My feelings on The Demon Rush
Game Page: Doesn't exist yet, but it will!
Guess who did this (hint, big sexy)
Verifier Responses
Here was my response:
His response
This was my response:
I lost the final verifier's response, but I remember that he accepted the run despite some mistakes in the first and third levels he didn't like (like getting thrown by a big guy, which always happens to me :-/).
Decision: Accept
Reason:Because I can
P.S. Enhasa you're a terrible verifier. I don't know why I let you verify if you don't bother writing up a response.
Guess who did this (hint, big sexy)
Verifier Responses
Quote:
Verifier: honestly I watched your run at first; and it has some hiccups but its damn nice for a SS
[23:52] mikwuyma: yeah I'll be the first to say it's not perfect
[23:52] mikwuyma: but some of my luck was just so ridiculous
[23:52] mikwuyma: I had to keep the run
Verifier: There were quite a lot of things that went well and two REALLY horrible ones
[23:52] mikwuyma: okay the first horrible one
[23:52] mikwuyma: is the desert duh
[23:52] mikwuyma: I'm guessing the second one
[23:52] mikwuyma: is the catfish?
Verifier: shit;
Verifier: My room-mate ended up watching with me; and we got hung up on one thing and now i can't remember it
[23:53] mikwuyma: LOL okay
Verifier: Oh;
Verifier: why didn't you use the Bear?
[23:53] mikwuyma: the bear?
Verifier: Panda thingy?
Verifier: He is a knight ya know?
[23:53] mikwuyma: you mean the character?
Verifier: yeah
[23:53] mikwuyma: this is a new game run
[23:54] mikwuyma: as in
[23:54] mikwuyma: clean file
Verifier: so then is there NG+ lvl 1?
[23:54] mikwuyma: you don't start with the bear
Verifier: or is it just NG+?
[23:54] mikwuyma: I'm really not sure at this point
[23:54] mikwuyma: the only way the bear is better is his weapon I'm guessing
Verifier: Yeah +5 str + 5 con crit
Verifier: its normally only wieldable at 20
[23:54] mikwuyma: yeah okay that is really good
Verifier: If the organ knight is the only part where ice magic helps; If you can do it without.. then Panda would be >
Verifier: for str
[23:56] mikwuyma: yeah obviously
[23:56] mikwuyma: the problem with using the unlockable characters
[23:56] mikwuyma: is you can't start off with zero gold (or it's very hard to)
[23:57] mikwuyma: you have all of the items like the boomerang and the shovel
Verifier: Well you dont HAVE to get the boomerang
Verifier: and where would the shovel help ?
[23:57] mikwuyma: so I'd either have to make up a completely arbitrary new game unlockable category
[23:57] mikwuyma: it wouldn't
[23:57] mikwuyma: just saying
Verifier: well the bow helps and thats NECESSARY
[23:57] mikwuyma: and the boomerang would only help against certain bosses (like the catfish)
[23:57] mikwuyma: and doors
Verifier: how so on doors?
[23:58] mikwuyma: destroys them in half a second
[23:58] mikwuyma: try it
Verifier: i'll have to;
Verifier: Never used the 'rang on a door
[23:58] mikwuyma: neither did I
[23:58] mikwuyma: but I saw it in spiralout's run
Verifier: thats crazy
Verifier: Well then I donno just seems wierd cause at NG then Blue knight is the knight; NG+ would be industrialist
Verifier: cause NG+ would just be a lvl 99 max stat beatdown
Verifier: with raped bosses
[00:00] mikwuyma: yeah ng+ is stupid for the normal game IMO
[00:00] mikwuyma: well the problem with the game
[00:00] mikwuyma: is that there isn't enough variety between the characters
[00:00] mikwuyma: and the save system is really stupid
Verifier: yeah there isn't...;
[00:00] mikwuyma: and you can't delete money/items/animals/weapons you've bought
[00:01] mikwuyma: without outright deleting your data
[00:01] mikwuyma: this is why ng for unlockable characters is such a problem
Verifier: Yeah i noticed you used a diff name
[00:01] mikwuyma: yeah I made about 10
[00:01] mikwuyma: and I had to constantly remake some
Verifier: Well; I donno how to really do it; but I was just asking
Verifier: Your run is pretty damn good other than that at least one blaring mistake I remembered.. I'll tell you when i remember the other one
[00:02] mikwuyma: in theory I have no problem with new game with an unlockable character
Verifier: You work those knights well; and keep your combat well..
[00:02] mikwuyma: I just don't think it's possible
[00:02] mikwuyma: because of the save system
Verifier: Honestly you could have lvl 1 vs lvl 99; but i donno how that'd work. Cause you'd still just have the money and items to really work it
Verifier: so I just thought i'd ask; no need to defend or debate the stupidity of it all
[00:03] mikwuyma: yeah
[00:04] mikwuyma: anyways I wanted to do a run with a default knight at first
[00:04] mikwuyma: the only other knight who might work for new game + is the red knight
[00:04] mikwuyma: but like I said in my comments
[00:04] mikwuyma: I really doubt it
Verifier: Eh; Industrialist owns NG+
[00:04] mikwuyma: oh I mean new game
[00:04] mikwuyma: sorry
Verifier: ehh; yeah;
[00:04] mikwuyma: and yeah industrialist/fencer (same as ind) own new game +
Verifier: Magic is weak sauce though;
[00:04] mikwuyma: red knight's is great at grouping though
[00:04] mikwuyma: then again if you're good
[00:05] mikwuyma: you can just group enemies with xxyy
[00:05] mikwuyma: and thanks
[00:05] mikwuyma: and I know I have some dumb mistakes
Verifier: but some of them are hard to avoid
[00:05] mikwuyma: but shit happens in an hour + run
Verifier: OH YEAH the slimes in the cave;;;;
Verifier: Not the bat one but the wedding procession
[00:05] mikwuyma: OH GOD
[00:05] mikwuyma: yeah the worst part is
[00:05] mikwuyma: that wasn't even my fault
Verifier: You had some bad luck getting juggled by slimes/knights
[00:05] mikwuyma: I mean I guess getting hit at first was
[00:06] mikwuyma: but that luck I had afterwards was the worst
[00:06] mikwuyma: I
[00:06] mikwuyma: I've never had that happen to me before
Verifier: ehh; it was just stupid really. You can't doa nything about that
[00:08] mikwuyma: yeah it was just freakishly bad luck
Verifier: Your only option was to try to freeze the knight for a sec to get a handle on the slimes; other than what you did
[00:09] mikwuyma: at first I was like the cave? I did really wellin the bat cave. lol
[00:09] mikwuyma: the problem with freezing
[00:09] mikwuyma: is that it takes a second to hit
[00:09] mikwuyma: so that knight still would have hit me
Verifier: eh but the real thing is; he beat on you more and more as the slimes kept coming
[00:10] mikwuyma: the thing about the situation though
[00:10] mikwuyma: is that it has never happened to before
[00:10] mikwuyma: until this run of course
[00:10] mikwuyma: probably the best thing to do
[00:10] mikwuyma: would have been to block the knight's attack
Verifier: yeah its a situation where you go "What?! thats.. huh?" its like a stray bullet thats not normally there in a contra run;
[00:10] mikwuyma: then jump out of the way
[00:12] mikwuyma: also what's weird is that the second half of the run is better than the first half
[00:12] mikwuyma: now that I'm thinking about it
Verifier: Eh; just a little bit
Verifier: After the yonder desert mistake you screwed up less
Verifier: and probably got better juggle luck i mean
[00:12] mikwuyma: but I also practiced the second half more because it's easier to practice (you can practice under the same conditions as a real run)
[00:13] mikwuyma: yeah my snow field luck
[00:13] mikwuyma: ridiculous
Verifier: Hell ya;
Verifier: But your forest luck; Not so good
[00:13] mikwuyma: I just kept on catching enemies into my juggle
[00:13] mikwuyma: yeah I did what I could
[00:13] mikwuyma: my river though
[00:13] mikwuyma: awesome
[00:13] mikwuyma: my high field, great if you ignore the fucking arrow shooter
[00:13] mikwuyma: arlgkhsglkshlhgs
Verifier: good job on the quick MAX POWER launch
Verifier: i was surprised that you didn't get achievements during the run...
