S&SAR Favourite Track Topic

[Mollfie]

OK, the point of this is to compile a list of the tracks from most loved to least.

I thought it might be useful for those of us who play online. I don't like choosing tracks for people as I worry I might pick ones that people hate lol, so I thought this would be a nice way to work out what ones people like and don't like. Plus it's interesting to know.

Also, feel free to say why you do or don't like certain tracks. Just make it clear so I can compile a list lol.

The tracks:

Seaside Hill - Whale Lagoon

Blizzard Castle - Icicle Valley

Casino Park - Roulette Road

Carnival Town - Sunshine Tour

Toyo-to -Shibuya Downtown

Curien Mansion - Outer Forest

Final Fortress - Turbine Loop

Jumble Jungle - Treetops

Blizzard Castle - Rampart Road

Final Fortress - Dark Arsenal

Carnival Town - Jump Parade

Casino Park - Pinball Highway

Curien Mansion - Sewer Scrapes

Seaside Hill - Lost Palace

Detritus Desert - Sandy Drifts

Tokyo-to - Rokkaku Hill

Carnival Town - Rocky-coaster

Tokyo-to - Highway Zero

Curien Mansion - Deadly Route

Seaside Hill - Ocean Ruin

Casino Park - Bingo Party

Dino Mountain - Lava Lair

Pirates Cove - Monkey Target

Final Fortress - Thunder Deck

If you don't understand what I'm on about then just say lol XD

My votes!

Favourite: Seaside Hill - Ocean Ruin

I like the pipe, especially going upside down. It feels Sonicy but not boring, if that makes sense.

Least Favourite: Detritus Desert - Sandy Drifts

I HATE the cornering T__T and I hated the mission on this track too.

What to do:

Vote for the one that is your most favourite, and then vote for one that is your least favourite. I will then ask you to vote for you next favourite and least favourite, and so on. You can only vote for each track once!

The tracks that get a favourite get a plus point, the tracks that get a least favourite get a minus point. Then I can see if we can work out an order of tracks to see what's popular and what's not.

I'll be updating every three days!

Edited March 6, 2010 by Mollfie

[Chooch]

Bah, favorite track is hard. But if I had to pick one it'd probably be Highway Zero. Rokkaku Hill is fantastic too. The Jet Set Radio tracks are easily the best in the game and the most varied of the bunch when looking at each IP.

Least favorite? Easily Lava Lair. I fucking hate that stage. Never, ever, ever pick it. I'll rage every time.

[JezMM]

I find it hard to pick a favourite too... despite how tricky it is I'll put in a good word for Pirates Cove - Monkey Target. The hardness doesn't feel fake - nothing is really out of the blue and once you know how to do the U-turns it's fair and square difficulty.

I will put in a very very bad word of utter contempt for Detritus Desert - Sandy Drifts. Even after Monkey Target forced me to learn to drift skillfully, I still find the corners on this ungodly difficult to master without slowing down.

Edited March 6, 2010 by JezMM

[Blue Blood]

I can't pick a favourite right now, so you probably don't wanna count this post. But as for least favourite, that easily goes to Turbine Loop and Dark Arsenal. They're both fucking gorgeous and have a foreboding sense that I've not felt since Scrap Brain, but fact is they're so much less eventful than all the other levels. Absolute bores (comparative to the rest of the game at least). Right now my favourite would have to be any of the Jet Set Radio, Seaside Hill or Monkey Ball stages. Yes, you heard me. Detritus is FUN.

EDIT: And add Sunshine Tour and Rocky Coaster to that list of levels I like. Not overly keen on Jump Parade, but the other two are fantastic.

EDIT 2: Pirates Ocean, not Cove btw.

Edited March 6, 2010 by Blue Blood

[SuperStingray]

Favorite? Probably Pinball Highway. Fun, colorful, all around awesome. I'm equally fond of all the Casino Park levels, but I just like Pinball.

Least favorite would definitely be Thunder Deck. I'm not fond of any of the Final Fortress stages. They're just bleak, colorless and just don't really have any character compared to the others. I chose Thunder Deck because it's the longest and therefore most tedious.

[Badnik Zero]

Well I've got the DS version but most of the tracks are the same, except a few shortcuts here and there.

My favorites are definitely all the Final Fortress tracks, except maybe Turbine Loop which could use some more pizazz. They're pretty long and have a lot of nice turns and straightaways on them. Ocean Ruin gets a mention for the underwater tubes. I heard someone say they were the Sonic Heroes special stage, which never occurred to me. Deadly Route, Icicle Valley, and Rokkaku Hill are all the best out of their series. I'm not really feeling the Casino Park levels though, dunno why. I can't stand Lava Lair. The flowing lava is cool, but the rest of the track is close and too jumpy for me. The DS version is actually lacking Rocky Coaster, which I was sure would be my favorite. But Sun Fair, its replacement, is my fave out of the Amigo courses. And I really like the Monkey Ball courses. Even if the sharp turns were annoying to learn at first, they're really fun and unique once you get the angles down. Not a lot I don't like about the courses here which is awesome.

