ParanoidDrone
Smash Master
By popular request, I'm covering Wuhu Island. The next stage will be Mushroom Kingdom U, at which point it's all up for grabs again. If you want me to do a specific stage, speak up!
Shoutouts to @Amazing Ampharos for his post on this stage in the Stage Discussion thread, which helped kick start my own research and alerted me to a few quirks I wouldn't have noticed otherwise.
Previously Covered
Mario Circuit
Layout
Wuhu Island is a fairly standard "touring" stage in the style of Delfino Plaza. A main platform carries players around a given area and stops at various points of interest for players to fight. A short time later the platform comes again and whisks everyone off to their next adventure.
Also like Delfino Plaza, the main platform has varying platform arrangements overhead. Unlike Delfino Plaza, the primary platform also varies instead of keeping a constant shape. These changes will be detailed later in their own section.
Contrary to first impressions, Wuhu Island follows a distinct pattern when travelling around the island. This pattern will be explained further below.
Players 1 and 2 start near the edges of the starting platform, while Players 3 and 4 start closer to the middle. The Omega form floats over a void.
Wuhu Island has a few damaging stage hazards, but all of them are tied to specific transformations and will be explained alongside them, instead of getting their own section.
Main Platform
The main platform that carries players around Wuhu Island has 4 different forms. In all cases, the primary platform has grabbable ledges and can be jumped through from below.
Name|Picture|Notes
Platform 1|
|Starting platform setup, carries players to the first location. Also appears after the fourth location to come back to the start before beginning another tour.
Platform 2|
|Carries players from the first location to the second.
Platform 3|
|Carries players from the second location to the third.
Platform 4|
|Carries players from the third location to the fourth. Outer edges of side platforms can be grabbed.Points of Interest
There are a total of 9 points of interest where the stage can stop and let players off. Each stop lasts approximately 15 seconds total. A large flashing sign appears 5 seconds in advance of the stage moving on.
Name|Picture|Notes
Arena|
|Walled sides. A stage hazard appears as the platform moves to this location, although the arena itself is hazard free. See the Island Tour section below for details.
Bridge|
|Walkoff on both sides. All gaps have grabbable ledges. Bridge can be jumped through from below. Landing on the bridge causes the whole thing to bounce slightly.
Jet Ski Race|
|Water below instead of void. Upper ledges are grabbable, lower ledges on buoys are not. Entire structure sways gently from side to side.
Rocks|
|Water below instead of void. Rightmost ledge is grabbable, all others are not.
Boat|
|Water below instead of void. Shortly after landing, boat powers on and drives around the water. Landing in the water while boat is in motion pulls players to the left after they surface and tread water. Colliding with prow of boat while boat is in motion does 100% damage and spikes players for an instant kill.
Glitch allows certain characters to instantly kill their opponent when using specific throws on the front of the boat, notably Ness (vs. Villager/Wario only), Lucario, and Pikachu.
(This has been fixed as of the 1.0.6 update.)
Beach|
|Walkoff on both sides. Left half of beach slopes gently downward, difficult to see in picture.
Volcano|
|All platforms have grabbable ledges and can be jumped through from below. Platform sizes are slightly asymmetrical.
Fountain|
|Fountain edges allow players to walk over them. Fountain centerpiece exerts upward force on airborne fighters within the spray but does not affect grounded fighters. Characters with sufficiently low fall speed can remain suspended indefinitely. Pushing effect also enhances jumps.
Cliff|
|Walkoff on left side. A single balloon rises from offscreen on the right, explodes for 10% damage on contact. Kill % varies depending on height at moment of impact, starts being dangerous to Mario at 175% when hit from left side.
Alert Sign|
|The sign that appears to warn players the stage is about to move on. Appears 5 seconds in advance.Island Tour
Although it may not be obvious at first glance, Wuhu Island follows a pattern when moving around the island.
When the stage begins, Platform 1 is over the ocean. After visiting the first location, Platform 2 appears to carry players to the second location. Platform 3 brings them to the third, and Platform 4 moves them to the fourth. Platform 1 then appears again, moves to the same starting location over the ocean, and another tour begins.
(For details on Platforms 1-4, see the Main Platform section above.)
The individual locations the stage stops at also follow a pattern. The first location is always either the Arena or the Bridge. If going to the Arena, the stage skims over the water. Touching the water at this point does 5% damage and kills Mario at 347%. Over successive tours, the stage alternates between the Arena and Bridge for the first location.
The second location is one of the Jet Ski Race, the Rocks, or the Boat. The exact one chosen depends somewhat on the first location. The Rocks only come after the Arena, while the Boat only comes after the Bridge. The Jet Ski Race can come no matter what location was visited first. However, over 4 successive tours the stage is guaranteed to visit the Jet Ski Race twice and the Rocks and Boat once each.
The third location is simpler. The stage will visit either the Beach or the Volcano. Over successive tours, the stage can either do a simple alternating pattern or it can visit the same location twice before visiting the other location twice. Which pattern it chooses seems to be random, but will not vary over the course of a single match.
The final location is also simple. The stage can visit the Fountain or the Cliff, and like the third location can either alternate between the two over successive tours or visit one for two tours in a row before visiting the other for the next two tours. Also like the third location, the pattern will not vary once the match starts.
