Spiderman: Web of Shadows (Nintendo DS) Speedrun

2012-10-30 08:58:28 pm

I recently began work on a Spiderman: Web of Shadows (Nintendo DS) Speedrun. This will be my first speedrun of a game. I watch speedruns and live stream speedruns all the time and always wanted to do a run myself.
I first played this game about 2 years ago and have always thought it would be a great game for a speedrun, yet i dont think anyones even thought about running it. The game itself is a great, solid game. Very fun to play through. It has the Metroidvania feel (which i love, metroid games are my favourite) along with awesome controls and abilities with spiderman.

I began seriously contemplating running this game a few months ago and after finally looking into recording, potential routes and sequence breaks(mainly just early items) i decided to go for it, which was about a week ago now. The run will be an any% segmented run.

I started off by planning a potential route and did a very messy test run (countless mistakes, enough things went right to keep it though). I did this to get a very rough run time idea and to make comparisons later on. This run can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLegcZSDTYt1ZT02dUe5oxct7DhoFwSji0

I ended up with a 1hr.16min run, which was awesome considering how bad the run was. Im estimating that a much more refined run should be able to get under the hour mark, possibly sub 55.

So ive started work on a much more optimized run. This may be the final run, but most likely not as im always finding new stuff. I finished the first 3 segments (which are uploaded to my youtube channel) and have begun practice of segment 4. I found something today that will make me have to go back and re do segment 3 however, will save alot of time.

This is actually a serious run, however im posting it in casual speedrunning because im doing it on an emulator(desmume). I own the game but my DS broke a while back. I am not cheating, TAS'ing or any of that crap. This is pure running as close to legit as possible on an emulator. I dont really have any desire to buy another DS and record a run on it. As much as i would like to post a SDA legit run, im not keen enough to go out of my way to do it.

Hopefully with this run, more people will realise how good this game is and play it, and possibly i could even inspire someone to do a acceptable run of it on a DS.

Im hoping i can get some followers for the run, even better would be people who know tricks/stuff that could help me with the run.

If your interested, go watch my test run (it has segment description/commentary below the video).

One thing i need help with in particular is a quick kill method for the Symbiote Leader, its a SOB. The rest of the bosses, i have pretty much figured out how to flawless victory there butts.

Ability choices for the run. I plan on getting 3 at the moment: Drill kick (ASAP in the run, main weapon), Ground rebound (mid-run, gets most enemies into attack loops), Enhanced dodge (just before venom, makes venom very very easy to deal with). In the test run i also get jackhammer stomp, but it really isnt necessary.
If anyone can think of better ability combinations, let me know(consider points required to buy them, i dont wanna go out of my way to get extra points other than from the enemies that i have to fight). Im pretty sure ive found the best combo though.
Also, i will be using dark suit spiderman most of the run. Basically i use black suit for fighting, red suit for moving around quickly.

Thread title:

I recently began work on a Spiderman: Web of Shadows (Nintendo DS) Speedrun. This will be my first speedrun of a game. I watch speedruns and live stream speedruns all the time and always wanted to do a run myself. 
I first played this game about 2 years ago and have always thought it would be a great game for a speedrun, yet i dont think anyones even thought about running it. The game itself is a great, solid game. Very fun to play through. It has the Metroidvania feel (which i love, metroid games are my favourite) along with awesome controls and abilities with spiderman.

I began seriously contemplating running this game a few months ago and after finally looking into recording, potential routes and sequence breaks(mainly just early items) i decided to go for it, which was about a week ago now. The run will be an any% segmented run.

I started off by planning a potential route and did a very messy test run (countless mistakes, enough things went right to keep it though). I did this to get a very rough run time idea and to make comparisons later on. This run can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLegcZSDTYt1ZT02dUe5oxct7DhoFwSji0

I ended up with a 1hr.16min run, which was awesome considering how bad the run was. Im estimating that a much more refined run should be able to get under the hour mark, possibly sub 55.

So ive started work on a much more optimized run. This may be the final run, but most likely not as im always finding new stuff. I finished the first 3 segments (which are uploaded to my youtube channel) and have begun practice of segment 4. I found something today that will make me have to go back and re do segment 3 however, will save alot of time.

This is actually a serious run, however im posting it in casual speedrunning because im doing it on an emulator(desmume). I own the game but my DS broke a while back. I am not cheating, TAS'ing or any of that crap. This is pure running as close to legit as possible on an emulator. I dont really have any desire to buy another DS and record a run on it. As much as i would like to post a SDA legit run, im not keen enough to go out of my way to do it.

Hopefully with this run, more people will realise how good this game is and play it, and possibly i could even inspire someone to do a acceptable run of it on a DS.

Im hoping i can get some followers for the run, even better would be people who know tricks/stuff that could help me with the run.

If your interested, go watch my test run (it has segment description/commentary below the video).

One thing i need help with in particular is a quick kill method for the Symbiote Leader, its a SOB. The rest of the bosses, i have pretty much figured out how to flawless victory there butts.

Ability choices for the run. I plan on getting 3 at the moment: Drill kick (ASAP in the run, main weapon), Ground rebound (mid-run, gets most enemies into attack loops), Enhanced dodge (just before venom, makes venom very very easy to deal with). In the test run i also get jackhammer stomp, but it really isnt necessary.
If anyone can think of better ability combinations, let me know(consider points required to buy them, i dont wanna go out of my way to get extra points other than from the enemies that i have to fight). Im pretty sure ive found the best combo though.
Also, i will be using dark suit spiderman most of the run. Basically i use black suit for fighting, red suit for moving around quickly.

Aftermath

2012-10-31 12:32:12 am

Quits halfway

Ah, nice, I love Griptonite's games. Played a bit on emulator, the game seems pretty fun, although controlling is a bit weird, on my keyboard at least.

One thing I noticed that would improve your fights a lot is using the web diagonally down after an air combo. It'll do a divekick into the enemy and for something like the boss in part 1, will allow you to combo him and not have him drop to the floor if you're against a wall. Sometimes you'll get a roll out of the diagonal kick, but at the very least, walls and inclines will stop the roll and let you do more attacks immediately. There might be a way to cancel the roll from happening, though.

Will watch the later segments soon and see about buying this game.

Cakemaphoneige

Edit history:

Cakemaphoneige: 2012-10-31 04:43:26 am

2012-10-31 01:27:50 am

Hmm yea i know what u mean, ive done that before. I totally forgot about doing that. The fight against that boss in the test run is terrible(i went into the fight without a plan). In fact that whole first segment of the test run is sad, i should have restarted with it being so close to the beginning of the run. Ignore it lol. Ill try out what u mentioned, see if it works better. Even if i can manage to keep him off the floor in a combo (or what i like to call attack looping), the dark suits extra power may still prove just as fast, i will soon find out.
Check out how i fight the fat super symbiote in the real run(seg 3).
Note, in the real run im using more save points so segments 1-3 cover basically what i did in segment 1 in the test run.

Segment 1

Segment 2

Segment 3 (i will be re doing this)

About the controls. It actually is much better to play it on the DS. It felt wonky as hell when i started playing it on my computer, but after a bit of experimentation with the control setup and practice i got used to it.
My setup is:
a = R
d = L
z = B
x = A
c = Y
s = X

Edit:
You were right. You can basicallly get the fat super symbiote into a constant attack loop the whole fight, killing it way quicker. I think ive been a little caught up in the dark suit that i forgot about trying some things with the normal suit. Time to test out some different stuff i think....

Hmm yea i know what u mean, ive done that before. I totally forgot about doing that. The fight against that boss in the test run is terrible(i went into the fight without a plan). In fact that whole first segment of the test run is sad, i should have restarted with it being so close to the beginning of the run. Ignore it lol. Ill try out what u mentioned, see if it works better. Even if i can manage to keep him off the floor in a combo (or what i like to call attack looping), the dark suits extra power may still prove just as fast, i will soon find out. 
Check out how i fight the fat super symbiote in the real run(seg 3).
Note, in the real run im using more save points so segments 1-3 cover basically what i did in segment 1 in the test run.

