Starter character

A starter character is a character in the  series who is available for play immediately after turning the game on for the first time; the player does not have to unlock or challenge that character in order to be able to select it (as one must do to select unlockable characters).

Trivia

 * ,, , , and  are the only characters who had unlockable status in at least one of the Super Smash Bros. games to be a starter character in SSF2. While  and  are also starters, they had to be unlocked in the demo version they debuted in.
 * Falco and Mr. Game and Watch are the only characters that have never been starters in the official games.
 * Luigi,, , and Mr. Game & Watch had their availability status swapped from unlockable to starter between his transition from SSF to SSF2.