Pirate Ship (stage)

Pirate Ship is a recurring stage in the Super Smash Bros. series. It first appears in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, then in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U as a downloadable stage for $1.49, and then in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Pirate Ship is the home stage of Toon Link, and it takes place at the Great Sea from The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. The fighters are fighting on Tetra's Pirate Ship as it sails along the sea. Besides the main floor of the ship, there are two upper platforms that fighters can also fight from.

On occasion, Tetra's Pirate Ship passes a lookout platform, which shoots bombs at it. Any fighter to get hit by the bomb takes heavy damage. Fighters can jump into the water around Tetra's Pirate Ship, but any fighter who touches the front of the ship while in the water gets KO'd automatically. On occasion, a catapult comes up from the front of Tetra's Pirate Ship, and anyone who stands on the catapult while it is firing is sent flying. For a short time, the King of Red Lions follows the Pirate Ship, and it can be used as another small, usable platform. At times, the weather goes from sunny to stormy, during which a whirlwind appears to throw Tetra's Pirate Ship up above the clouds. Shortly after, the ship starts to fall back down, and during this the gravity decreases, giving fighters the ability to jump a bit higher and to stay airborne for slightly longer. Sometimes the ship runs into a small, rocky island, and it docks itself partially backward while pointing at an upper-left angle. The fighters can hop off the ship and fight on the rocky island until it sinks. When this happens, Tetra's Pirate Ship corrects itself and sets sail once more.

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, the Pirate Ship has a very minor role in The Subspace Emissary. After defeating Tabuu, the player's character can return to The Forest. There, toward the start, is a newly placed floating red door. Upon entering it, the player's fighter is taken to the Pirate Ship to battle Toon Link. If defeated, Toon Link becomes playable, if he has not already been unlocked, but if the player's fighter is defeated, they are returned to the Emissary map. Even if Toon Link is unlocked through different means, his unlock match still takes place on the Pirate Ship.

In both Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the Pirate Ship stage has an Omega form, and it takes place on a lookout platform instead of Tetra's Pirate Ship, which is instead shown to be sailing in the background. In both games, the Omega form has 8-Player support, but the regular stage only supports up to four players. The Omega form of Pirate Ship also features weather changes, although this has no effect on the fighters. In Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, the lookout platform is protruding above the sea, but in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, it is a platform sitting on the sea. Some of the lookout platform's background features, such as the treasure chest, have been retained, but the small roof with the skull has been removed.

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U
The songs for Pirate Ship are reused from other The Legend of Zelda stages in the game.

Trivia

 * In Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, the ui_stage_db.bin file can be modded to allow up to eight players for the regular stage. In doing so, 8-Player spawn points appear whenever starting a match on Pirate Ship, but stage hazards such as the bombs, the tornado, and the rocky island do not appear. These changes suggest that Pirate Ship was once 8-Player compatible.