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.

32. 5 - Fourside

We are now in the Top 5 section in the countdown and kicking off the Final 5, is Fourside from Melee. Aside from the two F-Zero stages from the same game, I found Fourside to be the stage from Melee. The stage is full of calm and peaceful personality, the large is very large making up for a stage with high paced action taking place as you battle your opponents on the stage and much like Hyrule Castle / Temple from Melee, the stage is kept fresh and exciting thanks to the stage being very large and full of different types of platform sections in the stage to battle your opponents on. Fourside remains not only as one of the best stages from Melee but, one of the best the series to date.

Before moving on and talking about the main fighting action on the stage, I can really see and wish that a full 3D remake of Earthbound was made on the Wii by Nintendo. By first judging by the 3D based backgrounds and models used for in Fourside, makes Earthbound a great game that could be pulled off well with a 3D remake for the Wii. Anybody else agree? Hope, Nintendo revives the classic for people that haven't played it, like myself. I would rather see that at E3 then the return of Golden Sun.

At any rate by moving on to the stage in Melee rather then the Earthbound series in general, there are multiple reasons why this stage is set near the top of the countdown. My favorite type of gameplay element on Fourside, it that with the exception of the Number 1 and 2 stages left to reveal on the countdown, Fourside had the best personality and animation for a stage in the Smash Bros series to this date. The main music theme on the stage, is a remix tune from Earthbound and the backgrounds of the buildings in the the stage is full of a downtown night sky tone which fits the stage very well and the series well where while battling your opponents on the stage. The player can have a calm, enjoyable and competitive tone in battle battling their opponents on the stage. Animation wise, one of the best in the series to this date and better personality then over half of the stages from Brawl.

One of the other best gameplay elements in Fourside that make it one of the best stages in the series to date is that, the stage is extremely large and you could battle your opponents in a variety of ways in the different platforms on the stage. You could battle near the top of the highest building in the stage, to battling in the air, to battling on the top of the appearing and disappearing UFO in the stage and to battling and slamming your opponents on the sides of the building in the stage. There is a variety of things to do on the stage and thanks to the stage being very large, the action always feels fresh no matter how many times you battle your opponents and friends on, adding more fun and flavor to amazing stage.

Once again, not only is Fourside one of the best stages from Melee, it remains as one of the best in the series to this date, better then over half of the stages from Brawl and Smash Bros 64 and easily makes the list in as one of my favorite stages so far personally in the series so far. The words graceful, calm, cool, fun, amazing and so on and so forth, are good words to desribe Fourside as a whole. Amazing stage that every fan and player of the series should try and get an enjoyable out it. Thanks to the reasons above, those reasons are more then enough to have Fourside in the Top 5 on the Countdown.