Mr. Game & Watch (SSBU)

Mr. Game & Watch (, Mr. Game & Watch) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. He was confirmed alongside and the rest of the returning roster on June 12th, 2018 during E3 2018. Mr. Game & Watch is classified as Fighter #26, the last fighter number of the Super Smash Bros. Melee veterans.

As in his Super Smash Bros. 4 incarnation, Mr. Game & Watch reuses his sound effects from Melee and Super Smash Bros. Brawl for Ultimate.

Mr. Game & Watch is ranked 18th out of 82 on the Ultimate current tier list, placing him in S- tier. This is a drastic improvement from his ranking in Smash 4, where he was ranked 38th out of 54, and is his best placement in the series. Mr. Game & Watch's most notable strength is his unrivaled out of shield game. His up special, Fire, is the undisputed most effective and uncontested out-of-shield option in the game, as it possesses extremely quick startup with large hitboxes that are positioned on both sides of Mr. Game & Watch, allowing him to punish moves that are the slightest bit misspaced. It also functions as a combo starter due to the grounded version's high hitstun, a combo breaker due to its intangibility on start-up, a KO and edgeguarding option due to the ascending hitbox's strong knockback, and an incredible recovery due to its considerable vertical distance, adjustable horizontal distance, and not sending Mr. Game & Watch into helplessness, making it one of the best moves in the entire game. In addition, Mr. Game & Watch also possesses a strong combo that complements his high damage output as well as great KO potential thanks to the low lag on his smash attacks, especially his up smash and down smash. Finally, his down special, Oil Panic, provides him with an excellent defense against characters with projectile-heavy playstyles due to it functioning as both a reflector and an absorption-based move, granting him an incredibly quick and powerful KO option depending on the projectiles absorbed.

However, Mr. Game & Watch possesses some notable weaknesses, the most significant of which is his extremely poor endurance. He is tied with for being the third-lightest character in the game, making him extremely easy to KO. This is further burdened with rage, as opponents can take advantage of it against him to KO him eariler, while Mr. Game & Watch himself cannot endure long enough to benefit from his own rage at higher precents. Despite his strong out-of-shield game, his other defensive options are rather poor, with slow and short-reaching rolls and dodges. Although he has disjointed hitboxes in his attacks, his range is still rather lackluster, giving him notorious trouble against characters that can outrange him, especially swordfighters.

Overall, Mr. Game & Watch's strengths considerably outweigh his weaknesses, and he has achieved great success in competitive play due to the efforts of players such as and.

How to unlock
Complete one of the following: Mr. Game & Watch must then be defeated on Flat Zone X (the Ω form is used in World of Light).
 * Play VS. matches, with Mr. Game & Watch being the 52nd character to be unlocked.
 * Clear with  or any character in its unlock tree, being the 6th character unlocked after.
 * Have Mr. Game & Watch join the player's party in World of Light.

Attributes
Mr. Game & Watch is a character of extremes. While Mr. Game & Watch is a short lightweight, his attributes noticeably make him differ himself from the other characters of his weight class. He has fast air speed (the 18th-fastest), excellent air acceleration (the 13th-fastest), slightly above-average walking and average dashing speeds (with a relatively quick initial dash as well) and high traction (tied with, and  for the 5th-highest). However, his jumps are very low, his falling speed is slow (the 5th-slowest) and his gravity is below-average. Overall, Mr. Game & Watch's mobility is quite exceptional for a lightweight, though his slow falling speed, combined with his light weight, can be somewhat detrimental. In addition, he has among the lowest crouches in the game, allowing him to evade many attacks such as 's Shield Breaker and 's forward tilt.

Unlike most other lightweights, Mr. Game & Watch possesses attacks with large disjointed hitboxes and has numerous, powerful KO options. All of his smash attacks have very high power and low ending lag throughout, with each of them possessing unique attributes. Forward smash is among the strongest in the game if sweetspotted while having low endlag and good range, with the sweetspot being safe on shield. Up smash is also very strong, and comes with full body invincibility while the hitboxes are active. While it has slow startup, it has minimal endlag and is completely safe on shield. Down smash sends opponents at an awkward semi-spike angle offstage, while its sweetspot buries opponents long enough to lead into a forward smash, even at medium percents. It also has a very large hitbox, allowing it to easily 2-frame many recoveries, and acts as an excellent punish option on rolls. Like his other smash attacks, down smash is safe on shield when spaced properly. Overall, Mr. Game & Watch possesses an excellent arsenal of smash attacks.

