My feelings on The Demon Rush
Game Page: http://speeddemosarchive.com/BanjoKazooie.html
100% single-segment run
Verifier Responses
Decision: Reject
Reason: It's an improvement, but there's some important time-savers left out.
The question is should I now post Pac-attack's run?
As always, the run is available for a month. PM me for the link.
100% single-segment run
Verifier Responses
Quote:
A/V is okay but nothing great. Also, there is no cheating.
The first shortcut he does, he doesn’t get it on the first try which would have been an instant reset for me because it’s in the first 30 seconds of the game. I am talking about the backflip, it would save like 2-3 seconds if he got it first try. Now to the biggest concern of this run in my eyes. The infamous Ticker Tower Skip in Mumbo’s Mountain. For those who don’t know; you normally have to climb this tower as an ant. Though, its relatively easy to do this as Banjo and It saves a nice amount of time(and 5 mumbo tokens). This trick is both possible on NTSC and PAL versions of the game so it definitely can be done. The rest of the levels all go pretty smooth. He uses nice strats and tricks trough out the course of the game. Some very nice times set for certain levels due to faster routes compared to previous runs. Despite these fast times there are still a number of mistakes in this run.
So even this run Is faster than the previous run it doesn’t do it for me. It could still be faster.
Decision: REJECT
The first shortcut he does, he doesn’t get it on the first try which would have been an instant reset for me because it’s in the first 30 seconds of the game. I am talking about the backflip, it would save like 2-3 seconds if he got it first try. Now to the biggest concern of this run in my eyes. The infamous Ticker Tower Skip in Mumbo’s Mountain. For those who don’t know; you normally have to climb this tower as an ant. Though, its relatively easy to do this as Banjo and It saves a nice amount of time(and 5 mumbo tokens). This trick is both possible on NTSC and PAL versions of the game so it definitely can be done. The rest of the levels all go pretty smooth. He uses nice strats and tricks trough out the course of the game. Some very nice times set for certain levels due to faster routes compared to previous runs. Despite these fast times there are still a number of mistakes in this run.
So even this run Is faster than the previous run it doesn’t do it for me. It could still be faster.
Decision: REJECT
Quote:
Ugh...
A/V is good. Audio is a bit loud though... But not a big deal at all.
The runner talks about all of the noticeable mistakes in the run, and it would be stupid to point out all of the nit picky ones.
Overall the run is impressive, very impressive. But there are some things that just look awful in it. Missing the first jump that is but 10 seconds in the game really sets up viewers thinking this is gunna be a crappy run. The termite issue in Mumbo's Mountain looks good at first glance. Sure, the runner still got a faster stage time for that area... But what about the global time? Because the runner spent them 5 tokes, they have to alter the rout a bit and go out of the way to get them back to be on track by Click Clock Woods. Sure they only cost a few more seconds each, but it hurts the time in the end. But it still impressive how the runner dealt with the issue of not being able to do that climb. I like the innovation.
There was some times in the run, I really felt like the runner should have reset. I still feel as the runner could produce a batter end product. I really hope the runner does. The runner says they have spent a really really long time on this game, I don't see why they can't, at least, speed run the game casually while recording and end up with a better time. The runner has the skills for it, that is a sure thing.
In the end though, as much as I dislike some of the stuffs in the run, it is much faster. I will give this run an accept. The run is a good one, but again... I dislike the ugly...
A/V is good. Audio is a bit loud though... But not a big deal at all.
The runner talks about all of the noticeable mistakes in the run, and it would be stupid to point out all of the nit picky ones.
Overall the run is impressive, very impressive. But there are some things that just look awful in it. Missing the first jump that is but 10 seconds in the game really sets up viewers thinking this is gunna be a crappy run. The termite issue in Mumbo's Mountain looks good at first glance. Sure, the runner still got a faster stage time for that area... But what about the global time? Because the runner spent them 5 tokes, they have to alter the rout a bit and go out of the way to get them back to be on track by Click Clock Woods. Sure they only cost a few more seconds each, but it hurts the time in the end. But it still impressive how the runner dealt with the issue of not being able to do that climb. I like the innovation.
There was some times in the run, I really felt like the runner should have reset. I still feel as the runner could produce a batter end product. I really hope the runner does. The runner says they have spent a really really long time on this game, I don't see why they can't, at least, speed run the game casually while recording and end up with a better time. The runner has the skills for it, that is a sure thing.
In the end though, as much as I dislike some of the stuffs in the run, it is much faster. I will give this run an accept. The run is a good one, but again... I dislike the ugly...
Quote:
I’ll keep this short, since I’m way late on this one and I’m probably the one holding everyone up.
To start with, the capture has a few points of note. After getting the fourth jiggy in Click Clock Wood (around 2:14:30), there are some capture-related problems. The picture freezes in spots, but the music keeps playing. It freezes for a second or two and keeps going in the middle of it. I’m assuming it’s because he switched discs for recording, but nothing is really “missing”. The audio has weird problems at times too. In certain sections it’s like he’s recording the sound directly off his TV with a camcorder microphone, but without the buzz. That’s seriously the only way I can explain it. Nothing reject worthy, but I still had to note it.
