I love the stages in Super Smash Bros.
In most traditional 2d fighters the choice of stage has no direct bearing on the outcome of the match, it’s merely a matter of which background you prefer. In Smash Bros the stages are distinct and dynamic. Even if you keep the characters the same, changing the stage can drastically alter how the fight plays out.
There are a variety of broad stage archetypes in Smash Bros. Arenas in the air where you can get thrown off the edge, walk-offs where straying too far gets you KOed, transforming stages where the entire layout can change, traveling stages that threaten to leave you behind if you linger too long, and moving stages that refuse to let you stay still.
Not even two stages in the same archetype are guaranteed to play similarly. The stages are like characters in themselves. Some demand that you play by their rules, some follow set patterns and reward attention to it, and some refuse to be the same between matches.
As a celebration of Nintendo’s vast library of games, stages also allow games to be represented even without a fighter. Electroplankton may not have a fighter, but the Hanenbow stage gives that obscure oddity a seat at the family gathering. Pilotwings is a game that doesn’t easily offer up a fighter to represent it in Smash, instead its planes serve as a battleground.
Then you have references to niche games covered by popular fighters. Wrecking Crew isn’t what people think of when they look at Mario, but the Wrecking Crew stage (and hammer items) call attention to it. The Tomodachi Life stage gives the game of the same name the spotlight in Smash Bros, while other Mii games such as Wii Ski remain in the background.
Stages also play host to a variety of characters who aren’t playable characters. Ridley may not have been on the roster in Super Smash Bros for Wii U, but the Pyrosphere stage is his domain, and he participates in every battle there. A fight in Pyrosphere is a game of tug of war, each fighter rushing to inflict enough damage to Ridley to earn his (temporary) allegiance, giving matches there a flow no other stage provides.
Similarly, if you’ve fought on Spear Pillar then you’ve most likely learned to fear Palkia and its ability to invert your controls. Speaking of fear, Gamer is all about evading the notice of 5-Volt as you duke it out. Those who don’t fear her enough to hide will quickly learn why they should. The various summons on Midgar turn what at first appears to be a clone of Battlefield into an entirely different kind of stage. These characters aren’t just hazards, they’re part of the cast.
Not only do stages add characters and entire games to the vast crossover of Smash, but some are even able to tell stories. For one example there is the Bridge of Eldin stage. To establish the context of the stage, in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess the bridge of Eldin plays host to a horseback fight against the recurring enemy King Bulbin. Later, the center part of the bridge is torn off by the villains, and the player must find that missing piece to repair the bridge.
Smash Bros adapts the location into a stage by combining all the major events. King Bulbin will disrupt any fight there by charging through and dealing damage to anyone who fails to get out of his way. During his charge he’ll drop a bomb that blows up the center part of the stage, leaving a large gap that must be crossed if players wish to reach the other side of the stage. Eventually, like in the game, a portal will appear to restore the bridge to how it was before.
In a traditional 2d fighting game these events would have to take place in the background. Smash Bros on the other hand is able to make it a key part of the fight, intertwining the story of the bridge of Eldin’s destruction and repair with the story of any fight that takes place on the stage.
While some stages tell stories in isolation, Smash Bros is also able to tell stories by lining them up in a certain order. Super Smash Bros Ultimate gave each character a unique sequence of matches for classic mode. A majority of the classic mode routes in Smash Ultimate are concerned with grouping fighters by themes or referencing a character’s original game, but Donkey Kong’s tells a basic story.
Donkey Kong’s classic mode route is titled ‘Journey to New Donk City,’ presenting the player with a clear goal. Players start in the jungle stages based on Donkey Kong Country and progress to increasingly urban environments, eventually reaching the final battle at New Donk City. There is no dialogue or narration of any kind, but there’s a consistent sense of progression merely from looking at the stage you’re fighting on.
For the first two battles the choice of opponent also plays into the story, with Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong training before taking on their enemy King K. Rool. After that however, the choice of opponent appears to be based on the stage, not on who would stand against the Kongs’ efforts to reach New Donk City.
Smash Bros’s classic mode has its roots in the arcade mode found in many other fighting games. In most arcade modes there is a story, but it is typically limited to an opening cutscene, ending cutscene, having the same final boss as others, and often a battle against your character’s designated rival with special dialogue. Every other fight tends to be either the same for every character (making the mode repetitive and downplaying the uniqueness of the cast), or randomized (which sacrifices cohesion for variety).
Even when the narrative framework of a tournament is present to justify random fights, they often feel like filler. Donkey Kong’s classic mode having a minimalist story with a consistent sense of progression is remarkable when put into the larger context of the fighting game genre as a whole, and it’s owed to the careful arrangement of stages.
While Smash may not be known for its storytelling, there’s also a lot that can be learned from it on the subject of narrative and fighting games, especially in regards to how stages are used as part of the narrative. And it’s interesting to think of where the series could go next in that regard.
For example, there could be a transforming stage where the transformations are triggered by characters completing a sort of sidequest, like gathering the musicians in New Donk City. Or a boss character could be designed to prioritize attacking certain fighters, with the fighters in question gaining a bigger reward for defeating the boss as compensation. Even with what’s already been accomplished, there’s still many ways new stages could play with the design philosophy of the series and push it to greater heights.
Stages are a fundamental part of Super Smash Bros, without their distinctive and dynamic nature the series would lose its identity. At the moment the exact future of Smash Bros isn’t entirely clear, Ultimate will prove difficult to follow up. Whatever direction the inevitable next game goes in, I hope to see more wild stages with stories to tell.
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