Every. Smash. Stage. Every stage in Super Smash Bros. has a ton
of love poured into it, referencing dozens of video games across history,
down to the smallest details. And as the "Reference Guy," I've been asked for this
I don't know how many times. I've always just put it off because it's a big task - but it's
also not so big that it would take me years to do it. And
I'm finally caving. We're gonna tackle this game by game.
For the most part, I'm gonna focus on just the first version of a stage, how it appeared in its
debut game. There will be some exceptions where we talk about upgrades or changes in future appearances,
but for the most part we're going to stick to the first appearance. Okay, enough stalling,
here we go: every single stage in Super Smash Bros. So the first ever stage we'll be talking about
is none other than Peach's Castle. This stage is a bit of an oddball. Smash presents the stage
as the top of Peach's Castle from Super Mario 64, with the matching tower in the center and
the background of the stage being an aerial shot of the castle as a whole, However, there are
also plenty of elements that are just kind of thrown together from other levels in the game. The main platform's
floor is taken from the lobby of the castle, the bridges from Cool, Cool Mountain and even
these Lego blocks from Bowser in the Dark World. The stage also has a bumper hovering left
to right as a hazard though this doesn't really have
any basis from Mario 64. Exclusively in Smash 64, a
Lakitu will also occasionally fly by, representing
the Lakitu who controls the camera in Mario 64.
But in all later versions of this stage, this Lakitu is missing. Next up is Donkey Kong's
home turf: Congo Jungle, spelled with a 'C' in
Smash 64, but changing to being spelled with a 'K' in
all future games. Congo Jungle is a stage inspired
by the aesthetic of Donkey Kong Country, the soft
reboot of the Donkey Kong franchise as a whole. The stage's elements are taken from the appearance
of levels found in Kongo Jungle the first world of the first Donkey Kong Country game, with
wooden buildings and platforms being a staple for the levels. The sunset environment for the stage is taken
from Orang-utan Gang, where this same sunset gradient is used in the background. Congo Jungle also
has a barrel with an arrow moving underneath it. Barrels are another staple in Donkey Kong
Country with many uses, one of which being to blast the Kongs forward in the direction it's currently
facing. This barrel functions similarly by moving side to side and also occasionally rotating.
If the player is too low to recover on the stage, they can aim for the barrel and get blasted
to the stage by either pressing a button or waiting out the timer. Arrow Barrels originate from
Donkey Kong Country 2, however these ironically don't move in their home game. The barrel in Smash likely contains
the arrow just to make it easier to determine which direction the barrel is facing. Next,
we have the first ever Zelda series stage: Hyrule Castle. This stage is a well-done adaptation
of the highest section of Hyrule Castle from Ocarina of Time, which is also the game Link
in Smash 64 is based on. The only changes made to this section is giving the middle tower platforms
to walk on and raising the far right spire to make it playable. The background for the stage
features Death Mountain, a looming volcano that can be seen from nearly everywhere while out in
Hyrule, so thematically this works well for the stage since you would also be able to see Death
Mountain in Ocarina of Time. Hyrule Castle also has occasional tornadoes that appear as hazards
that spin players caught in them and launch them upward. While this exact function doesn't take place
in Zelda games of the era, the Recorder in The
Legend of Zelda has the ability to summon a tornado
and teleport Link to different dungeons which could possibly be where this is derived from. Our next stage
is Planet Zebes from the Metroid series. Planet Zebes is a sort of destroyed cave-style stage
with a notable attribute of having acid as a hazard that regularly rises and falls, forcing
the players to change where they fight. Zebes is the planet that both Metroid and Super
Metroid take place on, though the stage itself isn't exactly a direct connection to anything specific.
Elements of the stage are pulled from Metroid, however. The platform's design is borrowed
from some of the tiles found in Norfair; the acid itself is taken from the appearance of acid in Metroid
while the concept of rising acid is taken from Super Metroid, where lava would rise in certain
areas of the game. In the background of the stage,
you will occasionally see Ridley, pretty much
the most popular boss in all of Metroid, and some Wavers, another more common type of enemy.
At the bottom of the stage we can see what appears to be a map, which is likely based
on the layout of rooms and hallways found in the
Metroid series. This is one of the few stages that
has never returned in any capacity in any Smash
game, making it a Smash 64 exclusive. That was since replaced
by a similar stage that we'll talk about in a bit. Next up, we have the only unlockable
stage in Smash 64: Mushroom Kingdom. This stage gets its design from Super Mario Bros., with
some bits translated into 3D. The foreground features some platforms, POW Blocks, bricks, and pipes.
The pipes also have Piranha Plants that occasionally rise out of them, taken straight from the
game. You can crouch on these pipes and they will actually allow you to use them to warp, though
rather than take you to a new area, it will simply send you to a random pipe elsewhere on the stage.
This stage also has the Balance Lifts, which are not only fully functional but actually take a
character's weight into consideration; heavy characters make these fall quicker than lighter characters
and if two characters are on each end, the scale will adjust accordingly. This also means
that if characters are equal weight, the Power Lift will be completely balanced. The POW Block
isn't actually from Super Mario Bros., but rather the arcade Mario Bros., probably just
added to throw in some chaos to the stage. In the background, you can see some Bullet Bills, Buzzy Beetles,
clouds and Mushrooms to all match up with the aesthetic of Super Mario Bros. But, you
may notice that the 64 version of this stage kinda feels
almost like knockoff Mario Bros. in some areas, particularly
in the colors of sprites and their proportions to one another. All of this changed in Mushroom
Kingdom's only return from 64 in Smash Ultimate. This time around, the stage looks far more
uniform size-wise and, moreover, it looks like they straight up rip the sprites from
Super Mario Bros. rather than recreating everything. So color-wise, it looks closer too. Functionally, however,
this stage is essentially the same with minor background elements really being the only
changes. From Mario, we next move to Yoshi and his stage: Yoshi's Island as it's named
in Smash 64 and Melee and Super Happy Tree as it's named
in Ultimate. This is naturally Yoshi's home stage
in 64 and it has a very arts-and-crafts type feel to it, which makes sense when we look
at its inspiration, Yoshi's Story. In this game, the Super Happy Tree is the source of
all happiness for the Yoshis and Baby Bowser steals the Super Happy Tree and turns Yoshi's Island
into a picture book. So, the Super Happy Tree is in the background of the stage, with the actual stage design
being sort of original for Smash. However, aesthetically it gets its cardboard appearance from the
first level of the game and its more fabric appearance from the second and third levels. There are
also clouds that appear over the abyss on the left
and right of the stage and will despawn after a certain
amount of time after a player has landed on them. The 64 version of the stage also features
Message Blocks taken from Yoshi's Story, though these are in the background of the stage above
the clouds and serve no function in Smash. Next up, we have honestly one of my favorite
stages in all of Smash, Dream Land from the Kirby
series. This colorful stage is inspired by Green Greens,
originally from Kirby's Dream Land, but more based on the appearance from Kirby Super Star. The
stage also prominently features Wispy Woods, a giant tree with a face who serves as the
first boss of the previously mentioned games. Though he has other attacks in his home game
on this stage, he simply blows wind either left
or right, pushing players in the respective direction
but dealing no damage. The background of this
stage is a very low quality top-down view of Dream
Land, the world from Kirby. Additionally, in the background, you can occasionally see either King Dedede
or Bronto Burts flying across just for a little ambiance. Our next stage is Sector Z from
the Star Fox series. This stage features the Great Fox, Team Star Fox's mothership, traveling through space
with debris and missiles flying by on the screen. Occasionally, Arwings will fly by during gameplay and fire
lasers at players, dealing damage to them. Sector Z is an area of the Lylat System in
Star Fox 64, appropriately named because of the Z shape in the area. During the course of Star Fox
64, Team Star Fox heads to Sector Z based on a lead, but gets ambushed, with the Great Fox being
threatened by Copperhead Missiles. The stage in Smash is
a recreation of this level, complete with the background of
the stage even being an image of Sector Z from the game. This is yet another stage that did not
return in any future Smash games, again being spiritually replaced by another stage with similar inspiration.
The final accessible multiplayer stage is none other than Saffron City, repping the Pokémon
fighters. This stage sees the players fight atop rooftops of skyscrapers found in Saffron City,
the biggest city in Pokémon Red and Blue versions. The main building is Silph Co.,
the site of Team Rocket's takeover at the climax of the game. During the course of battle, the doors on
the Silph Co. building will open up and a random Pokémon can appear with a variety of effects. First
is Venusaur, who can use Razor Leaf to damage players. Next is Charmander, who can blast out Flamethrower
to damage players. Then, we have Electrode, who will roll out of the doors, chill for a moment, and then
use Explosion, causing massive damage and knockback. Next, Porygon, who simply blasts out at a high speed
as a sort of surprise attack. Lastly is Chansey, who instead is a helpful Pokémon. She will
spawn an egg that contains an item inside and, additionally, she will instead heal players on contact,
unlike every other Pokémon on this list, which all deal damage on contact. There are also occasionally
Pokémon that fly by in the background, though they all serve no function as a hazard. These Pokémon
are: Butterfree, Pidgey, Fearow, and, rarest of all, the legendary bird Moltres. Now, despite
covering all of the accessible multiplayer stages, there
are three stages in Smash 64 that for all intents and purposes should be
multiplayer stages, they're all just locked behind single player modes. So we'll break
some rules and we'll briefly talk about these. First, we have what is officially named Duel Zone
in Smash 64 but would later become the standard layout for the stage known as Battlefield. This is
an original stage to Smash and, in Smash 64, serves as a location for battles against the Fighting
Polygon Team in the game's 1 Player Mode, and it does fit the style of the Fighting
Polygons pretty well. This stage would go on to have a counterpart in every single other Smash game, though this
design has never been reused. Instead, the tri-platform and general stage construction
has all been the same with different designs in every entry. The other stage that doesn't exist in 64's
multiplayer, but does in future Smash games, is Final Destination. Once again, this is a Smash original design:
a completely flat stage. This stage was originally designed as the perfect stage to fight Master
Hand, the boss of 64's 1 Player Game, as there are no walls or platforms to aid in avoiding
all of his attacks. Final Destination also received versions in all future Smash titles that were
actually playable in multiplayer, again each with their own designs. And the final pseudo-multiplayer
stage in Smash 64 is Meta Crystal. Meta Crystal is kind of a mixture of Smash original and
also inspired by Super Mario 64. This stage was created to better fit the fight against Metal Mario
in 1 Player Game with the inspiration coming from the Cavern of the Metal Cap from Mario 64. In
that game, Metal Mario is simply a power-up that Mario can obtain for a short while, while Smash
really was the first game to consider this a fully separate entity from standard Mario. The Cavern
of the Metal Cap has all kinds of crystals all over the place leading up to the Metal Cap
Switch and this stage in Smash has crystals all over the stage as well as the background image. Aside from
this connection, however, the stage is pretty much an original design for Smash. Unfortunately, this stage
has never graduated to full multiplayer stage in any future Smash title, but it felt wrong
to leave it out because it does really seem like a multiplayer stage. As a result, this is the
only single player stage that we'll actually talk about in this video. Next, it's time to move on
to Melee, which has way more stages to talk about. So let's start with Princess Peach's Castle. This stage
serves as a sort of upgrade of the Peach's Castle stage from Smash 64, being a more faithful
representation of the outside of the castle from Mario 64. However, it isn't without its liberties. First,
texture-wise, the stage looks rather different. The colors are now a bit more muted, the spire in the
center of the stage is also scaled down, and the top of the tower has been fully removed, making
it more reasonable to traverse the stage. Over the course of the match, multiple switches
spawn and, when hit, blocks matching the color will appear. This concept has appeared in both Super Mario
World and Super Mario 64, so this is sort of a fusion of those two ideas, though the blocks themselves
are missing the expected exclamation marks. Just like in those games, items will appear from these
blocks, however, instead of being specific items designated for each color, random items will appear.
If item spawns are set to none, these blocks still appear, but they simply serve as additional
platforms. Banzai Bills will also spawn during this match and will slowly move towards the castle before
making contact and causing a huge explosion. Banzai Bills first appeared in Super Mario World as well,
though at the time they never caused a giant explosion, making that aspect a Smash original for the
time. The next Mario universe stage in Melee is Rainbow Cruise. This stage is an auto scroller
that starts out on a flying pirate ship before moving to a variety of blocks found in the
Mario series and ultimately looping back around to the pirate ship again. Most of these elements
are pulled from Rainbow Ride, one of the final worlds of Super Mario 64. However, much has been adjusted
in order to serve as a better stage in Smash. For instance, the pirate ship does exist in
Rainbow Ride, but it looks drastically different and it never actually moves. Instead, Mario rides
around in this world on magic carpets that follow rainbow paths which are used later on in other parts
of the stage. The overall layout is also largely original, though as I said the elements used throughout
do exist in Super Mario 64. Additionally, seeing mountains in the background is fully Smash original
as nothing like this exists in Mario 64. You can also see a little small village sitting
on one of these mountains, which again doesn't exist in the game of origin. Now let's talk Mushroom Kingdom.
While this shares the name with the Smash 64 stage, it's a completely new version of
a similar concept, once again based on the original Super Mario Bros. aesthetic. Again we have brick blocks,
though this time they can actually be broken by attacking or jumping into them. ? Blocks
also spawn and, with items enabled, will result in a random item appearing out of them
when they're hit. This stage also has Balance Lifts just like Mushroom Kingdom 64 and they
function in precisely the same way. Unlike the previous version of this stage, this one unfortunately
does not have functional warp pipes. And, as an Easter egg, if you angle the camera past the
typical boundary you can see a DANGER! sign, which is a fun nod to that area serving as the blast zones
for the stage. And next we have Mushroom Kingdom II. Ironically, despite the name, this stage doesn't
originate from any location found canonically in the Mushroom Kingdom. Instead, it's based on the
Land of Dreams, or Subcon, the setting of Super Mario Bros. 2 or Super Mario USA. They probably
just rolled with Mushroom Kingdom II as a name to indicate that it's a Mario stage, especially since
at the time virtually no one knew the name of Mario 2's setting. The elements found in
the stage come from the overworld segments of Mario 2, particularly from World 1-1. Stylistically, the stage is
based on the remake of Super Mario Bros. 2 found in Super Mario All-Stars rather than
from the original for the NES. The center features a waterfall that has falling logs, which can
serve as platforms, pulled directly from such a segment in World 1-1. Additionally, two
enemies spawn on the stage. The first is Pidgit, a small bird on a magic carpet. While this is normally
a defeatable enemy in the original game, and the carpet becomes controllable, in Smash Pidgit instead
shows up occasionally and can be used as a platform. The other enemy that spawns is Birdo, who
will walk in from the edges on either the left or right side and she fires eggs towards
the players that can hit them and deal damage. Birdo is a recurring boss in Super Mario Bros. 2 and their main
source of damage is firing rounds of eggs at the player, as well. Our next stage in Melee is
Kongo Jungle - not to be confused with that one; this one spells Kongo with a K. To avoid confusion,
though, this stage's return in Smash Ultimate renames this to Kongo Falls. This stage takes place on
the edge of a waterfall with platforms built on top
of rocks jutting out the side. Despite sharing the
name with Donkey Kong Country's first world, this stage isn't pulled from any specific
part of these games, though certain elements are pulled from the trilogy. The log platform secured
with rope is a general design used throughout the Donkey Kong Country games. In the background
we can see Donkey Kong's Treehouse, which notably appears on the Kongo Jungle world map as well
as in the first level of Donkey Kong Country, though it doesn't exist anywhere near a waterfall
like it does in this stage. Klaptrap enemies, which first appeared in Donkey Kong Country, occasionally
fall over the edge of the waterfall and, if a player happens to be there, they can deal massive
damage and knockback. The bottom also has yet another Barrel Cannon that moves back and forth and,
similar to the Smash 64 stage, can catch a player and blast them in the direction that the arrow
is pointing. The other newly introduced Donkey Kong stage for Melee is Jungle Japes. This stage takes
place above a river with the main platform in the center and two smaller platforms on either
side of it. In both the later appearances of the stage in Brawl and Ultimate, it's possible to swim
in the river, making it possible to jump out of the water and back onto the platforms. In Melee
and Smash for 3DS, swimming is not possible and you essentially sink like a rock if you aren't
careful. This stage once again is a mishmash of elements from the Donkey Kong Country series. Log platforms
above water, the barrel house to the left, and the palm trees in the background can all be found throughout
the Donkey Kong Country games. Klaptrap enemies can also hop up out of the water and, just
like in the previous stage, can deal massive damage to players hit by them. The center platform also
features Cranky's Cabin in the background, naturally
where Cranky Kong lives throughout the Donkey Kong series.
However, while this cabin first appeared in the Country series, its appearance in Smash is
based on the most recent appearance at the time of Melee's release: its appearance from
Donkey Kong 64. In this game, Cranky Kong is a scientist that offers all of the Kongs various ability upgrades.
You can see Cranky's silhouette in this cabin and you can also see the various test tubes
and glassware that he uses, as well. The name for this stage is also more based on Donkey Kong 64 than
the Country games, with Jungle Japes literally being the name of the first world in Donkey
Kong 64. Up next, we have Great Bay. This Zelda stage is inspired by the Great Bay region in Termina, the setting
of The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. On the stage we have two man-made platforms along with a rock
structure on the left and, occasionally, a giant turtle on the right. The two center platforms
are essentially pulled straight from Majora's Mask, however, they've been oriented to the
right instead allowing for an extra platform to fight on. If they were kept as they are
in Majora's Mask, the bottom platform would be behind the main platform, inaccessible to fighters.
The building on this main platform is the Marine Research
Laboratory, a location that Link visits several times
during his adventure in Termina. On the lower platform, there's also an Owl Statue which in, Majora's
Mask, functionally serve as warp points that are scattered all over the map. One of these does
exist on this platform in the original game, however, in Smash, it has again been oriented
slightly differently in order to face the player. The Giant Turtle that appears is also a key plot
point in Majora's Mask, allowing Link to travel to the Great Bay Temple, though it never really
appears in this exact area in the game. Additionally, another friend appears on this stage: Tingle!
Tingle was first introduced in Majora's Mask, but has since become a regular staple in the Zelda
series. Tingle can blow up his balloon and float in the air, acting as a mid-air platform. However,
if a hitbox hits the balloon it will pop and Tingle will come plummeting down. This comes
straight from Majora's Mask, where Link needs to fire a projectile at Tingle's balloon in order
to get him to the ground, where Link can then speak to him and purchase maps from him. Finally
the background effectively plays out the big danger in Majora's Mask. As the match goes on, the Moon will
get closer and closer to the Earth until it looks like it's about to hit. Then, the Four
Giants, each freed by Link by conquering their respective temples, will appear to halt the Moon before
throwing it back up into the sky, where this cycle repeats. This plays on a three minute loop during the
course of the match, which is a reference to the three-day time cycle that serves as the core mechanic
in Majora's Mask. The other brand new Zelda stage introduced in Melee is one of the most well-known
in perhaps the entire Smash series: Temple. This is a
huge stage with multiple levels, platforms, and
the Pit of Doom down at the bottom. The general atmosphere of this stage is loosely based
on the appearance of temples in Zelda II: The Adventure of Link for the NES in both the actual temple appearance
as well as their design in the overworld. However, the stage layout itself is completely
original to Smash, not particularly based on the appearance of any area found in Zelda
II. Moving on, we have the first new Metroid stage introduced
in Melee: Brinstar. If you did a double take thinking
this stage was already covered, I really wouldn't blame you. Brinstar is a sort of reworked
evolution of the Smash 64 stage Planet Zebes. Same overall theme, same rising and falling acid that hurts
you, just on a much smaller scale. Brinstar is the very first location you begin the original
Metroid in and the second location you visit in Super Metroid. While the elements of this stage
are borrowed from these two games, the overall look and design of the stage is mostly unique to Smash. Many
of the references are the same as for the Planet Zebes stage,
since Brinstar is a location found on that planet.
In the middle of the main platform in the background, we can see a Chozo Statue. These
are found throughout the Metroid series, usually holding
on to an item upgrade. Occasionally, another variant
called Torizos are capable of walking around and attacking Samus. This Chozo Statue is capable
of walking around in Smash, however it simply will walk around a bit before sitting back
down with no effect on gameplay whatsoever. There's also a large clump of round, organic... things
on the bottom of the main platform and when attacked these will be destroyed and cause the stage
to partially separate. Similarly, the two side platforms are both attached by some kind of fleshy growth
and can also take several hits before breaking and causing these platforms to shift at an
angle. Both of these could be nods to the nature of Metroid games, where you destroy blocks
or parts of the environment in order to change aspects
of a room or open up access to a new area. The other
Metroid stage is also a Brinstar one: Brinstar Depths. This is an all-new stage, unlike the
previous one, and it's pretty wild. It starts on a large floating island of sorts with other platforms
nearby, pretty unevenly designed. You'll also notice the giant monster in the background. That's
Kraid, a mini boss that first appeared in Metroid before getting promoted to full boss
in Super Metroid. Regularly throughout the match, Kraid will rotate the stage causing players to prioritize
getting to safety or being risky and going for cheeky kills. This rotation of the stage is a completely
Smash original design, as is pretty much everything going on with this stage, as it bears no resemblance
to Kraid's Lair in either Metroid or Super Metroid. This stage being named Brinstar Depths
is simply observational, with Kraid's Lair literally being deep within Brinstar. In the jump from
Melee to Ultimate, Kraid gets a much more refined and polished model. Outside of this, though,
the stage is pretty much entirely the same, just prettier and in true HD. Time for another
stage that reuses a previously used name: Yoshi's Island. This time around, the Yoshi's Island stage
is built off of the appearance of Yoshi's Island as it appears in the first world of Super Mario
World. The general aesthetic of the foreground and background,
the big hills, all of this is peak Super Mario
World. In particular, the diagonal pipes are also taken straight from the first level of
the game. In the center we have rotating blocks, which were first introduced in Super Mario
World. In that game, if you jump into them or spin them with the cape they start to rotate, making
it possible to pass through them. Likewise, the same is true for Smash, making that center pit potentially
dangerous if you aren't careful. Occasionally, a Fishin'
Lakitu carrying a 1-Up Mushroom and a Banzai Bill
will fly by in the background, both enemies that debuted in Super Mario World. The other
Yoshi stage introduced in Melee is Yoshi's Story, of course named after the N64 game. Like the
Super Happy Tree stage from Smash 64, this stage also has the paper, cardboard, and fabric
aesthetics taken from the storybook design found in Yoshi's Story. Flying Shy Guys are a stage hazard
on this stage, capable of being hit by player attacks. If items are on, they will carry
food and drop it when attacked. Otherwise, they'll carry nothing, but still serve as a hazard for the
stage. On the sides of the stage are dashed lines that serve as a track for a happy little cloud, given the
nickname Randall in the Smash community. This cloud moves along this track throughout the
entirety of the match, making it possible for players to land on it rather than go for the ledge
or the stage. This cloud is taken from the level Rail Lift
in Yoshi's Story, which features Yoshi riding
this same cloud along a series of rails to progress through the level. Finally, in the background
we can see Pak E. Derm, a weird half-elephant, half-egg
looking guy walking back and forth on the stage holding
a stop sign. Pak E. Derm gets in the way of Yoshi during Yoshi's Story, requiring a ground
pound to progress. However, here in Smash he just walks back and forth as a silly little guy.
Next, let's move on to the Fountain of Dreams. This stage is originally based on the Fountain of Dreams
found in Kirby's Adventure and Kirby Super Star, a
fountain found on Planet Popstar that supplies good
dreams to those living in Dream Land. However, the developers seem to have taken an opportunity with the
Smash stage to redesign how this fountain looks, as it looks quite different from its original appearances.
Nevertheless, the core concept of a fountain remains and the majority of the main stage
section is covered in water. Additionally, there are three platforms, with the left and
right ones rising and lowering depending on the
stream of water beneath them. This redesign of Fountain of
Dreams actually extends into the main Kirby series, with this being the basis for how
the fountain looks in games made after Melee's release. It's always kind of neat when Smash influences
future games based on its representation of their series. The other new Kirby stage introduced
in Melee is Green Greens. This stage features three chunks of land, each connected by various
yellow Star or, sometimes, Bomb Blocks, which have both appeared in Kirby games. Prominently in the
center of the stage, of course, is Whispy Woods, who has uprooted his life from Dream Land
in order to come to this stage instead. Like on Dream
Land, Whispy will occasionally blow wind either
left or right, causing players to move. Unlike on Dream Land, Whispy will also shake occasionally
and drop apples which can either be eaten to heal
up some damage or be thrown as a projectile. Both
of these are Whispy's main means of attack in the Kirby games. Very basic, considering he's typically
the first boss of each game. Green Greens is the
first level of Kirby's Dream Land for the Game Boy; however,
this stage instead takes its design cues from the first stage of Popstar in Kirby 64: The
Crystal Shards. Sort of a fusion of these two first levels. We have yet another spiritual successor
to a Smash 64 stage up next: Corneria from the Star Fox series. This is probably the closest
that a successor has been to its previous counterpart, with the fight still taking place on the Great
Fox. This time, though, the Great Fox is scaled
down in size so that the characters are proportionally
bigger to the ship compared to Smash 64, and the
blast zones are more reasonably closer to the stage. Arwing
will still occasionally fly down and fire double lasers, joined now by Wolfen, also firing
lasers on the Great Fox. The front cannons can act as a platform for players to stand on, but they
also fire two massive lasers occasionally that almost always KO. The biggest change
is, of course, the background, with it now being - as indicated by the name of the level - Corneria, a recurring
location in the Star Fox series. This specific version is based on the first level from Star
Fox 64, Corneria, and it follows the same path that
Team Star Fox does during the events of the game. This
stage appeared in both Brawl and Smash for 3DS relatively unchanged, however in Ultimate the appearance
has had a big overhaul. In this version, it is now based on Corneria as it appears in
Star Fox Zero, the latest entry in the series for the Wii
U that serves as a reimagining of the events of Star
Fox 64. Next, we turn things 90 degrees and move on to Venom. This stage also features the
Great Fox, however instead of facing to the left it now faces directly at the viewer,
drastically decreasing the amount of surface that players
have to utilize. As the name suggests, this stage
is a recreation of the level Venom, the final level of Star Fox 64. In Star Fox, Venom is a sort of barren
wasteland, however in Smash, they've instead gone ahead
and interpreted this to also have a ton of volcanic
craters and lava everywhere. There are also plenty of rock formations and a giant cave the Great
Fox traverses through. Ironically, though, the Great Fox is never seen in this level
in Star Fox, as Team Star Fox pilots their Arwings instead. This stage does have Arwings and Wolfens appear,
though, and just like on Corneria, they will fire
lasers down on the players. Next let's make our way to
Kanto and talk about Pokémon Stadium. This Stadium is clearly meant to be used for Pokémon
battles, but Smash has completely co-opted it for its silly little party game. In the background,
we can see a big jumbotron, which will show a variety of things: footage of characters
fighting, the current player rankings, the timer, and
the upcoming form the stage will take, because
this stage is also a transforming stage. There are four different forms - aside from its standard
layout - that this stage can take on. The jumbotron
will indicate a typing symbol and the transformation
will rise out of the bottom. These transformations are: a Grass form, with wooden platforms in
the center, a tree with a branch that serves as a platform, and some forestry elements in the background;
a Fire form, which features basically the aftermath of a forest fire, with dying trees
and a half burnt down house; a Water form, which features a small pool of water, some fountains holding
up platforms, and a big windmill that can be walked on;
and a Rock form, which summons terrain that represents
a small canyon with a mine shaft, with platforms in the middle. While it's definitely possible
that the base form of this stage is inspired by the stadiums that were found in the game
of the same name, Pokémon Stadium, the battlefield transformation aspect is never seen in any
core Pokémon games. However, it was a big detail used during
the first season of the Pokémon anime, when Ash was
competing in the Indigo Plateau Conference. The preliminary rounds of this conference
had the trainers competing on four different battlefield types: Rock, Grass, Water, and Ice. While the actual
designs used in Smash are pretty much original, there's no doubt that this detail in the anime would
have inspired the creation of this stage. The other Pokémon stage introduced in Melee is the ever popular
Poké Floats. This is a stage that, as the game indicates, takes place above the Kanto skies.
These giant Pokémon floats serve as the ground fighters can walk and fight on, and they will float
in and out of the frame in the playable area. The Pokémon featured in this stage are, in
order of appearance:
Squirtle, Onix, Psyduck, Chikorita, Weezing, Slowpoke, Porygon, Wooper, Sudowoodo, Snorlax,
Venusaur, Seel, Wobbuffet, Unown, Goldeen, Lickitung, Chansey, and Geodude. All of the models found
on this stage are ripped straight from the Pokémon
Stadium N64 games. Honestly this stage must have been
some kind of drug-induced fever dream that they
decided to make real because there is zero source
material for any of this. The current theory is that
Sprout Tower, a stage originally planned for Melee,
got scrapped late in development and this fever dream of
a stage was thrown together in order to give the Pokémon series
a second stage. However, this has never been confirmed or disproven. This is unfortunately
another stage that has never seen a return beyond
its debut game, leaving it behind in Melee. Next, we have the first ever F-Zero stage in Smash history:
Mute City. This stage is a pretty faithful recreation of Mute City 1 from F-Zero X for the Nintendo
64. The fight moves on a platform throughout the raceway, moving to different points along
the track before pausing at various sections. These sections have you fight directly on
the raceway, occasionally with new platforms that are raised up. When the platform is about to raise and
move away again, a GO! icon appears at the top, accompanied by a sound effect. This same sound
effect plays when a racer crosses the finish line
in a race. Throughout the fight, vehicles are regularly
speeding by, potentially hitting any fighters or being hit by fighters. Ultimately, the stage is
pretty faithful to the original track, outside of
the platforms that spawn in. The only exception I can see
is the energy panels known as Pits, which in F-Zero refill a vehicle's energy, but in
Smash, basically just act like ice physics, making
it a slippery area for the players to run on. This is yet
another stage that has never seen a return in any future Smash game. Our other F-Zero stage
is Big Blue, naturally also based on a raceway from the F-Zero series. This one in particular pulls
inspiration from both forms of Big Blue found on the standard version of F-Zero X for the N64. As opposed
to Mute City, Big Blue features a race with F-Zero vehicles but from the side perspective, with the vehicle
serving as potential platforms, as well. The main part of the stage is Captain Falcon's ship,
the Falcon Flyer, considerably bigger than the standard vehicles. The Falcon Flyer's only appearance
in the F-Zero series doesn't even take place in the
games. Instead, it appears in the manual for the
original F-Zero, so Sakurai was really using the deep
cuts for this stage. The stage itself doesn't actually
follow the path of an actual track like Mute City did. Instead, this is a randomly generated
track. Many parts of the Big Blue stages in F-Zero X are
completely missing from Smash and other parts have been
added that weren't present in the first place. Overall,
it mostly just seems to use the theming Big Blue
has while doing its own Smash original thing. In both Melee and Brawl, the vehicles are
based on their designs from F-Zero X for the N64. However, in the upgrade it got in Ultimate,
the cars were updated to instead be based on the vehicle's designed from F-Zero GX, the sequel that was
made for the GameCube. Now, let's move on to Onett, the hometown of Ness. This stage is made up
of three buildings: a yellow with a red roof, a light
blue with a darker roof, and the brick drugstore in
the center. The blue house bears resemblance to houses found in EarthBound, while the drugstore is
an actual location found in EarthBound. This store has one awning in the actual game, while in Smash
it was given two and was made a bit taller just for some variety. Likewise, the house
on the left side bears no resemblance to houses in EarthBound and was, again, likely changed up to just
be different from the blue house. The background also shows us a bit more. Aside from the generic houses,
we can see the hospital, Ness and Porky's houses, and the meteorite at the top of the
hill seen at the very start of EarthBound. This stage also features multiple cars that regularly
drive recklessly past the fighters and could potentially
hit them for massive damage. First, there are
two generic cars: a teal one and a magenta one. Then, there's also a taxi cab, which was possibly
derived from the Mad Taxi enemy that's found in EarthBound. And finally, we have the Runaway Five's black
van, which is more directly associated with Ness and co. during the events of the game. Off-screen,
you can also see other elements of Onett, such as
the hotel and the arcade. More detailed, but still off-screen,
is the Onett Message Board, based on similar signs that are found around Onett in EarthBound.
In Smash, this states, "CAUTION. A black van driven by this guy has been spotted racing recklessly
through town. Be careful!" An image of a man accompanies the sign, with the man being Lucky, one of
the Runaway Five members. And then we have Fourside, another EarthBound series stage.
Fourside places the fighters at the top of multiple skyscrapers in the city of Fourside at night
with a little bit of construction going on as well. Interestingly, if we look at Fourside from EarthBound, it
really doesn't match with the Smash stage at all. The overall presentation seems to be Smash
original, however both Fourside in EarthBound and in Smash share the inspiration of being based
off of New York City. It's also possible that this stage was inspired by Moonside, the parallel
dimension version of Fourside, which takes place at night with lots of neon lights everywhere.
Regardless of what the inspiration was, though, they elected to make this more like a real-life
city than anything from the games. The central building on the stage is the Monotoli Building, a main
location of the story of EarthBound. The building in Smash, just like the building in EarthBound,
also contains a helipad that a helicopter periodically lands and flies away from. In Melee, this helicopter
is rather generic, however, in Ultimate, it resembles the helicopter as it is actually
portrayed in EarthBound. One liberty that Smash has taken is the left building, which appears
to be the Dinosaur Museum of Fourside. This is neither a skyscraper nor is it anywhere
near the Monotoli Building in the real game, but it
does allow for some variety on the stage, rather than just having
another generic building. Throughout the match, a UFO will appear periodically, allowing the
players to fight on it for a short time before disappearing. The surface of this UFO is almost ice- or
oil-like, making it very slippery. While actual UFOs
are pretty rare throughout the story of EarthBound, this
UFO is most likely taken from the opening cinematic ahead of the title screen, which features
multiple giant UFOs attacking a town. In fact, when this UFO comes down from above, it uses
the exact same sound effect as this opening cinematic. The second to last stage introduced in Melee
is Icicle Mountain, the home stage of the Ice Climbers. This stage is an auto-scroller,
going both up and down, requiring players to fight
and be decent at platforming at the same time.
This stage is clearly high atop a mountain, with lots of snow and ice on the various platforms, naturally
fitting in with the theme of the Ice Climbers. Conceptually, this stage is a creative extension of the
levels found in Ice Climber, where the Climber needs to jump up to the top of the screen in order
to complete the level. There are some elements indicating ice-like terrain, such as ice blocks or polar
bears, however the limitations of the NES prevented them from designing an actual icy mountain,
it was always just implied based on the game mechanics. So, Melee took the opportunity to take this
to its logical conclusion and make it mountainous terrain. The Polar Bear is an enemy from Ice Climber,
however it's almost become a secondary mascot of sorts, appearing in every single Ice Climber stage
in Smash. In the US versions of the game, there are these small yeti-like creatures
called Topis. However, in the Japanese version of the game, Topis are seal-like creatures instead. This
is an extension of the localization for Ice Climber on the NES where the seal enemy appeared
in Japan but was changed to a yeti in North America. And the final stage in Super Smash Bros. Melee
for the Nintendo GameCube is Flat Zone. This stage literally takes place inside of a Game
and Watch device, with the playable area existing inside of the handheld screen. The first ever
Game and Watch released in 1980 as small LCD devices that had pretty basic games and the character
Mr. Game and Watch is a conglomeration of these different games into a single character.
Flat Zone squishes all characters down to be two-dimensional. They also make the same beeping noise as Mr.
Game and Watch when they walk. This stage is largely based on the Game and Watch game,
Helmet. Layout-wise, it's quite similar and the actual physical layout of the device is
exactly the same, as well, with the sole exception
that 'HELMET' on the right side is replaced by
the words, 'SMASH BROS.' Additionally. the stage has other elements from other games.
The character for Manhole, which fills in gaps and platforms, and the character from Oil Panic spilling
oil, making it a slippery surface for fighters. This stage technically doesn't make a return
in this exact form, but it does have a successor that we'll talk about later. The first new stage in Super Smash Bros. Brawl
is Delfino Plaza. Delfino Plaza is the main location of Super Mario Sunshine, serving
as the hub that gives access to all of the various worlds found in the game. This stage
travels all over Delfino Plaza with the platforms lowering at various locations to briefly allow
the fight to take place directly on the ground or water or shrine. The actual Delfino Plaza
models are effectively ripped straight from Super Mario Sunshine with textures updated to fit
Brawl's style a bit and the whole thing's scaled down to improve performance. As a result, far off
areas that can be seen from Delfino Plaza are also visible in this stage. However, there are plenty of
tiny changes here and there. NPCs are removed, many items found and used in the overworld are missing,
some pipes are removed, the graffiti portals to other worlds are gone and various animations
are stripped. Most of this is done either because those elements are superfluous or because it helps
cut corners in certain areas to improve the performance of the stage. Next we have the Luigi's Mansion
stage. This stage is a miniaturized version of the
mansion that Luigi explores in the game of the same
name, filled with spooky ghosties and ghoulies. When all characters are outside of the mansion
interior, it will fade so that the exterior of the mansion
is in view and then it'll fade back in showing
the rooms while there are characters inside. The rooms visible are all also miniaturized
references of actual rooms found in the mansion, though obviously with some clear differences because
they are a fraction of the size. Directly in the center, taking up both the first and second stories,
we have the Foyer, the main entrance into the mansion. On the left side, second story,
we have the Nursery, the room that belongs to Chauncey,
one of the boss ghosts of the game. On the left side, ground
floor, we can see the Kitchen, which has the same sink, shelves, stove, and cupboard, though
in the actual game it's much deeper in the mansion and you wouldn't be able to see it from the
front. On the right side, second story, you'll find the Study, the room that belongs to Neville.
This is a drastically different location as the Study
in Luigi's Mansion is on the left side near the Nursery.
Lastly, on the right side, ground floor, is the Ballroom, another room that is quite out of place. This
is where you take on the Floating Whirlindas. Each story of the house is held up by these four
posts which can be attacked and, when they've taken enough
damage, will collapse and cause that section of the house
to be completely destroyed. When this happens, a bunch of Boos will appear and then vanish
as if they came out of the house, which is possibly a reference to the mechanic of Boos that hide
inside furniture and objects in Luigi's Mansion. Our next Super Mario stage is Mushroomy Kingdom. In Brawl,
this stage has two completely different forms: a 1-1 form and a 1-2 form. Both variants of
this stage are one-to-one creations of the first two
levels of Super Mario Bros. The only exception is
that there are no shortcuts available so pipes or hidden blocks will not lead you anywhere,
so you can't access bonus rooms. Both forms of this stage look totally run down, with
1-1 given a desolate desert theme and 1-2 given a sort
of hidden ruins vibe. According to the Brawl DOJO!!
website, the ancient vibe was chosen for Mushroomy
Kingdom to indicate just how long it had been since
Super Mario Bros. had been released, with Brawl coming out 23 years after the release
of Super Mario Bros. Both forms of this stage are auto sidescrollers. Additionally, they loop infinitely,
so that when the flagpole or end pipe are reached, the stage naturally approaches the
beginning of the level again. Like previous Super Mario series stages, hitting item blocks while items
are enabled will result in a random item popping out of them. Under normal circumstances, the
form you get when selecting the stage is completely random. However, you can force one form or the other
by holding down a button while selecting the stage. While 1-1 has returned in future Smash games, for
some reason 1-2 never returned after Brawl, leaving 1-1 the de facto standard form of
Mushroomy Kingdom. Next up, we have the stage known as Mario Circuit. This stage is a rather basic
Mario Kart inspired stage that loops around in a figure
8. One part of the stage has the track on the bottom,
while the upper half has platforms that serve as jump ramps for the upper part of the track.
Actual kart racers also appear on this stage, all of which are Shy Guys. These racers can be
hit with attacks or can slam into players as they drive past. All of the drivers being Shy Guys is likely
a reference to the Download Play features in both Mario
Kart DS and Mario Kart 7 where a friend could play
with you locally on their system without owning the game, only capable of racing as a Shy
Guy. The figure 8 design of this stage is taken from Figure 8 Circuit in Mario Kart
DS, with similar elements existing in both the game
and the stage. In fact, this is even more evident
in Ultimate where the stage was literally renamed to Figure
8 Circuit to avoid confusion with other similarly named
stages. In the background we can see a big jumbotron, which indicates where the racers
on the track currently are as well as their placements. This idea was taken from the same
feature in Mario Kart DS, where you can see a full track overview and current placements on the
bottom screen by tapping the touch screen, they just took that idea and slapped it onto
a giant jumbo screen. Next, let's quickly talk about the Mario Bros. stage. This stage is
a recreation of the first stage in the arcade game, Mario
Bros. Enemies appear from the pipes at the top and
make their way down the stage, ultimately entering the pipes at the bottom if left alone. In the
arcade game, the ultimate goal is to defeat all of the enemies. In Smash, all of these
enemies still spawn, but the goal is obviously still to
defeat your opponent. The enemies can be defeated by an
attack or by jumping and hitting them from below. While in the arcade game they are defeated,
they can be picked up after being attacked in Smash and used as an incredibly powerful item. The
stage even has a POW Block that will defeat all enemies currently on screen. In Brawl,
the sides of the screen serve as the blast zones. In Ultimate, this is still the case. However, now players
can also wrap around the screen: walking to the left and appearing on the right or vice
versa, just like in the actual arcade game. However, if a player is hit while crossing this threshold,
the blast zones once again take effect and that player will die. For the third time ever, we need
to talk about a stage named Yoshi's Island. They really love that name, don't they? This is a fairly
straightforward stage. There is basic sloped ground on the bottom with a flat platform above it that
regularly tilts back and forth. Like Yoshi's Story in Melee, Fly Guys will often fly around on this
stage and, with items on, they will again carry food and drop
it when attacked. Additionally, we have the inclusion
of Blarggwich, which are enemies that were first introduced in Yoshi's Island on the
SNES. These are big blob-like creatures that have platforms on their heads and they'll occasionally
appear on the left or right side of the main stage. The big feature of this stage is that it changes
form over the course of the match. There are four forms in total, each representing a different
season: Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. Each of
these forms match seasons that are found in levels
of Yoshi's Island, they've simply been combined into a single stage. There is no season changing
stage in the game, this is just a creative liberty on the part of the Smash development
team. And the next stage we're going to quickly tackle
is Rumble Falls. Rumble Falls is a giant auto-scrolling
level that takes you up the side of a mountain with a waterfall, fighting on various wooden
and stone platforms or bridges. This stage is in fact inspired by two levels found in
Donkey Kong Jungle Beat. The bottom half of this stage is, of course, inspired by the level Rumble
Falls, the first level in the Pineapple Kingdom. While the concept of the stage is the same, the platform
layout is completely original along with other elements such as ladders, spikes, and switches. The
top half of the stage is inspired by Sky Garden, the second level of the Orange Kingdom. Again,
the inspiration for this is mostly taken from
the overall concept of the level, with Smash throwing
a bunch of its own ideas into it... like this plane, which doesn't appear anywhere in Jungle Beat.
This is another stage that has never returned in any
form in future Smash titles. The other Donkey Kong
stage is a huge throwback: 75m. This stage is a recreation of the third level in the
Donkey Kong arcade game, literally named 75m. Naturally,
some liberties have been taken in order to adapt
this stage for Smash, such as removing the bottom platform that stretches across the screen, but overall
this is a pretty faithful recreation. There are ladders and elevators, fireballs, and
springs that act as stage hazards, as well as certain items that give you points. While these points are
tallied up at the very top of the screen, they don't
actually impact gameplay in any way. At the top of
the stage is an 8-bit Donkey Kong that exists mostly in the background. Periodically throughout
the fight, Donkey Kong's arcade jingle will play and he will come on to the actual stage serving
as a big stage hazard before going back into the background. The Brawl and Smash for Wii U versions of
the stage are graphically based on the NES port of Donkey Kong, while Ultimate changes up
by making it more accurate to the original arcade release. Next we have the first new Zelda stage in
Brawl: The Bridge of Eldin. This is a completely flat, long stage where in the background you can
see Hyrule Castle. This stage is pulled straight from the Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and plot points
that exist around this bridge in the Eldin Province. In Twilight Princess, Link Battles King Bulbin
on the bridge of Eldin, with the stage visually matching this point of the story. Later on,
Link crosses this bridge again with a giant section of it being teleported away moments later, making
it impossible to go backwards. Eventually this piece is
found and restored to the bridge via the Twilight
Portal. The Smash version of the stage sort of combines
these two events into a single one, creating a stage hazard. Periodically,
King Bulbin's horn will be heard and he will ride by from either the left or right side
on Lord Bullbo. Sometimes when this happens, King Bulbin will drop a Bomb Barrel in the center
of the stage, which will then explode and destroy the middle chunk of the bridge, just like in Twilight
Princess. The Smash game will continue for some time
before a Twilight Portal will appear above the bridge
and restore it to perfection - ready to be destroyed by King Bulbin once again. So clearly
the events didn't happen this way in Twilight
Princess, but they were sort of mishmashed together
to be something slightly Smash original and slightly based on the game of origin. The
other new Zelda stage introduced in Brawl was Pirate Ship. While Bridge of Eldin was inspired by
Twilight Princess, Pirate Ship comes from the Wind
Waker. The main portion of the stage is taken from the
pirate ship sailed by Tetra and her pirate crew.
It sails along the water with players able to
fall off of it and swim in the water. It also has a catapult that will occasionally launch,
based on the catapult that Link is flung off of
at the Forbidden Fortress. Over the course of the
match, multiple different elements will appear in order to interfere with the fight. The
first is the King of Red Lions, appearing on the right side not only as a reference to Link's ship
and companion in the game but also as an additional platform that can be fought on. The pirate ship also
passes an enemy Lookout Platform which will fire
bombs at it, which can potentially hit players. The ship can
also run aground on a small rocky Island. After that, the island apparently will sink
back into the ocean with the ship continuing on its merry way. Finally, the weather will get cloudy
and a cyclone will appear in the background before completely engulfing the ship and launching
it high into the air above the clouds, where all is
calm, you can see a sun and a nice little rainbow...
