A Screen KO (手前やられ, Forefront hurting) is a special type of KO which has a chance of occurring when characters are sent off the top blast line. Instead of being Star KOed as usual, the character instead falls into the foreground and appears to crash into the television screen before being KO'd. Whether a character is Star KO'd or Screen KO'd is random, though Screen KOs are considerably rarer than Star KOs; as a result, Screen KOs rarely involve two or more characters at once.
In the first three games, Screen KOs completed faster than Star KOs, which could, at times, affect gameplay. For example, when a character is KO'd by Jigglypuff's Rest, getting a Star KO means that the character will not respawn fast enough to punish the sleeping Jigglypuff, due to the length of the Star KO animation. However, if a character is instead Screen KO'd, this provides them with significantly more time to potentially 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 are KO'd 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 lengthier animation; as a result of this perceived gameplay imbalance, some mods, such as Project M, completely disable the KO or otherwise modify the animation in some capacity. This time difference was fixed in Super Smash Bros. 4.
Differences between games
In Smash 64
In Smash 64, characters fell down between the front of the stage and the camera. Depending on the camera angle, this may not always be visible. Also, the distance from the camera is chosen randomly - sometimes doomed characters appear to be falling normally, while at other times they are just a quick flash of color going down the screen.
In Melee
In Melee, all characters have a unique tumbling animation for when they crash into the screen; upon striking the camera, the character also yells one of their hard damage sounds.
There is a bonus for getting Screen KO'd: Foresight, which grants the receiver 500 points for every time they are KO'd this way.
How close a character being KO'd is to the camera is no longer determined by randomness, but by the stage being played on. On Mushroom Kingdom II, for example, Screen KO'd characters are very close to the camera and thus appear much larger.
In Brawl
In Brawl, characters still have unique tumbling animations for the screen, though the animations for the actual impact are not as nuanced as in Melee.
In Smash 4
In SSB4, the character hits the screen, then stays in place briefly before sliding down. As a direct result of this 'pause', Screen KOs in Smash 4 take longer to complete than in previous games, making it so that Screen KOs and Star KOs take equally as long to resolve. Additionally, Screen KOs and Star KOs are both disabled during the final seconds of a match - characters will simply create the usual colorful blast after crossing the blast line. Blast KOs over the upper blast line also occur more often than Star and Screen KOs, even if the match has no time limit or if it is in an early part of a timed match. Screen KO'd characters in Smash 4 no longer make any sounds when they hit the screen, though there is now a soft "thud" upon impact.
Trivia
- In Melee, if a player is Screen KOed on Flat Zone, a different animation plays; instead of the usual animation, characters will instead hit the screen with their tumbling animation.
- Mr. Game and Watch is the only character to always hit the screen as if it were a Star KO. He also keeps this trait in Brawl.
- In early gameplay videos of Brawl, characters would sometimes hit the upper blast line with the standard colourful blast generally seen only by certain single-player mode enemies; this functionality would later return for Super Smash Bros. 4.
- In Coin Battle, smash coins appear along with the character falling in front of the screen when characters are Screen KO'd; if the game is paused, then they will disappear if the camera is moved.
- In SSB4, Shulk hits the screen with his back facing the player (in order to show the Monado's currently active Art, if any), making him the only character in Smash 4 to do so.
Gallery
- Screen KO SSB64.jpg
Yoshi gets Screen KO'd in Yoshi's Island
Samus hits the screen in her tumbling animation—this Screen KO animation is specific to Flat Zone in Melee.
Ganondorf about to hit the screen in Yoshi's Story.
- Luigi Screen KO.gif
Luigi getting Screen KO'd in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS.
Ness being Screen KO'd on Shadow Moses Island.
Ryu being Screen KO'd on Dream Land.
