Kimchi
Smash Ace
Ussi was the original creator of this thread, but he unfortunately quit Brawl and left behind his work. Fortunately, I have taken over his thread and left it intact.
To know who to counterpick where without a description: Click here.
Well I thought we should learn the stages we play on to help further our ability to play and counterpick correctly. So basically this thread is all about discussing these main things: How does Ike do on this stage? What characters should you bring here? (If any) What characters should you avoid here? What are things to take advantage on this stage? What things hurt Ike on this stage? Then an overall is this stage good for Ike (factoring in everything)
Also I thought I should finally make a thread to help Ike >_>
1. Final Destination
For those wondering what they are saying: (MK: Let us fight! Ike: Prepare yourself! Kirby: Nya! Marth: FD again?...)
Final destination is one of the most common neutrals so you will have brawls on here. Therefore we should know about this stage and what is to come. At first, it’s an ideal stage for QD since there are no platforms to hide on. That would be effective in teams, but in singles it’s not effective at all. There is a high ceiling in Final Destination so Ike will survive better against vertical killers. Also, FD’s lips will destroy some character’s recovery when they get caught under it. Because of that, certain characters will have more predictable recoveries allowing you to punish it much more easily. FD also is pretty large, so you got a lot of room to abuse but it makes it harder to control at the same time. But the harder it is to control, the harder it is to be controlled, pick your choice. Of course our long ranged projectile happy users negate that controlling part of the stage as they will keep control much better than you if you can’t work your way around their projectile.
There are two reasons you would ever counterpick Final Destination. That my fellow Ikes is that you are facing a character that has very good platform abuse that will cause the platforms to hinder you more than help you OR you’re ground game does not get countered easily or only by aerials. If that is the case then Final Destination makes a good choice, but platform abuse will only come in play styles of you and your opponent. But platform abuse comes best with long disjointed range therefore, we will have near the best platform abusing abilities if not the best. Characters like G&W are better to fight without platforms since your ground game can’t be countered easily by G&W without his aerials meaning, you just need to counter G&W aerials which you can outrange with fair or counter.
Now Final Destination can lead to be your downfall when you come against a long ranged projectile user. I mention long ranged because short range, ex. Mario/Luigi’s fireball, is too short to make an impact on you. Granted they can get in the way, but it’s not hard to overcome them since they are not made to be camping projectiles. The WORST projectiles you’ll come across are tjolt/thunder [Pikachu] and laser [Falco]. ROB’s laser and gyro will also be a nuisance. Then you have Toon Link who can fire arrows then a boomerang/bomb on you. The real Link also will pose problems with his projectiles but his arrows don’t fly as far when uncharged. Also his zair will be coming your way. Samus will be a big pain here from her missiles and zair, and her zair is MUCH more annoying than Link’s. Pit’s arrows are more effective without platforms to protect you from the arrow circling AT, Pit’s arrows are still good enough on hitting you even if you are on a platform, but the platform still helps so avoid FD with Pit. Lucas’s PK fire/freeze will also prove to be an annoyance in this stage.
Then you have Snake, he counters your ground game AND has projectiles to mess you up. Grenades will blow up on contact so make sure you don’t use your moves wildly. But that’s not all, his Snake Dash is super effective on FD because it’s only one surface.
And then you have DDD and Yoshi. They are two chain grabbers on you. Final D is just good for that so it’s best to not play that stage against them because you’ll be giving lots of free damage away from one mistake. Yoshi’s isn’t as bad as DDD’s because DDD can edgeguard you well. Yoshi does not have that therefore it’s not as problematic but it is still free damage Yoshi gets on you.
Diddy has his best banana game against you here. You'd best avoid it but then again you'll face bananas no matter what. Platforms help in that situation though.
One final note is that Jigglypuff has rollout and when she recovers with it, you can get mind gamed in leaving yourself open since she can change directions once she hits the ground. You best bet to avoid it is to stand at the edge she is recovering at and be ready to either dtilt or counter. If you get hit it’s a heavy hit. Just be warned for those who have not played jiggs or can’t counter rollout effectively.
So in conclusion to this stage, it’s pretty much neutral against most characters. Just some happy campers will be happy campers here. [It’s a pun for those who don’t get it…](Fail)
Characters you WANT avoid on this stage: DDD, Pikachu, Diddy, Falco, Snake, ROB, Toon Link, Samus, Link, Pit, and Lucas
Characters that are recommended to avoid: Jigglypuff and Yoshi
Characters that are recommended to play here: G&W
Rest: Neutral
Overall Ike does decent on FD.
2. Battlefield
Battlefield, by far is one of Ike’s best stages there are. It’s small and has 3 platforms. This stage messes up a lot of projectile users making them lose their projectile’s effectiveness. Ike’s moveset has the most moves that can abuse platforms giving him one of the best platform abuse games. Ike can run off bair or fair from platforms, QD onto platforms for faster movement to utilt/run of aerial, fall thru platforms to bair or nair, usmash/utilt/fsmash/uair/aether/eruption to strike above platforms, and lastly you can fair to strike BELOW a platform (character height dependant). But that’s not all Ike has, Ike can also aether slide to the edge meaning, if someone is standing somewhat close to the edge, you can go way under the slant and aether and it will HIT them. It’s a good ledge tactic that keeps them away and makes it safe to ledge hop to quick draw. But also since the stage is SMALL, it’s even easier for Ike to control the stage. One of the best things to do is throw the person into the air so they are forced to land on the platforms.
This stage will be the best neutral to use against a campy character and play style or a character with a bad platform game. Pikachu by far is hindered here losing thunder spamability. Tjolt can be used but not as freely therefore making it more predictable. Toon Link doesn’t do well on battlefield as well, his projectiles aren’t good at striking below or above platforms thus allowing you to platform camp him. Link’s usmash can hit thru platforms otherwise it’s the same story with Link. Pit’s arrows can’t go thru platforms from above therefore they make a good shield from the arrow circling. Lucas’s usmash is something to be wary of but that leaves him open badly so it won’t be a viable tactic therefore platforms will help deal with PK fire/freeze. If you can throw Snake into the air, you can easily punish his landing lag on platforms and aether him pretty easily. Mines on the platform are something to keep an eye on though since they strike below platforms too. ROB’s usmash is the only to watch for from him. Mentioning anyone else will be redundant.
Olimar and Marth are probably the only two characters, that will go neutral with you here for stage control. Olimar has a great platform abuse game, not as many options as you, but it’s enough to not let Ike keep an advantage. Marth’s speed is the only thing that lets his platform game be as good as yours and the fact Marth an amazing move set to strike people above him.
I'll give a mention to DK who has a good platform game too. Run off bair, uair, and usmash. It's pretty good too but Ike has way more options than DK For DK to go even in stage control. Down B is even less effective with platforms to stay on but at the same time it covers more ground on the bottom floor.
Characters you WANT/recommended to avoid: NONE
Characters that go even with you: Olimar and Marth
Characters you WANT to bring here: Pikachu, Snake, Toon Link, Link, Pit, Samus, Lucario, and ROB
Rest: Advantage
3. Smashville
May Palutena Guide you!
Smashville is the most neutral stage ever made, mainly because it’s a fusion of Battlefield and Final Destination. But there are some differences to note here, one is that platform is moving and the slant to the stage is smaller. The three biggest things that platform can do is let you get earlier kills, actually save you from getting gimped, and lets you platform abuse. Ike for one can ledge stall then aether onto the platform, heck you could be lucky and aether straight to the platform after being knocked off. The next thing is the earlier kills, I have killed soooo many people with my jab on this platform. Range from the 70~100% range due to weight and staleness. The boundaries are smaller than final destination and bigger than battlefield. Platform abuse is great since it can be unexpected and come just when you need it and lets you avoid projectile users a lot. It’s not prefect for avoid campers, since campers can pull off some camping at times, but it’s not prefect for camping since that platform is floating about.
I’ll give two warnings about this stage. A lot of Marths love this stage. The boundaries just happen to be perfect for him. So it may be smart to avoid them here, but still, it’s only a matter of being comfortable. If you do good on this stage, then don’t worry about it, if you don’t like this stage, avoid it. Just be warned Marths are pretty comfortable here.
