WORST and BEST Smash Stages

I'll post mine after someone else posts theirs.

Great thread. I'll be listing, across all three games, my top ten favourite. Bottom 10 will come later. There are two things to take into account here:
1. General fun (the design of the platforms, the traps laid throughout).
2. The overall connection to the source material. This is a game all about Nintendo's legacy. If I'm fighting on a Mario stage, I want to feel like I'm fighting on a Mario stage.
All right, here we go.

10. Port Town Aero Dive (Brawl): This stage is real pwetty. That's not just the graphics talking; the colour scheme is much better than Mute City from Melee. Plus, the cars hit harder than on Mute City and easily KO you (as they should). PlusPlus, the different parts of the stage are more diverse.

9. 75m (Brawl): I think I'm alone on this one, but whatever. This stage is the kind of thing that makes Smash awesome; you're fighting on a level. Things always feel real hectic here. I like that.

8. Princess Peach's Castle (Melee): Another thing that makes Smash great; the absurd locales. LETS FIGHT ON A CASTLE YEAH!!! It's cool that it's perfectly flat but it also has the tower in the middle. And the Banzai Bills are spectacular.

7. Summit (Brawl): The two stationary phases of this stage are pretty cool, but what puts this on the list is the drop from peak to sea...k. Slanting the whole stage and lowering the gravity is something that doesn't happen a lot.

6. Brinstar Depths (Melee): You guys know I love this stage. It's a really weird one. No ledges (which gives Samus an advantage, actually), and the whole thing rotates from time to time. It's nice to see Kraid in 3D, but WTF's wrong with his head? It looks like a reptilian dog.

5. Sector Z (64): My favourite of the two horizontal Great Fox stages, the other being Corneria. Because it's bigger, and a carrier for arwings should be pretty big. The Great Fox in general is a really cool location for a battle. Not to mention all those heated battles that take place on the tail.

4. Fourside (Melee): I like fighting on the tops of skyscrapers. I really do. Fourside's platforms vary greatly in height, allowing for a diverse match.

3. Poké Floats (Melee): Not my favourite moving stage, but a stage with the best moving in it. The platforms are just so varied (not to mention all the pokemon involved).

2. Saffron City (64): My absolute favourite SSB64 stage. Like Fourside, it consists of skyscrapers. It doesn't have the height variations of Fourside, but it does have pokemon that pop out every so often. And I really like the aesthetics of the place.

1. Big Blue (Melee): I'm rather surprised by this turnout. But yeah, my favourite stage ever. You're fighting ON THE CARS. Because of this, you'll be left behind real quick if you touch the road. I just love that about this stage.

Man Mogo, your list is TERRIBLE! hahahaha so many of those we talked about yesterday as being out least favourite. I'll post mine after TGIC4.

Kason Birdman wrote:Man Mogo, your list is TERRIBLE! hahahaha so many of those we talked about yesterday as being out least favourite. I'll post mine after TGIC4.

For the record, I'm thiking of Freeing-For-All when I'm making these lists.

I'll start with my bottom 10. 1 being the worst stage in the game, 10 being the 10th worst stage in the game.

10. Skyworld

9. Peach's Castle (64)

8. Mushroomy Kingdom

7. Brinstar Depths

6. Mario Bros.

5. Flat Zone

4. New Pork City

3. 75m

2. Hanenbow

1. Icicle Mountain - need I really explain myself?


other terrible stage acknowledgements:
green hill zone, planet zebes, spear pillar, smashville, flat zone 2, port town aero dive, final destination (brawl), battlefield (melee).


I'll make my top 10 later.

Time for the flip side. By the way, I'm counting down to the worst stage; #1 is the bottom. There seems to have been some confusion with my previous list. Also, I'm discounting Battlefield (which would have been #2) and Final Destination, because those stages are meant to be plain. They're Adventure Mode levels that are designed specifically to be plain. No point in bashing a stage for not doing something it was never meant to do.

10. Green Hill Zone (Brawl): This is supposed to be the stage that represents all that Sonic's about? Judging by this, no wonder the games have bombed so much. For a guy famous for traversing large distances in short amounts of time, this stage is rather small. But even in this small space, there's nothing very interesting. Sure, parts of the stage sometimes break off, but that's not often enough.

9. Skyworld (Brawl): This stage has one thing going for it; the breakable platforms. And even those don't change much, they just make the platofrms permeable from the bottom.

8. Smashville (Brawl): By making this list, I've come to realize that standard stages kinda suck. They're wonderful for competitive matches, but boring otherwise. Smashfest is just one long, flat floating island with a tiny moving platform on top. Points for charm, though.

7. New Pork City (Brawl): This one kinda pisses me off. There's the illusion of a bustling metropolis full of platforms to utilize, but most of it's in the background. This stage is really empty, and the platforms that are there don't make much sense for being there.

