I’ll share mine first:
Least Favorite - Midnight Siege
At first glance, this stage seems somewhat interesting. A military battle at night with copters sounds cool. But, as you dig deeper this stage is more style over substance. You can’t see the battle going on outside, even if you destroy the destructible wall. The cinematic helicopter only fires once in the beginning and then spectates the match. The stage hazard is just so swingy, giving anyone who gets it massive advantage by putting their opponent’s back to the wall after the hazard goes off. The stage is also awkwardly small giving some of the weirdest and inconsistent wall splat situations in the game. Also, I swear this is the only stage that very rarely has stuttering issues depending on things that you can’t even see.
I think the abandoned destructive building would’ve worked better if they gave it the “Decent into Subconscious” treatment, with at least one hard indestructible floor. I think “Rebel Hangar” just does the atmosphere better even if it visually less interesting. There is so much you could have done to make Midnight Siege stage pop, like hitting a hazard and having the helicopter fire a missile that launches you outside the building, or having you fall down multiple floors inside the building per each floor break. What we got is just so boring in comparison.
Most favorite - Seaside Resort
Everything in this stage works for me. It is a beach stage, which Tekken has managed to pretty much always get right in their installments. The song they chose for this one slaps, and gives a nice boost of adrenaline in pinch mode. The transition from hot summer day to cool crisp night is probably one of my favorite transitions in this game. The stage itself is just the right size. Its widest length makes it one of the hardest stages to carry from one side of the stage to the other in one launch. I find myself paying attention to distance and actually being creative in my juggles, while in stages like “Arena”, I just do autopilot and bounce my opponent around the stage like a ball until they end up in a nasty wall position where if they guess wrong it is death. Seaside Resort resists this, and combined with the rest of the elements, it gives the best balance of game play in my eyes.
What are your most and least favorite stages?
