Judge

Judge (, Judge) (known as Judgment in Melee) is Mr. Game & Watch's side special move. Mr. Game & Watch will attack with his hammer and hold up a digital display with a random number on it when used.

In all of the games Mr. Game & Watch has appeared in leading up to Ultimate, he retained his normal sprite when using the move. In Ultimate, his appearance was changed to resemble the characters in the Judge game from the Game & Watch series.

Numbers and their effects
The number that can display as the move is used is a random number from 1 to 9, like in the original game. In order to add variance, in Melee and Brawl, Mr. Game & Watch cannot get a number that was used in either of the two previous uses of the move, meaning each valid number has a 1 in 7 chance of appearing. For example, getting a 5 means that the next two uses of Judge cannot result in a 5. At the start of a match and after each respawn, the previous two uses are set to 1 and 2, meaning that the first use of Judge in a match cannot be a 1, and the first two uses cannot be a 2.

In Super Smash Bros. 4, this behavior is removed, allowing any number to always have a 1 in 9 chance of appearing and making it possible to get a number any number of times in a row. Getting a 1 in the All-Star Mode's Waiting Room does not cause recoil damage. In addition, in the Home-Run Contest and Target Blast modes, the move always comes up as 6, removing randomness but making it impossible for the player to use 9 to their advantage.

In Ultimate, it is once again impossible to get the same number twice in a row, but it is still possible to get the same number every other roll. In addition, if the player is the lowest-ranked player in a match (has fewer stocks or points than any other player), there is a 50% chance of getting a 9 in the last 5 seconds of the match, though this will not bypass the inability to get the same number twice in a row. If this 50% check doesn't succeed, the standard roll will occur, which may result in a 9 regardless, making the effective likelihood of getting a 9 roughly 56%.

The effects associated with these numbers are as follows:

Customization
Special Move customization was added in Super Smash Bros. 4. These are the variations:


 * 1) Judge: Default.
 * 2) Extreme Judge: The only numbers picked are 1 and 9, with more normalized effects for each. 1 deals 5% damage to both Mr. Game & Watch and the opponent, while 9 only deals 23% damage and less (though still significant) knockback. The odds of getting a 9 are 1 in 5 (20%). If the move is used in one of the modes that forces the number to always be 6, it has the same effects as the default version of the move.
 * 3) Chain Judge: None of the numbers have different effects on the opponent. Instead, the move hits several times, corresponding with the chosen number. In addition, some numbers are more common than others, as opposed to the default move's equal probability for all numbers.

Spirit
Judge also appears as an Ace-class support spirit.

In Adventure Mode: World of Light, Judge is presumably one of the countless spirits captured by Galeem during his takeover of the universe. After Galeem's defeat, Dharkon takes control of Galeem's spirits, including Judge. Judge's spirit is located in the northern section of The Light Realm.

Judge uses an army of puppet fighters and is fought on the Flat Zone X stage. During the battle, Mr. Game & Watch favors Judge, which serves as his side special.

Origin
Judge is a game that can be played with two players. Two Game & Watch characters have signboards and hammers. When a round starts, each player's sign displays a random number from 1 to 9. The point of the game is for the player with the higher number to hit their opponent on the head with their hammer, while the player with the lower number tries to dodge said hit. If the numbers are equal, the player can either hit or dodge. This was translated in Smash to where the higher the number, the stronger or better the attack.

Trivia

 * In Ultimate, during the startup of Judge, numbers will rapidly flash up on the sign before stopping on the selected number. However the numbers that flash up are not completely random, as the numbers from 1-9 are flashed in a random order for the first 9 frames of the animation, and then the numbers are cycled through in the same order for the remainder of the startup. This does not affect how the final number is selected.
 * If one of the Stadium games appears on a ticket in Master Orders, custom moves can be used there, something that is not normally possible. However if Extreme Judge is used, it will be changed to the standard variation and still land on a 6. It is the only custom move to do this.
 * Judge is the only multiplayer Game & Watch game to be represented in Mr. Game & Watch's moveset.
 * Judge is the only one of Mr. Game & Watch's special moves to not be represented in Flat Zone 2 and Flat Zone X.
 * In the original Game & Watch game, the number 7 displays with the F segment lit (i.e. with a hook at the top left); it has a different rendition without the F segment in Smash.