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!

Sonic Unleashed - Windmill Isle Act 1 (Daytime)

So, yeah...

I've been messing around with Unleashed lately.  This game, I tell you... it feels so complex compared to Generations.  Speed in Unleashed feels so... inconsistent sometimes compared to Generations.  It's true.  This game has a lot of speed caps and with that, even more ways to break the speed cap.  I guess that's what makes it interesting.  But getting the most out of speed in Unleashed is hard.  Not that speed running Generations was easy - no.  It's just that there are so many little things you have to factor in to keep Sonic's momentum.  So many things that try to stop him from going fast - kind of like Crisis City Act 2, but worse.

The first speed run I did of Act 3's Skyscraper Scamper is probably one of my favorite stages because 95% of the time, it's really just Sonic moving at his uncapped speed with the Quick Slide Step + Boost.  Most of it is just memorization.  I think the last part is the trickiest because you must target the right enemies to get the goal ring up and then you must aim Sonic at the goal ring which for me is tricky.  Why?  I'm just not used to it.  It seems simple but Sonic moves really slow when he turns and I usually expect him to be facing where I want him to when my thumb is pointing which direction I want him to go.

And that's what's going to be the challenge here - controlling Sonic.  Memorization?  Not so much, I think.

By controlling Sonic, I mean that I MUST be able to do EVERYTHING he is capable of doing to go faster (though I'm not too concerned about D-Speed, M-Speed, etc.)  Quick Slide Step, yes.  That's easy.  Stomp-sliding... don't get it and I really want to.  Gaining extra speed from speed boosters... straight line drifting... man... all of this may sound strange, but every time I look at Unleashed speed runs, I think of how awesome it would be to do most (if not all) of that stuff, so I'm gonna try.

Today, I decided that I would take this journey of controlling Sonic as slow as possible, so yesterday I was messing around with the very first daytime stage in the game.  You know it.  It's really short.  My goal was sub 30 seconds and the current record was somehow 33ish  To get the most out of the first part requires some straight-line boost drifting in between some rocks, or you can QSS it, but I found that was even more challenging.  For now, I just boosted through it and after the last rock, starting QSSing and jumping over the speed boosters before the first 360 to get max speed in the loop.  The next part is strange and tricky.  If you simply run over the ledge, you will loose all control of Sonic until he lands, but if you side-step just before leaving the ledge (timing is important), you will be able to air boost over to the next area.  If the side-step is mis-timed, it will kiiiiiiill youuuuuuu~ because you will fall into the pit.  The air boost needs to be immediate so Sonic will land asap and can gain as much speed as he can on the ground so he can jump just before hitting the springs so he can reach the highest platform.  I don't get how he should land afterwards but I always air boost and it seems to just throw him into a wall lol.  The rest of the stage is really simple.  The only thing I can really take note of is the after the side-step area, it's better to hop than hit the launcher, and after the corkscrew, you can either stomp slide or QSS for a bit more speed before the ring (just don't slide UNDER the ring.)

Because I made it to 29.66, I now have another stage to record.  I will do my best to try and get Sonic through the first part asap.  So far the fastest time I've seen was sobatsuyu100's run of the stage.

Windmill Isle Act 2 dominance.

Both sobatsuyu100 and Millernusgaming seem to still be hard at it when it comes to speeding through Windmill Isle.

Last I saw, sobatsuyu100 did a 1:25 in Act 2, but with some new tricks - some which are more obvious than others... he's down to 1:20.  Miller thinks he can bring it down to about 1:17.

As for Miller himself, it seems he's been able to throw in that nice M-speed jump in the first section as well.  Both of these guys are really putting in a lot of effort to go faster.


Sega's presence at E3 with Sonic unfortunately didn't bring out any news towards Sonic Adventure 2, but it did promise a nice true super sonic blue Nascar Impala with none other than Danica Patrick for the new TRANSFORMED game.  People also got some hands-on time with the game as well.

I'm not too sure about this move for the sake of advertising, but you have to admit, for once recently, it's quite a bold move by Sega.  That's something we haven't seen in quite some time.  The only thing that really brings uncertainty to it is who they chose to use.  Although I'm a racing fan, I'm not much of a Nascar fan (I prefer Formula 1 and other circuit racing events that don't involve driving in an oval) one wonder was Danica the best choice?  I don't believe she was a bad choice, but when the word Nascar comes to mind, is her name at the top of the list?  Either way, we get one of the prettier faces who will be animated in the game, and I'm looking forward to it.

