My feelings on The Demon Rush
Game Page: http://speeddemosarchive.com/MetroidFusion.html
Kirk 'Biospark' LaBuda's single-segment 1% run.
Verifier Responses
Decision: Accept
Reason: Crushes the old run so badly it almost makes Fusion look like a good game.
Kirk 'Biospark' LaBuda's single-segment 1% run.
Verifier Responses
Quote:
Starting with the obvious:
A/V: This appears to be beautiful MQ, so it looks and sounds great. I thought MQ would be a bit over the top for a verification copy but what do I know?
Cheating: None. There's a lot of pausing in certain areas but the music keeps playing through a pause so it'd be pretty easy to pick up on.
Gameplay: There's lots of things that are only slightly slow, like missing walljumps and firing missiles before he was meant to, and obviously missing the two-round kill on Serris was a blow. Speaking of that, is there any reason that he couldn't have just used a third Charge Beam shot at the first chance, rather than waiting for the good positioning?
Eye doors hated on you all run.
Sector 3: The runner's comments say that he was trying a frame-perfect trick and I thought he was going for the 0% spineshark. Oh well. Just after that is the missile expansion that said trick would obviously skip.
Sector 6: Really nice jump out of a one-block high tunnel in morph ball mode!
I love how when Adam talks to you at the ship it tells you all the coloured doors are locked, even when they aren't. 8)
Nightmare: I hate you for making this look so easy with 15 missiles and no tanks. Always gave me so much trouble.
Ridley: Cheapest strat ever. I love it!
Ending: When the runner lines up his shot at the end, you can see the time on the pause screen and it says... 0:48. After unpausing there's another 18 seconds until the impact timer stops, or about 25 seconds until the final cutscene. I have no idea at which point the timer stops but it's a safe bet that it's one of these two.
That makes the time at worst 49:24. I went back and timed the Serris mistake and it cost about 18 seconds. So for the same execution with a two-round Serris it's actually a fair bet he'd have hit 48. A couple more co-operative eye doors would make it a lock.
Personally I would want you to keep going, because I know that 48 wouldn't be too far away. However, I can't reasonably reject it because it's a really good run regardless. I say accept, but also urge you to keep going for 48.
A/V: This appears to be beautiful MQ, so it looks and sounds great. I thought MQ would be a bit over the top for a verification copy but what do I know?
Cheating: None. There's a lot of pausing in certain areas but the music keeps playing through a pause so it'd be pretty easy to pick up on.
Gameplay: There's lots of things that are only slightly slow, like missing walljumps and firing missiles before he was meant to, and obviously missing the two-round kill on Serris was a blow. Speaking of that, is there any reason that he couldn't have just used a third Charge Beam shot at the first chance, rather than waiting for the good positioning?
Eye doors hated on you all run.
Sector 3: The runner's comments say that he was trying a frame-perfect trick and I thought he was going for the 0% spineshark. Oh well. Just after that is the missile expansion that said trick would obviously skip.
Sector 6: Really nice jump out of a one-block high tunnel in morph ball mode!
I love how when Adam talks to you at the ship it tells you all the coloured doors are locked, even when they aren't. 8)
Nightmare: I hate you for making this look so easy with 15 missiles and no tanks. Always gave me so much trouble.
Ridley: Cheapest strat ever. I love it!
Ending: When the runner lines up his shot at the end, you can see the time on the pause screen and it says... 0:48.
That makes the time at worst 49:24. I went back and timed the Serris mistake and it cost about 18 seconds. So for the same execution with a two-round Serris it's actually a fair bet he'd have hit 48. A couple more co-operative eye doors would make it a lock.
Personally I would want you to keep going, because I know that 48 wouldn't be too far away. However, I can't reasonably reject it because it's a really good run regardless. I say accept, but also urge you to keep going for 48.
Quote:
Verifier Notes: This is probably the most incredible time i've seen on this game, never though sub-50 was possible, congrats on getting it.
About the run: little mistakes here and there but it's realy acceptable considering that it is SS. Interesting boss fights and tactics.
Accept.
You are my fucking hero.
About the run: little mistakes here and there but it's realy acceptable considering that it is SS. Interesting boss fights and tactics.
Accept.
You are my fucking hero.
Quote:
OK, run verified. It's quite awesome, and the fastest I've ever seen it done. This guy is a Power Suit Ninja!
Quote:
No video or audio problems.
As far as cheating, a little concerned about 10:30 when the runner destroyed x-parasite on top of an atmospheric stabilizer in one charged shot as opposed to current run needing three. Don't know if the x-parasites hit points are set or random, or it's a glitch that happens when the player is invincible after getting hit. I'm pretty sure it's not cheating.
