Challenge The Limit (Unofficial Chinese Sasuke Bootleg)

[Eclipse]

So, with so many clones of Wipeout and Takeshi's Castle that follow a different goal/format, one has to be very careful with calling something a bootleg clone of Sasuke. Challenge the Limit (全能极限王) however, is very clearly a Sasuke clone. Almost every obstacle is taken from Sasuke (Salmon Ladder, Spider Walk, Rope Climb, hang Climb, Propeller Bars...),  and even has the Rope Climb Final Stage. I was tipped off about the show and after some research, I managed to track it down. It ran from July to October 2015, concurrently with X Warrior as a rival show to compete for market share in China, from the info I have gathered. The show itself seems to be more of a qualifier with one long City Final-like stage and then the Rope Climb as the second stage. Very strangely, the entire show had been deleted off of the Station's website as well as off of their youtube. I have no idea if they removed it followed the meltdown with X Warrior or if it dissappeared for other reasons, but luckily for us, the show's creators did upload in full on Dailymotion. As with X Warrior, it seems to have been cancelled before the finals

The course itself is hilariously colorful and poorly constructed, even compared to X Warrior.
Potentially even more hilariously, it reuses some of the same graphics from X Warrior, especially ones taken from Street Fighter

I would like to emphasize that this is absolutely NOT an officially licensed show. 

Enjoy (if anything, for the laughs)

Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3
Episode 4
Episode 5
Episode 6
Episode 7
Episode 8
Episode 9
Episode 10
Episode 11
Episode 12 / Finals

Stage 1:

Giant Wheel
Steps
Propellor Bars
Pole Maze
Spider Walk w/ moving sections
Salmon Ladder
Hang Climb
Warped Wall

Stage 2:
Tsuna Nobori

[Zach Smith]

My 1 word summary
cringe

[Philip]

Jesus the lights are more seizure inducing than ANW's. This course would be fun and challenging in 1998

[Eclipse]

Oct 12, 2016 12:41:20 GMT -5 Philip said:

Jesus the lights are more seizure inducing than ANW's. This course would be fun and challenging in 1998

- Steps are close enough to skip entirely with a good jump
- Poles are only 3 feet apart
- Propellors are so short that there is almost no reach involved
- Can wear gloves on all obstacles
- Footholds on Spider Walk
- Salmon rungs are like 8 inches
-  freehanging on the Salmon bars tethers after a miss doesnt lead to elimination, only hitting the water does. People totally fell off the ladder but hung on the support line and were allowed to reset the bar
- Actual bars/grips on Hang Climb
- All Hang Climb rocks are identical
-Warped wall only looks 11-12ft and has loose cloth you can grab

 I get that a lot of people failed but any of the main Japanese/American competitors would find this difficulty depressing. I doubt it is even as hard as Sasuke 1 to be honest

[notamulti]

Don't b**** about easy courses, everything has to start somewhere.

I'd prefer easier courses if they allow blue collar workers to have a chance. I utterly despise the way ANW has locked out anyone who doesn't do parkour/rock climbing as a profession.

It's also very difficult to judge how easy or hard a course will be once you've finished building it. There's also only so much that testers and course modifications can do.

In addition to that, do you guys not remember the absolute garbage that was ANW 4?? First tournaments will always be painful.

And FYI Banana, 8 inch salmon ladder is no joke, I tried an 8 incher a couple of years ago, and without practice or extreme body strength it's basically impossible. Please post a video of you doing even a 5 inch salmon ladder on your first ever try, to prove how easy this all is.

When I was about 14 years old I would have thought similarly to you guys but come on, we're all past that now...

[Eclipse]

Oct 12, 2016 14:45:57 GMT -5 notamulti said:

Don't b**** about easy courses, everything has to start somewhere.

I'd prefer easier courses if they allow blue collar workers to have a chance. I utterly despise the way ANW has locked out anyone who doesn't do parkour/rock climbing as a profession.

It's also very difficult to judge how easy or hard a course will be once you've finished building it. There's also only so much that testers and course modifications can do.

In addition to that, do you guys not remember the absolute garbage that was ANW 4?? First tournaments will always be painful.

