Clone

A clone is a character with a moveset and physics that are considerably similar to another character's. Often, the clone's moveset will have a few tweaks made, and may have their physics altered to a degree, but on the whole the characters are similar and typically have the same special move mechanics, to such a degree that both characters can be played successfully using a very similar or even identical play style.

Clones are a common inclusion in various fighting games, as for a developer it saves a good deal of time to copy a character's moveset and then tweak it than to generate a new one; on the other hand, many fans consider the inclusion of clones to be lazy or uninspired.

Semi-clone is a term used as a sort of midway point being "clone" and "non-clone". Semi-clones share some of their moveset with another character, and may have some similarity in physics, but have enough unique about them that calling them a "clone" wouldn't be entirely accurate. Different players have different opinions of how unique a character has to be to move from "clone" to "semi-clone" status; some players tend to exaggerate the importance of special moves for character comparison, for example.

The process of decloning a character between iterations of a franchise is often known in the Smash community as Luigification, named after Luigi's origin as a palette swap of Mario to becoming his own unique character in the Mario series, and the fact that Luigi started as a full clone of Mario in the original Smash Bros., but has been progressively decloned in each additional installment. However, via certain circles such as from TV Tropes, the more general and official term for the decloning tends to be Divergent Character Evolution, referring to the process of the clone breaking away from its roots and establishing its own identity as it evolves.

Super Smash Bros. 4 introduces alternate characters that act as palette swaps for certain characters, such as Alph for Olimar. They have their own voices and the announcer refers to them by their own name; however, they have no gameplay differences at all and are not treated as separate characters, thus they're not clones rather than being glorified alternate outfits.

The term "clone" is also used to refer to individual moves cloned from another character's move. For example, Falco's Blaster is a cloned move of Fox's Blaster, with the former being the same general type of attack with animations taken from the latter, but with altered properties and functioning to turn it into its own move. Usually cloned moves share animations, while altering the cloned move's function and/or properties in some way, though sometimes the inverse happens, such as in the case of Ness' and Lucas' down tilts; Ness' down tilt is a low rapid kick where he pokes his foot out, while Lucas' involves him rapidly spinning around while kicking, but both have identical functioning as extremely fast but extremely weak low kicks that semi-spike with a high tripping chance. Cloned moves can also happen between characters who otherwise have no other aspects cloned, such as Charizard's Flamethrower being cloned from Bowser's Fire Breath, both being the same type of move with identical animations and functioning, but with a minute property difference (Charizard's Flame Thrower reaches farther with thinner hitboxes).

Clones in Super Smash Bros.

Despite its simplicity compared to later installments, Smash 64 only had one clone in Luigi, and a semi-clone in Jigglypuff, with the rest of its cast being unique.

Original	Clone	Differences
Mario	Luigi	Luigi's dash attack is a unique move. All three of his special moves have slight differences: Luigi Cyclone launches foes instead of sucking them in, Luigi's Fireballs are immune to gravity, and the Super Jump Punch either does massive damage or almost none. His taunt is also different. Overall, Luigi is faster but weaker than Mario.
Semi-clones
Kirby	Jigglypuff	Both share similar forward smashes, down smashes, neutral aerials, forward aerials (Kirby's hits multiple times, but he extends both legs in front of him as does Jigglypuff), down aerials, tilts, back throws, item animations, and ledge animations. Both also have near identical physics, with similar size, shape, weight, falling speed, and both possess five midair jumps. Their special moves, however, are all completely different.

Notes

• The Fighting Polygon Team is composed of complete clones, sans special moves, of all 12 playable fighters.
• Samus and Captain Falcon share neutral aerials, down smashes, floor attacks, forward and up tilts, and dash attacks, but have enough unique moves of their own, along with vastly different physics, to not be classified as semi-clones.
• Mario, Luigi, and Ness, interestingly, all share a polygon form, a neutral attack, a forward tilt and a floor recovery attack.