You’re second warning is Pikachu. As the platform CAN help, but Pikachu is always wary about it and will abuse thunder while it’s not there. This is the closest stage to final destination therefore it’s the closest stage to being allowed to spam thunder.
Other than that, there isn’t much to say here. Random platform abuse will balance out random camping.
Characters recommended to avoid: Marth and Pikachu
Rest: Neutral
4. Lylat Cruise
Incoming! Star Trek invasion!
If you get bored from fighting, then this is a good stage for you. You can enjoy the scenic backgrounds instead of focusing on the scrub you’re battling. Or you can have an epic background for your showdown with your rival. Either way it works out. Lylat cruise is a unique stage which flips form neutral to counterpick. It tilts left to right, and has 3 platforms that are even lower than battlefield’s. Ike’s uair hitbox will surround the entire platform. I’d say a good platform abuse stage which prevents chain grabbing. Tilting will screw you over, when it tilts up and away from aether. So Aether earlier if you notice the stage is or will tilt. It has the same horizontal blasts zones of Battlefield, but an even higher ceiling. The bottom blast zone is very small therefore, one dair and their gone. Also the rising tilt will let you dtilt your foes better. Final note, be wary of the aether blast off glitch.
This stage is the perfect state for those who need PRECISE aiming to sweetspot the ledge. The spacies dread this stage. Fox and Falco hate it since they have to use their Up B instead of side B, because they’ll have to go onto the stage with side B, making it easier to punish since aiming for the ledge could be their stock due to tilting. Wolf just gets ***** here. He dreads this stage so much; it’s normally his banned stage. But it’s always a nice place to bring him too if you have the choice. Heck the tilting ruins their game projectile game against you. Falco loses everything he has on you in this stage, Fox’s usmash takes longer to kill you with, and Wolf can’t recover back without getting punished or missing the ledge. A prefect counterpick against them.
Other characters you might want to bring here might be DK and Bowser, with their bad vertical recovery, making it even easier to Dtilt them, the platforms are basically touching their head, so fairing above the platforms will still hit them easily. DDD is also great to being here because he CAN’T chain grab you effectively here. Which means he’ll have a harder time getting you off the stage. The tilit might force DDD to use his Up B leaving him to be punished by you by an aerial of your choice; uair being is the best one to pick.
One bad thing to note is that Pikachu does really well on this stage. His projectile is made for tilting and thunder can handle the high ceiling problem. In fact tilting can make the projectiles worse. But chain grabbing doesn’t work most of the time now. Bigger gaps between the platforms allows for easier thunder usage.
The 2nd bad thing to note, is that A and S class recoveries will have an easier time with the tilting if not no problem. ROB, MK, Kirby, Pit, the list goes on. Their recovery is too good for the stage to fight against. So Against those you need to be comfortable with the stage.
In general, this stage stops camping completely, therefore giving an edge to Ike. This stage is another battlefield basically, so Ike keeps a general advantage on this stage. If you love this stage and can work around the tilting most of the time, this stage will probably be better than battlefield since the state will fight with you instead of against you. Being comfortable is the most important thing to remember.
Characters you WANT to bring here: Falco, Wolf, Fox
Characters recommended to bring here: DDD, Projectile users
Characters to who will go even: Pikachu
Characters to be warned about: A and S class recoveries
Rest: Advantage
5. Frigate Orpheon
Umm what do I say here?
Frigate Orpheon is a unique stage that has two parts of it. The first part has a small flat surface with a platform above it while a giant platform is moving up and down on the right side. The ONLY reason this stage is ever considered bad for Ike is due to recovering on the right side of the stage. It is one of the stages that Ike will do overall bad on when exploited properly. Since Ike has one of the “horrible” recoveries, that people ALWAYS underestimate, it’s hard on him, BUT you can do the same against other people who lack a good recovery or they are tether based. But just remember, you suffer worse than they do, you have serious after lag in aether. But the last thing to note about this stage is when it flips over. The stage can do some nasty stuff and flip you below the stage if it hates you enough. Be warned.
Covering the 2nd part of the stage first, its more balanced and actually pretty good for you
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kinzer View Post
- Frigate Orpheon Second Stage.
At first sight, you will see that this stage has both ledges on the sides, and a dip in the middle along with a platform just a little bit above it. You can use the middle-dip to say...avoid Falco's lazer camp for example? Anyway like I said before you can use the middle to avoid any projectiles that go completely straight, and you can come from down-under if a dash-attack. I think he meant attack with dash attack after they fire their projectile
The platform is pretty good since you can reach over it and platform abuse. Basically apply your platform abuse games. But the other thing to note is the two platforms on the side.
**Quoted by someone Burrito Quoted**
the platforms that come at the sides can save you from some gimps. If your opponent is dumb enough to chase you there grab him and hold him a bit then do a B. throw so the platform can take him away. If you’re ahead on stocks you can just hold him and die together. Even so this stage is not good for Ike and the multiple jumpers will give you trouble.
**End Quote*
Now onto the first stage, let’s talk positive first. Anyone with a class B recovery or lower you CAN abuse how they have to recover onto the giant platform. Which means it’s forward smashing time. If you are good at exploiting this, then never ban this stage. It’s an awesome way to turn one of Ike’s bad stages against a person trying to CP him here. Just be warned; NEVER fight MK, Rob, Jiggypuff, Pit, or Kirby here. One their recovery is too good for this stage too affect them, two have too easy of a time edge guarding you. DDD is actually fightable here; you can exploit his recovery and also spike him thru the platform. In fact you can spike anyone thru the platform since your dair goes thru it, they just need to get under the platform, which in most cases is impractical unless you’re a multijumper, which you shouldn’t be fighting here.
So yea, if you’re fighting a tether based character, this is a good stage to bring them, just be warned about the 2ndaries the person you’re fighting has. It’ll seriously screw you over if they switch to someone with superior recovery. Best to only bring Ike to this stage if you are the one being CPed and the character your foe picked aren’t among the ones to avoid.
Oh and best combo ever:
Bthrow -> fsmash
**Courtesy of Umbreon for the combo**
This combo will work on those with lousy recovery
Characters to avoid: Metaknight, ROB, Jiggypuff, Pit, Kirby,
Characters recommended to avoid: DDD
Characters you’ll have the advantage against: Ivysaur, maybe ZZS, Link
Rest: Slight Disadvantage.
6. Yoshi's Island
Its a bit... fuzzy here.
(Forgive the stupid puns/moments)
The loveable (that’s a laugh) Yoshi’s Island has a new appearance in every single game. Seriously, why can’t other stages be like this and just get tweaked here and there. But noo, we have to make a whole new stage and leave the loved stages behind! Anyways, this stage is where the good blast off glitch was discovered! Hip hip!... boo! ~_~ So yea, Be careful recovering, like always, no diff. The platform is good and bad at the same time. Its quite fun to QD and aethering onto cause it will cause you to slide, unless its 180 degrees. Another quirk to this stage is the ghost! Seriously that ghost can save you from being gimped as well as prevent a gimp. But the ghost helps you MUCH MORE than others because your recovery is that bad. LEARN TO USE THE GHOST!! And to intercept people using the ghost. Oh you learn to hate peach here to.
This stage is small, very small. The smallest neutral stage, and probably the smallest legal stage ever. This stage is great for Ike in a sense he can’t get camped on this stage. It’s still possible to get chain grabbed but there are slants that will prevent it. The blastzones are different though. High ceiling is good for surviving vertical attacks, that means you have to use ftilt to kill. Also QDing onto the stage makes Ike yell out twice, funny that. He loves this stage so much he gives a 2nd cry of vanilla! Now I want some ice cream. Since this stage is all hearts and fruit, you won’t find any GRR… FIGHT FOR YOUR ICE CREAM!!!
