All-Star Mode

All-Star Mode, also referred to as simply All-Star, is a gameplay mode available in Super Smash Bros. Melee, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and Super Smash Bros. 4, that pits the player against every playable character in the game (other than Mii Fighters in Smash 4). The fights are separated into distinct rounds, and a rest area with a limited number of recovery items available between rounds. All-Star is replaced with All-Star Smash (under Mob Smash) in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Super Smash Bros. Melee
All-Star Mode made its debut in Super Smash Bros. Melee, as an unlockable 1-player mode which puts the player up against every fighter in the game. It is automatically unlocked upon unlocking every fighter.

All-Star Mode has 13 stages. The number of opponents per stage increases as the player advances: one opponent per stage for Stages 1 to 4, two per stage for Stages 5 to 8, three per stage for Stages 9 to 12, and a team of 25 Mr. Game & Watch for Stage 13. The opponents are selected at random from the entire roster, excluding (who is always fought last), so that each character is fought once. Each opponent (except Mr. Game & Watch) wears one of their first three alternate costumes, unless the player is wearing one of those three costumes, in which case that character can wear their default costume (but not the costume the player is wearing); Mr. Game & Watch will always wear his default costume, unless the player uses that costume, in which case they will wear the red costume.

The player's percentage does not revert to 0% between battles. Instead, the All-Star Rest Area contains three Heart Containers, which the player can use to restore health between stages. Once one of these Heart Containers is consumed, it does not return for the rest of the mode. These Heart Containers, unlike normal ones, recover 999% damage (as they did in Smash 64) instead of only 100% damage. Due to a glitch, however, entering the portal while damage is being healed will prevent the damage from healing any further, leaving it at the same amount of damage as when the portal was entered.

Other than the Heart Containers in the Rest Area, recovery items (such as food, Maxim Tomatoes, and eggs) do not appear at all in the mode. However, 's PSI Magnet and 's Judgment 7 (which can drop a Food item) can still be used to recover health.

As a reward, the player can also collect random trophies that appear after every three battles; trophies that have not been collected are prioritized. Upon clearing All-Star Mode, the player unlocks both (the first time only) and a trophy of the character they used that can only be obtained this way or by playing 300 Vs. matches with that character; for all characters except Mr. Game & Watch, this trophy depicts them in a non-default costume.

Each stage is fought on the home stage of the first opponent in the group; for example, if the opponents were, , and , the stage would be Mushroom Kingdom. No character has Big Blue nor past stages as their home stage for All-Star Mode, so these stages are never fought on in this mode. For some fighters, particularly fighters with a home stage set outside their universe, the stage will have a specially selected track which cannot normally play on the stage; for example, Pichu's stage is set as Fourside, but "Battle Theme" plays. However, Ganondorf, who is fought on Brinstar Depths, uses the default theme for that stage, despite it not being from his universe.

Unlockable stages that have not yet been unlocked are still used. This differs from Brawl and Smash 4's All-Star Modes, in which unlockable stages not yet unlocked will simply not be chosen.

Bold denotes a track that does not play on that stage in Versus Mode. Italics denotes an unlockable stage.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl
All-Star Mode returns in Brawl, and is mostly unchanged from Melee. The player still gets 3 Heart Containers, as well as random trophies (which, unlike in Melee, do not appear as a question mark if the game is paused), and they fight through every fighter in the game. The player still only has 1 stock, and they do not regain health between matches without a Heart Container (although after using one, the player can now enter the teleporter without having to wait for their health to fully recover).

In addition to and,  and  can heal themselves without a Heart Container by using PSI Magnet and Peach Blossom respectively. Furthermore, fighters can be healed via the microgames in WarioWare, Inc.

The order in which the opponents are fought is based on the Japanese release date of the first game in the fighter's/fighters' universe, with fighters from older series being fought first. As such, the player will always fight Mr. Game & Watch first and last, with Olimar's difficulty ramped up. In effect, this means that stages for, , and will be easier than , , and , due to the latter three universes having multiple opponents.

Up to two enemies can appear on the stage at once; when a series has more than two characters, a new fighter will appear a few seconds after the player KOs one of the opponents. On stages with multiple opponents, the order of the opponents is random.

