Hyrule Castle (64): Stage Research

[ParanoidDrone]

I have a friend who absolutely adored this stage. I bet he'll be happy.

Previously Covered
Peach's Castle (64)
Miiverse
Suzaku Castle
Dream Land (64)
Final Destination & Ω Forms
PAC-LAND
75M
Skyworld
Flat Zone X
The Great Cave Offensive
Onett
Palutena's Temple
Yoshi's Island
Wily Castle
Gaur Plain
Pyrosphere
Temple
Mario Circuit (Brawl)
Boxing Ring
Port Town Aero Dive
Bridge of Eldin
Pilotwings
Jungle Hijinxs
Wrecking Crew
Halberd
Pokemon Stadium 2
Big Battlefield
Battlefield
Smashville
Lylat Cruise
Castle Siege
Town & City
Duck Hunt
Delfino Plaza
Kalos Pokemon League
Mario Galaxy
Coliseum
Gamer
Wii Fit Studio
Kongo Jungle 64
Windy Hill Zone
Luigi's Mansion
Norfair
Orbital Gate Assault
Woolly World
Skyloft
Garden of Hope
Mushroom Kingdom U
Wuhu Island
Mario Circuit

Layout
Hyrule Castle's layout is unchanged from its Nintendo 64 incarnation. Players fight on the castle roof, with a main base and two smaller, lower side sections. The left section is slanted while the right section has a solid house structure that players can walk under. Above the main base are a trio of platforms in a zigzag pattern, slightly offset to the right of center.

Players 1 and 2 start on either side of the center base. Players 3 and 4 start on the lowest of the 3 platforms and on the roof of the house. The Omega form has walled sides.

Hyrule Castle (64) has one hazard, tornadoes.

The basic layout.

Tornadoes
It must be windy in Hyrule, because miniature tornadoes appear on the roof of the castle with distressing frequency. Tornadoes last 10-20 seconds each, with 25-45 seconds between each tornado. Once one appears, it moves left and right and scoops up any players it touches. The victims are swirled around briefly before getting launched upward for 14% damage, with sufficient knockback to kill Mario from the main base at 100%. Only one tornado can be present at a time.

Tornado knockback acts differently from all other knockback sources in the game. Instead of writing large amounts of text on the subject, this video does a good job explaining it. (The executive summary is that the tornadoes have discrete "tiers" of knockback, where a given character is sent flying the same distance as long as they are within a certain % range. These ranges are 0-19%, 20-39%, etc.) Thanks to @ Shirma Akayaku for bringing this video to my attention.

Tornadoes will not fall off ledges, instead remaining on the surface they spawned on. There are 4 possible spawn locations:

• Main base
• Left side
• Right side (can also pass underneath house)
• Middle overhead platform

Unusually, tornadoes do not appear to cause the typical black lightning effect for high knockback moves.

A tornado on the middle overhead platform.

Summary

• Upper portion of house on right is solid.
• Tornadoes do 14%, kill Mario from base at 100%.
• Tornado knockback is weird. Watch the video.
• Tornadoes do not fall off ledges.

 

[Krysco]

Have you tested if the tornadoes 'rush' towards players or 'rush' at all? I recall in 64, there were times that the tornadoes would quickly move as if rushing towards the players. If not, I'll see about testing it myself if you have no desire to.

 

[ParanoidDrone]

Have you tested if the tornadoes 'rush' towards players or 'rush' at all? I recall in 64, there were times that the tornadoes would quickly move as if rushing towards the players. If not, I'll see about testing it myself if you have no desire to.

I could do it myself but I have plans this weekend so it probably won't happen for a few days. If you want to do it yourself go ahead.

 

[Krysco]

Been testing ever since I posted and while I haven't had it rush at me, I did choose to test something else: if the nados can spawn on players and if so, how quick they become a hazard. I went to training as Bowser with 3 ai Bowsers. I had the 3 ai Bowser sit on the green roof on the left and spaced them out to cover as much space as possible while the Bowser I controlled was on the second highest brown platform in the middle.

The tornadoes took forever to spawn on any of the Bowsers and at first I thought it was impossible but it eventually happened. It first happened to one of the ai Bowsers and the tornado took quite a while before throwing him into the air. However, shortly afterwards a tornado spawned on the platform I was on and it took far less time before it harmed me. Not sure what to make of that quite yet and if I get around to it, I'll try to make a video with 8 Bowsers covering as much of the stage as possible with a nado spawning on one of them (this could take forever thanks to the random nature of them).

