The Great Maze

Subspace The Great Maze
A map of The Great Maze, showing where the Subspacial Smashers and Bosses are.
Universe	Super Smash Bros.
Appears in	Brawl
Availability	Subspace Emissary
Preceding SSE stage	Subspace (Part II)

The Great Maze (大迷宮, Great Maze) is the 31st and final level of the Subspace Emissary in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. After many sections of the World of Trophies are sent to Subspace, Tabuu creates a large maze made of sections from most of the previously visited levels in the game. To complete this, the player must win a number of battles, against vicious Subspacial clones of almost all the characters in the game (excluding Zero Suit Samus, Sheik, Sonic, Toon Link, Wolf, and Jigglypuff), and against all of the bosses (except for Master Hand and Crazy Hand).

The door leading to the final battle against Tabuu.

The door when opened. Tabuu's wings can be seen inside.

There is no specific order in which the player must beat all the enemies, and it is possible to play as any character that has been rescued so far. Save Points and Warp points are dispersed throughout the maze. These two types of checkpoints are indicated by the Smash Bros. emblem mounted on a trophy stand and look like a forest clearing with a Subspace rip in the fabric of the sky. Save Points restore the player's stock to 4 (6 in later runs) and damage to 0%, as well as letting the player re-select characters or fiddle with stickers. Warp Points are identical but also allow teleportation between other visited Warp Points, as well as serving as both entry and exit points to and from the maze itself.

Pausing at any time displays a map of all visited rooms, as well as the player's current position inside a room and where doors and room-to-room links are. Once enough rooms have been visited to form a loop with the starting point, the map will also display all the locations of unbeaten characters and bosses with icons in the form of a monster head.

Once all battles are completed, a large purple door becomes accessible in the center of the maze, which leads to Tabuu's Residence. Upon winning this final battle, in-story the Great Maze is spread apart and all the levels and locations of the World of Trophies are returned to their normal state. The Isle of the Ancients, however, is not restored: the great number of Subspace Bombs going off in one place has taken it beyond repair. In-game, the Great Maze remains on the world map afterwards so that the player can reenter it whenever they want, and the stages on the Isle of the Ancients can be replayed again (having been made inaccessible after the first completion of the second Subspace Bomb Factory)

Playable Characters

Five characters are always available to choose from in The Great Maze. Ness, Luigi, and Kirby are revived by Dedede Brooches, King Dedede is revived by Luigi and Ness, and Bowser is revived by King Dedede. Sonic appears at the very end of the Great Maze and can join the fight against Tabuu. All other characters with the exception of Toon Link, Wolf, and Jigglypuff must be revived as trophies in Subspace.

Guaranteed

• Bowser
• King Dedede
• Kirby
• Luigi
• Ness

Revived in Part I

• Captain Falcon
• Diddy Kong
• Donkey Kong
• Falco
• Fox
• Ike
• Lucas
• Mario
• Marth
• Mr. Game & Watch
• Olimar
• Pikachu
• Pit
• Pokémon Trainer/Squirtle, Charizard and Ivysaur
• Samus/Zero Suit Samus

Revived in Part II

• Ganondorf (only if Link & Zelda are revived)
• Ice Climbers
• Link
• Lucario
• Meta Knight
• Peach
• R.O.B.
• Snake
• Wario
• Yoshi
• Zelda/Sheik

Joins the team to fight Tabuu

• Sonic

Stage recreations

Some parts of The Great Maze are combinations of older stages, with many having slight modifications and different music from than the originals. This includes The Forest with the day-changing doors from The Lake and The Research Facility with the three-switch doors from the Subspace Bomb Factory. Some of these stages sport new areas, such as the elevator rooms in The Halberd and The Research Facility, the mountain entrance to The Battlefield Fortress, the icy floors in The Ruined Zoo, the triple switch doors in the Research Facility, and the day-changing doors section in The Forest. In addition, all three of the Halberd's playable sections appear in the Great Maze despite the Halberd being destroyed and never entering Subspace. Lastly, some of the areas are laid out in such a way that the player will go through a level in the opposite direction, such as the Ruined Zoo, the Wilds, and the Battlefield Fortress. And since the R.O.B. Squad was destroyed in the Isle of the Ancients, they do not appear as enemies in the Great Maze.

The completed map with the rooms labelled. See table.