Overall the patterns exhibited by the stage allow an astute player to predict what location will be visited next. Although learning the exact pattern requires quite a few stops to be made first, the fact that each stop can only be at 2 or 3 possible locations greatly helps narrow down one's focus. To help illustrate the different patterns that can appear, here are 4 that have been observed in testing and data collection:
Note that this is not an exhaustive sample of possible patterns and is merely for illustrative purposes.
Summary
Shoutouts to @Amazing Ampharos for his post on this stage in the Stage Discussion thread, which helped kick start my own research and alerted me to a few quirks I wouldn't have noticed otherwise.
Previously Covered
Mario Circuit
Layout
Wuhu Island is a fairly standard "touring" stage in the style of Delfino Plaza. A main platform carries players around a given area and stops at various points of interest for players to fight. A short time later the platform comes again and whisks everyone off to their next adventure.
Also like Delfino Plaza, the main platform has varying platform arrangements overhead. Unlike Delfino Plaza, the primary platform also varies instead of keeping a constant shape. These changes will be detailed later in their own section.
Contrary to first impressions, Wuhu Island follows a distinct pattern when travelling around the island. This pattern will be explained further below.
Players 1 and 2 start near the edges of the starting platform, while Players 3 and 4 start closer to the middle. The Omega form floats over a void.
Wuhu Island has a few damaging stage hazards, but all of them are tied to specific transformations and will be explained alongside them, instead of getting their own section.
Main Platform
The main platform that carries players around Wuhu Island has 4 different forms. In all cases, the primary platform has grabbable ledges and can be jumped through from below.
Platform 1|
Platform 2|
Platform 3|
Platform 4|
There are a total of 9 points of interest where the stage can stop and let players off. Each stop lasts approximately 15 seconds total. A large flashing sign appears 5 seconds in advance of the stage moving on.
Arena|
Bridge|
Jet Ski Race|
Rocks|
Boat|
Beach|
Volcano|
Fountain|
Cliff|
Alert Sign|
Although it may not be obvious at first glance, Wuhu Island follows a pattern when moving around the island.
When the stage begins, Platform 1 is over the ocean. After visiting the first location, Platform 2 appears to carry players to the second location. Platform 3 brings them to the third, and Platform 4 moves them to the fourth. Platform 1 then appears again, moves to the same starting location over the ocean, and another tour begins.
(For details on Platforms 1-4, see the Main Platform section above.)
The individual locations the stage stops at also follow a pattern. The first location is always either the Arena or the Bridge. If going to the Arena, the stage skims over the water. Touching the water at this point does 5% damage and kills Mario at 347%. Over successive tours, the stage alternates between the Arena and Bridge for the first location.
The second location is one of the Jet Ski Race, the Rocks, or the Boat. The exact one chosen depends somewhat on the first location. The Rocks only come after the Arena, while the Boat only comes after the Bridge. The Jet Ski Race can come no matter what location was visited first. However, over 4 successive tours the stage is guaranteed to visit the Jet Ski Race twice and the Rocks and Boat once each.
The third location is simpler. The stage will visit either the Beach or the Volcano. Over successive tours, the stage can either do a simple alternating pattern or it can visit the same location twice before visiting the other location twice. Which pattern it chooses seems to be random, but will not vary over the course of a single match.
The final location is also simple. The stage can visit the Fountain or the Cliff, and like the third location can either alternate between the two over successive tours or visit one for two tours in a row before visiting the other for the next two tours. Also like the third location, the pattern will not vary once the match starts.
Overall the patterns exhibited by the stage allow an astute player to predict what location will be visited next. Although learning the exact pattern requires quite a few stops to be made first, the fact that each stop can only be at 2 or 3 possible locations greatly helps narrow down one's focus. To help illustrate the different patterns that can appear, here are 4 that have been observed in testing and data collection:
- Bridge, Boat, Beach, Cliff
- Arena, Jet Ski Race, Beach, Fountain
- Bridge, Jet Ski Race, Volcano, Cliff
- Arena, Rocks, Volcano, Fountain
- Bridge, Jet Ski Race, Volcano, Fountain
- Arena, Jet Ski Race, Beach, Fountain
- Bridge, Boat, Beach, Cliff
- Arena, Rocks, Volcano, Cliff
- Arena, Rocks, Volcano, Fountain
- Bridge, Jet Ski Race, Volcano, Cliff
- Arena, Jet Ski Race, Beach, Fountain
- Bridge, Boat, Beach, Cliff
- Bridge, Jet Ski Race, Beach, Cliff
- Arena, Rocks, Volcano, Fountain
- Bridge, Boat, Beach, Fountain
- Arena, Jet Ski Race, Volcano, Cliff
Note that this is not an exhaustive sample of possible patterns and is merely for illustrative purposes.
Summary
- Players start on the first of 4 different platform layouts. See the Main Platform section for details.
- Each successive platform carries players off to the next transformation in order until looping back to the first.
- Total of 9 different locations the stage can stop at. See the Points of Interest section for details and relevant hazards.
- Stage follows a pattern when moving around the island, see the Island Tour section for details.
- First location is either Arena or Bridge.
- Second location is Jet Ski Race, Rocks, or Boat.
- Third location is Beach or Volcano.
- Fourth location is Fountain or Cliff.
- Stage does another 4 location tour after returning to start position over water.
- Nature of patterns means stage loops completely after 4 tours.
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