And then it comes all careening back down to the ocean. While this never happens specifically to the
pirate ship, Link can perform the Ballad of Gales while
on the King of Red Lions, which will use cyclones
to warp the pair to various locations around the ocean, so this is most likely the inspiration
for this segment of the stage. Norfair is the first new Metroid stage introduced in Brawl. This is
a series of five platforms surrounded by an entire area made of lava. It's based on Norfair's appearance
in both Super Metroid and Metroid: Zero Mission, but obviously made far more elaborate because
of the improved graphical capability of the Wii and beyond. In Super Metroid, there's
a section where Samus must climb to the top of a room and exit before lava completely engulfs her
and she dies. A similar concept takes place on this
stage, with a huge tidal wave of lava rushing towards the
stage with the only safety being small shelters that pop up. These shelters themselves are
based on the doors in the Metroid series that need to be shot in order to be opened, though in
Smash any attack will do, and the shelters themselves are a completely Smash original idea. Other
concepts like this are also used, with magma rising from
the bottom or taking over half of the screen from
the left or right. The other new Metroid stage is Frigate Orpheon. This stage is based on
the beginning of Metroid Prime, where Samus arrives thanks to a distress signal. In this opening segment,
she fights the Parasite Queen that has escaped. This boss battle, and the environment that
it takes place in, is what inspired the design for the stage. The stage itself has platforms
that change shape and layout, an original concept designed to help make the stage more unique. This stage
also has a pretty unique feature of an alarm going off and the stage doing a complete 180. While
this never happens during the events of Metroid Prime, it could be a very loose reference
to Frigate Orpheon collapsing and crashing after Parasite Queen is defeated. Next, let's talk Halberd,
the ship of the mysterious warrior, Meta Knight. This stage starts out in a large hangar before
a platform rises and takes off into the sky above an
ocean at sunset. The platform will fly around with
the Halberd ship in the background before landing on the main deck of the ship. While
on this platform, the Combo Cannon will attempt to
attack players. These attacks are: a giant mechanized arm,
a giant laser beam, and cannonballs. This stage was designed off of the events of Kirby Super Star: Revenge
of Meta Knight. Kirby must sneak onto the Halberd and stop Meta Knight from attempting to take
over Dream Land. Most of the elements - the hangar at the beginning, the presence of the Combo
Cannon, and even the lighting of the stage - are all pulled directly from the appearance
in Super Star. The design of the Halberd has been modified from its appearance in Super Star and it would
serve as the basis for future appearances of the Halberd in Kirby games created after Brawl's
release. From one flying ship to another, next let's move on to Lylat Cruise. The entire physical
stage takes place on the back of a spaceship flying around the events of various space battles.
This stage is notorious for its ability to tilt back and forth, providing more immersion for
the actual stage but occasionally impacting the use of
certain moves. There are a few events that take place
on this stage that are loosely inspired by events in the Star Fox series: the battle
between Andross' Army and the Cornerian Defense Force from the beginning of Star Fox: Assault, any number
of appearances of Star Wolf battling Star Fox, and the navigation of ships through asteroid fields. The actual
ship that players fight on is a completely Smash original creation, though it was actually
given a name: Pleiades, based on the real-life star cluster
found 444 light years from Earth. Interestingly,
this is the only Star Fox stage in all of Super Smash Bros. history to not take place
atop The Great Fox. Next we've got Pokémon Stadium
2. As the name suggests, this is a spiritual successor
to Pokémon Stadium from Melee, with the naming
convention being taken from the actual Pokémon Stadium
series. Layout-wise, the default form of this stage
is pretty much exactly the same as Stadium 1, just with
a different aesthetic to distinguish the two. The real meat and potatoes of this stage is,
of course, in the transformations, which are all new forms for this sequel stage. Like
Stadium 1, they are all based on a Pokémon typing but, unlike Stadium 1, they feature even more
changes as well as the presence of Pokémon related to that form's typing. First, we have the
Electric form, which seems to be inspired by the power plants found in Pokémon. This form also has conveyor
belts on the sides that drag players to the edges, making it difficult to recover. In the background,
we also have an Electivire, the evolved form of Electabuzz, and Magnezone, the evolved
form of Magneton. Both are Electric types and both are new evolutions introduced for pre-existing Pokémon in Pokémon
Diamond and Pearl, the then-most recent Pokémon games. Next is a Flying form that spawns fans on
the floor which push air currents up and make all of the fighters float in the air, making the
battles primarily aerial-focused. In the background,
we can see a Drifloon, a Hoppip, and a Skarmory,
all Flying-type Pokémon. Next, a Ground form, which spawns
a sort of excavation site where it appears people
are hunting for Pokémon fossils, with the Helix Fossil seen in a wall and bones found
on the ground. It's kind of ironic considering none of the fossil Pokémon are Ground-type. However,
we do have two Ground-types in the background: Dugtrio in the center and Cubone up on the
scaffolding. Lastly, we have the Ice form, which appears to be inspired by a cabin up in the snowy
mountains. Ice physics plague this form of the stage, as you would expect. Both Snover and Snorunt
are seen on this stage; both Ice-types and both coincidentally
using a snow pun in their names. Our other new Pokémon
stage is Spear Pillar. This is the first stage since Saffron City in Smash 64 to be solidly
based on a location found in the Pokémon games. Spear Pillar is the peak of Mount Coronet
in the Sinnoh region, and is the location of the climax of the story in Pokémon Diamond,
Pearl, and Platinum. The stage is a more realistic interpretation of Spear Pillar as if it were at the top of
a mountain range. The sort of destroyed temple is on the top layer and the bottom layer is
more of a cave, similar to the cave you have to traverse through to get to the peak. The
most notable part of the stage is the pedestal in the center, which can summon one of three Pokémon at
random: Dialga, Palkia, or Cresselia. Dialga and Palkia are the primary legendaries of Diamond and
Pearl, while Cresselia is simply a secondary legendary Pokémon from those games. All three of these
Pokémon have different effects that impact play on the stage. First, both Dialga and Palkia can
tilt the screen, cause an earthquake, breaking a part of the stage, or fire a laser either vertically
or horizontally. Additionally, each Pokémon
has more specialized effects that they can perform. Dialga, the
Pokémon God of Time, can slow down time for a brief period. Additionally, it can leap
onto the actual fighting area of the stage and perform Roar of Time, dealing damage to
anyone that it hits. Palkia, the Pokémon God of
Space, can reduce gravity, making everyone floatier.
It can also perfectly mirror the screen or completely
flip the stage upside down. Cresselia, one of the Lunar Duo of Sinnoh,
has two different attacks. First is a crescent energy beam that slowly flies across the screen,
acting as a constant hazard. The other is a more concentrated barrage of crescent beams, firing
them one by one across the stage. In the background of the stage, it's possible to see one of
the three Lake Guardians, another trio of legendary
Pokémon from Sinnoh: Uxie, Mesprit, and Azelf can all possibly
be seen as a reference to the role that they played during the story segment at Spear Pillar.
Next, let's move on to a new F-Zero stage: Port Town Aero Dive. This stage is another
one based off of a track found in the F-Zero series. Port Town is a regular location in the F-Zero
series and also serves as the home of Captain Falcon. While both the Mute City and Big Blue stages
before it were from F-Zero X, Port Town Aero Dive is based on its appearance in F-Zero GX, the
sequel created for the GameCube after Melee's release. The track as it appears in Smash is ported over
directly from F-Zero GX and, as a result, is nearly identical to the second race of the Sapphire
Cup. The exception is, of course, the platforms that raise and lower throughout different points
in the stage for the players to fight on. There are many different sections that the
fight takes place on and, as another deviation from other F-Zero
stages before it, this one doesn't stop at the same
points every time making each lap effectively unique. Like other F-Zero stages, the vehicles
that are participating in their race in the background can - and will - hit players for
massive knockback and damage, and because the stage is based off of GX, the vehicles too use their updated
GX designs. Next, we have the first ever Fire Emblem stage in all of Smash: Castle Siege.
The planned Fire Emblem stage for Melee ended up being scrapped
during development, which is why this is the first.
At this point in Smash history, there had been three Fire Emblem characters in Smash
total, with Marth and Ike appearing in Brawl, and Roy
being left back in Melee. As a result, Castle Siege
seems to have been designed to try to make up for lost time and was developed as a very generic Fire
Emblem stage, representing the series as the whole
rather than one specific title. The stage starts
out a a generic castle, with the actual fight taking place on some platforms with the castle in
the background. We can also see in the background that the castle is being attacked by large
fireballs because, as the stage name suggests, this
castle is under siege, which is a recurring story
element used throughout the Fire Emblem series. After some time, the stage will begin transitioning,
and the players will then find themselves on the inside of the castle in a throne room.
The actual fight takes place on giant statues
holding up platforms, with the statues capable of
being destroyed by attacks, potentially a reference to destructible terrain found in Fire Emblem games. Additionally,
in the background we can see the actual focal point of the throne room, with the actual
throne visible, surrounded by groups of soldiers. These soldiers are all wearing red armor,
which is a nod to the enemy units in Fire Emblem games
being red. The actual throne has a character sitting
on it. In Brawl and Smash for Wii U, this character is the Black Knight, the antagonist from both
Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn. In the Smash Ultimate version of the stage,
though, it's simply a more generic character wearing red armor, possibly replacing the Black Knight
due to his addition as an Assist Trophy. Finally, after
this section we see another transition which takes the
players to an underground lava-filled cavern. While also rather generic, the general inspiration
for this area is similar areas that Fire Emblem has across multiple games in the series. It's
time to clock in and go to work at WarioWare, Inc. This stage is a fusion of multiple WarioWare
games: WarioWare, Inc. Mega Microgame$, WarioWare:
Twisted!, and WarioWare: Touched! The core elements
of the main stage are a mix of design elements from Wario's house and the Variety Tower, both found in
Mega Microgame$. The Variety Tower is a bonus mode that essentially serves as a mini-game stamina mode, constantly
throwing the player into mini-games until they run out of lives. The stage's function
in Smash is kinda similar. The Variety Tower will open up and pull the players into a random
mini-game. Each mini-game has a different goal to accomplish and any players who perform this goal in the
allotted time will receive a reward for doing so. Becoming giant, metal, invincible, or healing damage
are all rewards that can be won. Failing the mini-game will simply result in the player receiving
nothing. There are nine total mini-games available on this stage, which
are the following: Arrow Space. Here the goal is simply to avoid
getting hit by any arrows. Blowin' Up. Here the goal is to pop all of the poppers and,
if done, everyone who popped one will receive a reward. Crack Down. A character in the background
will ready his hammer and slam it on a mountain. The player must time their jump so that they
are in the air when this hammer is slammed. Anyone touching the ground will be buried
and will not receive a reward. Crazy Cars. The goal for this game is to avoid
a car that will come speeding by, with the direction indicated ahead of it.
Don't Move. In order to win, players must not execute
any inputs once the microgame begins. Kitty Cover. Here, a cat is underneath an
umbrella while it's raining. Players need to stay dry underneath the umbrella. Additionally, the rain does gradual damage
if you're hit by it. Winning the micro game is determined by not taking any damage from the
rain. Lose Your Marble. A block of marble sits in
a blank area and players attacks will chisel it to
reveal a sculpture beneath. The sculpture must be fully revealed in order for the microgame
to be won, with everyone who participated receiving a reward. The sculptures underneath are taken
from WarioWare: Touched!, with three possibilities: Michelangelo's statue of David wearing a speedo, an Easter
Island head, or a toilet. Sole Man. This microgame spawns players out
in an open field area, and a shadow will appear before a giant foot slams down and buries
any players who are hit. Avoiding the foot results
in a win. And lastly, Taunt. Jimmy T. is seen in the
background through a camera viewfinder and players must taunt at the same time the picture's being
taken in order to win the game. With the exception of Don't Move and Taunt,
every microgame is taken from a real microgame in the WarioWare series and just adjusted a little
bit for Smash. Let's now travel to the Distant Planet,
the home stage for Olimar, representing the Pikmin series. Both the layout and the background
of the stage aren't pulled one-to-one from anything in the Pikmin series, which at the
time of Brawl's release only had two entries. However,
the overall design of the level is inspired by
two levels in these two entries: Forest of Hope, from
Pikmin 1, and Awakening Wood, a level inspired by Forest
of Hope from Pikmin 2. Throughout the level, you can find the Pikmin ships, known as Onions, as
well as flowers that bloom colored number pellets. If the player throws pellets into
the Onions, items will pop out. The larger the number,
the more items, and if the color matches, even more
items will spawn. This is pulled directly from the same concept in Pikmin, except instead of items
spawning, more Pikmin spawn relative to the pellet's number and color. Occasionally, a Bulborb
will show up on the right side. His mouth can open up
and, if a player lands on his mouth, he will bite
down, trapping them and pulling them into the blast
zone. In Ultimate, he will still bite down, however
it results instead in an instant KO. Bulborbs are aggressive enemies in the Pikmin series who will attack
and attempt to eat Pikmin. So, in Smash, they instead
try to eat the players. There will also occasionally
be a downpour of rain which causes a torrent of water to rush down the hill to the left.
If players are caught in this water, they can very easily fall off and die. The only thing I can assume
this is a reference to is either showing how small Olimar is in relation to the planet in Pikmin,
or the mechanic of certain Pikmin drowning in water. In the background, we can see another
Bulborb, who is just snoozing away. Additionally, we can see another type of enemy in the background:
the Cloaking Burrow-nit. In Brawl and Smash for 3DS, they're just part of a low resolution
image in the background. However, in Ultimate, everything is fully modeled out and even has animations.
Now let's move on to the stage that everyone has spent more time on than they can count:
Smashville. Smashville is inspired by the idea of creating and naming your own town in the Animal Crossing
series, with the main game this stage comes from being Animal Crossing: Wild World for
the Nintendo DS. In this case, Sakurai named his town Smashville. The stage itself is incredibly
basic, with a simple main stage section and a floating
platform going back and forth in the center. The only additional
element is occasionally a balloon that floats across the stage. With items on, this balloon
will have a piece of food that can be knocked down if attacked. Otherwise, the balloon just appears
on its own. Balloons are commonly found in Animal Crossing, usually carrying a present,
and can be shot down with slingshots. The stage travels throughout the town of Smashville
with a ton of Animal Crossing elements in the background that you would find during any typical playthrough
of an Animal Crossing town. The stage also follows the system clock and will change the
time of day on this stage with four different settings: Dawn, Day, Evening, and Night. Additionally,
we have more specific elements in this town. First, the buildings are all notable locations
visited in Animal Crossing: the Able Sisters, a clothing shop. Interestingly, in Brawl and Smash for
Wii U, this building's sign is the French localization for Able Sisters no matter what language you're
playing. This is because in the Japanese versions of Animal Crossing, this store uses the French
name just because it sounds fancier and it's a fashion store, and this carries over into Smash. However,
this shouldn't appear when the game is in English, and in Ultimate, this error is rectified;
the Museum, which is where the player can turn in various specimens, like bugs or fossils, to be cataloged;
the Town Hall, where a ton happens, from civic duties to paying off debts and disposing of
items; additionally, you can see the player's house in the background as well as miscellaneous
villagers' houses. Aside from buildings, you can see multiple activities take place in the background:
Kapp'n's Taxi can be seen driving, Gulliver's Flying Saucer can be seen in flight, and Pete the
mail man can be seen, as well. But, of course, the biggest attraction for Smashville are the
villagers and other NPCs that can appear just behind
the action of the Smash battle. There are 30 possible
appearances in various combinations on this stage of various Animal Crossing characters, so I won't be
diving into them in depth. However, these are all
of the characters that can appear... There's a lot
of them. In addition to these 30 characters, there is one more special one: K.K. Slider. K.K. Slider
is a dog who performs concerts for the town, appearing in every single entry in the Animal Crossing
series. He's had various roles in the entire series, however Smashville follows his original
function: performing a concert from 8 PM to 12 AM on Saturday nights only. When K.K. Slider
plays, the music tracks are no longer the standard music you would hear at any other
time on Smashville, but instead real tracks that K.K. Slider performs, all of which debuted in the first entry of
the game, Dōbutsu no Mori. Next up, we have another Mother series stage: this time, it's New Pork
City. New Pork City is the final location of Mother
3, built by Porky to commemorate the final of the Seven
Needles being pulled. There are many attractions there for the occasion and it's all eclipsed
by the Empire Porky Building, a 100 story building at the top of the city. The stage itself takes
place on some rather basic platforms that vaguely match with the walkways of New Pork
City. The actual city itself is in the background and, while
it rips the sprites straight from Mother 3, it definitely
scales up the size of the city to make it even more massive than it appears in the original
game. The stage also has three elements found throughout New Pork City. The first is the
giant swinging boat, a common amusement park ride
that is found in the amusement park in Mother 3. In
Smash, it acts as a platform that simply moves back and forth
in a swinging arc. There's also a flying limousine
that will serve as another platform, slowly making its way across the screen. This comes from the
flying limousine that Porky sent to bring Lucas and the party to New Pork City. Lastly, the Ultimate
Chimera will occasionally spawn at a random part of the stage. In Mother 3, the Ultimate Chimera is
the result of Porky's scientists creating the ultimate killing machine, with fleeing the
only course of action when faced with it. Likewise, in Smash, you don't want to be attacked
by the Ultimate Chimera. In Brawl, it will result
in 100% worth of damage and send you flying,
almost surely killing you every time. In its return in Utimate, it will instead just instantly
KO you. Oh and, yeah, New Pork City is a combination of New York City and Porky's name. Next, we
have a brand new Ice Climber stage: Summit. According to Smash director Masahiro Sakurai,
this stage is the summit of Icicle Mountain, the previous Ice Climber stage found in Super Smash Bros.
Melee. Despite the inconsistencies there, we'll just
roll with that description. Like Icicle Mountain
before it, nearly all of this is Smash original. It mostly takes concepts that were implied
in the gameplay of Ice Climber for the NES and extrapolates
them for Smash. The floor of the stage is all ice
and so, naturally, it's incredibly slippery, with only the Ice Climbers able to walk normally on
it, which is kind of a neat detail. Occasionally, vegetables will appear on the stage and they can be eaten
to regain some health. However, these items are not from the generic food item slot. Instead,
these are based on the vegetables as they appear in Ice Climber for the NES. The stage
itself starts out solid but then eventually breaks
off and slides down the side of the mountain, possibly
inspired by real-life glaciers having giant chunks
fall off regularly. After this segment, the stage lands
in some water. A little bit after that, the polar bear in the background will jump and force the
stage deeper into the water, with the bottom layer fully submerged. The polar bear jumping
here actually has a reference. If the player is
taking too long to beat a level in Ice Climber, the polar
bear will jump up and slam down to force the screen to scroll by one level, potentially
killing them. Though it's possible to swim on this stage, it's not exactly advisable, as a giant
fish can pop up and eat them, pulling them down underwater resulting in a KO. Ironically, though, this
giant fish doesn't appear in Ice Climber at all, but instead appears in another NES game: Balloon
Fight. The background of the stage features an icy tundra and, more notable, what appears
to be similar to the Aurora Borealis, a phenomenon
in the Arctic and Antarctic that causes similar lights
to appear in the sky. Next, let's move on to the Smash Bros. series' first ever Kid Icarus
stage: Skyworld. This stage naturally takes place
on a world in the sky, with platforms that are supported
by fluffy little clouds. These platforms can be attacked and destroyed, but the clouds
can still act as platforms when this happens. The name Skyworld comes from the third level in Kid Icarus and
Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters, which has the same name. Additionally, it also has stone platforms
and cloud platforms. However, in overall execution this stage is pretty much entirely Smash original
following Brawl's overall idea of modernizing Pit and his home series for the current day. In the
background to the left, we can see a giant temple with a statue of Palutena, which is possibly meant
to be Palutena's Temple. Outside of this, though, there aren't really any references
for this stage. Next, we have a spiritual successor to Mr. Game & Watch's Flat Zone stage from Melee,
known simply as Flat Zone 2. The basic idea and execution
of the stage is exactly the same as Flat Zone 1, with the
actual Smash battle taking place inside of a Game and Watch device. This time, though,
the actual design of the handheld comes from the
1981 re-release of Fire as a part of the Widescreen
series of games. And, like the previous stage, the game name is replaced simply by the words "Smash
Bros." This time, the stage incorporates four different Game and Watch games into its layout. The
stage always starts out on the layout taken from the game Fire, where people in a burning building jump
out and try to land on a fireman's trampoline. Each form after Fire is random, though there is
some indication of what's up next by what appears on screen ahead of the transformation. Next, we have
a screen based on the bottom screen of Oil Panic, a Game and Watch game that had two screens.
In that game, the player tries to fill a bucket with oil and pass it on to a second character on the
bottom screen, who fills gas for a man and woman. However, in Smash, this second character is
missing, leaving just the man and woman. These two
will attack players if they are attacked. That's not very
nice. There's also a form based on the game Lion, where you play as lion tamers trying
to keep lions from escaping their cage. The lion is
missing from this form of the stage, with just the lion tamers
there. These two will smack players back towards the cage with the potential to ping-pong them
back and forth if unlucky. And lastly, we have
a form based on Chef, a game where you must juggle food
to keep it from hitting the ground. In the Smash stage, this Chef will throw food out of his frying
pan similar to Game and Watch's neutral special, damaging players hit by the food. However, you can
take out your anger on all the laggy Game and Watches you have to play on Quickplay by being able
to attack this Chef, who will fly off screen from a strong enough attack. Our next stage is a
super unique one and one of my favorites: PictoChat. This
is inspired by the small application found on
the Nintendo DS, which was a chat room of sorts that could
be used with other DS owners using the local communication
on the console. It can be used to type out messages but, more importantly, it can be used to draw
little pictures, which is what most people ended up using it for. This stage relies heavily
on the drawing aspect of the app. The only platform
that exists is this solid black one at the bottom,
which doubles as a reference to the 'Now Entering' prompt that would appear in PictoChat, though
this of course states the character's names rather than a user's name. The entire rest of the
stage is drawn out by some invisible god user, serving
as the rest of the platforms and hazards. For
example, there's a pendulum that swings back and forth, a whale spouting water that will blast players
upwards, or wind that gets drawn and slightly pushes
players to one side, sort of like Whispy Woods. There
are 27 total drawings in this stage that I won't bore you with since they're all pretty much Smash original,
just with some cute ideas for hazards that no other stage could really have. The one exception
is a drawing of a Piranha Plant, obviously based on the Mario enemy. Its sharp teeth act as
hitboxes and do high knockback if hit by them. Not only does this stage represent a series
that has no fighters, it also doesn't return in its current form in any game beyond brawl... Kinda, but
we'll get into that later. Another stage from a
series with no fighters is Hanenbow, this neon green
headache waiting to happen. This stage comes to us
from the video game Electroplankton an interactive
music game developed for the Nintendo DS. This game allowed the player to interact with small
plankton and manipulate the environment to create different music. There were multiple scenarios available
in the game, one of which was entitled Hanenbow, where the player could arrange and rearrange
leaves on a tree for the Hanenbow creatures to bounce off of. The stage in Smash combines two tiers
of Hanenbow into a single entity. The creatures are a background element and will actually
bounce off of the leaves making noises. Players' attacks will change the leaves' orientation,
which impacts how the Hanenbow bounce around and,
as a result, changes the sound of the tones. In
Brawl, this is the only source of music on the stage, though in Ultimate, actual music
can be played as well. It's a rather straightforward stage,
but I think it was really clever to essentially
recreate Electroplankton's entire mechanic inside of Smash and have it be impacted by
characters' attacks. It's really quite neat, even if I personally kind of find it annoying to play on sometimes.
The first ever third party stage in Smash is none other than Snake's home stage: Shadow
Moses Island. Shadow Moses is an island that appears to be a nuclear weapons disposal facility
before it's revealed to actually be a cover for a weapon development complex. The stage
itself is based on the first area of Shadow Moses Island
in Metal Gear Solid 1. The layout is pretty basic,
with platforms in the middle and destroyable towers on either side. In this section, a watchtower
has a searchlight out looking for threats and if Snake is seen, guards will attack him.
