Grading The Super Smash Bros Ultimate Stages: Melee

Welcome back. We continue our look at every stage in Super Smash Bros Ultimate with the stages that debuted in the second game in the series, Super Smash Bros Melee. For many players, this is where the series started to hit its stride. It improved the gameplay significantly, added in a whole host of new characters, modes and, most important for us today, stages.

I have a lot of nostalgia for this game and the stages in it. I was excited when I saw a lot of these come back in the initial reveal trailers for Ultimate. Some these are among the best stages in the entire series, others started trends I wish they hadn’t. But let’s get to grading them and see which ones have held up, and which should have been left in the past.

Princess Peach’s Castle

Wait, didn’t I already talk about this stage? Oh wait no, that was Peach’s Castle, this is Princess Peach’s Castle. Yeah, that isn’t confusing at all. Confusing nomenclature aside, this is a great stage. It executes the concept of fighting on Princess Peach’s castle far better than the original. Mainly because you fight on the actual castle itself.

But even beyond that, this stage is just a lot more fun to play on. The layout is simple, but effective with gimmicks that add just the right amount of chaos to the battle without getting in the way too much. They find a good balance here that a lot of other stages lack somewhat. My favourite part as a kid was the Banzai Bill that would show up and ram into the stage. The explosion it creates does a ton of damage leading to a mad scramble to get out of the way or knock opponents into them.

The music was great too. There are a lot of remixes of the original Mario Bros theme in Ultimate and the one made for this stage is one of the best. This is a great stage and one of my favourites. I’m shocked it took this long to see it come back.

Overall Grade: A

Rainbow Cruise

Let me start with the positive with this one. It looks fantastic, especially with the graphical updates Ultimate gave it. And the music is damn good too. It a great medley of the slide theme from Super Mario 64 and the classic underwater theme. It sounds like something you’d hear in a theme park, I kind of love it.

And that’s it for positives. Yes, the only good thing about this stage is the presentation, because actually trying to play it is a pain in the ass. Rainbow Cruise is the first auto scrolling stage in Smash, which is your first sign of how bad this stage is. Auto scrollers suck in regular platformers, why would they be good in a fighting platformer?

That’s the crux of the issue with this stage. The auto scrolling just kills any enjoyment you could have with it. Is it the worst of its kind? No, but it’s far from the best. The biggest problem with Smash’s auto scrollers is that it’s hard to keep up with the scrolling and fight at the same time. At least with other auto scrollers they move in one direction, but the scrolling in Rainbow Cruise moves in a circular direction which makes it harder to keep up with.

Which wouldn’t be so bad if the speed was more consistent. It feels like it slows down and speeds up randomly. Is it just me with that? I will say that the brief section when you’re on the ship prior to the auto scrolling is fine. It's not great but it’s not terrible either. But once the scrolling starts, all fun ends. And the worst part is, there’s worse scrollers to come. Oh goody.

Overall Grade: D

Kongo Falls

I always liked the theme of this stage. Waterfalls have such an intense and majestic quality that make them perfect backdrops for fighting games. And a stage that takes place on top of one only amplifies those qualities. And my god what a visual upgrade. Ultimate did wonders for this stage; the water looks more luscious and the colours are much more vibrant than it was originally. You can even clearly make out the rainbow this time.

It’s a fun stage to play as well. The spinning barrel returns from Kongo Jungle and is once again a fun way to recover if you can time it right. Sadly, you can’t knock enemies away this time. There are also Klaptraps that occasionally appear that can kill you, though not too often that they become annoying. There are also logs that will appear as temporary platforms.

Ok, what happened on this river? We're battling on a raft that got stuck on top of a waterfall and there’s still logs barreling down it. What happened to this raft where it ended up in this position? And what madman would live in that hut in the background. Does not look like a safe place to live at all. Great for fighting though.

Overall Grade: B

Jungle Japes

Christ, I thought the house in the last stage was bad, this one is even worse. At least the last house was built to the side of the river rapids. This one is built on top of it, on stilts made of wood. How did they build this? And why is the bathroom located on a separate platform in a barrel shaped outhouse. Must be a pain to get too if you need to go in the middle of the night, and this is Cranky Kong’s house, so you know that will happen.

In all seriousness, this is a classic Smash Bros stage through and through. I do find it weird that the two Donkey Kong stages in Melee are based on river rapids. That's not even a stage that appeared in any of the Donkey Kong games. I mean it’s a cool theme for a fighting game stage, but why not throw in a mine or factory level, or how about a pirate themed stage.

