Hi all, I hope you're well! I wanted to raise a quick point to do with PAL speedruns of SMW. The SMW leaderboard has a "EUR / PAL" region view filter. This is a really handy view for PAL speedrunners like myself - since we run the PAL version of the game, we're not really competing with runners of the NTSC versions of the game anyway.
However, EU SNES Classic runs are mischaracterised as "PAL region" runs of the game. The EU SNES Classic (despite its colourful controllers and rounded exterior!) runs the US version of SMW. An easy way to check this is to look at the in-game clock. (For example, in NTSC-U SMW, you can expect to get 358 in Yoshi's Island 2 in an 11-exit orb run, whereas in PAL SMW, a good time is a high 360 or a low 361.)
I'm an 11-exit runner, and the top two "EUR / PAL" runs in this category aren't really comparable, since one is on the SNES, and the other is on the SNES Classic - thus, one is running the PAL version of the game, and the other is running the NTSC-U version. I feel that the region filter should indicate which version of the game is being played - if it doesn't do that, it's a less useful filter. (What is "EUR / PAL" if not an indicator of which game version is being played?)
I hope I've made my point clear. Let me know what you think!
Cheers, Connor (SirEdav)
Yep, you're correct about this. The PAL versions of Wii U VC, SNES Classic and Switch Online all use the US version of the game, so they should be classified as such on the leaderboards.
I'm currently going through all the PAL runs for these consoles to fix the region, and I've made a note so that hopefully all the leaderboard mods should be more aware of this.
Thanks for bringing it to our attention.
There were a handful of runs labeled incorrectly and I just went through and fixed them 👍
