An Up-Close Look at Smash Bros. Stages [Graphics]

This time, we'll take a tour through several stages from Smash Bros. Ultimate.
As I expressed in my most recent Effects video, examining the assets that made it into the game will help explain things better than any presentation I could give.
Visual Effects in Slow Motion [Effects]
• Visual Effects in Slow...

[@syrindigo26]

Sometimes I forget how unreal it is that smash bros is even a real game that we all get to play together. Just incredible.

[@5gods]

We truly are Smash Brothers 🌎 (&sisters)

[@wingedbluj1674]

What I love about Umbra Clock Tower is the fact the clock matches your system's time.

[@Swooplind]

I never even noticed that before, that is on an incredible level of Detail.

[@cyandeoidre2375]

Wait….WHAT

[@fuegosonic93]

Also the clocks from Animal Crossing stages and Dracula's Castle.

[@Aereto]

Biggest one being KK Slider / Totakeke showing up exclusively in Saturday nights

[@chrisbeach423]

@@Aereto he’s been doing that since the Brawl days IIRC

[@SapphireDuke92]

Much respect to the staff for having to manage a wide range of styles and effects to make these worlds fit in with the rest of Smash.

[@corbinbelle8082]

The Stages are always one of my favorite part of Smash. It’s always like that Character is in that games’s world. I also like the small details on some stages.

[@jack.h99]

It gives characters an opportunity to be included in the game that would have no chance of being a fighter or assist trophy.

[@TheRealRidley12]

Same. Don't forget the remixed tracks. Spirit Tracks' Overworld is one of my favorites from Smash Ultimate.

[@toonpik7]

Me too. Literally every stage is so full of detail and references to the games they’re from. Minecraft World for example has different biomes, day/night system with different mobs appearing, villagers doing their tasks and sleeping at night, etc. There’s just nothing like Sakurai’s eye for detail.

[@BulbaWhat98]

I love how Heihachi got up right when the walls and ceiling fell. Like he was thinking "Alright, who did it this time?"

[@HoroJoga]

I thought Sakurai would go in-depth in some stages talking about how they are different from the original game counterparts. It would make a nice video.

[@benji6325]

Kinda thought so too until I remembered there are over 100 stages to go over and Sakurai likes to keep his videos relatively short

[@iantaakalla8180]

Maybe he could do one that is simple and beloved, like omega/final destination Dreamland stage?

[@dashmaster_sav098]

@@benji6325 yeah like this video is already 17 minutes. imagine a whole indepth description for each...

[@Spybreak001]

@@dashmaster_sav098 He could do a 20 hour video essay on each stage and I'd still binge watch the whole thing.

[@ConManAU]

I’d especially love to see that for games like Mother/Earthbound where they extrapolated some very complicated modern designs out of very basic 16-bit origins.

[@Mrnotpib]

7:08 I always loved the “diorama” look some of the stages in Smash Ultimate. They look as if you could own actual physical playsets of them. It’s a game you “play” so they look like toys.

[@pigeonleader]

That's cool especially how in Smash 64 the characters were dolls and after that they were trophies

[@gv82089]

Though in this case I assume is just to match the aesthetic of the source material

[@toonpik7]

@@gv82089 Depends, some stages are more close to source material, but others are more like dioramas. The old N64 stages look nothing like the games they come from, and an even more modern example is Mementos from P5. Looks more like a diorama inspired by Persona 5’s aesthetic rather than looking like something directly from the game.

[@PassTheSnails]

Let’s appreciate just how insane the Smashville stage is. Morning/Day/Sundown/Night cycle Some of the best smash original remixes period KK slider performs on the stage on saturday nights, just like in the game, bringing even more great animal crossing music forward The sheer detail in the background including all the random villagers and characters that watch you fight AND to top it all off it’s been tournament legal this whole time, meaning you can play on it even if you’re trying to play sweaty. Its a PERFECT stage

[@FedoraKirb]

It’s incredible how natural most of these platforms look in the context of their world (like the Starfox stages, Castle Siege, Onett). It feels like there’s a whole other game happening outside of the fight you can see, and the battle has carved its own little portion of the game world. I think 2.5D games in general could use more of this kind of design (though maybe not to the scale of Smash Bros. for the sake of practicality) Kirby 64, Kirby: Planet Robobot, and Yoshi’s Crafted World do this really well imo.