Outside of his smash attacks, Mr. Game & Watch's other moves also boast strong KO potential. Forward tilt comes out quickly, has a lingering hitbox, and kills under 120% by the ledge, sending characters at a semi-spike. Down tilt lowers Mr. Game & Watch's hurtbox to match his crouch, allowing him to whiff-punish certain attacks. It also possesses high power and semi-spikes opponents offstage, leading to edgeguards and killing outright at 100%. His new forward aerial's explosion kills opponents at 120% by the ledge, while his back aerial now sends at a flatter angle with enough power to KO below 100% offstage. The clean hit on down aerial boasts a powerful meteor smash that can KO below 40%, while the late hit deals enough knockback to KO under 130%, and even sooner if it connects near the top blast zone, courtesy of the move's vertical launch angle. The move's low ending lag allows as to be used as a potent edgeguarding and landing option, giving him a deadly mixup game in the air at all times.

Oil Panic is used as Mr. Game & Watch's primary defense against camping and projectiles, as it both absorbs energy projectiles from moves such as Mega Buster and PK Fire, and reflects items like 's Blunderbuss and 's Turnips. This can lead to massive advantages against certain characters who rely on projectiles in their playstyle. Oil Panic also has the notable ability of carrying over the charge to subsequent stocks, which can be used as a lethal finisher and even mind games. The area in which Oil Panic can absorb projectiles is also deceptively large, which allows Mr. Game & Watch to store energy into Oil Panic merely by standing close to just the edge of any energy projectile. Finally, Oil Panic is also a potent combo finisher with nearly instantaneous startup lag, with its fairly large, lingering hitbox coming out on just frame 2, as well as extreme knockback that can kill at single digit percents when at max power (power is dependent on projectiles absorbed). It is also notably difficult to defend against a fully charged use of it, as the lingering hitbox can still hit spot dodges if timed even slightly off, and a powerful enough charge can break a full shield, allowing Mr. Game & Watch to punish with one of his powerful smash attacks. However, Oil Panic has the glaring weakness of being filled with extremely weak moves such as Fox's blaster. This causes Mr. Game & Watch to fill Oil Panic extremely quickly, rendering its defensive value useless, and forces him to either hold onto a weak use of it, or dump it without purposefully damaging the opponent in order to use it again as a defensive tool. In addition, a full Oil Panic cannot absorb or reflect any projectiles, making Mr. Game & Watch more vulnerable to projectiles unless he releases the oil spill.

Mr. Game & Watch also has a very potent combo and aerial juggling game. Down throw combos into Oil Panic, Judge, and neutral air at low percentages. Chef can deal massive damage if multiple 'food' items hit, allowing it to get around 30-40% off of a single edgeguard. The pan also hits opponents into the stream of meat through a semi-spike, and at high percents can launch opponents fast enough to miss the food entirely and lead to more ledge trapping. Chef's speed and pattern makes it extremely difficult for certain characters to recover, such as or. Not only does Chef deal massive damage, but landing the move allows Mr. Game & Watch to follow up with a grab, neutral aerial, forward tilt, dash attack, and even Judge. Up tilt, though having worse range, deals high damage and combos into neutral aerial and Judge at low percentages. Once Mr. Game & Watch has his opponents above him, he can juggle them for massive damage using his up and neutral aerials. His up air acts similar to Mega Man's up air, pushing opponents upwards, albeit with much less force. All in all, Mr. Game & Watch's strong KO power is also paired with highly damaging combos and juggles.

