Fourside (stage)

Fourside (Japanese: フォーサイド Fourside) is a stage in Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. It is based off of the city of Fourside from EarthBound and is 's home stage in Melee, and also and Ness's in Ultimate, and in Melee it is also 's home stage in.

Unlock method
ln Super Smash Bros. Melee it is unlocked by playing 100 vs mode matches.

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate it is available from the start.

Layout
Fourside is made of three skyscrapers that players fight on the roofs of. Because of the narrow pits, characters who can have an advantage for. The building to the right has a flat roof while the left building has a slanted, triangular roof. Above it is a held by a crane. When the crane activates the platform can move to the left, right, up, or down randomly. The Monotoli Building in the center is the largest of the three. The roof is mostly flat while the left part is slightly risen, and it has a tall spire on the top.

Occasionally a UFO makes an appearence on either the left or right part of the stage. It functions as a large that has a slippery surface. It is slightly slanted and has a bulge in the middle. After 30 seconds the UFO will start flashing and disappear in Melee.

In Ultimate the stage has recieved a massive graphical update, though gameplaywise it's identical to its appearence in Melee. One change is that when the UFO disappears it now has an animation showing it flying off to the moon.

EarthBound references
Fourside is one of the largest cities in Eagleland, however the city in Smash Bros is much larger than it was in EarthBound. The building in the center is the Monotoli Building, the tallest building in Fourside, however its design is different than how it looked in EarthBound though, and several other skyscrapers are taller than it. The left building appears to be the Dinosaur Museum under construction, though in EarthBound it wasn't located next to the Monotoli Building. On the Monotoli Building is a helipad where Geldegarde Monotoli's helicopter that Porky stole occasionally lands. In Ulltimate the helicopter was redesigned, now matching how it looked in EarthBound.

The right building appears to be a generic apartment building, however in Ultimate there is a clothesline with an orange Hawaiian shirt and sunglasses hanging on it, which resemble the shirt and sunglasses worn by Everdred in EarthBound. There is also blue paint spilled on the roof, referencing the Happy Happyists painting Happy Happy Village blue.

While UFO enemies appear in the EarthBound series, the one in Fourside appears to be based on the large ones seen in EarthBound's opening. When one appears on the stage, it plays the sound effect heard during the start of the opening.

While Fourside is set in the daytime in EarthBound, in Smash it is set a night. This may be referencing Fourside's alternate dimension Moonside, as Moonside's dark pallet gives it the appearence of being at night. The large full moon in the background could also allude to this.

Trivia

 * A beta version of Fourside exists in Melee, where it has generic black and white skyscrapers in the background.
 * In Ultimate, Fourside made a minor appearence in the E3 Trailer. Originally the background had a skyscraper with the text "Department" on the side, referencing the Fourside Grand Department Store. While the skyscraper is still present, the text is stangely absent.
 * It is often thought that Fourside being Pichu's home stage is a reference to the  short that played before the third Pokemon movie. The short features Pikachu and Pichu playing in a big city.
 * Ironically, this stage has a huge disadvantage for Ness and Lucas because they need space for PK Thunder to go around and strike them to make a recovery. As a result directional is their only form of recovery after they use their