My feelings on The Demon Rush
Game Page: http://speeddemosarchive.com/BombermanHero.html
Kevin 'neskamikaze' LaLonde's run
Verifier Responses
Note: There are some mentions of missing sound in segment 2. This problem has since been fixed.
Decision: Accept
Reason: It's an improvement over an old run.
Kevin 'neskamikaze' LaLonde's run
Verifier Responses
Note: There are some mentions of missing sound in segment 2. This problem has since been fixed.
Quote:
Alright, this is the first time I've verified anything on SDA, so bear with me. I used to rent this game all the time as a kid, but never got around to beating it until just recently (and with 100%!).
Anywho, here's what I have to say about this run:
General Comments: I've noticed that the old runner would stop alot to throw a bomb, or jump to a platform, but the new one stops for nearly nothing; looks much better. Also, segmenting this run is in itself a challenge because the boss fights are much easier with powerups. This is no doubt why the old run was by world instead of smaller chunks, and it's still a great run when considering that, but this new run fixes alot of mistakes that those big segments kept.
In-depth comments:
Segment #1:
Segment #2:
Segment #3:
Segment #4:
Segment #5:
Segment #6:
Segment #7: I think I'll shorten some my comments a little bit, since most of what I have to say basically equates to "flawless" anyways.
Segment #8:
Segment #9:
Segment #10:
Segment #11:
Segment #12:
Segment #13:
Segment #14:
Segment #15:
Segment #16:
Segment #17:
Segment #18:
Segment #19:
Segment #20:
Segment #21:
Segment #22:
That about wraps it up! If it's not obvious already, it's an easy accept from me. The run contains very little mistakes and is such a gigantic improvement from the old one.
Excellent Job!
Anywho, here's what I have to say about this run:
- Audio: Sound seems a little weird, like only the left audio was recorded or something. Also, segment 2 is missing sound. Sync is good for the segments with sound though.
- Video: Good.
- Cheating: I couldn't pick up any.
General Comments: I've noticed that the old runner would stop alot to throw a bomb, or jump to a platform, but the new one stops for nearly nothing; looks much better. Also, segmenting this run is in itself a challenge because the boss fights are much easier with powerups. This is no doubt why the old run was by world instead of smaller chunks, and it's still a great run when considering that, but this new run fixes alot of mistakes that those big segments kept.
In-depth comments:
Segment #1:
- Battle Room: This was pretty much a straight, quick line to the finish, and already this run is looking cleaner than the old one.
- Hyper Room: Looked great as well. The old runner got hung up at the wall next to the exit for a bit, but this time nothing seemed like a problem.
- Secret Room: Alot smoother too, since the old runner got hit by that chicken near the exit.
- Sky Room: This is exactly what I wanted to see in the old run. More risky tactics are used like jumping on the small platform to skip some walking that the old runner did.
Segment #2:
- Blue Cave: Also a straight quick line to the finish; looks flawless.
- Hole Lake: Runner heads to the left instead of dealing with enemies and skips the crab fight completely!
- Red Cave: This one went by so quick I had to double check what just happened. I didn't even know you could hang onto that "ledge" next to the exit.
- Dark Wood: This was also pretty quick and flawless.
Segment #3:
- Dragon Road: Seemed pretty solid.
- Nitros #1: Runner makes Nitros look like a complete joke; boss is manupulated into jumping in the same 2 spots with bombs waiting for him. The fight is probably as perfect as it can be since he was always recovering from every previous bomb. Question: Does Nitros (or any boss) take more damage from bombs with fire power ups? I always thought they did as a kid, but never tested it out.
- Clown Valley: This is also pretty flawless.
Segment #4:
- Great Rock: Starts off great as usual.
- Fog Route: He skips that wall and the "long" cutscene with the ship blowing it up, which I didn't even think was possible.
- Endol fight: This was near perfect considering getting hit makes him vulnerable to bombs again.
Segment #5:
- Groog Hills: I love how many obvious shortcuts there are in this game. Back before I knew the "real way" to beat this place, like this run, I just hopped into the exit which is completely unguarded.
- Bubble Hole: Great job getting in the exit with those 2 enemies crowded around it before they combined AND without getting hit!
Segment #6:
- Erars Lake: Runner grabs some bomb power ups to make up for how inaccurate those damn torpedos are. Pretty clean.
- Waterway: Was good, although runner got hung up on the wall a tad, but it was so quick it's hardly noticable.
- Rock'n Road: Pretty flawless.
