Lol, Beanman refuses to subject himself to the chains of embargo.
Honestly, I haven't done too many. Coliseum's is interesting because it acts as if the platform you're fighting on are the same ones that raised in the non-omega version. Hard to explain, but basically, you can see the mechanics of how the Coliseum accommodates both omega and non-omega forms. I felt that was kind of cool attention to detail. It's still an incredibly boring and generic stage for Fire Emblem, though.
Honestly, the stage selection is incredibly disappointing. Omega versions are too boring for my tastes, but as a result the non-omegas are too gimmicky. I'd prefer more levels that were just a balance. Gameplay aside, a lot of them suffer from being too generic when there should be an endless number of possibilities in Nintendo's library of diverse locales. None of the stages really excite me.
People may disagree, but I'd be fine with less stages as long as they were all very detailed, lively, and balanced. I'm fine with having your crazy gimmicky stages, as long as you have a decent number of non-gimmicky stages.
That's why a stage hazard is an absolute no-brainer for this series, yet Sakurai seems opposed to the idea from the get-go. Which doesn't make a lick of sense, given how every other aspect of the game is as customizable as it gets.
A crying shame to hear my suspicions about Colisseum confirmed, though; I think that one would be infinitely better with two modifications; don't make it a walk-off (maybe limit the arena to the elevating platforms?) and have some audience in the background, for God's sake. As it is you can spend the battle ignoring the platforms no problem, and the visuals are some of the blandest and most unexciting Smash has ever chosen for a stage.
Going with what TvTropes calls "the Theme Park version" of Nintendo locales may have been a decision taken with the mainstream audience in mind, who may not play much games but would go "oh yeah, DK has to have a jungle, Mario has to have 1-1"...But that doesn't really fly with me. So long as the stages look cool and exciting, what's the problem?
Thorakai mentioned many series gets locales from very early on. The same also applies for much of the music which is taken from the first levels. I suppose that's one way to feature something everyone who's played the game even briefly will recognize, but it comes at the cost of missing out on the best aspects of it. Thankfully Smash 4's soundtrack seems better about this at times. The Galaxies, The Wonderful 101 and Mario & Lugi 3 having their final bosses themes' featured is exciting to me.
Crossing fingers for exciting DLC.
