Is anybody else appalled by the weak stage selection?

[staindgrey]

I suppose the OP has a fair point. I never noticed it because I rarely play most of the stages available in Smash; I pick my few favorites, then pretty much only pick those. Anything with an annoying hazard quickly becomes an avoided stage for me.

I probably couldn't name every stage in Brawl or Melee without looking them up.

 

[SmashChu]

I totally agree OP. The worst was Starfox and Metroid not having a new stage when both of those series have good handheld games to draw from (Metroid has quite a bit actually).

 

[Amazing Ampharos]

Tortimer's Island is legal and Boxing Ring isn't? No. Just no.

Boxing Ring is on instant inspection one of the worst stages in smash history. It's not just the walk-offs (though they are a thing). The grounded structure is basically pure camping; those nooks off to the side of the arena are extremely difficult to approach, and the way the ropes work in general makes approaching an intelligent disjointed hitbox user very difficult. Even if we were willing to tolerate a double walk-off with a terrible lay-out on the ground, the lights just make it insta-ban. Not only does having such a high platform make Kirby's up throw (and similar uthrows) completely broken from the ground level, but you are really not going to be able to approach someone camping the lights in most match-ups. The guy up there using the better zoning character will just swat your not so great at jumping character as you try in futility to get up, especially since most characters need to use the ropes to make that jump which makes your approach direction hilariously predictable. Just to make sure the stage isn't even playable in teams, if the lights get hit enough they become a crazy powerful stage nuking hazard that would be easy to deal with in singles but not in teams. When I played the Best Buy demo, people kept picking this stage, and I truly had no idea why since this stage would seem to have no merit whatsoever at any level of play.

Tortimer's Island has... nothing obviously wrong with it? We've discussed it at length already in this thread; it's really tame. Do you have any specific problems with it?

 

[JamietheAuraUser]

I don't believe the stage selection is completely horrible, but it is lacking in exciting new stages. I do wonder exactly how many stages they can add on the small 3ds cart when you consider all the info just the characters take up (and the custom move set you can add) and all the music too. The returning stages are rather bland and boring, they could have chosen a few better options. I also agree with everyone else that mentions WAY TO MUCH MARIO. (and I like Mario)

I'm sure we haven't actually seen all of them yet though. I'd be surprised if there aren't at least 5 stages we don't know anything about yet.

3DS carts really aren't all that small. I don't remember the exact capacity, but it was something to the effect of: "You could fit Brawl on there. Twice."

As for Boxing Ring, I think the stage looks pretty fun for casual play (Villager camping everyday), but it's clearly terrible for competitive. Incidentally, it's also a terrible stage for Little Mac, surprisingly enough considering it's his home stage.

 

[KawaiiPiranha]

I'd definitely be more disappointed if my hopes weren't already set lower for the 3DS version.
In my mind, the 3DS version is just the demo for the Wii U version. I know that isn't true, but that's how my mind is interpenetrating the whole thing.

 

[kaliskonig]

All I know is that the Wii U version had better not only have 35 stages and as little modes as the 3DS version. Bad enough we likely got the Ice Climbers cut because the 3DS version. God I hope the Wii U and New 3DS gets a huge expansion like 2 years from now.

 

[Donkey_Inferno]

To be honest I'm a little dissapointed with the stage selection for 3ds but it's not to bad. Yeah the amount of comeback levels is a little high IMO and it's kinda lame that they are the only stages to represent their series. But I think the brand new 3ds exclusive stages make up for it.

 

[Malkior7]

I think it needs to be kept in mind that 3DS cartridges can't hold as much as a disc can and given all the content the 3DS version has space for stages was probably limited.

Also given that the roster in the leak was unfinished it isn't wrong to think the stage roster isn't finished either (and it was proven to be finished that I can recall)

 

[wingedarcher7]

I feel like I should be disappointed, but then I end up coming to terms with myself and realizing that I'm honestly going to be spending nearly all my time on Legal stages like Final Destination, Battlefield, and Prism Tower where most other stages are going to be illegal, such as all those scrolling Mario ones, so I guess it actually doesn't matter to me all that much.

 

[.:~*Momo*~:.]

