Kakipi seems to be flexing his muscles still with performing red ring attacks. It may seem he's been somewhat quiet as of late since his full speed run of Unleashed a month ago. However, it's really just me seeing that everyone else has been pushing speed runs out left and right and not really knowing what to expect of his future runs. With all that he has done between Unleashed and Generations, it's just a complete wonder what he'll pull out next, but this seems to be his focus lately.
Kakipi usually pushes videos out maybe a few times a month, so actually all is quite normal. :)
So I decided to load up Generations again. Why? Because yesterday I ordered this and the first thing I plan on recording that's Sonic related are Generations speed runs. Maybe some time later I'll do some Unleashed stuff when I'm better at it, but for now, Generations is probably going to have my undivided attention for a while. The real pleasure in recording stuff like speed runs or challenges in games (especially fighting games) is you can go back and look at your mistakes. In the case of Sonic games where things move pretty fast, I'll actually get a chance to actually slow things down and analyze stuff. In fact, there is one thing I want to analyze today which I'll get to in just a bit.
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?
So a while back, Kakipi1000 make a very impressive run of Jungle Joyride 1-2 and in the info of his video, he says:
In the original stage, you can 3D->2D glitch the first 2D section of the level. In fact, you can also do it later in the level (although I'm not sure just how useful that is.) If you try pulling off the glitch and going into the water like Kakipi did in the 1-2 stage, you will run into an invincible wall and die. However, there IS an exception.
When I pulled this off, I took out my HD camcorder and started recording and I spent about an hour trying to duplicate the glitch with NO success. I have no idea how in the world you even glitch that part on purpose. It always happens on accident and the very moment I decide to record it, I can't get it to work. That's the hard part. If I can figure out how to glitch it, or get lucky doing it (because the section remains glitched if you die after the lamp post before the spring) then I'll record it.
So what do you do once you find Sonic with 3D controls in the 2D section? Firstly, you need to get him to the first orange trick ring and the safest way to do that (if you're not confident manually moving him) is to simply slide, then jump into the ring. After that, hold right and air boost. This should send you far ahead to the right of the stage and the camera will shift into full 3D. From here, you can drift past that entire 2D section in literally a few seconds. It's a ridiculously good time saver. Before I started recording, I was fortunate to actually complete the stage using that glitch with lots of mistakes. Getting hit by the beams from that one robot during the chase scene and fucking up the last shortcut by accidentally performing two homing attacks on two enemies instead of air boosting to the rail. I literally penalized myself by at least a good 4 or 5 seconds. Plus, I don't know the best path over the second body of water section yet which adds even more time. It was really a mess.
BUT I STILL SHAVED ABOUT 20 SECONDS OFF MY PREVIOUS TIME. LOL
So yeah, this is definitely to be continued. I was supposed to post this yesterday but it wasn't possible.
Still so much to learn about Unleashed. I should really take my Generations disc out of my 360. It's earning a lot of scratches and I really can't be bothered to play it.
EDIT: So I was browsing through the comments of Kakipi1000's run and apparently someone by the name of SHINTARO917 beat Kakipi's run by about 15 seconds (for the record, sobatsuyu100 recently beat Kakipi's run of this stage, too). Once I checked the video, I wasn't surprised to find that this guy pulled off the glitch - not exactly how I did it, but actually better. He took full advantage of it just the same. I'm surprised he avoided that invisible wall since he appears to have performed the glitch no differently than Kakipi did for the normal stage.
Shoutouts to this guy... and this was 2009! *hides* There were some things he could have done to make the run faster, but the way he pulls off the last shortcut is a MUST SEE. I totally didn't see that one coming.
At least I don't have to go through the trouble of recording it, but it's definitely worth exploring still! And I will say this... WHY DOES NOBODY TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE HIDDEN SPRING AT THE 2ND 3D SECTION? You can save at least a good second or two. I'll take a picture of it, or record it or something.
