My feelings on The Demon Rush
Game Page: http://speeddemosarchive.com/SonicHeroes.html
Team Rose run
Sorry, a couple of lines are cut off because this verifier gave me his response over IRC.
Decision: Reject
Reason: There's too much bad luck and sloppy errors.
PM me if you want to watch the run. This offer expires June 15th (wow, that sounds like an advertisement).
Team Rose run
Sorry, a couple of lines are cut off because this verifier gave me his response over IRC.
Quote:
Verifier: I'm done watching, figured I'd send you comments directly
Verifier: ok, in short
Verifier: even if you grant that Team Sonic was unlucky
Verifier: that he deliberately played Rail Canyon conservatively
Verifier: and that Bingo Highway's pinball tables suck controls wise
Verifier: Lost Jungle makes a mockery of the speedrun.
Verifier: I can't accept it
me: explain a bit
Verifier: ok hold on a sec, I'll bring the run back up
Verifier: ok well, Team Sonic is unreliable. and once you miss the first attack it can really drag on. having said that, it's early enough in the run (and the five levels before it are pretty simple) that after a particularly bad one a restart isn't necessarily asking too much
Verifier: Bingo Highway has the worst controls in any game I've ever played, but even in the straight running and killing sections he made some errors, the part in particular I'm looking at is just after a tunnel there's three green lightning enemies and he takes a while to clear those
Verifier: but I suppose all things considered, that's more a planning issue than an execution issue (it goes by a lot quicker if the flying character is level 2, which I don't expect you to make sense of just by watching that level)
Verifier: Robot Carnival has a strategy error that cost him a lot of time - if you use the power character you're guaranteed not to get a power core levelup
Verifier: he ended up gambling and losing, which cost him a lot on the wave with nine flying enemies (level 2 speed or flying would've efficiently taken out that wave)
Verifier: Rail Canyon he was really conservative - things like sitting on the middle rail in that bunch of seven and not taking the (very easy) shortcut at the end (it's easy to line yourself up with the area you need to land on, so the jump really isn't blind at all)
Verifier: and then there's Lost Jungle where he sits in a corner using thunder shoot for 20 seconds to build up team blast, which just looks horrible
Verifier: to be honest the errors are exacerbated by having Shadow Jacky's run already up and being of visibly higher quality, but I think even if this were first I'd have a tough time saying it should go on SDA
Verifier: ok, in short
Verifier: even if you grant that Team Sonic was unlucky
Verifier: that he deliberately played Rail Canyon conservatively
Verifier: and that Bingo Highway's pinball tables suck controls wise
Verifier: Lost Jungle makes a mockery of the speedrun.
Verifier: I can't accept it
me: explain a bit
Verifier: ok hold on a sec, I'll bring the run back up
Verifier: ok well, Team Sonic is unreliable. and once you miss the first attack it can really drag on. having said that, it's early enough in the run (and the five levels before it are pretty simple) that after a particularly bad one a restart isn't necessarily asking too much
Verifier: Bingo Highway has the worst controls in any game I've ever played, but even in the straight running and killing sections he made some errors, the part in particular I'm looking at is just after a tunnel there's three green lightning enemies and he takes a while to clear those
Verifier: but I suppose all things considered, that's more a planning issue than an execution issue (it goes by a lot quicker if the flying character is level 2, which I don't expect you to make sense of just by watching that level)
Verifier: Robot Carnival has a strategy error that cost him a lot of time - if you use the power character you're guaranteed not to get a power core levelup
Verifier: he ended up gambling and losing, which cost him a lot on the wave with nine flying enemies (level 2 speed or flying would've efficiently taken out that wave)
Verifier: Rail Canyon he was really conservative - things like sitting on the middle rail in that bunch of seven and not taking the (very easy) shortcut at the end (it's easy to line yourself up with the area you need to land on, so the jump really isn't blind at all)
Verifier: and then there's Lost Jungle where he sits in a corner using thunder shoot for 20 seconds to build up team blast, which just looks horrible
Verifier: to be honest the errors are exacerbated by having Shadow Jacky's run already up and being of visibly higher quality, but I think even if this were first I'd have a tough time saying it should go on SDA
Quote:
No cheating detectable. Video quality seemed fine.