Now I recommend having projectile users here. It’s harder to camp since they lack the space to camp you. And when they do get the space, you’re either off stage or the platform is in the way. Seriously, QD onto the platform to travel up it for fun. Oh and watch out for Tinkerbell’s dsmash. You’ll get sent to your dead zone and he’ll eat your ice cream. Can’t have that now can we.
Characters to bring here: -_- You are never gonna CP here, you will only play here cause it was random. If you CP here you like flowers too much and you're a fruit.
Luigi doesn't like fruit, he only eats vegetables, that's why he isn't fat like Mario and he's taller than his older brother. So bring him here and have him scare him and burn his veges!
Ike does well on this stage.
7. Castle Siege
ALL YOUR BASE BELONGS TO IKE
Welcome to Castle Siege. Our very main’s home stage! Luckily it provides some good battle strategies for us. This stage is a 3 part stage all in one! It’s like pokemon trainer BUT A STAGE! And each part resembles a pokemon from PT too!
Stage 1:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nidtendofreak View Post
Very small stage, but with blastzones a tad bigger then you would expect. Nice slants and platforms. It's kinda a combination of BF and Brinstar, with FD thrown in on the right side, and all shrunken down to about 2/3 the size.
The Squrtile stage. Very small and gimps people for kills. I was wrong, this stage is probably the most smallest legal stage ever! The slant makes this prefect for Ike against projectiles and in fact makes aethering very SAFE!!!!!!! Yes that’s right, using aether on the slant is a low risk, high reward tactic! Now only will you slide away, if you hit you give you foe 22% damage, sweetness! Platforms provide you excellent platform abuse game.
Stage 2:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nidtendofreak View Post
Don't bring D3 here. Just don't, unless you like chaingrabs. As in, you getting chaingrabbed. Falco's probably doesn't last long enough to worry much here. D3 and the IC's on the other hand.......ugh. Otherwise, this place is a nice anti-projectile zone. The statues have as much hp as those castle doors in FE9 it would seem. Bloody things took forever to take down, even with Boyd wielding a custom axe....anyways, the platforms are nice as well, but the banisters are too high to really take advantage of them, short of Aethering then sliding down to the other side. The side blastzones are close in, but there is a fairly high ceiling.
This imo is my favorite part of the stage. The Ivysaur part of the stage. It’s good for tethers, as it’s a walk off. It’s statues block projectiles and make hitboxes last much longer! Abuse those fsmashes and usmashes.. If you happen to be fighting a DDD, STAY ON THE PLATFORMS. Platform Camp until the stage changes. Hit DDD away if he tries to approach you. IC are iffy, but being gutsy won’t get you killed too much since their chain takes much more longer than DDD’s. Best part about this stage, you can’t get gimped ^_^
Stage 3:
The Charizard part of the stage. It’s the fiery hell’s pit. Who would have thought it was Ike’s basement? Well it’s mainly seen as FD that tilts, but IMO its Lylat that has no platforms. It tilts but not like lylat. It’s pretty basic here.
That said, D3 loves this stage for its temporary walk off. IC’s you have to be warned about too. Otherwise if it’s not those two, feel free to love this. Otherwise there is nothing much left to say about this stage. Just be comfortable here. You better cause its Ike’s home stage! My favorite part of the stage is that it changes. You need a good adaptive playstyle to utilize this stage properly. It’s pretty good against projectiles users. Lucario, I would say, loses a lot in this stage. He relies on AS not only to make you approach but also to gimp you. This stage seriously prevents that with the walk off and tilting part of the stage. Other characters aren’t as greatly affected.
Characters you want to bring here: Lucario
Characters you want to AVOID!: DDD
Characters that are recommended to avoid: IC
8. Rainbow Cruise
^Please don't mind the picture, you know you want to board that cruise too!
Rainbow Cruise! It’s a free cruise across a rainbow in mushroom kingdom! How sweet is that? Not very considering the pic above is very scary… Now this stage makes a battle a very air based battle. Fortuntally this stage comes down to how comfortable you are in the air for 70% of the brawl. The other 30% is the ship, which is the only place a ground game will normally work. Anyone who loves or relies on the ground more than the air will try to beat you on the ship quickly and throughly in order to make up for the **** they are gonna get on the air battle. People also don’t realize Ike doesn’t get gimped here ;o unless it’s a spike, but Ike can spike you too.
The ship:
This ship provides a wall infinite to Ike with a simple fthrow > jab > fthrow > jab > repeat. That’s the best way to make the ship part of the battle go by, or to make up for the air battle. Be careful not to get infinited yourself though, but the wall is short so maybe you can DI away. There are platforms in the middle so you can try to have fun with that but mostly it’s a battle for the ship. If fighting Olimar, stay AWAY from him, you do not want him ****** you in the ship. Just ride on it and then when the air battle comes start the brawl ^^
The rest of the Course:
In order to do good in this stage, you need to one, KNOW YOU RANGE, and 2nd, KNOW YOUR OPPONENTS RANGE. And after that know their mobility. Then 3rd, know how their projectiles move. Ike has an excellent air game since he has the 4th longest reach in any air battle. ZSS, Samus, and Link all can outrange Ike’s fair. Samus’s and Link’s zair are just **** against you in the air so don’t fight them here. Plus their projectiles will just annoy you to hell since they can go in directions you can’t block in the air. ZSS’s side B is not the fastest thing in the world, but if you try to get inside of her, she has much more faster aerials than you so don’t try to play her here due to the lack of speed AND range. Plus her up B can spike you to oblivion. Pit’s arrows might seem bad, but you have platforms protecting you for the most part. Pit does love the air too, but he’s in the air no matter where he is. At least now he has a harder time spamming his B and side B. And getting Mirror shield won’t actually hurt anymore. One last character to note is ROB. His aerials along with his ability to travel in the air is just gonna hurt you =\ But remember! Be comfortable! Not everyone likes it here ;o keep that as an advantage always. oh and G&W will do better on this stage since your ground game is important to beats him. But he loses his ground game as well and since your aerials outrange his don't fret.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Umbreon View Post
ike's air game on the other hand is amazing. you have a disjointed hitbox that goes through all of the platforms with half of his attacks, routinely forces campers to move, and the stage goes at a slow enough pace that ike can easily keep up with it. The only real issue I see is around the pendulum, when you can be gimped as is moves away from you.
ike is one of the few characters in this game that can do aerials without fear of losing the range/priority contest, doesn't have to worry about trades, and can space well enough not to get punished out of shield upon landing. I would say that makes his air game above average, particularly on a stage that forces you to jump and land elsewhere almost constantly. rather than being annoyed at jumping, you should play as aggressive as possible on this stage, since it's pretty much the hardest one to punish ike on for his opponents.
With that said, know when the pendulum disappears and you won’t get gimped by it. Umbreon explained why Ike does well on this stage. Simple because Ike has the range to compete in the air gives him the edge in this stage since there is no ground game to counter his air game. I recommend diddy since his banana game is squat here, but there are other places to bring diddy.
Characters to AVOID: Link, ZSS, Samus, MK (he needs no explanation)
Characters recommended to avoid: ROB
Characters to bring here: Olimar, PT (only If you can survive/he sucks with charizard)
Characters recommended to bring here: Diddy, other people whose game is ruin by having to move around and lack of a ground game.
9. Brinstar
Laval level rising, be warned!!
Brinstar and its rising lava haunt us today from the N64 days of smash. Being edited since its 64 days the melee version still exists now where we brawlers continue to brawl on it. The lava doesn’t really bother Ike since he lives for a good amount of damage. Just like Melee, the stuff holding the stage together will prolong your hitbox longer. This stage can be viewed as a battlefield with lava, prolonging hitbox thingies, smaller blastzones, and slanted floors. Aether sliding and a platform to aether onto makes aether sexy. Ike will be killing pretty early. However, you will also die quicker. You can spike thru lava while lava will also save you sometimes from being gimped. Also, you can always combo from lava to further the pain of your foe. BTW, abusing AD and spot dodge spammers with the gooey stuff to extend fsmash making it their worst nightmare.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Guilhe View Post
The main platform is traversable from underneath it, The Ike player could do a ledgehop Uair or Fair for pushing enemies away and then aim the Aether into a slant as a form of recovery. Enemies can abuse that as well, remember you can Dair them through the main platform.
