Just keep practicing and keep trying. There are some stages that won't be consistent, so in 10 runs, you may have 5 good Samus stages and 5 bad ones, for example. The more runs you do, the more chances you get of getting all the "good" runs to line up with each other. Also, the more you play, and the more you try/practice, the better you'll get at each stage, making that 5 in 10 Samus stage turn into an 8 in 10 Samus stage, for example.

Smash 64 is a game where one of the best ways to improve is to play. There's a lot of things that you learn by playing, like AI behaviour. Once you understand how the AI works, you can understand ways to predict its movements, and eventually ways to manipulate it to do what you want. There's some AI behaviour strats that can be taught (e.g. Pikachu's "glitched" recovery on Saffron City), but other things are things that are best learned by playing the game (e.g. Samus's AI benaviour).

Another thing about smash 64 speedrunning is that many characters have multiple strats on many stages. If one strat isn't working out for you, you can always use a different strat instead. So if there's a stage where a strat isn't consistent for you or you just don't like it, let me know, and I can try to give you some alternative strats to try out (or help find a way to make the strat more consistent).

No problem. If you have any other questions, just ask, and I'll try to answer as best as I can. <(^o^)>

I assume you mean the attack where yoshi spins in a circle on the ground and hits people with his tail (his down tilt).

There's two ways to do tilts in this game. One is to slightly tilt the controller in a certain direction, and then press the A button. For example, slightly press down, and then press A. The other way is if you're already fully holding the button for enough time (e.g. you're crouching because you held down long enough), you can just press A while holding the control stick at full distance. The trick is to not quickly "tap" the control stick. Otherwise, you'll either perform a smash attack, or just drop from a platform (if you're standing on one).

The thing that makes Yoshi's down tilt so special is that it has constant knockback, meaning that it deals the same knockback regardless of damage the opponent has. Normally, it wouldn't send the opponent far (go in training mode and try it out. It doesn't send the opponent far at all). However, some stages have increased knockback, notably the Yoshi Team stage, the Kirby Team stage, and the Polygon Team stage. This makes all moves deal more knockback, allowing you to KO them sooner. For whatever reason, constant knockback moves almost become instant one-hit KOs on these stages. So Yoshi's Down Tilt suddenly has massive knockback on these three stages, allowing you to quickly KO all the characters very quickly.

If you stand at a nice spot on the top platform of the Yoshi Team stage, your down tilt will cover basically the entire top platform, meaning any Yoshis that spawn on that platform will get hit by your down tilt. The positioning is very lenient if I remember right, so you don't have to worry too much about that. But once you're there, you can just do a quick down tilt each time they spawn onto the top platform (most common spawn point), and then get through the stage really quickly.

Re-reading your post, I think you may actually be referring to Yoshi's downward aerial attack. I'll leave the part above, as it may also be helpful.

Yoshi's Down Air, all I do is hold down when I'm in the air, and then press A once. If every hit connects, it does 14 hits to the opponent, and 4 damage per hit (3 if it was the last move you used due to "stale moves"). So it will do 56% or 42% damage, which is insane for a single move.

On the Samus stage, the only issue with down air is that using it alone will miss Samus for the most part when she's on the ground, so I have to knock her up in the air so that all my hits will connect. Yoshi's up-tilt is a constant-knockback move, and knocks Samus to a perfect height for me to combo into a full Down Air. And if done properly, that chain can combo into itself a few times. So on Samus specifically, I use up tilt to knock her up, then down air to deal a ton of damage.

On other stages, like Master Hand, the character is already in a perfect position for a quick down air. So all I do is repeatedly jump and down air over and over again.

Hope this helps <(^o^)>

Sorry, had basically everything turned off for the last few days to study for an exam.

One of the biggest things about smash 64 runs is the more you run, the better you are. Experience goes a huge way in this game. AI manipulation is something you'll learn the more you run, along with AI behaviour in general. Also, the more runs you do, the better you'll do when things don't go as expected, and will be better at doing backup strats or straight up improvising on the fly. So the more you run, the better your runs will be.