First of all let me just say how difficult it can be to determine if a runner has made a mistake (e.g. missed a jump, taken damage, fired an extra missile, etc.) or intentionally performed a "mistake" in order to save time. Although most verifiers have played the game and know quite a lot about it, most of us don't know a lot about the techniques or strategies it takes to speedrun the game. I appreciate the runner's comments on the mistakes they made, but it would have saved me a lot of time if they would have provided a brief comment on the intentional "mistakes" to save time. Having said that, the first time I watched this run I was appalled at what I thought were countless mistakes. But, after watching it a second time I began to differentiate between the runner's actual mistakes and strategies to gain more time.
00:00 - 02:20: A lot of ledge grabs and wall jumps, all executed perfectly.
02:21: Missed ledge grab, noted by runner.
02:22 - 04:38: No mistakes. As noted by runner, perfect eyedoor saves a second or two, and wall jump at 04:10 improves upon currently posted run.
04:39 - 05:06: The first time I saw the Arachnus fight, I thought the runner had taken damage for no reason. But when I compared the fight to one that didn't take damage I realized the runner actually saves ten seconds.
05:25: Runs into enemy, takes damage, and flies back. Might actually be faster than jumping, but couldn't tell.
05:26 - 09:13: Very solid block. 07:41 drops down instead of jumping down is slightly faster and safer. 07:45 runs through room without having to stop and destroy barrier--improvement on current run. Well timed jump and missile fire at 08:09 improving on current run. 08:25 shaft fall went well. Falling, shooting a missile, going into a ball so as to collect used missiles, and repeating--which saves a surprising six seconds. Always find it impressive when runners pull off complex maneuvers like this.
08:32, confused as to why runner ran through water instead of jumping, but once again after some research and comparison I realized it is actually slightly faster.
09:14: Misses first pirate with missile, as noted by runner. Although there is a loss in time; however when one compares it with current run there is actually no loss in time--both runs take eleven seconds.
09:28 - 09:38: Once again thought you had made a mistake by going through water as opposed to climbing across, but after comparison realized you save two seconds.
09:39 - 09:42: Saves about a second by wall jumping to eyedoor ledge as opposed to climbing up in current run.
09:43: Nice luck on eyedoor getting only one shield as compared to current run getting four!
09:52 - 10:10: An improvement of three seconds over current run's missile blunder. Did get hit on first missile, but doesn't affect time at all--and it looks pretty difficult to dodge.
10:26 - 10:37: A seven second improvement by managing to destroy x-parasite in one hit! Very nice.
10:39 - 11:01: Did misfire a missile at 10:59, but overall an improvement of four seconds.
11:15 - 13:30: No mistakes
13:31 - 13:44: 13:32 grabbed onto ledge by accident. Time loss was insignificant. 13:35 avoided enemy instead of attacking saved some time. Overall the entire room was three seconds faster.
13:45 - 15:42: Saves time by tweaking a few paths, most notably at 15:36 laying bomb before killing enemy.
15:43 -15:55: Does get hit at 15:52, but is still an improvement over current run.
15:56 - 16:26: Misfires on eye door but quickly recovers, and only one eye shield to the current run's two.
16:27 - 17:14: As noted by runner, Zazabi jumped over only four times; the current run's is nine! Overall it is an improvement of fourteen seconds!
17:15 - 17:47: No mistakes. Avoided current run's ledge jumping blunder and small pause before laying bomb--resulting in a slight increase in speed.
17:48 - 18:02: Does not wait for SA-X to leave, maybe a second in improvement, maybe not.
18:03 - 18:18: Avoids current run's ledge grab miss for an improvement.
18:19 - 18:25: Goes into ball faster.
18:26 - 18:37: Bombs through wall instead of climbing up the left. Speed-wise doesn't matter either way.
18:38 - 20:46: No mistakes.
20:47 - 21:01: Opts to jump ball, lay bomb, into electric water, and then jump as ceiling crumbles. Does get hit at 20:54, but faster to get hit, lay bomb, and then shot enemy while bomb times out. All in all saves three seconds.
21:02 - 21:16: Falls down and wall jumps to cross gap at 21:05, which is better than current run. Does not waste time shooting up, instead charge somersaults into ceiling enemy. Misfires missile at 21:06, but overall an improvement of five seconds--a lot for such a small room.
21:17 - 21:45: Misses wall jump at 21:34, get's hit by eyedoor (no big deal), and kills eyedoor faster than current run. Overall another gain of three seconds.
21:46 - 22:59: As noted by the runner, didn't go perfectly. Pretty self-explanatory when seen. Due to the pausing, it's difficult to tell exactly how much time was wasted.
