Super Smash Brothers Review (2: Stages)

COntinuing on with the Smash 4 review, we have the stages!

Battlefield
It's Battlefield, so a platform, three smaller platforms, and a day/night cycle. What did you expect?

Final Destination/Omega Stages
Once again, a pretty awesome background, but nothing else special. At least it's better than Brawl's in terms of visual design. The Omega stages are an interesting idea, making all of the levels available in FD form, so that they can all be used in tournaments... but FD is actually a little discredited in tournament circles because its lack of other platforms gives an unfair advantage to characters with projectiles and dash attacks.

3D Land
An auto-scrolling stage, but surprisingly okay to use. It has varied environments, and a non-scrolling section. Pretty good.

Golden Plains
Gimmick Level. It has some scrolling sections, and a lot of coins. Get 100, and you'll turn gold and temporarily take no knockback. Not fantastic.

Rainbow Road
It's Port Town Aero Dive from Brawl, but Mario-themed. It's based on Mario Kart 7, but yeah, it's Port Town Aero Dive. So it's pretty fun, but it's more Mario instead of more F-Zero, which is a bad thing.

Paper Mario
Another Mario level with differing locations. The island with the windmill is good, and the pirate ship is fun, but the Bowser Castle area is terrible, so you'd better hope that you've depleted your opponent's stock before you get to that point.

Mushroomy Kingdom
Another scrolling Mario level. Why is this level back, 3D Land is so much better, and the better version, the underground stage, is gone. Waste of a stage.

Jungle Japes
Back from Melee and Brawl is this crap level. THis is the only DOnkey Kong level in the game, and it's awful. Avoid.

Gerudo Valley
I like this one. Large, with a collapsible bridge, and an interesting stage hazard in the form of Twinrova. Definitely one to use.

Spirit Train
It's a bit like Big Blue, except easier, and also a pretty good stage. I've spent a fair bit of time with this one. Worth using.

Brinstar
>MFW Mario has four original stages and Metroid and DK have only one melee stage apiece.
This one's still pretty dull, and we've seen it before in two games, and there's nothing new to it.

Yoshi's Island
Totally not Mario you guys! It's the same as it was in Brawl, so a mediocre design, but fun to use.

Dream Land
A Gameboy-like Stage that randomly scrolls between Kirby game locations. It's pretty good, since the scrolling is minimal and the design is nice.

Corneria
Another Melee stage... what was wrong with Lylat Cruise? Nevertheless, it's a decent stage, just a bit bland by now.

Unova Pokemon League
Now, this one's awesome. It's a well-designed stage, with intrusive appearances from Reshiram and Zekrom, and cameos from other Pokemon like Milotic and Shaymin. It's cool.

Prism Tower
Standard, but has a nice panoramic view, as well as cameos from flying legendaries like Yveltal. Not as good as the league, but still pretty good.

Mute City
F-Zero gets a new stage! Yes! It looks pretty good, a nice retro look, but not a really good one to use. Nothing special, really.

Magicant
I want to like this stage. It almost does everything right. Unfortunately, it also has the Flying Men, a gang of bird-faced things that, when tagged by a fighter, will fight for them. They are powerful, and refuse to die easily, and tilt the battle unfairly. You're going to spend this level camping on the spawn-platform and wait for the Flying Men to appear.

Arena Ferox
A Fire Emblem Stage, it's like Battlefield, but with differing platform layouts, and it's better. I like it.

Flat Zone 2
Well, it's a level. It's just kinda there. Still annoying to use, don't particularly care.

Reset Bomb Forest
A Kid Icarus stage, with two separate layouts, and it's okay to use. A little small, though.

Warioware, Inc.
Basically the same as it was in Brawl, so pretty fun.

Distant Planet
Still a dull and uninteresting level, and you'll probably be launched into the Bulborb's mouth a lot more.

Tortimer Island
Probably one of my favourite levels. It's large and has a good amount of space. Definitely one to play around with.

Boxing Ring
Would be one of the best stages if the rig at the top didn't catch all the items.

Gaur Plain
Pretty bad, there's barely anywhere to fight on, and it has a massive gap in the middle, to the point that you have to use some characters' recovery moves to cross it. Avoid.

Balloon Fight
Avoid

Living Room
Another popular one for me, has a large area and different platform layouts. I would quite like to see the dogs/cats act as a hazard, though, and savage the fighters occasionally. That would be amusing. Also, it's perhaps the most realistic stage. After all, Smash Brothers is about a kid playing with his toys, so the living room is probably what all of the levels look like really.

Find Mii
A small level with a boss. Yay. ON the other hand, aside from the Dark Emperor, who is fairly easy to avoid, it's pretty fun.

Tomodachi Life
Fun in multiplayer, but annoying against AIs, who can see into all of the rooms when you can't. Still, pretty good level, and the Miis are the ones from your system.

Pictochat 2
Just as annoying as the original, I still haven't seen many of the sketches.

Green Hill Zone
One of the worst Brawl stages returns! It still sucks.

Wily Castle
I want to like this one too, but the Yellow Devil shows up so often that you spend more time fighting it than fighting opponents. Avoid.

Pac Maze
It's pretty good, save for the persistence of the ghosts. Worth using, though.

So now... my Top 6 Stages?

6) Spirit Train
5) Living Room
4) Arena Ferox
3) Tortimer Island
2) UNova Pokemon League
1) Gerudo Valley

Next time: Classic and All-Star