Grading the Super Smash Bros Ultimate Stages: Ultimate

Well, this is it. We’ve gone over all the stages from all the other Smash games and now it’s time to finish things off by looking at all the new stages that Smash Ultimate gave us.

Super Smash Bros Ultimate is one of the best fighting games ever made. It’s certainly one of the greatest crossovers giving how many series are represented here. While yes you could point to individual areas where it could be better like the adventure mode and lack of side-games, on the whole it’s a fantastic game and, to me, the best in the series.

The name Ultimate is appropriate given this feels like the culmination of everything Super Smash Bros has built over the years. Smash Ultimate is the game where dreams came true. We got every fighter from the series to come back, we got newcomers people have been asking for since the beginning, we got new guest characters from franchises we never thought would get representation, it really does feel like the ultimate Smash Bros game.

And of course, we got plenty of new stages, eventually. Yeah, here’s the thing, when Super Smash Ultimate first released it only had 4 new stages. Now giving how many returning stages there were it isn’t a big deal, but it still felt like a shockingly low number giving how many new stages the previous games added.

This didn’t last. Smash Ultimate would eventually add in a bunch of new stages as paid DLC. This was also done during Smash 4, but Ultimate was where they really went all in on the DLC thing. So, thanks to the 2 Fighters Passes adding an additional 11 stages, we have a grand total of 15 new stages to look at.

So, let’s not waste any more time and finally wrap things up. These are all the new stages from Super Smash Bros Ultimate.

New Donk City Hall

New Donk City was such a cool location in Super Mario Odyssey. Sure it was weird seeing Mario run around a New York city styled area with realistic looking people, but that’s what made it so cool. It was different and weird in how normal it was. It wasn’t the best level in the game, but it was the most iconic.

So it only made it would get a stage based on it. This one, as if the name didn’t give it away, takes place on the City Hall tower building. It’s a travel stage where you start out at the bottom and travel upwards to the top, stopping when you reach certain levels.

The stage is a lot like Prism Tower, except this is done way better in my opinion. And it’s simply because it doesn’t fly by too fast. While the different arenas aren’t particularly interesting, at least the stage lets you take them in. That’s all I ask for really.

Unlike some other travel stages, New Donk City Hall doesn’t have as much randomness. You’ll always travel up the tower in the same way and land in the same areas in the same order. That isn’t to say there isn’t any random element at all, some of the arenas will slightly change depending on where you land on them. You can land on them dead centre or slightly to the left or right which alters the layout slightly.

Plus, it lets you see more of the city itself, which looks damn good. It captures the look of New Donk City and the added details like the city folk cheering you on at the main entrance and the Odyssey flying around at the top of the tower are really nice touches. The Odyssey even has the same sail it had when it first arrived there, I love attention to detail like that.

But the most interesting aspect of it is the music. There are 2 tracks that can only be played on this stage called Full Band Performances. Unlike other music tracks, these don’t fully play right away, you have to assemble the band first. As you travel up the stage you’ll run into the different members of the band and by touching them you’ll add to the song until the whole thing will play.

It doesn’t add much, but it’s a cool little addition. It also acts as a reference to the original game since that was one of the missions you had to do in it. I just wish there were more songs that used it. It’s a cool gimmick, don’t limit it to just 2 songs.

New Donk City Hall isn’t my favourite travel stage. I feel like they could have done more with the setting and not limit it to just the city hall, but I still like it. It’s a fun little stage with a cool musical gimmick. Plus, it gave us Jump Up Super Star, I have to give it credit for that.

Overall Grade: B

Great Plateau Tower

Anyone who’s played Breath of the Wild remembers the first time climbing the Great Plateau Tower. Seeing that huge sprawling world and realising you could explore all of it was a feeling of wonder few games ever give you.

The Great Plateau Tower in Smash Ultimate kind of has the same vibe. The background is absolutely stunning, seeing all the different locations makes me want to go and explore them all. I can’t obviously because this is a fighting game, but that’s what I want to do. In terms of capturing the spirit of Breath of the Wild, I’d say they nailed it.

