Stage legality

Banned stages are stages that are banned from most mainstream tournaments. Stages can be banned for several reasons, common reasons including but not limited to:

• Poor matchup balance by providing a rather extreme advantage for certain characters (such as allowing the character to utilise excessive, gamebreaking camping, or utilise infinite chain throws, as in the case of Fox in Temple for the former, or King Dedede in Shadow Moses Island for the latter).
• Allowing players to abuse glitches in the game.
• Possessing one or more "caves of life," allowing characters to survive much longer than feasibly possible under usual circumstances, and creating a general over-centralisation on the ability to tech.
• Drastically altering gameplay and the strategies needed to win (such as Icicle Mountain and Mario Bros.).
• 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. The East Coast is also well known for much smaller allowable stage lists than the West.

Banned stages in SSB

This is the US ban set. In Japanese tournaments, all stages are banned outside of Dream Land. For reasoning, see below the US ruleset.

Stage	Status	Commonly cited reasons for banning
Mushroom Kingdom	Banned	Pipe camping; stalling
Planet Zebes	Banned	Acid disrupts usual gameplay by putting people in a disadvantageous situation
Sector Z	Banned	Overly large; Arwing lasers; camping; stalling
Yoshi's Island	Banned	Cloud camping (as the person on Yoshi's cloud could object to getting back on stage as it is very easy to attack them/put them in a disadvantageous position while recovering); stalling
Saffron City	Banned	Overly large; bottom area and helipad promote camping; Pokémon attacks

Banned stages in Japanese SSB

This is the Japanese ban set. All stages in the US banned set are also banned for the same listed reasons. Note that all of these bans makes it so Dream Land is the only stage allowed.

Stage	Status	Commonly cited reasons for banning
Hyrule Castle	Banned	Overly large; tornadoes disrupt gameplay
Congo Jungle	Banned	Reason never definitely given.
Peach's Castle	Banned	Bumper and other areas of the stage disrupt gameplay

Banned stages in SSBM

In the current Smash Back Room rule set, all stages are listed definitively as a starter, counterpick, or banned stage. Following is the ban list.

Stage	Status	Commonly cited reasons for banning
Big Blue	Banned	Random terrain; scrolling stage; Circle and run away camping; stalling
Brinstar Depths	Banned	No ledges to grab; irregular stage design and frequent rotating of the stage causes drastic changes in gameplay; contains caves of life; abnormally low ceiling gives a disproportional advantage to vertical finishers; various, unreasonably strong camping and stalling positions
Corneria	Banned	Excessive camping/stalling behind the big fin; fin allows for wall infinites; random stage hazards in Arwing lasers
Flat Zone	Banned	Randomness of the stage (such as falling, damaging materials, appearing and disappearing platforms, and oil slick); stage is overly small; no bottom blast line; walk-off blast lines
Fountain of Dreams	Banned (doubles only)	Potential for lag during doubles play, as well as the onstage portion being too small to properly accommodate doubles play
Fourside	Banned	No large, stable platforms for fighting; stalling; walls allow infinites and stalling; the UFO being right under the upper blastline can allow for extremely early vertical KOs
Great Bay	Banned	Solid, middle platform above two lower platforms causes stage spikes that result in frequent, low percent KOs and gimps that would not occur in usual circumstances; stage design allows for the potential of circle camping and stalling; left blast line is too close to the stage
Green Greens	Banned	Over-centralises gameplay on camping; randomly appearing bomb blocks disrupt normal gameplay
Icicle Mountain	Banned	Randomly moving stage; disproportional advantage to characters with high, fast jumps; over-centralises gameplay on keeping up with the stage's scrolling
Jungle Japes	Banned	Overly powerful stage hazard in Klap Trap; unusually high ceiling gives a disproportional advantage to horizontal finishers; high potential for camping and stalling; very poor matchup balance, giving a disproportional advantage to characters with projectiles and those that can traverse the stage well
Kongo Jungle	Banned	Powerful camping position on the rock platform on the bottom right of the stage; Klap Trap too powerful and difficult to avoid when it enters the Barrel Cannon.
Mushroom Kingdom	Banned	Irregular stage design forces major gameplay changes; bricks create caves of life; walk-off blast lines
Mushroom Kingdom II	Banned	Walk-off blast lines; stage is too small; lack of proper "centre" platform hinders gameplay, particularly in doubles
Mute City	Banned	Lack of ledges on main platform; main platform poorly accomodates doubles play, being too small and potentially causing slowdown in gameplay; F-Zero racers hazard is overly powerful against fast fallers
Onett	Banned	Overly powerful and frequently appearing stage hazards in cars, which deal in excess of 30% damage and can KO at low percents; no lower blast line; permanent walls promote camping and infinites; walk-off blast lines
Poké Floats	Banned	Irregular terrain; scrolling stage; circle and run away camping; stalling; potential for stage spikes
Princess Peach's Castle	Banned	OHKO stage hazard in Banzai Bill; walls allow infinites; permanent walls promote camping
Temple	Banned	Overly large; large cave of life in lower area over-centralises gameplay on teching; multiple areas allow for run away and circle camping; stalling; gives an extreme advantage to fast characters (most notably Fox)
Venom	Banned	Slowdown; walls allow for infinites; several, unreasonably strong camping positions
Yoshi's Island N64	Banned	Camping on clouds to the stage's right and left hand sides; run away stalling
Yoshi's Island	Banned	Rotating block platforms create caves of life; walk-off blast lines; marginalizes offstage skills; rotating blocks in the middle pit can block recoveries; left and top blastlines too close to stage.

