My feelings on The Demon Rush
Game Page: http://speeddemosarchive.com/BlastCorps.html
Steve Bates's 100% single-segment run
This is what the runner said in response
Decision: Accept
Reason: Going through the game fast is one thing, but getting all platinum metals in one sitting is not a light task.
Steve Bates's 100% single-segment run
Quote:
I really need to see the comments to explain the last minute of the video. It goes from beating the last non-gold level to showing the whole map with platinum medals and the first level showing a different time value. I think it's just a really ugly cut to a better save file, but it looks really sketchy.
Otherwise, the run is impressive as an SS. It's not awesome or anything, but it's quite impressive to see someone handle all of the levels that quickly. No cheating in the played levels, no audio/video problems. Only a few failures and restarts, but that gets drowned out by a lot of first time gold medal times. I do need to hear why the levels were played in the order that they were before I can issue a final verdict, but this is basically going to be an accept from me, since I don't think anyone will be improving on it for a long time.
Does this qualify as a 100% run? It completes all modes of the game, but it doesn't get all money possible (destroying boxes and fences does this, but it's dumb) or get all Platinum medals.
Otherwise, the run is impressive as an SS. It's not awesome or anything, but it's quite impressive to see someone handle all of the levels that quickly. No cheating in the played levels, no audio/video problems. Only a few failures and restarts, but that gets drowned out by a lot of first time gold medal times. I do need to hear why the levels were played in the order that they were before I can issue a final verdict, but this is basically going to be an accept from me, since I don't think anyone will be improving on it for a long time.
Does this qualify as a 100% run? It completes all modes of the game, but it doesn't get all money possible (destroying boxes and fences does this, but it's dumb) or get all Platinum medals.
This is what the runner said in response
Quote:
I do get all Platinum medals 
I verify this when I go back into Simian Acres - it says "you can stop now" as my rank. That's what we agreed was 100%, not all money.
Don't worry about it being slow. I'll get some comments typed up this week.
Don't worry about it being slow. I'll get some comments typed up this week.
Quote:
Audio and video are fine. Video isn't great, unfortunately, due to the obvious VHS degradation, but it's acceptable.
In a run this difficult, the largest timesaver is going to come from restarting levels as few times as possible. Getting 100% in this game at all is quite a feat, let alone doing it fast.
The first few levels go by smoothly enough. There's a single restart on Backlash, a notably finicky level. The platinum time on Argent Towers is also missed, meaning that level will have to be replayed later, but that's also one of the more finicky levels. I like the showy Havoc District finish, even if it does waste a few seconds.
On to the Medium levels! Shuttle Gully is done particularly cleanly. Then the runner presses the control stick at slightly the wrong angle and moves to the wrong level on the world map REJECT REJECT REJECT er... ahem. The rest of the Medium levels go by without any major hitches.
Corvine Bluff is done first try with the fast glitch method, which is pretty amazing. The J-Bomb hex also goes quite well, despite mishaps on Saline Watch and Dagger Pass. (The death on Dagger Pass ought to be quite amusing for those who aren't already familiar with the finer points of Blast Corps' hitboxes.)
Morgan Hall took a couple of restarts, but like most every other level, it's finicky sometimes.
Unlike every other carrier level, Diamond Sands is conveniently set up so that it can be completed 100% with Platinum on the first run, and that's precisely what the runner does. It's far from the hardest thing in this run, but ought to be suitably impressive nevertheless.
The rest of the Hard levels also go pretty smoothly, except for Glory Crossing. Most of the remaining terrestrial bonus levels (generally finickier than the carrier levels) also go smoothly, though there is an unfortunate restart on Silver Junction, minor ones on Salvage Wharf and Marine Quarter, and one of both on Cobalt Quarry.
The credits have an unfortunate lack of spontaneously exploding nuclear missile carriers, which would've saved a minute or two... but considering that glitch has only been seen once (as far as we know) and never recorded or reproduced, I can't really complain.
Of course, there's more after the credits. Shuttle Clear is done successfully, and there's no way to speed it up beyond that. Moon is pretty fast. Mercury is easy and is completed with no trouble. Venus is harder, but still completed with no significant trouble. The first Mars attempt gets eaten by an evil bulldozer, but whatever, it's Mars. Fortunately, the last planetary level, Neptune, is quite easy and... ah. Ahaha. Hahahahaha.
Well, it's still not enough to make this run slower than any of the previous attempts, so it's not that bad, considering.
After that, it's time to revisit the carrier levels where Platinum time was missed the first time around (Argent Towers and Glory Crossing), as well as the ones where Platinum is unreasonable or impossible the first time through, and the ones where the runner got 100% in the first run instead of going for Platinum. Simian Acres requires a restart, as does Glory Crossing, but neither take too much time.