Anyways, on to the run. I'm not sure...there were some good parts, but some parts that were just terrible. Charging up the team attack with Cream, for example. Even if the Team Blast Glitch wouldn't have worked, it just looked very bad. The run was fairly fast in many parts, and we all know how running this particular game is, but there were also a lot of very noticable mistakes.
A weak accept from me. I could perfectly understand it being rejected, though.
Anyways, on to the run. I'm not sure...there were some good parts, but some parts that were just terrible. Charging up the team attack with Cream, for example. Even if the Team Blast Glitch wouldn't have worked, it just looked very bad. The run was fairly fast in many parts, and we all know how running this particular game is, but there were also a lot of very noticable mistakes.
A weak accept from me. I could perfectly understand it being rejected, though.
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Video/Audio Quality: Great. No complaints.
Definitely no signs of cheating. Individual level comments below.
Sea Gate - A nasty little fumble trying to skip of the springs. Might have been faster to just kill the one enemy guarding it. Otherwise, good.
Seaside Hill - Very speedy. Since this game is so easy with Team Rose, there aren’t a whole lot of breath-taking moments, but whatever.
Ocean Palace - Good use of switching positions to avoid the downtime of Big’s attacks. A few neat turtle skipping techniques were seen as well.
Egg Hawk - Great fight. Fantastic strategy, and executed perfectly. Nice job!
Grand Metropolis - Nothing major to comment on here. Moving on.
Power Plant - Minor screw up before the goal, but not much time was wasted, and a good recovery too.
Team Sonic - Not good. This boss can be easily beaten with one tornado move from Amy. It can be done in 10 seconds…
Casino Park - Normal pinball machine stupidity, but nothing out of the ordinary.
BINGO Highway - Decent time. Nice skip over the ramps towards the end.
Robot Carnival - Really good once all characters were leveled up.
Rail Canyon - Plenty of daring rail skips. Nice job.
Bullet Station - Awesome. Lots of time savers here.
Egg Albatross - Great fight. Very speedy.
Frog Forest - Great skip near the end of the level. Good job!
Lost Jungle - Major bummer what happened to Big, but still a good time.
Team Chaotix - Perfect, but it begs the question, “why didn’t you do that on Team Sonic?”
Hang Castle - Unbelievable skips here. Highlight for sure.
Mystic Mansion - Again, some good skips and time savers.
Robot Storm - Decent fight, with some minor mistakes.
Egg Fleet - Eh, could’ve been a little faster, but perfectly decent.
Final Fortress - Good speedy runthrough.
Egg Emperor - Great fight, but it looked a bit sloppy.
Overall: Accepted. There’s plenty of good tricks, and running a game this glitchy takes some guts.
Definitely no signs of cheating. Individual level comments below.
Sea Gate - A nasty little fumble trying to skip of the springs. Might have been faster to just kill the one enemy guarding it. Otherwise, good.
Seaside Hill - Very speedy. Since this game is so easy with Team Rose, there aren’t a whole lot of breath-taking moments, but whatever.
Ocean Palace - Good use of switching positions to avoid the downtime of Big’s attacks. A few neat turtle skipping techniques were seen as well.
Egg Hawk - Great fight. Fantastic strategy, and executed perfectly. Nice job!
Grand Metropolis - Nothing major to comment on here. Moving on.
Power Plant - Minor screw up before the goal, but not much time was wasted, and a good recovery too.
Team Sonic - Not good. This boss can be easily beaten with one tornado move from Amy. It can be done in 10 seconds…
Casino Park - Normal pinball machine stupidity, but nothing out of the ordinary.
BINGO Highway - Decent time. Nice skip over the ramps towards the end.
Robot Carnival - Really good once all characters were leveled up.
Rail Canyon - Plenty of daring rail skips. Nice job.
Bullet Station - Awesome. Lots of time savers here.
Egg Albatross - Great fight. Very speedy.
Frog Forest - Great skip near the end of the level. Good job!
Lost Jungle - Major bummer what happened to Big, but still a good time.
