Brawl Stage of the Week: Airborne Arena

Airborne Arena? More like "Sadistic Arena."

This stage was submitted by Wii Fanboy reader K2J, who's been busy making lots and lots of Brawl stages. He let us know his favorites, which were the ones we tested out for ourselves. So, why did we end up choosing to feature Airborne Arena? Well, to put it in gamer terms, the stage completely owned us.

Airborne Arena by K2J

We know what you're thinking: If you're going to play a Nintendo game that makes you curse out loud, why not just play Mario Kart? Well, we're never ones to shy away from a challenge, so Airborne Arena suits our style perfectly. K2J explains that he made the stage for all-purpose battles, but we like that he added some well thought out gimmicks to up the difficulty.

Take the ice blocks, for instance. Yes, we've seen plenty of those before in custom stages, but these ones are placed strategically on the sides to prevent grabbing. Therefore, in order to make your way back onto the stage, you have to aim for the lower spikes and hope you can launch yourself upward. Ouch. Also sadistic are the spikes up top, which end up making a lot of items irrelevant. The difficulty is just part of this stage's charm, though, and ends up adding to the fun.

If you want more details before you decide to download, though, just check out the stage walkthrough below.

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1. Download this file
2. Save it to an SD card in the following location:

• US versions of Brawl: \private\wii\app\RSBE\st\st_2094_2094.bin

• Japanese versions of Brawl: \private\wii\app\RSBJ\st\st_2094_2094.bin

• EU and PAL versions of Brawl: \private\wii\app\RSBP\st\st_2094_2094.bin

3. Put the SD card with the file on it in your Wii and start up Brawl
4. During the stage selection, click "Melee Stages" in the bottom-right corner
5. Then click "Custom Stages" in the bottom-right corner and choose the custom stage you want to play on (this particular stage is called "")

Still don't get it? Not sure how to send in your own creation? Other questions on the stage feature? Just email smashsubs@nintendowiifanboy.com

Want to suggest a theme, or show us some Brawl stages you've made or seen? Just email smashsubs@nintendowiifanboy.com. From the hard, to the ridiculous, to the incredibly awesome, to the even more ridiculous, make sure to show us your favorites!

You've just read our Stage of the Week feature, in which we showcase some of our favorite user-created Smash Bros. Brawl stages. If you're interested in seeing previous Stage of the Weeks, just click here and browse through!