Super Smash Bros. 4 Official Site

The official website for Super Smash Bros. 4 launched on June 11, 2013, shortly after the two games' E3 2013 trailer. Like its predecessors, Smabura-Ken and the , it was periodically updated with information on the games, but unlike its predecessors, the information was shown mostly through pictures instead of text. For a short time after a character was revealed, their image links would have an "UPDATE" banner affixed.
The website gives information about all of the characters and shows videos and images in both Wii U and Nintendo 3DS versions. On the main page, there is a picture that was changed every weekday. This picture was the most recent "pic of the day", which was also posted by Masahiro Sakurai in the Miiverse community called the Director's Room, where he started providing captions and sometimes additional pictures starting July 2013.
==Overview==
The language selection offered by the site includes eight languages: English, Japanese, German, French, Italian and Spanish, like its predecessor Smash Bros. DOJO!!, in addition to the newly-added Portuguese, Dutch and Russian. For some languages, regional variations are available.
When a character was revealed, a banner under the daily photo that said "Warning! Challenger Approaching!" (a reference to the message that typically appears whenever unlockable characters are first encountered within a Super Smash Bros. game) was added. It remained there for a couple of days. The amount of time the banner stays up seemed to be dependent on how soon the next character would be revealed, though there was an approximate maximum and minimum timeframe.
Over time, the website was gradually fleshed out, later including Nintendo 3DS informational manuals about character movesets (Japanese version), as well as additional information regarding Pokémon, Assist Trophies, and music previews.
==Character pages==
Each character confirmed for Super Smash Bros. 4 has their own character page. These pages can be accessed by clicking on the picture displaying the fighter on the website's front page. Each character page contains the characters' official render within a frame displaying their name, and ten additional photos. These pictures will be a mixture of Wii U and 3DS screenshots—there are typically more from the Wii U—and the Wii U pictures always precede the 3DS pictures. The background color of the page changes according to character. When applicable, these character pages will sometimes link to a recent or then-upcoming Nintendo game featuring the character. On special characters, such as newcomers and third-party fighters, there would often be a bonus video or piece of artwork alongside the main character render.
Unlike the website's predecessors, the and Smabura-Ken, there is no additional text on the page regarding the character, except for , whose page explains the system for his Street Fighter-style inputs.
Character(s)	Game website linked
 	Mario & Luigi: Dream Team
 	Super Mario 3D World
 	New Super Mario Bros. U
 	Yoshi's New Island
 	Game & Wario
 	Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
 	The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
 	The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D
 	The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD
 	Metroid: Other M
 	Kirby's Return to Dream Land
 	Kirby Triple Deluxe
 	Star Fox 64 3D
 	Pokémon website (general)
 	Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem: Heroes of Light and Shadow Fire Emblem Awakening
 	Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn Fire Emblem Awakening
 	Fire Emblem Awakening
 	Fire Emblem Fates
 	Pikmin 3
 	Kid Icarus: Uprising
 	Punch-Out!! (Wii)
 	Xenoblade Chronicles
 	Sonic Lost World
 	Street Fighter website (general)
 	Final Fantasy VII 2015 website
 	Bayonetta 2
==Fighter Ballot==
:Main article: Smash Bros. Fighter Ballot 
On April 1, 2015, the website was updated to include a new section titled Smash Bros. Fighter Ballot. The purpose of this ballot was for regular players outside the development team to have an input on what characters should be released as DLC. Upon entering the site, the voter is given four tasks. The first is to identify their gender - male or female - then the character, their game of origin, and a brief explanation as to why the character should be included. This final section has a 500 character limit. Once every section is filled out, the voter presses the large confirm button, where the vote is submitted to a database. There is no limit to the amount of times a single person can vote, although only a single vote per person was considered valid and effected the results of the ballot.Super Smash Bros. Ultimate [Game Concepts] This ballot was live until October 3, 2015, where it was closed and removed from the website. Around 1.8 million valid votes were then tallied, and a winner was decided.
