Best/worst/easiest/hardest versions of each stage

[dakohosu]

What, in your opinion, are the best and worst versions of each stage, by tournament? Definition of best and worst is up to you, whether being far too difficult or too easy, bad or really good balancing, etc. but easiest and hardest obviously more objective. 

Here are mine.

Stage 1
Best - Sasuke 19 or 26: 26 because I thought the difficulty was a bit more warranted at the time and we had some cool new additions like the Step Slider and Rolling Escargot, but the Hazard Swing and Giant Swing weren't great imo. 19's course felt a lot more polished and cohesive, but the sheer difficulty at the time felt a bit OTT.
Worst - Sasuke 29-30: Definitely not as easy as 1-4's course but certainly not as creative or interesting imo. They basically took out everything that made 28's Stage 1 semi-decent, while keeping stuff like the Jump Hang Kai and Ni Ren, and also adding incredibly forgettable obstacles like the Long Jump and Hedgehog. Time limit was also far, far too lenient.
Easiest - Sasuke 1: I was tempted to put Sasuke 3 or 4 because the Free Climbing was actually pretty tough as a final obstacle, but with no Rolling Log and 10 extra seconds, the first tournament's Stage 1 takes the cake for easiest.
Hardest - Sasuke 19: pretty much the hardest versions of every Shin-Sasuke obstacle, combined with an incredibly brutal time limit where unless you were spritely throughout the entire course and got the wall on your first try, that was it. 

Stage 2
Best - Sasuke 27: imo the most varied and balanced Stage 2, with a difficulty worth fearing but not immersion breakingly difficult like 29 was. We had upper body onslaughts, balance, raw strength, the works, and the 5-second time limit reduction was cool compared to 25-26.
Worst - Sasuke 29: broken Backstream, unwarranted 45-second decrease in time limit, the fact that the stage was in all intents and purposes unfair, etc.
Easiest - Sasuke 8: probably the most lenient time limit bar maybe 20 or 28 which were much harder courses, with obstacles that were only failable when having to be rushed which combined with the time limit.....
Hardest - Sasuke 29: see above 

Stage 3
Best - Sasuke 25: Probably the best first half of any Stage 3 we've ever seen, and I'm more of a fan of the UCH's endurance based approach rather than a do or die move that 90% of competitors end up failing. Flying Bar as the final obstacle too. No wonder ANW based their Stage 3 off of 25's. Only criticism is that the 2cm ledges may have been a bit overkill, but tbh after 24, a brutal overhaul of Stage 3 was much in need. I still remember seeing the course reveal live and being gobsmacked.
Worst - Sasuke 3: pretty much a clear fest with not much to get excited about because of the very low difficulty of the course. At least Sasuke 1 had a couple of shock fails on the Pole Bridge.
Easiest - Sasuke 3: Was tempted to put Sasuke 1 here because no Pipe Slider, but by this point competitors had worked that obstacle out, and the Pole Jump was far easier than the Pole Bridge, while the Hang Move.....
Hardest - Sasuke 33: UCCH+VLK+Pipe Slider with no rest and broken Flying Bar, I need say no more

Stage 4 
Best - Sasuke 32-38: I prefer the Spider Climb as the first obstacle, I personally find the rock wall a little bit too slow paced for the Final, as well as the fact that the course was already too grip focussed with Stage 3.
Worst - Sasuke 27: incredibly underwhelming iteration of the Final after 5-17's and even Shin's versions. A straight rope isn't interesting to watch unless it's a complete rush to the finish, which imo with 40 seconds for that rope, it wasn't. No bungee cord like in Shin-Sasuke either.
Easiest - Sasuke 27: I'd argue 27's was actually easier than 1-4's because you could start from a standing position and jump. So it was more like 40 seconds for 17-18 metres compared to 30 seconds for 15 metres, and even when you're fatigued, an extra 2 metres in 10 seconds is more than doable.
Hardest - Current version: same time limit as the previous version but with a rock wall instead of the Spider Climb, which takes more time to complete, and is more taxing on the upper body which compromises the rest of the stage as seen from Tada's run in 40.

[xelA197]

STAGE 1
Best=10 We had an underrated time waster like the Dance Bridge, a buffed Jump Hang, a much longer penultimate obstacle and just 3 more seconds compared to 9, not surprisingly the fastest time was famously done by Nakata with just 2,85 seconds left.

Worst=29/30 You replace the two killers from 28, probably the only good things of that tournament, with a ultra-nerfed Log Grip and a very forgettable Hedgehog, and in fact there were plenty of clears by hoards of randos who promptly failed Stage 2.

