All the runs in this update are by one big man. He's from Japan. He does it 'cause he can, and that's how the rhyme ran. Actually I don't think he's FROM Japan so much as he's big IN Japan, which is another way of saying you've failed to attain any real significance amidst your home crowd (there are no rules as to what the Japanese can take a liking to and therefore it doesn't count). However, because of legal reasons I am also obliged to mention there was apparently a movie by the same name. Maybe he's going to start a thread titled "Explain Your Name". If his explanation is any more interesting than "Yeah it's from the movie", I'll respond to him and show tell him mine. If you haven't guessed it yet it's Andrew 'Bigmanjapan' Bondarenko.

Normality (PC, 1996) comes from an old long-time UK gaming company called Gremlin Interactive. If anyone reading this recognizes the name off-hand, you're probably being thrown into a spell of nostalgy from hearing that I'd imagine. Amongst their varied achievements we had a few 2.5D adventure games and Normality, then, is one of them. It takes place in a loopy, somewhat futuristic dystopia where strict social conformity, or "normality", is the presiding regime's agendum. Cap'n Japan's agendum, on the other hand, is to liberate the people in a swift 0:23:00 blow-out that exploits the game's mechanics and alternative solutions heavily. The main thing besides frantic clickety-clicking is the game most often doesn't require you to be anywhere near the objects and NPCs you want to interact with in order to be able to use them. If and as you watch this run you'll see what I mean and appreciate you're being treated to something quite unusual. Seeing as cutscenes are unskippable you'll even get a good glimpse into the writers' distraught minds.

Toonstruck (PC, Virgin Interactive, also 1996) was a game I immediately fell in love with after seeing a short retro review somewhere on YouTube. Mobygames' summary refers to Monkey Island and Roger Rabbit when outlining what it's like, while the screenshots personally bring me back to Day of the Tentacle. It is, you'll have gathered, another point'n'clicker, but I shouldn't neglect to mention it stars the full-motion captured Christopher Lloyd. He, one must recall, played "Doc" Brown in Back to the Future. I will not tell you anything more of the game or about Mr. Japan's run, a 0:33:25, because I WILL HAVE NO SPOILERS. No I'm not here to provide a service.

The last big and manly BigMan runs one lowly update even has room for are going to be for much acclaimed Silent Hill 2, or "Sairentu Hiru Tsuu" in Japanese. Trivia of the day: its scenario is based on Crime and Punishment, a 19th-century literary classic by Dostoyevsky. What started out as a hardware limitation, the fog and darkness were reused as an atmospheric device when the development team under Konami shifted over from the PS1 to the PS2. Amongst other influences, Tomb Raider was used as a point of reference when creating the 3D-environments. [/trivia] So without further ado:

18 Segments Normal/Normal - 0:43:19 (1:01 off previous 13-segment run)

Single Segment Normal/Normal - 0:44:18 (1:26 off previous record)

Maria Hard - 0:05:57 (0:07 off previous record)

Tune in next week, same Andrew 'Bigmanjapan' Bondarenko time, same Andrew 'Bigmanjapan' Bondarenko channel! Bada-bada-bada-bada BIGMAAAAN...

The Kyrandia series is comprised of three first-half-of-the-'90s point-and-click adventure games from Westwood Studios, who were constantly setting new standards for how pretty hand-drawn art in games should be. The games were vibrant, had brilliant soundtracks and a peculiar inventory puzzle system where you drew from a generic pool of items available to you that you could normally always replace when having run out. For this reason the game would allow you to waste them on random interactions that produce a similar kind of ephemeral glee you could get from slapping quarters into a coin-op. It's a combination of these factors that make me think back to the games mostly with warmth and enthusiasm.

Evidently I'm not the only one. Our resident adventure game fanatic, Andrew 'Bigmanjapan' Bondarenko, after being convinced he should complete the set having done just the second game at first, took my sage advice of segmenting the runs at junctions where the lead role was reserved for Mr. Random Number Generator. This meant The Legend of Kyrandia was conquered in two segments adding up to a 0:51:56, and The Legend of Kyrandia 3: Malcolm's Revenge in 0:31:55 being split into four of them.