Another piece of advice I have is as cool as it is to look at what your ranking is on the leaderboard, the thing you should focus the most about is improving yourself. Using the leaderboard to get a general idea of what people have done, and to give yourself mini goals isn't a bad idea, but don't use the leaderboard as a way to see if you're doing well or not. Speedrunning (imo) is about pushing yourself to get the best run you can possibly get (doesn't matter what other people's times are, you should try to get the best run YOU can get). Using the leaderboards as your source for seeing your improvement can be mis-leading, so try to beat yourself more than the leaderboards. In the end, you'll get much better much faster if you do this. (I personally do not look at the leaderboard times at all when I do my runs, and instead try to push myself regardless of what everyone else's times are).

Smash 64 is a fun game to run, so just have fun. The more fun you have when running, the more you're going to enjoy it, and the better your runs will be as well. If you take it too seriously, and get frustrated or discouraged for losing a run, you'll quickly lose motivation and interest in the game. It's a game, so just have fun with it.

If you ever have questions about strats (or anything really), don't be afraid to ask. Smash 64's speedrunning community is always willing to help. Some are specialists in one or two characters, while others are more generalists and have knowledge on most of the cast. I'm always willing to help a fellow runner, so if you want to ask me anything, I'm always willing to help.

I'm so tired, so if anything doesn't make sense, I blame that :p

The "All Characters X Difficulty" does use all 12 characters. You do a classic mode run of all 12 classic characters back to back, with your time ending when you finish the last character.

Unless you meant something else.

All Unlocks is a meme category that nobody runs mostly because of 30 minutes of non-stop match resetting. You literally start the match, pause-reset, and repeat 100 times. And this is for 30 minutes straight. My PB/WR for this is something like 1h55m, so over 25% of the run is match resetting pretty much.

The other issue with "All Unlocks" is some requirements are completely arbitrary. You do one run on Normal, then 7 runs on Very Easy, using the original 8 characters. You don't do runs of the unlockable characters at all.

The "100%" category that does exist is pretty much "All Characters X Difficulty". You do a classic run using every character in a given difficulty. IMO it's essentially the "100%" category, and doesn't have any random arbitrary or 30 minute grinding moments.

Seeing as nobody has said anything against this, and the WR holder himself even liked my message, I'm going to assume it's fine for me to go with this. Is there a place I should post this so that the OoT community can see? That way anyone who would be interested in being in the video can try to get a run in the top 4.

I think even just showing that VC has an advantage lag-wise, even if the exact amount isn't calculated, is enough to show that it should not be combined. While it would be nice to have exact values for the sake of "rough" comparisons between versions, I think an estimated time difference will be plus or minus 5 seconds away from the actual time difference.

VC is still in a weird situation by itself though. It's comparing 3 different "regions" all in the same "VC" category. Unless someone starts actively running on "non-NA" VC regions, I guess it's ok for now, but once someone starts doing actual runs on Japanese, we may run into an issue with VC itself. Due to the essential lack of any PAL and J VC runners at the moment, splitting VC into three separate categories (making a total of 6 altogether) is not only version overkill, but pretty much unnecessary as both regions would pretty much be a leaderboard for 0 or 1 person.

Of all the games I've played or followed speedrunning-wise, why is 64 one of the worst when it comes to version differences? Unless everyone runs on a single version and doesn't run on any other version (not going to happen, nor should it be enforced), someone's going to be running on a faster version. Oh well, at least the majority all run on the same version instead of an even spread. That would be a bigger nightmare.

Going frame by frame, all three had the exact(ish) same time for the move to happen (from take off to "hitting DK"), so my tests on Master Hand have clearly not been a good thing to test at all.

I guess this means more tests and timings will be needed to be performed before we make any major decisions then. I don't have the time to make any serious tests for a while, so unless someone else will, I guess we're leaving the leaderboards as is for the forseeable future.

VC is still in a weird situation though, as it has been brought up that every region on VC is being put in the same leaderboard, so PAL and NA are running against J. So VC already isn't in a great spot to begin with.

Is the lag difference that major between VC and N64? I timed a few different things, and it seemed like VC did not save any time over N64. From what I remember on iQue, it's faster than both VC and N64 by a wide margin (more specifically the Master Hand move from the background being significantly noticably faster on iQue, while it timed the same on VC and N64). If any of this is wrong, let us know.

It's very well known that iQue is MUCH faster than N64 to the point of not even being comparable. If VC is faster by the same amount, then VC should not be combined with N64.