Modern Red Ring attack, via KAKIPI1000.

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. :)

Best Sonic Unleashed speed run, ever.

13337!

Effort.

I read somewhere in a YouTube comment someone (it was posted by one of the speed runners I track, no worries - except that I don't recall exactly which one) said, quote...

"It takes diligence to speed run."

That is pretty obvious, yes.  But it made me think about my efforts toward Seaside Hill.  Every other stage that I did a speed run for (except Speed Highway), I put a lot of time into before I had my PVR.  Green Hill... I ran for a long time since the Generations demo as the whole Havoc engine was still new to me.  Sky Sanctuary, I ran for at least two weeks.  City Escape... I don't remember though my first serious time which was top 50 may have taken at least two days and a few more days to top ten.  Crisis City... MONTHS, and I loved every bit of it.  Seaside Hill - 5 days from scratch with minimal hours of play.

Honestly, I don't know why I was in such a rush considering I had previous experience in other stages.  This was the quickest I've ever learned a stage, and simultaneously... it's the highest I've ever put myself on a Sonic leaderboard.  It really was a stage I could have simply been patient towards. Perhaps a part of me was convincing myself that the actual stage wasn't as hard as I thought it was... or maybe I'm getting better at the game... or both?  Maybe I created my own sense of urgency to make a recording of it by always talking about it?  Who knows.

After I had finished uploading the video to YouTube, I just watched it... over and over.  When I had to leave the computer, I was watching it over and over.... over my phone.  My brain was feeling some sort of release from the experience.  That was probably the stress of practicing it a few days ago being liberated.

I saw some missed opportunities in the run (at least the last 2D and 3D sections where I dedicated the least amount of time to) but in the end - it made the music sync with what was going on quite well from start to finish.  Didn't even have to move the track.  I just started it when the video started.  Must give thanks to my good friend for throwing that song in my direction.  Again, in the end, it's not so much about having the fastest time more than a good looking run with some nice music... and I'm glad just how well it turned out.

From the exception of Crisis City Act 2, that one mission where you hit the music notes and Action Master, every other stage that winds up recorded from this point on in Generations will be from scratch.  By that, I mean every stage up to now will be taken seriously for the first time.  So when I start Unleashed.... man... there's probably going to be a lot of downtime in between Generations and Unleashed, let alone between Unleashed itself.  I've BARELY scratched the surface with that game.


Speaking of Sonic Unleashed, lately I feel like I haven't been sharing enough speed runs from other people, and I want to throw this one in because it's a stage I never really liked (at least the non-DLC version of it).  But I think I've changed my mind now.

Man, Unleashed is so fast.  Miller states in his description that it took him over 5,000 tries and he's very proud of this.  I don't know how accurate that statement regarding the number of tries is, but hey... can't say I don't relate to him about how he feels in the end.  It's just the love for the game... and when it comes to love towards anything, in spite of how frustrating it is and how many fails you have to stack up before you succeed, you just don't know how far you can go...

... unless you are willing enough try and keep trying.

Seaside Hill Act 2... R.I.P.

Man... I'm telling you - I was so stressed making this, but the music I put in makes it all worthwhile.

So what's next?  I think I'm going to go for Chemical Plant Act 2.  Why not?  It's the only stage I haven't recorded from the Genesis Era and I've covered all of the Dreamcast Era stages.  I believe my current time is something around a 1:41ish.  There's plenty of room to improve and I still want to save my favorite stage for last.

Seaside Hill Act 2.. Take 4...

Yeah, I know what you're thinking...

I'm on it!  The good news is that this took me less than 2 hours to pull off (for once) and I'm confident I can do it again.  Couldn't record earlier sadly.

But can it go faster?  It can, but I don't know if it will go faster than 3rd place.  Gonna test some things in the stage before I start recording to make sure everything goes as smooth as possible.

Seaside Hill Act 2... take 3... I hate running on water.

If I ever said I liked Seaside Hill 2... I'm sorry.  I don't feel that way anymore.