During the Final Video Presentation on December 15, 2015, was declared as the winner of the ballot. She was the #1 choice in Europe and in the top 5 in North America. She was also the #1 choice among "realizable and negotiable" characters, which was the real deciding factor. Bayonetta was released as the final Smash 4 DLC fighter on February 3, 2016. The game was later datamined in June 2018, and the dataminers discovered evidence that parameters for Bayonetta were added to the game as early as version 1.0.6 on April 15, 2015, only two weeks after the ballot went live, despite not actually releasing until nearly ten months later with version 1.1.5.Bayonetta datamine This information suggests that Bayonetta had already been decided as a character before the ballot ended.
Masahiro Sakurai would later confirm that the results were used to determine new characters in future installments of the series. Several popular characters from the Fighter Ballot were introduced as fighters in Ultimate, such as , , , , , , and . The overall winner of the ballot was revealed to be during Sakurai's Presentation for the character. https://sourcegaming.info/2018/08/22/more-information-about-the-smash-direct-sakurais-famitsu-column-vol-561/ https://web.archive.org/web/20201026070354/https://japanesenintendo.com/2019/01/21/decidueye-almost-chosen-for-smash-in-an-interview//
==History==
 Timeline of the Super Smash Bros. 4 Official Site
Event 	Date 	Notes
Website launch 	June 11, 2013 	Same day as the E3 trailer. At this time, it had information on , , , , , , , , , , and .
Reveal of the 	June 11, 2013 	Accompanied with another trailer. It was also the first character reveal on the site.
Reveal of 	July 12, 2013 	His reveal was one day before the release of Pikmin 3 in Japan. He was the first character revealed after the initial E3 2013 reveal of Smash 4.
Reveal of 	August 7, 2013 	The reveal corresponded with a Nintendo Direct, as part of the "Year of Luigi". This is also notable in that this is the first time that a traditionally unlockable character was revealed on the site.
Reveal of 	September 12, 2013	The reveal coincided with the anniversary of the original Super Mario Bros.
Reveal of 	September 26, 2013	The reveal occurred on the release date of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD in Japan.
Reveal of 	October 1, 2013 	The game's returning third-party character, Sonic was revealed during a Nintendo Direct, to celebrate the release of Sonic Lost World that month.
Reveal of 	November 7, 2013 	The first veteran revealed on a day not coinciding with a date or time frame pertinent to their home series.
Reveal of 	December 18, 2013 	Coinciding with a Nintendo Direct, Rosalina & Luma were the first newcomers to be revealed since the game and newcomers Villager, Mega Man, and Wii Fit Trainer were announced at E3 2013.
Reveal of 	December 26, 2013 	The reveal occurred on the release date of The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds in Japan.
Reveal of 	January 10, 2014 	First new character revealed in 2014. The reveal occurred a day prior to the release of Kirby: Triple Deluxe in Japan.
Reveal of 	January 31, 2014 	Lucario was revealed on the same day Super Smash Bros. Brawl was released in Japan six years earlier.
Reveal of 	February 13, 2014 	First newcomer revealed in 2014. Little Mac was revealed via a Nintendo Direct that day, his official Smash Bros. artwork is a reference to both the arcade Punch-Out!!, & Punch-Out!! for Wii, where Donkey Kong appeared as a hidden fighter. His connection to Donkey Kong is further referenced, as his reveal coincided with the release of Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze in Japan. Furthermore, February is the anniversary month for the arcade Punch-Out!!.
Reveal of 	February 21, 2014 	His reveal coincided on the international release date of Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. This was the first character reveal to coincide with an American/European release rather than a Japanese release.
Smash Bros. Direct 	April 8, 2014 	Confirmed the return of , , , and . confirmed to appear as a newcomer. All of the "Original 8" characters were now revealed.
Reveal of 	May 23, 2014 	Confirmed the return of . His reveal coincided with the anniversary of the North American release of Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones.
E3 2014 	June 10, 2014 	Confirmed and as playable characters. was confirmed at a Smash Bros. roundtable later that day. The site was also redesigned on this day.
Reveal of , and 	July 14, 2014 	Confirmed the return of . Also revealed and as newcomers. This date was the same as the Japanese release date of F-Zero X.
Reveal of 	August 13, 2014 	Confirmed the return of . Revealed exactly one month before the release of Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS in Japan. The site also displayed some information about the 3DS version's modes stages and controls.
