Rank The SASUKE Renewals

[sasukewarrior333]

Hi everyone! Yes, I know it's been a while. I was inspired to make this thread after looking back and seeing a similar thread for 32 when it was released. I'm gonna be giving my opinion on the renewals from best to worst, I'm not including SASUKE 1 because that wasn't a REnewal it was just a... newal... okay I need to think of a better name for that. I want it noted here that there literally aren't any SASUKE tournaments I don't enjoy watching, but I do have a lot more criticisms for some of them.

6. SASUKE 32
I kinda grappled between this and 28 for lowest position, but ultimately I think 32 is a smidgen worse which is a shame as it was the first tournament I ever watched live. I liked watching Nagano get a proper send off and almost clearing Stage One and there were some enjoyable moments such as Suzuki finally clearing Stage One and then Two. The Tie Fighter and Double Pendulum were fun obstacles. But the results of this tournament felt so bland, you get numerous people failing due to the rain which just causes the tournament to feel boring more than anything. Somehow despite only having a single digit amount of stage clears there was still a very small sense of actual tension. There was a 100% Stage Two clear rate which would've been impressive had it basically not been the exact same as SASUKE 31. Then Stage Three is kinda boring, because it's fairly obvious no one has any chance of clearing. No one beats the UCCH except for... him. And then he fails immediately. There's just so little energy to this tournament for me, even going into Stage Two I had a feeling everyone would clear. I just don't think there was anything interesting going on really, we'd been getting insane cliffhangers since SASUKE 25, it was pretty obvious no one was gonna clear the UCCH/VLK combo, especially when they didn't even know it was coming. They also digested Takeda and Shingo which while not the first time was quite upsetting to see, even though thankfully Challenge aired their full runs.


5. SASUKE 28
Okay, a lot of people's frustrations towards this tournament are based on how the All Stars were screwed over, and I can sympathise with those. But I don't think it was quite as bad as is usually made out. Stage One wasn't exactly amazing but the course was comprised of some genuinely pretty decent obstacles such as the modified Spin Bridge and Rolling Escargot. The Jump Hang Kai and Double Warped Wall were interesting variations of classic obstacles even if in the long run they didn't do much damage.. Stage Two introduced the Backstream which was controversial to say the least but is very pretty and wasn't an inherently terrible idea and the Swap Salmon Ladder looked pretty cool and was a decent idea in concept and it wasn't until two tournaments later that the real bulls**t started regarding it. The Passing Wall was a nice spin on the Wall Lift and the Spider Drop was an interesting new concept. Oddly enough the time limit was at 135 seconds which the longest there ever was which is funny considering Stage Two used to be a speed stage. Stage Three wasn't massively gripping but the Iron Paddler was an interesting concept and thoiugh they did almost no damage it was nice to see the Rumbling Dice and Curtain Cling back. It also started the Crazy Cliffhanger trend, which can be seen as a good thing or a bad thing. In our age of the Cliffhanger Dimension with two moving ledges to flip to It's easy to forget how insane this thing looked at the time. Results wise Koki Someya had an awesome First Stage clear with less than a second which I always love to see  left. It felt kinda odd to see Wakky of all people place sixth and make it the furthest out of anyone who didn't clear the First Stage. Overall it is an interesting and somewhat ambitious tournament, they clearly had a vision going into it to establish a new era of top competitors in the New Stars, but unfortunately they decided to diminish the All Stars which was unpleasant to watch.

4. SASUKE 18
I had a hard time deciding whether I wanted this above or below 39, it was a very close call but I decided I slightly prefer 39. I liked the creativity of the course, the Log Grip, Jumping Spider and Salmon Ladder are all great obstacles that would greatly influence the overall Ninja scene. the Rope Glider and Flying Chute were great concepts but they really needed better safety testing given how dangerous they seemed. The Pole Maze was a decent time waster obstacle. The Bungee Bridge, Net Bridge, Shoulder Walk and Curtain Swing were interestiing ideas but none of them were very effective in eliminating or tiring anyone. The Downhill Jump was a nice explosive start to Stage Two and is my personal favourite Stage Two opener just in front of Chain Reaction. Stage One had six clears which was something that had only happened once since SASUKE 10 in SASUKE 15 so that did give the tournament a solid sense of tension. We also got to see the first success of Yuji Washimi, who is in my opinion a somewhat underrated competitor. Takeda failed the Second Stage for the first time since SASUKE 5 which was a huge shock at the time. Nagano had a nice display of humility and honor when he admitted his mistake after grabbing the top of the Shin Cliffhanger and even refused a retry when offered. Overall, this was a pretty decent tournament, arguably the most ambitious out of all of the renewals given you'd be hard pressed to find a similarity between it and SASUKE 17 aside from the Metal Spin which was a solid obstacle. However, the new ideas were somewhat hit and miss with a couple being somewhat dangerous. However, it did pave the way for some of the most iconic SASUKE moments, so this tournament is still a good one in my opinion.

