If you've never heard the name [Jervailin ](https://www.youtube.com/@Jervalin/videos)before, he's the guy who beat [Halo 2 Legendary Most Skulls Deathless](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YveuZFMbpWQ) - one of the biggest achievements in the last few years. He inspired me to do something similar with games I love - the Gears of War series. When considering what kind of challenge I could try, I thought of no chainsaw, no shots, maybe pistol only? The game requires mandatory use of Hammer of Dawn, which makes some kind of challenge based around that impossible.

After failing to come up with something for one of my favorite franchises of all time. I thought what about another that I love with a passion - Soulcalibur. I joked around on stream that I thought how funny it would be to try playing with a Guitar Hero Controller so I did several attempts and my first submitted Arcade run I was glad being sub 1 min. Achieved January 9th, 2024.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97hnBdLLptg

If that wasn't enough I had the even crazier idea to do Weapon Master which is a collection of missions across ten chapters to beat. With differing objectives such as hot bomb, where you hit the enemy to attach a bomb but they can attach a bomb too if they hit you. Another with icy floor and having to do 20 hits. My hurdle was trying to get past the tutorial which requires you to do certain actions.

With a GH controller how it's done and what buttons are mapped is difficult. I tried several combinations and even looking up which one corresponds to which 360 controller buttons. Even then that didn't help and I guess my issue is Voldo's moveset. When I tried Nightmare was able to do all actions with ease. And so on January 10th I was able to beat Weapon Master with the GH controller.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnR0GabU6xE

After this, I went to do Extra Arcade and did them for both original and HD. I found HD to be easier for Weapon Master because it creates a new save file. If I were to do with the original I would need to delete my current one. For some reason, SCII doesn't have the same type of save file that can be copied or moved.

One more interesting and final thing I would like to add that left me speechless was this amazing run. If just one thing had gone differently I would have got WR with a guitar controller. Just think about that - I could have beat my run of 44.36 with a guitar. I ended up getting a 45.65. Unbelievably close to WR as of writing this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwKikdah1jA

## My Final Thoughts

Do something for a game you love with some crazy challenge - or maybe if you want to, also do some GH guitar Soulcalibur runs! My current goal is to try to do Time Attack and Team Battle next or try Soulcalibur IV next.

The first person I believe at least to my knowledge to play and beat Soulcalibur II with a GH guitar controller.

Guitar Hero Controller Speedrunning - Soulcalibur II

Should there be a distinction in the leaderboards between the two control types? Comparing some of these runs, the difference is night and day. 

Yes! I'm no speedrunner with GH Xplorer but Ive beat a few games with it. Goldeneye on Agent (wanna go back for Secret Agent, I got stuck on Bunker 2), Mario Kart 64 and Super Mario World

Bout to get my PC back up and running, looking forward to submitting!

Im gonna need you to slow down! You're catching up way too fast 😅

I knew it wouldn't be long. haha guess I know what im doing tonight.

I've always gravitated toward the Jackal path, Falcon path looks so weird! xD

Howdy y'all, CheddaredBelt here. 28 y/o retro gamer based in Kentucky, US. 

As the title says, I've played Silent Scope on PS2 off and on pretty much since release. For the uninitiated, Silent Scope is a rail-shooter in which you control a floating crosshair and snipe bad dudes that have taken the president and his family hostage. Simple premise, loads of fun. 

I started streaming on Twitch last November and had since also got more serious about running the game, going for  faster and faster times. I created a category for the game on this website about a month ago and only just in the past week have got a time submitted by another player. 

How do you guys go about growing interest in a game that was previously not on the website?

New to the community? Introduce yourself here. Tell us about your goals in speedrunning.