Last night I decided to mess around with Speed Highway 2 again because I learned just a few new tricks to beating my time and I've NEVER made a seamless run of the stage. It's an easy stage, yes. However, I rarely run it because it really is the easiest stage to speed run in the game and I don't know many other ways to improve my time. The last time I did it, I ran it with perhaps no mistakes that I could think of, really.
Just jumped from the 1:38 to the 1:36 territory. I really don't know how people run it faster (not including doing that level skip glitch.) Also, I did the 30 second trial of the stage and pretty much took Sonic as far as he could possibly go in the stage.
But the stage that I've really been focused on is Sky Sanctuary 2. At first I didn't see myself being interested in taking it seriously until I saw it seriously ran and it is... REALLY FUN. My favorite aspect about speed running this stage is the use of the enemy placement that challenges you to bounce off enemies to advance through the stage as well as destroy them with the air boost. Bouncing off of enemies in the stage really makes the game feel like the classics in a sense because you're not depending on the homing attack. You don't want to use the homing attack in some parts because after you do it, Sonic loses all forward momentum. Maintaining that momentum will yield Sonic opportunities to keep going forward after simply jumping on the enemies. Air boosting through enemies isn't always a free kill. Sometimes I wind up sending Sonic into their hitbox and losing rings and recently Sonic won't destroy them, but will just get pushed aside after making contact with them. It's weird, yet amusing.
But the hardest thing about Generations modern Sonic is simply the precision platforming and Sky Sanctuary 2 has up to this point the most difficult jump in the game, and last night I took a lot of time trying to figure out how in the world Kakipi1000 pulls it off in his recorded run of the stage.
I'm talking about the orange trick ring-> air boost boost-> jump from the square platform-> air boost at 0:12 in this video.
It looks simple, but you REALLY have to be exact with how you pull this off because it's easy to screw up. Fortunately, when I paused the video, I did it at the EXACT moment you need to air boost to that platform, because I know if I press play from that point, the air boost will immediately happen... and it did. So here's the deal. If you air boost, land on the platform, jump and air boost but aren't high enough, your first air boost from the trick ring was too early. Now, you'll know that you boosted too late if you find yourself boosting beneath the square platform and this is where you strike your medium. But look at the picture real good, specifically the relationship of Sonic and that platform as he's falling down. Sonic's mid-section should NOT go below the green stripe on the left of the platform. In fact, you should almost be aiming for the center of the platform with the analog stick tilting ever so slightly to the right (if you're not holding forward doing this, Sonic won't air boost at all.)
I really don't understand how this works technically because if you land on the platform, it seems logical that Sonic would be able to make the jump, right? Well, how I understand this is that Sonic's height from an air boost relates to his speed when he lands. The more Sonic falls, the more speed/momentum he loses (which is why you really have to do this as late/low as possible as if you air boost too early, land on square platform and jump, he won't reach it and you'll have to settle for jumping and stomping on the next floating platform). It's weird because if you do it too early, Sonic not only will have less momentum but his jump won't have the height to make it over as well. It's quite rewarding to make this jump. If you're forced to use both floating platforms, you'll lose about .50-.80 seconds and meter wise, there is no difference.
Personally, I find that this is the charm of Sonic games since Sonic 1 - you get the tools at your disposal, but what can they do and to what extent? I really love the high-risk/high-reward aspect of this game. It may have dumbed down a bit from Unleashed, but it's still got that aspect of a Sonic game that deepens the gameplay. It just has a bit more of a "classic" gameplay-like focus.
Also I had been trying to take advantage of the 3D->2D glitch and unlike my 3D->2D glitching in Jungle Joyride 1-2 in my previous entry, pulling this one off was a lot easier. Unfortunately, that's the only easy part about it, which is making that jump. On my 360 version of the game (yeah, I own the PC version, too) if you jump off the rail after the glitch and make it to the side where the speed booster is and jump over the booster - the stage won't load visually. Unfortunately, I didn't get very far with the glitch but I'll keep trying. Controlling Sonic in 2D with 3D controls? Yeah, ever since the N64, using analog sticks for precise movement has never been something I was ever entirely comfortable with and, well... what can I say?
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