Lastly, Mr. Game & Watch possesses a fantastic recovery option, as well as large, long-lasting and disjointed aerials. This means that he is a formidable edgeguarder and is extremely hard to gimp himself. His up special, Fire, has frame 3 startup, invincibility in its early frames, impressive recovery distance vertically and horizontally, and a strong upwards hitbox on its initial hitbox, with decent launch power horizontally, allowing for early off-stage KOs if it hits opposite the blast zone. This makes it deadly, as it can stage spike unwary opponents while also easily gimping characters with poor recoveries, like. It is also an extremely useful combo breaker and the game's uncontested best out-of-shield option due to its fast startup and invincibility, which is further complemented by it not rendering him helpless. His back aerial, Turtle Bridge, is a large, long-lasting disjointed multi-hit move that has high knockback at the final hit. The move's large disjoint beats out a lot of recoveries that have hitboxes, and the multi-hit nature of the move makes it hard to tech for stage-spikes and often drags opponents stuck in the move closer to the blast zone. For many characters, getting hit with Turtle Bridge is often fatal off-stage, as the move lingers long enough to shift the opponent closer to the blast zone before dealing the final knockback on the last hit. On the ledge, Chef punishes ledge hangers and covers getup attack and rolls (hit by the pan), forcing opponents to jump. This can easily allow Mr. Game & Watch to follow up with neutral aerial and force the opponent back off-stage. His new forward aerial can be comboed into with Chef and has strong KO potential on its own. Lastly, his up air has the notable quality of having no set limit on its distance, making it arguably the best juggling option in the game. Overall, Mr. Game & Watch is extremely deadly off the stage and at the ledge to all characters, even including himself.

Despite these strengths, Mr. Game & Watch possesses a few notable weaknesses. He is tied with being the third-lightest character in the game, which, along with his floatiness, make his horizontal and vertical endurance terrible. Rage is an additional burden, since opponents can send him flying even earlier with high levels of it, while Mr. Game & Watch himself cannot endure long enough to benefit from his own rage. In addition, despite having surprisingly good range for his size due to his disjointed hitboxes, his overall range is mediocre. This is worsened by the fact that many of his disjointed moves like down tilt, up tilt, and forward smash have underwhelming range for a disjoint. As a result, swordfighters like and  are able to easily keep Mr. Game & Watch at arm's length and stop his approaches. While his new forward air possesses more damage and knockback, it has very low priority, so any move can hit the bomb and make it disappear. This makes it unsuitable for approaching and forces Mr. Game & Watch to approach with his back air instead. It is also a much more situational move in general, due to its higher lag and delayed hitbox, as the bomb will only explode upon touching the ground or waiting for half a second. Additionally, none of his aerials can auto-cancel in a short hop and Mr. Game & Watch lacks other effective out of shield options outside of Fire. Due to this, he has a somewhat lackluster neutral game and a rather poor approach. His grab game is also situational outside of comboing: while Mr. Game & Watch's down throw and up throw are good at starting combos, his forward throw and back throw leave a lot to be desired due to being purely positional throws, and none of Mr. Game & Watch's throws can KO until very high percents, with his strongest throw, down throw, KOing at around 200%. He also has poor defensive capabilities, possessing slow and short-reaching spot dodges and rolls, as well as some of the slowest air dodges in the game.

All in all, Mr. Game & Watch is a very powerful glass cannon with unique properties to a majority of his moves, and is universally believed to be among the most potent glass cannons in the game. He possesses extremely high damage output and powerful KOing ability while being very vulnerable himself, but is compensated for his extremely poor endurance, mediocre approach and low defensive capabilities with an incredible recovery, a brutal combo and juggling game, great edgeguarding, oppressive off-stage presence, and explosive power through most of his moveset, especially his smash attacks and Oil Panic. Overall, his strengths considerably outweigh his weaknesses, making Mr. Game & Watch one of the most fragile characters, but also among the most oppressive in all of Ultimate.

Changes from Super Smash Bros. 4
Mr. Game & Watch has some of the most noticeable changes of any veteran in the transition to Ultimate, as several of his animations have been altered to change his appearance to the games they originate from when he performs them. This has led to a massive overhaul in his moveset that goes beyond changes to aesthetic appearances, as many of these moves have been mechanically altered and, in some cases, completely reworked altogether in their purpose and utility. As a result, Mr. Game & Watch has undergone a large mix of buffs and nerfs in his transition to Ultimate, arguably the most out of any other returning veteran; however, while these changes have weakened a few of his most powerful tools and set-ups from SSB4, they have also greatly improved several of his more underwhelming moves in his toolkit from the previous game, and the changes to game mechanics have benefitted these changes as well. As a result, Mr. Game & Watch has been significantly buffed overall.

