Most of us remember around the time of watching our first Melee tournaments, hearing the commentators talk about stage selection. A likely example being Joseph “Mang0” Marquez is down 0-1 against Juan “Hungrybox” Debiedma and is deciding what stage to bring the Jigglypuff player to fight on. You hear the commentators talking about how Mang0 will most likely be taking Hungrybox to Yoshi’s Story, and it turns out that they were right. The stage loads, and the familiar soothing sounds of Yoshi’s Story music starts to play, with a few added *blips* and lasers. But how did they know where the Fox would take Jigglypuff? How did they predict where the next match was going to take place?

In this article I’ll work to examine, and explain the differences found in the six diverse tournament legal stages in Melee. Not only will this article include information regarding basic and all-encompassing info about the stages, but also character specific fun-facts and tricks to get the edge on your opponent. Something important to remember is that while certain characters have advantages on certain stages, stage choice does NOT guarantee a victory and there is no objective right and wrong stage choice in tournament level play. It is an active case by case decision that you, the player, will need to make by analyzing how the other player performs.

How is my opponent excelling and taking stocks from me? Should I choose a smaller stage so he/she has less space to move around in and I can corner them? I’ve noticed the pressure of playing in tournament has gotten to my opponent, and they have been failing at sweet spotting their recoveries. Perhaps I should take them to Battlefield, where the ledges are awkward? The process for deciding where to take your opponent is much more than, “Oh, Fox is good on Yoshi’s Story because the ceiling is low which helps with getting stocks from Up Smash!” It is a conscious decision to be made based on your opponent specifically.

In addition, having knowledge about the stage’s quirks, blast zones, and platform heights will help you in your quest to beat your opponent swiftly and convincingly.

First up, Yoshi's Story

The smallest stage featured in Melee, Yoshi’s Story is compact and cramped. It has the same platform layout as Battlefield and Dreamland, but differs heavily from these stages in a few distinctive ways.

First is Yoshi’s Story's size. It is a tiny stage that heavily favors spacies (Fox and Falco) in a few key matchups. Yoshi’s Story has the smallest play area and the blast zones are very close to the stage. The floaty characters of the Smash cast tend to have troubles on this stage because they are likely to die at much lower percents. However, that doesn’t mean floaties (characters who have slow fall speed’s and are generally light) can’t succeed here. While it is easier for them to die here it is also easier to follow up combos, read tech options, and in some cases edgeguard. Less space = less options. However, this stage does favor the space animals with kill potential.

Because of this, Fox is able to take stocks from lighter characters like Jigglypuff, Luigi, and Pikachu with Up-throw + Up-Air combos and Up-Smash at low percents. Not only does Fox excel here, but also Falco. Due to the short distance between the stage and the platforms, Falco is able to follow up hits to extend his combo game and apply a lot of pressure on this stage. It is also the only stage that makes his infamous Shine->Shine->Shine combo reliably possible on floaty characters, killing them off the top at ridiculously low percents.

Something very unique to Yoshi’s Story is the moving cloud platform known as “Randall” that circles the stage. What few players actually know is that Randall is on a set timer and you can know his exact location at any moment during the game. In order to tell where Randall is or is going to be, you need to look at two things

First, the ten’s place on the timer and the one’s place. If the ten’s place is hosts an even number, Randall is on the left side of the stage, and if it is an odd number he is on the right.
Secondly, the one’s place represents when Randall is entering the stage and exiting as well. If the one’s place is 4, Randall is coming out of the stage. When it says 0, Randall is going into the stage. While not insanely crucial information, knowing this could be the deciding factor between recovering back onto stage and winning a close set.

The stage also features Shy Guys that will float around the stage periodically in groups of 1-6. They have hurt boxes so they can mess up combos and block projectiles, so watch out for them during play.

Yoshi’s Story can be a great counter pick if you’re looking to secure quick stocks and control center stage. However, if you struggle as a player on smaller stages and prefer the open space to move around and apply pressure in the neutral game, Yoshi’s Story might not be your best stage.

Next up, Fountain of Dreams

Fountain of Dreams is another smaller stage, but completely lacks any kind of stage hazard. Rather, “FoD” or Fountain of Dreams, has a similar platform layout to Yoshi’s Story but with one major difference. The platforms on either side of the stage change height throughout the match while the middle platform stays immobile. FoD has a very high ceiling blast zone for the stages small size, so it does not benefit Fox in the same way as it did on Yoshi’s Story. In fact, Fox, Falco, and Captain Falcon perform noticeably worse on this stage than the rest. Due to its small size, FoD makes most characters’ dash dance ineffective for approaching, and the varying heights of the platforms makes movement and combo follow ups for the previously stated characters difficult. It is a widely held opinion that FoD is Captain Falcon’s worst stage, however he still has some benefits here. His down-air stomp is long enough to reach players on the stage from the side platforms, knocking them upwards and in harm’s way of a knee.

