Alternate costume (SSBM)

Super Smash Bros. Melee used the X and Y buttons on the Gamecube controller to change costumes. Because of this, there were no limits on how many costumes a player can choose from (unlike SSB's limited four C-buttons).

Bowser

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Bowser's alternate costumes in SSBM

• Green (default)
• Red: Resembles a Spiny or red Koopa Troopa. It also resembles Roy Koopa's early in-game sprites without the sunglasses. On the CSP, he has a red eye. In Melee, this eye is blue.
• Blue: Came from Bowser's international artwork for Super Mario Bros. It also looks like Iggy Koopa's early in-game sprites.
• Black

Captain Falcon

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Captain Falcon's alternate costumes in SSBM

• Dark Blue (default)
• Black: Possibly came from the Japanese commercial for F-Zero X.
• Red: Based on Falcon's rival, Blood Falcon's outfit, even altering the logo on his back to say "Blood Falcon." In the Japanese beta of Melee, it read "Hell Hawk" instead. [1]
• White: Based on the colors of Jody Summer's outfit, commonly known as "Captain Fabulous". Also known as "Fancy Falcon" by Nintendo Power.
• Green: Based on the colors of Pico's outfit.
• Blue: Possibly based on his artwork from the original F-Zero.

Donkey Kong

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Donkey Kong's alternate costumes in SSBM

• Brown (default)
• Black: It was in the "Monkey Smash" mode in Donkey Kong 64.
• Red: Based on DK's sprite in Donkey Kong.
• Blue: One of the alternate colors from Donkey Kong 64.
• Green: One of the alternate colors from Donkey Kong 64.

Dr. Mario

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Dr. Mario's alternate costumes in SSBM

• White: (default) Despite wearing white pants in his own game, Dr. Mario wears indigo jeans in Melee.
• Black: Based on the Game Boy Dr. Mario from GB Dr. Mario.
• Green
• Blue: Possibly based on the blue scrubs and purple nitrile gloves worn by modern doctors.
• Red: Perhaps based on Nurse Toadstool's color scheme.

Falco

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Falco's alternate costumes in SSBM

• White (default)
• Red
• Blue
• Green: Assumed to be what Falco wore when he was not a member of the Star Fox team.

Fox

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Fox's alternate costumes in SSBM

• White (default)
• Red: Based on his costume on the Japanese Star Fox box art.
• Blue
• Green: Possibly modeled after his father, James McCloud.

Ganondorf

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Ganondorf's alternate costumes in SSBM

• Brown (default)
• Green
• Red: Possibly represents one of Ganondorf's beast form's attire.
• Blue
• Purple

Ice Climbers

File:Alt-iceclimbers.jpg

The Ice Climbers' alternate costumes in SSBM

As can be seen in the image, the Ice Climbers' orange and red costumes will place Nana in the lead, making Popo follow.

• Blue (default)
• Green
• Orange
• Red

Jigglypuff

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Jigglypuff's alternate costumes in SSBM

• Pink (default)
• Red
• Blue: Similar to the bows from the original Super Smash Bros.
• Green
• Yellow: This palette swap is that of a crown with the exact same design as Peach's.

Kirby

File:Alt-kirby2.jpg

Kirby's alternate costumes in SSBM

• Pink (default)
• Yellow: This color swap is Keeby, who was Kirby's companion in games that featured co-op mode. It is also the same as when he is Beam Kirby or Needle Kirby, without the hat. It was also an alternative palette for Kirby in the multiplayer for Kirby 64.
• Blue: The same as when he is Ice Kirby, without the hat. It was also an alternative palette for Kirby in the multiplayer for Kirby 64.
• Red: The same as when he is Fire Kirby, without the hat.
• Green: Likely a homage to his days on the green Game Boy screen. It was also an alternative palette for Kirby in the multiplayer for Kirby 64 and the skin tone for Plasma Kirby.
• White: A reference to his monochrome appearance from the original Kirby's Dream Land for Game Boy. It is also similar to the colors of Kirby's depiction on the North American box cover of Kirby's Dream Land.

Link

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Link's alternate costumes in SSBM

• Green (default)
• Red: Based on the the Goron Tunic from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
• Blue: Based on the the Zora Tunic from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
• Black: A homage to Dark Link. However, unlike the Brawl version, only his tunic is altered.
• White: Resembles the use of the Blue Ring in The Legend of Zelda.

Luigi

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Luigi's alternate costumes in SSBM

• Green (default)
• White: A reference to Luigi's appearance in Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros.
• Blue: Resembles the artwork for Mario on the cover for the NES version of Mario Bros., though that's not what he wore in the actual game.
• Pink: Comes from the game Wrecking Crew, in which Luigi wears pink.

• Used when Luigi is on the Red team.

Mario

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Mario's alternate costumes in SSBM

• Red (default)
• Yellow: Based on Wario, the same as his previous yellow costume.
• Blue: A red/blue reversal of his traditional colors and these are the colors he wore in his first appearance in the game Donkey Kong. This is seen as a partial reference to Mario's varying appearances in games prior to Nintendo's officially establishment of Mario's outfit of consisting of a red shirt, blue overalls and red hat. In various earlier games, Mario occasionally also appeared with sometimes a blue hat, red shirt with blue overalls or a red hat, blue shirt with red overalls. Interestingly however, Mario never appeared in any game with the particular combination of a blue hat, blue shirt, with red overalls as it appears here, but this color scheme does resemble the Balloon Fighter.
• Brown (Black): A reference to Foreman Spike from Wrecking Crew '98.
• Green: A color inverse of his traditional colors. Contrary to popular belief it is not a reference to Luigi, however it does coincidentally resemble Luigi's colors from the arcade version of Mario Bros.

