Pokémon Super Contest

Visual Competition

Lucas wins the Super Contest

Main article: Visual Competition

The Visual Competition is where players dress up their Pokémon depending on a theme. The Visual Competition score consists of two parts: the condition portion and the dress-up portion. The score from the Visual Competition is the total number of hearts given from both portions.

Dance Competition

Main article: Dance Competition

In the next round, all four Pokémon dance on the stage. Competitors control their Pokémon with four buttons: Left, Right, Front, and Jump. The dancer in front chooses up to three steps in the Normal Rank and Great Rank^DP, and four in the Great Rank^Pt, Ultra Rank and Master Rank, matching the beat as closely as possible. Then the backup dancers try to match the lead dancer's moves. Each Pokémon will lead for two measures (a measure is the time it takes for the lead dancer to make its moves and the backup dancers to follow), and each measure will contain 16 beats, except that in Platinum, a measure contains only 12 beats during Cool or Beauty Contests at Ultra Rank or Master Rank.

At the bottom of the top screen, a simple music staff shows the steps with a bouncing Jigglypuff on top of it keeping the beat.

A Pokémon earns 1 point for each step judged as "Good", and 2 points for each step judged as "Excellent". A step judged as a "Miss" does not score. A player may choose not to input any steps during their turn as the lead dancer, in which case the backups will have nothing to follow and no players will be able to score any points during that turn, but computer-controlled players will always input the maximum number of allowed steps during their turn. The maximum score for the Dance Competition is 48 points in Contests with 3 steps per measure, and 64 points in Contests with 4 steps per measure.

Acting Competition

Main article: Appeal

This is the equivalent of the second round of Pokémon Contests in Generation III. In addition to selecting which move a Pokémon should use, each performer now also selects one of the three Contest Judges, Jordan, Dexter, or Keira, to try and earn Appeal Points. At the end of each round, judges award extra hearts to the Pokémon: +3 hearts if only one Pokémon performed to them, +2 each if two Pokémon performed to them, +1 apiece if three Pokémon performed to them, and none if all Pokémon performed to the same judge. This competition has four rounds, rather than the five rounds found in Generation III. The Pokémon, contrary to the Hoenn Contests, get their position by their scoring in reverse. The best scorer goes last and the worst scorer goes first, unless specific appeal effects modify this. Performing a Contest-matching move (i.e. a Tough move in a Tough Contest) to any judge causes their Voltage to go up by 1, however, an incompatible move (such as a Smart move in a Cool Contest) causes the Voltage to go down by 1. The Pokémon who fills the last star on a judge's Voltage meter will receive a bonus from the judge they performed to: Keira and Jordan give +5 hearts, while Dexter (as the head judge) gives +8. No bonus hearts are awarded for causing the Voltage to increase unless it's the fifth and final star, or if the move mentions that as a specific effect (such as Poison Jab); likewise, causing the Voltage to go down never results in losing hearts.

Unlike in Generation III, the most a Pokémon can use any move in succession is two times. Most moves can only be used once, while specific moves, such as Outrage or Arm Thrust, may be used twice in a row. If a Pokémon only has one move, it may not enter a Super Contest (including Visual and Dance practice sessions). This makes it impossible for Unown and Ditto to legitimately have any Super Contest Ribbons.

In lower ranks, computer-controlled players may cheat to their own detriment, and the player's benefit. If such a player would select randomly between all three judges, they will instead wait to find out which judge the human player selected (something that is not normally possible to do at move selection time), and a certain percentage of the time, they will modify their random selection to specifically avoid that judge. In Normal Rank, this judge avoidance mechanism occurs 90% of the time; in Great Rank, 50%; and in Ultra Rank, 20%. No judge avoidance occurs in Master Rank.

Each heart earned from the Acting Competition is scored as 10 points, though the exact number ultimately doesn't matter since no score is ever compared as a raw total against a score from a different round.

Results

Winning a Super Contest

To compute a Pokémon's final score, the scores from each competition are first scaled such that the Pokémon with the best score in the competition is given 33 points, and the other Pokémon are given scores proportional to this score. This score is then scaled again such that the best score is filled in with 64 pixels, and the other Pokémon have a proportional number of pixels filled in on the scoring bar, with a different color for each round (so the overall scoring bar takes up 192 out of the DS's 256-pixel horizontal resolution). The final score of a Pokémon is the sum of the Pokémon's scores from each of the competitions, and the Pokémon with the highest final score wins. If there is a tie for highest score, a winner among the tied players is randomly chosen.

The winning Pokémon will receive a Ribbon for the Contest condition and rank. The player will also receive a special Accessory for the first time they win a given Contest category and rank, which can be used to dress up their Pokémon in future Contests.

Accessory prizes

Category	Accessories
	Normal Rank	Great Rank	Ultra Rank	Master Rank
Cool Contests
	Red Barrette	Red Balloons	Top Hat	Gold Pedestal
Beauty Contests
	Blue Barrette	Blue Balloons	Silk Veil	Glass Stage
Cute Contests
	Pink Barrette	Pink Balloon	Lace Headdress	Flower Stage
Smart Contests
	Green Barrette	Green Balloons	Professor Hat	Cube Stage
Tough Contests
	Yellow Barrette	Yellow Balloon	Heroic Headband	Award Podium

Main article: List of Contest opponents (Generation IV)

There are several contestants that are also encountered throughout the storylines of the games. After the player has entered the Hall of Fame, either Fantina, Johanna or Jasmine will participate in every Master Rank contest. Only one of the three will appear in any given contest. Kristin and Casey do not share this restriction, although they also appear only in Master Rank contests.

