List of Super Smash Bros. Brawl pre-release and unused content

This is a list of pre-release and unused content elements for the game Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

Early ideas
According to Masahiro Sakurai, Animal Crossing's Villager was at one point planned for being a playable character, but was removed from the roster because "he wasn't suited for battle." Miis were also considered to be playable characters, though the idea was dismissed as Sakurai did not feel the Miis were interesting enough characters, they weren't suited toward fighting, and he did not want online bullying to occur. Sakurai also said that during development Shigeru Miyamoto suggested having Pac-Man as a playable guest character, though Sakurai thought that having Pac-Man appearing in his 2D form in the game seemed "far-fetched." All of them would later be confirmed as playable characters in the games making up the next entry in the series, Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U. Finally, Sakurai wanted to include Geno as a playable character, but this did not happen. He would also later appear in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U as a costume for Mii Gunners.

Nintendogs were considered to be playable characters, but were ultimately not included because Sakurai felt that Nintendogs were not "well suited for battle", similar to the Villager. Nintendogs were instead implemented as Assist Trophies.

When asked in a Nintendo Power interview if Ridley was ever considered as a playable character in Brawl, Sakurai answered the question saying that making Ridley playable would have been impossible without putting his best efforts into it, and also felt that Ridley would have been "too slow" for a character. Ridley was later considered as a playable character for Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U before being dropped once again and eventually being playable in Ultimate.

For the Pokémon Trainer, Blastoise was considered as being one of the Pokémon in his moveset, but Squirtle was used instead as it was felt that it could be better established as a character and to balance the size and evolutionary stages of the Pokémon.

Dixie Kong was also meant to be playable as a tag-team character with Diddy Kong, similar to their role in Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest, but was scrapped since this was too difficult to implement, and only Diddy Kong appears in the final game. However, one of Diddy Kong's alternate outfits resembles Dixie's clothes.

Toon Link, Wolf, and Jigglypuff were nearly cut from the game due to time constraints, but in the end are all present in the final game. The uncertainty over their inclusion is why the three are not a part of The Subspace Emissary's main storyline, instead being post-game bonuses.

E3 2006
In the E3 2006 trailer for Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Kirby uses his side special (Hammer Cartwheel) move from Super Smash Bros. Melee, while in the final product, he uses his Hammer Spin. His move may have been tweaked after the trailer was released.

There are a few other things in the E3 2006 trailer that are different from the final version, such as Mario grabbing the Smash Ball rather than attacking it. This may have been an early idea that Nintendo scrapped, thinking of it as "too easy". Also, Samus's Final Smash was executed faster, and when Samus turns into Zero Suit Samus in the trailer, she makes her paralyzer turn into some sort of plasma sword, which looks a lot like the Plasma whip or Plasma wire. This might have been another early idea, in this case being how Zero Suit Samus attacks. Mario's voice clips were also reused from previous Super Smash Bros. games, and in turn from Super Mario 64, while they were replaced in the final game. This makes pre-release Brawl the last game to feature Mario's voice clips from Super Mario 64. Wario's voice clips from Wario Land 4 and the classic WarioWare games were reused too.

"Sonic Joins the Brawl!" dojo update
Another video called "Sonic Joins The Brawl" depicts Mario and Sonic fighting in Battlefield, but in the trailer, Sonic does a move which was charged up and held like Spin Dash, although in the final version said move doesn't do a short hop, but rather rolls along the ground like Spin Charge. This may have been an early version of how Spin Dash worked. In this same video, Sonic was seen fighting in Delfino Plaza beside the Lighthouse, which is not available in the final version.

Unsorted
Some of the game world icons were initially the same as in the previous two games, but they were revised as time went on (Mario's Mushroom icon was refined and given spots, the Poké Ball icon has the top half colored in to properly represent how it is usually red, etc.).

Also, the description for the My Music options originally said, "Adjust how often a song will appear on this stage." It has since been revised in a general tone to say, "Adjust how often songs appear on stages." Additionally, the music "Castle/Boss Fortress (Super Mario World/SMB3)" (which was originally called "Castle Music/Fortress Boss") was originally going to be played on Delfino Plaza, but was later moved to Luigi's Mansion.

