Delfino Plaza

Delfino Plaza
Universe	Mario
Appears in	Brawl SSB4 (Wii U)
Availability	Starter (Brawl and SSB4)
Crate type	Normal
Maximum players	8 (Ω form only)
Tracks available	In Brawl: Delfino Plaza Title / Ending (Super Mario World) Main Theme (New Super Mario Bros.) Ricco Harbor Main Theme (Super Mario 64) In SSB4: Delfino Plaza Ricco Harbor Super Mario 3D Land Theme / Beach Theme Princess Peach's Castle Rainbow Cruise Main Theme (New Super Mario Bros.) Main Theme (Super Mario 64) Bolded tracks must be unlocked
Tournament legality Brawl Singles: Counterpick/Banned Doubles: Counterpick/Banned Smash 4 Singles: Counterpick/Banned Doubles: Counterpick/Banned
Article on Super Mario Wiki	Delfino Plaza

Delfino Plaza (ドルピックタウン, Dolphic Town) is a stage in Super Smash Bros. Brawl based on the 2002 game Super Mario Sunshine released for Nintendo GameCube. It returns as a familiar stage in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. Players battle on a floating platform, which then drops the characters off at a certain location before picking them up again and transporting them to another location, essentially touring them around the area.

Overview

The battle begins on a main platform that uses propeller-propulsion with two small transparent platforms above it and another large arching transparent platform above them. However, the arrangement of the platforms on changes each time the main platform picks characters up to move them to a different location. The formats are:

• The starting arrangement of platforms described above.
• The large main platform with three small platforms above it; one high up in the center and two lower ones to the left and right of the ledges.
• The large main platform with two small platforms above it; one on the left and the other, slightly higher, on the right.
• The large main platform with three small platforms above it; one high up in the middle and the other two lower, slanting diagonally down towards the stage from the left and right respectively.

The stage hovers toward Isle Delfino, which resides in the background and drops players off at numerous landmarks around the island. All of these variants make Delfino Plaza the stage with the most individual fighting arenas in SSBB. The locales are landed on in a random order and they are as follows:

• The small, dune-shaped island to the east of a plaza. A warp pipe and a palm tree sit in the background here.
• The second, slightly larger island on the far western area of the main plaza. Both islands are surrounded by the ocean which can be swam in.
• The three grass-covered stone spires near the shoreline. Players can swim in the sea between the spires and also on the edges.
• The row of buildings in front of the Shine Gate.
• The Shine Gate. Two platforms have been attached to either side.
• The walkway at the front of the main courtyard. The Pianta statue is absent from its usual spot.
• The area in front of the dolphin fountain with a staircase on both sides.
• The area with a line of beach umbrellas to the left of the Shine Gate.
• The two areas on the western edge of the island. A shallow veranda sits in between, which characters can walk around in, and a deeper section that requires swimming to navigate.

Differences from Super Mario Sunshine

• The city's size has been decreased, proved by comparing with characters in Brawl and in Super Mario Sunshine.
• The manholes are not the same as they appear in Super Mario Sunshine.
• The Grand Pianta Statue does not appear on the background of the stage.
• Additionally, the boxes containing the three variations of F.L.U.D.D. nozzles are also no longer in the background.
• The cannon that transported Mario to Pinna Park is no longer there.
• The Shine Gate has two platforms at each side that were not there in Super Mario Sunshine.
• The large Shine Sprite on the Shine Gate spins in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, but it doesn't in Super Mario Sunshine. The only time it ever spins is when it's cleaned for the first time, and when sprayed. After it is cleaned, it stays still permanently.
• There is a platform on one section of the level that is in the water, and originally wasn't there in Sunshine.
• On the front of the plaza (one of the sections where one can battle), the ledges were rounded in Sunshine, but were made rectangular to fight on in Brawl.
• The pipe on top of both the Shine Gate that led to Pianta Village and the building in front of it which led to Sirena Beach are no longer there.
• Although the mosaic in front of the dolphin statue is still there, the giant beam of sunlight that teleported Mario to Noki Bay is missing.
• The paint portals on the pier hut (leading to Ricco Harbor) and the lighthouse (leading to Gelato Beach) have both been removed in Brawl.
• All of the Yoshi eggs that used to be in the Plaza have been taken out.
• The umbrellas in Delfino Plaza have no bouncing properties, unlike in Sunshine.
• Although it's normally a busy plaza, not one Pianta is seen in the level.
• The water in many parts of the stage is shallower than in Super Mario Sunshine.
• The Pipe on the small island that leads to the poisonous river stage no longer has the yellow zigzag-damaging substance.
• The boats are different as they are lacking the umbrellas.

Ω Form

The Omega form uses the base platform with an extra bottom layer. Like many touring stages, the stage does not stop at any places of interest. Star KOs are enabled.

