Poké Floats

Poké Floats
Universe	Pokémon
Appears in	SSBM
Availability	Unlockable
Tournament legality Melee Singles: Banned Doubles: Banned

Kanto Skies: Poké Floats is a stage in Super Smash Bros. Melee that can be unlocked by playing 200 or more battles in VS mode. In All-Star mode, Jigglypuff is fought here.

Poké Floats is a stage similar to Rainbow Cruise, since both are naturally fixed-camera and scroll. The fighting is on top of giant Pokémon floats (hence the name) which are in a constant cycle. Staying on a certain float too long will cause the player to lose stock if the float goes off the screen. It is a good idea to practice on this stage first before engaging into actual battles, as the floats appear in a pattern, as opposed to random. A caution is that the floats tend to become harder to predict as the loop goes on, until it resets back to the first one.

The Sudowoodo trophy is unlocked upon unlocking this stage.

List of Floats in Order of Appearance

• Squirtle
• Onix
• Psyduck
• Chikorita
• Weezing
• Slowpoke
• Porygon
• Wooper
• Sudowoodo
• Snorlax
• Venusaur
• Seel
• Wobbuffet
• A large quantity of Unown, interspersed with the other floats until the level loops again
• Goldeen
• Lickitung
• Chansey
• Geodude

After Geodude, the last few Unown clear the screen just before resetting back to Squirtle, and the process starts all over again.

Origin

File:PikachuMTGDP.png

The 2001 Pikachu balloon as seen in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

While this stage does not directly come from a Pokémon game, the character models of the Pokémon do come from the models in the game Pokémon Stadium. A possible inspiration for this stage could come from the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade where Pikachu is one of the giant balloons that go down the streets of New York City. Also, Melee was first released on November 21, 2001, which is the first month and year that Pikachu was introduced to the parade as a giant balloon. Another explanation could come from the episode "The Big Balloon Blow-Up" of the Pokémon anime where there are many hot air balloons that are shaped like Pokémon, but the balloons in that episode used hot air, while Macy's balloons are filled with helium. [1]

The song that plays on this stage is mix between the different themes that plays when battling against other trainers, gym leaders, and wild Pokémon in Pokémon Red & Blue. [2]