This searchlight also appears in Smash, complete
with the classic Metal Gear Solid [Alert Sound Effect] The light will then continue to follow the
player who was seen by it for a bit, but nothing happens with it, it's just a kind
of fun immersive detail for the stage. The building in the background will occasionally
explode, with the possibility of several Metal Gears being the cause. The Metal Gear REX, the mech
that Snake was sent to destroy on Shadow Moses
Island in Metal Gear Solid 1; the Metal Gear RAY, another
recurring mech that appears on the island in Metal Gear
Solid 4; or 2 Geckos, smaller mechs that were designed
for use in ground combat, which also first appeared in Metal Gear Solid 4. Interestingly though,
both the design for the Geckos and the appearance of the Metal Gear RAY on Shadow Moses Island
first debuted in Smash, as the release of Brawl precedes the release of Metal Gear Solid
4 by five months. And the final stage in Brawl - which really needs no introduction - is Green Hill
Zone. Green Hill Zone is the very first level in
the very first Sonic the Hedgehog game and... well lots of
Sonic games after that, and it's essentially synonymous
with Sonic himself. The playable area of the stage loosely
comes from a section in the opening of Green Hill Zone, Act 1 from Sonic the Hedgehog: bridge, followed
by a dip, followed by a grassy area. However, there are some differences added just for Smash.
The dip in the middle has three sections that, if damaged enough, will collapse in a similar
way to ground that collapses in Sonic, resulting in a pit that can kill. Additionally, Checkpoint
Lampposts will occasionally appear throughout the stage, as well, based on their design from Sonic
1. While these are naturally checkpoints for if the player dies, in Smash
they act as hazards. A player can attack them and it will cause them to turn red and start
spinning, knocking any opponents who contact it. In
the background, we can see a loop-de-loop, a staple
of the Sonic series. On top we can see a 1-Up Monitor, which are often on top of loops like
this as it typically is difficult to get up there. Over the course of the match, three different characters
can be seen running this loop. The first is Miles "Tails" Prower, Sonic's right hand man.
The second is Knuckles the Echidna, Sonic's rival
turned friend. And lastly is Silver the Hedgehog,
a recent character introduced in the 2006 reboot title Sonic the Hedgehog. All three characters use
their general designs from Sonic 06, even in the jump to Smash 4 and Ultimate. The first stage found in both Smash for 3DS and Wii
U is none other than Boxing Ring. The basis for this stage is of course the Punch-Out!! series.
It's a fairly straightforward stage. A boxing ring is in the middle with walkways on the
left and right side and adoring fans in both the foreground and background. Additionally, there is a giant
light fixture at the top Illuminating the ring which can also be attacked and knocked
down as a stage hazard. The stage itself is an interesting
fusion of Smash original concepts combined with elements
from the reboot of Punch-Out!! for the Wii. More specifically, the appearance of the ring in
the World Circuit. The background of the stage also features a jumbotron which has a number
of details. Initially, it will just display the Smash battle, as though this was taking place
at a real life sporting event for people to look at. Occasionally, text will also appear based
on what's happening in the match, such as a Smash Ball
appearing or during Sudden Death. In Smash for Wii U,
this jumbotron will eventually transition into
a stat-like screen. On the left and right, two of the
fighters will be displayed with their character renders and a special title, just like real
life boxers might have. Every single character
in the game has a unique Boxing Ring title, inspired
by their history, characterization, or just some kind of pun. All alternate character costumes
also have different titles, such as the Koopalings, Alph, or variations of Hero. I won't go through
them all since there are well over 100 and most
are pretty self-explanatory. Anyway, the center
of the jumbotron also shows some match stats including how many matches have been played,
the current leader of the match, number of KOs, and damage total. The entire premise of this form of
the jumbotron is taken from the second screen found on the Punch-Out!! arcade game, where both boxers
are on either side and similar stats are displayed
down the middle; Smash just adapts this for their
own game and expands on the ideas. Boxing Ring also has a not-so-secret alternate form where
all of the Punch-Out aesthetics are replaced with the Smash Bros. name and logo. Functionally,
this is exactly the same as the first variant,
it's just a fun alternate appearance that makes
the stage feel more Smash original. Either of these forms can be chosen via a button press when
selecting the stage. And both return in the jump to Ultimate, as well. Our next shared stage between
the versions comes from the Xenoblade series:
Gaur Plain from Xenoblade Chronicles. This stage features
a rocky cliffside with a ravine in the center and smaller rock platforms underneath the
larger cliffs. In the background, we can see a big grassy plain and, at the horizon, a
giant mechanical being, the Mechonis, one of the
two giant titans that serve as Shulk's world. The Mechonis
is the counterpart to the Bionis, the titan where
Gaur Plain exists and which Shulk lives on. Gaur Plain
is one of the earlier regions that Shulk and the party visit located on Bionis' Leg. In Smash for
3DS this is the extent of the stage, however there
is much more to the stage in Smash for Wii U. First there
is a pretty big difference between the platforms and blast zones between both versions of the
stage. During nighttime, a stage boss has a chance to appear: Metal Face. Metal Face is one of
the major antagonists found in Xenoblade Chronicles. He'll appear on stage and begin attacking
fighters throughout the night. He can fire cannons and attack with claw swipes, destroying the
terrain of the stage in the process. Like most boss characters, he can be attacked and eventually
defeated, causing a massive explosion that can damage all players except for the one who dealt the
final blow. If he's not defeated, he will simply fly off-screen when it becomes daytime. Either way, when
morning comes, the terrain will reset to its original form and, whether defeated or not,
Metal Face can reappear during multiple night cycles. The inclusion of Gaur Plain on both the 3DS
and Wii U versions could possibly be seen as a nod to the game's existence on both home console
and handheld, with the original game being a Wii release and the 3DS remake releasing
only 6 months after Smash for 3DS. Next, we have Wily Castle from the Mega Man series. This stage features
a very robotic platform where, in the background, we can see Dr. Wily's Castle proper, which
is based on its appearance from Mega Man 2. Each version of the stage features a different
implementation of moving platforms. On Smash for 3DS, platforms will drop from above the main stage and hover
there. There are also a couple of different types of platforms on rails on the left and right
sides that will move either back and forth or up and down. These are inspired by platforms
found in Bright Man's stage and the Tako Trash boss room in Mega Man 4 and in Tomahawk Man's stage
in Mega Man 6. On Smash for Wii U, platforms will travel
along small, colored rails, eventually dropping when they reach the end of the path. These are inspired by platforms that first appeared
in Guts Man's stage in Mega Man 1. And, in the jump to Ultimate, all of these platforms are combined into one
single stage. In Smash for 3DS, the stage takes place at daytime while in Wii U, it's nighttime.
Regardless of the version you're playing on, after a while a boss character will appear: the Yellow
Devil. The Yellow Devil is a boss that first appeared towards the end of the first Mega Man game,
attacking by dividing itself into small yellow orbs before returning to its normal state, where
it can attack with lasers. Mega Man's only means of damaging it is to attack it in its eye
when it's in its normal form. The same is true in Smash. The Yellow Devil will fire itself in orb form
from Wily's Castle, coming together on the actual stage. It'll fire a few lasers then alternate sides in
its orb form, again repeating the process. All fighters can attack its eye when in its normal form
and, eventually, it can be defeated. It will then cause a large explosion that damages
all except whoever dealt the final blow. And if it isn't defeated, it will simply go away after a short
time. And we have one final stage for now: Duck Hunt, a stage that was free in an update for Smash
for 3DS and which was included at launch in Smash
for Wii U. Duck Hunt literally takes the entire game
of Duck Hunt from the NES and recreates it in a stage. Rather than having some inexplicable reticle
shooting the ducks, instead the ducks are defeated by fighters' attacks. All of these ducks are
worth the same number of points as in Duck Hunt and the HUD at the bottom will update with your
hits, misses, and scores. The dog will even appear, reacting to your performance by either holding
up the ducks you attacked or laughing at you like he loves to do. Duck Hunt for NES had three
game modes: Game A had one duck appear at a time, while
Game B had two ducks appear at a time. Game C included
clay pigeons, so it's not really relevant. The stage can summon either one or two ducks
per round, so it sort of combines Duck Hunt's two duck centered games into one, which is fine since
hitting ducks with Smash fighters is way easier than
using the Zapper. There are occasionally patches
of grass that exist in the foreground, capable of being a platform for a short time or even hiding
players and items. Additionally, the dog acts as a platform at the end of each round. And that does it
for every stage in the base roster of Smash 4 that's
shared between both versions, so we'll now move on to the
first exclusive stage introduced in Smash for 3DS, which is none other than 3D Land,
of course referencing the 3DS game Super Mario 3D Land.
Rather than being a specific reference to any one level,
this stage is a scroller that visits different types of areas that can be found in different
levels of Super Mario 3D Land. It starts out on a grassland area somewhat based off of World
1-1 in 3D Land. Following that is a valley area loosely based on World 8-2. There's a downhill slope
section based on World 4-1 and then, of course, a beach, a more general design that fuses concepts
of water levels found all across the game. There are blocks and platforms that either
debuted in or use their appearance from Super Mario 3D Land, such as flip panels and note blocks.
When playing with items, the Brick and ? Blocks will of course spawn out items. However, a
neat quirk of this stage is that it offers a higher chance of spawning the Super Leaf
if that item is enabled. This is because the Super
Leaf made a return in 3D land after a 23-year absence,
being the main gimmick of the title, so I think it's a cute little detail for Smash to have. In Smash
Ultimate, this stage was given the HD treatment, though rather than just improving its appearance,
the level's design was instead made to be closer to the appearance of 3D Land's sequel,
Super Mario 3D World. And following 3D Land, we have another handheld Mario-inspired stage:
Golden Plains, which is inspired by New Super Mario Bros.
2 for the 3DS. As far as the layout goes, this is basically
Smash original, with really the level design and certain elements being pulled from the first
world of New Super Mario Bros 2. Right away you'll notice that there are coins all
over the stage and that's because the main gimmick of New Super Mario Bros. 2 was collecting
coins, with the main goal being to collect 1 million. To reference this, players can collect coins
by jumping into them, just like in the Mario series with a coin counter in the top left to help
you keep track. There are standard golden coins, which are each worth one coin. Players
can activate blue P-Switches when they appear periodically, which add even more coins onto the stage to
be collected, also worth one coin each. Finally, Red Rings can appear which, when jumped through, spawn
eight Red Coins. While in their home series, collecting all eight typically results in
a power-up or 1-Up Mushroom, in Smash, nothing happens when
you collect all eight. However, each is instead worth
five coins, for a total of 40 additional coins if you can get them all in the time limit.
When any player collects a total of 100 coins, they will become
a gold fighter, a power-up of sorts in Smash that
offers stronger attacks and super armor, making you essentially a super fighter. This is a direct parallel
to the Gold Flower power up, which turns Mario into Gold Mario, allowing him to throw golden
fireballs that can result in coins. The gold fighter in Smash doesn't have any of these abilities
though, so the parallel really stops at the fighter becoming similarly golden. Next up, we have
a new Mario Kart stage: Rainbow Road. Specifically, this version of Rainbow Road is from Mario Kart
7, though Rainbow Road has appeared in every Mario Kart game from the beginning. While
concessions were made to adjust the track in small ways, this is in essence the track pulled straight out
of Mario Kart 7. The theme of the track in this game focused
a lot more on the space side of things, with
racers actually driving on the moon at one point. The stage follows the standard "Mario
Kart stage in Smash" formula, with the main platform that travels around the racetrack stopping
at various areas along the track to have players fight
directly on it. This stage once again has Shy Guys
serving as the racers, referencing Download Play for Mario Kart on handhelds, where players
could play local multiplayer without owning the game, forced to play as a Shy Guy. Sadly, this stage
never saw a return in Ultimate, leaving one of the cooler Smash 3DS stages stuck on that version of
the game. Next, we have the first ever Paper Mario stage in Smash history, literally just called Paper
Mario. In a way, this stage is similar to the way that Castle Siege was handled for the Fire
Emblem series back in Brawl. By not having much representation in prior games, the Smash team makes up for
lost time by referencing multiple entries in the series, making this a stage that transforms to different
settings. The starting form the stage takes is a sort of grassy cliffside featuring a
windmill. This section is inspired by Hither Thither
Hill, the fourth level of World 1 from Paper Mario:
Sticker Star. Mario must Paperize using the Fan thing, which causes the fan to appear
in the background of the stage and blow the blades of the windmill. In Smash, this same
fan appears in the background which blows strong
wind, shoving players to the right while also spinning
the windmill. The stage then transitions into
a setting found on the ocean at sunset on a large ship.
This ship is inspired by the S.S. Flavion, a ship captained by Flavio that Mario and the party
use in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, the second entry in the series. While on this form a
Big Blooper will appear, serving as a stage hazard of
sorts. Rather than attacking players as you might
expect, the Blooper instead causes large waves that will cause the ship to jostle at weird
angles just to throw off the fight a bit. While there
isn't an interaction with the Big Blooper while
on the S.S. Flavion in the games, Big Bloopers are a common boss in the Paper Mario series,
so it just must have felt natural to include this one here. Another possibility during this form
is the appearance of the whale, a character from
the original Paper Mario who ultimately served as the means
to get to Lavalava Island. In Smash, the whale will appear directly below the S.S. Flavion
and blast water out of its blowhole, causing the ship to raise up in the air, stopping it from rocking
and bringing it closer to the upper blast zone. Again, the whale doesn't have any interaction with
the S.S. Flavion or any appearance in Thousand Year Door at all for that matter; likely it's just
another inclusion based on the ocean setting. The final form
the stage takes on brings us back to a Sticker
Star reference: Bowser's Sky Castle, the final level of the game. This is inspired by the
entrance to the castle, where a giant statue of Bowser's head appears. However, the head rotating,
having different colored eyes, clamping its jaws
as an attack, and the clown car colored platforms on either side
are all original to Smash to make this form just a bit more engaging. In Sticker Star,
this section is purely an entrance to the castle and nothing more. However, the implication of the castle
flying in the sky could be a reference to the original Paper Mario, where Bowser's Castle was indeed
capable of flying in the air. In this stage's upgrade to Ultimate, the actual art style for the
stage is updated to match design elements from Paper Mario: Color Splash, the entry in the series
right after Sticker Star. Leaving the Mario series for now, our next stage is Gerudo Valley,
representing the Zelda series. Gerudo Valley is a region found in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time,
perhaps most well known for its absolute banger of a background track. The stage takes place
in a mountainous area with cliffs on the left and right, a
river splitting the two down the middle, and a bridge
connecting them. This is taken very faithfully from its appearance in Ocarina of Time, with
the only exception being the couple of platforms that naturally aren't usually there. Below
the bridge are a couple of branches and a set of spikes. This bridge will eventually break,
either by taking enough damage or weight or by running
out the pre-existing timer that the stage has.
Either way, shortly after this happens, Koume and
Kotake will appear while laughing. One of the two
at random will attack the field with their magic spell. Koume will attack the left side with a fire
spell, causing players on that side to take gradual damage. Kotake will attack the right side
with an ice spell, causing a giant spiky iceberg to appear, dealing damage and of course freezing
players. Koume and Kotake are the adoptive mothers of Ganondorf in Ocarina of Time and also feature
as the bosses of the Spirit Temple, which is conveniently
the closest temple to Gerudo Valley. The two both
attack with their respective element in Ocarina of Time and, upon being defeated by Link,
will fuse into a single being known as Twinrova, capable of using both ice and fire. After
a bit, the Song of Time will play on the stage, seemingly resetting it to its original form, repairing
the bridge. Just behind the fighting area, you can see a tent which exists in this spot in Ocarina
of Time and belongs to the carpenters. The Gerudo people decided to destroy the bridge in order to
prevent intruders, and the carpenters attempted to repair it
before being kidnapped by the Gerudo. Link can only
access this area by jumping the gap with Epona and he then saves the carpenters, who ultimately
end up fixing the bridge. In the further background, we can see Gerudo Fortress on the mountainside,
a further nod to this segment of the game. While Gerudo Valley first debuted on the N64, everything
about this stage is mostly inspired by Ocarina of Time 3D, the 3DS remake, so that still kind of fits
in with the game's handheld release focus. Our other new Zelda stage is Spirit Train.
As you might have surmised, this stage takes place aboard
the Spirit Train, one of the central mechanics from The
Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks for the Nintendo DS. The train speeds down the tracks, with players
capable of falling on the track and either getting pulled into the blast zone or hitting
the locomotive in the front. In Smash, the Spirit
Engine will pull two additional cars: the first is
the Solid Passenger Car, which comes standard
with the Spirit Train at the beginning of the game.
Additionally, it will always start off with the Trusty Freight
Car, the first one that Link receives in Spirit
Tracks. However, throughout the match, the train will move over towards the right side
of the stage, leaving the final car not visible. It will then pull back towards the center with a new
car. It'll do this frequently throughout the match, with multiple different cars possible. Aside from
the standard car, there's also: a broken carriage, where
players can accidentally fall through the hole; a
carriage with multiple platforms haphazardly built on top; a carriage filled with a big
pile of coal, making it an uneven surface to stand
on; and a carriage that has a building on it, specifically
the Lineback Trading Company, a shop where Link can obtain train parts, though it never appears
on a train car in the actual game. Finally, two enemy types will regularly attack the
Spirit Train, both of which are found in the actual Spirit
Tracks game. The first is the Armored Train, which
will slam into the Spirit Train and push it closer to either the left or right blast zone.
The other is the Dark Train, which are trains
that are designed to explode. They will either approach
near the side before exploding or jump up onto the actual Spirit Train to explode. During
battles on the Spirit Train, the players can see Toon
Link in his Royal Engineer uniform actually driving the
train, just as he does in Spirit Tracks. However if Link or Toon Link, and later on
Young Link, are selected as fighters during the match, the engineer Toon Link will instead
be replaced by Alfonzo, a fellow Royal Engineer who also serves as Toon Link's mentor in Spirit Tracks.
Next up, we have a brand new Kirby stage in Smash for 3DS. Tthis is simply
named Dream Land, however in Ultimate it was officially named Dream Land GB, for obvious
reasons. This stage is based on the first ever Kirby
game, Kirby's Dream Land for the Game Boy. However,
it takes this reference very seriously and the
entirety of the stage takes place inside of an actual
Dot Matrix Game Boy system, making everything the iconic "Game Boy green." Furthermore,
when there are only five seconds remaining in timed matches,
the red LED will begin to fade, as though the
system is about to lose power because of dead batteries. The actual stage starts with the Game Boy's
original boot up sequence, with the slowly lowered Nintendo logo and [Game Boy ding] sound effect
before loading into the first form of the stage.
The stage has seven different forms that represent each
of the stages of Kirby's Dream Land. First, we start out
on the Green Greens form, representing the first
stage of the game. After that, we have forms for both the
exterior and interior of Castle Lololo, which serves
as a reference to the second stage of the game. Third are the Float Islands, the third
stage of the game. While this section features a ship and a water area, fighters can't actually
swim on this form of the stage. And then we have the fourth stage of the game, Bubbly Clouds, which takes
place presumably high up in the sky using clouds
as platforms. Finally, we have two forms representing
Mount Dedede, the final stage of the game. First is the Boss Rush Lobby, where Kirby
needs to take on the previous four bosses once again. Second is the boxing ring, the arena for the
final showdown with King Dedede. All of the sprites for each form of the stage are ripped straight from
Kirby's Dream Land and effectively put into Smash one-to-one, with the only exception being that there are
no enemies that appear during actual gameplay.
Like I said before, the stage typically appears in
the sort of puke green color scheme based on the original Game Boy's screen. However, if the
L button is held down while selecting this stage, it will instead load a black and white variant of
the stage, based on later models of the Game Boy retiring the green screen. However, in the jump to Ultimate,
while this stage makes a return, the black and white feature unfortunately does not,
leaving just the Game Boy green variant. Our next stage is
the Unova Pokémon League, a stage based on the location
from Pokémon Black and White and Black and White
2. This is the location where the player in both
of these game series takes on the members of the Elite
Four in their bid to become the Champion of the
Unova region. However, during the events of Pokémon Black and White, the climax of the
story takes place, with N's Castle rising out of the ground
to surround the Pokémon League. This is ultimately
where the player takes on the legendary Pokémon of their respective version, which leads into
the main mechanic of this stage. After a bit of fighting, N's Castle will rise up in the background.
Ramps will appear on either side of the stage and then one of the two legendary Pokémon
will appear: either Reshiram or Zekrom, the main legendaries of Black and White. When Reshiram appears,
the Fire-Dragon Pokémon will attack using flames. Fire will either engulf the sides or the center
of the stage, of course making it more difficult to traverse without taking gradual damage.
When Zekrom appears, the Electric-Dragon Pokémon
will attack with a ball of electricity, which will
either attack one of the sides of the stage, destroying the ramp on that side, or it will do another
attack on the sides of the stage, which will tilt the stage entirely for a short time. Along
with the appearance of these three legendaries, three additional Pokémon can appear. These
Pokémon have no impact on gameplay and are merely there for eye candy. These Pokémon are Whimsicott,
Milotic and Shaymin. Halfway through Shaymin's appearance, it will transform into Shaymin
Sky Forme, a form it takes on when the Gracidea Flower
is used on it during the daytime. Oddly, none of these
Pokémon really have any business at the Unova Pokémon
League. None of the Elite Four members use these Pokémon
or even the typings that these Pokémon are. The only logic I can see is for Whimsicott, a
Pokémon introduced in Generation 5, so it at least makes sense to show it off on a Generation
5 themed stage. But Milotic and Shaymin... I
got nothing. This stage's upgrade in Ultimate saw a pretty
significant redesign of the overall aesthetic. However, the stage is mechanically still the
same as it as back on the 3DS. Pokémon's other
new 3DS stage is Prism Tower. This stage is based
on Lumiose City, the biggest city in the Kalos
region, the setting for Pokémon X and Y versions.
The Kalos region as a whole is inspired by France
and, as a result, Lumiose City would be Paris and the
Prism Tower, its main attraction, is their Eiffel Tower,
which also doubles as the Lumiose Gym. The version
of the Prism Tower in Smash sort of splits the difference between its appearance in the
actual games and its appearance in the Pokémon anime. The stage starts out at the base of the tower,
fighting directly on the street. Eventually, platforms will appear out of the ground and take flight,
carrying the fighters to about the top of the base of the
tower. Then, it moves again to about halfway up the
spire of the tower, before moving to the very top segment of the tower. Finally, the platform
is moved to one more location, which are basically just the skies above Lumiose City, with the
tower prominently in the background. The lighting
on the stage progresses throughout a single day, going
to a sunset before ultimately landing completely at night with the city illuminated by tons of lights.
