Long post, beware. This is my feelings with stages. I'm in the boat which believes tournament evidence should support banning and not just "the colors are awkward" or "because ROB didn't get a stage, this stage should be banned."
• Battlefield - Neutral – This doesn’t need too much. Pretty balanced all around, obvious
• Battleship Halberd – Neutral– I’m in the Neutral boat with the Halberd. It has a death hazard at the very beginning if you don’t get on the platform before it takes off, but that would never be an issue unless you fell asleep while playing. The three stage hazards shouldn’t even a contest. The Laser shows a marker where it’s going and stops for a little over a second before firing. Even Bowser can get out of the way in time. The cannonball takes a long time to land and explode, and the arm doesn’t have a lot of knock back at all. The worst thing it could do is interrupt your lag attack of some kind. It seems random, but sometimes you can notice it favoring one character. Even if it hits, it doesn’t hurt until the high 100%s. Like Mic said, knock them into the hazards.
• Bridge of Eldin – Counter pick – Too early to ban things off of chain grabbing and walk-off ledges. A horn blows before the Bulbin appears, so that reduces the randomness. If the bomb appears, get out of dodge. If you happen to have no projectiles and Pit is on the other side, then shield and air dodge. You may get hit with a few, but far less than if you sat there and just tried to double-jumpRecover to the other side. Yet again, knock the opponent into the Bulbin. But really though, he’s easily avoided and seen coming.
• Castle Siege – Neutral – Stage 1 is simple in and of itself. Stage 2 is a walk-off and has projectile-interrupting statues, but those are not a problem. It renders projectile users to use something other than projectiles, which caters equally to both. Stage 3 isn’t much of an issue at all either.
• Delfino Plaza – Neutral – One part with walk-off ledges, but you can just run away for the time of the change. Other than that, no hazards and nothing to inhibit players.
• Distant Planet – Counter pick – While I personally do not like this stage, I’m not going to call a ban on that reason alone. The waterfall is hard to recover with, but far from impossible. You may be stuck a few times grabbing ledgefallingrecovergrabfalletc. but if the opponent tries to intervene he would most likely get caught up in it as well. The frog is instant death if you land on its nose or in its mouth, so don’t go over there. Also bottle caps serve as projectiles for those that do not have any, which gives those with nothing to throw a little something.
• Final Destination – Neutral – The ledges have the issue Battlefield had in Melee, but with the gravity different this time, you have more time to float to under the ledge instead of mashing UpB and such. Just be patient. Only a few select characters can’t recover well here (Snake is one of them, since his UpB sends him horizontally a bit, often back under the ledge)
• Frigate Orpheon – Neutral – The only hazard here is the stage flipping, and there is only a loud siren right before it to alert you. Simply full jumping (double to make sure) will ensure you’re safety. If the stage flips while you are recovering, adjust accordingly. Don’t know how the stage works? Play on it a while.
• Lylat Cruise – Neutral – Slight tilting on the stage itself, but otherwise as neutral and fair as anything else. If anything banned for online play due to the crazy background graphics.
• Mario Circuit – Counter pick another stage I don’t quite like, but don’t think it deserved to be banned. I could see this as neutral myself. Cars come predictably, don’t kill normally until 100+ unless you got hit by the jumping car while being in the air yourself. Nothing here really makes it ban-worthy
• Mushroomy Kingdom – Counter pick – 1-1 isn’t so bad. Sure it has the chain grab issue, but most of the time there will be some stage in the way to prevent a complete run over. Except in the beginning, but that can be alleviated by staying in the air. You know you’re coming here, so pick accordingly. 1-2 I can see as being bannable, as the blocks that impede your path are hard to get rid of, fight and stay alive simultaneously. It isn’t broken or groundbreaking, but it does interrupt the flow of the match more than 1-1. But honestly, not broken or totally unfair.
