Chumly said:
Look harder then
Castle Seige -changing stage
WarioWare - just look at the pics
Pokemon Stadium 2 - Floor Morphs
Rumble Falls - Scrolling
Skyworld - Smaller crumbling platforms
We already have plenty of stages that are going to offer variety and besides theres still a shitton of stages that have yet to be revealed/are secret. Stop overacting...
To be honest, I agree with Dark Ninja. The stages shown are woefully lacking in topographical interest.
Castle Seige is a basic platform with two floating platforms...then it crumbles and turns into...platform with two floating platforms....
WarioWare is flat platform with two floating platform which jumps to minigames at times, which are flat platform areas
Pokemon Stadium 2...now this is one of the more interesting stages they've shown...but it is still a primary flat platform base at all times.
Rumble Falls....again, a stage with more interest, but heavily based on the scrolling gimmick...
Skyworld...one primary flat platform, with four floating platforms...yes, they do crumble, but the topography isn't changed a whole lot.
I think what Dark Ninja is getting at (and, really, what I feel is lacking so far) are levels that deliver a more interesting playfield without resorting to gimmicks. So far, there is nothing that matches any of the following stages:
Eagleland: Fourside
Lylat System: Venom
Lylat System: Corneria
Hyrule: Temple
Termina: Great Bay
Mushroom Kingdom II
Mushroom Kingdom: Princess Peach's Castle
None of these are based by a single flat platform, and most have vertical elements, either in stacks of platforms, or in actual vertical blocks (like the tower on Peach's Castle). Even stages like Hyrule Castle and Saffron City in the first Smash Bros. deliver more interesting playfields than seem to be the norm in Brawl.
I keep hoping it'll change, and, really it has improved since my first post on this topic...unfortunately, more of the improvement is in the addition of gimmick stages. Again, I really, really hope that this more battlefield-like approach to stage design isn't a result of Sakurai's drive to make the stages more 'fair' and 'balanced'.
So far, most SSBB-stages consist of a flying flat platform, while in the background a lot of stuff happens.
This needs to be emphasized.
Instead of fighting through an animal crossing town, on the roof of the museum, over a bridge, on the fountain, etc....we fight on a platform hovering in front of one.
Instead of fighting on the Halberd, from bow to stern (like we did on the Great Fox) we fight on a floating platform in front of it.
Instead of fighting in Skyworld, through its temples and over its ruins...we fight on floating platforms in front of them.
There have just been a lot of missed opportunities so far...but at least the stages will be guaranteed to be 'fair'. Though, I fail to see how a stage is fair to one player and unfair to another.