A guide to Super Smash Bros. Wii U/3DS's many alternate costumes

A Yoshi of a different color

The big draw of the Smash Bros. franchise is a chance to beat the crap out of all your friends using your favorite Nintendo mascots, all of whom are recreated with stunning accuracy. However, because it's also a fighting game, each character needs numerous alternate colors to make it clear who's who in the event that all four players pick the same character. That's why each fighter in Super Smash Bros. for 3DS has at least seven alternate looks on top of their classic appearance, many of which take inspiration from Nintendo's long company history.

So, after playing through a good deal of the 3DS version of the game, we've catalogued all of the alternate looks for a majority of the roster, along with what some of the color choices are likely referencing. Read on to see all the different looks of the game's gargantuan roster, and look forward to this list growing once we get access to the full roster in the final version.

Bowser

Brown/Orange: Could be a reference to Mario midboss Boom Boom.
Yellow/Purple: Possibly referencing his look when poisoned in Super Mario RPG.
Dark Green/Red: Echoes his coloring in the original Super Mario Bros.
Grey/White: Might be a reference to Mario enemy Dry Bones, or the Koopaling called Morton Koopa Jr.
Orange/Pink: Rumored to be based on Bowletta transformation in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga.
Red: Makes his shell look like a red Koopa Troopa's.
Blue: A reference to Bowser's appearance on the Japanese box art for Super Mario Bros

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Captain Falcon

Dark Blue/Silver: --
Yellow/Purple: An almost perfect replica of Blood Falcon's costume, the character's chief rival.
Pink: Looks like F-Zero character Jody Summers.
Green: References his F-Zero colleague, Wild Goose.
Blue: Closer in coloring to his original look in the SNES original.
All Yellow: Perhaps based on F-Zero's Dr. Stewart.
Light Blue: --

Charizard

Darker Red: Inspired by his earlier evolution, Charmeleon.
Green: --
Light Red: --
Light Orange: A tint inspired by Charmander, his pre-evolution.
White: Maybe a tribute to Mewtwo, a Smash veteran that is MIA, or the Game Boy's color palette.
Dark Blue: Charizard's current Shiny coloring.
Purple: Similar to his Shiny coloring in Generation 2 Pokemon games.

Diddy Kong

Yellow: Diddy's coloring when a second person played as the character in Donkey Kong Country's multiplayer.
Pink: A tribute to his girlfriend, Dixie Kong.
Purple: Looks like the second player's alt costume in Donkey Kong Country 2.
Green: --
Blue: Perhaps a reference to Donkey Kong 64's Lanky Kong.
Black: --
Yellow: --

Donkey Kong

Black: --
Red: Could be a reference to the reddish fur DK sported in the art for the original arcade game.
Green: --
Blue: --
White: A look that's original to Smash Bros. that was added to DK lore as the Super Kong power-up in Donkey Kong Country Returns.
Light Brown: --
Pink: Potentially a reference to his sprite in the edutainment title Donkey Kong Jr. Math.

Fox

Black: --
Red: Fox resembles his original box art appearance from the Japanese version.
Green: Could be a deep reference to his appearance in his old concept art.
Orange: --
White: Looks like his late father, James McCloud.
Yellow: --
Purple: A reference to Wolf, Fox's rival that appeared in Brawl, but is cut from this game.

Greninja

Red: --
Pink: Could be a reference to fellow large-tongued Pokemon, Lickitung.
Black: Likely a reference to Greninja's Shiny version.
Light Blue: --
Gray: --
Light Purple: --
Dark Purple: Perhaps it's meant to look like the Pokemon known as Sableye.

Ike

White/Yellow: The colors of the Greil Mercenaries group that Ike leads.
Red: Standard enemy unit coloring from Fire Emblem.
White/Blue: Reference Sigurd, the star of a Japan-only Fire Emblem game.
Green: Fire Emblem's standard coloring for ally units.
Black/Brown: --
Black/Red: Based on Zelgius, the big bad in the original Fire Emblem.
Silver/Blue: A tribute to Chrom, the lead in Fire Emblem: Awakening.

King Dedede

Pink: Possibly a reference to his alt costume in Kirby Air Ride.
Green: Potentially another Kirby Air Ride alt.
Purple: --
White: His belt features icons reminiscent of Kirby 64's menus.
Grey: The drab coloring is a reference to how he looked in his original Game Boy appearance.
Royal Blue: Befitting of his kingly title.
Black: --