The stage itself is very simple. It’s a basic flat platform with the top of the tower acting as a hard wall/ceiling. However, the top can be broken which creates a small platform in the middle for a short time before reforming itself.

It’s basic, but effective. Destructible elements are always a nice addition and hitting opponents into the top of the tower is immensely satisfying. There wasn’t much they could have done with the setting, but I think they did a great job with what they had. I also like the King of Hyrule will show up on occasion with his glider. It’s a cute cameo.

Great Plateau Tower does an excellent job of capturing the spirit of Breath of the Wild. The visuals are breath taking and give the feeling of being in a massive world. It’s a great representation of the game while also being a fun stage to boot. Not the best Zelda stage, but still pretty damn good.

Overall Grade: B

Moray Towers

I’m sensing a pattern here. I don’t know why the first 3 stages are tower themed, but I digress. Moray Towers was one of the more memorable arenas from Splatoon and I think Smash Ultimate does a good job of representing it.

It’s a very vertical stage with walkways that loop around themselves. This isn’t just for show either, if you move to the very end of a walkway and turn around, you’ll move down on the next walkway. It is a little confusing, but it does help the stage stand out.

It also does a good job of capturing the Japanese urban style of Splatoon. The splats of ink that get added to the stage before the match begins are a nice reference to the original game, and they’re also different every time you play which is a cool detail. And seeing the two Judds chilling in the background is just cute, as they always are.

The music is also a great selection of Splatoon tracks. While Splatoon’s music isn’t really my thing it does have its own unique sound and has some great tracks to pick from. And Smash Ultimate picked some of the better songs from the series. I’m just happy they have Calamari Inkantation, that song slaps.

Moray Towers is a very good representation of Splatoon. While I’m not the biggest fan of vertical stages like this, the walkways are a unique gimmick that do give the stage its own unique flavour. It’s a fun stage, the best one of these kinds of stages.

Overall Grade: B

Dracula’s Castle

I love the atmosphere of this stage. It’s got that dark gothic vibe of Dracula’s castle down perfectly, and the added details in the background like the clock tower and the moon just add to it. It just looks cool.

One element I love are the bosses that will show up in the background. Werewolf, Frankenstein, the Mummy, Carmilla, Medusa, Death, they’re all here. They don’t affect the fight, but the animations that play out when they appear are all fun to see. They even enter the same way they did in their original boss fights, clearly a lot of love went into the visual presentation.

And do I even have to say the music kicks ass? It’s Castlevania, you know it’s going to be awesome. The music selection here is top notch, all the classics are here like Vampire Killer, Divine Bloodlines, Bloody Tears, all the ones you remember. They also do a good job of picking songs from a wide swathe of the Castlevania series and not just the big titles, even Judgement gets some representation, and nobody likes that one. They also included a track from another Konami game, Getsu Fúma Den as a bonus.

You’ve got some great remixes here along with plenty of original versions too. In short, it’s an incredible selection of music. Possibly the best for any stage.

The stage is also very fun to play. The layout is good, and it has a unique gimmick with the items. They don’t just show up like in other stages, you need to destroy candles for them to show up, just like in the original game. I love that they incorporated an actual mechanic from the series into the stage.

This stage kicks ass. Dracula’s Castle does everything it needed to do perfectly. It looks great, it has a foreboding atmosphere, the music is fantastic, it incorporates elements from the series very well, it’s just a great stage. It’s in the running for best stage in the game. It’s in the top 10 at the very least.

Overall Grade: A

Mementos

This is one of the most stylish stages in Smash Ultimate. Which should come as no surprise given it’s based on Persona 5. Everything about that game oozed style and coolness, and this stage captures that very well.

The colour scheme makes this stage pop out and will even change depending on what music track is playing. Normally it’s red and black, but if you play a song from Persona 3 or 4 it’ll change to yellow or blue respectively to match the colour scheme of those games. They didn’t even need to do that, but it’s a very nice touch.

