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SS run using the "Speed Run" feature

Verifier Responses

Quote:
The run is very good. Before I watched it the last record I saw was in the range of just under 30 minutes, so this run is 2 minutes faster!

The video quality is acceptable. The frame size on the verification copy was a bit weird (320 x 256) and it was 30fps instead of 29.97, but it did play fine with no sync issues.

The play is very good. There were quite a few levels that utilized totally different methods from what I'd seen in runs before. Everythign is planned out really well, and the rewind feature is used very well to speed things up when it can be used to transport the player faster than running. The trick on the final stage (or is it the first one…) was quite clever. It's a shame it took a few tries to get the boosts off the ledges, but overall it's great for being so late in the run.

The runner also assembles the puzzles really fast! Not that it counts in the time, but it was good to see.

Given that I see no cheating, and that this run is 4 seconds faster than the fastest run on the NA 360 leaderboards, I accept.


Quote:
Though there's a video issue that ought to be cleared up before this goes up on the site, as far as gameplay goes I think this is the most clear 'Accept' out of everything I've ever verified. Factoring out the time the runner saves on the princess level, this run is still almost as fast as the fastest run I'm aware of on YouTube... and that run was segmented, whereas this is a SS. It's also apparently several seconds faster than the fastest time on the online leaderboards, as noted by the verifier above me, and given that this is a game where there has actually been significant speedrunning competition in the past, beating the top run on the leaderboards is a real and significant indicator of this run's quality.

Execution: Very solid for a SS. A couple of unfortunate mistakes costing several seconds apiece in world 6, as noted in the runner's comments, but other than that there are no mistakes that are really worth speaking of for a SS of this length and difficulty.

Planning: I didn't see anything wrong at all. Mostly the routes are the same as the 29 minute segmented run from January 2009, although there's a couple of improvements in World 6 and the runner saves time by getting the nuclear explosion ending.

Video quality: There's a problem here. The run was clearly recorded with the game running in widescreen, but the video has black horizontal bars at the top and bottom to make the video 4:3. These bars make it impossible to watch the video fullscreen on a widescreen monitor. I'm not sure whether the bars were added in by the recording program the runner used, or whether they were added in during encoding, but either way they should be removed before the run goes up.

Apart from the video issue, I vote enthusiastically to accept this. Congrats to the runner on pulling this run off.



P.S. A couple of notes on categories:

1) The run is done in Speed Run mode, which is different to normal play in a few ways: there's an in-game timer, you can't save/load, and the 'Exit the Current World' option in the in-game menu ends the game instead of taking you back to the world's hub area. The final point is significant because it means runs not done in Speed Run mode can be significantly faster by using the Exit The Current World option to warp. I don't know whether we want to treat Speed Run mode as a seperate category or note that this run was done in Speed Run mode on the game page.

2) I'm not entirely clear, so perhaps someone can clarify; with the method of getting to the princess that the runner uses, does it actually matter that he has collected 7 stars? I don't recall quite what getting 7 stars changes, and I know that it's possible to get the alternate ending without 7 stars, so I dunno whether it's actually relevant here.


Quote:
No signs of cheating.

Audio is fine, but the video is a bit odd. It doesn't take up the full screen, if it's widescreen it should at least take up the full width but there is a decent sized black border all around - as the above verifier noted. I mean it's perfectly watchable, but just a bit odd. I'll leave this up to someone else to decide if it's an issue; in my opinion it's a minor cosmetic issue.

As for the run itself, it's a really great achievement. The XBLA leaderboard are fairly competitive so to beat all those times is nice to see, I wonder if they thought of the different ending. It's certainly the fastest completion I'm aware of. A few time reversals are required due to mistakes and some of the time reversals which are used to speed up movement aren't timed perfectly (but still very good for a SS). Strategies are very good and I didn't see any obvious improvements in that regard.

I see no reason why this should not use the in-game timer, meaning all the events in between worlds (putting the jigsaws together) don't need to be optimised (and they aren't). As the above verifier noted though, there may still be a place for a real time run, not using Speed Run mode.

Regarding the category of the run - The fact the run has 7 stars on another file confuses me somewhat. If you start in Speed Run mode that's essentially a new game (though it doesn't delete your current game file). If you see at the beginning where the runner passes past the stars, none of them are filled in... I really fail to see why the amount of stars you have on file should mean anything with regards to the category, but perhaps I'm missing something.

Overall it's a great run and a clear accept.


Quote:
This run is excellent; there's a few rewinds to retry tricks, but overall they don't lose too much... all the strategies are up to date.

The video letterboxing(?) is strange, I hope the highest quality video actually has a decent resolution. Everything else is fine. Accept.


Quote:
The other verifiers have pretty much summed up what I wanted to say. I'll just toss my accept into the pile.


I was also a verifier and I accept this run.

Decision: Accept

Reason: It's an extremely tight run.

Congratulations to Ralf Janiak!

To clarify on some verifier comments, I had initially erroneously stated that this run had collected the 7 stars prior but in fact it did not.
Thread title:  
Congrats Ralf! I look forward to watching the run.
SDA Apprentice -- (3-1)
One of the games that shows us how games can be seen as an art... I can't wait to see the run when it is finally posted...

Congrats to the runner, Ralf!
The Gaming Lawyer
I was gonna say...one of the stars requires you to wait like an hour for a very slow moving platform to crawl across the level...
Actually, I think it's an hour before the cloud reaches a point where it can be jumped on and another hour before it reaches the beginning of the level.
thanks go to the verifiers. I'm happy to see the run here finally (and of course see it being accepted). As flip and some of the verifiers mentioned, it doesn't matter how many stars you collected in the savefile you're using - this run could be pulled of the exact same way on a fresh install.

I don't really know what's up with the video. I recorded it using fraps and anrichan did the whole encoding.

I don't have the time right now to do any speedrunning, but eventually I'm going to beat this run some time OR do a run of 'The Misadventures of P.B. Winderbottom' which uses similar mechanics. I guess this speedrun thing got me now ;]
Ah yes P.B. Winterbotttom, I got that game during the steam holiday sale for $0.50 , played through it in a couple hours and said to myself "Yep, that was worth fifty cents." I wouldn't mind seeing a speedrun of that game.

Well good luck with whatever you do ralle32, and congratulations on your accepted speedrun. Also, I was the last (and probably most lazy) of the verifiers.