Sudden Death
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Sudden Death occurs when a VS. mode match ends in a tie. All players are given 300% damage, as opposed to zero, making them easy to KO; if items are on, then they do not spawn during a Sudden Death, with the exception of the original game.
If no characters are KO'd after roughly twenty seconds, Bob-ombs will begin to fall from the sky; these Bob-ombs, however, immediately explode when they make contact with players or the ground, thereby speeding up a match. If players dawdle, they can get KO'd by these Bob-ombs while an opponent is sent flying away by a screen or star KO, thereby losing the match.
A mode that replicates Sudden Death can be accessed via the Special Melee or Brawl mode "Super Sudden Death". This mode, however, lacks the falling Bob-ombs.
Conditions to occur
In Time battles, Sudden Death occurs when some characters have the same final score at the end of the match. In Coin Battle, players with the same amount of coins will fight in a Sudden Death battle; the same applies to Bonus, where players with the same final score will square off. Sudden Death almost never occurs in a stock match (barring a timed Stock Match), though it is possible if all characters lose their last life on the same frame. Kirbycide and other Sacrificial KOs can easily create this situation in matches with two players remaining, and having all characters on a horizontal platform that hits the bottom blast line can also cause it with any number of players.
Ties in Sudden Death
If all characters are KO'd at the same time in Sudden Death, a second Sudden Death will not be performed; rather, the game ends. The player who wins is chosen via different methods. In the original game, the winner would be the character with the highest player number, while in Melee, the player with the lowest player number will win in the case of ties; for instance, if Player 1 and Player 2 tie in Sudden Death, then Player 1 will win in Melee, yet Player 2 would win in SSB64. As both players must be KO'd on the same frame, and the games run at 60 frames, then the chances of this occurring are slim, and any advantage given to lower player numbers is decidedly negligible. Tests in Brawl Sudden Death mode have shown that the player who wins the match is decided at random.
In tournament
In tournaments, should Sudden Death occur, it is ignored, with the winner being decided by other factors. Sudden Death is not played out in tournaments as there is no time limit, and the safest, most effective strategy is to plank the ledge (where the Bob-ombs will not hit the player). As such, a Sudden Death between two competent players playing to win can feasibly go on forever. Besides this gameplay issue, the majority of smashers believe the concept of Sudden Death is not an appropriate way to resolve ties in tournament play, for various reasons. One such reason is that it can allow a player who was clearly losing before time ran out (such as being behind the other player by over 100% in damage) to now win just by being able to land the first hit (so the player who should have lost ends up winning). Another reason is the huge disproportional advantage that faster characters and characters with sufficiently strong projectiles have in Sudden Death, while stronger and heavier characters have some of their primary advantages under standard gameplay nullified (it can be unfeasible for many of the cast to ever win in Sudden Death against the aforementioned favored characters at a high level of play). Simply, Sudden Death is seen as far too imbalanced to be used to resolve ties in tournaments.