[@matthewjones6786]

The recent Donkey Kongs did a great job of that too, the added context really brings new life to traditional platforming elements. I'd love to see it utilized more in future mainline 2D Marios!

[@geschnitztekiste4111]

@@matthewjones6786 Yeah fr, Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze especially just blows everything else out of the water tbh

[@jclkaytwo]

no 2.5D game does this style as well as DKC tropical freeze.

[@philipmurphy2]

Masahiro Sakurai captures the vibes of the Smash Bros and other games stages so accurately in this video.

[@squirolz]

It almost seems as if he designed the game himself!

[@Vadikus2424]

Ikr, i can't believe that he's just a content creator

[@bluebaron6811]

I love how there are small details on every stage. For example, on Unova Pokémon League, that 'red font' on the side of the stage are actually the Abyssal Ruins' sigils.

[@philipmurphy2]

@@Vadikus2424 Think Masahiro Sakurai owns his own gaming company now, That or part of a independent thing from Nintendo.

[@MegaKirbySuperstar]

Some of the stages themselves look like a whole playable stage in their series haha. Feels like in another game you can explore them for real.

[@waffleman8053]

Stages like Delfeno Plaza, Skyloft, Onett, Spiral Mountain, and Hollow Baston make me want to stop fighting and explore.

[@Zanador]

In a lot of cases they literally are. When this video shows Hollow Bastion's background you can see that it is exactly the layout of the actual Hollow Bastion exterior from KH1, including all the switches and elevators and secrets and everything.

[@prestonandtom9337]

​@@waffleman8053 Which is like 90% of the stages.

[@MarcelE80]

With that introduction I was hoping for him to show the streaming of assets, polycount budgets and shader tricks, but a closer look at the stages from different angles are also nice

[@masterofdoom5000]

Same, I appreciate the zoom in but.....the game already has a pause screen where you are pretty free to look around. I wanna see the actual TECH that got all this working 60fps with 8 players like he mentioned.

[@MarcelE80]

@@masterofdoom5000 Yeah exactly!

[@ConcavePgons]

@@masterofdoom5000 I did notice the trees in the Spirit Tracks stage were in the "Draw the Light, Not the Asset" video. I think one of the ways they keep a high framerate is by having their artists vary the color/hues or visual filters on easy to render assets to make convincing "lighting" without using too much processing power.

[@toonpik7]

@@ConcavePgons Yep, baked lighting meaning natural looking lighting is done by artists directly on textures instead of using the actual lighting system. It’s a lot of work on the artist’s side but it looks better and uses less gpu resources. The art in Smash Bros and Nintendo games in general is so amazing to behold. I feel like a lot of other big AAA games rely too much on the real time lighting and look decent but samey and kinda bland as a result.

[@TheSmart-CasualGamer]

It feels odd to see a video like this come from the man who dreamt up the series in the first place. This is like a highly advanced version of one of those fan compilation edits from when Ultimate first released!

[@icedcapplord710]

The coolest thing about Smash's breadth of stages is that they capture so many disparate art styles and tones due to originating from so many different franchises, and yet they are translated perfectly to Smash's aesthetics and don't clash with the characters. Favorites in Ultimate are probably Mementos, Northern Crater, Mishima Dojo, Great Fountain, New Donk City, Hollow Bastion, Dracula's Castle, Brinstar Depths, Great Plateau Tower, Garreg Mach Monastery and King of Fighters Stadium

[@RjArchive]

6:17 The first thing I thought when I heard the song was Giorno's Theme but it's EPIC VERSION Jesus, both songs start the same!