First of all... I know it can't just be me (or maybe it is) but I find the stage rather boring when you're taking the speed run route.  Not that my heart doesn't beat out of my chest when things are going right and Sonic's going consistently fast, but... idk.  Maybe because the challenging areas are rather... uninteresting (not all of them).  I can't say that about the rest of the stage's alt paths because the stage is actually quite flexible overall.  Although I now completely understand what it takes to get on top of that falling orange platform after running over water (stop boosting before you turn right or you'll cause Sonic to "understeer."), I dunno... just seems so plain.  Secondly, to add insult to injury, after hitting the black speed booster that launches Sonic, you boost down to the end, only to jump and stop all of Sonic's momentum because for some reason, Sonic Team doesn't want Sonic to... go relatively fast around a corner to the left.  For a shortcut, it sure does seem rather bland to kill Sonic's flow.  Last but not least, I'm annoyed at the territory of this game when it comes to the controls in this stage.  Again, air boosting after the cannon launches you to the springs, air boosting seems to be an option on and off like.  It's just like Green Hill 2's last set of springs before hopping over the trip step which you can overcome any control issues by air boosting before hitting the springs.

Well, I've got the early morning ahead of me and after getting 6th on XBL (as I said, I should at least get 8th or 7th), I felt it was time to actually show some progress.  I actually ran out of meter in the final part of the stage and if I didn't, I possibly could've snatched 4th.  Well... that's the plan when I record the run.  The current ruler of the XBL leaderboard is none other than KYUURI999@ 1:30:44.  Right now, I don't see myself knocking 5 seconds off my time.  Still have a lot of work cut out.  Right now, my biggest concern is making the most out of the last 2D section with the wall jumping as it doesn't make much sense to me yet.

... I actually look forward to getting through this stage so I can focus on Crisis City Act 2 again.  I think this stage is definitely more fun to watch played than it is to play it as a speed run.  Maybe a red ring attack would be better...?

Me vs Seaside Hill 2... part 2.

Haven't gotten a chance to play in the past few days so I'm getting used to the stage again.  I managed to complete a run that brought me to the top 15, but... if you don't know, readers... I want a top 10 run unless I don't think I can do better.  This means getting below 1:36:23 and I am currently at 1:36:88.

...

Which means if I do this right, I should get no lower than 7th or 8th.  I really want something that'll put me at 4th, but... there are a few problems.

This majority of the stage before the last 2D section is very hard on your meter.  To speed run, every 3D section requires Sonic to run over water.  The first 3D part at the beginning of the section is moderately difficult, but everything is fine if you simply collect all the rings over the water.  Sometimes I have more problems timing the jump into the cannon which seemingly works better from the water opposed to from the land around it.  (I assume that when Sonic is running on water, he is somewhat higher.)

The first 2D section is weird.  I do not try to get off a homing attack dash on the platform because if I kill the 2 enemies starting from that pillar, I cannot get Sonic high enough to land on the right wall jump pad or on the platform to the left.  Instead, I let him fall and the result to getting him high enough after defeating the second enemy seems to mostly be based on how high Sonic's jump was on the first enemy.  It's weird, but the success rate seems around 70%.

The second 3D section is ALL about meter management.  By the time you get to the 2nd cannon, you need at least 90% meter to run over the body of water to the orange platform.  Most of this will successfully depend on whether you collected enough boost energy and you'll want to collect as many line of rings you come across before the first cannon.  The first line on the beach and the second on the water are mandatory.  There are two lines of rings on the next part of the beach, but there are also two enemies together, so destroying those gathering the last line of rings before the first cannon really helps out tremendously.  Before getting on this beach area, it's a good idea to hop from the water on to the beach because sometimes Sonic flies up as if he hit a slope, and that will not help at all.  After getting into the cannon and hitting the last spring, my challenge here is whether the air boost will work or not.  It seems random.  If it does, getting the most speed out of the rails is a bit tricky as hopping on it won't give you immediate access to boosting for some reason (so I guess you have to do it right as you land on it.)  Last but not least is the water section.  In a previous entry, I stated that it wasn't too hard once you get it down, but that was then.  Today, it's a challenge. If I accidentally cause the camera to get caught behind a part of the level, I'm pretty much playing a guessing game at this point.  Other than that, I've yet to really cement it.

The rest of the stage seems pretty much like a cake walk, but that's yet to be determined because I made mistakes the last time I went through it and that only happened from lack of experience there.  Meter is no issue.  The only challenge seems to be based on whether my wall jumps will get Sonic high enough for an air boost on the top platform.

