ultimate. The animation for the third jump can still be found in Piranha Plant's animation folder.
 * In Piranha Plant's reveal trailer, it is shown that its up special could be angled down, but when it was released, this feature was removed.
 * When Joker was initially datamined, his code implied that he would have a rapid jab as part of his moveset. However, in the final game, Joker's jab only goes up to three hits.
 * In 's reveal trailer, the MP cost of Psyche Up and Oomph are different than they are in the final game.
 * was originally supposed to take damage when successfully using Gut Check. The move's code has a parameter called "damage_mul_special_lw", and on frame 7, the game requests a damage number to calculate. However, the parameter's multiplier is set to 0, which causes the damage to never actually occur. Notably, the Techniques menu lists Gut Check as a move using Belly Super Armor. A possible alternative explanation is that the parameter is instead a way to have the move use the same clanging sound effect as Belly Super Armor, with the damage parameter being set to 0 in order to prevent K. Rool from taking damage.
 * originally had his opponent facing the same direction as him while using his forward throw. In the final game, the opponent is held so that they are facing away from him instead.
 * King K. Rool's forward aerial and back aerial have flags for ending intangibility. However, as they lack a flag for starting intangibility, nothing happens in the final game.
 * was originally going to have a different running animation, as seen at the beginning of his character trailer. Additionally, it sounds noticeably slower than it currently does, indicating that at one point, Roy's running speed may have been either unchanged or even slowed down. It was eventually replaced by his original run from Smash 4 and sped up.
 * 's Pikmin still have their pummel animation from Smash 4 and their Pikmin Chain animations from Brawl. They go unused because Olimar pummels on his own and his up special was changed to Winged Pikmin in Smash 4.
 * Like in Smash 4, characters that could glide in Brawl still retain the code for it despite it being removed. However, Ridley, a newcomer, has code for being able to glide despite him not being able to. It's not exactly sure why Ridley has the code in the first place, but upon further inspection, the code for the glide is nearly identical to 's, suggesting Ridley was made using Charizard as a base, and that the code for gliding was a carryover. However, this would result in a T-pose due to the lack of animation (although the "trans" bone does move).
 * Min Min has an unused down special animation left in her animation files, both an aerial and grounded version. The animations resembles Captain Falcon's Falcon Kick, suggesting that Min Min used Captain Falcon as a base. She also has an unused dash attack hitbox that has reflection properties, suggesting Min Min was planned to have two moves that reflect projectiles.
 * retained his scripts for Super Diffusion Beam despite having his Final Smash changed.
 * has animation folders labelled "bow" and "bowarrow" but have no animations inside each. This is either a mistake due to copying asset folders from, or an indication that she was going to have a bow in her moveset referencing Fire Emblem Awakening and Fire Emblem Heroes.
 * has animation folders for articles pertaining to his custom moves from Smash 4 such as Beat and Skull Barrier but they have no animations inside them.
 * Giga Bowser's move scripts frequently make calls for Final Smash variables, implying that the reason for Giga Bowser's character slot is that he was intended to act like his Brawl and Smash 4 appearances until late into development.
 * Several characters have animation folders coming from the previous installments. Like with Lucina's, the folders have no animations inside.
 * has hitbox data for a rapid jab, but with no animation associated so it is unknown what it looked like. The hitbox data is unique, suggesting it wasn't carried over from a different character being used as a template; the rapid jab lifts the opponents off the ground, unlike the vast majority of rapid jab in Ultimate, while the finisher has unique knockback values, with high base knockback but low scaling. It's also unknown if this rapid jab replaced the 10-Hit Combo entirely, or could be transitioned from one of its hits, similarly to the Flash Punch Combo.
 * Smash attacks in the air were considered by Sakurai and the development team in the original plan for Ultimate, but were scrapped due to being too complicated to implement. Min Min would eventually bring this concept exclusive to her.
 * has data for a reverse strike, presumably suggesting that he was initially going to have a counter detection hitbox that covers his entire body, like most counterattacks. However, it lacks essential bone movement, leaving Sora in a T-pose when modded back in.
 * has unused carryover animations from, with an example of a carryover being Pyra's up special, Prominence Revolt.
 * Rex has unused Final Smash animations for Burning Sword and Sacred Arrow, presumably meant to be used if the Final Smashes missed. These animations are static, and have no keyframes for expression.

Game Modes

 * The formerly Japan-exclusive Official Tourney Qualifiers mode contained unused English text strings in the game's data.

