Nickelodeon All Star Brawl (Streaker Prower and GabrielTheLoudTamer's Version)/Clones

A clone (officially Echo Fighter (ダッシュファイター, Dash Fighter) for certain clones) is a character whose moveset, animations, and general properties are mostly derived from another character, as opposed to being unique to them. All clones have some sort of gameplay difference from their parent character, ranging from different animations to fully unique moves, but on the whole, they will generally be very similar to their parent, to the point where a casual player might play either in the same way, and even competitive players will often play both a clone and their parent character. However, this is not to say that playing a clone like their parent will be successful.
Clones are a common inclusion in all types of fighting games, as it is significantly less expensive in time and resources to develop a character using another character as a base than it is to do everything from scratch, while still potentially forming a character with a distinct playstyle and fanbase. However, despite being much easier to create and thus resulting in a larger roster overall, fans that are ignorant of the development process are quick to show disdain for clones, perceiving them as stealing resources from potential unique characters.
The term "clone" can also be used to refer to individual moves, albeit is used for that purpose much less frequently. For example, Charizard's Flamethrower is a clone of Bowser's Fire Breath, as even though the characters are not related, they are the same type of move with identical function.
It is uncommon for clones to be starter characters; they are more likely to be unlockable characters. If a clone's parent is also unlockable, it is very likely for the clone to be unlocked after their parent.
== Subtypes ==
The term "clone" does not by itself sufficiently describe how similar two characters are. Perhaps two characters share all but one attack, while another pair has only half of their attacks in common while still clearly being a derivative overall. As a result, there is a spectrum of terms to describe how much of a clone a character might be.
* A full clone (often shortened to just "clone") will have unique taunts and victory poses, may have unique attributes (such as being heavier or faster) or non-combat animations (such as running or jumping), may have some moves that function differently despite being conceptually the same as their parent character's, and maybe perhaps an entirely unique attack or two. Otherwise, they share nearly all moves and animations with their parent. Pichu since Melee and Lucina since Super Smash Bros. 4 are examples of full clones.
* A semi-clone has several unique attacks and animations of their own while retaining a significant amount from their parent, while often the cloned moves they retain have distinct functioning or altered animations. Falco since Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Roy since Smash 4 are examples of semi-clones.
* A pseudo-clone is, for the most part, their own unique character, but with enough moves or animations still copied from their parent that it would be inaccurate to say they are not cloned to some degree. Wolf since Brawl and Luigi since Ultimate are examples of pseudo-clones.
It is not uncommon for a cloned character to receive further differentiating changes in later games, thus making them less of a clone. Some use the term "Luigification" for when a character is separated from their parent and forms their own identity, as Luigi has done in both his home series and the Smash Bros. series. However, it is debatable at what point a character who was once a clone is no longer a clone, or even which specific category some characters may fall into. For example, Luigi's status as any type of clone post-Brawl was a subject of heavy debate before the term "pseudo-clone" was accepted.
== Clones in Nickelodeon All Star Brawl ==
NASB introduces the term "Echo Fighter" to refer to certain clones. The term is used to determine which characters are grouped together on the character selection screen when the corresponding menu option is enabled, and also forces such characters to share the same fighter numbers with an appended epsilon (ε). The Japanese term is "Dash Fighter", and uses the prime symbol (') instead of an epsilon. In Japanese, the prime symbol is pronounced "dash", hence the term "Dash Fighter"; in mathematics, the prime symbol is used to designate that something is derived from something else, such as x′ being derived from x. Otherwise, it is simply a term used by the developers to denote a character as being low-budget; as a result, it only loosely fits into the spectrum of clone terms used by the community to discuss the degree of similarity in the final result. For example, Invincibubble is a full clone, while Ultra Magnus is a semi-clone, but Ultra Magus is labeled as an Echo Fighter while Invincibubble is not. Certain Echo Fighters are considered the same entity as their base fighter competitively; Vanesa, Manic, and Evil Danny, due to their differences from their base fighters being competitively negligible; and Wild Tyrant, who does have notable moveset differences, but only in two attacks. On the character selection screen, Echo Fighters are positioned directly after their base fighter, and there exists an option to merge the portraits of the base fighter and the Echo Fighter in certain modes.