Mr. Game & Watch's KO and edgeguarding potential have been drastically improved, since a majority of his regular moves, including forward and down tilts, all of his smash attacks, and back and down aerials, have much stronger knockback; this drastically tones down one of his main weaknesses from SSB4. His smash attacks have also improved beyond higher power — down smash now has faster startup and can now bury grounded opponents when sweetspotted, allowing it to lead into followups and KO confirms, and its long range and burying time make it the best move of its kind. Forward smash is even easier to sweetspot than in SSB4, while up smash has faster startup with increased duration and now renders Mr. Game & Watch himself completely invincible during the attack, as opposed to just his head and foot.

His attacks have also increased utility overall. Changes to neutral aerial's first hits allow them to link together more reliably and catch opponents above him more effectively, and the move's reduced landing lag means it can now be used as a landing option and set-up tool (notably having a KO confirm into down tilt at high percentages), while retaining its decently strong knockback, allowing it to be used as an emergency KO option. Forward tilt has a much longer duration, making it an effective option for both 2-framing and spotdodging, and up tilt's hits connect into each other much more reliably, improving its consistency. Chef's trajectory can now be controlled, which makes it much easier to catch opponents who are trying to reach for the ledge and is now more effective keeping control of the neutral game. Oil Panic can now reflect physical projectiles in addition to absorbing energy-based projectiles (though it doesn't increase their power), and Judge's numbers 5, 7, 8, and 9 have improved. Mr. Game & Watch now sports a much more disjointed dash and pivot grab, giving it effective reach. However, his up special, Fire, has seen the most improvements; it now has a frame 3 hitbox that replaces its windbox from SSB4, which launches opponent directly upwards, and can even be comboed up with a neutral or up aerial at low percentages to keep juggling opponents. Because of this, it is now infamously considered both the best up special and the best out of shield option in the entire game.

Mr. Game & Watch has gained two new attacks in his forward and up aerials. Forward aerial now has Mr. Game & Watch drop a bomb in front of him; compared to his old forward aerial, it posseses stronger knockback and damage output, as well as much more versatility, as its explosion can cover the entire ledge of a stage, it can be used as a combo starter at low percentages, as a shield pressuring tool, and a landing option (as it is much safer on block). Meanwhile, his up aerial now has Mr. Game & Watch shoot a single puff of air upwards as a projectile, functioning very similarly to 's up aerial; this projectile has much more vertical range than his old up air, and is more reliable for keeping opponents trapped in it. It, combined with his neutral aerial, now gives Mr. Game & Watch more respectable juggling potential.

However, Mr. Game & Watch has also received a few notable nerfs, most notably to his two most potent strengths from SSB4 — his up smash and down throw setups. Down throw now deals much more knockback, removing its follow-up potential at higher percents. Despite the startup reduction, extended hitbox duration and increased knockback to up smash, it has lost all of its invincibility frames during the move's startup, making it much less effective as an anti-air, and allows opponents to challenge it easier.

Many of Mr. Game & Watch's new animations have resulted in hitbox reductions for several of his attacks, including forward tilt, up aerial, up tilt, and most notably, his down tilt, the latter of which is now incapable of hitting aerial opponents altogether. This tones down Mr. Game & Watch's deceptive reach, and requires him to be closer towards opponents more often than before. Judge #9's effectiveness has also been halved, since instead of not having SDI at all, it now has a double SDI multiplier, and when combined with the hit's high hitlag, makes it much easier to prepare for and reduces its effectiveness for early KOs. His new moves have also come with drawbacks; while his new forward aerial possesses more utility than his old one, it has much weaker priority to the point that the bomb disappears if it gets hit and the hitbox does not completely cover it, making it a riskier option to challenge opponents in the air with. His new up aerial has also lost all of its KO power, which, compounded with the changes to his down throw, effectively removes his "Toot Toot" KO confirm from SSB4.