This game is so hard but so rewarding to speed run in. I can't say that I take the game too seriously (though I am currently aiming for 100% achievements for the challenge - Werehog speed run challenges x3?) but speed running this game to it's limit is really hard - harder than Generations, though at times it is generally faster than Generations. There are soooooooooooo many things to take advantage of to keep Sonic going fast in Unleashed and so many... variables.
So, Arid Sands Act 1 is probably the stage I run through the most. Why is that? A long time ago, when I first started paying attention to speed runs in this game, Kakipi1000's Arid Sands Act 1-2 run was, and still is my favorite stage to see Sonic tear through. I didn't have that DLC level at the time, so I focused on the original act which for the most part was just as nice.
The level itself when speed running, doesn't require a lot of drifting, but what caught my eye was how cool it is to hop->stomp->slide over speed boosters and after forever and a day I finally got it down. Performing it isn't hard, just getting the timing down for the jumps at speeds excelling the speed cap is ridiculous and I managed to pull it off 4 times in a row. Then there's the side-step area where Sonic has to dodge walls, pillars and people by jumping over them, sliding under them (not people, lol) and side stepping. Lastly, the next quick slide area where there are pillars and rocks falling around where you have to get through ASAP or risk getting squashed. Doing boosted quick slide steps there is just awesome to watch.
1:57:01 is a pretty good time. My previous time was 2:05 something for the longest and tonight I was just fooling around. Not too long ago, I played around with the 2nd level skip shortcut by doing a 3D->2D glitch after the sidestep area I was idolizing at the end of the previous paragraph and I finally understand the success and fails around it (it was actually pretty fun seeing what you can do in 3D there, though it isn't much). By accident tonight, I found myself pulling it off during a casual speed run and I saw that I was way ahead of my record, but I made so many mistakes in the end, by the time I got to the goal ring, I was still at 2:05 LOL. I had beaten my old record by less than half a second... so then I got serious and got a 1:57. I'm going to try working on the 1st level shortcut next time now that I've got the 2nd one down.
I doubt I'll break into 1:40s in this stage, but time will tell! I think there might be some more tricks in Kakipi's full Unleashed speed run. Hmmm....
So apparently, Kakipi1000 has posted his 101st video. ... well, what happened to the 100th?
But before I get to that, I want to post a video by the youtube user, Craigolette.
And I'm definitely referring to his Arid Sands 1-2 run which is the second speed run in this video. First of all, props to him for actually doing this hellish level while taking full advantage of the shortcut. There were a few mistakes, but at least he didn't run into the spikes on the last side-step section. Too awesome.
As for Kakipi... dude... did you just... SPEED RUN ALL OF UNLEASHED? Talk about unexpected. Yeah, it's no secret that he prefers this game over Generations, but wow. He did it in 3 hours. When I first played Unleashed, it took me... half that time, just to get beyond Crimson Carnival and that's just one stage lol. Well, there's no questioning his love for this game, whereas mine for it... is clearly half-hearted. :)
Thanks to my love for speedruns, I've grown an appreciation for the enthusiasm found in Sonic's Japanese voice actor. Strangely enough... it reminds me of Jaleel White's work, though unlike some fans, I don't think he is the end-all to Sonic voice actors. STILL - *switches voices to Japanese in his Unleashed/Generations games* Personally, I find a lot of the other languages for Generations more interesting during gameplay than English. 4Kids? No comment~
For those of you who may not know, Kakipi1000 is probably the most popular youtube Sonic Unleashed/Generations speed runner for his ability to execute some of the fastest times in some of the latest Sonic games. Though he has performed some outrageous exploits, at times it's usually not him who finds them (he'll credit those who have). He will however do his best to take advantage of such exploit in a speed run. Right now, there is no other player (that I've found) who has proven to be as precise with combining the two. Not to mention, he's also pretty good with providing his own soundtrack to mesh with his gameplay. One wonders what he was doing to Sonic games before YouTube... if he was playing them.
