Preston Ward Condra Ranks All 35 Super Smash Bros 64 & Melee Stages

by Preston Ward Condra

A project I initially made back in June 2009. I critiqued, discussed and ranked all of the Super Smash Bros 64 and Melee stages from worst to best. I wrote this down, when I was 15 years old. As with all of my other stories, I wrote over 10 years ago? I won't be fixing any of the spelling mistakes, that may or may not be present here. Enjoy reading this now ladies and gentlemen.

2. 35 - Brinstar

Starting this countdown off coming in dead last on the list and probably the worst stage in the entire series, is Brinstar. I find Brinstar to be a very bland and boring stage for your friends to enjoy fighting on. One major problem I had with Brinstar is that the stage itself, is very small to fight on. The main fighting takes place on one medium sized platform at the bottom of the stage with three extremely small platforms on the sides and top of the stage. Big characters alone like Bowser and King Dedede, would take up space for just one of these platforms alone. In a four way fight with your friends this would cause the main gameplay fighting on the stage become very cramped and make yourself and your friends boxed in, not bringing any once of fun whatsoever in combat fighting your opponents on this stage.

The main gameplay elements in this stage and in most Metroid stages in general in the Smash Bros series, is the rising lava. The rising lava that appears and make a cameo attack on you and your friends in the stage, feels worthless on the stage and doesn't add anything fun to the stage. Unlike in the N64 Metroid stage where the lava could make a difference in a match, do major damage to your opponents and add a fun element to the stage and in Norfair in Brawl where the lava could attack you in a variety of ways, the main rising lava in Brinstar would often appear for only about 10-15 seconds each time in a match doing a severe lack of damage possible on your opponents. Along with that fact that the stage is too small to fight on, adds more problems to the stage.

Speaking of which, the stage alone doesn't even feel like something from a Metroid game in the series and I feel like the slight Metroid elements in the stage, the rising lava and music was slapped on at the last minute in the stage. Unlike other stages in the Smash Bros series where the stage is brought to life and built with great personality from the series it originates from, I found Brinstar lacking in the personality department as I am sure, Nintendo could of came up with better stage ideas at the time while and before Melee came out. I personally would of liked using and seeing a stage taken place in Mother Brain's Lab rather then this.

Overall, a very bad stage and not being any fun whatsoever for me. On one final note, I cannot believe that Nintendo bought this stage back in Brawl over many great stages in Melee.