Screen KO

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Ness being Screen KO'd on Shadow Moses Island.

A screen KO is a special type of KO which occurs sometimes when characters are sent off the top blast line. Instead of a character being Star KO'd the character appears to fly at the screen and hit it before falling down and being KO'd. Whether a character is Star KO'd or Screen KO'd is random.

Screen KOs occur faster than Star KO's which can, at times, affect gameplay. When a character is KO'd by Jigglypuff's Rest, dying off of the top usually means that the character will not respawn fast enough to punish the sleeping Jigglypuff, due to the length of the Star KO. However, if a character is instead Screen KO'd, this provides them with much more time to get a solid hit on the vulnerable Jigglypuff. The Screen KO's shorter duration can also influence the outcome of matches that have gone to a last stock situation. If both characters die off of the top at around the same time and one is Screen KO'd instead of Star KO'd, the Star KO'd player will win the match due to random chance and the longer animation.

Differences between games

In Smash 64

In Smash 64, rather than hitting the camera, characters fell down between the front of the stage and the camera. Depending on the camera angle, this may not be seen. Also, the distance from the camera is chosen randomly - sometimes the doomed character appears to be falling normally, while at other times they are just a quick flash of colour down the screen.

In Melee

In Melee, the character has a normal tumbling animation. When he or she hits the screen, however, the character makes a yelping sound and changes to a hurt face while the animation shares with the character bouncing from a wall.

In Brawl

In Brawl, the character tumbles all the way without changing the animation.

Trivia

• In Melee, if a player is Screen KO'd on Flat Zone, a different animation plays; instead of the usual animation, characters will instead hit the screen with their tumbling animation.
• In the Mushroom Kingdom and Mushroom Kingdom II stages, characters being Screen KO'd appear much closer to the screen as they fall.
• In Coin Battle, smash coins appear on the screen, surrounding the KO'd character.
• In Super Smash Bros. Melee, there is a bonus for getting Screen KO'd: Foresight.

Gallery

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  Ganondorf about to hit the screen in Yoshi's Story.

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  Samus hits the screen in her tumbling animation—this Screen KO animation is specific to Flat Zone in Melee.