[Phos]

Monkey Target reminds me of "Big Blue: The Ordeal" from F-Zero GX.

My least favorite would probably that volcanic Billy Hatcher course that has all the crap that the cars like to get caught on. It's large number of jumps also makes it prone to dole out ridiculous punishments for what would usually be minor setbacks.

[Conando]

I'm going to be an ass and say I love Monkey Target. I really do. That and Rokkaku Hill are probably my favorites.

[Glenn]

A cheeky repost on my part, but...

Okay, so after my on the 26th, I think I'm just about ready to do some kind of course ranking here!

Sonic the Hedgehog

Seaside Hill - Whale Lagoon

Pretty standard when compared to some of the others, but an awesome introduction to the game upon first loading. The corkscrew is the obvious highlight.

Score: 7/10

Seaside Hill - Lost Palace

Excellent for that huge jump over the broken bridge, but otherwise this adds little to Whale Lagoon, it's just... well, bigger, s'all. Still good, though.

Score: 7/10

Seaside Hill - Ocean Ruin

Now this is more like it! An epic journey underwater, the loop-de-loop is spectacular and that final sneaky shortcut an absolute gem if you can make it. Awesome!

Score: 10/10

Casino Park - Roulette Road

Bright, engaging, looks absolutely eye-poppingly gorgeous, and some of the turns are sinfully demanding. A definite winner in my book.

Score: 9/10

Casino Park - Pinball Highway

Y'know what this game does brilliantly? Massive bendy tubes! The same with Ocean Ruin, this one has a spectacular one, and as gorgeous as ever!

Score: 10/10

Casino Park - Bingo Party

Knocking a point away for that final section across the stacked chips... no matter what I do, I always seem to crash. No matter, as the bingo balls in the cage? Genius!

Score: 9/10

Final Fortress - Turbine Loop

To be honest, probably my least favourite of the Sonic-verse courses. A little dull (just a big circle) and the centrifuge looks ace, but kills the framerate.

Score: 6/10

Final Fortress - Dark Arsenal

If you can make those sneaky jumps, this course is ridiculously easy. That said, making those jumps is insanely difficult! A nice balance.

Score: 8/10

Final Fortress - Thunder Deck

Imposing? Why, yes! Stacked with cool features? Indeed! Lined with dangerous cannons? Of course! The best course in the game? Alas, not quite...

Score: 7/10

Samba de Amigo

Carnivaland - Sunshine Tour

One of my personal favourites, for being nicely accessible with plenty of cool drifting and lashings of hillarious character. Totally off-the-wall, and I love it!

Score: 10/10

Carnivaland - Jump Parade

Another sterling effort in the course department from one of my greatest enemies in the character department... although those balloons do get annoying at times.

Score: 8/10

Carnivaland - Rocky Coaster

Random death in the shape of those ghetto-blaster speakers annoys the heck out of me, and the swinging axes are infuriating. The worst of this bunch.

Score: 6/10

Jet Set Radio Future

Tokyo-to - Shibuya Downtown

Great, filled with neat little touches and tons of detail as you make that epic, flying jump. And the framerate keeps up too? You've got yourself a winner here, guys!

Score: 9/10

Tokyo-to - Rokkaku Hill

Incredibly bumpy at times, and that final shortcut took me forever to master, but a generally solid and enjoyable track from the middle of the pack.

Score: 7/10

Tokyo-to - Highway Zero

Gah! That final stretch! Those crash barriers! Annoying, too, 'cause this was otherwise perfect! But a point away for the first few rounds being destroyed by those barriers.

Score: 9/10

Super Monkey Ball

Jumble Jungle - Treetops

Crazy, insane right-angled corners, one after the other, take forever to conquer. None of the jumps, either, offer much boosting opportunity. Improves with time.

Score: 7/10

Detritus Desert - Sandy Drifts

I'm sensing a pattern here... more neck-breaking corners, but at least this one has an epic jump towards the end. It can go either way, depending on your race conditions.

Score: 7/10

Pirates Ocean - Monkey Target

Amazing! Another of the larger courses is tailored to perfection, with some genius placement of items on that final climb, plus the longest jump of the game!

