Clone

A **clone** is a character with a moveset and physics that are considerably similar to another character's. Often, the clone's moveset will have a few tweaks made, and may have their physics altered to a degree, but on the whole the characters are similar and typically have the same special move mechanics, to such a degree that both characters can be played optimally using a very similar or even identical play style. Clones are a common inclusion in various fighting games, as for a developer it saves a good deal of time to copy a character's moveset and then tweak it than to generate a new one.

**Semi-clone** is a term used for characters who share some of their moveset with another character, with some similarity in physics, but have enough differentiating moves and characteristics that calling them a "clone" wouldn't be entirely accurate. "Semi-clone" status can differ among player's minds depending on their basis of the term; for example, one basis for dubbing a character a semi-clone would be their differences in Special moves from whichever character they are clones from. This process of a clone breaking away from its roots and establishing its own identity as it divergently evolves is known in the Smash community as **Luigification**, named after how Luigi originally was a clone of Mario but eventually came into his own in both the *Super Mario* and *Smash Bros.* series. Jigglypuff is the only character who started as a semi-clone and eventually became its own completely unique character.

*Super Smash Bros. 4* introduces alternate characters that act as alternate costumes, namely Alph for Olimar and the Koopalings for Bowser Jr. They have their own voice clips and the Announcer refers to them by name. However, since they bear no gameplay differences and are not treated as separate characters, they are not considered to be clones.

The term "clone" is also used to refer to individual moves cloned from another character's move. For example, Falco's Blaster is a cloned move of Fox's Blaster, with the former being the same general type of attack with animations taken from the latter, but with altered properties and functioning so that makes it its own move. Usually cloned moves share animations, while altering the cloned move's function and/or properties in some way, though sometimes the inverse happens, such as in the case of Ness' and Lucas' down tilts; Ness' down tilt is a low rapid kick where he pokes his foot out, while Lucas' involves him rapidly spinning around while kicking, but both have identical functioning as extremely fast but extremely weak low kicks that semi-spike with a high tripping chance. Cloned moves can also happen between characters who otherwise have no other aspects cloned, such as Charizard's Flamethrower being cloned from Bowser's Fire Breath, both being the same type of move with identical animations and functioning, but with a minute property difference (Charizard's Flame Thrower reaches farther with thinner hitboxes).

Clones or semi-clones are almost always unlockable characters or downloadable characters rather than starter characters.

## Clones in *Super Smash Bros.*

*Smash 64* only had one clone in Luigi, and a semi-clone in Jigglypuff, with the rest of its cast consisting of unique characters. All of the unlockable characters were created with the premise of reusing some of the pre-existing characters' movements and models.

### Notes

* The Fighting Polygon Team is composed of complete clones, sans special moves, of all 12 playable fighters.
* Samus and Captain Falcon share neutral aerials, down smashes, floor attacks, forward and up tilts, and dash attacks, but have enough unique moves of their own, along with vastly different physics, to not be classified as semi-clones.
* Mario, Luigi, and Ness all share a polygon form, a neutral attack, a forward tilt and a floor recovery attack.

## Clones in *Super Smash Bros. Melee*

Originally, Masahiro Sakurai was going to include significantly fewer playable characters in *Melee*. However, with fans wanting more characters while time was constrictive, Sakurai decided to add clones later in development to pad out the roster, as these characters would take a lot less time to develop than unique characters. This led to Dr. Mario, Pichu, Young Link, Falco, Roy, and Ganondorf being added to the cast as clones. Luigi and Jigglypuff also returned, though Luigi was significantly decloned into a semi-clone, and Jigglypuff was decloned to the point of not even being a semi-clone anymore.

### Notes

* In the transition from *Super Smash Bros.* to *Melee*, characters like Jigglypuff and Captain Falcon have been differentiated with new attacks. In Jigglypuff's case, it has kept some of its moves from *Smash 64*, while Kirby has received new ones.
* As Luigi and Dr. Mario share a "parent" in Mario, it stands to reason that both of these "child" clones are technically semi-clones of each other.
* Samus, Captain Falcon, and Ganondorf all share floor recovery attacks, and have dash attacks that are shoulder blocks and up tilts that are some form of axe kick.
* Bowser and Giga Bowser are clones, having identical movesets, although most of Giga Bowser's moves have additional effects along with altered knockback.
* Each clone characters' head sprites face the opposite direction than their original character's head sprite, including Giga Bowser's. This follows how Luigi's sprite faced the opposite direction than Mario's sprite in the original Super Smash Bros.
* The Male and Female Wire Frames are clones of Captain Falcon and Zelda, respectively. They lack special moves, however, and their moves lack any special effects that Falcon's and Zelda's equivalent have, such as electricity and flame.
* Master Hand and Crazy Hand can be considered clones, as they share most of their attacks.
* When deciding a clone for Mario during development, Wario was considered; ultimately, Dr. Mario was chosen instead.