While VC is normally faster than N64 in many cases for many games, having done tests of individual incidents between the two, the difference was pretty much non-existent. The only case where lag would truly be a disadvantage in the N64 version are situations that runners are completely in control over. Usually, these involve something like a Polygon picking up a fire flower and using it, or a Charizard appearing (which both at higher level play never happens except MAYBE very hard 1 stock). So while they are different hardwares, they actually do play out the game in a very similar manner.

The current difference calculation is 25 seconds of difference. If it is determined that this difference is inaccurate or wrong, it doesn't take much to just add or remove an extra second to re-balance all the runs properly.

As far as combining the three regions (NA, J, PAL), J is completely different from the rest, and often considered to be a completely different speed game, so for the forseeable future, J will not be combined with any other region. An argument could be made to combine PAL and NA, which is currently split on whether it should take place, but it doesn't look likely that combination will pass in the immediate future.

The issue of different controllers between N64 and VC could be seen as both a valid reason, and as an invalid reason, depending on the point of view and circumstances. For someone who is natural to the 64 controller, the VC version is a major disadvantage. However, for someone who is natural to a gamecube controller smash game, it may be the preferred method of running for them. If anything, this lets people who run on both N64 controllers and gamecube controllers to have equally viable runs to each other. There's a difference between running at a clear disadvantage (NA vs J), and running a game a slightly different way while still on equal footing (N64 vs VC).

As far as the bonus stages being darker, I think it is even more of a reason to combine the versions. Runners on VC are running on a darker bonus stage, meaning they're already on the path to the dark side. If we combine the versions together, then we may show them the light side of the force, and may still have a chance of saving them from running down that path. However, if we do separate the versions, then there's nothing stopping their run to the dark side, causing imbalance in the force. Then again, would combining the versions allow the dark side an easier path to eliminate the light side? We should probably think more about this...

Being more serious though, the two versions are basically the same game (for each region), and aside from what seems to be runner-controllable differences, are able to be played on an equal playing field. The majority of the community seems to be in favour of combining VC and N64 (I think the Discord server was unanimous in combining the versions, but there might have been one person I'm forgetting about that wasn't in agreement). So unless there's a large amount of support to keeping N64 and VC separated, or a very significant reason is brought up to keep them separated, then the two will end up being merged.

If anyone does have any thoughts on this, please say your reasons. It's better to say your thoughts before we make a change than after we make the change, when we realize too late that what you were going to say actually is the problem we are stuck with.

At this current moment, combining all the different regions together (notably J with anything else) is the unpopular decision, and very likely won't happen. J is just too different to be on the same leaderboard as any other region, and the majority of runners think this way as well. The only region combination that "could" happen is NA and PAL, and even that's looking questionable.

If VC is to remain separated from N64 console, then the leaderboards would essentially remain how it currently is. VC and N64 console (for each individual region) is essentially the exact same game, so if that doesn't get merged, then I don't see how combining different regions with differences in the gameplay itself would ever have a chance of happening.

No matter how much or how little someone runs a game, and no matter whether they agree or disagree with what I'm thinking, I want to hear any opinion. Maybe someone has an extremely valid opinion I never even thought of. So if you think they should remain separated, I'd absolutely like to hear why.

So... I guess that said, why is it that you think VC and N64 should not be merged?

There's been discussion in the smash 64 speedrunning community about the potential of merging "versions" together. I'll separate them in order of priority:

------------------------------ 1. MERGING VC INTO ITS REGIONS ------------------------------

The current layout of VC is flawed in so many ways. VC actually has multiple different versions mixed into one, as each region (NA, J, PAL) has its own VC version, and are all put in the same leaderboards. For what it's worth, the VC version and the N64 console version are essentially identical games, save for an announcer screen difference. The proposed solution, which seems to be generally agreed upon in the Smash 64 speedrunning community, is to merge VC into its own individual regions, while "subtracting" away the time difference lost in the announcer screen (currently estimated to 25 seconds). This way, VC runs will be displayed on the same leaderboards as the N64 console runs of the same region, and on an equal playing field to N64 console runs.

The one thing that cannot be compared exactly between versions is the lag during the game that the N64 experiences, while VC does not. I compared various instances of potential lag advantages between NA and VC under normal circumstances (e.g. Master Hand moves), and most seemed to be mostly identical (if a difference exists, it's extremely minor). The only instance that would truly cause a difference is if, say, a Charizard spawns on Polygon Team, or Fire Flowers are used on that stage. That said, both those instances are not common occurrences, and both are 100% avoidable by the runner if played properly.