Oh well, at least the stage is fun. The two side platforms can lead to camping shenanigans, but that’s it’s only major flaw in terms of stage structure. And the sunset from Kongo Jungle returns in glorious fashion and, my god, it has never looked more beautiful. This stage has become a Smash mainstay having appeared in every iteration since Melee, and for good reason. It's just a damn good stage.

Overall Grade: B

Great Bay

This was a favourite stage of mine as a kid. I always liked beach stages, which is weird because I can’t stand them in real life. I guess I enjoy the aesthetics of a beach rather than actually being on one. I blame the sand, I’m with Anakin Skywalker on this one.

The stage takes place on the platform that housed the Marine Research station from Majora’s Mask. It's a faithful recreation of that part of that game, or at least faithful as a Smash Bros stage can get. The giant turtle is also present and adds a dynamic element to the stage, disappearing and reappearing in different positions. Everyone’s favourite fairy loving weirdo Tingle also gets in on the action riding on his balloon, which you can knock out of the sky, and that’s always fun.

Truth be told though, the stage itself is only just ok. It's not a bad stage by any means, and the swimming mechanics introduced in Brawl make it a lot more fun in Ultimate than it was originally. I think the stage is at its best when the turtle is present. When he isn’t, the stage gets a little cramped with not much room to manoeuvre.

But if that’s the case, why was this one of my favourites. Honestly, it was down to the presentation. Not just the visuals or the music, although both were excellent and Ultimate only makes things better. No, it was the little story that went on in the background.

Seeing the moon slowly fall only to be stopped by the Four Giants and pushed back was always such a cool detail to me. I used to pick this stage just to watch it play out. Little details like that can go a long way. Ultimate even adds to this by having a hidden piece of heart in the background, off screen, in the same place as the original game. Sakurai is a mad genius when it comes to this stuff, it’s why I love his games so much. And why I like this stage as much as I do.

Overall Grade: B

Temple

Temple is another Smash Bros mainstay. It's one of the most iconic stages in Smash Bros history, I can’t imagine a Smash Bros game without it at this point. Is it one of the best stages? Not really, but it is one of the most memorable.

Temple was the first true giant stage in the series. I’m not a huge fan of them, and all for the same reason, they’re too big for their own good. Temple, however, is one of the better ones of this type mainly because they don’t go overboard with its size. Oh, it is a chunk of a stage to be sure, but when compared to other giant stages, it’s outright miniature.

Also, unlike a lot of other giant stages, the layout is decent and has some form of flow to its design. The bottom half is where the stage is at its most fun. It's been dubbed the Cave of Life by the Smash fan base for the insanely high damage you can rack up. That's part of the fun though, getting the enemy to high damage, hitting them with a Smash attack and watching them bounce around is hilarious.

Granted this does lead me to a big problem with this stage, it’s hard to KO people on it. Matches can drag on it and it’s too easy for faster characters to run circles and run out the clock. That, and I always thought it was visually bland. It's based on the temples from Zelda 2, but aside from one platform having the Triforce symbol on it, there isn’t much distinctly Zelda about it. It's an ok stage for what it is, but not much more than that.

Overall Grade: C

Brinstar

I think Ridley Scott is going to sue somebody. I know Metroid has always taken a lot of cues from the Alien series but come the fuck on. Not that I’m complaining, I love how unapologetic the stage is in its inspiration. It helps that the stage looks cool, I don’t know what half the stuff I’m looking at is, but it looks neat.

Brinstar is a recreation/remake of the Planet Zebes stage from Smash 64. The layout is different, but they share a similar gimmick in the form of the rising pool of acid. Even though the idea is to avoid the acid, I always liked jumping into it as a kid. Seeing the characters bet bounced around by it was funny to me. Guess I was just easily impressed back then.

Compared to Planet Zebes however, Brinstar is a much better stage. This is one of the first stages to introduce destructible elements allowing you to temporarily alter the stage structure. I like Smash stages with a little more environmental interaction.

Brinstar is a great stage. It captures the spirit of Metroid with its visual presentation and it's fun to play. It’s easily the best Metroid stage. Which isn’t a good sign considering it’s the first one we’re looking at.

Overall Grade: A

Yoshi’s Island (Melee)

So, for some reason, this stage is considered a Yoshi stage in Ultimate. Even though it’s based on Super Mario World, and it’s been considered a Mario stage in every game prior to this one. Why make the change? Especially since we can’t play that awesome Super Mario Bros 3 remix on it anymore.