Things to hate about this stage is, if you time a dair or nair perfectly that is destroys ALL of the gooey balls holding the stage together, you will FALL TO YOUR DEATH if the lava doesn’t save you. That’s about all you have to hate about this stage.
Now love the fact it’s harder to projectile spam on this stage.
This stage is also anti-Pikachu, (not as much as Luigi’s Mansion) But this is more legal than LM.
DK does really well on this stage. Down B covers almost the entire if not the entire floor. The gooey balls make down B last forever too. BE CAREFUL. But it’s not tough to deal with. Just tricky, you got to know the stage well enough to take on a DK here.
Snake also does amazing here. With the pitch darkness of the stage, Snake can easily hide his grenades and most importantly HIS C4 in the darkness. Making it hard to even keep track of it. Only those with supreme vision will be able to see the C4 in the darkness, or let alone find it.
G&W blends in with the dark if he is black. That’s all I’ll note about him.
Characters to bring here: Pikachu, projectile users, anyone you want actually.
Characters to be worried about: DK and Snake
Characters that will try to use vision mind games: G&W and Snake
Ike does really good on this stage.
10. Halberd
Do we really want to go on MK's air ship thingamajig(ROFL this is a real word)?
Halberd is a stage that goes through 2 scene changes. In the first 20 seconds of the brawl, the stage is in the starting position. It will start preparing for take off and the main platform will rise. Once the 20 seconds hit, it will launch and kill whoever was on the ground. So don't get stuck on it.
After that you'll be floating in the air on two platforms. The lower one is the main part of the stage in this session of the stage, however it is a platform like since you can go thru it from the bottom, but not from the top. This means QD is very ineffective from a ledge hop or just plain recovering since you'll have a higher chance of going THROUGH the stage and missing the ledge. Aether however can grab the ledge from inside the main platform, so you could be inside the ledge and still grab it. Nifty.
Afterwards, the stage will get tired and take a rest on the main ship. The stage then gets bigger and the ship might try to ward off the intruders on it. Even if its his captain on the ship lol. Silly Metaknight needs to work on his controls. Besides the point, there are 3 hazards to watch for. The bomb, the claw, and the LAZER! Both the bomb and the lazer are easily avoided. However the claw is moderately tough to avoid. It strikes fast so if you are in the middle of doing something you'll get hit. I can give stories on how I grabbed the person and then the claw came and hit me due to port priority and killed me. But w/e.
When fighting on the big stage, the smaller platform will remain while there is more room to run around. However the stage is solid so you can't go through it. Be careful too since you can't slide on the edges when aethering. So yea, go crazy lol. The small platform is close to the ground so easy pickings with your sword.
Characters that are excellent to bring here are those who have trouble killing vertically. Halberd has a notoriously low ceiling making it better for Ike who has usmash, uair, utilt, and eruption to kill vertically.
Characters bad to bring are those who are known to kill vertically. Aka, Olimar, Snake, and Fox. Now per say its not the end of the world when fighting these said characters, its just you have to be even more alert since you'll die faster than normal. Of course you still retain the advantage yourself so its evened out.
Pikachu's usmash > thunder will kill even earlier. Same with utilt > thunder, Sonic's spring to uair killers a bit earlier too. Luigi's FJP will be... deadly here. Do be careful.
Lucario is horrible when killing vertically, but his fsmash will hit through ledge when you are recovering. Keep that in mind. But his aura sphere will be harder to hit you with.
Last thing to keep in mind is how good are the characters are attacking from below the stage. Ike can simply dair/dtilt through the ledge to kill them however someone like Pit and MK with swords will be harder to dair/dtilt. But Pit and MK both have trouble killing vertically so use that to your advantage.
Characters bad to bring here: Fox, Snake, Olimar, Other vertical killers. MK since his sword is **** when attacking under the platform.
Characters good to bring here: Characters with bad vertical power, like Lucario.
11. Pokemon Stadium 2
Let the battle BEGIN!
Pokemon Stadium 2, one of my most favorite stages. This stage has 5 forms just like its former stadium 1, but with all new types! Stadium 1 has the 4 basic elements, fire, rock, water, grass. Only reason air wasn't in there because your three starters where fire, water, and grass and well rock was better to put in than flying since this is pokemon types. There is no wind type, wind moves go to flying.
Stadium 2 has new elements of ground, flying, electric, and ice. These elements are far more annoying than stadium one could ever imagine.
Neutral: This part of the stage is the normal part inbetween phases. Its just like stadium 1. Just play according until it changes.
Electric: This is usually deemed the worse part for Ike. Its not all bad, You can abuse the belts to actually approach with smashes then fall of the stage in ending lag. Or hit the foe and the belts take him farther away thus making fsmash less punishable. The platforms are also close to the ground so you can easily strike through them.
Ice: This is the slip & slide stage. Only Ice Climbers will not slide on this part. This can be very scary and intimidating for people facing on Ike. You don't want an fsmash coming at you. One mistake and you're a goner. Each move has its own name **Courtesy to Light** Such as Glacier Smash (sliding fsmash), Glacier cross chop (sliding ftilt), and Glacier BUNNY HOP (sliding utilt)! Sliding utilt is a true combo from grab release on certain foes as well as sliding ftilt angled up. There are platforms to abuse on this part too.
Ground: Diglet dig diglet dit! TRIO TRIO TRIO! (there is a dugtrio in this part) There is a wall infinite on the right side of the mini dirt mountain. There is a platform on the right side. That's about it.
Air: I'M FLYING!! Yes you are, you can easily chop people with uair since it lasts forever and people can't fast fall AD to avoid it anymore. Ike can't really get gimped here since he can easily float back, as everyone else, but Ike is a killer anyways. Nair is not advised to use since it has serious air time lag. You can now SH fair too (but its horrible lol) Last thing to note is that air will not affect RECOVERIES! So, Characters such as Pit and Pikachu can AND WILL up B to the stage when they are in the air and want to get back on the stage. And funny tidbit: Wario will die here if he farts and hits you with it lol.
There are no bad and good characters to bring here, as there is too much going on here for anyone to have a clear advantage. This stage is a completely PERSONAL PREFERENCE! Its chaotic here as well.
12. Luigi's Mansion
Now you know how WEEGEE Feels like...
Well, this is a rough stage for Ike. Not to say bad but too slow to use to the stage effectively. The only plus from this stage is living longer, but everyone else lives longer too. The worst part is, if you miss a tech you will probably end up being sent horizontally which means death. The lip on the stage is just stupid too.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kirk View Post
I sometimes CP this stage(as I've mentioned a few times in the past) against characters with projectiles and who primarily kill vertically. I've used this against Fox and Falco in the past with success(pillars block laser spamming/camping and the high ceiling limits UpSmash reliability).
Though I have made the unfortunate mistake of taking Olimar here for the same reasons above... xD It seemed like a good idea at the time...
Ike's got a silly Dthrow --> Jab deelie if your opponent doesn't DI or tech in between the two floors. Can be followed up with another grab or other stuffs. *shrug*
The pillars provide a barrier to a majority of projectiles. Pikmin and ROB's Laser still go through. Sadly.
CP here: Pikachu, vertical killers
Rest: Sucks
13. Jungle Japes
Cranky is in the house!!
This stage sucks... If you fall in the water you're screwed. If you fall on the right side, you better time your jump right, cause if you jump out wrong, you're ****ed. But anyways, you'll kill with ftilt and fsmash ridiculously early.
BAN THIS STAGE. ITS IKE'S WORSE STAGE.
CP here: Olimar
Because, apparently the water kills Olimar worse than us. I'd rather go Rainbow Crusie on his ***.
14. Corneria
15. Delfino Cruise
Don't you wish you're planking skills were broken like metaknights!
The whole purpose of this game is to beat Mewtwo in the end ;o
[sing]The pirate crew coming through, doing their thing! With the king of the pirates, HE'S GONNA BE KING![/sing]
I have drawn... AN OBJECTION!!
