Time change
Time change is a feature from Super Smash Bros. Brawl onward where some stages and areas depict day/night and season cycle changes over time. All effects are purely aesthetic and have no impact on gameplay. In addition, two of the day/night changes take place in real time.
List of stages with time changes
All-Star Rest Area (SSB4)
Super Smash Bros. 4's All-Star Rest Area is unusual amongst time-changing stages in that it does not change while the player is in it. Instead, the stage progresses from dawn to dusk as the All-Star mode is progressed through.
- Dawn: A basic day with a clear sky. Stages 1&2.
- Evening: A reddish-yellow sunset. Stages 3&4.
- Night: A dark sky. The next opponents board also seems to be brighter. Stages 5&6.
Battlefield (SSBB)
The daily cycle is sped up for the background of this stage. A sundial behind the playable area shows the time of day as well.
- Evening: Everything turns more dark-red (more in the background, less on the stage).
- Night: Everything turns more dark-blue (again, more in the background than on the stage), the sub-platforms turn dark-blue with small blue stripes and stars and the moon can be seen.
- Dawn: Light is seen on the mountains range in the background.
Battlefield (SSB4)
The daily cycle of this stage is the same as the Brawl Battlefield and occurs on both the Wii U and 3DS versions of the game. The stage cycles look nearly identical to Brawl's.
Gaur Plain
Gaur Plain undergoes a day-to-night transition. The stage starts off in its day configuration. In Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, Metal Face appears at night.
Home-Run Contest
In both Brawl and Smash 4, if the Sandbag is hit far enough, the time will change from day to evening. If hit even farther, it will change from evening to night.
Prism Tower
Prism Tower's time change aspects are linked to the where the fight is taking place. At the ground level of Lumiose City, the stage takes place in the day; as the stage begins to go higher up Prism Tower, however, time passes, and at the apex, the stage turns to night.
- Dawn: Occurs at the start of the match, as well as when the stage returns to the base of Prism Tower.
- Evening: Occurs halfway up the tower; the light is tinged with yellow and orange, as to stimulate sunset.
- Night: Occurs at the top of the tower, as well as when the stage flies in the skies of Lumiose City. The lighting becomes dark blue as to stimulate night, and numerous buildings seen below the stage have their windows lighted. The Prism Tower itself also features uniquely colored lighting on its spire. This is the version seen in the Omega form.
Smashville
Like the Animal Crossing games, Smashville's time changes are based on the actual system clock, and do not occur in the normal run of a match. This applies to both the Brawl and Smash Wii U versions of the stage.
- Night: The background is dark, except for a few lights in the houses. Also, constellations can be seen in the sky.
- Saturday, 8:00 PM - 12:00 AM: K.K. Slider holds a concert in the background, playing one of six different songs.
Town and City
Time changes on this stage depend on Wii U system clock, like on Smashville.
Umbra Clock Tower
In Super Smash Bros. 4, the face of the falling clock tower face matches the respective system's internal clock (Wii U or Nintendo 3DS). One can even observe the clock hands moving. If the game is paused, the clock stops counting. When the game is un-paused, the clock instead skips ahead and resumes counting from the time at which the game was un-paused.
Yoshi's Island
The annual cycle of seasons is also greatly sped up for this stage's changes.
- Autumn: The gigantic flowers go down and the background turns more orange.
- Winter: The sky turns blue while the rest of the background is covered by snow, save for a few tips of grasses. It also snows.
- Spring: The sun comes out, the snow disappears, and the grass appears while they are turning from brown to green.
- Summer: The big flowers appear and everything becomes greener.