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Banned stages are stages that are banned from most mainstream tournaments. Stages can be banned for several reasons, including:

  • Providing an unfair advantage for certain characters (such as excessive camping or chain grabs)
  • Allowing players to abuse glitches in the game
  • Completely altering the strategies needed to win (such as Temple and Icicle Mountain)
  • Having a significant amount of slowdown during a match


Major differences in communities[]

There are many community preferences in terms of stage choices. For example, when Luigi's Mansion was banned on the East Coast, it was allowed on the West Coast. This is usually due to the characters used most often in the community. In the East, Meta Knight is the dominating choice. The East Coast is also well known for much smaller allowable stage lists than the West.

Banned stages in SSB[]

Banned in both singles and doubles
Stage Reason for Banning
Mushroom Kingdom Pipe camping; stalling; Random POW blocks.
Planet Zebes Acid (this stage is sometimes allowed in tournaments, it is semi-banned within the community).
Sector Z Overly large; Arwing lasers.
Yoshi's Island Cloud camping.
Hyrule Castle Camping, Tornado (singles, not banned in doubles).

Banned stages in SSBM[]

The stages listed below, marked with XX, are always banned.

Stage Banned in Reason for Banning
Singles Doubles
Big Blue XX XX Random terrain; scrolling stage.
Brinstar Depths XX XX No ledges to grab; stalling; "caves of life"; low ceiling favors Star KOs.
Flat Zone XX XX Randomness of falling materials; too small; no lower blast line.
Fountain of Dreams XX Significant slowdown during doubles play.
Fourside XX XX Uneven recovery potential; no large platforms for fighting; stalling; walls allow infinites.
Great Bay XX XX Camping; stalling; ceiling spikes many characters easily.
Green Greens XX XX Over-reliance on camping; bomb blocks disturb players; walls allow infinites; low ceiling favors Star KOs.
Icicle Mountain XX XX Randomly moving stage; significant advantage to characters with good jumps.
Kongo Jungle XX XX Small rock on the right enforces stalling.
Mushroom Kingdom I XX XX Completely irregular design.
Mushroom Kingdom II XX XX All fighting centers on small middle platform in singles; camping at blast zones.
Mute City XX XX Too small to accommodate doubles play as well as significant slowdown during doubles play.
Onett XX XX Cars can KO at low percents; walls allow infinites; no lower blast line.
Poke Floats XX XX Irregular terrain, scrolling stage.
Princess Peach's Castle XX XX Banzai Bill is a one-hit KO; walls allow infinites.
Hyrule: Temple XX XX Too large; over-reliance on teching; see here for more.
Venom XX XX Slowdown; walls; game-breaking stalling and camping potential.
Yoshi's Island N64 XX XX Camping and stalling on clouds; significant advantage to characters with good jumps.
Yoshi's Island (Pipes) XX XX Fox can waveshine most characters off the right side; "caves of life"; low ceiling favors Star KOs.

Banned Stages in SSBB[]

These stages listed below are always banned.

Stage Reason for Banning
75m Too large, stalling, random obsticles, fighting centers around top-right corner, diifficult to move around the stage.
Big Blue (Melee) Random terrain, scrolling stage, ground too close to the cars, gives a large advantage to faster moving characters, stage moves too fast.
Bridge of Eldin Potential for game-breaking camping/stalling, walk-off edges, bomb in center of stage.
Corneria (Melee) Extremely close blast lines, gives a big advantage for those with good vertical KO attacks, excessive camping/stalling behind the big fin, wall infinites.
Flat Zone 2 Randomness of falling materials, extremely small, variety of damaging stage hazards, no lower blast line.
Green Hill Zone Excessive camping near checkpoints, walk-off edges, blast lines are slightly close to the stage in which it makes it a little too small.
Hanenbow Highly irregular design, stalling potential, Sonic spin glitch.
Luigi's Mansion Ceiling of first floor can be exploited to survive longer or setup certain unescapable loops.
Mario Bros. Gameplay is vastly altered by stage enemies, ceilings, walk-off edges, no lower blast line.
Mario Circuit Potential for game-breaking camping, walk-off edges, damaging karts, no lower blast line.
Mushroomy Kingdom (1-1 and 1-2) Side-scrolling, stage moves too fast, underground's ceiling, ledges are grab-able.
New Pork City Overly large, stalling potential, camera refuses to zoom in, Ultimate Chimera.
Onett (Melee) Cars, walls interrupt attacks, very small size, no lower blast line.
Pirate Ship Easy to stall in the water or under the ship's rudder.
Port Town Aero Dive Randomly moving stage, cars KO at low percentages, cars difficult to see coming due to the colors.
Rumble Falls Gives overly large advantage to characters with large or multiple jumps, hurts those who rely on Tether Recoveries, first spike has One-hit KO potential, centers more on moving in the stage than fighting.
Shadow Moses Island Removes lower blast line, walls can block access to side blast lines, over-reliance on teching, walls allow infinites.
Skyworld No passable platforms; over-reliance on stage spikes; significant lag in doubles.
Spear Pillar Randomness of Pokémon attacks, excessive stalling potential, tunnel under stage similar to Temple's underground.
Summit Terrain is slippery, The Fish, ledges are not grabbable, Tether recoveries do not work.
Temple (Melee) Too large, stalling potential, over-reliance on teching, lower area with ceiling.
WarioWare, Inc. Over-reliance on random bonuses from Microgames.
Yoshi's Island (Melee) Blocks interrupt KOs, central pit blocks certain recoveries, blast lines very close to stage.

