Sudden Death
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.
This mode can be instantly accessed via the Special Melee or Brawl mode "Super Sudden Death". This mode, however, lacks the falling Bob-ombs. It can also be accessed by turning on Handicap and changing the damage percentage to 300%.
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.
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 SSB. 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.