For bonus mode runs, all runs are ran with In-Game time, so both the N64 and VC versions would end up with the exact same time, meaning bonus mode runs are essentially unaffected by this decision.

So the current plan is to merge VC into its individual regions (NA, J, PAL), while "subtracting" the time difference of the announcer screens, and having 3 "versions" on the same leaderboard.

------------------------------ 2. MERGING PAL AND NA REGIONS ------------------------------

This next step is assuming step 1 does pass, but is split on whether or not it should be done.

After further comparison, PAL and NA run at the exact same "speed". Having looked at several PAL runs, the game runs at the exact same speed as the NA version, meaning that the 50 FPS vs 60 FPS speed difference doesn't really affect this game. So in terms of that, there does seem to be a valid argument to merge the two regions together.

That said, there are version specific differences, notably character-specific differences, that do give one version an advantage over another depending on the character ran. Some of these differences don't affect a character's time at all, while others create a large difference (notably Link). These version differences are a good argument to keep the two versions separated.

Furthermore, bonus mode runs will be affected by this change, something that should absolutely be taken into account (and is a large reason why I'm currently leaning towards not merging the two). The character-specific differences will have a major impact on several character's bonus mode runs, again, notably Link being potentially the biggest difference. If this change is made on the Classic mode side, the Bonus mode side will be impacted as well.

If this step passes, we'd have all versions (excluding J) in one leaderboard, with J in a separate leaderboard (we coud then discuss merging J as well, but the community seems heavily against merging J). If this doesn't pass, then we will have NA, J, and PAL as the three versions all separated into their own leaderboard.

This is the current state of the conversations of the leaderboard changes.

If anyone has any opinion on this, please post your opinions here. If there is nothing that is said against the merging of VC and NA, then that will happen in the next couple of days. On the other hand, merging NA and PAL is still an ongoing discussion (I'm undecided, and have gone back and forth several times myself), so if you have any input on that, absolutely say what you think.

Hello everyone, I'm pikashy, a smash 64 speedrunner.

One thing I've been doing for the Smash 64 speedrunning community over the last 6 months or so is "Top 4" videos, where I take the top 4 runs of a certain category, and make a video showing them in a "race"-like setting against each other. Videos I've made so far are in this playlist:

For 2019, I'm thinking of branching out and start doing "Top 4" videos of other speedrun games as well. I was thinking of doing OoT Any% as my first non-smash "Top 4" video, as it is a popular category, and is a good length of time for this type of video (not too long, not too short). I won't be making the video until sometime in early January, so that gives about a month for people to try to get the best run they can and try to get into the "Top 4" video.

Is this an idea you guys are interested in? Would you like for me to go ahead and make a "Top 4" video for OoT Any% in January?

One rule I have is that being in the video is going to be entirely voluntary, and if a runner doesn't want to be in it, then I will not include them. If the community would like for me to make a "Top 4" video, but one runner in the top 4 does not want to be in it, then I will take the next runner instead. Your run is your run, and unless you give me permission to use it, I don't feel I should be using it.

Let me know what you think. If I am posting this in the wrong place, or if it would be better to be posted elsewhere, let me know, and I'll post there instead.

My time I can play varies. There's some weeks where I play about 3-4 hours a day. There's been months straight where I didn't touch the game at all. While the time I can spend varies entirely, I started running over 5 years ago. Even after 5 years, I'm still finding new things, new optimizations, new AI behaviour manipulations, etc. If you don't have much time to play in one day, then maybe you won't get the goal time you want that day, but instead learn something that can help you achieve that goal easier on a future day.

If you enjoy running multiple characters, then you can do runs with all three of them. There's no restriction forcing you to use a single character. I myself run all 12 characters. Plus, changing characters can help keep the game from getting stale from overrunning a single character.

If you're talking about which character is easiest to run, it depends on what you're trying to do.

The easiest character to get a fast time with is DK, since most of his strats are very simple (up-B clears the multi-man stages really quickly, and the ability to grab someone and carry them off stage can make stages like Giant DK and Metal Mario really quick and easy). Most runner's fastest character is DK.