[00:15] mikwuyma: max power launch?
Verifier: catapult?
[00:15] mikwuyma: I have notifications turned off
[00:15] mikwuyma: I know I got max power launch
Verifier: ahh makes sense
[00:15] mikwuyma: and getting through the forest chase wihtout getting hit
Verifier: i dont think that really matters;
[00:15] mikwuyma: and beating the game (duh)
[00:20] mikwuyma: also I think the run will be hard to beat, not because it's really good or anything, but because I got the dumbest luck in a lot of places
[00:21] mikwuyma: anyways do you have anything else to say, or should I just cp what you said here for the topic?
Verifier: yep; i was thinking about it... even though the hand was a pain in the ass;
Verifier: Uhh... "The run is by Mike Uyama, and... yeah if he didn't kick ass he wouldn't submit. So why would you reject it?"
[00:21] mikwuyma: lol
[00:21] mikwuyma: okay fair enough
Verifier: come on; you know SDA standards more than anyone else
Verifier:: I doubt you'd submit a piss of shit
[00:22] mikwuyma: I would definitely do my hardest not to
[00:22] mikwuyma: I was just a little afraid about this run because it doesn't look that "clean"
[00:22] mikwuyma: but you can't really make a clean looking castle crashers run
Verifier: that game isn't 'clean"
Verifier: Now; if i ever submitted Ninja Warriors and it wasn't clean
Verifier: I know that'd be smacked out like a 2$ whore
[00:22] mikwuyma: there are some mistakes I definitely regret though (I hate you desert so much)
Verifier: honestly Mike; you should go out and smash every worm you see
[00:27] mikwuyma: but then one will pop up and be invincible
Verifier:: Mike if that happens. I will hack the world for you to make it vinceable
Verifier: and weaksauce
Verifier: and worth 99999999999999999 exp
[23:52] mikwuyma: yeah I'll be the first to say it's not perfect
[23:52] mikwuyma: but some of my luck was just so ridiculous
[23:52] mikwuyma: I had to keep the run
Verifier: There were quite a lot of things that went well and two REALLY horrible ones
[23:52] mikwuyma: okay the first horrible one
[23:52] mikwuyma: is the desert duh
[23:52] mikwuyma: I'm guessing the second one
[23:52] mikwuyma: is the catfish?
Verifier: shit;
Verifier: My room-mate ended up watching with me; and we got hung up on one thing and now i can't remember it
[23:53] mikwuyma: LOL okay
Verifier: Oh;
Verifier: why didn't you use the Bear?
[23:53] mikwuyma: the bear?
Verifier: Panda thingy?
Verifier: He is a knight ya know?
[23:53] mikwuyma: you mean the character?
Verifier: yeah
[23:53] mikwuyma: this is a new game run
[23:54] mikwuyma: as in
[23:54] mikwuyma: clean file
Verifier: so then is there NG+ lvl 1?
[23:54] mikwuyma: you don't start with the bear
Verifier: or is it just NG+?
[23:54] mikwuyma: I'm really not sure at this point
[23:54] mikwuyma: the only way the bear is better is his weapon I'm guessing
Verifier: Yeah +5 str + 5 con crit
Verifier: its normally only wieldable at 20
[23:54] mikwuyma: yeah okay that is really good
Verifier: If the organ knight is the only part where ice magic helps; If you can do it without.. then Panda would be >
Verifier: for str
[23:56] mikwuyma: yeah obviously
[23:56] mikwuyma: the problem with using the unlockable characters
[23:56] mikwuyma: is you can't start off with zero gold (or it's very hard to)
[23:57] mikwuyma: you have all of the items like the boomerang and the shovel
Verifier: Well you dont HAVE to get the boomerang
Verifier: and where would the shovel help ?
[23:57] mikwuyma: so I'd either have to make up a completely arbitrary new game unlockable category
[23:57] mikwuyma: it wouldn't
[23:57] mikwuyma: just saying
Verifier: well the bow helps and thats NECESSARY
[23:57] mikwuyma: and the boomerang would only help against certain bosses (like the catfish)
[23:57] mikwuyma: and doors
Verifier: how so on doors?
[23:58] mikwuyma: destroys them in half a second
[23:58] mikwuyma: try it
Verifier: i'll have to;
Verifier: Never used the 'rang on a door
[23:58] mikwuyma: neither did I
[23:58] mikwuyma: but I saw it in spiralout's run
Verifier: thats crazy
Verifier: Well then I donno just seems wierd cause at NG then Blue knight is the knight; NG+ would be industrialist
Verifier: cause NG+ would just be a lvl 99 max stat beatdown
Verifier: with raped bosses
[00:00] mikwuyma: yeah ng+ is stupid for the normal game IMO
[00:00] mikwuyma: well the problem with the game
[00:00] mikwuyma: is that there isn't enough variety between the characters
[00:00] mikwuyma: and the save system is really stupid
Verifier: yeah there isn't...;
[00:00] mikwuyma: and you can't delete money/items/animals/weapons you've bought
[00:01] mikwuyma: without outright deleting your data
[00:01] mikwuyma: this is why ng for unlockable characters is such a problem
Verifier: Yeah i noticed you used a diff name
[00:01] mikwuyma: yeah I made about 10
[00:01] mikwuyma: and I had to constantly remake some
Verifier: Well; I donno how to really do it; but I was just asking
Verifier: Your run is pretty damn good other than that at least one blaring mistake I remembered.. I'll tell you when i remember the other one
[00:02] mikwuyma: in theory I have no problem with new game with an unlockable character
Verifier: You work those knights well; and keep your combat well..
