My feelings on The Demon Rush
Game Page: Doesn't exist yet.
Andrew Gardikis's run
Verifier Responses
The first verifier had so much to say, it took him three pms to tell me everything.
Decision: Accept
Reason: Every verifier gave a glowing review - they all thought the run had tight gameplay with few mistakes. What the runner thought was the low point of the run, the pizza battles, was not even considered a low point of the run to most of the verifiers.
Andrew Gardikis's run
Verifier Responses
The first verifier had so much to say, it took him three pms to tell me everything.
Quote:
I'm going to evaluate this more closely when I get back from work later today, but here's my initial thoughts on this run.
If I were to make my final decision now, I'd accept it easily based on the following:
1) While the runner does hesitate in a number of spots, the amount he does it is excusable because you don't have the option of taking damage to bypass enemies.
2) Of his spell choices, I only ever doubted one (the extended-range yo-yo), and he puts it to good enough use that my doubt was unfounded. So some planning definitely had to go into this.
3) When he kept going on and on in the IRC channel about the bad luck he got in the pizza battles, I assumed there was a battle that went to 8 or more cards. I think the longest one I saw went to 5 cards, so that's not what I'd consider 'bad'. 'Mediocre' is probably the most severe term he could use for the luck he got.
While I'm on the discussion of the pizza battles, I do have to take one issue. In the two pizza battles before the final one, he uses the pepper at the start to combat a high card. With the amount of doublers and triplers he has, I believe he should have just tried to overpower the high card as much as he could instead - there's the possibility that he might have been able to shave a round off at least one of the battles that way.
If I were to make my final decision now, I'd accept it easily based on the following:
1) While the runner does hesitate in a number of spots, the amount he does it is excusable because you don't have the option of taking damage to bypass enemies.
2) Of his spell choices, I only ever doubted one (the extended-range yo-yo), and he puts it to good enough use that my doubt was unfounded. So some planning definitely had to go into this.
3) When he kept going on and on in the IRC channel about the bad luck he got in the pizza battles, I assumed there was a battle that went to 8 or more cards. I think the longest one I saw went to 5 cards, so that's not what I'd consider 'bad'. 'Mediocre' is probably the most severe term he could use for the luck he got.
While I'm on the discussion of the pizza battles, I do have to take one issue. In the two pizza battles before the final one, he uses the pepper at the start to combat a high card. With the amount of doublers and triplers he has, I believe he should have just tried to overpower the high card as much as he could instead - there's the possibility that he might have been able to shave a round off at least one of the battles that way.
Quote:
Okay, I (the runner probably already knows who I am) have given this some more evaluation, and here's my thoughts:
Stage 1: I like how this stage went. It uses the kind of ballsy approach that every run's stage 1 needs to use - especially considering that, like everything in this game, even letting the water touch your feet is instant death. There was a little sound and video distortion for a couple of moments during the pizza battle, but I think that's tolerable because of how momentary it is. Probably the only way anything in the stage can be improved is restarting until the opponent chooses the upper two '1' cards - a task probably better reserved for a TAS.
Trivial note: While it does not affect the run in any way, in case anyone asks, the game gives continues if you get 20,000 points in a single stage or if you take the bonus game route.
Stage 2: The runner continues his good flow here, hardly stopping for anything (only a near-miss on a ledge slows him down). I'm particularly impressed with how he handles the bonus game, considering how terrible I did at them when I played.
Stage 3: Let's be honest - the hit detection of the skateboard is lopsided in favor of the game. So the runner's starts and stops are pretty well excusable. Still, I have to say that this stage is the first eyesore of the run, notably with how much hesitation he took to pick up the cards (since they were all used, I'm able to tolerate that a bit more). The pizza battle for this stage was... well, I'll be nice and say it was mediocre. It can be theoretically two rounds faster - my calculation has about 20 seconds lost here, just because of how awfully long a round in a pizza battle takes.
