Flat Zone

Flat Zone
File:Game&WatchSymbol(preBrawl).png
Universe	Game & Watch
Appears in	Melee
Availability	Unlockable
Unlock criteria	Clear Classic Mode with Mr. Game & Watch.
Tracks available	Flat Zone
Tournament legality Melee Singles: Banned Doubles: Banned

Flat Zone (フラットゾーン, Flat Zone) is an unlockable stage in Super Smash Bros. Melee, and the home stage of Mr. Game & Watch. Flat Zone is unlocked when the player beats Classic mode with Mr. Game & Watch. In All-Star mode, Flat Zone appears as the last stage where the player faces 25 lighter Mr. Game and Watches. Mr. Game & Watch's Target Test also takes place on a modified version of this stage. Also, two event modes in Super Smash Bros. Melee also appear fighting on this stage.

While the stage itself has never been brought back as a standalone stage, it appears as one of the transformations in Flat Zone X, a mixture between Flat Zone and Flat Zone 2 (from Brawl) in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U.

Stage layout

Flat Zone is a small stage. In the middle of the stage there are numerous lines that characters can jump on. The lines will fade out and reappear while the characters battle. On the far right of the screen, characters can stand on the roof of the house. Characters will appears as 2-D images on the screen, and make a beeping noise whenever they walk. When the game is paused, rather than zoom in on one character, the camera zooms out to show the entire Game & Watch device being played on. The layout is heavily based on the Game & Watch game Helmet.

Origin

File:Game & Watch Helmet.png

The Game and Watch game Helmet.

From 1980 to about 1991, Nintendo produced handheld devices called Game & Watch. There would be one game for each model of a Game & Watch. The games used an LCD screen, and the type was on an ordinary calculator, so the character and other moving objects could only move to pre-determined spots, and everything on the screen appeared flat. In this stage, the characters and the elements on the screen are all flat; however, items don't become flat.

The overall design of this stage is very similar to the Game & Watch game Helmet. The goal of Helmet is to try to get from the building on the left to the building on the right without get hit by falling tools. On this stage there are times where tools would appear and fall and the buildings are retained. The majority of Game & Watch games make a beep sound whenever something happens on the screen, which also happens on this stage.

In this stage, there are platforms that appear and the character used in the Game & Watch game Manhole is seen filling in the spaces between the platforms. In the game Manhole, the player attempts to fill in sewer holes so that pedestrians don't fall in; if a hole isn't filled when a pedestrian is about to step there, that person falls in the sewer.

The character from the Game & Watch game Oil Panic appears in this stage holding an oil drum and spilling on the ground; this is a reference to how in Oil Panic if the player fails and misses the man holding the bucket, oil is dumped all over a customer at the gas station.

When a player walks on this stage, beep sounds can be heard.

Tournament legality

Flat Zone is listed as a banned stage in tournaments in both the singles and doubles sets; this is largely due to the small size, which allows for very simple KOs because of closer blast-lines. Along with this, the falling tools can cause one-hit kills, and are difficult to avoid due to their falling speed.

Trivia

• In Training Mode, when the camera is at normal, it will zoom closely on the character, and on zoom, it will show the whole stage.

Samus hits the screen in her tumbling animation—this Screen KO animation is specific to Flat Zone in Melee.

• When characters are Screen KO'd on Flat Zone, they will hit the screen in their standard tumbling animation instead of their animations for other stages, with the exception of Mr. Game & Watch, who has only one tumble animation.
• When a player moves, the sound that Mr. Game & Watch makes when walking is played. This is in reference to the match occuring inside a Game & Watch.
• The speed on this stage seems to be slightly faster than that of a regular battle.

See also

• Flat Zone 2
• Flat Zone X