A stage (ステージ, Stage), also called a level, map, arena, stadium, or board, is a location in which characters fight or complete objectives. The word "stage" refers to the entire loaded location, but can also refer to the ground or large central platform within the level. Though versus mode stages are the most commonly recognized and utilized, single-player mode stages such as Race to the Finish or Trophy Collector exist as well for purposes other than fighting others.
Versus mode stages[edit]
Most versus mode stages in each of the Super Smash Bros. series games are available from the start, though a small number must first be unlocked by completing certain objectives. Some stages in Super Smash Bros. 4 were made available through updates and are downloadable. Of these stages, only two are free. Most stages, like Princess Peach's Castle, are derived from places in playable characters' universes. Super Smash Bros. Melee introduced two stages unique to the Super Smash Bros. universe — Battlefield and Final Destination. In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, stages derived from universes without associated playable characters were introduced, namely Smashville, Hanenbow, and PictoChat. Additionally, not every playable character has a stage from their own universe; the Fire Emblem universe lacked one in Melee (though one was planned), and the R.O.B. universe has, for unknown reasons, never had a stage. Since Melee, each Smash game has included several Past Stages that debuted in previous games. These stages have either no or minor alterations (an example being Dream Land (64) in Smash 4, where the top blast line is much closer to the stage then it was in 64 or Melee). Ultimate changes this, giving older stages a more refined and detailed design.
Stages range in size from the large The Great Cave Offensive and Rumble Falls to the small Yoshi's Story and Peach's Castle. Typically, stages involve a large central platform with ledges, multiple smaller platforms, and blast lines above, below, and to the left and right of the visible area. Some stages, such as Mushroom Kingdom and Coliseum, have floors that continue past the edge of the visible area and pass through a side blast line. These edges are known as "walk-off edges" or "walk-offs" because characters can walk offscreen without the need to become airborne. Stages with walk-off edges on both the left and right, like Bridge of Eldin, are referred to as "walk-off stages", and only a select few, like Yoshi's Island, have only one walk-off. Some walk-off stages, such as Onett, have lower blast lines that are inaccessible normally, while others, such as Green Hill Zone, only infrequently have the lower blast lines introduced; still others, such as Mushroom Kingdom, have permanently-accessible gaps where players can fall past the lower blast line while still having solid ground covering most of the lower blast line, including its intersections with the left and/or right blast lines.
In Melee, moving and transforming stages were introduced. Big Blue and Rainbow Cruise consist entirely of platforms that move or appear on and offscreen, while stages like Icicle Mountain and PAC-LAND scroll continuously up, to the side, or down. Other stages, such as Pokémon Stadium, undergo partial transformations at certain intervals, while others, such as Castle Siege and Paper Mario, cycle through complete transformations. Similarly, stages like Delfino Plaza and Skyloft will take players to various areas via moving platforms. Mushroomy Kingdom may be one of two stages either randomly or based on a player's input prior to the match. Tortimer Island's, Gamer's, Balloon Fight's, Garden of Hope's, and Minecraft World's layouts are randomized to varying degrees for each battle as well.
Other stage elements include breakable barriers and platforms, such as the pillars of Luigi's Mansion and the stone floors of Skyworld; stage hazards and enemies, such as lasers, cars, and Klaptraps; local items such as apples; and interactive objects such as Barrel Cannons and switches. While water has no effect on movement in Melee outside of the flowing river in Jungle Japes, Brawl introduced swimming; a few stages, such as Delfino Plaza, feature bodies of water that characters can swim in.
From Brawl onwards, the appearance of some items, namely crates and barrels, differs depending on the aesthetic style of the stage they appear on.
In competitive play for every game, many tournament organizers prohibit the majority of stages (and in 64's case, all but one) from being selected due to being considered disruptive, unfair, or unbalanced by many high-level players[citation needed] (see stage legality). Ultimate tournaments often also require stage hazards to be disabled.
List of versus mode stages[edit]
This is a list of multiplayer stages in the Super Smash Bros. series.
The following does not include some single-player stages which can be playable with more than one player.
If there is an icon of a certain game in the chart (
, 
, 
, 
, 
) (not the top ones), that means a new version of the stage appears in that game.
The Smash 4 icon 
means the new version appears in both the 3DS and the Wii U version.
| Starter
|
Unlockable
|
Paid DLC
|
Free DLC
|
Single-player only
|
- ^ In Melee, this stage used the
Special Stages series symbol instead of the normal Super Smash Bros. one.
- ^ Listed as "Dream Land" in Smash 4.
- ^ Listed as "Mario Circuit" in Brawl, and as "Mario Circuit (Brawl)" in Smash 4.