Segment #7: I think I'll shorten some my comments a little bit, since most of what I have to say basically equates to "flawless" anyways.
- Waterpool = Flawless
- In Warp Room at about 1:03, I think that jump could've been done a *tad* earlier, since you were kinda facing up at an angle instead of directly to the right. That, and the slow start in room 2 that you mentioned. Although both of these are so minor that they might add up to maybe a second or less lost, so this is really nothing wrong.
Segment #8:
- Dark Prison = Flawless (with a neat little shortcut near the end)
- Nitros #2: Destroyed him as badly as the first fight. Did he learn nothing from his last execution back on Planet Bomber?
- Killer Gate is pretty great. He got hit only at the end where he pretty much needed to to skip killing that cannon.
- Sprial Tower = Flawless
Segment #9:
- Snake Route: Cuts corners like a champ and doesn't wait for slow platforms.
- Baruda fight: This fight is annoying, and must be a nightmare to speedrun. It's really hard to judge how far your bombs will go, plus he moves around pretty erratically. This is probably the first time so far that I've seen any "real" time lost, but still, I can't blame the runner, and it was still pretty fast.
- Hades Crater: I think the last tower he blows up could've been done with Bomberman a tiny bit higher, but after that decent Baruda fight it's really no problem.
- Magma Lake = Flawless
Segment #10:
- Magma Dam: Pretty neat shortcut, despite stopping briefly for a running start. Not sure how much momentum you need to get through though.
- Crysta Hole: Jump at 0:44 could have been a smidge tighter. Other than that, Flawless.
- Death Temple = Flawless
Segment #11:
- Death Road = Flawless
- Float Zone: Could have stalled a little more at 1:21 to decrease how far you fall to get the next power up, otherwise good.
Segment #12:
- Aqua Tank = Flawless
- Aqua Way = Flawless
- Nitros #3: Gasp, this time is not perfect, and by that I mean it cost maybe a half a second when he missed the bomb throw after taking the shield off. Not to say he didn't completely obliterate Nitros again, because he did.
Segment #13:
- Hard Coster: Jump at 0:39 could be tighter. I really like the route he takes though; skipping alot of the teleporting pads.
- Dark Maze = Flawless
- Death Coster = Flawless, despite getting hurt on the coaster
Segment #14:
- Move Stone: Gets caught on the stone at 0:52 for a bit, then kind of "misses" moving the stone at 1:20 which takes maybe a second at most to remedy. Otherwise, great.
- Bolban fight: Misses Bolban at 1:57 which cost about 2 seconds, then got petrified. Not sure if he's vulnerable during that attack, but if he isn't, then being petrified isn't a problem. Decent fight.
- Hopper Land: Simple level, although it kind of looks like Louie moves faster if you don't jump on enemies.
- Junfalls: Pretty much flawless for having only 1 bomb at your disposal.
Segment #15:
- Cool Cave = Flawless
- Snowland = Flawless
Segment #16:
- Storm Valley: At first I was like "Why are you stopping?!" then he pulled out probably my favorite shortcut in this whole run. Completely awesome!
- Snow Circuit = Flawless
Segment #17:
- Heaven Sky: Nice flying! And VERY nice boss fight! Usually that guy will constantly guard his weakpoint, but he seemed to be eager to die for you.
- Nitros #4: I never understood why Nitros ditched his shield here. Just makes it all the more easier to get a perfect time.
Segment #18:
- Air Room: Seems silly for them to put the Disc next to the exit, but whatever. Flawless.
- Zero G Room: I used to love this level, but yeah, speedrunning it must be frustrating. Solid execution nonetheless.
- Mirror Room = Flawless
Segment #19:
- Natia fight: This was about where I felt the boss fights got hard, especially when going for speed. That being said, the Cronos fight went exceptionally well since he still has minimum powerups. His strategy for Natia seemed too good to be true; she jumps all over the place when you try to attack her, but if you chill in the corner, she just appears right in front of you. He missed once, but still, very good fight overall.
- Endol #2 fight = Flawless
Segment #20:
- Baruda #2 fight: That running to the edge looked bad, but then I noticed when he gets fat to charge up the laser, he's not vulnerable immediately, so it's all good.
- Cronos #2 fight: Wow. Uber quick on a precision heavy bossfight. Nice ending in the lava.
Segment #21:
- Nitros #5: He gets that shield back, but the runner just takes it out easily and forces him into the usual, 2 spot pattern that works so well (ie, flawless).
