Doing this run taught me a few things. First, don't ever assume you can immediately do better than somebody. Being able to beat Megafrost's old run was far harder than I expected it to be. Kudos to him. Second, be careful about your goddamn videos. Long story short, I had two other runs (worse than this one, but still) that had mishaps with the video files. Third, no matter how good a run is, there's a high chance it will have some dumb fucking mistake in it that looks terrible. This one had two, both of them on bosses, though one of them was arguably not my fault, so whatever. I still reached my goal, and all that means to me is that I might have been aiming too low. Do I think sub-42 is possible? Yes. Do I want to try it right now? Fuck that, my hands need a break.

This run is in many ways more polished than the death skip run, simply because I've had more practice and time to smooth out some of the trouble spots. There are a few tricks I like to do that didn't work out in this run, but enough things went right that I met my goal. I also got insanely lucky on the level 5 boss, even moreso than the death run, but it got somewhat offset by the terrible performances on the level 6 and 7 bosses, though the level 6 boss was arguably random and not my fault. There's a certain reliance on luck for hover drops, but I'm able to allay that somewhat by knowing which enemies I can kill that will cause the lowest amount of delay. I've had more than a few runs die simply because those same enemies were stingy with drops and I couldn't collect enough by the time I made it to where I needed it. If I ever had to stop to 'farm' that was a reset. I still didn't have enough for a few spots to use little time saving tricks in levels 6 and 7, but there's only so much I can do about that, and they mostly save only about a second each anyway.

Now, let's have a detailed breakdown:

• Start -> Boss 1: I clipped a block I didn't mean to, but even with that I'm still a hair faster than the death run. My path through the boss tunnel is a little more optimized, but I had a tiny hitch on the boss itself. I end up being a fraction of a second faster than the death run overall, and two seconds ahead of the old run.

• Boss 1 -> Level 2: I've optimized the path here a little more, and I've figured out a more reliable way to quickly kill the gate guard. This went even better than normal. Two seconds faster than the death run, 7 seconds faster than the old deathless run.

• Level 2 -> Boss 2: I don't know what it is. I had a ton of little errors in this run that I normally don't make, and I STILL end up saving another second through the tank area over the death run. Unlike the death run I have to kill a couple extra enemies here in hopes for a hover drop, and NEITHER of them coughs up this time. This almost never happens, but it's not a reset inducer. Maybe it should be. Then I get a little overeager on the boss and lose about half a second by hitting pause too early. Still 15 seconds ahead of the old run by now.

• Boss 2 -> Level 3: Nearly flawless. Other than crashing into the bee the only way this can go better is if I get fewer power drops (drops cause lag, lag causes slowdown, slowdown makes me break controllers in frustration).

• Level 3 -> Boss 3: My missile usage is far different than the death run for a couple of reasons: I have to save some for the trip back, and I have to kill different enemies for hover drops. Avoiding the two crescent enemies rather than killing them is a risky manuveur, if they shoot at the wrong time they can knock you down an entire screen length. When that happens I reset. But it saves 6 missiles and is faster, so I do it that way now. Getting smacked by the diving orb was embarassing, but everything else had been going so well I let it slide. Then everything in the next room was conspiring against me, including the pod droppers glitching out in a bad way. You'll know it when you see it. By the time I reach the boss door, even with a couple minor detours to gather some hover, I'm four seconds ahead of the death run, and sixteen ahead of the old run. The boss fight, on the other hand, was way messier than I like. Something has to offset the good parts, right?

• Boss 3 -> Level 4: I have one fewer bar of hover than I require to make it up to level 4, but I decided I would not at any point in the run stop to farm sine fliers. I also forgot to switch to Homing Missiles by the time I got to level 1, so I lost a bit of time in the mine room, but nothing that bad, except for the fact that it's the first time I screw up the door transition in the run. Every one has to have at least one of those, it's some kind of law. Thankfully the final turret drops hover, so the run is saved. If it hadn't, and I hadn't just happened to get some on the way over to the ledge from a flier that flew in just the right way (pretty much never happens, and it didn't here either), I would have had to reset.

