Sep 17, 2015
Ratchet: Deadlocked "NG+ Any% (Couch Potato)" in 59:31 by Skritler Not on speedrun.com as of posting this.
Ratchet: Deadlocked is a fun Halo-style Ratchet and Clank game. The goal for each level is to make it to the end, complete an objective, or defeat a boss. In NG+ runs, you load a file that is already complete with maxed weapons (all level 999). This helps out to breeze through the game as fast as possible. There are a lot of very cool movement techniques. When you do certain things before a jump, you are able to maintain momentum very well. Getting a low time in this game takes a lot of practice. Skritler has been grinding out runs of this game for a long long time. This is the first ever sub 1 hour time in this game! There were no major mistakes in this run, finally. If you haven't seen this game yet, find somebody who runs it still or watch this run! It deviates from the classic Ratchet and Clank experience, but it works out really well as its own genre.
Sep 18, 2015
Ape Escape 3 "100%" and "Any%2" speedruns in 3:54:17 and 2:32:20 by DownieBrownie_ http://www.speedrun.com/run/wzp3j2rm http://www.speedrun.com/run/9yo9wrjy
I know, I know, I already talked about DownieBrownie_'s Any% run, but this was too much to pass up on. What he did this time was get 2 WRs in one run. He did a run of 100%, but he also got the record for Any%2 (All Monkeys + Second Ending) simultaneously. The route that he uses does the Any%2 route up until 2:32:20 in the run, then the rest of the game (time attacks, etc) afterwards. This is not 2 separate runs, this is one run of the game that accomplishes both goals of 100% and Any%2 quickly. He beat the 100% WR by around 4 minutes and the Any%2 record by about 6 minutes, which is crazy. As a side note, he also beat the Survival Mode record on the same day as well, so that's really cool. As of today, he holds every WR in Ape Escape 3. Being able to be at the very top of a game's leaderboard in every category is truly remarkable. That's why I had to talk about the same runner/game again. I don't know what he'll be working on next, but he'll be a star regardless. I've said this before and I'll say it again, he's consistently great at what he plays because of his dedication. He will go far in every game he learns.
Sep 19, 2015
[TAS] I Wanna Kill The Kamilia 3 in 1:12:50 by xWidghet http://tasvideos.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=17194
This one is going to be quite different than the rest so far. This is a Tool-Assisted Speedrun, or TAS, of I Wanna Kill The Kamilia 3, one of the hardest and most beloved fangames to this day. As of today, the RTA WR for IWKTK3 Any% is 9:45:28, so seeing a TAS that is only a small fraction of that is incredible. xWidghet has been working on this everyday for 2 months. It took him 500 hours of work to get this TAS out. Shoutouts to him for doing this. Now about the run itself. It's about as optimized as it can get. Obviously no deaths, swag during boss fights, saving and resetting instantly to make quicker cycles, etc. This run isn't quite Any%. He doesn't use a wrong warp in Secret 1 and he collects Secrets 1-5. These are not required, but they do make for a better viewing experience. The reason why the bosses can't die instantly is because of invincibility frames and a shield when at low health, depending on the scenario. This is a TAS that has been desired by the IWBTG Fangame community since the day IWKTK3 came out. I don't know what else to say about this. It's an impressive TAS and you should watch it regardless of how interested you are in IWBTG Fangames.
Sep 20, 2015
Kirby's Dream Land 2 "Any%" in 39:49 by bbqsauz http://www.speedrun.com/run/9me9rg9z
Kirby's Dream Land 2 is a 2D platformer with a similar playstyle to other Kirby games. In KDL1, you are not able to swallow enemies to gain abilities. This game introduces(?) this mechanic. There are points of RNG in the run and bbqsauz was lucky this run. He's been getting very small PBs for a while, and this is one of them. He is the only runner to ever sub 40 minutes and he holds the record by over a minute. Any improvement on his time is outstanding, sow hen I say small PBs, they aren't small in the grand scheme of things. His sum of best segments is a 37:xx and I don't know how likely it is for him to get a time like that. Only time will tell. He's been working on this game for a long long time, and I don't predict that he'll stop at this PB.
Sep 21, 2015
Crash Bandicoot: Warped "Any% (No Item Glitch)" in 45:57 by SolarBowler http://www.speedrun.com/run/1zxg9kky
Crash 3 is a game that has seen a lot of optimizations over the last few years. The game is quite simple, routing isn't a major factor in how fast your run is (though it could lose you a second or two if you don't do an optimal level order). The order you do the levels heavily depends on when you take a hit. You want to get invincibility (almost) as often as possible (there are few exceptions). Getting invincibility is done by saving up 3 masks. If you miss out on an important invincibility, your run could be over. Also, you see him turn the volume for SFX to 0%. This allows some cutscenes to be skipped, which saves a lot of time throughout the run. Sub 46 is a milestone that's been seen from a distance for a while and it's finally been hit. I remember during SGDQ2014, I was talking to SSBMstuff about Crash 3 Any%. We knew that sub 47 would happen soon at that point, but we didn't even really consider a 45:xx being possible. So many minor optimizations are used that viewers wouldn't fully notice, but the runners need to be intentional with exactly what they do. It's a really neat speedgame to watch regardless. Grats on the 45! PogChamp
Sep 22, 2015
Banjo-Pilot "Any%" in 1:12:53 by Ikkatosh23 http://www.speedrun.com/run/nz1rdvgm
Woah. Sub 1:13 already. 8 months ago, I found a lot of new tech for this game. How to speed up movement, avoid RNG, make things consistent, etc. With all the new stuff, I only did one run. I choked really hard at the final boss. I missed Ikkatosh's previous WR by about 30 seconds. He had a low 1:14 at this point. We both dropped the game after that. Yesterday, he picked it up again and just did a few runs. I thought sub 1:13 would be a lot harder than this, but he did it very quickly. There are places he can save time, but for now, this is a huge improvement over any previous runs of this game. Soon, we will both be doing runs for sub 1:12 and then we'll likely work on 100%. This is not the end for this game, it is just the beginning, a new beginning.
