Yeah, why not...

Seems like taking a break from speed running Sonic (or just games in general) wasn't such a horrific idea.  At first I was convinced that I'd have to keep playing to stay sharp.  Eh... perhaps if it meant me trying to execute a speed glitch, maybe.  Otherwise, I can't say that I've really unlearned anything.

Throughout January and December of 2012 (Happy Belated New Year, btw) I was occasionally playing Generations, and instead of taking on something new and large like a main stage, I decided to focus on taking on something new and small, like a mission.  It wasn't something I was doing too often, just whenever, really.  I had always wanted to speed run the Way Past Fast mission in Green Hill Act 2 and 1 minute turned to 58 seconds... which turned into 57 seconds... and eventually turned into 56 seconds, and here I thought that it's probably a good time to start recording.

And the result is that I believe this is the fastest non-glitched run of the stage (so far).  I think it can go faster.  It may seem minor, but the mistake I made here was holding on to the boost button after Sonic was launched where the drift section ended.  That small amount of boost could've been used at the end of the run.  I can't help it if he looks so cool covered in his own blue speedy element.


After that, I gave my favorite stage another run and almost effortlessly broke my old record.  Time to record again?  Yeah... and what semi-strange times I trapped...

Even after I record a run, I look back at it over and over and ask myself, "Can it go faster?"  For a much more complex stage such as this one, the answers come clear (also after looking at other people's runs not so compulsively).  There are quite a few things I could've done better.  The difficult air boost to platform->jump to next platform thing I pointed out at the start is still weird, but after a thousand deaths I realized it seemed a bit more successful not only boosting as late as possible but to the far left of it as well.

On the same token, I feel like it's possible that Sonic's jump height from the platform is almost always high enough (though it does fluctuate).  It's just that if it's low, then I might have to air boost earlier.  I decided to play with the skill that slows down time and tell me... why is it that when I used that skill to play in slow motion, 3 out of 3 times when I landed on the platform, I made that jump every - single - time.

I made a mistake after the first pulley because I hadn't practiced that part with boosting it and that resulted in a late homing attack on the spring (and I know now to aim for the far right one).

The cloud... oh... I hate the cloud.  It's always more rewarding to hit the cloud as early as possible, but it's placement + Sonic's controls after hitting it just make it much easier to land on the far left of it so you line up with the tick launcher.

Maybe I should've tapped boost going down the rail or attempt the new way of leaving the rail with an air boost in 3D... because I was a full second behind to the next checkpoint, geez...

After landing on the rotating platform, I could've air boosted a bit earlier to that brief narrow hallway as it's not that high.

And when I air boosted to the transport thing - that was completely spontaneous and was the first time I did it while recording.

Just before the side-step area, I was able to do that faster by boosting as soon as I landed on that area.  It can go faster if your jump to there lines up right in front of the dash pad so you can just boost right on it's path (or maybe side-stepping to the right as you boost, maybe - though I think side-stepping in this game without skills slows you down a bit).

And everything else after that went pretty much the way I wanted it to.  I ended the stage with a lot more boost meter than I expected.

I will be attempting Sky Sanctuary with skills along with another mission.  SS2 will be my first serious skills run.  The Green Hill skills run with the Unleashed run I did back in November '12 wasn't really serious.  It was really just filler and seeing how tieing two speed runs in 1 video would work. (The Unleashed run however was serious.)


Outside of my speed runs, anything in the Sonic universe that concerns me?  Actually, yes.  But that will be in a near future post where I'll be talking about what I've come across in what is known as the worst Sonic game of all time.  The speed runners I keep up with still seem pretty active and I've managed to collect a few new names that have come out and even best one of sobatuyu100's times.  Who in the world Japan could do this?  Find out next time!

WRYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

Not sure if legitimately illegit.

Or illegitimately legit.

Crisis City or City Escape is next.  I'm probably gonna go for City Escape.  Most of it is just boarding and boosting.  Crisis City... admittedly, that could take a while, but there's nothing within the normal realm of things that makes it have any sort of challenge that rivals that one platform in Sky 2.  Yesterday/today I think I visually got it down after 564524845348443848545 deaths. :3

Sky Sanctuary 2 update.

I made a few mistakes, so 1:31 was definitely possible.  It was enough to take me from 7th to 6th on XBL if that means anything.  I missed that jump like 100 times, but at least I understand it much better now.  Aim for the center of that square platform, boost as late as possible from the trick ring.  Still a bitch to do.

Was aiming for a second update but I only managed another 1:32.  My hand is worn from hitting the buttons so firmly out of determination, I thought I was gonna break my pad.  Hopefully it doesn't come to that, though I've never broken a pad out of sheer force before.  This will have to do.

Well, well Generations~

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?

My Sonic Generations times.

Though I wish I could play the PC version, I play on XBL.

I only speed run modern stages and I've only taken a few stages seriously.

Green Hill Modern: 1:41:70 - When I started, I tried super hard to break into 1:40 without any glitches.  My biggest pet peeve about this stage is the trick pad you hit that sends you into the cave.  If Sonic does not land IMMEDIATELY after making it through the waterfall, you lose some precious seconds and IDK how to do it consistently.

Chemical Plant Modern: 1:45:44 - Not a stage I've dedicated myself to playing.  The stage seems to only have one real challenging part.

Speed Highway Modern: 1:38:73 - IMO, the easiest stage in the game (unless you're trying to go for that crazy shortcut).  I think this time is pretty average without doing anything extravagant, but this stage really doesn't require you do anything drastic at all.  It is fun, though.

City Escape Modern: 2:07:04 - Aside from an occasional annoyance while boarding, and one well placed jump on a slope (oh, and TREES UGH), this stage isn't really that hard.  I really think I can do this time faster.

Seaside Hill Modern: 2:17:25 - Again, not a stage I've taken very seriously.

Crisis City Modern: 1:41:10 - I would've been content if I made it to 1:40.  This stage is really hard, but it is super fun to speed run because it's designed to stop you from going fast, so every time you take a risk and you get rewarded, it's like omg.  I haven't tried any of the glitches, however I get pretty annoyed at the part where you transition from 3D->2D because it glitches and I wind up missing the orange trick ring I have to boost in to.  This stage is full of all sorts of challenges...

Rooftop Run Modern: 2:13:78 - Not a stage I've taken seriously, though I don't find it too hard.  Still have a lot to learn about it.  Seems like the most popular stage in the game.

Planet Wisp Modern: 4:19:88 - Yeah, another stage I've obviously played but not really played hard.  MUCH to learn about the longest stage in the game.  I don't think it's as hard as Crisis City, I just think it's long.


Oh, did I forget a stage?

I just got this not too long ago and I noticed the rank # got cut out lol.  That is 7th place.  Sky Sanctuary Modern is pretty fun.  At first I didn't think I'd like it, but it is as fun to speed run as it looks.  No glitches were performed in my time (obviously).  Will I go for a better time?  Perhaps.  There's just... ONE thing about this stage that I've yet to master.  Might have to pull out a recording device to understand it.

And we're done for the night!  Take care!

EDIT: