Star KO
Not to be confused with KO Star.
A star knock-out or star finish (星になって, Become a star), abbreviated as star KO, is a type of KO. When characters are knocked beyond the upper blast line (save for a few exceptions, see below), they fly through the background and away from the stage while usually screaming or yelling, and eventually disappear as a star (there is a random chance of a Screen KO instead, where characters hit the camera). In the first three Smash games, this has the longest duration out of any KOs.
Most conditions on the characters, such as the invincibility of the Super Star or standby mode after breaking the Smash Ball, are still visible on the characters while they are Star KO'd. Exceptions include metal characters (unless while playing in Super Smash Bros. Melee's single player modes), characters in Super Smash Bros. Brawl who are giant or tiny due to Super or Poison Mushrooms, and frozen characters in Super Smash Bros. 4. In Flat Zone 2 and Hanenbow, conditions are not aligned with the character (i.e. the frozen block and character fly off separately).
In Super Smash Bros. 4, Star KOs are no longer a certainty; the upper blast line will cause a normal KO explosion or a Star/Screen KO at random when crossed. Players launched at extremely high speeds will also prevent Star KOs from occurring. In addition, presumably to solve balance issues, Star KOs no longer occur near the end of a timed match. In Smash 64 and Melee, all playable characters have a voice clip for being Star KO'd (including Samus), while Olimar lacks one in Brawl; SSB4 later introduces more characters that remain completely silent when Star KO'd, with these being Mega Man, the Mii Fighters, Pac-Man, Villager and the wireframe version of Little Mac.
Exceptions
Note that all of these exceptions also apply to Screen KOs.
- Members of enemy teams, namely the Fighting Wire Frames, Fighting Alloy Team and Fighting Mii Team, do not experience Star KOs, instead undergoing the usual colorful explosion, with the exception of the oversized Wire Frames that appear in Event 37: Legendary Pokémon. In the original Super Smash Bros., however, the Fighting Polygon Team is vulnerable to Star KOs.
- Team battles in Melee and Brawl's Classic mode, as well as Adventure mode in the former game, feature playable characters that cannot be Star KO'd. In Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS's Classic mode, however, members of enemy teams other than the Fighting Mii Team can be occasionally Star KO'd. In Smash 64, members of the Yoshi Team and Kirby Team can be Star KO'd as well.
- Common enemies in the Subspace Emissary (with the exception of playable characters) and Smash Run modes cannot be Star KO'd.
- Opponents in SSB4's All-Star mode cannot be Star KO'd.
- Playable characters appearing as enemies in Brawl and SSB4's Multi-Man modes can be Star KO'd in the former game, but not in the latter.
- Flying Men, Nabbit and Ridley in SSB4 cannot get Star KO'd.
- Star KOs do not occur in Final Battles in Smash Run.
- Invisible characters in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U cannot get Star KO'd.
Bonuses
In Smash 64
- Comet Mystic (10000 points): Finished the match while in the middle of a Star KO.
- Star Finish (10000 points): Cleared the stage via a Star KO.
- Trickster (11000 points): Star KO'd every member of a team.
In Melee
- Rocket KO (5000 points): Star KO'd every member of a team.
- Shooting Star (1500 points): Finished the match while getting Star KO'd.
- Solar Being (800 points): All KOs experienced were Star KOs.
- Star KO (300 points per opponent): Star KO an opponent.
Trivia
- The Star KO could be a reference to the Pokémon anime series, as when Team Rocket is defeated, they occasionally (but not always) get sent flying and shout "We're blasting off again!" before vanishing into a star.
- In the original Super Smash Bros., Kirby's various Copy Ability hats remain on when he is Star KO'd.
- In Super Smash Bros. 4, some stages have Star KOs disabled outright due to circumstances such as gyrating backgrounds or background elements too close to the foreground that could possibly obscure a star KO'd player. These stages are: Dream Land (SSB4), WarioWare, Inc., Boxing Ring, Green Hill Zone, Mushroom Kingdom U, Luigi's Mansion, Super Mario Maker (Wii U), Mario Circuit, Delfino Plaza, Jungle Hijinxs, Skyloft, The Great Cave Offensive, Halberd, Gamer, Wii Fit Studio, Duck Hunt (stage) (Wii U), Wrecking Crew, Wuhu Island, Pac-Land, Miiverse and Umbra Clock Tower.
- Despite this, stages such as Dream Land (SSB) and Prism Tower still feature Star KOs.
- If the cage the Mii resides inside on the Find Mii stage sustains sufficient damage, the Mii and the cage will be Star KO'd.
- In SSB4, King Dedede and Cloud's voice clips for being Star KO'd are actually longer than the time allotted for the Star KO animation.
- In SSB4, the Star KO is actually shorter than a Screen KO, but only by a few frames.
- Yoshi is the only character with the same voice clip for being Star KO'd in all four Smash games.
- Jigglypuff's is close as it is not high pitched in Brawl onwards.
- If a character is Star KO'd diagonally on Mario Galaxy, they will fly upwards instead of falling downwards.