• Level 4 -> Boss 4: Not much to say here. I like to try to pick up an orb or two of hover just passing through, for later, but it doesn't happen here. When I reach the boss I peek at my recording time, I have some milestones I compare against to make sure things have been going as well as I hoped. I was ten seconds ahead of that milestone. Boss goes down without a fight, flawless execution.

• Boss 4 -> Level 5: Let me just say that that orb that knocks me down NEVER does that. Other than that it went damn near flawless. This is my last real opportunity to pick up any hover, and I have to have at least 2 for Level 8. If I can pick up more than that, I can use it in various spots in 6 and 7 for minor time savers, but it is never worth stopping to pick it up. Unfortunately, I only get the one, and I have to save it for level 8. By the time I reach level 5, I am a minute and fifteen seconds ahead of the old run.

• Level 5 -> Boss 5: Not the best run to the boss door, but it went off fairly well. I'm trying to reduce lag as much as I can because the fish and the shells can cause some pretty horrific slowdown. It doesn't always work out perfectly. Unlike the death run I have to be somewhat more careful about my health here, because I still have to swim BACK afterwards. Hence you see me dodging stuff I otherwise wouldn't. Right before I reach the boss door I do a little dance to make sure as much stuff is dead as I can manage, because I'm paranoid about the boss failing to spawn because there's too much still alive in the previous rooms. It has happened at least five times now, and this run had been going well so I wasn't about to let that happen again. The boss itself went phenominally, I have never seen him hold still that long. It took a mere 24 seconds, and I consider 45 to be acceptable. I was nearly a minute ahead of my milestone just from that.

• Boss 5 -> Level 6: This is frequently the section I end up hating the most out of any of my attempts. It's difficult and risky, with some randomness tossed in. I'm usually low on health so I end up trying to be more careful. And just to top it off, I screw up getting back in the tank. Once I get back to the tank I'm pretty much home free, and it's just a matter of doing the next section without fucking up too much. Which, unfortunately, I don't really do all that well. Still a minute and a half ahead by now.

• Level 6 -> Boss 6: Went about as well as I can expect it to considering I don't have the hover necessary for my little time savers. That section with the ice platforms hanging from the ceiling is one of those moments when my heart always skips a beat as I'm attempting it. I've fallen down more times than I care to think about, but it's far faster than being careful and taking the high route. Boss section went fine, but of course, he glitches out and doesn't die right away, as if to say 'fuck you, you thought you got lucky? have some bug-induced bullshit time wasters!' Goddammit. I lost at least 15 seconds just because of that.

• Boss 6 -> Level 7: A slip of the finger causes me to burn some Hover by mistake. Other than that pretty uneventful, went fine other than a bad jump or two. I was hoping for an orb of hover from the turret, but no dice. Watching this again I can see a couple spots where I probably should have killed enemies with homing missiles to reduce lag, but ad-libbing always works out terribly for me.

• Level 7 -> Boss 7: Jumped down the wrong hole in the first room, and the missiles do some unexpected things to me in the second room, but the rest of the level went pretty damn good so I can't complain too much. I even made that jump in the middle! I still haven't reached the point where I'm comfortable doing the slime skips faster, but it only loses a few seconds and it's insanely risky doing it the other way (Ninja Gaiden 6-2 damage boost levels of risky, or at least it sure feels like it). But then I lose at least 10 seconds on the boss because I fuck up the grenade trick. I've only screwed up that badly two other times I can recollect. All other things being equal, between this and the level 6 boss glitching out on me, this run would have been below 42 minutes. Dammit. Just to compound that terribleness, I must have been cussing too hard to realize I needed to, you know, move into the powerup. Whoops.

• Boss 7 -> Level 8: I jump a little too early on the way back and miss the one corner jump, but I nail the second one. I don't even know what the fuck happened in level 2, I have never done that before. I must have still been flustered from my horrible boss 7 fight. Level 3 went alright, I was trying to get some health back for level 8 but the caterpillars were being stingy.

• Level 8 -> Boss 8: Two notches of health left. Jumping through the spikes saves at least 20 seconds. Do I do it? Do I risk it? Fuck it, I can't take any more terribleness in this run. I still cannot believe it didn't kill me. Then the caterpillar at the end of the 'room of death'. Then a bomb in the intestine room. This level had far too many points where I should have died, but I must have had the tiniest sliver of health left and managed to stay alive. If that second bee hadn't dropped health... (The game rounds the display down, if that wasn't obvious.) My heart was doing cartwheels by the time I made it to the boss door. Somehow I managed to have an actual decent run through the blocks, despite that.