## Clones in *Super Smash Bros. Brawl*

Among the *Melee* clones, four were completely cut from the roster (Pichu, Young Link, Dr. Mario, and Roy). The two clones that returned, Falco and Ganondorf, were significantly decloned to being semi-clones. Luigi was also slightly decloned further, though mostly through Mario being given new attacks. Among the 18 new playable characters, none are complete clones, with Toon Link and Lucas being semi-clones. Wolf takes a couple aspects from Fox.

 Ness | Lucas | Lucas' standard attacks are unique with the exception of his down tilt, forward smash, and up aerial (while the down tilt has a different animation, and Lucas' forward smash utilizes a different type of weapon, they are identical in function to Ness's). Their special moves however, are very similar in name, appearance and have similar mechanics, but differ functionally. PK Freeze freezes opponents instead of being a very powerful vertical KO move like PK Flash. Lucas' PK Fire differs to the point where it can be argued to not be cloned, as it is a single hit projectile that knocks opponents away, while Ness' hits multiple times and traps opponents (additionally, Lucas fires his PK Fire with a different animation, and Ness can fire his down diagonally in the air). Lucas' PK Thunder can go through opponents while Ness' cannot, and his PK Thunder 2 is a multi-hitting move, while Ness' hits once. However, while the similarity in their moveset can be argued to not be quite enough to label them as semi-clones, they have very similar physics, with them having identical size, shape, weight, and falling speed. They additionally both suffer from 10 additional frames of lag when being grab released that no other characters in *Brawl* suffer from.

### Notes

* The Alloys are all clones (sans special moves): Red Alloy of Captain Falcon, Blue Alloy of Zelda, Yellow Alloy of Mario, and Green Alloy of Kirby.
* Even Master Hand and Crazy Hand have been Luigified, with Master Hand now having unique moves (his hand swipe, walking hand, and finger missiles attacks), and separate functions in his attacks.
* Fox and Wolf are sometimes seen as semi-clones due to their special moves and Final Smash being mostly identical in operation. However, closer inspection of their full movesets shows that even calling them semi-clones is difficult to rationalize, as the characters' physics are radically different, none of their standard attacks are similar, and even their similarly named special moves have different particle effects and function differently.

## Clones in *Super Smash Bros. 4*

*Super Smash Bros. 4* reintroduces true clones, adding two new clones, Lucina and Dark Pit, and one returning clone from *Melee*, Dr. Mario. These clones, unlike the *Melee* clones, were originally developed as alternate costumes of the characters they were cloned from, similar to Alph and the Koopalings. Later in development, they were given moveset alterations from their originals - according to Sakurai, Dr. Mario had to have the differences from Mario he previously possessed in order to avoid disappointing fans of his *Melee* appearance, Lucina was given no tippers to act as an easier-to-play version of Marth, and Dark Pit was given a different Final Smash, as Sakurai did not like the idea of him using the Three Sacred Treasures. Once these changes were made, however, it was decided that they each would be promoted to full characters, as "even a small difference in abilities" requires a unique roster slot. *SSB4* groups these clones in their own area together on the character select screen, rather than placing them with their respective franchises.

None of the newcomers are semi-clones. Luigi, Falco, Toon Link, and Ganondorf remain as semi-clones, though they were only minimally decloned. Wolf, whose moveset partially derived from Fox, was cut from the roster, while Lucas and Roy return as DLC. Roy is now a semi-clone, as his moveset is further distinguished from Marth's.

Most clones and semi-clones also share at least one custom move, though true clones (Dr. Mario, Lucina, Dark Pit) have more custom moves in common.

### Notes

* As of *Smash 4*, Luigi's position as semi-clone of Mario is heavily debatable, as the characters' physics are noticeably different, over half of their standard & special attacks are unique, and even several of their shared moves have different hitbox placements and function differently from each other.
* Luigi and Dr. Mario are closer to being clones of each other than their "parent" in Mario, as they have similar down aerials and down specials, and share custom down specials.
* Many standard and special attacks of the Mii Fighters are cloned moves from existing characters. Several of Mii Gunner's moves are similar to Samus's or Fox's (with a couple similar to Ness's and Robin's). Similarly, Mii Swordfighter shares moves with the swordsman characters (specifically Link and Ike), while Mii Brawler shares moves with Mario, Little Mac, and Captain Falcon.
* The Fighting Mii Team operate like Mii Fighters but lack special moves like previous Enemy teams.

## References

1. ↑ http://www.sourcegaming.info/2015/12/13/sakurai-fe25/
2. ↑ http://www.nintendo.co.jp/n01/n64/software/nus\_p\_nalj/smash/flash/1211/index.html
3. ↑ [1] (in Japanese)
4. ↑ https://miiverse.nintendo.net/replies/AYMHAAACAABnUYn9HXMxEA