The changes to gameplay-based mechanics both strengthen and impair Mr. Game & Watch. The ability to run cancel also improves the newfound utility of his grounded attacks further, and now gives him access very quick KO options he previously didn't have access to. He also possesses a much higher traction, which combined with the improvements to Fire gives him a much stronger out of shield game, which was a weakness he suffered from in SSB4. However, while the universal increase in mobility benefits his own mobility, several other veterans now boast overall faster mobility to varying degrees as well, making it hard for him to keep up with them. The changes to air dodging mechanics and reintroduction of directional air dodging give Mr. Game & Watch an option to either extend his recovery in a pinch, or use one as a short-ranged recovery without the necessity to use his up special, but this has also resulted in his air dodges becoming some of the slowest in the game, making them susceptible to punishment. The weakening of rage improves Mr. Game & Watch's endurance, but due to his surprisingly good survivability for a lightweight, this also weakens his ability to use it to his advantage, due to his plentiful strong attacks such as Judge 9. Finally, despite his numerous improvements, Mr. Game & Watch retains some of the same issues from SSB4, namely his poor endurance, short reach, poor defense, and a lack of reliable approaching options.

Overall, Mr. Game & Watch generally retains much of his bait-and-punish playstyle from SSB4, though the adjustments and increased utility he received to several of his attacks, as well as his significantly improved KO power, have led him to become more of an "all-rounder" type of character to his fellow lightweight brethren. This has garnered Mr. Game & Watch a strikingly positive reception overall, and this incarnation of Mr. Game & Watch is near universally considered to be his best iteration in the series yet.

Update history
Mr. Game & Watch has been slightly buffed via updates; in patch update, forward aerial's explosion had its range increased to match the visual explosion and down aerial auto-cancels slightly earlier to match its interruptibility. now has Octopus trap opponents for longer periods of time, and in patch, up tilt's first hit now deals weight independent set knockback, allowing it to always connect into the second hit, even at higher percents, and in his shield size has been significantly increased.

Overall, the updates given to Mr. Game & Watch have largely been quality of life improvements, and his competitive standing has not significantly changed as a result.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Moveset
For a gallery of Mr. Game & Watch's hitboxes, see here.

Oil Panic scaling
The greater damage an absorbed energy-based projectile is supposed to deal, the higher damage the oil spill will deal. Oil Panic will multiply the damage per unit by 2, though the result is capped at 16%. As a result, the maximum damage Oil Panic deals is 48%. So for example, if 20%, 12% and 4% enter Oil Panic, the result will be 40% dealt not considering factors such as the 1v1 multiplier and stale-move negation.

Strong projectiles can fill two to three bucket units at once. If a move deals 10% (eg. Trick Shot), it will fill the bucket by two units. However, if a move deals 20% (Sun Salutation at max charge), it will fill by three. For each additional unit filled in one go, 8% is deducted from the previous unit, making it deal less damage overall.

Hero's special move Snooze launches an energy-based projectile that can be absorbed despite not dealing any damage. Absorbing it fills the bucket by one unit and adds 6.7% damage to the bucket.

On-screen appearance

 * Moves along a row of Game & Watch LCD frames until reaching the foreground.

Taunts

 * Up Taunt: Rings his bell at a high angle. Similar to his side taunt, it originates from the Game & Watch's alarm feature.
 * Side Taunt: Rings his bell at a low angle. Similar to his up taunt, it originates from the Game & Watch's alarm feature.
 * Down Taunt: Sits down and catches his breath. Originates from the Game & Watch version of Mario Bros., when Mario and Luigi finished a level.

Idle poses

 * Hops in place.
 * Briefly looks behind himself.

Crowd cheer
 

Victory poses

 * Left: Rings his bell to his left, then his right. Afterwards, he continues to ring his bell to his left.
 * Up: Hops about in choppy poses, tripping halfway, before teetering on one foot. He then proceeds to jump back and forth, landing on his feet, then his head.
 * Right: Juggles 3 balls while in his appearance from Ball.

