Mechanical obstacles

[darthvaderlim]

Every since Inui returned to Sasuke in 28, he's been adding a lot of mechanical obstacles like SSL, UCH, Cliff Dimension, etc.. Any idea on why he seems to have a fondness for it?

[dakohosu]

I'd say in most cases it serves as an easy way to make something harder without having to use too much creativity to create a new concept or element of difficulty.

Crazy Cliffhanger redundant now we've had a win? Just add two jumps instead of one and make one of the ledges moving, instead of creating a different concept.

Sidewinder not done enough damage? Let's make the poles that don't move spin; this one I admittedly kinda liked, but it's certainly easier than outright replacing it with a new obstacle.

Inui is also clearly a fan of timing-based obstacles which obviously motors massively facilitate as they force you to analyse the pattern of movement and execute at the "right" time. the Fish Bone, Hedgehog, Orugoru, and Twin Dia being major examples of this. Not sure why he's so into them exactly, but it does make sense because when he did his stint prior to Sasuke 14 we also had the Propeller Bars, Goren Hammer, moving Spider Walk walls, etc.

I'm personally middling on this approach. I think motorised obstacles can be pretty cool and diverse additions to the course and can do good amounts of damage if they demand strict timing and strategy, but I think the execution has been debatable. The Fish Bone was fine for a while but is now getting stale to the point that if you've practiced it you'll clear it. Twin Dia is a bit of a liability because it's not particularly difficult just being a reuse of Block Block yet if it rains it might just be.... impossible. Never been a fan of the Cliffhanger Dimension because I felt it's introduction was unwarranted to begin with and the ledges constantly have minds of their own. The Swap SL rungs being motorised served no actual purpose yet caused multiple malfunctions/issues.

But yeah, besides the timing point, it says a lot more about Inui's creativity than much else because making something move, spin etc is easier than actually thinking of a tangibly impactful modification or a straight up replacement. Evident by the fact that pretty much every new obstacle we've had recently has been a rehash from earlier Sasuke or another show. Modifications wise, we've had..... the Ni Ren, and Jump Hang Kai.... yeah, not great.

The one thing I can credit him for is that he's pretty good at pairing obstacles together where the first handicaps your chances at the second. Like the Tackle+WW, Rolling Log at the start of Stage 2, Backstream through Wall Lift, etc.