Clones in Super Smash Bros. Melee

Originally, Sakurai was going to include significantly fewer playable characters in Melee. However, with fans wanting more characters while time was constrictive, Sakurai decided to add clones later in development to pad out the roster, as these characters would take a lot less time to develop than unique characters. This led to Dr. Mario, Pichu, Young Link, Falco, Roy, and Ganondorf being added to the cast as clones. Luigi and Jigglypuff also returned, though Luigi was significantly decloned into a semi-clone, and Jigglypuff was decloned to the point of not even being a semi-clone anymore. While the addition of clones significantly expanded the roster, and some of these clones would become among the more popular characters to play in Melee (most notably Falco), the significant portion of the roster being clones would become one of, if not the most, prominent points of criticism of Melee.

Melee directly identifies its clones by placing them in recessed boxes on the character selection screen, next to the original character.

Original	Clone	Differences
Mario	Dr. Mario	While all attacks have identical animations, many of them have different properties, such as with Dr. Mario, the removal of the forward smash's sourspot while dealing electrical damage, a sex kick that gets stronger over time, and a forward aerial that doesn't meteor smash. Dr. Mario's attacks are also much stronger in general. Note that they also share identical physics with the exact same size, shape, weight, and falling speed (though interestingly Dr. Mario has faster air speed). Mario can wall jump, but Dr. Mario cannot.
Link	Young Link	Like the Mario/Dr. Mario pair, while all animations are essentially identical, some attacks act differently. Young Link's forward smash has weak, set knockback on the first hit and only combos into the second hit, while his arrows are on fire and his Spin Attack is a multi-hit move when grounded. Young Link also has some slightly differing physics (faster running speed and higher jumping height), and is generally a faster character with weaker attacks.
Fox	Falco	All attacks have near identical animations and functions, though many have had their knockback altered, changing which ones are good for KOing, such as Falco's forward smash and down tilt being considerably stronger than Fox's, while Fox's up smash and up aerial are considerably stronger. Falco's special moves have identical mechanics but have changed enough that they have different applications; for example his Blaster shots flinch and his Reflector produces vertical knockback instead of semi-spike trajectory horizontal knockback. Falco also runs slower and jumps higher than Fox, while being slightly heavier, and has a down aerial that hits only once.
Pikachu	Pichu	Pichu's up smash is a headbutt instead of a tail flip, its down smash emits no electricity while only hitting once, and its forward smash is a multi-hitting attack. Their special moves, while identical in name and animation, have some differences, as Pichu's Skull Bash can be charged longer and gain more power, Thunder is a multi-hitting attack, and Agility travels further than Quick Attack, while not having hitboxes and being slower. Pichu also damages itself for every electrical attack it uses. Pichu is overall a faster character with weaker attacks.
Captain Falcon	Ganondorf	While most attacks have near identical animations, many of them are carried out slower for Ganondorf, with many having altered functioning, and most if not all have elevated power. Ganondorf's forward air and neutral attacks are unique, and Ganondorf's up tilt is radically altered to a point where it can be considered unique, where Ganondorf "charges" with his leg up while smoke is generated, before crashing it down in a large and extremely powerful explosion. Additionally, Ganondorf's dash attack hits in a vertical trajectory behind him while Falcon's hits forward, Ganondorf's forward smash hits vertically while Falcon's hit horizontally (this also applies to their down smash), each kick of Ganondorf's up smash is individually powerful while the kicks in Falcon's are designed to hit into each other (this also applies to their neutral aerial and the inverse applies to their down smash), Ganondorf's back aerial is strong throughout while Falcon's functions like a sex kick, aerial Raptor Boost meteor smashes airborne opponents while aerial Gerudo Dragon doesn't, and aerial Wizard's Foot spikes airborne opponents while aerial Falcon Kick doesn't. Ganondorf's physics are also much different from Falcon's, with Falcon having space animal physics. This is the only clone pair where both characters do not come from the same universe.
Marth	Roy	As Roy's sweetspot is at the hilt of his sword instead of the tip as with Marth's, even attacks that appear to be unchanged in animation and function (that is, almost all of them) must be used differently. Non-sweetspot differences include Blazer being a multi-hit move with set knockback, Counter having a multiplier for determining the strength of the counter strike (as well as a different counter strike animation), Roy's jab consisting of one hit only, Roy's down tilt hitting opponents vertically instead of semi-spiking, and Roy's up smash being a multi-hitting move. Roy's physics, while similar to Marth's, also have some differences, such as Roy falling faster with a shorter jump, while Marth has less traction. This is the only clone pair where both the original and the clone are unlockable characters.
Semi-clones
Mario	Luigi	Luigi's many changes from Smash 64 to Melee have distanced him from Mario considerably. In addition to his previous differences, he now has a unique forward smash, up tilt, neutral combo, forward aerial, and side special; his other specials have also been further tweaked, such as the Super Jump Punch going straight up and no longer giving horizontal distance. Additionally, Luigi's down smash and neutral aerial have been altered to hit vertically while Mario's hit horizontally, and Luigi's down aerial consists of one strong hit (that can also meteor smash), while Mario's is a multi-hitting attack.