And FYI Banana, 8 inch salmon ladder is no joke, I tried an 8 incher a couple of years ago, and without practice or extreme body strength it's basically impossible. Please post a video of you doing even a 5 inch salmon ladder on your first ever try, to prove how easy this all is.

When I was about 14 years old I would have thought similarly to you guys but come on, we're all past that now...

Sorry if I was a bit harsh on the difficulty. I was just thinking that X Warrior was going on at the same time and that was a much higher level and competitors were still able to blow it away.

My point was not saying that it was trivially easy, but was easy compared to ANW/Sasuke. I'm sure I couldn't do a Salmon Ladder. I also blanked on the fact that Salmon Ladder wasn't in the show til Sasuke 18, so having that does make it trickier than any of the early Sasuke. I was just trying to emphasize that it seemed a bit on the easy side compared to what I would have expected given thebother spinoffs and X Warrior, sorry if that came across as arrogant.

[2D2Will]

Hold up, there's ANOTHER one?! Is there a Chinese game show out there that isn't a ripoff of something else? Literally every Chinese game show I've watched is a poor man's knockoff of another show.

[Eclipse]

Oct 12, 2016 18:48:58 GMT -5 2D2Will said:

Hold up, there's ANOTHER one?! Is there a Chinese game show out there that isn't a ripoff of something else? Literally every Chinese game show I've watched is a poor man's knockoff of another show.

Yup! In the past networks tried to use successful foreign formats for easy viewership, but since the media regulators in China made a rule limitting foreign influenced shows to two per network, some cool original stuff is starting to pop up this year. Wipeout & The Voice still seem overall to be the two most ripped off. Every now and then Sasuke obstacles pop up in the Wipeout knockoffs, but this and X Warrior are the only direct Sasuke bootlegs I am aware of (so far...)

[2D2Will]

Oct 12, 2016 18:56:45 GMT -5 Eclipse said:

Oct 12, 2016 18:48:58 GMT -5 2D2Will said:

Hold up, there's ANOTHER one?! Is there a Chinese game show out there that isn't a ripoff of something else? Literally every Chinese game show I've watched is a poor man's knockoff of another show.

Yup! In the past networks tried to use successful foreign formats for easy viewership, but since the media regulators in China made a rule limitting foreign influenced shows to two per network, some cool original stuff is starting to pop up this year. Wipeout & The Voice still seem overall to be the two most ripped off. Every now and then Sasuke obstacles pop up in the Wipeout knockoffs, but this and X Warrior are the only direct Sasuke bootlegs I am aware of (so far...)

Huh. That sounds pretty interesting. Know any good, non-ripoff physical challenge type shows?

[Eclipse]

Oct 12, 2016 18:59:00 GMT -5 2D2Will said:

Oct 12, 2016 18:56:45 GMT -5 Eclipse said:

Yup! In the past networks tried to use successful foreign formats for easy viewership, but since the media regulators in China made a rule limitting foreign influenced shows to two per network, some cool original stuff is starting to pop up this year. Wipeout & The Voice still seem overall to be the two most ripped off. Every now and then Sasuke obstacles pop up in the Wipeout knockoffs, but this and X Warrior are the only direct Sasuke bootlegs I am aware of (so far...)

Huh. That sounds pretty interesting. Know any good, non-ripoff physical challenge type shows?

Unofrtunately none so far. Anything that comes close tends to still chase after that humorous Wipeout tone rather than the serious or sporty. If I do find one, you can expect me to post it in the 'Other Shows' forum!

[arsenette]

So this was cancelled because of the whole X Warrior fiasco?

[DacTracked]

this is horrendous

[Eclipse]

Oct 13, 2016 3:11:07 GMT -5 arsenette said:

So this was cancelled because of the whole X Warrior fiasco?

Well, yes and no. It'd be more accurate to say it was *a* reason it was cancelled. I can try my best to give a rundown of what seems to have happened based on the stuff I have spotted online:



2014: ANW 6 hits it big, the global Ninja craze really begins. Chinese TV networks see this, and since foreign adapted shows tend to be popular,  a few invest in the idea, to film the next summer

Q2 2015: Both X Warrior and Challenge the Limit (and possibly 1 or 2 others that we have yet to find) film some initial episodes. X Warrior films ~13 episodes in 4 cities, CTL films 12 episodes in 1 city.