• New Pork City – BANNED – Really, no excuse needed. Hit and run tactics, the whole stage is a cave of life, and I’m sure someone somewhere is complaining about the Chimera
• Norfair – Counter pick – Lava from the background is the only part, and even then it doesn’t hurt, just interrupts whatever you were doing. Lava is predictable, and the lava on the sides comes slow enough to avoid it with ease. Shield/Air dodge the large lava wave and punishes the other person who is desperately trying to get in the capsule.
• PictoChat – Banned – Drawings, while static, never have a set appearance to them. Being able to change strategy on the fly is a sign of a good fighter, but overall takes away from the context of the match.
• Pokémon Stadium 2 - Neutral Stage changes, while happen randomly, don’t possess any huge threats. The wind arena favors aerial combatants, but all characters have at least one good aerial move. The electric floor can be hard to deal with, especially if Diddy is wreaking havoc with his bananas. But with 2 bananas and 4 platforms, you shouldn’t have an issue running on one of them.
• Port Town Aero Dive - Counter pick – Cars are seen in the background coming, and platforms do appear to help evading. Some parts of the stage don’t even have cars. Cars can indeed kill at silly percentages, but you should be able to avoid/dodge them. You can also try to spike/combo your opponent into the cars, or just defend when they try the same.
• Rumble Falls – Banned – While I think the stage should be banned, I honestly see the arguments for it to be counter picked. The stage scrolls at a controlled pace, except when the large red words Speed Up appear. But that doesn’t last long, so becoming a race to see who can live becomes the name of the game. Hell, if you’re feeling lucky you can try to get your opponent stuck in the stage to kill them. But if you aren’t careful, you’ll die yourself and be one stock shorter. The spike is a killer indeed, but it is only in one spot and easily avoided. The other spikes in the stage do pitiful damage and knock back until the normal kill zone, but again appear in the same spot. I’m not going to play it, but won’t be upset if it’s a counter pick.
• Shadow Moses Island – Counter pick – Can become a walk-off stage, so if you’re so worried about being chain grabbed then pick a character that can’t be. Even still, it takes a bit of work to knock the pillars down so you won’t have to worry about it for a while. Otherwise, this stage favors vertical killers and allows living at high percentages by DIing and teching into the pillars. Definitely favors certain characters over others, but this is the point of counter pick.
• Skyworld – Counter pick – Stage breaking is an issue, as well as being meteor spiked through the clouds. Also tether recoveries are a bit harder here, but if this were CP you could plan accordingly.
• Smashville – Neutral – Fit’s every description of a neutral stage. Simple, no hazards, equal playing field.
• Summit – Counter pick – I personally like this stage. I can see how it could be banned, but I honestly feel its CP at most. Fish can instant kill, and with the swimming mechanic can be quite difficult to escape if the opponent combos properly, but otherwise it’s really easy to avoid. Just get out the moment you hit the water and you should be fine. There is a period of floatiness that benefits aerial characters, so be ready for that. Also, the sides don’t have grab-able edges if I remember correctly. Just be prepared for that as well, especially at the point where the iceberg rises.
• WarioWare – banned – Indeed a fun stage to play on, but the randomness of powerups makes it unplayable. This one has been beaten pretty much to death
• Yoshi's Island – Neutral – No hazards, ghost platform operates similar to the cloud back in Melee, so it’s fitting as a neutral.
• 75m – Ban that **** - Maybe as a fun stage, but it isn’t fun even in that regard. A taste of nostalgia at most. No where near serious for a tournament as it has the same issue temple and Pork City have.
• Flat Zone 2 – Banned – Really small death zones and the stage can kill you at very early percents, especially if you aren’t careful. Pretty much the same as the Flat Zone in melee.
• Green Hill Zone – Counter pick – Stage destruction isn’t much of an issue, as some benefit from it while some do not (the point of counter picks.) The save spheres don’t kill til the normal kill percentages, and are a minor distraction at most. Odd stage, but no random factors are present and nothing that makes it obviously unfair to anyone makes this a good counter pick. I could even see this as Neutral, but no where near banned.
