List of Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U pre-release and unused content

This is a list of pre-release and unused content for the game Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U.

Early ideas
During early stages of development, Takamaru from The Mysterious Murasame Castle was originally considered as being a playable character, but it was decided against due to a lack of familiarity. Takamaru was, however, implemented as an Assist Trophy. Chrom, the protagonist of Fire Emblem: Awakening, was also considered to be in the game, as he was commonly requested by fans. However, Sakurai thought he'd play too similar to Marth or Ike. Robin was chosen instead due to being a more unique character. Chrom, however, appears in the game as part of Robin's Final Smash, Pair Up. Heihachi from Bandai Namco's Tekken series was also considered as being a playable character, but was decided against since his moves would have been too difficult to implement into Super Smash Bros.; Heihachi was, however, included in the form of a Mii Fighter costume available as downloadable content.

Dr. Mario, Dark Pit and Lucina were originally supposed to be alternate costumes for Mario, Pit, and Marth respectively, but were instead implemented as separate playable characters after it was decided to give them unique characteristics to distinguish them from their original counterparts.

Ice Climbers
According to Masahiro Sakurai on Famitsu, he was planning on adding the Ice Climbers for Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U, but despite the characters running without problems on the Wii U version, the team had trouble getting the Ice Climbers working in the Nintendo 3DS version as their presence caused framerate issues.

Trophies
Prior to the official Japanese release of the game, footage and images were leaked of a build closer to the final, including unlockable characters and trophies. The build for the game in these screenshots showed 686 trophies total. The actual release for the game, however, features 685. Analyzing the leak and the final version of the game, it was discovered that a trophy for Tharja, a character from Fire Emblem: Awakening, was removed.

Icons
In the E3 2014 trailer, during Multi-Man Mode the Mii icons were their faces. In the final version the icons are their weapon. Also, before the game's release, both Diddy Kong's and Lucario's icons from Super Smash Bros. Brawl can be seen instead of their proper icons.

Data for an icon representing the Rhythm Heaven series can be found in the game's files, meaning that a character or stage based on the series may have been planned at one point.

Stages
Alongside data for Ridley and Metal Face, two stage bosses who are faced on the Pyrosphere and Gaur Plain stages, respectively, is data for an unused "Virus" boss enemy. It is possible that a stage was to be included based upon the Dr. Mario sub-series, and the Viruses from the series were to be hazards.