Intro[]
Welcome back to my 100 New Stages for the Next Smash project! Today we're covering Stages 81-90, 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 ninth set of 10 stages.
81. Paper Theatre [Super Mario - Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door][]
The most common stage request I see for the Paper Mario games is the battle stage from The Thousand-Year Door. And I count myself as one of those who say this stage would be a fantastic idea. Typically for Smash stages I like to pull from iconic or interesting locations from a stage, but the battle stage, which I call the Paper Theatre, is representative of not only the first two games in their whole, but also largely the paper aesthetic as a whole.
To do this stage, I think you've got to kinda just got nuts a bit. You battle right on the theatre where battles take place in TTYD. The audience is in the foreground and they can throw items or hazards up on the stage, targeting whatever players they want depending on how the battle is going. Change out the background and platform layout each time a fight begins to mimic the designs of the theatre when battling in other locations such as the Boggly Woods or the Glitz Pit. You could even throw in locations from other Paper Mario games such as Shy Guy's Toybox or Shogun Studios. Hazards abound! Lightning and scaffolding can fall from above. Wooden cut-outs of props can fall over. A fog machine can make dense fog roll over the stage and make it difficult to see. You could even have the battle be invaded by challengers such as Clefts, X-Nauts, or even Hooktail herself! There is so much you could do to make this stage fun and chaotic.
82. Crateria [Metroid - Super Metroid][]
Planet Zebes is already represented by several stages in Smash, but what's one more? I think it's clear by now that I like the idea that Brawl started of having a select few stages look like they were pulled right out of games from the Arcades, NES, and SNES. Stages like 75m and Balloon Fight, but also other ideas I've had before like Underworld. Crateria is my nomination for a retro-styled stage from the Metroid games. It's the surface of Zebes and most importantly, there's no lava hazard.
As for where in Crateria to set the fight, my first thought is to set it at the Landing Site, however I feel like that would need to have some extra platforms brought in which would mean the retro stage isn't completely accurate anymore, but maybe that's okay. There are two big reasons in particular why I want this stage to be set outside on the surface of Zebes. The first is to use the acid rain of Zebes as a hazard. When it rains, anyone who isn't taking cover would be taking constant hits of small damage. The other reason is because I like the idea of seeing Samus' ship fly onto the stage and land. Players would be able to fight on top of Samus' ship for a short time providing a change in the topography of the stage before it flies off and disappears.
83. Greenhouse [Donkey Kong - Donkey Kong 3][]
Oh hey look, another idea for a retro-designed stage, but this time a bit more accurate and proper. Brawl already pulled 75m out of the original Donkey Kong, but why not dip back in the well of retro Donkey Kong? Any of the other levels from the original Donkey Kong would be simple enough to do, in fact I'm surprised Brawl gave us 75m instead of the more iconic 25m, but I've always liked the idea of skipping over to Donkey Kong 3 and making a stage out of the Greenhouse that serves as the game's setting.
A few years ago Jonno created an idea for this stage and put it on Smashtopia and I'd say it's pretty much perfect and is more or less what I would have come up with if I had designed it myself. Fighters would start out battling in the Blue Greenhouse and could jump up and down on different levels of a long platform. While fighting you'd have to avoid hazards such as Donkey Kong throwing coconuts and beehives around as well as bugs who can crawl across the screen. You'd even see Stanley jumping around at the bottom of the screen attacking DK as he protects the Greenhouse, but Stanley wouldn't be a hazard for the fighters. As the fight moves on the stage would transition into battling in the Yellow and Gray Greenhouses, before looping back to the Blue Greenhouse.
84. Team Star Base [Pokemon - Pokemon Scarlet/Violet][]
Every mainline Pokemon game, and a lot of the spinoffs, have at least one villainous team in them that serves to get in the player's way. So I'd like to have a stage that plays tribute to them. Out of the options, I feel like the best choices are either Team Skull's Po Town, the Aether Foundation, or Team Star's bases and personally I like the idea of battling at one of Team Star's ramshackle bases the best.
This was a stage idea I had a few years ago and I enjoyed putting it together. The stage would take place in the middle of any one of the five Team Star bases with fighters being able to battle on both the ground and the simple structures that make up the base. Each time you fight on the stage the base would be designed after one Team Star squads chosen randomly. The real kicker of why I like the Team Star Base as a stage over the other options is the Starmobile. I want to have the Starmobile crash into the stage to serve as a Stage Boss. The Starmobile would destroy all platforms on the stage when it appears and would have to be defeated in order for them to come back.
85. Venus Lighthouse [Golden Sun - Golden Sun][]
I played Golden Sun for the first time last year and now I'm currently playing the sequel. The four lighthouses are very important locations to the series and are iconic in their design so it makes since to use one of them for a Smash Bros stage. Why Venus specifically? It's the final dungeon of the first game. Simple enough. That, and it's what everyone else suggests and I don't feel like there is any particular justification for going with any other Lighthouse over it.
A Venus Lighthouse stage would need to be set on the very top. Theoretically you could start the battle on the ground and slowly make your way up through either transitions like Prism Tower does, or even vertical scrolling, but personally I'd just keep it simple and set the fight at the top. Platform arrangement is fairly simple with a two layered platform in the middle and two platforms off to the left and right. You could potentially have the tower below the platforms be solid like the buildings from Fourside even. I think an interesting hazard could be having the party members from the first two Golden Sun games using Psynergy to attack the stage and players. In fact, I think it'd be interesting if their attacks were kept to the various Utility Psynergy in the games to reference how very puzzle heavy the games are. Frost could create frozen pillars on the ground. Whirlwind could create tornadoes that deal damage before spitting you out. Pound could cause a fist to slam down onto the stage. Tremor could cause a screen-shaking earthquake that ends up causing damage and potentially tripping anyone who was on the ground at the time. Plenty of ideas.
