[hfactor66]

Don't get me wrong, every category is fun to compete in, but there's one we like more than all the others.

Mine is quickly becoming boss attack, I enjoy discovering the many secrets behind each boss to defeat them as quickly as possible, though one of my other favorites is ring attack, I've had fun dissecting stages to find the routes to get the most rings possible, it's an added challenge when there's the random factor of ? ring boxes, it makes for a fun competition to get the best luck with the ? boxes. I'm not much of a guy that likes to go for the fastest time, but when I find a level I'm fast at I see how far I can push it.

What's yours?

Come back every day until New Years for new forum topics! :)

[The Kid .130.]

I'm liking these topics.

I'm half n half and gonna say time attack and score attacks are what i like best when i play unleashed

[Vicklaw]

Mine is forever Ring Attack of course !
These are easier to do than anything else since the time is not important in this category. Also, I like exploring the levels and get everything inside them, allowing me to know everything inside them.

Also, I suck terribly at speedrunning. I only did 3 time records and they are the easiest to do...

[theultimategamer95]

Easily boss attacks, as I can actually be good at bosses >_>
Other than that, I like running normal stages from time to time, and I don't really do much (or any at all) RAing or SAing.

[hfactor66]

I'm liking these topics.

I'm glad you like them, I thought this would be a fun way to get some activity going and recall some memories to finish off 2014. :)

[Softspeak]

Mine is forever Ring Attack of course !
These are easier to do than anything else since the time is not important in this category. Also, I like exploring the levels and get everything inside them, allowing me to know everything inside them.

I'm on the fence. I loved doing Time Attacks in SAdva3 for years, and to some extent still do, but now it'll be tough for me to beat some of them. Most of them are pretty solid.

Ring Attacks are a new thing for me though. Exploring levels for all the ring locations is pretty neat. True, competing for time isn't a big deal here, but sometimes in this game you're competing against the 10-minute time limit. So then the route through the level means something. Planning a route from start to end that hits all the important points quickly is a hard and interesting (and frustrating) problem...

When I get back into SA2B, ring runs will be much simpler. I might prefer score runs there because there's actually a good amount of skill needed.

[chainchump]

Easily Time Attack for me. I love the sense of achievement I get when I get really good times or world records because it's really rare that someone else has exactly the same time, as opposed to most Ring records being tied. I do enjoy Ring Attack, but not on the same level as I do with speedrunning :D

[InferSaime]

For me it matters from game to game but mostly it's Time Attacking that I enjoy the most. I don't really have the patience for RAs that much. As for SAs they are probably my second favourite.

[Vixuzen]

For me it depends on game, but in most cases I like score and ring attacks the most. I don't really like speedruning, because I fail alot and get mad very easily D:<.

[RigidatoMS]

Time Attack, because I don't have patience for the rest.

[TuKéZu]

Extra, huehue

I greatly dislike Ring Attack thanks to ? boxes and a lack of SRA maps. frickin sky babylon

Boss Attack is pretty fun at times, but constantly resetting due to RNG can get frustrating.

I guess it comes down to good old TA, but I don't really like it that much above everything else. And I exaggerated a bit when it comes to Rings. It can be fun, when the stars align and everything is just according to keikaku, anyway.

[Diamond]

Boss attacks.
Mainly 2d boss attacks.

[PvtCinnamonbun]

Time Attacks. For me Sonic games have always been about being rewarded with speed for knowing the routes for each stage. The better you play and the more you play the faster you go. Ring is pretty lame but I understand the appeal of knowing everything about a stage, bosses have traditionally been awful in Sonic games outside of the Rush series and duel-styled fights (Shadow/Sonic 2 in SA2, Blaze/Sonic in Rush, etc.). Extra is a meme category

[CriticalCyd]

Not Ring Attacks.
Definitely not Ring Attacks.
Absolutely not Ring Attacks.
...
Time Attacks.

[DarkPolarNight]

I'll pick a separate leadership for each game:

Sonic Advance – Definitely times. (Though lets exclude Moon-zone) Levels here are fun, and you can restart in a flash.

Sonic Advance 2 - Times - This is a very fast game, and keeping boost state was fun.

