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Continuing off of the previous article about Quote’s potential moveset in Smash, he will also show up with a new stage, though I decided to be a little more reserved with the stage design, as we will see shortly. After debating with my brother over making a stage based off either this or the Sand Zone, I eventually decided on using the Egg Corridor to represent the Cave Story series.
The Egg Corridor is the first place in Cave Story where the player will get the notion that there is more to this game than it initially lets on. The First Cave is mostly a tutorial, and the Mimiga Village, while large and with a few secrets here and there, scarcely has anything to challenge you. In the Egg Corridor, you will meet several different types of enemies and traps, encounter a boss, and get a taste of the plot to come. This location also becomes important to the story later on. As such, I felt it would be fitting to create a stage inspired by this location.
Music
Currently, there are three official versions of the Cave Story soundtrack. There is the original that was part of the original version, the “New” version which was made for the WiiWare and PC ports, and the remastered version which was made for the 3DS remake, but has since been included in the PC port as well. I have decided to showcase two songs each from all three versions to give you an idea of what each one sounds like and what kind of music you can expect if Quote were to make it in. While the original has that classic retro feel to it, the new version is a lot more casual and mellow. The remastered soundtrack, on the other hand, goes for high-energy.
- Mischievous Robot (Egg Corridor) [original]
- Eyes of Flame [original]
- Mimiga Town [WiiWare]
- Moonsong (Outer Wall) [WiiWare]
- On to Grasstown [3D]
- Plantation/Main Theme [Cave Story +]
Statistics and Hazards
| Game | Cave Story |
| Series | Cave Story |
| Home to | Quote |
| Size | Medium |
| Niche | Two separate battlegrounds |
| Blast Zones | Average, walk-offs on both sides |
| Gimmick | Instant-KO traps |
Since I have no artistic skills whatsoever, I decided to create what the stage will look like by using the Stage Builder. The stage will be slightly larger than a medium sized stage. It consists of two main platforms suspended in the air over the ground, each containing a Flying Dragon egg (the left will be “07”, and the right will be “06”). A few platforms are arranged above the main platforms. The space between the two main platforms will be close enough to allow characters with wall jumps to recover with them, but any character will still be able to make it back to the main platforms by using their double jump and/or recovery move. On the ground are two enemies known as Basils, which will run across the ground and instantly KO anyone they come in contact with. Basils cannot be damaged or defeated. Groups of Beetles and Basus will occasionally fly around in the background, but will not join the battle. Very rarely, a Flying Dragon will also fly across the background.
Left: A Basu with two Beetles. Right: A Flying Dragon. Bottom: A Basil.
The general idea was to give the standard experience of a normal floating stage with a ‘safety net’ with the floor at the bottom. Fighters who are meteor-smashed early in the match may not fear an untimely KO, and will still have a chance to recover again. However, fighting on the ground level is ill-advised, as the Basils will require you to make it back to the main platforms. Having to keep the fight between two different sections with a pit in the middle may be better suited for Free-For-All or team matches, but I think it’ll work for 1v1 matches too.
Omega Version
The ground will be made up of three rooms containing Sky Dragon eggs (reading “16”, “15”, and “14”) joined together to make on solid platform of the same length as Final Destination. The bottom floor will be gone, and Basils will not appear.
While I definitely like stages with more unique mechanics, I felt like trying my hand at a stage that doesn’t significantly interrupt the flow of battle, but at the same time isn’t a static stage like Battlefield or Final Destination. To that end, I tried to design it with both a split down the middle to break up the main fighting platform, and also gave it an odd platform layout to distinguish it from standard platform stages. I could have added walls, breakable blocks, or enemies from the Egg Corridor to shake things up some more, but eventually I decided against it and wanted to keep it simple. Thanks for listening to my ramblings on stage design up to this point, please let me know what you think of this, or what you’d do differently. Hopefully, I’ll see you on the third article I’ve written for Cave Story items and trophies, so I’ll see you there!
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You made a Cve Story stage but didn’t include the remastered version of Labyrinth Fight as part of the music? FOR SHAME.
That Jenka remix is awesome
My bad, my bad ;_; I love that track, I have no idea why I didn’t think to mention it.
Your idea is pretty cool, with the Basils on the bottom part. The stage could have some blocks in the air too, but yeah, a more platform sided arena is cool too.
The air does feel a bit barren, doesn’t it? If I wasn’t clear, I actually wanted the stage to be slightly bigger than this, but the Stage Editor only has three different sizes. Maybe the stage could stand to use a few more objects to populate it. My intention was to keep the design ‘simple’, but maybe I should have experimented more?
This was meant to be a reply to Rafael’s comment, I derped again