[00:02] mikwuyma: I just don't think it's possible
[00:02] mikwuyma: because of the save system
Verifier: Honestly you could have lvl 1 vs lvl 99; but i donno how that'd work. Cause you'd still just have the money and items to really work it
Verifier: so I just thought i'd ask; no need to defend or debate the stupidity of it all
[00:03] mikwuyma: yeah
[00:04] mikwuyma: anyways I wanted to do a run with a default knight at first
[00:04] mikwuyma: the only other knight who might work for new game + is the red knight
[00:04] mikwuyma: but like I said in my comments
[00:04] mikwuyma: I really doubt it
Verifier: Eh; Industrialist owns NG+
[00:04] mikwuyma: oh I mean new game
[00:04] mikwuyma: sorry
Verifier: ehh; yeah;
[00:04] mikwuyma: and yeah industrialist/fencer (same as ind) own new game +
Verifier: Magic is weak sauce though;
[00:04] mikwuyma: red knight's is great at grouping though
[00:04] mikwuyma: then again if you're good
[00:05] mikwuyma: you can just group enemies with xxyy
[00:05] mikwuyma: and thanks
[00:05] mikwuyma: and I know I have some dumb mistakes
Verifier: but some of them are hard to avoid
[00:05] mikwuyma: but shit happens in an hour + run
Verifier: OH YEAH the slimes in the cave;;;;
Verifier: Not the bat one but the wedding procession
[00:05] mikwuyma: OH GOD
[00:05] mikwuyma: yeah the worst part is
[00:05] mikwuyma: that wasn't even my fault
Verifier: You had some bad luck getting juggled by slimes/knights
[00:05] mikwuyma: I mean I guess getting hit at first was
[00:06] mikwuyma: but that luck I had afterwards was the worst
[00:06] mikwuyma: I
[00:06] mikwuyma: I've never had that happen to me before
Verifier: ehh; it was just stupid really. You can't doa nything about that
[00:08] mikwuyma: yeah it was just freakishly bad luck
Verifier: Your only option was to try to freeze the knight for a sec to get a handle on the slimes; other than what you did
[00:09] mikwuyma: at first I was like the cave? I did really wellin the bat cave. lol
[00:09] mikwuyma: the problem with freezing
[00:09] mikwuyma: is that it takes a second to hit
[00:09] mikwuyma: so that knight still would have hit me
Verifier: eh but the real thing is; he beat on you more and more as the slimes kept coming
[00:10] mikwuyma: the thing about the situation though
[00:10] mikwuyma: is that it has never happened to before
[00:10] mikwuyma: until this run of course
[00:10] mikwuyma: probably the best thing to do
[00:10] mikwuyma: would have been to block the knight's attack
Verifier: yeah its a situation where you go "What?! thats.. huh?" its like a stray bullet thats not normally there in a contra run;
[00:10] mikwuyma: then jump out of the way
[00:12] mikwuyma: also what's weird is that the second half of the run is better than the first half
[00:12] mikwuyma: now that I'm thinking about it
Verifier: Eh; just a little bit
Verifier: After the yonder desert mistake you screwed up less
Verifier: and probably got better juggle luck i mean
[00:12] mikwuyma: but I also practiced the second half more because it's easier to practice (you can practice under the same conditions as a real run)
[00:13] mikwuyma: yeah my snow field luck
[00:13] mikwuyma: ridiculous
Verifier: Hell ya;
Verifier: But your forest luck; Not so good
[00:13] mikwuyma: I just kept on catching enemies into my juggle
[00:13] mikwuyma: yeah I did what I could
[00:13] mikwuyma: my river though
[00:13] mikwuyma: awesome
[00:13] mikwuyma: my high field, great if you ignore the fucking arrow shooter
[00:13] mikwuyma: arlgkhsglkshlhgs
Verifier: good job on the quick MAX POWER launch
Verifier: i was surprised that you didn't get achievements during the run...
[00:15] mikwuyma: max power launch?
Verifier: catapult?
[00:15] mikwuyma: I have notifications turned off
[00:15] mikwuyma: I know I got max power launch
Verifier: ahh makes sense
[00:15] mikwuyma: and getting through the forest chase wihtout getting hit
Verifier: i dont think that really matters;
[00:15] mikwuyma: and beating the game (duh)
[00:20] mikwuyma: also I think the run will be hard to beat, not because it's really good or anything, but because I got the dumbest luck in a lot of places
[00:21] mikwuyma: anyways do you have anything else to say, or should I just cp what you said here for the topic?
Verifier: yep; i was thinking about it... even though the hand was a pain in the ass;
Verifier: Uhh... "The run is by Mike Uyama, and... yeah if he didn't kick ass he wouldn't submit. So why would you reject it?"
[00:21] mikwuyma: lol
[00:21] mikwuyma: okay fair enough
Verifier: come on; you know SDA standards more than anyone else
Verifier:: I doubt you'd submit a piss of shit
[00:22] mikwuyma: I would definitely do my hardest not to
[00:22] mikwuyma: I was just a little afraid about this run because it doesn't look that "clean"
[00:22] mikwuyma: but you can't really make a clean looking castle crashers run
Verifier: that game isn't 'clean"
Verifier: Now; if i ever submitted Ninja Warriors and it wasn't clean
Verifier: I know that'd be smacked out like a 2$ whore
[00:22] mikwuyma: there are some mistakes I definitely regret though (I hate you desert so much)
Verifier: honestly Mike; you should go out and smash every worm you see
[00:27] mikwuyma: but then one will pop up and be invincible
Verifier:: Mike if that happens. I will hack the world for you to make it vinceable
Verifier: and weaksauce
Verifier: and worth 99999999999999999 exp
Quote:
I hope this isn't the longest verification ever. :-[
-------------------------------------------------------
Video: It’s fine. No blackouts, no wackiness.
Audio: Everything syncs up fine and sounds good.
Cheating: None.
Pros:
-Excellent planning
-Great strategies
-Damn fine execution the majority of the time
-Fast
-Some fantastic luck
Cons:
-Some atrocious luck
-Kisses the women
Verdict: Accept
Super long analysis:
Excellent skip of the opening cut scene by heading back to the map. Saved a couple seconds right off the bat. Lost a smidgeon of a second by not juggling one of the barbarians until death, but swiping the idiot’s head off earns style points.
2:00ish – I’m not thrilled with his crowd control here. He juggles one guy until he picks up a second one, and then tries picking up a third. He has to go all the way back to the left to finish his kills, then goes all the way to the right, and then has to go all the way back to the left because he forgot someone. Overall,
I think a good 2 seconds or so could be saved here. Coercing the enemies to bunch up together (while staying out of arrow range) can be a bit tricky and loses a second or two with the setup, you can gain a lot of time by thwacking them all to death at the same time. And if you don’t get them all, you don’t have to go from one side of the screen to the other and back again to make sure everyone’s dead.
2:35ish – Excellent juggling.
4:00ish – The first “boss” goes down about as fast as he will in a single player new game run. A couple of whiffs, but I don’t think he would have stayed airborne had he gone out of his way to have them all connect. But like I said, it’s not going to get much faster than that. Maybe a second or two, but with a higher risk of failing and needing to restart.
Barbarian Boss – Lovely trick. The Barbarian gets stuck in the gate, which obviously leads to RAPE. Fast and efficient. Uyamarama picks up the money and the lady. Wait.. why are you picking up the lady? You don’t need to. Pick up whatever money you need and exit out to the map. Saves 3-4 seconds or so. This applies to all the women.
