Event 51: The Showdown

Event 51 The Showdown
Official description	Giga Bowser, Mewtwo and Ganondorf unite!
Character(s) used	Choose (3 stock)
Opponent(s)	Ganondorf (3 stocks) Mewtwo (3 stocks) Giga Bowser (3 stocks)
Stage(s)	Final Destination
Music	Multi-Man Melee 2
Availability	Unlockable

The Showdown is the 51st and final event match of 51 in Super Smash Bros. Melee, unlocked upon clearing the previous 50 events. This event match gives the player a choice to play as any playable character before the match, like most event matches. The match is a 3 stock match, and there are 3 opponents: Giga Bowser, Ganondorf, and Mewtwo. It takes place on Final Destination, which is unlocked after clearing this event.

Rewards

After beating this event, Final Destination is unlocked as a playable VS. mode stage, as well as its corresponding trophy. A special message is displayed if the event is cleared without losing a stock, saying, "You cleared Event 51, The Showdown, with no falls!"

Trivia

• The Showdown is arguably the "final boss" of Melee, with its unforgiving difficulty, choice of opponents, usage of the Melee theme (which in theory has not been heard in play since Event 1), and status of unlocking Final Destination on completion (which is very likely to be the last non-Past Stage to be unlocked). Indeed, many casual players tend to use this event as a yardstick of skill.
  • Oddly enough, the event's difficulty is not really due to the opponents themselves: they are only levels 5 and 6, they deal slightly less knockback than usual, and Giga Bowser's weight is reduced by 25% (making him actually lighter than Ganondorf). The main source of the difficulty is Giga Bowser's size combined with Team Attack being off, resulting in up to half of the stage being covered in hitboxes most of the time, in addition to the lack of lucky/overpowering items.
• The three characters fought in this match have at least one darkness attack, possibly representing evil.
  • All three characters are antagonists from highly represented franchises; Giga Bowser from the Mario franchise (though not debuting from that series), Ganondorf from the Zelda franchise, and Mewtwo from the Pokémon franchise in Pokémon The First Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back (though Mewtwo arguably counts as an anti-hero).
• The final event match in Brawl, The FINAL, Final Battle, is very similar to this event match, with Giant Mario replacing Giga Bowser and Sonic and Snake succeeding Mewtwo and Ganondorf. That event match is also fought on the corresponding Final Destination.