On the ground form of this stage, we can see some advertisements at the entrance of the tower,
which show off features found in Pokémon X and
Y. Gogoat Shuttle, Holo Casters, Pokémon-Amie,
Roller Skates, Trainer PR Videos, and the Kalos Champion herself, Diantha, with a silhouette of a trainer
and a Lucario in the background, presumably advertising the Pokémon League. And what would a Pokémon
stage be without background Pokémon appearing? Because Prism Tower doubles as the Lumiose Gym, which
specializes in Electric-type Pokémon, most of the background characters are Electric-types. Helioptile,
Magnemite, and Emolga are all possibly seen throughout the stage. To further the reference,
Emolga is a part of Lumiose Gym Leader Clemont's
team, while Magnemite and Helioptile are the pre-evolved
forms of Clemont's other two party members, Magneton and Heliolisk. Additionally, two
legendary Pokémon are also visible on this stage. Zapdos is here, naturally because it's
the Electric-type. And finally, Yveltal, the only
non-electric Pokémon on the stage, chosen instead because
it's one of the legendary duo that is found in Pokémon X and Y. In Smash for 3DS, these Pokémon
are kind of rare, but in Ultimate they appear pretty much every rotation. Next up, we have Mute City,
or as it's renamed in Ultimate, Mute City SNES. As the
name says, this is a stage inspired by Mute City 1 from
the very first F-Zero on the SNES, with the charm
of it using the exact same sprites and graphics
from that game. The stage infinitely follows the
Mute City 1 track, with the fighters on some original
platforms in the 16-bit style. The fighters are also joined by the only four machines in F-Zero:
the Blue Falcon, Fire Stingray, Golden Fox, and
Wild Goose. These machines are also participating
in a race, which includes knocking each other into blast zones and regenerating energy, which can all
serve as hazards during the match. Overall, this
is a fairly basic stage, but I've always personally
had a soft spot for stages that use old school graphics, it really offers a nice contrast.
Now let's move on to a brand new MOTHER series stage:
Magicant. This pink and fluffy stage in the clouds is
inspired by the land of Magicant, a world that was created and which resides in Maria's
mind in EarthBound Beginnings. Magicant also exists in EarthBound, however this is a separate
world from the one in Beginnings, instead created and residing in Ness's mind. As a result,
this stage merges the two general designs into one stage,
with notable landmarks from either game missing.
Along with the overall design of the stage taking inspiration from both Magicants, many elements
appear on the stage based on various moments in the series. A Mobile Sprout walks around acting
as a moving platform. The Mobile Sprout is an enemy found in EarthBound, however ironically it never
actually appears in Magicant. The Sky Runner, the spacecraft created by Dr Andonuts in EarthBound, also
appears. This will lower from the sky to hang out as an additional platform for a while
before rising into the area. A giant tomato can also
rise out of the ground, capable of taking a few
hits before being destroyed. This tomato is based on the Magicant found in EarthBound, which
has an area that contains gigantic vegetables. An octopus statue is also able to appear out of the ground.
This one has a bit more to its origin. In EarthBound, there are occasionally giant pencil statues
found throughout the world that block certain paths,
requiring the Pencil Eraser to remove them. However,
this was a localization change for the North American release of the game. In the original Japanese,
the statues were these octopus statues, requiring the Octopus Eraser Machine to remove them.
With Smash being developed by a Japanese developer, it makes sense for the statue that appears to
be based on the Japanese version of EarthBound, MOTHER
2. Dungeon Man also occasionally appears on this
stage as a potential platform. Dungeon Man is the name of the character known as Brick Road
takes on when he scientifically turned into a living dungeon, his lifelong dream... That dude's
a weirdo. Flying Men also appear on the stage as a stage hazard. In both EarthBound Beginnings and
EarthBound, Flying Men are exclusively found in Magicant, with five found in each one. Ninten and Ness
are both capable of recruiting them to aid in battles against enemies. This translates
over into Smash's version of Magicant. A Flying Man will appear on the stage and, when a player
walks by them, they will become that player's ally by attacking all other opponents on the stage. In the original
games when Flying Men are defeated in battle, a tombstone will appear by their homes. In
Smash, players can attack the Flying Men back and, if they're defeated, a tombstone will
appear by their spawn point and eventually another Flying Man will spawn. However, an additional
detail for this origin is that after five Flying Men
are defeated no more will spawn, based on only five being
available in both Beginnings and EarthBound. Finally, the background of the stage features notable
moments in both EarthBound Beginnings and EarthBound:
Ninten at his house along with Mick, his dog; Ninten
speaking to Lloyd on the roof of Twinkle Elementary School; Ness and Paula walking around Threed;
Ness, Paula, Jeff, and Poo at the Lumine Hall; and Ness, Paula, Jeff, and Poo walking in Saturn
Valley just before their fight with Giygas. The first new Fire Emblem stage in Smash 4 is Arena
Ferox. This stage is a sort of combat arena that
the characters of Fire Emblem Awakening find themselves at
during the events of the game. During Chapter 4, the party meets the East Khan of Ferox. Every
few years, the East and West Khans hold a tournament to see who will gain or keep control of the
entirety of Ferox. The Shepherds need help with the conflict in Ylisse, so they agree to enter
the tournament on the East Khan's behalf so that she can
gain the authority of the Feroxi military. During the
course of the tournament, the Shepherds fight against a masked swordsman named Marth, who is ultimately
revealed to be the time-traveling Lucina, Chrom's daughter. The Smash stage is inspired by the arena that
this tournament takes place in: the background with screaming viewers and the platform of
the stage are all pulled straight from Fire Emblem Awakening. However, this stage also
has multiple platform layouts that will rise out
of the ground periodically. All of these are Smash
original layouts, though they do of course match the aesthetic of the Arena. This stage is also
the first Fire Emblem stage to be based on a specific location in a specific Fire Emblem game. Following
that, our next new stage is Reset Bomb Forest, a stage based on the events of Chapters 10
and 11 of Kid Icarus: Uprising. Haiti sparks a war between two nations by tricking them into
desiring the Wish Seed, an item that's said to grant
any wish but which is ultimately completely fake.
The battle itself is interrupted by a huge fiery
explosion, which is revealed to have been caused by Viridi,
the Goddess of Nature. In order to punish humans, who Viridi sees as scum, she drops
what she called a Reset Bomb onto the area of the
battle, resetting it back to a more natural state,
turning it into the Reset Bomb Forest which Pit must then traverse. The stage in Smash loosely
follows these events. It first starts out on the ruins
of a castle with the battle between the two nations taking
place in the background. After a little bit of time, an image of Viridi will appear in
the background and, after a moment, her Reset Bomb will drop onto the battle and the stage will then transform,
now taking on the appearance of the Reset Bomb Forest. A lot of branches have spawned, destroying
the castle even further, and making the platforms even more unstable, with some of them even being
destructible. Along the top and bottom of the forest form of the stage, a long skeletal creature will
fly across the screen, damaging players who touch it. This enemy is the Lurchthorn, an enemy of
the Forces of Nature faction controlled by Viridi, which is first introduced during the events of Uprising's
11th Chapter. Our next stage is a brand new Animal Crossing stage: Tortimer Island. This
stage comes from Tortimer Island, a mechanic of Animal Crossing New Leaf for the 3DS. In New
Leaf, the player is granted the ability to go to
the island by Tortimer using Kapp'n's boat. The island
is random for each unique save file of New Leaf, but it will remain the same on each visit
inside of those saves. The island has a lobby where you can talk to Kapp'n's family members. Outside of
mini-games and exclusive items, the appeal to Tortimer
Island is the ability to find unique bugs, fish,
and exotic fruits that you can't find in the main town. In Smash, this island can take
on many appearances and layouts, all of which
are random each time you load the stage, based on the randomized
aspect of the island from New Leaf. The lobby will always appear at the northern end of the island,
just like in New Leaf, and it's possible to see Tortimer, Grams, Leila, or Leilani at the entrance.
Many different trees with different fruits can be found, as well, and these fruits can be eaten to
heal health - with the exception of coconuts and
durians, which are throwing items that can potentially
explode. Occasionally hitting the tree can result in a beehive item spawning, a reference to shaking
trees in Animal Crossing and having a beehive drop out. There will always be a dock on either
side of the island and Kapp'n will occasionally pull up in his boat, serving as an extended
platform for the stage. Also in the water, a shark will occasionally appear, attacking any fighter
who gets near. Our next stage is a really cool one: Balloon Fight, inspired by the NES
game of the same name. This stage keeps the 8-bit
graphics and many of the mechanics found there. Balloon
Fight saw you control a character flying around
in a helmet with balloons attached which, as an
aside, is the source of Villager's Up-Special. The
goal was to fly around these stages, popping the
balloons of the enemy birds. On later levels, Flippers
would also be introduced which will begin to spin
when bumped into and deal damage to both player
and enemy. A giant fish would appear at the bottom to
drag players or enemies under if they get too close. If a
player spends too much time on a stage, clouds will electrify
and send out sparks, introducing a new hazard for the player to worry about. Lastly, if
the player heads to the edge of the screen, they will wrap around and appear on the other side.
All of these elements of the game are retained and adapted pretty accurately for Smash. All of the hazards
exist, the stage wraps around, and even the fish will appear to drag players beneath the water.
Along with this, the stage has three different variations which are most noticeable by the color of
the grass: either bright green, dark green, or orange. All three of these are possible colors that
the Balloon Fight stages can have ripped straight from
the NES game. Staying in the realm of more obscure stages
for Smash, we next have Living Room. Living Room comes from the Nintendogs series, serving
as a general stage for the wide variety of games
in that lineup. Like the name suggests, this stage
takes place on the long flat floor of a living room. More specifically, the Country Home
from nintendogs + cats on 3DS. Throughout the battle, building blocks and various toys will fall
from the top of the stage, potentially hitting players and stacking into different layouts and structures.
These blocks and toys come from the various toys that dogs and cats can play with during
actual nintendogs gameplay. The background of the
stage will also have a random dog or cat playing
around. This animal can either be: a beagle, a toy poodle, a Jack Russell, a golden retriever,
a Shiba Inu, or a calico kitten. There is also a retro TV in the background that, by default,
displays an image of animals wearing Mario and Luigi hats. The background pet can sit
and watch this TV and the images will then cycle through other images of animals wearing Mario
series hats. All of these images are taken from actual nintendogs games. The next stage
in Smash for 3DS is known as StreetPass Legend in Japan, StreetPass Quest in PAL regions,
or simply Find Mii in North America. This stage is inspired by the game inside StreetPass Mii Plaza, an
application that came standard on the 3DS. With StreetPass,
a 3DS in sleep mode could exchange Miis with other 3DSes in sleep mode, where you could essentially
collect other people's Miis that you've passed by out in the real world. In Find Mii, you
could use these different Miis to rescue the player's Mii, who has been kidnapped by monsters. After
beating Find Mii, the player unlocks Find Mii II in which the player's Mii is captured again,
along with their family. The true final boss of Find Mii II is the Dark Lord's upgraded
form, the Dark Emperor, fought at the Castle of
Darkness. This setting and boss fight are the basis
for the stage in Smash. A caged Mii can be seen
swinging on the left side of the stage, representing the
kidnap of the Mii in Find Mii, with the cage itself even matching. Thiscage can be attacked and is
pretty sturdy, making it a sort of swinging platform. However, it can eventually be destroyed, sending the
Mii flying off in the distance. The Mii inside the cage is chosen at random from the saved Miis that
are found on the 3DS or Switch system. The Dark Emperor will hang out in the background, performing
a couple of different attacks. First, he can make either of the two platforms lower, forcing everyone
to fight on the one that remains. More notably, though, is his ability to change the power
of players' attack, defense, specials, speed, or all of the above, either positively or negatively.
The way this is determined varies depending on
the version of the game you're playing. In Smash for 3DS,
the Dark Emperor will randomly pick one of the 12 Mii colors and impact all of the characters
on screen whose costume is the same color as
what he selected. In Smash Ultimate, this mechanic
was scrapped and the Dark Emperor will instead simply pick characters completely at random, meaning that
one, some, all, or no characters can be chosen. The Dark Emperor can also jump in the foreground and
physically attack, as well. When this happens, players can also attack him back and if he's defeated,
the player that dealt the final blow will be given a temporary stat boost. Kind of a cool stage
based on a mini-game inside of an app that's pre-installed on your 3DS system. Next, let's talk about
Tomodachi Life. Tomodachi Life is another Mii-focused game - thistime, in the life simulation
genre, where the player follows and decides the interactions between various Miis on their system, from
basic tasks to more long-term decisions like marriage. The core gameplay takes place in various rooms
throughout an apartment complex and this apartment complex is the basis for the stage in Smash.
As an actual stage the layout is fairly basic, with three inner floors of the building and the
roof, ultimately comprising four levels that players can fight on. The bigger feature of
this stage is the rooms inside of the building, which are only visible through the outer wall when
a character is occupying the same space, kinda like the quirk of the Luigi's Mansion stage. For Tomodachi
Life, the rooms inside are always randomized. There are twelve possible rooms that can be selected,
with six being picked every time the stage is loaded. Each room inside is effectively pulled straight
from Tomodachi Life, just with items rearranged so that the room is visible to the player.
These rooms range from realistic looking living rooms to a room that looks like a boxing ring
or a beach. Inside of these rooms, we can see Miis, obviously referencing Miis living inside
of the apartment complex. One of these Miis will always be the system's primary Mii, while
the rest will be randomly selected from the other Miis on the system. All of these Miis can be wearing
clothing that exists in Tomodachi Life: four unisex outfits, eight exclusive to male Miis, and
eight exclusive to female Miis. There aren't really any references for these, they're just kind of different
categories of outfits that you might find in the real world that are also found in Tomodachi
Life. But, I figured it was worth a mention. Lastly, in the background of the stage we
can see the amusement park off in the distance, which is one of the unlockable activities found
in the game. Our next stage is the rare example of a sequel stage in PictoChat 2. Like the first
PictoChat in Brawl, this is inspired by the PictoChat application introduced on the Nintendo DS. It focuses
on the drawing aspect, with each new drawing impacting the stage and gameplay in some way. All of
the drawings for PictoChat 2 are completely new and many of these are Smash originals
that are simply creative ideas but otherwise have no
reference. There are 26 different drawings this time
and, like before, I won't bore you with all of the details on each one. However, there
are a few that do indeed reference other games. First
we have the Donkey Kong drawing. This one features
a crude sketch of the first level of Donkey Kong, including the big guy himself. DK will throw sketches
of barrels down which will follow the drawn ramps, simulating the gameplay of the arcade game.
Another drawing replicates a segment found in Super
Mario Bros. World 1-2. Platforms move up or down on either
side with a row of bricks in the center, just like in that level. Next is a drawing that
puts a bunch of Pac-...Man's? Pac-Men? onto the stage, damaging players on knockback. Sakurai revealed
in a Miiverse Pic of the Day post that this specifically references Pac-Pix, a 2005 Nintendo DS game
that required the player to draw their own Pac-Man to complete each level. So, it's a nice little
reference to multiple games that revolve around drawing functionality. Finally, we have a
section with a ton of pipes, similar to those in Mario. Interacting with this pipe will suck the player
in and have them appear at another random pipe, functionally similar to Mario pipes
as well as the pipes way back on Mushroom Kingdom in Smash 64. And we're finally at the last
Smash for 3DS exclusive stage: Pac-Maze. The origin for this stage is pretty obvious: the mazes
that Pac-Man needs to traverse through in the very first Pac-Man arcade game. The goal of each level
is to eat every dot while avoiding the four different colored ghosts. A Power Pellet, one of the
bigger dots, can be eaten in order to turn the ghosts into flashing blue and white forms,
which Pac-Man can then eat. Overall, this stage is a decent tribute to these original levels, though many
liberties have to be taken in order to make it a playable Smash stage. There are a couple of solid platforms
that are based on the walls of the maze, while the soft platforms with white lines are based
on the room and door that the four ghosts come from. And speaking of ghosts, Blinky,
Inky, Pinky, and Clyde all appear on this stage as hazards, naturally dealing damage and knockback to
anyone who hits them. Dots also appear on the stage with
a special per-player mechanic: fighters can collect
these pellets and, when they collect 100, their own special Power Pellet can appear, indicated by a matching
color pointer above it. That player can collect it and will receive a boost to their attack
power for a short while. Enemy players can attack opposing Power Pellets, which will grant them
20 points and, of course, eliminate the chance of that player getting their stat boost. Neutral
Power Pellets can also appear, with anyone capable of grabbing and using them. Bonus Fruit can
also occasionally appear, which is worth 10 points. Bonus Fruit appeared in the Pac-Man
arcade games, giving bonus points if the player can eat it. Collecting the big Power Pellets will
also make the four ghosts turn into their flashing blue
forms and, if the powered up player collides with
them, they will disappear and their eyes will flee, just like in Pac-Man. Interestingly, only
the powered-up player will see the blue ghosts. Everyone else will see the regular ghosts and can still
be damaged by them, which is an almost unique
experience that only playing on multiple 3DS consoles
could offer. Defeating the blue ghosts will result in a point value appearing: 200, 400, 800,
and 1600, the same points yielded if all four were eaten in Pac-Man. This stage would unfortunately
not see a return in Ultimate, leaving it as an exclusive to Smash for 3DS. The first new
stage found in Smash for Wii U is Big Battlefield, revealed
in the Smash for Wii U 50-Fact Extravaganza Direct.
This stage is an offshoot of standard Battlefield
designed for the newly introduced 8-Player Smash mode,
offering plenty of room for everyone. In Wii U, 8-Player Smash was only compatible
with certain stages so it was nice to have a stage specifically designed for it. The design of
the stage is literally just Battlefield but bigger and with extra platforms, so it has the exact
same Smash original origin. And naturally in Smash
4, Big Battlefield matches that version of Battlefield,
and likewise the same is true for Smash Ultimate. Next is our first new Mario stage for this
game: Mushroom Kingdom U based on New Super Mario Bros. U. This is a transforming stage
with Kamek the Magikoopa appearing periodically and using his magic to change the stage into multiple
different locations from the game. The stage always starts out on a grassland form based on Acorn
Plains, the first world of Mario U. The second form is based on the game's sixth world, Rock-
Candy Mines, then a layout based on Meringue Clouds, the game's seventh world. And, finally
the inside of Slide Lift Tower, the tower level found in Meringue Clouds, which features similarly
moving platforms. While only three worlds are represented in actual appearance, elements
from other worlds can also appear. Geysers can
shoot up from the bottom that act as platforms,
and occasionally they will have Big Urchins on them, which serve as a damaging hazard. These
come from the third world of the game Sparkling Waters. Giant icicles can also drop from above, originating
from Frosted Glacier, the fourth world. If a player is struck while falling, these icicles will
freeze them once they land. They serve as additional slippery platforms and can be destroyed
by attacks. Beanstalks can also appear on the stage, sprouting leaves that serve as extra platforms,
based on their appearance in a level of the Sparkling Waters world. Alongside all of this, Nabbit can appear
at random to interfere with the battle. Nabbit is a small purple rabbit introduced in
New Super Mario Bros. U. Originally, he served as a thief stealing items from Toad Houses.
Mario would have to chase him in a previously played level and grab him in order to recover these
items. Later on, he would appear in New Super Luigi U, performing the same function but also acting
as a playable character. In Smash, Nabbit will
appear with his big sack and attempt to catch fighters
in it. If successful, he will then run off and fly towards the top of the screen in an attempt
to KO that player, though they can attempt to escape by mashing. Nabbit can also be attacked as
though he were a fighter, which is honestly kind
of what he deserves for attempted kidnap and murder.
Staying in the realm of Mario games, we next have the Mario Galaxy stage, obviously based on
Super Mario Galaxy. The core of this stage is built off of Gateway Galaxy, the first planet that
Mario finds himself on at the beginning of the game. This stage is unique in that rather
than being perfectly even, it implements a gravity mechanic based off of the one in Mario Galaxy.
In that game, each planet had its own gravitational pull keeping Mario on the surface no matter
what the orientation of the planet. The curvature of this stage reflects that with the gravity
pulling fighters to the planet's center of gravity. As a result, projectiles can behave strangely.
Some will act as you might expect, also following the curve of the planet like R.O.B.'s laser. However,
others will not follow gravity and will stay oriented
with its fighter rather than the planet, kinda like
Fox's lasers, so they just go flying outwards. The
house in the background is the same one found on
Gateway Galaxy. In the background, we can see a variety of
spacecraft that are found in both Mario Galaxy games. There are Bowser's Airships, which
were used throughout Galaxy 1 in both the opening of the game, as well as in certain
levels. There's also Starship Mario, the main hub of Galaxy 2,
piloted by Lubba. This ship was the means of traveling to different galaxies in lieu
of the Comet Observatory. Finally, we can see the Starshroom,
the Toad Brigade's spacecraft found in both games.
The Toad Brigade is a team of Toads that explore space and assist Mario led by Captain Toad.
This stage is largely untouched in the jump to Ultimate,
however one point of interest is the mini-map that
is new to this game reflecting the curvature unique to this stage. Next up, we have yet another
stage with a repeat name: Mario Circuit, specifically
the version from Mario Kart 8. Like other Mario
Kart stages before it this stage will follow the
course of the track on a floating platform, stopping
at various spots throughout the race allowing the racers to potentially hit the fighters.
However, this stage has a unique quirk that sets it apart from the other Mario Kart stages: anti-gravity.
This was a new mechanic introduced in Mario Kart 8, allowing for courses that saw racers capable
of driving on walls or upside down sticking to the racetrack through anti-gravity tech.
To honor this new mechanic, Mario Circuit keeps the fighters oriented the same way,
showing off how the drivers of this course use the anti-gravity. There are segments where racers
are driving normally, but also on the sides of walls or even completely upside down. This
also means that the track can also serve as walls
or a ceiling, making it impossible for players to be KO'd
in those directions. The main fighting platform also seems to use technology similar to the
anti-gravity found on the karts. As you may have guessed, the racers on this stage are once
again Shy Guys, referencing the Download Play feature in prior Mario Kart games, allowing you to
play local multiplayer with a friend without actually owning the game, but limiting you to playing
as a Shy Guy. However, unlike the previous Mario
Kart stages which were actually based on games
that had Download Play, Mario Kart 8 does not offer
such a feature. However, using Shy Guys as the racers
seems to have simply become a staple for Mario Kart stages in Smash, so they were likely still
chosen for the sake of consistency. Next we have
the only new Donkey Kong stage for both versions of
Smash 4: Jungle Hijinxs, which I can't believe that's
how you spell it. This stage comes to us from the revival of the Donkey Kong Country series:
Donkey Kong Country Returns for the Wii. Jungle Hijinxs is the name of the first level
of this game, paying tribute to the first Country
games whose first level was also named Jungle Hijinxs. This
stage is just pulled directly from a segment of the level in Donkey Kong Country Returns
with some adjustments to make it more friendly as a stage in Smash. This section in the game serves as an introduction
to a new mechanic to the series, allowing for
gameplay in both the foreground and the background
by way of Barrel Cannons. This is emulated pretty
well in Smash: occasionally Barrel Cannons will appear
on the stage allowing a fighter to blast into the background or the foreground if they jump
into them. The Smash stage implements a few additional details to make this a more engaging stage
to fight on and to prevent camping. After a player launches from a Barrel Cannon they will have
a weird orange smoke effect around them for
a short time. If they jump into another Barrel Cannon
while the smoke is around them, the barrel will instead explode. This is designed to
keep players from just running away jumping into barrel
after barrel to avoid any fighting. Occasionally,
the main platform in the foreground will lower revealing a number of Cannons, forcing the
fight to take place in the background for a short time. Any hits that take place in the background
cause more knockback than usual as a way to compensate
for the blast zones being further away. Lastly,
an enemy called a Screaming Pillar can occasionally
appear in between the two sets of platforms. If a fighter
launches out of a Barrel from the foreground and hits the Pillar it will fall into the background,
causing damage to anyone who gets hit by it. The Screaming Pillars are a part of the Tiki
Tak Tribe, the primary enemies in Donkey Kong Country
Returns. Jungle Hijinxs failed to make a return in
Ultimate, leaving it as just a Smash for Wii U exclusive.
