Announced at E3 2001, Great Bay (グレートベイ, Great Bay) is a stage in Super Smash Bros. Melee and returning in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate that could be considered Young Link's stage (it is where the player fights him when they attempt to unlock him, and Young Link was the main protagonist in The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, from which this stage originates).

In All-Star mode, this stage is where Link and any of his teammates are faced.

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Stage layout

The left side of the stage consists of three platform. The bottom ones have enough space for two fighters, and the left one floats and reacts to the fighters' weights by rocking. The raised platform, which has barely enough space for four characters is solid: this can be exploited by throwing opponents against its bottom to cause a stage spike and possibly an early KO.

The right side is occupied by a large turtle which acts as a platform. When the battle starts, the turtle is present and looks to the left: after about 30 seconds it sinks, carrying away any fighters still on it. It periodically emerges and sinks again, and can either look left or towards the screen. The trees on its back act as further platforms. The parts not covered by grass have lower traction, like ice and oil. Notably, when the turtle is absent the right blast line is very far from the stage: therefore, staying on the right is in this situation very advantageous.

Tingle floats around on a red balloon over the bottom right platform. Its balloon acts as a platform: standing on it for enough time or attacking it makes it pop, causing Tingle to fall down on the ground or in the water while flailing his limbs. Contact with him in this state causes 1-2% damage and negligible knockback. After a while, he reinflates his balloon and floats back up: if Tingle falls on the lower left platform, when he reinflates his balloon he is trapped under the main platform and his balloon automatically pops.

The Moon in the background steadily falls: when it gets close enough to the ground, the Four Giants appear, stop it and throw it back up into the sky. The cycle lasts about three minutes, and has no effect on the gameplay.

Origin

This stage is from The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. This stage takes place in the area of Termina called the Great Bay Coast. In this stage the players fight on the marine Research Lab located in Great Bay. The overall design of the lab looks similar to how it appeared in Majora's Mask, except the lower platform is now to the right of the building rather than in front of it and the lab and the platforms have been scaled down. In Majora's Mask, the lab is facing toward the shore, but in this stage, the lab is facing away from shore. If the player wanted to save his progress in Majora's Mask he must "check" an owl statue. One of the locations of the owl statues is on the lower platform. The owl statue seen in Majora's Mask is also seen in this stage on the lower platform. The background of this stage is almost identical to the area in Majora's Mask.

Tingle, a character from Majora's Mask is featured in this stage is seen hanging on a red balloon. In Majora's mask, if the player wants to talk to Tingle, the player must use a bow and arrow to pop his balloon and make Tingle fall to the ground. When Tingle is on the ground, he spins around for a little bit, and blows another balloon to float back up to where he was. In Melee he repeats this behavior. In Majora's Mask there is a giant turtle that must be awaken to get to the Great Bay Temple. In this stage, the giant turtle is retained, but the turtle has also been scaled down. The giant turtle never goes to the marine research lab, and the turtle also never goes back in the water.

In Majora's Mask the moon (depicted as having a hideous face) is falling towards Termina thanks to the titular antagonist Majora, and Link has three days to stop it from falling. The moon can be seen getting closer and closer as time progresses in Majora's Mask and if Link fails to play "The Song of Time" before time is up, it will destroy Termina and Link will have to do the cycle all over again. Ironically, Termina's name is named after the word terminal, meaning "will perish soon." Once the player has completed all four dungeons (representing four giants), the player must play the song Oath to Order to get all four of the giants to come, and grab the moon to stop it from falling. In this stage in Melee, the moon can be seen falling closer towards the ground as time progresses. When the moon gets to a certain height, the four giants come and stop the moon, but the giants now push the moon back where it was previously rather than destroying it like in Majora's Mask.[1]

There are three songs for this stage, two of which are heard at all times. One song is an orchestrated version of the main theme from The Legend of Zelda and the other song is a slightly remixed version of Saria's Song from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. [2]

Gallery

Trivia