Yes I know its based off Melee but Corneria was in 64 still.
Incoming.
To know who to counterpick where without a description: Click here.
Well I thought we should learn the stages we play on to help further our ability to play and counterpick correctly. So basically this thread is all about discussing these main things: How does Ike do on this stage? What characters should you bring here? (If any) What characters should you avoid here? What are things to take advantage on this stage? What things hurt Ike on this stage? Then an overall is this stage good for Ike (factoring in everything)
Also I thought I should finally make a thread to help Ike >_>
1. Final Destination
For those wondering what they are saying: (MK: Let us fight! Ike: Prepare yourself! Kirby: Nya! Marth: FD again?...)
Final destination is one of the most common neutrals so you will have brawls on here. Therefore we should know about this stage and what is to come. At first, it’s an ideal stage for QD since there are no platforms to hide on. That would be effective in teams, but in singles it’s not effective at all. There is a high ceiling in Final Destination so Ike will survive better against vertical killers. Also, FD’s lips will destroy some character’s recovery when they get caught under it. Because of that, certain characters will have more predictable recoveries allowing you to punish it much more easily. FD also is pretty large, so you got a lot of room to abuse but it makes it harder to control at the same time. But the harder it is to control, the harder it is to be controlled, pick your choice. Of course our long ranged projectile happy users negate that controlling part of the stage as they will keep control much better than you if you can’t work your way around their projectile.
There are two reasons you would ever counterpick Final Destination. That my fellow Ikes is that you are facing a character that has very good platform abuse that will cause the platforms to hinder you more than help you OR you’re ground game does not get countered easily or only by aerials. If that is the case then Final Destination makes a good choice, but platform abuse will only come in play styles of you and your opponent. But platform abuse comes best with long disjointed range therefore, we will have near the best platform abusing abilities if not the best. Characters like G&W are better to fight without platforms since your ground game can’t be countered easily by G&W without his aerials meaning, you just need to counter G&W aerials which you can outrange with fair or counter.
Now Final Destination can lead to be your downfall when you come against a long ranged projectile user. I mention long ranged because short range, ex. Mario/Luigi’s fireball, is too short to make an impact on you. Granted they can get in the way, but it’s not hard to overcome them since they are not made to be camping projectiles. The WORST projectiles you’ll come across are tjolt/thunder [Pikachu] and laser [Falco]. ROB’s laser and gyro will also be a nuisance. Then you have Toon Link who can fire arrows then a boomerang/bomb on you. The real Link also will pose problems with his projectiles but his arrows don’t fly as far when uncharged. Also his zair will be coming your way. Samus will be a big pain here from her missiles and zair, and her zair is MUCH more annoying than Link’s. Pit’s arrows are more effective without platforms to protect you from the arrow circling AT, Pit’s arrows are still good enough on hitting you even if you are on a platform, but the platform still helps so avoid FD with Pit. Lucas’s PK fire/freeze will also prove to be an annoyance in this stage.
Then you have Snake, he counters your ground game AND has projectiles to mess you up. Grenades will blow up on contact so make sure you don’t use your moves wildly. But that’s not all, his Snake Dash is super effective on FD because it’s only one surface.
And then you have DDD and Yoshi. They are two chain grabbers on you. Final D is just good for that so it’s best to not play that stage against them because you’ll be giving lots of free damage away from one mistake. Yoshi’s isn’t as bad as DDD’s because DDD can edgeguard you well. Yoshi does not have that therefore it’s not as problematic but it is still free damage Yoshi gets on you.
Diddy has his best banana game against you here. You'd best avoid it but then again you'll face bananas no matter what. Platforms help in that situation though.
One final note is that Jigglypuff has rollout and when she recovers with it, you can get mind gamed in leaving yourself open since she can change directions once she hits the ground. You best bet to avoid it is to stand at the edge she is recovering at and be ready to either dtilt or counter. If you get hit it’s a heavy hit. Just be warned for those who have not played jiggs or can’t counter rollout effectively.
So in conclusion to this stage, it’s pretty much neutral against most characters. Just some happy campers will be happy campers here. [It’s a pun for those who don’t get it…](Fail)
Characters you WANT avoid on this stage: DDD, Pikachu, Diddy, Falco, Snake, ROB, Toon Link, Samus, Link, Pit, and Lucas
Characters that are recommended to avoid: Jigglypuff and Yoshi
Characters that are recommended to play here: G&W
Rest: Neutral
Overall Ike does decent on FD.
2. Battlefield
Battlefield, by far is one of Ike’s best stages there are. It’s small and has 3 platforms. This stage messes up a lot of projectile users making them lose their projectile’s effectiveness. Ike’s moveset has the most moves that can abuse platforms giving him one of the best platform abuse games. Ike can run off bair or fair from platforms, QD onto platforms for faster movement to utilt/run of aerial, fall thru platforms to bair or nair, usmash/utilt/fsmash/uair/aether/eruption to strike above platforms, and lastly you can fair to strike BELOW a platform (character height dependant). But that’s not all Ike has, Ike can also aether slide to the edge meaning, if someone is standing somewhat close to the edge, you can go way under the slant and aether and it will HIT them. It’s a good ledge tactic that keeps them away and makes it safe to ledge hop to quick draw. But also since the stage is SMALL, it’s even easier for Ike to control the stage. One of the best things to do is throw the person into the air so they are forced to land on the platforms.
This stage will be the best neutral to use against a campy character and play style or a character with a bad platform game. Pikachu by far is hindered here losing thunder spamability. Tjolt can be used but not as freely therefore making it more predictable. Toon Link doesn’t do well on battlefield as well, his projectiles aren’t good at striking below or above platforms thus allowing you to platform camp him. Link’s usmash can hit thru platforms otherwise it’s the same story with Link. Pit’s arrows can’t go thru platforms from above therefore they make a good shield from the arrow circling. Lucas’s usmash is something to be wary of but that leaves him open badly so it won’t be a viable tactic therefore platforms will help deal with PK fire/freeze. If you can throw Snake into the air, you can easily punish his landing lag on platforms and aether him pretty easily. Mines on the platform are something to keep an eye on though since they strike below platforms too. ROB’s usmash is the only to watch for from him. Mentioning anyone else will be redundant.
Olimar and Marth are probably the only two characters, that will go neutral with you here for stage control. Olimar has a great platform abuse game, not as many options as you, but it’s enough to not let Ike keep an advantage. Marth’s speed is the only thing that lets his platform game be as good as yours and the fact Marth an amazing move set to strike people above him.
I'll give a mention to DK who has a good platform game too. Run off bair, uair, and usmash. It's pretty good too but Ike has way more options than DK For DK to go even in stage control. Down B is even less effective with platforms to stay on but at the same time it covers more ground on the bottom floor.
Characters you WANT/recommended to avoid: NONE
Characters that go even with you: Olimar and Marth
Characters you WANT to bring here: Pikachu, Snake, Toon Link, Link, Pit, Samus, Lucario, and ROB
Rest: Advantage
3. Smashville
May Palutena Guide you!
Smashville is the most neutral stage ever made, mainly because it’s a fusion of Battlefield and Final Destination. But there are some differences to note here, one is that platform is moving and the slant to the stage is smaller. The three biggest things that platform can do is let you get earlier kills, actually save you from getting gimped, and lets you platform abuse. Ike for one can ledge stall then aether onto the platform, heck you could be lucky and aether straight to the platform after being knocked off. The next thing is the earlier kills, I have killed soooo many people with my jab on this platform. Range from the 70~100% range due to weight and staleness. The boundaries are smaller than final destination and bigger than battlefield. Platform abuse is great since it can be unexpected and come just when you need it and lets you avoid projectile users a lot. It’s not prefect for avoid campers, since campers can pull off some camping at times, but it’s not prefect for camping since that platform is floating about.
I’ll give two warnings about this stage. A lot of Marths love this stage. The boundaries just happen to be perfect for him. So it may be smart to avoid them here, but still, it’s only a matter of being comfortable. If you do good on this stage, then don’t worry about it, if you don’t like this stage, avoid it. Just be warned Marths are pretty comfortable here.