Stage recreated	Portion(s) of stage used	Song(s) played
Midair Stadium	Petey Piranha battle	Airship Theme (Super Mario Bros. 3)
	11. The stadium (Warp Point)	Step: Subspace
Skyworld	1. Third section cube room	Step: The Plain
	3. Vertical half of the second section
Sea of Clouds	2. Horizontal pillar section (original)	Step: The Plain
The Jungle	20. Vertical section	Jungle Level
The Lake	Rayquaza battle	Victory Road
The Ruined Zoo	Porky battle	Porky's Theme
	9. Last section	Snowman
	8. Sewer level (icy left half is original)
	7. First half of the Porky Statue chase section
The Battlefield Fortress	13. Alternate outdoor area (original)	Crimean Army Sortie
	14.Most of the castle
	39. Second half of the underground mine cart area	Step: The Cave
The Forest	4/5. Day-changing doors (original)	The Dark World
	6. First part of the last section
The Research Facility I	19. Single elevator section (original)	Opening/Menu (Metroid Prime)
The Lake Shore	38. Outdoor Jyk area	Step: The Plain
The Path to the Ruins	10. A vertical pillar balance section (original)	Gritzy Desert
	26. Most of the first area
	35. First part of the underground section	Step: The Cave
The Cave	32. Combinations of all stage elements (Warp Point) (original)	Step: Subspace
The Ruins	34. Almost all of the first main section	Underground Theme (Super Mario Land)
	27. Flame bar part of the second section
	28. Elevator room with enemies (Warp Point) (original)	Step: Subspace
The Wilds I	Galleom battle	Boss Battle Song 1
	31. First half of the second main area	Step: The Plain
The Wilds II	29. Pre-elevator portion of the first area
	30. Spiky part of the second section
The Swamp	15. First area	Jungle Level
	16. Top part of the ladder section (Warp Point)	Step: Subspace
	36. Fraction of the rivertop spring section	Bramble Blast
	33. Rivertop barrel section
	37. Cube room from above section
The Research Facility II	Ridley battle	Vs. Ridley
	23/24/25. 3-switch door and associated areas (all original)	Opening/Menu (Metroid Prime)
Outside the Ancient Ruins	18. First half of the main level	Gritzy Desert
The Glacial Peak	12. Latter half of the climb	Frozen Hillside
Battleship Halberd Interior	21. Second area	Meta Knight's Revenge
	22. Elevators in the Halberd (original)
Battleship Halberd Exterior	17. Right-side exterior (slightly condensed)
Battleship Halberd Bridge	Duon battle	Boss Battle Song 1
The Subspace Bomb Factory II	Meta Ridley battle	Vs. Ridley

Vs. stages

The fights against each subspacial clone each take place on a unique stage. A gallery of these stages can be found here.

Tabuu's Residence

Subspace Tabuu's Residence
Universe	Super Smash Bros.
Appears in	Brawl
Availability	The Subspace Emissary Boss Battles Hacking

Tabuu's Residence is the common fan name given to the stage on which the player fights Tabuu. It is very similar to Final Destination, consisting only of one similarly long and purple platform, though slightly longer and differently patterned (with a central design similar to that on Tabuu's wings); and with its own background visuals, somewhat reminiscent of the version of Final Destination in Super Smash Bros. Melee. Its music is titled Boss Battle Song 2. The stage can be accessed in other modes via hacking techniques.

Music

The Great Maze has many different music tracks in it, some of which only appear during the fights with the dark clones or the bosses. Of these, only Pit, Fox, Falco, Captain Falcon, Snake, Olimar, and R.O.B.'s false character battle themes are not from their respective universes.

