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.

17. 20 - Rainbow Cruise

As we enter the Top 20 on the countdown, the first stage to come up is, Rainbow Ride or also known as Rainbow Cruise in Brawl. I find Rainbow Cruise to be a pretty good stage by being very different and unique unlike most stages in Melee. Even though I have a few minor problem with the stage, Rainbow Cruise is a solid stage and is very fun to play on with your friends.

Let's get rid of the negatives out of the way. The most and real notable problem I had with Rainbow Cruise along with other people is that, the main gameplay changing concept in Rainbow Cruise can be annoying at times and for a lack of a better term, cheap and making the gameplay slowed down and boxed up at times.

What I mean by this is that, when the stage is scrolling and changing to a different gameplay design at times on the stage, you are given a lack of time to interact with the other platforms to fight on in the stage making up for rushed gameplay action going in the stage. While the stage moves and scrolls at a fairly slow pace, the pace of the gameplay picks up slightly as you go higher and higher on the stage such as fighting on the appearing and disappearing carpets in the stage. It would of been nice if the stage was slowed down to a stop here giving you more time to interact with the platforms on the stage and interact more but, this problem is forgettable due to the stage being easy to get the hang of with the stage always running a consist changing pattern. The stage is easy for experts to get into but, can be annoying at time for beginners in the series to enjoy.

As from that problem, I find Rainbow Cruise to be a solid stage and can be fun to enjoy fighting on with your friends. The animation and music in the stage is solid. The stage unlike other Mario stages I already ranked on the countdown, feels like something from the Mario series. Rainbow Cruise is very unique and something not much like other stages in the series. Overall, a good solid above average stage.