• Final: The face boss wasn't the best, but it did well enough. There's a fair degree of luck as to where the blob-disc-things bounce, so there's only so much you can do about it. Final boss goes off damn near perfect. Boom. Splat. Win. Victory shout that pierces the heavens. Good night.

Hope you enjoyed it!

I've been playing this game for near on twenty years and it still manages to surprise me now and again. Discovery of some random new bug or trick that I'd never run across before. Also, it's my favorite game ever and I am pissed that it never got a sequel worth a shit.

Several weeks ago after watching the current (deathless) run on SDA, I decided that this game needed a death run. It also needed a run that didn't take so much time guarding its gun power like it was crack cocaine. Don't get me wrong, Megafrost's 44:09 run is very impressive and it's obviously well practiced, but I knew I could do better.

Cue two weeks of me struggling to beat any of his section times, followed by another of continuously dying to the level 5 boss. This would be harder than I initially thought. So I started keeping track of my times. I saw continuous improvement, eventually in some run somewhere beating every section of the old run by at least a second or two. My initial goal of sub-38 seemed like it was aiming too low, so I started thinking 37:2x or lower would be what I should shoot for.

This run is the result. This run broke several of my section records, including three(!) fastest boss kills, one of which is actually faster than the current TAS (which to be fair is old and somewhat unoptimized). I'm still not happy with a few sections, notably the second half of level 8, but my hands were not doing what I wanted them to do. I managed to get them under control for the final two boss fights, so that partially makes up for it.

I'm going to take a break from running this for at least a week or so, and just play the game normally a few times.

And then I'm going after the deathless run. I'm thinking 42:2x or lower.

Level Comments:

• Start -> Boss 1:

  The initial tank section as well as the boss section are both barely slower than my best. The boss kill itself is my fastest ever, and only a fraction of a second slower than the current run. I can't make his strategy work and this vexes me. I'm still two seconds ahead either way.

• Boss 1 -> Level 2:

  The gate guardian did not want to cooperate, causing me to lose about a second. Sometimes the missiles I fire don't do enough damage. It's very weird. I still gain two more seconds over the current run.

• Level 2 -> Boss 2:

  The tank section went very cleanly, except for fucking up one of the door transitions. If I hadn't messed that part up, it would have been a section record for me. As is, it's still faster than the current run, though barely. In the boss section I lose about a second because of not hitting the pause button at the right times. The boss itself goes down super quick, for obvious reasons.

• Boss 2 -> Level 3:

  Nearly went off perfectly, and then I COMPLETELY SPACE doing the pause trick at the final door. Loses about half a second. Goddammit.

• Level 3 -> Boss 3:

  The tank section of this level went off terribly. Not one of my better runs through this section in the least. I've done this part close to 5 seconds faster. I ALMOST nailed that room with the bomb throwers, but did the second shot just a hair too late and had to avoid a bomb instead. Then I get a ton of lag because of sine fliers near the middle, and then a turret fucks up one of my jumps. And then an orb that I missed the shot on fucks up another jump. Everything was conspiring against me. Also, I'm missing a missile here because of the gate guardian, so the red dropper near the end of this section that I normally kill had to be left alive for me to crash into it instead. And then I miss my final missile shot, causing me to eat a bomb in the face. And then I miss one last jump. Thankfully, the boss section went off very well and the boss kill, sloppy as it might look, went off fairly quickly as well.

• Boss 3 -> Level 4:

  The first instance of death warping I use in this run. Saves about a minute of running back up through level 3. The run through level 2 went very cleanly, and the stars were with me for level 1 as I was quickly awarded the hover I needed to climb the ledge. I had a bit of a brain fart here and grabbed the extra hover, costing me a second or two, but I was thinking 'INSURANCE'. Ended up being a complete waste, oh well.

• Level 4 -> Boss 4:

  Tank section went damn nice, accidentally clipped three corners and hesitated on the final hover flight because of the flier in my way, or it would have been a personal record. Boss section and boss kill both went off nearly flawlessly.