23:00 - 23:33: Keeps shinespark and eliminates speed tile at 23:20 which he uses at bottom to boost left. Once again difficult to pinpoint time saved because of pausing. Estimate about one second.
23:34 - 24:05: No mistakes.
24:06 - 24:24: Does not back up at 24:06; instead proceeds through door without shinesparking into ball, and boosting right on bottom level. Comparing both methods found that there is no distinguishable difference in time. Maybe one second, maybe.
24:25 - 26:40: As noted by the runner, the shinespark would have been nice, but compared to current run there is no loss in time.
26:41 - 27:11: Executes shinespark earlier than current run for a small gain in time.
27:12 - 27:33: As noted by runner, second failed shinespark, but no difference compared to current run. Opted to jump back and forth at 27:27 to lure out enemy, rather than shoot it. Couldn't really ascertain if it was faster or moot.
27:34 - 27:47: No mistakes.
27:48 - 27:54: Amazing! A small room, but by simply aiming down and shooting while running, the runner saves an incredible seven seconds over current run.
27:55 - 28:18: No mistakes.
28:19 - 28:48: The runner is right, BOX fight was great. 28:35 manages to get a preemptive charged shot and missile off, a great start; then immediately grabs ceiling to shoot two more well-shot missiles; then fires a barrage downward--all hitting; finally shoots a few more and it was over before it even began. From the data room door to the first debris falling, a total of nineteen seconds saved! Very well done.
28:49 - 29:07: Less hesitation in killing enemies, starting at 29:01, resulted in a slightly faster room.
29:08 - 31:30: Dropped down at 31:17 and then shinesparked right. First time through I though you slipped. Upon comparison I realized that this allowed you to maintain shinespark through the next room and not only save a second but also a few missiles. Not bad at all.
31:31 - 32:31: As noted by runner, failed shinespark at 31:55; however saved a little time when runner boosted left at 31:57 and 32:00. Not a huge waste of time, but one of the more obvious ones.
32:32 - 32:44: Once again, I thought the runner had made a mistake by not going left to avoid SA-X's superbomb at 32:32 and apparently accidentally shooting SA-X resulting in a chase scene through two rooms. Later, I realized that by taking the superbomb damage the runner is left as close as possible to SA-X, making it possible to get SA-X's attention, forcing her to jump left, which leaves a small space open to get ahead of SA-X, thus eliminating the need to wait for SA-X to exit--on top of that it clears the next room of enemies. All in all this technique gives the runner a net gain of sixteen seconds!
32:45 - 32:58: At 32:50 the runner shot one charged shot right-up and then jumping to platform, as opposed to the current run's shooting right then shooting a bit up and then jumping up platform. A little slow on the eye door from missing first charged shot, but quickly recovered with another. About a second better.
32:59 - 33:50: Hit at 33:24, but seemed hard to dodge. Overall great boss fight considering the random nature of his satellites. Nice off-screen missile hit at 33:32. An improvement of sixteen seconds!
33:51 -34:21: Couldn't tell if the wall jump at 34:10 was mistake or actually saved some time, either way it didn't lose the runner any time. Couldn't tell if hit at 34:18 was intentional or was an accident. If it was an accident, it wasn't huge.
34:22 - 34:31: A lot of little tweaks as opposed to current run; too small and numerous to point out, but all added up to about two seconds in saved time.
34:32 - 34:46: As noted by runner, these areas didn't go too well. This part in particular. But, in the runner's defense, when compared to current run, it seems they got slapped with a lot of bad luck. I may just be imagining, but it seems like the enemy's placements are a little random. Especially in this block a lot of the enemies were right in the runner's way and in the current run the enemy's placement is much farther from the runner's path. Although it took longer, I think the runner did the best they could under the circumstances.
34:46 - 35:07: A little hesitation at times, but overall a great block compared to current run; especially at 35:04 where the runner did not waste time killing off ALL of the flies. Why in the world the previous runner did this is beyond me.
36:57 - 37:02: Runner uses a few missiles to blast through passage rather than shinesparking then finishing blasting through. Such a short block that's it's hard to tell if there was any time difference.
37:03 - 37:26: Runner gets hit at 37:22, as far as I can see could not be avoided without sacrificing time, so who cares.
37:27 - 37:48: Avoided big mistake at 37:39 from previous runner. At 37:46 once again I thought the runner had made a mistake with being hit, but I think they meant to barrel through with missiles, didn't work like it was supposed to, but it's whole lot faster than killing them through the wall before destroying it as demonstrated in the current run.
37:49 - 38:18: No mistakes.
38:19 - 38:30: Uses a faster and, in my opinion, harder route through room--especially the wall jump to ledge at 38:26. Saves almost four seconds.