Regardless, the stage is still fine. I like that they captured the art style of Super Mario World while translating it into 3D. Something that’s even more noticeable now thanks to the gorgeous graphical update Ultimate gave it. Except for the Lakitu in the background which still uses its original sprite. I love that they didn’t update that, even in Ultimate.

The stage incorporates the blocks from the game in an interesting way. If you’re not careful, you can damage the blocks you're standing on and fall below. And if it’s the three blocks in the centre you could end up falling to your death. This happened to me far too often as a kid. You need to be careful and pay attention when playing on it, something that’s hard to do in a 4-player battle with items on.

The biggest issue with this stage though is the slopes. They make it a lot harder to get KO’s since they can slow your momentum if you hit them. It's annoying getting a hit you’re sure would kill, only to be denied by the slope.

This stage is alright. I love how it looks, but it’s only ok to play on. In the right circumstances it can be a fun time, just watch your step near the blocks.

Overall Grade: C

Yoshi’s Story

Like Super Happy Tree, this stage goes for the hand-crafted look. Though, thanks to the graphical upgrade it got, Yoshi’s Story does it so much better. There's a lot more details and little touches here that Super Happy Tree can’t hope to match. I just love how this stage looks.

However, I find Yoshi’s Story to be one of the more forgettable stages in the game. In terms of layout, it’s far too similar to Battlefield, something Dream Land also suffered from, and there isn’t much in the way of interesting gimmicks to spice things up. There is the cloud platform that travels in a rectangle pattern at the bottom, who the fans have nicknamed Randall for some reason, but that’s it.

Now, does that make the stage bad? Not really. There's nothing godawful about it, it just doesn’t do enough to really stand out. Even back in Melee this stage felt like it was just there. I forgot it existed until I saw it again in Ultimate. Honestly, I think Super Happy Tree is the better stage. Yoshi’s Story isn’t bad, it’s visuals save it from complete mediocrity, but they can only do so much.

Overall Grade: C

Fountain of Dreams

Fountain of Dreams almost suffers from the same problem as Yoshi’s Story in that its basic layout is too similar to Battlefield. I say almost because this stage does at least change things up a little by having the two lower platforms rise and fall. It isn’t much, but it’s at least something a little different.

Structurally speaking, the stage is ok. Nothing too spectacular, but nothing too awful either. It's right in the middle. But when it comes to presentation, this is one of the best stages in the entire series. If you want the perfect example of style over substance done perfectly right, this stage right here.

Visually it’s gorgeous. It was always one of the prettiest stages in Melee, and Ultimate's graphical enhancements make it even prettier. The Fountain of Dreams was always meant to be this serene, dream like location in Kirby lore, and this stage absolutely nails that aspect. The colours, the water effects, it really does feel like something out of a dream.

And then, there’s the godlike music. The remix of Gourmet Race made for this stage is one of the best in the series history. They took a goofy track for a mode where two gluttons have an eating race, and made it sound like a clash of gods. Which is fitting given the insanity of Kirby lore. It's such a good remix that when they remade Kirby’s Adventure for Game boy Advance, they used this remix for the King Dedede boss fight. And it sounded great even with the shitty GBA sound quality.

This is one of my all-time favourite stages. A lot of that is down to the presentation, and there’s nothing wrong with that? It's not like it isn’t fun to play. It's simple, but there’s nothing wrong with that if done well. I love this stage, it’s easily in my top 5.

Overall Grade: A

Green Greens

This is the stage I was referring to when I talked about Dream Land. Green Greens has a similar gimmick to Dream Land, but it’s done so much better here. Wispy Woods will still blow you away, but the wind is a lot stronger here and, with the lower platforms, is a lot harder to avoid. And that’s not all he does, he’ll also occasionally drop apples that can heal you or be used as a weapon. Combine that with the falling blocks, including some that explode, and you have a much more interesting stage.

This just feels more like a Kirby stage. Visually it’s a lot more colourful and vibrant with more elements taken from the series. Even the music is great, with a fantastic orchestral rendition of the classic Kirby theme. Why did you bother bringing Dream Land Back when this stage exists?

All that being said, the stage isn’t one of the all-time greats. The biggest issue is how wide it is. It gives you room to manoeuvre around, but most fights I have end up taking place on the far left or right platforms which undermines the wind gimmick. Not a bad stage though and can still be a fun time.

Overall Grade: B

Corneria

Ah, good old reliable Corneria. This one has always been a personal favourite of mine. It's such a simple idea for a stage too, it’s just battling on the back of the Great Fox. Like with Brinstar, this level is a remake of a previous stage in Smash 64 called Sector Z, and like Brinstar it’s just a better version of that stage.

