Also, if anyone is wondering, I did implement or teach based on these methods while employed as a full-time Visiting Lecturer/adjunct, short of the robes and Battle Royale.
STAGE SELECT:
Outside of the gamification methods already being used in classrooms, like Kahoot!s, role playing (especially in history courses), battle royales to the death (social studies) as mentioned by Tyrone Swift, etc., I think one thing we could do is set up lessons with the same thought process as egoraptor explains Mega Man X's first level:
What I basically mean is set things up to intentionally get students stuck until they use the resources available to them ... which would turn into a fucking nightmare scenario when you're trying to teach how layers work to beginning PhotoShop students, but may be useful for, say, asking students to recreate a famous scene in a movie without telling them how it was done. "Now you need this shot. Where does the camera have to be? Lights? How will you edit it later?" You have to allow them to completely mess this up without their grade hurting, the same way you can replay that stage as many times as you want. Eventually, they'd have to recreate or make their own scenes with more competence (liken this to robot master's).
Then again, pretty much this exact process of thought was used on me by people trying to teach math and I hated math as a kid.
One thing I'll mention always helped me learn is relating my learning to things I already had fond feelings toward and memories of. I aced a lot of tests because The Simpsons decided to make episodes about the content of those tests (this was mostly useful in English courses). If you're an RPG fan, you could, like, pretend acing a math test was like draining the boss's HP? I don't know man, I hate turn-based RPGS for the mostpart.
Wait, HP. Harry Potter! Kids love Harry Potter! Do that thing where you separate the little fuckers into houses and give them points and shit! Dress 'em up in those prep school robes and have a dusty old hat tell the all non-religious people they're in the house of evil snakes, even if everything else about their personality leaves that making NO sense (I'm still a little salty about that shit, Rowling)! They'll love that shit!
I did try to gamify my classroom as much as I could with heady discussions mixed in (remember, I taught at the college level) when it was a lecture course, but in hindsight I should have forced everyone to be a witch or a wizard. The surrounding Nacogdoches community would have LOVED that! 
In summation: Battle Royale.
Honestly, one reason I'm having trouble with this one as a former educator is cause I feel there's already a little too much gamification. At a certain point, you need to learn to do boring shit or hard things you don't want to instead of expecting everyone to meet you where you are. That kind of defeats the purpose of self-growth.
Having said that, I do think making things competitive helps engage students in a way that tests their abilities without simply giving them all the answers, but the fact I used a lot of Kahoot!s, scaffolding etc. per the requests of the Center for Teaching and Learning isn't the most creative answer to this question. Also, a lot of what I taught was using Adobe Suite programs and writing, which are things you learn through doing, getting feedback and critique, and doing some more.
Still, I'll come up with something ...
Hey, I'm Joey! I need to buy candy, come to think of it.
Oh I wouldn't buy it at full price when it's already a year or so old. Especially not now that I'm $26.08 behind in my Wants category on Goodbudget. At least I get paid soon and have healthy Needs and Savings/Loan accounts. lol
Twitter gets a lot more annoying if you follow this asshole by the handle @joemikestep.
I can't read this cause I don't want anything spoiled. Is there a fire level? An ice level? Does Mario eventually save Princess Peach and/or someone else it turns out was really the one in danger? I can't have the experience tainted!
You're doing a vampire video the weekend Castlevania Season 2 is back on Netflix. Have you watched that? I kinda love it. I look forward to finally playing Symphony of the Night as well.
I got a bit of a laugh from the Peter Blagoyavich (I'm not Googling the spelling) part of the vampire Top 5 video when I misheard people were "visited by pizza in the middle of the night."
This is my favorite of the F-Zero games cause of the soundtrack. GX is probably better put together and that's what I own, but the EDM influence in those tracks just doesn't do it for me in a racer like metal can.
I need to buy Rolling Stones stuff. There are certain songs of theirs I just love, like "Beast of Burden" and "Brown Sugar." Not so much "Satisfaction" or the more obvious hits save "Paint it Black."
