Sound Test

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The "Sounds" menu in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Sound Test is an option that appears in the Super Smash Bros. games.

• In Super Smash Bros., one can unlock the Sound Test by completing Break the Targets and Board the Platforms with all 12 characters.
• In Super Smash Bros. Melee, the Sound Test is unlocked by unlocking all playable stages.
• In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, the Sound Test is available without unlocking, though songs and sounds remain hidden until their source character, stage, or CD is unlocked.
• In Super Smash Bros. 4, the Sound Test is available by default. Some music tracks must be unlocked through challenges, as well as through collecting CDs on the Wii U version, like in Brawl, and voices can be unlocked by unlocking the character. Kirby's Copy Ability voice clips are unlocked after unlocking every character. Unlike previous games, only music and voices are available; sound effects and victory themes are not. Additionally, unlike previous Smash titles, songs in Sound Test cannot be played indefinitely. This time, all songs have a set time limit before it ends. The player can create a playlist by marking songs as favorites and can choose to have songs play in order or at random or to repeat a selected song once it is finished. Music tracks are indicated by blue background, while voice clips are in green.
• In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the Sound Test is the same as in the previous game, with tracks needed to be unlocked through challenges or buying them.

The Sound Test allows the player to listen to most of the music and sounds in the game. Players can listen to the voices of characters, stage music, and listen to other variety of sounds. In Super Smash Bros. and Melee, the Sound Test can be accessed through Data Mode; in Brawl, it can be accessed through either Data or Option Mode; in SSB4 it is located in the Vault and can also be accessed via the sound settings in Options. If the player leaves the Sound Test while a song is playing and goes back through the menus, the song will still play until it is overridden by another piece of music, or until the player enters the character select screen.

Some pieces of music are unavailable in the Sound Test for unknown reasons; this includes the Fighter Select music in SSB, the Giga Bowser music in Melee, and the Cruel Brawl theme along with the winter version of Obstacle Course in Brawl. SSB4's Sound Test is missing some character voice clips, such as those of Duck Hunt. In Ultimate, Duck Hunt's noises are present, but those of Samus and Mr. Game & Watch are still missing.

In SSB, music and sounds do not have specific categories; from Melee onwards, they are organized by series for music, and by characters for sounds, as well as generic, menu and stage sounds are grouped together under certain categories. Transformative characters like Sheik in Melee and Brawl, helper characters like Pikmin, and summonable characters from some Final Smashes and results screen (such as the Phantom Thieves of Hearts) are grouped under the main character's section (in aforementioned cases, being Zelda, Olimar and Joker respectively). Conversely, alternate costumes serving as alternate "characters" in SSB4 and Ultimate (such as the Koopalings or female Robin) feature separate sections from the default ones. While Pokémon Trainer made a return in Ultimate, the Pokémon's sound sections are now separate rather than being grouped together, likely due to the fact that a female variant was added. Pokémon appear from Poké Balls, Assist Trophies, enemies in Brawl's The Subspace Emissary are also grouped together by organizations. In Brawl, bosses had a single section by a character, but in SSB4 and Ultimate, they are also grouped together under the "Enemy" category. As only voice clips are only accessible in latter games as mentioned above, only several bosses and stage hazards are listed (Master Hand, Crazy Hand, Viridi in Reset Bomb Forest, Nabbit in Mushroom Kingdom U (SSB4 only), Ridley in Pyrosphere (SSB4 only), and Metal Face in Gaur Plain).

In Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS, the Sounds section can be set to play music even when the Nintendo 3DS is in sleep mode, with the L and R buttons used to skip between tracks, though the player can only hear the song play if they have headphones.

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the playlist feature returns, as does the ability to play music through headphones even while the Nintendo Switch is in sleep mode.

