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 (ホントの最終決戦, REAL Final Battle) is the 51st and final event match of the 51 event matches 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. All are villains from highly represented franchises and share a darkness attack; Giga Bowser from the Super Smash Bros. franchise, being a transformation of a villain from the Mario franchise, Ganondorf from the Zelda franchise, and Mewtwo from the Pokémon franchise in Pokémon The First Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back. The match takes place on Final Destination, which is unlocked after clearing this event.
Despite being the final event and arguably the most difficult under normal circumstances, the opponents themselves are weaker than usual; Ganondorf and Mewtwo are only level 5, while Giga Bowser is level 6 (and Giga Bowser's AI almost never shields). Additionally, they all deal decreased knockback (only a slight 5% decrease for Ganondorf and Mewtwo, but a large 35% decrease for Giga Bowser), and Giga Bowser sustains 50% more knockback (despite the massive increase in knockback sustained, Giga Bowser still sustains less knockback than every character in game, just now slightly less than the heaviest characters). The event's difficulty comes from the player simply being overwhelmed, by the opponents controlling most of the stage, opposing hitboxes covering a large amount of the stage most of the time, and the player sustaining massive damage whenever caught by any of the opponents. Additionally, Giga Bowser's massive size gives him massive reach, enough to cover nearly half the stage, necessitating aerial approaches, which then leaves the player heavily vulnerable to Ganondorf's frequent Dark Dives (who is also often behind Giga Bowser, leaving him usually safe from the player's aerial attacks, and making it easy for him to catch the player with Dark Dive). The lack of Friendly Fire also means that players cannot attempt to get the three to inflict damage against each other, with the exception of potential AI exploits. With there being three opponents controlling most of the stage, it can also be difficult to get items before the opponents do.
Similar to Multi-Man Melee, some items do not spawn in the event match due to being too powerful if the player grabs or uses them first, or making the event match too difficult if an opponent grabs or uses them first. These items are the Hammer, the Home-Run Bat, both Poison and Super Mushrooms, and Starman. Container items, with the exception of the Party Ball, also cannot appear. In addition, no healing items can spawn in the mode; as a result, Chansey, when spawned from a Poké Ball, will only be able to drop throwable eggs. Legendary Pokémon, however, can still spawn from Poké Balls and Party Balls full of Bob-ombs can still appear.
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 final event match in Brawl, Event 41: The FINAL, Final Battle, is similar to this event match, with Giant Mario replacing Giga Bowser, and Sonic and Snake succeeding Ganondorf and Mewtwo. That event match is also fought on Final Destination.
- In addition to this, both this event and Event 41 in Brawl share a Japanese name.
- This is the only Melee Event other than the first one to use the Multi-Man Melee 2 track. Another similarity between the two is that Bowser is an opponent.