Score: 10/10

Billy Hatcher

Blizzard Castle - Icicle Valley

Introduces the first moment when drifting really clicks, or at least it did for me. Blocking the run to the finish line with eggs, mind? Only good if you avoid 'em!

Score: 7/10

Blizzard Castle - Rampart Road

Excellent for having two very distinctive routes during the second half, one that can genuinely shake up the standings during a Grand Prix. One of the more sweeping.

Score: 8/10

Dino Mountain - Lava Lair

At times, the best there is: huge, that final dash down the lava flow, the T-Rex... but at times, the worst there is: control a drift and avoid lava boulders all at once?!

Score: 8/10

The House of the Dead

Curien Mansion - Outer Forest

More or less, this one's pretty forgettable. I mean, it does what it does well, but aside from smashing through that church, 'tis just some woods, really. Oh, and zombies.

Score: 6/10

Curien Mansion - Sewer Scrapes

For having a gigantic three-headed monster that tries to eat you as you pass, this course gets a big thumbs up from me! Points away, though, for some bumpy moments.

Score: 8/10

Curien Mansion - Deadly Route

The best of the haunted courses. A huge curved spiral (with no lava boulders, hurrah) leading to a massive drop through a window, and loads of tactical variation.

Score: 9/10

***

My top five courses, in a very particular order, would have to be...

1: Casino Park - Bingo Highway

2: Seaside Hill - Ocean Ruin

3: Pirates Ocean - Monkey Target

4: Carnivaland - Sunshine Tour

5: Tokyo-to - Shibuya Downtown

[SuperLink]

Favourite be Jumble Jungle - Treetops, because I love Monkey Ball, and this stage looks incredibly pretty. Also you can pwn this stage with drifting.

Least favourite probably... very hard to pick. There are no stages in the game I dislike, and while I'd like to choose a stage from a franchise I'm not familiar with simply because of that reason, I actually really enjoy most of those stages, so I'm gonna have to go for Casino Park - Pinball Highway, because there's a drift section that kicks my ass every single time.

I would have chosen Detristus Desert too, but my inner Monkey Ball fan made me memorize that stage until I liked it. It does have too much bloom though....

Edited March 6, 2010 by Lyra

[Mollfie]

So Glenn, what is least favourite?

I've edited my first post so hopefully it's clearer now?

Edited March 6, 2010 by Mollfie

[Glenn]

So Glenn, what are you most and least favourites?

Like I said at the bottom (no worries: was an epic post!) my top five are:

1: Casino Park - Bingo Highway

2: Seaside Hill - Ocean Ruin

3: Pirates Ocean - Monkey Target

4: Carnivaland - Sunshine Tour

5: Tokyo-to - Shibuya Downtown

My worst courses would probably be the ones with the lowest scores, which would make 'em:

1: Carnivaland - Rocky Coaster

2: Curien Mansion - Outer Forest

3: Final Fortress - Turbine Loop

Mainly because of single elements, although Curien Mansion - Outer Forest is generally forgettable all over. But I can't stand the random swinging axes and dropping spiders in Carnivaland - Rocky Coaster (which makes the whole damn track annoying, as 'tis a total lead-buster) and Final Fortress - Turbine Loop is so inoffensive and bland, all I can think of is how the framerate dips when you pass by the centrifuge. I must point out, though, this is rather like saying "I won't eat this chocolate bar because this tiny percentage of it looks a bit funny". I enjoy all the courses!

[SefHighwind]

My favorite track would have to be Pinball Highway. I love the course structure, the turns are very fun, and I love the environment! Then all you need to do is pick a song from the list, and then you have one hell of a stage!

My least favorite track would be Detritus Desert. The turns are just mind numbingly painful. Hell I love the turns in Pirates Ocean, but the damn turns in Detritus Desert are just hell.

[Daisoku]

Seaside Hill - Lost Palace is my fave, though I do enjoy Monkey Target and Ocean Ruin, as well as Pinball highway...

I hate hate hate Detritus Desert - Sandy Drifts as well as Lava Lair...

The tracks in bold are my choices.

[Conando]

I kind of hate the shit out of Lava Lair too. At least once it made me play as Knuckles in one of the missions. I kept getting launched into a wall by some stupid bump right before you enter the volcano. Not to mention the whole flying over those rock platforms thing.

[Veritech Guardian]

My Favorite is Monkey Target of course because of the scenery, HUGE Jump and those 180 Turns. (Yes put them as a Plus.)

I hate Lava Lair due to that alot of times I Over Jump and crash on the edge of the other side and get stuck even longer than if I fell, also I don't like the scenery much.