You’re second warning is Pikachu. As the platform CAN help, but Pikachu is always wary about it and will abuse thunder while it’s not there. This is the closest stage to final destination therefore it’s the closest stage to being allowed to spam thunder.
Other than that, there isn’t much to say here. Random platform abuse will balance out random camping.
Characters recommended to avoid: Marth and Pikachu
Rest: Neutral
4. Lylat Cruise
Incoming! Star Trek invasion!
If you get bored from fighting, then this is a good stage for you. You can enjoy the scenic backgrounds instead of focusing on the scrub you’re battling. Or you can have an epic background for your showdown with your rival. Either way it works out. Lylat cruise is a unique stage which flips form neutral to counterpick. It tilts left to right, and has 3 platforms that are even lower than battlefield’s. Ike’s uair hitbox will surround the entire platform. I’d say a good platform abuse stage which prevents chain grabbing. Tilting will screw you over, when it tilts up and away from aether. So Aether earlier if you notice the stage is or will tilt. It has the same horizontal blasts zones of Battlefield, but an even higher ceiling. The bottom blast zone is very small therefore, one dair and their gone. Also the rising tilt will let you dtilt your foes better. Final note, be wary of the aether blast off glitch.
This stage is the perfect state for those who need PRECISE aiming to sweetspot the ledge. The spacies dread this stage. Fox and Falco hate it since they have to use their Up B instead of side B, because they’ll have to go onto the stage with side B, making it easier to punish since aiming for the ledge could be their stock due to tilting. Wolf just gets ***** here. He dreads this stage so much; it’s normally his banned stage. But it’s always a nice place to bring him too if you have the choice. Heck the tilting ruins their game projectile game against you. Falco loses everything he has on you in this stage, Fox’s usmash takes longer to kill you with, and Wolf can’t recover back without getting punished or missing the ledge. A prefect counterpick against them.
Other characters you might want to bring here might be DK and Bowser, with their bad vertical recovery, making it even easier to Dtilt them, the platforms are basically touching their head, so fairing above the platforms will still hit them easily. DDD is also great to being here because he CAN’T chain grab you effectively here. Which means he’ll have a harder time getting you off the stage. The tilit might force DDD to use his Up B leaving him to be punished by you by an aerial of your choice; uair being is the best one to pick.
One bad thing to note is that Pikachu does really well on this stage. His projectile is made for tilting and thunder can handle the high ceiling problem. In fact tilting can make the projectiles worse. But chain grabbing doesn’t work most of the time now. Bigger gaps between the platforms allows for easier thunder usage.
The 2nd bad thing to note, is that A and S class recoveries will have an easier time with the tilting if not no problem. ROB, MK, Kirby, Pit, the list goes on. Their recovery is too good for the stage to fight against. So Against those you need to be comfortable with the stage.
In general, this stage stops camping completely, therefore giving an edge to Ike. This stage is another battlefield basically, so Ike keeps a general advantage on this stage. If you love this stage and can work around the tilting most of the time, this stage will probably be better than battlefield since the state will fight with you instead of against you. Being comfortable is the most important thing to remember.
Characters you WANT to bring here: Falco, Wolf, Fox
Characters recommended to bring here: DDD, Projectile users
Characters to who will go even: Pikachu
Characters to be warned about: A and S class recoveries
Rest: Advantage
5. Frigate Orpheon
Umm what do I say here?
Frigate Orpheon is a unique stage that has two parts of it. The first part has a small flat surface with a platform above it while a giant platform is moving up and down on the right side. The ONLY reason this stage is ever considered bad for Ike is due to recovering on the right side of the stage. It is one of the stages that Ike will do overall bad on when exploited properly. Since Ike has one of the “horrible” recoveries, that people ALWAYS underestimate, it’s hard on him, BUT you can do the same against other people who lack a good recovery or they are tether based. But just remember, you suffer worse than they do, you have serious after lag in aether. But the last thing to note about this stage is when it flips over. The stage can do some nasty stuff and flip you below the stage if it hates you enough. Be warned.
Covering the 2nd part of the stage first, its more balanced and actually pretty good for you
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kinzer View Post
- Frigate Orpheon Second Stage.
At first sight, you will see that this stage has both ledges on the sides, and a dip in the middle along with a platform just a little bit above it. You can use the middle-dip to say...avoid Falco's lazer camp for example? Anyway like I said before you can use the middle to avoid any projectiles that go completely straight, and you can come from down-under if a dash-attack. I think he meant attack with dash attack after they fire their projectile
The platform is pretty good since you can reach over it and platform abuse. Basically apply your platform abuse games. But the other thing to note is the two platforms on the side.
**Quoted by someone Burrito Quoted**
the platforms that come at the sides can save you from some gimps. If your opponent is dumb enough to chase you there grab him and hold him a bit then do a B. throw so the platform can take him away. If you’re ahead on stocks you can just hold him and die together. Even so this stage is not good for Ike and the multiple jumpers will give you trouble.
**End Quote*
Now onto the first stage, let’s talk positive first. Anyone with a class B recovery or lower you CAN abuse how they have to recover onto the giant platform. Which means it’s forward smashing time. If you are good at exploiting this, then never ban this stage. It’s an awesome way to turn one of Ike’s bad stages against a person trying to CP him here. Just be warned; NEVER fight MK, Rob, Jiggypuff, Pit, or Kirby here. One their recovery is too good for this stage too affect them, two have too easy of a time edge guarding you. DDD is actually fightable here; you can exploit his recovery and also spike him thru the platform. In fact you can spike anyone thru the platform since your dair goes thru it, they just need to get under the platform, which in most cases is impractical unless you’re a multijumper, which you shouldn’t be fighting here.
So yea, if you’re fighting a tether based character, this is a good stage to bring them, just be warned about the 2ndaries the person you’re fighting has. It’ll seriously screw you over if they switch to someone with superior recovery. Best to only bring Ike to this stage if you are the one being CPed and the character your foe picked aren’t among the ones to avoid.
Oh and best combo ever:
Bthrow -> fsmash
**Courtesy of Umbreon for the combo**
This combo will work on those with lousy recovery
Characters to avoid: Metaknight, ROB, Jiggypuff, Pit, Kirby,
Characters recommended to avoid: DDD
Characters you’ll have the advantage against: Ivysaur, maybe ZZS, Link
Rest: Slight Disadvantage.
6. Yoshi's Island
Its a bit... fuzzy here.
(Forgive the stupid puns/moments)
The loveable (that’s a laugh) Yoshi’s Island has a new appearance in every single game. Seriously, why can’t other stages be like this and just get tweaked here and there. But noo, we have to make a whole new stage and leave the loved stages behind! Anyways, this stage is where the good blast off glitch was discovered! Hip hip!... boo! ~_~ So yea, Be careful recovering, like always, no diff. The platform is good and bad at the same time. Its quite fun to QD and aethering onto cause it will cause you to slide, unless its 180 degrees. Another quirk to this stage is the ghost! Seriously that ghost can save you from being gimped as well as prevent a gimp. But the ghost helps you MUCH MORE than others because your recovery is that bad. LEARN TO USE THE GHOST!! And to intercept people using the ghost. Oh you learn to hate peach here to.
This stage is small, very small. The smallest neutral stage, and probably the smallest legal stage ever. This stage is great for Ike in a sense he can’t get camped on this stage. It’s still possible to get chain grabbed but there are slants that will prevent it. The blastzones are different though. High ceiling is good for surviving vertical attacks, that means you have to use ftilt to kill. Also QDing onto the stage makes Ike yell out twice, funny that. He loves this stage so much he gives a 2nd cry of vanilla! Now I want some ice cream. Since this stage is all hearts and fruit, you won’t find any GRR… FIGHT FOR YOUR ICE CREAM!!!
Now I recommend having projectile users here. It’s harder to camp since they lack the space to camp you. And when they do get the space, you’re either off stage or the platform is in the way. Seriously, QD onto the platform to travel up it for fun. Oh and watch out for Tinkerbell’s dsmash. You’ll get sent to your dead zone and he’ll eat your ice cream. Can’t have that now can we.