As for gameplay, it’s Banjo-Kazooie. What I mean by that is that no one can seem to make this game look spotless. It’s a single segment speedrun that’s well over two and a half hours long, and there are many spots where things can and will go wrong. Between improved runs, there are parts where one runner gets screwed on the other runner improves, and the improved runner will get screwed on something else, making it tough to weigh the balance. For example, the last run I verified the runner had a good Twinkly game in Freezeezy Peak whereas this runner completely blows it. However, he managed to get the water level trick in front of Rusty Bucket Bay done correctly on the first try while the last runner screwed it up multiple times. The TNT boss in Rusty Bucket Bay doesn’t need to be attempted more than once, but Gruntilda’s fireballs totally destroy the fight’s speed. Mad Monster Mansion has a spot where the old player falls off a pipe and has to go all the way around a wall and back up a ramp. The runner of this one loses his running shoes when he grabs onto a pipe, forcing him to go back and try the church door challenge again. It goes on and on. The big difference in route changes is that he keeps his termite transformation after the first level because he couldn’t master the back-flip up the instant-slip slopes. Mastering that trick results in a faster level run though, so it must be done. This run isn’t as fast as it could be... but... it’s almost three minutes faster than the last run I verified. I’d personally like to accept it... but... I think it’s already being rejected at this point. It’s a tough game, but I really want to see the best speedrun possible of it after all this time. It hurts to do this, but I’m going to reject it too.
To start with, the capture has a few points of note. After getting the fourth jiggy in Click Clock Wood (around 2:14:30), there are some capture-related problems. The picture freezes in spots, but the music keeps playing. It freezes for a second or two and keeps going in the middle of it. I’m assuming it’s because he switched discs for recording, but nothing is really “missing”. The audio has weird problems at times too. In certain sections it’s like he’s recording the sound directly off his TV with a camcorder microphone, but without the buzz. That’s seriously the only way I can explain it. Nothing reject worthy, but I still had to note it.
As for gameplay, it’s Banjo-Kazooie. What I mean by that is that no one can seem to make this game look spotless. It’s a single segment speedrun that’s well over two and a half hours long, and there are many spots where things can and will go wrong. Between improved runs, there are parts where one runner gets screwed on the other runner improves, and the improved runner will get screwed on something else, making it tough to weigh the balance. For example, the last run I verified the runner had a good Twinkly game in Freezeezy Peak whereas this runner completely blows it. However, he managed to get the water level trick in front of Rusty Bucket Bay done correctly on the first try while the last runner screwed it up multiple times. The TNT boss in Rusty Bucket Bay doesn’t need to be attempted more than once, but Gruntilda’s fireballs totally destroy the fight’s speed. Mad Monster Mansion has a spot where the old player falls off a pipe and has to go all the way around a wall and back up a ramp. The runner of this one loses his running shoes when he grabs onto a pipe, forcing him to go back and try the church door challenge again. It goes on and on. The big difference in route changes is that he keeps his termite transformation after the first level because he couldn’t master the back-flip up the instant-slip slopes. Mastering that trick results in a faster level run though, so it must be done. This run isn’t as fast as it could be... but... it’s almost three minutes faster than the last run I verified. I’d personally like to accept it... but... I think it’s already being rejected at this point. It’s a tough game, but I really want to see the best speedrun possible of it after all this time. It hurts to do this, but I’m going to reject it too.
Quote:
Decision: Reject
A/V quality good, no cheating.
The primary reason for this reject is not the execution. I was quite impressed, overall, though it could certainly still use work. Only counting the mistakes where they completely miss something and have to recover, there's already ~15 seconds lost in each world on average. Still, when the runner did make a mistake, they recovered from it in excellent fashion. In fact, there were one or two times where the runner missed a difficult note and actually impressed me with how well they pulled off the recovery. So, clearly a lot of work has gone into this, which does make it painful to reject, but I kind of have to, for this reason:
My previous comments on this were made without knowing exactly how this compares to the no-termite route. In fact it is substantially slower, due to the mumbo tokens needed earlier than normal and the movement speed of the termite. In my opinion, the improvement over the existing run and the fairly decent execution do not make up for this route decision. If there is a more optimal route and it's not unreasonably difficult, it should be taken.
A/V quality good, no cheating.
The primary reason for this reject is not the execution. I was quite impressed, overall, though it could certainly still use work. Only counting the mistakes where they completely miss something and have to recover, there's already ~15 seconds lost in each world on average. Still, when the runner did make a mistake, they recovered from it in excellent fashion. In fact, there were one or two times where the runner missed a difficult note and actually impressed me with how well they pulled off the recovery. So, clearly a lot of work has gone into this, which does make it painful to reject, but I kind of have to, for this reason:
Quote from runner:
There is a technique to climb ticker's tower without changing into the termite. I have not been able to
master this technique so I just did it the old fashioned way.
master this technique so I just did it the old fashioned way.
My previous comments on this were made without knowing exactly how this compares to the no-termite route. In fact it is substantially slower, due to the mumbo tokens needed earlier than normal and the movement speed of the termite. In my opinion, the improvement over the existing run and the fairly decent execution do not make up for this route decision. If there is a more optimal route and it's not unreasonably difficult, it should be taken.
Decision: Reject
Reason: It's an improvement, but there's some important time-savers left out.
The question is should I now post Pac-attack's run?
As always, the run is available for a month. PM me for the link.
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