Speaking of music, it’s also excellent. It’s very jazzy sounding which fits with the style of the stage. There aren’t many remixes, but the ones we do get are great and the original tracks are a solid selection.

Fans of Persona will be happy with the presentation here, they even threw some cameos from Persona 5 in the background for some added fan service. Admittedly though, I am not a Persona fan, but even I can appreciate how cool this stage looks. I think it says something when even I, a non-fan who has no idea what he’s looking at, can look at this stage and still say “this shit is stylish as hell”.

It’s also a very fun stage to play. The big gimmick of this stage is that walls and platforms will regularly appear to affect the stage layout. The basic design of the stage is decent enough, but the walls and platforms add a more interesting mix to things. Admittedly the walls can get in the way of getting kills, but not to the degree where it becomes aggravating. And since I like when you knock people into walls, it’s hard for me not to enjoy it.

Memento’s has all of the style and doesn’t forget to bring the substance. It’s a great stage that both fans and non-fans can appreciate. It’s hard not to love a stage this cool.

Overall Grade: A

Yggdrasil’s Altar

Yggdrasil’s Altar is almost a travel stage. I say almost because, while you do fly around and the stage does change, you don’t stop anywhere. It’s closer to something like the Umbra Clock Tower in that platforms will appear for a short time rather than you stopping in a specific location for a short time. Some platforms will even have chests you can open as a call back to the original games.

It’s fun for what it is, but the camera is a bit of an issue though as it is a little too zoomed out which can make it hard to see what’s going on, not helped by how detailed the background is. Not that I should complain much because the visuals are the stages best asset.

Seeing the world of Dragon Quest 11 as you fly around is very exhilarating and there’s a lot of details that fans of the game should recognise. You’ll see different locations, slimes will appear every so often, it’s a good representation of the series.

Musically it’s a bit of a let-down. While the song selection is fine, there are no remixes, and the songs are the midi versions and not fully orchestrated. Dragon Quest music is apparently a whole mess, and I don’t have time to get into it here, all I’ll say is that the music could have been a lot better.

Yggdrasil’s Altar is, fine. There’s nothing particularly wrong with it, but it doesn’t excel in any given area aside from its visuals. It’s the weakest stage of the initial fighters pass in my opinion.

Overall Grade: C

Spiral Mountain

I’ve praised stages before for managing to capture the spirit and look of a location, which for a cross over game is very important for a crossover game. We’ve seen some impressive recreations but trust me when I tell you that none of them, absolutely none of them, did so better than Spiral Mountain.

Why? Because it gets everything, even the smallest most minute detail down perfectly. The stage itself looks phenomenal Even the background details like Banjo’s house, the waterfall, the fields and the entrance to Grunty’s Lair are all incredibly well done. If they ever made a modern remake of Banjo-Kazooie, this is what I would expect it to look like.

But it doesn’t stop there. Even the collectables are all here, in almost the exact same locations you would find them in the original game. It isn’t 1-1 but it’s close, really close. The attention to detail here is impressive. Add in some cameos like Grunty, Bottles, Mumbo and more and you’ve got a stage that should make any Banjo-Kazooie fan happy. Also, fun-fact, this is the first in game appearance of Tooty since the original Banjo-Kazooie. That’s, kind of insane when you think about it.

The music is great as well. There’s a lot of remixes here and they all sound fantastic. The original composer for Banjo Kazooie, Grant Kirkhope, even came in to do a new remix of the Spiral Mountain theme. And Yoko Shimomura doing Jolly Rodger Bay is just the most perfect combination you could ask for. It’s a great selection of tracks.

The big gimmick for the stage is in the name. It takes place on top of the mountain and will periodically spin around, or spiral if you will, which changes the layout with different platform arrangements. It can be a little disorienting when it spins, especially given that it doesn’t affect movement so it can mess with your head a little, but it isn’t too hard to adjust to.

