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.

9. 28 - Kingdom II (Melee)

I find Mario stages to be a bit of an oddball in the Smash Bros series. Some Mario stages in the series range from being one of the best in the series to some of them being some of the worst designed stages ever in a fighting game. Coming in at #28 on the countdown is Mushroom Kingdom 2 from Melee. A stage just like some other Mario stages in the series that is very forgettable and not much fun enjoying on.

The biggest problem I had with Mushroom Kingdom 2, is that the stage is extremely small. I believe this and Flat Zone are tied as the smallest stage in Melee. There was only one main platform in this stage which was very small to fight on. The other parts of the stage were broken up by two KO zones on the far left and right of the stage. Due to the stage being very small to fight on, battling your friends on this stage can make the main gameplay fighting action boxed in and bland, especially during a four player fight on this stage.

Just like Yoshi's Story and Kongo Jungle, there is next to zero stage interactivity whatsoever in this stage making up for a stage that isn't very fun. The only stage interactivity that you and your friends could do in this stage is that, some flying random carpets would appear in this stage moving you in a different direction along with you able to smack some sense into Birdo, in which while was funny to do the first few times, was rather pointless.

Another notable problem I had with Mushroom Kingdom 2 is that, if you fell in the 8-bit waterfall and didn't recover right away, it would result of a KO. If you were in the waterfall for no more then 2 or 3 seconds, you would lose a life. Logs would cause a minor problem in this stage. If you were trying to recover and grab on the center platform where the 8-bit waterfall is, a log could appear in this stage and if you were not lucky, you could get stuck underneath the log and the log would push you down the waterfall resulting of a cheap KO on you. No matter what you did, the log would not break and would force you down the waterfall every time resulting of a KO.

Animation wise, the stage is pretty good. The main theme that happens on this stage is the main theme from Super Mario Bros 2 ala Doki Doki Panic on the NES. This tune is one of the better songs in the Melee soundtrack for a stage, IMO and can be extremely catchy to listen to.

However like I stated in the past, animation does not make a stage great. It's the gameplay. Mushroom Kingdom 2 is a stage where it suffers from being extremely small and bland due to the stage having next to zero stage interactivity. Another forgettable stage just like Yoshi's Story and Kongo Jungle and not very fun.

As for an FYI to you guys, it will not be until the Top 25 in the countdown where you will see me rank the stages from "forgettable to okay" on the Countdown.