Most historically significant players
See also: Category:Mr. Game & Watch players (SSBU)


 * - Known as one of the best players in South America, winning several notable South American events such as . He has also seen success outside of South America, placing 25th at the major and the . He passed away on May 30th, 2023.
 * - The second-best Mr. Game & Watch player in Japan. Although his major results have been mixed, he has seen far more success at regionals and superregionals, including placing 4th at the superregional and 5th at the superregional.
 * - He was the first Mr. Game & Watch player to consistently place highly at majors and is considered one of the best Mr. Game & Watch players of all time, as well as the definitive best from 2019 until Miya's rise in mid-2022.
 * - The best Mr. Game & Watch player of all-time and one of the best players in the world in 2023. He came to prominence after his unexpected victory at and has since won many other majors and supermajors.
 * - The best Mr. Game & Watch player in the United States who frequently places well at majors, including 17th at the supermajors and.
 * - One of the best Mr. Game & Watch players in the world in the early metagame, notably placing 7th at the major and 33rd at the supermajor . He was also a top 10 player in Mexico, ranking as high as 7th on the Mexican Power Rankings.

Tier placement and history
Upon the release of Ultimate, Mr. Game & Watch's competitive reception was mostly poor; this was because many players considered the nerfs he received - particularly the lack of priority on his new forward aerial, the reduction of invincibility frames on his up smash, and the loss of his "Toot-Toot" KO confirm - as significant enough to outweigh the buffs he was given. Likely as a result, most players considered him a low-tier or even a bottom-tier character, and the character saw little representation in competitive play. However, it later became clear that the buffs were far more significant than the nerfs. In particular, Mr. Game & Watch has a strong advantage state due to his aerial juggling game, an amazing out-of-shield option (as his up special has a startup of 3 frames and is invincible on frame 5), and low ending lag on his smash attacks, with down smash burying opponents, allowing for easy KOs as well. This rise in perception was due to the rise of, who having struggled a bit in the first few months of the game, saw many strong results following the end of the first PGRU season.

These revelations and results helped boost Mr. Game & Watch's perception in the community, with players considering Mr. Game & Watch to be high or top-tier, with some designating him as one of the best characters in the entire game. This perception continues to remain today thanks to Maister's continued strong results, as well as the rise of, resulting in him being ranked 18th on the first and current tier list.

: A Long Legacy
Mr. Game & Watch fights classic characters on retro stages, with most of the music sourced directly from retro games. They are fought in reverse order of release dates, similar to All-Star Mode in, except for Pac-Man, who is ordered between Kirby and Duck Hunt, rather than between Donkey Kong and the Mr. Game & Watch horde. This is likely a reference to the Nintendo Entertainment System version of Pac-Man, which released in 1984, fitting with the order of release dates.

Credits roll after completing Classic Mode. Completing it as Mr. Game & Watch has  accompany the credits.

Role in World of Light
Although Mr. Game & Watch does not appear in the World of Light opening cutscene, he was vaporized and later imprisoned alongside the rest of the fighters (sans ) when Galeem unleashed his beams of light.

Mr. Game & Watch is unlocked in the area reminiscent of PAC-MAZE of The Light Realm. He can be found by going through the teleporters to find the correct path. After finding the correct path through the maze, the player must defeat the Sidestepper and Nikki spirits blocking him.

Spirits
Mr. Game & Watch's fighter spirit can be obtained by completing. It is also available periodically for purchase in the shop for 300 Gold, but only after Mr. Game & Watch has been unlocked. Unlocking Mr. Game & Watch in World of Light allows the player to preview the first spirit below in the Spirit List under the name "???". As a fighter spirit, it cannot be used in Spirit Battles and is purely aesthetic. His fighter spirit has an alternate version that replaces it with his artwork in Ultimate.