Notes

• In the transition from Super Smash Bros. to Melee, characters like Jigglypuff and Captain Falcon have been differentiated with new attacks. In Jigglypuff's case, it has kept some of its moves from Smash 64, while Kirby has received new ones.
• As Luigi and Dr. Mario share a "parent" in Mario, it stands to reason that the two are semi-clones of each other in some way. This kind of relationship is generally not considered in the definition of "semi-clone", however.
• Samus, Captain Falcon, and Ganondorf all share floor recovery attacks, and have dash attacks that are shoulder blocks and up tilts that are some form of axe kick.
• Bowser and Giga Bowser are clones, having identical movesets, although most of Giga Bowser's moves have some sort of additional effect along with altered knockback.
• The Male and Female Wire Frames are clones of Captain Falcon and Zelda, respectively. They lack special moves, however, and their moves lack any special effects that Falcon's and Zelda's equivalent have, such as electricity and flame.
• Master Hand and Crazy Hand can be considered clones, as they share most of their attacks.

Clones in Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Due to the clone criticism of Melee, Sakurai went through a significant effort to reduce the amount of cloning among Brawl's roster. Among the Melee clones, four were completely cut from the roster (Pichu, Young Link, Dr. Mario, and Roy), while the only two clones that returned, Falco and Ganondorf, were significantly decloned to being semi-clones. Luigi returned, and was also slightly decloned farther, this time mostly through Mario being given new attacks. And among the 18 new playable characters added, none are complete clones, while only two are semi-clones, Toon Link and Lucas, with a third having a couple of aspects taken from an existing character (Wolf).