To defeat, the player must defeat , and ; once one is defeated, the Trainer will send out the next one. For and, the player will battle one of  or  and one of  or , selected at random.

Each fighter is fought on one of their home stages (randomly selected if there are multiple). universe stages (such as and ) and Past Stages are not used as home stages for any fighter. Unlike Melee, Unlockable stages can only appear if they have been unlocked. Mario Bros. is used as 's home stage and does not appear as a Mario home stage; if Mario Bros. has not yet been unlocked, Delfino Plaza is used instead.

At the end of All-Star Mode, the player can unlock their fighter's Final Smash trophy. Completing the mode in co-op unlocks both characters' Final Smash trophies together. However, the high score (along with the Final Smash trophies unlocked in co-op) is tracked into a unique reserved slot, as opposed to a specific fighter.

When the player finishes All-Star Mode with a fighter, they will enter Character Roll Call.

The order in which universes are fought is listed below:

Italics denote unlockable stages that the player is not guaranteed to have upon unlocking the mode.

As a reward for completing this mode, the player will earn a trophy of their fighter using their Final Smash. Additionally, the player will see an interesting congratulatory picture that plays according to what their fighter is. For example, for Snake, it shows Snake in his box with and other various bounty hunters looking for him.

Co-op mode
In Brawl, All-Star Mode has a co-op mode that is played with two players. In co-op mode, the rest area has six Heart Containers instead of three; the new three Heart Containers appear underneath the platforms the normal three are on. If either player is KO'd, both players are sent to the continue screen. The opponents are the same as single player until the last battle, where the players face two Olimars instead of one (a possible nod to from Pikmin 2).

Playing All-Star Mode with two players allows them to receive two Final Smash trophies at the same time. However, co-op play does not count towards the Challenges for All-Star Mode. The co-op high score and Final Smash trophies are not attached to either fighter. Instead, they both appear in its own reserved slot.

Super Smash Bros. 4
Unlike previous installments, All-Star Mode is playable from the start of the game. However, the mode is incomplete at first, as players cannot fight against fighters or on stages they have not yet unlocked. Once all unlockable fighters have been unlocked, it is referred to as the "True All-Star Mode," which is required for many of the rewards from the Challenges in. Downloadable fighters and stages will also be added to the mode if the player obtains them, but their presence or absence will not affect any of the challenges, and if the player deletes the DLC data, they will be removed from the mode until they are re-downloaded.

Continues are not available, so getting KO'd or running out of time results in an immediate game over, in a similar manner to Brawl's Boss Battles Mode. However, gold, Global Smash Power, and any other rewards earned during the run are retained.

The order in which different characters are fought is now based on a fighter's personal first appearance in Japan (all characters debuted first in Japan with the exception of Diddy Kong, Sonic, and Zero Suit Samus, while Greninja debuted on the same day worldwide). In, the order of opponents starts with the oldest fighters (1980) and progresses to the newest ones (2013 or 2015, depending on whether has been downloaded); in , the order is reversed, with the newest fighters fought first and the oldest ones fought last. s are absent from this All-Star Mode.

Up to three enemies can appear at a time (two if played on co-op in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS), with four to nine opponents per stage with a five-minute time limit. Stages are chosen randomly from some of the home stages of that era's fighters (this includes stages that are not yet unlocked; stages from a universe with fighters that are all unlockable/downloadable will not be selected until the respective fighter have been obtained, for example Flat Zone 2 will not be selected in the Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS version of All-Star mode until has been unlocked), but overly large stages such as Palutena's Temple, The Great Cave Offensive, and 75m are never picked. Wii U stages will use their 8-Player Smash variant if applicable; similarly, some 3DS stages have certain elements removed, as noted below.

Ten fighters with special alternate costumes can wear these costumes in All-Star Mode:
 * can wear his wireframe costume.
 * can wear his classic overalls costume.
 * can wear his Advent Children costume.
 * can wear her original Bayonetta costume.
 * ,, , and can be either male or female.
 * Both Alph and the Koopalings can take the place of their original characters, and, respectively. However, their appearances will seem misplaced in relation to the chronology, as Alph's debut in Pikmin 3 comes 12 years after Olimar's in Pikmin, and the Koopalings' debut in Super Mario Bros. 3 predates Bowser Jr.'s debut in Super Mario Sunshine by 14 years.

