Alas, Poor Scrappy: Bowser Jr. is disliked for his lazy design and annoying personality, but his brutal beatdown by Mecha Sonic's hands is hard to enjoy in the straightforward sense.
Ken is rather peppy at the end of Ghost Rider vs. Scorpion, despite almost being killed by the same demon ninja that killed his best friend. Maybe he's happy to be alive?
Awesome Ego: When Madara's Uchiha arrogance meets Aizen's signature smugness, the inevitable exchange of boasts and smack talk proves every bit as entertaining as the fight itself.
Clashing Egos from Vegeta vs. Shadow wouldn't sound out of place in Persona 4: Arena. This fast-paced rock track adds a lot to one of the hardest-hitting episodes to date.
Bill Cipher vs Sans starts out with Megalovania playing during the lead-up to the fight, but Bill switches the music to his exercise jams. Megalovania may be a tough act to follow, but it turns out asking Ray Casarez (the composer of the abovementioned Clashing Egos) to write music that's tailor-made for your fight yields wonderful results.
Broken Base: Its main selling point, 'No research,' was an attempt to avert this. It worked for a lot of Death Battle fans, but not all of them.
One pair of episodes it has never worked for is Saitama's episodes. In both of his battles (and in the comment sections of those reacting to them), practically every single comment is full of people trying to prove either Superman or Goku is better than Saitama (or vice versa). People keep brushing off the "no research" thing as not mattering or being stupid, and trying to prove through research (or conjecture) something that was never meant to be so in the first place.
To those who watch Super Mario Bros. Z, Mecha Sonic getting beaten to a pulp and getting stomped on by Bowser is really satisfying to watch.
Double to those who felt unsatisfied with how Superman won both his fights against Goku. Especially since Saitama was the first combatant to really pose a serious threat to the Man of Steel.
Any time a character who lost in Death Battle returns for One Minute Melee and wins will inevitably be bombarded with these accusations in the comments. Deathstroke defeating Deadpool in One Minute Melee after losing to him in Death Battle is the most notable example, with Ragna's win against Dante after losing in Death Battle coming a close second.
Played straight with Green Arrow defeating Hawkeye, after losing to him in Death Battle.
Defied with Wonder Woman losing to Lightning, in addition to losing to Rogue in DEATH BATTLE!.
Inverted with Scorpion losing his Melee against Ghost Rider after winning his DEATH BATTLE! against Ryu. Fittingly enough, it's all but outright stated that this fight takes place after the Death Battle in question.
Also Inverted with Link losing his Melee against Sora after winning his Death Battle against Cloud.
And again in a different way with Mega Man, who loses his Death Battle against Astro Boy after winning his One Minute Melee against the SA-X masquerading as Samus Aran, and his DBX against Bomberman.
And again in yet another different way with Dante, who after losing his One Minute Melee against Ragna the Bloodedge, won his Death Battle against Bayonetta.
And yet again in yet another different way with Mewtwo, who curbstomps Shadow in his Death Battle after getting curbstomped in his One Minute Melee.
With the One Minute Melee between Samus and Mega Man, Mega Man wins... against the SA-X, which was disguised as Samus during the match proper. When it turns into its real form, the actual Samus shows up and the pair double-team it for a swift victory. Consequently, Samus fans don't feel the sting of defeat despite Mega Man's technical victory.
Something similar happens in Link vs. Sora, where Link loses after a very close battle, but turns out to be possessed by a Heartless-like Dark Link. Once he comes to, Link quickly teams up with the Kingdom Hearts trio to take on the real threat.
Played straight with Knuckles winning his One Minute Melee after losing his Death Battle.
Ziggzagged with Ryu not losing his fight against Jin after losing against Scorpion, but still not winning anyways.
Ziggzagged with the Kenshiro vs. Jotaro episode. See Author's Saving Throw above for details.
Indirectly played straight (due to One Minute Melee no longer being part of Screwattack at this point) with Ken Masters defeating Paul Phoenix after losing his Death Battle to Terry Bogard. And then again for the Tekken fans, with Paul defeating Guile in a DBX not too long after.
Defied with Vegeta beating Shadow again.
Played straight with Meta Knight, who after being horribly curbstomped by Zero in his OMM appearance, wins a DBX by a similar margin against Link... and as a bonus, remains mostly in-character! And once again with his next OMM appearance, where he wins by destroying Dark Meta Knight in the space of three seconds after the evil copy defeats Shovel Knight in disguise. Can anyone else say "Took a Level in Badass"?