Music

 * The E3 reveal featured a version of Lifelight with different instruments, a faster pace and no lyrics. It was used in later trailers and advertisements (including post-launch DLC), but is absent in the actual game.
 * The Battlefield and Menu themes were redone between E3 and the game's release. While they stayed mostly the same, the E3 versions were created in a digital audio workshop on a computer, while the final versions were properly orchestrated.
 * In the E3 build, the 's theme originally used the same music from the NES version of Donkey Kong that was used in the last two games, but the later builds and final version use a direct rip from the arcade version of Donkey Kong instead.
 * In the August 8, 2018 Nintendo Direct, several songs shown in the Sound Test had titles that were later altered prior to release:
 * Metroid:
 * "Opening/Menu - Metroid Prime" was originally named "Metroid Prime: Opening/Menu".
 * "Multiplayer - Metroid Prime 2: Echoes" was originally named "Multiplayer (Metroid Prime 2: Echoes)", as it was in.
 * "Main Theme - Metroid Prime: Federation Force" was originally named "Splash Screen (Metroid Prime: Federation Force)".
 * "Magmoor Caverns - Metroid: Samus Returns" was originally named "Area 1 - 5 Torrid Zone (Metroid: Samus Returns)".
 * Star Fox:
 * "Main Theme - Star Fox" was originally named "Star Fox - Main Theme".
 * "Corneria - Star Fox" was originally named "Corneria (Star Fox)".
 * "Main Theme - Star Fox 64 (64)","Main Theme - Star Fox 64 (Melee)", and "Main Theme - Star Fox 64 (Brawl)" were originally titled "Star Fox 64 - Main Theme (64)", "Star Fox 64 - Main Theme (Melee)", and "Star Fox 64 - Main Theme (Brawl)", respectively.
 * The total number of Pac-Man tracks was shown as 13 during the Direct, but there are only 11 tracks in the final game. Incidentally, two Pac-Man music tracks were cut between Smash 4 and Ultimate, implying that those two tracks were originally going to return.
 * In and 's reveal trailer, the ending features a remixed version of the Stage Clear theme from ; it differs slightly from the Castlevania victory theme heard in the final game, in that it lacks the electric guitar, implying the remix heard in the trailer is an earlier version of the victory theme.
 * In the E3 2018 demo had a slightly different victory theme, where instead of the chanting in the final game there is an ominous twinkling sound, seemingly an arrangement of the "Unknown Item Found" jingle from Metroid: Zero Mission.
 * Sonic Rush is included inside the database of game titles used across Ultimate, suggesting was intended to return instead of being cut.
 * The original versions of both and  (the former in its Persona 5 rendition) can be found in the game's files, despite both being remixed in the final release of Challenger Pack 1.
 * Internal number gaps from Fatal Fury's music suggests there are two cut songs, one from Real Bout Fatal Fury, and The King of Fighters '96. Real Bout Fatal Fury also has an unused entry inside of the game title database.
 * Additional songs were planned, but their arrangements were left unfinished and not included in the final game.
 * A slightly-abridged version of One-Winged Angel plays during Mr. Sakurai Presents "Sephiroth" in the final stage of Sephiroth's Classic Mode demonstration, missing a small portion of the opening verses. This quirk is not present in the official release; all in-game appearances of the track including Sephiroth's Classic Mode route use the full, unabridged version.

Sounds

 * Several characters, such as Link, Ganondorf and Ike, use their old voice clips from Smash 4 in early footage of the game.
 * In the E3 trailer for the game, the part going over Perfect Shielding still uses the old Perfect Shield sound effect from Smash 4. In the final game, this sound was replaced with a more audible sound.
 * When a character is KO'd, a *foowish* sound effect is played when the game brings up the remaining stocks. However, in the King K. Rool vs Snake video posted by Nintendo UK the sound effect is completely different, being a *bleep* instead.
 * In Wolf's character showcase video, his Blaster makes a considerably different sound than it does in the final game.
 * Additionally, his sound effects of his Wolfen during his on-screen appearance is taken directly from Fox's.
 * In the Hero's trailer, the voice clip used for Eight's down smash was instead used for his dash attack. Likewise, the voice clip used for Erdrick's up smash was instead used as one of his generic attack grunts.
 * The voice clips for "", "Excellent!", "Nice Call!", "Nailed it!", "Way to go!", and "Home-Run Contest" have louder files for the PAL versions (in a similar vein to "Duck Hunt Duo"), "Stamina Battle" and "Win!" (the Smashdown file) voice clips have ones for the Chinese and Korean versions, "Semifinals", "", "" and "" have ones for the Japanese version, and "Mii Swordfigher" have unused files that would be used for the female Miis and the victory screen in the languages with gendered nouns.