Original	Semi-clone	Differences
Mario	Luigi	The main new difference is Mario Tornado changing from Mario's down special to his down aerial, which makes two more of their attacks completely non-cloned. For some additional new differences, Luigi's up smash has a clear sweetspot and sourspot hitbox while Mario's is the same strength throughout, Luigi has a slight tweak in animation of his neutral aerial, and Luigi's up aerial hits vertically while Mario's hits horizontally. Other previous similarities/differences not addressed still apply in Brawl. For an aesthetic change, Luigi has for the first time been given his own voice, instead of Mario's sped up voice samples. Luigi's general animations have also been differed from Mario's (most notably his helpless animation).
Link	Toon Link	One of the more disputed pairs, as some players believe they have enough similarities to be considered clones rather than semi-clones. Toon Link's unique attacks include his up smash, neutral aerial, forward aerial, back aerial, forward throw, and back throw, while his down aerial is a stall-then-fall that meteor smashes, and his forward smash functioning like a multi-hit smash, despite both having similar animations to Link's counterparts. Other moves of theirs have function differences: Toon Link's down tilt hits horizontally while Link's hits vertically and meteor smashes, Toon Link's dash attack semi-spikes and trips while Link's hits vertically, and Toon Link's down smash functions as a multi-hit attack while each slash in Link's is individually powerful. On the other hand, Toon Link's special moves are based on Link's, though his arrows and Boomerang have different aesthetics and functioning (Toon Link's arrows travel much more slowly while hitting vertically, which also applies to Toon Link's Boomerang and additionally doesn't have the tornado effect of Link's boomerang). Toon Link's grounded Spin Attack functions identically to Young Link's in Melee, though the aerial Spin Attack's hitboxes are almost exactly identical to Link's. For an additional oddity, Toon Link's forward throw wasn't programmed properly (Toon Link's forward throw is considered a Leg attack like Link's even though it's obviously a shoulder tackle). However, they are completely different in their physics and other statistics, such as size, shape, weight, and walking/dashing/falling/air speed.
Fox	Falco	Falco now has a different dashing animation, neutral combo, up tilt, forward smash, neutral aerial, forward aerial, and up aerial, while Fox was given a different back aerial. Both Fox's and Falco's down throws were altered, where Fox's hits opponents far away diagonally, while Falco's hits opponents not far away horizontally. Falco was also given a new down special, where he uses Reflector differently (he kicks it forward where it hits weakly horizontally and can trip, instead of holding it). Additionally, Falco's physics were altered, where he falls slower with faster air speed and less gravity in comparison to Fox (though their physics are still similar). Other similarities and differences that existed in Melee not addressed here still apply in Brawl.
Captain Falcon	Ganondorf	Ganondorf's forward tilt, down tilt, up smash, up throw, and side special are now unique, along with other attacks receiving an alteration in animation, such as Ganondorf's dashing animation, up tilt, down smash, neutral aerial, down aerial, Warlock Punch, Dark Dive, and Wizard's Foot. His final smash is also unique, where he transforms into Beast Ganon. Ganondorf now also has different animations for general things such as dashing. However, other standard attacks, such as forward smash, up aerial, forward throw, back throw, and down throw, are near identical in animation/function, and their special moves outside their forward special and final smash are identical or near identical in function. Other differences they had in Melee not addressed here still exist in Brawl.
Ness	Lucas	Lucas' standard attacks are unique with the exception of his down tilt, forward smash , and up aerial (while the down tilt has a different animation, and Lucas' forward smash utilises a different type of weapon, they are identical in function to Ness's). Their special moves however, are very similar in name and appearance, while having similar mechanics but differing functioning. PK Freeze freezes opponents instead of being a very powerful vertical KO move like PK Flash. Lucas' PK Fire differs to the point where it can be argued to not be cloned, as it's a single hit projectile that knocks opponents away, while Ness' hits multiple times and traps opponents (additionally, Lucas fires his PK Fire with a different animation, and Ness can fire his down diagonally in the air). Lucas' PK Thunder can go through opponents while Ness' can't, and his PK Thunder 2 is a multi-hitting move, while Ness' hits once. However, while the similarity in their moveset can be argued to not be quite enough to label them as semi-clones, they have very similar physics, with them having identical size, shape, weight, and falling speed. They additionally both suffer from 10 additional frames of lag when being grab released that no other characters in Brawl suffer from.

Notes

• The Alloys are all clones (sans special moves): Red Alloy of Captain Falcon, Blue Alloy of Zelda, Yellow Alloy of Mario, and Green Alloy of Kirby.
• Even Master Hand and Crazy Hand have been Luigified, with Master Hand now having unique moves (his hand swipe, walking hand, and finger missiles attacks), and separate functions in his attacks.
• Many players tend to assume Fox and Wolf are semi-clones, or even full clones, due to their special moves and Final Smash being similar in name and mostly identical in operation. However, closer inspection of their full movesets shows that even calling them semi-clones is difficult to rationalize, as the characters' physics are radically different, none of their standard attacks are similar, and even their similarly named special moves have different particle effects and function differently.

