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News from April through June, 2015. [Newer | Older]

Saturday, June 27, 2015 by wickedcodeferret

Blast From the Past!

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!

Thursday, June 25, 2015 by LotBlind

The Super Country Girls are Getting Settled III

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 !

Tuesday, June 23, 2015 by IsraeliRD

Zerg rush

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.

Wednesday, June 17, 2015 by IsraeliRD

Preserving skips

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.

Sunday, June 7, 2015 by IsraeliRD

The Devil is in the details

The Half-Life fans will be happy to see they get a couple of runs today, both from Half-Life: Blue Shift. Paul 'PJC' Connolly provides us an 8 seconds improvement to the Easy difficulty Single Segment run, clocking in at 0:28:25. The second run is for the Hazard Course training level. Unlike the original Hazard Course from Half-Life you get a slightly modified version with much longer speeches. Passing his time on Easy difficulty Paul 'PJC' Connolly wraps this up in 0:03:40, Single Segment.

After 6.5 years we now have to depart from Siyko's legendary 100% Diablo II: Lord of Destruction run. Using 161 segments (11 more than Siyko), Pascal 'Teo-' Fischer brings us a mind-boggling 1:38 hours improvement to the 100% run as the Sorceress. RNG manipulation is extreme, item management is well thought of, execution is unreal and seeing it in 2:43:59 is, well... why aren't you watching this already?

Tuesday, June 2, 2015 by IsraeliRD

Sackboy fantasies

I google'd it and wasn't disappointed.

It's been half a year since LittleBigPlanet featured around here. If it wasn't glitching the game or ILs there wasn't much interest in doing full-game runs, until today. Tad 'RabidJellyfish' Cordle shows off some serious skills pulling off a Single Segment run of all levels, clocking in at 0:55:20.

If the RPG Limit Break marathon left you wanting more, then you're going to get just that. The first title is Final Fantasy Tactics, where apparently knowing your arthematics and using your trusty TI-83 wreck havoc. John 'chessjerk' Kearsley IV tackles his previous run from 3.5 years ago and finishes in 3:33:15, using 30 segments. This is one segment less and 49 minutes faster.

The second one is Final Fantasy XII, which introduces better battle and customizable gambit systems, new license and camera systems and the ability to skip cutscenes. Take that Half-Life! William 'Youkai' Welch systematically improved his previous run, using 22 segments and finishing in 6:08:54. This run is 26:23 minutes faster and uses 18 less segments. Audio commentary is included.

If you remember the SDA staff have asked for volunteers to write for the front page and we received a fair amount of applications. These are now closed and we will be getting new people soon enough :) Thanks to all those who volunteered!

Thursday, May 28, 2015 by IsraeliRD

Mainly sports themed update

Normally when we receive racing games, most of us would imagine it to be a Mario Kart game. Today however we get Gran Turismo, a series popular by its own right. 'Meesbaker' firstly completes getting all the licences swiftly and then smashes through the GT League in 1:39:51, Single Segment on the European version.

Another sports game for you today comes in the form of Trials Evolution: Gold Edition, where you get to break your neck riding a motorcycle in a variety of fun ways. Because this is normally an individual-level game, seeing 'TheBlazeJp' put together a Single Segment clocking in at 0:50:10 makes this quite the achievement.

While not a sports game per-se, Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath HD features a lot of running and dashing, along with plenty of shooting using unconventional weaponry in the form of insects and small mammals. 'TheOddgamer' takes the HD version and gets all bounties done in 1:41:39, using 7 segments.

Saturday, May 9, 2015 by IsraeliRD

More improvements!

This time to shorter runs.

It hasn't even been two months since Half-Life last appeared here, and we already have an improvement to an already short Hazard Course run. Max 'coolkid' Lundberg shaves 8 seconds off the run to clock in at 0:02:49, Single Segment.

Ikari Warriors II: Victory Road continues where the first game left-off, where the heroes return to their homeland only to be zoomed thousands of years into the future where Zang Zip has taken over. Playing on the (better) NES version of the game, 'ktwo' beats the game in 0:07:58, a 49 seconds improvement over the last run.

Wednesday, May 6, 2015 by IsraeliRD

Got a good run? Improve it!

FEZ is a cool indie puzzle platform game where you play in 2D on one of four sides of a 3D world. There are no enemies or bosses here but it has left you wondering whether the puzzles you meet are actually decipherable. Personally I am not sure I would be able to solve a QR code puzzle without the app on my phone. Gaétan 'Gyoo' Young improves his previous run by 1:30 minutes, down to 0:29:25, Single Segment.

If you enjoyed the Gauntlet series then you'd be happy to see a run for Gauntlet Legends. A corrupt mage summoned a demon who in turn imprisoned his soul in the underworld, and you need to banish the demon back. 'Boyo003' returns to his previous run as well, massively improving by 30:31 minutes and clocking in at 1:10:19, playing as the Archer on Expert difficulty, Single Segment. Unlike his previous run 'Boyo003' gave us author's comments, and added in audio commentary to the run.

