Intro[]
Welcome back to my 100 New Stages for the Next Smash project! Today we're covering Stages 61-70, and remember that these are in a pseudo-randomized order and aren't a definitive ranking of how much I want each stage.
With that all out of the way, let's get into our fourth set of 10 stages.
61. Bowser's Castle [Super Mario - Super Mario Bros][]
I think most if not all of us can agree that one of the single biggest missing stages in all of Nintendo history is Bowser's Castle. It's a super iconic location and is featured in the vast majority of Mario titles. So why hasn't it been featured yet? It's possible it's because Bowser's Castle can look (and often does look) completely different in each game. But I don't think that should stop us. If this list of stages was a true ranking, then I likely would have had Bowser's Castle in the #1 spot, or at least in the top ten. But I decided to intentionally hold off on talking about it until the second half.
So how would Bowser's Castle function in Smash then? I came up with a design for it several years ago, but the core of my idea is that I think the stage should take inside of Bowser's Castle as opposed to being outside of it. The bottom of the stage could be filled with lava with platforms or bridges you have to jump around to avoid falling in. And if you're going to have lava then you gotta have Podoboos leaping out of it. Throw in some Thwomps that fall from above or rotating Fire Bars that have to constantly be dodged around. Hell, if you really wanted to get crazy with it you could do something similar to The Great Cave Offensive and have different areas of the stage devoted to different kinds of ideas that Bowser's Castle has had in the past. One corner could have jumping Bowser Statues. Another could feature Paper Mario's Koopatrols. You could even have the classic axe at the bottom of the stage that activates when hit causing a drawbridge to be destroyed and reveal a pit of lava underneath! There is so much to pull from for a Bowser's Castle stage that you could honestly make several. But I'll settle for one.
62. Peach's Birthday Cake [Super Mario - Mario Party][]
There's so many good ideas for Mario stages, so let's talk about another one. We've got an idea for Bowser, so here's something for Peach. Sorta. Since we've already gotten three stages in Smash to represent Mario Kart, I think it's time we get a stage based off of Mario Party and there's two basic ideas I think you can do. The first is to just have a game of Mario Party happening in the background and whatever panels the players land on will cause some kind of affect on the battle. Or, you just set the fight onto a feature of the board. The latter idea is less complicated I feel and of all the Mario Party boards the one I like the most for this idea is Peach's Birthday Cake from the original Mario Party.
For this stage you would set the fight on top of Peach's Birthday Cake, which makes sense since that's also where the Mario Party board is. I designed a layout for this stage last year and I pictured it as fighting on a two-layer cake that's sitting on a table. Both layers of the cake would feature “strawberries” that would sprout into Piranha Plants over time at predetermined locations and if fighters get too close then the Piranha Plant would reach its head over at them and bite them. These Piranha Plants would wither and die on their own time (with new ones eventually replacing them) but fighters could also attack and destroy them early.
63. Mother Base [Metal Gear - Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain][]
While I do like the Shadow Moses Island stage, I think if Metal Gear (Solid Snake or otherwise) returns to Smash that it's time we get a new stage. Now I'm not going to claim to be a Metal Gear expert, so maybe there are better ideas here. I was pretty much debating between Mother Base and Big Shell to represent either Metal Gear Solid V or 2. In the end I opted for Mother Base since MGSV is the most recent mainline title outside of remakes.
As for the design of the stage, hard for me to say. I've watched MGSV be played and I think Mother Base could provide a nice contrast compared to other stages in Smash in terms of its design. My best thought on how to make the stage work would be to more or less show “A Day in the Life of Snake”. And by that I mean start you'd start out the fight seeing Snake arrive back at Mother Base in a helicopter and then watch as he walks around the base and interacting with characters such as Kazuhira Miller, Revolver Ocelot, Huey Emmerich, Eli, and Quiet. You could even throw in Hideo Kojima's self-insert character Kojima just for fun. One thing I'm unsure of is if the fighters should be battling on Mother Base itself and then transitioning to different areas as they see Snake interact with his men, or if they should be flying around the stage on a mid-air platform with an aerial view. I like the idea of fighting on the base itself more, but I wonder if the aerial view might be better for the overall idea I've presented.