Team Chaotix - Perfect, but it begs the question, “why didn’t you do that on Team Sonic?”
Hang Castle - Unbelievable skips here. Highlight for sure.
Mystic Mansion - Again, some good skips and time savers.
Robot Storm - Decent fight, with some minor mistakes.
Egg Fleet - Eh, could’ve been a little faster, but perfectly decent.
Final Fortress - Good speedy runthrough.
Egg Emperor - Great fight, but it looked a bit sloppy.
Overall: Accepted. There’s plenty of good tricks, and running a game this glitchy takes some guts.
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video is good, sound is good, no cheating to speak of.
Using the video timer instead of game clock. Also this run was done well before the real-time category was implemented, so I'm wondering why he didn't use more team blasts than what was shown.
Sea Gate-2:10 looked bad, it's one thing to try and get up and over high ledges with that method, but it's another to know when using the spring could have been faster. The ending, I can sympathize because you want to switch in middair and as you land perform the next action as fast as possible, but sometimes in flight you don't land immediately on the ground and so you screw yourself over. At least that's what I think happened, wasn't explained in the comments. It still looks bad when you're right in front of the goal.
Seaside Hill-this was good, reluctant to use the rocket accel with them, but it's a given. it's shit with that team and avoiding it some of the times can be better than having it whiff on you.
Ocean Palace-pretty good until the turtle section. I don't know why he avoided using the 3rd cannon near the end with Amy in the lead, and got hit twice at the goal ring. there are invisible barriers this game puts up in dumb spots, but playing the game enough, he should have known better. AVOID WALLS!
Egg Hawk-nice job, but if you were going to perform that type of manuever with the boss, it could have been done faster especially with an invincibility.
Gran Metropolis-didn't need the capsule, could have gotten a team blast naturally and not waste time doing so. should have had Amy at lvl 3 early, but not much time wasted if she wasn't. it was ok, but I don't know how, after watching this, did he lose that much time. at least 2:45.
Power Plant-with lvl 3 Cream, should have been ready at the start to take out the 3 flagons. at 14:26, didn't take the slope shortcut to avoid using the blue wall. at 14:38, could have done it once more, but avoided it again. they are nice time savers and aren't that hard to do. some teams can't do them at certain slopes, but they can do so at both. didn't use the team blast at the end to speed through the last sections. even without using 2 team blasts, could have been much lower.
Team Battle #1-a couple of tornado hammers right at the start would have knocked all 3 out within 12-14 sec. this was bad.
Casino Park-this was good, believe it or not, this was good. considering what you have to deal with in this shitty stage, this was good.
Bingo Highway-some more bad luck. pretty nice though. I probably wouldn't agree with the location of the team blast use, but excusing that, it was still good. tough luck at the last 2 blue tube slides.
Robot Carnival-even more bad luck. this can screw you over with the luck of the power cores. you have a 50/50 chance of getting the power core you want depending on the character you used to kill a certain enemy. still good though.
Rail Canyon-there's a rail jump at the start he could have taken to save 4-5 sec. at 25:38, another rail jump to save time. it's luck based, but it works most of the time, still should have taken it. between 26:31-27:44, that was horrible. it's one thing to avoid dying, but it's another to know what can kill you and what can't. this game does like to throw curveballs from time to time, but in this stage, most of the deaths occur from rail switching. there was no reason to slow down during the 9 rail corner portion. I could see if you were going to switch rails, but he didn't, he stays on the middle rail which is slower then the right most yellow rail. then at the end instead of falling straight down to the last set of rails to the goal, he takes the entire portion of rails instead slowing him down even more. the jump to the bottom isn't hard as you can line yourself up, and even if that was scary for him, he could have landed on the roof of the station below which still would have been faster. this was just bad, even excusing refusing to use the 2 rail jumps at the start, the ending killed this.
Bullet Station-at 29:13, using the fence around that corner was unneccessary. still good though.
Egg Albatross-this was good, some teams have it easier than others to kill this boss fast, and this is one of them.
Frog Forest-this was great, but from being scared at taking risks in the previous stages to handling this with no problem...I'm wondering if there was much practice in some of these stages.