Time will tell if I get this done tonight.  If not, I'll try again tomorrow.

Is glitching automatically = cheating?

Using glitches is not cheating because it doesn’t give any advantage over the competition. Since it’s still within the framework of the game, anyone with the skill and knowledge can perform them. -SigmaAlpha via TSSZ

A lot of people tend to think that using glitches is "cheating."  To some extent, glitches can be used to cheat.  We see it a lot on the leaderboards of certain games and Sonic games are no exception (Ep1, Ep2, CD, Generations PC, etc.).  Though it will always be based on opinion, there are glitches that either take away the effort in the speed running experience in exchange to make it past the finish line (i.e. in 00:00:00).  Then there are glitches that do the opposite, being that they usually add to the effort for actually completing the stage.  There is still the possibility of error for making it through a section 00:00:50 to 00:05:00 seconds faster because of that glitch.  Basically, you're still playing the game.  Even though this is two ends of glitching where one is simply get the fastest possible time without playing the stage and the other plays the stage to exploit the stage, how far those glitches can go for the sake of shaving off time varies.  Some prefer using a glitch or glitches to conquer small bits of the stage, while others, a large chunk. (Note to reader: performing that glitch in Sonic Unleashed which skips a large chunk of the level makes your game prone to physically breaking within your console.)

Cheating is defined by breaking the rules through deceit.  When it comes to speed running... are there any rules?  Is there any form of deception being used?  First of all, if we are talking about the people who get 00:00:00ish times, well... they're not speed running at all more than they're just deceiving the game and the people that actually play the game.  Their focus is not the stage, just the leaderboard.  They want to appear superior at simply doing something not many people can do.  It's not a speed run more than it is a leaderboard hack.  Secondly, if people are conquering the stage by using glitches to go faster within the realm of the game, be it in small bits or large chunks, it cannot be considered cheating as they are doing something anyone can do.  Sometimes I feel that there is a lack of understand that goes in the word cheating where if one person sees another person perform something unusual (feeling deceived), they get labeled a cheater.  The accuser most likely never attempted to even perform such a glitch to understand the depth behind it even though the person who performed it makes it look easy when it's very possible for it to be difficult or have huge consequences if performed wrongly.  There is only one rule most speed runners go by, and that is to play the stage as fast as possible, and I personally believe that the legitimacy of the run is weighed in by the amount of effort that's put in to playing the stage.

It is just me, but I believe glitching is not always synonymous with cheating.

Not everyone is going to know the best methods for what makes a speed run faster (and developers don't always know all that's capable within the framework of their game).  There is usually a lot of knowledge that goes into speed running a stage in these types of games as it's usually never as simple as it looks.  If those methods are understood as ways to expand the experience for any competitor (opposed to taking away the experience) who's goal is to be the one to make it first to the finish line, why shouldn't people use glitches?  If we limited our efforts, the game grows stale because there would be limitations instead of plateaus.

And right now, I think that's what makes Sonic Unleashed more favorable than Sonic Generations for speed running among the top speed runners on YouTube.  It's not only allows Sonic to do a lot on his own while moving fast, but after much time, people are just finding ways to make him go faster.  It doesn't make Unleashed unique to other Sonic games, but it definitely stands out as the more complex game compared to Generations.

But if you're a fan of Generations and not Unleashed, don't worry... it's time just may come sooner than you think.

There's a war going on in Windmill Isle Act 2.

As this week, my youtube feed has been filled with so many speed runs of Windmill Isle Act 2, I can barely tell whether they are different or the same.  What I've come to find is that throughout the month ,sobatsuyu100 and Millernusgaming have posted quite a few speed runs of that stage and it's DLC sister 2-2 that have caught the attention of other players.  However, it is sobatuyu100 who's leading me through the recent confusion as yesterday I discovered he had ran Windmill Isle 2 just under 1:30... and he did it again... in the DLC stage... and he did it again in the normal stage... and 6 hours ago... he did it again taking off about 4 seconds from the initial sub 1:30 run.

Although it seems that the times improvements are largely due to the use of M-speed jumps, I'm not too convinced that those jumps are the whole story to his success as there's a lot of stomping going on in his last video.

Do check out these guy's latest efforts in tearing down the stage.