6. Mushroomy Kingdom (Brawl): For me, very much the counterpart to 75m. That is a video game level that I can see myself fighting on. This is not. Super Mario Bros. levels 1-1 and 1-2 are fun in their original game because you can traverse at your own pace, and much faster. This stage travels at a snail's pace, and no part of either level is worth spending so much time fighting on.

5. Fountain of Dreams (Melee): Why is this stage so plain? Is the Kirby universe not interesting enough? You'd think a "Fountain of Dreams" would have a bit more whimsy to it. It looks interesting enough, but there's nothing going on. Is there even anyone to clean that water?

4. Icicle Mountain (Melee): Rather obvious entry. It's bland, it's uninteresting, it's haphazard, it feels not at all like it was inspired by a video game. For a stage supposedly set on mountain, an awful lot of it is just wooden boards.

3. Dream Land (N64): Most SSB64 stages were floating islands, but they were tweaked in neat ways. Peach's Castle had random parts everywhere, Brinstar had a hazardous floor, Sector Z was a ship. This is just an upside-down dome that blows you then and again. Not to mention it feels so lifeless. The colouring is stagnant, and there's hardly anything going on to spice things up.

2. Flat Zone (Melee): How is it that the character Mr. Game and Watch has moves from so many of his games, and yet his respective stage has features from so few? There's oil, and falling...tools (wait what?) but nothing else. The rest of the time it's a really small, pitless stage with a few small permeable platforms in the middle.

1. Hanenbow (Brawl): Another popular stage to hate. It's...platforms. Just platforms. Small, permeable ones, too. Doesn't tell you much about this obscure Electroplankton game, does it?

lol sorry for destroying that on you laast night tyler

Sauxuas wrote:lol sorry for destroying that on you laast night tyler

Huh?

Yeah, those lists still look good.

Yeah I agree with almost all of those on your hating list mogo. Imma make my top 10 list now.

10. Green Greens (melee)

9. Yoshi's Story (melee)

8. Dreamland 64

7. Battlefield (brawl)

6. Mute City (melee)

5. Picto Chat

4. Delfino Plaza

3. Great Bay

2. Kingdom II (melee)

1. Corneria (melee)


This list was very rushed, there is probably much wrong with it that I will later realize.

Well, here is my top 10 WORST Smash Bros. stages list. 10 being 10th worst, 1 being the worst.

10. Shadow Moses Island - Brawl = Blue grey, blue grey EVERYWHERE. I think this stage has an ugly colour scheme. Not to mention it has a total of three platforms one which leads to a walk-off. There's nothing to look at. Trying to KO someone on this stage is like...trying to shove a pickle in your dick hole. You just can't. The two massive towers have to be destroyed if you want a wall KO or else, all you can do is Star KO. There;s also barely any space to move.

9. Brinstar Depths - Melee = This stage, should be so amazing. You got a massive Kraid in the background smashing this stage making it spin. The thing is, that's the worst part. This stage is a hack job. The stage is way too chunky and stupidly laid out. No ledges can be grabbed and, holy crap, it's way too campy. People will go in the bottom and wait for the stage to turn. Nothing on this stage actually looks nice. The only nice looking thing about this stage is Kraid....that's it. The music is also kind of annoying.

8. Mushroomy Kingdom - Brawl = Way too cramped and it's freaking side scrolling. You constantly feel like you can barely move. Smash Bros. is all about feeling free and open. It looks ugly and you can't grab ledges. What a bad stage. It's not fun to play on at all. Kingdom I and II are way better SMB NES throwbacks than this.

7. Spear Pillar - Brawl = Spear Pillar for a stage, was a dumb idea. Spear Pillar is already uninteresting in Diamond and Pearl. This stage is an incredibly boring stage design. But that's not the biggest problem. THE HAZARDS SUCK. This stage is one giant gimmick. Almost unavoidable lasers, and stupid stage flipping gimmicks. The stage will slow down, mirrors so left becomes right and right becomes left, and flips upside down. This stage, is an item. You can play on this stage with no items, and it will still feel like items are on. Battles also take way too long to finish on this stage.

6. New Pork City - Brawl = This stage, has the worst layout of a stage in any Smash Bros. stage. It makes no sense and looks like a Stage Builder stage. It's almost like there was no thought put into it and they threw random chunks everywhere. It's the size of Temple for frig sakes. It also has the problem a lot of Brawl stages has where, the actually stage itself is not apart of the level it's supposed to take place in. It's floating above New Pork City. NPC is just the background. How lame.

5. Mario Bros. - Brawl = Just...so awful. Way too easy to KO people. People get KO'd on the side so easily and the enemies when thrown, insta-kill basically. The platforms can be used to bounce people which is just annoying. Even Sakurai himself said, "Speaking frankly, this stage throws all the basic rules of Smash out the window!" Feels cramped and has no appeal, along with 75m. Instead of making just an exact replica of the NES stages, they should have made them extremely graphically enhanced. Or at least different which Kingdom I and II did.