• Against the Dark Knight - False Marth, False Ike
• Airship Theme (Super Mario Bros. 3) - Petey Piranha, False Mario, False Yoshi, False Bowser, False Wario
• Battle For Storm Hill - False Donkey Kong, False Diddy Kong
• Boss Battle Song 1 - Galleom, Duon
• Boss Battle Song 2 - Tabuu
• Bramble Blast - Most of The Swamp Recreated
• Castle/Boss Fortress (Super Mario World/SMB 3) - False Peach, False Pit
• Crimean Army Sortie - Most of The Battlefield Fortress Recreated
• Flat Zone (Melee) - False Mr. Game & Watch, False R.O.B.
• Frozen Hillside - The Glacial Peak Recreated
• Gerudo Valley - False Link, False Zelda, False Ganondorf
• Gourmet Race - False Kirby, False Meta Knight, False King Dedede, False Olimar
• Gritzy Desert - Outside the Ancient Ruins Recreated, most of The Path to the Ruins Recreated
• Ice Climber - False Ice Climbers
• Jungle Level - The Jungle Recreated, Part of The Swamp Recreated
• Luigi's Mansion Theme - False Luigi
• Meta Knight's Revenge - Battleship Halberd Recreated
• Opening/Menu (Metroid Prime) - The Research Facility Recreated
• Porky's Theme - Porky Minch
• Save Point - Inside Save Points, Door to Tabuu's Residence
• Sector 1 - False Samus, False Fox, False Falco, False Captain Falcon, False Snake
• Snowman - The Ruined Zoo Recreated
• Step: Subspace - In the four main save points, with warp areas
• Step: The Cave - Part of The Path to the Ruins Recreated, Part of The Battlefield Fortress Recreated
• Step: The Plain - Skyworld Recreated, The Sea of Clouds Recreated, The Lake Shore Recreated, all of The Wilds I and most of The Wilds II Recreated
• The Dark World - The Forest Recreated
• Underground Theme (Super Mario Land) - The Ruins Recreated
• Unfounded Revenge/Smashing Song of Praise - False Ness, False Lucas
• Victory Road - Rayquaza, False Pikachu, False Pokémon Trainer, False Lucario
• Vs. Ridley - Ridley, Meta Ridley

Trivia

The unused section in the Great Maze. Everything above the Ice Climbers is completely inaccessible.

• Most of the re-used sections from other levels contain inaccessible areas that were part of the original level. While no enemies, doors, or other special objects can spawn there, and the collision detection is typically inactive, all of the terrain, including most platforms, are still rendered outside of the camera's view. Only a couple of rooms had any inaccessible sections actually removed.
  • Since they were designed specifically for the Great Maze, new rooms do not have these areas, with one exception, in a room meant to resemble The Battlefield Fortress. Since this room never appears outside the Great Maze, this section is completely unused in the Subspace Emissary. It is unknown why this section exists; the most likely explanation is that the room was originally going to be larger, or was originally going to be used elsewhere as well.
• Despite having only 4 stocks at a time available for the initial playthrough, 6 are available on all successive playthroughs. This is likely due to two reasons; the possibility that the player did not retrieve any trophies in Subspace Part I and II, leaving them with only 5 characters for the entirety of the Great Maze (Bowser, King Dedede, Kirby, Luigi, and Ness, with Sonic not appearing until the end) and that subsequent playthroughs do not allow for a refreshed stock post-cutscene before Tabuu.
• To form a loop back to Midair Stadium, at least 9 bosses/Subspacial clones must be defeated: Petey Piranha, Link, Diddy Kong, Samus, Ridley, Mario, Galleom, Lucas/Wario, and Lucario/Rayquaza.
  • To unlock certain areas some bosses/Subspacial clones need to be defeated: Pit, Duon, Meta Knight, Porky, Captain Falcon, Donkey Kong, King Dedede, Falco, Meta Ridley, Pokémon Trainer, Zelda, Wario/Lucas, Rayquaza/Lucario, Ice Climbers and Ganondorf.
    • The Subspacial clones that have their door vanish are: Kirby, Yoshi, Snake, Mr. Game & Watch, Ness, Olimar, Pikachu, R.O.B., Bowser, Fox, Peach, Luigi, Ike and Marth.
• If a Sacrificial KO is performed on a false character in the Great Maze while the player is on their last stock and holding an item, a glitch will occur where the player will reappear in the area they were previously in, no music will be played, and after a few seconds, the screen fades into the Continue screen.
• Four stages do not appear in The Great Maze: The Plain, The Ruined Hall, The Canyon, and The Subspace Bomb Factory I.
• After the player finished this level, the Stage Clear page will not have the music that it has on any other stage.
• This level is one of the six levels that do not have a cutscene to start it. The Plain, The Ruins, The Swamp, The Research Facility (Part II), and The Subspace Bomb Factory (Part II) are the other levels to have this distinction.

External links

• A guide to the Great Maze.
• Smash Bros. DOJO!! Update about the Great Maze