Millernusgaming: Act 2 | Act 2-2

sobatsuyu100: Act 2 | Act 2-2

Also, while I'm at it... check out this vid by Miller which he so rightfully titled, "Messing With The Game" as it is his celebratory vid for him earning his 100th subscriber.

Rooftop Runners.

Eventually, someone is going to break the 2 minute mark of this stage but... forget that for a second.  This guy from Japan just broke the skilled record in Rooftop Run.  Not bad for this guy's first upload.  luciferin555 takes  no prisoners here.  I'm not sure who had the record previously, but congrats to this guy.  Hopefully he won't leave us hanging with all he's capable of doing.

As for myself, I'm not sure what I'm going to speed run next.  What's left?  Chemical Plant... Seaside Hill... Crisis City... Rooftop Run and Planet Wisp.  Crisis City is the only stage I've taken seriously.  After that would be Rooftop Run (semi-serious, my time is pretty bad in it, though the stage is considerably easier).  Although I have a few okay ideas for music as far as Crisis City is concerned, I might actually just record it using just the normal stage music or a modified version of it - as it's really not a bad track at all.  Never thought what would alternatively sound nice with Rooftop Run... but it's not really a stage I had on my mind.  (Been thinking about Seaside Hill, actually.)

There have been no shortage of Generations and Unleashed speed run videos uploaded lately, which I find great.  Hope everyone keeps it up!

Where it all began.

Once upon a time, in an alternate dimension, where everything in this dimension moved in the 2nd tense, there was a blue hedgehog who could run at the speed of sound, but was speed capped for about 80mph.  His name... was Sonic The Hedgehog.

Although Sonic was bestowed with the top speed of a Toyota Prius, like the Prius, Sonic's journey starting in the blue, green, brown, white, yellow and purple zone where the hills were most definitely green, sought out to stop the unenvironmentally friendly Dr. Eggman.

Nothing was going to stop Sonic in his quest to stop Sonic from preventing the evil doctor to prescribe trickery amongst his friends and the land.  Not even the rocky hills themselves would get in his way.

Not these spikes that grew through the plains.

Nor the doctor's underlings.

Sonic pushed on with the momentum of a pinball, the weight of a 3ft marble, and the sharpness of a blade sharpener. Always looking forward and with each step, each jump and each spin he was closer to signs that would point him towards his goal.

Sonic...

Nothing was ever so flawless as the beginning, and when you finished, you'd often return back to where you started to make sure you left it looking better than how it was at the jump.

But sometimes... things don't always remain that way.

After enough time passes, pollution eventually rears it's ugly head upon our lands again.

Things change.

You've changed.

And today, to make everything right, all you have to do is run, breaking the sound barrier at will if you must to set things straight again.

Someone... was nice enough to bestow you your true power, unaffected by 80mph speed caps and given a world where you can move more than just up, down, left and right.

Sonic...

Let us use that power...

So I can break my damn Green Hill Act 2 record!  OHHHHHH YEEEEEEEAH.

Okay, I'm done with the cut & paste dramatizations.  Yes, Green Hill Zone is definitely my favorite stage in Sonic games.  As a kid, I NEVER wanted to leave it and it still looks as profound and amazing to me 21 years later.  Gotta love the result of what Sega was scheming when they were starving for success and fame.  Green Hill in Generations was a pretty good reimagining of the stage and it really made me wish that the camera in the game was free like it was in Unleashed.  If it was, I'd probably find myself spending tons of time just staring at it like I did when I was a child.  What about the classic Sonic version, you say?  I think it's gorgeous.  Perhaps it could've felt like there were 3 levels of paths instead of just two like the original had (Acts 1 and 3), but for what it's worth, it's sheer beauty.  However, the 3D version really seems to just make you feel surrounded in it opposed to peering at it like a painting with the value of the property you sleep on.  I never ever once thought I'd see it.  Green hills, blue pools and rivers of water, pencil shaped mountains in the distance, and a blue sky... and a blue anthropomorphic hedgehog... in my most childish love for all that is Sonic...

... wouldn't ask for anything more.