June: X Warrior Begins airing

June 24th: I post about X Warrior, SMF gets involved, and within a couple weeks TBS steps in and takes matters into their own hands

July: CTL begins airing

Sept/Oct: First TBS X Warrior episodes air

Oct: CTL concludes

Nov: X Warrior concludes

Dec: X Warrior teases season 2, but likely not in 2016 due to planning/restructuring the show.

June 2016: Chinese Media Regulators limit foreign shows to 2 per network.


Now, what's important to know, is that despite its flaws, people in China actually did like X Warrior quite a lot. On the other hand, the general opinion on CTL is that it sucked. People did not like the poor quality or the repetitive nature since the whole first run was on a single course. Between the critically low reviews and ratings and fear of legal issues/license fees, they decided to abandon the show rather than filming more cities and potentially a real finals. Even if the X Warrior fiasco hadn't happened, it likely would have been cancelled anyway due to poor reception, but I suppose you could say the X Warrior fiasco was a "motivator"

As for X Warrior, they did mention a season 2 AFTER the TBS fiasco and the airing ended. It did have good viewership and satisfied a niche audience, and I believe at one point they had legitimately intended on renewing it as TBS licensed show. Where that changed is that I have seen posts on a few forums that suggest the plans for X Warrior 2017 were cancelled after the ban on foreign inspired shows. While it was popular, JSTV has some EXTREMELY popular adaptations of America's Got Talent/American Idol and if they had to pick only 2, X Warrior was certainly not going to make it. Who knows if they would have actually gone through with it or if TBS would have been willing to license, but it did seem there was a time post-fiasco where they were still planning on renewing. About 95%+ sure it is permanently cancelled now.

Sorry for the wordy post, but here is my understanding of what happened.

[Messup434]

Oct 12, 2016 19:33:38 GMT -5 Eclipse said:

Oct 12, 2016 18:59:00 GMT -5 2D2Will said:

Huh. That sounds pretty interesting. Know any good, non-ripoff physical challenge type shows?

Unofrtunately none so far. Anything that comes close tends to still chase after that humorous Wipeout tone rather than the serious or sporty. If I do find one, you can expect me to post it in the 'Other Shows' forum!

What shows do they have like Wipeout (hopefully like seasons 1-3!!)?  The only one I know of is Just Go

And I'll check the video out in a minute

[Eclipse]

Oct 13, 2016 19:13:04 GMT -5 Messup434 said:

Oct 12, 2016 19:33:38 GMT -5 Eclipse said:

Unofrtunately none so far. Anything that comes close tends to still chase after that humorous Wipeout tone rather than the serious or sporty. If I do find one, you can expect me to post it in the 'Other Shows' forum!

What shows do they have like Wipeout (hopefully like seasons 1-3!!)?  The only one I know of is Just Go

And I'll check the video out in a minute

There are like 4-5 that are reslly popular, I can post you a list at some point

[Messup434]

Thanks, whenever you have time! I'll be looking out for Wipeout and Sasuke stuff.

I watched some of the show (I only watched a few minutes because it kept buffering ), and I think it could have been better if it got a second season. The first obstacles of the course did look way too easy, but I guess it got some people. Is it easier than Sasuke Stage 1, with the Salmon Ladder in I'd be surprised?

Too bad there wasn't a time limit.

[RiderLeangle]

So I gave a look at the course (and in all honesty this show isn't worth taking the time to watch full episodes of ) and I have to say... red and yellow color scheme, easy obstacles, I'm not entirely convinced that this isn't a McDonalds Play Place

[arsenette]

I know there was a lot more in the background with X Warrior including money flow but that's another subject. Interesting with the other stuff. I know nothing of the market (nor did I do research.. I love being retired from that. LOL). Fascinating stuff! Thanks for taking the time to write all of that out bananarealm! ♥

[SasukeForever]

Instead of Sasuke Spray, this course has damn Red Bull between obstacles...that pretty much sums this whole thing up

[RiderLeangle]

Oct 14, 2016 5:56:41 GMT -5 SasukeForever said:

Instead of Sasuke Spray, this course has damn Red Bull between obstacles...that pretty much sums this whole thing up

That might be a thing with chinese knockoff shows, remember how X-Warrior had the stands with Hi-Tiger? That's a chinese energy drink