I've finally got around to posting this thread but about a week or 2 ago I thought about the idea of a new category, one that uses a radically different and unique route compared to the pre-existing categories. It would use the Cannons in World 3 and World 6, and would be longer than Any%, but shorter than Cannonless. The idea behind it is to encourage more people to pick up the game, as Any% can be pretty unforgiving due to how short the category is and how quickly runs can die. It will serve as an in-between category, serving as the middle ground of Any% and Cannonless.

I would hope for it to be a way to help people practice and prepare for Cannonless if they had considered doing it, but were put off by the length of going through all 8 Worlds. It would also be more forgiving than Any% as a speedrun, giving the player more levels and time to catch up to their PBs and whatnot. As for the actual rules behind it, all overworld shortcuts are allowed, but the player HAS to use the Cannons in World 3 and World 6, and no others. This would make the route something like W1>W2>W3>W6>W8. I was thinking of a name for the category and struggled to come up with anything fitting for it, so I settled for Any% (5 Worlds) since you are visiting 5 Worlds, but by skipping 3 Worlds and many levels it makes it an Any% style speedrun.

As a speedrun category, it would be significantly more enjoyable for those who dislike Cannonless, since it skips W4, W5 and W7, all of which have some pretty long, slow and boring levels. I for one would love to run something like this, and I know a few others who are interested in this category, but I wish for it to be made public and have its own leaderboard on here before trying runs out of it. I hope you guys consider this as a major category (it would certainly have more appeal than 100% does) and take time to decide whether this category would be viable or good enough for the community here. I look forward to hearing what you say.