After intial dicussion with other moderator and runners, it was agreed, that Switch runs should be put into separate category. The main reason behind this settlement is how Switch handles left+right and up+down inputs. For proper emulation (present in FCEUX, NEStopia etc.), which disables L+R, U+D inputs, there should be no input registered, when both opposite direction are pressed.

However, that's not the case for Switch, where if you press right, while still holding left, then the right input overwrites the left input. What's more, in case of DK, this Switch behaviour is exactly the same as allowing L+R,U+D on different emulators. That makes rivet skips in level 3 much easier to execute, since you don't have to wiggle between left and right frame perfectly without losing any frame between inputs, instead, you can just start holding opposite direction without releasing the other one. Additionally, it makes ladder zips much more possible, where normally, you have to wiggle up and down frame perfectly.

Due to those factors, we are leaning towards separation of Switch, unless there is a way to alter this behaviour to proper one, where no inputs are registered with both opposite direction pressed. This thread will be left here for few days at least, before the change is introduced to make more people aware of it and see their point of view.

It was discussed so far with some speedrunners, that 1 Loop category (under miscellaneous) doesn't make too much sense, thus it should be removed. It's almost the same as the Any% cateogry just with added bonus stage at the end after stage 12. Additionally, every bonus stage ends after huge 4.2 sec frame rule, so as it can be seen on leaderboard, each place usually differs by those 4 seconds, which makes it less interesting to be competable. Above all that, it's not too popular one with just few runners mostly from few years ago and current record doesn't even go for quick last bonus with popping last few balloons, showing that there wasn't even interest in going fast for 1 Loop category. Taking all that into account, if most of the community agrees, 1 Loop category will be removed in few days.

Since, there is new wacky races run using only bite attack ( ), I'm up to adding 2 new categories: "bite only" and "low%". Bite only, as name suggests, would mean not swtching your basic weapon, which you start with. Second one (low%) usually concerns not utlizing any power up at all, so here, it would mean only basic bite attack, no tail as well as hearts upgrades. This true low% run would be for someone desiring ultimate challenge from this game. If most runners are fine with this idea, then new categories will take effect in few days.

After discussion in moderation team, ending time is moved to earlier point as stated in current rules: "Timer ends on first frame, when countdown screen appears after scene 3". It's due to the fact, that previous timing method was wrongly chosen, thus it was not reflecting fastest completion properly. Problem is, that even when there is no countdown between scenes due to death, player is still waiting on countdown screen fixed amonut of time, so in the end, death in last scene wasn't making gameplay faster at all, it was just making final split faster. Speedrun should be always about making gameplay as fast as possible and old timing was twisting this a little bit. Additionally, current timing fits most common one, that is finishing around, where you lose control over characater and cannot influence game with any input. Unfortuantely, two runs were already using death abuse in last stage and new timing rule made them few seconds slower compared to the rest, however, it didn't change current world record holder and most places on the board of other runners. We apologize for that, but this change was necessary to reflect fastest playing correctly as mentioned above.

As it was already heard, at least some runners are interested in running this game in the same manner as CnD2 that is 1 player 2 controllers. It seems like valid additional category with some strats and skips still being possible to be executed in the similar way as standard coop (like flying with balloons in Zone I) and some need to be adjusted. Furthermore, the rule saying that 2 chipmunks need to be present through the whole run will stay with small change, that you can kill off chipmunk in bonus section to have it back with full lives in next zone, if it's needed. In my opinion, it will help in some situations and both chimpunks are still there, when you play through zones. Additionally, similar rule as in CnD2 will be added "Due to the nature of the run, it is strongly recommended to stream live attempts, possibly with a webcam that shows the setup you're using to play 1 player 2 controllers." , since it's quite easy to cheat in this category just having someone else sometimes pressing buttons on second controller. Lastly, I'm not sure how to treat current two runs in coop with "No One" describtion. Technically, second person is not playing, but second controller is not used as well in those. However, I would lean more towards moving them to new category, since they fit it a little bit better. If there are no major objections from runners, new category will be implemented in few days in a shape as described.

Unfortunately, while deleting all individual level categories for Mappy on NES ( https://www.speedrun.com/mappy ), which were unused and unnecessary, I accidentally deleted 3 full game categories ('Beat Round 15', 'Beat Round 5', '10,000 Points' - last two in miscellaneous) and it was decent board with over 20 runs. As far as I know, there is (or at least was) a way to revert it back, but it requires involvement of site moderators. Sorry, for the trouble, first time, it happened to me, while moderating games for over 3 years.

I recently got moderation here and first thing to notice is that, there are too many categories. There is no good reason behind them, they are just put at random numbers. I would opt for deleting most of them and leaving around 2 in miscellaneous or even delete all of the additional ones. If we want to leave some of them , then I would go with leaving one from beat level ( 1 or 5) and one from points (10K or 50K) or just ignore points and stay with beating level 1 and 5 (since points categories aren't too popular). As for beating level 10, that one is already too close to main category and with regard to 100K, that just seems too tedious.

As for main category itself, it's not accurate as well, since 1 loop should be either level 16 (with fastest speed of mice) or level 18 (where the game actually loops). However, it will stay as it is for legacy reason, since it's close to proper loop and throughout years some people took effor into it, so it would be shame to ignore that.

After consultation with garadas21, initial decision was made to merge categories again, since previous action to seperate emu was taken without enough grounds for it.

First reason stated, that on emu is harder to recognize potential down+right left+right inputs and that keyboard gives some general advantage in movement, however this is true for many other NES games, where it isn't separated, Besides, banned inputs can be achieved on real console as well via unlicensed controllers. It was discovered as well, that on some emulators barrel manip in level 1 ( which saves 0.3s) is 100% consistent , whereas on some consoles it's around 50-70%. Nonetheless, it doesn't make emulator runs any faster, just potentially a little less reset-heavy , when grinding for most optimized time and only in some cases (still on certain not researched consoles it can have 100% consistency). Taking into account those two arguments, they are not sufficient to split the leaderboard. It should be conducted only, when clear advantage over console exists ( e.g. faster performance due to tricks, which can be executed only on emulators).

Before putting this change into effect, we will wait few days to get community notified and see, if there are runners against merging.