Oddities
Compared to previous games, Ultimate has significantly fewer unused voice clips. Characters whose voice clips are ported over from Brawl have almost all of their unused voice clips (such as 's soft "Yes!" and various short clips spoken by and ) removed altogether from their sound files (with the exception of a few voice clips of, which are repurposed in the game); this is slightly odd, as these characters did not have any voice clips exclusive to their character customizations in Smash 4 (e.g. 's Heavenly Light over Autoreticle) whatsoever; and despite , , and  (three of the characters who had unused voice clips in Brawl) having their voice clips re-recorded in Smash 4, the other characters' voice clips were left almost untouched (aside from one of 's voice clips and  and 's heavy knockback voice clips).


 * Additionally have an "Unused Light knockback and Heavy Knockback". When Popo is the leader they vocalize their medium and heavy knockback based on a small probability. Both are missing a light knockback and 1 heavy knockback which goes unused in Brawl. When Nana is the leader, she doesn't vocalize any of her light, medium, teetering or heavy knockback clips. This could be an oversight, essentially making them have "Unused Knockback yells"

Spirit Battles
For a list of unused Spirit Battles in the game, see Unused content (SSBU)/Spirit Battles.

Although every spirit in the game is obtainable, there are many that can never be battled, as they do not appear on the Spirit Board and cannot be battled in any other context (such as World of Light). This is true of every spirit that is an enhanced form, as well as many that can only be obtained by summoning. Most of these spirits have default placeholder battle data, but some of them are modified from the placeholder data to varying degrees. This indicates that it may have been intended for these battles to be accessible before they were cut from the game.

In addition to spirits whose battles cannot be accessed, there is data for "dummy" battles as well. These battles were likely used for testing during development and were not intended to become complete, accessible battles in the game.

Artwork & alternate costumes

 * Two early versions of the Home Menu icon can be seen in promotional material prior to the final release. The earliest known icon is a generic Super Smash Bros. icon on a gray background. This icon was viewable for a short while on Nintendo's CDN servers and partially spotted on Nintendo Treehouse livestreams. Another early design was found in a datamine and is an edited version of a promotional image made as a placeholder before the final custom icon was created. This version notably depicts many more characters than the final version.
 * ,, and ’s character artworks were changed slightly between Ultimate's reveal and release.
 * In one of 's screenshots on the website, his overalls were depicted as having golden buttons as opposed to their usual white. This was changed back for the final release of the game.
 * In one of 's screenshots on the website, the "L" on his cap for his 6th alternate costume was depicted as being green. This was changed back to purple as it was in Brawl for the final release of the game.
 * In all of 's screenshots excluding the last one, Wolf's default costume had his jacket and gloves a darker shade purple, the straps behind his right shin guard being colored white, and the soles of his boots being red compared to his color scheme in the final build.
 * Both shinguard straps have been changed in the final build as it's now colored purple instead of black. This change is not present on his artwork.
 * This also applies to all of his alternate costumes minus the seventh variant, where the straps are colored differently between the artwork and the in-game model.
 * In the E3 demo,, (being just his shield), , and 's portraits used their in-game models instead of their official artwork, with Mario being the most obvious.
 * In the E3 demo of the game, several of 's alternate costumes, strangely, used varying shades of blue instead of other colors (like white and purple). These were changed back for the final release of the game as well.
 * In the E3 demo, if Nana is chosen as the leader, both will have all their voice clips swapped; Nana will use Popo's voice clips and vice versa.
 * In the segment in which Ike uses Great Aether from his character showcase trailer, there is an error in which his portrait displays him in his ' outfit despite currently being in his ' outfit.
 * 's Meta Ridley and Mecha Ridley costumes were replaced by a black costume and a white costume respectively in the E3 demo.
 * In the E3 Demo, the male Pokémon Trainer’s 7th palette swap had a lighter skin tone than in the final game. The same is the case for Villager's 7th and 8th palette swaps.
 * In a press material release, there is a render of in its default red costume, but in a green pipe as opposed to a pot. In the final game, only Piranha Plant's 2nd, 4th, 6th, and 8th alternate costumes are all in pipes while the default is always in a pot.
 * Similarly, artwork of the female Pokémon Trainer with, , and in their default colors was shown prior to Ultimate's release, but the Pokémon use alternate colors in the actual game instead.
 * An unused string revealed through a string dump prior to release was left in the data, containing a Maya physics asset following a directory listing for Joker's Shujin Academy alternate costume, this hinted that one of Joker's alternate costumes could have had a ponytail and possibly represent another female character. This is most likely a result of garbage data left over from compiling the game's files, with Ann Takamaki's background character hair physics being placed near the model for Joker's alternate costume model.
 * The Sans Outfit originally contained hands with individual fingers rather than being mitten-like, with the change to the latter being requested by Toby Fox. The same model also demonstrates a noticeable glow effect on the Sans Mask and Gaster Blaster's eyes compared to the final game.
 * The Sans Mask contains a blank texture mapped to the center of its left orbit. Its location suggests it was intended to host Sans' glowing eye that appears throughout his fight in Undertale, whenever he influences the player's SOUL.
 * The Doom Slayer Outfit had a different color palette during development and a bigger helmet model.
 * Originally, Erdrick was intended to be the default costume for Hero. Later on, the first costume would be taken by the Luminary.
 * Following this change, some animations based on 's combat movement seen in his works, like in the  franchise for example, were either scrapped or tweaked to be smoother with the Luminary, then followed by Solo and Eight.
 * Enderman has carrryover textures from Minecraft, such as its mouth textures.
 * Tennis and Scottish also have extra textures for their Final Smash texture sheet. Why these textures were placed is unknown.
 * 's Masamune had a different shade in his portraits during production, making it "sharper" in his final version.
 * Pyra and Mythra's Pneuma alternative costume was darker during production.
 * Few events UI and pictures were different during production.

