Let's discuss the meaning of colors!

[LipePereira]

So, as we all know and love, smash characters have a lot of pallet swaps (and even shape swaps), and I just want your help to figure out what they mean! Or at least speculate and make theories...

I will post the ones I know (or think I know) and you can comment on that, come up with different theories and off course, fill in the gaps! I think this would be fun!

Here are some I came up with:



Starting with the obvious, these are all the Koopalings, nothing new here. They have been around since SMB3 and will probably stay around for many New Super Mario Bros <something> games.



Red:
Regular Costume

White hat and yellow shirt:
No idea

Pink:
IMO is probably based on Dixie Kong, even has the blonde hair

Purple:
Based on the color swap for player 2 on donkey kong country 2? Can someone confirm that?

Green:
I've never seen on a game, probably just a color with now meaning

Blue:
Same as green

Brown:
Same as blue

White:
From that "god mode" from DKC returns



Black:
Regular color from the punch out games

Blonde:
Based on the SNES Super Punch out version

Pink Hoodie:
Training scenes (no bikes were stolen that day)

Wireframe:
Based on the classic punch out arcade game

Blonde Wireframe:
SNES + Arcade?

Hoodie + Wireframe
NES + Arcade?

I have a theory that the other colors are based on colors from 2 player modes or famous enemies from the games.



Regular Costume:
The zero suit lol

The Blue Bikini:
From the sexy ending on metroid fusion?



Pink:
The original pink fluff we all love

Yellow:
The original intended color for kirby during development, used as secondary color since

Black:
Meta knight?

Grey:
Classic gameboy games that had no color?



Well, now this is just dumb lol

Green:
The original

Yellow, Blue, and Red:
The ones that debuted along with the original on Super Mario World

Pink and Light blue:
The ones in Yoshi's Island?

Black:
No idea where it came from, but it's badass.



Regular Color:
From the Star Fox game

Grey Color:
Based on wolf



Brown with red tie:
The original, from bananas and sex, i mean, from DKC

White:
Also from the god mode on DKC Returns

Golden:
Super Sayan refference? hahahah

Pink:
Just because we can.



Well, all I know is that these guys are from Pikmin, never played the game so I can't say anything about them



Regular color:
The original one from the kirby games? Not sure which game defined this visual though.

Pink:
Based on kirby?

Grey:
Also based on the old gameboy that didn't have colors



Blue:
Original color from the pokemon games

Black:
Shiny version of greninja, also from XY



Green:
Peter pan lol

Red, Blue, and Purple
From the 4 Swords games

Light Green
From A Link Between Worlds

Black:
Dark Link (Shadow Link) from zelda 2

Blueish Green with brown arms
From the CDi Games? Like for real?



Orange:
Normal pokemon color

Red:
I would say based of charmilion

Purple:
Based on someone that is too big.



Blue:
The "Blue" bomber?

Red:
Rush

Green:
Woodman from megaman 2

Brown
Welcome to my level, my name is metal man... i throw metal blades from my metal hands...

White/Blue:
Airman from megaman 2

Red and yellow:
Fireman from megaman 1/Heatman from megaman 2

I got some more, like daisy peach, peach rosalina, fireflower peach and rosalina
I will post them later.

 

[Squadaloo]

Black Yoshi was from Yoshi Story. All of Mega Man's colors are references to weapons throughout the series. Even though some color schemes for Mega Man have been reused throughout the years, virtually all of the ones in this game are references to the weapons he uses in Smash (Red and Yellow: Flame Sword, Green and Yellow: Slash Claw, Red and White: Rush Coil, White and Blue: Air Shooter, etc).

As for , his pink and green variations are meant to represent Brittney and Charlie.

 

[Wintropy]

Dark blue - Pandora
Red - Viridi
Black - Medusa
Violet - Hades



Blue - Ally units
Red - Anna / enemy units
Green - Neutral units



Indigo - Blood Falcon
Green - Pico
Pink - Jody Summer / Captain Fabulous
Gold - Dr Stewart



Light green - Nowi
Pink - Cherche
Red - Cordelia
Dark green - Tiki
Blonde - Lissa
Black - Tharja
Grey - Sumia

 

[Erotic&Heretic]

Pink: A Link to the Past / A Link Between Worlds colors.
Purple: A tricky one... It was the Pink one from Brawl, but made purple to make room for the ALttP one. It's a bit similar to the OoT3DS Zelda, but have many differences. In Brawl, it was refered as "Zelda of Old".
Black: Made up color, but probably made to match Dark Link. The banner could be seen as a reference to Twilight Princess, with the cyan color, typical of the twili.

Others are probably made up. Zelda does have Red, Blue and Green dresses in LoZ, but they are different here.