Now, the game won't actually award you with Platinum medals before this point, because they're not unlocked. Normally, upon completing the last bit by getting gold medals, the game would show a "Now do it faster!" screen, award you with Platinum medals for any levels that you've achieved the required time on already (for a first time player, this will almost certainly be zero levels), and then much later, when the player has managed to collect all the Platinums, show you the final promotion screen ("You Can Stop Now."). Amusingly, because the runner has already reached the Platinum time on all the levels at this point, the game glitches out and dumps the runner back onto the world map with no fanfare (it does award the Platinums and the final promotion correctly, though). 100% Complete!
Blast Corps has short levels and gives you infinite lives. Despite this, fully clearing Blast Corps is the kind of thing that usually comes up in "Hardest game ever!" threads. Doing it in one sitting is remarkable. Doing it in under two hours? That belongs on SDA.
In a run this difficult, the largest timesaver is going to come from restarting levels as few times as possible. Getting 100% in this game at all is quite a feat, let alone doing it fast.
The first few levels go by smoothly enough. There's a single restart on Backlash, a notably finicky level. The platinum time on Argent Towers is also missed, meaning that level will have to be replayed later, but that's also one of the more finicky levels. I like the showy Havoc District finish, even if it does waste a few seconds.
On to the Medium levels! Shuttle Gully is done particularly cleanly. Then the runner presses the control stick at slightly the wrong angle and moves to the wrong level on the world map REJECT REJECT REJECT er... ahem. The rest of the Medium levels go by without any major hitches.
Corvine Bluff is done first try with the fast glitch method, which is pretty amazing. The J-Bomb hex also goes quite well, despite mishaps on Saline Watch and Dagger Pass. (The death on Dagger Pass ought to be quite amusing for those who aren't already familiar with the finer points of Blast Corps' hitboxes.)
Morgan Hall took a couple of restarts, but like most every other level, it's finicky sometimes.
Unlike every other carrier level, Diamond Sands is conveniently set up so that it can be completed 100% with Platinum on the first run, and that's precisely what the runner does. It's far from the hardest thing in this run, but ought to be suitably impressive nevertheless.
The rest of the Hard levels also go pretty smoothly, except for Glory Crossing. Most of the remaining terrestrial bonus levels (generally finickier than the carrier levels) also go smoothly, though there is an unfortunate restart on Silver Junction, minor ones on Salvage Wharf and Marine Quarter, and one of both on Cobalt Quarry.
The credits have an unfortunate lack of spontaneously exploding nuclear missile carriers, which would've saved a minute or two... but considering that glitch has only been seen once (as far as we know) and never recorded or reproduced, I can't really complain.
Of course, there's more after the credits. Shuttle Clear is done successfully, and there's no way to speed it up beyond that. Moon is pretty fast. Mercury is easy and is completed with no trouble. Venus is harder, but still completed with no significant trouble. The first Mars attempt gets eaten by an evil bulldozer, but whatever, it's Mars. Fortunately, the last planetary level, Neptune, is quite easy and... ah. Ahaha. Hahahahaha.
Well, it's still not enough to make this run slower than any of the previous attempts, so it's not that bad, considering.
After that, it's time to revisit the carrier levels where Platinum time was missed the first time around (Argent Towers and Glory Crossing), as well as the ones where Platinum is unreasonable or impossible the first time through, and the ones where the runner got 100% in the first run instead of going for Platinum. Simian Acres requires a restart, as does Glory Crossing, but neither take too much time.
Now, the game won't actually award you with Platinum medals before this point, because they're not unlocked. Normally, upon completing the last bit by getting gold medals, the game would show a "Now do it faster!" screen, award you with Platinum medals for any levels that you've achieved the required time on already (for a first time player, this will almost certainly be zero levels), and then much later, when the player has managed to collect all the Platinums, show you the final promotion screen ("You Can Stop Now."). Amusingly, because the runner has already reached the Platinum time on all the levels at this point, the game glitches out and dumps the runner back onto the world map with no fanfare (it does award the Platinums and the final promotion correctly, though). 100% Complete!
Blast Corps has short levels and gives you infinite lives. Despite this, fully clearing Blast Corps is the kind of thing that usually comes up in "Hardest game ever!" threads. Doing it in one sitting is remarkable. Doing it in under two hours? That belongs on SDA.
Quote:
Verifier: i finished watching the blast corps 100%
Verifier: he hits most of the plats first try and that's pretty impressive, so my verdict is accept
Verifier: i'm not too enthused about the accept since there are a bunch of little mistakes in the run and a couple major ones (i.e. neptune)
Verifier: but i'll cut him some slack since it's a two-hour ss with some really strict time limits
Verifier: another thing i didn't like were some of his routes, so i'll just copy-paste my notes.