Stage 4: The only spot that made me cringe was somewhat late in the level, where the runner lets a balloon drop before getting onto a ledge. However, since I think the Noid's hitbox is bigger than he is, I'll give here. I was a little wary of the yo-yo extension powerup, but I can let that go too because that was demonstrated useful.
Stage 5: Considering that the invulnerability powerup makes you faster in this game (at least, I remember it doing so), I'll give his one-second detour about the early-mid stage for it a pass. The pizza battle can easily be one round faster with good luck, and could theoretically be two rounds faster, but the latter would require using both 'triple' cards - which hurts later levels. So I'm going to say a 10 second loss here.
Stage 6: A true "WHOA, WHOA" moment occurs here, as the runner loses a couple of seconds because a fish jumped at him at the wrong time and, as far as I can tell, the runner panicked. Yet when a bee and a fish are both really close to him at the same time, he doesn't panic. Odd. Rest of the stage goes fine.
Stage 7: Not much he can do about the time here - this stage autoscrolls. Considering how the last two pizza battles have turned out, I applaud his decision to take the bonus game instead. (I think it's faster to take the bonus here regardless.)
Stage 8: At this point the run does lose some speed, but the controls are weird with the flyer (keep jumping or you die). Again, I can give this a pass.
Stage 9: Still quite a bit of stutter in the runner's approach. Bonus game beats another pizza battle easily.
Stage 10: There's not much I can say about this stage. The level of runner slowdown can easily be chalked up to being far enough into the run that having to start over is painful.
Stage 11: He manages to keep his speed from invulnerability for a couple of seconds after the powerup wears off. I think that's something you normally only see in a TAS. Anyway, the first time he used the screen-clearing powerup, he should have used it when he landed the first time instead of jumping around like he did. Dare I say he plays it a bit too safe after that point? As far as this pizza battle - I say he should have overpowered the first card the same way he did the second, instead of using pepper on the first card. Because of that, the battle went one round longer than necessary. Also, he wasted a 'triple' card at the end - a 'double' with the '4' would have done the job.
Stage 12: The powerup I've been waiting to see, finally used in earnest. (The pithy use of it in stage 7 didn't really affect things any.) Not a terrible performance here, in all honesty.
Stage 13: In the part where he had control over the speed, this stage probably had the worst platforming of any of them. It should be obvious what part makes me think this. Anyhow, the pizza battle. My calculations have the 'best' approach for the given cards being one round faster - starting by overpowering the '6' with a tripled '4' instead of using pepper.
Stage 14: Here it is, the final stage. Another flyer stage, so a lot can be forgiven in terms of movement issues. This time, he doesn't need it. Even with good controls this would be a great performance for a final stage. The pizza battle at the end? The only way it could have been faster would be if lower cards had been drawn.
Summary:
The weakest part of this run is, by far, something the runner knows already - he's gone on and on about it in the IRC channel, perhaps overexaggerating it (the way he said it, I had expected an 8 card battle or longer). Without that, however, the run's gameplay is easily good enough to be on the site.
Basically, my opinion from earlier remains unchanged. This is an easy 'accept'.
Stage 1: I like how this stage went. It uses the kind of ballsy approach that every run's stage 1 needs to use - especially considering that, like everything in this game, even letting the water touch your feet is instant death. There was a little sound and video distortion for a couple of moments during the pizza battle, but I think that's tolerable because of how momentary it is. Probably the only way anything in the stage can be improved is restarting until the opponent chooses the upper two '1' cards - a task probably better reserved for a TAS.
Trivial note: While it does not affect the run in any way, in case anyone asks, the game gives continues if you get 20,000 points in a single stage or if you take the bonus game route.
Stage 2: The runner continues his good flow here, hardly stopping for anything (only a near-miss on a ledge slows him down). I'm particularly impressed with how he handles the bonus game, considering how terrible I did at them when I played.
Stage 3: Let's be honest - the hit detection of the skateboard is lopsided in favor of the game. So the runner's starts and stops are pretty well excusable. Still, I have to say that this stage is the first eyesore of the run, notably with how much hesitation he took to pick up the cards (since they were all used, I'm able to tolerate that a bit more). The pizza battle for this stage was... well, I'll be nice and say it was mediocre. It can be theoretically two rounds faster - my calculation has about 20 seconds lost here, just because of how awfully long a round in a pizza battle takes.
Stage 4: The only spot that made me cringe was somewhat late in the level, where the runner lets a balloon drop before getting onto a ledge. However, since I think the Noid's hitbox is bigger than he is, I'll give here. I was a little wary of the yo-yo extension powerup, but I can let that go too because that was demonstrated useful.
Stage 5: Considering that the invulnerability powerup makes you faster in this game (at least, I remember it doing so), I'll give his one-second detour about the early-mid stage for it a pass. The pizza battle can easily be one round faster with good luck, and could theoretically be two rounds faster, but the latter would require using both 'triple' cards - which hurts later levels. So I'm going to say a 10 second loss here.
Stage 6: A true "WHOA, WHOA" moment occurs here, as the runner loses a couple of seconds because a fish jumped at him at the wrong time and, as far as I can tell, the runner panicked. Yet when a bee and a fish are both really close to him at the same time, he doesn't panic. Odd. Rest of the stage goes fine.
Stage 7: Not much he can do about the time here - this stage autoscrolls. Considering how the last two pizza battles have turned out, I applaud his decision to take the bonus game instead. (I think it's faster to take the bonus here regardless.)
Stage 8: At this point the run does lose some speed, but the controls are weird with the flyer (keep jumping or you die). Again, I can give this a pass.
Stage 9: Still quite a bit of stutter in the runner's approach. Bonus game beats another pizza battle easily.
Stage 10: There's not much I can say about this stage. The level of runner slowdown can easily be chalked up to being far enough into the run that having to start over is painful.
Stage 11: He manages to keep his speed from invulnerability for a couple of seconds after the powerup wears off. I think that's something you normally only see in a TAS. Anyway, the first time he used the screen-clearing powerup, he should have used it when he landed the first time instead of jumping around like he did. Dare I say he plays it a bit too safe after that point? As far as this pizza battle - I say he should have overpowered the first card the same way he did the second, instead of using pepper on the first card. Because of that, the battle went one round longer than necessary. Also, he wasted a 'triple' card at the end - a 'double' with the '4' would have done the job.
Stage 12: The powerup I've been waiting to see, finally used in earnest. (The pithy use of it in stage 7 didn't really affect things any.) Not a terrible performance here, in all honesty.
Stage 13: In the part where he had control over the speed, this stage probably had the worst platforming of any of them. It should be obvious what part makes me think this. Anyhow, the pizza battle. My calculations have the 'best' approach for the given cards being one round faster - starting by overpowering the '6' with a tripled '4' instead of using pepper.
Stage 14: Here it is, the final stage. Another flyer stage, so a lot can be forgiven in terms of movement issues. This time, he doesn't need it. Even with good controls this would be a great performance for a final stage. The pizza battle at the end? The only way it could have been faster would be if lower cards had been drawn.
Summary:
The weakest part of this run is, by far, something the runner knows already - he's gone on and on about it in the IRC channel, perhaps overexaggerating it (the way he said it, I had expected an 8 card battle or longer). Without that, however, the run's gameplay is easily good enough to be on the site.
Basically, my opinion from earlier remains unchanged. This is an easy 'accept'.
Quote:
I thought I'd clear this up because the last few sentences of my previous message might sound a little off.
This is one of those games where you HAVE to take everything in context to appreciate it. While I've stated my iffiness about the pizza battles, a relatively good player would still take noticeably longer on them - both in terms of rounds and in terms of how fast they select their own cards. That's why the iffiness on the pizza battles is trumped by the gameplay everywhere else.
This is one of those games where you HAVE to take everything in context to appreciate it. While I've stated my iffiness about the pizza battles, a relatively good player would still take noticeably longer on them - both in terms of rounds and in terms of how fast they select their own cards. That's why the iffiness on the pizza battles is trumped by the gameplay everywhere else.
Quote:
In stage two, nice long jump from the moving platform and cool shortcut via the noggin-bopping game.
In stage three, I think you can get past those two birds at the beginning faster, but this is negligible.
Nice job on getting past the cannons quickly on the yacht stage.
Nice use of two more shortcuts.
Great run of the 'hood stage.
In the stage after the 'hood stage, he probably could have gone under some of those flying objects instead of waiting and then jumping over them.
Nice run of the conveyor-belt stage.
Overall, this is a really solid run. He did a great job of dominating the pizza-eating contests, which is a major part of running this game.
Accept.
In stage three, I think you can get past those two birds at the beginning faster, but this is negligible.
Nice job on getting past the cannons quickly on the yacht stage.
Nice use of two more shortcuts.
Great run of the 'hood stage.
In the stage after the 'hood stage, he probably could have gone under some of those flying objects instead of waiting and then jumping over them.
Nice run of the conveyor-belt stage.
Overall, this is a really solid run. He did a great job of dominating the pizza-eating contests, which is a major part of running this game.
Accept.
Quote:
Start Frame: 529
End Frame: 82082
Total Frames: 81553 @ 60 FPS
Clear Time: 22:39
Minor Audio/Video problem at about 1:25. Reminiscent of VHS when it's been recorded over a few too many times. Doesn't detract from the run at all.
Gameplay was simply amazing. VERY few points where any time was lost, and all points were extremely minor. Runner knew where all the hidden Pizza Multipliers were located, and used them to their fullest. The flawless pizza eating contest victories add quite a bit of class to the run.
In all honesty, I had completely forgotten about the hidden "Whack-a-Mole" bonus stages. I had played this game when I was a kid, and remembered all about them after watching the run. Using them to skip pizza eating contests shaved quite some time off the run overall.
Status: Accepted.
End Frame: 82082
Total Frames: 81553 @ 60 FPS
Clear Time: 22:39
Minor Audio/Video problem at about 1:25. Reminiscent of VHS when it's been recorded over a few too many times. Doesn't detract from the run at all.
Gameplay was simply amazing. VERY few points where any time was lost, and all points were extremely minor. Runner knew where all the hidden Pizza Multipliers were located, and used them to their fullest. The flawless pizza eating contest victories add quite a bit of class to the run.
In all honesty, I had completely forgotten about the hidden "Whack-a-Mole" bonus stages. I had played this game when I was a kid, and remembered all about them after watching the run. Using them to skip pizza eating contests shaved quite some time off the run overall.
Status: Accepted.
Quote:
The audio and video quality are both fine. Also, there were no syncing problems.
There was no cheating.
I thought it was a very impressive run for the most part. There was one jump in one of the last levels that took a couple tries and cost about five seconds. However, other than that and maybe one other spot, there were only very minor mistakes that cost a fraction of a second each. The runner was precise, aggressive, and obviously extremely familiar with the routes and enemies.
I recommend that this run be accepted!
There was no cheating.
I thought it was a very impressive run for the most part. There was one jump in one of the last levels that took a couple tries and cost about five seconds. However, other than that and maybe one other spot, there were only very minor mistakes that cost a fraction of a second each. The runner was precise, aggressive, and obviously extremely familiar with the routes and enemies.
I recommend that this run be accepted!
Decision: Accept
Reason: Every verifier gave a glowing review - they all thought the run had tight gameplay with few mistakes. What the runner thought was the low point of the run, the pizza battles, was not even considered a low point of the run to most of the verifiers.
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