The layout is somewhat basic, though the different elevations of the ship do keep things interesting. I always like fighting near the thrusters because you can smack foes into the tail fin, something that’s only more satisfying in Ultimate with how hard they bounce off walls. You also need to avoid shots from fighter ships that will swoop down occasionally. Or you can just use them as a makeshift platform.

One thing I thought was cool was how you could jump to the underside of the stage and chill on the laser canons. For about five seconds before it shoots you off them, but it was still cool you could do that. This is another classic stage, having appeared in every iteration of Smash since Melee, and for good reason, it’s a fun stage. But in Ultimate it’s the best it’s ever been, thanks to how much of a visual upgrade it got.

Of all the stages in Ultimate, this is the one that benefitted the most from the upgraded visuals. The original always looked a little flat and blocky, this is visually stunning. Rather than just taking place in the city area, this one feels like a trip around the entire planet of Corneria. Seeing the calm ocean and lush detailed islands, you wouldn’t think a massive dog fight was going on. It's a bit of a disconnect.

I still love this stage. It's in the running for best Star Fox Stage. There is one that is arguably better, but we will get to that in the next part.

Overall Grade: A

Venom

Venom has a similar premise to Corneria. It takes place on the Great Fox again, only this time it’s from a head on view with the fight taking place on the wings of the ship. One interesting contrast I liked between Corneria and Venom, with one being based on the opening level of Star Fox 64 and the other being based on the final level. One other contrast is that Corneria is a great stage, and Venom is a mediocre one.

I never cared for this one. The stage layout never sat right with me. It always feels like fights end up closed in on either side. And the underside gives you way too much of an advantage. I've been cheap shot so many times by people who camp on the lower wings. And with the two sides being divided by a solid wall this results in fights either being huddled on one side, which makes things unnecessarily cramped, or constantly shifting sides which just gets annoying.

I don’t have a lot of fun with this stage. I don’t even like how it looks. It looks better in Ultimate yes, but now it just looks like a rip off of Mordor. I don’t like this one very much.

Overall Grade: D

Pokémon Stadium

Pokémon Stadium is in the running for best stage in Super Smash Bros. And not just in Ultimate, I mean in general. You may be wondering why given how simple the stage looks at a glance. Ah, but appearances can be deceiving. What starts as a simple stadium, morphs and transforms into one of 4 different forms based on some of the types of Pokémon, rock, water, grass and fire.

This stage is technically 5 different stages all rolled into one. And the best part is that all of them are fun to play. Some are better the others, I personally don’t care for the rock layout, but I don’t think any of them are outright bad. Hell, even if you turn them off, the main stage is still fun to play on its own.

My only issue with the stage is that I would have liked to have seen some Pokémon in the background of the different layouts, but that’s a minor complaint. The stage looks great, with each of the different layouts looking so much more colourful and lively than before. Even the stadium background looks much more alive than how it looked before. They even threw in some fire works for good measure.

What’s funny is I don’t think this is based on the Pokémon games; it feels like it takes more inspiration from the anime. Remember in the anime how they would fight in those arenas that would start simple before changing into unique forms. It's the same here. I don’t know if Sakurai took inspiration from the anime when making this, but I like to think he did.

There isn’t much that Pokémon Stadium does wrong, it’s solid across the board. It's so good in fact that it got a sequel in Brawl, which is arguably even better than this one. But we’ll talk about that one next time.

Overall Grade: A

Onett

They nailed the look of Onett with this one. It really feels like the art style of Earthbound but done in 3D. Maybe it’s bright pastel colours or the setting of a small town but something about this stage gives me a warm and cozy feeling. Which is in direct contrast to the goddamn traffic.

I’m not kidding. You're just doing your thing, bashing Mario’s face in or whatever, when suddenly some asshole drives by and rams right into you. How near the curve are these drivers? Onett seems like a nice enough place, but the drivers make it look like a death trap.

This stage is weird. Visually it’s calm and quaint, but there’s a chaotic element to it with the fighting and the car hazards. It's an interesting disconnect. One thing I like is how the awnings on the drug store will fall off if you stay on them for too long, makes the fight seem a little more intense.

I really like this stage. It's a lot of fun to play and there’s a lot of neat visual touches and easter eggs thrown in for good measure. Oh, and the music slaps too. My only issue is that it’s a little too closed in. But other than that, this is a great stage.

Overall Grade: B

Mushroom Kingdom II

The name of this stage is a lie. It's based on Super Mario Bros 2, which takes place in Subcon, not the Mushroom Kingdom. I know that’s a massive nit-pick but when else am I going to complain about this. In all seriousness, I do like that we have a stage based on Super Mario Bros 2, that game doesn’t get nearly enough love.

