Most Wanted:

Smash Bros Stage DLC

by Harry Sheridan & Brandon Sultana

August 1, 2015

 

Most Wanted: Returning Stages

Pokefloats -Brandon

When it comes to stage concepts, none are perhaps as unique as Pokefloats, where the battle takes place on a bunch of Pokemon balloons from Generations 1 + 2. While many of my friends dreaded playing here, it was one of my favorite stages in Melee, and I’d absolutely love to see it back. They could even update it to include more recent Pokemon, and do a new rendition of the song that plays there. Auto-scrollers can be very hit and miss, but Pokefloats was one of my few favorites in this category

 

Mute City (3DS) -Harry

For me, this was one of the few good things to come out of Smash 3DS. This retro-style stage has you fighting on top of F-Zero cars and floating platforms as they weave in and out of view. I’m generally not the biggest fan of F-Zero stages, because of their drab color scheme (or in Big Blue’s case, the platforms), but I really enjoyed Mute City on the 3DS and would love to see it make the jump to the Wii U version.

 

Fourside -Brandon

Back in Melee, I enjoyed this stage, but I could never really appreciate it since I had never even heard of Earthbound. Now that I’ve played the game, looking back I think it’d make an awesome addition. I think it’d be great to get more Earthbound stages in the game, and while having two retro stages from the same game isn’t ideal, I still think it’d be a great stage to bring back. The nightscape was a really awesome back-drop, and the stage itself is very fun to play on (even if Ness + Lucas have a severe disadvantage on the stage).

 

Spear Pillar -Harry

Back in the Brawl days, this was probably one of my most played-on stages. Great big platforms, one of my favorite legendaries (Palkia) showing up and flipping everything around and shooting lasers everywhere. Plus, it showcased a really cool location in the Pokemon universe that wasn’t a Stadium or a kinda generic-looking city. I’d love to see Smash do more stages like Spear Pillar in the future, since the Pokemon universe has so many interesting and varied locations to draw from.

 

Most Wanted: Original Stages (do not steal)

Splatoon Stage -Harry

Honestly, I’m surprised that there isn’t already some sort of substantial Splatoon content in Smash 4.  Like Woolly World (a game that still isn’t out yet in America), you’d think they’d include a Splatoon stage as a sort of cross-promotion for their newest IP. Despite being an entirely new franchise on a dying console, Splatoon sold like gangbusters, topping 1 million units sold in its first month. Anyway, even if we don’t get Inklings via the Smash Ballot (Sakurai pls), I think a Splatoon stage would be an excellent choice for a new stage. Plus, Splatoon music.

 

Gangplank Galleon -Brandon

King K Rool (Rest in Peace, old friend) or not, this would be great stage for the game. While the game already has 3 DK stages, 2 of them are pretty…not fun to play on (75m and Jungle Hijinx). I think a stage based on the classic games would be great, and specifically one on the final level of DKC/The first world of DKC2 would be a fantastic idea. It’s no secret that we are K. Rool fans, but even if he doesn’t get it’d still be a great stage. You could have things like rolling barrels, swinging ropes, and falling cannonballs, as well as feature some klassic kremlings. Maybe some Animal Buddies could make an appearance. For as much potential as the DK series has, a lot of it remains untapped in terms of stages.

 

Rhythm Heaven Stage -Brandon

Notice a pattern here? A lot of these stages are associated with characters we’d love to see as fighters in the game, but this is the last one, we promise. Rhythm Heaven has so much stage potential. There’s tons of different minigames, each offering variety in numerous ways. You could make a WarioWare esque stage, with mini games showing up periodically where you must keep rhythm, or perhaps a static stage with various characters and events occurring in the background. Lastly, you could have a traveling stage with its own custom remix, where the stage constantly switches between different minigames. There is lots of potential here, and don’t even get me started on the music. With a series that is known for awesome music, the hardest part will be narrowing it down to a couple songs to use in the stage.

 

Dr Mario Stage -Harry

When Dr Mario made his big return in Smash 4, I was genuinely surprised to see him. Sure, I loved playing as him in Melee, but he was a clone that had been previously cut and was honestly one of the characters I least expected. Well, now that he’s back, I think it’d be really awesome to give him a bit more representation with a stage to call his own. I think it’d be a relatively simply stage, with pills dropping in from the top to act as platforms, similar to “Living Room” from the 3DS version. Or maybe it’d be a vertically-scrolling stage where the pills actually stack up. The viruses could act as stage hazards, floating around and dealing damage if they’re touched. Maybe they’d disappear when pills of their color line up. I think a Dr Mario stage has a lot a potential and is probably one of the more likely stages to appear as DLC.

 

ROB Stage -Brandon

Really, I’ll take anything for some sort of ROB themed stage. He’s been in the past two entries of Smash, and there has yet to be a real ROB stage. There are two options for this. My personal pick would be to have a stage based on Gyromite. It’s not the best/most entertaining game, but I’m sure they could do something interesting with it, so long as they take the Wrecking Crew approach and completely update it, rather than just use Retro graphics again. Another idea would be to have a stage based on a real living room, with the focal point of the stage being a ROB. You could also have cases of games and other neat Nintendo merch, similar to Ribbon Road in Mario Kart 8. (you could even have alfonso sub in when ROB is being played).

 

Honorable Mentions:

Corneria                                  Pirate Ship                                      Big Blue

Balloon Fight                       Pac-Maze                                         Great Bay

Frigate Orpheon                Prism Tower                                  Princess Peach’s Castle

Pictochat X                            Unova Pokemon League      Magicant

Pokemon Stadium X         Fountain of Dreams                Spirit Train

 

                                                       Hanenbow (lol jk)