I like a few of the new stages, but I do wish the returning stages were... better. I've always hated Jungle Japes, Brinstar, Green Hill Zone, Mushroomy Kingdom (Above Ground), and Distant Planet. If they all get FD variations then fine but if not then bleh... honestly I'd rather just have less stages than to have any of these make a return just so that if I play online or something I won't have to go through with playing on these... :\

 

[JamietheAuraUser]

I like a few of the new stages, but I do wish the returning stages were... better. I've always hated Jungle Japes, Brinstar, Green Hill Zone, Mushroomy Kingdom (Above Ground), and Distant Planet. If they all get FD variations then fine but if not then bleh... honestly I'd rather just have less stages than to have any of these make a return just so that if I play online or something I won't have to go through with playing on these... :\

Distant Planet I'm cool with, and Brinstar is alright but Brinstar Depths would've been amazing. Jungle Japes annoys me because it's way too dark and because they keep bringing it back instead of Kongo Jungle (Melee). Mushroomy Kingdom is legit the worst because the layout is annoying and the very concept just seems kinda grimdark for Mario. Green Hill Zone is terrible because the stage layout is just stupid, so it basically boils down to camping the edges since they have the only flat ground and stringing attacks until you push the foe over the blast line. Plus, the stage's hurtboxes interfere with projectiles as well as just about any attempt at ground-based combat, especially when your foe is on the slope above you since many UTilts and USmashes also happen to hit in front. Ending up in hitlag even when you miss = guaranteed punish.

 

[Senario]

All i wanted is more neutral stages with less hazards and walk offs but for 3ds I am a little unimpressed with the stage list. Hopefully you can turn off stage bosses so the megaman stage becomes good again and not annoying.

 

[KingBroly]

They're disappointing sure, but I'm not appauled or offended by any means. The stage diversity between the two versions is obviously the cause of this, in addition to the Omega versions of a lot of stages. Something had to give.

I'm honestly more disappointed in the Wii U stages, which seem to lack any kind of creative spark and seem to be built more for the Tournament scene.

 

[WrappedInBlack]

There are two smash games in dev at the same time for the first time ever... so anyone who didn't expect something like this... well, you know... and my answer is no, I'm not applauded... I'm getting both versions so... yeah... deals withs its.

 

[WwwWario]

To be fair, Wario never got any Wario Land representation in Brawl either. Sakurai must have a thing against Wario Land if he's only using WarioWare references.

You're right. And that annoys me. I feel that Wario Land is where Wario belongs. That is his original series. That's where we really see the true, greedy treasure hunter in him. Wario Ware is basically a minigame-series where you could put just anyone as a main character.

 

[MissingNumbers]

You're right. And that annoys me. I feel that Wario Land is where Wario belongs. That is his original series. That's where we really see the true, greedy treasure hunter in him. Wario Ware is basically a minigame-series where you could put just anyone as a main character.

Let's avoid any Land v Ware arguments in this topic, I feel like that'd be wise.

As for the stage selection... I'm probably the only one pleased so far. A lot of them have plenty of unique features and touches, although honestly I'm probably the only one in the history of ever that remotely had fun with Mushroomy Kingdom. Green Hill is fine-ish apart from the breaking floor and lamp post, but as for the unique stages in-game sans Boxing Ring, I feel like I'll have fair fun with them.

 

[D-idara]

How could I be dissapointed with a Stage selection that has Reset Bomb Forest, Rainbow Road 7, 3D Land, Arena Ferox, Paper Mario, Tortimer's Island (With sweet Kapp'n's Song Remix!) and N's Castle? Those are some major locations, I AM a little pissed at some franchises getting past stages to fill the gap, but at least we're getting the best Melee stage, Brinstar, back...seriously, that stage's amazing.

I hate for this to be my first post, but... seriously? As far as Sonic goes there are no really iconic handheld stages. They're just watered down versions of archetypal Sonic stages. Seriously, one of them is even called Green HillS.

What exactly should they be incorporating here?

Water Palace, Chaos Angel, Toy Land, Route 99, Coral Cave.

 

[TeaTwoTime]

I love the stage list. Then again, it's difficult to disappoint me after all of the incredible content Smash 4 has shown thus far. There are plenty of stages I'm excited for and being able to play FD versions of different stages just seals the deal for me.