- Bolban #2 fight: This fight was the sole reason I could not beat this game as a kid. I could never get the damn bombs to hit his head, so I thought his weakspot was somewhere else. Never found it until I learned it WAS his head. Anyway, with max firepower from Nitros, he does considerably well, even though he misses a bit because of those blasted torpedoes.
Segment #22:
- Natia #2 fight: I remember having trouble with this fight, but the runner beat this faster than any other boss so far.
- Bagular fight: Runner displays a great fight on all 3 forms. It's a shame there's no way to tell which TV is the real one. He misses a couple of times on the very last phase, but this fight is just chaos with homing missiles all over and lasers aiming at you all the time.
That about wraps it up! If it's not obvious already, it's an easy accept from me. The run contains very little mistakes and is such a gigantic improvement from the old one.
Excellent Job!
Quote:
Audio & Video: Video is great. A/V are always in sync. However, the audio is only coming out of the left speaker, and the volume is a little low. Furthermore:
1) There is no audio in Segment 2.
2) There is a small skip in the recording (both audio + video) at exactly 1:00 on Segment 16. Looks like an innocent recording blip (rather than an attempt at cheating by editing the video, etc.), but I figured I'd bring it up.
Cheating: None.
Comments: I had always found marshmallow's run to be quite inadequate, and this surpassed my expectations. Overall, an impressive run. I'm not going to bother noting when this is faster than the current run since it beats it on every segment.
And now the segment-by-segment comments:
1: Pretty gosh darn close to optimal.
2: TECH ISSUE: No audio. No other complains, nice shortcuts that the current run didn't take.
3: Beautiful Nitros fight, well done otherwise.
4: Beautiful. Great execution here.
5: Great. The "slip-up" doesn't waste too much time.
6: Seems optimal - I don't think the "push-back" on the manta fight can be avoided any more than what was done here. Interesting is the complete route change from the current run's route, and for good reason: it's clearly faster here. I'm not sure why marshmallow chose the original route...
7: Another beautiful segment. The "early jump" wastes a little time but not too bad.
8: Yet another perfect segment. The hit against Nitros looks ugly but it doesn't waste any time so it's all good. Beautiful execution on Killer Gate and Spiral Tower.
9: Snake Route is beautifully done; it really shows how much work the runner has put into this. Baruda goes pretty bad (although 7000+ isn't bad), but understandable considering how annoying he is + difficulty of Snake Route. The rest of the segment goes well, and a good choice in choosing to end the segment here.
10: Pretty close to optimal. The "running start" does waste a bit of time, but not too much.
11: Lots of little mistakes here but nothing major. On Death Road, getting hit by the fire doesn't waste TOO much time. It's actually possible to step right on the edge of the teleport and not have to hit the skull bombs at all, but the timing is close to impossible to do this quickly, so this is good enough. Float Zone could have gone a little better (since the amount of time in the bubble is constant, the idea is to purposely get stuck under the roof for long enough so that once the bubble pops, you waste the least time falling. That is not done optimally here, but overall it's close enough). Nice shortcuts at the end.
12: No complaints. Pretty close to optimal, except the hiccup on Nitros (actually, judging from the runner's comments I believe that the runner did not know that Nitros can be beaten a few seconds faster here - see my comments for Segment 21).
13: Liked the dancing! Pretty optimal. The damage taken indeed doesn't waste any time, and in fact is pretty funny; if the runner hadn't said anything, I totally would've thought it was done for fun!
14: Move Stone had a few blips but nothing major, overall was well executed. The petrify on the Bolban fight looks bad but the end time is very good so it's forgivable. The rest went well.
15: Another great segment. It made Cool Cave look easy. Pretty close to optimal.
16: TECH ISSUE: There's a blip in the recording (both audio + video) at exactly 1:00. Other than that, very well done segment, the skip on Storm Valley was awesome.
17: Yet another beautiful segment. The fight against the boss on Heaven Sky wasn't quite optimal but given that the time lost was much less than if the boss had shielded even once, there's no complaints here - not having the boss shield was lucky as it was.
18: Another segment with great execution. Zero G Room was very well done.
19: A few hiccups against the bosses, but the only particularly ugly one was the miss against Natia. Still, good time overall. Actually, I had accidentally discovered the Natia trick when I played this game on my own, so it's nice to see it be put to great use here.
20: Baruda went pretty well - wasn't quite optimal, but still a really good ending time. On Cronos, it sucks about missing the third hit on the second round, but still, a three-round finish is awesome.