It’s a fun gimmick. The different layouts are decent enough, and it lets you see more of the background, which is great considering how detailed it is. My only real complaint is that it’s a little on the small side, especially when it rotates and there’s no other platforms. I’ve played worse, but it did initially put me off the stage when it first came out.

You can tell that a lot of love went into this stage. They didn’t need to go this hard with all the details, but they did it anyway. While it has its issues, none of them take away from how great a recreation it is. This is one of my favourite new stages.

Overall Grade: A

King of Fighters Stadium

King of Fighters Stadium is the closest a Smash Bros stage has come to emulating a traditional fighting game stage. It’s just one flat walk off platform, that’s it. Though, there is a catch, you can’t actually walk off. There are invisible walls that prevent you from walking off screen, just like a classic fighting game stage.

The walls also prevent you from getting easy KO’s. You need to hit an opponent through the wall which does require a bit of force. You can’t just wait by the edge, grab them and throw them out, which is an issue with other walk-off stages, I’m glad they addressed. Plus, it’s just fun to hit them through the wall. The stage is very simple, it does have elements that keep things interesting, and it is neat to see Smash Bros take on a traditional fighting game stage.

Visually it looks great. The stadium itself is massive which is in line with how they look in the King of Fighters series. There’s also a lot of special effects like smoke trails and sparklers to keep things visually interesting. Smash has quite a few stadiums in its stage roster, and this is one of the better ones aesthetically.

And then there are the cameos. Several King of Fighters characters will appear in the background of the stage. And there’s a lot of them too, from Kyo, to Athena, to Clark and Ralf, to Kim, Chong and Choi, you’ll see plenty of good boys and girls from SNK. You can tell Sakurai is a massive SNK fan because he put a lot of work into the models. They’re almost as good as the ones for the playable fighters. I wouldn’t be surprised if modders ended up using them to add them as playable characters in the future.

And then there’s the music selection. Hoo boy, what a selection. King of Fighters Stadium has the biggest selection of tracks for any 3rd party stage by a pretty damn decent amount. How many songs? 50, 50 goddamn songs to pick from here. I don’t know if it’s SNK being generous or Sakurai fanboying out, but we got spoiled either way so I ain’t complaining.

The song selection does a good job of encompassing a good swathe of SNK’s games. You’ve obviously got your Fatal Fury and King of Fighters tracks, but you’ve also got some Art of Fighting, Samurai Showdown, Metal Slug, Alpha Mission, Psycho Soldier and even Athena tracks to pick from. Even Fatal Fury: Wild Ambition got some love here, who the hell even remembers that game existed.

King of Fighters Stadium is a fun time. For as simple as the design is, they do a lot to keep things interesting. Combine that with great visuals and a huge selection of music, and you’ve got a pretty damn good stage.

Overall Grade: A

Garreg Mach Monastery

Alright, let’s just get this out of the way, I did not like Byleth’s inclusion in Ultimate. I understand why they were added, Three Houses had just come out and they wanted some promotion for it, but that doesn’t change the fact that it was another Fire Emblem character and there were numerous better picks they could have gone with.

That said, they weren’t that bad of a character. They had a unique gameplay style that at least made them stand out. And the stage we got with them wasn’t too bad either.

Garreg Mach Monastery is another travel stage, but it does things slightly differently. Rather than fly around the monastery on a platform, you’ll instead warp to the different arenas. You still get there via a platform, but it just takes you up to the sky and then back down again. Which means you get to spend more time in the arena’s and not on the travel platform.

The arena’s themselves are fine, I guess. There aren’t as many of them and they appear in a set order, so there isn’t much variety compared to different travel stages. But the arena’s themselves are just different enough to make each of them distinct, which is all I ask for.

Visually I find it to be a little bland. It’s mostly in the colour palette, it’s just very dull looking overall. The only time it’s ever visually pleasing is when you’re on the bridge and you can see the forest. I will give them credit for the cameos and the fact that it represents what it’s based on pretty well, but I still find it very boring aesthetically.