[@Akfamilyhome]

"I'm Masahiro Sakurai, director of Sora Ltd., and welcome to another episode of Boundary Break, where we basically take the camera anywhere we want"

[@eduardod14s]

It's crazy how they are so detailed and still runs well

[@Keanine]

And they all fit on that tiny cartridge!

[@ExperiencersInternational]

@@Keanine tbh though, SD cards go up to 1TB

[@Keanine]

@@ExperiencersInternational Fair point

[@dometalican1990]

Yeah, Pokemon should take notes ...

[@TheDerpyDolphin]

@@dometalican1990 yes but that would require effort, something Game Freak rarely uses

[@NukeA6]

This is the first time I'm really noticing the backgrounds of these stages that I just never did through all the chaotic action. So much detail and life was put into it as if they really are places I could interact with the characters if not limited to the game's battlefields. And the interiors (i.e. Luigi's Mansion) are amazing.

[@javeman]

It'll never cease to amaze me how much passion and care went into this game.

[@Apologetic_3]

6:01 I never noticed that the Figure-8 Circuit stage was actually a Figure-8 Circuit!

[@jack.h99]

The sheer volume of high quality stages in this game is insane. Sakurai is a legend for taking all the characters, game worlds, and artstyles and making it all look that good together.

[@VeritasUnae]

What an incredible suite of stages. Each one feels so packed full of expression and love while also being highly technical feats. What an accomplishment!

[@teenagesteveminecraft]

They aren't so technical feats as they are creative feats! The smash stages may look massive and cool, but there is a lot of 3d art tricks that went into it to make the technical side way, WAY easier for the switch :) There is a video on yt that goes into some of the level design tricks they used to enable smash to have terrific performance while still looking stellar!

[@Orpheolus]

Looking at these stages, you can see the attention to detail in the background, like seeing Gerudo Fortress in the Gerudo Valley stage, how much onette looks like an actual Earthbound town at a different angle, and fine details you normally don't look at since, well, you have a fighter or few coming at you.

[@bluebaron6811]

It's also cool how accurate Delfino Plaza was made to the original.

[@Triforce_of_Doom]

Yeah I legit never caught the fortress in the background when actually fighting on Gerudo Valley or the fact the team put the Epona archery minigame's targets in the upper right cliff

[@Brods11]

Wow, what a long video. So nice to see some Stages up-close. Shame we didn’t get to see some other Stages like Spiral Mountain, but oh well.😄 8:07 Also, nice callback to Ken’s Reveal Trailer in Smash Ultimate. (Along with Incineroar of course.)

[@itsMKiAM]

Same, I was fully expecting Spiral Mountain. I think one of the reasons it wasn’t shown is that some people might not be receptive to the idea that they had to dynamically increase/decrease Gruntilda’s size in order to get her flying by the player more often. If they revealed that, it might throw off the illusion. I think it’s a nice touch.

[@MexicanSheepMan]

To be fair they did show us a fair amount of close-up details about Spiral Mountain in the Banjo presentation already, so it might have been that they didn't know what else to show.

[@goranisacson2502]

Ah, so they DID pass over Spiral Mountain- I was wondering whether I just wasn't paying attention or uf it was skipped over.

[@zanok7796]

I'm impressed that this encyclopedia game exists

[@toonpik7]

Really good way to put it. The fact that by owning this game you own hundreds of amazing songs from games is also awesome.

[@anomaly395]

It really does feel like you own a small fraction of each game with all the songs and the accuracy of everything lol

[@Rapboy89]

Just amazing at all the work put into these stages! I wish Spiral Mountain was featured in this too. The amount of details that Sakurai put in from Banjo-Kazooie made me happy, especially since it was a rotating stage too. Seeing the likes of Banjo's house to Gruntilda's Lair entrance was awesome!

[@lonestarrarchived9987]

the amount of lore in each level design is insane, great angles as well. Very atmospheric & captivating!

