Port Town Aero Drive: (Real Men Play With Hazards!)

Behold! The spiritual sequel to the incredibly underrated Mute City stage from Melee: Port Town!



Although most of my friends say I'm crazy, Mute City remains one of my favorite Smash stages of all time. It replicated perfecty the feeling of whizzing around an impossibly awesome F-Zero race track at breakneck speeds. Port Town seems to carry on this proud tradition, only taking inspiration from one of the best stages in F-Zero GX.



I know what your thinking. "This stage has too many hazards! It sucks! It can never be used in tournaments!"

Well as much as I like a good neutral stage for tournaments and the like, Brawl needs some stages with a heathly dose of craziness to keep things interesting. From the looks of it, Port Town fits the bill quite nicely.





If you don't own F-Zero GX (in which case: SHAME!) you might not know that a giant version of R.O.B. can be seen in the background of this particular race track. True to form, R.O.B. can be seen in the above screen (top, right of center). He's facing in the wrong direction, but you can make out his red arms and lighter gray colour. (ZOMG! ROB DECONFURMED!!!!1!!)



As shown here, the solid platform will occasionally be replaced by three platforms when the stage is staionary.



Here's a great video of Port Town in action. Looks both insane and awesome:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=x901mhTq91k

So, am I the only one who appreciates this stage? Discuss.

I'm kind of disappointed that they recycled the Mute-City concept...

I perfer to look at it as "perfecting" rather than recycling, myself. Besides, why change what works so well?

Wiseguy you are very right. I liked Mute city because of it's F- zeroness and the constant pace. I'm really glad it's back and better then ever.

And also, Port town means we don't have to play Big Blue for our F-zero fix <_<.

Edit: OMG POST NUMBAR 600!!!!!!11!!!!111111!!!!!

race track floors 15damage
racers 20%damage

checked mute city and
18% damage for floors
and 10%damage racers

Colenstien said:

Wiseguy you are very right. I liked Mute city because of it's F- zeroness and the constant pace. I'm really glad it's back and better then ever.

And also, Port town means we don't have to play Big Blue for our F-zero fix <_<.

Edit: OMG POST NUMBAR 600!!!!!!11!!!!111111!!!!!

Click to expand...

Further proof that great minds think alike, my friend! Mute City is indeed awesome, while Big Blue is an abomination. (I'd pay 10 dollars just to remove that returning stage from Brawl's stage selection.)

Brav3r said:

race track floors 15damage
racers 20%damage

checked mute city and
18% damage for floors
and 10%damage racers

Click to expand...

So greater damage from stage hazzards, eh? BRING IT ON!

Colenstien said:

Wiseguy you are very right. I liked Mute city because of it's F- zeroness and the constant pace. I'm really glad it's back and better then ever.

And also, Port town means we don't have to play Big Blue for our F-zero fix <_<.

Edit: OMG POST NUMBAR 600!!!!!!11!!!!111111!!!!!

Click to expand...

Yeah! Port Town ftw!

And you know... funny thing is... there was a guy a while ago who predicted this stage..almost just how it works, along with a few other very incorrect predictions (You know, the one who said Olimar stands in the back like PT, that guy)

Wondering if he did indeed know about this..

good thing there is port town i actually like it better
than mute city from music to design.
imo most of the hazards are aviodable and they were
also fun to set enimies up.

This is why i thought big blue was not returning.

http://us.wii.com/iwata_asks/ssbb/vol3_page3.jsp

Sakurai: Another reason we incorporated the Stage Builder was simply to make it possible for players to get more out of the stages. In Smash Bros. Melee, for example, Big Blue and Poké Floats were known as challenging stages to play.


Iwata:It’s not that they were hard per se, but there were so many formidable obstacles that caused the unexpected to happen.


Sakurai:Exactly! (laughs) This time around, however, we refrained from using many stages like these. The backgrounds might change dramatically, but most large walls and ceilings were removed since we were aiming for simple, easy-to-maneuver stages. Yet, part of the appeal of the Smash Bros. series is that the unexpected can happen on more extreme stages. It would feel wrong if these challenging stages were missing from this title, so we decided to use the Stage Builder as a means of filling the gap.