Banned Stages in SSBB

Brawl has a highly fragmented and argumentive community when it comes to legal stages. As a result the ban list is significantly messier than the previous two games, with most stages being disputed in one way or another. This list rates the banworthiness of a stage as follows:

• X stages are commonly legal, but banned in Japanese and other extremely limited rulesets.
• XX stages are not banned in common rulesets (such as the old Unity ruleset), but often banned in other rulesets.
• XXX stages are generally banned outside of experimental rulesets.
• XXXX stages are universally banned outside of casual events.

Stage	Status	Commonly cited reasons for banning
75 m	XXXX	Overly large; camera has zooming issues and difficulty following characters; excessive stalling potential; random, powerful stage hazards; too difficult to move around the stage; walk off blast lines; very poor matchup balance, where characters with powerful and flexible air games, as well as those who can camp with projectiles, have a disproportional advantage
Big Blue (Melee)	XXXX	Random terrain; scrolling stage; ground too close to the cars; gives a disproportional advantage to faster moving characters; stage moves too fast for usual gameplay; too much emphasis on platforming
Bridge of Eldin	XXXX (XXX in doubles)	High potential for camping/stalling; walk off blast lines; overly powerful stage hazard in the bomb thrown by King Bulbin; bottom blast line is not always available; abnormally high ceiling and walk-offs give a disproportional advantage to horizontal finishers.
Brinstar	XX	Irregular stage design; acid disrupts gameplay; poor matchup balance, where air based characters gain a significant advantage, most notoriously Meta Knight.
Castle Siege	X	Second stage transformation and the transition between stage transformations have walk offs; second stage transformation has no access to a bottom blast line and thus does not allow offstage gameplay; second transformation is very large and allows ease of platform camping.
Corneria (Melee)	XXXX	Close blast lines and an abnormally low ceiling, which gives a disproportional advantage to vertical finishers; excessive camping/stalling behind the big fin; fin allows for wall infinites
Delfino Plaza	X	Several stage transformations have walls and/or walk offs; primary section of the stage on the hovering platform allows sharking.
Distant Planet	XXX	Walk off blast line; an instant KO stage hazard in the Red Bulborb, which can drag players off screen; unreasonably powerful camping position at the bottom of the ramp underneath the platform; stage design allows the potential for circle camping
Flat Zone 2	XXXX	Randomness of the stage; overly small; numerous damaging and powerful stage hazards; no bottom blast line; walk off blast lines
Frigate Orpheon	X	The stage flipping between its two transformations is susceptible to causing what is commonly seen as unwarranted self destructs; the first stage transformation has no grabbable ledge on the right side of the stage, giving a disproportional disadvantage to characters with tether recoveries and other characters who heavily rely on the ledge to recover.
Green Greens	XXX	Over-centralises gameplay on camping; randomly appearing bomb blocks disrupt normal gameplay; blocks allow for wall infinites
Green Hill Zone	XXXX	Excessive camping near checkpoint hazard; walk off blast lines; bottom blast line is not always available; horizontal blast lines that are close with walk-offs and a high ceiling give a disproportional advantage to horizontal finishers
Halberd	X	Stage has an abnormally low ceiling, giving a disproportional advantage to vertical finishers; the hovering platform portion of the stage allows sharking; the Halberd Bridge portion of the stage has powerful stage hazards.
Hanenbow	XXXX	Stage is overly large; irregular stage design forces major gameplay changes; high camping/stalling potential
Jungle Japes	XXX	Overly powerful stage hazard in Klap Trap; unusually high ceiling gives a disproportional advantage to horizontal finishers; high potential for camping and stalling; very poor matchup balance, giving a disproportional advantage to characters with projectiles and those that can traverse the stage well
Luigi's Mansion	XXX	Impassable platforms create caves of life; stage design allows the potential for circle camping
Mario Bros.	XXXX	Gameplay is vastly altered by stage enemies; overly powerful stage hazards; impassable platforms create caves of life; walk off blast lines; no lower blast line
Mario Circuit	XXXX	High potential for camping/stalling; walk off blast lines; frequent stage hazard in karts that often disrupt gameplay; no lower blast line
Mushroomy Kingdom (1-1 and 1-2)	XXXX	Scrolling stage; stage moves too fast for usual gameplay; bricks create caves of life, especially in 1-2; ledges are not grabbable; walk-off blast lines
New Pork City	XXXX	Stage is overly large; walls allow for wall infinites; excessive stalling/camping potential; camera has zooming problems; OHKO stage hazard in the Ultimate Chimera; stage is abnormally difficult to traverse, disrupting gameplay
