Every Stage Missing From Smash Bros. Ultimate From Previous Games
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has the most stages in the history of the franchise, but some of the stages from older games didn't make the cut. There are over a hundred stages in the game and a further eleven can be acquired by purchasing the DLC characters. All but Piranha Plant in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate come included with their own stage.
The number of stages in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is staggering. Not only are there the base versions of the stage, but there are also Omega and Battlefield variants, which change the shape while retaining the same aesthetic and song choices. It's also possible to use the Stage Morph option to switch between stages mid-battle. There are also stages with different variants, such as the Super Mario Maker stage randomly adding new elements during play. It's also possible to switch Stage Hazards on and off, which saved the Wily Castle stage for many fans, as so many players hated the Yellow Devil enemy and how it dominated the field.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate featured every character from the history of the series, which also meant bringing back some of the stages that hadn't been seen in the series for years. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate brought back beloved stages like Saffron City, Fountain of Dreams, and Great Bay. Not all of the stages were able to return in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, due to them receiving upgraded versions in later games, being merged into different stages, or featuring mechanics that would have been difficult to implement into the game without conflicting with new features.
The Super Smash Bros. series has featured different iterations of the Battlefield and the Final Destination stages. Final Destination is totally flat, while Battlefield has three platforms. The versions that appeared in the original Super Smash Bros. were called Dual Zone and Master Hand's Residence, but they couldn't be accessed through normal means. Super Smash Bros. Melee made them playable and they became some of the most popular choices for competitive play, due to how they lacked stage hazards. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has a Small Battlefield, as well as its own versions of Battlefield and Final Destination, but there's no option to use versions that use the appearance of the older iterations of each stage.
There were only two stages from the original Super Smash Bros. that didn't make it into Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: Planet Zebes and Sector Z. These were the Metroid and Star Fox stages in the original Super Smash Bros. on Nintendo 64. They likely never returned because they were replaced, as Brinstar is a superior version of Planet Zebes and Corneria is a superior version of Sector Z.
The stages from Super Smash Bros. Melee that didn't make it into Super Smash Bros. Ultimate spanned multiple franchises. Not all franchises are among Nintendo's most popular, which may explain why they didn't make the cut for the most recent Smash game. Here are the ones that didn't appear:
- Icicle Mountain
- Super Mario's Mushroom Kingdom (Melee Version)
- Mute City
- Flat Zone
- Poké Floats
Icicle Mountain was an Ice Climber stage that involved quickly ascending or descending platforms, which was likely cut due to its annoying gimmick and bland appearance. Mute City is a standard F-Zero stage that involves dodging vehicles, which was likely cut due to sharing the same gimmick with other stages and there already being a Mute City SNES stage in the game. The Melee version of Mushroom Kingdom was likely cut because there are already four different Mushroom Kingdom stages in the game.
Flat Zone was combined with Flat Zone 2 and turned into Flat Zone X in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Super Smash Bros.' Poké Floats is the most surprising absentee stage from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, but it was likely cut due to having a moving stage gimmick. An updated version of Poké Floats with new Pokémon would have been an awesome addition to the game.
While not generally considered the best entry in the series, Super Smash Bros. Brawl is still an iconic part and introduced some key stages. However, three of these didn't end up making the cut for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. They are as follows:
- Flat Zone 2
- Pictochat
- Rumble Falls
Flat Zone 2 was combined with Flat Zone and turned into Flat Zone X in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. A lot of the elements of Pictochat were reused in Pictochat 2. Rumble Falls has the same issues as Icicle Mountain from Super Smash Bros. Melee, in that it has an annoying ascending/descending gimmick and isn't that interesting to look at.
These were a number of stages from Super Smash Bros. 3DS/Wii U that didn't make it into Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Said stages span from Donkey Kong to the Nintendo Miiverse and beyond. It was surprising to see several of the below not make the cut for the latest game:
- Jungle Hijinxs
- Miiverse
- Orbital Gate Assault
- Pac-Maze
- Pyrosphere
- Rainbow Road
- Wooly World
Jungle Hijinxs was a stage based on Donkey Kong Country Returns, which had a mechanic that involved firing characters into the background area of the stage. Miiverse was a stage that was connected to Nintendo's Miiverse social media site, where fan drawings would appear in the background. Miiverse was shut down in 2017, which explains why its stage was also cut. It was probably for the best that Miiverse was cut, as it was full of innuendos, as well as spoilers for any of the big movies and TV shows of the day.
Orbital Gate Assault was a complex Star Fox stage that featured different segments, similar to Sephiroth's stage in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Pac-Maze was a Pac-Man stage with a cool aesthetic and stage hazards from the original Pac-Man arcade game that surprisingly didn't make it into Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Pyrosphere was a Metroid: Other M stage that was likely cut for featuring Ridley as a stage hazard, as he was upgraded to playable character status in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Rainbow Road is based on the same track from Mario Kart 7 and it's unclear why it didn't make it into Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Wooly World was based on Yoshi's Wooly World and it had a transformation gimmick, and it may have been cut due to it interfering with the Stage Morph feature in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.