New Super Smash Bros Part 6 – New Stages

Gavin Gronenthal ’16 / Emertainment Monthly Staff
Time for some new arenas! This is another one you can have oodles of fun with (I know I did), as these levels can be anything from moving stages, stages with cameo appearances, or just visually captivating stages.  Once again, I’m picking ten stages, but this time, rather than doing shared stages (with one exception at the end), I’m just going to do five stages for the Wii U and five for the 3DS. This way, I can accentuate what kind of stages they’ll be and what games they’ll be from; based on what platform they’re on.
Also, in addition to the stages already added to the game (which I mentioned in my last article), the official Smash Bros site has updated two new stages: a Pikmin stage for the Wii U (along with Pikmin and Olimar as a new character, thank god), and a Kid Icarus stage for the 3DS based on the second chapter of Kid Icarus: Uprising. Because of this, I’m not going to add any Kid Icarus stages or Pikmin stages to my new stages list. Luigi has also been revealed to be a returning character.
So, let the stage predictions begin!

Starship Mario from Super Mario Galaxy 2

Super Mario Galaxy and its sequel, Super Mario Galaxy 2, are two of the most well received video games in the past 10 years. One of my favorite parts of 2, however, was your home base: Starship Mario. The Comet Observatory from the original Galaxy was also very cool, but I don’t think it can quite compare to the feeling of traversing the galaxy on a giant Mario head. There are a number of different ways this could be used as a Wii U Smash stage as well: you could move around the stage on a separate platform (ala Defino Plaza), or maybe as you’re fighting on Mario’s noggin, the ship will suddenly burst into warp speed and rocket to another background from Mario Galaxy, with new hazards and new planets to jump onto. The latter would be kind of like the Pirate Ship stage from Wind Waker, but with more outer space!

Evershade Valley from Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon

The recent release of Dark Moon on the 3DS was a huge success, and was much better received than its predecessor, which became more of a nostalgia hit than anything. A rather obvious choice for a 3DS stage, this one would probably play a lot like Defino Plaza as well, traveling to each area of Evershade Valley and visiting each mansion. The biggest difference would be a plague of different ghosts that would descend upon you in each stage, each with it’s own terribly scary hazard that you could only cancel out by not looking at them. Scary, no?

 Wii Sports Resort from Wii Sports Resort

Regardless of whether you love or hate how big the Wii Sports games are in Nintendo, they are none the less a huge part of the company now. And whether or not a Mii Character appears, you can bet the Island from Wii Sports Resort will make some sort of an appearance. And this stage could actually be tons of fun: a plane from the Air Sports games could whisk you around to different areas, where you would try to knock people off in the sword fighting arena, dodge cyclists as they whizzed by, avoid getting hit by arrows in the archery area, and even swat a few Frisbees back at your opponents. All this, and every Mii you’ve ever created could be watching you as well. It’d give the chanting audience a little bit more of a flavor.

Rainbow Road from Mario Kart

In every incarnation of the Mario Kart series, Rainbow Road has spelled imminent doom to even the most experienced of players. It’s high time that this windy road paved the way for more mass destruction in Smash Bros as well. I picked this one for the 3DS, as those stages appear to be much more hazardous, not to mention the fact that the Wii U version will probably keep a more standard Kart course. It would play kind of like the Brawl Mario Kart stage, only with much faster Karts coming at you (including bikes this time), more platforms from the windy roads, and probably an overall larger size.

Geothermal Power Plant from Metriod: Other M

What would a Smash Bros game be with out a Metriod stage the involved rapid amounts of lava rising and falling at high speeds? Taken from the most recent Metriod game, Metriod Other M, this area may have already had this stage included in Dead or Alive Dimensions for the 3DS, but this time, the hazards of scorching lava and walls is enough to make this an excellent contender for a stage. This would be a great fit for the Wii U, plunging us into the dark world of Samus in glorious HD. And, if Ridley doesn’t make an appearance as a fighter, he can always come back and hunt down fighters here, swooping down to cause chaos.

Castelia City from Pokemon Black and White

Castelia City, the largest city from the Unova region, would be a perfect home for a new Pokemon themed stage on the 3DS. Once again, Black and White are the only Pokemon games to get direct sequels to the originals, and therefore has the most likely chance of any inclusion, be it a new character, item, or in this case, stage. What I would really love is a kind of recreation of the Saffron City stage from the original Super Smash Bros, but it would now include extra buildings, more moving platforms, and Pokemon popping out from the buildings from all different generations.

Quilty Square from Kirby’s Epic Yarn

The colorful and bright yarn world from Kirby’s Epic Yarn would definitely be a creative addition to the world of Smash Bros. Quilty Square is the main hub of the game, and as you can see from the picture above, the platforms to each door could also be used as platforms to fight on. As a Wii U entry, this one could certainly be creative: the stage could even lengthen and shorten from hitting the buttons intertwined with yarn, and could make the stage seem enormous or small depending on how you like to play.

Brain Age Hub from Brain Age

An oddball choice, but if the Wii Fit Trainer managed to weave her way in as a character, I’m sure that the uber-popular Brain Age game will make its way in somehow too. I don’t have a really set idea of how this would play out, but I am pretty sure this would end up on the 3DS. Not only that, but it would probably be much like the Wario Ware stage, constantly changing to fit different challenges to test you mind – and your fighting skills.

Bionis and Mechonis from Xenoblade Chronicles

The two titans that clashed together to make the world of Xenoblade Chronicles would be one enormous backdrop for a Smash Bros stage. A lot of you probably think this would be way to big for the characters to even remotely scale in one piece, but I think it’s certainly workable. Consider the pirate ship from Brawl, or Corneria, where you battle on top of the Great Fox: all of those stages are much bigger in the games they’re actually played in, but they scaled them down to make them work for Super Smash Bros. They could easily do that with these behemoths, making every section of they’re arms and legs a workable platform. Shulk may or may not make an appearance, but the critical darling Xenoblade Chronicles will probably have some representation, and a giant Wii U stage would be one fantastic way to show it off.

Whammino Mountain from Paper Mario: Sticker Star

A level from the most recent entry in the Paper Mario series, I’m a little surprised that there hadn’t been a Paper Mario stage representation a while ago, as nearly every console generation since the N64 has had some sort of adventure from our 2D plumber. This one would be really unique on the 3DS, as the Paper Mario games often play with dimensions themselves, and could take the player in and out of different paper dimensions. I picked Whammino Mountain for a few reasons, but the most important was that it was one of the least (forgive the pun here) flat stages in Sticker Star’s universe, while still maintaining the brightness of the Paper Mario world.

Bonus Stage!

A brand spanking new Corneria from Star Fox

And now, the only “new” stage that will probably appear on both consoles, a new Corneria! Now, Corneria may technically be a returning stage, but I considered this new because while the design of the Great Fox may stay the same, the location that Star Fox’s home base is orbiting may change a bit. After all, the stage in the original Super Smash Bros was actually titled Section Z, and it was only retitled for Melee. As the only stage to appear in all 3 Smash Bros games, the Great Fox, whether on Corneria, Section Z, or a whole new planet (Sauria from Star Fox Adventures, maybe?) you can bet that an HD reboot of this classic battlefield will return.