Norfair	XXX	Overly powerful, frequent stage hazards that disrupt usual gameplay; stage has many, unnecessary ledges that can be easily abused.
Onett (Melee)	XXX	Irregular stage design; frequent stage hazard in cars disrupt gameplay; walls allow infinites; walk off blast lines; no lower blast line
Pictochat	XXX	The order in which the drawings appear on the stage is random, and the time to prepare for each drawing is minimal; some drawings can cause a player to be KO'd or fail a recovery against their control (such as the Eyes drawing preventing a recovering character from grabbing the left ledge, or the Gusty Gus drawing appearing and stage spiking a character after they been knocked back); some drawings create walls, allowing wall infinites; some drawings promote camping; overly powerful stage hazards; numerous glitches can occur on the stage, such as the Earthquake glitch and the Spin glitch
Pirate Ship	XXX	High potential for stalling in the water or under the ship's rudder; overly powerful stage hazards
Pokémon Stadium 2	XX	Stage transformations can cause large, disruptive gameplay changes; wind transformation reduces gravity; ice transformation has slippery terrain; electric transformation has large, fast moving conveyor belts that disrupt usual gameplay; all transformations but ice have powerful camping positions and high potential for stalling.
Port Town Aero Dive	XXX	Randomness of the stage; overly powerful stage hazards in the cars (which can KO under 50%); cars can be difficult to see coming due to the colors and their speed; main platform has no grabbable ledges
Rainbow Cruise	XX	Scrolling stage; some portions of the stage have no grabbable ledges; some portions of the stage have walls, allowing wall infinites or walk-off blast lines, creating an over-centralisation on horizontal KO moves; poor matchup balance, where air based characters have a significant advantage, most notoriously Meta Knight
Rumble Falls	XXXX	Scrolling stage; gives a disproportional advantage to characters with fast, high jumps; punishes characters who rely on tether recoveries; first spike is an OHKO stage hazard if not teched; irregular stage design forces major gameplay changes, given an emphasis on keeping up with the stage instead of fighting
Sample Stages	XXXX	As the community at large has universally agreed to ban the Sample Stages from day one, no attempt at providing a reason to do so has ever been provided by ruleset-makers, and the existence of the stages is in fact completely ignored by all rulesets. Despite this it is still trivial to reason for the stages' banning: Hole has no edges that can be grabbed from the outside and contains a stalling location in the lower-left spikes, Bath blocks all but vertical KOs and allows for wall infinites, and Maze's irregular design makes it easy to stall, circle camp and survive by teching much like Temple.
Shadow Moses Island	XXXX	No lower blast line; walls block access to side blast lines when not destroyed; over-centralisation on teching; game mechanics change too quickly when walls are destroyed or up, giving a disproportional advantage to vertical finishers when the walls up, and giving that advantage to horizontal finishers when they're down; walls allow for wall infinites; walk off blast lines when the walls are destroyed; a glitch can allow characters to stay on the other side of the walls when they rebuild, allowing the character to safely camp there until the wall is destroyed again
Skyworld	XXXX	Impassable platforms; destroyable cave of life in centre of stage creates an over-centralisation on teching and stage spiking; potential slowdown in doubles
Spear Pillar	XXXX	Randomness of Pokémon attacks; overly powerful stage hazards caused by Pokémon; Pokémon can cause disruptive changes in gameplay, such as slowing down time, reducing gravity, and reversing control; stage design allows the potential for circle camping; lower area of the stage provides a large cave of life
Summit	XXXX	Terrain is slippery; lower gravity occurs at one point of the stage; instant KO stage hazard of The Fish, which quickly drags characters beneath the lower blast line with no hope of survival; ledges are not grabbable, giving a disproportional disadvantage to characters who rely on ledges to recover, especially those with tether recoveries; lower area provides a cave of life; stage design allows the potential for circle camping
Temple (Melee)	XXXX	Overly large; large cave of life in lower area over-centralises gameplay on teching; multiple areas allow for run away and circle camping; excessive stalling potential; gives an extreme advantage to fast characters (most notably Fox)
WarioWare, Inc.	XXXX	Random bonuses from Microgames have an over-centralising effect, to where someone can win being luckier with the bonuses; walk off blast lines during microgames; overly powerful stage hazards during microgames
Yoshi's Island (Melee)	XXX	Rotating block platforms create caves of life; walk off blast lines; marginalizes offstage skills; blast lines are abnormally close to the stage

See also

• Tournament legal