[@akaimizu1]

One thing this reveals to me is that quite a few of the stages render way more of the stage in 3d, for much further distance than I first thought. Add in the fact they are made to seemingly store 2 of them at once due to the whole stage morph capability. Except Skyloft. I already knew they pretty much rendered the full outside town of Skyloft to pretty much every conceivable detail.

[@toonpik7]

Yup, it has to render way more than you can actually see so that you never see the environment “end” no matter how much the camera moves.

[@astr0sauce]

i love sakurai acting like he doesn’t know the exact number of stages. you just know he knows every single detail like that.

[@joeyalbert_]

Let's not forget how much work had to be done for Steve to work on these stages as well. Amazing!

[@SaviorGabriel]

It never ceases to amaze me how much really goes into these games, and we're so grateful for it. No one else comes close to what Super Smash Bros. has.

[@ryancurtis5425]

There really is a lot of heart and soul put into these stages.

[@COBOL]

What an incredible showcase of attention to detail, passion and technical prodigy! Amazing!

[@GamesbiteRtDL]

I think Fountain of Dreams is the most beautiful stage ever made

[@GamEntertain]

As a smash bros fan I have a lot of respect for Sakurai & his team as A Sonic fan I need to talk to him...

[@toonpik7]

True lmao, the most notable part of Sonic being in the game is all the fun music with vocals from his games.

[@TheSmart-CasualGamer]

Aren't Sonic's costumes really naff as Sega said that they HAVE TO be blue? I've always thought that was an odd restriction.

[@anomaly395]

Perhaps Sega may be a little to blame as well since they were the ones who had to tell him on how to represent Sonic.

[@awesomecats]

These stages are honestly so spot on that they give me nostalgia chills when I see them haha. They're so spot on with details it's just nuts.

[@fiercelonk8641]

Mr. Sakurai, I'm planning on going to college to study game design as soon as I finish my senior year, and I just wanna say how much I appreciate all you're shared with us. You've been one of my biggest influences in deciding to pursue it and I've sorta seen you as a teacher through it as well. So all in all, just wanna say thanks for being such a great guy.

[@JinGitaxias]

I think it would be fun to hear you talk about specific things in these stages. Lessons learned, things you're happy with, things that were difficult to implement etc

[@AlonsoxPM]

The atention to detail just shows how much passion was put into this game

[@roccobot]

1:43 I'm a simple person. The Zelda theme drops, I begin to cry

[@JustCrazyDK]

16:37 Always a classic from the Kazuya presentation.

[@RangoTheMercenary]

Fountain of Dreams, Mario Galaxy, Dracula's Castle, Magicant, Find Mii, and Hollow Bastion have some of my favorite aesthetics. Northern Cave and The King of Fighters Stadium are also two of my favorite new stages.

[@alejjtheninja5803]

Ho-LY, the level of detail in some of these stages is _insane,_ I never realised how impressive this is! Like, Bridge of Eldwin, Castle Siege, _Yggdrasil's Altar?!_ Good _Lord,_ Smash team.

[@chrispork1443]

Bridge of Eldin in Ultimate is what I think most fans wanted Twilight Princess HD to look like.

[@ConcavePgons]

That Wii U tech demo was such a tease back when E3 was around.

[@kantackistan]

This is exactly the kind of video I wanted to see! Close up Stages are beautiful

[@natogaia3502]

It's the microscopic details that have me in awe. Things you would need to abuse the zoom and rotate functions to see. Sometimes I wonder if it's worth it to be so detailed because there is a percentage of people (including me) who go through all the Smash games without dissecting them. But as soon as somebody reveals them, then yes, those details are definitely worth it👌🏽

[@quintonconoly]

The amount of detail I’ve never noticed is insane. So much work was put into this game.

[@Trimint123]

Probably the longest video Sakurai has ever made so far, and it's about Smash Bros! And yeah, these stages really great for the system it was at. So many details that you wouldn't see in regular gameplay. I remember during a fake Smash leak videos that people thought that they couldn't do real-time shadow, and well, the Smash Team literally proven them wrong.