Do I gravitate towards games with awesome soundtracks or do games with awesome soundtracks gravitate towards me? Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (NES 1991) certainly qualifies. The runner, 'Slyse', says in the verification notes for his 0:29:28 it's "a crazy good action-rpg" but then goes on to list its various defects like soft locking and awkward movement in the same paragraph, which seems more in line with how retro reviews seem to portray the game. At least the not entirely fidelitous movie tie-in had ambition: in addition to a typical top-down view you get a side view for fencing and a zoomed-out perspective for battles where you and your merry A.I. band merrily rout large mobs like no-one's business. Finally there's horse racing. In summary it might be one of those better-watched-than-played types.

My last game for this update is one that embodies the old "If you have to ask, you'll never know". We're looking at Earthbound, which in addition to being an irreplaceable classic of JRPGs seems to have a long-lived and prospering speedrunning scene as well. These were my thoughts watching Andrew 'andyperfect' Woolston's run in 3:56:27 where most of the time there simply aren't any signs of floundering anywhere. There is one 10-second mistake with a teleport as I recall. I should mention this is a single segment run without major skips (previous SDA record for the category gets beaten by 14:40 minutes) so if you remember Ness slipping through seams or warping through debug menus, this will show you more of the game instead. One of the most recent advancements is TAS-like encounter and drop manipulation through all of Onett, which is where RPGs generally always go when people have run them for 10+ years (think Final Fantasy).

I'm a fan of RTS games so seeing Age of Mythology means I know what I'll be watching today. Arkantos from Atlantis attempts to regain Poseidon's favor and ends up going on a lengthy journey to stop evil (and Poseidon) from destroying the world. 'UtterNutter' shows who's the real demigod around here and tackles the entire 32 (33-ish?) levels of the campaign on the Easy difficulty, finishing in 3:10:12.

A successful remake to the 90s cult classic XCOM series comes in the form of XCOM: Enemy Unknown. While the game normally has a ton of features and plenty of quests to go through, it can be surprising just how fast it can be beaten. Kevin 'Papers' & 'Twyn' fought more than just aliens as they rolled the RNG and "completed through the observance of astrological symbols and the sacrifice of several goats", producing a run clocking in at 0:29:19 done in 64 segments. The comments are a must read to really appreciate this run.

Sometimes, (If you're a member of the Capcom roster) beating someone else into a pulp isn't enough to prove you're better and in this event you fall back to the only other possible option, what is that option I hear you cry? duh!... a puzzle battle!!!. Looking like the tainted offspring of 'Tetris' and 'Bejewelled' comes Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix where some of the Streetfighter cast attempt to outsmart each other while also throwing a few punches while they do it. 'bluebomber285' first selects Devilot for a playthough of the games X' (X-Dash) mode on expert, he deftly negotiates the puzzles before him in a time of 0:05:37.

Upon returning to the character select screen 'bluebomber285' then picks a new challenger to once again tackle Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix's X' mode on expert. This time with the profusely pink protagonist Dan, making even shorter work of the game than his Devilot run this run clocks in at 0:04:37 PERFECT!!.

Not wanting to be left behind Paul 'The Reverend' Miller fired up his copy of Quest for Glory: So You Want to Be a Hero and selected two characters also!. Beginning in a magical mana (get it?) our first character run is that of the wizard/Magic-user class, to be honest not much magic happens but if you like rock clicking your in the right place as this serves good purpose in this run in 0:10:29. The next contender is the thief, whose skills in the more dishonourable arts seem to make him quick with both his hands and his feet as he put an end to the whole sordid tale in 0:09:16 You've become a hero!...TWICE!

In the world of Ninja Baseball Bat Man any amount of baseball paraphernalia can, and will!, attack you. Be it gloves, balls, bat wielding bats or whatever, it is not safe to be outside! Unless of course you happen to be Travis 'Klaige' Nible, Todd 'Mecha Richter' Foreman, Sean 'MURPHAGATOR!' Murphy & Patrick 'PJ' DiCesare who, as a joint force not to be reckoned with take the colorful quartet through the game in 0:29:32 Single Segment.
**The price of admission also includes free Audio commentary so check that out also :)

Bat that's not all!! One of the four decided that his work was not done in Ninja Baseball Bat Man and continued to swing his way through the game once again using the twin bat wielding Ryno. This time round Sean 'MURPHAGATOR!' Murphy steps up to the plate and knock the enemies out of the park in 0:21:14 Single segment. Tune in to the commentary for a play-by-play of all the action from the comfort of your own home!.