I’d have to test this out, but would it be faster to exit the map right as you get to the Barbarian Boss, level the power up, and THEN fight the Barbarian? You would lose a bit of time exiting the map, but if you’re whacking him for almost double the damage (10 as opposed to 6), I can’t see you not making up the time spent going to the map and then some.
6:45 – Dinosaurs = assholes. Shortly after, he gets thrown by the brute. Loses about a second, but the brutes are really annoying to fight with melee attacks. Getting thrown once is hardly the end of the world. And besides, with some excellent crowd control he makes up for that second.
8:50ish – Impressive juggling while dodging arrows
Troll Boss – Very clean fight. A number of whiffs, but the boss’ movements are very erratic. Very good luck here, as the boss strafed around in short bursts instead of moving all the way to the other side of the screen and back, which would obviously waste a ton of time. $5 says Mike did the deer escape with his eyes closed.
Getting to the catfish – Very good. The imp juggling was lovely. Exiting to the map before the catfish was smart because he needs to go shopping anyway, and this way he’s one step closer to the store and also gets to level his power up.
Catfish – Not perfect and the blue knight takes a giant fist to the face which costs him a second, but he ended the fight in the first phase which is what counts. Had the catfish gotten away, which he almost did, I’d be pretty disappointed that Mike did not restart. So.. awesome. Exits to the map, which saves a second or two.
Panda “Boss” – He gets merked. That’s all there is to it. Excellent killing of the panda brutes shortly afterward as well.
16:05ish – Ah yes, the evil arrow bridge. This is one of those places that requires a lot of luck. Sometimes you can just happily run past everything without a scratch and sometimes you just get juggled. While you can block the arrows and be completely safe from getting hit, it’s quite slow. Mike tried to run through it, but was hit four times. Had he played it safe and blocked the whole way, he might have saved around one second from my estimation. If he had better luck though, he would have saved like 2-3 seconds. I’m not going to fault him though; I honestly would have done the exact same thing.
16:20ish – I thought it was pretty humorous when he was juggling all the enemies and getting really into it, slashed his way all the way over to the bear on the arrow gun, realized “oh right, he’s a prop” and then switched directions. Didn’t cost him any time—just entertaining to me.
17:30 – Blobs are super annoying. With better luck, a second could probably be saved. As it is, it’s very good.
19:07ish – FULL POWER. Wooo. Followed up by another good jump similar to the ivy jump not long ago.
I don’t know who decided to give the coneheads a massive amount of hitpoints (and BOMBS), but I dislike them. Even when your guy is at a high level with a good weapon, they take a heck of a pounding. Why am I spending so much time talking about this? Well, you don’t want to stop juggling them until they’re dead, but it takes a lot to kill them.. so chances are, you’re going to juggle each one a bit longer than you need to so you KNOW they’re dead. In theory, a second or three could be shaved off leading up to the groom, but it was still very good. And I don’t believe he got hit with any bombs, which is very very impressive.
Conehead Groom – I’m used to the throwing glitch which I’ve done a number of times, so I was surprised to see a new take on it. Not only is this one more skillfull, requiring tighter execution and timing, but I think it’s safer in the long run. If you go for the glitch, there’s a good possibility that he’ll get away and start firing the cannons at you, and that wastes tons of time. Also with the glitch, you don’t instantly let go when he dies. Sometimes I’ve let go after two seconds, sometimes upwards of ten. So.. safer, looks awesome, potentially more consistent, and quite possibly faster? Give me a hell yeah. It was beautiful.
The carriage chase was pretty much perfect. There’s really not a whole lot you can do to speed things up, and Mike did everything by the book and it turned out nicely. The boss got absolutely battered.
24:25 – OOF. Just like you can juggle enemies, you can be juggled rather easily yourself due to the game’s mechanics. This was just bad luck. Mike recovers fairly well and gets back on the attack. Sometimes the enemies were nice and behaved, sometimes they scattered a bit, so Mike had to chase. 5-6 seconds could probably be shaved off with better luck.
25:55ish – Good strategy with going back to the map to level his strength up. The conehead parts are generally slow, but they do give you some good experience.
Cyclops V1 – Very good fight. Wastes another 3-4 seconds due to kissing the girl. Tisk tisk.
29:00ish – Mike buys 9 sandwiches. What a fatty.
Industrial Factory Place That You Need A Sandwich To Break Into – Smooth. Very, very smooth.
Sailing – This went very smoothly.
38:24ish – Excellent strategy for taking down those asshole worms.
38:27ish – Very not excellent strategy for taking down those asshole worms. I don’t even know what to say. Bad luck on top of getting cheapshotted on top of more bad luck.
40:38 – AHAHAHAHAHHA, I never knew you could completely demolish the mini-boss that drops shit on you like that. Holy crap. The blue knight did some dirty right there.
Alien Ship – Goes smoothly with all the alien killing. With good rhythm and enemy behavior, this room can be very easy. But it can get pretty ugly, which thankfully it did not. One alien at the very end of the escape was a bit of a douchebag. I’m surprised by the lower route through the steam pipes though. When the aliens come out at the end, you have to go up and backwards to kill them. The upper route is just as fast, and you can do the running dive attack as they come out and kill all of them in one shot while moving forward. That would save a few seconds.
Everything leading up to the end of the desert was pretty damn solid. The volleyball game was pretty great. I was sad to see the other team get a point, but they got spanked hard.
49:36 – ARE. YOU. FUCKING. KIDDING. ME? Awful, awful, awful luck. The rare kind of awful, too. I really wish I had a video of Mike’s facial expression when this happened.
Corn Boss – Went well. Got whacked a few times, but that happens. No complaints. Post-fight, there’s an excellent trick to get closer to the barn, which saves a number of seconds as the peasants bring you the horn.
53:24 – Nice use of the horn from a distance, so that there’s no time spent waiting for the door to open. It actually took me a few playthroughs to realize I didn’t need to stand next to the door to horn it open, but maybe it’s obvious to everyone else in the world.
Everything up until Medusa was solid with some nice flying over the water sections. As for Medusa herself.. well.. hot damn. It was a beautiful fight. That’s all there is to say.
Full Moon – There was some really nice quick use of magic here. The stovefaces(?) are evil, so freezing one here and there helps with crowd control. It’s so easy to have them pile up on you, and with his vitality as low as it is, it’s guaranteed death. More great crowd control as the stovefaces really start coming in numbers. The ladder trick is nice and gets them all together for some great juggling.
1:03:10ish – Brilliant.
Ice Boss – Very clean fight. He’s very annoying, so seeing him get taken out with relative ease was nice. However, Mike could have exited out at 1:05:02, but sticks around to collect money and kiss the girl, which takes him until 1:05:19ish. So, big chunk of lost time there. At around 1:05:27, he goes to the store to buy 4 sandwiches for $80. Well, he had $83 before he collected the money from the previous boss, so he could have exited out the second the chest dropped down and have been fine.