Wario Bike, Drill Rush, Trophy Stand, Summit, Halberd, Rainbow Cruise, and "The Flowers That Bloom in the Echoes" were originally called Wario Chopper, Triple Dash, Trophy Base, The Summit, Battle Ship Halberd, Rainbow Ride, and, "Flowers Bloom on the notes" respectively. It's unknown why they changed these names; however, they likely changed Rainbow Ride because it was a Melee stage, in which it was misnamed Rainbow Cruise (although it remains Rainbow Ride in the PAL regions because it was called Rainbow Ride on the PAL version of Melee).

The Triforce Slash was shown to have a different animation. Also, Link was meant to have longer hair. Fox McCloud had a different animation, which was him holding a gun, instead of his drinking-tea-like movement in the final release. Solid Snake was meant to be more muscular and was to have a gray suit rather than blue. The original Snake was less modernized and his down smash was going to be a more realistic bomb.

Also, there were scenes taking place before the events of The Subspace Emissary where the Subspace Army takes over the Halberd and King Dedede unintentionally stalls Meta Knight from preventing it from happening. Masahiro Sakurai confirmed that he decided to cut this out and an update was made to confirm this together with how various events and characters in The Subspace Emissary come together.

Character files
Unused files for Dixie Kong, Toon Zelda, Toon Sheik (or possibly Tetra), and "Pra_Mai" (speculated to be Plusle & Minun from Pokémon) were found as scrapped newcomers. There are also files for Dr. Mario, Mewtwo, and Roy, possibly meaning that they were planned to be brought back at one time.

Models
Kirby series enemies Blade Knight, Bonkers, and Mech Cannon were also found in the game's coding, possibly remains of a previous Kirby game. A scrapped Assist Trophy for Ridley was also found, as well as Gardevoir. Ridley was most likely scrapped in favor of a boss version of him, and Gardevoir as a Poké Ball Pokémon. Also, Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong had early trophies before they had the ones that appear in the final game. On another note, 38 extra Assist Trophies were meant to appear in the game.

Files for Dry Bones (ef_karon.pac), Bronto Burt (ef_brontoburt.pac), and Buzzy Beetle (ef_met.pac) were found alongside many unused sound files, which also include more narrator dialogues, such as presentations for Wario-Man, Giga Bowser, and Mewtwo.

There is data for icons for Zero Suit Samus, Sheik (solo), and the Fighting Alloys, implying they were to be playable characters, and in the case of Sheik and Zero Suit Samus, separate solo characters. The data also contains two Mario icons.

In the data, there are models for a early version of Mario, but with more simple textures, such as the lack of details in his clothes.

A set of trophies exist for various characters depicting them with alternate poses, like with the previous and next games. In addition, other trophies exist for Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong with their standard appearances, the Donkey Kong Jr. and Samurai Goroh trophies from Super Smash Bros. Melee, and Dread Kong and a Helper Monkey from Donkey Kong Jungle Beat using alternate poses from their actual in-game trophies.

Textures
Early in development, a damage system would have been implemented that would cause characters to shown signs of visible damage and strain during prolonged battles. Among those found in the game's files include Meta Knight's mask, which would develop large cracks, Captain Falcon's helmet with a cracked visor,, Marth and Ike's swords with cracks (Marth's also has a texture for a broken blade), Lucas's stick with cracks, and a damaged sword and shield for Link. This would later be implemented in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U for the character Little Mac, who gains bandages and bruises as he takes damage, and in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for Olimar, whose helmet cracks temporarily as damage is taken.

Animations
The Sandbag has animations for being grabbed, which are unused since Sandbag is treated as an item rather than a character. The animations show that every character would have been able to grab it with the exception of Snake.

Kirby has a set of unused animations for his Hammer which show it as a completely different move. The animations show Kirby charging a hammer swing, able to move while doing so, and swinging it at full charge, not unlike Kirby's Hammer Flip that would be implemented in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U.

Fox and Falco's Blaster moves have animations for what appears to be a "misfire". Two animations exist for this, one being when used on the ground and the other for when the Blaster is used in the air. Wolf does not have an animation for this. However, he does have a kicking animation for his neutral attack, which is the same as Fox's rapid kick.

