First off I have to thank sdkess for his speedrun which preceded mine. If it wasn't for that I may never have made this run.

To achieve this run I first practiced Metroid on an emulator extensively. I tested new strats and such and came up with very specific ways to handle each part of the run and then practiced them over and over with the use of save states.

For the section from the start up to the bombs this run was pretty standard for me, maybe slightly better than average on speed. I think the only significant time delay was falling into the acid once near the first energy tank. After getting the bombs though this run started to go from normal to extraordinary!

I was so fortunate to get 3 missile pick ups so soon after getting bombs. I got the 5 necessary missiles even before killing the last zoomer in room after the bombs. I estimate the odds of getting this lucky on the missiles about at 10%. Normally I would only have 2 missiles at this point and I would kill the enemies I picked out to be the most convenient on the way to the ice beam. Doing this would usually add on about 10 seconds.

After getting the ice beam I was again blessed with extremely lucky/early missiles pick ups. This was earliest I ever got 5 missiles after the ice beam out of about 20 tries. Getting them this early saved about 10 seconds compared to the average run again I'd say.

The run went pretty standard up to right before Kraid. Here the run went from my luckiest run to straight ridiculous. I got missiles on all of the first 3 enemies I killed, the luckiest possible scenario for my strat. This saved about 8 seconds compared to the average run I'd say.

Kraid will always move forward a bit when you first enter, sometimes he stops and moves back, the much preferred scenario, and sometime he continues moving forward until he's almost at the end of the room, what he did in my run. My plan for this scenario is to jump over him, then dodge the first couple spikes, then freeze the middle one close to the left side but not too close. So I didn't dodge the first couple spikes (or was it the flying bananas?) too well and got knocked into the acid. I was lucky enough not to get knocked back in after bomb boosting out. I froze the middle spike a bit further to the right then I would like but still worked out. To fire as fast as I did at Kraid I hold the fire button down and then either spam select or the direction towards Kraid. It was around right after killing Kraid that I realized how epically good/lucky my run was up to this point. This of course put quite of bit of pressure on me. I was thinking I just had to do a decent run from here on out and it would still be a great time.

I do a faster technique for getting up the vertical column after Kraid. You may notice that I pause for awhile after jumping up each segment after the first two. This is because if you take out too many of the wall chunks at a time (i.e. go too quickly) bad things will happen; specifically, when you shoot a wall chunk it may not disappear. This happened once too me, or much worse, you will take damage from seemingly nothing and get knocked off the wall usually.

After coming up from the column that leads to Kraid's lair I kill the purple zoomer and get what ever item it leaves behind, if any, so that the enemies in the rooms to follow will be in a more speed friendly setup; specifically the zoomers in the long blue column. I do the part leading up the blue column in a very specific manner to get these zoomers set up better.

The run went pretty well into Tourian. Most notably the shortcut to Tourian went just right, if you mess that up you can lose some serious time which I nearly did. Tourian went farily normal until I got to the last row. I was so worried about messing up the run and thinking about other things I forgot what I was doing at the part were 3 metroids in close proximity to each other. I had this strat all planed and practiced where I would jump and freeze the first metroid, then land on it, then lure next 2 at the same time and freeze them together up there, then kill them both together. However, I completely wasn't thinking and botched that part horribly; I was lucky not to get drained. For the next two metroids I again had a strat planed and practiced to set up a two metroids for five missiles, but messed up because I was so nervous and was again lucky not to get drained. So now I knew I had 1 more chance at two metroids to give me missiles. This run felt so divine or something to this point I almost excepted the next two metroids to cough up the missiles, and they did! If they didn't my strat was to run to the far left then back to the right and sit up a 2 metroid kill there and continue until I got the missiles.

I think the Zeebetie room is the only major downfall to this run. I was just so nervous during this part I didn't do it very well. It wasn't terrible but it could be quite a bit faster. Overall I'm really pleased with run. The missile pick ups were just so lucky and it was pretty good run on top of that.