 

[Thessbmzocker]

3DS carts really aren't all that small. I don't remember the exact capacity, but it was something to the effect of: "You could fit Brawl on there. Twice."

The size of a 3ds cart can be 8gb. Brawl had around 7.47gb. So you couldn't put it twice on a cart but once no problem.
The current known size of Smash 3ds seems to be 2gb... there's plenty of room left...

 

[MegaBowserDuck]

Sakurai has put a lot of work into this game. While I can see your point, I still think the stages for the most part are great. I dislike scrolling levels, but more stages are to be shown. I agree and disagree.

 

[L9999]

The fact that we have 3 scrolling stages that are all Mario makes me wanna go vomit.

F*** Mario. Seriouly, that cash cow has to die. Of all the friggin stages they could brought back why Brinstar and Jungle Japes?! The music is cool, but the stages are annoying and cheap. Why not Fountain of Dreams?! 99% of the human population like that stage, and 1% like Brinstar. Why not Yoshi's Story?! Dreamland 64?! Hyrule Castle?! Those are far more liked stages. They better be DLC. Free DLC.

 

[Pazzo.]

:nah:

I'm perfectly fine with it as is. But that's just me, as I understand the concern. Carry on.

 

[Wanderer from Roseyard]

I'm not disappointed because this is what I thought would happen ever since it was announced there were two versions of the game.

Brawl introduced 29 new stages (not counting past stages, BF or FD). If they put in a similar effort, 29 stages are going to be meted out to two different games, and there is no way they're going to reach nearly 60 new stages just so each version matches Brawl.

New stages would either suffer in quantity or quality; it was inevitable. I'm glad quantity is what's ailing.

 

[SuperEpicClay]

This is pretty much directly in line with my expectations in terms of content selection, and more of the stages look to be high quality competitive stages than I expected at the start. Smash 4 will definitely have more new stages than Brawl; they're just divided between two versions, and it really should have been obvious that's how it was going to be from the very start (to be very clear, if there were only one version of smash 4, I think it would have had around 50 stages so we get more total stages this way just not double). How could I possibly be disappointed?

Either way, I feel confident we can easily reach good, double digit numbers of legal stages with this even making the more stubborn people happy, and we have a huge diversity too. Like here's my running tabs on stage legality:

Strongly legal:

Battlefield
Final Destination
Rainbow Road
Yoshi's Island
Prism Tower
Arena Ferox
Tortimer's Island

Reasonably Legal:

Paper Mario
Jungle Japes
Brinstar
Corneria
Reset Bomb Forest
Tomodachi Life
PictoChat
Pac Maze

Very Likely Not Legal:

Super Mario 3d Land
Golden Plains
Mushroomy Kingdom
Gerudo Valley
Spirit Train
N's Castle
Kirby's Dream Land
WarioWare
Distant Planet
Boxing Ring
Living Room
Find Mii
Balloon Fight
Flat Zone 2
Gaur Plains
Wily's Castle
Green Hill Zone

Totally Unknown:

New F-Zero Stage
Mysterious Pink Stage (Mother themed?)
Last Stage to Unlock?

That looks... pretty good to me?

Thing is, Final Destination mode's a thing now.

 

[PSIGuy]

Some franchises get tons of new stages on the 3DS versin, and others get a single recycled one. That's honestly my biggest problem. Mario gets MK7, SM3DL, NSMB2 and PM:SS inspired stages. Zelda gets OOT3D and Spirit Tracks inspired stages. Pokemon gets TWO X/Y inspired stages. Mario also gets a recycled Brawl stage. Yet Donkey Kong, Wario, Yoshi, all get recycled stages from Melee and Brawl.

Not to mention some of the 'handheld' games they picked for inspiration are really boring. Where's Wario Land (or at the very least something referencing the 4 WarioWare games on portable consoles)? Where's Link's Awakening? Why is the GameBoy stage just a Kirby's Dreamland stage? Why are so many great portable games being ignored in favor of flavor of the month titles and remakes?

When I first saw the screenshot leak, the thing I hated the most was the stage selection. Now that it's pretty much confirmed, it's still the thing I hate the most.

