Why on earth aren't there any other runs on here
6 years ago
Rhode Island, USA

I know there are/were Japanese runners, but like this is a really cool platforming game, and with all the speedrunning craze I'm truly surprised that no one else has posted a run here. It's a solid game that gets no respect or attention.

Rhode Island, USA

Not that anyone would be able to beat HavocProdigy's times...

Pennsylvania, USA

It's honestly not an ideal speed-game, as it's unbelievably difficult to complete with an ideal route. That, in conjunction with the negative reputation of this game, have ensured that it will never be a popular speedrun choice.

When I started speedrunning this game in 2013, I found a leaderboard (now defunct) that I had to translate from Japanese to English. At the time, T_fumanu's 9:54 RTA run (equivalent to 9:46 SDA timing) from June of 2012 was the best time listed, although no video was available. The runner finally made the video publically available around the time I got my 9:03. His run can be found here:

The other times listed on it were a 9:57, 11:10, and 13:01. I still have a screenshot of the leaderboard, although the site itself no longer exists. They also have a category for an 8-loop run (kind of like what happens in successive playthroughs of Ghosts 'n' Goblins) where T_Fumanu has the record at a ridiculous 4:54:07. I happened to watch the end of that live on Nico back in 2014.

I would love to add other people's runs, particularly T_fumanu's run, as it set the bar incredibly high and he has recorded proof of his run. However, without their permission, it's kind of a slippery slope. So yeah, even though there have been some others that have the run game, without their voluntary submissions, they're probably never going to be posted here. If I did the same for the Little Nemo leaderboard, there'd be at least 10 people off of the top of my head that I could add to the board that have runs publicly posted elsewhere.

Basically, everyone from the Western World that attempted to learn to speedrun this game made the intelligent decision that it's not a worthwhile endeavor...except for me.

P.S. I got an 8:50 back on April 10th but regretfully, I don't have a recording. I'm going to try and beat that run sometime this year. I don't really do much speed-gaming these days but I think I still have a PB left in me for this game.

Edited by the author 6 years ago
Rhode Island, USA

Wow man, sorry just saw this reply. Yeah I realize it's nowhere and ideal speed run game, but I'm just surprised it gets little to no attention at all, even just for casual playing. I enjoy the game and think it is imaginative. Perhaps there are just those games that seem special to me because they are what I played as a child, but in reality they really aren't that great. Like this Digger T Rock game I've been playing. Played it like crazy as a child but no one cares about it now. I personally don't think it would be over stepping your boundaries to post known runs. I can't imagine any realistic reason why any runner wouldn't want their time posted. Dude 8:50 is absurd, why on God's green earth do you not have a video? I would like to see you grind it again and I am surprised you would even entertain the idea, because I clearly remember you saying you were totally done with the game LOL. Best of luck to you bro.

Pennsylvania, USA

I still hold the unpopular opinion that this is a really solid NES game, although I understand some of the criticisms and don't really disagree with a lot of them. I have to laugh when people's number one complaint is that the game is unfairly cryptic, as if Zelda 1 and 2, Metroid, Simon's Quest, etc. didn't have the same issues. Those games were/are just more popular and so information among your friends and whatnot was much easier to come by back in those days for such games. But I digress...

My only real motivation for grinding this again is that I don't have a recording of my best time. On a whim, I just decided to do some attempts back on April 10th after a lengthy break from the game (and from speedrunning in general). I don't know if time away just helps to reset one's mindset or if I just hit the lottery on that particular attempt. Since my 9:03 in May of 2014, I've put in a few thousand attempts and for the most part, never came close. With the WR route and strats, I've completed MAYBE 10 runs since then. Prior to that, my two best times were both in May of 2014: the 9:03 and a 9:25 about two weeks before that. Anything under 10 minutes is pretty god-damn difficult and it's certainly not because there's not time to save (there's huge chunks everywhere). Surviving this run with an aggressive route is...problematic.

I didn't record the 8:50 because by that point, I hadn't really done any speedrunning since October of last year and it was just sort of a "let's do a few attempts for fun" sort of thing. Hell, it was on emulator anyway. I didn't really feel like hooking up my recording stuff. There was really no reason for me to believe that I would PB or even complete a run. The pieces just fell into place.

Anyway, the one good thing about this is that there are several newer strats that I use that aren't found in the 9:03 run that I would love to implement into my final PB. There's now several chunks of significant time to save in the middle of the run. However, the beginning and the end of the run are pretty difficult to compete against. I'm pretty much willing to settle for any minor improvement that's recorded on console.

I'm still considering uploading T_fumanu's run. I've seen a run or two of his posted elsewhere on this site by others, although I'd feel a lot better about it if I knew he was OK with doing so.

Thanks for the interest.

Edited by the author 6 years ago
Russia

is this a legit run?

Japan

The video is a Tool-assisted Speedrun, and he who posted it has stated that it is. His videos are more than 10 years old, and some of them may have been executed faster than that TAS due to new discoveries, but it would be difficult to do that in this game...

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