- ^ a b c d Appears as part of Flat Zone X.
- ^ Listed as "Kongo Jungle" in Melee.
- ^ Listed as "Congo Jungle" in 64.
- ^ The stage has an additional underground version based on World 1-2 alongside the standard World 1-1 version. The version will normally be selected randomly, though either version can be forced by holding down a certain button when selecting the stage.
- ^ a b Only the World 1-1 version is present.
- ^ Listed as "Mute City" in Smash 4.
- ^ Listed as "Yoshi's Island" in 64.
- ^ In Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS, Wily Castle is set during the day and has a variety of moving platforms. In Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, Wily Castle is set during the night and has platforms moving along rails, as well as the Yellow Devil.
- ^ In Ultimate, Wily Castle is set during the night and has the hazards from both versions of Smash 4.
Versus mode stages by game[edit]
In Super Smash Bros.[edit]
The stage select screen in
Smash 64.
There are nine versus stages in the original Super Smash Bros.; eight starters and one unlockable stage: Mushroom Kingdom, shown in bold.
Stages
Peach's Castle
Congo Jungle
Hyrule Castle
Planet Zebes
Yoshi's Island
Dream Land
Sector Z
Saffron City- Mushroom Kingdom
In Melee[edit]
The stage select screen in
Melee.
There are 29 versus stages in Super Smash Bros. Melee; 18 starters and 11 unlockable stages, shown below in bold. The three past stages are unlockable. Unlike the other games, each stage has a greater location listed as its stage prefix rather than which game it is from.
Melee Stages
- Special Stages Battlefield
Special Stages Final Destination- Mushroom Kingdom Princess Peach's Castle
- Mushroom Kingdom Rainbow Cruise
- Mushroom Kingdom
- DK Island Kongo Jungle
- DK Island Jungle Japes
- Termina Great Bay
- Hyrule Temple
- Planet Zebes Brinstar
- Yoshi’s Island Yoshi's Island
- Yoshi’s Island Yoshi's Story
- Dream Land Fountain of Dreams
- Dream Land Green Greens
- Lylat System Corneria
- Lylat System Venom
- Kanto Pokémon Stadium
F-Zero Grand Prix Mute City
Eagleland Onett
Infinite Glacier Icicle Mountain- Mushroom Kingdom II
- Planet Zebes Brinstar Depths
- Kanto Skies Poké Floats
- F-Zero Grand Prix Big Blue
- Eagleland Fourside
Superflat World Flat Zone
Past Stages
- Kongo Jungle
- Yoshi's Island
- Dream Land
In Brawl[edit]
The stage select screen in
Brawl.
The Melee Stages screen in
Brawl.
There are 41 versus stages in Super Smash Bros. Brawl; 29 starters and 12 unlockable stages, shown below in bold. None of the original Super Smash Bros. stages or the original Super Smash Bros. music stage themes return, but there are 10 stages from Melee, one from each universe involved in the original game. Super Smash Bros. Brawl also remixed several of the music stage themes from Melee.
Brawl Stages
- Battlefield
- Final Destination
Delfino Plaza- Mushroomy Kingdom
- Mario Circuit
WarioWare, Inc.
Rumble Falls- Bridge of Eldin
Norfair- Frigate Orpheon
Yoshi's Island- Halberd
Lylat Cruise
Pokémon Stadium 2- Port Town Aero Dive
Castle Siege
Distant Planet
Smashville
New Pork City- Summit
Flat Zone 2
Skyworld
Shadow Moses Island- Luigi's Mansion
- Pirate Ship
- Spear Pillar
- 75m
- Mario Bros.
PictoChat
Hanenbow
Green Hill Zone
Melee Stages
- Rainbow Cruise
- Jungle Japes
- Temple
- Brinstar
- Yoshi's Island
- Green Greens
- Corneria
- Pokémon Stadium
- Big Blue
- Onett
In Smash 4[edit]
The stage select for
Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS, showing the normal stages.
The stage select for
Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS, showing the extra stages.
The stage select for
Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, showing the normal stages.
The stage select for
Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, showing the extra stages.
Stages in Super Smash Bros. 4 differ depending on the version. Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS features 42 stages total (seven of which are unlockable, shown in bold, and eight of which are downloadable content). Super Smash Bros. for Wii U features 55 stages (six of which are unlockable, shown in bold, and nine of which are downloadable content). Bold and italic text denotes stages that are unlockable in one version, but a starter/downloadable stage in the other. 13 stages appear in both versions (with some having changes), however, the majority of stages are exclusive to each version, with 3DS stages primarily pulled from handheld games and Wii U stages from console games (though, there are some exceptions). In addition, this is the first game where stages from all the past entries return at once.