SADX – Races wins it, with no other leadership coming remotely close.

[Sep'16 edit to keep this up to date]

[SqwareEcks]

Time attacks. They give you a conscious feeling of becoming better and better at the game and speed is what the series has always been about. Although it can be a bummer when a stage gets broken and it just becomes who-can-glitch-fastest.

I like to *watch* ring attacks, but I don't much care for *playing* them. While time sometimes isn't an issue, you wind up under more pressure about not getting hit and you sometimes have to put yourself in more danger to collect everything, especially when OOB rings are in play. I like to watch score attacks too because they usually strike a good balance between speed and exploration of the level (although there are some exceptions for levels where you can just use an exploit to rack up insane points, like Launch Base 1.)

[DGF]

The 3 Categories that I mainly like running are:

1st. Time Attacks
2nd. Score Attacks
3rd. Boss Rush Time Attacks

These three i feel like deserve my attention the most when it comes to running a game that you love

[Vicklaw]

Mine is forever Ring Attack of course !
These are easier to do than anything else since the time is not important in this category. Also, I like exploring the levels and get everything inside them, allowing me to know everything inside them.

I'm on the fence. I loved doing Time Attacks in SAdva3 for years, and to some extent still do, but now it'll be tough for me to beat some of them. Most of them are pretty solid.

Ring Attacks are a new thing for me though. Exploring levels for all the ring locations is pretty neat. True, competing for time isn't a big deal here, but sometimes in this game you're competing against the 10-minute time limit. So then the route through the level means something. Planning a route from start to end that hits all the important points quickly is a hard and interesting (and frustrating) problem...

When I get back into SA2B, ring runs will be much simpler. I might prefer score runs there because there's actually a good amount of skill needed.

Planning the route for the Ring Attacks can be a little hard sometimes, but there's generally nothing harder than this, except the trolling jumps and glitches like in Carnival Night, Oil Ocean act 2 Underground act 1 or Icecap act 2. As soon as you get a right route (there may be more routes than just only 1 unique route) you just have to collect the rings and it's over. Except in S3K, you widely have enough time to get all the rings, which gives you more tolerance since everything is not obliged to be perfect like in a Time Attack.
The tips for finding a good route is to chain up everything normally and only visit each section once. This prevents wasting too much time by getting nothing while backtracking.

[Mastakirby]

TA's for me only because I'm too lazy to go for the others, I still like them though.

[Pokemonmaster888]

My favorite competition category is probably time attack. I have an affinity and knack for ring attacks and boss attacks too, so the window between all three is pretty close. I like time attack the most as it is what Sonic is all about; going fast and trying to get the best time possible. It tests your skill as time attacking is usually longer than boss attacking and requires more patience, as the longer playtime for each level can result in more areas to make mistakes. I think time attacking is an overall tough category to compete in, but so are the others as well...

I enjoy ring attacks as it is fun manipulating the level and finding a lot of different strategies to collect rings, and it also gives you a break from trying to go as fast as possible. Ring attacks display your creativity, and I have a lot of fun doing them for various Sonic games (AS LONG AS THEY DON’T INVOLVE RANDOM/LUCK BASED CRITERIA!) :( Team Chaotix RAs and Sonic Adventure RAs are not fun to me; I don't like the idea of having random stuff determine whether or not I get a good score.

Boss attacks are really fun too. Finding the best strategies to defeat bosses is another thing that I like to do, as it also displays creativity. I like to play boss attacks for various Sonic games, and the differences from game to game is exciting, as new strategies and techniques are required to defeat those bosses as fast as possible.

One category I like to do but haven't really dabbled in too much is score attacking. I like the concept, but just don't play that mode that often. I plan to do so in the future more often though, because to be a great player, you need to be good at all phases of competition. I probably will try score attacking more sooner rather than later, but usually every Sonic game is different for the calculation and set-up of how to do score attacks. I'd have to spend a lot of time doing that for multiple games, and I have other phases of some Sonic games to deal with first.

Special stages are the least played category of mine; someday I will practice them more and get better at them.

So, I like all of the competition categories, but time attack is probably my favorite, with ring attack and boss attack tied for a close second.