Sep 23, 2015
Super Mario Bros. 2 "Any%" in 8:32 by IluvMario Not on speedrun.com as of posting this.
A very neat run. Though it is one of my least favorite Super Mario Bros. games, it's still really cool to see played well. I occasionally watch SMW runners play this as a side-game. IluvMario mainly runs Super Mario Bros. 3, so it was really cool to see him get into Super Mario Bros. 2. It is a very optimized category. IluvMario beat the previous WR by under a second. That was a long standing record that was set in November of 2013. Seeing runs get beaten after so long is really cool. He does plan on saving another second, maybe two, before moving on to his next game and/or category. I personally hope he sticks with the early Super Mario Bros. series, or even Warpless in Super Mario Bros. 2.
Sep 24, 2015
Super Mario Sunshine "Pinna Park - Shine 8" in 1:38 by Mitchi http://www.speedrun.com/run/9yo74njm
Similar to what I did on September 19th, I'm going to mix it up a bit. Instead of doing a full-game run, I'm going to be talking about an Individual Level speedrun. In a lot of games on this site, you will see speedruns under the level leaderboard instead of under the full-game categories. These speedruns don't complete the game like Any% or 100%, but rather do a small portion of it as fast as possible. Pinna Park - Shine 8 is one of the most dreaded shines for speedrunners in 79, 96, and 120 Shines for Super Mario Sunshine. This is because making a mistake can cost you a long time. This shine consists of getting to the park, getting to the roller coaster, and then shooting all 20 balloons with rockets while doing flips and loops on a roller coaster. And yes, it is much MUCH harder than it sounds. Personally, I've never done it without getting it by the skin of my teeth, the very end of the third (and last) lap around the track. What Mitchi did in his run was amazing. I can't even describe what he did, just watch it, it's worth it. The last rocket shot was just... incredible.
Sep 25, 2015
Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden Memories "World Tournament" in 25:23 by M13 http://www.speedrun.com/run/7ylq98rz
An Any% speedrun of this game can take anywhere from 3.5 to 24 hours (or longer) depending on your knowledge of the game and the luck you have during your run. World Tournament speedruns rely less on RNG throughout the run, but heavily relies on your starting deck (which is the biggest RNG factor for many reasons). Because it's such a short category, you want a strong and efficient starting deck. Completing each match in as few turns as possible is the best way to save time in this category. For almost 2 years, the WR for this category was 27:41 by SSBMstuff. Recently, 2 people beat his time. M13 used savestates to reset, and people called him out on it because of starting deck seeds/manipulation. To deter any more accusations of this, he started resetting runs as you would on an actual console. He got the perfect run with this anyway! Honestly, good on him for proving he could do it without any (supposed) advantages. I'm proud of this man for conquering the unlikely! <3
Sep 26, 2015
Jak 3 "Any% Hero Mode" in 19:53 by HillaryPuff http://www.speedrun.com/run/0y6dpdqm
A good run by a good lad. This guy is slowly becoming one of my favorite Jak 3 runners. Hero Mode is an aspect of the game that can be compared to things like NG+ in other games. It allows you to start with things you are not able to in a New Game situation. On top of this, enemies are more difficult (more health, etc (correct me if I'm wrong)). The strategies used in this run are different than in Any%. My favorite thing about this category is that it's a lot shorter than any other category in this game. You'd never play ANY Jak and Daxter game as a kid and even come close to thinking that you could beat the game in under 20 minutes. That thought alone makes this run absolutely incredible to me, in the same way that seeing Spyro 2 being beat in under 10 minutes is incredible.
Sep 27, 2015
[TAS] Super Monkey Ball "Expert through Master" in 4:01.733 by Byrz and CyclopsDragon http://tasvideos.org/4859S.html
This is a ~16sec improvement on the previous TAS of this category. Byrz has been TASing Super Monkey Ball games since 2013 and he is an incredibly skilled and dedicated TASer. There are MANY stages in this TAS that save just a few frames over the previous TAS. The single most incredible improvement, to most people, is Expert 24. The new strategy here is huge and it saves nearly half of the time saved throughout the entire run, which is incredible. My personal favorites were Expert 7, Expert 19, Expert 24, Expert 36, Expert-Extra 3, Expert-Extra 5, and Master 1. Feel free to watch it yourself and let me know what made your jaw drop! It's an astonishing run to say the least. This could possibly be one of the best TASes of all time.
Sorry guys! I've been really busy with work. I'm going to put this on hold until I figure out what I'm going to do with the future of this thread, whether it's changing it to Speedrun of the Week, moving it to a different site with a better comments system, etc. I will post again in this thread when I've come up with a decision. In fact, what do you guys think I should do with it? Is 1 per day too much? Should I change something about it? I'd like your input! TriHard
One per day is a good amount- though switching to a weekly format with 7 runs, one per day could also work nicely.
I do think 1 a day is probably too much, I do want to watch these but some of them would take a significant portion out of every day. :P
I think that 1 per day is way too much, don't have time to watch them all. Maybe 3-4 per weeks will be enough.
n3rot, you aren't forced to watch all of them, watch only the one that you want to watch.
I would make 3-4 like n3r0t said, and to that, one Category: Special of the Week/Month where you take one of your favorite Speedruns of the Week/Month which took your breath away or is really stunning. Or maybe some Speedrun, where you got a good laugh.