Unused sounds

There are occasions where the Sound Test has sound clips that were never used in-game:

• In Super Smash Bros., voice clips of the announcer saying "Bonus Stage", "Draw Game", "Are you ready?" and "Final Stage" go unused; in the Japanese version, there is also an unused announcer clip for "Jigglypuff" (rather than "Purin", its Japanese name).
• In Melee, there are voice clips of the announcer saying "Master Hand", "Giga Bowser/Giga Koopa", and "Fighting Wire Frames"; these were most likely meant for Classic Mode or a similar purpose. Other unused voice clips include "(Character) wins", as in the previous game, and "How to Play". Finally, a clip of the announcer saying "and" goes unused, but later appeared beginning with Brawl's Classic Mode.
  • Crazy Hand's sounds are located within the Master Hand section, all except the sound heard when the player KOs him.
    • Furthermore, playable characters have other unused sounds; Pichu and Pikachu, for instance, have unused sounds where they yell "PI-CHU!" and "PI-KA!" respectively, Marth has one where he says "let's dance" in English (which is only accessible through the debug sound test), and Ganondorf has a "Hoo-yah!" yell that is also unused. The latter would eventually be used for Brawl, despite Ganondorf having another voice actor for all his other speech.
• In Brawl, most characters also have voice clips in the Sound Test that are unused during normal gameplay. Some of them are also taken from previous Smash Bros. games: Ness, for example, has one of his high-damage yells from Melee, Kirby has a "Hi!" that resembles more that of the previous games, and Captain Falcon has his voice from when he picks up a heavy item in Smash 64. Most of them (notably the damage yells) would later be recycled in SSB4.
  • Voice clips of the announcer saying "Stage Clear" and "Fighting Alloy Team" also go unused, as well as additional final countdown timer clips starting from "ten".
• Likewise, in SSB4, Corrin also has unused damage yells. This would later be recycled in Ultimate.
• In Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS, some unused announcer voice clips correspond to features from Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, such as "Grab the Coins" and "Special Smash".

Not in Sound Test

• In Super Smash Bros., the announcer voice clips "Defeated", "Race to the Finish/Hurry to the Battle Stage", "Wins/Win", "Congratulations", and "Incredible" are not in the Sound Test; they are only accessible through the debug menu.
• The "Multi-Man Smash" voice clip is not present in the for Wii U Sound Test, despite being present in for 3DS.
• In Ultimate, several special victory quotes, Zero Suit Samus' taunt quotes, Ken's star KO scream, all of the echoed variants of Blast KO voices which are used for Stamina battle, are not in the Sound Test.

Gallery

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  The Sound Test as it appears in Super Smash Bros.

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  The Sound Test as it appears in Super Smash Bros. Melee.

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  The Sound Test as it appears in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

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  The Sound Test as it appears in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS.

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  The Sound Test as it appears in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U.

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  A glitch in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U showing the source of Menu as "Mario Kart 8".

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  The voice section in the Japanese version of Super Smash Bros. for Wii U with the corresponding voice actor of each character; in this case, female Corrin, with the credit to Saori Satō. The image also demonstrates several elements in the menu; the "Random" button, which is removed in Ultimate, the "NEW!" text, indicating the new section after the source character being unlocked/downloaded, and how alternate costumes' (in this case, Corrin and Bayonetta) voice clips, Assist Trophies and Poké Ball Pokémon appears in the menu.

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  The voice section in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate with multiple characters appear within one section; in this case, the Ice Climbers, with Popo and Nana counting separately.

Trivia

The voice section in the Japanese version of Ultimate with the corresponding voice actor of each character; in this case, the announcer, with credit to Xander Mobus.