38:31 - 38:46: Definitely a very small speed improvement due to not using missiles in first corridor and overall times jumps very tightly.
38:47 - 39:44: At 39:43 runner got hit, but they turned right so as not to fly backwards, so no loss.
39:45 - : At 39:52 runner saves time by shooting enemies rather than waiting for them to fly over.
39:53 - 41:25: No mistakes.
41:26 - 41:43: Wow, a bunch of changes some take more time, while others save time. Too tedious to write them all down. When all is said and done a total of ten seconds is saved.
41:44 - 42:24: Avoids unnecessary enemy kills, but gets one eye shield. Still saves about one second.
41:24 - 42:44: Tweaked slightly. Uses left platform instead of right and at 42:38 jumped down to console so they don't have to wait for x-parasite to travel down after shell is destroyed. About a two second improvement.
42:45 - 44:05: Once again a lot of tweaks to the route, I can't really judge the time loss vs. gain accurately, especially the absence of shinespark at 43:45 because the runner opted to not use it before. Knowing whether this saves or takes more time would take too much backtrack timing, but the runner wall jumped and ice missiled his way perfectly up the shaft so I'm gonna say yes.
44:06 - 44:26: Saves time by not killing birds and shinesparking at 44:10, less than a second.
44:27 - 46:06: Saves a good three seconds by improving upon the current run's missed ledge blunder at 46:01 and wall jumping immediately instead of freezing first head.
46:07 - 49:13: Two second improvement from shinesparking at 48:57.
49:14 - 50:52: Missed jump at 50:49, but didn't waste time killing unnecessary enemies. The time saved vs. lost was too close to call.
50:53 - 52:23: Saves time by using superbomb at 51:47 instead of waiting to bomb after frozen Ridley falls apart. The runner explains in their comments what they did at 51:55--something about dodging goo--, but I still don't fully understand why and how this helps them dodge the ceiling goo? If I had to guess it makes it easier to time shots so as not to run into anything while building up speed. Whatever the reason it allowed the runner to gain full speed without having to use a superbomb and slowly taking out key enemies. Once again, difficult to say exactly how much time it saves due to frequent pausing, but I'd guess six seconds--at the very least.
52:24 - 53:42: Big time improvement mainly once again not wasting time killing unnecessary enemies and tightening up the unavoidable pirate battles by ducking to dodge their shots, instead of jumping, so the runner could continue to shoot from a crouched position. Oh, and jumping over the energy tank at 53:16 instead of bomb jumping. Finally the runner had a perfect eye shield. All this combined to shave off an incredible twenty-three seconds! I think that's the best improvement yet.
53:44 - 54:41: Yakuza fight went well, I think the runner missed only twice--which is amazing considering how Yakuza is so random. The runner seems to be comparing his run to their any% run, but if they compare it to the current 1% run they would discover that the Yakuza fight, I might be wrong, took eighty-seven more seconds! Ridiculous how well this boss went compared to the current run.
54:42 - 56:33: A few minor tweaks to the route again. A shinespark here, one not here anymore, some seemed more for preference while others, like 56:20, definitely saved some time. Unfortunately the runner got hit with three eye shields as opposed the current one.
56:34 - 57:33: As the runner noted, perfect. Improvement of fifty-one seconds.
57:34 - 58:22: No mistakes. Improved by better superbomb placement and, once again, no wasted time stopping to kill enemies.
58:22 - 1:00:08: Saves three seconds by charging shinespark on the upper level rather than using left lower door.
1:00:09 - 1:00:46: Improved by twelve seconds due to killing enemies while moving mainly.
1:00:47 - 1:02:47: 3:39 Another big time saver. Current SDA run, in this category, for this boss was 3:39. This run took only two minutes, an improvement of ninety-nine seconds.
1:02:48 - 1:03:36: Uses shinespark at 1:03:11, moves while he shoots, and shoots pirate at 1:03:18 instead of laying FOUR super bombs; in all saves an outstanding fifty-seven seconds for just a few changes.
1:03:38 - 1:04:04: Saves time by laying superbomb right out of the door and kept moving. Almost four second improvement.
1:04:05 - 1:05:04: No mistakes.
1:05:05 - 1:05:36: Avoided the current run's blunder by needing to shinespark only once. HUGE improvement.
1:05:37 - 1:08:32: Starting to sound like a broken record, but the runner improved on the current time simply moving and attacking at the same time. Weird, I know.
1:08:33 - 1:09:14: Three missiles did miss, but a significant improvement of 1:55!