Characters to bring here: -_- You are never gonna CP here, you will only play here cause it was random. If you CP here you like flowers too much and you're a fruit.
Luigi doesn't like fruit, he only eats vegetables, that's why he isn't fat like Mario and he's taller than his older brother. So bring him here and have him scare him and burn his veges!
Ike does well on this stage.
7. Castle Siege
ALL YOUR BASE BELONGS TO IKE
Welcome to Castle Siege. Our very main’s home stage! Luckily it provides some good battle strategies for us. This stage is a 3 part stage all in one! It’s like pokemon trainer BUT A STAGE! And each part resembles a pokemon from PT too!
Stage 1:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nidtendofreak View Post
Very small stage, but with blastzones a tad bigger then you would expect. Nice slants and platforms. It's kinda a combination of BF and Brinstar, with FD thrown in on the right side, and all shrunken down to about 2/3 the size.
The Squrtile stage. Very small and gimps people for kills. I was wrong, this stage is probably the most smallest legal stage ever! The slant makes this prefect for Ike against projectiles and in fact makes aethering very SAFE!!!!!!! Yes that’s right, using aether on the slant is a low risk, high reward tactic! Now only will you slide away, if you hit you give you foe 22% damage, sweetness! Platforms provide you excellent platform abuse game.
Stage 2:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nidtendofreak View Post
Don't bring D3 here. Just don't, unless you like chaingrabs. As in, you getting chaingrabbed. Falco's probably doesn't last long enough to worry much here. D3 and the IC's on the other hand.......ugh. Otherwise, this place is a nice anti-projectile zone. The statues have as much hp as those castle doors in FE9 it would seem. Bloody things took forever to take down, even with Boyd wielding a custom axe....anyways, the platforms are nice as well, but the banisters are too high to really take advantage of them, short of Aethering then sliding down to the other side. The side blastzones are close in, but there is a fairly high ceiling.
This imo is my favorite part of the stage. The Ivysaur part of the stage. It’s good for tethers, as it’s a walk off. It’s statues block projectiles and make hitboxes last much longer! Abuse those fsmashes and usmashes.. If you happen to be fighting a DDD, STAY ON THE PLATFORMS. Platform Camp until the stage changes. Hit DDD away if he tries to approach you. IC are iffy, but being gutsy won’t get you killed too much since their chain takes much more longer than DDD’s. Best part about this stage, you can’t get gimped ^_^
Stage 3:
The Charizard part of the stage. It’s the fiery hell’s pit. Who would have thought it was Ike’s basement? Well it’s mainly seen as FD that tilts, but IMO its Lylat that has no platforms. It tilts but not like lylat. It’s pretty basic here.
That said, D3 loves this stage for its temporary walk off. IC’s you have to be warned about too. Otherwise if it’s not those two, feel free to love this. Otherwise there is nothing much left to say about this stage. Just be comfortable here. You better cause its Ike’s home stage! My favorite part of the stage is that it changes. You need a good adaptive playstyle to utilize this stage properly. It’s pretty good against projectiles users. Lucario, I would say, loses a lot in this stage. He relies on AS not only to make you approach but also to gimp you. This stage seriously prevents that with the walk off and tilting part of the stage. Other characters aren’t as greatly affected.
Characters you want to bring here: Lucario
Characters you want to AVOID!: DDD
Characters that are recommended to avoid: IC
8. Rainbow Cruise
^Please don't mind the picture, you know you want to board that cruise too!
Rainbow Cruise! It’s a free cruise across a rainbow in mushroom kingdom! How sweet is that? Not very considering the pic above is very scary… Now this stage makes a battle a very air based battle. Fortuntally this stage comes down to how comfortable you are in the air for 70% of the brawl. The other 30% is the ship, which is the only place a ground game will normally work. Anyone who loves or relies on the ground more than the air will try to beat you on the ship quickly and throughly in order to make up for the **** they are gonna get on the air battle. People also don’t realize Ike doesn’t get gimped here ;o unless it’s a spike, but Ike can spike you too.
The ship:
This ship provides a wall infinite to Ike with a simple fthrow > jab > fthrow > jab > repeat. That’s the best way to make the ship part of the battle go by, or to make up for the air battle. Be careful not to get infinited yourself though, but the wall is short so maybe you can DI away. There are platforms in the middle so you can try to have fun with that but mostly it’s a battle for the ship. If fighting Olimar, stay AWAY from him, you do not want him ****** you in the ship. Just ride on it and then when the air battle comes start the brawl ^^
The rest of the Course:
In order to do good in this stage, you need to one, KNOW YOU RANGE, and 2nd, KNOW YOUR OPPONENTS RANGE. And after that know their mobility. Then 3rd, know how their projectiles move. Ike has an excellent air game since he has the 4th longest reach in any air battle. ZSS, Samus, and Link all can outrange Ike’s fair. Samus’s and Link’s zair are just **** against you in the air so don’t fight them here. Plus their projectiles will just annoy you to hell since they can go in directions you can’t block in the air. ZSS’s side B is not the fastest thing in the world, but if you try to get inside of her, she has much more faster aerials than you so don’t try to play her here due to the lack of speed AND range. Plus her up B can spike you to oblivion. Pit’s arrows might seem bad, but you have platforms protecting you for the most part. Pit does love the air too, but he’s in the air no matter where he is. At least now he has a harder time spamming his B and side B. And getting Mirror shield won’t actually hurt anymore. One last character to note is ROB. His aerials along with his ability to travel in the air is just gonna hurt you =\ But remember! Be comfortable! Not everyone likes it here ;o keep that as an advantage always. oh and G&W will do better on this stage since your ground game is important to beats him. But he loses his ground game as well and since your aerials outrange his don't fret.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Umbreon View Post
ike's air game on the other hand is amazing. you have a disjointed hitbox that goes through all of the platforms with half of his attacks, routinely forces campers to move, and the stage goes at a slow enough pace that ike can easily keep up with it. The only real issue I see is around the pendulum, when you can be gimped as is moves away from you.
ike is one of the few characters in this game that can do aerials without fear of losing the range/priority contest, doesn't have to worry about trades, and can space well enough not to get punished out of shield upon landing. I would say that makes his air game above average, particularly on a stage that forces you to jump and land elsewhere almost constantly. rather than being annoyed at jumping, you should play as aggressive as possible on this stage, since it's pretty much the hardest one to punish ike on for his opponents.
With that said, know when the pendulum disappears and you won’t get gimped by it. Umbreon explained why Ike does well on this stage. Simple because Ike has the range to compete in the air gives him the edge in this stage since there is no ground game to counter his air game. I recommend diddy since his banana game is squat here, but there are other places to bring diddy.
Characters to AVOID: Link, ZSS, Samus, MK (he needs no explanation)
Characters recommended to avoid: ROB
Characters to bring here: Olimar, PT (only If you can survive/he sucks with charizard)
Characters recommended to bring here: Diddy, other people whose game is ruin by having to move around and lack of a ground game.
9. Brinstar
Laval level rising, be warned!!
Brinstar and its rising lava haunt us today from the N64 days of smash. Being edited since its 64 days the melee version still exists now where we brawlers continue to brawl on it. The lava doesn’t really bother Ike since he lives for a good amount of damage. Just like Melee, the stuff holding the stage together will prolong your hitbox longer. This stage can be viewed as a battlefield with lava, prolonging hitbox thingies, smaller blastzones, and slanted floors. Aether sliding and a platform to aether onto makes aether sexy. Ike will be killing pretty early. However, you will also die quicker. You can spike thru lava while lava will also save you sometimes from being gimped. Also, you can always combo from lava to further the pain of your foe. BTW, abusing AD and spot dodge spammers with the gooey stuff to extend fsmash making it their worst nightmare.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Guilhe View Post
The main platform is traversable from underneath it, The Ike player could do a ledgehop Uair or Fair for pushing enemies away and then aim the Aether into a slant as a form of recovery. Enemies can abuse that as well, remember you can Dair them through the main platform.
