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 avoid being KO'd for extended periods of time.
• 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

Stages marked with XX are universally banned, while those marked with X have questionable legality, where it's dependent on the TO whether or not the stage is banned.

Stage	Banned in		Commonly cited reasons for banning
	Singles	Doubles
Mushroom Kingdom	XX	XX	Pipe camping; stalling
Planet Zebes	X	X	Acid disrupts usual gameplay
Sector Z	XX	XX	Overly large; Arwing lasers; run away camping; stalling
Yoshi's Island	XX	XX	Cloud camping; stalling

Banned stages in SSBM

In the current Smash Back Room rule set, all stages are listed definitively as a starter, counterpick, or banned stage. As such, all stages that are listed as banned are marked with XX.

Stage	Banned in		Commonly cited reasons for banning
	Singles	Doubles
Big Blue	XX	XX	Random terrain; scrolling stage; Circle and run away camping; stalling
Brinstar Depths	XX	XX	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	XX	XX	Excessive camping/stalling behind the big fin; fin allows for wall infinites; random stage hazards in Arwing lasers
Flat Zone	XX	XX	Randomness of the stage (such as falling, damaging materials, appearing and disappearing platforms, and oil slick); overly small; no bottom blast line; walk-off blast lines
Fountain of Dreams		XX	Significant slowdown during doubles play
Fourside	XX	XX	No large, stable platforms for fighting; stalling; walls allow infinites
Great Bay	XX	XX	Ceiling spikes in the lower area allows for frequent, low percent KOs that would not occur in usual circumstances; circle camping; stalling
Green Greens	XX	XX	Over-centralises gameplay on camping; randomly appearing bomb blocks disrupt normal gameplay
Icicle Mountain	XX	XX	Randomly moving stage; disproportional advantage to characters with high, fast jumps; over-centralises gameplay on keeping up with the stage's scrolling
Jungle Japes	XX	XX	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	XX	XX	Overly powerful camping position on the rock platform on the bottom right of the stage
Mushroom Kingdom I	XX	XX	Irregular stage design forces major gameplay changes; bricks create caves of life; walk-off blast lines
Mushroom Kingdom II	XX	XX	Walk-off blast lines; stage is overly small
Mute City	XX	XX	Lack of ledges on main platform; main platform is too small to accommodate doubles play as well as significant slowdown during doubles play
Onett	XX	XX	Overly powerful and frequently appearing stage hazards in cars, which deal in excess of 30% damage and can KO at low percents; walls allow infinites; no lower blast line; permanent walls promote camping; walk-off blast lines
Poke Floats	XX	XX	Irregular terrain; scrolling stage; circle and run away camping; stalling
Princess Peach's Castle	XX	XX	OHKO stage hazard in Banzai Bill; walls allow infinites; permanent walls promote camping
Hyrule: Temple	XX	XX	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	XX	XX	Slowdown; walls allow for infinites; several, unreasonably strong camping positions
Yoshi's Island N64	XX	XX	Camping on clouds to the stage's right and left hand sides; run away stalling
Yoshi's Island	XX	XX	Rotating block platforms create caves of life; walk-off blast lines; marginalizes offstage skills; rotating blocks in the middle pit can block recoveries

Banned Stages in SSBB

In the current Smash Back Room rule set, the stage list is a guideline for which stages a TO should consider allowing. Stages marked with a single X are stages that have disputed legal status, where whether they're banned or not depends largely on the region, whereas those marked with XX are universally almost always banned.

Stage	Banned in		Commonly cited reasons for banning
	Singles	Doubles
75m	XX	XX	Overly large; camera has zooming issues; stalling; random, powerful stage hazards; abnormally difficult to move around the stage; walk-off blast lines
Big Blue (Melee)	XX	XX	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
Bridge of Eldin	XX	XX	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
Corneria (Melee)	XX	XX	Abnormally 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
Distant Planet	X	X	Walk-off blast line; stage hazard in Red Bulborb that drags 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	XX	XX	Randomness of the stage; overly small; numerous damaging and powerful stage hazards; no bottom blast line; walk-off blast lines
Green Greens	X	X	Over-centralises gameplay on camping; randomly appearing bomb blocks disrupt normal gameplay; blocks allow for wall infinites
Green Hill Zone	XX	XX	Excessive camping near checkpoint hazard; walk-off blast lines; blast lines are very close to the stage, making it overly small; bottom blast line is not always available
Hanenbow	XX	XX	Irregular stage design forces major gameplay changes; high camping/stalling potential
Jungle Japes	X	X	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	X	X	Impassable platforms create caves of life; stage design allows the potential for circle camping
Mario Bros.	XX	XX	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	XX	XX	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)	XX	XX	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	XX	XX	Overly large; walls allow for wall infinites; high stalling/camping potential; camera has zooming problems; OHKO stage hazard in the Ultimate Chimera
Norfair	X	X	Overly powerful, frequent stage hazards in lava flares that disrupt gameplay
Onett (Melee)	XX	XX	Frequent stage hazard in cars disrupt gameplay; walls allow infinites; walk off blast lines; no lower blast line
Pirate Ship	X	X	High potential for stalling in the water or under the ship's rudder; overly powerful stage hazards
Pokémon Stadium 2	X	X	Stage transformations can cause large 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	X	X	Randomness of stage; overly powerful stage hazards in the cars (which can KO under 50%); cars can be difficult to see coming due to the colors; main platform has no grabbable ledges
Rumble Falls	XX	XX	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
Shadow Moses Island	XX	XX	No lower blast line; walls block access to side blast lines when not destroyed; over-centralisation on teching; disproportional advantage to vertical finishers; 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 camp there until the wall is destroyed again
Skyworld	XX	XX	Impassable platforms; over-centralisation on teching and stage spikes; significant lag in doubles
Spear Pillar	XX	XX	Randomness of Pokémon attacks; overly powerful stage hazards caused by Pokémon; Pokémon can cause physics changes, 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	XX	XX	Terrain is slippery; lower gravity occurs at one point of the stage; highly dangerous stage hazard in The Fish, which drags characters beneath the lower blast line; ledges are not grabbable and Tether recoveries do not work; lower area provides a cave of life; stage design allows the potential for circle camping
Temple (Melee)	XX	XX	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)
WarioWare, Inc.	XX	XX	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
Yoshi's Island (Melee)	X	X	Rotating block platforms create caves of life; walk-off blast lines; marginalizes offstage skills; blast lines are abnormally close to the stage; walk off blast lines

See also

• Tournament legal