 

[Captain Norris]

Some franchises get tons of new stages on the 3DS versin, and others get a single recycled one. That's honestly my biggest problem. Mario gets MK7, SM3DL, NSMB2 and PM:SS inspired stages. Zelda gets OOT3D and Spirit Tracks inspired stages. Pokemon gets TWO X/Y inspired stages. Mario also gets a recycled Brawl stage. Yet Donkey Kong, Wario, Yoshi, all get recycled stages from Melee and Brawl.

Not to mention some of the 'handheld' games they picked for inspiration are really boring. Where's Wario Land (or at the very least something referencing the 4 WarioWare games on portable consoles)? Where's Link's Awakening? Why is the GameBoy stage just a Kirby's Dreamland stage? Why are so many great portable games being ignored in favor of flavor of the month titles and remakes?

When I first saw the screenshot leak, the thing I hated the most was the stage selection. Now that it's pretty much confirmed, it's still the thing I hate the most.

One of the Pokemon ones is from Pokemon Black and White (and possible White 2 if the castle is in ruins) Yeah, I agree teh stage selection is terrible. Every franchise should have at least one new stage, and extras on another page.

 

[♦ Neosquid ♦]

Is this really confirmed to be the final selection?

Eh, I guess it's okay aside from the lack of a new DK and Metroid stage (Sonic is fine with just Green Hill Zone returning and Windy Hill in the Wii U version, it's only 3rd party after all). I'm actually somewhat annoyed Pac-man is getting special treatment with two new stages instead of just one, which is the case with Megaman and Sonic -- I believe 3rd party series only deserve one new stage. Also annoyed with the existence of Golden Plains -- even if the mechanic is cool, appearance wise it's just generic Mario and it's from a game which really didn't deserve a stage based off it imo.

Some franchises get tons of new stages on the 3DS versin, and others get a single recycled one. That's honestly my biggest problem. Mario gets MK7, SM3DL, NSMB2 and PM:SS inspired stages. Zelda gets OOT3D and Spirit Tracks inspired stages. Pokemon gets TWO X/Y inspired stages. Mario also gets a recycled Brawl stage. Yet Donkey Kong, Wario, Yoshi, all get recycled stages from Melee and Brawl.

Not to mention some of the 'handheld' games they picked for inspiration are really boring. Where's Wario Land (or at the very least something referencing the 4 WarioWare games on portable consoles)? Where's Link's Awakening? Why is the GameBoy stage just a Kirby's Dreamland stage? Why are so many great portable games being ignored in favor of flavor of the month titles and remakes?

When I first saw the screenshot leak, the thing I hated the most was the stage selection. Now that it's pretty much confirmed, it's still the thing I hate the most.

Uh, N's Castle is from BW...

 

[Toledo Jones]

I am definitely disappointed with the 3DS stage selection. Too many Mario stages that all the have the same gimmick, & the choice in returning stages is downright horrible. Mushroomy Kingdom? really? Binstar? AGAIN? Sonic gets no new stage & Mega Man gets the same stage? leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Hopefully there will be a 2nd page of stages. That's not to say I'm ungrateful for the stages I do like, such as GB Kirby & Paper Mario.

 

[KaZe_DaRKWIND]

All i wanted is more neutral stages with less hazards and walk offs but for 3ds I am a little unimpressed with the stage list. Hopefully you can turn off stage bosses so the megaman stage becomes good again and not annoying.

You could just play the FD version of it couldn't you? Or does that still get the devil?

 

[Fenriraga]

The new stages are great. The choices for returning stages, and the number of them, are what ruins some of the appeal for me. Oh well... if they have FD variations now, at least I can experience them in a different way.

 

[ElPanandero]

I'm amped for the stages, one of the reasons I'm getting the 3DS version

 

[Senario]

You could just play the FD version of it couldn't you? Or does that still get the devil?

That isnt the point. Platform play is very important for smash bros and it is what seperates itself from other fighting games in part. Making the same stage reskinned isnt making a different stage it is just fd again. And in general fd is one of my least favorite stages competitively due to balance concerns and issues. Also it is bland and flat. Even if it is good for the characters I play.