Black - Medusa
Violet - Hades

I disagree. The Violet one is definitely Medusa. Everything from her is here, either being the golden details, the gradation from purple to red, red belt or the purple on the staff.

Black is based of Dark Pit. The shoes are gold, the border of the dress is purple, The staff and sheild are even Silver, like Dark Pit's silver bow!

Spoiler: Medusa

Spoiler: Dark Pit

 

[Zer0Shade]

White - Based on Chrom


Blue armor with violet cape - Roy's our boy

 

[BBC7]

Lemme just start with everyone's favorite Italian plumbers:

Spoiler

7/8 colors likely have an origin
Red: His original "Jumpman" colors which he originally appeared with in the 1981 video game "Donkey Kong". He would later reapper with these colors in Super Mario Bros. 2(USA) before finally becoming his official color scheme.
White: The colors he adopts when he obtains a Fire Flower in Super Mario Bros and later games, which allows him to shoot fireballs.
Cyan: Appear to have no origin at all.
Yellow: Meant to represent Wario, a character that debuted in the 1994 video game "Wario Land". The green M as opposed to Blue may suggest otherwise, although the yellow and purple scheme is definitely Wario-like.
Black Likely based off his appearance in Super Mario Land, as he wore black and white in that game due to Game Boy limitations.
Green: May possibly represent Luigi's appearance in Super Mario Bros. Deluxe, since the game was designed to look like Super Mario Bros for the NES, although green had been a more established color for Luigi and Mario wore brown overalls which is why Luigi wore brown overalls. Luigi was also just a recolored sprite just like how Green Mario is just a palette.
American: Mario from NES Open Tournament Golf.
Purple: Resembles Waluigi, a character that debuted in Mario Tennis. This is further supported by the dark purple overalls and the yellow M. (Waluigi has a yellow Γ/Gamma)

5/8 colors likely have an origin
Green: These colors debuted in Super Mario Bros. 2(USA) and have remained the official color scheme in artwork and in most games following Super Mario Bros. 2. (Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World did not have this color scheme, however)
Orange: Appears to have no origin.
Pink: Appears to have no origin.
Cyan: Could be the colors he adopts when obtains an Ice Flower in New Super Mario Bros. Wii. This is further supported by Luigi having this color scheme and ice balls while Mario does not have this color scheme or ice balls. It is off-set by blue overalls as opposed to green, although I still believe it is meant to be Ice Luigi.
White: The colors he adopts when he obtains a Fire Flower in Super Mario World and later games. Alternatively, they could be his default colors in Super Mario Bros.
Purple: Resembles Waluigi, a character that debuted in Mario Tennis. This is further supported by the dark purple overalls and the fact that Waluigi is Luigi's rival.
Light Blue: Most likely based off his appearance in the anime movie 'Super Mario Bros.: Peach-hime Kyushutsu Dai Sakusen!', where Luigi wears a blue hat and overalls while wearing a yellow shirt, which is depicted as yellow-green in Smash Bros 3DS.
Yellow: Appears to have no origin.

 

[Mario & Sonic Guy]

Pink: Probably an attempt to reference Peach's signature color.
Red: Somewhat references Fire Rosalina, with some differences.
Purple: Likely references the color of Rosalina's bedroom.
White: May reference the White Mage or Fire Peach.

 

[Karuzo]

One

Two

Three

Four

 

[Reila]

White - Resembles Fiora's color scheme
Black - Resembles Dunban's color scheme
Brown - Resembles Reyn's color scheme
Blue - Resembles Sharla's color scheme
Lavender - Resembles Melia's color scheme
Yellow - Resembles Riki's color scheme
Underwear Shulk - Swimsuit armor from Zeenobureido



1. Varia Suit from Other M
2. Fusion Suit from Metroid Fusion
3. Gravity Suit from Super Metroid (could be the Varia Suit from Metroid, too)
4. Dark Suit from Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
5. Gravity Suit
6. The recurring green color scheme in SSB
7. Light Suit from Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
8. Based on Dark Samus, the main villain from the Metroid Prime series



1. Pink
2. Daisy's color scheme
3. Pauline's color scheme
4. Palette swap from Mario Golf
5. Same, also based on her outfit from NES Open Tournament Golf
6. Wedding dress from Super Paper Mario... kinda
7. Fire Peach
8. ?

One

Two

Three

Four

Way to ruin the fun

 

[Karuzo]

I'm sorry.

 

[Overtaken]

Back in the 64 days I had no idea that there were 'unlockable' characters, so I liked to use Mario's green alt and pretend I was Luigi, since he was my favorite. Also, didn't know Spamus was a womanz.

I believe purple charizard may be his original shiny, more or less.