• Boss 4 -> Level 5:

  More death skips. Saves a minute and a half of climbing out of the sewer.

  Goddammit I forgot to do the death in the second room so I had to do it in the gate room instead. Cost me about a second, maybe less. The reason I do it here is because once I kill the level 5 boss there's no quick way to kill myself so I want to be as close to a continue as possible.

• Level 5 -> Boss 5:

  Swimming section went off damn near perfect, my record is a half a second faster. In the boss section I fucked up that door transition BADLY, biffing it twice and then whiffing it. Fuck my nervous fingers. But then I made up for in spades with my fastest boss kill ever, by three and a half seconds. I would just like to point out that this kill is only two and a half seconds slower than the existing run, and the existing run takes around a minute avoiding damage to save gun power purely for this fight.

• Boss 5 -> Level 6:

  Suicide on the gumdrops to avoid having to back track through the entire level and a side tunnel they made just for this purpose. Saves almost three minutes.

• Level 6 -> Boss 6:

  If you have no forward momentum, jumping is always faster than simply trying to accelerate on the ice. Only a couple hitches on the way through the tank section, missing a jump or two because of the ice. That mine that I shoot makes me paranoid as fuck, because it has knocked me down more than once. Definitely something I'd like to improve. Goddamn randomass thunder crash missed the caterpillars, too. The final block climb could have gone a bit smoother, too. The boss section went off pretty well, the only thing I didn't do quite as well as I normally do being that ice slide near the end. Then I lost a few seconds on the boss itself by fucking up the grenade trick. Then he doesn't die right away, so I pause the game a couple of times. This seems to happen when the game is lagging up so pausing it helps it 'catch up', so to speak.

• Boss 6 -> Level 7:

  6->5, 5->4, and 4->1 all went very well, 4->1 being a section record for me. 1->2 had a bad slip because I got knocked into whatever that shit is in the bottom of the first room, and then that bomb that I was trying to avoid hit me anyway. I was very nervous by the time I got back to level 2, and you can see me waste a bit of time trying to collect some health. Altogether I lost about 7 seconds on the trek to level 7, compared to my best.

• Level 7 -> Boss 7:

  Goddamn sine fliers and their goddamn lag and their goddamn unpredictability and FUCK.

  I'm not happy with my performance in the first and second block rooms, and that jump that I miss in the middle is my fucking bane. I think I have made that jump exactly one time. Oddly enough, I still set a personal section record here. The final room went off goddamn near perfect. The boss section could go a little faster but this is another one of those spots where I am paranoid as fuck and not as comfortable as I should be with the timing. I could improve this part by a couple of seconds. The boss fight went flawless, nearly a personal record.

• Boss 7 -> Level 8:

  More death skips, saves about a minute. I pause on the way back up the second room in level 2 in hopes of getting a Hover powerup from the red caterpillar, but the stars have left me it seems. This made it so I had to farm for a short bit in level 3, as well as fucking up a couple of jumps and losing a bit of time. Thankfully the farming does not take long, and of COURSE the final turret gives me another hover power. I don't feel comfortable going into level 8 with any less than 2, and that's pushing it.

• Level 8 -> Boss 8:

  I would just like to say that the way the game handles driving over ledges once you get the ceiling climber is my biggest complaint about this game. I hate it and I wish you could turn it off. I nearly died in the spike room from trying to rush through, and then waste a bit of time being paranoid and trying to get some health back so the red skulls in the second to last room don't kill me. To say that I was nervous is an understatement. And then my hands just completely go off and do their own thing in the boss section, with a terrible goddamn performance shooting my way up to the final boss room. Level 8 is the worst part of this run, but still beats the old run by over 15 seconds if you take out the time I had to spend farming hover. All told I probably lost about 15 seconds between the spike room and the final boss room, compared to what I have pulled off in the past.

• Boss 8:

  My fastest kill on this boss ever, the stars have come back to me it seems. I would like to point out that it is faster than the current TAS by a half a second.

• Final Boss:

  I lose about a second trying to get him into a good position, but once I do he goes down like a sack of cheap bricks. Hurray for exploitable AI.

Play time: 36:59