Fun idea, but the link to the channel doesn't work for me :P A cool comparison video might be for the top times of Altered Beast. Golden Axe too!

Crazy stuff! I've looked into why this is happening a little bit. Turns out that when you hit a log with a weapon, there is an address value in the game's memory that jumps from 00 to FF. If the address value is higher than 00, you move on to the next level upon dying (Why? I don't know.) So, if there are any other objects in the game that affect this address, there could potentially be even more skips.

Not sure if that's your kind of game/platform, but the SpongeBob Movie Game for GBA has all of these things.

Excited to hear that EightbitSteve and TheRealSync will be doing a Co-op run of Golden Axe at the next ESA event! Make sure to tune in on February 20th - here's a link to the schedule: https://esamarathon.com/schedule

Also, I will be commentating the run at the German re-stream of the event - yay!

Hey there!

1. We use the Genesis/Steam version on this board, it's probably the most fun one, aside from the original arcade version. I don't know much about the DOS version. In terms of fairness, I feel like any version will do, but everything I write here is based on my experience with the Genesis/Steam version.
2. Tyris is is the fastest, because she has the best magic. She's also a good fighter aside from that, so she is the best choice for pros and beginners alike. Ax Battlers attacks have a slightly longer range though, I believe (on the other hand, his sprint attack sucks).
3. This is very difficult to say. As a reference point, there was a Sega tournament a few months ago, where players were given like a week to learn a few games. Golden Axe took the fastest player about 14 minutes in round 1 (they probably improved in later rounds). It's not an easy game to speedrun. There's a lot of positioning and enemy behavior to learn and you gotta be able to do your special attacks very consistently if you want to get near sub 9 or even faster. Once you get to a certain skill level (Sub 10 or 11, I would say), volatility isn't too much of a problem anymore. Also, there's an option in the game's menu to increase your health to 5 bars instead of 3 - that might be very helpful for your race!

Cool stuff, thanks for looking into it. The TAS actually goes under the level as well, but at a later point of the stage. Kinda glitches through the floor at the crawlspace. That same trick could potentially save a ton of time in 3-4, so it might be worth checking out.

Whoa, I didn't even know about that! Awesome!

I game-overed AFTER defeating Death Bringer. The result is hilarious, in my opinion. Now, my question is: Would that run have counted, if it turned out to be a PB? Did I beat the game?

Great find, thanks a lot for sharing! Just tried it out and got it first try. I've also found another spot within the same level where it worked after a few tries - at the end of the level where you'd have to jump up the steps. That one doesn't seem to be as reliable though and it doesn't save much time either, but it shows that there might be more spots where that glitch works! (Or the developers were just sloppy on 4-2 exclusively)

Edit:

Hey! Not sure if that's what you meant, but I've made you a mod, no problem.

The results are in! Spanish is indeed the fastest language for the full run and also most bosses. Only the two Dennis bossfights are faster in other languages. You can find all the details in this document: https://drive.google.com/open?id=19KTv5ZaWyJqxyVR44wcezNWs4HRh6Okg Have fun!

Small update: So far, I have recorded a playthrough in each language and will start timing them soon. I have made an interesting discovery already though: There is one cutscene missing in the non-English versions (the one before entering 5-1). I've actually fired up my Gameboy Advance to double check this. No idea why they've removed it, but it does make the English version a few seconds slower.

I'm glad to see someone else is looking into this as well - I've been suspecting that some languages are significantly faster than others for a while, I just haven't found the time and motivation to do some real research yet. So here's a method I've come up with that should tell us pretty precisely which language is the fastest (for a full game run). Step 1 is recording a full run of the game, letting all texts appear in their natural speed (so no fast forwarding by pressing or holding A). Step 2 is taking that recording and feeding it into a decent video editing software and cutting out everything before and after the texts, so that, in the end, a video of just the texts remains. This should tell us the exact time that each language takes. Of course the cutting has to be executed precisely and consistently to get a good result. I am aware that this would be a tedious process to do for every language, so if any of you guys has a simpler method, please share!

EDIT: On second thought, if done right, the whole natural speed thing isn't actually necessary.

Hey guys! Since nobody has submitted one yet, I wanted to ask how exactly individual level runs are timed. I've made a test recording of how I've interpreted the rules - not sure if that's how it's meant to work!

Asterix and the Power of the Gods Sneaky Snakes Relic Hunters Zero

Just in case you missed it, staff answered you: "EightbitSteve: If you want to make that case, please link the runs by you."

Agreed. Pretty obvious.

Personally, I support the idea of a Coop category as long as it's not going to end up empty forever (but as you're preparing a run, this should not be a problem, of course). Different character combinations could be treated as variables on the leaderboard, but should not be separate categories in my opinion, as that would probably overcomplicate the leaderboard.

Regarding your second suggestion: Owning an actual Genesis system myself, I do understand your point. Yet again, for the sake of the simplicity of the leaderboard, we should keep things as they are right now in my opinion. Other Genesis games' leaderboards (Gunstar Heroes, Streets of Rage,...) do not differentiate between original, PC versions and emulators as well.

These are just my thoughts on the topic, in the end it's up to the mod/s to decide.

I have very fond memories of top gear rally (game has leaderboard but no runs), I've even considered running it but emus are banned for that game unfortunately.