Kirby

Kirby is the main protagonist of the eponymous Kirby franchise. He is a round, pink character who has the ability to inhale enemies and objects like a vacuum. For certain enemies, if Kirby swallows them, he can gain a Copy Ability, which allows him to inherit the enemy's main traits. In the Super Smash Bros. series, Kirby has been a playable fighter in every installment since the first game, Super Smash Bros., and is a starter character in each of them. Kirby's battle entrance involves him crashing into the stage via a Warp Star.

Super Smash Bros.
In Super Smash Bros., Kirby is the second lightest fighter behind Jigglypuff. Like it, though unlike most fighters, Kirby has five jumps, referencing his ability to hover in the Kirby games. In the Data menu, Kirby's Characters profile states that he is eight inches (20 centimeters) tall.

Super Smash Bros. Melee
In Super Smash Bros. Melee, Kirby returns as a playable fighter. Starting with this game, Kirby has a forward special move titled Hammer. Like the other fighters, Kirby is featured within several different trophies, especially because a few of his Copy Ability transformations have their own trophies (e.g. Ball and Fighter).

In Adventure mode, Kirby appears in Stage 5: Green Greens. The player's fighter must battle 18 Kirbys, most of them each having a Copy Ability from a different character. If every Kirby is defeated in under 30 seconds, Giant Kirby appears on the stage as an additional opponent to fight.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl
In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Kirby once again appears as a playable fighter, and he plays a significant role in the game's adventure mode, The Subspace Emissary. Two of Kirby's main enemies from the Kirby franchise, King Dedede and Meta Knight, make their debut as playable fighters.

Kirby's moveset has been somewhat changed; his Burning ability dash attack in Super Smash Bros. Melee has been replaced with a spinning kick similar to the Break Spin attack used by the Yo-Yo ability in Kirby Super Star, and the aerial Hammer swings horizontally rather than vertically. Kirby's Final Smash attack is called Cook Kirby, based on the Cook ability, which draws in everything nearby for Kirby to cook it in a pot and release items while damaging his opponents.

Stage 5 of Classic Mode always features Kirby characters, so Kirby has a chance of appearing in it, either as an enemy or as a partner. Stage 15 of All-Star Mode is also based around Kirby characters.

The Subspace Emissary
At the start of The Subspace Emissary, during the opening cutscene, a trophy of Mario and Kirby are thrown into the Midair Stadium, where they come to life and spar. The player can decide to play as either Mario or Kirby. After the battle, the victor revives the fallen loser, and the two fighters celebrate and happily wave to the crowd. Suddenly, dark clouds fill the sky and the Halberd appears. It releases many Shadow Bugs into the stadium, which then combine to form several Primids. Peach and Zelda, who were watching their match, both come to their aid. After the battle, the Ancient Minister appears and drops a giant Subspace Bomb into the stadium. Two R.O.B.s appear and arm the bomb as the Ancient Minister flies back to the retreating Halberd. As Mario runs to stop the bomb, he, Kirby, and the two princesses hear a loud noise behind them. A cannonball is fired at Mario from a cloud of smoke and he is blasted out of the stadium. As Kirby watches Mario fly into the distance, Peach and Daisy are caged by Petey Piranha. Kirby then faces off against Petey, but can only save one princess (chosen by the player). Wario appears just as Kirby defeats Petey, carrying a giant gun called the Dark Cannon, which he uses to turn the princess Kirby didn't save into a trophy. He then escapes with the trophy, and as Kirby and the remaining princess begin to chase after him, Kirby sees that the Subspace Bomb is about to explode. As it does, they flee the Midair Stadium via a Warp Star. As they are flying away, the Halberd chases after them and they fall off the Warp Star onto the Halberd. Soon after, an Arwing (the pilot later revealed to be Fox) is hit by the Halberd's claw. It flies past Kirby and the rescued princess, blowing them off of the Halberd.

Later, on the ground, Kirby sees something and runs ahead, leaving the rescued princess behind and vulnerable to Bowser, who turns her into a trophy with his Dark Cannon, and a dark clone of Bowser copies her form. The clone attempts to shoot at a pair of characters (Mario and Pit if Kirby saved Peach or Link and Yoshi if he saved Zelda) with a Dark Cannon, but Link/Pit (Link if Kirby saved Peach, or Pit if Kirby saved Zelda) stops her by cutting the Dark Cannon in half. Link/Pit then fight and defeat the cloned princess with his partner, Yoshi/Mario, turning her into a trophy. Upon seeing their fallen princess as they pass, Mario/Link attacks Link/Mario, but he and Pit/Yoshi are defeated. Mario and Pit/Link and Yoshi, now in trophy form, are grabbed by the arm of a Cargo driven by King Dedede, which also has Zelda/Peach, Luigi, and Ness in their trophy forms. Suddenly, Kirby appears from behind, having been following Dedede, and uses Final Cutter to sever the arm and revives Mario and Pit/Link and Yoshi. When Dedede attempts to escape, Pit/Link fires an arrow at the vehicle, and the five pursue Dedede to save their friends.