Garreg Mach Monastery is an alright stage. It looks fine visually with some nice cameos in the background, and it is fun to play, it’s just not particularly great. Like Byleth, what’s here is fine, but it feels like there were other picks that would have been a lot more interesting.

Overall Grade: C

Spring Stadium

Spring Stadium certainly lives up to its nomenclature. The big gimmick for this stage is the spring-loaded platforms that will launch you skyward if you jump while on them. You can get some serious airtime with them and even deal damage if anyone happens to be in the way.

That doesn’t happen too often though. Spring Stadium doesn’t have many floating platforms, there’s only one in the centre of the stage, so there’s not many opportunities to use the trampoline gimmick in interesting ways. That’s Spring Stadiums biggest issue, it never quite reaches its full potential. If they added just a few more platforms I think it would have made it a lot more interesting. There is a ceiling you can bounce into, but it’s so high up you’ll barely notice it.

At least the stage looks good. I like that they made it look like the sporting arena, which fits with the overall idea of the Arms universe. It helps it stand out from some of the other stadium stages. I also really like the colour palette, it’s really pleasing to look at.

Spring Stadium is ok. It’s not bad by any means, the layout is decent, it looks good, has decent music, but it just doesn’t go far enough with its core gimmick. If they had made just a few minor tweaks then it could have been great, but as is? It’s just ok.

Overall Grade: C

Minecraft World

Minecraft World is another stage that has more than one layout. Every time you pick it, it will swap between one of 6 different variations with each one based on a location in Minecraft. There are 6 different arenas to fight in, which gives it the largest number of variations for a Smash stage. Aside from the randomly generated ones.

That’s an impressive amount of variety, but it doesn’t really change the core of the stage. Minecraft World is a very chill stage, which makes sense giving that Minecraft is a very chill game to play. Even the random generated nature of the original game is represented by the 6 randomly picked variations, though you can pick the one you want with a button combination if you so choose. So Minecraft World does do a good of representing Minecraft as a whole.

One of the cooler aspects of the stage is how destructible it is. We’ve seen other stages have destructible elements before, but this does things slightly different by not having the stage reform itself. Once you break something, it’s gone for good. It doesn’t take much to destroy stuff in this stage, but it is kind of cool that you can permanently change the layout like this.

Visually, well, it certainly looks like Minecraft. Minecraft was certainly not a graphically impressive game, but it certainly has its own unique blocky charm which this stage emulates quite well. You’ll see some Minecraft NPCs in the background, there’s a day and night cycle and monsters will even appear at night like in the original game.

The music is also fairly decent. There’s not a huge selection of tracks, probably because there was very little to pick from to begin with, but what’s here is nice and adds to the chill vibe of the stage.

Minecraft World is an excellent representation of the Minecraft series. While not the most exciting of stages, it does its own unique charm that’s hard not to love. I’m not a big Minecraft fan, but I do like this quite a bit.

Overall Grade: B

Northern Cave

Northern Cave is a very simple stage. It’s just one big flat platform with 2 smaller platforms on each end. A very basic design for a stage, but Northern Cave isn’t about having an interesting design or gimmicks. No, like Umbra Clocktower and Lylat Cruise before it, Northern Cave is all about sheer unbridled spectacle. And in that regard, it totally succeeds.

The backdrop of Northern Crater is one long cutscene, which is fitting because it’s based on Final Fantasy VII, playing out the ending of the game. It starts with the Highwind descending into the cave, show the inside of the cave and the life-stream within, before leaving the cave and seeing Meteor about to crash into the planet before being stopped by Holy.

It’s a stunning scene to see play out even if you haven’t played Final Fantasy VII and have no idea what’s going on. It goes without saying that the stage looks phenomenal. The scene that plays out is absolutely gorgeous to watch, but the main platform itself is also very nice. It’s styled after the floor you would walk on in the original game, so it fits the stage aesthetic.

