Hyrule Castle
General
Info
Background
Layout
Hazards
Item Appearance Spots
Character Appearance Spots
Strategies
-Luigi
-Mario
-Donkey Kong
-Link
-Samus
-Captain Falcon
-Ness
-Yoshi
-Kirby
-Fox
-Pikachu
-Jigglypuff
My Opinion
General Info
Hyrule Castle is home to Link, the elfin hero from the Legend of Zelda series of games. The entire stage is basically the roof of a huge castle and this is the second largest stage in the game after Sector Z.
Background
In both the foreground and back ground, you can see towers of the castle. In the background, you can see some lush green mountains, a sparkling river and a nice lake. Pretty good looking background.
Layout
Hyrule Castle is a pretty big stage. I'll start from the left. The leftmost side with the edge at the end is a green sloped roof of the castle. To its right at a slightly higher elevation is the main part of the stage. Above the right part of the main level are three platforms. As we keep going right, there's a drop in elevation and we get to another flat walkway that continues until the right end of the stage with the edge. In the middle of the walkway is a tower. Characters can walk through the bottom part of the tower but will not be able to see through the walls of the tower. The upper part of the tower is solid, which means it can't be passed through. Characters can stand on the top of the tower.
Hazards
There is an active hazard on the castle, and it is called the whirlwind or tornado. I'll explain it a little further down the page. The other hazards are the pits that lie beside the castle, but they are pretty standard fare.
Active Hazards
Whirlwind / Tornado
Damage: 14%
Flight Path: Straight up
Description: The whirlwind will appear at set periods of time. Even
if you can't see it because of the camera, you can detect its presence
by listening for the windy sound the whirlwind makes when it appears.
The whirlwind will appear on all parts of the stage except for the top
and bottom platforms and on top of the tower on the right. There will
be at most one whirlwind on the stage at any time. The whirlwind will
appear on the middle of one part of the stage and it will stay on that
part of the stage during its appearance. For example, if the whirlwind
appears on the main level, it won't move on to the lower parts that
are beside the main level. Most of the time, the whirlwind will slowly
move to left edge of its part of the stage and then move right, but
sometimes a whirlwind will go beserk and move very quickly across its
range. Anyone who gets caught in the whirlwind will be spun around a
few times and then spat into the air, causing the victim a fair bit
of damage. You cannot block the whirlwind, since it's like a grab move.
The whirlwind is by no means weak and will probably kill Kirby at about
80 to 90% when he's on the lower parts of the stage, so be sure to keep
a look out for it since it can sometimes come from nowhere. The most
dangerous whirlwind is the one that appears on the middle platform,
because it is the highest up and has the best chance of KOing people.
People killed by the whirlwind will not give points to other players,
even if the victim was knocked into the whirlwind by another player.
Item Appearance Spots
Items drop from the sky on to the top platform and on to the main level. Items will also appear on the sloped area to the left, on the bottom platform and on top and below the tower on the right.
Character Appearance Spots
All four players start on the main level of the stage. The order is 1P, 2P, 3P, 4P, from left to right. The character reappearance spot is above the top platform.
Strategies
Here are some strategies I can think of for this stage.
-The best place to be when an opponent has a hammer is to be on top
of the tower to the right. The hammer person's single jump will give
the person a hard time trying to get you.
-If you have a lot of damage, stay on the lower right side near the
tower, since it's a lot harder to get killed in that spot because you
will bounce off walls and ceilings when you fly.
-Since the walkway through the tower is covered, it is one of the best
places to deploy a motion sensor bomb to give your opponents a nasty
surprise. Just make sure you don't step on it yourself.
-You can knock your enemies into the tornado to damage them further
and to kill them, but remember that you don't get points if the tornado
kills your opponents.
Lets look at how each character fares on this stage.
Luigi
Luigi is cool with this stage, but there isn't really anything special he can do here.
Mario
Mario is about the same with Luigi, but since it's a big stage, Mario can use his fireball to hit people from far away.
Donkey Kong
DK likes big stages, because it gives him room to charge his giant punch
and become an opportunist (Charge punch, go up and punch someone, Charge
punch... repeat as desired). DK is also a lot harder to kill since the
stage is bigger and he has a lot of bulk.
There's also a trick DK can do on this stage. In the tower on the right,
DK trap people there using the Hand Slap (down B). The solid ceiling
will bounce the victim back down to floor for another hit, so it's almost
impossible for people to escape this combo on their own.
Link
Link is good on his own stage. The wide distance of the stage enable Link to use his projectile attacks. It's also harder for Link to get knocked off here since the stage is big and Link is pretty heavy. Just try to stay in the middle of the stage and opponents will have trouble trying to get Link.
Samus
Samus likes big stages too. The big area means that Samus can use her charge shot to KO people from far away. This stage is also pretty good for spiking purposes, which is something a good Samus player would want to do often. If the battle doesn't turn out well, Samus can always run away and avoid the close confrontations that leaves her at a disadvantage.
Captain Falcon
Captain Falcon is like Link, which means that this stage is pretty good for him. He can use his running speed to run circles around his slower opponents and he is harder to knock off here because of the bigger area.
Ness
Ness is okay with this stage. Since the stage is so big, Ness can safely use his PK Cannonball as an offensive attack against people. The platforms in the middle are also a pretty good place to juggle people around. Ness can also do his send downs on this stage, which can add to his KO count.
Yoshi
Yoshi is okay on this stage. It will be a bit harder to knock him away now since the stage is bigger and there are lots of places for Yoshi to jump to. Most of the stage is also uncovered, so Yoshi can easily use his ground pound attack on people.
Kirby
Kirby is pretty good on any stage, so there's not much to say here. Just watch out for the tornado since it will kill Kirby at lower damages than most other characters. Just play with the Kirby cheapness and it won't be too hard to win.
Fox
This stage is good for Fox. He can use his blaster to peg people from far away, and the centre platforms are also a great place for Fox to juggle people into the sky. He can also use his speed to out run his slower opponents here.
Pikachu
Pikachu is pretty good on this stage. He can thunder people above him and can also use his thunder jolt to hit unsupecting people that are on another part of the stage.
Jigglypuff
Jigglypuff fares better on big stages since it will be harder to kill him over the sides. Still, you have to be very careful while playing as Jiggly, since the ballon Pokemon will die at absurdly low damages.
My Opinion
Hyrule Castle is a pretty good stage. You can do almost everything on this stage. You can juggle, spike, snipe at people, be opportunistic, fight close up etc. Of course, sometimes a big stage will make some people jump around looking for easy kills (I admit that I do this too.). If that happens, just tell everybody else to go after the person who is doing nothing and force the person to participate. What's the fun in Smash if you just stand around and do nothing?