Averted with Zoro, Raiden, Zero, Akuma and Vegeta, who end up being the only characters to have won a One Minute Melee, a Death Battle and a DBX.
Played straight with Natsu Dragneel winning his Death Battle against Portgas D. Ace after losing his One Minute Melee to him.
Played straight and inverted with Lucario and Renamon respectively, the former killing the latter in their Death Battlewhile both of them drew with each other on OMM.
Defied with Goku vs Saitama, with Goku losing to Saitama in One Minute Melee after losing to Superman twice in Death Battle.
Continuity Lockout: Anyone who has not played, or is unfamiliar with Metroid Fusion will have no idea what the large monster in the Samus vs Mega Man One Minute Melee is.
Similarly, those unfamiliar with Super Mario Bros. Z will likely be confused at Mecha Sonic's appearance in Bowser Jr. Vs. Metal Sonic, especially since the Mecha Sonic from the actual Sonic games is a good deal weaker than Metal.
Crack Pairing: A number of people were perplexed by Yu fighting Polnareff, since Yu is more often matched up against Jotaro Kujo or Josuke Higashikata.
Growing the Beard: The series started out as a watered down and shorter version of Death Battle, with a few surprises here and there. It later improved in animation and exploited the lack of Death Battle's rules for some surprising and interesting battles such as Goomba vs Waddle Dee being a fight between armies instead of a standard one-on-one, SA-X attacking Mega Man after he beat what he thought was Samus, with the real deal showing up to help, Mecha Sonic crashing Metal Sonic and Bowser Jr.'s fight before it begins to deliver a brutal beatdown to both combatants, and the full version of Makunouchi Ippo vs Little Mac being a three-round fight instead of a one-off duel.
It becomes less of a Death Battle knock off and evolved more into what appears to be a crossover universe. Especially when a story segment from a previous fight continues towards the next fight. some of the most notable examples are the episodes that take place in the same dense forset (the first of which being Naruto vs. Luffy) and the Saitama vs. Superman episode, which a good deal of Season 4 episodes seem to incorporate themselves with. This includes Hulk vs. Broly, Piccolo vs. Martian Manhunter, Raiden vs. Genos, the list goes on.
Around Season 4 is when they start using a lot of custom assets, too - custom music, sprites, and even voice acting in some of the Melees.
Bowser Jr. wanted to search for the "big toys" and even told Metal Sonic he wants the "cooler" machines. He gets what he asked for in the form of Mecha Sonic. Needless to say, it did not end well for him.
In Jotaro VS Kenshiro, Jotaro manages to survive the latter's pressure point attack and emerge victorious. When the two squared off again in DEATH BATTLE! over two years later, Jotaro wasn't so lucky.
Back in the original Super Smash Bros., the penultimate enemies were called the Fighting Polygon Team, and they were purple, jagged-looking creatures. Sound like anybody we know? What makes this even funnier is that Polygon Man made his first appearance years before SSB64 was even thought of.
With the exception of the Hulknote The video was released before the Hulk vs. Doomsday Death Battle, Black Widownote The video was released before the Black Widow vs. Widowmaker Death Battle, the Stormtroopers, and Saitama, all of the characters who appeared in Goku vs Sonic were previously DEATH BATTLE! combatants. In fact, almost all of them won their respective Death Battle matches with the exception of Captain America and Goku himself.
In the April Fools' Fight, Goku made Kirby explode over a Lost Food Grievance. In Kirby vs. Pac-Man, Kirby picks a fight with Pac-Man over a different kind of Lost Food Grievance and kills him for it.
In the epilogue of Yu vs. Polnareff, Jotaro calls Yu the kind of person he wouldn't want to mess with. Then OMM's successor DBX had Jotaro fight Yu and he ended up winning.
In DEATH BATTLE!, Batman was killed in his first fight against Spider-Man, a superhuman foe beyond his capabilities, but won his second bout against Captain America, one of Marvel's most famous superheroes. His record in One Minute Melee is eerily similar, even though the two shows have since parted ways.
In OMM, Meta Knight was almost-entirely Out of Character and on the receiving end of a huge Curb-Stomp Battle thanks to Zero. Seems to have been completely rectified in DBX— not only is he in-character (for the most part), but he also pulls a massiveCurb-Stomp Battle against Link, even holding the Advantage Ball for the entire fight.