4. 75m - Brawl = You think this would be a good idea...but it's not. This stage is way too messy, unnecessarily big, and honestly, kind of ugly. Kingdom 1 and II both did retroness good and still made it modern. This stage just doesn't match, it looks better on NES. All these features make it so unpleasant to play on. The hazards such as the spring, are way too overpowered and there are too many walk-offs.

3. Flatzone - Melee = Lame, lame, LAME stage. The layout is extremely boring, and so is the look of this stage. It also doesn't help that the stage is mostly walk-off kills. The hazard is also really stupid. Falling wrenches and...oil spill? The tools kill you instantly pretty much and the oil spill is...ugh slippery.

2. Hanenbow - Brawl = First of all, who likes Electroplankton? Not much people. So why would an Electroplankton stage be good? It is way too small, it feels like you're in a box. It also doesn't help this is an ugly stage. Look at a picture of this stage, notice where the platforms are? Yea, TRASH layout and it's one of the stages where everyone is 2D and this time, it doesn't make sense. It's not like this is Flat Zone, or a Paper Mario stage.

1. Icicle Mountain - Melee = This stage, is easily the worst stage. There is zero inspiration put into this stage. When it comes to lifeless, soul less stages, this takes the cake. Besides being a mountain, it has nothing to do with Ice Climbers. Their Target Test stage would have made a much better stage. The layout, is rubbish. It's not fun to play on, it's constantly moving upwards or downwards, so you're not even fighting half the time. You're just trying to not get KO'd by the ceiling or bottom. It also has many slippery spots which is an auto UNFUN part of any Smash Bros. stage.

(Not so)Honourable mentions
Green Hill Zone - Brawl
Skyworld - Brawl
Smashville - Brawl
Planet Zebes - 64
Venom - Melee

great list vizzy, I agree with all. spear pillar is TERRIBLE

Thanks, yea Spear Pillar is SHIT. Man, Brawl had way too many shitty stages

played brawl last night. awful lol, absolutely awful. I can't even control the damn characters.

I've come to the conclusion I like Brawl but, yea I agree that it's pretty hard due to the floatiness of the game. Every character feels like Jigglypuff.

Brawl brought back one Melee stage for each of the original SSB64 franchises.

Rainbow Cruise over Princess Peach's Castle? I'm neutral. Both were great stages.

Jungle Japes over Kongo Jungle? Neutral.

Temple over Great Bay? Neutral.

Brinstar over Depths? Fuck you. Okay, Depths isn't exactly a popular stage, but we already have Norfair. And that stage has more advanced lava mechanics than Brinstar. Seriously, that stage has been in each game. Let it go, Nintendo.

Yoshi's Island over Yoshi's Story? I approve. Story was just another standard stage. Not as bad as the others, but not much reason to bring it back.

Green Greens over Fountain of Dreams? Approve.

Corneria over Venom? Approve. I find it a lot more enjoyable.

Pokemon Stadium over Poke Floats? FUCK YOU!! You already made Stadium 2! And Floats isn't even hated like Brinstar Depths! WHAT THE HELL?

Onett over Fourside? I disapprove. I never really enjoyed Onett. It sounds like a great idea: "Let's fight in the middle of town!" But I just don't feel like fighting here. You think a battle would extend to more than in front of a store and on top of two houses.

Big Blue over Mute City? I SO approve.

So that's 4 approvals over 3 disapprovals. More positive than negative, I guess.

Yeah I totally agree with you on all.


...except probably not depths haha.

I like brawl as much as melee but brawl is just too damn slow.

and teh stages hanenbow super mario bros green hill zone UGGHH

What's the point of Mushroomy Kingdom, anyway?

On Smashdojo, Masahiro Sakurai wrote:The kingdom you once knew has turned to ruins over the long years, and it is now your battlefield.

Why? What's the appeal in making Mario darker and edgier? There's no canon of this, that's for sure. I think I'd like it more if it actually looked like the Mushroom Kingdom.

Yea it was kind of stupid.

"After 25 years...it's turned into a desert wasteland"

Hey guys, St. Marys has been around for at least 167 years. Um, is it a desert wasteland yet?

Hahahahahahaha fuck that's funny duncan. I like the look on mushroomy kingdom at least lol

lmao, I hate mroomykingdom so much. UGH Sakurai why must you be so TERRIBLE??

Vyzor wrote:Yea it was kind of stupid.

"After 25 years...it's turned into a desert wasteland"

Hey guys, St. Marys has been around for at least 167 years. Um, is it a desert wasteland yet?

It already was.
OH WHAT.
Not that I actually think that.

This place isn't a wasteland? Then why the FUCK cant I get a job!