the text color and the brighter spots of the picture near middle-top kinda blend together, most noticeable with the forum titles where you have to highlight the text to be able to read it. otherwise, i think any decision should be fine

I tried playing the Wii version myself, and there are some graphical differences between them. Wii looks better without a doubt. I beat a little of Class 4 on the PS2 version, and I can say there are some differences overall with how races go. Class 1 is virtually unaffected, but the other classes has that extra track, which affects how the races are set up. For starters, there's 1 more championship in both Class 2 and 3. I believe the length of the races are also different, you could say more balanced on PS2 than Wii. The extra championships will add time for sure, but the length of the tracks seem to build up to the last championship of Class 3, the clockwise and counter-clockwise of the Grand Prix. If there's other races on the Wii version's last championship, that only proves my point since I haven't been able to keep doing that because of forced motion controls.

I'll also say that the PS2 version is more fun to play because flipping around is all up to pressing a button, and spinning into any and all is the same way. The Wii version auto-sticks you to the track, the PS2 version does not. I haven't noticed on Wii, but I think the PS2 AI might also be a little more or less aggressive, but I cannot confirm that. I haven't played any of the DS version, but maybe that has some exclusive stuff too.

On an emulated note, Wii's loading times were abysmal. You could question existence in the time it takes before something happens. The PS2, I don't think it's as bad, I haven't played in a while, but I would remember long loading times there too. In terms of problems, I haven't seen much issue with either version aside from the Wii's disregarding of the FMVs playing in the intro and character select, though I've noticed the PS2 emulator softlocking itself while loading some courses on multi-core. At least the game autosaves after every race.

With this info, I can agree to separate the boards by version. Maybe we could also have an all classes tab that doesn't include Class 4? That's just mirror mode and adds fluff to something that's already fluffed. It also feels arbitrary considering it technically ends once Chim Chim is unlocked. maybe it's Any% for unlocking Chim Chim from a new file? Certainly is a lot faster that way than navigating menus, and makes it a lot easier when trying to complete each class individually or in order, and makes verifying a lot easier too since playing from a new file auto-puts you on the new races you unlocked. Mash X to speedrun the menu as it were lol.

Specifically talking about after the final boss. After you beat him, the death cutscene starts and the character is forced to not move afterwards. Would the timer technically stop once that cutscene starts instead of imprecisely stopping it once the fade starts or ends for more accurate times? Most other games do it like this for either the final hit, or like Mario 64 and the game-ending item is collected, so it would only make sense if the same could apply here.

I have an interest in speedrunning this game at some point with a manageable PC, but I noticed we need not only LiveSplit, but a Load Remover script as well. As someone who doesn't like messing with the UI and has had problems with LiveSplit before, would it still be allowed to use a simple timer and time it in RTA fashion? Or is the Load Remover that important even though there are still loading screens present in the run?

Wow, it blasts into the negatives and comes right back around to 0? That's some SM64 PU right there lol. Maybe put that into the rules so others know what a full loop is. :)

What is title? Is it a score loop or a level loop? How would one know when the loop happens if it's a level loop?

After seeing this speedrun page, only forum post is 2 years old asking for category ideas. With a new interest in running this 'gem,' I'll throw in my 2 cents. Endless Center Gem to go along with the guy above me, and x-Special Gems%, where you collect however many Power Gems and/or Hypercubes in any of the modes, fastest in Hyper. I'll probably only run Hyper and Endless, but tbh I'm just happy this game has a life in speedrunning :D

With RR, it's hitting the left-most tower of bricks with max angles. Just hold L1 and L2 the whole time, from firing to hitting the ball each time. Once it gets behind there, there goes a bunch of bricks at once, and you should only focus on remaining bricks with the same ball from there. Crate Escape is literally just the back 3 crates, though I've found the right side to be exponentially better and consistent. Try to not make it center as that will keep the slow ball in play longer than it needs to. With a good start with the 1st or 2nd ball, you can get 2 of those crates in one blow, which is the intended way of doing it fast.

There's another thing that I noticed with Flock Frenzy. There's a max-angle shot you can do right from the very beginning to get the dog/cat ball. Getting it first-try will knock about half the sheep into the pen without any further input. If you wait a while before shooting, a powerup will show up. Praying to RNG from there, hope for a punch and hope that the ball will be guided to it. This would speedup the level, and depending on RNG and powerup, you could beat it in about 15 seconds, even less with the Reverse Fastball glitch if you manage to get it near-vertical or if it hits the rest of the sheep before you lose it entirely.

The Batnix fight, I tried it before and got very inconsistent results before your post, but if staying on the side of the area makes him dodge less often, you should probably put that in the guide because that fight can be a run killer. Maybe if there's ways to consistently cheese each boss, put those in too.