Very little to be improved here. Metroid is my favorite video game and I've played it on and off basically since it was released. Thanks to my friend Jared Smith for encouraging me to achieve my original one-miniboss record at Twin Galaxies and therefore serving as an indirect inspiration for this record. Also, special thanks to the band Hella, who often provided an appropriately otherworldly soundtrack to my long and numerous practice sessions.

I'm still not exactly sure what prompted me to do this run, but here it is. 100% item collection in under 53 minutes (Timed on a stopwatch at 52:23).

BRINSTAR 1
This was the main place I used "Spawn Manipulation." The first was in the second hallway (with the 2 Skrees). I killed both Skrees to make sure that the next 3 Skrees would spawn, which in turn causes the Geemer in the narrow passage to not appear.

The next was for the second blue hallway. In the gold shaft, I kill 4 Geemers. There was a fifth one I could kill that would have saved maybe a second, but I jumped around it instead. This makes the 2 Wavers in the second blue hallway spawn in a manner that's easy to dodge.

The last main one was used for the gold shaft near the Bombs. I'm not exactly sure on the spawn here, but I know as long as the Geemer doesn't appear just outside the hallway leading to the Bombs, the Waver will appear with the 3 Rippers above.

The route through here is the same as Red Scarlet's, but instead of using Door Jumping to get up to Varia, I used a Double-Bomb-Jump Jump.

NORFAIR 1
My route here is also identical to Scarlet's, except that I use an Unmorph Jump to jump "through" the blocks leading up to the Screw Attack.

I also attempt to Double-Bomb-Jump Jump up to ledges in a few places, but only managed to pull it off correctly once.

RIDLEY'S HIDEOUT
Again, same path as Scarlet. Fortunately, for me, Ridley's Fireballs were flying far, which meant I could just stand next to him and fire away. I think I should have been collecting more Missile refills on the way here as well.

After running out of Missiles, I switch to "Rapid Firing" the Wave Beam. By "Rapid Fire" I mean that I hold the fire button down, and repeatedly tap left against the platform. This gives me one shot for every press and depress of the left button, doubling my normal firing rate.

NORFAIR 2
Coming out of Ridley's Hideout I screwed up Block Jumping up to the door in that first shaft. I hate trying to do that with the Wave Beam.

The only things left to collect are the Ice Beam, the 5 Missile cluster, and the 2 Missiles to the left of the entrance. I use some more Unmoprh Jumping to get through the blocks in the main shaft.

When I get to the top, I go the back way to the Ice Beam instead of Bomb Jumping in from the front. I didn't really notice that big of a speed difference.

BRINSTAR 2
Just grab the Energy Tank back near the beginning. Though I didn't shoot high enough the first time to open the hole the Tank is in the first time.

KRAID'S HIDEOUT
I used a completely different route from Scarlet. At the first juncture, I went left to the Missiles, and then to the long drop shaft.

From there I grabbed the Missiles to the right, and Bombed down in the Blue room and went right, past Fake Kraid (although, I've never seen him move that far left before...kind of disoriented me) and Bombed down through the Green room.

Kraid himself cooperated. I just freeze the middle piece of lint, press myself up against him, and fire away. I grabbed the Energy Tank in here afterwards.

I'm calling this next area the Block Shaft. You know which one I mean...the shaft with the tall pillar of breakable blocks. Yeah, I hate this shaft. I took it a little slow to make sure I didn't fall. I also want to know what the hell hit me when I was a few screens up from the door.

I grabbed the Missiles off to the side of the Block Shaft next, then went back to the main shaft and used a Midair Unmorph Jump to get across without having to freeze Rippers. Then I grabbed the Energy and Missile tank behind the Red Doors

BRINSTAR 3
I just grab the Long Beam then head to Tourian...though my ascent of the two Blue shafts was a little off...

TOURIAN
This went quite well all the way up to Mother Brain herself. The only mishaps that occurred were the fall into the Magma in front of Mother Brain, and the couple missed jumps during the Escape.