Edited March 10, 2010 by Veritech Guardian

[Mollfie]

Currently the favourites are, in order:

Monkey Target

Pinball Highway

Treetops/Lost Palace/Highway Zero/Ocean Ruin (tying)

The least favourites are, in order:

Sandy Drifts/Lava Lair (tying)

Turbine Loop/Rocky Coaster (tying)

Then we can do your next fav and next worst tracks!

You cannot vote for a track you have already voted for, those of you who wrote a list of your fav/least fav tracks will have those counted in this round so don't worry (I'll work my way down your list, then you can vote again).

Make sense?

My next fav track is Ocean Ruin. My next least fav track is Treetops.

Edited March 11, 2010 by Mollfie

[Chooch]

My second favorite is Rokkaku Hill as I (sort of) mentioned earlier.

Uh.. second least favorite track? Not sure. Probably Pinball Highway.

Edited March 11, 2010 by Top Cat

[Swiss]

I'd have to say Ocean Ruin is my favourite, as when I first saw it I actually said to myself "WOW". That level is just GORGEOUS...and insanely fun of course.

Least favourite is BY FAR is the Sandy Drifts level. My only thoughts for it are FFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUU...

Edited March 12, 2010 by Sinister Swiss

[Glenn]

Well, as above, my second-favourite is ranked as Seaside Hill - Ocean Ruin. My second-to-least-favourite is ranked as Curien Mansion - Outer Forest.

[Sapphire]

My favorite? Shibuya Downtown. I just love all of the JSR levels, but this ones is my favorite.

My least favorite would have to be Sandy Drifts. All those freaking turns make it hard, and it's just plain annoying.

[Toothpaste]

Ocean Ruin is definitely my favorite, even on Wii it looks great! My least favorite is no doubt Sandy Drifts. Monkey Target is very fun after getting the 180 turns down, but I still find Sandy Drifts a bit irritating.

[dabbido]

I finally got this yesterday! and I must say its a lot of fun! much better than MK Wii. The drifting system is so much better too!

I still have to unlock some tracks but my favorite right now is Ocean Ruin! thrilling underwater goodness, good drifting and huge jumps! second would be tokyo-to rokakku hill (I still dont know if the last JSRF stage is better)

least favorite...sandy thingy. Detritus Desert. I HATE this stage. Its so confusing and you fall.... a lot.

[Nemain]

Rampart Road is my favourite so far. Additionally, once you get used to it Lava Lair isn't -so- bad... -shot-

My least favourite? Going with the majority here and saying Sandy Drifts. Gorgeous visuals do not make up for those bloody zigzag turns, it isn't any fun trying to navigate them. It gets a bit tedious after ramming into the side for the eleventy billionth time. D:

Edited March 15, 2010 by Nemain

[Mystwalker]

Favourites: Rocky-Coaster / Ocean Ruin (undecided)

Runner Up: Sunshine Tour, followed by Monkey Target.

Least Favourite: Outer Forest

2nd Least Favourite: Bingo Party

Well, I should say that in general I love the Samba de Amigo tracks for the nice latin music (racing while listening to Brazil's popular Samba music is so win ), Samba de Janeiro in particular. Out of the 3 Jump Parade felt the least amusing of them all, so it's a fight between Sunshine Tour and Rocky-Coaster. At the end I give a preference to Rocky-Coaster because I love the thrill ride it gives allied to the plenty of opportunities to boost. The horn barriers blocking the booster pads and of course the balloons are the hazards that still nail me often though.

Excluding the Samba tracks, another track I fully enjoy is Ocean Ruin. The underwater ride is so amusing and unique (if you exclude the Koopa Cape pipe ride in Mario Kart Wii), it feels like a cameo of the Special Stage in Sonic Heroes as well. It's just a shame about the weird track skipping exploits done with All-Star moves, else it would be just perfect.

Lastly, Monkey Target should be mentioned since I love big tracks and Monkey Target is not only long and challenging, but also looks very beautiful. Talk about a coastal ride with floating platforms, giant flying airships and a giant whale. In short, very unique!

About the least favourite tracks, to make it short, Outer Forest is virtually a run in the dark with nothing noteworthy going on (basically the church bit is the only entertaining spot of the race). Bingo Party I just can't seem to like because for an 'Expert' Casino Park course it feels too short and with less crazy turns and stunts that the previous two tracks had.

Other tracks I should probably mention is Dark Arsenal (cool track, but for some reason on the Wii the framerate's messy the majority of the time, making it frustrating to drive on) and Lava Lair (also cool looking, but feels a bit short; also those platforms after the big jump, ugh... only seem to be doable if I don't trick during the big jump and simply cruise on...).

If only one vote of each is counted then Rocky-Coaster for favourite track and Outer Forest for disliked track.

Edited March 16, 2010 by MickX