Released in 1998 on the Game Boy James Bond 007 is thought to be one of the last ever games to grace the grey brick we remember so fondly. *wipes tear away* anyway!, Martin 'J.Y' Söderhäll picked out his copy and karate chopped, shot and sneaked his way through a more "legend of Zelda" like adventure for the super spy in 0:42:02 ...  007 in Hyrule ... it a bit of an odd-job.

Up first, we have Transistor, a game that just so happened to be developed by the same company who made one of my all-time favorite XBLA games, Bastion (BTW, it's Supergiant Games in case you were wondering). Seriously though, the reason I mention this is that when you start watching the run, you'll immediately notice just how strikingly similar the two games are. Regardless, they're completely different games apart from some gameplay mechanics. In Transistor, you play as Red, a female protagonist who must destroy an evil robot army. How will she do this? With a magical talking sword of course! Anyway, notable PC runner 'Maik 'Onin' Biekart' brings another one of his runs to SDA, with a single segment with resets run, clocking in at a final time of 0:37:01 minutes.

By now, you've probably watched AT LEAST one Mario run. That little italian guy's been all over the place, havening appeared in just about every videogame genre there is (in fact, the next Call of Duty game will have Mario as a secret playable character, though you didn't hear that from me). But let's game back to the Mario game we have today. New Super Mario Bros. 2 is a sidescrolling platform game released back in 2012 for the 3DS. Plotwise, Princess Peach yadda yadda yadda Bowser is evil yadda yadda yadda let's rescue her! But hey, at least the games are fun as hell. 'Jordan 'Greenalink' Greener' seems to agree, since this his second run of the game, improving his previous run by 21 seconds, with a single segment run using warps, with a final time of 0:26:39.

Last but not least, let's throw a monkey wrench in here and give you a completely unexpected run. Nancy Drew: Message in a Haunted Mansion is your classic point and click mystery game released way back in 2000 for PC, and 2001 for the GBA. Everyone's favorite female detective must investigate an old Victorian Mansion that's under renovation, because apparently some evil spirits got bored and decided to mess with everyone. Realistically, this sounds like a job for the Ghostbusters, but I guess we'll send in an 18 year old amateur detective instead. Runner 'Michael 'arglefumph' Gray' doesn't seem to mind spooky ghosts, and instead, opts to finish the game, or should I say solve the mystery in 0:15:54 minutes, single segment fashion on Senior Detective difficulty no less.

After playing as the descendant of Erdrick in the first Dragon Warrior game, Dragon Warrior III provides all the back story of who Erdrick was, and how he/she got all the cool stuff you eventually find to defeat the Dragonlord. Plus, it added day/night cycles, an open world to explore, full party customization and a class/job changing system that paved the way for future console RPGs. I'm looking at you FF4/FF6! Completing the game in multiple segments, 'Darkwing Duck' defeats Baramos' master Zoma and becomes a true hero in a blazing 23-segment 3:36:27, which is an 1:37:33 improvement over the previous run (using 11 more segments).

Jumping into the future, humans will eventually set up planets with robot manufacturing plants to advance exploration of space. Until along come some aliens to ruin things by reprogramming our own robots to destroy us! Probably through that old OpenSSL Heartbleed thingy we never bothered patching. How did we not see that coming? Anyway, rather than try to fix things, let's send in a guy with questionable jumping skills to just destroy everything! Navigating the Low G Man: The Low Gravity Man through five levels of ridiculous robots, awkward jumping and plenty of spear-thrusting action, 'Zakky the Goatragon' defeats the alien menace 2:38 faster in a single-segment 0:12:54. Be sure to watch the credits afterwards to be taunted about hidden game secrets you may have missed. And check out the run's commentary. SUCCESS!!!

When it comes to the past repeating itself though, Mega Man V is really the Mega Man 3 of the Gameboy world. Why's that? Because all the past unique bosses from the Gameboy Mega Man I-IV games come back for one more round of action, and you get to kill them with unique Planet-based weapons! Like Salt Water! Wait... what? 'MrCab' destroys the StarDroid masters and the Unique Boss Gang (plus Wily, of course!) in a single segment 0:45:21, which is a 1:54 improvement over the previous segmented run.