Click to expand...

I got killed at 64% by a car on this stage...twas not fun...

Kruton said:

I got killed at 64% by a car on this stage...twas not fun...

Click to expand...

I love this stage and i really like that they used my favorite track from F-Zero GX im awesomly good in it

Brav3r said:

good thing there is port town i actually like it better
than mute city from music to design.
imo most of the hazards are aviodable and they were
also fun to set enimies up.

This is why i thought big blue was not returning.

http://us.wii.com/iwata_asks/ssbb/vol3_page3.jsp

Click to expand...

Well, he did say stages LIKE Big Blue, so there's that. Regardless, I think the current stage selection is a fantastic balance of neutral and crazy stages, with stages like Port Town striking a happy medium.

I LOVE this stage! F-zero GX is one of my fave games, so this is AWESOME!!! :D

I think its a vast improvement on Mute City from Melee as well, it just has some more interesting scenarios (3 small platforms, Norfair-style layout and a gap at the bottom being one example), and at couple of the stops, you can see more of the track in the background where you can see the cars racing along in the distance! Plus, it looks BEAUTIFUL!

Im gonna be playing this one a LOT.

EDIT: I forgot to mention the most awesome thing: the best music in the game plays on this stage! The new Mute City remix is AWESOMESAUCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Seriously, the F-zero music in Brawl kicks major a**.

This stage makes the wait for March 9th seem much longer.

Smash Ninja said:

I LOVE this stage! F-zero GX is one of my fave games, so this is AWESOME!!! :D

I think its a vast improvement on Mute City from Melee as well, it just has some more interesting scenarios (3 small platforms, Norfair-style layout and a gap at the bottom being one example), and at couple of the stops, you can see more of the track in the background where you can see the cars racing along in the distance! Plus, it looks BEAUTIFUL!

Im gonna be playing this one a LOT.

EDIT: I forgot to mention the most awesome thing: the best music in the game plays on this stage! The new Mute City remix is AWESOMESAUCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Seriously, the F-zero music in Brawl kicks major a**.

Click to expand...

Correction: The f-zero music period kicks major a**. Seriously, F-Zero has the greatest music of any Nintendo game ever

If anything, I think Port Town captures the "speed" of an F-Zero race a lot better than Mute City did!

All i can say is that this stage is gorgeous. It really demonstrates how amazing Brawl is graphically too.

Yeah, which in turn shows how good gamecube graphics are seeing as this stage looks so alike the gamecube version.

Umm, gamecube or no. i'll be playing this stage for the music, in particular Dream Chaser and Climb up and get the last chance.

The stage itself looks great and its great to see an F-zero stage.
Its a shame they didnt do a big blue stage with modifications to it to make useable (such as removing the flyer, enlarging the machines so that the characters might be able to fit in the machines, removing the flying "cameras" and platforms and most importantly, zooming out).

Port Town is Mute City, except better, with more variation and beatiful background. The sense of depht is amazing. I love it. It's a shame the new Mute City music suffers "****** with the Guitar" syndrome at one point.

By the way, the reason they brought back Big Blue is that it was a unique experience and actually fun, after you've gotten the feel of it. I understand that only casuals will enjoy this, though. In my opinion, it's a great choice for a returning stage.

Port Town is Mute City, except better, with more variation and beatiful background. The sense of depht is amazing. I love it. It's a shame the new Mute City music suffers "****** with the Guitar" syndrome at one point.

By the way, the reason they brought back Big Blue is that it was a unique experience and actually fun, after you've gotten the feel of it. I understand that only casuals will enjoy this, though. In my opinion, it's a great choice for a returning stage.
edit: delete plz

This stage might be a bit TOO awesome. It's like Mute City, only better looking, better designed and even better music. Too bad everyone I've played with hates it...