Segment 1 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWKDwXWfoqE[/youtube]

Segment 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEdleoZVZl4[/youtube]

Segment 3 (i will be re doing this)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBa7btIp_4M[/youtube]

About the controls. It actually is much better to play it on the DS. It felt wonky as hell when i started playing it on my computer, but after a bit of experimentation with the control setup and practice i got used to it. 
My setup is:
a = R
d = L
z = B
x = A
c = Y
s = X

Edit:
You were right. You can basicallly get the fat super symbiote into a constant attack loop the whole fight, killing it way quicker. I think ive been a little caught up in the dark suit that i forgot about trying some things with the normal suit. Time to test out some different stuff i think....

Cakemaphoneige

Edit history:

Cakemaphoneige: 2012-11-03 07:42:09 am

Cakemaphoneige: 2012-11-03 07:41:48 am

Cakemaphoneige: 2012-11-03 07:16:10 am

2012-11-03 03:34:22 am

Ive been messing around alot with ideas and optimization for segments 3 and 4, mostly with working out ways to get the most exp points quickest for drill kick. In the test run i fought the symbiotes in the lower residential room 7 times. In a recent run i was going to keep i fought them 4 times. Ive now worked it out that doing it 2 times but with getting spideys gauge thingy up as high as possible yields enough points, provided i do a similiar thing in segment 4.

I just did a run of segment 3, using the red suit to defeat the fat super symbiote flawlessly, fighting the symbiotes only 2 times getting a time of 2.48 for the end of segment 3. 1 min faster than what i was previously going to keep, and over 3 min faster than the test run. It has a few sloppy mistakes near the end of it(spidermans controls can be so touchy, and i get nervous when things go perfectly lol, its like ofmg please dont f up) but the fights are so good im gonna keep it.
I then did a few practices of segment 4, got a half decent run which saved at 6.28. I could probably get between 6.00-6.10 on a better run of segment 4, which would put me more than 5 min faster than the test run. Already im starting to think that sub 55 is definitely possible.

Edit:
Segment 3 re done

Ive been messing around alot with ideas and optimization for segments 3 and 4, mostly with working out ways to get the most exp points quickest for drill kick. In the test run i fought the symbiotes in the lower residential room 7 times. In a recent run i was going to keep i fought them 4 times. Ive now worked it out that doing it 2 times but with getting spideys gauge thingy up as high as possible yields enough points, provided i do a similiar thing in segment 4.

I just did a run of segment 3, using the red suit to defeat the fat super symbiote flawlessly, fighting the symbiotes only 2 times getting a time of 2.48 for the end of segment 3. 1 min faster than what i was previously going to keep, and over 3 min faster than the test run. It has a few sloppy mistakes near the end of it(spidermans controls can be so touchy, and i get nervous when things go perfectly lol, its like ofmg please dont f up) but the fights are so good im gonna keep it.
I then did a few practices of segment 4, got a half decent run which saved at 6.28. I could probably get between 6.00-6.10 on a better run of segment 4, which would put me more than 5 min faster than the test run. Already im starting to think that sub 55 is definitely possible.

Edit:
Segment 3 re done
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEY5dbkT3O4[/youtube]

Aftermath

2012-11-03 02:19:21 pm

Quits halfway

Meant to post this yesterday, but I guess it didn't actually post:

Haha, I was about to say that I was surprised at how fast the fight went with the Dark Suit. I think there'll definitely be perks to both. I do think that the time spent grinding for the EXP to get drill kick is probably not worth it, although I don't know how pushing back upgrades will fare in the later levels.

I definitely can't play this on my keyboard because of key rollover limits, but I'll be making it out to the gamestore when I can to pick this up. Or I can just order it online :O

Also, definitely a nice find on that second early attack upgrade. I still want to watch through the rest, but don't have inte

Cakemaphoneige

Edit history:

Cakemaphoneige: 2012-11-07 05:37:06 pm

2012-11-03 04:19:10 pm

Well obviously killing it with the red suit is way faster :), thanks for that suggestion btw. Im very happy with that because now i have methods to kill every boss, except the symbiote leader, without getting hit.

I can see what u mean about it maybe not being worth it to go back for exp for drill kick, it definitely wasnt worth going back like 3 times. Im only going back once now which wastes 20 seconds. I worked it out, if i did every fight absolutely perfectly in segments 3 and 4 i could get drill kick without having to go back at all. I tried it out many times but its really f ing hard. So i decided to go back once and try and get "most" fights perfect (i mean by getting the spidey metre high). This would allow me to get it just before the next super symbiote. The other thing too is i could most likely get drill kick without having to go back by getting it after the next super symbiote, but im pretty sure drill kick is the best way to deal with the super symbiote.
If i do a run after this run, i definitely wont go back at all.

Yeah that second attack upgrade is a nice find aye :D, i felt pretty good about myself when i found that lol. Its a hard trick, have to be very precise, but with more practice i should be able to nail it easier.

I also found that by using the same trick i use for that second attack upgrade, you can enter the red super symbiotes room early, its actually easier to do it there. But the red super symbiote isnt there. The bosses must all trigger each other so u cant skip any.

Edit:
I did a practice run, mostly single segment, i saved just before the symbiote leader and had a few attempts at it. Final time was 1.07.19 . Had countless mistakes in the run too, but much better fights compared to my test run plus optimization in places. Saving of almost 9 minutes over the test run.
Still having massive problems against the symbiote leader, even killing the symbiotes in all the rooms before it can be frustrating as hell.

Well obviously killing it with the red suit is way faster :), thanks for that suggestion btw. Im very happy with that because now i have methods to kill every boss, except the symbiote leader, without getting hit.

I can see what u mean about it maybe not being worth it to go back for exp for drill kick, it definitely wasnt worth going back like 3 times. Im only going back once now which wastes 20 seconds. I worked it out, if i did every fight absolutely perfectly in segments 3 and 4 i could get drill kick without having to go back at all. I tried it out many times but its really f ing hard. So i decided to go back once and try and get "most" fights perfect (i mean by getting the spidey metre high). This would allow me to get it just before the next super symbiote. The other thing too is i could most likely get drill kick without having to go back by getting it after the next super symbiote, but im pretty sure drill kick is the best way to deal with the super symbiote. 
If i do a run after this run, i definitely wont go back at all.

Yeah that second attack upgrade is a nice find aye :D, i felt pretty good about myself when i found that lol. Its a hard trick, have to be very precise, but with more practice i should be able to nail it easier.

I also found that by using the same trick i use for that second attack upgrade, you can enter the red super symbiotes room early, its actually easier to do it there. But the red super symbiote isnt there. The bosses must all trigger each other so u cant skip any.

Edit:
I did a practice run, mostly single segment, i saved just before the symbiote leader and had a few attempts at it. Final time was 1.07.19 . Had countless mistakes in the run too, but much better fights compared to my test run plus optimization in places. Saving of almost 9 minutes over the test run. 
Still having massive problems against the symbiote leader, even killing the symbiotes in all the rooms before it can be frustrating as hell.

Cakemaphoneige

Edit history:

Cakemaphoneige: 2012-11-18 08:24:33 am

2012-11-18 08:21:09 am

I did 2 runs recently, an any% and 100%, both segmented (only like 6 or so segments though). I got 1.01 in the any% (78%) and then 1.03 in the 100%.
In the 100%, i got one of the best fights against symbiote leader ive had yet, im starting to get some ideas for it.

Im going to try and get a sub hour single segment.

Cakemaphoneige

2012-11-29 03:05:23 am

Segment 4

Segment 5

Segment 6

Cakemaphoneige

Edit history:

Cakemaphoneige: 2013-01-03 04:29:12 pm

2012-12-18 07:49:30 pm

Segment 7

Segment 8

Segment 9

Segment 10

Segment 11

Also, the other week i did a single segment 100% run. Final time was 55.xx, around 8 minutes faster than my previous single segment 100% and the first time ive beaten the game with a time under 1 hour. Unfortunately i never recorded it, i thought i hit record but anyways. Despite the awesome time, i wasnt overly happy with it, i can definitely do better.

Edit:

Segment 12

Segment 13

Cakemaphoneige

2013-03-10 10:34:31 pm

For the last 2 months i have been doing a TAS of this game, i completed it yesterday.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLegcZSDTYt1Y7X4StGGqorBHyszvAVPln