Oh, am I going to talk about my speed run?  I left all that in the video description.

btw, Happy Birthday to my Dad today.  Fun fact - it was him who took me to Toys 'R Us and bought me the Sega Genesis with Sonic 1.  He hooked it up to the TV that day and as my mom told me (as I got older), he would just sit watch me play.  I love you, Dad.  If it weren't for you, I may not have been able to find the one thing that has had such a positive and profound effect on me to this day.  Thank you for providing me the opportunity to find things in life as a child that would simply make me happy for a very long time... seemingly a lifetime.  I only wish there were a way I could tell you these words as elegantly as they are typed.

(credit to: http://jasondoesjournalism.blogspot.com/ for the nice Sonic 1 screenshots I googled.)

... well, that was easy...

My goal was to get into 1:40 in GHZ and...

I didn't even try.  The only difference was getting off the boost on the rail in the cave, and next thing you know, I'm 1:30 in the green by the next lamp post lolol.  It was a really sloppy run and I decided I would just practice without recording.  That's probably going to be a bad habit because I'll never know how I pulled off the rail glitch (people have said the cave rails are not easy.)

When I said Speed Highway 2 was the easiest... apparently, I was wrong.  I suppose SH2 is more involved, whereas GH2 has more room for exploitation (as far as I know).  You can exploit the super speed glitch up to two times in the first 2D section and once in the second 2D section.

So now my goal for this stage is 1:39 or less.  I have been practicing super speed, but it's still very much a challenge.  Not sure if I'll try and record a run tonight.  Don't even have the music I want for this stage yet.

Dunno why I decided to take a picture with my phone still knowing PVR is forever plugged into the 360 and TV - and is turned on.  I could've tried seeing how taking pictures with the recorder works.  Soon enough.


Episode 2 is still getting the smackdown by reviewers (both official and consumer) on metacritic.  I'm a bit surprised just how many of these "official" reviewers are finding this game mediocre at best.  It's probably just me being in the midst of all the hype.  GameInformer showed no mercy in their review.  Look at the sub title: "Sega Desecrates The Corpse Of Sonic 2 With Inane Co-op."'

Using Sonic as a marketing tool... oh!  Speaking of reviewers who show no mercy...

This guy, lol.  Not the best reviewer, but most of what he says is pretty accurate.  Personally, I wouldn't mind reviewing this game if it meant I could get the game for free.  I'm totally against buying this game if it supports a future episode which is the case of this 4 series.  However, I'm not sure if PC sales count (I don't really know if this computer can run it, but I assume it likely can.)  Well, that's all for today.

Green Hill Zone.

GHZ is probably my favorite zone in the entire Sonic franchise.  I just feel like my love for Sonic games is really rooted within that stage.  I think the Generations renditions (both classic and modern) are okay, though it's really pretty, I feel the classic version could've been a bit better... emphasis on the word bit.  Well, no complaints.  You take what you can get.

The modern stage isn't too bad.  My personal best is a rather unremarkable 1:41, and I wanted to do that for the longest.  Honestly,  I haven't touched the stage since 2011, but perhaps it's time to try again.  All I wanted was 1:40 or less anyway.

This year, I've kept track of a lot of speed runners and yet one of them seemed to get by me who goes by the [youtube] name ZakuranHD, or Zakuran121 (gamertag), and I've gotta say, this guy is one of the best Generations speed runners I've seen, as this year, he's placed 1st in a number of his runs, even besting Kakipi1000's times.  Ah, I remember now.  Yes.  The first time I encountered him was through his Seaside Hill mission speed run... you know, the one where you use Rouge to send some good ol' sweet lovin' to Eggman's most loyal and advanced army of pawns.  In my playlist, he owns the fastest time.

And as far as I know, he also owns the fastest recorded time of modern Green Hill (and I'll have to see where else he's exposed his dominance and yes, I know, he's first in Sky Sanctuary and probably no further down in his skilled run.)

... I seem to have a habit of realizing too late that some YouTube videos cannot be posted through blogspot, so if you would like to see his amazing Green Hill Act 2 run - Ready.... GO!


... but, I'm not satisfied because I really want to put a video in here, so...

I really like this video.  Not sure if it's because of the quality it was uploaded in, or for the simple fact that craigolette pulled off some of those amazing air boosts and M-speed jumps (correct me if I'm wrong) that just tear through the stage... uploaded in amazing quality.  Seriously, it just drew my head in.  It's just one of those straight forward examples of why Unleashed is awesome.  Shoutouts to him btw (and thanks for the follow!).  Check out his runs if you haven't.