FoD features a very high ceiling and fairly narrow side blast zones. This gives characters who are in danger of being killed of the top, who also have great horizontal recoveries, an advantage over the competition. Characters like Samus, Peach, and Pikachu all do quite well on this stage. Recovering back to stage is a breeze, and the addition of how deep this stages’ sides are helps Pikachu and Samus get back with sweet spot Up-B’s. Since the stage’s sides are so deep, wall-jump based recovery options are effective on FoD. Using this mix-up tactic for either daring edge guards or cheeky recoveries is much more effective here.

Samus specifically can tether from about any part of the side of the stage and make it back. She can even use her tether as far down as the column that holds the stage, wall-jump as soon as she tethers, and Up-B perfectly to the ledge. Pikachu has the freedom to dive insanely far down and secure edge guards on FoD and recover simply with accurate Up-B’s. All you need for proof is to watch game 3 of Axe’s Set against Silentwolf at EVO 2014.

Marth also performs quite well here with his large hitboxes which can control and deny a lot of space on the stage.

FoD will help you succeed if you play a character with large hitboxes that can take advantage of the low side platforms and have mostly horizontal based kill moves.

Arriving at Pokémon Stadium

Pokémon Stadium is hands down the most absurd stage in competitive Melee. It arguably shouldn’t be tournament legal, but it has become a fan favorite in the community and somehow has managed to stay legal. It is a counter pick only stage, not a neutral stage. This means it cannot be played to start out a set. A player must use their counter pick to bring this stage into a competitive set.

Stadium is a flat stage with two platforms, one on either side of the stage. The stage is quite long, making dash dancing and projectiles great tools to approach the opponent. Marth and Captain Falcon excel here due to their phenomenal dash dances. Falcon is able to follow up combos easily due to the space to run around in, and Marth’s up-tilt covers tech options of the platforms due to their height. Samus specifically can short hop and platform cancel her missiles on the platforms to pressure the other player with a barrage of missiles. Luigi can use the length of the stage to wave dash in and out with forward tilts and down smashes and follow up his hits with short hop N-airs.

Generally speaking, this stage is great for Fox due to Stadium having the second lowest ceiling in the competitive stage list. Fox can take out stocks at very early percents on the entire cast here with his finishers. Fox’s speed in tandem with his killing power makes Pokémon stadium almost broken for this character, with his advantages greatly outweighing any of the other benefits for other characters stated earlier.

Falco also dominates this stage with laser pressure, absolutely controlling the neutral game. With limited platforms to escape the pressure with, Falco becomes a strong character here with lasers adding up damage, and down-tilt getting kills off the top. He can also use forward smash to push opponents off stage to set up for down-air spikes. However, Stadium has thin ledges, and a miss placed Up-B recovery could have you trapped under the stage if not careful.

The reason behind Pokémon Stadium’s absurdity is its transformations. The first stage transformation begins at 6:54 on the clock in an 8-min competitive match. These are the four separate transformations:

Grass – Most tame and balanced transformation, only changes platform layout
Fire – Adds a tree in the middle of the stage which has a wall that can be wall-teched from strong hits
Water – Adds a large windmill with platforms attached which basically only serves to mess up combos
Rock – Adds a massive pit between two walls where very hype moments can occur

These transformations even buff Fox further because with the addition of walls, it gives Fox the tools to perform infinite drill-shine combos while keeping his opponent in place (Pikachu can also perform this with jabs, if quick enough).

Pokémon Stadium will help you win if you’re playing a character with a lot of killing potential off the top and a character with a good wave dash or dash dance game. While these attributes are not essential to win, having these tools in a character will undoubtedly give you an advantage.

Here comes Battlefield

Battlefield is the most balanced stage in Super Smash Bros. Melee, no question about it. It is often the first stage players will strike to in a tournament set. It has a very basic platform layout, and its blast zones are comfortably large which means less dying at low percents for the majority of the cast.

Something that is out of the ordinary with this stage however is its ledges. They’re awkward, very awkward. At times they don’t even seem to work as intended. Battlefield’s ledges are incredibly thin to begin with, making Up-B recoveries tricky if not perfected. Due to how far they protrude from the stage and how wonky the tend to be, Fox, Falco, and Marth can have issues when recovering to stage. Often, players can get stuck underneath the stage, leading to the loss of a stock. This also makes it hard for Samus to sweet spot her tether to the ledge because of its small surface area, making her Up-B a more reliable way to recover to stage. Jigglypuff doesn’t have to worry about this issue at all because her recovery is based in her jumps, and the difficulty other characters have in recovery passively buffs Jigglypuff in edgeguarding.

While Fox has a more difficult time recovering due to the wonky ledges and inability to angle the Fire Fox into the stage and wall ride the Up-B, he can recover form under the stage if skilled enough and positioned well. In a few tournament cases, players have been under the stage and perfectly angled the Fox Up-B and recovered back to stage. This is incredibly difficult and not particularly useful due to the infrequency of finding yourself in that situation, but it can be performed.