Looking at all the submissions for each character, the easiest character to get in the top 10 would be Yoshi. He's surprisingly not ran very often, and has the slowest 10th place time, even though he is a very fast character (currently 4th fastest WR time of all characters). There are endless strats you can use for him, including very beginner friendly strats. I think a lot of people are intimidated by Yoshi due to his ability to "double jump cancel", but you rarely ever need to use it (I don't use it much at all in my runs).

That said, in general, the character you will find the easiest to run with is the character you enjoy the most, and the one you are comfortable playing. If you've been playing almost all Mario, then he would probably be the easiest for you to use. Being comfortable on a character will make you faster on that character, in some cases faster than you would be on characters others would consider "faster" or "easier".

If you do want to try out every character to see which one may be the best for you, you could always do an "all characters" run. That way you'll be able to try out all the characters, get a feel for them all, and pick which one you prefer to use. Maybe a character you never thought to use actually turns out to be really fun to do runs with.

At the end of the day, my biggest advice is do runs with a character you have fun playing. If you're having fun, it's easier to do well, and get even better times. If you're not having fun, even if it's a "faster" or "easier" character, your times will be slower, and you may just stop running entirely. So no matter what you do, make sure you're having fun. If you're not having fun, then... well, you're not having fun, I guess.

Hope this helps.

Running smash 64 is a game where the more runs you do, the better you get. It's a game where you get better with experience running the game. Things like AI behaviour are things you learn more about the more you run. So all I can say is keep trying, and you'll get the run you're looking for.

Ah, didn't realize your run didn't have a video. My bad.

I'll list out a bunch of beginner friendly strats to start off with, and then we can add on from there.

Link: While it is faster to go right, I would recommend going left to start. Just repeatedly throw Link to the left, throw him off-stage, and hit him away as he tries to recover. It's not the fastest method, but it's a beginner-friendly method.

Yoshi Team: Down B is a one-hit KO, so spamming this is really good. Throws are also one-hit KOs, but overall down B is generally a better move to use.

Fox: Same as Link. Repeatedly throw to the left, throw him off, and then attack him as he tries to recover.

Break the Targets: Just SD as fast as possible. Go to the right, then fall down to the bottom.

Mario Bros: I highly recommend taking them on one at a time. While it could potentially be faster trying to get a double kill, it is much easier to see them both recover if you get greedy and go for both. Whichever one is easier to KO would be the one I would recommend going for. Same as previous stages, knock one off the stage, attack him as he recovers, then do the same to the other.

Pikachu: This stage is weird. My best recommendation is to throw Pikachu to the right, and try to knock him away as he recovers. This may take a few tries, but it's a somewhat reliable strategy.

Giant DK: Deal a lot of damage to him at the start. A quick way is to jump up to his platform, then repeatedly attack him with moves. Once his damage is high enough (I'm guessing 150% or so), throw him off, and try to attack him as he tries to recover. This may take a few attempts before he finally stays off.

Board the Platforms: Try to SD as fast as possible. The platforms that rise from the lava are well timed for you to jump from one to the next, so just do that until you safely cross the lava, then just fall to the bottom.

Kirby Team: Grabs are an instant KO if you throw in the right direction. It's the safest and easiest strat to use against them.

Samus: Deal a lot of damage (around 100%), then use up-smash to KO Samus off the top. This is a very weird stage, so it's pretty much just deal damage whenever possible, and then once the damage is high enough, use up smash.

Metal Mario: Similar to Giant DK, deal a ton of damage, then try to knock him off the stage and prevent him from coming back. I'm guessing a good damage to aim for would be around 150% or more.

Race to the Finish: Race to the Finish.

Fighting Polygon Team: Again, down B is an instant KO, and is the easiest and safest move to use. Just go to a polygon, and use down B. Sometimes you can get 2 or 3 in the same move.

Master Hand: I would recommend using smash attacks against him. It's not the fastest strat, but it's an easy and consistent strat that deals a good amount of damage.

Timing: The timer starts as soon as you press start on the character select screen, and ends as soon as Master Hand's HP reaches 0. I just thought I'd mention that since my videos have the timer continue afterwards, but the run is over when Master Hand's HP is at 0.

If you don't have a capture card, you could always try pointing a webcam to the TV. Back when I used to start running, I literally pointed my laptop at the TV, and used the webcam that was built into it to record/stream my runs. Just an idea. If you're able to get a video run, it would make it much easier to try to figure out what it is I can help you with.

Hope that helps <(^o^)>