Clones in Super Smash Bros. 4

Super Smash Bros. 4 reintroduces true clones, with two new clones, Lucina and Dark Pit, and one returning clone from Melee, Dr. Mario, being added to the roster. These clones, unlike the Melee clones, were originally developed as alternate costumes of the characters they were cloned from, similar to Alph and the Koopalings. Later in development, they were given moveset alterations from their originals - according to Sakurai, Dr. Mario had to have the differences from Mario he previously possessed in order to avoid disappointing fans of his Melee appearance, Lucina was given a moveset that incorporates no tippers to act as an easier-to-play version of Marth, and Dark Pit was given a different Final Smash, as Sakurai didn't like the idea of him using the Three Sacred Treasures. Once these changes were made, however, it was decided that they each would be promoted to full characters due to how "even a small difference in abilities" requires a unique roster slot. SSB4 directly identifies these clones by placing them in their own area together on the character select screen, rather than placing them each with their respective franchises.

Roy returns as a DLC character, having his moveset updated to distinct him from Marth (similar to Lucina).

Regarding semi-clones, none were added, with all newcomers other than the aforementioned Lucina and Dark Pit being unique. Luigi, Falco, Toon Link, and Ganondorf return as semi-clones, though they were only slightly decloned unlike the significant decloning that happened in Brawl, thus remaining largely the same. Wolf (who was derived from Fox) has been cut from the roster, and Lucas (derived from Ness) returns as DLC.

Most clones and semi-clones also share at least one custom move, with the "purer" clones having more custom moves in common.

Original	Clone	Differences
Mario	Dr. Mario	Dr. Mario is largely unchanged from his appearance in Melee, but due to changes to Mario in Brawl in his absence, he is now less of a clone. This includes retaining the Dr. Tornado as his down special, keeping his drill kick down aerial as a result. New differences include much slower movement speed (fulfilling his design intention in Melee of being a "slower but more powerful Mario"), a Super Jump Punch that only hits powerfully once and produces no coins at all, and a completely different entrance; on the other hand, he can now wall jump like Mario (removing a difference), and his Final Smash is a fully-cloned move, simply using giant Megavitamins instead of fire. In addition, all of his custom moves are shared with Mario or Luigi. Unlike Mario's Fireballs, Dr Mario's Megavitamins are not absorbable.
Marth	Lucina	Marth and Lucina share effectively all the same animations, normal attacks, special moves, and custom moves. The only differences between them (aside from Lucina being slightly shorter) is that the hitboxes of almost all of Lucina's attacks are equally strong across her sword, whereas Marth's are more powerful at the tip. Lucina's down aerial is an exception, where instead the sweetspot placing is reversed. Lucina also has a different, more exaggerated charging animation for Shield Breaker.
Marth	Roy	With Roy returning as DLC, he appears to keep most of his similarities to Marth from Melee. However, some of Roy's moves (such as Blazer, his up special) now have him swing his sword backwards, causing the range to be slightly different from Marth's. Additionally, Roy's neutral special, Flare Blade, retains its overhead slash from Melee, whereas Marth's neutral special, Shield Breaker, continues to be a forward stab as it was starting in Brawl.
Pit	Dark Pit	Both characters use the same animations and weapon types for all attacks, and almost are all are functionally the same, even dealing the exact same knockback with the exact same frame data. The few differences are Dark Pit having a weaker forward tilt, the arrows fired from his neutral special traveling slower with less control but dealing more damage, and his side special dealing electrical damage while hitting opponents at a diagonal trajectory. He has unique side special customizations, but has the same customs as Pit for the other special moves. He also has a different Final Smash - though it is completely cloned from Zelda and Sheik's Light Arrow instead.
Semi-clones
Mario	Luigi	Luigi has a new down throw, where he throws opponents onto the ground and forcibly sits on them. He also has a new jumping animation that differs from Mario, now being his scuttle jump. Luigi shares no custom moves with Mario, although one fireball variation makes his fireballs act like Mario's default ones.
Link	Toon Link	Link now has a new dash attack, now being his jump slash, and his up aerial has an altered animation, while Toon Link's Spin Attack now produces green attack trails. Most of Toon Link's custom moves are also distinct from Link's, though one custom move, Quickfire Bow, is shared between them.
Fox	Falco	A few of Falco's moves were altered; up smash has an altered animation and now hits twice, Falco flips on the horizontal axis when using up aerial, and his back aerial is a new move, being a backward kick similar to Wolf's back aerial. The latter two moves however were no longer cloned in Brawl, so these changes didn't affect Falco's cloned status. No custom moves are shared, although one Blaster variation makes Falco's blaster act like Fox's default one.
Captain Falcon	Ganondorf	Ganondorf received no new moves, nor even a single move functioning difference; only Dark Dive when he grabs has a different animation. However, Captain Falcon's up aerial now hits vertically, making it function differently from Ganondorf's up aerial. Unlike other semi-clones, not a single custom move is shared.
Ness	Lucas	Lucas appears to retain his semi-cloned moveset from Brawl. The only known additional difference is Lucas' down throw now temporarily buries the opponent instead of dealing rapid damage.