1:08:00 – Mr. Blue has very little life and lands on one of the paintings, taking 57 damage. I swear his life bar is down to zero here. If not, he’s got like 1hp. Immediately after, he gulps down a potion. Yeah, the run almost ended right here. It was that close. The first phase was probably as good as it could have been. Second phase was a bit sloppier, but it wasn’t bad by any means. A few seconds could be shaved off with better luck.
Cyclops V2 – Bloody fantastic fight. Very crisp.
THE BIG ASSHOLE [Necromancer] – Holy fuck. Just awesome.
The first phase (crystals) of the final boss went decently. Took an extra hit which cost him about a second, but he got them all bunched up together and took them to town. Overall good. Second phase had its ups and downs. He almost kills the boss in his first red phase, but juuuust comes up short. It reminded me of Tiki vs. Yellow Devil [MM3]. And like with that, he loses a LOT of time. Almost 15 seconds. I’m a bit puzzled why Mike just sat around during the blue phases. Yeah, his magic is only at level 3, but that’s still something. If the guy is floating around for 12 seconds, maybe hit him once or twice in the first phase to do soooome damage. And if the guy is a one-shot , why wait around 12 seconds so you can melee him? I dunno, maybe it would have had the same result in the end and Mike knew that-- I’m curious though. The first balloon doesn’t have a chance. The killing of the spider is a work of art. Second balloon manages to survive a bit longer than the first, but it still doesn’t last long. The final form is another work of art.
Overall it’s a pretty fucking fantastic run. There are a bunch of boo-boos and bad luck scattered throughout, but the game is full of randomness and enemies not behaving. It’s absurdly fast considering what it is. That doesn’t mean that another 1-3 minutes can’t be shaved off sometime in the future, though. It’s definitely SDA quality and Castle Crashers deserves to have a run posted.
Well done.
[Update]
I beat the game again earlier tonight, starting from scratch:
-Leveling up before the Barbarian boss definitely seems like the way to go for a few seconds shaved off.
-The game can be beaten without kissing any of the girls (I was afraid something would prevent me from finishing by not rescuing them), which would save a good chunk of time, especially with the Ice boss.
-Magic on the final boss' second form helps a little.
--------------------------------------------------------
I’m not sure if I’m supposed to help with timing, and I’m not sure exactly where it starts and stops (I’m new, ok? :)), but here’s what I came up with:
[Timing starts] -> [timing stops] -> time [first frame - last frame]
Opening cutscene skip (pause is pressed) -> touching crystal at the end = 1:14:52 [1,036 – 135,687]
End of cutscene, gain control of character ->touching crystal at the end = 1:14:34 [1,585 – 135,687] (Mike's note: this one is correct)
Opening cutscene skip (pause is pressed) -> begin kissing last girl = 1:18:40 [1,036 – 142,509]
End of cutscene, gain control of character -> begin kissing last girl = 1:18:22 [1,585 -142,509]
I might be a frame off on some of those, but that wouldn’t be the end of the world. Could be wrong though. I’m guessing it ends when you touch the crystal, otherwise you wouldn’t have fiddled around in the barracks before kissing the girl. But if it does end there and you figured you could sacrifice two or three seconds for added entertainment, I’ll be a little disappointed because you could have saved a few minutes by exiting out during the credits, ‘cause the game considers itself defeated once the credits start rolling.
Have a good day, and good luck with the other verifiers.
-------------------------------------------------------
Video: It’s fine. No blackouts, no wackiness.
Audio: Everything syncs up fine and sounds good.
Cheating: None.
Pros:
-Excellent planning
-Great strategies
-Damn fine execution the majority of the time
-Fast
-Some fantastic luck
Cons:
-Some atrocious luck
-Kisses the women
Verdict: Accept
Super long analysis:
Excellent skip of the opening cut scene by heading back to the map. Saved a couple seconds right off the bat. Lost a smidgeon of a second by not juggling one of the barbarians until death, but swiping the idiot’s head off earns style points.
2:00ish – I’m not thrilled with his crowd control here. He juggles one guy until he picks up a second one, and then tries picking up a third. He has to go all the way back to the left to finish his kills, then goes all the way to the right, and then has to go all the way back to the left because he forgot someone. Overall,
I think a good 2 seconds or so could be saved here. Coercing the enemies to bunch up together (while staying out of arrow range) can be a bit tricky and loses a second or two with the setup, you can gain a lot of time by thwacking them all to death at the same time. And if you don’t get them all, you don’t have to go from one side of the screen to the other and back again to make sure everyone’s dead.
2:35ish – Excellent juggling.
4:00ish – The first “boss” goes down about as fast as he will in a single player new game run. A couple of whiffs, but I don’t think he would have stayed airborne had he gone out of his way to have them all connect. But like I said, it’s not going to get much faster than that. Maybe a second or two, but with a higher risk of failing and needing to restart.
Barbarian Boss – Lovely trick. The Barbarian gets stuck in the gate, which obviously leads to RAPE. Fast and efficient. Uyamarama picks up the money and the lady. Wait.. why are you picking up the lady? You don’t need to. Pick up whatever money you need and exit out to the map. Saves 3-4 seconds or so. This applies to all the women.
I’d have to test this out, but would it be faster to exit the map right as you get to the Barbarian Boss, level the power up, and THEN fight the Barbarian? You would lose a bit of time exiting the map, but if you’re whacking him for almost double the damage (10 as opposed to 6), I can’t see you not making up the time spent going to the map and then some.
6:45 – Dinosaurs = assholes. Shortly after, he gets thrown by the brute. Loses about a second, but the brutes are really annoying to fight with melee attacks. Getting thrown once is hardly the end of the world. And besides, with some excellent crowd control he makes up for that second.
8:50ish – Impressive juggling while dodging arrows
Troll Boss – Very clean fight. A number of whiffs, but the boss’ movements are very erratic. Very good luck here, as the boss strafed around in short bursts instead of moving all the way to the other side of the screen and back, which would obviously waste a ton of time. $5 says Mike did the deer escape with his eyes closed.
Getting to the catfish – Very good. The imp juggling was lovely. Exiting to the map before the catfish was smart because he needs to go shopping anyway, and this way he’s one step closer to the store and also gets to level his power up.
Catfish – Not perfect and the blue knight takes a giant fist to the face which costs him a second, but he ended the fight in the first phase which is what counts. Had the catfish gotten away, which he almost did, I’d be pretty disappointed that Mike did not restart. So.. awesome. Exits to the map, which saves a second or two.
Panda “Boss” – He gets merked. That’s all there is to it. Excellent killing of the panda brutes shortly afterward as well.
16:05ish – Ah yes, the evil arrow bridge. This is one of those places that requires a lot of luck. Sometimes you can just happily run past everything without a scratch and sometimes you just get juggled. While you can block the arrows and be completely safe from getting hit, it’s quite slow. Mike tried to run through it, but was hit four times. Had he played it safe and blocked the whole way, he might have saved around one second from my estimation. If he had better luck though, he would have saved like 2-3 seconds. I’m not going to fault him though; I honestly would have done the exact same thing.
16:20ish – I thought it was pretty humorous when he was juggling all the enemies and getting really into it, slashed his way all the way over to the bear on the arrow gun, realized “oh right, he’s a prop” and then switched directions. Didn’t cost him any time—just entertaining to me.
