(EXPLAINATION)

Welcome to my ranking for every stage in SSBU Ultimate! This tier list will be based on how accurate they manage to recreate the locations of the games they're based on. Today's stage is Peach's Castle (Image).


Peach's Castle is the first stage of the entire series, and is based off the hub world in Super Mario 64. While all the N64 stages are a bit lackluster in one way or another, Peach's Castle always felt the most off -putting to me, and I think it has to do with its chaotic design.


I think its biggest flaw has to be that it doesn't even "take place" on Peach's Castle, but instead on this strange structure of various SM64 assets, such as the 2D pine trees, rope bridges, and the low poly metal platforms. Even with all of these familiar elements, the way it's all laid out just doesn't make sense. Why is there a tiny castle floating in the sky, with a rigid rope bridge attached to nothing and a stone platform extending in and out? I know that SM64's level design often boils down to just filling a world with random floating platforms , but this stage barely attempts to design something reminiscent of any level in the game.

The #1 offender of this stage definitely has to be the Smash bumper. I'm pretty sure this is the only stage to feature an element that doesn't exist in the relevant series, so the fact that it's here isn't doing any favors for its ranking.


Overall, it's clear that whoever designed this was limited by the N64 hardware. Something like the floating island from Bom-Omb Battlefield would have been a much better choice, but doing a stage that's faithful to it was probably out of the question. While this stage at least offers variety gameplay wise, it's a visual mess that barely has any connection to to source game beyond the giant, blurry jpeg in the background. It's weird to kick off a tier list with a F tier slot, but needless to say, that's where Peach's Castle is going.

(TIER LIST - 1 STAGE)