Palette swap
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A palette swap, also known as a color swap, alternate palette, and alternate color appears in the Super Mario franchise as a form of changing the colors of the player characters. This is often employed to differentiate multiple players playing as the same character, or simply for cosmetic effect.
History
Mario Bros. series
Palette swaps were technically introduced in Mario Bros., since Luigi looks identically to Mario, but is controlled by the second player.
The Game Boy Advance version of Mario Bros. available in the Super Mario Advance series features multiple colored versions of Mario as players 2, 3 and 4. Player 2 wears a green hat and purple overalls (identical to Luigi's Super Mario Advance palette), player 3 wears a yellow hat and tan overalls, and player 4 wears a blue hat and tan overalls. In pre-release screenshots, player 3 wore a purple hat with yellow overalls, while player 4 wore an orange hat with red overalls (resembling Fire Mario's appearance in Super Mario Bros. 3.)[1]
Luigi Bros. features Luigi as both player 1 and 2, with player 1 sporting his modern green and blue palette with a lighter skintone, and player 2 retaining the white and green palette and darker skin from the original Mario Bros..
Mario Golf series
Mario Golf
The Nintendo 64 version of Mario Golf allows the player to customize the color of their player character. All 18 playable characters have four color palettes, including their default appearance.
Super Smash Bros. series
Super Smash Bros.
In Super Smash Bros., all 12 playable characters have at least four different palettes, including their default appearance. Some characters may have more than four colors, which are normally only playable on the blue, green, and red teams. Even so, Yoshi's dark blue and pink colors are not playable but can only be seen when the player faces the Yoshi Team in Classic Mode. The player can press a C Button on the controller to change the color of the character it selects.
Super Smash Bros. Melee
In Super Smash Bros. Melee, all 25 playable characters have between four to six palettes, including their default appearance. Some make up for what colors weren't normally playable in the prequel installment, especially outside of a blue, red, and green team. The player can press the X or Y button to change the colors of the character it selects.
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, all 35 playable characters have between four to six color variants, while Wario has 12. Wario has two forms, his WarioWare form and original form, both of which have six palettes apiece. In addition, Peach has a red color variant that wasn't featured in Melee.
Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U
In Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U, each playable character has at least eight color variants, while Little Mac has 16 alone. Little Mac has two forms, his original form and wire frame form, each having eight palettes apiece. Wario still has two forms, but now has eight color variants instead of 12. Starting in this game, color restrictions in team battles no longer apply, though characters who previously had red/blue/green color variants can still use them.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, all playable characters have exactly eight color variants, including their default appearance. Like with Wario in the previous game, Little Mac has only eight color variants even though he has two forms. Since Daisy is playable in this game, Peach's color variant that made her a doppelganger of Daisy was replaced with a gold color variant.
Mario Tennis series
Mario Tennis
In Mario Tennis for the Nintendo 64, all playable characters have a second palette utilized for player 2 when both players select the same character in Short Game mode. A few of these palettes feature reference to the character's previous appearances, such as Mario's resembling Fire Mario and Bowser's resembling Bowser's Brother.
Mario Tennis Open
In Mario Tennis Open, Yoshi is the only one out of 17 playable characters to have alternate colors, totaling eight variants, including his default. The alternate colors can be unlocked by scanning a certain QR code, and the class type varies by their color.
Mario Tennis Aces
In Mario Tennis Aces, some characters out of the 30 playable have alternate forms. Yoshi has eight color variants, Boo wears a visor in six different colors, Chain Chomp wears a hat in three different colors, Spike wears a headband in three different colors, Koopa and Paratroopa have three color variants, and Shy Guy has seven color variations.
Mario Kart series
Mario Kart: Super Circuit
Mario Kart: Super Circuit features a Single-Pak multiplayer mode, in which only one game cart is required with limited options, including that players could only drive as different-colored Yoshis, with each color designated to a specific player number. Player 1 controls a Green Yoshi, Player 2 controls a Red Yoshi, Player 3 controls a Light Blue Yoshi, and Player 4 controls a Yellow Yoshi.
Mario Kart DS
Mario Kart DS similarly allowed multiplayer with a single game cart and limited options via DS Download Play. While players that had a copy of Mario Kart DS could play as any character and kart they have available, players that used DS Download Play could only play as a Shy Guy, a character otherwise unavailable for Mario Kart DS players. There are eight available colors of Shy Guy (red, green, blue, yellow, pink, light blue, black, and white), but the colors assigned to each of the players using DS Download Play were chosen at random at each multiplayer session.
Mario Kart 7
Like Mario Kart DS, Mario Kart 7 allowed multiplayer with a single cart via Nintendo 3DS Download Play, with players who used Download Play once again being assigned to play as a Shy Guy. This time, though, Shy Guy is available to players that had a copy of Mario Kart 7 as well, and players using DS Download Play were each assigned a different color, being unable to play as the red Shy Guy.
Mario Kart 8 / Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
Mario Kart 8 features downloadable alternate colors for Yoshi and Shy Guy, available when both the The Legend of Zelda × Mario Kart 8 and Animal Crossing × Mario Kart 8 downloadable packs have been purchased, marking the first time that not only alternate colors for certain characters were available on a home console Mario Kart title, but also could be chosen by the player itself instead of being assigned a color by the game. Including the default colors, there are nine available colors for Yoshi and Shy Guy: red, green, blue, yellow, orange, pink, light blue, black, and white.
In Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, all downloadable content from Mario Kart 8 is included, and as such, the color variants for Yoshi and Shy Guy are available from the start. The newly introduced Inkling Girl and Boy characters are also available in three colors each: orange, green and pink for Inkling Girl, and blue, purple and teal for Inkling Boy. Additionally, Wave 4 of the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – Booster Course Pass re-introduced the inclusion of Birdo as a playable character, who, as with Yoshi and Shy Guy, has nine available colors, these being the same ones as Yoshi and Shy Guy.
Mario Kart Tour
Mario Kart Tour includes several color variants for Yoshi, Shy Guy and Birdo, as well as color variants for Toad (Pit Stop) and Koopa (Freerunning). These color variants are considered separate characters each.
Mario Baseball series
Mario Superstar Baseball
In Mario Superstar Baseball, nine of the 32 playable characters have alternate colors, which include Toad, Koopa, Paratroopa, Shy Guy, Magikoopa, Dry Bones, Noki, Pianta, and Hammer Bro. Players can press the L Button to switch the colors of the designated characters who have the other colors. Birdo has alternate colors shown as spectators during gameplay and in the opening cinematic, but her only playable color is her pink and default form itself.
Mario Super Sluggers
In Mario Super Sluggers, 11 of the 41 playable characters have alternate colors, including Yoshi, Toad, Paratroopa, Shy Guy, Magikoopa, Dry Bones, Noki, Pianta, and Kritter. Yoshi is the only team captain to have alternate colors, but still, Birdo's default color in pink is the only playable source as her other colors are unplayable, only seen as spectators during gameplay and the cinematics.
Luigi's Mansion series
In Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon and Luigi's Mansion 3, Luigi has four color variants in the ScareScraper mode. Each player wears green, blue, orange, and pink hats, overalls and Poltergusts, respectively (with orange and pink switching places in Luigi's Mansion 3). All Luigis wear lime-green shirts. In Luigi's Mansion 3, each player's Gooigi will be colored to match their primary color.
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker
In the Nintendo Switch port of Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, per 1.1.0 version update or later, Captain Toad has a purple color variant, where his mushroom cap is purple with white spots. The scarf and shoes are also purple. He is playable in the multiplayer mode except for the Special Episode.
