It really is a slow day isn't it?
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Let's talk stages. I feel like often, stage discussion falls by the wayside and people do not talk about it much. It's a shame too, because stages are an important part of the fun of Smash. I overall liked the way that Ultimate handled it's stages. Giving all of them an HD makeover (save for the N64 ones) was certainly an uphill battle but I think it was great. I was elated to see so many of the best past stages come back. Magicant, Arena Ferox, Prism Tower, Spear Pillar, WarioWare Inc, Shadow Moses Island, Frigate Orpheon, Great Bay, Yoshi's Story, Fountain of Dreams, Pokemon Stadium, and Fourside get the HD makeovers they deserve was a treat.
I think the next game will have more original stages, even if we get a lot of these stages back. Part of this is just due to having more options. The dev team does not need to torture themselves over a small pool of options. Smash stages, arguably even more than the character choices, tend to tread towards what's new and hot. There wasn't much in that post Smash 4 to Ultimate Era of 2014-2016 to pull from for new Nintendo locations. They could have gone with older locations, but I don't know if we will see that for this game. Not only are there tons of options from the Switch era, but I also get the feeling that we won't see every first party franchise get one new stage. I think some franchises like Mother or F Zero might just stay with what they got in Ultimate.
A few things I would like for the next game are Small Battlefield forms, a better hazard toggle, and repurposing boss arenas into stages. Small Battlefield forms feel like a no brainer. People love Small Battlefield, and getting to play on it in all different hues would be a great touch. The latter two are more personal desires. I think the hazard toggle is a step in the right direction, but I wish that I could pick and choose what Hazards appear and don't for individual rulesets. I'd like to turn off certain stage transformations or hazards. Let me have Arena Ferox locked into the Statue layout. Let me have Wily Castle with its platforms but no Yellow Devil. Let me have moving platforms on Smashville , Yoshi's Story, and Fountain of Dreams in the same ruleset as hazards off Pokemon Stadium 2. As for the boss arenas, I think just making them quick and easy stages would be cool. Make them quick and easy extra stages since we are creating these custom areas from scratch.
With that aside, here is what I think would be cool/think is likely for the next Smash stage wise, starting with the first 10 series in Smash.
: Mario I think is pretty easy to choose new stages for. If you want me to be boring and say what's likely, we would get something from the newest 2D and 3D mario games. Right now I would go with Lake Lapcat and something from Super Mario Bros Wonder. Lake Lapcat in particular I think is a great stage setting that you can easily do a lot with. As for other stuff, if we get Geno we would get Forest Maze probably. I would love another Mario Kart stage and I think Bowser's Castle is at the top of the list. It's such an iconic location and I think at least having it be present in Mario Kart form is a worthy compromise. Maybe theme it off the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe version and have the giant robot Bowser's punches mess with the platform layout. Bringing back Rainbow Road would be great as well. We probably lost it due to it pulling assets from Mario Kart 7 and not being in 8, but now with it back in HD form maybe it has a chance?
: The rumors do state that there will be a new DK game "soon", but who knows at this point? Maybe Nintendo EPD isn't making the new DK game like the rumors say. If we get a new DK game in time, we are getting a stage from it. I would love for a new stage based on Tropical Freeze, but I do not know if it is really in the cards. Will they pull from a game that is going to be over 10 years old by the next Smash's release? If we did get one, I would go with Frozen Fruits. I think it is a very visually distinct area and the idea of springy platforms to bounce around on sounds fun. If we have to trend older, I guess you can make Gangplank Galleon a massive stage like Temple, we haven't gotten one of those in a while.
: Zelda I think is the easiest franchise to choose stages for out of these series. Great Sky Island feels like the Tears of the Kingdom stage to go for. You can turn it into this big playground of a stage similar to what we had in Tears of the Kingdom itself. We could use a few more of those absolutely massive stages. I think if you are going to pull another stage, the pick is probably Tal Tal Mountain from the Link's Awakening remake. It's the most recent mainline Zelda game to come out that does not have a stage.
: Dread has a ton of unique areas, you can go with any of them. While I would love Itorash, if we got one it would probably be Artaria. Make the EMMI's a stage hazard hunting for players, it feels like a layup. Prime 4 would also be a great spot to pull a stage from...if it was out.
: I did not play Crafted World, but you could just take Sunshine Station and turn it into a stage. Out of the areas in the game, it feels like a pretty easy one to make a stage for that would be visually distinct.
: There are two stages I had in mind for Kirby. The first is the Lor Starcutter from Return to Dreamland. I think if you want to do a 2D Kirby stage this is the pick. The other obvious contender is something from Return to Dreamland. I have seen people suggest plenty of stuff for this game, from the amusement park to Waddle Dee town. Personally, I would go with the Alive! Mall, considering it's aesthetic of a decaying, lost world.
: I think if you want to do a Star Fox stage, my preferred method is taking a page out of F Zero's playbook and have a throwback stage. Maybe theme it off of Star Fox 2 and have players fight on top of a couple of Arwings in that Super FX chip style.
: I am going to assume whatever the newest gen is gets in with a new stage, but I would not count Galar and Paldea out for stages. We got Unova Pokemon League in Smash 4, so I do not think its that out there for us to get 2 Pokemon stages even if we get 1 new pokemon. I think if you do a Galar stage, your options are either the Wild Area or the Energy Plant. Personally, I would go with the later due to it being more interesting visually. Having a stage set to the Darkest Day would be a cool design choice, especially if it gives players the option of an Eternatus boss fight in a story mode. As for Paldea, I think it has to be Area Zero. Area Zero is what Scarlet and Violet are building towards, and I think you can easily turn the twisted garden of eden like area into a fun stage.
: I think Mother is kind of hard to choose a new stage for, considering there isn't much to work with for new stuff. If we get a Mother stage, it is going to be an old school throwback like Magicant. I would go with Saturn Valley personally, but you could honestly pick and choose whatever. Maybe if Mother 3 comes to the west somehow, we will get a stage from it.
: Without a new F-Zero game on the horizon, I doubt we will see a new F-Zero stage unless they reuse the Mute City track from Mario Kart 8. We could easily see them pull off something fun involving that as a base, even if they just use it as a backdrop rather than make something like Mute City in Melee.