Easiest=1 If they give me a chance to attempt it, very likely I will clear it.

Hardest=19 We all know why.


STAGE 2
Best=38 Ironically a Inui tournament where historically Stage 2 is the most snubbed stage, but in 38 it was surprisingly funny and thrilling, with Hioki and Yuuji shocking timeouts and Sato's narrow clear. Good demonstration that even one obstacle can change a stage.

Worst=32 Even more ironically a renewal tournament, I know that there were single digit clears on Stage 1 but come on this is a complete joke, at least 6, the other tournament with a 100% clear rate on Stage 2, had a pretty stringent time limit and was more enjoyable.

Easiest=8 Seeing Kane and Shoei going very slow and still comfortably clearing is painful to watch, and there was even a halted Conveyor Belt (though we obvs know it was raining). I really want to see Nakata's full run, I wonder how he ran out of time on the beginning of the Wall Lift. Also curiously it was the only time Jovtchev cleared with more than 5 secs left.

Hardest=29 We all know why, again..


STAGE 3
Best=26 Buffed Roulette Cylinder and a more human Ultimate Cliffhanger. I know that the Cycling Road sucks as a Floating Boards' replacement, but this was needed to avoid a second consecutive 1st half of UCH's tournament ending. And it's a shame that we have never seen the Swing Circle and the Flying Bar as the final obstacle attempted.

Worst=33 We all know why once again, I'm glad I didn't watch it live.

Easiest=3 Pole Jump instead of the Pole Bridge, Propeller Bars, the mighty Hang Move and the Pipe Slider with no jump. That's it.
 
Hardest=14/15 Three more obstacle in one shot, and a brutal strenght drainer first half. The fully fledged Jumping Bars and the fact that no one knew how to clear the Devil's Swing quickly makes this my favourite Stage 3 of all time. 


STAGE 4
Best=5/17 The most iconic Final Stage ever, the fact that it was attempted by a good amount of different competitors make this much better than 30/31, which probably it would have beaten in the second attempt if Ryo didn't slip several times.

Worst & Easiest=27 Just 5 more meters up than the original version and 10 more seconds. Painfully obvious that they wanted a kanzen to end the M9 era on a high note.

Hardest=39/Now An incredible stringent time limit and a first obstacle that can easily erase any hope if done badly, and also rushing the Salmon Ladder can easily drive you into mistakes, unless you're Yusuke.

[shunsukenumber98]

Will try and keep mine short and simple

Stage 1:
Best-35-37, might be a controversial take but I actually like this stage because of the dragon glider
Worse-25, seemed like they ran out of ideas lol
Easiest-sasuke 1, for obvious reasons
Hardest-sasuke 19, once again, for obvious reasons

Stage 2:
Best:sasuke 25-27,those obstacle combos
is are pretty good
Worse:sasuke 6, narrow is a bad obstacle
Easiest:sasuke 6, it being the easiest made it the worse stage for me
Hardest:sasuke 29, backstream was a blood bath

Stage 3:
Best:sasuke 39:once again a controversial pick, but modern sasuke obstacles have grown on me tbh.
Worse:sasuke 33, stage was extremely underwhelming and too difficult, the combo is impossible
Easiesy:sasuke 1, just 3 obstclae, really? Lol
Hardest:sasuke 33, that combo is too brutal

Stage 4:
Best:sasuke 32-38, has a good combo of obstacles and jugo Dan is nice. Prefer spider walk over speed climbing
Woese:sasuke 27, a single rope climb is boring
Easiest:sasuke 27, see above
Hardest:sasuke 40, speed climbing is no joke, the stage is still good but doesn't beat my favourite

[dakohosu]

Mar 2, 2024 19:47:25 GMT -5 xelA197 said:

Hardest=14/15 Three more obstacle in one shot, and a brutal strenght drainer first half. The fully fledged Jumping Bars and the fact that no one knew how to clear the Devil's Swing quickly makes this my favourite Stage 3 of all time. 

There's surely no way that 14/15's Stage 3 is harder than 32-34's lol.

[xelA197]

Mar 3, 2024 12:38:28 GMT -5 dakohosu said:

Mar 2, 2024 19:47:25 GMT -5 xelA197 said:

Hardest=14/15 Three more obstacle in one shot, and a brutal strenght drainer first half. The fully fledged Jumping Bars and the fact that no one knew how to clear the Devil's Swing quickly makes this my favourite Stage 3 of all time. 

There's surely no way that 14/15's Stage 3 is harder than 32-34's lol.

Yes I know, but since I consider 32-34 more worst than hard because of that combo that really would have killed SASUKE, I decided to put 14-15, a Stage 3 with a fair difficult, instead of the broken and unfairly hard 32-34.