 

[BBC7]

8/8 colors have origins
Blue: Original color scheme from Mega Man, which is when he is using his default weapon.
Red: The color scheme he has when using Rush, which happens to be his Up B in Smash 3DS.
Green: The color scheme he has when using Leaf Shield, which happens to be his Down B in Smash 3DS. Could also be the Hyper Bomb which is his Neutral B #2.
Brown: The color scheme he has when using Metal Blade, which happens to be his Neutral B in Smash 3DS.
Cyan: Most likely the color scheme he has when using Air Shooter, which happens to be his U-Air in Smash 3DS.
Lime: The color scheme he has when using Slash Claw, which happens to be his B-Air in Smash 3DS.
Orange: The color scheme he has when using Flame Sword, which happens to be his F-Air in Smash 3DS.
Yellow: The color scheme he has when using Top Spin, which happens to be his Dash Attack. Could also be Thunder Beam which is present in Smash 3DS, although it is used by assist trophy Elec Man.

 

[Sarki Soliloquy]

I originally thought this thread was discussing recolors in video games as a whole. Not what they reference.

I typically use recolors sparingly; there's something awkward about putting them onto a character I associate in a certain color scheme. Yet crossover fighting games make the most incentive to even use a referential recolor. I find myself playing Anna Robin almost exclusively and Breast Cancer Awareness Pit.



Golden Yellow: Thought it was the Three Sacred Treasures at first, but is actually based off of his appearance in comic, Captain N: The Game Master.
Black/Purple: Not-

 

[NeonBurrito]

:

Each of the color swaps are based off 8 of the 16 starting faces in Animal Crossing: City Folk.

:

They are based off of different tunics, transformations, and characters in the Zelda franchise.

Green: Link's standard look in Twilight Princess.
Red: Based off of the Goron Tunic in Ocarina of Time.
Blue: Based off of the Zora Tunic in Ocarina of Time.
Purple: Seemingly based off of either Purple Toon Link or Ravio (from Four Swords and Link Between Worlds respectively).
Yellow: Based off of Pipit from Skyward Sword.
Black: Based off of Dark Link from Zelda II and Ocarina of Time.
Beige: Based off of Link's Skyloft outfit from Skyward Sword.
Gray: Directly based off of Fierce Deity Link from Majora's Mask.

:

Based off of Generation I females in Fire Emblem: Awakening.

 

[TimeSmash]

Kirby's white palette is from the Game Boy and NES games. On the original Game Boy cartridge, Kirby was white!

I suppose one could go visit other places to find out the true origins as well, but let's see what theories we can come up with on our own as well!

 

[LipePereira]

oh this smash wiki post ruins all the fun
anyway, i'll keep trying and finding new crazy theories about them

 

[TimeSmash]

oh this smash wiki post ruins all the fun
anyway, i'll keep trying and finding new crazy theories about them

BUT WHAT IF
it didn't exist.

*GASP*

 

[Khao]

Well, all I know is that these guys are from Pikmin, never played the game so I can't say anything about them

Alph has colors that are based on Brittany and Charlie, down to the hair.

I think everything else is just made up.

Yellow: Based off of Pipit from Skyward Sword.

It's kinda hard for a recolor to be based on something that didn't exist yet. =P (Yellow costume first appeared in Brawl.)

 

[NeonBurrito]

It's kinda hard for a recolor to be based on something that didn't exist yet. =P (Yellow costume first appeared in Brawl.)

It's probably the generic costume that nearly every character has that doesn't have any explanation behind it. At least it has some what of an official source now.

 

[LipePereira]

It's cool to learn about the villager and the pikmin dudes, as well as fire emblem and xenogears guys, as all my knowledge about those games comes from smash lol

about link it is kinda hard to say about what each color represents, but since toon link is a thing, i believe the colors must reference only "realistic" link stuff, but that is a discussion for another day.

and yeah, i think pipit is a valid source material.

I'm thinking about compiling all this info somewhere, what do you guys think?

 

[Raijinken]

Marth's colors:
Default, Red, Green, and Yellow are based on unit colors. Black looks cool. White is based on Leaf from Fire Emblem: Thracia 776, secondary blue is based on Celice from Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War. Blue+Purple is based on Roy.

Ike:
Gold used to be based on the Disciples of Dawn from FE: Radiant Dawn, but now is more of a generic color. Blue is now based on Sigurd from FE: Genealogy of the Holy War. Red looks loosely based on Kieran from FE: Radiant Dawn/Path of Radiance. If that is accurate, Green would be based on Oscar from the same games. White is based on Chrom from FE: Awakening, Black is loosely based on the Black Knight from FE:Radiant Dawn.