3. SASUKE 39
I understand that feelings are mixed on this one, which is understandable. As a renewal, this course was probably the least ambitious of them all given there was only one new obstacle along with two slightly modified obstacles. Like SASUKE 32 rain complicated the tournament which made some runs unfair. However, maybe it's recency bias talking but I really enjoyed this tournament. Clear wise it was one of the most sucessful renewals we've seen, even if it was on a similar course. Hayate Kajihara put in a great second performance and is shaping up to be a big contender. Tada was able to clear the Cliffhanger Dimension for the first time and though he failed the Vertical Limit, it seems as though he can only go up from here. The Swing Edge proved to be very effective taking out three great competitors and could be a huge threat in future. The modified Sidewinder was also surprsingly deadly taking out some good competitors. One of which being Keitaro Yamamoto who we finally got to see clear Stage One and may have large success in the future. The tournament did have the aforementioned issues along with the cutting of Naoyuki Araki who should've been digested and the digesting of Tada's clears, of which Stage Two was acceptable if awkward to end with but Stage One absolutely should have been shown in full given how intense his clear was. Overall, the tournament was a very entertaining tournament but just an alright renewal.

2. SASUKE 5
The first tournament here that's in my top 10 tournaments. We were introduced to the extremely iconic Jump Hang and Warped Wall of which the former became a staple of the era and the latter of which became a staple of the entire show being used in every tournament (I'm counting the Great Wall in SASUKE 18 given how similar it was) especially in comparison to the easy Crooked Wall. This was the only tournament where only All Stars completed the First Stage, all of whom had fairly close clears and Yamada coming so unbelievably close to touching the water on the Rolling Log. This was also the first tournament with single digit and joint second lowest in terms of clears. Stage Two was suitably hard, with the Tackle Machine being an effective energy drainer and time waster and this resulted in Shingo becoming the only clear with an extremely entertaining and close run that would've failed had he not utterly destroyed the Wall Lift. He was almost able to complete Stage Three but failed the Pipe Slider jump. This is one of the only two times my favourite competitor did the best in a tournament aside from SASUKE 7. I don't have much else to say since despite being a solid tournament there is not a great deal to say on it except it is the debut tournament of both Takeda and despite being cut Kongu who are two amazing competitors who provided us with a multitude of entertaining runs over the years.

1. SASUKE 25
Despite having the lowest ratings of any tournament, I have always found this tournament to be one of the best in the shows history. They chose an appropriate amount of of retro and new obstacles along with bringing back a nostalgic theme not used since SASUKE 12. The Dome Steps were one of the better steps obstacles though I think the ones before and after it (the Twelve Timbers and Step Slider respectively) were both better. It was great to see the Rolling Log and the Jump Hang back and it was good to see the former on the same course as the Log Grip. The Bridge Jump was a very fun watch even though it didn't do much damage. The Circle Slider did surprising damage taking out some good competitors such as Naoya Tajima, Masashi Hioki, Ryo Matachi, Tomohiro Kawaguchi (though the former three weren't well known at the time) and even Makoto Nagano who had cleared it in his Kanzen tournament. Stage Two was great, Slider Drop was a decent first obstacle though I prefer the opener it replaced despite Levi having a funny fail here. The Double Salmon Ladder is my favourite Salmon Ladder variation as it requires two types of movement that are difficult to switch between. This took out Takeda and also resulted in an insane failure from Yuuji who somehow failed it without falling off. The Unstable Bridge and Metal Spin were kept which was a good choice as they were still doing their job with the former of which taking out Jun Sato in his first beating of the Salmon Ladder. The modification to the Balance Tank gave us a funny Shingo derp moment when he seemed to forget the rope was shortened and lost his grip, Kanno also ended up failing here. The Third Stage in my opinion had the best designed course ever. The first three obstacles are strength drainers but also have the potential to take someone out with Brian Orosco failing the Doorknob Grasper. And the Ultimate Cliffhanger was utterly insane, while it seems very doable nowadays it was the first Cliffhanger that has ever seemed truly insane. Mind you, we never saw this initial version beaten, I have a feeling it probably would've happened but it was a truly brutal course with every obstacle having the potential to end a run. Overall in my opinion this is by far the most entertaining renewal with satisfying moments, shocking fails and an amazing course. I say this both with my nostalgia glasses on with this being one of the tournaments I was raised on and with them off too. I love this with all my heart and it will forever be one of my favourites.

Well, that's my piece done. What about you people? I'll be sure to read all of your comments and I look forward to seeing everyone's thoughts!

