Super Smash Bros. Cheat Codes & Secrets
Complete collection of cheat codes, passwords, unlockables, and hidden secrets for Super Smash Bros. (1999).
Secret Characters
Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 64 ships with 8 playable characters. Four additional fighters are locked behind in-game achievements — there are no button codes to skip these requirements. After meeting each condition, the challenger appears and you must defeat them in a match to add them to the roster.
| Character | Unlock Condition | Match Stage |
|---|---|---|
| Captain Falcon | Complete 1P Classic Mode in under 20 minutes (any character, any difficulty) | Hyrule Castle |
| Jigglypuff | Complete 1P Classic Mode with any character on any difficulty | Saffron City |
| Luigi | Complete Break the Targets and Board the Platforms bonus stages with all 8 original characters | Princess Peach’s Castle |
| Ness | Complete 1P Classic Mode on Normal difficulty or higher with exactly 3 stock and no continues | Onett |
Tips for unlocking efficiently:
- For Captain Falcon, set difficulty to Very Easy and rush through all matches — forfeit stock on stages you’re dominating to skip to the next opponent faster, but watch your timer.
- For Ness, avoid using any continues even if you lose all stocks. A single continue disqualifies the run. Stock up and play conservatively.
- For Luigi, you must clear both bonus stages for every starting character — Fox and Pikachu’s Board the Platforms are notably easier than Link’s or Samus’s.
Hidden Stage: Mushroom Kingdom
| Stage | Unlock Condition |
|---|---|
| Mushroom Kingdom | Complete Break the Targets and Board the Platforms with all 8 original characters |
This is the same prerequisite as unlocking Luigi. Once met, Mushroom Kingdom appears in Versus Mode stage select. The stage features walk-off blastlines on both sides and Piranha Plants in the pipes — opponents knocked sideways die instantly, making it ideal for horizontal kill moves like Falcon Punch or DK’s F-Smash.
Bonus Stages & 1P Mode Secrets
The 1P Classic Mode contains several hidden segments beyond the standard character fights:
| Segment | Trigger | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Giant Donkey Kong | Appears after Stage 1 on all difficulties | Must KO Giant DK to continue; stock loss counts |
| Metal Mario | Appears late in the 1P ladder | Damage dealt to Metal Mario is reduced; grab-and-throw tactics are most effective |
| Fighting Polygon Team | Final bonus wave before Master Hand | 30 polygon fighters; area-of-effect moves (Kirby’s Final Cutter, Pikachu’s Thunder) clear groups quickly |
| Master Hand | Final boss on all difficulties | Attacks track your position; dodge toward the wrist for safer windows |
On Very Hard difficulty, Master Hand has significantly increased health and launches more aggressive attack strings.
Combat Exploits & Techniques
These are legitimate in-game techniques that function similarly to cheats in competitive play:
| Technique | Character | Input | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ledge Stall | All | Grab ledge, drop (Down on stick), re-grab | Grants brief invincibility frames; loop to stall for timeout wins |
| Ness PK Thunder Boost | Ness | B (off-stage), guide PK Thunder into Ness | Propels Ness at high speed for recovery; sweetspot angle sends him up and inward |
| DK Ground Slap Punish | Donkey Kong | Shielding + B near grounded opponent | Down-B ground slap hits opponents through their shield if spaced correctly |
| Samus Grapple Cancel | Samus | Z mid-air (tether recovery) | Grapple beam snaps to ledge from large distances; cancel tether by pressing Z again on stage |
| Kirby Copy Bait | Kirby | Inhale (B) → release without copy | Forces opponent to break free, giving Kirby frame advantage for a follow-up |
| Fox Shine Spike | Fox | Down-B near edge | Reflector (Shine) sends opponents at a downward angle if they are at the ledge lip; can KO offstage |
| Yoshi Double Jump Cancel | Yoshi | Jump → immediately attack during double jump | Yoshi’s double jump has no aerial apex drift; attacking cancels the jump animation and retains momentum |
Projectile Camping on Hyrule Castle: Link’s Bow (Side-B), Boomerang (Side-B variant), and Bomb (Down-B) can be cycled indefinitely from the upper castle battlements. Opponents approaching from below have no clean answer if Link keeps retreating — a staple stalling strategy.
Known Glitches & Beneficial Bugs
| Glitch | How to Trigger | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Kirby Hat Retention | Inhale a character, take a star KO while swallowing, then respawn | Kirby retains the copied hat visual and special move after a KO death when triggered at specific timing |
| Pikachu Thunder Freeze (emulator-adjacent) | Use Thunder (Down-B) at the exact frame a platform disappears on Dream Land | On original hardware this causes a brief pause; on some emulators it can freeze the match |
| Self-Destruct Score Bug | Use a move that KOs yourself and the opponent simultaneously | The KO is credited to the stock lost, not the last-hit opponent — in time matches this can swing score by 2 points unexpectedly |
| Jigglypuff Rest Lock | Rest (Down-B) connects while opponent is tumbling near a wall | Opponent bounces off wall back into Jigglypuff’s hitbox; Rest’s sleep effect re-triggers once at very high percent |
| Polygon Clipping | On Hyrule Castle, attack the Fighting Polygons as they spawn through the top blast zone edge | Polygons that spawn while a hitbox occupies the boundary die instantly without awarding KO credit |
Easter Eggs & Developer Secrets
Master Hand’s Invisible Cursor: On Hyrule Castle during the 1P final boss fight, the Master Hand fight cutscene can be interrupted at specific timing so the hand’s animations play without the pre-fight zoom. During this window the game briefly renders a controller cursor overlay — the same cursor that appears in the debug/development build — visible for 1-2 frames before being hidden.
Mushroom Kingdom Warp Pipes: The two pipes on the Mushroom Kingdom stage are non-functional as warp zones (unlike source material), but Piranah Plants emerge at fixed 12-second intervals regardless of player proximity — the same timer rhythm used in the original Super Mario Bros. world 1-2.
Character-Specific 1P Endings: Each of the 12 characters has a unique credit illustration and text blurb. Luigi’s ending text references his constant overshadowing by Mario — a fourth-wall acknowledgment that he was hidden from the main roster.
Stage BGM Origins:
- Hyrule Castle plays an original remix of the Zelda overworld theme not released on any soundtrack until much later
- The Metal Mario fight uses a distorted version of the Koopa theme from Super Mario Bros. — the reverb is applied in-engine, not baked into the audio file, making it one of the earliest examples of real-time audio processing on N64 party titles
Sound Test
The Sound Test is accessible from the Options menu on the title screen. All music tracks and sound effects are listed numerically. No unlock conditions are required — it is available from the first boot.
| Track Range | Content |
|---|---|
| 01–12 | Stage BGM tracks (one per stage plus title) |
| 13–26 | Character victory fanfares |
| 27–50 | Sound effects (attacks, UI, announcer clips) |
The announcer voice clips for all 12 characters — including the 4 secret characters — are present in the Sound Test from the start, which reveals the hidden roster before any unlocks are achieved.