The Pokémon Trainer has an unused jumping animation (consisting of a jumping, falling, and landing animation put together).

Diddy Kong has two laughing animations (one for on the ground and one in the air) connected to his Banana Peel move.

Zero Suit Samus has a set of unused animations for her Plasma Whip side special. One of the animations, "SpecialSItemGet", allows her to use the move to grab items, while the others are throwing animations, indicating that she would have been able to grab and throw items using the move.

Giga Bowser has unused animations for him grabbing Assist Trophy and throwing small items, as well as a clapping animation for the victory screen.

Music
Many songs were removed from the final game, though the empty files still exist in the game:


 * snd_bgm_A11_MLRPG02 - Thought to be a track from Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time.
 * snd_bgm_A12_MORINOKINOKO - "Forest Mushrooms"; although the most popular theory is that this was "Beware the Forest Mushrooms" from Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, the music list being in chronological order means it was more likely Toadwood Forest, also from Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time. The theme would have been used for the underground version of Mushroomy Kingdom.
 * snd_bgm_C06_KAZENOSAKANA - "Ballad of the Wind Fish" from The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening.
 * snd_bgm_E04_COCKIE - Likely a track from Yoshi's Cookie.
 * snd_bgm_G06_COMMAND - Likely a track from Star Fox: Command.
 * snd_bgm_J01_STAGECHANGE - A unknown track from a Fire Emblem game.
 * snd_bgm_J05_ERABARESHI - Possibly "Erabareshimono" ("Chosen Ones") from Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem.
 * snd_bgm_K02_SENTOUONIISAN - The name is the same as the Japanese name of the New Age Retro Hippie from EarthBound; a similar enemy appears in Mother with a similar battle theme.
 * snd_bgm_K03_EIGHTMELODIES - "Eight Melodies" from Mother.
 * snd_bgm_K04_SMILEANDTEARS - "Smiles and Tears" from EarthBound.
 * snd_bgm_K06_BECAUSE - Thought to be "Because I Love You" from EarthBound.
 * snd_bgm_M14_WARIOSTAGE - A track from a Wario game.
 * snd_bgm_N04_RADIOTAISO - "Radio Exercises" from Animal Crossing.
 * snd_bgm_Q03_SPORTSMEDLEY - Thought to be a medley of the themes of various NES sports games.
 * snd_bgm_R01_WILDTRACKS - Likely a track from Stunt Race FX (named "Wild Tracks" in Japan).
 * snd_bgm_S01_MAINTHEME - Thought to be the main theme of Metal Gear Solid.
 * snd_bgm_S09_BEATMANIA - Thought to be the remix of the Metal Gear Solid theme from Beatmania 3rdMIX.
 * snd_bgm_T04_HOWTOPLAY - A removed theme for the "How to Play" video.
 * snd_bgm_U05_UCANDO - Thought to be "You Can Do Anything" from the Japanese and European versions of Sonic the Hedgehog CD.
 * snd_bgm_W22_DX55 - An unknown track assumed to be from Super Smash Bros. Melee.
 * snd_bgm_X12_SIMPLEINTRO - An intro for Classic mode.
 * snd_bgm_X14_ENDING - An ending for Classic mode.
 * snd_bgm_X24_HOW2PLAY - A theme for the "How to Play" video.

Voice clips
The sound clip for the announcer has a countdown to the end of the match, starting at ten seconds. This was reduced to five in the final game. The announcer also has voice clips for Fighting Alloy Team, as well as "Stage Clear!", presumably intended for Classic Mode. Finally, there is also a voice clip in which the announcer shouts the game's title, much like in the previous two games.

All playable characters also have three unused damage yells (Mario and Yoshi, however, only have two; Jigglypuff only has Japanese voices). Many characters who have recycled voice clips from Brawl in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate have those voice clips being used properly. Some characters also have unused voice clips that were presumably intended for taunts and result screens; for example, Kirby has a voice clip saying "Hi!" that more closely resembles the Melee version, Meta Knight has "Now, my power is without a rival.", and Pit has "Here we go!"