17:30 – Blobs are super annoying. With better luck, a second could probably be saved. As it is, it’s very good.
19:07ish – FULL POWER. Wooo. Followed up by another good jump similar to the ivy jump not long ago.
I don’t know who decided to give the coneheads a massive amount of hitpoints (and BOMBS), but I dislike them. Even when your guy is at a high level with a good weapon, they take a heck of a pounding. Why am I spending so much time talking about this? Well, you don’t want to stop juggling them until they’re dead, but it takes a lot to kill them.. so chances are, you’re going to juggle each one a bit longer than you need to so you KNOW they’re dead. In theory, a second or three could be shaved off leading up to the groom, but it was still very good. And I don’t believe he got hit with any bombs, which is very very impressive.
Conehead Groom – I’m used to the throwing glitch which I’ve done a number of times, so I was surprised to see a new take on it. Not only is this one more skillfull, requiring tighter execution and timing, but I think it’s safer in the long run. If you go for the glitch, there’s a good possibility that he’ll get away and start firing the cannons at you, and that wastes tons of time. Also with the glitch, you don’t instantly let go when he dies. Sometimes I’ve let go after two seconds, sometimes upwards of ten. So.. safer, looks awesome, potentially more consistent, and quite possibly faster? Give me a hell yeah. It was beautiful.
The carriage chase was pretty much perfect. There’s really not a whole lot you can do to speed things up, and Mike did everything by the book and it turned out nicely. The boss got absolutely battered.
24:25 – OOF. Just like you can juggle enemies, you can be juggled rather easily yourself due to the game’s mechanics. This was just bad luck. Mike recovers fairly well and gets back on the attack. Sometimes the enemies were nice and behaved, sometimes they scattered a bit, so Mike had to chase. 5-6 seconds could probably be shaved off with better luck.
25:55ish – Good strategy with going back to the map to level his strength up. The conehead parts are generally slow, but they do give you some good experience.
Cyclops V1 – Very good fight. Wastes another 3-4 seconds due to kissing the girl. Tisk tisk.
29:00ish – Mike buys 9 sandwiches. What a fatty.
Industrial Factory Place That You Need A Sandwich To Break Into – Smooth. Very, very smooth.
Sailing – This went very smoothly.
38:24ish – Excellent strategy for taking down those asshole worms.
38:27ish – Very not excellent strategy for taking down those asshole worms. I don’t even know what to say. Bad luck on top of getting cheapshotted on top of more bad luck.
40:38 – AHAHAHAHAHHA, I never knew you could completely demolish the mini-boss that drops shit on you like that. Holy crap. The blue knight did some dirty right there.
Alien Ship – Goes smoothly with all the alien killing. With good rhythm and enemy behavior, this room can be very easy. But it can get pretty ugly, which thankfully it did not. One alien at the very end of the escape was a bit of a douchebag. I’m surprised by the lower route through the steam pipes though. When the aliens come out at the end, you have to go up and backwards to kill them. The upper route is just as fast, and you can do the running dive attack as they come out and kill all of them in one shot while moving forward. That would save a few seconds.
Everything leading up to the end of the desert was pretty damn solid. The volleyball game was pretty great. I was sad to see the other team get a point, but they got spanked hard.
49:36 – ARE. YOU. FUCKING. KIDDING. ME? Awful, awful, awful luck. The rare kind of awful, too. I really wish I had a video of Mike’s facial expression when this happened.
Corn Boss – Went well. Got whacked a few times, but that happens. No complaints. Post-fight, there’s an excellent trick to get closer to the barn, which saves a number of seconds as the peasants bring you the horn.
53:24 – Nice use of the horn from a distance, so that there’s no time spent waiting for the door to open. It actually took me a few playthroughs to realize I didn’t need to stand next to the door to horn it open, but maybe it’s obvious to everyone else in the world.
Everything up until Medusa was solid with some nice flying over the water sections. As for Medusa herself.. well.. hot damn. It was a beautiful fight. That’s all there is to say.
Full Moon – There was some really nice quick use of magic here. The stovefaces(?) are evil, so freezing one here and there helps with crowd control. It’s so easy to have them pile up on you, and with his vitality as low as it is, it’s guaranteed death. More great crowd control as the stovefaces really start coming in numbers. The ladder trick is nice and gets them all together for some great juggling.
1:03:10ish – Brilliant.
Ice Boss – Very clean fight. He’s very annoying, so seeing him get taken out with relative ease was nice. However, Mike could have exited out at 1:05:02, but sticks around to collect money and kiss the girl, which takes him until 1:05:19ish. So, big chunk of lost time there. At around 1:05:27, he goes to the store to buy 4 sandwiches for $80. Well, he had $83 before he collected the money from the previous boss, so he could have exited out the second the chest dropped down and have been fine.
1:08:00 – Mr. Blue has very little life and lands on one of the paintings, taking 57 damage. I swear his life bar is down to zero here. If not, he’s got like 1hp. Immediately after, he gulps down a potion. Yeah, the run almost ended right here. It was that close. The first phase was probably as good as it could have been. Second phase was a bit sloppier, but it wasn’t bad by any means. A few seconds could be shaved off with better luck.
Cyclops V2 – Bloody fantastic fight. Very crisp.
THE BIG ASSHOLE [Necromancer] – Holy fuck. Just awesome.
The first phase (crystals) of the final boss went decently. Took an extra hit which cost him about a second, but he got them all bunched up together and took them to town. Overall good. Second phase had its ups and downs. He almost kills the boss in his first red phase, but juuuust comes up short. It reminded me of Tiki vs. Yellow Devil [MM3]. And like with that, he loses a LOT of time. Almost 15 seconds. I’m a bit puzzled why Mike just sat around during the blue phases. Yeah, his magic is only at level 3, but that’s still something. If the guy is floating around for 12 seconds, maybe hit him once or twice in the first phase to do soooome damage. And if the guy is a one-shot , why wait around 12 seconds so you can melee him? I dunno, maybe it would have had the same result in the end and Mike knew that-- I’m curious though. The first balloon doesn’t have a chance. The killing of the spider is a work of art. Second balloon manages to survive a bit longer than the first, but it still doesn’t last long. The final form is another work of art.
Overall it’s a pretty fucking fantastic run. There are a bunch of boo-boos and bad luck scattered throughout, but the game is full of randomness and enemies not behaving. It’s absurdly fast considering what it is. That doesn’t mean that another 1-3 minutes can’t be shaved off sometime in the future, though. It’s definitely SDA quality and Castle Crashers deserves to have a run posted.
Well done.
[Update]
I beat the game again earlier tonight, starting from scratch:
-Leveling up before the Barbarian boss definitely seems like the way to go for a few seconds shaved off.
-The game can be beaten without kissing any of the girls (I was afraid something would prevent me from finishing by not rescuing them), which would save a good chunk of time, especially with the Ice boss.
-Magic on the final boss' second form helps a little.
