»»Two Level Ideas for The Next Smash Brothers...««
Assuming the next time we square off Mario and Pikachu isn't too radically different, I've got a couple ideas I've repeated all over the place. The first idea of mine, similar to SSBM's action stages, was with the Halberd from, I think, the greatest Kirby game yet: Kirby Superstar. With an extended version of the draw-in from the Revenge of Metaknight's first level
(direct link to the song here), the fighters start out high in the clouds atop a gigantic warp star. Nothing special about it. The star careens through the sky. As the clouds begin to clear, the Halberd appears in the horizon, way above Orange Ocean. The fight continues on the star as it careens directly at the ship! As the star approaches the front hull of the Halberd, a warning blinks on-screen (like before you get hit by a car in Onett) to get the fighters to jump before impact. Whoever is stll on the star when it slams into the ship gets instantly blown sky high. Everyone else that jumps will have their momentum carry them onto the outside of the ship. The screen will begin to crawl to the right as the fighters brawl on and the warp star takes off. Eventually, as Kirby enemies get in the way and try and interfere, the screen will reach Combo Cannon!
Now, the screen will stop scrolling and Combo Cannon will take over. the fighters can ignore it if they choose, but it'll be hard to. All of Combo Cannon's attacks will be in full effect, the laser will still be there, resulting in an instant kill if hit. You can duck under it, but there still is the one rising section of platform. There's still the hand that slams you against the ground. And the cannon will fire at opponents. But, inbetween smashing each other's faces, the combatants can attack and destroy Combo Cannon. Upon dieing, the ship will shake and Combo Cannon will flash red and explode, hurting anyone next to it, and destroying the entire deck. The fighters will fall down into the ship for a while until landing in front of Heavy Lobster.
In an area similar to KSS, Heavy Lobster will stalk the fighters and destroy whatever gets it in his way. The screen will also slowly scroll to the right with the robot, creating chaos as fighters try and save themselves while sending opponents into the walking behemoth. As this point, Heavy Lobster can be attacked, but not killed. The screen will continue to scroll until you get a clearing similar to where you
fought Heavy Lobster in KSS. Just as with Combo Cannon, you can ignore Heavy Lobster as it careens back and forth, trying to attack everyone. Or, you can find the time to attack it! All of the damage done to Heavy Lobster from earlier will come into play now, so it may be easier to kill. Upon dieing, Heavy Lobster will spaz out, giving time for everyone to scatter (or send opponents into the hazard) away from the imminent explosion, creating another hole below the fighters, plummeting them safely downward into the bottom of the ship, where you'll end up next to the Halberd's Reactor!
(Fighters would only be able to die here by either going up or left) Just like with the other three bosses, everyone can ignore the reactor, but it will attack everyone. At this point, the Halberd is starting to wobble a little in air and items may start bouncing around. The Reactor will have the same slew of attacks, like the giant, powerful, slow-moving blast and the shooting laser. And the rules will still apply from KSS; fighters would not be able to attack the Reactor directly and would be shocked if they tried to do so. Instead, the laser will still be the only way to deal damage to the reactor. This will be more annoying since you will have to be aware of who the laser is tracked onto and that person will have to aim the shot at the reactor, or let it happen with blind luck or a ricochet. After five or so hits, you guessed it, the reactor will explode and the ground will give out below you. However, this fall isn't so graceful. The ship is now falling from the sky, breaking apart around you. The screen will not scroll down very fast, so the fighters much jump around on the falling wreckage and fight it out until everything ends up in the ocean below. It's fairly close to shore, so the water isn't very deep, but from half of the screen to the right, you will die by jumping into the water as the shoreline drops immediately. Floating wreckage will provide ground as the fighters continue at it, but the hazard will be the ship above them, falling to the ground! Small wreckage will probably only do a little damage, but large (and I mean, like, an entire wing) will land onto the ground (warnings by shadows) and crush fighters to death. Eventually, the main husk of the ship will land behind everyone and the debris will stop fighting. The remainder of the brawl will carry on as normally at the beach with a little shore and the wreckage to fight on.
Okay, my second level idea, fighting atop the Skyrunner! The level starts off outside Dr. Andonuts' lab in Winters. Everyone fights as normal as Jeff and Andonuts wheel the Skyrunner out into the middle of playing field. They will wander around it, fixing it and such. The surface of the Skyrunner is slick, like the UFO in SSBM, but the rims of it have traction. Anyway, after a few minutes, the pair will finish and Jeff will climb inside from the front entrance, giving a thumbs up to Andonuts from one of the windows. The Skyrunner music will begin to fade in, building up for the takeoff. The Skyrunner will begin to shake and about a second or two before takeoff, a warning will flash on screen. Before the ship takes off (and the skyrunner will be very large to accommodate as an adequate fighting stage, about the size of Final Destination) its the fighters' duty to get onto the ship and keep everyone else off. When the Skyrunner takes off, the screen will scroll up with it, killing anyone that gets stuck back on the snow. The Skyrunner will take off high into the sky. The antennae in the middle of the ship is your only saving grace on this empty stage. As the Skyrunner flies around, at times it will slowly rotate midair, like a log in a river. After flying for a considerable amount of time, the antennae will begin to blink, in sync with the music, to alert for a descent. In true Skyrunner fashion, the ship will plummet down to the ground. The destination can be any of the popular Earthbound locales, from Summers, to Threed, to Twoson, to, well, anywhere. As the Skyrunner closes in on the ground, the camera will pan out and the screen will flash a warning for everyone to jump ship and avoid the explosion that the Skyrunner will make upon hitting the ground. As you may have guessed, anyone on the ship or very close to it when it hits ground will be taken out. A charred Jeff will also be ejected from the wreckage into the foreground. The new area and its surroundings will become the new battleground. As the war rages on, Jeff will eventually regain consciousness, clean himself off, and begin to repair the Skyrunner. Eventually, it will be back to its initial state and the process repeats.
