Sudden Death
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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.
A mode that replicates Sudden Death can be accessed via the Special Melee or Brawl mode "Super Sudden Death". This mode, however, lacks the falling Bob-ombs.
Conditions to occur
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.
Ties in Sudden Death
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 SSB64. 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.
In tournament
In tournaments, should Sudden Death occur, it is ignored, with the winner being decided by other factors. Sudden Death is not played out in tournaments because of how it can be disproportionally unfavorable or favorable to certain characters. One case is in the fact that is no time limit in the mode, and the safest, most effective strategy to win is via using camping tactics to avoid the falling Bob-Ombs, most notably by planking, which gives an extremely unfavorable advantage to those with good jumping and recovery prowess, such as Kirby, and harming those with weaker recoveries, such as Link. As such, a Sudden Death between two competent players playing to win can feasibly go on for long periods, often with little to no actual combat between them. In other cases, matches may not last any significant time; faster characters such as Fox and characters with powerful projectiles, such as Pit, have large, disproportional advantages against slower and heavier characters have some of their primary advantages under standard gameplay nullified in a match where one hit can be a deciding factor; some characters, such as Bowser and Ganondorf, can have almost no feasible chance of winning a Sudden Death.
In addition to these gameplay flaws, smashers generally agree that Sudden Death can become an unfair way to stage a comeback. In this regard, Sudden Death can allow a player who was clearly losing before time ran out, such as by having a considerably higher damage percentage, to try and equalize; in order to force a Sudden Death, the losing player can constantly camp until time runs out, then potentially win the Sudden Death with a particularly fast and powerful attack or by simply camping again.
Gallery
The Sudden Death Screen in Super Smash Bros.