--------------------------------------------------------
I’m not sure if I’m supposed to help with timing, and I’m not sure exactly where it starts and stops (I’m new, ok? :)), but here’s what I came up with:
[Timing starts] -> [timing stops] -> time [first frame - last frame]
Opening cutscene skip (pause is pressed) -> touching crystal at the end = 1:14:52 [1,036 – 135,687]
End of cutscene, gain control of character ->touching crystal at the end = 1:14:34 [1,585 – 135,687] (Mike's note: this one is correct)
Opening cutscene skip (pause is pressed) -> begin kissing last girl = 1:18:40 [1,036 – 142,509]
End of cutscene, gain control of character -> begin kissing last girl = 1:18:22 [1,585 -142,509]
I might be a frame off on some of those, but that wouldn’t be the end of the world. Could be wrong though. I’m guessing it ends when you touch the crystal, otherwise you wouldn’t have fiddled around in the barracks before kissing the girl. But if it does end there and you figured you could sacrifice two or three seconds for added entertainment, I’ll be a little disappointed because you could have saved a few minutes by exiting out during the credits, ‘cause the game considers itself defeated once the credits start rolling.
Have a good day, and good luck with the other verifiers.
Here was my response:
Quote:
Crowd Control: Most of the time it's better to just beat up guys and hope they walk towards your combo than staying in one spot and hoping they all gather there.
Barbarian boss: I did not even think about that, but it makes perfect sense. First versions of runs are rarely perfect, and this is no exception.
Kissing the Princesses: AHHHHHHH, I NEVER KNEW ABOUT THIS. I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW YOU COULD EXIT THE STAGES WITHOUT GETTING COOTIES. Honestly, it would only save a lot of time on the last princess, because you still need to collect money for the black paddle.
Also, I'm not surprised the game can still be beaten if you skip the princesses. I technically didn't beat the Volcano and Industrial Castle (left as soon as I collected the relics) and I still beat the game. You only have to beat all of the stages if you want to unlock characters.
Catfish: I had a run that ended because I couldn't take out the Catfish in one loop, letting it swim around just wastes too much time. That being said, this battle could have been better, but the annoying way the save system and restarting works (switching profiles grrrrr) really demotivates me from going into a Contra III-esque reset frenzy.
Arrow shooter: Despite beating the game at least 30 times, I still have no idea how to get past this consistently.
Conehead Groom: Once you get the Conehead Groom in the corner with this strategy, it's actually pretty easy to maintain (just hold up+right and mash Y). Like you said, I used this strategy because it was consistent. I have no idea how to "freeze" the Conehead Groom in a throw state lik
24:25: I'm glad you saw that this was just unbelievably bad luck. I've never had such a freakish amount of bad events happen to me at once.
UFO: I took the bottom path because I had a lot of trouble navigating the top path. I know, not a very good excuse, but I would have saved a bit of time if I went up a bit past the last set of vents instead of staying down like I did.
49:36: The funny thing is that I was never angry or nervous during this run. I was very relaxed the entire time, even when that asshole goblin appeared. I'll talk about it more in my audio commentary.
1:08:00: Actually, I did die, but you can still use potions as long as if you haven't hit the ground yet.
Also, that bad luck during the second phase had never happened to until this run, figures. :-/
Crystals: Though my fight wasn't optimal (I did lose a second or two), it's actually optimal to get hit so you can group all of the crystals together. And yes, I've tried XYY'ing in the same spot, but the crystals don't seem to launch themselves at you until you land on the ground.
Orb Wizard: Magic hardly helps, and you're wasting time every time he casts a spell (which occurs when you're in his line of sight).
Honestly my excellent luck outweighed my crappy luck by a ton, but I'm sure you've realized that now that you've played through the game again.
Timing: Your second timing is correct. Timing starts when you gain character control (the map doesn't count because you can't move your character there), and ends when you lose control (landing on the crystal). Yes, I regain control during the ending, but it's an ending and I don't even have to show it (though that would be a crime). If you're wondering, a precedent has been set for this sort of ruling. I know I timed Terranigma like that (you can also move during the ending in that game).
Barbarian boss: I did not even think about that, but it makes perfect sense. First versions of runs are rarely perfect, and this is no exception.
Kissing the Princesses: AHHHHHHH, I NEVER KNEW ABOUT THIS. I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW YOU COULD EXIT THE STAGES WITHOUT GETTING COOTIES. Honestly, it would only save a lot of time on the last princess, because you still need to collect money for the black paddle.
Also, I'm not surprised the game can still be beaten if you skip the princesses. I technically didn't beat the Volcano and Industrial Castle (left as soon as I collected the relics) and I still beat the game. You only have to beat all of the stages if you want to unlock characters.
Catfish: I had a run that ended because I couldn't take out the Catfish in one loop, letting it swim around just wastes too much time. That being said, this battle could have been better, but the annoying way the save system and restarting works (switching profiles grrrrr) really demotivates me from going into a Contra III-esque reset frenzy.
Arrow shooter: Despite beating the game at least 30 times, I still have no idea how to get past this consistently.
Conehead Groom: Once you get the Conehead Groom in the corner with this strategy, it's actually pretty easy to maintain (just hold up+right and mash Y). Like you said, I used this strategy because it was consistent. I have no idea how to "freeze" the Conehead Groom in a throw state lik
24:25: I'm glad you saw that this was just unbelievably bad luck. I've never had such a freakish amount of bad events happen to me at once.
UFO: I took the bottom path because I had a lot of trouble navigating the top path. I know, not a very good excuse, but I would have saved a bit of time if I went up a bit past the last set of vents instead of staying down like I did.
49:36: The funny thing is that I was never angry or nervous during this run. I was very relaxed the entire time, even when that asshole goblin appeared. I'll talk about it more in my audio commentary.
1:08:00: Actually, I did die, but you can still use potions as long as if you haven't hit the ground yet.
Crystals: Though my fight wasn't optimal (I did lose a second or two), it's actually optimal to get hit so you can group all of the crystals together. And yes, I've tried XYY'ing in the same spot, but the crystals don't seem to launch themselves at you until you land on the ground.
Orb Wizard: Magic hardly helps, and you're wasting time every time he casts a spell (which occurs when you're in his line of sight).
Honestly my excellent luck outweighed my crappy luck by a ton, but I'm sure you've realized that now that you've played through the game again.
Timing: Your second timing is correct. Timing starts when you gain character control (the map doesn't count because you can't move your character there), and ends when you lose control (landing on the crystal). Yes, I regain control during the ending, but it's an ending and I don't even have to show it (though that would be a crime). If you're wondering, a precedent has been set for this sort of ruling. I know I timed Terranigma like that (you can also move during the ending in that game).
His response
Quote:
Crowd Control: Standing in one place generally just gets you an arrow up your arse, but I've noticed that if you get within certain distances of enemies and then start walking away, they'll chase. In some places you can round up a few guys real fast and then wreck them all at once. I haven't quite figured it out as there seem to be a number of variables and randomness, but I'm getting there. Your way is probably more consistent, but I really was irked by that room early on.
Kissing: Yeah, it definitely saves the most time in the ice palace. When I gave estimates for possible time being saved, that was factoring in collecting money. The kissing animation and then the little end of stage round-up window takes a few seconds to complete. For the first three girls you'd only nab 3-4 seconds each, but add that to the time saved from the ice palace and you're looking at nearly half a minute.