Final Smashes

 * During the segment of the Nintendo E3 Direct that focused on, his eyes are normal colored while he is wearing his mask in Dede-Rush. In the final game, his eyes are yellow.
 * Additionally, in that same scene, Bowser has a different model when he is stuck onto the cage than in the final game.
 * While End of Day is being used in 's showcase trailer, no Bulborbs can be seen, although the bite marks and sound effects remain. This was later fixed.
 * Power Star was still a in 's character showcase trailer; in the final version of the game, it is instead a, and the move was renamed to match the change.
 * 's character showcase trailer briefly features his Final Smash, Team Star Wolf. However, the background in the trailer is significantly different than what is featured in the final game; in the final game, the background is more akin to the background in Team Star Fox.
 * In the Nintendo E3 Direct, Bowser's showcase trailer, and the E3 Demo, Giga Bowser had a much brighter model than in the final game.
 * Conversely, during Piranha Plant's reveal trailer, Petey Piranha had a much darker model compared to the final game.
 * ' used a different appearance in the Nintendo E3 Direct than in the final game.
 * In 's characer showcase trailer, his version of Triforce Slash reused the same sound effects as in Smash 4. In the final game, Toon Link uses new sound effects for Triforce Slash while the Smash 4 sound effects are used by instead.
 * During the "Everyone is Here!" trailer, the E3 Demo and 's character showcase trailer, the camera as Cloud was readying the final strike of Omnislash was similar to Smash 4, where it would zoom in on Cloud while rapidly shaking. In the final game, the camera remains still while this is happening and is more zoomed out to see the victims.
 * The textures for the Yoshi colors used in the Final Smash Stampede! uses a completely different file than Yoshi himself. Interestingly, those textures also include a Crafted World Yoshi, just like the playable character himself. This indicates that a Crafted World Yoshi is supposed to appear in the Final Smash, however, for unexplained reasons it never appears, implying that Crafted World Yoshi was cut from the Final Smash.
 * In Bowser's character data, there is an image of reticle with the character "" ("Temporary") placed twice on it, indicating that this reticle was a placeholder for Bowser's Final Smash Giga Bowser Punch.
 * When Ridley performs Plasma Scream in his reveal trailer, he screams just before firing the attack. He doesn't do this in the final game, however.
 * In the E3 gameplay, if the opponents reaches 100% damage or higher by the end of Ridley’s Final Smash, they will be screen KOed. In the final game, this was changed to an instant KO.
 * In the E3 2018 Nintendo Direct, 's PK Starstorm shared its background with 's. In the final game, the background resembles that of the one used during the Masked Man fight.
 * During her Final Smash in the E3 Direct, Zero Suit Samus' Final Smash portrait is in an unfinished state.

