Naruto vs Pain had a better build up and then there wasn't as much off panel material. So it's easy to say that, but if Kishi would'a showed us having Tsnunade being split in half it would have been no contest Madara wins.
the kage vs madara doesnt seem to have good animation so far. Now the Madara vs Aliance's one episode seems to be on pair or better animation with the pain fight. Wish the would keep the great animation consistant with all fights and got word one of the best animation studios will be working on Sasuke and Itachi vs Kabuto
Pain vs Naruto was one of the best fights of the series. I hope a legit studio can retouch Naruto when it's finished and actually animate that crap right.
As someone who literally just finished watching the entire Pain fight start to finish in 3D I can honestly say it's not as good as I remember it. It's epic and the Hinata moment is amazing but the rest is just Naruto being tricky with Sage Mode and spamming rasenshuriken whilst Pa Toad commentates. The only really amazing part about the fight was the Kyuubi rage which was only in the anime.
Madara Kage fight? just fun to watch. The teamwork and the variety of attacks keeps it interesting. I really hope the anime doesn't ruin it with lacklustre animation like that did last week. That would kill the entire fight.