Banned Stages in SSBWU/3DS[]

These stages are allowed if the Omega Form is used. Otherwise, they are banned.

SSBWU[]

Stage Reason for Banning
75m Too large, stalling, random obstacles, fighting centers around top-right corner, difficult to move about stage.
Big Battlefield
Bridge of Eldin Walk-off edges, potential for game-breaking camping/stalling, bomb in center of the stage, King Bulblin.
Duck Hunt Characters who can’t reach the tree platforms without using an attack move that puts them in free-fall.
Coliseum Walk-off edges, random platforms.
Flat Zone X No lower blast line, very close vertical blast lines, variety of damaging stage hazards.
Gamer Potential for stalling, 5-Volt.
Garden of Hope Walk-off edges, potential for stalling, destructible platforms, Peckish Aristocrab.
Jungle Hijinxs Stalling potential, physics change in the background, shifting platforms, cannons.
Kalos Pokémon League Frequent occurrences of damaging Pokemon hazards and gameplay-altering changes to the stage.
Luigi's Mansion Ceiling of first floor can be exploited to survive longer or set up certain unescapable loops.
Mario Circuit Platform changes including walk-off edges at certain points and damaging karts.
Mario Circuit (Brawl) Potential for game-breaking camping, damaging karts, walk-off edges, no lower blast line.
Mario Galaxy Walk-off edges, no lower blast line, gravity pulls players toward the center of the stage.
Mushroom Kingdom U Frequent platform changes, damaging hazards, Nabbit.
Norfair Damaging and in some case unavoidable lava, potential for camping.
Onett Walk-off edges, no lower blast line, potential for camping/stalling, damaging cars.
Orbital Gate Assault Changing platforms, damaging hazards, very small Arwing platforms.
Pac-Land Moving stage, walk-off edges, few lower blast lines, potential for stalling/camping, repeatedly using hydrants to grow larger.
Palutena's Temple Incredibly large stage, potential for severe camping/stalling, damaging hazards.
Port Town Aero Dive Changing platforms, damaging track and cars.
Pyrosphere Ridley.
Skyloft Shifting platforms, some of which have walk-off edges and no lower blast line.
Skyworld No passable platforms, over-reliance on stage spikes, significant lag in doubles.
Super Mario Maker Random stage layout, hazards.
Temple Too large, stalling potential, over-reliance lower area with ceiling.
The Great Cave Offensive Much too large, most blast lines are hard to reach, many ceilings, walk-off edges, potential for game-breaking stalling/camping, cannons, damaging hazards and Danger Zones, over-reliance on Danger Zones to KO.
Wii Fit Studio Walk-off edges, no lower blast lines.
Windy Hill Zone Too large, windmill goes past blast zone.
Woolly World Walk-off edges, no lower blast lines on some phases, changing platforms, lack of ledges in sky area.
Wrecking Crew Potential for stalling/camping, trapping barrel.
Wuhu Island Some platforms have walk-off edges and no lower blast lines, damaging hazards, Ness Insta-Kill Glitch.
Yoshi's Island (Melee) Walk-off edges, blocks interrupt KOs, central pit blocks certain recoveries, blast lines very close to stage.

SSB3DS[]

Stage Reason for Banning
3D Land Moving stage, walk-off edges, damaging hazards.
Balloon Fight Lack of vertical blast lines, Flippers, the Fish, potential for game-breaking stalling.
Brinstar Darkness, damaging acid.
Corneria Close blast lines, potential for camping/stalling, blasters.
Distant Planet Walk-off edges, rain, potential for stalling, Red Bulborb.
Dream Land Blast lines are too close, scrolling stage, no lower blast lines in some areas.
Find Mii Dark Emperor.
Flat Zone 2 No lower blast line, very close vertical blast lines, variety of damaging stage hazards.
Gerudo Valley Potential for camping/stalling, walk-off edges, collapsible bridge, Koume and Kotake.
Golden Plains Scrolling stage, emphasis on coin powerups.
Green Hill Zone Walk-off edges, windmill hazards.
Jungle Japes Water instantly carries players off the stage, Klaptraps.
Living Room Potential for camping, random stage layout, falling blocks.
Magicant Flying Men.
Mushroomy Kingdom Scrolling stage, walk-off edges, low ceiling, ledges not grabbable, small pits nullify some recoveries.
Mute City Too small to accommodate doubles play as well as significant slowdown during doubles play.
Pac-Maze Ghost hazards.
Paper Mario Bowser's Sky Castle has rotating and difficult to grab platforms.
PictoChat 2 Stage changes at various times, damaging stage hazards.
Rainbow Road Shy Guy Kart hazards.
Spirit Train Armored Trains can push the stage halfway-into the rightwards blast line, no lower blast lines, stage changes at various times, damaging hazards.
WarioWare, Inc. Over-reliance on random bonuses from Microgames, some damaging microgame hazards.

See also[]

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