Fun Fact: Falco’s full hop platform cancels on the top platform of Battlefield and you can shoot a laser just before he passes through the stage to platform cancel that as well.

Battlefield is an all-around good stage for most every character is the cast and can be mastered with good movement and wave landing to make combo follow ups crisp and clean.

Let’s hear it for Marth’s hometown Final Destination

There really is not much to FD (Final Destination). It’s the longest stage in the game, and it has no platforms. Just an empty expanse to duke it out in the neutral or continue a string of combos. FD heavily favors characters who have chain grabs, projectiles, and a grounded neutral games. It is considered particularly bad for those characters who depend on platforms for approaching, combo follow ups, and defensive options. It’s widely considered Ice Climber’s best stage, and Marth’s best stage. IC’s (Ice Climbers) are able to wave dash in and out easily and start chain grabs and wobbles from punishable moves on shield, or whiffed grabs by the opponent. Coupled with their Ice block projectiles, they can apply pressure and find their ways into grabs much more easily on FD. Marth too dominates here on FD. In the spacie matchup, Marth can win an entire stock with a single grab. Marth has unreal chain grabs on the space animals that lead directly into kill set ups, that if skilled enough, can zero to death. Not only is Marth a Goliath in this matchup, but overall due to his range and grounded neutral game Marth has a much easier time punishing incoming attacks and getting the first hit.

Falco also does quite well here with his lasers shutting down a lot of approaching options for the opponent and keeping them locked where they are while applying damage. Fox can waveshine characters across the stage leading straight into up smash kills or up-throw + up-air combos, although less effective due to the height if the stage’s blast zones. Characters like Yoshi who depend upon shield drops and recovering to platforms struggle on this stage.

FD takes away vital options that some character’s recovery depends upon. Sheik and Captain Falcon’s recovery gets nerfed pretty hard due to the lack of platforms on stage. Both character’s landing lag from their Up-B’s take quite a while, enabling the other player to punish it when recovering to the stage. By grabbing ledge when these characters are trying to recover, you can force them to recover to stage, and punish them by hitting them back off stage if quick enough.

FD is going to help you win if you have good mix-up options, a strong grounded neutral game, and a grab that either leads to another grab or a kill set up.

And finally, Dreamland

Ah, Dreamland. Home to the floaty characters. Dreamland has an insanely high ceiling and massively wide blast zones that benefit almost every floaty character. Dreamland is a very large stage itself, giving players room to move around, dash dance, and throw out projectiles. Enabling them with a wide play space, floaties can live up to 200% on Dreamland in some cases. This normally occurs because in order to take a stock from most floaty characters, hits need to be strong enough to kill them with such wide blast zones. Couple this with good DI (Directional Influence), and taking out a floaty’s stock can be a pain.

Marth especially has troubles taking stocks on Dreamland without landing well-spaced tippers or lucky down-air spikes. Marth’s up-tilt also doesn’t reach the platforms so he has issues reacting to techs on them. Dreamland favors a slower and more methodical playstyle in the neutral over the fast paced combo pressure found on smaller stages. Peach, Jigglypuff, Gannon, and Samus all greatly benefit from this stage, both in survivability and playstyle. A tip for Samus: A full-hop weak missile will platform cancel automatically on Dreamland, and you can immediately drop through the platform to strong missile onto the stage. This throws out two good hitboxes toward a recovering opponent and they will have to react to it with their recovery move.

The center platform is considerably higher than any other platform in the game, making it a good position to retreat to when escaping pressure. Characters like Yoshi can wave land camp the top platform on Dreamland and stall out their opponent. Jigglypuff is at the liberty to go way off stage in order to complete an edge guard on Dreamland. This makes recovering for most of the cast a nightmare when playing against her. Captain Falcon benefits from the size of this stage with his combo follow ups, and also the heights of the platforms when recovering from off stage. It can be difficult for a slower character to react to him going to a platform rather than the stage or ledge. Ice Climbers have a very difficult time on Dreamland. The platforms are too high for them to reliably get to, Whispy can break apart a wobble when he’s active, and Fox and other quick characters can stall them out on the platforms. Dreamland is considered IC’s worst stage.

In the middle of the stage stands Whispy Woods, a boss enemy form the Kirby games. He himself is a stage hazard, using his breath to blow gusts of wind that push characters to the left or right side of the stage, messing up positioning and DI. He is not a serious hazard however, with his impact being quite unimportant in a competitive set.

Fun Fact: When Whispy blinks, some characters move animations glitch and incorrectly display the animations.

For floaty characters, Dreamland is a safe haven where stocks are lived longer and playstyles are slowed down to benefit them. It is a great counterpick for those floaty players looking to escape the combo driven lifestyle of smaller stages.

Conclusion

Well there it is, an analysis of each competitive stage in Melee. Use this information to your advantage in competitive sets and training sessions. There’s a lot more character specific tactics and statistics I did not go into that you can find online and through gameplay, but it is a good start to understand the stages that you’ll be playing on in melee.

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