Our next stage is a new Zelda one: Skyloft. This
stage is based on Link's home in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Skyloft, also known as the
Isle of the Goddess. The Earth is uninhabited by humans, with floating islands above the clouds being
where they live instead. Link lives on Skyloft and
his adventure eventually takes him below the clouds
to explore the Earth below. The stage consists of a primary platform that will take on different
shapes throughout the course of the match. It will also travel all around Skyloft, periodically
landing on different locations found on the floating island. For all intents and purposes,
this seems to be the map ripped straight out of Skyward Sword and only given some minor
tweaks. Most of the locations the stage takes fighters
to are some of the main points of interest in Skyloft:
the Knight Academy, on or in front of the Statue of the Goddess, or in front of the
Bazaar, just to name a few. In the far background,
we can see some of the other floating islands above
the clouds. On top of this, a few background characters, for lack of a better word, can also be seen.
First are Loftwings, bird creatures that play an important role in the game serving as the
means of travel above the clouds. Link receives
a rare crimson Loftwing, a reference to the red bird found
on the Hylian Shield, but each Skyloft resident will typically have a partner Loftwing to travel
with. You can also see Beedle's Airshop in the background. Beedle is a recurring character
in the Zelda series, with different incarnations often running shops. This version of Beedle's store
flies around Skyloft with Link needing to ring the
bell with a projectile in order to signal Beedle
that he has a customer. Lastly, beacons of light can be seen breaking through the thick layer
of clouds. These beams don't exist at the start of the
game, but as Link gains access to areas of the surface
these beams appear to indicate an opening to each different part of the land. Next we have one
of the most infamous stages in Smash: Pyrosphere. Pyrosphere is a location found in Metroid:
Other M. Samus is sent here by her commander in
order to track down a mystery creature that had previously
attacked her. Later on in the same location, she realizes this creature is actually Ridley
the space pirate who she knows to have been killed before. This Ridley is, in fact, a
clone mistakenly engineered from DNA on Samus's suit. Ridley then attacks Samus and a battle takes place
in a lava-filled area. This battle is the basis
for the stage in Smash, with the location and
arena being pretty much exactly the same as in Other M. Much to Ridley fans' displeasure, Ridley appears
here as a giant stage boss. He can attack by flying
at high speed, using his claws and tail and breathing
fire. He can even absorb the energy from the tanks beneath the stage, increasing his strength.
Fighters can attack him and after enough damage is dealt, whoever exceeds the damage limit
with their final attack gains Ridley as an ally, who
will attack all others on the stage. This clone really
is a big point of focus in Other M. The game shows
us the life cycle of Ridley and, presumably, his
species, with it starting as a form known as Little
Birdie, before shedding to become the mystery creature
form and ultimately a fully mature adult Ridley. Other minor enemies will appear on this stage
as well. FG II-Grahams are turrets that will
fire beams when hit. Joulions are strange alien creatures
that will inflate and explode when they receive damage. Finally, Zeros will appear, which
are harmless on their own. However, they can be picked
up, increasing a fighter's weight and thrown to deal damage.
While Zeros have appeared multiple times since Super Metroid, both FG II-Grahams and Joulions
were first introduced in Metroid: Other M. Pyrosphere missed out on returning in Smash Ultimate,
likely because Ridley was promoted from boss character to finally a playable fighter. Next, we have
a brand new Yoshi stage known simply as Woolly World. This stage matches the fabric aesthetic
of Yoshi's Woolly World for the Wii U. Interestingly, this stage was revealed to be a rather late
addition to Smash for Wii U, and its inclusion in Smash actually predates its game of origin's release.
Smash released in Winter 2014, while Woolly World wasn't until Summer 2015. The stage begins
on a form that resembles a basic grassland with
several windmills in the background. This comes from
World 1-5 of Woolly World, Knitty-Knotty Windmill Hill. There are platforms that hang down on the
stage in the form of a mobile, which is taken from World 3-2 Wobble Mobile Jaunt. Eventually,
the platforms rise into the sky serving as the only ground to walk on. After a bit,
the mobile will lower again into a new area which looks to be made of
fabric toy blocks. This itself doesn't really come
from anywhere and it sort of just encapsulates
the artistic style that Woolly World has overall. The mobile raises one more time into the sky
before bringing the fight back down to the windmill
area, starting the transitions from the beginning
again. As you can see, this stage really doesn't
have a ton going on in the reference department,
but honestly I think that makes sense. The stage
was added late in development, whether via Sakurai's
decision or at the request from Nintendo. And since the game wasn't even out yet, it's understandable
that they really didn't have a ton of source material to reference and just needed to get
the stage done as quickly as possible. Woolly World also did not return in the jump from Smash
4 to Ultimate. Our next stage is the biggest stage
in all of Smash history: The Great Cave Offensive.
This is an incredibly complex stage with tons of platforms, small alcoves, and hazards all
over the place. Additionally, if the fighters are even
spread out moderately, they become incredibly small
and very difficult to see. The Great Cave Offensive is one of the game modes in both Kirby Super
Star and its remake Super Star Ultra. Kirby falls down a pit and finds himself in a giant cave and
the goal of the game is to find the exit and collect treasure. There are four different stages
in this mode: Sub-Tree, Crystal, Old Tower, and Garden. Each of these stages are interconnected, with
Kirby able to freely travel to and from each one.
The stage in Smash takes the four stages found in this
mode and jams them all together, with each stage represented by a section of the stage; Sub-Tree on top,
Crystal on the right, Old Tower in the center, and Garden on the left. Treasure chests can
periodically appear during the fight, supplying players who attack them with items or sometimes
a sabotaging explosion. Lava and spikes can be found peppered throughout
the stage, referencing some of the hazards that can be found in the original game mode.
Spikes simply damage and knock back opponents, while lava will instantly KO any opponent above 100%.
Cannons can likewise be found on both this stage and the Kirby mode. Minecarts will also
occasionally spawn and will launch forward if a player enters them, potentially damaging opponents.
Minecarts are the method of getting from area to area
in The Great Cave Offensive, so this is a nice reference
in the stage. Despite this stage kind of being frustrating to play on, I actually really
like the way that Smash took this game mode and cleverly made
a stage representing all the different areas
and mechanics. You just need an incredibly strong prescription to be able to see all
of this stuff. The only new Star Fox stage in both versions
of Smash 4 is Orbital Gate Assault. Rather than
being the name of a location, the name of this stage describes the events that take place
in it, and by extension, the game of origin. In the eighth mission of Star Fox: Assault for the
GameCube, the Aparoid race launches an assault on the Beltino Orbital Gate with many missiles,
and Star Fox and Star Wolf both team up to defend the gate and their home world of Corneria.
The stage in Smash loosely recreates the events of this
battle. The fight begins atop the Great Fox out in space
with some Arwings flying nearby. Eventually, the Great Fox flies away, resulting in the
fight now taking place on top of these previously mentioned Arwings as well as an Aparoid missile.
The missile then crashes into the Orbital Gate's force
field before eventually being destroyed by three Arwing.
These Arwing then become where the fight takes place, flying throughout the Gate and the space battle
overall. Eventually, they dropped the fighters off at the second Aparoid missile, which will
again attempt to break through the force field before being destroyed. Arwing pick the players up
again and take them back to the Great Fox where the stage loop will begin once again.
Sakurai revealed in a Miiverse pose that this single stage actually took an entire year to complete,
which is crazy, though I guess it does make sense because there's a ton going on with
the stage Unfortunately though, this stage would not
see a return in Smash Ultimate, leaving all that
work exclusive to the Wii U. Next we have a brand new Pokémon stage, Kalos Pokémon
League. This is, naturally, from the location where the player takes on the Elite Four in
the Kalos region, the setting of Pokémon X and Y, the 6th Generation. The main form of the stage is based on the
Main Hall of the Pokémon League, which has five sets of doors; one for each of the Elite Four and
a final for the Champion. The player is able to confront
the Elite Four in any order that they wish, with
each having a room themed around their typing. While the Main Hall in X and Y is rather basic,
just with the big stained glass window as the focal
point, the stage form in Smash really takes this window
and extrapolates it; offering more decorative windows and making the area much, much bigger.
This stage also emulates the concept of the Elite Four in X and Y's Pokémon League. Each
Elite Four member has their own special room leading
off the Main Hall, but the style of the room is similar
to the Main Hall. Instead of having you travel to
each room, the stage instead transforms into a
form that matches the typing and rooms from X and
Y. Additionally, both hazards and background
Pokémon will appear that correspond to the room's
typing. The first transformation turns the stage into
the Blazing Chamber, representing the Fire-type Elite Four member Malva. Her room has giant
pillars of fire that blast out when you enter. Smash
has taken this and placed platforms on top, letting
you stand at the top of these pillars. But you can still take damage from the actual
fire underneath. The background Pokémon that appear are all
Fire- types to match with Malva's team. Infernape, Tepig, and Blaziken all appear, representing
multiple generations of Fire-type starters. Pyroar
also appears, the only 6th Generation Pokémon
here, and also the only one of these Pokémon to
appear on Malva's team. Though, interestingly, Smash
uses a Male Pyroar, while Malva's Pyroar is Female. Each chamber also has a 20% chance
to spawn a Legendary Pokémon, which will match the typing
of the chosen chamber and have an additional effect on the
stage. For the Blazing Chamber, Ho-Oh has a chance to appear. Ho-Oh will cause the pillars
of fire on the stage to burn with more intensity,
resulting in the platforms going up much higher and
the fire much more of a hazard. The next transformation is the Flood Chamber, representing the Water-type
Elite Four member Siebold in X and Y. There are two gears held up by chains and the room floods
with water when the player enters. This is sort of used in Smash, but it has its own spin on
it; these gears are now turned into more solid platforms
for fighters. Rather than having the whole area
flooded with water, ramps will appear on the left
and right side, and, periodically, water will rush down
across the entire stage with the chance of fighters
being pulled in the current. The background Pokémon are Piplup and Blastoise, two Water-type
starters, Wailord, who is honestly there probably because it's just funny to see that big of
a Pokémon, and Clawitzer. Clawitzer debuted
in Generation 6 of Pokémon, and is also on Siebold's
team. The Legendary Pokémon for the Flood Chamber is Manaphy. Manaphy will turn the
stage into a giant drain using Whirlpool to cause water to spin
down towards the center, pulling players in and potentially KO'ing them. The third transformation
is the Ironworks Chamber for Steel-type Elite Four member Wikstrom. As you enter this chamber,
two giant swords fall from the ceiling and slowly enter into slots in the floor. In Smash, these
same swords appear, though they function differently. They'll start out entering into the slots,
but they will stay about halfway inserted, with the hilt serving as platforms. The blades
are constantly active hitboxes, so touching them results
in damage and knockback if hit with attacks. However,
these swords will slowly lower into the slots, bringing the platforms down to ground level.
A liquid metal puddle also appears in the center periodically, which will turn any fighter who touches it
into a Metal fighter, which obviously makes sense for the Steel-type form. The background Pokémon
are Steelix and Scizor, two of the first new Steel-type evolutions of pre-existing Pokémon,
Klinklang, and Honedge. Honedge is a new Generation 6 Pokémon and is the first stage of what eventually
evolves into Aegislash. Aegislash as well as the previously mentioned Scizor are both members of Wikstrom's
team. The Legendary Pokémon for the Ironworks Chamber is Registeel. Registeel will use Stomp
on the stage, which will cause the swords to
leave the slots and spin around, potentially hitting
players before re-sheathing. The final transformation
for the stage is the Dragonmark Chamber, representing
the Dragon-type Elite Four member Drasna. A giant statue moves upon entering her chamber,
and Smash takes the statue and adds even more to it. Periodically the statue will roar,
which will cause purple flames to appear on the
stage damaging anyone who touches it. The background
Pokémon are Dragonite, Garchomp, Hydreigon, and Axew. The former three represents Pseudo-legendary
Dragon-type Pokémon from their respective Generations. Pseudo-legendaries are Pokémon which are
stronger and somewhat rarer than most other Pokémon, but still more common than Legendaries. And Axew
is probably just there because it's cute. Ironically none of these Dragon-type Pokémon are actually
used on Drasna's team. And the final Legendary Pokémon that can appear is Rayquaza. Rather
than chilling in the center like the other Legendaries, Rayquaza will fly across the
screen, indicated by a wave of electricity serving
as a dangerous hazard. This Legendary is also unique in that
it's actually repurposed content, as Rayquaza was a boss from the Subspace Emissary mode in
Brawl, and this attack is pretty much exactly the
same as one of its attacks during that battle.
Alright so after that incredibly long-winded stage,
we have a short one now: Coliseum, or Arena in Japanese
from the Fire Emblem series. Unsurprisingly, this stage takes place in a coliseum or arena
with a huge crowd of onlookers cheering on the
fight down below. Throughout the fight, the main
ground that's fought on will rise into a variety
of different platform configurations. This mechanical ground
platform concept is pretty much Smash original designed to provide a "in-universe
explanation" for these platforms changing up. However, the Fire Emblem series is no stranger
to coliseums and arenas, having existed since
the very first Fire Emblem game and in a majority of
the games across the entire series. Players can wager some gold to enter the arena in
hopes of winning and receiving both experience and more gold than they bet. However, utilizing
arenas runs the risk of your unit dying, resulting
in both the loss of the wager gold and the loss of that unit
for the rest of the game. Design wise, the stage's
inspiration was likely sparked from the appearance of
arenas in Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon, though Smash took a rather generic design and made it
more intricate. Our next stage is Flat Zone X, a new stage that is both new and completely recycled.
Flat Zone X takes the previous Game & Watch stages of Flat Zone and Flat Zone 2 and completely
smushes them together into one single stage. Since
Flat Zone 1 was just a single-stage layout, really this
is just adding the one Flat zone 1 transformation into Flat Zone 2. So now among all of the
Game & Watch games represented in Flat Zone 2, Helmet is added to that lineup. Either way, this
stage is quite literally exactly the same outside
of that. The layouts, hazards, references all
stay exactly the same. Despite this, though, I
think it's incredibly unique to take two stages of similar
concepts and combine them into one ultimate stage. It would kind of be like taking Stadium
1 and Stadium 2 and combining all of those different transformations onto a single Pokémon Stadium
X. I just think it's neat. Our next stage is another
one of the absolute big boys in the game: Palutena's
Temple. Palutena's Temple has been a regular point of interest in the Kid Icarus series, however,
like most things in Smash, the appearance of this stage takes its cues from Kid Icarus:
Uprising, the soft reboot of the series. During the events of Chapters 19 and 20 of Kid Icarus:
Uprising, Palutena gets possessed by the Chaos Kin,
and as a result, Skyworld gets destroyed. This destruction
is the inspiration for the presentation of this stage, since it doesn't really look like a
very majestic or put together temple by any definition. The stage is so big that it's
effectively split into multiple smaller sections: an area
made up of lots of platforms, a watery area with
a fountain, what appears to be dungeons that are presumably supposed to be beneath the temple,
and a cliffside that's been ripped out of a mountain with water spilling down the middle.
A bridge also connects the two halves of the
stage and it can be attacked and broken. Overall, this
stage is largely Smash original. Like I said, it does
take design beats from the Kid Icarus series, but
none of this really mirrors anything from Uprising
too well. We can, though, see the giant statue of Palutena
in the background, indicating that this is indeed her temple, similar to the statue in the background
of the stage literally named Skyworld. Next up, we have the most gamer stage of all. Gamer comes
from a mini game of the same name in Game & Wario, a spin-off of the WarioWare series for the
Wii U. In this game, 9-Volt and 18-Volt are competing
in a new game, with 9-Volt getting the highest
score. 5-Volt then takes the game and tells them
to do their homework, and when they finish they
discover that she now has the new high score. Determined to beat her score, 9-Volt secretly
stays up past his bedtime and plays in his room. 5-Volt will continually check on 9-Volt, so
the player needs to hide and pause the game so
that they don't get caught. She can open the door,
walk by the window, or even pop out of the TV to
catch him playing. The stage itself takes place on 9-Volt's desk
in the bedroom from the minigame, however, the layout is randomized each time you load the
stage. Books and wooden blocks will make up a majority
of the platforms in each layout. Pyoro and its
clay platform, the building from Mona's game Shutter, or a sketchbook can all occasionally
appear in different forms. The "hiding for Mom" element is the basis for the stage's main mechanic.
5-Volt can appear in any of the ways that she does in Game & Wario. Additionally, she has a couple
of Smash original ways as well. She can appear out of the Sketchbook or the Gamepad, which will
only appear in certain layouts of the stage. When
5-Volt appears, a beam of light will shoot from her
eyes, indicating her field of vision. Any players
caught in this light will face her motherly wrath
and receive damage, a brief stun, and high knockback. Lastly as a fun Easter Egg, a Virtual Boy
can be seen next to the TV. The Virtual Boy is a failed Nintendo console, the first in their attempt
at 3D gaming. This Virtual Boy is also visible in 9- Volt's bedroom in Game & Wario. Our
next stage is a brand new one from the Pikmin series: Garden
of Hope. This location is one found in Pikmin 3 for
the Wii U, being one of the earliest areas visited where Alph must rescue Brittany. However,
the stage in Smash is actually based on an area
of the Garden of Hope that is only accessible on
the second visit in the game, only possible after defeating the Scornet Maestro and rescuing Louie. Much
of the level is pretty faithful to its appearance in Pikmin 3, though Smash does do some rearranging
for the benefit of the fight. A breakable bowl and bridge are both found on this stage, and after
a while some Pikmin will appear to rebuild them based on their ability to do so in Pikmin
3. A Peckish Aristocrab, an enemy that can be found
in the Garden of Hope, can also enter the foreground
of the stage as a big boy hazard, damaging players who are hit and destroying some of the terrain.
A Bulborb enemy can also hang out in the background. Interestingly, while the Bulborb won't interfere
with the fighters directly, stage Pikmin will not appear until the Bulborb goes away, which
is a neat nod to Bulborbs being a natural predator of Pikmin. This means that while the Bulborb
is present on the stage, any of the elements broken by player attacks will not be repaired until
it leaves. Next, we have a new Animal Crossing stage: Town and City. This stage is based
on the mechanics of Animal Crossing: City Folk, where there
exists both a town and a city. The town is where
the player and other villagers live, with some
smaller shops and establishments found throughout.
However, the player can visit the city by riding the
bus, where they can go to other bigger shops found
in the Central Plaza. The main platform of the Town and City stage will travel back and forth
between a town background and city background, representing the traveling back and forth
in City Folk. The platform layouts are different
for each area, but both sides will always have
a bus stop sign, representing the usage of the bus
to get to and from the town and city. In the town,
we can see the player and villager houses as they
appear in City Folk, as well as different notable
points of interest: the Able Sisters shop, Fountain, Museum, Nook's Cranny, Town Gate,
and Town Hall are all visible. Moving to the city, we can see the Auction House, GracieGrace,
Happy Room Academy, Marquee, and Shampoodle shops all
in the Plaza. Just like with Smashville, many background
characters can appear on this stage. However, unlike on Smashville, all of these
characters are special characters in the game, meaning they aren't villagers, but rather
unique NPCs that serve a specific function in Animal Crossing. These are the characters
that can randomly appear on the town half, these
are the characters that can randomly appear on
the city half, and these are the characters who
can appear on either. All of these make for a
grand total of 40 background characters that can
appear. Other elements from Smashville are carried
over to Town and City. A balloon can appear, carrying
a piece of food if items are on. The stage also syncs
up with a system clock, changing the lighting depending on the time of day exactly the same
way Smashville functions. Certain shops will also be open or closed depending on the time
of day. Additionally K.K. Slider will also appear
on Saturday nights between 8 PM and 12 AM, just
as he does in Smashville, playing tracks that are
ripped straight from Animal Crossing. Next up we
have a stage repping a brand new series: Wii Fit Studio. This stage is a pretty liberal interpretation
of the studio as it appears in the Wii Fit series. Ordinarily, this is a rather small room that
features a trainer instructing the movements and a mirror in the background. This idea
has been scaled up to be the size of the entire stage,
with the room and mirror being like ten times larger.
Exercise equipment that could be seen in Wii Fit sits in the background of the stage, and
the Balance Board also makes an appearance. On top of being physically used in Wii Fit,
the Balance Board was also an animated little guy and Smash carries that
over as well. All of the platforms on this stage are also
Balance Boards extended further than normal to offer more room to battle. Occasionally the
mirror will disappear and a yoga pose will be shown,
sort of being the replacement for the instructor.
In the jump to Ultimate, silhouetted people can be
seen using the exercise equipment or doing stretches,
based on similar silhouettes found throughout the Wii Fit series. Overall the Smash team just
took the idea of a workout room led by an instructor and kind of just did whatever they felt like.
Next up, we have a super throwback stage: Wrecking Crew, based on the NES and Famicom
game of the exact same name. This stage is a modernized
take on the NES game, implementing mechanics from
it into Smash's gameplay. In Wrecking Crew, Mario
and Luigi were tasked with using a hammer to destroy
walls in each level avoiding enemies as they go. There are also bombs which can be attacked
in order to explode many walls at once. Barrels
can fall on the enemies in the game trapping them
inside. A lot of this is carried over pretty faithfully into Smash. The stage has a ground
floor and four additional floors above it. While standard attacks cannot break the stone walls,
bombs are all over the place which will explode when attacked, which will cause the walls
to break. In Wrecking Crew, support beams can be destroyed in order to cause the barrels to drop on top
of enemies. This mechanic has been taken further
in Smash; when enough walls are destroyed on
a floor, the floor above it loses its support and it
will cause every row to collapse down one level.
This is how barrels can be used to trap fighters
who can either mash to get out, or simply get
hit by an opponent's attack. Entire floors collapsing doesn't exist in Wrecking Crew, just the ability
to drop barrels, so this cascading damage is unique to Smash. There are an infinite number of
randomly generated floors on this stage, so you can
play for literally an hour and you would never
run out. Moving to another fairly unique stage, let's
talk about Pilotwings. Pilotwings is a small series
of flight simulation games developed and released
by Nintendo with three entries total: Pilotwings
for the SNES, Pilotwings 64, and Pilotwings Resort
for the 3DS. The stage in Smash combines elements
from both the SNES and 3DS games. The beginning
of the stage sees players fighting on top of a red
biplane flying through point rings based on the plane found in the first Pilotwings. While
fighting on this plane, the scenery below is that of a flat 2D island. The flat island moving
around in a 3D space is pulled straight from the
SNES game, which utilized the Mode 7 technology
for that console, which simulated 3D movement
by manipulating two-dimensional textures. After
a while, the fighters will be dropped off the red plane onto a yellow plane, coming from the
planes used in Pilotwings Resort. The design of the point rings is also updated to mirror
the ones from Pilotwings 64 and Resort. Pilotwings
Resort took place in an area known as Wuhu Island
and allowed players to fly around this island
area in the gameplay. At the time, Wuhu Island
was a recurring location found in Nintendo games. The island debuted in Wii Fit under the name
Wii Fit Island before its more notable appearance
and name change in Wii Sports Resort. It also
appeared in Mario Kart 7 as a playable raceway. When
the fighters are on this yellow plane, the background
changes to the three-dimensional Wuhu Island, referencing the new setting for the game on
3DS. Throughout this part of the stage, Miis can
be seen with rocket belts in the background, referencing
gameplay from Pilotwings Resort, though the actual rocket belt first appeared in the original
Pilotwings. And finally, the yellow plane will trade off with a red plane starting the cycle of
the stage over, taking you back to the original Pilotwings for SNES. And speaking of Wuhu
Island, this area is also its own separate stage in Smash
for Wii U. Similar to other stages, platforms
will take you to different locations on the island,
each with some unique elements. The first location is
the Frisbee Dog Park, where a Mii can be seen
throwing a Frisbee for his dog to catch based on one
of the sports available in Wii Sports Resort. Next
is the Swaying Bridge, which is a side perspective
on one of the stages found in Swordplay: Showdown
also in Wii Sports Resort. Then we have the speedboat.