They also nailed the look too, much better than how it looked originally. They even based it on the 16-bit version from Super Mario All-Stars, which is nostalgic for me because that was the first time I experienced it. It's just a shame that the stage itself isn’t all that interesting.

There are some gimmicks to spice things up. Logs will appear on the waterfall, you can ride on Pidget’s flying carpet and Birdo will show up to fire eggs at you, unless you beat him up first. I do like the added elements from the games, but the overall layout is just too flat and uninteresting. It isn’t awful, it’s just average.

Overall Grade: C

Brinstar Depths

Really? They brought this piece of shit back. Brinstar Depths was one of my most hated stages in Melee, topped only by Icicle Mountain which, thankfully, is not present here. The main idea for this stage is that it takes place on a big rotating rock with two smaller rock platforms floating nearby. Every 15 seconds or so, Kraid will pop out and rotate the stage either right or left, it’s completely random.

It's also completely random as to how long the rotation lasts, sometimes it only rotates a little, sometimes it does a complete 180. It's annoying because there’s no way to tell how long it will last, some visual indication would have been nice.

That's the least of this stage's issues. Regardless of the stages position, it’s too uneven to fight on and it’s far too easy to get stuck on the underside. And when I say it’s way too easy, I mean it happens every time you play it. And when you get stuck, you have to sit there and wait until the stage rotates again, or you can try to get to the top again, which for some characters is extremely difficult, if not impossible.

I don’t have any good things to say about this stage. Even visually it’s just bland. Kraid is impressive I guess but everything is just like the normal Brinstar stage, only darker and far less interesting. It isn’t fun to play on at all, it’s boring to look at, and it’s one defining feature is more annoying than interesting. It does nothing right. They should have left this in the past and brought back a better stage, like Poké Floats.

Overall Grade: F

Big Blue

When I was a kid, Big Blue was the stage I played the most. I loved this stage back then, and I still love it now. It's just such an exhilarating stage to play. The idea of a stage where you fight on top of F-Zero racers going at 100 mph is so fitting for Smash Bros. I know that sounds like it would be annoying to fight on, but there are things it does to keep that from happening.

For one thing, the racers are usually close enough together that you can just run across them. And there’s more than enough of them on screen so jumping between them isn’t too difficult. They aren’t the best for fighting on given how small they are, but this stage is just as much about survival platforming as much as it is fighting. There are floating platforms that will show up that do give you more room to fight on and give you a breather from jumping between vehicles.

Even if you do fall off, so long as there’s a racer behind you, you’ll bounce off the front and can recover from that. If there’s a racetrack beneath you that is. Ultimate also slows things down and keeps the camera zoomed out so you can see everything going on to make things a little easier.

This stage can be hectic. It's easy to lose track of your character if you aren’t careful. The chaotic nature of it is part of the fun, but it can be frustrating when you die from not being able to keep track of anything. I can see why some people would be put off by this stage, but I personally love it. Maybe it’s nostalgia, ok it totally is nostalgia, but I think it's a fun time.

Overall Grade: B

Fourside

I’ve already said that I'm a big fan of city stages in games, but city stages at night. Those are when they’re at their best. I love the way Fourside looks. It's like something out of a superhero comic like Daredevil or Batman.

This stage is similar to Saffron City. It takes place atop three skyscrapers with a crane holding up an additional platform that will move around a little, it’ll even sink if you stay on it too long. Occasionally a UFO will show up that can be used as an additional platform for a short time.

The stage is pretty fun, though not as fun as Saffron was. The UFO is a neat gimmick, but it’s not as fun or as charming as the Pokémon were in Saffron. It's also hard to get KO’s with how large the stage is. You can rack up some serious damage on this one. The middle tower is also annoying as you need to jump over to get to either side, disrupting the flow of the fight a little.

It isn’t a great stage, but I still like it. I'm just a sucker for the aesthetics here. Fun fact thought, Fourside never appeared at night in Earthbound. The stage we have here more resembles its dark dream world version, Moonside. I'm not sure why they didn’t base the stage on that since it’s the more interesting locations. Oh well.

Overall Grade: B

And that’s it for the Melee stages. There was a lot more to cover but there were some great stages here. Next time we’re looking at the stages from Super Smash Bros Brawl. And if you thought Melee had a lot of stages, Brawl has even more. This is where things get interesting because Brawl has some truly great stages, but it also has some of the absolute worst stages in Smash Bros history. It's going to be a bumpy ride next time folks.