86. Baby Bowser's Castle [Yoshi - Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island][]
A few updates ago I nominated Bowser's Castle as a stage for Smash. It's an obvious choice and I honestly do not know how it hasn't happened yet. Well, why don't we consider another one of Bowser's Castles? Specifically from his younger days when Kamek tried to kidnap a certain pair of babies. Baby Bowser's Castle, or “King Bowser's Castle” as it's called in the game, is the final level of the original Yoshi's Island. In it Yoshi has to fly past Skeleton Goonies, choose a door from a roulette, and then finally battle a giant-sized Baby Bowser who is destroying his own castle just to defeat Yoshi.
Part of me wants to try and figure out a way to convert the entire into one stage as like a horizontal scrolling/traveling hybrid stage. But I struggle to come up with a way to really make it work well. Maybe if you just focus on the room with the doors to transform the stage into something themed around what's in those doors and then after four you would go to the final chamber with Baby Bowser. Whether you utilize the door rooms or not, I definitely want this stage to feature the final boss chamber. The ground of the floor is all broken up and a giant Baby Bowser looms in the background. Baby Bowser would fire fireballs from the background at the stage to deal damage to fighters and destroy parts of the stage making it even more difficult to fight on.
87. Sarasaland [Super Mario - Super Mario Land][]
Sarasaland as a setting hasn't been seen in quite some time in the Mario games outside of cameos from a couple Wario games and Mario Kart World redesigning a couple tracks to give them Sarasaland flair. Largely the kingdom has only been seen in the original Super Mario Land when Mario set out to rescue Princess Daisy from Tatanga. But if we can get multiple stages all called Mushroom Kingdom, I think we can give a nod to the less experienced GB title and give Daisy her own personal home stage.
With its (various) Mushroom Kingdom stages, Smash likes to take design elements from a specific game and slap the Mushroom Kingdom name on it. It works for the most part since those games are all set in the Mushroom Kingdom and years ago I even followed the trend and made a Mushroom Kingdom III stage based on Super Mario Bros. 3. I think we could do the same thing with Sarasaland. Take a few design elements of platforms and background elements from Super Mario Land and mash them together with a new platform arrangement. I'd probably pull mostly from the Birabuto Kingdom and Easton Kingdom and make something out of their designs. And most importantly, keep the simple black and white color palette like the original game had.
88. Pac-House [Pac-Man - Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures][]
You know what's a game I enjoyed as a kid? Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures. It was one of several games that my grandma had on the Super Nintendo that we would play together. It's kinda like a point and click type of game. I remember when it was shown that Smash Wii U was getting a different Pac-Man stage than Pac-Maze and it *wasn't* from Pac-Man 2 I was pretty disappointed. So yeah, I want a stage to represent a game from my childhood and I'm choosing Pac-Man's actual house from the game because why not?
The stage would be set right in Pac-Man's front yard. So you'd see Pac-Man's house in the center and youd' b e able to fight on top of the roof. Off to the left is a large tree with Pac-Pellets in it. Maybe if you attack the tree you could cause the Pac-Pellets to fall and then eat them. Maybe you can pick them up and heal them for health or alternatively throw them at opponents since Pac-Man 2 had a mechanic where you would fire Pac-Pellets with a slingshot at the screen. Off to the right you would see some tables and barrels that could be fought on. Pac-Man's entire family, including his dog Chomp-Chomp could be seen on the stage either cheering the fighters on or just doing whatever it is that they would normally be doing at home.
89. A Child's Desk [Super Smash Bros - Super Smash Bros][]
The year is 1999. Super Smash Bros has just launched for the Nintendo 64. You start the game and a movie plays. A hand is grabbing toys and rearranging items on a desk to create a little fighting arena. And then... the battle begins! This stage, the first thing we see in the original Super Smash Bros game. This is what I want to become a stage. It would be such a fun tribute to the past to make the Child's Desk from the original opening movie into a place where we can actually battle.
How should the stage be designed? The movie already gives us the perfect layout. Just set us right on the desk with how the objects are aligned and we can battle around and on top of them. You could even have Master Hand fly onto the stage to introduce new things to put on the desk, or rearrange/remove existing objects to keep the stage dynamic.
90. Dragaux Stadium [Ring Fit - Ring Fit Adventure][]
Ring Fit Adventure was a *sensation* for Nintendo during Covid. Suddenly people couldn't go to the gym and had to stay home all day. But they could play Ring Fit Adventure and get a workout that way! I would be very surprised if the next Smash Bros game doesn't have some kind of representation from Ring Fit in it whether that's a Character, Stage, or Assist Trophy however is unknown. Originally I had the idea for some kind of Wii Fit Studio-esque dojo stage, but I couldn't find anything in Ring Fit that really matched the idea I had in my head. So instead I'm going to go with Dragaux Stadium, which is where you fight Dragaux.
Not every Dragaux Stadium is the same in Ring Fit, it has a different design each world so I think this stage would be a composite of ideas between the various Dragaux Stadiums. Additionally, considering how each level in Ring Fit has the player running down a track, I think this stage could be a “scrolling” stage, but one that scrolls into the background, kinda like how a small portion of the 3D Land stage works. Platforms, obstacles, or even enemies could “fly” into the stage from the background that you'd have to fight around and this continues until you get to the end of the stage where Dragaux awaits. Dragaux would then become a Stage Boss that has to be battled and defeated before the stage resets and goes back to the beginning.
Outro[]
And with that, we have another 10 stages in my 100 New Stages for Smash project, bringing us to 90! 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 tree of great importance, a simulated civilization, and a trail once walked by hundreds of thousands.