1:09:15 - 1:12:34: Faster gold Pirate fights, superbomb and freeze missile timing, and good old fashioned running and shooting shaved off a lot of time. A little unlucky having three shields with eyedoor as opposed to one with current run. Again, hard to be precise about time saved due to pausing during pirate fight.
1:12:35 - 1:13:29: Truly the highlight of the whole run. Ridley was the hardest boss for me when I played. I'll let the video speak for itself. Improvement of thirty-five seconds.
1:13:30 - 1:18:37: No mistakes.
1:18:38 - 1:19:30: Great fight. A 1:08 improvement.
1:19:31 - 1:20:31: No mistakes.
1:20:32 - 1:21:28: Omega fight. No mistakes. Due to pausing I can't accurately state how much time was saved, but I can safely guess sixteen seconds.
To be honest the first time I saw this run I was pretty sure I'd reject, but after doing a little research and comparing to currently posted run, I realized that this was actually a really good run. The actual mistakes in the run were negligible and I'd be surprised if they added up to more than a minute or two, if even that.
In my opinion the runner improved in so many ways on the currently posted run, so much that if they made Samus stand in place for two minutes it still would be a thousand times better.
Decision: Accept.
As far as cheating, a little concerned about 10:30 when the runner destroyed x-parasite on top of an atmospheric stabilizer in one charged shot as opposed to current run needing three. Don't know if the x-parasites hit points are set or random, or it's a glitch that happens when the player is invincible after getting hit. I'm pretty sure it's not cheating.
First of all let me just say how difficult it can be to determine if a runner has made a mistake (e.g. missed a jump, taken damage, fired an extra missile, etc.) or intentionally performed a "mistake" in order to save time. Although most verifiers have played the game and know quite a lot about it, most of us don't know a lot about the techniques or strategies it takes to speedrun the game. I appreciate the runner's comments on the mistakes they made, but it would have saved me a lot of time if they would have provided a brief comment on the intentional "mistakes" to save time. Having said that, the first time I watched this run I was appalled at what I thought were countless mistakes. But, after watching it a second time I began to differentiate between the runner's actual mistakes and strategies to gain more time.
00:00 - 02:20: A lot of ledge grabs and wall jumps, all executed perfectly.
02:21: Missed ledge grab, noted by runner.
02:22 - 04:38: No mistakes. As noted by runner, perfect eyedoor saves a second or two, and wall jump at 04:10 improves upon currently posted run.
04:39 - 05:06: The first time I saw the Arachnus fight, I thought the runner had taken damage for no reason. But when I compared the fight to one that didn't take damage I realized the runner actually saves ten seconds.
05:25: Runs into enemy, takes damage, and flies back. Might actually be faster than jumping, but couldn't tell.
05:26 - 09:13: Very solid block. 07:41 drops down instead of jumping down is slightly faster and safer. 07:45 runs through room without having to stop and destroy barrier--improvement on current run. Well timed jump and missile fire at 08:09 improving on current run. 08:25 shaft fall went well. Falling, shooting a missile, going into a ball so as to collect used missiles, and repeating--which saves a surprising six seconds. Always find it impressive when runners pull off complex maneuvers like this.
08:32, confused as to why runner ran through water instead of jumping, but once again after some research and comparison I realized it is actually slightly faster.
09:14: Misses first pirate with missile, as noted by runner. Although there is a loss in time; however when one compares it with current run there is actually no loss in time--both runs take eleven seconds.
09:28 - 09:38: Once again thought you had made a mistake by going through water as opposed to climbing across, but after comparison realized you save two seconds.
09:39 - 09:42: Saves about a second by wall jumping to eyedoor ledge as opposed to climbing up in current run.
09:43: Nice luck on eyedoor getting only one shield as compared to current run getting four!
09:52 - 10:10: An improvement of three seconds over current run's missile blunder. Did get hit on first missile, but doesn't affect time at all--and it looks pretty difficult to dodge.
10:26 - 10:37: A seven second improvement by managing to destroy x-parasite in one hit! Very nice.
10:39 - 11:01: Did misfire a missile at 10:59, but overall an improvement of four seconds.
11:15 - 13:30: No mistakes
13:31 - 13:44: 13:32 grabbed onto ledge by accident. Time loss was insignificant. 13:35 avoided enemy instead of attacking saved some time. Overall the entire room was three seconds faster.
13:45 - 15:42: Saves time by tweaking a few paths, most notably at 15:36 laying bomb before killing enemy.
15:43 -15:55: Does get hit at 15:52, but is still an improvement over current run.
15:56 - 16:26: Misfires on eye door but quickly recovers, and only one eye shield to the current run's two.
16:27 - 17:14: As noted by runner, Zazabi jumped over only four times; the current run's is nine! Overall it is an improvement of fourteen seconds!