[@Tman64DD]

Smash Bros. Ultimate is such a phenomenal game, you can tell everyone working on it really gave it their all. Thank you to the developers and artists for all your hard work!

[@jacksonlovesnintendo]

This feels like a travel brochure/ad for each of these places haha

[@adithya260]

A single stage in Smash Bros has more going on than all stages in most platform fighters combined.

[@MentalLiberation]

Such a beautiful collection of stages. Such a master stroke of gaming excellence. Thank you Mr. Sakurai, for all you and your employees' hard work and tireless dedication

[@Loto974]

Mario Circuit from MK8 is a piece of art. We're racing of a freaking Möbius strip, that's insane!

[@Jaxdaily1]

they capture the vibes of all the stages so accurately!

[@mkrudesign4036]

Smash ultimate is a blessing. It really ranks as my favorite game of all time, not just for how much fun it is, but how well it incorporates all of my fondest gaming memories so beautifully into a single package. Just viewing all these worlds so wonderfully rendered with their accompanying music made me well up with emotion. Thank you so much for this gift, Sakurai and team.

[@0utrunner237]

Now that I'm actually seeing all the stages up close I see a lot of the little details I never noticed before, like Cranky Kong in Kongo Falls or that Mute City is based off the REAL Mute City from the SNES!! It's cool seeing all these easter eggs that no one knew about before now!

[@guguig9746]

Stages are a huge part of the fun! I like all the happenings that you can spot if you pay attention

[@Ekgladiator]

Not only is this a good video to show visual details, it is also a highlight for how good the smash soundtrack is!

[@extremmefan7305]

6:43 UNOVA MY BELOVED.

[@GabeV12]

Hollow Bastion being such a faithful recreation of the KH1 world right down to the lifts and their rail patterns (even the movement patterns for the ice platforms in Rising Falls!) will never not amaze me. Same thing goes for Delfino Plaza, honestly.

[@ARDIZsq]

Man, some of these shots genuinely feel like cutscenes from HD versions of the games, or even just shots from a movie. Those shots of the Halberd for example? Perfection.

[@ricksalas9507]

This symultaneously showcases the game's amazing music selection. What love and passion. A league all its own in the industry. ...I'm really curious what prevents Banjo & Kazooie from showing up in these that nonetheless allows for Steve, Cloud and Sora.

[@A_chocolate_bar_review_channel]

I wish other game devs would take note. I'd love to see this type of content from some of my other favorite game makers from past and present.

[@appaccount7203]

One of the best channels on KZbin. So much love for this man, managed to implement some of his practical advice in my first ever steam release!

[@Eichro]

the detail on norfair's background always impressed me, it's really just shaped as a chunk of a super metroid map

[@kirbythe64]

Fountain of Dreams is one of the most beautiful locations in a video game

[@MiysteryMisty]

I did not realise just how cool Lylat Cruise is.

[@TheMack625]

The stages really are an art form. Ultimate features some of the most stunning aesthetics in all the Smash series. Magnificent!

[@Link-ho8yq]

I was inspired to play Earthbound by the various references in Melee, and finally understanding all the references in the Onett stage, this stage is magnificently built.

[@matthewjones6786]

Everyone has that one stage that's so specific, they must've made it just for you. For me, that's the Reset Bomb Forest. I will never forget the chilling, truly epic moments of flying over the battling mortal armies, only for Viridi to _nuke them all with nature._ It really put into perspective what kind of power the immortals have, and how great Pit's task is of subduing them. And what a creative way to do it! For this to be perfectly represented in a stage, in my favorite fighting game of all time? That means a lot to me. AAAH I LOVE SMASH!

[@enchilada1792]

Bro I can't believe they skipped Spiral Mountain and Northern Cave! 😭

[@catluvr2]

I felt like this was a release trailer all over again. Also, it looked like some stages might not function properly without fighters on them, such as the WarioWare minigames stage and the boxing ring. It was also cool to see that the fighter defaults to Mario on the Pictochat stage.