I would like to suggest an edit to Robot Rampage. Angling the shots are great, but if you use Yellow and max-angle your shots at the left-most part of the wall 4 times, you create an opening. If the paddle hits it just right for the 5th max-angle shot, it will destroy about half the wall before coming back down, with the chance of the ball staying vertical and destroying a little more than 3 rows at once (fast enough for only a single attack from the robot), allowing for a 20-second run of the level. It may work on the right side as well, but Yellow wouldn't be the paddle of choice there. Because I remember your earlier post of Yellow speeding the ball up a bit faster than normal, it would also be recommended to not lose the ball once it comes back down, so you can take care of the remaining bricks by just slamming it over and over until it hits the desired speed.

While I do like the guide overall, I noticed that you're talking about difficulty switching here and there. Speedrunning-wise, lowering the difficulty is a time-breaker, even if done accidentally. I wouldn't really recommend it, especially when in some levels like Crate Escape where you can hit 1 or 2 back crates then lose the ball on purpose to get a much faster ball. When done right on a level like that, you can lose 2 balls while hitting the 3 back crates, and with a good position, use the last ball to hit the fence faster than you otherwise would. Other levels like Tomb Terror benefit from the speed per hit that higher difficulties offer, and in a space that small, you can imagine how fast it can be done regardless of how many bounces it takes.

What I like most about this guide is the Batnix fight. How even did you find out how to optimize him and find his quirks? I always tried every missile i was able to get because I believed more missiles = more damage, but never thought of his pattern in any depth.

I am aware of the robot glitch, but I can never seem to get it. As for runs taking a while to get verified, they do mention the process taking between 1-3 weeks, so it's all about patience after submitting.

Welcome to Breakout! We have cake here :D

1: Difficulty helps with ball speed, higher being faster. Obviously you don't see the big speed until you lose a ball, but I've never really paid any attention to boss damage because I only end up playing on Superstar.

2: Paddle speed is an obvious advantage/disadvantage, but I never knew Yellow makes balls faster sooner. I personally thing Camo works well with Asteroids and the Batnix fight if only for his speed alone, but I usually don't switch until I reach that point.

3: Walking in circles with the raft really helps with an army of ducks and setting up the bigger ducks to be pushed off the raft. I think every character has the same power from my little testing of Big and Red, but just beware of their move speed and what parts of the raft you can see.

4: Attacking the wolf only really helps if you can't trust your timing of moving out of the way just before his attacks. Because moving from side to side appears to be of no penalty, you can do either and not really experience much of a time loss from attacking.

5: Ahh, yes, the classic quick-multi-ball. Did that trick in my glory casual kid days a lot because it was fun. But that second clip was major lucky, faster than what I've seen myself do at least. Maybe practice that level with that tech to see what you can achieve?

6: Never seen it because a: never used magnet because annoyance, and b: what in the heck happened? It's almost like a second hitbox, or maybe some weird glitch in the system? If it's possible to recreate that with ease, it may create history here.

I did some further testing during practice, and I noticed that I did the glitch while the ball was already going fast (naturally) and the ball did not gain any speed. I found this in Flock Frenzy, however, at this time I have not tested it with the other ball types or levels. I feel like there is a maximum punch speed, and can only be broken while the ball is still at a lower speed. I'll be streaming later today to optimize my next run, but I will see if my theory on max punch speed applies to the other levels as well during my practice.

I'm gonna try implementing it in my practice runs and next speedruns, but I'm curious if anyone has ever had this hilarious glitch during their lifetime. I also believe the best place to see this in action is the Menace Court level. Below I will explain what it is and how it is.

So, first off, you grab a Fist powerup (forget what they are all called) and you get the ball. But it's kinda precise, so it's best to get a multi-ball going from the upper doorways to make it more likely to happen. What you need to do is to calculate where the ball will be when it comes back down. Using the upper doorways for multi-ball makes this easy, as they will always land smack in the middle. With the Fist powerup in hand, put your paddle to the middle, then go a bit to the right so the ball will touch the left side. Activate it before they hit (to ensure the speed they get regardless of the location of the ball) and if done right, the ball will get stuck, act like it gets hit...multiple times in a row, and once the punch animation finishes quickly, the ball will say goodbye to the world and whisk off somewhere.

This can be done without multi-ball, and in various locations. Flock Frenzy seems to be the go-to place because with a good, straight, and lucky angle, you can keep the ball in play for a little while longer and get the sheep that much faster. This has been tested with the metal ball in Crate Escape, the brown balls in any other level, the Cat(?) in Flock Frenzy, but the Dragon Ball (fiery) doesn't seem to be affected by the glitch. Do note that the incredible speed gain makes it nearly unpractical for a normal human to keep in play. Most I've gained from it is Flock Frenzy (with insane luck), Menace Court and Serf Stack for quick multi-ball and a brick or two in a whole second, and me nearly passing out from laughter because of how insane it was. (not counting that i somehow got 2 powerups to drop at the exact same time due to multi-ball. seriously, this game is too fun when everything is so chaotic xD )

I call it the Reverse Fastball because I have the mental image of a baseball bat's handle catching a fastball while it swings, ball building up momentum, and when the bat swings a second time, sends that ball back many-fold. Hope that's a good mental image to work with? I'm down for any other names if they fit.