• In Melee, some clone characters have sounds in their sound test sections that are used only by their base counterparts. For example, Luigi and Dr. Mario's sound test sections include the Mario power-up/power-down sound effects heard when Mario performs his taunt, and Ganondorf's sound test section includes the bird shriek heard when Captain Falcon performs the Falcon Punch. In turn, the sound effect of the Warlock Punch is heard only in the Universal Sounds section.
• In Melee, the last song that the player listened to (with the exception of songs that don't loop, such as "Opening" and "Ending") will play in the "Gallery" mode of the "Trophies" submenu.
• In Brawl, due to multiple characters sharing a slot being categorized by the main character, Petey Piranha's sound section including Peach and Zelda's screams under files 12 to 15, with the latter being nearly duplicates of the ones heard in her own section.
• From Melee to Smash 4, sound sections of some "late-added" characters are always placed in nearly last of category selection. In Melee, Roy is the last playable character listed; in Brawl, Jigglypuff, who was nearly cut from the game due to time constraints, is located in between R.O.B. and Toon Link; in Smash 4, Lucina and Dark Pit, who were originally considered as alternate costumes for Marth and Pit respectively, are located in between Ludwig and Mewtwo, with Dr. Mario mentioned just before them in the announcer's voice section.
• The Mii Fighter voice clips in Ultimate are separated into male and female sections, with Mii Swordfighter being the icon for the male voice clips and Mii Gunner being the icon for the female voice clips.
• For unknown reasons, Dr. Mario does not have his own section in the sound test in SSB4. While he shares a majority of his voice clips with Mario in all of his appearances, he still has a section in his other appearances.
• Bayonetta has two nearly identical sections of voice clips in Ultimate's Sound Test, due to her original Bayonetta costume using English voice clips in any region.
  • Strangely, the only difference between the original and Bayonetta 2 costumes' voice clips in English is a single voice clip of Bayonetta saying "Boom!", despite both costumes sharing the voice clip.
  • In the Japanese versions of SSB4 and Ultimate, the voice section for her Bayonetta costume is indicated by the text "ベヨネッタ (英語)" in addition to her render; strangely, this does not apply when the language is set to Korean or Chinese in Ultimate, despite sharing the same feature.
• In SSB4 and Ultimate, the presence of characters who utilize sound effects as "voice" in Sound Test is inconsistent; for instance, Bowser, Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, King K. Rool, R.O.B. and Ridley are present, while Samus, Mr. Game & Watch, and Dark Samus are not.
• In Ultimate, characters with two selectable genders (Pokémon Trainer, Villager, Inkling, Wii Fit Trainer and the Mii Fighters) have two identical announcer calls in the Sound Test. This is likely as placeholders for languages with gender-specific pronouns; for example, in the Spanish and German versions, all but Inkling's female variants' pronouns end with the suffixes "a" and "in", respectively.
  • Strangely, Robin also shares this trait as well, despite having a proper name shared between genders. Corrin and Byleth lack this trait, making it unique to Robin.
• In SSB4 and Ultimate, while most other characters with selectable gender have "(Male)" or "(Female)" attached to their names, Inkling, uniquely uses "(Girl)" and "(Boy)", reflecting the usage of the words in Splatoon series, Super Mario Maker and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. This distinction is also present in the spirit list.
  • Byleth's name tags does not distinguish the gender at all other than portraits; this is possibly due to in Japanese, it is spelled differently depending on gender.
• R.O.B.'s portrait in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS's sound test is of his Famicom appearance; while the appearance makes sense in the Japanese version, due to the character's default color scheme, this decision creates a discrepancy in the international versions of the game, which use R.O.B.'s grey costume as his default.
• Sound Test file 50 under "Announcer" in Super Smash Bros. Melee has the announcer say "Giga Koopa" or "Giga Bowser" depending on the game's language, an otherwise unused sound clip. Interestingly, the languages appear to be swapped: the announcer says "Giga Koopa" (Bowser's Japanese name) in the English version of Melee, and "Giga Bowser" in the Japanese version. The PAL release only includes the latter sound clip, where the announcer correctly says "Giga Bowser", due to the release not having a Japanese language option.
