Super Smash Stadium/Metal Smash

On Super Smash Stadium, the Metal Smash is always the final round of each episode, played by the two contestants who won their half's respective round of Target Blast. (Originally, when the show was a half hour long, it was the two contestants who'd won the most money.)
==Rules==
As the name implies, both contestants are metal, increasing their weight and falling speed while decreasing the knockback that they take from moves, and possibly giving them Super Armor on the weakest moves. Also, there are no items. The contestants must play with the character they chose in their contestant applications; no changing is allowed.
The match is a standard Stock match, with a time limit of 10 minutes and three lives each. The "joke", however, is that since both fighters are metal, it's much harder to score a kill, and almost all matches end by timeout. The match takes place on the "Alpha Format" of the home stage of the character that the top winner chose, unless they elect to "pass" to the runner-up. This can and often has led to repeated stages appearing on episodes. Each contestant has a "bounty" on them, and whoever wins the match wins their opponent's bounty, unless they should win the match by successfully taking all of the opponent's lives, in which case they win the combined total of both bounties, dubbed a "Double Smash Win".
On the other hand, if a Metal Smash ends in a tie, it's dubbed a No Contest, and neither contestant wins a bounty. Sudden Death is not done. In the extremely rare instance that both contestants "tie" with no lives left, they are instead both declared the winner. (This has only happened once, VERY early in the show's run.) Either way, the losing contestant goes on to play the credits minigame for some extra consolation cash.
The Metal Smash has its own distinct winning sequence. The announcer says "This game's winner, and the winner of today's episode of Super Smash Stadium is...", and a unique victory theme plays regardless of what character the winner chose, which you can read about at Super Smash Stadium/Victory and loss themes. Prior to Season 49, if the winner had won more than $35,000, their winning total would be displayed at the bottom of the screen. (Since that season, the winning total is always shown.)
==History==
*Between Seasons 13 and 46, the Metal Smash always took place on Battlefield. The current switch to Alpha Formats isn't much of a change, however, since that format causes all stages to look like Battlefield. Ironically, the current format can never happen on Battlefield due to that stage debuting no new characters. To circumvent this, Battlefield is the "home stage" of the show staffers (except Alex, whose home stage is FCHS) and all guest characters.
*Prior to Season 13, the Metal Smash was done on regular stages. As such, the option to pass to the runner-up had a bit more risk to it, since contestants needed to weigh how well their character would do on their opponent's stage.
*Prior to Season 27, five lives were used.
*On SSS's very first week, no time limit was used due to the timer not existing then. However, Episode 0101-5's Metal Smash is often cited as why the timer was implemented: after it took 12 minutes for a stock to be taken off, host James Pennington ordered the match to be stopped, with the contestant who landed the killing blow declared the winner.
*The first No Contest happened on Episode 0102-1, aired September 11, 1972.
*There was no "double Smash" rule until roughly April 1974. The first known Double Smash Win happened on August 15th of that year. The last known Double Smash Win happened on June 25, 2021.
*The "winnings over $35,000" graphic debuted in January 1999.
*The current theme, Mêlée's metal theme, has been in use since November 1988. Between the spring of 1974 and this point, the Smash 64 "Meta Crystal" theme was used instead. Prior to 1974, it was whatever the stage's usual theme was.
Metal Smash (SSS)
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