17:15 - 17:47: No mistakes. Avoided current run's ledge jumping blunder and small pause before laying bomb--resulting in a slight increase in speed.
17:48 - 18:02: Does not wait for SA-X to leave, maybe a second in improvement, maybe not.
18:03 - 18:18: Avoids current run's ledge grab miss for an improvement.
18:19 - 18:25: Goes into ball faster.
18:26 - 18:37: Bombs through wall instead of climbing up the left. Speed-wise doesn't matter either way.
18:38 - 20:46: No mistakes.
20:47 - 21:01: Opts to jump ball, lay bomb, into electric water, and then jump as ceiling crumbles. Does get hit at 20:54, but faster to get hit, lay bomb, and then shot enemy while bomb times out. All in all saves three seconds.
21:02 - 21:16: Falls down and wall jumps to cross gap at 21:05, which is better than current run. Does not waste time shooting up, instead charge somersaults into ceiling enemy. Misfires missile at 21:06, but overall an improvement of five seconds--a lot for such a small room.
21:17 - 21:45: Misses wall jump at 21:34, get's hit by eyedoor (no big deal), and kills eyedoor faster than current run. Overall another gain of three seconds.
21:46 - 22:59: As noted by the runner, didn't go perfectly. Pretty self-explanatory when seen. Due to the pausing, it's difficult to tell exactly how much time was wasted.
23:00 - 23:33: Keeps shinespark and eliminates speed tile at 23:20 which he uses at bottom to boost left. Once again difficult to pinpoint time saved because of pausing. Estimate about one second.
23:34 - 24:05: No mistakes.
24:06 - 24:24: Does not back up at 24:06; instead proceeds through door without shinesparking into ball, and boosting right on bottom level. Comparing both methods found that there is no distinguishable difference in time. Maybe one second, maybe.
24:25 - 26:40: As noted by the runner, the shinespark would have been nice, but compared to current run there is no loss in time.
26:41 - 27:11: Executes shinespark earlier than current run for a small gain in time.
27:12 - 27:33: As noted by runner, second failed shinespark, but no difference compared to current run. Opted to jump back and forth at 27:27 to lure out enemy, rather than shoot it. Couldn't really ascertain if it was faster or moot.
27:34 - 27:47: No mistakes.
27:48 - 27:54: Amazing! A small room, but by simply aiming down and shooting while running, the runner saves an incredible seven seconds over current run.
27:55 - 28:18: No mistakes.
28:19 - 28:48: The runner is right, BOX fight was great. 28:35 manages to get a preemptive charged shot and missile off, a great start; then immediately grabs ceiling to shoot two more well-shot missiles; then fires a barrage downward--all hitting; finally shoots a few more and it was over before it even began. From the data room door to the first debris falling, a total of nineteen seconds saved! Very well done.
28:49 - 29:07: Less hesitation in killing enemies, starting at 29:01, resulted in a slightly faster room.
29:08 - 31:30: Dropped down at 31:17 and then shinesparked right. First time through I though you slipped. Upon comparison I realized that this allowed you to maintain shinespark through the next room and not only save a second but also a few missiles. Not bad at all.
31:31 - 32:31: As noted by runner, failed shinespark at 31:55; however saved a little time when runner boosted left at 31:57 and 32:00. Not a huge waste of time, but one of the more obvious ones.
32:32 - 32:44: Once again, I thought the runner had made a mistake by not going left to avoid SA-X's superbomb at 32:32 and apparently accidentally shooting SA-X resulting in a chase scene through two rooms. Later, I realized that by taking the superbomb damage the runner is left as close as possible to SA-X, making it possible to get SA-X's attention, forcing her to jump left, which leaves a small space open to get ahead of SA-X, thus eliminating the need to wait for SA-X to exit--on top of that it clears the next room of enemies. All in all this technique gives the runner a net gain of sixteen seconds!
32:45 - 32:58: At 32:50 the runner shot one charged shot right-up and then jumping to platform, as opposed to the current run's shooting right then shooting a bit up and then jumping up platform. A little slow on the eye door from missing first charged shot, but quickly recovered with another. About a second better.
32:59 - 33:50: Hit at 33:24, but seemed hard to dodge. Overall great boss fight considering the random nature of his satellites. Nice off-screen missile hit at 33:32. An improvement of sixteen seconds!
33:51 -34:21: Couldn't tell if the wall jump at 34:10 was mistake or actually saved some time, either way it didn't lose the runner any time. Couldn't tell if hit at 34:18 was intentional or was an accident. If it was an accident, it wasn't huge.
34:22 - 34:31: A lot of little tweaks as opposed to current run; too small and numerous to point out, but all added up to about two seconds in saved time.