• The Japanese versions of Super Smash Bros. 4 and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate include credits the voice actors of each character in the voice section. Notably, Kazumi Totaka and Masahiro Sakurai, voice actors for Yoshi and King Dedede respectively—who are not credited otherwise—are also credited here; however, the Inklings' voice actor—Yuki Tsujii—is not credited in the Sound Test or otherwise.
  • While still based on the Japanese version, this does not apply to the Korean and Chinese versions, likely due to the characters using a mixture of English and Japanese voice clips in those localizations (see Language#Trivia).
  • Additionally, characters voiced by non-Japanese actors in all regions (the announcer/Master Hand/Crazy Hand, Mario characters, Wario, Zero Suit Samus, Lucas, Bayonetta, Banjo & Kazooie) having their respective voice actors credited without any transliteration to Japanese letters.
    • In a similar vein, music tracks that come from non-Japanese versions of their respective games have their source games listed as their North American titles rather than the Japanese title. For example, the source game of the English version of Ashley's Song is listed as "WarioWare: Touched!", rather than "さわる メイド イン ワリオ". A similar property is present in the English version of the game, with the source game of Lost in Thoughts All Alone (JP) being listed as "Fire Emblem: if" instead of "Fire Emblem Fates" as an example.
• In SSB4, when a music track or fighter voice clip is selected or hovered over, a character silhouette from that song's respective universe, or in voice clips' case, their source character, appears to match the song/voice, with the exception of the Dr. Mario tracks (which only display a Dr. Mario silhouette), Mt. Dedede (which only shows King Dedede), and Tomorrow's Passion (which only shows Little Mac).
  • On a related note, if a Golden Hammer is used to skip a challenge that involves unlocking a character to get a new stage in the 3DS version when the songs are played in the Sound Test, a question mark symbol is shown until the character is actually unlocked. This does not apply to Falco, Lucina, Dark Pit, R.O.B., Bowser Jr., Jigglypuff and Duck Hunt (once the Duck Hunt stage is downloaded) as they either share stage music with other characters in the same series or they don't have a home stage and use other stage music.
• In SSB4, every character is missing their swimming voice clip. This is possibly due to characters not being able to swim in the 3DS version.
• Oddly, the sorting of series in Ultimate's Sound Test is different than the Spirits list and the official website. Normally, EarthBound is listed first and F-Zero is listed afterward, and the third-party series are listed in order of their Smash debut; in the Sound Test, EarthBound comes after F-Zero, and the third-parties are grouped together between the Splatoon and Other categories.
• In Ultimate, one can hold L or R to rewind or fast-forward through songs.
• In Ultimate, downloadable content characters' Sound Test orders doesn't match those of base characters; Normally, the order roughly goes: (on-screen appearance → taunts → results screen → neutral attacks → tilt attacks → smash attacks → aerial attacks → floor attacks → special moves → Final Smash → lighter knockback screams → star KO scream → heavier knockback screams → blast KO screams → teetering → grabbing ledge → stun → asleep → carrying a heavy item → swimming); DLC characters' order are: (neutral attacks → tilt attacks → smash attacks → aerial attacks → floor attacks → lighter knockback screams → heavier knockback screams → blast KO screams → star KO scream → teetering → grabbing ledge → stun → asleep → carrying a heavy item → swimming → special moves → taunts → Final Smash → results screen), much like the Sound Test in SSB4.
  • Roy's sound library is also ordered uniquely from other characters, namely his voice clip for being KO'd, special moves, Critical Hit, and victory lines being grouped together right after his other voice clips. Neither Marth, Lucina nor Chrom share this distinction.
  • Pokémon Trainer's voice section (specifically the trainer, not their Pokémon) is also ordered differently from other characters, likely due to being a background character; for example, the voice clips for up taunt, the active Pokémon being KO'd, stunned, or buried, and the results screen are listed after the voice clips for Triple Finish.

See also

• Music (SSB)
• Music (SSBM)
• Music (SSBB)
• Music (SSB4)
• Music (SSBU)