Final Destination (SSBM)
Final Destination is a long, completely flat stage in Super Smash Bros. Melee that a lot of competitive players use in tournament battles. It is unlocked by clearing every event.
In Classic, you fight Master Hand and Crazy Hand on this stage. In Adventure, you fight Bowser and Giga Bowser on this stage. In All-Star, you fight Roy and whoever's with him in this stage.
This stage is very similar to Master Hand's Residence.
Controversy in Competitive Play
While many players new to the game believe that Final Destination is one of the fairest levels, many higher-level players do not consider this true. Projectile users have a significant advantage here, as there are no platforms for enemies to escape to, or to interrupt their projectiles. It is also a good stage for chainthrowing, because of the lack of interference by platforms, and because it is the widest available, perfectly flat space. Additionally, the excess free space make camping a viable option for fast characters like Fox, Falco, Captain Falcon and Marth.
While this stage is plagued by a fair number of players who call it "cheap," or accuse it of being balance-skewed, there is no matchup or strategy that has been proven completely unwinnable by this stage, and since many characters have projectiles, the game balance tends to lead towards the ones who have the abilities to counter them. The primary effect that Final Destination tends to have on competitive play is that it heightens the level of advantage that high-tiered characters have in their best matchups. For instance, Jigglypuff against Fox runs fairly the same on Final Destination as it does on the Dream Land stage, in terms of wins and losses. However, Bowser tends to fare more poorly than normal on Final Destination, particularly against projectile using characters, because his lack of non-interruptable moves, his large hitbox, and his short overall jump height make him an excellent target of projectile abuse, which can be mitigated in stages with platforms.
It could be said that platforms simply add additional options for characters, expanding gameplay and allowing Smashers to play more creatively. The inverse could also be said - that Final Destination removes options and therefore makes gameplay more rigid and pre-defined. However, neither of these is true, nor are they a comprehensive argument for banning the stage. As mentioned before, ranged, chain-throwing, and juggling characters gain most from this stage, and the game mechanics still allow for a large degree of varied play and styles, some of which are not possible with platforms. For instance, Under-Platform Camping (a technique where a character with good priority and vertical melee range hides under a platform to prevent his opponents from attacking with aerials) is invalidated here, forcing a number of campable characters (such as Peach and Marth) to take the offense occasionally or lose to a stronger projectile or approach game. Additionally, the high ceiling, low floor, and distant blastlines enhance the edgeguarding game significantly, so while a projectile such as Falco's Blaster or Doctor Mario's Megavitamen can control the stage and rack up easy damage, their poor recoveries are amplified significantly.
Classically, the notion of a high level of balance on Final Destination comes from traditional 2-d fighters; almost all fighting games prior to SSB take place on fixed stages with fixed edges, and are balanced to play as such. All in all, the stage is considered balanced for tournament because it allows all characters to move effectively and evade and attack properly in melee combat, and because the imbalances it creates are not dissimilar to the imbalances created by Pokemon Stadium and Fountain of Dreams - largely character and matchup based, and situational. Additionally, competative play at the high levels of fighting games, and the tournament scene for any game involves creating and researching situations where your character selections gain slight, but not overwhelming advantages; therefore, the player with the most stage knowledge is most likely to pick the correct stage and gain an advantage. Advanced stage selection can counter an advanced player's particular skillset, however, not in such a way that the same player cannot use his other basic and advanced skillsets to overcome the issue, and this is the scale that balance rests upon. Advanced Slob Picks are used in tournament stage selection to prevent exploitation by game winners or negative variance and a minimized level selection that a full Random, neutral stage select would give. If you feel a character or matchup will do poorly on Final Destination, you may excercise your option to ban it, or simply pick another stage.