64. Miitopia [Miitopia - Miitopia][]
Ah Miitopia, what a fun completely non-serious rpg you are. There's a Dark Lord stealing people's faces and putting their faces onto monsters. How horrifying! Make a Hero and gain allies (with both classic and unique classes) to travel the world of Greenhorne, Neksdoor, Peculia, and more to save people's faces and defeat the Dark Lord! I was honestly surprised when this game got a remake on the Switch with several new features considering that Miis on the Switch are a lot more hidden than they were on the 3DS (and Wii & Wii U for that matter). The Devs really took Mii Making into their own hands by vastly expanding your options and letting you upload/download Miis through their game instead of through the console like on previous Nintendo systems. A stage from a game like this has the opportunity to be rather goofy.
As for how a stage from Miitopia would work... I'm a little unsure actually! Setting the stage in any of the distinct areas of the game feels disatisfying to me. As does making it a traveling stage where a platform would whisk the fighters away from one location to the next. So instead... I'm gonna have to do it. I think we have a new scrolling stage here! The fight would start in Greenhorne, where the Hero's journey began, and would scroll through each of the main locations in the game such as Greenhorne Castle, the Great Pyramid, and all the way up through the Dark Lord's Castle and Otherworld! The stage would primarily scroll left to right, but there would be a few times it might scroll up or would have a brief pause point as Dominic the dragon has to whisk you away to the next location since there isn't a way to walk there. The background might even show the path the heroes take along the map so you can see the full journey of the game. Characters from the game such as the Genie of the Lamp and the three Fab Fairies could even be encountered as you scroll through their section of the game. Each Character would have their faces pulled from the Miis saved on your console (or your copy of Miitopia if you have it installed)!
65. Resolution Road [Kirby - Kirby: Planet Robobot][]
I would want to set this stage right in the middle of Resolution Road's suburban streets. So picture you're fighting in the streets and you could see Waddle Dees strolling around in the background. Maybe there's a park or something with some Waddle Dees on a swingset. The more important thing is the fact that there are other roads coming from the background that cars would be driving down. A traffic light would be by each of these roads (two of them?) and would flash green as a warning to the players that a car is coming. The car would drive in from the background and into the foreground dealing heavy damage to anyone that didn't get out of its way.
66. Golden Pyramid [Wario - Wario Land 4][]
There were several ideas I was considering for a new Wario stage that doesn't come from the Wario Ware games. I previously discussed Glittertown from Shake It as an idea I really like, but I think the Golden Pyramid would work as well. The entire game takes place inside this pyramid as Wario traveles through multiple passages looking for treasure.
While Wario explodes the Golden Pyramid from the inside, my idea for this stage is actually to have it take place outside the pyramid. The vision I have is for the fight to start off on the ground with the Golden Pyramid taking up a good chunk of the left side of the screen as it stretches all the way to the top of the screen making KOing opponents on the left side impossible. Over time the stage would slowly travel up the pyramid, making about 3-4 stops along the way and at each stop there would be a different platform arrangement for fighters to fight across as they scale the pyramid. Once the fight has reached the top of the Pyramid the camera would pan over to the right allowing fighters to battle on top of the pyramid itself. But as a little added fun, each time they reach the top of the pyramid the Golden Diva will be waiting for them as a boss fight who will need to be taken down before the fight will return to the bottom of the pyramid.
67. Forsaken Fortress [Legend of Zelda - The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker][]
Listen man, the Pirate Ship stage is great. It's easily a favorite of mine not just from Brawl, not just representing the Legend of Zelda, but a favorite period from across Smash Bros. But I think Wind Waker can get more than just that. The Forsaken Fortress is the first dungeon of the game, which gets revisited twice later, making it an easily identifiable location for anyone that's played the game. Plus, the fact that it's always night time at the Forsaken Fortress could make for an interesting background/lighting situation compared to other stages.