34:32 - 34:46: As noted by runner, these areas didn't go too well. This part in particular. But, in the runner's defense, when compared to current run, it seems they got slapped with a lot of bad luck. I may just be imagining, but it seems like the enemy's placements are a little random. Especially in this block a lot of the enemies were right in the runner's way and in the current run the enemy's placement is much farther from the runner's path. Although it took longer, I think the runner did the best they could under the circumstances.
34:46 - 35:07: A little hesitation at times, but overall a great block compared to current run; especially at 35:04 where the runner did not waste time killing off ALL of the flies. Why in the world the previous runner did this is beyond me.
36:57 - 37:02: Runner uses a few missiles to blast through passage rather than shinesparking then finishing blasting through. Such a short block that's it's hard to tell if there was any time difference.
37:03 - 37:26: Runner gets hit at 37:22, as far as I can see could not be avoided without sacrificing time, so who cares.
37:27 - 37:48: Avoided big mistake at 37:39 from previous runner. At 37:46 once again I thought the runner had made a mistake with being hit, but I think they meant to barrel through with missiles, didn't work like it was supposed to, but it's whole lot faster than killing them through the wall before destroying it as demonstrated in the current run.
37:49 - 38:18: No mistakes.
38:19 - 38:30: Uses a faster and, in my opinion, harder route through room--especially the wall jump to ledge at 38:26. Saves almost four seconds.
38:31 - 38:46: Definitely a very small speed improvement due to not using missiles in first corridor and overall times jumps very tightly.
38:47 - 39:44: At 39:43 runner got hit, but they turned right so as not to fly backwards, so no loss.
39:45 - : At 39:52 runner saves time by shooting enemies rather than waiting for them to fly over.
39:53 - 41:25: No mistakes.
41:26 - 41:43: Wow, a bunch of changes some take more time, while others save time. Too tedious to write them all down. When all is said and done a total of ten seconds is saved.
41:44 - 42:24: Avoids unnecessary enemy kills, but gets one eye shield. Still saves about one second.
41:24 - 42:44: Tweaked slightly. Uses left platform instead of right and at 42:38 jumped down to console so they don't have to wait for x-parasite to travel down after shell is destroyed. About a two second improvement.
42:45 - 44:05: Once again a lot of tweaks to the route, I can't really judge the time loss vs. gain accurately, especially the absence of shinespark at 43:45 because the runner opted to not use it before. Knowing whether this saves or takes more time would take too much backtrack timing, but the runner wall jumped and ice missiled his way perfectly up the shaft so I'm gonna say yes.
44:06 - 44:26: Saves time by not killing birds and shinesparking at 44:10, less than a second.
44:27 - 46:06: Saves a good three seconds by improving upon the current run's missed ledge blunder at 46:01 and wall jumping immediately instead of freezing first head.
46:07 - 49:13: Two second improvement from shinesparking at 48:57.
49:14 - 50:52: Missed jump at 50:49, but didn't waste time killing unnecessary enemies. The time saved vs. lost was too close to call.
50:53 - 52:23: Saves time by using superbomb at 51:47 instead of waiting to bomb after frozen Ridley falls apart. The runner explains in their comments what they did at 51:55--something about dodging goo--, but I still don't fully understand why and how this helps them dodge the ceiling goo? If I had to guess it makes it easier to time shots so as not to run into anything while building up speed. Whatever the reason it allowed the runner to gain full speed without having to use a superbomb and slowly taking out key enemies. Once again, difficult to say exactly how much time it saves due to frequent pausing, but I'd guess six seconds--at the very least.
52:24 - 53:42: Big time improvement mainly once again not wasting time killing unnecessary enemies and tightening up the unavoidable pirate battles by ducking to dodge their shots, instead of jumping, so the runner could continue to shoot from a crouched position. Oh, and jumping over the energy tank at 53:16 instead of bomb jumping. Finally the runner had a perfect eye shield. All this combined to shave off an incredible twenty-three seconds! I think that's the best improvement yet.
53:44 - 54:41: Yakuza fight went well, I think the runner missed only twice--which is amazing considering how Yakuza is so random. The runner seems to be comparing his run to their any% run, but if they compare it to the current 1% run they would discover that the Yakuza fight, I might be wrong, took eighty-seven more seconds! Ridiculous how well this boss went compared to the current run.
54:42 - 56:33: A few minor tweaks to the route again. A shinespark here, one not here anymore, some seemed more for preference while others, like 56:20, definitely saved some time. Unfortunately the runner got hit with three eye shields as opposed the current one.
56:34 - 57:33: As the runner noted, perfect. Improvement of fifty-one seconds.