The recovery items available in the rest area are one Special Heart Container (healing 999%), a Maxim Tomato (healing 50%), a Fairy Bottle (healing 100%, but only if the player's damage is 100% or greater), and, if all fighters are unlocked, a second Special Heart Container. In the Group version, two extra Special Heart Containers are added. If the player attempts to carry one of these items outside of the rest area (e.g. carrying the Fairy Bottle normally, or Pocketing an item), it will be lost without healing the player. Unlike in previous games, no items spawn at all during battles. In addition, while in the rest area, the player's damage is fixed and cannot be altered in any way outside the provided healing items—self-damaging moves (such as Judge) and self-healing moves (such as Sun Salutation) will not have any effect on the player's damage. Chomp cannot boost the effectiveness of healing items in the rest area.

Rather than the knockback handicaps used in previous games, in SSB4, damage multipliers are used to increase the damage dealt to opponents while reducing the damage taken by the player. The CPUs also have launch rates slightly below 1.0x, possibly to stop some moves from KOing them too early due to the damage multipliers. However, attacks from projectiles and other articles and props—such as Charizard's Flare Blitz, Olimar's Pikmin, and Ness's yo-yo—are not affected by the player's damage boost or the opponents' damage reduction. In addition, stage hazards will deal full damage and knockback to players and enemies alike (such as falling onto the track in Mute City). As a result, prop-based attacks and stage hazards are by far the greatest threats to the player in this mode, since the opponents will otherwise be unable to reliably KO the player until approximately 200%. In this mode, opponents cannot be Star KO'd or Screen KO'd.

The player is unable to use any customizations, so with the exception of Mii Fighters, fighters can only use their default special moves.

In Solo mode, when the player finishes All-Star Mode, the credits will roll and they will earn their fighter's "(Alt.)" trophy (in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS) or a Final Smash trophy (in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U). In Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, "(Alt.)" trophies are instead randomly obtained from the Trophy Shop after beating or All-Star Mode with that fighter. Completing the mode in co-op unlocks both characters' respective trophies.

Italics denote unlockable content. Bold denotes downloadable content.

Update history
 1.0.2  1.1.1
 * 8-Player Smash stage variants added in this update are now used in All-Star Mode.
 * The stage added as a free stage.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
All-Star no longer exists in the same format in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Instead, it is succeeded by All-Star Smash, a sub-mode of Mob Smash (formerly Multi-Man Smash). The player fights all unlocked and downloaded fighters (except s), with opponents appearing endlessly. Like the other sub-modes of Mob Smash, the battle is fought on any Battlefield form of the player's choice. No items will spawn.

The opponents appear from oldest to newest based on their first appearance within their home series in Japan. When all the fighters have been defeated, the cycle repeats, looping back to the oldest fighters. Opponents will use their default costume unless the player is using that fighter's default costume.

All-Star in Ultimate is similar to the final Co-Op event matches in Super Smash Bros. Brawl and (Co-Op Event 21: The True All-Star Battle and The Ultimate Battle, respectively) and fought in the same order as All-Star Mode from ; only that Mario and Donkey Kong swap placements, Yoshi switches his placement with Captain Falcon and all  Pokémon are fought in a different order.

Fighters in italics denote starter characters. Bold denote downloadable characters.

In Super Smash Bros. Melee

 * Clearing All-Star mode with any character will result in unlocking the stage, as well the Battlefield trophy.
 * Clearing All-Star mode on Hard or Very Hard gives the player the Mew trophy (continues can be used).
 * Clearing All-Star mode without using continues gives the player the Wario trophy.
 * Clearing All-Star mode with all characters gives the player the Meowth trophy.
 * Clearing All-Star mode on any difficulty with any character will give the player a "Smash" trophy of the character used (each character's All-Star trophy depicts them in an alternate costume, except ). These are distinct from the "Smash" trophies earned in Adventure Mode. Both Zelda and Sheik's All-Star trophies are obtained simultaneously.