Edit: Tested with the same format as before and when a tornado spawned on one of the Bowsers on the left it became a hazard much more quickly than before...I'm not sure if the timer is random, I thought at first it would depend what platform the nado spawned on but that doesn't seem to be the case. Bleh, easy way to word it, the nados have differing times for when they actually become harmful. The 'quite awhile' one took long enough that the Bowser easily could have pulled off a jab or an ftilt or something and get out of the way if it was being controlled while the ones that didn't take as long were nearly instant once the nado formed.

 

[Tito Maas]

I didn't play 64 but I already love this stage. One of my favorites in the game. Looking forward to it being used many times within my group.

 

[Amazing Ampharos]

It's worth noting that you can't block tornados and, further, they have no effect on Luma (or presumably other hittable non-character objects, but I haven't tested those things specifically). I believe the tornado counts as a "grab", if that makes sense.

 

[Magik0722]

Can no longer block tornado. Tornado now hit aerial players, not just grounded ones.

 

[Geno9999]

Got some numbers from Training Mode, Mario v. Mario, CPU Mario set to control, all smashes fully charged. Side Smash is also angled upwards for maximum KO potential. Also, I turned all my data into a picture because of the numerous areas:

Legend: F is Mario's Forward Smash, hitting with the Fireball.
A is Mario's Forward Smash, hitting with the Arm.
U is Mario's Up Smash.

Battlefield for Comparison:
Side Smash Edge: Fireball ~ 37%, Arm~ 51%
Side Center: Fireball ~ 55%, Arm~ 70%
Topmost Up Smash: 67%
Middle two Fall-throughs: 74%
Bottom: 81%

The only way I can see Hyrule Castle ever being legal is as a Counterpick for Doubles, and that's ignoring the shenanigans one could pull off with the green house over there. It's way too big for any serious 1v1 fight, expect players to last well into the 100%s even in normal play.

 

[HeroX3]

Got some numbers from Training Mode, Mario v. Mario, CPU Mario set to control, all smashes fully charged. Side Smash is also angled upwards for maximum KO potential. Also, I turned all my data into a picture because of the numerous areas:

Legend: F is Mario's Forward Smash, hitting with the Fireball.
A is Mario's Forward Smash, hitting with the Arm.
U is Mario's Up Smash.

Battlefield for Comparison:
Side Smash Edge: Fireball ~ 37%, Arm~ 51%
Side Center: Fireball ~ 55%, Arm~ 70%
Topmost Up Smash: 67%
Middle two Fall-throughs: 74%
Bottom: 81%

The only way I can see Hyrule Castle ever being legal is as a Counterpick for Doubles, and that's ignoring the shenanigans one could pull off with the green house over there. It's way too big for any serious 1v1 fight, expect players to last well into the 100%s even in normal play.

You last deep into the 100 % on FD.

 

[ILOVESMASH]

The three platforms have slightly misleading hitboxes. The edges of the platforms are a couple of units smaller on both edges than the current platform model suggests.

 

[Shirma Akayaku]

@ ParanoidDrone This is a pretty good video on tornado kill percents for each character:

It doesn't include the left side tornado, but it does mention it and how it varies. I don't know if you want the character kill percents, but I though this was noteworthy.

EDIT: I honestly think that if this stage were ever legal, it'd be a doubles only stage.

 

[ParanoidDrone]

@ ParanoidDrone This is a pretty good video on tornado kill percents for each character:

It doesn't include the left side tornado, but it does mention it and how it varies. I don't know if you want the character kill percents, but I though this was noteworthy.

EDIT: I honestly think that if this stage were ever legal, it'd be a doubles only stage.

Ooh, that's juicy information. Added to the OP.

 

[jam1garner]

I want this stage to be legal, but sage hazards that kill at ~%100 that can spawn inside of the player untelegraphed is to big a problem to ignore. Having played sheik against a friend for an hour on this stage was a beat down. Sheiks ability to use strings of fairs carrying her opponent into the tornado, bouncing fish off walls, sharking the center platforms, and apply pressure/combo off walls makes this stage very good for sheik. Can anybody confirm reverse boosting working on the left side of this stage?

 

[Illuminose]

Can anybody confirm reverse boosting working on the left side of this stage?

not really because it's only possible when jumping to the right and because the slide is really only effective when you have momentum before the jump. technically yes but it's pointless.

 

[Pippin (Peregrin Took)]

I so want this stage to be legal too but the cave of life on the right side ruins it. I don't remember it being this prevalent in the 64 version.

 

[Pazzo.]

This may be a good stage for doubles... But it's a little too easy to camp on.