Lost Jungle-it's one thing for your teammates to get captured once, but twice? come on now, it's just some spots you should be more careful around. I wasn't expecting Cream to get snatched up though. really bad after the last checkpoint too. team blast glitch use would have been wise since there wasn't any other way to raise the meter up faster. it was doing great till the end, then just went bad.
Team Battle #2-using the tornado hammer on these guys, but not in the first battle? WTF? great time, but doesn't make much sense considering the first team battle.
Hang Castle-that door phase near the start is luck, it's good that he only had to do it in 2 tries. really excellent shortcut using the stairs. despite not falling down to the blue orb all the way, really great run on this stage.
Mystic Mansion-nice shortcut with Big near the start. sucks he got hit, but still, lost 8 seconds overall from just a hit. still good though.
Robot Storm-unlucky at the start and with the power cores. still decent.
Egg Fleet-no excuse for that slow start. the fence shortcut, to me doesn't even seem to save time if the switch is right there to use. failing it and then going the supposedly slower way just looks bad. if he was that nervous going in, it wasn't worth it to try and take it in the first place. when reaching the giant fan, it's faster taking the fans instead of running along the side. again with using the fence, the switch is right there in a box below the fan to use. using the fences seems more trouble than they are worth, also using Big on the ramp would have been faster to so he can belly flop onto the oncoming ship decreasing air time, but it's minor if anything >_<. didn't even use the team blast at the end to speed things up. this was another bad one with a bunch of minor mistakes.
Final Fortress-nice jump at the start. at 48:53, don't know why he slowed down. the jump with Amy off of that rail is easy. missed shortcut at 49:10. wasted about 3 sec killing that E-10000 and the team blast meter was almost full, woul dhave been better to raise that up instead and have a speed boost afterwards. with the switches, it's faster with a rocket accel, wasted time waiting on Cream. I can forgive not taking the rail loop skip. ok finish, but some of the things were just unneccessary.
Egg Emperor-this was good considering how shitty the boss can be.
OVERALL it feels like he only excelled at the stages he had records on and was more accustomed to, but on others there was no excuse for most of the mistakes made in this run of which about half were intentionally harmful. more practice could have gone into this despite the luck needed for a clean run.
REJECTED, this should have been reviewed by the runner and done again considering the time it took for the run to be sent.
Using the video timer instead of game clock. Also this run was done well before the real-time category was implemented, so I'm wondering why he didn't use more team blasts than what was shown.
Sea Gate-2:10 looked bad, it's one thing to try and get up and over high ledges with that method, but it's another to know when using the spring could have been faster. The ending, I can sympathize because you want to switch in middair and as you land perform the next action as fast as possible, but sometimes in flight you don't land immediately on the ground and so you screw yourself over. At least that's what I think happened, wasn't explained in the comments. It still looks bad when you're right in front of the goal.
Seaside Hill-this was good, reluctant to use the rocket accel with them, but it's a given. it's shit with that team and avoiding it some of the times can be better than having it whiff on you.
Ocean Palace-pretty good until the turtle section. I don't know why he avoided using the 3rd cannon near the end with Amy in the lead, and got hit twice at the goal ring. there are invisible barriers this game puts up in dumb spots, but playing the game enough, he should have known better. AVOID WALLS!
Egg Hawk-nice job, but if you were going to perform that type of manuever with the boss, it could have been done faster especially with an invincibility.
Gran Metropolis-didn't need the capsule, could have gotten a team blast naturally and not waste time doing so. should have had Amy at lvl 3 early, but not much time wasted if she wasn't. it was ok, but I don't know how, after watching this, did he lose that much time. at least 2:45.
Power Plant-with lvl 3 Cream, should have been ready at the start to take out the 3 flagons. at 14:26, didn't take the slope shortcut to avoid using the blue wall. at 14:38, could have done it once more, but avoided it again. they are nice time savers and aren't that hard to do. some teams can't do them at certain slopes, but they can do so at both. didn't use the team blast at the end to speed through the last sections. even without using 2 team blasts, could have been much lower.
Team Battle #1-a couple of tornado hammers right at the start would have knocked all 3 out within 12-14 sec. this was bad.