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl

 * Clearing All-Star mode on Easy gives the player the Tal Tal Heights music.
 * Clearing All-Star mode on Normal gives the player a sticker of Phyllis.
 * Clearing All-Star mode on Hard gives the player the Birdo trophy.
 * Clearing All-Star mode on Very Hard gives the player the Dyna Blade trophy.
 * Clearing All-Star mode on Intense gives the player the Mewtwo trophy.
 * Clearing All-Star mode with 10 characters gives the player the Gekko trophy.
 * Clearing All-Star mode with all characters gives the player the Kyle Hyde trophy.
 * Clearing All-Star mode with all characters (including alternate characters that can be switched in) gives the player the Plusle & Minun trophy. Zelda/Sheik and Samus/Zero Suit Samus's Final Smash trophies are separate and must be obtained in multiple playthroughs.
 * Clearing All-Star mode without using continues gives the player the Pichu trophy.
 * Clearing All-Star mode on any difficulty with any character will give the player a "Final Smash" trophy of the character used.

In Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS

 * Clearing All-Star mode with any fighter will give the player an alternate trophy of the fighter in a different pose, and, with the exception of Pac-Man and Bowser Jr., in a different costume (similar to Melee) to the default trophy earned in.
 * Clearing All-Star mode on Easy or harder will give the player a trophy of Epona.
 * Clearing All-Star mode on Normal or harder will give the player a trophy of Medusa, Queen of the Underworld.
 * Clearing All-Star mode on Hard will give the player a trophy of Nintendoji.
 * Clearing All-Star mode with fifteen different characters will unlock the All-Star Rest Area music.
 * Clearing All-Star mode with all characters will unlock the Regal Crown headgear.

In Super Smash Bros. for Wii U

 * Clearing All-Star mode with any fighter gives a trophy of the character's Final Smash like in Brawl.
 * Clearing All-Star mode for the first time unlocks Victini as a Poké Ball Pokémon.
 * Clearing All-Star mode on normal or hard difficulty gives the Hyper Smasher Brawn Badge equipment.
 * This challenge is immune to the Golden Hammer.
 * Clearing All-Star mode on normal difficulty gives the player the chance to battle Dark Pit. Beating him will unlock him.
 * Clearing All-Star mode on hard difficulty with 8 or more characters gives the Caloric Immortal Protection Badge equipment.
 * Clearing All-Star mode on hard difficulty with all characters gives the Saki Amamiya trophy.
 * Clearing Solo All-Star mode on normal or hard difficulty while playing as Lucario unlocks Meloetta as a Poké Ball Pokémon.
 * Clearing true All-Star mode on hard difficulty gives the Perfect-Shield Helper Brawn Badge equipment.
 * This challenge is immune to the Golden Hammer.
 * Clearing true Solo All-Star mode within 6 minutes as Jigglypuff gives the Koffing trophy.
 * This challenge is immune to the Golden Hammer.
 * Clearing true All-Star mode on normal or hard difficulty without the use of healing items gives 15,000G.
 * This challenge is immune to the Golden Hammer.
 * Clearing true Solo All-Star mode as Zero Suit Samus, without the use of healing items, gives the Gunship trophy.
 * Clearing true Solo All-Star mode on hard as Ike gives the Black Knight trophy.
 * Clearing true Solo All-Star mode on hard as Duck Hunt gives the Samus (Dark Suit) trophy.
 * This challenge is immune to the Golden Hammer.
 * Clearing true Solo All-Star mode within 6 minutes as Shulk gives the Mechonis trophy.
 * Clearing true Solo All-Star mode on normal or hard as Captain Falcon, without the use of healing items, gives the Deathborn trophy.

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

 * KOing 3 opponents gives 1000 Spirit Points.
 * KOing an opponent with a Meteor Smash gives a Medium Snack.
 * Damaging 3 opponents using Luigi's down taunt gives the Mario (Wedding) spirit.