But what makes this stage for me is that it finally fixed the Final Fantasy music problem that Smash Ultimate had. Northern Cave added in a bunch of new tracks from the Final Fantasy series, including One-Winged Angel which was sorely missing before. While it isn’t a huge selection and there are a few tracks that could have been added, Golden Saucer would have been a good addition, it is a sizeable improvement over the pitiable 2 songs we had with Midgar.

Northern Cave knows exactly what it wants to be and goes all the way with it. It’s a stage where you can just sit and watch it play out and still enjoy it. In my opinion this is a much better stage than Midgar. While Midgar did have a cool gimmick with the summons, Northern Cave is better in every other category.

Overall Grade: A

Cloud Sea of Alrest

Cloud Sea of Alrest is another stage that’s all about spectacle, and spoiler alert but it won’t be the last. The whole thing takes place on the back of Gramps as he flies across the skies with other titans appearing in the background.

Xenoblade's worlds have always had this grand and epic feel to them, and this stage definitely showcases that. Seeing the massive titans gave me Shadow of the Colossus vibes, giant creatures like this always have a very majestic and yet frightening presence.

There’s also something about a massive sea of clouds that I’ve always loved as a visual. This stage looks awesome and Xenoblade fans should get a kick out of the cameos. Not just the titans, but other Xenoblade Chronicles 2 characters will appear in the background as well for some extra fan service.

The stage itself is, ok. At the very least it stands out from other stages. Gramps himself will also interact with the fight. He’ll turn his head which will change the layout slightly and will even comment on the fight as it progresses. However, I find that the stage is too simple for its own good. There’s barely any platforms and the whole layout just feels a little too bland.

Still, I can’t hate it. Cloud Sea of Alrest is a very beautiful, if overly simplistic stage. It’s not the best of the spectacle stages but still offers a unique appeal of its own.

Overall Grade: B

Mishima Dojo

Mishima Dojo is like King of Fighters stadium in that it’s Smash’s take on a traditional fighting game stage. Only this is based on a 3D fighting game stage. What’s the difference you ask, aside from the extra dimension. Well 3D fighting game stages have a bigger emphasis on environmental interaction, with Tekken stages often having walls and barriers you could knock opponents into and even through in some instances.

Mishima Dojo takes advantage of this by surrounding the stage with destructible walls and ceiling. So it’s got destructible elements, in fact the whole stage is destructible aside from the floor, and you get the satisfaction of hitting people through walls. What’s not to love.

Plus, it really does fit the setting. The Mishima Dojo has been destroyed so many times in the Tekken series it’s almost become a running joke. It’s happened as often as throwing family members of a cliff at this point.

Visually the stage looks great, with the lighting in particular being very good. When the walls are up you only have the dim light of the candles for light, but once those walls come down the natural moonlight comes in and changes the lighting and overall mood of the stage.

Heihachi will also appear as a cameo in this stage, and sadly he’s the only cameo you get. I would have liked to have seen some more cameos from the Tekken series like what King of Fighters Stadium did, but not a huge deal. Plus, it is Heaihachi’s dojo, so it does make sense he’d be the only one there.

One added detail I like is the love message on the floor for Kasumi. It’s a big part of the story for the dojo and I’m glad they added it in. I love little details like that.

And then there is the music. Oh, oh it’s so good. While not as impressive of SNK’s 50 track selection, the 39 songs for this are still spoiling us. And it might be more impressive depending on how you look at it. King of Fighters tracks were taken from a variety of series, this only had the one and it still has more songs than most other series.

And the actual song selection is great. I’m a massive Tekken fan and this is the track list I would make if I was giving the job of doing so. Poolside, Karma, Jin’s theme, Heat Haze Shadow, Kitsch, and of course the single greatest song to ever be put into a fighting game…

This song selection is perfection. All of the best tracks are here. There are maybe one or two tracks I would have added in, but that’s just a nit-pick. This track line-up might be my favourite for any stage and considering how good the music is in this game is that’s saying a lot.

