| Judge | |
|---|---|
 Judge in Melee | |
| User | Mr. Game & Watch |
| Universe | Game & Watch universe |
Judge is a move that can be performed by Mr. Game & Watch. By using his side special move, Mr. Game & Watch will attack with his hammer and hold up a card with a random number on it. Despite being known as Judgement in his Melee trophy data, it was changed for his update on the DOJO!! to match the name of the source game.
The effects are as follows:
- 1 - An attack that does 2% and doesn't produce hitstun. In Brawl, this Judge damages Mr. Game & Watch by 12%, regardless of whether the attack connects with an opponent, and regardless of stale-move negation.
- 2 - A weak attack that does 4% with minimal knockback, but has a chance of tripping the opponent.
- 3 - An attack that does 6% with a fan sound upon contact. Similar to a fan side attack, this attack launches the enemy backwards and deals significant Shield damage to opposing shields.
- 4 - A slashing attack that does 8% and launches opponents diagonally, similar to the beam sword side attack.
- 5 - An attack that produces four electrical charges that zap the opponent, making them rise. Each hit does 3%, for a total of 12%.
- 6 - A flame attack that does 12% with surprisingly strong horizontal knockback. This attack is also a Semi-spike, making it deadly to recovering opponents. This Judge is the second strongest Judge in terms of knockback, despite there being two higher Judges before #9.
- 7 - An attack that does 14% with moderate horizontal knockback. A food item will also appear in honor of the lucky #7. In Brawl, this item is invariably an apple.
- 8 - An attack that does 9% with weak vertical knockback while freezing the opponent. Despite being the second highest Judge, a Judge #6 and #7 is stronger than #8 in both damage and knockback.
- 9 - An extremely powerful attack that does 32% with massive horizontal knockback. The attack is powerful enough to KO as low as 5%. It produces the "ping" sound upon contact similar to the Home-Run Bat's smash attack.
Mr. Game & Watch cannot get a number that was used in either of the two previous uses of the move; for example getting a 5 will mean that the next two uses of the move cannot be a 5. In the same way, the first use of Judge in a match cannot be a 2, and the first two uses cannot be a 1. This means that, ignoring the two invalid numbers, each possibility has a 1/7 chance of occuring.
Origins
Judge was a Game & Watch game that could be played with two players. Two Game & Watch characters had signboards and hammers. When a round starts, each player's sign would display a random number from 1 to 9. The point of the game was for the player with the higher number to hit his opponent on the head with their hammer, while the player with the lower number tried to dodge said attack. If the numbers were equal, the player can either hit or dodge. This was translated in the Smash world in which the higher the number, the stronger the attack.