Notes

• Many standard and special attacks of the Mii Fighters are cloned moves from existing characters. Several of Mii Gunner's moves are similar to Samus's or Fox's (with a couple similar to Ness'). Similarly, Mii Swordfighter shares moves with the swordsman characters (specifically Link and Ike), while Mii Brawler shares moves with Mario, Little Mac, and Captain Falcon.
• The Fighting Mii Team operate like Mii Fighters but lack special moves like previous Enemy teams.
• As in Melee, Luigi and Dr. Mario might also be considered semi-clones of each other. This resemblance is actually stronger than the Mario-Luigi pair, as Mario's down aerial and down special have changed, while Luigi's and Dr. Mario's have not, giving them two more shared moves. They also share custom down specials and Dr. Mario shares the turned up trouser legs Luigi had in Brawl.

Cross-generation

Original	Semi-clone	Notes
Young Link	Toon Link	Both younger Links share very similar set of differences with Link - they're smaller, faster, have less reach in their attacks, swords which make "smacking" sounds instead of "slashing" sounds for most of their attacks, and both have more controllable Boomerangs and multi-hitting Spin Attacks, while having a forward smash that is identical in function (both being true multi-hitting attacks). It is commonly assumed by players that Toon Link is simply an evolution of Young Link, in the same way that Link's design was changed between Melee and Brawl, with the differences between them (such as leg-based aerials being changed to sword attacks) being attributable to a decloning process rather than attempting to make a new Link variation from scratch. Notably, one of Toon Link's Custom Special moves in Smash 4 is Young Link's Fire Arrow.

Notes

• Roy's Melee appearance and Lucina's SSB4 appearance, both being complete clones of Marth, share many similarities between each other. However, like the Luigi-Dr. Mario comparison above, they wouldn't count as clones of each other under the technical definition of the word, as they're clones that diverged differently from Marth (unlike Young Link-Toon Link).

Trivia

• Interestingly, in Melee, all head sprites of a clone will face the opposite direction of that of their original characters.
• Sakurai considered including Wario and Wolf in Melee as clones of Mario and Fox, respectively, but left them out in favor of Dr. Mario and Falco instead. For Wario, Sakurai felt he "deserved better" than clone status, and that Dr. Mario would be a better choice as a clone. The reason for Wolf's absence was different; Sakurai felt that Falco was a better contrast design-wise to Fox, being a bird rather than a canine, and feared Wolf would have been received as just a "gray-colored Fox".
  • Sakurai also originally planned including Leif, the protagonist of Fire Emblem: Thracia 776, the most recently released Fire Emblem games at the time, as a clone of Marth in Melee. But when Sakurai went to Intelligent Systems for approval, they gave him an early look at the in-development Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade, where Sakurai then found its protagonist, Roy, to provide a greater contrast to Marth with his fire properties and thus chose him instead, similar to why Falco was chosen over Wolf.