All stages now have an optional Ω form (Omega Form), changing their layout to be similar to Final Destination - some have walls that go all the way down to the bottom blast line, while others are basically floating islands.
Most stages can be played with up to eight players in the Wii U version, though some are too complex or too small to handle that many fighters at once and will be disabled in the stage select when more players than allowed are present. Normally this is the traditional four (marked 4P below), but some stages will still allow up to six (6P). Conversely, some others are restricted to four players even on their Ω forms (4Ω), whereas most stages still allow the full eight on their Ω form even if restricted otherwise.
Starting from this game is the disabling of Star KOs and Screen KOs on certain stages.
Both Versions
- Battlefield
- 4Ω Final Destination
4Ω Boxing Ring
Gaur Plain
Duck Hunt ( added in version 1.1.1 / available at release)
4P Wily Castle- Super Mario Maker (DLC)
Suzaku Castle (DLC)
Midgar (DLC)
Umbra Clock Tower (DLC)
- Familiar stages
- Peach's Castle (64) (DLC)
- Hyrule Castle (64) (DLC)
- Dream Land (64) (DLC)
Nintendo 3DS Stages
- 3D Land
- Golden Plains
- Rainbow Road
- Paper Mario
- Gerudo Valley
- Spirit Train
- Dream Land
- Unova Pokémon League
- Prism Tower
- Mute City
- Magicant
- Arena Ferox
- Reset Bomb Forest
- Tortimer Island
Balloon Fight
Living Room
Find Mii
Tomodachi Life- PictoChat 2
Pac-Maze
- Familiar stages
- Jungle Japes
- Brinstar
- Corneria
- Mushroomy Kingdom
- WarioWare, Inc.
- Yoshi's Island
- Distant Planet
- Flat Zone 2
- Green Hill Zone
Wii U Stages
- Big Battlefield
- 4P Mushroom Kingdom U
- Mario Galaxy
- Mario Circuit
- 4P Jungle Hijinxs
- 4P Skyloft
- Pyrosphere
- 4P Woolly World
- The Great Cave Offensive
- 4P Orbital Gate Assault
- 4P Kalos Pokémon League
- 4Ω Coliseum
- 6P Flat Zone X
- Palutena's Temple
- 4P Gamer
- 4P Garden of Hope
- Town and City
Wii Fit Studio
4P Wrecking Crew
4P Pilotwings
4Ω Wuhu Island- Windy Hill Zone
- 6P Pac-Land
4Ω Miiverse (added in version 1.0.8)
- Familiar Stages
- Kongo Jungle 64
- Temple
- Yoshi's Island
- Onett
- 4P Delfino Plaza
- Mario Circuit (Brawl)
- Luigi's Mansion
- 75m
- Bridge of Eldin
- Pirate Ship (DLC)
- Norfair
- 4P Halberd
- Lylat Cruise
- Pokémon Stadium 2
- 4P Port Town Aero Dive
- Castle Siege
- 6P Skyworld
- Smashville
In Ultimate[edit]
The stage select for
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, showing the normal stages.
The stage select for
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate with
Stage Morph enabled.
The stage select for
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate with the "First to"
rule set to 3 Wins or more.
There are 115 versus stages in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. 19 stages are unique to Ultimate while the other 96 comprise nearly every stage from previous Smash games: 7 from Super Smash Bros., 19 from Super Smash Bros. Melee, 26 from Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and 44 from Super Smash Bros. 4 (18 from the 3DS version, 18 from the Wii U version, and eight that are in both versions). Ω forms return for each stage, along with a new Battlefield form for every stage. All Battlefield and Ω forms have the same size and terrain as Battlefield and Final Destination, respectively. All stages now allow eight players.
Not counting either single-player only stages or previous versions of Battlefield and Final Destination, there are only 15 stages that do not return in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate; two from Smash 64 (Planet Zebes and Sector Z), four from Melee (Icicle Mountain, Mute City, Mushroom Kingdom and Poké Floats), two from Brawl (Rumble Falls and PictoChat), two from Smash for 3DS (Rainbow Road and Pac-Maze), and five from Smash for Wii U (Miiverse, Woolly World, Orbital Gate Assault, Jungle Hijinxs and Pyrosphere). Since Flat Zone X is an amalgam between Flat Zone and Flat Zone 2, these are not counted among the previous games' stages. Another unique case is the World 1-2 version of Mushroomy Kingdom that is also absent.
A new rules option allows stage hazards to be turned off. Stages are ordered by when they first appeared in the Super Smash Bros. series. Unlike previous entries, all stages are available from the start. Ultimate also introduces Stage Morph, an option that allows players to choose two different stages which will transition back and forth over the course of a battle.
