Event Match

Event matches (イベント戦, Ibentosen^?) are special challenges that were first introduced as a set of 51 single-player tasks (51 events) in Super Smash Bros. Melee. Each event match puts the player into a scenario with special conditions and a certain objective. The player must complete the objective in order to complete the event match, and the game records the completion and "score" of each event match. A completely new set of 41 solo event matches was included in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, with a separate set of 21 co-op event matches also included. (That is, for a total of 62 events.) Brawl also introduced three difficulty levels for each event match - easy, medium and hard.

In Melee, out of the 21 events --which force the player to use an assigned character-- with the exception of Pikachu, all of the characters in the Original 12 (from the original Super Smash Bros.) have their own dedicated event. Bowser is the only one starter Melee newcomer who has an assigned event (Event 25: Gargantuans). With the exception of Mewtwo, all of the unlockable characters --who are not clones-- have an assigned event (including Marth, Jigglypuff, Luigi, and Mr. Game and Watch). Falco and Young Link are the only two clones to have an assigned event (that being, Event 32: Target Acquired and Event 34: Seven Years). The other 30 events allow the player to choose any character. Also, no recovery items appear. However, Mr. Game and Watch can use his Judgement 7 to drop a Food item to recover damage. That is, while Ness can use his PSI Magnet.

While most Melee events allow the player to choose any character, with relatively few being pre-determined, this is reversed in Brawl. So all the events have an assigned character (except for the All Star and final two events). In the solo events, only the All Star and final two solo events have set characters. Similarly, for the co-op events, the final two co-op events (just like the final two solo ones) have set characters. This appears to be done so that players are forced to use nearly all 37 characters at least once. However, this combined with the number and perceived quality of the events makes the mode in general less popular in Brawl than in Melee. The three exceptions are Sheik, Luigi, and Jigglypuff. While Luigi and Jigglypuff are given an assigned co-op event (being Co-Op Event 11: The Great Remodeling Battle and Co-Op Event 16: Jigglypuff's Great Comeback), Sheik does not have an assigned event. But she can freely be swapped in for Zelda (where applicable). In both the solo and co-op events, all of the characters --now including Pikachu-- from Smash 64's Original 8 have an assigned event (without any functionality changes). (Pikachu does have its own solo and co-op events. That is, being --the solo event-- Event 8: Go! Triple Finish! and --the co-op event-- Co-Op Event 2: Master the Pokémon Tag Battle.) Pokemon Trainer is considered a single character for both his solo and co-op events. And the remaining two switched-in characters (Samus and Zero Suit Samus) both have an assigned solo and co-op event.

Event Matches in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U function similarly to those in Brawl, but are now arranged on a map instead of a linear list. Completing an event will unlock more events on the map. Additionally, each event will yield a reward if completed under specified conditions, such as playing on a certain difficulty and/or achieving a certain score. Some events also have "hidden routes" that become available if certain requirements are met, such as a character being unlocked. In addition, scores earned will overwrite any inferior scores of lower difficulties; for example, completing an event on normal in 30 seconds will also set the easy difficulty's score to 30 seconds if it is worse or blank. Most events allow the use of customizations, but equipment that has players starting a match with an item will have their extra effect negated; for an example, Beam Sword equipment will not allow the player to start matches with the Beam Sword in any event match. Players can now use different alternate costumes for most character-specific events by picking customized characters who wear them.

Unlockable event matches[]

In Super Smash Bros. Melee[]

Criteria	Unlocked content
Clear at least 6 of events 1-10.	Event Matches 11-15
Clear at least 10 of events 1-15.	Event Matches 16-20
Clear at least 16 of events 1-20.	Event Matches 21-25
Clear at least 22 of events 1-25.	Event Matches 26-29
Clear at least 27 of events 1-29.	Event 30: All-Star Match 3
Unlock Jigglypuff, Luigi, Dr. Mario, Young Link, and Falco. Clear at least 27 of the first 30 event matches.	Event Matches 31-39
Unlock all the unlockable characters. Clear at least 27 events.	Event Matches 40-50
Complete all other 50 events and complete both Classic and Adventure with any character (aside from Giga Bowser in Adventure and doing All Star).	Event 51: The Showdown

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl[]

Criteria	Unlocked content
Clear at least seven of events 1-10.	Event Matches 11-20
Clear at least eighteen of events 1-20. Unlock Ness, Marth, Luigi, Captain Falcon, Lucario, and R.O.B..	Event Matches 21-29
Clear at least 20 of events 1-29. Unlock all characters.	Events 30-40
Clear events 1-40.	Event 41: The FINAL Final Battle
Unlock Ness, Marth, Luigi, Captain Falcon, Lucario, and R.O.B..	Co-Op Events 9-13
Unlock all characters. Clear at least ten of Co-Op events 1-13.	Co-Op Events 14-20
Clear events 1-20.	Co-Op Event 21: The True All-Star Battle

In Super Smash Bros. for Wii U[]

In Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, all event matches are unlockable by completing other events, the only exception being the starter events: “The Original Heavyweights”, located in the center of the solo events screen, and “Lurking Menace”, located in the top-left corner of the group events screen. Hidden routes have an additional requirement: players must unlock a specific character (or, in the case of "The Ultimate Battle", all characters) to reveal a hidden route.