Geese Howard now has the opportunity to face off against Heihachi Mishima again in Tekken 7 as part of the DLC.
Round 2 of Sephiroth vs. Vergil released just a few days before DEATH BATTLE! announced they were doing their own take on the fight as their season finale.
It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: To date, five fights have involved a forest backdrop, and while the fights appear to be tying into a storyline of some sort, some viewers are a bit miffed about the reused scenery.
Memetic Mutation: "NO RESEARCH!" has become this, stated at the start of every battle and found very often blurted out in the comments as a reason for why the verdict went the way it did.
The idea that Jotaro won because he had stuffed Shonen Jump manga in his shirt prior to the beginning of the fight, negating Kenshiro's pressure point-hitting attacks has quickly become a popular fan theory.
Never Live It Down: Natsu vs Ace had an error where the title accidentally labeled Natsu as a character from Hunter × Hunter. This was fixed quickly, but people still proceeded to make jokes involving the error.
Shocking Moments: The climax of Sakuya vs. Dio. Dio has had his arm cut off, and there's one second left on the timer. It's seemingly time for the finisher... but then both combatants activate their respective Time Stands Still moves, causing the fight to go on for a full minute longer. Dio beats Sakuya with his severed hand and then activates his infamous road roller super, but Sakuya escapes the explosion in a similar way to another time stopping opponent Dio has faced, and proceeds to finish him off with a barrage of knives. Even for One Minute Melee standards, that fight was intense.
Link vs Sora has Dark Link revealing he was possessing Link and summoning a horde of shadow monsters to sic on Sora, Link, Donald, and Goofy, who then prepare for battle.
Master Hand not only lifts Final Destination, but is strong enough to swing it like a baseball bat (with a backswing, no less) with enough force to send Polygon Man flying.
Superman vs Saitama. The fight begins with a message stating that there will actually be no time limit for this one, a first for the series. The fight itself doesn't waste any of that extra time.
Shovel Knight vs Meta Knight. Shovel Knight seems to be on the brink against Meta Knight, and one of his attacks flings the blue burrower across the room... and he crashes into a Bonfire, dislodging the blade planted in it before obtaining the Firelink Greatshovel to even the odds. While he still loses, he manages to make a valiant effort up until Meta Knight uses his finisher.
Goku vs Saitama has one. At the end of the first round, Goku is sent flying by Saitama's punch and reverts to his base form from Super Saiyan Blue Kaioken X20. Saitama begins walking away. Cue Goku activating Ultra Instinct, to which point the battle continues.
The fight between Ragna and Dante looks off since Ragna uses his old BlazBlue sprites while Dante has a custom sprite based around his 3D character model from Devil May Cry 3. Their final clash is underwhelming to say the least. Ragna teleports around a lot, and then Dante just... loses. The final attack isn't actually shown, leading it to appear as if Dante suffered a poorly-timed heart attack rather than Ragna finishing him off.
Squick: At the end of Vergil and Sephiroth's second fight, it looks like Sephiroth stabbed Vergil through the crotch. Yikes. Of course, he probably just hit him in the gut, but Masamune is unfortunately placed enough for the scene to lend itself to less pleasant interpretations.
Visual Effects of Awesome: Vergil vs Sephiroth, despite being a sprite battle, is animated smoothly and the sprites also move incredibly fast as well. Probably helped by the fact that Vergil's sprites were lifted from a custom Mugen character.
Master Hand vs Polygon Man has a giant hand and head fight each other to the death. And actually manages to make it look awesome and smooth with fast-paced action.
Saitama vs. Superman. They really wanted to pull out all the stops, and damn it shows.
Bill Cipher vs. Sans is animated entirely with custom spritework, and aside from Sans having an oddly huge head, it's a masterpiece of sprite animation. Special mention goes to Bill Cipher, whose body contorts and shifts in appropriately cartoony ways during the fight.
Saitama seems to get (or be faced with) these in his fights, doesn't he? Anyways, in Goku vs Saitama these are all over the place as is the norm for Goku, but two words describe what really takes the cake: Ultra Instinct.
from Vegeta vs. Shadow wouldn't sound out of place in Persona 4: Arena. This fast-paced rock track adds a lot to one of the hardest-hitting episodes to date.