[dakohosu]

Mar 3, 2024 14:03:21 GMT -5 xelA197 said:

Mar 3, 2024 12:38:28 GMT -5 dakohosu said:

There's surely no way that 14/15's Stage 3 is harder than 32-34's lol.

Yes I know, but since I consider 32-34 more worst than hard because of that combo that really would have killed SASUKE, I decided to put 14-15, a Stage 3 with a fair difficult, instead of the broken and unfairly hard 32-34.

Fair enough, though which course do you think is hardest in its most absolute definition, let's say 32-34's course doesn't count because it was abnormally and unrealistically difficult. Let's also discard 19-20 because the Sending Climber was apparently impossible due to there being footholds where there should've been handholds (and if you've climbed before you'll know that you can't physically grab on to footholds).

I think out of all of the remaining ones, either the current course (can't say too much as on General Sasuke -_-) or Sasuke 25 with the brutal first half and the 2cm ledges on the Ultimate Cliffhanger.

I agree 14-15's Stage 3 was brilliant and probably the most varied Stage 3 we've seen, with grip, laches, timing, core strength, etc. but imo at least certainly not the hardest. I still think Bunpei would've reached the Pipe Slider in 16, and Nagano and maybe Shunsuke would've cleared in 17 had they not nerfed the course, which is why I think the Arm Rings + nerfed Jumping Bars were a bit unwarranted, especially as those decisions came off the bat of 15's results which were all compromised by the heat that tournament. 25's course by comparison I remember seeing and thinking "is this ever going to be beaten". Though not to be confused with my sentiment towards 33 which was "nah, this is never happening", lol.

[dakohosu]

Mar 3, 2024 5:51:14 GMT -5 shunsukenumber98 said:

Will try and keep mine short and simple

Stage 1:
Best-35-37, might be a controversial take but I actually like this stage because of the dragon glider
Worse-25, seemed like they ran out of ideas lol
Easiest-sasuke 1, for obvious reasons
Hardest-sasuke 19, once again, for obvious reasons

Stage 2:
Best:sasuke 25-27,those obstacle combos
is are pretty good
Worse:sasuke 6, narrow is a bad obstacle
Easiest:sasuke 6, it being the easiest made it the worse stage for me
Hardest:sasuke 29, backstream was a blood bath

Stage 3:
Best:sasuke 39:once again a controversial pick, but modern sasuke obstacles have grown on me tbh.
Worse:sasuke 33, stage was extremely underwhelming and too difficult, the combo is impossible
Easiesy:sasuke 1, just 3 obstclae, really? Lol
Hardest:sasuke 33, that combo is too brutal

Stage 4:
Best:sasuke 32-38, has a good combo of obstacles and jugo Dan is nice. Prefer spider walk over speed climbing
Woese:sasuke 27, a single rope climb is boring
Easiest:sasuke 27, see above
Hardest:sasuke 40, speed climbing is no joke, the stage is still good but doesn't beat my favourite

I can see all this tbh. 

The only reason I didn't put Sasuke 6 as worst/easiest is because the time limit was genuinely pretty stringent, and don't forget that with how hard Stage 1 was, all of the 5 competitors who took on Stage 2 were fairly elite. This tends to happen where the average competitor who clears a tougher Stage 1 will be more skilled, and so the Stage 2 clear rate will be higher. Think 34 vs 35, 34 had a load of novices clearing Stage 1 who almost all went out on the Salmon Ladder, leading to only 9/24 clears on Stage 2. 35's Stage 1 was a lot harder, so pretty much everyone who cleared were veterans, so we got a 5/8 clear rate on an identical Stage 2. I think had Stage 1 been easier we would've probably seen a fair few timeouts or Spider Walk fails on 6's course from the additional clears. And even then the fastest clear was only like 5 seconds left. The reason I put Sasuke 8 for easiest was because the course was barely more failable than 1-6's but had DOUBLE the time limit. 29 I put for worst because the difficulty was completely unwarranted and also the stage being unfair is an immediate death sentence for me.

I also liked Sasuke 25's retro vibe by bringing back old obstacles, as well as adding in the Dome Steps. The only issue I had with the course was that the ordering of the obstacles were a little weird, like the Log Grip being 1.5.

But yeah I can defo see why you'd pick 35-37, it was one of the few genuinely fast paced Stage 1s compared to the 100+ second gauntlets we've seen before, and the Wing Slider added a feeling of balance of difficulty throughout the course. It's a shame that this has changed recently with the Silk Slider and them seemingly increasing the time limit every tournament since 35.