In the most recent parts of this series, I discussed how Pokémon and Metroid might adapt to a rebooted Smash Bros. roster, but with characters come stages. Such an important topic deserves to be discussed, so let's get to it! (As a quick aside, though, these stages would be reflective of the characters they correspond to, so I recommend reading the linked articles to familiarize yourself with the selections.)
Pikachu's stage would probably showcase the journey of a trainer with a stage that I would refer to as Gym Challenge. In this stage, you would travel around to the various gyms in the Kanto regions. Going in order, Brock's portion would be a simple stage with a Battlefield-like layout, Misty's gym would have deep pools of water on the ground that could KO careless players, Lt. Surge would showcase the infamous trash cans spaced out on the floor of the stage, Erika's portion would feature fighting in treetops high above the stage, Koga would scatter invisible platforms above the main stage, Sabrina would place warp pads around her section of the stage, Blaine's gym would offer trivia from machines on the floor of the stage, and the final gym, home of Giovanni, would be a flat, final destination, and the showdowns there would be reflective of the all-or-nothing clash near the end of Kanto's journey.
Epson's stage would be less complex, on the peak of Mt. Silver. Aside from simply being the final destination of Espeon's debut games, being Gold and Silver, but Espeon was also a part of Red's team in these games. (For context, Red was the protagonist of Red and Blue and the boss at Mt. Silver's peak.) The layout of the stage itself would be a sloped mountain, building up to a small, flat peak. On this peak, Red might send out one of his non-playable team members (namely the fully evolved Kanto starters and Snorlax) to challenge the fighters assembled on the mountain.
Grovyle would find himself more at home in Sootopolis City, which would be a stage divided by water into three parts: two on the sides, and one in front of the gym in the middle. The city is also in a sort of crater, and as such, the sides would have walls, making KOs in those directions impossible, and as a result, the combatants would be forced to either launch their foes upwards out of the crater, or downwards into the water.
Lucario's stage would be set at Sinnoh's focal point: the Spear Pillar. It would appear straightforward, with a platform that has pillars for the players to negotiate to reach opponents or use as a platform, but what would really make it unique would be the appearance of the region's legendary trio, any of which could show up over the course of a match. Dialga would rewind the match by about a minute, reversing any damage, KOs, and positions changed during the rewinded time, which could lead to dramatic reversals of fortune. Palkia would change the location and structure of the pillars, literally reshaping the battlefield. Finally, Giratina would temporarily bring the fight into the Distortion World, which features a completely different layout that is chaotic and disjointed.
Moving on to the Metroid stages, Samus would have Ceres Space Colony as her home stage. For those who don't know, Ceres Space Colony is the setting of Super Metroid's opening section. The stage would be split into two sections by the destroyed containment tube that once held the baby Metroid. Similar to the previously discussed Sootopolis City stage, it would block off launches in a certain direction. Unlike that stage, the blocked direction is up, so emphasis is put on horizontal launching as opposed to vertical launching.
Dark Samus had a harder time finding a home, though. I'm not too familiar with the Metroid Prime series (even though I heard it's good), so I'll just give an idea for a stage location that is rather tentative: the Temple Grounds that served as the hub world for Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. Perhaps the dark world would make for an interesting stage mechanic, with the stage switching between the two, but beyond that, I have no ideas.
Thank you for journeying with me through the worlds of these two franchises and how they would adapt into my reboot of the franchise. This vision is starting to come together, and you can be sure that I'll continue it to completion. I'll see you guys next time!
Read the previous parts: