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.

15. 22 - Onett

Onett is a nice stage. Like I stated earlier it's getting harder and harder to rank the stages on the countdown as the remaining stages left to rank are all stages that I have found to be decently fun. Even though there are a few minor problems I had with Onett allowing it not to enter the Top 20 on the countdown, Onett is a decent stage overall.

One of the best things I enjoyed on Onett is the variety in the platforms you fight on. You and your opponents fight on breakaway platforms next to the store which is in the center of the stage to, fighting on top of a small house in the bottom right corner of the stage and finally to, battling on top of a shaking tiny resting tree hanging on near of the houses in the left corner of the stage. Since the stage is decently sized and with the variety of platforms to fight on, adds stage variety to Onett. Something that most stages in Melee never had, let alone in the series in general giving it a bright and cool personality to the battlefield.

Another cool positive I enjoyed from Onett is, the very solid animation and music. Onett is probably close to being the best stage in Melee with the best animation and music. A classic tune track from Earthbound on the Super Nintendo, is the main stage tune on Onett and it's a wonderful tune and the animation in Onett is fantastic. If you have ever played Earthbound in which you should, loads of notable environments that appear on Onett, is something taken right out of classic SNES game from the bikes in the background to the danger sign that appear on this stage. Like I stated before, Onett is one of the stages in Melee with the best animation and music in it. Fantastic, overall.

While Onett is a decent stage, I do have a few minor problems with it. The black vans that make an attack cameo on this stage that attack you and your opponents while unique, can be very annoying to dodge and may knock you into a direction you didn't want to go to such as the possibility of the van sometimes knocking you like a dodge ball in the stage and shoving you into the right side of the stage resulting of the stage. The black vans that would make a cameo in the stage would appear more often then you think and even though it added more personality to the stage, it can be annoying at times to avoid and frustrating because, the black vans often make an attack cameo on this stage every good 15-20 seconds while a match is going on. It would be nice if the black van hazard could only make a cameo only say maybe every minute in the match but, oh well.

Another minor problem I had with Onett is the cheap edge corners in this stage. It was easy for your opponent to trap you into one of two corners in the main center of the stage combo attacking you and getting you stuck and while you are stuck and laid out, you would be attacked by the black van causing massive and cheap damage on you.

Issues aside, Onett is a decent, above-average stage just like Great Bay and the two Princess Peach's Castle stages on the countdown in the past. Onett offers great stage variety and animation but, due to the annoying and cheap black van stage hazards in this stage and the cheap design of you getting trapped in one of the corners of the stage fail to have Onett enter the Top 20 on the countdown.