• Hanenbow – Counter – The stage itself is not bad. Leaves change angle when hit, so makes tether recoveries a tad difficult (just tether the outer edge, not the inner edge) and makes for some interesting combat for pit to hit a leaf so that it angles and the opponent misses the leaf. The water can be escaped, but it is not real water so don’t think your going to swim. The twig on the left side is a fake, so don’t even rely on it. The only issue here is that projectile spammers will run and shoot the entire match, but they can be caught up to with even the slowest characters.
• Luigi's Mansion – Counter – Large stage, but no stage hazards and nothing random at all happening here. The support beams for the house block projectiles like the statues in Castle Siege, but smart use of these will disable and projectile spammer quickly. Once the house comes apart it’s similar to final destination until the house rebuilds itself.
• Mario Bros. – Banned – See 75m. Only difference is that it is not as large, but hard to maneuver around with the long string of blocks and the turtles/crabs
• Pirate Ship – Counter – There are 4 hazards in this stage. The cyclone, bomb fortress, catapult and rock. The cyclone gives a temporary advantage to aerial based characters. Any character in the water at the time of takeoff are pretty much dead. The gravity is similar to Summit on the ship’s descent, so take advantage. The bombs are easily avoidable. Of course, you have to be paying attention to both yourself and the bomb trajectory. You control you character and should know what your character is doing based on the commands you input, so you can put full concentration on the bombs and getting our opponent into them while staying out. The catapult is annoying, but not so major. It just throws the course of the match off for about 3 seconds. When the ship hits the rock it’s a walk-off stage, giving the infamous chain grabbers a chance to shine. Also you can be spiked by the belly of the ship, but why would you want to swim under the ship? I think counter pick on this one.
• Spear Pillar – Banned – I like this stage a bit but believe it isn’t worthy of tournament play. The pokemon and their effects are random (they have 4 each I believe) which can do some crazy things, like make everyone super slow, destroy part of the stage, or shoot crescent beams across the stage. While this is great fun, it does put luck as a major decider of who wins the bout here.
• Brinstar –counter – Same as Melee. Acid raises the same every time, you see it rising and gives plenty of notice, and doesn’t kill until higher percentages. Same as melee.
• Corneria – Counter/Ban – Corneria is pretty much unchanged this go-around. But that isn’t for the best. The kill zones in this stage didn’t get changed or something. On the top of the fin, just about any decently-powered upward trajectory move is going to kill. Pretty much if you would normally be magnified you die. This is my impression of it anyway. If this is true, then I may see the ban for it, but if not, the vertical killers have a huge advantage here.
• Onett – Counter/Ban – Depends what happens with the chain grabbers and laser-lockers. The cars are easy to avoid, so that’s not really the issue. If repeated gayness occurs here, I think a ban will be put into place. But until it’s proven, CP.
• Rainbow Ride – Neutral/Counter – Same as melee. Slight side scrolling, but everything is controlled and not random.
• Temple – Banned – No explanation needed.
• Yoshi's Island (SSBM) –Counter pick – I never really understood why it was banned in Melee (except for CG and drill shining) but since both are out (except for CG) maybe this shouldn’t be banned anymore. Not sure on this one
• Big Blue – Banned – Hitting the road = dead for heavy characters, and even light characters can have a time. Stage scrolling isn’t an issue, and there are no random events. But it does hurt the heavy competitors a lot.
• Green Greens – Counter – Same in Melee. Helps some, hurts others.
• Jungle Japes – Counter – Same in melee. Even with the swimming mechanic, you usually can get out of the water assuming you didn’t jump in next to the zone line.
• Pokémon Stadium – Counter – Same as melee. Sure the windmill sucks, but you have another half of stage to play on. Just don’t get caught in it. And even if you do, spam an extremely quick move to get out and reverse the offensive. It’s not like you stay stunned for .1 seconds or anything.