And what about me?  Well... I'm probably not going to focus on running Unleashed until I do a Crisis City Act 2 run (because as insane as that stage is, it is my favorite... no, I'm not a masochist).  Like Green Hill 2, I want a 1:40 or less in it.  Also, I may speed run some missions from Generations since that's why they seem to be in the game, but that's yet to be determined.   But which stage will I attempt to speed run next?  I'm probably going to let the music decide.  Until next time~

City Escape Act 2 Speed Run

Yeah, I could at least make it to 2:05.

It's been a while since I've touched this stage and I think the challenging parts are hitting the speed pad while on the board over the house.  It's weird.  I don't want to say it randomly wants to send Sonic in various directions, but for the most part, I can control it.  Getting the most out of it seems to mean getting Sonic propelled far enough so that he lands early - that is kind of tricky.

Second challenge on foot during the 1st 3D section is the jump into the trick ring.  Not so much the jump itself, just placing Sonic in the right spot so that he can jump.  If he runs into the low wall to the left, it tends to fling him right into the springs and if you're over to the right, well you'll just run into a tree.  Not too difficult, though my particular jump was so high I landed in the ring.  Alternatively, I could've boosted early before I reached the peak height of my jump.  I just didn't expect it to go that high.

Third, the section before the first 360 just before the 2D transition. I try to avoid hitting ALL of the speed boosters except the last (which you have to hit) or second to last usually, so that's how it worked out.  That was due to the angle of the drift from leaving the grass area.  In fact, there are two rows of speed boosters after making that left from the grass and it seems like if you're gonna hit them, the left ones push Sonic faster.

The only challenging part about the 2D section is boosting immediately after killing the last enemy in 2D.  If you don't, you'll land on the yellow platform and that will just... not help.

In 3D, after hitting the springs, I could've boosted to the stairway immediately, but this was something I realized much later.

Like most stages in this game, the last bits are the least demanding and for now, it seems like luck if I don't get tagged while drifting from the gun truck (or maybe I'm not starting it early enough when I do get hit).  Definitely wanna remember to hold RIGHT when you do it.  Yeah, I missed a LOT of rings and twice I actually ran out of boost in that area while recording.

And holy crap that truck came CLOSE. O_O

And that concludes that.... !  Maybe I'll run it again.

The truth about recording speed runs.

For most people, it's just a process of hurry up and wait.

But since I got my PVR, it seems like there's a lot less hurry up and a lot more waiting, lol.

And while I'm at it, let me elaborate a bit more on the waiting part.  It's inspired me to include some of the "waiting" events that go on until the "hurry up" part is complete... if... you know what I mean...?  Yeah, I wanna throw in some speed run BLOOPERS/FAILS, call it what you'd like.

Most people just throw in speed runs of them doing a godlike run and I notice the comments in some of these videos, people ask, "How long did it take you to do that?"  I don't think anyone really wants to answer that, however, I don't want to give people the impression that it's easy for everyone.  It's like when I was playing Capcom fighters for the past few years (I'm on hiatus atm).  People I played with in person would often tell me, "To be good, you really have play this game everyday."  When it comes to Sonic and speed runs - I feel that sentence rings true (even moreso for Sonic than Ultimate Herp vs Derp 3.)  Well, that's probably the case because more information about how those games work down to the frame is talked about and recorded for the purpose of competitive play, and this has been going on for quite some time.  Everything I've learned about speed running within the hedgehog and havoc engines has come from paying close detail to other speed runners and trial and error on my own with a little bit of level breakdown of finding what you can and can't do.  Unlike fighting games, I don't have much in the way in terms of fundamentals, though I assume that list is much shorter here.

I realized that I'm not really recording speed runs to be competitive as I really don't think I'm all that great at it.  The best part about recording is just getting the opportunity to put together a video of Sonic running to some music.  Is that all?  I think that's just the start.

Should be asleep by now, but I've got my next speed run video coming up.  Still have to further explore the music options.

Well, damn!

Shoutouts to the keyboard speed runners!

Also was able to take a bit from this run.  It didn't occur to me to use the homing attack when you're just over the button that opens the passage/operates lifting bar.

Another thing I must throw in here is roman's video of the speed glitches in Unleashed, but more importantly the Break Jump Glitch which had been recently discovered.

He said he plans on doing a video on how to reach the skies like he did.

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