Announcer
The announcer (also known as the narrator) is an unseen character that has appeared in all the games of the series. The announcer has no direct effect on gameplay, though his voice does act as an auditory signal for multiple events in the games, both within matches and within the various menus.
The identity of the announcer has never been unveiled to the player in any of the games, and his specific role in the series, if any, has never been stated. The voice actor for the announcer has also always voiced Master Hand and Crazy Hand, but this relationship has never been elaborated on, if such a relationship between the three characters exists.
The announcer has been voiced by four different voice actors for the four different games in the series; other actors have also provided some clips in the various games.
Announcers
Super Smash Bros.
Jeff Manning was the first actor for the series, starting many of the trends that would later be followed by the future announcers; in addition to his booming style and various exclamations during gameplay, such as characters being selected, Jeff Manning started a trend where both the Announcer and Master Hand are voiced by the same person. Manning's voice has a significant filter applied to it, causing his voice to echo, as well as increasing the intensity of his voice; his actual delivery, however, is relatively calm, and he does not generally hold out words for long periods of time.
Jeff Manning works as a voice actor in Japan, providing voice work for multiple video games that are dubbed into English. Among his roles include an announcer in Soulcalibur and Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars, Shaft from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Rodolfo from Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean, and Andy Bogard in The King of Fighters XII; his most well-known role, however, was in the American dub of the television show Iron Chef, as Shinichiro Ohta. Manning has also lent his voice to recordings intended for Japanese students that are learning the English language; his recordings involve instructing students about exams and assignments in both Japanese and English, and he also voices various skits and songs in English.
Outside of Manning's voice, two other actors provide the announcer's voice in different regions; Frank Wölfen provides his voice in the German PAL version, and Jean-Marc Delhausse provides his voice in the French PAL version.
Super Smash Bros. Melee
Dean Harrington's announcer takes on a different inflection than Manning; Harrington yells more similarly to an emcee at a boxing match, with some his phrasing often lasting for long periods of time, as well as a generally more intense voice than Manning's. Like Manning, Harrington's voice has an echo filter applied to it; other filters applied to his voice, however, cause Harrington's voice to have a more muffled tone compared to the other announcers. With the introduction of Crazy Hand in the series, Harrington also began a trend where the announcer also voices Crazy Hand.
Dean Harrington resides in Japan, working on a variety of different projects. In addition to voice acting for video games, including Jeffry McWild in Virtua Fighter 5 and Buff Bryant in Time Crisis II, Harrington has lent his voice for several commercials, such as for Sony's Water Rock commercial. Harrington also does video and audio editing for companies, and he has also been involved with teaching and practising Tai Chi Chuan. He has also worked on stunt work and acting in action films, such as in the 2002 film Returner, as well as some dubbing for such films. Harrington also does some amateur photography, with an active Flickr since 2007.
In the PAL version, when not set to English and choosing Jigglypuff, two different announcers will say "Pummeluff" or "Rondoudou" when the game is set to German or French, respectively. The identity of these two announcers is not known.
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Pat Cashman's announcer ended Harrington's emcee style, and in general, his voice is considerably calmer in sound, more akin to Manning. Cashman's voice is not modified to the extent of Manning's or Harrington's, leading to a cleaner sound quality from him; Cashman also has a deeper voice than either of his two predecessors. Cashman's voice also features more personality from the announcer, such as his quizzical inflection when the player selects Luigi as a playable character.
Pat Cashman resides in Seattle, Washington, working as a voice actor. In addition to his voiceover work, Cashman is mostly known by the population as one of the primary actors and writers of the local television show Almost Live!; while the show's Seattle-centric humor did not allow it to attain nationwide success, Cashman later became more well-known on the national stage as the announcer and a recurring character in the television show Bill Nye The Science Guy, which he also co-wrote with his colleague from Almost Live!, Bill Nye. Cashman also emcees local events in the Seattle area, and he also writes weekly columns for the West Seattle Herald.
Outside of Cashman's voice, five other individuals voice the announcer in Brawl, for the game's PAL and Korean releases. Achim Barrenstein provides the German announcer, Carlos Lobo provides the Spanish announcer, Jean Faure provides the French announcer, Luigi Fantino provides the Italian announcer, and Choi Han provides the Korean announcer.
Super Smash Bros. 4
Xander Mobus acts and sounds similarly to Pat Cashman in Super Smash Bros. 4, with his voice being deeper than those of Manning and Harrington, as well as having few filters applied to his voice. Compared to Cashman, however, Mobus's announcer is less relaxed and reserved, though he still does not act as intense as Harrington.
Mobus's announcer also appeared in the 50-Fact Extravaganza presentation for Nintendo Direct; he also voices the announcer in a few commercials for the games. Outside of this, Mobus has narrated several videos with a performance similar to the announcer, such as in episodes of Did You Know Gaming?, The Completionist, and GamnesiaTV
Xander Mobus currently works as a voice actor, primarily for video games, with his roles including Quarterback Blitz in Heroes of Newerth, Merchant Sereth from Dust: An Elysian Tail, the protagonist of Persona 5, Umio from Megadimension Neptunia VII and Dark Prince in Puyo Puyo Tetris. He has also provided his voice for a few web series and shorts, such as Death Battle and TOME: The Terrain of Magical Expertise. Mobus is also an amateur writer, having written some articles about voice acting his personal blog hosted on Tumblr; he has also produced a few videos on his YouTube channel, consisting primarily of answering questions from fans, as well as a few sketch comedy skits.
Outside of Mobus's voice, four other announcers voice the announcer in the game's PAL release. Achim Barrenstein provides the German announcer, Carlos Lobo provides the Spanish announcer, Jean Faure provides the French announcer, and Luigi Fantino provides the Italian announcer; the Spanish and French announcers also provide voices for the Latin American and Canadian localizations, respectively. The Dutch, Portuguese, and Russian localizations retain the English announcer.
Gallery
| Jeff Manning (SSB64) | Dean Harrington (Melee) | Pat Cashman (Brawl) | Xander Mobus (SSB4) |
|---|---|---|---|
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Trivia
- The quote "Ready? Go!" is also used upon the activation of Donkey Kong's Final Smash, Konga Beat, making it the only attack in all of the series to involve the Announcer in some way.
- Jean-Marc Delhausse, who provides the French announcer in Smash 64, later reappeared as a voice actor in the fourth game, voicing Lucario in the French dub of the game. He also voices various Poké Ball Pokémon throughout the series.
- Carlos Lobo, who provides the Spanish announcer in Brawl and Smash 4, also voices Lucario in the Spanish dub of the game.
- Brawl contains unused, empty announcer files for what appears to be the announcer shouting the title's name; in the final game, there are no voice clips for this. Other unused files also feature the countdown at the end of a match starting at ten seconds, rather than five.
- Xander Mobus booked his role with the same microphone Kenny James (Bowser's current voice actor outside of Super Smash Bros.) gifted him, when he was performing theater alongside James. He recorded all of his lines for the game around April or May 2014.
