Platform

In the Super Smash Bros. series, platforms are what stages are made of, and therefore are a backbone of how the game is played. Characters stand on platforms to fight, and although characters can attack in the air, they cannot stay in the air for very long before being forced to land on a platform. Since most stages are large platforms floating in empty space, being unable to return to the stage after a hard hit results in being KO'd.

Types of platforms

Battlefield consists of three soft platforms above a hard platform.

• Hard platforms generally make up the solid parts of the stage, for example the large bottom platform of Battlefield. Hard platforms cannot be passed through in any direction and their edges can usually be hung on.
• Soft platforms, often known as pass-through platforms, float in the air (usually) and can be both jumped and dropped through. In most cases, characters cannot hang on the edge of soft platforms. Almost everything in the game (such as reeling characters, projectiles, thrown items, etc.) can pass upwards through a soft platform yet not downwards.
• Semisoft platforms are a halfway point between hard and soft platforms: characters and things can travel upwards through them, but they cannot drop through them. Some stages (such as Congo Jungle in Super Smash Bros. and Port Town Aero Dive in Super Smash Bros. Brawl) use a semisoft platform instead of a hard one as the main landmass. Most conventional 2D platform games such as the Kirby and Mario games uses this type of platform frequently.
• Supersoft platforms were introduced in Brawl, and so far exist in only one stage: Skyworld. They are identical to soft platforms with one important difference: characters can be sent downwards through them by knockback (and are the only platforms with this property). Characters with meteor smashes are at an advantage as the meteor smashes will knock the opponent through the stage.