 

[KaZe_DaRKWIND]

That isnt the point. Platform play is very important for smash bros and it is what seperates itself from other fighting games in part. Making the same stage reskinned isnt making a different stage it is just fd again. And in general fd is one of my least favorite stages competitively due to balance concerns and issues. Also it is bland and flat. Even if it is good for the characters I play.

I thought we were talking about the megaman stage. I didn't think it had platforms. Isn't the FD version of the megaman stage basically just the stage without the yellow devil?

 

[Bladeviper]

I thought we were talking about the megaman stage. I didn't think it had platforms. Isn't the FD version of the megaman stage basically just the stage without the yellow devil?

it has one platform that moves around the stage, if suffers a really small amount from fd by losing it i guess buts its not like a battlefield with its platforms

 

[spd12]

If we didn't see all the characters in the ESRB video screenshots, I'd say odds are good we didn't see all the stages.

At least the ones that are returning are stages I've always found very fun. More would be nice, certainly. We don't have long until we find out all the same.

 

[aldelaro5]

*See Paper Mario stage*

I have no reasons t complain.

Thanks!

 

[PingPongCop]

Boxing Ring is on instant inspection one of the worst stages in smash history. It's not just the walk-offs (though they are a thing). The grounded structure is basically pure camping; those nooks off to the side of the arena are extremely difficult to approach, and the way the ropes work in general makes approaching an intelligent disjointed hitbox user very difficult. Even if we were willing to tolerate a double walk-off with a terrible lay-out on the ground, the lights just make it insta-ban. Not only does having such a high platform make Kirby's up throw (and similar uthrows) completely broken from the ground level, but you are really not going to be able to approach someone camping the lights in most match-ups. The guy up there using the better zoning character will just swat your not so great at jumping character as you try in futility to get up, especially since most characters need to use the ropes to make that jump which makes your approach direction hilariously predictable. Just to make sure the stage isn't even playable in teams, if the lights get hit enough they become a crazy powerful stage nuking hazard that would be easy to deal with in singles but not in teams. When I played the Best Buy demo, people kept picking this stage, and I truly had no idea why since this stage would seem to have no merit whatsoever at any level of play.

Tortimer's Island has... nothing obviously wrong with it? We've discussed it at length already in this thread; it's really tame. Do you have any specific problems with it?

Oh. Well when you put it like that....

I just found the coconuts and fruit and the shark annoying...

 

[PikaSamus]

Boxing Ring is on instant inspection one of the worst stages in smash history. It's not just the walk-offs (though they are a thing). The grounded structure is basically pure camping; those nooks off to the side of the arena are extremely difficult to approach, and the way the ropes work in general makes approaching an intelligent disjointed hitbox user very difficult. Even if we were willing to tolerate a double walk-off with a terrible lay-out on the ground, the lights just make it insta-ban. Not only does having such a high platform make Kirby's up throw (and similar uthrows) completely broken from the ground level, but you are really not going to be able to approach someone camping the lights in most match-ups. The guy up there using the better zoning character will just swat your not so great at jumping character as you try in futility to get up, especially since most characters need to use the ropes to make that jump which makes your approach direction hilariously predictable. Just to make sure the stage isn't even playable in teams, if the lights get hit enough they become a crazy powerful stage nuking hazard that would be easy to deal with in singles but not in teams. When I played the Best Buy demo, people kept picking this stage, and I truly had no idea why since this stage would seem to have no merit whatsoever at any level of play.

Tortimer's Island has... nothing obviously wrong with it? We've discussed it at length already in this thread; it's really tame. Do you have any specific problems with it?

When I did the demo, I was told we had to do random so no one would get upset that the stage he or she wanted wasn't picked.

 

[DoctorDub]

Going to sound like a total prick, but honestly...
I'll just be on Gerudo Valley's FD form most of the time. Not bothered.

 

[SmashBear]

I am mildly disappointed in the returning stages. However, I doubt that leak had all the stages. So it is likely redeemable in that regard.

Gerudo Valley seems pretty awesome: decent set-up and amazing soundtrack.

Prism Tower seems to be lovely.

Spirit Tracks looks fun and the music seems nice.

Gaur Plains also seems promising due to set-up ad music.

Yeah some of the stages seem extremely unique and since we have final destination forms now people that just play on final destination will be pleased and gauer plains seems promising