57:34 - 58:22: No mistakes. Improved by better superbomb placement and, once again, no wasted time stopping to kill enemies.
58:22 - 1:00:08: Saves three seconds by charging shinespark on the upper level rather than using left lower door.
1:00:09 - 1:00:46: Improved by twelve seconds due to killing enemies while moving mainly.
1:00:47 - 1:02:47: 3:39 Another big time saver. Current SDA run, in this category, for this boss was 3:39. This run took only two minutes, an improvement of ninety-nine seconds.
1:02:48 - 1:03:36: Uses shinespark at 1:03:11, moves while he shoots, and shoots pirate at 1:03:18 instead of laying FOUR super bombs; in all saves an outstanding fifty-seven seconds for just a few changes.
1:03:38 - 1:04:04: Saves time by laying superbomb right out of the door and kept moving. Almost four second improvement.
1:04:05 - 1:05:04: No mistakes.
1:05:05 - 1:05:36: Avoided the current run's blunder by needing to shinespark only once. HUGE improvement.
1:05:37 - 1:08:32: Starting to sound like a broken record, but the runner improved on the current time simply moving and attacking at the same time. Weird, I know.
1:08:33 - 1:09:14: Three missiles did miss, but a significant improvement of 1:55!
1:09:15 - 1:12:34: Faster gold Pirate fights, superbomb and freeze missile timing, and good old fashioned running and shooting shaved off a lot of time. A little unlucky having three shields with eyedoor as opposed to one with current run. Again, hard to be precise about time saved due to pausing during pirate fight.
1:12:35 - 1:13:29: Truly the highlight of the whole run. Ridley was the hardest boss for me when I played. I'll let the video speak for itself. Improvement of thirty-five seconds.
1:13:30 - 1:18:37: No mistakes.
1:18:38 - 1:19:30: Great fight. A 1:08 improvement.
1:19:31 - 1:20:31: No mistakes.
1:20:32 - 1:21:28: Omega fight. No mistakes. Due to pausing I can't accurately state how much time was saved, but I can safely guess sixteen seconds.
To be honest the first time I saw this run I was pretty sure I'd reject, but after doing a little research and comparing to currently posted run, I realized that this was actually a really good run. The actual mistakes in the run were negligible and I'd be surprised if they added up to more than a minute or two, if even that.
In my opinion the runner improved in so many ways on the currently posted run, so much that if they made Samus stand in place for two minutes it still would be a thousand times better.
Decision: Accept.
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boy, that was entertaining
this guy has some fast fingers and definitely knows the game he's playing. both of these assertions evinced by the minor mistakes he makes looking like a pre-emptive trigger finger performing the steps it assumes to come next
audio is great, video looks fine aside from the graininess of the "verification encode," though the reasons for that are understandable
i'd say go for it
PS to the runner: those fucking eye-doors, man. it's like pretty much every one of them wanted to slow you down.
this guy has some fast fingers and definitely knows the game he's playing. both of these assertions evinced by the minor mistakes he makes looking like a pre-emptive trigger finger performing the steps it assumes to come next
audio is great, video looks fine aside from the graininess of the "verification encode," though the reasons for that are understandable
i'd say go for it
PS to the runner: those fucking eye-doors, man. it's like pretty much every one of them wanted to slow you down.
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This being a run of Metroid Fusion, quite possibly the most linear game on the site, there isn't that much for me to talk about in terms of route choices. Play quality is pretty great. Biospark also makes sure to note basically every mistake that costs more than half a second in his run comments, so I won't bother being a dick verifier and pointing and yelling at him for those either. There aren't that many of those, especially for a run that's around an hour and 20 minutes long in real-time, and for every one, there's a lot of things he does right. Lots of precise walljumping and sparking, etc. Missile management is also nice; he uses them liberally and still almost never runs out, despite only having 15. About the only time it happens is when Core-Xs only drop yellow pickups. There's some new strategies in here as well; usually you expect retard loops in Mega Man, not Metroid. Anyways, he estimates his max is just one minute faster at 0:48, which is reasonable, since there are no earth-shattering mistakes and it's a 1% SS.
A/V quality is ok. Well ok, audio sounds really bad... because Fusion sounds really bad. Sorry, I needed to bash Fusion at least once. Video quality is a bit low but it's still all right. No sign of cheating.
Final verdict: accept.
A/V quality is ok. Well ok, audio sounds really bad... because Fusion sounds really bad. Sorry, I needed to bash Fusion at least once. Video quality is a bit low but it's still all right. No sign of cheating.
Final verdict: accept.
Decision: Accept
Reason: Crushes the old run so badly it almost makes Fusion look like a good game.
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