In the previous titles the player would go to the character selection screen prior to selecting a stage, but in Ultimate this process was reversed.
Ultimate Stages
- Battlefield
- Small Battlefield (added in version 8.1.0)
- Big Battlefield
- Final Destination
- New Donk City Hall
- Great Plateau Tower
Moray Towers
Dracula's Castle
Mementos (DLC)
Yggdrasil's Altar (DLC)
Spiral Mountain (DLC)
King of Fighters Stadium (DLC)- Garreg Mach Monastery (DLC)
Spring Stadium (DLC)
Minecraft World (DLC)- Northern Cave (DLC)
- Cloud Sea of Alrest (DLC)
Mishima Dojo (DLC)
Hollow Bastion (DLC)
Familiar Stages
- Peach's Castle
- Kongo Jungle
- Hyrule Castle
- Super Happy Tree
- Dream Land
- Saffron City
- Mushroom Kingdom
- Princess Peach's Castle
- Rainbow Cruise
- Kongo Falls
- Jungle Japes
- Great Bay
- Temple
- Brinstar
- Yoshi's Island (Melee)
- Yoshi's Story
- Fountain of Dreams
- Green Greens
- Corneria
- Venom
- Pokémon Stadium
- Onett
- Mushroom Kingdom II
- Brinstar Depths
- Big Blue
- Fourside
- Delfino Plaza
- Mushroomy Kingdom
- Figure-8 Circuit
- WarioWare, Inc.
- Bridge of Eldin
- Norfair
- Frigate Orpheon
- Yoshi's Island
- Halberd
- Lylat Cruise
- Pokémon Stadium 2
- Port Town Aero Dive
- Castle Siege
- Distant Planet
- Smashville
- New Pork City
- Summit
- Skyworld
Shadow Moses Island- Luigi's Mansion
- Pirate Ship
- Spear Pillar
- 75m
- Mario Bros.
- Hanenbow
- Green Hill Zone
- Boxing Ring
- Gaur Plain
- Duck Hunt
- Wily Castle
- Super Mario Maker
- Suzaku Castle
- Midgar
- Umbra Clock Tower
- 3D Land
- Golden Plains
- Paper Mario
- Gerudo Valley
- Spirit Train
- Dream Land GB
- Unova Pokémon League
- Prism Tower
- Mute City SNES
- Magicant
- Arena Ferox
- Reset Bomb Forest
- Tortimer Island
- Balloon Fight
- Living Room
- Find Mii
- Tomodachi Life
- PictoChat 2
- Mushroom Kingdom U
- Mario Galaxy
- Mario Circuit
- Skyloft
- The Great Cave Offensive
- Kalos Pokémon League
- Coliseum
- Flat Zone X
- Palutena's Temple
- Gamer
- Garden of Hope
- Town and City
- Wii Fit Studio
- Wrecking Crew
- Pilotwings
- Wuhu Island
- Windy Hill Zone
- Pac-Land
Single-player stages[edit]
In the single-player modes and challenges, a number of stages appear that aren't available in versus mode without hacking or accessing it via the Debug menu.
- The Home-Run Contest stages in Melee, Brawl, SSB4, and Ultimate involve a central platform from which Sandbag is hit, and a very long stretch of ground to the right of the platform for it to land upon.
- In Melee's "trophy tussle" event matches, the player fights CPUs upon a stage that takes the form of a giant object, the trophy for which he or she wins after completing the event.
- The original Super Smash Bros. Board the Platforms stages function as agility tests, and there are 12 in total - each one is designed to challenge the player's character.
- Like Board the Platforms, Break the Targets and Target Test stages of the original Super Smash Bros. and Melee respectively are tailored to challenge each character - 12 exist in the original and 25 in Melee. Some of Melee's Target Test stages are decorated in reference to their character's universe; Pikachu's, for example, has decorative Poké Balls in its walls, while the Ice Climbers' look like a level from the game Ice Climber. Brawl, however, simply has five Target Smash! stages for all characters, each representing a different difficulty level.
- Areas in Adventure Mode and the Adventure Mode: The Subspace Emissary are technically defined as stages.
- The Online Practice Stage in Brawl, SSB4, and Ultimate is playable only while waiting for an online match to load.
- The controls test stage in Brawl, SSB4, and Ultimate is playable only for the purpose of testing custom controls, and only as Mario, or as Mii Fighters in SSB4 and Ultimate.
In Super Smash Bros.[edit]
In Melee[edit]
In Brawl[edit]
Note: In Brawl, most of these stages can be played with two players.