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  Ω form

Origin

Delfino Plaza as it originally appeared in Super Mario Sunshine.

Delfino Plaza, the main town on Isle Delfino, was the central hub for Super Mario Sunshine and was linked to other areas on the island in various ways.

In Super Mario Sunshine, Mario, Toadsworth, a group of Toads and Princess Peach flew to the Pianta-inhabited area for vacation. Upon arrival, the entire island was covered in graffiti and goop. Mario was blamed for the situation and was sentenced to clean up Delfino Plaza and other locations on the island with the help of F.L.U.D.D.. Due to heavy reuse of the Super Mario Sunshine models, the stage is very close to how it is presented in Sunshine, with the primary difference being scale - the stage is much smaller in Smash than it was in Super Mario Sunshine.

Mario and company arrived on Isle Delfino at a small airport built on three small islands, known as the Delfino Airstrip, which can be seen in the far background of this stage.

Areas Mario visited included Ricco Harbor, a commercial fishing area which can be seen in the stage to the west of Delfino Plaza, the music for which is used in Brawl, Pinna Park, is an amusement park built on an island, which Mario had to be shot from a cannon to reach in Sunshine (while the cannon Mario uses is missing, in this stage, Pinna Park can still be seen); and an active volcano named Corona Mountain, where Mario and Bowser fight. Both the entrance to Corona Mountain and the volcano itself are retained.

In the Italian language, "Delfino" means "dolphin" (many names of characters and places in the Mario series are named in an Italian manner as Mario himself is of Italian descent). In Super Mario Sunshine, Isle Delfino was, in fact, shaped like a dolphin, with Delfino Plaza located at the nose. This was a reference to the fact that dolphin was the codename for the Gamecube when it was still in development.

Tournament Legality

In Brawl

This stage is usually a counterpick, as while the stage is fairly unintrusive, the ability to shark on the main hovering platform, and some parts of the stage having walls and walk-offs, give a fairly large advantage to certain characters (most infamously Meta Knight and King Dedede).

While usually legal, this stage is often banned in stage conservative rulesets, such as the Japanese ruleset. The aforementioned reasons for why it's a counterpick are seen as too much for a legal stage by those with a conservative mindset. Such players also usually see Meta Knight as too powerful on the stage, thus use the rationale that they must ban the stage to prevent Meta Knight players from getting a "free win" on their counterpick.

In Smash 4

Delfino Plaza was once again legal as a counterpick in the early stages of the Smash 4 metagame. However, as many characters were able to KO early on the top blast line, which drastically shifts downward during the transitions, it was seen as too powerful for characters with great vertical KO moves (such as Donkey Kong or R.O.B.) and against particularly floaty or light characters (such as Jigglypuff or Rosalina, who would also benefit from the blast line shift due to Luma's strong up aerial). Since Smash 4's release, there have been more stages to choose from over Delfino Plaza (such as Dream Land), and it has been banned in major rulesets as of GENESIS 3.

Glitches

The texture glitch in action. Note how the floor texture, and multiple buildings are not visible

• If one were to use a "Multi-Kick", such as Peach's down aerial attack while the platform was landing at the beach island, the player could fall through and end up swimming underneath.
• If the stage is reset, either by restarting in Training Mode or via Sudden Death, while the platform comes to rest in certain locations in the town, the models for some buildings, centerpieces, or even interactable objects and floor textures will not load in, and will not be loaded until said locations are visited again. This occurs because in some locations when there is no way of viewing these buildings with the camera, the game will temporarily stop rendering them, likely as a way of reducing lag on the stage. However restarting the stage in the aforementioned ways skips the cue for the buildings to be reloaded, causing the glitch. It can be seen in action here.

Update history

1.0.6

• Added 8-player mode version of the stage's Ω form.

Trivia

• The propelled platforms have F.L.U.D.D.'s propeller on them.
• At the stone spires, Pokémon Trainer can be seen far in the background on the grass part at the volcano's foot if he is selected.
• If R.O.B. is met in Classic or All-Star but the player has not unlocked the Mario Bros. stage, he is fought on Delfino Plaza.
• In the beta version of Brawl, the music track "Castle/Boss Fortress (Super Mario World/SMB 3)" was one of the tracks in Delfino Plaza's My Music selection (as shown in a screenshot on the Smash Bros. DOJO!! website). For the final version of Brawl, though, the track was moved to Luigi's Mansion.
• By using a hacked camera, one can see that only half of Corona Mountain is part of the stage.

Gallery

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  Delfino Plaza in Brawl.

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  The main platform.

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  Captain Falcon standing on one of the islands.

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  The area with beach umbrellas to the left of the Shine Gate.

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  On top of the Shine Gate.

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  Delfino Plaza in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U.

External links

• Dojo page
• Gameplay footage of stage