Things to hate about this stage is, if you time a dair or nair perfectly that is destroys ALL of the gooey balls holding the stage together, you will FALL TO YOUR DEATH if the lava doesn’t save you. That’s about all you have to hate about this stage.
Now love the fact it’s harder to projectile spam on this stage.
This stage is also anti-Pikachu, (not as much as Luigi’s Mansion) But this is more legal than LM.
DK does really well on this stage. Down B covers almost the entire if not the entire floor. The gooey balls make down B last forever too. BE CAREFUL. But it’s not tough to deal with. Just tricky, you got to know the stage well enough to take on a DK here.
Snake also does amazing here. With the pitch darkness of the stage, Snake can easily hide his grenades and most importantly HIS C4 in the darkness. Making it hard to even keep track of it. Only those with supreme vision will be able to see the C4 in the darkness, or let alone find it.
G&W blends in with the dark if he is black. That’s all I’ll note about him.
Characters to bring here: Pikachu, projectile users, anyone you want actually.
Characters to be worried about: DK and Snake
Characters that will try to use vision mind games: G&W and Snake
Ike does really good on this stage.
10. Halberd
Do we really want to go on MK's air ship thingamajig(ROFL this is a real word)?
Halberd is a stage that goes through 2 scene changes. In the first 20 seconds of the brawl, the stage is in the starting position. It will start preparing for take off and the main platform will rise. Once the 20 seconds hit, it will launch and kill whoever was on the ground. So don't get stuck on it.
After that you'll be floating in the air on two platforms. The lower one is the main part of the stage in this session of the stage, however it is a platform like since you can go thru it from the bottom, but not from the top. This means QD is very ineffective from a ledge hop or just plain recovering since you'll have a higher chance of going THROUGH the stage and missing the ledge. Aether however can grab the ledge from inside the main platform, so you could be inside the ledge and still grab it. Nifty.
Afterwards, the stage will get tired and take a rest on the main ship. The stage then gets bigger and the ship might try to ward off the intruders on it. Even if its his captain on the ship lol. Silly Metaknight needs to work on his controls. Besides the point, there are 3 hazards to watch for. The bomb, the claw, and the LAZER! Both the bomb and the lazer are easily avoided. However the claw is moderately tough to avoid. It strikes fast so if you are in the middle of doing something you'll get hit. I can give stories on how I grabbed the person and then the claw came and hit me due to port priority and killed me. But w/e.
When fighting on the big stage, the smaller platform will remain while there is more room to run around. However the stage is solid so you can't go through it. Be careful too since you can't slide on the edges when aethering. So yea, go crazy lol. The small platform is close to the ground so easy pickings with your sword.
Characters that are excellent to bring here are those who have trouble killing vertically. Halberd has a notoriously low ceiling making it better for Ike who has usmash, uair, utilt, and eruption to kill vertically.
Characters bad to bring are those who are known to kill vertically. Aka, Olimar, Snake, and Fox. Now per say its not the end of the world when fighting these said characters, its just you have to be even more alert since you'll die faster than normal. Of course you still retain the advantage yourself so its evened out.
Pikachu's usmash > thunder will kill even earlier. Same with utilt > thunder, Sonic's spring to uair killers a bit earlier too. Luigi's FJP will be... deadly here. Do be careful.
Lucario is horrible when killing vertically, but his fsmash will hit through ledge when you are recovering. Keep that in mind. But his aura sphere will be harder to hit you with.
Last thing to keep in mind is how good are the characters are attacking from below the stage. Ike can simply dair/dtilt through the ledge to kill them however someone like Pit and MK with swords will be harder to dair/dtilt. But Pit and MK both have trouble killing vertically so use that to your advantage.
Characters bad to bring here: Fox, Snake, Olimar, Other vertical killers. MK since his sword is **** when attacking under the platform.
Characters good to bring here: Characters with bad vertical power, like Lucario.
11. Pokemon Stadium 2
Let the battle BEGIN!
Pokemon Stadium 2, one of my most favorite stages. This stage has 5 forms just like its former stadium 1, but with all new types! Stadium 1 has the 4 basic elements, fire, rock, water, grass. Only reason air wasn't in there because your three starters where fire, water, and grass and well rock was better to put in than flying since this is pokemon types. There is no wind type, wind moves go to flying.
Stadium 2 has new elements of ground, flying, electric, and ice. These elements are far more annoying than stadium one could ever imagine.
Neutral: This part of the stage is the normal part inbetween phases. Its just like stadium 1. Just play according until it changes.
Electric: This is usually deemed the worse part for Ike. Its not all bad, You can abuse the belts to actually approach with smashes then fall of the stage in ending lag. Or hit the foe and the belts take him farther away thus making fsmash less punishable. The platforms are also close to the ground so you can easily strike through them.
Ice: This is the slip & slide stage. Only Ice Climbers will not slide on this part. This can be very scary and intimidating for people facing on Ike. You don't want an fsmash coming at you. One mistake and you're a goner. Each move has its own name **Courtesy to Light** Such as Glacier Smash (sliding fsmash), Glacier cross chop (sliding ftilt), and Glacier BUNNY HOP (sliding utilt)! Sliding utilt is a true combo from grab release on certain foes as well as sliding ftilt angled up. There are platforms to abuse on this part too.
Ground: Diglet dig diglet dit! TRIO TRIO TRIO! (there is a dugtrio in this part) There is a wall infinite on the right side of the mini dirt mountain. There is a platform on the right side. That's about it.
Air: I'M FLYING!! Yes you are, you can easily chop people with uair since it lasts forever and people can't fast fall AD to avoid it anymore. Ike can't really get gimped here since he can easily float back, as everyone else, but Ike is a killer anyways. Nair is not advised to use since it has serious air time lag. You can now SH fair too (but its horrible lol) Last thing to note is that air will not affect RECOVERIES! So, Characters such as Pit and Pikachu can AND WILL up B to the stage when they are in the air and want to get back on the stage. And funny tidbit: Wario will die here if he farts and hits you with it lol.
There are no bad and good characters to bring here, as there is too much going on here for anyone to have a clear advantage. This stage is a completely PERSONAL PREFERENCE! Its chaotic here as well.
12. Luigi's Mansion
Now you know how WEEGEE Feels like...
Well, this is a rough stage for Ike. Not to say bad but too slow to use to the stage effectively. The only plus from this stage is living longer, but everyone else lives longer too. The worst part is, if you miss a tech you will probably end up being sent horizontally which means death. The lip on the stage is just stupid too.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kirk View Post
I sometimes CP this stage(as I've mentioned a few times in the past) against characters with projectiles and who primarily kill vertically. I've used this against Fox and Falco in the past with success(pillars block laser spamming/camping and the high ceiling limits UpSmash reliability).
Though I have made the unfortunate mistake of taking Olimar here for the same reasons above... xD It seemed like a good idea at the time...
Ike's got a silly Dthrow --> Jab deelie if your opponent doesn't DI or tech in between the two floors. Can be followed up with another grab or other stuffs. *shrug*
The pillars provide a barrier to a majority of projectiles. Pikmin and ROB's Laser still go through. Sadly.
CP here: Pikachu, vertical killers
Rest: Sucks
13. Jungle Japes
Cranky is in the house!!
This stage sucks... If you fall in the water you're screwed. If you fall on the right side, you better time your jump right, cause if you jump out wrong, you're ****ed. But anyways, you'll kill with ftilt and fsmash ridiculously early.
BAN THIS STAGE. ITS IKE'S WORSE STAGE.
CP here: Olimar
Because, apparently the water kills Olimar worse than us. I'd rather go Rainbow Crusie on his ***.
14. Corneria
15. Delfino Cruise
Don't you wish you're planking skills were broken like metaknights!
The whole purpose of this game is to beat Mewtwo in the end ;o
[sing]The pirate crew coming through, doing their thing! With the king of the pirates, HE'S GONNA BE KING![/sing]
I have drawn... AN OBJECTION!!
Yes I know its based off Melee but Corneria was in 64 still.
Incoming.