21: Nitros went perfectly. Bolban actually went pretty bad, and is the only part of the run I really didn't like - 7200+ is pretty good but, as the run shows, a better time can definitely be achieved. Still, given the difficulty of the underwater fights and the randomness of the torpedoes, it's forgivable.
A note to the runner on why Nitros took 7 hits rather than 8, as the runner mentioned not knowing why it happened: I did some investigating and it turns out it has nothing to do with whether it's on a fresh power-on or not; basically, if you are able to destroy the three shields and hit Nitros with perfect accuracy, so that the bomb hits Nitros at 9820, he actually takes TWO hits. You can actually see it if you look VERY closely at the video: Nitros does his "got hit" animation twice in a row, before flashing. It turns out, you can ALSO do this on the third fight with him in Kanatia (the other time you fight him with his shields) - so, I was able to achieve the same 8450 time in Kanatia using this method. However, given that this comes at the end of a segment and getting the timing right is non-trivial, it's forgiven.
22: Great end segment. Natia went wonderfully. The first two parts of Bagular went extremely well. The last part had two semi-big hick-ups, but still a time of 2680 is pretty awesome.
Verdict: Assuming the A/V issues are fixed, this is an easy ACCEPT. This beats marshmallow's run in every possible way, and pretty much all the segments were extremely well executed. The only sub-optimal parts come from some of the bosses (especially Bolban 2), but I figured that would be the case even before watching the run, given the nature of the game. Overall, very well done! Now I just wonder how we can convince the runner to do an 100% run...
1) There is no audio in Segment 2.
2) There is a small skip in the recording (both audio + video) at exactly 1:00 on Segment 16. Looks like an innocent recording blip (rather than an attempt at cheating by editing the video, etc.), but I figured I'd bring it up.
Cheating: None.
Comments: I had always found marshmallow's run to be quite inadequate, and this surpassed my expectations. Overall, an impressive run. I'm not going to bother noting when this is faster than the current run since it beats it on every segment.
And now the segment-by-segment comments:
1: Pretty gosh darn close to optimal.
2: TECH ISSUE: No audio. No other complains, nice shortcuts that the current run didn't take.
3: Beautiful Nitros fight, well done otherwise.
4: Beautiful. Great execution here.
5: Great. The "slip-up" doesn't waste too much time.
6: Seems optimal - I don't think the "push-back" on the manta fight can be avoided any more than what was done here. Interesting is the complete route change from the current run's route, and for good reason: it's clearly faster here. I'm not sure why marshmallow chose the original route...
7: Another beautiful segment. The "early jump" wastes a little time but not too bad.
8: Yet another perfect segment. The hit against Nitros looks ugly but it doesn't waste any time so it's all good. Beautiful execution on Killer Gate and Spiral Tower.
9: Snake Route is beautifully done; it really shows how much work the runner has put into this. Baruda goes pretty bad (although 7000+ isn't bad), but understandable considering how annoying he is + difficulty of Snake Route. The rest of the segment goes well, and a good choice in choosing to end the segment here.
10: Pretty close to optimal. The "running start" does waste a bit of time, but not too much.
11: Lots of little mistakes here but nothing major. On Death Road, getting hit by the fire doesn't waste TOO much time. It's actually possible to step right on the edge of the teleport and not have to hit the skull bombs at all, but the timing is close to impossible to do this quickly, so this is good enough. Float Zone could have gone a little better (since the amount of time in the bubble is constant, the idea is to purposely get stuck under the roof for long enough so that once the bubble pops, you waste the least time falling. That is not done optimally here, but overall it's close enough). Nice shortcuts at the end.
12: No complaints. Pretty close to optimal, except the hiccup on Nitros (actually, judging from the runner's comments I believe that the runner did not know that Nitros can be beaten a few seconds faster here - see my comments for Segment 21).
13: Liked the dancing! Pretty optimal. The damage taken indeed doesn't waste any time, and in fact is pretty funny; if the runner hadn't said anything, I totally would've thought it was done for fun!
14: Move Stone had a few blips but nothing major, overall was well executed. The petrify on the Bolban fight looks bad but the end time is very good so it's forgivable. The rest went well.
15: Another great segment. It made Cool Cave look easy. Pretty close to optimal.
16: TECH ISSUE: There's a blip in the recording (both audio + video) at exactly 1:00. Other than that, very well done segment, the skip on Storm Valley was awesome.
17: Yet another beautiful segment. The fight against the boss on Heaven Sky wasn't quite optimal but given that the time lost was much less than if the boss had shielded even once, there's no complaints here - not having the boss shield was lucky as it was.