Trivia

 * This is the first game in the series where Mr. Game & Watch is portrayed holding an object different than his signature bell in his official art, instead being shown holding the flag from Flagman (the same one as his up tilt). It also resembles his Alt. trophy in.
 * In-game, however, Mr. Game & Watch changes his appearance to match the character in Flagman, rather than using his own appearance.
 * Mr. Game & Watch's render pose somewhat resembles his Smash 4 render, although mirrored, and the positioning of his legs has been mirrored.
 * It is also the first time in the series where his render pose shows him facing right instead of left.
 * Mr. Game & Watch,, , , , , , , and are the only characters in Ultimate who have kept the same falling speed for three games in a row.
 * During the launch of Ultimates official website, Mr. Game & Watch's name was erroneously labeled as "Mr. GAME & WATA'CH" exclusively on the mobile variant of his fighter page. The typo was later corrected.
 * In 's showcase trailer, Mr. Game & Watch is seen using his forward smash animation from Smash 4. However, it was later changed to reference its origin game (Fire Attack) like some of his other moves. This change attracted criticism for its portrayal of a Native American stereotype (itself sourced from the original version of ); Nintendo of America responded to the criticism by apologizing for the outdated imagery and promising to alter it by removing the feather from Mr. Game & Watch's model, matching a change seen in the Game & Watch Gallery 4 version of Fire Attack.
 * The 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.
 * The  spirit also had its artwork altered in the same patch as well, removing the feather.
 * Although Mr. Game & Watch has no visible eyes in his neutral animation, the loading screen, and the damage meter render when parrying (which temporarily lights up the selected character's eyes) makes Mr. Game & Watch glow where his eyes would be. The same applies to his Final Smash activation picture, which focuses on where his eyes would be, as with other characters.
 * While some of his moves cause him to resemble characters from the Game & Watch series with eyes, they are not affected by parrying.
 * Along with and, Mr. Game & Watch is one of the few characters in Ultimate to lack voice-clips in the Sound Test, despite  and  being included. This is probably because the game considers his various beeps as sound effects instead.
 * In spite of other languages having a translated word for the term "Mr.", no other language uses it in Ultimate for Mr. Game & Watch's name except for Russian, appropriately using "Г-н".
 * On the character selection screen, the icon in the Japanese version show Mr. Game & Watch's name within only one row, while in the English version it is shown with two rows. He shares this trait with, , , , , the s, and.
 * Mr. Game & Watch's "transformation" into other Game & Watch characters are fully 2-D, unlike his regular model, although the manhole in his down tilt is still rendered in 3-D. This can be seen when under the effect of a Metal Box.
 * Strangely, during animations where Mr. Game & Watch opens his mouth without changing appearance, if he is Metal or Gold, the reflection texture on his head turns upside-down. This can be seen mainly during taunts and aerials.
 * Mr. Game & Watch's route in Classic Mode is vaguely similar to 's, as both characters fight retro video-game characters from the NES era for opponents.
 * Coincidentally, they are chronologically the oldest fighters in Ultimate, with Mr. Game & Watch being older than Pac-Man by one month.
 * In the form of all Game & Watch series spirits, Mr. Game & Watch is one of the only characters to use their default costumes in a spirit battle present at the game's initial launch, the others being, , and R.O.B.
 * Mr. Game & Watch is also one of two of these characters to use his default costume in more than one spirit battle, the other being Bowser Jr., and the only one of those four to do so at launch.
 * Alongside Yoshi and Bowser Jr., Mr. Game & Watch is one of the few characters with a spirit battle where all of his alternate costumes appear.
 * As a consequence of not having visible eyes, Mr. Game & Watch is the only character with puppet fighters in World of Light that lack their signature red or purple eyes, simply using his model and various alternate costumes with no alterations.
 * Pac-Man, Samus, and Dark Samus also share this distinction, though it is only through the spirit battle previews, where they, along with Mr. Game & Watch, do not emit red-flashing eyes.
 * Mr. Game & Watch is one of few characters who have two moves that trigger Special Zoom, being Judge and Oil Panic.
 * Due to a programming oversight, the sweetspots of Mr. Game & Watch's down smash do not cause any hit effect to appear on aerial or downed targets. This is due to the effect being misspelled as "noamal" in the scripts.
 * In Mr. Game & Watch's showcase trailer in Ultimate, Mr. Game & Watch is seen using his down smash in his new Vermin design, which had a slightly different look (such as his eyes being more circular and large, his hair being more scattered than the original and the size of his mouth being more extended) compared to how it is seen in the final release.
 * When a character becomes a ball in Mr. Game & Watch's throws, they are considered a UI element instead of a part of the foreground, and as such will appear over Windy Hill Zone's grass.
 * Oddly, Mr. Game & Watch used to be unable to angle his shield directly forward as doing so caused the shield to reset to neutral position. This was fixed in a patch.
 * Mr. Game & Watch is one of the two Melee fighters to never appear in a CGI trailer in Ultimate, the other being.