[subtleagent]

#6 - SASUKE 28: Inui really wanted to bring back the basics, but in every way he missed the mark. The Jump Hang Kai and Ni Ren Soritatsu Kabe were flat downgrades of their predecessors, the Swap Salmon Ladder despite being under the new H&S ended up being one of the most dangerous and broken obstacles on the history of the show. Yes, we got the Crazy Cliffhanger which ended up introducing the jump that would become the hardest part of Stage 3, but then everything else in the stage was either ineffective or a downgrade. The Rumbling Dice and Pipe Slider were way too easy compared to the golden era and the Curtain Cling after the Cliffhanger was just dumb. Odds are you're going to fail the Cliffhanger before you ever touch the Curtain Cling.

#5 - SASUKE 39: Swing Edge saved the tournament from being a complete disaster, nuff said.

#4 - SASUKE 32: This renewal wasn't horrible, but kind of stale considering 31 already renewed Stage 1 so to speak. I guess fair enough they didn't want to shake up the course again so soon, but I feel obstacles like the Double Pendulum and Ultra Crazy Cliffhanger were pretty glorified.

#3 - SASUKE 18: I feel like for every great idea, this renewal had a lot that missed the mark. For every Jumping Spider, Flying Chute, Downhill Jump, Salmon Ladder, Shin-Cliffhanger, or Spider Flip there was a Net Bridge which was just lazy, Shoulder Walk which was a bastardized version of the Galleon from VIKING, Curtain Swing which was so easy it had no business being in Stage 3, Great Wall which was just a glorified Warped Wall, and Bungee Bridge which conceptually was a decent idea, but fell flat in execution. I feel like 19 smoothed the rough edges out (albeit with messy results).

#2 - SASUKE 5: This is how a renewal should be. Weeding down the field to the best of the best. The Jump Hang and Soritatsu Kabe not only managed to earn their places as staples, but trimmed a field from 37 to 3. I do wish Stage 2 and especially Stage 3 were given more, but in the end it got the job done.

#1 - SASUKE 25: This is my all time favorite. Stage 1 was a mix of new and returning obstacles and the change in placement for some (i.e. Log Grip) managed to add a new element of difficulty to said obstacle. Stage 2 didn't change much, but the Slider Drop and Double Salmon Ladder were both solid, and Stage 3 was probably my favorite. The whole stage was an absolute beast and coming off the disappointment that was Shin-SASUKE's Third Stage, I was happy to see so many beefy obstacles like the Roulette Cylinder, Doorknob Grasper, Floating Boards, Ultimate Cliffhanger, Swing Circle, and Flying Bar. It's too bad the show was on it's death bed, because I feel like this Stage 3 was exactly what Stage 3 should be. Hard, but doable... unlike 32 ~ 34 which was just ridiculous.

[dakohosu]

I agree with both of the top three here as I do think that Sasuke 25 was by far the best renewal due to it's level of innovation as well as the difficulty being a tastefully brutal but not impossible spike. I was initially going to put 18 ahead of 5 but I agree that it was a bit rough around the edges and you could tell towards the end that they were running out of ideas and/or time resulting in almost as many bad additions as good.

I'm scratching my head as to how to order the bottom three. Sasuke 32's Stage 1 was the better of the three with a couple of new obstacles and a much harder Tackle, but that's not saying a whole lot given that 39 changed basically nothing (except for modifying the Silk Slider which should've been scrapped and the NRSK which was just a lazy buff) while 28's renewal was underwhelming and frankly quite lazy. 32 takes the win for Stage 1 purely because of how many shock fails it caused, and fewer of these were due to the weather than in the case of 39; 28 obvs had fewer clears than either but that was due to a s*** competitive field more than anything else.

28's Stage 2 I think was the most innovative but ended up not working on a practical level and the time limit was WAY too lenient in its introduction, while both 32 and 39's Stage 2s were disappointingly easier than the ones they replaced for no apparent reason.

39's Stage 3 I'd say was the most tasteful increase in difficulty by targeting the first half of the stage that had become infamously stale which I appreciated; we had 6/9 competitors not even reaching the Cliffhanger which was a nice change from everyone failing the 180 transition. 32's Stage 3 I'd say comes close and was actually pretty good except for the UCCH+VLK combo, though at that point no one realised how impossible it would end up being until no one passed it even a couple of tournaments later so at the time I didn't mind. 28's Stage 3 was by far my least favourite given that it was by far the most unbalanced version with the first half being basically unfailable while everyone ended up failing the CCH; I particularly dislike 28's because it started this whole trend of literally everyone choking at the Cliffhanger whereas this was never the case in earlier competitions.

I won't comment much on the Final Stage as no one attempted it in any of those competitions, but all I'll say is 39's is a novel idea but perhaps too biased towards rock climbers on a course that already favours those body types, while the RISING Final Stage was just a rehash of 8-17's. 32's I'd say struck the perfect balance between speed and upper body strength.

So yeah, make of that what you will; basically all of the bottom three weren't that great but had one saving grace in the form of one good stage while the other two were meh.