Marth

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Marth's alternate costumes in SSBM

• Blue (default)
• Red: The only costume in Melee to change the color of his tiara.
• Green: Possibly based on the standard color for NPC units in Fire Emblem.
• Black
• White: Based on Leaf, the protagonist of Fire Emblem: Thracia 776.

Mewtwo

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Mewtwo's alternate costumes in SSBM

• Purple (default)
• Orange: Used as an Easter egg in Pokémon Stadium.

• Used when Mewtwo is on the Red team.

• Blue: Resembles Mewtwo's in-game sprite colors for Pokémon Red & Blue. Also used as an Easter egg in Pokémon Stadium.
• Green: Mewtwo's "shiny" color.

Mr. Game & Watch

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Mr. Game & Watch's alternate costumes in SSBM

Mr. Game & Watch's costumes may come from the colored LCD screens used for some of his games.

• Black (default)
• Red
• Blue
• Green

Ness

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Ness's alternate costumes in SSBM

• Red (default)
• Yellow: The yellow/black color scheme resembles that of the Hanshin Tigers, a Japanese baseball team.
• Blue: Is based off of Ness's younger self that he encounters briefly in EarthBound, who was wearing a blue hat. Some also consider this outfit to be a reference to EarthBound's final battle against Giygas, where a reflection of Ness's face appeared in the Devil's Machine. However, contrary to popular belief, the reflection was not wearing a different hat than the real Ness.
• Green

Peach

File:Alt-peach.jpg

Peach's alternate costumes in SSBM

• Pink (default)

• Used when Peach is on the Red team.

• Yellow (Orange): This costume changes nearly Peach's entire appearance to that of Daisy, including her hair color, earrings, dress style, gloves, crown, and even Daisy's old skin color (in later games following Melee, Daisy's skin color was bleached significantly).
• Blue (Purple)
  • For some reason, Peach's blue palette swap is recognized by Melee as purple, much unlike other blue palette swaps.
• White (Gray): Represents how she appeared in her first appearance in Super Mario Bros, without the red hair. She also uniquely wears pantyhose with this costume.
• Green

Pichu

File:Alt-pichu.jpg

Pichu's alternate costumes in SSBM

• Yellow (default)
• Red
• Blue: Gives Pichu goggles similar to the "Swimmer" class of the Pokémon series. Despite Pichu not returning for Brawl, Pikachu's blue costume in that game is based off of these same goggles.
• Green: Gives Pichu a backpack similar to the one worn by Pokémon Trainers throughout the Pokémon series.

Pikachu

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Pikachu's alternate costumes in SSBM

• Yellow (default)
• Red: Has Pikachu wearing the hat of Red, the protagonist of the original Pokémon installment. The fur color is based on a "shiny" Pikachu.
• Blue: A party hat similar to the one from the original Super Smash Bros.
• Green

Roy

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Roy's alternate costumes in SSBM

• Purple (default)
• Red: Based on the "enemy" unit color in the Fire Emblem series.
• Blue: Based on the "player" unit color in the Fire Emblem series. Is the only palette to change Roy's golden highlight color (to silver).
• Green: Based on the "other" unit color in the Fire Emblem series.
• Yellow: Based on the "partner" unit color in the Fire Emblem series; while the color didn't show up until Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance in 2004, the game was in the making during the time Melee was released.

Samus

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Samus's alternate costumes in SSBM

• Orange (default)

• Used when Samus is on the Red team.

• Pink: Based off the appearance of the Varia Suit when missiles are selected in the original NES Metroid game.
• Black
• Green:
• Purple: Based on the Gravity Suit.

• Used when Samus is on the Blue team.

Sheik

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Sheik's alternate costumes in SSBM

• Medium blue

• Switching back to Zelda using this palette swap will have her dressed in pink.

• Red
• Blue
• Green
• White

Yoshi

File:Alt-yoshi2.jpg

Yoshi's alternate costumes in SSBM

All of Yoshi's costumes appear as different variations of the Yoshi species in many of his games, such as Yoshi's Story and Super Mario World.

• Green (default)
• Yellow: Based on the stomping Yoshi in Super Mario World.
• Cyan (Light Blue)
• Red: Based on the fire breathing Yoshi in Super Mario World.
• Blue: Based on the flying Yoshi in Super Mario World.
• Pink

Young Link

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Young Link's alternate costumes in SSBM

All of Young Link's colors are exactly the same as Link's, except ordered differently.

• Green (default)
• Red
• Blue
• White
• Black

Zelda

File:Alt-zelda.jpg

Zelda's alternate costumes in SSBM

• Pink (default): Resembles Zelda's appearance in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

• Transforming into Sheik using this palette swap will have her dressed in medium blue.

• Red: Resembles Zelda's first appearance in The Legend of Zelda if Link possesses the red ring.
• Blue: Resembles Zelda's first appearance in The Legend of Zelda if Link possesses the blue ring but not the red ring.
• Green: Resembles Zelda's first appearance in The Legend of Zelda if Link possesses neither the blue ring nor the red ring.
• Lavender (White): Resembles Zelda's appearance in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.

Stats

• There is a total of 123 palette swaps.
• The average number of costumes per character is 4.731
• Captain Falcon, Kirby and Yoshi share the highest amount of color swaps: 6.
• There are 10 fighters with 4 color swaps, and 13 with 5.