18: Another segment with great execution. Zero G Room was very well done.
19: A few hiccups against the bosses, but the only particularly ugly one was the miss against Natia. Still, good time overall. Actually, I had accidentally discovered the Natia trick when I played this game on my own, so it's nice to see it be put to great use here.
20: Baruda went pretty well - wasn't quite optimal, but still a really good ending time. On Cronos, it sucks about missing the third hit on the second round, but still, a three-round finish is awesome.
21: Nitros went perfectly. Bolban actually went pretty bad, and is the only part of the run I really didn't like - 7200+ is pretty good but, as the run shows, a better time can definitely be achieved. Still, given the difficulty of the underwater fights and the randomness of the torpedoes, it's forgivable.
A note to the runner on why Nitros took 7 hits rather than 8, as the runner mentioned not knowing why it happened: I did some investigating and it turns out it has nothing to do with whether it's on a fresh power-on or not; basically, if you are able to destroy the three shields and hit Nitros with perfect accuracy, so that the bomb hits Nitros at 9820, he actually takes TWO hits. You can actually see it if you look VERY closely at the video: Nitros does his "got hit" animation twice in a row, before flashing. It turns out, you can ALSO do this on the third fight with him in Kanatia (the other time you fight him with his shields) - so, I was able to achieve the same 8450 time in Kanatia using this method. However, given that this comes at the end of a segment and getting the timing right is non-trivial, it's forgiven.
22: Great end segment. Natia went wonderfully. The first two parts of Bagular went extremely well. The last part had two semi-big hick-ups, but still a time of 2680 is pretty awesome.
Verdict: Assuming the A/V issues are fixed, this is an easy ACCEPT. This beats marshmallow's run in every possible way, and pretty much all the segments were extremely well executed. The only sub-optimal parts come from some of the bosses (especially Bolban 2), but I figured that would be the case even before watching the run, given the nature of the game. Overall, very well done! Now I just wonder how we can convince the runner to do an 100% run...
Quote:
It's mostly very good. At the risk of sounding like I didn't enjoy the run and it's not well executed, I will attempt to list every issue I noticed.
The jump bomb drop acceleration trick could have been implemented a bit more, but it was still used frequently.
On the coaster levels, some jumps off of moving platforms were made later than they could have been. Most of the jumps in Hard Coaster and the one at the end of Mad Coaster had this.
The baruda fight is kind of ugly, despite the rest of that segment being done well.
The bolban fight is very ugly with half a dozen missed throws and a freeze. It's in the same segment as the Mad Coaster level, so I think that segment could be redone to save as much as 10 seconds. Bolban II wasn't as bad.
In water and slider levels, I think moving side to side does indeed slow you down a little. Your goal in the water levels should be moving forward as fast as possible and dare i say, reducing lag (more like aqua way) and not so much killing things (erars lake). Doesn't waste a large amount of time.
That's about it other than a few missed shots. The author admitted to all this. It doesn't add up to very much lost time. Many levels and bosses were performed perfect or near perfect.
This game has tricky play control and it is difficult to determine your position at times. The author overcame this quite well. Overall the play is tight, significantly more than half of the levels are very well done or near console-perfect, and more than a few difficult but efficient strategies are used, many of which came from the TAS-in-progress. I vote accept, as an improvement to the current run.
The jump bomb drop acceleration trick could have been implemented a bit more, but it was still used frequently.
On the coaster levels, some jumps off of moving platforms were made later than they could have been. Most of the jumps in Hard Coaster and the one at the end of Mad Coaster had this.
The baruda fight is kind of ugly, despite the rest of that segment being done well.
The bolban fight is very ugly with half a dozen missed throws and a freeze. It's in the same segment as the Mad Coaster level, so I think that segment could be redone to save as much as 10 seconds. Bolban II wasn't as bad.
In water and slider levels, I think moving side to side does indeed slow you down a little. Your goal in the water levels should be moving forward as fast as possible and dare i say, reducing lag (more like aqua way) and not so much killing things (erars lake). Doesn't waste a large amount of time.
That's about it other than a few missed shots. The author admitted to all this. It doesn't add up to very much lost time. Many levels and bosses were performed perfect or near perfect.
This game has tricky play control and it is difficult to determine your position at times. The author overcame this quite well. Overall the play is tight, significantly more than half of the levels are very well done or near console-perfect, and more than a few difficult but efficient strategies are used, many of which came from the TAS-in-progress. I vote accept, as an improvement to the current run.
Decision: Accept
Reason: It's an improvement over an old run.
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