The design of this boat seems to be Smash original, though boating is fairly common in resorts
such as in the wakeboarding sport. Next, we have a large group of rocks at sea, largely an original
idea just taken from the ocean found around Wuhu Island. And then we have Maka Wuhu, which
is the name of the volcano that's found on Wuhu Island. This is the highest point in
the entire island and can be virtually seen from anywhere,
often seen in the background of many of the sports being
played. We then have a boating gate, which indicates the starting point for the Power Cruising
sport. As a result, Miis can be seen Power Cruising
through this gate during the midst of the fight. Then
we have the Wishing Fountain, which is a location in the southern end of Wuhu Island found at
the center of the town there. Next is the Swordplay Colosseum, which is naturally a location where
the Swordplay Duel sport can take place. And lastly, we have Talon Rock, another location found
around Wuhu Island. Throughout the battle, Miis can be seen performing sports, doing leisure activities,
or just spectating. This is one of the rare instances where Miis seen on stages are not taken from
the console's saved Miis. Instead, they're simply generated based on a set of premade Miis and
the stage will always use these, though their
appearances may be random. Finally, as a neat detail, the yellow
plane from Pilotwings can be seen in the background
of this stage, linking the last two stages together
as well as Wuhu Island's presence in both original games. Our next stage is a brand new Sonic
stage known as Windy Hill Zone. Windy Hill Zone
is the first zone of Sonic Lost World, a formerly
Nintendo- exclusive Sonic game that was released between the releases of Brawl and Smash 4. Design
wise, Windy Hill is reminiscent of Green Hill Zone in its patterns and overall design, however,
it also has new elements to separate the two
as well. The gameplay of Lost World finds Sonic running
on giant cylindrical levels able to rotate across the entire thing, kinda like a Sonic version
of the concept in Super Mario Galaxy. To that
end, the stage and Smash is similar to the Mario
Galaxy stage, as well being a curved stage that has a gravity mechanic, rather than a completely
parallel one. Many of the elements are pulled from the actual Windy Hill Zone, including springs
and the windmill. The springs can be a bit of
a gamble with a gravity mechanic, as they won't fire
you straight up relative to the screen, but will
send you at a sort of odd angle. This is still
helpful for recovery, but can be devastating if you
aren't careful. The windmill has platforms attached
to it following the rotation of the blades. On
the stage there are also animal friends that make
an appearance. These have been a recurring element since the very first Sonic game where Eggman
captured them and essentially enslaved them to power his robot minions. They make a return
in Sonic Lost World, with their designs in that
game being represented here in Smash. Our next
stage is the other Pac-Man series stage in the Smash
series: Pac-Land. Pac-Land is an arcade game released
in 1984. Pac-Man's goal in this game is to traverse
side scrolling levels and return a lost fairy back
to Fairyland before ultimately returning home
to his family. Inky, Pinky, Blinky, Clyde, and
Sue are all enemies that can be encountered in the
game attempting to impede Pac-Man's journey. Power
Pellets are also featured, turning the ghosts blue like in the arcade game and allowing Pac-Man
to eat them for points. Pac-Man travels through
all kinds of terrain during each stage, such as
cities, jungles, and deserts. The stages found in
Pac-Land are pulled straight from the game and placed
into Smash to serve as the stage. In the arcade game, the scrolling of the stage follows Pac-Man,
while in Smash Pac-Land automatically scrolls throughout each level while the enemy ghosts are removed.
For Smash, most of the other hazards are retained: fire hydrants pushing players, collapsing
parts of a bridge, and waterspouts are some of the
hazards that are straight from the arcade game. The
stage starts out at Pac-Man's house then scrolls through a city, a forest, and a bridge above
water. Once it reaches the end, the players all end up in Fairyland, simulating the end of the
arcade level. Mother Fairy appears here and will grant a player Wing Shoes, one of the rewards offered
in Pac-Land. In both games the Wing Shoes boost the player's jumping ability. After this segment,
the stage scrolls right to left. The return trip takes place in a desert, then a canyon, and
a lake before returning to town and then Pac-Man's house. When returning to the house, Ms. Pac-Man
can be seen greeting her husband after his long journey. In the Japanese version of Pac-Land,
Ms. Pac-Man has the exact same appearance as in Smash, which is now her concrete design. However,
in international versions of Pac-Land, she looked quite different, instead being based on artwork
done for previous Pac-Man arcade cabinets. In both versions, she's joined by Baby Pac-Man
who is noticeably missing in Smash. The stage then loops in the exact same way, however,
the lighting will instead have the stage take
place at sunset. After another complete loop, the
stage will then take place at nighttime. The arcade game also features different lighting, however,
the actual layouts for the stages would see small changes as well, while in Smash it stays the
same. Our next stage is one of the first new ones
added in an update to Smash for Wii U: Miiverse.
Miiverse is a social service offered by Nintendo back on the Wii U and 3DS. It was essentially a web
forum that allowed users to post about different
topics, such as games or characters in subsections
known as communities. The Miiverse stage was a unique one that integrated posts from the Miiverse
app into the background of the stage. Every Smash character had support communities where players could
submit drawn posts that would potentially show up
in the background of the stage whenever those characters
were being played. On paper, this was a really fun idea. Cool drawings and supported posts
cheering on all of the different fighters in Smash... On paper. But in execution... yeah. This stage
ultimately just became a bastion of memes combined with racial slurs and wiener drawings.
Just like pretty much everywhere on the Internet.
Admittedly, some of the memes and joke posts were really
funny, but the stage just didn't end up being the wholesome concept that Nintendo clearly hoped
it would be. You would have needed a full-time dedicated team to constantly vet the post
that would be allowed on the Smash stage, and that
just isn't reasonable. In November 2017, the Miiverse
network was officially shut down. As a result, Miiverse compatibility across all the different
Wii U and 3DS games was no longer supported, and if you go back and play on this stage
with your Wii U connected to the Internet today, the
stage will not load any posts in the background. Naturally
because Miiverse was no longer supported, Miiverse
does not make a return in Smash Ultimate. Good night,
sweet prince. And now we move on to paid DLC stages, with the first one that was ever released:
Mario Maker, available on both the 3DS and Wii U. This
stage is based on the game of the same name, which
allowed players to create their very own Mario levels. Enemies, blocks, power-ups, coins, everything
could be placed pretty much anywhere the player
decided creating some unique stages that would never
have appeared in any official Super Mario game.
Four different styles can be selected and changed
to at any time, based on Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, or New Super
Mario Bros. U. Smash takes this concept and makes Super Mario Maker a completely randomized
stage with many possible outcomes for every single time you load into the stage. Along with the
actual layout, the starting style for the stage will also be randomly selected from those available
in Mario Maker, and throughout the match it will transition into another of the styles in the
same way that it does in the level editor. On Smash for 3DS, it will only alternate between two
of the styles likely for performance reasons,
but on Wii U and later Ultimate, it will transition
through all four styles. Plenty of the more unique elements that could be used in Mario
Maker levels can be generated on this stage like ice blocks or lava appearing in unusual
places, falling donut blocks, warp pipes, or conveyor belts. It's also possible for blocks and structures
to be destroyed during gameplay, and periodically throughout the match, a hand holding a Wii
U stylus will repair the stage back to its initial
glory. This hand is the same one that would appear
on screen when using the level editor in Super
Mario Maker. Various Mario enemies can also appear
in the background, such as Bullet Bills, Hammer
Bros or a Goomba in Bowser Jr.'s Clown Car. It
really is hard to fully encapsulate everything about
this stage; it's just a random, chaotic mess at
times and honestly, I love it. That chaos really
does do a good job of representing what Super Mario
Maker ended up being. The next DLC stage was bundled along with Ryu called Suzaku Castle.
In Street Fighter II: The World Warrior, this is Ryu's home stage located in Japan. It takes
place on a rooftop found at a Japanese temple. Being a more traditional fighting game, Suzaku Castle
in the Street Fighter series is completely flat, with no platforms or hazards. Overall, the
stage layout is pretty original to Smash. The right
side features a long, flat section similar to the
actual Street Fighter stage, but a platform above
it and platforms to the left are unique just to keep
this from being a simple flat stage. There are
also signposts found on the stage that can be broken
when an attack is performed next to them, another detail that was based on the stage's appearance
in the World Warrior. This stage has seen updates
and changes in appearance in the Street Fighter
series, though the 3DS and Wii U versions of the stage match its original sunset appearance. In Ultimate,
the lighting has been adjusted, made to match more closely with these stages appearance in Street
Fighter V. When nearing the end of a match, either with 30 seconds remaining, a player at low
stamina, or a player on their last stock, most tracks
will play their critical versions, sped up versions
of the song meant to hype up the final moments of the battle, a mechanic that exists in the
Street Fighter series. The next DLC stage is Midgar, bundled alongside Cloud. Midgar is the first
area in Final Fantasy VII, the capital city created
by the Shrina Electric Power Company split into
nine different sectors. The opening of Final Fantasy
VII features a big pan over the city before ultimately
lowering onto the opening scene, so it's very possible that, with how iconic this opening
is, that's why this location was chosen as a stage. The stage takes place on a battlefield-ish
layout, matching the very Steampunk style that Midgar has, with the city itself in the background.
The biggest building that can be prominently seen
is the Shinra Building, the main headquarters
for the Shinra Company, which plays a fairly significant role in Final Fantasy VII's story. After a
moment, a small red orb will appear on the stage.
This is a Summon Materia, an item that allows the
player to call on monsters for assistance during
battle. A fighter can run into the Materia and summon
an ally monster, who will affect the stage in some pretty considerable way. Ifrit uses Hellfire,
which blasts one section of the stage with fire
with enough force to move the entire stage. The
player who summoned the monster will be immune to
the fire. Ramuh uses Judgment Bolt, which electrifies
the platforms, damaging and paralyzing all but the summoner and rearranges the platforms during
this time. Odin uses Zantetsuken, which slices
the stage in half and really separates them, leaving
a huge gap in the center for a while before pushing back together. Any player caught in the gap
when it repairs itself will be crushed to death. Leviathan uses Tidal Wave, which floods the
entire area up to about half of the actual platform.
This water has a strong current which pushes players
to the left, either into the stage for damage or a KO over 100, or to the leftmost blast zone.
Finally, Bahamut ZERO uses Terraflare, which destroys
the city and summons an enormous pillar of light
in the center of the stage damaging all players except for the summoner. All of the summons
found on this stage are, not surprisingly, available in Final Fantasy VII. The final stage in Smash
4's lifetime is none other than Umbra Clock Tower, bundled along with Bayonetta. The Umbra Clock
Tower is seen in both Bayonetta and Bayonetta 2.
In the opening of Bayonetta, both Bayonetta and Jeanne
fight angels on top of this falling clock tower,
using the Witch Walk ability to stay attached. In
the sequel, Bayonetta is sent back in time and
meets her mother who defends the clock tower against
evil forces with with her fellow witches. The clock tower ultimately gets destroyed,
careening off the edge of a cliff and Bayonetta and
her mother fight angels at the same time as her past self and
Jeanne. The stage itself in Smash is fairly basic.
The face of the clock tower serves as the primary
platform, with smaller chunks of the tower falling and serving as smaller soft platforms. These
get rearranged into a variety of Smash original arrangements. A fun Easter Egg for the stage
is that the clock face will match the system
time of whatever console you're playing on, though
it has no impact on the rest of the stage. Periodically, the stage will fall through a big purple portal
that represents Umbra Witch magic. This signifies the stage falling into Purgatorio, a parallel
to the Human World. While inside this dimension, Affinity and Inspired can appear in the background,
as can the gigantic Fortitudo. None of these have any impact on gameplay on this stage.
After a bit, the stage will enter another purple
portal, returning to the Human World. Did you know? Smash Ultimate has the second
lowest number of brand new stages introduced in the entire Smash series. And what's more,
only five of those were seen in the base game. The rest of the newly introduced stages were
each bundled with the Fighter Pass characters as paid DLC. But that still means that we
have sixteen brand new stages to talk about. And with most of them being paid DLC, a lot
more effort and detail was put into them, which means we have more to talk about. So
buckle up, make sure you hit that subscribe button and let's do this one last time. Here
are Smash Ultimate’s Stage Origins. The first stage we'll talk about briefly is the opposite
of Big Battlefield, introduced back in Wii U: Small Battlefield, introduced randomly in
version 8.1.0 of Smash Ultimate. Quite literally this stage is Battlefield but smaller
with the top platform of normal Battlefield removed and everything constrained
a bit more. Visually, the stage is exactly the same as Ultimate's
Big and normal Battlefields, a completely Smash original concept as all previous versions
have been. So now let's move on to our first in-depth stage, New Donk City Hall. New Donk City is
found in the Metro Kingdom of Super Mario Odyssey, with the City Hall being the main
focal point. Other skyscrapers and buildings also exist in the city, which Mario
can run around on to collect Moons. New Donk City is based on New York City, with
the City Hall being inspired by the Empire State Building. The name, of course, comes from
Donkey Kong with the mayor, Pauline, also doubling down on this reference, being the
Lady that DK kidnapped in the original arcade game. The stage starts out at the ground floor of
City Hall. Eventually, it will rise to the top of the base of the building, then about
halfway up the building before ultimately reaching
the very peak. The platforms will then lower you
to the ground again and the loop will start over.
City Hall is really the only referenced building here.
Much of the background is incredibly generic, real life inspired buildings based on New
York City, but that's pretty much it. However, an incredibly unique aspect of the stage takes
place when the track playing is either “Jump Up, Superstar!” or “Super Mario Bros. Ground
Theme (Band Performance).” With either of these, the track will start
exclusively with the drum beat, with the drummer being seen at the base of
the building. Throughout the duration of the match, other musicians will appear on floating platforms,
and when players touch them, it will add their instrument to the backing track and they will
join the drummer at the base of the building. In the case of “Jump Up, Superstar!,”
Pauline can also appear on floating platforms and, when touched, her vocals will be added
to the track as well. This feature is based on the segment of the Metro Kingdom, where
Pauline tasks Mario with finding musicians to play during the New Donk City Festival
and these exact musicians are the ones that Mario recruits. “Jump Up, Superstar!” and the
Mario 1 Ground Theme are both songs that the band can be heard playing in Odyssey, which
is why these are the songs used by the stage. This stage mechanic only appears for these
two songs. For any other song, the band members and Pauline will not appear,
and instead there will be New Donk City residents at the base of the building cheering on the
fight. A couple of background elements can also be
seen at the very top of the building. The Odyssey
can be seen flying, the airship that Mario and Cappy use throughout the events of Super Mario
Odyssey to get to various kingdoms. It shows that 21 Power Moons have been captured.
However, funny enough, 55 Moons are required to get
to Metro Kingdom in the actual game, so this is actually a kind of error. Lastly,
Captain Toad can be seen at the top of City Hall. In most cases he's just a timed event
appearing on the third loop through the stage. However, if the background track is a song
originating from Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, he'll appear in this segment every time. Captain
Toad appears in multiple places throughout Super Mario Odyssey, including the Metro Kingdom.
Our next stage is a brand new Zelda one: Great Plateau Tower, based on the Legend of
Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The Great Plateau is the beginning region of Breath of the Wild,
where essentially the tutorial for the game takes place. Part of this opening section sees Link using
his Sheikah Slate to activate a Sheikah Tower, the very tower that this stage takes place
on, down to the Sheikah Slate Pedestal, just in the background. The stage overlooks the land of
Hyrule in the same location that the actual tower in-game does. The Great Plateau is a raised area above
the rest of Hyrule, so you have a great vantage point. You can notably see Death Mountain as well
as Hyrule Castle, surrounded by Calamity Ganon's dark energy. There are other Sheikah Towers
and Shrines also peppered throughout. The spire of the tower can be attacked and, after
enough damage, it will completely fall apart. This
never really happens in Breath of the Wild, though
it may be an extension of the destruction that takes place when the towers initially activate.
When the tower is destroyed, a platform will appear in the center in the same style as the tower,
which is a concept completely original to Smash. After a while, the tower will then repair
itself. The appearance of the new platform and the tower repairing itself seemingly uses
the same ancient Sheikah technology that's used throughout Breath of the Wild.
Also in the background, the Old Man can be seen paragliding onto the tower. The Old Man
is a mysterious hermit who tasks Link with completing shrines on the Plateau and ultimately
reveals himself as the spirit of King Rhoam, the former king of Hyrule. He then gives Link
the paraglider, allowing him to safely leave the Plateau and explore the rest of Hyrule.
Next up we have a stage representing a new series, introduced alongside Inkling: Moray Towers.
In the first Splatoon game, Moray Towers was one of the possible stages
in the multiplayer modes. It also saw a return in Splatoon 2 as one of only two maps at launch
that came from the original game. The full multiplayer stage is pretty large overall, naturally,
to lend itself to Splatoon’s type of gameplay, but Smash takes only the section of scaffolding
for its use on the stage. At the start of each
match, the stage will get covered with two different
colors of ink, representing the general gameplay of Splatoon. These are all real possible color
combinations in the original game, which I think is a cute touch. Ordinarily,
the stage appears during the daytime. However, when these tracks are chosen to play in the
background, the stage will instead appear at nighttime.
This is the Splatfest version of the stage. Splatfests are recurring events in the Splatoon
series that feature a theme for players to pick a side of, such as dogs vs cats or SpongeBob
vs Patrick. The players on each team compete throughout the Splatfest and the team with
the better overall performance is declared that Splatfest’s winner. The multiplayer
stages are all locked to nighttime during Splatfests, which is why this version of the
stage is seen at night. The Splatfest variant also mixes up the possible
color combinations a tiny bit, using real colors from actual Splatfests.
In both Splatoon and Splatoon 2, both Judd and Li’l Judd can be seen on the stage, usually snoozing
away, but also dancing during Splatfests and jumping up when a player is KO’d. With one
minute remaining - or a player on their final stock - they'll wake up and hold up flags to indicate
the winning players, waiting to declare the final winner. This function is taken from
the actual series, with Judd holding up the winning team's flag in Splatoon 1 and being joined
by Li’l Judd for the same role in Splatoon 2. Lastly, when most tracks are being played, “Now
or Never” will begin playing with 30 seconds left in the match. “Now or Never” plays in the
Splatoon series in the final minute of a multiplayer match. Since Smash
changes this to be 30 seconds, the versions of “Now or Never” found in
the game have been remixed slightly to be more fitting. Now let's talk about Dracula's Castle, the
companion stage for Simon and Richter. Dracula's Castle is a regular point of interest in the
Castlevania series, with a castle often being the final destination of the main character's
adventure and where they obviously fight Dracula. Typically, the path up to Dracula features
a long staircase that leads to a hallway that ultimately leads to Dracula's chamber. In Smash, this
is reduced to simply be the stairway and chamber, as including the hallway would make this a
very long stage. There's also usually stained glass in the chamber, which Smash also includes in
its portrayal. In the Castlevania series, Dracula's Castle is regularly destroyed, so
Smash takes this idea and uses it on the stage, making it much more conducive for a Smash
battle. In the background, a giant clock tower can be seen, another recurring
element in the Castlevania series. When items are turned on, candles will occasionally spawn
when attacked. These candles will drop items, a nod to the same mechanic found in Castlevania.
In the background of the stage, Dracula's coffin can also be seen, which is
another staple set piece in Dracula's chamber. While mechanically the stage doesn't
have a ton going on, its big feature is the number of background characters that appear
over the course of a battle. Multiple enemies and characters from the wider
Castlevania series will show up in the background, though none of them will impact gameplay in
any way. First is the pairing of the Creature and Flea Man, also known as Frankenstein's
Monster and Igor. These two first appeared in the first Castlevania
as a two-in-one boss fight. Next we have a Mummy, another type of boss
first introduced in the first Castlevania. The Medusa Head, an enemy that tries to ram
the player, again from the first Castlevania. A Werewolf, a more common
enemy that first appeared in Castlevania II: Simon's Quest. Carmilla, also known as Vampira.
In most iterations, she appears with an actual body, however her portrayal in Smash is based on
her giant mask form as it appears in Castlevania II: Simon's Quest. And finally, Death, Dracula's
second in command, first appearing in the first Castlevania as the final obstacle before the
player can take on Dracula himself. And speaking of Dracula himself, while he
doesn't physically appear on the stage during standard versus mode, his silhouette
can appear when lightning strikes randomly throughout the match. Along with his typical appearance,
the silhouette of Kid Dracula can also appear when lightning strikes, the appearance that
Dracula takes on in the spinoff parody titled, “Kid Dracula.” And that does it for all
of the stages that were included in Smash Ultimate's base game; four brand
new stages, plus Small Battlefield later on. And so all that we have left is to discuss
the DLC stages, each of which was bundled alongside a DLC fighter. The first DLC stage is Mementos,
bundled along with Joker from Persona 5. In Persona 5, Mementos is a Palace for everyone's hearts
and the core of the Metaverse, which itself is a physical manifestation of
the collective unconsciousness. Mementos manifests in the form of Tokyo's subway system,
featuring trains and train tracks. While completely optional, Mementos serves
as a great resource for grinding experience, money and Personas. In Smash, Mementos uses
the train elements in its portrayal of the stage. However, it also takes beats
from arts done of Mementos, as well as the general design aesthetic for
all of Persona 5. Fighters also splash up pink liquid with every step, an element taken
straight from the original game. The stage has a decent degree of randomness
implemented. There are only two static platforms, but occasionally a third will appear. A giant
wall or ceiling can also appear along the sides or the top, blocking that
section and causing fighters to bounce off of it when they are hit in that direction.
A subway train can also speed by at the bottom, dealing damage to any player that makes contact
with it. All of this is likely based on Mementos’
layout being randomly generated in Persona 5, and it adds to the confusing nature of the Metaverse
as a whole. Multiple background characters also appear on the stage, all members of the Phantom
Thieves of Hearts. First and foremost is the Morganamobile. Morgana is a talking cat. However,
in the Metaverse, he has the ability to transform into a bus, which the other Phantom Thieves
ride in to traverse through the Metaverse. The Morganamobile will drop off multiple Phantom
Thieves, who will stand in the background to cheer
on the fight. Ryuji, codename Skull. Ann, codename Panther. Yusuke, codename Fox. Makoto,
codename Queen. And Haru, codename Noir. The final quirk of Mementos
has to do with the music. Depending on the track playing, and which game that track originates
from, the color scheme in the stage will change up. Songs from Persona 5 naturally feature stars
in a red, black, and white scheme. Songs that originated from
Persona 4 will instead match that game's theme, using yellow instead of red with flowers.
Songs for Persona 3 make the stage blue with green accents and include clocks in the
main platform. The background also includes the moon, all emphasizing the Dark
Hour mechanic in Persona 3. The second DLC stage was bundled alongside
Hero: Yggdrasil’s Altar. Yggdrasil is the name of the World Tree in Norse mythology
and, in Dragon Quest, this tree floats above the land, said to pierce the heavens as well as provide
incredible healing abilities. Multiple games in the series feature Yggdrasil in some way,
from simply being a location to serving a bigger role in the overall plot of the game.