[@budgetcoinhunter]

Very interesting how the polygons for the exhaust on the back of the main platform in Lylat Cruise is totally flat and not made into a billboard so it would always face the camera.

[@Oreedus]

I really appreciate and still enjoy everything you've done even today. Thank you and your amazing staff so much!

[@gluGPU]

The clip of the Kid Icarus stage really gave me a good idea of how to create a vast sea of clouds in an engine which doesn’t support volumetric fog / clouds. Can’t believe I didn’t think of it before but it has really great results

[@Deker_Abbadon]

Sometimes as a player you dont paid attentions to the details but when you realise how are the stages modeled you appreciate more the Devs work. Thank you!

[@shawnheatherly]

Thank you for this look, it's beyond impressive how much detail they have.

[@luisreyes1963]

It's a virtual universe inside of SSBU. Each stage with a unique design to match the characters.

[@Bakanaben2]

I am glad I get a chance to see some of the stages that the creators poured so much time and effort to make, especially the upgrading of the Melee stages and, possibly, the Brawl stages. Cheers to Masahiro Sakurai and his team!

[@thecunninlynguist]

my personal faves are Midgar, New Pork City, Drac's castle

[@PantaroParatroopa]

So much detail is put into Smash's stages, that it gives me a strong urge to wonder what it would be like to explore them in a format with more three-dimensional movement options. Y'know, aside from the ones that already are completely explorable in a 3D format, like Delfino Plaza and Skyloft.

[@Dante...]

This feels like an episode of boundary break.

[@newgameld2512]

I kinda find it mildly amusing in Big Blue how the background keeps scrolling forward when you're on the loop-de-loop.

[@hunterjulian98]

Still surreal seeing Hollow Bastion at the end

[@lastnamefirstname8655]

so cool! so amazing! thanks for the up-close look at smash bros. stages, sakurai!

[@lionheart4424]

This is such a treat for every gamer out there. Sakurai's teams simply have no match wheb it comes to presentation and details. Thanks to every artist, programmer and everyone involved in creating these beautiful stages.

[@TaleOfTheToaster]

Expecting to get halfway through and then Sakurai shows us “Poké Floats (cut from final build)”

[@Octobeann]

It's still kinda crazy how much of Onett is fully modelled even though you don't even get to see most of it in game.

[@DauntlessBlade___]

I sometimes forget how incredible these stages are. They look straight out of the games!

[@jackbrotwin]

スーパーマリオありがとう！これらのステージは見栄えがよく、実際に非常にうまく詳細に説明されています

[@Fantasygod930]

The team that did the stages that excellent job 10/10

[@captainnoyaux]

the artstyle is so nice, it's good to take some time to enjoy it

[@wanderfrog]

This showcase makes me appreciate smash even more. There is so much attention to detail!

[@johnboling7426]

Incredible how much detail went into these stages

[@NintendoFan214]

These stages are so full of details that it's impossible to catch everything in just one watch 🤯

[@overdoseproductions9011]

How amazing that they managed to work with so many different studios to make these detailed and faithful stages. Thank u everyone who work on this masterpiece.

[@ManiaticoZX]

I'm still astonished that lylat and halberd came out on the Wii!! I was very impressed for the dynamic backgrounds at the time and still!!🎉

[@brebeaa]

Dude: Sakurai-San, it’s Sunday! We need a video! Sakura: Ehh, play them the B-roll of the stages. That’ll keep ‘em occupied.

[@JumpmanNX]

Another fantastic video from Sakurai! I loved seeing all the stages and the scope of how huge those areas are! Hopefully, he will make a sequel showing off more stages.

[@maverick_loneshark]

Wow, I stopped playing for some time and it now occurs to me that there are more than a handful of stages I've never even seen before. Makes me want to play some Smash again!