Explaining the Fighters of Many Faces Event Tourney (Super Smash Bros. Ultimate)

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - I got one face, but it's a good one. (Actually, almost everyone has one face but different accessories.)

Last weekend (the one with Daylight Saving Time and Marie Day—which made the tourney last one hour less than normal tourneys) there was an event tourney in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. For once in one of these articles about the event tourneys, I'm actually not complaining about the inclusion. It's comprehensive—with one exception that I'll get into. And I was in it. This was the Fighters of Many Faces event tourney, described as:

This time-limited tourney features fighters who change significantly between color variations. They could have a different form or shape, or be someone else entirely!

If you click that link (or scroll down a little further in this article), you'll see an enormous amount of the cast was included in this. Here's what this means: When you switch between the alternate colours/costumes of a character on the selection screen, and if they have any physical model change whatsoever that isn't just a recolour, they got to be in Fighters of Many Faces. Note that physical model changes don't change a character's frame data, hitboxes, or hurtboxes. In other words, it's purely aesthetic and doesn't change gameplay, even if it looks like it ought to.

I've read people think that inclusion in the tournament is themed for characters who can transform in some way. ...But there are lots of characters that don't transform, and some characters who do transform (such as King Bowser Koopa and Ganondorf) who are excluded. So allow me to explain, for every included character, why they're included:

• Mario
• His construction hat is a little bigger, and his wedding outfit hat looks a lot bigger (and isn't overalls).
  
• Link
• Half of his costumes have no hat... half of them have a hat. For some reason, if you have a hat, you don't have gauntlets, but no-hat Link wears them.
  
• Pikachu
• Pikachu's costumes have many hats. ...And Pikachu Libre is a girl.
  
• Jigglypuff
• Jigglypuff has a wide assortment of hats. And one bow.
  
• Ice Climbers
• For half of the variations, Popo is the main climber. For the other half, Nana is the main climber.
  
• Pichu
• Like Pikachu, Pichu wears many accessories. One is also notch-eared.
  
• Young Link
• I don't know how this is justified. Young Link's last costume is Dark Young Link, but that's still a recolour. Do they count Dark Young Link's lack of pupils to be a significant model change?
  
• Meta Knight
• Galacta Knight has a different mask, and Dark Meta Knight has a big chip in his mask.
  
• Zero Suit Samus
• Two of her costumes are shorts, which is much more than just a recolour.
  
• Wario
• Half of his costumes are inspired by WarioWare (biker outfit) while the other half are inspired by Wario Land (with overalls)
  
• Ike
• Half of his costumes are younger Ike from Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, while the other half are older, buffer Ike from Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn. They have slightly different voiceovers.
  
• Pokémon Trainer
• Half are Red (boy), half are Leaf (girl).
  
• Sonic
• His glove cuffs are different between costumes. For example, one is all gem stone-y, another are all glowing like he's at a rave.
  
• Olimar
• Olimar shares representation with Alph, who is a distinctly different person.
  
• Toon Link
• Like Young Link, Toon Link is apparently here due to Dark Toon Link. Unlike Dark Young Link, Dark Toon Link shares his lack of irises with regular Toon Link, so he really has no justification for being here since it's just a recolour.
  
• Villager
• Half of the Villagers are boys while the other half are girls. They also have varying different hairstyles.
  
• Wii Fit Trainer
• Half of the Wii Fit Trainers are women, and the other half are men.
  
• Little Mac
• One of Little Mac's costumes has a pink hoodie, one of them he's a wireframe, and the last one is a wireframe wearing a hoodie!
  
• PAC-MAN
• Uh... some of his shoes have a different coloured band around them. One of his costumes he has oven mitts on.
  
• Robin
• Half the Robin are male and the other half are female.
  
• Shulk
• Shulk takes his clothes off for one of the outfits.
  
• Bowser Jr.
• I'm a completely different person than Bowser Jr. ...That also extends to Larry Koopa, Iggy Koopa, Lemmy Koopa, Roy Koopa, Wendy O. Koopa, and Morton Koopa Jr. We all look completely different.
  
• Cloud
• Half of Clouds costumes feature him making an Advent Children pose with a different wardrobe than the other half. The Advent Children Clouds also have a different Final Smash (Omnislash Ver. 5 vs. Omnislash).
  
• Corrin
• Half the Corrin are guys, half the Corrin are girls. All of the Corrin are losers, but that's another topic.
  
• Bayonetta
• Half of Bayonetta's costumes have long hair and the other half have short hair. ...Among other differences.
  
• Inkling
• Not only are half the Inkling masculine and the other half are feminine, but among those they have different headwear, shirts, and shoes.
  
• Ridley
• Two of the Ridley are Meta or Mecha Ridley.
  
• Isabelle
• Isabelle is better dressed for the winter in half of her outfits.
  
• Joker
• In his last two costumes, Joker reveals himself to be Ren Amamiya by dropping his disguise.
  
• Hero
• There are four represented Heroes: Erdrick from Dragon Quest III, Solo from Dragon Quest IV, Eight from Dragon Quest VIII, and the default Luminary from Dragon Quest XI.
  
• Byleth
• Half the Byleth have a masculine identity and the other half have a feminine identity
  
• Steve
• Three of them are Steve, three of them are Alex, one is a Zombie, and another is Enderman. All treated as different people...or...things.
  
• Sephiroth
• Sephiroth removes his jacket for two of his (lack of) costumes, which also has a different official artwork altogether.
  
• Pyra/Mythra
• I don't know. Pyra and Mythra feature at the centre of the Fighters of Many Faces tournament, but they themselves don't change significantly (it's all recolours with no model changes), unless you count being a transformation character to begin with being a model change.
  
• Mii Brawler
• Miis can change their model dramatically, based on face, hat, and outfit
  
• Mii Swordfighter
• Miis can change their model dramatically, based on face, hat, and outfit (including what the sword looks like)
  
• Mii Gunner
• Miis can change their model dramatically, based on face, hat, and outfit

The omission? Piranha Plant. Piranha Plant's base has a slight model change from pot to warp pipe depending on the costume. Here's an overlay:

Pots have dirt and an uneven bottom. Pipes are the background layer.
Clearly a significant model change and not just a recolour. So where is Piranha Plant?

Piranha Plant aside, I figured I'd win the Fighters of Many Faces tournament at least twice.

Same face, different look, same outcome!
(...Well, it's as close to the same face as I can get.)
(Still better than those Guzma Miis that were supposed to be me from the pre-Switch days.)

There's one more thing to explain about Fighters of Many Faces: The actual name. It comes from the Boxing Ring titles for Mii Brawler, Mii Gunner, and Mii Swordfighter, which are one of “The [Brawler, Gunner, or Swordfighter] of Many Faces.” Collectively, the Miis are known as Mii Fighters, so if you use the collective name, it'd be The Fighters of Many Faces. And that's... the name of the event tourney! It's all down to the super-customisable Miis!

How can I have two forms at once? Magic.

Ludwig hopes this article was helpful if you were wondering about the Fighters of Many Faces event tourney. ...Or if you weren't wondering about it at all, then maybe you... appreciate the article in some way anyway.


The previous event tourney Ludwig wrote about only allowed characters with enough projectiles, and that one had ridiculous omissions.
The next event tourney KoopaTV wrote an article about is for characters born in the 2010s.