Origin
All-Star Mode in the  games is inspired by The Arena subgame in Kirby Super Star and its remake, and the Boss Endurance in other games. Like The Arena and Boss Endurance, the selected fighter has to battle and defeat every other fighter in the game, similar to how Kirby has to defeat every boss in his games.

The main difference is that instead of Maxim Tomatoes to refill a health bar, the player collects Heart Containers from series to empty their damage meter. The rest area in All-Star is also very similar in appearance to that in The Arena, and the music played in Melee's version is a remix of the song that plays in the save cottages in from Kirby Super Star. Additionally, instead of a Warp Star used to teleport to the boss battle, the fighter goes into a vortex to compete in the battle.

In Melee
All-Star mode is heavily based on Kirby Super Star's. In Melee, the music comes from 's save cottages in Kirby Super Star (which, in turn, is based on the music from Kirby's Dream Land and Kirby Super Star). Interestingly enough, in , this music is used in The Arena between boss fights.

In Brawl
In Brawl, the music is a light, relaxed remix of Brawl's main theme.

In Smash 4
In Smash 4, the music is a light remix of the main theme.

Trivia

 * In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, the uses a revival platform as an opponent in All-Star Mode, because the player must KO all three of Pokémon Trainer's Pokémon. He is the only character in the entire series to do so.
 * The Mii Fighters are the only playable fighters in any Super Smash Bros. game to be absent from All-Star Mode.
 * is the only game where the teleporter to the next battle is on a platform instead of the main ground.
 * Due to All-Star Mode being available from the start in for Wii U, it is the only game in which an unlockable character can normally be unlocked by completing All-Star Mode (that being ).
 * However, in Melee, if Erase Data is used to erase hidden characters after unlocking All-Star Mode, it is possible to unlock some characters via All-Star Mode.
 * In Super Smash Bros. 4, the menu changes when the "true All-Star Mode" is unlocked.
 * In for Nintendo 3DS, the menu icon initially shows, , , , and ; the bottom screen image shows a padlock icon, Pac-Man, Mario, , , , , and with the description reading, "It's every fighter for themselves! Take on each fighter in set conditions." When "true All-Star Mode" is unlocked, the menu icon gains , , and ; the bottom screen image loses the padlock and gains Mr. Game & Watch, , and  and the description changes to read, "Time to fight everyone! Defeat every fighter in set conditions."
 * In for Wii U, the menu icon is initially the same as in for Nintendo 3DS with the only difference being the padlock being positioned next to Link in the icon. When "true All-Star Mode" is unlocked, the same changes in for Nintendo 3DS occur along with the removal of the padlock.
 * In the English version of the Super Smash Bros. Direct, Masahiro Sakurai was mistranslated as saying that Assist Trophies would "figure into All-Star mode" in some fashion in Super Smash Bros. 4. However, Assist Trophies ended up playing no role in the mode, and they do not even spawn as regular items within battles. In Japanese, Sakurai was instead referring to the "all-star" cast as opposed to the mode itself.
 * The only stages that have never appeared in All-Star for any installment are Planet Zebes, Sector Z, Pictochat, Pac-Maze, Jungle Hijinxs, and Miiverse.
 * The Hero from was the only fighter who is placed in order based on their iteration rather than the character's debut. Prior to Version 8.0.0, his placement was based on the release date of Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age (July 28, 2017) rather than the release date of the original Dragon Quest (May 27, 1986). Starting from Version 8.0.0, his placement is now based on the release date of Dragon Quest III (February 10, 1988).
 * Conversely, other fighters with an iteration different from their debut, such as Link, are placed in order based on the character's debut.
 * Although not by name, All-Star Smash was the only in-game occurrence where the Luminary's debut is counted as Dragon Quest XI rather than Dragon Quest XI S (September 27, 2019) prior to Version 8.0.0.
 * This also makes Hero the only character to have their All-Star placement based on an alternate costume character's debut rather than the default (as Olimar and Bowser Jr. use their debuts for their placements rather than those of Alph and the Koopalings), as well as the only character to change his All-Star placement through an update.
 * Yoshi and Captain Falcon are the only characters with the same release date, but different games, as both Super Mario World and F-Zero released on November 21, 1990.