Sudden Death

For the Special Mode, see Super Sudden Death.

Sudden Death in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U.

Sudden Death occurs when any VS. mode match ends in a tie. When one occurs, the words "Sudden Death" will appear on-screen and the match will restart with only the players involved in the tie, all of whom will be given one stock and 300% damage as opposed to 0%, making them very easy to KO in a single hit. In effect, this makes it so the first player to land any hit on their opponent(s) wins the tiebreaker and therefore the original match. If items are on, then they will not spawn during Sudden Death, with the exception of the original game. Usually, the crowd will be silent during Sudden Death, but this is not the case in SSB4.

If no one has won after roughly twenty seconds, Bob-ombs will begin to randomly fall from the sky in the stage; unlike normal, these Bob-ombs immediately explode when they make contact with players or the ground, thereby speeding up the match. As all players have 300% damage, getting hit by a Bob-omb will essentially guarantee a KO instantly. It is possible for a falling Bob-omb to instantly KO a player off a side blast line while the other player is currently being sent flying by a Screen or Star KO, causing the latter player to win the match in the middle of their KO animation. This has been fixed in the final release of SSB4, as Star and Screen KOs do not happen in Sudden Death, though they still happened in early versions.

A mode that replicates Sudden Death can be accessed via the Special Melee or Special Brawl mode "Super Sudden Death". This mode, however, simply sets all players' damage to 300% and lacks the falling Bob-ombs or the silent crowd (who will cheer or make noise as usual).

In SSB4's Tourney mode, Sudden Death does not occur in Regular Tourneys, and can be disabled in player-made Tourneys as well. If a tie occurs when Sudden Death is disabled, victory is awarded to the player who dealt the most damage throughout the match.

Conditions to occur

In Time matches, Sudden Death occurs when at least two characters have the same final score at the end of the match; this also applies to Team Battles. In Coin Battles, players with the same amount of coins will fight in a Sudden Death battle; the same applies to Bonus, where players with the same total score will square off. Sudden Death can occur in a Stock match if it is timed and multiple players have the same amount of stocks when time runs out. In an untimed Stock match, Sudden Death almost never occurs, though it is possible if all remaining characters lose their last stock on the same frame. Kirbycide and other Sacrificial KOs can create this situation in matches with two players remaining, and having all characters on a falling horizontal platform that hits the bottom blast line can cause it with any number of players.

Ties in Sudden Death

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If a tie occurs within Sudden Death itself (if all remaining characters in Sudden Death are KO'd on the same frame), a second Sudden Death won't occur; rather, the match will end and one character will be chosen as the winner. In the first two Smash games, this is based on port priority: in the original game, the winner will be the character with the highest player number, while in Melee, the winner will be the character with the lowest player number; for instance, if Player 1 and Player 2 tie in Sudden Death, then Player 1 would win in Melee while Player 2 would win in Smash 64. As both players must be KO'd on the same frame and the games run at 60 frames per second, the chances of this occurring are slim, and any advantage given to certain player numbers compared to others is decidedly negligible, especially since Sudden Death is never used in competitive play (see below). In Brawl, tests have shown that the player who wins the match is decided at random. In Smash 4, the winner is decided by the most damage dealt. The player who deals the most damage is the winner, the player who deals the second-most damage gets 2nd place and so on.^{[citation needed]}

In competitive play

In tournaments, should Sudden Death occur, it is ignored, with the winner being decided by other factors. This is because of three main reasons:

1. As a Sudden Death match is always untimed, and with the raining Bob-ombs, camping and planking become dominant strategies. This results in the match going on for an indefinite length of time, as each player simply stalls and waits for their opponent to make a mistake.
2. Character balance is significantly skewed. In an environment where almost any attack can KO, frail characters with fast attacks have a massive advantage over characters whose main advantage is normally in power or survivability. For example, Sonic or Pit may be able to quickly strike their opponent before they can react, whereas Bowser or Ganondorf will have major problems trying to hit their opponent before they themselves are hit.
3. As Sudden Death in (timed) Stock matches is based solely on the flat number of stocks remaining, it becomes a viable strategy for a player who is tied in stocks with their opponent but far behind in damage to intentionally stall out the clock until Sudden Death occurs, thus eliminating the percentage difference and giving themselves a chance to win within seconds. Players generally agree this is an unfair way to stage a comeback, allowing someone who is being clearly outplayed to win a match with a single blow. An infamous example of this occurring was in the grand finals set between ZeRo and Hungrybox at the Super Smash Bros. Invitational; the Invitational, while having standard competitive rules for its grand finals match, used Sudden Death to resolve a stock tie. ZeRo, being aware of this, intentionally camped out and avoided confrontation at the end of the match when Hungrybox took a significant percent lead on their last stock. With Hungrybox playing Kirby against ZeRo's much more agile Zero Suit Samus, he was unable to land a finishing blow before time ran out despite his significant percent lead, leading to Sudden Death where ZeRo then won by just being able to land a quick hit despite clearly losing the match beforehand.

As a result of being too imbalanced to be used to resolve ties, should Sudden Death occur in a tournament, the winner is declared by some other criteria. In the most common case of the clock expiring while both players are tied in remaining stock, the player with the lower damage percentage wins. In the rare event of both players having equal stock and damage, or if both players are simultaneously KO'd (on the same frame) on their last stock, the winner is determined through a one-stock rematch with the same characters on the same stage. If both players are KO'd at the same time due to a sacrificial KO, tournaments often have a rule that declares the initiator the winner, instead of holding a one-stock rematch.

Gallery

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  The Sudden Death screen in Smash 64.

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  The Sudden Death screen in Melee.

• Sudden death.PNG

  The Sudden Death screen in Brawl.

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  The Sudden Death screen in Smash 3DS.

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  The Sudden Death screen in Smash Wii U.

Trivia

• Oddly, ties will not result in Sudden Death in Melee if the game is run in debug mode.
• Melee is the only game in which the "Sudden Death" text is not rendered in all caps.
• In the original Super Smash Bros., if a player uses hacks to play as Master Hand and Sudden Death occurs, he will start with 0 HP instead of 300 HP and won't be able to attack.
• The Bob-ombs that appear in Sudden Death will always appear over the stage from random points below the ceiling. Thus if a character(s) can suspend themselves above the upper blast line (for example, by using a ladder), then they can avoid the Bob-ombs indefinitely.
  • Also, King Dedede and Kirby can survive the Bob-ombs indefinitely even after 999% by using their custom moves Armored Jet Hammer and Giant Hammer, as both provide indefinite Super Armor.
• In Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS, in a timed match with no score display, the player can actually determine if the match will go into Sudden Death or not. If it is, the different players's percent icons stay on the bottom screen; if not, they fade away.
• With proper timing, it is possible to catch the falling Bob-ombs by air-dodging.