Mushroom Kingdom: Princess Peach's Castle


 * For the similarly-named stage in Super Smash Bros., see Peach's Castle.

Announced at E3 2001, Princess Peach's Castle is a level in SSBM; it is the top of the castle seen in Super Mario 64. The level itself is comprised of three parts: The left side, the right side, and the middle. The right and left side are flat platforms with edges and a small floating stand that rises when a character stands on it. The middle section is comprised of two layers; the bottom layer is a risen, sloped (around 30 degree) platform with another similar platform on top. The stage also has an array of pressure activated buttons littered across it. There are two types of buttons. The first kind are small and circular; these buttons activate new platforms on the stage when they are depressed. The other kind are rectangular exclamation points; these buttons release items when a character walks over them (only when items are enabled, however).

Every one to five minutes, a large Banzai Bill will shoot from the side of the stage in the sky. First there is a loud rumble, and then the bullet appears from a random side of the screen and goes in a slow straight path until it crashes into the castle. After approximately four seconds, it explodes and deals around 30-45 damage with very large knockback. The explosion is so strong that most fabrics (like Mario's cape or the flags on the stage) shake when it occurs. A possible tactic is to throw or hit an opponent into the explosion. The Banzai Bill itself also does light damage if you touch it before it explodes, and it has a similarly soft knockback. It is banned in tournaments due to walls (Shine infinite) and Banzai Bill interference but has been seen in much older tournaments.

In All-Star mode, this stage is played on when you face Peach and any of her teammates.

Origin
This stage is from Super Mario 64. The castle in Melee is very accurate to the castle in SM64 (despite being scaled down and the castle's spire being different). In Super Mario World, the player would have to jump on secret ! switches to make blocks appear. In Melee, this is still true but, the switch can also make platforms appear. Also in SMW, there are Banzai Bills that get shot at Mario. In Melee, the Banzai Bills get shot into the castle and explode.

The music for this stage is a blend of Super Mario Bros.'s above and underground themes (though in Adventure Mode, it plays the music of Rainbow Cruise, and when fighting Dr. Mario the first time, "Fever" is played).

Trivia

 * There is a slight glitch with any AI character on this stage. Very rarely, when a Banzai Bill hits the center tower portion of the stage, the AI will try to head for the opposite edge of the stage to get away from the explosion. In doing so, however, it has been observed on at least one occasion that the character will actually jump into the blast in order to get to the other edge of the stage. This will, as with any incidence of a character caught in a Banzai Bill blast, result in a SD.