While Yggdrasil makes regular appearances in the series, the design of Yggdrasil’s
Altar in Smash comes from the design and events that
take place in Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive
Age. In this game, the hero and the party collect the Six Orbs, which together are the key to
unlocking the path to the World Tree herself. The Luminary was to be bestowed the Sword of Light
at the heart of the world tree, but then a bunch of stuff happens that I don't
really want to spoil - go play Dragon Quest XI, it's amazing. The stage doesn't actually focus
on the spoilery parts anyway, so we're good there. The stage features a
giant flying platform that travels all over the land of Erdrea, the setting of Dragon
Quest XI. The platform that flies around is the actual altar with the Six Orbs sitting
in their respective pedestals. In the actual game, when the Six Orbs are
placed in the pedestals, a rainbow bridge appears that the party physically
walks on to access Yggdrasil. This doesn't exactly make for an interesting
stage though, so instead Smash has the altar fly in the air along the rainbow path. Occasionally,
additional Smash original platforms will appear on the sides as well. With items on
these platforms will contain treasure chests. When attacked, these chests will spawn an
item. However, these can also turn out to be Mimics, monsters that appear to be chests
who will attack the unsuspecting player. Overall, the mechanics of the stage are pretty simple, but there are a fair few background elements
that can be seen outside of the general land of Erdrea. The World Tree can, of course,
be seen from nearly anywhere on the stage. Slimes also had to make an appearance here,
bouncing around in the background. Slimes are a low level enemy that have been in every
Dragon Quest game and, at this point, serve as the mascot for the series. Liquid Metal
Slimes can also be potentially seen, though very rarely. Liquid Metal Slimes are rare
variations of Slimes that have been a staple since Dragon
Quest II. If defeated, they result in a ton of experience,
making them one of the targets when grinding levels in Dragon Quest. Its rarity in Smash
is naturally based on its rarity in the actual games. Tockles can also be seen throughout
the stage, just walking around seemingly minding their business. Tockles are a race
of creatures newly introduced in Dragon Quest XI. They live in Tickington, a village that exists
outside of time. Tockles enlist the Luminary to assist in correcting errors that have taken
place throughout time in Dragon Quest XI. This results in the Luminary assisting in
events that take place in the other Dragon Quest games. Some Tockles can be spoken to
in the game, but many are seen and then quickly disappear when approached, behaving
similarly to the Tockles found on this stage. Finally, the most obvious background character
is the gigantic flying whale, Cetacea. Cetacea can be summoned by the Luminary
using the Calamus Flute in order to fly around Erdrea and access areas that
would otherwise be inaccessible, such as Havens Above, which we can also conveniently see in the
background of this stage as well. All right, you guys know I have been itching
to talk about this one. Our third DLC stage, bundled with Banjo and
Kazooie: Spiral Mountain. Spiral Mountain is the first area, of Banjo-Kazooie, very aptly
named because it has a spiral mountain directly in the center. There are multiple sections
to Spiral Mountain, from a rocky area to a waterfall
to literally Banjo's house. The area really serves
as the tutorial sandbox, with Bottles the Mole teaching you each of your starter moves and
each section serving a function to master that move. The actual Spiral Mountain in the center also
has a rope bridge that leads to Gruntilda’s Lair, which kind of makes you wonder why Banjo would
choose to live right next door. In Banjo-Tooie, Grunty’s Revenge, and Nuts & Bolts, Spiral
Mountain has an even briefer appearance, usually serving as an opening area that you
then quickly leave. However, much of the design of the stage in
Smash is a sort of combination between elements of the original Banjo-Kazooie as
well as Nuts & Bolts. The actual battle takes place at the top of Spiral Mountain, the center
of the area. Smash gets creative here and the camera will rotate around the mountain, keeping
the characters oriented towards the player and shifting around obstacles and
surfaces to better suit the battle. This is a Smash original feature largely made
to make the stage more interesting, but it also helps show off the entirety of
Spiral Mountain rather than just one specific section. There are multiple background cameos
on the stage as well. First, we have the previously mentioned Bottles the
Mole. In Banjo-Kazooie, Bottles teaches Banjo and Kazooie about different
abilities over the course of their adventure. Next is Mumbo Jumbo, a magical shaman. In
Banjo-Kazooie, Mumbo will transform Banjo and Kazooie into
a bunch of different forms in exchange for Mumbo Tokens. He'll also juggle his eyes in
the background, which is one of his possible idle animations from Nuts & Bolts. Next, we
have the Jinjos. These are a race of creatures that were kidnapped by Gruntilda
and left abandoned in the different worlds. In the first game, there are five Jinjos in
each world, totaling five different colors. In Smash, Jinjos can appear in groups of as little as
one and as many as five at a time, or anywhere in between. Gruntilda Winkybunion
herself also appears in the background of the stage. Grunty is, of course, the main antagonist
throughout the entire series. She initially kidnaps Banjo’s sister, Tootie,
to steal her beauty, but after the first game she just continually
has beef with the bear and bird for defeating her. Grunty will fly around on her broomstick
and do her iconic laugh in the background. The final character to make an appearance is Tootie.
She's a bit harder to see, appearing down on the ground level of Spiral
Mountain rather than being directly visible. She runs around Spiral Mountain, making infinite
loops around the area and occasionally being seen if the angle allows. Her running in Spiral
Mountain is likely a nod to her running in the intro of Banjo-Kazooie. A common
enemy can also be seen here: Buzzbombs. These enemies were chosen because
their ability to fly made them fit quite naturally in the higher background
of Spiral Mountain. Ironically, these enemies never actually appear
in Spiral Mountain. Extra Honeycombs, which increase Banjo and Kazooie's health,
and one-up trophies, which obviously increase total life count, can also be seen in the
background, in nearly the exact same places as they appear in the real Spiral Mountain
in Kazooie, which I think is a nice touch. Moving on to the fourth DLC pack, Terry Bogard was
bundled alongside King of Fighters Stadium. Now the stage design-wise is pretty unique
because it really seems to be a Smash original concept. Maybe inspired by bits and pieces throughout
the Fatal Fury and King of Fighters series, but overall, nothing is one-to-one. King of
Fighters started out as a Fatal Fury game, where a tournament literally titled “King
of Fighters” was taking place before it would turn into its
own standalone series. So this stage, seemingly taking place in front
of a gigantic audience, is based on the in-universe King of Fighters tournament. The full stage
takes place inside of a football stadium, complete with a giant King of Fighters sign
with a Jumbotron beneath it. The football field has the Smash logo in the center
with the letters KOF inside of it. The actual fighting takes place on a raised
platform at the end of the field. This area has two invisible walls that run along the
left and right sides. At lower levels of knockback, fighters will just bounce off of these walls.
However, at high knockback, they will instead shatter through the walls, resulting in a
KO. This mechanic has multiple layers to its origin. Traditional fighting games have always featured
an invisible wall of sorts. The actual play area of a stage only goes so far. So even if the
design of the stage seems to extend further, characters will still bounce against that invisible wall.
However, the way this is implemented in Smash is taken from one specific game in
the Fatal Fury series: Real Bout Fatal Fury. These invisible walls still exist, however,
if a player's knocked against them enough times, this barrier will be destroyed and the Smash-style
ring out can occur. However, Smash keeps these walls up permanently and
determines the breakthrough based on knockback. Real Bout Fatal Fury, on the other
hand, destroys these walls permanently for the duration of the match. Because King of Fighters
is ultimately a giant SNK crossover series, this stage takes that concept and absolutely
runs with it, including many - and I mean many - background
characters. From Fatal Fury, we have Andy Bogard, Joe Higashi, Geese Howard, Billy Kane, Rock
Howard, Tung Fu Rae, Kim Kaphwan, Blue Mary, Ryuji Yamazaki, Ryo Sakazaki, Yuri
Sakazaki, King, Kyo Kusanagi, Iori Yagami, Goro Daimon, Chang Koehan, Choi Bounge, Athena
Asamiya, Ralf Jones and Clark Still. This makes for a grand total of 20 background
characters for this stage, which is insane. But it also does a really good job of expressing
the crossover nature of the King of Fighter series. They really could have half assed
it, but they didn't, and that's awesome. I respect it. The final DLC stage from Fighter Pass
1 came with Byleth, the Garreg Mach Monastery. This location serves as the setting for Fire
Emblem: Three Houses. It contains the Officer Academy, where Byleth is hired on
as a professor, and it also has a Cathedral for the Church of Seiros. There are also smaller
areas found throughout the Monastery, many of which are explored in the Smash stage. Similar
to a previous Fire Emblem stage, Castle Siege, this stage features multiple static locations
that are visited throughout the course of the match. A platform will rise up from the ground
at one location and carry fighters to the next, and so on. The stage always starts out on
the Marketplace, at the foot of a large set of stairs. In Three
Houses, this is where buying and selling of weapons and gear takes place.
In the background of this section, Dimitri, Dedue, and Ingrid can be seen. All
three of these are members of the Blue Lion House, one of the three houses of Officers Academy,
led by Dimitri. Additionally, at the entrance to the Monastery, the Gatekeeper
can be seen. While in the game, he's a fairly unimportant character, he became
such an incredibly popular meme among the Fire Emblem community that I'm convinced that is
the sole reason he was included in the stage. The next location the stage visits is the
Reception Hall. Here, members of the school gather for events, such as the White Heron
Cup and the Ethereal Moon Ball. In the background, the Black Eagle House is represented with
Dorothea, Petra and the leader, Edelgard, watching on the sidelines. The third
location is the bridge, which connects the Cathedral to the rest of
the Monastery. Here, the background characters are from the
third house of the Academy, the Golden Deer House: Claude, the leader, Hilda, and Lorenz. A Pegasus
Knight is also included in the background, referencing the recurring unit in Fire Emblem
games that's been seen in the series since the very first entry. The final phase of the
stage is the inside of the Cathedral itself. Here, members of the Church of Seiros watch
the fight: Rhea, Flayn, and Seteth. This completes the loop and the stage returns to the Marketplace
to start it all over again. Moving into Fighter Pass 2, the first new stage, bundled alongside
Min Min, is Spring Stadium. This stage is of course inspired by an actual stage in ARMS,
though ironically, Spring Stadium is the home stage of Spring Man, not Min Min. Spring Stadium
is a medium sized arena that has trampolines along the edges, giving players the opportunity
to jump high in the air if they use it. The stage in Smash is fairly faithful to the
design of Spring Stadium in ARMS, with the exception that it takes place over a giant
pit and the number of trampolines are reduced. These trampolines are not always active. For some
of the fight, they will simply be standard ground. However, they will flash green and slightly
raise, indicating that they are now in trampoline mode. If a player jumps while standing on this section,
they will blast into the air and have their body actually serve as a minor
hitbox, capable of hitting other players. With items on, ARMS Drones will occasionally
fly by with items. This same thing happens in the
actual ARMS game, where ARMS Drones can fly by with
either healing or damaging items. Finally, the background features adoring fans
wearing Smash Bros. logo shirts of either Spring Man’s or Min Min’s main color.
The second stage added in Fighter Pass 2 came with Steve and Alex: Minecraft World. In Minecraft, each
new world is generated based off of a random seed
so that each world is generated at the point
of creation and is completely randomized. You can, of course, enter a specific seed
to get to a specific world, but for all intents and purposes, each world
is completely unique. However, the elements and consistencies in Minecraft
is where Smash takes inspiration. Throughout a Minecraft world, players can find many different
types of biomes, regions of the land that have different characteristics,
such as desert, canyon, or snow filled areas. These biomes impact gameplay by spawning different
mobs and offering different resources with the additional perk of keeping
gameplay fresh so that you aren't staring at the same thing for dozens of hours. Minecraft
World in Smash Ultimate takes the idea of biomes and runs with it, providing six
different variations of the stage, each representing different biomes that can
be found in Minecraft. The first form is the plains biome, one of
the most common biomes in Minecraft. The background features two houses, a well,
some crops, and villagers. This represents villages that can be found in the
plains biome, naturally spawning areas with non-playable characters that serve a variety
of functions. Villages are typically much bigger, but this needed to conform to the size of
the stage, so it's been reduced a bit. Second is the birch forest biome, obviously
featuring birch trees. There's not much more to say about this one. Third, the savanna
biome. This biome features acacia trees and browning grass and has a hidden platform inside
of the foreground tree. Fourth, the taiga biome. This features spruce trees
and a mossy stone structure in the background. A footpath can be seen leading
to another villager house. Fifth is the snowy tundra biome, naturally
featuring snow. An igloo is set smack in the center of the fighting area and a villager
house and set of lanterns can be seen in the background, along with another villager. Finally, the
stony shore. While this isn't necessarily a full biome, this one represents the concept of exploring
and mining and caves, something that otherwise wouldn't have been
represented in the Smash stage. Stony shores are usually found in areas where
mountains meet large bodies of water, which makes the background of this form make
a lot of sense. Along with all of these variations, each form features a day-night cycle. It will
start out at daytime with villagers and animals walking around in the background.
When nighttime falls, villagers return to the safety of their homes and the hostile mobs
will spawn zombies, Endermen, skeletons or spiders. In Minecraft, players need to strategically
play around nighttime by either sleeping, lighting an area with torches, or being brave
and fighting. Villagers hiding inside their homes is an exact parallel to their behavior
in Minecraft at nighttime. Most of the blocks in the foreground of the stage are either destroyable
or, in the case of Steve, mineable for resources. Once these blocks are destroyed, they will
never return for the rest of the match leaving the fight to the core stage and whatever platforms
exist on the form. For the purposes of Steve’s mining, the mineable sections of the main
platform are always in the same order, allowing for
some consistency. The background of each variant is a screenshot
taken from a biome of a real Minecraft world. Interestingly, people have been on the hunt
since the reveal of Steve to find the seeds for each of these background images so that you could
feasibly play in the worlds in the actual Minecraft game. While claims have been made about discovered
seeds, I wasn't able to track any of them down. So either those seeds have actually
been discovered and unreleased or people just be lying. The original concept for the stage was that
players would be able to create their own stages in Minecraft and then transfer them
over to be played in Smash Ultimate. However, in Sakurai’s own words, this idea was “impossible”.
Next up, Northern Cave, bundled with Sephiroth. Northern Cave is the
final dungeon in Final Fantasy VII, connected to the planet's core and where the
final battle against Sephiroth takes place. The stage loosely follows the beats of the
ending of Final Fantasy VII. Sephiroth summons Meteor, a massive asteroid with the intent to destroy
all life on the planet. Cloud and the rest of the party fly into the Northern Cave on the
airship named Highwind, which is visible in the background at certain points of the stage.
After entering the actual cave, the background pauses on a glowing green orb,
which is the Holy spell that Aerith cast being held back by Sephiroth.
After Sephiroth’s defeat, Holy gets released in a huge burst and the
party escapes the area via the Highwind. The background then shows Meteor plummeting
to the ground, but then being stopped by the now unleashed Holy and the lifestream of the
planet. The background then fades out, mimicking the actual game's original ambiguous
ending, and the loop begins again. In Smash, Meteor drops at the location of the Northern
Cave, however in the original game it actually drops over Midgar. While the actual events
come from Final Fantasy VII, a couple of elements are borrowed from Square
Enix’s own fighting game, Dissidia Final Fantasy. Northern Cave appears
in this game under the name Planet’s Core. The stage and platform designs in Smash are taken
from the arena in Planet’s Core and the green speeding background also appears at one point
as well. The fourth stage introduced in Fighters Pass 2 is the Cloud Sea of Alrest, bundled with
Pyra and Mythra from Xenoblade Chronicles 2. The stage takes place atop the back of Azurda,
a small titan that acts as a combination of Rex's guardian, transport, and home. Rex affectionately
calls him Gramps. This form that Gramps takes on is found pretty early in Xenoblade 2, as Gramps
reverts back to his larval state during the course of the story and instead
rides inside of Rex's helmet. As a stage, this one is pretty simple. Gramps continually
flies through the air above the Cloud Sea of Alrest, the world found in Xenoblade Chronicles 2.
Occasionally he'll turn his head, angling the end of the stage and making it
a bit shorter for a while. He'll also make different remarks at various points throughout
the match, such as when a player's KO’d, when Pyra or Mythra are being played, or just completely
at random. Over the course of the match, other Titans will appear in the background.
Each of these Titans are explorable areas from Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Goldmouth, with
Maelstrom in tow, Gormott, Uraya, Mor Ardain, Genbu, and Indol. Along with these background
cameos, several of Rex's allies from the events of the game will hang out in the background
of the battle. There are four possible sets of two, a Driver and a Blade, that can appear: Nia,
with her Blade Dromarch, Tora the Nippon along with his artificial Blade Poppy α, Mòrag paired
with Brighid, and finally Zeke with his Blade Pandoria. The penultimate stage added to the game is
Mishima Dojo, bundled along with Kazuya. As you can guess, this one is really straightforward: it's just
a dojo opened by the Mishima family in order to teach students martial arts. The
core design of this stage is based on the appearance of the Mishima Dojo as it appears
in the arcade version of Tekken 7. However, that stage is itself a recreation
of the Pagoda Temple from Tekken 2. The walls and ceilings on this stage are capable
of being destroyed by player attacks or players being blasted into them.
The Dojo’s appearance in the console port of Tekken 7 features it partially destroyed
after the fight between Heihachi and Street Fighter’s Akuma. So while it starts out
looking like the arcade version, the destroyable sections equally make it look
like the console version. On top of this, the Tekken series does have
a similar mechanic known as Wall Breaks. Certain stages in Tekken 4, 6, and 7 could have elements
destroyed during gameplay. However, Mishima Dojo was never one of these so liberties were
obviously taken to improve the Smash experience and pay tribute to Tekken 7’s story. Heihachi
Mishima appears in the background of the stage. He'll initially start by sitting away from
the battle staring at the Fudō Myōō statue in the background, a prominent symbol in certain
schools of Buddhism. But eventually he'll react to the destruction around him and KOs
by standing up and facing the action. Heihachi's father founded the dojo and Heihachi himself
learned the martial arts there, likely teaching his son Kazuya there as well. The center of the stage features a Dharma
wheel, an important symbol in multiple Eastern religions. Inside of the Dharma wheel are the 12 animals
of the Chinese Zodiac, and inside of that, a painting of a tiger fighting a phoenix.
The final small detail is found on the floor of the stage. The names of Heihachi and his
wife, Kazumi, are carved into the wood beneath an umbrella. Sharing an umbrella is seen as a
romantic symbol in Japan, and writing two names beneath
an umbrella is sort of the equivalent of drawing
a heart around a pair of initials in the West. This detail can be seen in Tekken 7’s version
of Mishima Dojo, carried over from the original Pagoda Temple stage, during
a time when Kazumi's existence was only ever hinted at. And now the final stage ever added
to Smash Ultimate: Hollow Bastion, bundled alongside Sora. Now Kingdom Hearts
is famously a convoluted mess of a story, so I'm not going to dive into the entire history
of this location. The short and sweet version is: there was
once a world named Radiant Garden, a land that was explored and central to the
plot of Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep. This land was eventually taken over by evil, turning
it into the land of darkness with the new name of Hollow Bastion, first visited in Kingdom Hearts
1. Later on in the series, the town is restored back into a livable region, returning it to
the original name of Radiant Garden. This location has made an appearance in over
half a dozen Kingdom Hearts games. However, the version that appears as the stage in Smash
is quite specifically the very first appearance of the location as it appears in Kingdom Hearts
1. The stage begins at the Rising Falls, where Sora, Donald, and Goofy land on their
first arrival. Eventually, the stage rises high to show the exterior of Hollow Bastion,
a giant, convoluted, haphazardly designed castle. The actual castle features a pretty incredible
amount of detail that will often go unnoticed in the heat of a battle, so I just wanted
to briefly show some of the more impressive parts here. The main stage features similar design
elements as the actual stage, from the rusted and broken pipes to the stained glass. It also has a
symbol that matches the bigger one on the actual castle, the symbol for the Heartless,
the primary enemy found in Kingdom Hearts 1 and
the series overall. But, the stage has a secondary form
that only activates when time, stocks, or health are running low: Dive to the Heart.
Dive to the Heart is a more abstract idea in the Kingdom Hearts series.
Characters enter a dreamlike world where giant stained glass pillars called
Stations exist. Most of the time, this serves as a character's tutorial where
they learn combat, controls, and pick their stats. Sometimes, it also serves as the setting for
a fight. Stations all have unique stained glass floors depicting the played character
and elements associated with them. They occasionally also show off other Disney characters or locations.
When Hollow Bastion transforms into Dive to the Heart, there are seven possible
forms that the stage can take on, each one based off of a different Kingdom
Hearts character’s personalized Dive to the Heart, featuring characters and elements
relevant to their stories. Sora and The Kingdom Key Keyblade, featuring
Kairi, Riku, a Paopu fruit, and the Highwind ship. The bottom portion represents Destiny
Islands, Sora’s home world. Riku, with his original Soul Eater Keyblade, featuring Sora,
Naminé, and Ansem, Seeker of Darkness. This is bordered by a silhouette of cards as they
appear in Chain of Memories. The bottom represents the Realm of Darkness, representing Riku being
trapped in this realm at the end of Kingdom Hearts 1. Roxas, also with the Kingdom Key,
featuring Axel, Xion, and Riku. The border contains a symbol for the Nobodies, a group that Roxas
is a part of. The background features Twilight
Town's Clock Tower, an important location to Roxas’s
story. Xion, featuring Axel, Saïx, Xemnas, and Sora. As Xion is herself a Nobody, the
border likewise has the Nobody symbol. The bottom portion also features Where Nothing
Gathers, a meeting room for Organization XIII. Terra with his Keyblade, featuring Ventus,
Aqua, and the Wayfinder Charms the three of them have as a sort of friendship charm. The
border contains both the Wayfinder and Terra's own
symbol and the background is a basic checker pattern
containing the series heart and crown logos, as well as the symbol for the Unversed, the
main enemy of Terra’s game. Ventus with his Keyblade. Instead of having characters this time, he
only has the Wayfinder symbols, likely representing that his soul was lost
during the events of the series and that he really just wants to be back with his friends.
His border also has Terra’s symbol. The background depicts the Keyblade Graveyard,
alluding to the events at the end of Birth by Sleep. Finally, Aqua with her Keyblade, featuring
Ventus, Terra, Vanita,. and Master Xehanort. The border has the Wayfinder symbol, and the
background is the same as Terra's with the heart, crown, and Unversed symbols. In the actual
Kingdom Hearts series, there are plenty of Disney elements that exist
in these Station panels. For Sora, the Paopu fruit and the Highwind were originally
Donald and Goofy. In Riku's, King Mickey in the Organization Robe is replaced by Sora. Terra’s
and Aqua’s had Mickey symbols that were removed. However, this Disney removal was actually
not completely original to Smash. Most of the Dive to the Heart panels received modifications
for the game’s 15th anniversary event at Square Enix cafés. Coasters were available
that used various Dive to the Heart panels in their designs. This is where a majority
of the Disney removal seen in Smash actually originates, as seen most notably in Sora and Riku's Removal
of Donald, Goofy and Mickey. Smash had other minor adjustments, though,
such as removing Mickey symbols in favor of other Kingdom Hearts symbols. This is most likely
to avoid licensing conflicts with Disney, ultimately keeping everything in Smash focused
on the Square Enix original content, which legally is probably much easier to maneuver.
And with that, we are done. Every stage in every Smash game representing dozens
of franchises with hundreds of references. I hope that looking at all of these stages,
you learned something new, and I'd love to know down in the comments
what your favorite stage in all of Smash is. Thank you all so much for watching, I hope
you enjoyed this. I will see you guys in the next video. Peace out, and
please remember to be good to one another.