In Smash 4[edit]
Note: As with Brawl, most of these stages can be played with two players.
In Ultimate[edit]
Note: As with Brawl and the Wii U version, some of these stages can be played with two players.
Non-playable stages[edit]
Some stages are inaccessible through normal means. These non-playable stages are accessible only through the use of hacks and debug programs, such as Action Replay. Some, such as "Test", were presumably used for testing during game development, while others, such as the "Tutorial Stage", are used in the game but not for the purpose of gameplay.
In Super Smash Bros.[edit]
In Melee[edit]
In Brawl[edit]
- 1-Player Mode Credits - the file name of the single-player mode credits is "STGCHARACROLL.pac", which technically defines it as a stage.
- Results Screen - the results screen that appears after a match is a stage, playable only through hacking [1]
In for Wii U[edit]
- Photo Studio backgrounds - The backgrounds are all considered separate stages, and can only be played by hacking.
In Ultimate[edit]
- Results Screen - Similar to Brawl, this is programmed in as a nearly fully-playable stage, accessible only by hacking. There are also separate variants of the stage specifically for Joker and Sephiroth's victory poses.[2]
- Free the Spirit screen - This is also programmed in as a stage, only accessible by hacking.[3]
- Staff Roll screen - This is also programmed in as a stage, only accessible by hacking. It has at least a bottom blast line programmed in, but no other surfaces.[4]
Custom Stages[edit]
Brawl introduced the Stage Builder, a tool that allows players to build their own stages, for use in multiplayer matches, using sets of provided objects, some unlockable. Brawl includes a set of Sample Stages that were built using the Stage Builder. The stage builder can also be used to build No KO stages and "CD Factories" - exploitative stages used for quickly obtaining CDs. The Stage Builder returns in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, with some features removed and other features added. In version 3.0 of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the stage builder was released.
- Ultimate is the only installment to not have any unlockable stages.
- From Brawl onward (except in for 3DS), stages on the stage select screen show the logo of their origin game (or origin series). However, due to localization differences or certain games not being released in certain regions, various inconsistencies show up:
- If the language is set to Latin American Spanish or Canadian French, all logos will use their US English version.
- If the language is set to Castilian Spanish, Parisian French, UK English, German, or Italian, all logos will use their properly translated European versions.
- If the language is set to Dutch or Russian, all logos will use the UK English version. (Differences between US English and UK English logos can be seen for games such as Pokémon Red and Blue versions, Tomodachi Life, Xenoblade Chronicles, WarioWare, Inc., and Fire Emblem Awakening.)
- If the language is set to Korean, games not released in South Korea use an inconsistent mixture of Japanese, US English, and UK English logos, for example using the UK English logo for Xenoblade Chronicles, the US English logo for Fire Emblem Awakening, and the Japanese logo for Super Mario USA and Made in Wario.
- If the language is set to Traditional or Simplified Chinese, a different inconsistent mixture appears, such as using the UK English logo for Tomodachi Life and the Japanese logo for Xenoblade Chronicles.
- As a unique difference between Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese translates the logo for Nintendogs into Chinese, while Traditional Chinese leaves the logo untranslated.
- If the language is set to either Japanese or Chinese, the origin game for Magicant is listed as Mother. If the language is set to Korean or any Western language, the origin game is instead listed as EarthBound (and not EarthBound Beginnings), despite those being two completely different games.
- The logo for the game Find Mii is the only one to differ in all 11 languages.
- Despite these changes, Kirby Super Star uses its American logo even when the regional settings are set to Europe or Australia, where it is known as Kirby's Fun Pak.
- Port Town Aero Dive has its origin game listed as both F-Zero GX and F-Zero AX, and is the only stage to list more than one title outside of Pokémon series stages.
- The R.O.B. universe is the only franchise with a playable character to have never had a stage in any game whatsoever.
- Somewhat on the contrary, the Nintendo DS universe is technically the only franchise with more than one stage to never have a character in any game whatsoever (though many characters in the series did make their debut on the system).
- Yoshi has the highest amount of stages among the franchises that only have a single fighter, with an amount of 5.
- However, if Mario sub-franchises are discounted, then F-Zero has the highest amount of stages among the franchise with only a single fighter, with an amount of 4.
- In Ultimate, certain Poké Ball Pokémon and Assist Trophy characters cannot be summoned on certain stages, either due to the stage design hindering their abilities or another of them already appearing the stage's background. For example, Alucard cannot appear in Wii Fit Studio, which features a giant mirror in the background, due to him being a vampire, which does not have a reflection; and Palkia cannot appear in Spear Pillar due to already appearing on the stage.
See also[edit]
References[edit]