Catfish: Your battle was fine, really. First phase is all that matters. Having to make new profiles = SUCK.
Arrow shooter: You started running up against the side of the screen as you were waiting for the finger to unlock the next screen. Once it did, you immediately dove. Save the dive until riiiiight before the arrows come flying at you. If you time it right and get decently lucky, you'll dive right past the first batch of arrows. Then I generally take 2-3 steps forward, tap block, take 2-3 steps forward, tap block, etc. - it's not the fastest way (which requires blessing from god himself), but it's pretty consistent for me.
YOU DID DIE. Son of a bitch. Just gulp a potion down before you hit the ground? Is there anything beyond that? When I saw that happen in your run, I bolted over and tested it out, but I always just got a gameover. (he tested it again, it worked)
Crystals: I can bunch them without getting hit. Neener.
Your excellent luck definitely outweighed the crappy luck, but the crappy luck was such a spectacular display of fail. I really do mean that in the nicest possible way. I actually enjoy "bloopers" like the desert mishap (which reminded me of Satoryu's epic flea rider catastrophe in Castlevania SOTN) because it shows that the person is human, unlike Frezy who is, in fact, a cyborg.
Kissing: Yeah, it definitely saves the most time in the ice palace. When I gave estimates for possible time being saved, that was factoring in collecting money. The kissing animation and then the little end of stage round-up window takes a few seconds to complete. For the first three girls you'd only nab 3-4 seconds each, but add that to the time saved from the ice palace and you're looking at nearly half a minute.
Catfish: Your battle was fine, really. First phase is all that matters. Having to make new profiles = SUCK.
Arrow shooter: You started running up against the side of the screen as you were waiting for the finger to unlock the next screen. Once it did, you immediately dove. Save the dive until riiiiight before the arrows come flying at you. If you time it right and get decently lucky, you'll dive right past the first batch of arrows. Then I generally take 2-3 steps forward, tap block, take 2-3 steps forward, tap block, etc. - it's not the fastest way (which requires blessing from god himself), but it's pretty consistent for me.
YOU DID DIE. Son of a bitch. Just gulp a potion down before you hit the ground? Is there anything beyond that? When I saw that happen in your run, I bolted over and tested it out, but I always just got a gameover. (he tested it again, it worked)
Crystals: I can bunch them without getting hit. Neener.
Your excellent luck definitely outweighed the crappy luck, but the crappy luck was such a spectacular display of fail. I really do mean that in the nicest possible way. I actually enjoy "bloopers" like the desert mishap (which reminded me of Satoryu's epic flea rider catastrophe in Castlevania SOTN) because it shows that the person is human, unlike Frezy who is, in fact, a cyborg.
Quote:
Incredible run. Quality is good and no signs of cheating. Not a lot to say here, the strategies on the bosses were near perfect (much better than I thought possible) and the overall speed of the run was great.
Accept it.
Accept it.
Quote:
I verify this run. Very solid with good luck in the right places, and very few spots with big time lost.
The run started off a bit slowly but picked right up. Nice strats for the Battering Ram and the Barbarian boss. Great XY combo for doors and the Catfish. Unfortunate luck the arrow machines in Tall Grass Field, but that kinda of thing happens in SS, so it's fine. Excellent Conhead Groom strat and fight. Great Cyclops battle. For Volcano World, I usually use the first sandwich before I see the metal gate so it will have worn off by the time I reach the Fire Demons. That could've saved a tiny bit of time. Also, with the Volcano fight, you can jump before using a sandwich to avoid getting hit. Nice idea with the sandwich while the Dragon spits fire. Excellent Industrial Boss strategy. Unfortunate luck with the sandworms. It's possible to finish off the second laser power supply with a jump+X, Y then do an XyyXyy combo through the cutsence, but it takes a little practice. Not sure if Mike knew about that or not. =P Excellent volleyball fight. Nice job dealing with the Beefies in the Swamp. Nice job dealing with the Corn Boss. I hate fighting that asshole with just melee. After the end of of you can XYY all the way to the other side of the screen (following the peasant), and you will get the Horn almost instantly. Great Medusa battle. The Full Moon skip will definitely save some time and trouble (that level's annoying as hell). This run really started to shine from Snow World on. Nice job with the Painter boss. Nice Undead Cyclops battle and strategy for hitting it while it's spitting fireballs. Decent luck during the second wave of the Necromancer battle, and AWESOME sandwich strat for the Necro himself. Excellent job with the Wizard's spider form. I'm fairly sure (I'd need to test it out) that you can speed up the Wizard's first form by getting him to shoot magic at you by crossing paths with him on purpose. Great job with the Wizard's final form, as well.
The run started off a bit slowly but picked right up. Nice strats for the Battering Ram and the Barbarian boss. Great XY combo for doors and the Catfish. Unfortunate luck the arrow machines in Tall Grass Field, but that kinda of thing happens in SS, so it's fine. Excellent Conhead Groom strat and fight. Great Cyclops battle. For Volcano World, I usually use the first sandwich before I see the metal gate so it will have worn off by the time I reach the Fire Demons. That could've saved a tiny bit of time. Also, with the Volcano fight, you can jump before using a sandwich to avoid getting hit. Nice idea with the sandwich while the Dragon spits fire. Excellent Industrial Boss strategy. Unfortunate luck with the sandworms. It's possible to finish off the second laser power supply with a jump+X, Y then do an XyyXyy combo through the cutsence, but it takes a little practice. Not sure if Mike knew about that or not. =P Excellent volleyball fight. Nice job dealing with the Beefies in the Swamp. Nice job dealing with the Corn Boss. I hate fighting that asshole with just melee. After the end of of you can XYY all the way to the other side of the screen (following the peasant), and you will get the Horn almost instantly. Great Medusa battle. The Full Moon skip will definitely save some time and trouble (that level's annoying as hell). This run really started to shine from Snow World on. Nice job with the Painter boss. Nice Undead Cyclops battle and strategy for hitting it while it's spitting fireballs. Decent luck during the second wave of the Necromancer battle, and AWESOME sandwich strat for the Necro himself. Excellent job with the Wizard's spider form. I'm fairly sure (I'd need to test it out) that you can speed up the Wizard's first form by getting him to shoot magic at you by crossing paths with him on purpose. Great job with the Wizard's final form, as well.
This was my response:
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I will respond to your comments more when I post the run in the verification topic, but no, I didn't know about using XYY to move farther to the right during the alien spaceship. I actually tried a couple of times, but I was trying jump, xxxyy, which didn't work out too well.
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I actually have a video where I XYY through the scene, destroying the third power supply with magic midair, and continue along during the scene. =P Of course that's not possible for you on this run, but it is pretty sexy. 
I use magic for the last hit of the second power supply, though.
I lost the final verifier's response, but I remember that he accepted the run despite some mistakes in the first and third levels he didn't like (like getting thrown by a big guy, which always happens to me :-/).
Decision: Accept
Reason:
P.S. Enhasa you're a terrible verifier. I don't know why I let you verify if you don't bother writing up a response.
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