Verifier: when he has to re-enter some missions for 100%, some of the routes he uses look inefficient. i'm hesitant to say a lot of this because i don't know how close he is to missing plats on the first trips into stages, so most of my criticism will cover trips 2 and 3.
Verifier: stage at 11:00: leaves some parts of the first couple buildings behind with the backlash on trip 1. this is the any% strategy, but he's carrying it over to 100%, where he ends up going out of his way with the j-bomb to get them when he re-enters the mission.
Verifier: angel city: lots of backtracking and covering the same ground, even in trip 2
Verifier: ember hamlet: no problem with avoiding the cyclone on trip 1. why avoid it on trip 2? you spend time ramming things with the bike and counting your missiles and, long story short, i really doubt skipping cyclone is faster for 100%. on trip 2, take the bike, go left, run up along the side, then cut back through the middle road and head to the cyclone. should be just enough buildings on the way to use up your missiles. grab the cyclone and head up from there, then cut left at the end of the stage. should bring you in the general path every building and rdu in the stage.
Verifier: he hits most of the plats first try and that's pretty impressive, so my verdict is accept
Verifier: i'm not too enthused about the accept since there are a bunch of little mistakes in the run and a couple major ones (i.e. neptune)
Verifier: but i'll cut him some slack since it's a two-hour ss with some really strict time limits
Verifier: another thing i didn't like were some of his routes, so i'll just copy-paste my notes.
Verifier: when he has to re-enter some missions for 100%, some of the routes he uses look inefficient. i'm hesitant to say a lot of this because i don't know how close he is to missing plats on the first trips into stages, so most of my criticism will cover trips 2 and 3.
Verifier: stage at 11:00: leaves some parts of the first couple buildings behind with the backlash on trip 1. this is the any% strategy, but he's carrying it over to 100%, where he ends up going out of his way with the j-bomb to get them when he re-enters the mission.
Verifier: angel city: lots of backtracking and covering the same ground, even in trip 2
Verifier: ember hamlet: no problem with avoiding the cyclone on trip 1. why avoid it on trip 2? you spend time ramming things with the bike and counting your missiles and, long story short, i really doubt skipping cyclone is faster for 100%. on trip 2, take the bike, go left, run up along the side, then cut back through the middle road and head to the cyclone. should be just enough buildings on the way to use up your missiles. grab the cyclone and head up from there, then cut left at the end of the stage. should bring you in the general path every building and rdu in the stage.
Quote:
Verifier: Blast corps is not an easy game to speed run, i say that out of experiance. So i am very glad to be verifiying Peaches 100% run on this game.
Verifier: 100% is defined here as getting all the platinum medals, which in itself is a trying task.
Verifier: As such, leeway must be given to the runway. In hindsight, I really don't think leeway needs to be given to this run due to it's awesomeness. (Thanks for the lol.)
Verifier: *run, not run way. THe lol ruined me.
Verifier: The run is very well done, with most level times clocking in torwards the IL times. So, yay. I won't go into an indepth analysis because A) I prefer brevity and B) Most people who know me know that i get level names dead wrong.
Verifier: Basically, all you need to know is that this is an accept from me for a mostly great run. Key word being mostly.
Verifier: I wanna say about a good 10 minutes of this is improvable right off the bat for two levels, Morgon Hall and Neptune. Both i think required about 3 to 4 attempts.
Verifier: Thankfully, everything else is fine. No cheats, just glitches. AV is fine. I give it an A for accept. I hope to see an improvement on this eventually, but that's just akin to wanting, say, a 8 minute improvment on Castle Crashers: It may happen, just not soon. Good job peaches, wanna see more.
Verifier: The end.
Verifier: 100% is defined here as getting all the platinum medals, which in itself is a trying task.
Verifier: As such, leeway must be given to the runway. In hindsight, I really don't think leeway needs to be given to this run due to it's awesomeness. (Thanks for the lol.)
Verifier: *run, not run way. THe lol ruined me.
Verifier: The run is very well done, with most level times clocking in torwards the IL times. So, yay. I won't go into an indepth analysis because A) I prefer brevity and B) Most people who know me know that i get level names dead wrong.
Verifier: Basically, all you need to know is that this is an accept from me for a mostly great run. Key word being mostly.
Verifier: I wanna say about a good 10 minutes of this is improvable right off the bat for two levels, Morgon Hall and Neptune. Both i think required about 3 to 4 attempts.
Verifier: Thankfully, everything else is fine. No cheats, just glitches. AV is fine. I give it an A for accept. I hope to see an improvement on this eventually, but that's just akin to wanting, say, a 8 minute improvment on Castle Crashers: It may happen, just not soon. Good job peaches, wanna see more.
Verifier: The end.
Decision: Accept
Reason: Going through the game fast is one thing, but getting all platinum metals in one sitting is not a light task.
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