I know it's hard for casual players such as myself to care about things that only really matter in high-level play. I'll take people's word that it matters in the long run, though. But if I had a choice between unbalanced stages and the sheer boringness of Project M's stages, I'd go with the former any day.
Some of the reasonings for banning stages seem absurdly strict, such as for Yoshi's Island in SSB 64.
"What's out there? What's waiting for me?"I prefer the former too, as long as the game has a good balance of Gimmick VS Easy to fight on.
Brawl went a bit overboard on the gimmicks. 64 had a case of Early-Installment Weirdness, but it only had maybe two or three courses at best that were extreme. Mushroom Kingdom definitely went overboard. Planet Zebes and Sector Z had easy accidental kills via the course. Sector Z isn't as bad, but Planet Zebes can be forced onto one platform entirely. That goes a bit far and makes the course a little too much to handle at times.
Obviously you can switch courses instead of playing on Mushroom Kingdom(if it's not banned by default) and Saffron City for Ness, but that's entirely justified anyway.
Shadow?But I thought 'Final Destination' was the hardcore competitive stage.
Or am I just out of the loop?
Yeah, as far as stages themed to certain characters go, I'd much rather they have some kind of element to make it feel more like it's actually from or set in the world that it's themed to rather than just looking the part. Otherwise, what's the point?
edited 19th Nov '13 11:40:43 AM by TheSpaceJawa
That's just a meme. Battlefield has been considered the most balanced and competitive course for ages now. FD has been on counterpick on some lists as well, because people realized that it becomes overwhelming to fight on if you don't have a projectile.
Memes aren't actually about the truth, just an exaggeration or clinging onto something popular(at that time).
Anyway, Smashville was received far better since it doesn't entirely benefit projectile users only. It has at least one platform. Another good example of a pretty fair Battlefield clone was Fountain of Dreams. It was somewhat slippery, had no direct hazards, and its platforms were random as well. This allowed a good varied match up without super benefiting anyone whatsoever. I wish it came back from Melee.
And yes, I do like stages taking notes from the home series.
That's pretty fun.
I'd say Shiek'd, but I think my explanation helped a bit too.
edited 19th Nov '13 11:51:20 AM by Irene
Shadow?My favorite stage to battle on is Battlefield because dat balance.
But I do like some gimmicky stages. The more subdued gimmick stages, though, not so crazy about Mario Bros. or Hanenbow.
Really, I like every stage to some extent aside from those two and to a lesser extent 75 M.
You cannot firmly grasp the true form of Squidward's technique!Halberd was indeed one of the more reasonable ones. I liked it, but I wish we got a second Kirby stage. I don't want to fight on it every time I face a Kirby character in Single Player, after all. Especially since I fight different guys.
I think it would've been nice if Single Player could go into past Stages as well. Sure, Hyrule Temple might be a slight bit of a pain to fight Link, Toon Link, Zelda/Sheik, and Ganondorf on, but when you fight the Mother characters on something other than New Pork City...
Shadow?Right, i like an active gimmick, but not one that is overwhelming. Frigate Orpheon did a good job, for one.
My problem with Brawl stages was that too many of them were "cruise" type stages, with simple stages and the point being how it scrolled around, like Lylat Cruise, Pirate Ship, Halberd, Plaza Delfino, etc.
Why does Lylat Cruise count? The background changing isn't game-play intrusive at all...all it does is allow you to do is start the calls with the Star Fox characters.
[Edit] Actually all it does is tilt left and right.
edited 19th Nov '13 2:03:35 PM by randomness4
Rules of the Internet 45. Rule 45 is a lie. Check out my art if you notice.
The stages listed are the ones that have the similar aspect of their backgrounds constantly scrolling during battle (aka "cruise" type stages).
I prefer those stages to be limited, myself. But I do like stages such as Brinstar Depths and the various Mushroom Kingdoms.
edited 19th Nov '13 2:08:55 PM by Customer
I kinda want another horizontally scrolling stage like Mushroomy Kingdom. It seems like the Sonic Lost World stage is gonna be like that, but I wouldn't object to more. Those seem very unique.
All I need is some music from Kid Icarus Uprising and Fire Emblem: Awakening and I'll be satisfied.
"We're home, Chewie."I really hope they put some sort of stage to represent Kid Icarus in the Wii U version. I'd be upset if the series' only representation is in the 3DS version (discounting the possibility of Skyworld returning...but I was never really that big of a fan of that stage anyway).
Insert witty 'n clever quip here.For full-on gimmicks, my favorite stage was Warioware. It's designed solely to simulate the Wario Ware gameplay as best as a fighting game can, and goddammit does it pull it off spectacularly. It's even better when you have the default music, since it actually shifts with each of the microgames.
Hence why Project M's "fixing" makes my soul cry to the heavens.

Well, well, that is some nice music
, though I don't really recall the Yoga theme from the Smash trailer.
Still, makes me want to listen to the rest of the soundtrack.note
edited 19th Nov '13 10:57:37 AM by Customer