I was debating if this should be a traveling stage or just a mid-air stage that flies around the area, but in the end I decided to make it a grounded stage with fighters battling in the fortress itself. I imagine you would have some platforms where fighters could jump up the fortress and climb on top of its structure. You could even have some hazards involving the spotlights, the Helmaroc King, or even Phantom Ganon. Actually wait a minute, didn't Jonno make a stage for the Forsaken Fortress a few years ago? Oh hey, he did. And he made it a traveling stage with those hazards. Good work Jonno.
68. Cyrkensia Opera House [Fire Emblem - Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest/Birthright][]
I'm not the biggest fan of Fire Emblem Fates, but I find the Dragon Vein mechanic to be interesting. So I started out by looking at each chapter to see what had potentially interesting Dragon Vein mechanics and then looked at the map itself to see if I thought it would make for an interesting stage design. And I think I found a winner in the Cyrkensia Opera House. It's an opera house that is surrounded by water with a Dragon Vein mechanic that can change the water to ice. Plus, it's an important story location in both the Conquest and Birthright routes of Fates.
So, we're going to set this stage right on the stage floor with water off to the left and right. Maybe we could even have Azura dancing in the background, especially if any version of the song “Lost in Thoughts All Alone” is playing. You know how some fancy theaters can raise/lower parts of their stage? Let's lean into that. Have two spots on the left and right sides of the theater floor where geysers could erupt and push up platforms for fighting in a similar way to how the Blazing Chamber transformation works on the Kalos Pokemon League stage. Perhaps fighters would also be propelled upwards (with some damage). Then when the Dragon Vein gimmick is triggered, all water on the stage would be frozen into ice. This would not only lock the platforms at the height the water was frozen at, but would make the ice pillars impassible. Additionally, the water to the sides of the stage would be frozen which would extend the length of the fighting area. Fighters would want to be careful when battling on the ice however as with the accompanying ice physics it would be relatively easy to slide across the stage and accidentally go past the blast zones.
69. Sanderson's House [Chibi-Robo - Chibi-Robo][]
Whether Chibi-Robo becomes playable in Smash or not, I think it would be a great idea to have a stage based off of his games. I like when Smash includes content from games that don't get playable characters and since the Chibi-Robo series has been on the back burner using a stage to represent the games makes sense to me. The Sanderson's House seems like the easy choice to me. You could go for the park or the second house from the later games, but representing the original, and most well known, game in the series makes the most sense to me.
And if we're calling the stage the “Sanderson's House” and not just something like “Sanderson's Kitchen”, then I feel like we have to go with a traveling stage here. Show off every room in the house with the iconic locations/characters in each one. Heck, maybe some rooms even have multiple layouts that can be visited in them. And obviously everything would look huge compared to the characters, much like the Living Room stage from Nintendogs, since Chibi-Robo himself is a toy-sized character interacting with the house. Just makes sense to keep that perspective, but unlike with the Nintendogs stage we'd get to explore more areas of the house, including the backyard!
70. Phendrana Drifts [Metroid - Metroid Prime][]
Phendrana Drifts has been a popular idea for a new Metroid stage ever since Metroid Prime was released. For the most part, Metroid stages share a common vibe and feature acid or lava as a hazard, but Phendrana Drifts would fly against that standard. While I tried not let popular stage suggestions affect my list for this project, I do like the idea of Phendrana Drifts being a stage. We don't have a lot of cold environments in Smash so being able to add one while at the same time giving Metroid something different appeals to me.
I'm not too sure of what the overall layout of the stage would be. I more or less just picture a grounded stage with uneven ground covered in snow. Stages that don't have a flat platform for their main platform are pretty rare so that could help mix things up a bit as well. You'd need to have some other platforms, perhaps a small cliff or just a regular floating platform so that the stage isn't just an uneven Final Destination though. Snowfall as a background element is also pretty obvious, but I wouldn't have it affect the actual stage at all.
Outro[]
And with that, we have another 10 stages in my 100 New Stages for Smash project, bringing us to 40! This time, only 4 of these currently exist on the wiki. Maybe someday I'll get around to making the rest.
Teasers for next time: A ruined building, betrayal, and war.