Shadow Moses Island
| Shadow Moses Island | |
|---|---|
 Shadow Moses Island in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. 
| |
| Universe | Metal Gear |
| Appears in | Brawl Ultimate |
| Availability | Starter |
| Crate type | Futuristic |
| Maximum players | 4 (Brawl) 8 (Ultimate) |
| Tracks available | In Brawl: MGS4 ~Theme of Love~ Smash Bros. Brawl Version Encounter Theme of Tara Battle in The Base Yell "Dead Cell" Cavern Snake Eater (Instrumental) Theme of Solid Snake Calling to the Night Bolded tracks must be unlocked In Ultimate: Metal Gear series music |
Shadow Moses Island (シャドーモセス島, Shadow Moses Island) is a stage in Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate developed by Hideo Kojima. It was officially recognized in the October 2, 2007 DOJO!! update, having appeared before that in many trailers and screenshots.
Playing 15 matches on this stage is one of three ways to unlock Snake in Brawl.
Stage overview
The stage features giant watchtowers as destructible walls, as well as a spotlight that generates the infamous "!" over a player's head and the also infamous "Discovery" sound if it shines on them (although it does not affect the players, and it is not meant to be a threat). The stage also features a random Metal Gear that will occasionally burst through the roof: Metal Gear REX, Metal Gear RAY, or two Gekkos. They do not interact with or affect the gameplay, and they do not attack other opponents. In Ultimate, the roof will repair itself after a short period, allowing for it to be broken through by another Metal Gear later in the match. When the stage's watchtowers take 72% damage, they are destroyed, which exposes the edges of the stage and makes it more difficult for lighter characters to stay alive. They have two sections each; if the bottom section is destroyed, the top section will collapse as well, but the bottom section can stand without the top. After about a minute or two, a broken watchtower (if the entirety is shattered, not just the top) will resurrect, forcing all edge-bound characters back into the center. However, though generally unknown, most characters can get over the towers by jumping multiple times as a watchtower is resurrected. The walls can also be bypassed by using a Warp Star near the sides and tilting past them. The characters will remain trapped (and largely unreachable) until the towers are destroyed again.
When Snake uses his Smash Taunt on this stage, his teammates (Otacon, Mei Ling, and Colonel Campbell) will communicate with him via Codec and give him information about fighters he's playing against, similarly to Fox, Falco, and Wolf's Star Fox Smash Taunt. There is also a Codec transmission in which Slippy appears and tells Snake all about Falco. If Snake is KO'ed while on the Codec, the person on the other end stops their speech and gives the infamous "SNAAAAAKE!" Game Over shout.
The exterior of this stage, which is inaccessible in the game by normal ways, can be seen in this video.
Ω form and Battlefield form
In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the design of the main platform of the Ω form and Battlefield form is reminiscent of the tank hangar, such as the floor resembling the driveway in front of the door and the walls resembling the facade of the building. The platform is also the same size and shape as Final Destination and Battlefield, respectively. The tank hangar and the surrounding area are in the background, and the searchlights and Metal Gears still appear occasionally. The design of the three soft platforms of the Battlefield form resemble the soft platforms of the regular form.
Ω form in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
Battlefield form in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
Origin
This stage is based on the first area of Shadow Moses Island in Metal Gear Solid: a helipad located outside a tank hangar and connected to a nuclear weapons disposal facility. Its design in Smash is slightly different than the original game: the staircases are missing, the truck that was parked in front of the building is gone, and the height of the searchlight towers have been extended. In Metal Gear Solid, the facility's searchlights are focused on the helipad itself. If Snake is caught by the light, his cover is blown and guards are called to kill him. The searchlights remain focused on him until he finds somewhere to hide. Ever since Metal Gear Solid, if the player is seen by security, the trademark exclamation point is displayed over the enemy's head, and the corresponding sound effect plays. If a player gets caught by the searchlights in Smash, an exclamation point will appear over the player who got caught, and the same sound can be heard. The searchlights will also follow that player for a short time.
In Metal Gear Solid, Snake was first commissioned out of retirement to infiltrate the facility to destroy a nuclear capable mech, Metal Gear REX, before Liquid Snake could launch its nuke. In Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, the U.S. Marine Corps designed a new Metal Gear called Metal Gear RAY. It was designed as a counter to the immense amount of Metal Gear REX derivatives being constructed around the world. Both REX and RAY have a chance of appearing in the background of this stage; however, RAY never appeared on Shadow Moses Island until Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, where Snake and Liquid Ocelot fight each other using REX and RAY.
In Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, there is a class of mass-produced mechs called Gekkos. Unlike REX and RAY, Gekkos aren't able to launch nukes, so Gekkos aren't true Metal Gears. In Guns of the Patriots, Gekkos appear on Shadow Moses Island. The design of the Gekkos resembles their appearance in Guns of the Patriots; however, Super Smash Bros. Brawl was first released on January 31, 2008 in Japan, while Metal Gear Solid 4 was released internationally on June 12, 2008, making Brawl the first game that Gekkos appear in.
Tournament legality
Shadow Moses Island is banned in tournaments because of unfair advantages such as repeated abuse of chaingrabs against the watchtowers (more notably in the case of King Dedede's chaingrab - against any character with a weight of more than 87 (Marth's weight), he can infinitely chaingrab them against the wall and finish with an unavoidable up tilt for a KO), the difficulty of KOing horizontally (meaning that players would have to resort to Star KOs) and the removal of the bottom blast line, thus rendering spikes, edgehogs and similar techniques virtually useless.
Gallery
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Shadow Moses Island in Brawl.
The searchlight having found Yoshi in Brawl.
One of the towers being broken apart in Brawl.
Metal Gear REX in Brawl.
Metal Gear RAY in Brawl.
- Gekko.png
A Gekko in Brawl.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Metal Gear REX in Ultimate.
Panoramic Image of the stage from Ultimate.
Little Mac using Jolt Haymaker on the stage.
Mimikyu trapping an opponent under its cloak on the stage.
Zero Suit Samus and Snake crawling on the stage.
R.O.B. taunting on the stage.
Yuri with the Camera Obscura on the stage.
Trivia
- The amount of snowfall on the stage is random.
- In Brawl, if Jigglypuff uses all of its midair jumps and uses Rest where a wall was, once the wall regrows Jigglypuff will be inside it and able to go offscreen to the side.
- In Brawl, if a character is standing right next to one of the watchtowers and a Landmaster rams them, they will be forced through, though it's possible from both the top platform and below the starting platforms.
External links
 Metal Gear universe
| |
|---|---|
| Fighter | Snake (SSBB · SSBU) |
| Assist Trophy | Gray Fox |
| Stage | Shadow Moses Island |
| Item | Cardboard box |
| Other | Colonel Roy Campbell · Mei Ling · Otacon |
| Trophies, Stickers and Spirits | Trophies · Stickers · Spirits |
| Music | Brawl · Ultimate |