And for all those with a love of Spoony Bards, there's only a few days left to sign up for the Mysidia Mayhem - Final Fantasy 4 Paladin Race Tournament (details here). It's an individual race from the start of the game until Cecil becomes a Paladin, which covers about the first 25% of the game. With over 50 runners on board to compete so far, it's shaping up to be the NCAA tourney of Final Fantasy 4 racing. Don't forget to fill out your bracket and cheer on your favorite runners to win!

The Settlers III is part of a long-running series of real-time strategy games where you build a town with a working infrastructure and production chains, procuring resources from the vicinity and raising an army to defeat the enemy factions. The third installment lets you play as either the Romans, the Egyptians, the Amazons or the generic "Asians". 'knoll3' commands the mighty Roman empire from victory to victory, his IL runs totalling a 2:18:27. The run is on the German version of the game, which means you can edumicate yourself while you watch.

The 1992 NES game Town & Country II: Thrilla's Surfari: Thrilla's Surfari reminds me of a mellower version of Battletoads with its varied environments and surprisingly varied gameplay. Its setpiece story stars Thrilla Gorilla tasked with saving Barbie Bikini from Wazula the Kahuna. Most of the time this means you need to surf or rollerskate your way through each level, getting any ramp boosts you can with the occasional unintended skip and boss fight thrown in. The runner's ('WhiteHat94') summary: "The run just came down to maximizing speed and avoiding the coconuts". The run, a 0:15:30, seems solid enough.

Released on the SNES in 1993, Miracle Girls is the video game adaptation of a manga by the same name. In it you guide one of two twins, Tomomi or Mikage, through garishly bright scenery akin to Rainbow Islands or Little Nemo: Dream Master. Like Little Nemo, you throw candy at the monsters and get earworms from the upbeatest of beats playing in the background. Despite auto-scrollery minigames (one of which he beats without moving at all), Wesley 'Molotov' Corron decided to grind out a polished 0:18:25 Single Segment run of this game. WARNING: watching it may make you color-blind.

The final run of this update got an excellent verifier respondage (yes that's a word from now on). We've looking at a 0:10:18 completion of Super Turrican for the NES, not to be confused with the one for the SNES. What's special about this somewhat non-linear platformer is it was developed entirely by one person, the creator of the original Turrican and Turrican II which never had NES ports. Instead this game is largely a combination of the predating two. The runner's name is Dylan 'Jorf' Beauchamp. We should all think about it !

We have lots of speedruns coming up and with them new updaters! I'll still be around though, but for now I can go back to Time submitted speedruns, which is what I normally do around here.

Risk of Rain is a game Maik 'Onin' Biekart can't get enough of, and I want to see more speedruns of it. With Providence's shields having a slight malfunction and using the Bandit for some teleportation tricks, 0:09:31, Single Segment, is insane. Downpour difficulty and artifacts were used, but you knew that by now.

Loved System Shock 2 speedruns? While not as glitchy, System Shock provides great entertainment with crappy controls and some unexpected glitches thrown in. If you followed the thread you'd know how much had 'PvtCb' improved from his first run, bringing to the table an impressive 0:32:47, played as Single Segment with Resets and Deaths.

Alien Swarm is a 4 player game, and anyone can testify that playing on the Brutal difficulty is pretty harsh. Now you're probably wondering why only Maik 'Onin' Biekart's name is up, and that is because he played all levels of this game by himself. I believe it has to do with the need to make this brutal difficulty that much more difficult. So a single player against a horde of aliens meant for 4 players done in 0:12:23? Yes please.

Malkil returns in Ironsword: Wizards & Warriors II and attempts to wreck havoc using the four elements. Thankfully glitches that allow you to preserve your magic between levels were found, which makes this game easier(?). 'deg222' finishes in 0:08:44, improving the 5 year old run by 2:12 minutes.

One of the more popular RPGs is Secret of Mana, which has a deep storyline that can last for many hours. At least that's what 'Overfiendvip' is being told, mainly because he skips all of that and completes the game in 0:06:47 with Uber-Large Skips glitches.