Judge
| Judge | |
|---|---|
 Using Judge in Ultimate, the 5 effect being shown. | |
| User | Mr. Game & Watch |
| Universe | Game & Watch |
Judge (ジャッジ, Judge) (known as Judgment in Melee) is Mr. Game & Watch's side special move. Mr. Game & Watch will attack with his hammer and hold up a digital display with a random number on it when used.
In all of the games Mr. Game and Watch has appeared in leading up to Ultimate, he retained his normal sprite when using the move. In Ultimate, his appearance was changed to resemble his appearance in the Judge game from the Game and Watch series.
Numbers and their effects
The number that can display as the move is used is a random number from 1 to 9, like in the original game. In order to add variance, in Melee and Brawl, 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 result in a 5. At the start of a match, the previous two uses are set to 2 and 1, meaning that the first use of Judge in a match cannot be a 2, and the first two uses cannot be a 1. Therefore, in Melee and Brawl, each valid number has a 1 in 7 chance of appearing.
In Super Smash Bros. 4, this behavior was removed, allowing any number to always have a 1 in 9 chance of appearing and making it possible to get a number twice (or theoretically any number of times) in a row. Also, getting a 1 while in the All-Star Mode's Waiting Room won't cause recoil damage. In addition, in the Home-Run Contest and Target Blast modes, the move always comes up as 6, making it impossible to use the powerful 9 (but subsequently meaning the player does not have to continually restart to get lucky for the best score).
In Ultimate, it is once again impossible to get the same number twice in a row; however, it is still possible to get the same number every other roll.
The effects associated with these numbers are as follows:
| # | Description | Damage | KO Percent |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A very weak hit that does not inflict flinching or knockback, and inflicts 12% recoil damage regardless of whether or not it hits. | 2% | N/A |
| 2 | Has minimal knockback. In Brawl and SSB4, it has a 20% chance of tripping an opponent. | 4% | N/A |
| 3 | Similar to the Fan's attack, it makes a paper sound, launches the opponent towards Mr. Game & Watch, and deals a significant amount of shield damage. | 6% | 496% |
| 4 | Inflicts a slashing attack that launches opponents diagonally. | 8% | 483% |
| 5 | Produces four electrical charges that inflict 3% damage each that zap the opponent, making them rise slightly. | 12% total | 482% |
| 6 | Deals flame damage and is a semi-spike, threatening recovering opponents. It has the second strongest knockback of all Judge attacks. | 12% | 156% |
| 7 | Deals moderate knockback. A food item will appear, likely in reference to the number 7 being associated with luck. In Melee, Brawl and SSB4 it will drop one apple, while in Ultimate, it will drop 3 apples. The food item will always be an apple from Brawl onwards, possibly as apples can be symbols of good health, and will only appear if the attack connects (even if the target is under the effect of a Super Star). The apple appears regardless of whether items are on or not. | 14% | 264% |
| 8 | Freezes the opponent with fixed vertical knockback, and makes the "PING!" sound (or a slightly quieter version of it in Melee). | 4% (Melee) 9% (Brawl, SSB4) |
N/A |
| 9 | Deals massive knockback at the Sakurai angle and makes the "PING!" sound, intended to resemble the effect of the Home-Run Bat. Can KO below 10% in some cases. In Brawl, it KOs the heaviest characters at 13% and could potentially KO characters as light as Pikachu at 0%, although it is not a guaranteed OHKO. It has a smaller hitbox compared to the other numbers. In every game after Melee, the attack is accompanied by a bell sound like that in Mr. Game and Watch's up and side taunts. Flashes of light resembling electrical effects appear around the hammer when this number appears, though the move does not do electric damage. It is one of the most powerful moves in the game, only second to Ganondorf's Reverse Warlock Punch. | 32% | 11% |
Customization
Special Move customization was added in Super Smash Bros. 4. These are the variations:
| 1. Judge | 2. Extreme Judge | 3. Chain Judge |
|---|---|---|
 |
 |
 |
| "Swing your hammer. The power changes depending on the number displayed." | "Only "1" or "9" will appear, but the latter isn't quite as devastating as usual." | "The number shown on the card equals the number of continuous hits dealt." |
- Judge: Default.
- Extreme Judge: The only numbers picked are 1 and 9, with more normalized effects for each. 1 deals 5% damage to both Mr. Game & Watch and the opponent, while 9 only deals 23% damage and less (though still significant) knockback. The odds of getting a 9 are 1 in 5 (20%). If the move is used in one of the modes that forces the number to always be 6, it has the same effects as the default version of the move.
- Chain Judge: None of the numbers have different effects on the opponent. Instead, the move hits several times, corresponding with the chosen number. In addition, some numbers are more common than others, as opposed to the default move's equal probability for all numbers.
| # | Description | Total damage | Frequency |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | One hit. | 1% | 1 |
| 2 | Two hits: the first deals 3% damage, and the second does 2%. | 5% | 2 |
| 3 | Three hits, each of which does 3%. | 9% | 3 |
| 4 | Four hits: the first three deal 3% damage, and the last does 2%. | 11% | 3 |
| 5 | Five hits, each doing 3%. | 15% | 2 |
| 6 | Six hits: the first five deal 3% damage, and the last does 2%. | 17% | 2 |
| 7 | Seven hits: the first six deal 2.5% damage, and the last does 4%. | 19% | 1 |
| 8 | Eight hits: the first seven deal 2.4% damage, and the last does 4.2%. | 21% | 1 |
| 9 | Nine hits: the first eight deal 2.25% damage, and the last does 10%. Also has very high knockback, though less than the regular Judge 9. | 28% | 1 |
Spirit
| No. | Image | Name | Type | Class | Cost | Ability | Series |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 693 |  |
Judge |  |
★★★ | 1 | Critical Hit ↑ | Game & Watch Series |
Origin
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 hit. If the numbers were equal, the player can either hit or dodge. This was translated in the Smash world to where the higher the number, the stronger or better the attack.
Gallery
Judge 6 in Melee.
All nine of Judge's effects in Brawl.
All nine of Judge's effects shown in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS.
Judge 9 in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U
Judge 1 in Ultimate.
Judge as shown by the Move List in Ultimate.
Trivia
- In Ultimate, during the startup of Judge, numbers will rapidly flash up on the sign before stopping on the selected number. However the numbers that flash up are not completely random, as the numbers from 1-9 are flashed in a random order for the first 9 frames of the animation, and then the numbers are cycled through in the same order for the remainder of the startup. This does not affect how the final number is selected.
- If one of the Stadium games appears on a ticket in Master Orders, custom moves can be used there, something that is not normally possible. However if Extreme Judge is used, it will be changed to the standard variation and still land on a 6. It is the only custom move to do this.
- Judge is the only multiplayer Game & Watch game to be represented in Mr. Game & Watch's moveset.
- Judge is the only one of Mr. Game & Watch's special moves (not including his Final Smash) to not be represented in Flat Zone 2 and Flat Zone X.
- In the original Game & Watch game, the number 7 displays with the F segment lit (i.e. with a hook at the top left); it has a different rendition without the F segment in Smash.