Movesets

 * In Luigi's character showcase trailer, is seen using Mario's updated animation for Cape rather than his own new and unique animation when using Super Sheet, and his sheet is on his right hand, completely unanimated.
 * In his own trailer, Dr. Mario is using his old animation for his down special, Dr. Tornado. In the final game, he spreads out his arms with his hands open.
 * In early footage of Ultimate, has her former idle pose animation from Smash 4, but in the final build, her idle pose matches 's new one.
 * An early screenshot of 4 Mr. Game & Watches on Flat Zone X has an old animation from Smash 4 on the building, in which Mr. Game & Watch retains his regular form when using his neutral attack. In the final game, Mr. Game & Watch instead changes his appearance into that of the main character of Greenhouse.
 * In 's showcase trailer, Pikachu's attacks were not changed, but is shown using his former forward smash animation from Smash 4. In the final game, however, he uses his design from the Game & Watch game Fire Attack.
 * More notoriously, the design for the attack originally used the original depiction of the attackers from Fire Attack, based on stereotypical Native Americans (as could be seen with the feather on Mr. Game & Watch's head); due to backlash on social media against the negative stereotype, the game's day 1 patch, version, removed the feather from the design.
 * During Wolf's character showcase video in the E3 Direct, Wolf Flash lacked any visual effects.
 * Additionally, during his character showcase video, his down smash had a different visual effect along while the bayonet on his blaster lacked any effects.
 * In Fox's character showcase video, his Reflector has a more cyanish color than it does in previous iterations. In the final game, it is a much darker blue.
 * An unused model of a fairy is found within 's game files, indicating that he may have once again been meant to have a fairy appear during his taunts. However, it could simply be a development leftover from previous entries.
 * Joker has an unused "results" mouth and teeth model, labeled Mouth_result, implying he was supposed to talk or move his mouth in some way during his victory poses. However, there are no bones for the mouth and jaw attached to the rig.
 * While Joker does talk during his victory poses, it's only after the player accesses the results screen, when he is off-screen.
 * Lucas' bursts of PSI originally retained their pink-and-yellow color scheme from Smash 4 which is shown in pre-release screenshots, and his appearance in the panoramic "Everyone Is Here!" illustration, the color scheme would later be changed to a cyan-and-yellow color scheme in the released version of Ultimate.
 * Kirby has an unused model of the Keyblade, though it lacks some essential files. Even when modded back in, the game does not spawn it in.
 * Steve's tether grab, Fishing Rod, was tweaked in order to make it fit with its animation in Minecraft.
 * Pyra and Mythra's moveset and movements had their angles tweaked in order to make them face and attack their opponents more evident.
 * Mythra's Foresight did not have an afterimage once activated during development.

