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.

16. 21 - Yoshi's Island (N64)

The second Nintendo 64 stage to appear on the countdown goes to, Yoshi's Island. I have never been a fan of the Yoshi stages in the series. The only real solid Yoshi stage I ever liked was the, Yoshi Island version in Brawl. This one while better then the rest of the Yoshi stages that appeared on the countdown suffers from a few minor problems giving it unable to enter the Top 20 stage list on the countdown. While suffering from a few problems here and there, Yoshi's Island 64 is a decent stage.

One of the best things I like about this stage is that unlike a few other N64 Smash Bros stages like Planet Zebes and Peach's Castle where it offered a bland personality with nothing really taken from it's series, Yoshi's Island on the N64 really feels like something taken from the Yoshi spin off games and I enjoy that. From the classic Yoshi tune music to the coloring book based background in the stage from the Yoshi games. Presentation wise, Yoshi's Island is colorful and full of personality.

The first minor problem I had with this stage is that, the stage itself is fairly small and the three pairs of platforms on the main section in the stage would more often then not, would block some of your important attacks while battling your opponents. Such as, if you try to use Pikachu's Down B Thunder move on your opponents while you were at the bottom section of the stage and your opponents were at the middle part section of the stage, your attack would be blocked by the upper platform causing your thunder move to be destroyed and not hitting your opponents. This would screw gameplay up and the slightest mistake with your opponents moving on a different platform would make up for a missed attack trying to hit your opponents.

Another minor problem I had with this stage were, the clouds. While it mixes up the gameplay and adds a stage interactivity element to Yoshi's Island, the clouds would often sometimes screw you up. Whenever you landed on a cloud, you were only able to stay on the cloud for maybe two to three seconds and the cloud would disappear forcing you to move to a different platform and if you didn't move in time to jump to another cloud or grab on to one of the stage sides for recovery, it likely result for a KO on yourself.

Issues aside, Yoshi's Island is a decent stage. I like the charm and personality in this stage and can be fun to fight on with your friends on the main four platforms in the center of the stage but, due to the clouds being unbalanced and the stage itself being fairly small, fails to have Yoshi's Island from Super Smash Bros, enter the Top 20 stages on the countdown.