Pokémon Stadium: Difference between revisions

Pokémon Stadium was one of the few stages that people in tournaments have almost never questioned being legal, and for a long time, was a starter. Many people considered Pokémon Stadium to be one of the fairest stages in ''Melee'' because the shifting terrain was generally not very disruptive to gameplay, and for some time, was thought to prevent excessive projectile [[camping]]. However, recent metagame developments have shown that {{SSBM|Fox}} and {{SSBM|Falco}} have a very large advantage on this stage because the geometry of the stage and terrain allow them to projectile camp with [[Blaster]] very safely. It is also the only legal stage with walls, allowing Fox to perform the [[drill shine infinite]]. The large horizontal size of the stage benefits their movement greatly, while hindering other characters who cannot traverse across the stage as easily, while the low ceiling allows even earlier KOs for Fox's two main finishers. The transformations also benefit Falco, and especially Fox, greatly in several matchups by either giving them more room to approach or safe spots to camp in.

While the long stage size, platform placement of the main stage, and low ceiling can also benefit characters with good [[dash dance]]s such as {{SSBM|Marth}} and {{SSBM|Captain Falcon}}, the advantages that these characters gain pale in comparison to the aforementioned advantages realized by Fox and Falco. As such, it has been deemed a counterpick stage in more recent rulesets, with some ''Melee'' players arguing that it should even be banned because the advantages given to those two characters are too overwhelming for the majority of the cast. Many players will choose to "wait out" the Fire and Rock transformations by moving to the opposite side of the stage as their opponent, without approaching or attacking them, until the transformation returns to neutral. As a result, many players complain that the transformations result in several minutes of wasted time during a set.

"Frozen Stadium", a modded version of Pokémon Stadium which disables the stage transformations, has become increasingly popular in competitive play. It was first used sporadically in regional scenes, such as at {{Trn|Battle of BC 3}}, and became more widespread following the dominance of online play in 2020, as the [[Project Slippi]] netplay system uses Frozen Stadium as a default stage in unranked play. It has yet to become standard in offline tournament play, however. Supporters of Frozen Stadium argue that the removal of transformations makes the stage less randomized, more balanced, and removes the time wasting components often seen during the Fire and Rock stages. Opponents of Frozen Stadium argue that this would open up a path towards increased levels of modding and possibly the introduction of new player-built stages, making it more difficult to run in tournaments and possibly leading to legal issues with [[Nintendo]]. They also argue that stalling during the transformations should be seen as a viable counterpicking strategy, and that Frozen Stadium's layout is too similar to that of {{SSBM|Final Destination}}, further hurting characters who have a perceived disadvantage on both stages.

The stage is usually banned, as it has too many similarities to Pokémon Stadium 2 when hazards are turned off. Some regions, however, have Pokémon Stadium as a legal starter over Pokémon Stadium 2, most notably Chicago and, at one point, [[Maryland/Virginia]]. This is mainly due to some players believing the stage is a more reasonable size when compared to Pokémon Stadium 2. Opponents of this stage, on the other hand, cite several inconsistencies that make the stage more "janky" and therefore ill-suited for competitive play compared to its successor; most notably, the stage suffers from bugs that can cause players to clip inside the main platform of the stage, and prior to version {{SSBU|12.0.0}}, the right platform featured an invisible slant that made it impossible to perform [[lock]]s over it. The stage's camera also causes the visibility of the edges to be obstructed.