Reveal of 	August 29, 2014 	Revealed via a Japan-only Nintendo Direct, coinciding with the announcement of Xenoblade Chronicles 3D.
International release of 	October 3, 2014 	, , and were officially revealed on the website; the first characters revealed since the game's launch. The site added a section for hidden characters, as well as re-arranging the fighters revealed before launch based on when they joined the series.
Reveal of and 	October 9, 2014 	and were officially revealed on the website.
Reveal of and 	October 15, 2014 	and were officially revealed on the website.
50 Facts Extravaganza 	October 23, 2014 	Officially confirmed as a newcomer. was also confirmed to return, but was confirmed on the site itself and not in the direct. Jigglypuff was shown multiple times throughout the presentation, but was not officially revealed on the website.
Reveal of and 	November 5, 2014 	Duck Hunt was confirmed during a Nintendo Direct that day. 's page was also officially revealed on the website. All of the "Original 12" characters from the Super Smash Bros. were now revealed. The complete roster (excluding DLC) for Super Smash Bros. 4 was now revealed.
Reveal of and 	April 1, 2015 	Lucas was revealed as a downloadable playable character to be released in June 2015. Additionally, , who was revealed in the 50-Fact Extravaganza, was given a new trailer showcasing its moveset, in addition to getting its own character page. The site had two new sections: one about downloadable content for the game, and the Smash Bros. Fighter Ballot, in which fans could request characters to be included in Super Smash Bros. 4.
Reveal of and 	June 14, 2015 	Roy and Ryu were officially shown on the site.
Removal of Fighter Ballot 	October 4, 2015 	The Fighter Ballot officially closed and the section was removed from the website.
Reveal of 	November 12, 2015 	Cloud was revealed as a downloadable playable character at the end of the Nintendo Direct shown that day.
Final Smash Bros. Presentation 	December 15, 2015 	and were revealed as the last characters introduced. All DLC characters were now revealed. All DLC characters are now listed on the front page with its own section rather than giving them a page of their own.
Reveal of a new Super Smash Bros. game for Nintendo Switch	March 8, 2018 	Added a link to the then unnamed Ultimate official website. The site's URL was also changed in favour of the official site for Ultimate.
==Trivia==
*On the character image links, all names are written in capital letters, as in the game, with the exceptions of the Wii Fit Trainer and Mii Fighter, whose names appear as "Wii Fit TRAINER" and "Mii FIGHTER". Bowser Jr., Mr. Game & Watch, and Dr. Mario additionally follows this rule, but only on the Japanese site ("KOOPA Jr.", "Mr. GAME & WATCH", and "Dr. MARIO").
*On the English website, despite certain characters receiving their English-localization names for their respective URL addresses (such as Mega Man being referred to as "Mega Man" within his page's URL address, rather than his Japanese name of "Rockman"), the English URL addresses for the character webpages of , , , , and still incorporate their Japanese names as of December 2015 (Rosetta, Lizardon, Gekkouga, Reflet, and Kamui respectively).
*Ryu's "Challenger Approaching" image on the official website read "Here Comes A New Challenger!" instead of the usual "Warning! Challenger Approaching!", a reference to the classic tagline played when the arcade single-player mode in Street Fighter II is interrupted by another player's joining. Interestingly, this is done in English even on the Japanese site, where the character's Japanese name followed by "" is normally used.
*Prior to the international release of , characters new to the series had a much larger feature on the website's main page, which included their series symbol, "NEWCOMER" and an additional image. However, this did not apply to Lucina on the desktop version of the site.
*Robin is the only character on the site whose official art incorporates both female and male versions together.
*In the version of the website after the international release, the first ten characters listed are ten of the original twelve (excluding Ness and Jigglypuff, who are located on the page for secret characters). The default characters are listed in the order that they are located on the character selection screen, which is the order in which they were introduced, with Luigi and Captain Falcon following Pikachu.
*Despite the fact that was revealed before Robin, as well as her trophy and Mystery Mushroom costume from Super Mario Maker being listed before his, her page on the website is listed after his.
==References==
Category:Websites
Category:Super Smash Bros. 4