Eventually, they find a cave that Dedede's Cargo is parked by, and after getting through, they find Castle Dedede. Upon exploring his castle, which was already invaded by Bowser, they see a hole in the wall and decide to enter it. They then find Bowser on a cliff, who escapes to the Halberd after avoiding Mario and Pit's attacks. After the scuffle, however, Kirby finds a mysterious brooch resembling King Dedede that fell off Zelda/Peach's trophy.

Some time after that, Kirby and the others find the Ancient Minister in a desert. Despite their best efforts against him and his R.O.B.s, the Subspace Bomb still explodes, and they narrowly escape the blast with Kirby flying away on his Warp Star as Link and Pit cling on to either side. Kirby and the others then aid Marth, Ike, Lucas, the Ice Climbers, and the Pokémon Trainer in warding off the Subspace Army troops that had come to face them on a mountain.

After defeating them, the Falcon Flyer and the Halberd (now under Meta Knight's control) land on the mountain, the characters inside the ships join Kirby and the others. The Subspace Gunship, commanded by Bowser and Ganondorf, appears out of Subspace, and fires a Subspace beam into the distance. The Halberd appears, with all the heroes on board, but the Subspace Gunship soon destroys it. Fortunately, the heroes continue toward the Subspace Gunship in an Arwing, the Falcon Flyer, Samus's Gunship, and the Hocotate Ship. Kirby then appears on the Dragoon and flies through the Subspace Gunship, destroying it. Ganondorf and Bowser retreat into Subspace and Kirby and the rest follow.

When they confront Tabuu, who had already turned Ganondorf into a trophy (after he turned Bowser into a trophy in an act of betrayal) and defeated Master Hand, he unleashes an attack that turns everyone, including Kirby, into a trophy. However, Kirby is revived by Dedede's brooch, which he had eaten upon finding it earlier, which was set to revive a fallen character after a set amount of time. After going through Subspace alone and reviving some of the fighters along the way, Kirby finds Ganondorf's trophy. Before he can do anything, Bowser appears and furiously attacks Ganondorf's trophy in an act of revenge for turning him into a trophy earlier, tossing it aside and stomping away. King Dedede then tackles Kirby and hugs him before pointing to Tabuu, dragging Kirby along so they can confront him. Kirby then helps the others defeat Tabuu and save the world from Subspace.

Kirby has one of the most important roles in The Subspace Emissary, as he revives the second half of the fighters after they are turned into trophies by Tabuu in Subspace; Luigi, Ness and King Dedede were responsible for reviving the first half. Kirby is also the most-used character story-wise, likely to give credit to Masahiro Sakurai, Kirby and Super Smash Bros.'s creator.

Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U
In Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, Kirby's moveset has been changed a bit. His Hammer is replaced with Hammer Flip, making it more similar to the move in Kirby Super Star. His Final Smash was changed to Ultra Sword, a Super Ability from Kirby's Return to Dream Land. Kirby's standard attack also gains a finisher in Smash Punch, an attack from the Fighter ability. Kirby has improved mobility, but his attacks' damage output and knockback are decreased, while some of his moves are slower.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Kirby's moveset has received some changes once more. His dash attack was reverted to his Burning ability tackle from Super Smash Bros. Melee. Kirby's down tilt is called Squish Kick. Kirby has higher mobility, higher ability to knock opponents back and damage in some of his attacks, reduced short hop timing and landing lag in his aerial attacks, and reduced startup or ending lag in some of his attacks.

In World of Light, Kirby is the initial playable character and protagonist, as he is the only character to survive an attack from Galeem, who has turned everyone in the world into spirits and transports them to the World of Light, leaving Kirby to rescue them. According to Masahiro Sakurai, the presence of puppet fighters from Kirby in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's Spirits modes is due to Galeem managing to analyze Kirby throughout the story.

Classic Mode route
At the start of rounds 1-6, multiple foods appear on the stage. By completing Kirby's Classic Mode route, it is possible to unlock Ness, Jigglypuff, Pac-Man, Zelda, Robin, Corrin, Lucas, or Palutena. Kirby's Classic Mode route pits him against characters known for eating.