Fantina

Fantina is the Gym Leader of Hearthome City. She competes with her Drifblim, nicknamed Loony, and appears in Cool, Beauty, Smart, and Tough Contests.

	Types: Ghost Flying
Loony♀
Focus Energy Cool Appeal: 0     --               Ominous Wind Smart Appeal: 0     --               Constrict Tough Appeal: 0     --               Explosion Beauty Appeal: 0     --

Johanna

Johanna is the player's mother. She competes with her Kangaskhan, nicknamed Jumpy, and appears in Cool, Cute, and Tough Contests. She seems to be well acquainted with the Judge Keira.

	Type: Normal Unknown
Jumpy♀
Fake Out Cute Appeal: 2 ♥♥   --               Endure Tough Appeal: 2 ♥♥   --               Reversal Cool Appeal: 2 ♥♥   --               Dizzy Punch Cool Appeal: 0     --

Jasmine

Jasmine is the Gym Leader of Olivine City in Johto. She competes with her Steelix, nicknamed Rusty, and appears in Beauty, Cute, Smart, and Tough Contests.

	Types: Steel Ground
Rusty♂
Screech Smart Appeal: 2 ♥♥   --               Fire Fang Beauty Appeal: 3 ♥♥♥   --               Stone Edge Tough Appeal: 2 ♥♥   --               Mud Sport Cute Appeal: 2 ♥♥   --

Kristin

Kristin is a Reporter. She competes with her Magneton, nicknamed Jolt, and appears in Beauty and Smart Contests.

	Types: Electric Steel
Jolt
Supersonic Smart Appeal: 2 ♥♥   --               Gyro Ball Beauty Appeal: 2 ♥♥   --               Metal Sound Smart Appeal: 2 ♥♥   --               Magnet Rise Cute Appeal: 2 ♥♥   --

Casey

Casey is a Pokémon Center lady. She competes with her Chansey, nicknamed Pinky, and appears in Cute and Tough Contests.

	Type: Normal Unknown
Pinky♀
Double-Edge Tough Appeal: 0     --               Minimize Cute Appeal: 2 ♥♥   --               Healing Wish Cute Appeal: 0     --               Fling Tough Appeal: 1 ♥   --

The Super Contest Hall in Pocket Monsters DP

Pocket Monsters DP

In Super Contest Opens!!, Red's Clefairy participated in a Pokémon Super Contest. He went up against a Carnivine, but ended up slacking off at the last minute, baking and eating Poffins.

Pokémon Adventures

The Super Contest Hall in Pokémon Adventures

Diamond & Pearl arc

In Booying with Buneary, after wandering into the Super Contest Hall, Platinum was accidentally whisked to the stage. When she failed to perform, the audience saw her expensive jewelry and assumed she had tried to win just by being rich. Wanting to defend the name of her family, Platinum registered for the next day's Normal Rank Coolness Contest.

Platinum's Super Contest took place in Perturbed by Pachirisu. During it, other contestants sought to sabotage Platinum by disorganizing her Fashion Case and having their Pokémon bump into Prinplup during the Dance Competition. These setbacks made Platinum feel dejected, but Diamond managed to cheer her up and remind her that Contests were all about having fun. With these encouragements, Platinum was able to overcome her dejection and give it her all during the Acting Competition. Her performance enthralled both the audience and the judges, allowing her to win the Contest.

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  The Visual Competition in Pokémon Adventures

• 

  The Dance Competition in Pokémon Adventures

Pokémon Diamond and Pearl Adventure!

The Super Contest Hall in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl Adventure!

In Beauty Contest: The Pokémon Super Contest!!, after arriving in Hearthome City, Hareta learned about Pokémon Super Contests and, along with Mitsumi and Jun, decided to participate in one. Hareta and Jun participated in a Normal Rank Super Contest, but only succeeded in getting themselves disqualified for their poor performances. Mitsumi participated in a Master Rank Super Contest, but went overboard as her Infernape accidentally burned down the Contest Hall's dome with Fire Spin. Afterwards, a man introducing himself as Mitsumi's friend asked Hareta to tell her that her performance was great.

• The Super Contest ranks are named after the original Kanto Poké Balls (Normal, Great, Ultra, and Master).
• Pokémon that have Ribbons earned in Pokémon Contests in Generation III do not have any advantage when entering a Super Contest; they must go through all four ranks no matter what.
• Pokémon back sprites are often flipped in the Acting Competition, but there are exceptions for noticeably asymmetrical Pokémon, such as Togekiss and Budew.
  • In spite of this, Weezing's sprite is flipped, despite its obviously asymmetrical appearance.
• There appears to be a formal or semi-formal dress code for Super Contest entrants—in the Generation IV games, players are given a tuxedo or dress (dependent on gender) by Johanna prior to their debut, and animated series characters usually dress up for Sinnoh Pokémon Contests (though Ash did not do so in the Jubilife Contest).
• In Pokémon Platinum, all Pokémon are shown in their sprites from Diamond and Pearl instead of updated ones during the Visual and Dance Competitions.
  • The main reason for this is to provide compatibility for multiplayer Super Contests, as the winner of the most recent Super Contest would have a photo of itself in its dressed-up state displayed in front of the reception desks in the Contest Hall.