Casino Park-this was good, believe it or not, this was good. considering what you have to deal with in this shitty stage, this was good.
Bingo Highway-some more bad luck. pretty nice though. I probably wouldn't agree with the location of the team blast use, but excusing that, it was still good. tough luck at the last 2 blue tube slides.
Robot Carnival-even more bad luck. this can screw you over with the luck of the power cores. you have a 50/50 chance of getting the power core you want depending on the character you used to kill a certain enemy. still good though.
Rail Canyon-there's a rail jump at the start he could have taken to save 4-5 sec. at 25:38, another rail jump to save time. it's luck based, but it works most of the time, still should have taken it. between 26:31-27:44, that was horrible. it's one thing to avoid dying, but it's another to know what can kill you and what can't. this game does like to throw curveballs from time to time, but in this stage, most of the deaths occur from rail switching. there was no reason to slow down during the 9 rail corner portion. I could see if you were going to switch rails, but he didn't, he stays on the middle rail which is slower then the right most yellow rail. then at the end instead of falling straight down to the last set of rails to the goal, he takes the entire portion of rails instead slowing him down even more. the jump to the bottom isn't hard as you can line yourself up, and even if that was scary for him, he could have landed on the roof of the station below which still would have been faster. this was just bad, even excusing refusing to use the 2 rail jumps at the start, the ending killed this.
Bullet Station-at 29:13, using the fence around that corner was unneccessary. still good though.
Egg Albatross-this was good, some teams have it easier than others to kill this boss fast, and this is one of them.
Frog Forest-this was great, but from being scared at taking risks in the previous stages to handling this with no problem...I'm wondering if there was much practice in some of these stages.
Lost Jungle-it's one thing for your teammates to get captured once, but twice? come on now, it's just some spots you should be more careful around. I wasn't expecting Cream to get snatched up though. really bad after the last checkpoint too. team blast glitch use would have been wise since there wasn't any other way to raise the meter up faster. it was doing great till the end, then just went bad.
Team Battle #2-using the tornado hammer on these guys, but not in the first battle? WTF? great time, but doesn't make much sense considering the first team battle.
Hang Castle-that door phase near the start is luck, it's good that he only had to do it in 2 tries. really excellent shortcut using the stairs. despite not falling down to the blue orb all the way, really great run on this stage.
Mystic Mansion-nice shortcut with Big near the start. sucks he got hit, but still, lost 8 seconds overall from just a hit. still good though.
Robot Storm-unlucky at the start and with the power cores. still decent.
Egg Fleet-no excuse for that slow start. the fence shortcut, to me doesn't even seem to save time if the switch is right there to use. failing it and then going the supposedly slower way just looks bad. if he was that nervous going in, it wasn't worth it to try and take it in the first place. when reaching the giant fan, it's faster taking the fans instead of running along the side. again with using the fence, the switch is right there in a box below the fan to use. using the fences seems more trouble than they are worth, also using Big on the ramp would have been faster to so he can belly flop onto the oncoming ship decreasing air time, but it's minor if anything >_<. didn't even use the team blast at the end to speed things up. this was another bad one with a bunch of minor mistakes.
Final Fortress-nice jump at the start. at 48:53, don't know why he slowed down. the jump with Amy off of that rail is easy. missed shortcut at 49:10. wasted about 3 sec killing that E-10000 and the team blast meter was almost full, woul dhave been better to raise that up instead and have a speed boost afterwards. with the switches, it's faster with a rocket accel, wasted time waiting on Cream. I can forgive not taking the rail loop skip. ok finish, but some of the things were just unneccessary.
Egg Emperor-this was good considering how shitty the boss can be.
OVERALL it feels like he only excelled at the stages he had records on and was more accustomed to, but on others there was no excuse for most of the mistakes made in this run of which about half were intentionally harmful. more practice could have gone into this despite the luck needed for a clean run.
REJECTED, this should have been reviewed by the runner and done again considering the time it took for the run to be sent.
Decision: Reject
Reason: There's too much bad luck and sloppy errors.
PM me if you want to watch the run. This offer expires June 15th (wow, that sounds like an advertisement).
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