Mishima Dojo is excellent. it does to 3D fighting game stages what King of Fighters Stadium did for 2D fighting game stages. I think both stages are great in their own right, but I think I like Mishima dojo that tiniest bit more.

Overall Grade: A

Hollow Bastion

I still can’t believe this is real. Even a few months later, I still can’t believe Kingdom Hearts actually got some representation in Smash Bros. Never in a million years did I think this would happen and yet, it’s here. We not only got Sora as a playable character, but we also got Hollow Bastion, which is still the best final area of the series, as a stage. And I’m happy to report that it’s pretty damn good.

It takes place on a floating platform that flies around Hollow Bastion, and that’s pretty much it. While not as visually stunning as some other Smash Bros stages, seeing Hollow Bastion recreated in the Smash Bros style does bring a smile to my face.

And I do mean recreated. Like Spiral Mountain, they nailed Hollow Bastion down right to the smallest detail. While you don’t get a chance to stop and look at it like with Spiral Mountain, I was still blown away by how well realised it was. And being able to see it from different angles made me appreciate the details a lot more.

But that’s not all. When you near the end of a match, the scene will transform into Dive to the Heart. Changing the platform design and the backdrop into one of the different Dive forms based on other Kingdom Hearts characters. This is so cool. I love that it isn’t random either. Having it only happen at the end of a match makes it feel much more special.

There is so much love that went into this stage man. The only disappointment with it is the music selection. Not because it’s bad, it’s not, it’s just the lack of remixes. And even then, the music was so good before I don’t mind not getting many new remixes. I also understand the limited selection is due to the complicated copyright issue surrounding Kingdom Hearts. So I’m a little more forgiving with it here.

I love this stage. It’s not even that it’s that great a stage, it’s just the fact that it’s actually here and done so well that elevates it for me. Sora was the most requested fighter for Smash Bros and Sakurai went out of their way to make his inclusion as perfect as possible. You can feel the love that went into him and this stage and I am forever grateful for that.

Overall Grade: A

And that’s it folks. I’ve graded every single stage in Super Smash Bros Ultimate. Boy that was an ordeal. But you know what, I’m glad I did it. It was fun going back to a lot of these stages and seeing how well they held up, but it was also a fun little history lesson in a strange way.

Going over this game by game made me realise just how much the stage design changed over the years. From the humble beginnings of Smash 64 to the more ambitious designs of Brawl and Smash 4, it was interesting seeing how the stage design evolved and changed over time. You can tell that by Ultimate they had finally struck a good balance of having fun gimmicks and solid designs. It was a solid line-up of new stages.

It was also fun seeing my opinions on certain stages change when I went back to them. There were some stages I absolutely hated but I now enjoy, and there were some stages I remember enjoying but find they don’t hold up nearly as well.

It also gave me a better understanding of what makes a good Smash Bros stage. Going through and analysing them made me realise why certain stages work and why some don’t. For some it’s obvious, but for others it’s a little bit more subtle. I never realised how much the camera can actually affect your enjoyment of a stage until I started doing this.

If anything, it’s given me an appreciation for how much work goes into these stages. It’s obvious that Sakurai and his team put a lot of heart into these, adding details most players will likely never even notice. It shows a true dedication to your craft, and I have of respect for him and all the talented people that worked on the Smash Bros series.

Super Smash Bros Ultimate’s stage line-up isn’t perfect, nothing is, but the sheer amount of stages from across the series history makes it hard not to be impressed by it. Even the bad ones are at least interesting to talk about. And the variety of them is simply staggering.

And if you read all of this and disagreed with any of the grades I gave, that’s fine. This was all based on my own opinions and perceptions, and we are bound to disagree on certain things. This was all done in good fun and my grades shouldn’t be taken all that seriously.

Well, that was an ordeal. It was certainly a learning experience. I am glad I did it, but don’t expect me to do anything like this in the near future. I’m just glad I don’t have to play 75m or Great Cave Offensive ever again. Unless they put them in the next Smash game. Please, please don’t put them in the next Smash Bros game.