Other

 * In the E3 demo, a fighter can get a star KO in Moray Towers. However, this cannot happen in the final game and the Boss Galaga item cannot spawn on the stage.
 * The E3 demo of the game did not feature the changes to victory themes seen in the final version of the game.
 * In the demo, the victory theme would start playing much sooner than in the final game.
 * had a different victory theme in the E3 demo than the one heard in the final game. The most significant difference is that the E3 version ends with a mysterious harp arpeggio, reminiscent of the Unknown Item acquisition jingle from Metroid: Zero Mission.
 * Additionally, on the victory screen, the announcer says "Ice Climbers wins!", where in the final build, he says "Ice Climbers win!" due to their name being plural.
 * In the E3 demo, did not speak during his victory poses.
 * In the World of Light trailer, the Fishman from  was named "Merman"; in the final game, however, it was corrected to Fishman.
 * In early footage, the main menu has a few visual differences from the final game. The highlight box when selecting a mode has a white glow instead of a colored outline matching the corresponding mode, the background of the Vault section uses dots instead of diagonal lines, the background of the Games and More section uses thicker circles, the background of the Online section uses a simpler wave effect, and the button to access the Nintendo eShop is not available.
 * In early footage, the image that appears in the top right when selecting the "Smash" option in the Smash menu is different from the final game. and  have different poses and appear in different corners,  and  are present instead of  and, and the flaming Smash symbol in the background is smaller.
 * In 's showcase video on the website, is Screen KO'd by Bowser's Final Smash, Giga Bowser Punch, and is shown with his eyes closed during the Screen KO. In the final game, Olimar's Screen KO animation properly has his eyes open and exaggerated.
 * In the segment of the Nintendo E3 Direct that introduced, she had fewer facial expressions compared to the final game.
 * In 's showcase video, he uses the same grinning expression from Smash 4 when charging up his Green Missile, where in the final build, he sports an angrier expression.
 * The final pose of his up taunt also sports a different expression, with Luigi closing his eyes and frowning with his mouth open. In the final build, his eyes are open, his pupils are smaller than usual and his mouth shows a shocked expression instead of a frown.
 * and reuse their less detailed eye animations from Smash 4 in their showcase videos.
 * Just like in Smash 4, there are textures that imply R.O.B. was supposed to receive battle damage (indicated by cracks on his body) from taking too much damage. However, R.O.B in the final game never takes battle damage and only his pained expressions from Smash 4 still exist. The textures are also fully updated from Smash 4 despite not being used.
 * In 's showcase trailer and a screenshot, he has his eyes wide open when crouching like in Smash 4. This is changed in the final game, where he slightly closes his eyes more in a humorously seductive manner.
 * In 's showcase video, he closes his eyes upon using his up taunt, but in the final game, they are open, like in Brawl and Smash 4.
 * In the E3 demo, 's on-screen appearance has him facing away from the camera when facing left.
 * During the "Everyone is here!" segment of the E3 2018 Direct, Zelda is briefly seen having a third idle pose, which is identical to an idle from the last game with her crossing her arms. This was removed in the final build.
 * During Bowser's segment of the E3 2018 Direct, Link had a surprised expression when Screen KO'd, which included him blushing. This was changed in the final build where he winces without the blush mark on his face.
 * Additionally, his screen KO'd pose was exactly the same as the one he has but mirrored. The pose was unmirrored in the final build.
 * Early footage of Young Link in the the E3 2018 Direct and character showcase video shows that the belt around his sheath lacked back-face culling, as it disappears when seen from the inside. This was fixed in the initial release of the game.
 * In the data, Blast Corps, Jet Force Gemini, Devil's Third, and Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate are listed as series names. Despite this, no content from any of these games appears whatsoever in the final game.
 * In Samus' showcase video, s would freeze like fighters in a chunk of ice. In the final game, they turn blue and plummet straight down.
 * In 's showcase video, is shown using Shield Breaker and breaking Jigglypuff's shield, Star KOing it due to its unique shield jump. This event cannot happen in the final unmodded game, due to the sheer amount of knockback always causing the Blast KO explosion instead. This suggests this limit that previously existed in Smash 4 was removed in early versions of Ultimate before being added back again.
 * In the demo, Pokémon Trainer's name only took up one line on the character selection screen. In the American and PAL versions of the final game, even if the character selection screen has the same amount of characters as the demo, his name will always take up two lines.
 * Several of the damage meter icons were slightly modified between the demo and the final game:
 * Ice Climbers, Squirtle, Ivysaur, Ike, Pac-Man, Inkling, and Ridley did not have any part of them sticking out of the damage meter in the demo.
 * Charizard's portrait in the demo had its claw sticking out of the damage meter while its ears did not, while the exact opposite happens in the final game.
 * Mewtwo's portrait was slightly larger in the demo.
 * While the demo showed the entirety of Advent Children Cloud's left shoulder in the portrait, the final game does strangely cuts part of it off.
 * Sonic, Charizard, Ridley, and Inkling's portrait placements were positioned slightly higher than in the final game while Ice Climbers was placed lower.
 * In pre-release promotional material for such as their reveal trailer and images on the official Super Smash Bros. website, when compared to the final game the duo (more noticeably Kazooie) appear to have less expressive, ostensibly placeholder default facial expressions when using certain moves or dashing.
 * Characters buried used their bury poses from Smash 4 and prior games in the demo.
 * Reeling was originally the same length as it used to be in every other Smash game before Ultimate. The final game speeds up the animation.
 * When respawning via the revival platform, would use their landing animation from a Super Jump while descending, perhaps as a reference to the original Splatoon.
 * The CGI part of Sephiroth's reveal trailer was tweaked in production to resemble more to the movie . This includes colors being washed-out and the environment being slightly darker.
 * Kazuya used the normal knockdown animation during production, before having his own animation sourced from the series.

Unused series names
This is a list of game names that are listed alongside other series in the game's strings, yet no content from these games appear in the game itself.

Unused game titles
This is a list of game titles located within the game file ui_gametitle_db.prc along with all other game titles (e.g. Mario Kart 64, linked to Mario Kart Series), yet go unused in the game itself with no text associated with them. Some of these titles might possibly be related to other unused content referenced in this article.