Monday, May 4, 2015 by IsraeliRD

Welcome To Hotel Kique-Asse

If you haven't had enough of Quake then you'll be happy to hear there is a new update on the Quake section. In short the improvements are: Easy marathon run, nightmare 100% e2m2, hip2m3, ep1 Easy marathon, 2-player Easy run of ep3, and couple customs: Dude, Where's My Sewage? and For My Babies 6. The last two should be reused for a news post title for being that random.

As you might have noticed, we're a little short-staffed these days, especially on the front page. We're looking for 3-4 new team members interested in join us in producing front page news updates. In this position, your responsibilities would include writing news about runs that are ready to be posted, writing game descriptions for game pages, and/or writing about the latest speedrunning community news. Knowledge of English is important, but English does not need to be your first language (coughmecough).

If you're interested in helping out, are up to date with the speedrunning community, and have some history with SDA, please drop me a line by PMing me on the forums.

Wednesday, April 29, 2015 by IsraeliRD

Games with numbers

Ever played as a goat? I'd imagine you'd graze grass all day but apparently it gets more exciting than that in Escape Goat 2! Your task is to become the first goat in history to make it through the Stronghold of Toragos. 'StingerPA' finds the fastest path through the fortress and beats the game in 0:13:39, Single Segment.

'footbigmike' returns with a new speedrun to Bomberman 64, this time around he tackles the slightly more difficult 100% category on the Japanese version, and beats it in 1:27:26, Single Segment.

Sunday, April 26, 2015 by IsraeliRD

New runs for old games

Everyone knows Myst, right? The original was probably the best but it had lots of remakes and ports and some didn't do the game justice (3DS anyone?). Andrew 'eLeveN' Buckman tackles the 100% category on the realMyst version and beats the game in 0:28:20, Single Segment.

Not everyone, however, would know about Cadash. The Balrog, a powerful demonic wizard promised his fellow demons that if they rise up against humanity they would take over the planet, and centuries afterwards they have nearly successfully done so. To complete that process, The Balrog also kidnapped a princess (couldn't guess that). 'Pasky' comes in to undo the centuries of the uprising in 0:26:10, playing as the Ninja in Single Segment.

A tad late but a few weeks ago Radix posted a new Quake update and I highly recommend you check it out. It has 28 new demos for you to watch and should quench some of your Quake speedrunning thirst. In addition to that 'ikk' is a fan of Quake speedruns and he made a topic where he records demos and uploads to YouTube for your viewing pleasure. You should ask him to make a few videos... maybe a couple thousand?

Wednesday, April 22, 2015 by IsraeliRD & UraniumAnchor

Alone in the Dark

I have to disagree. Most of the game is lit up.

To prove that, here are not one but two speedruns from the series: Alone in the Dark and Alone in the Dark 2. In the first game Edward Carnby is sent to retrieve a piano which may contain a secret that explains why did its owner commit suicide, and instead finds lots of monsters and puzzles to solve. Alexis 'NHG' Gabaig skips quite a lot of the game and beats it in 0:09:27, Single Segment. In the sequel we have the mystery of why did the developers remove most of the horror theme of the first game and make a shitty sequel. Unfortunately we may not get an answer but according to Alexis 'NHG' Gabaig it's more interesting to speedrun than the first one. Go figure. The run being presented to you today clocks at 0:24:40, Single Segment.

Patrick 'PJ' DiCesare has questionable taste in a lot of things (such as music, judging by some of the stuff he wrote for this next run) but his skills at speedruns are very much unquestionable. Today we give you a mighty 0:18:22 on the PC version of Bionic Commando: Rearmed, which is even more broken than the console version because of strange physics tricks that can be done when manipulating the framerate at certain points. Why games continue to use variable-step physics is something I'll never understand, but when it means that the run can be made significantly shorter (if harder because of the lack of a certain weapon) then I suppose I can live with it.

Saturday, April 18, 2015 by IsraeliRD

Let's Get Serious

Apparently things broke with the last Serious Sam update due to archive.org and our scripts not playing nice, so we'll patch them up today. If you haven't had enough of Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter then Nikita 'Tezur0' Buriak submitted two improvements for the Individual Levels table, pushing it to 0:37:23 which is 0:02:11 faster since the last news update. We have Oasis in 0:00:46, a 0:01:20 improvement and Metropolis in 0:06:35, a 0:00:51 improvement. If you're too lazy to scroll down, then here's the previously posted Moon Mountains in 0:01:05 from Yoann 'Yoyoshi' Decamps. At this time of writing Moon Mountains flash player is buggy, but you can still download via dl and archive without problems.

It doesn't feel like 5 months since Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers last appeared on the front page. 'philosoraptor42' keeps improving the 100% category and gives us an 18 seconds improvement, bringing the time down to 0:13:13.

Adding a new ending to Clock Tower is always good to have (although most may be similar). Playing fully through the game and grabbing the elusive S Ending is Lawrence 'playe' Palmiter, who lets Ann die instead of Laura. We're sorry Ann (and her fans), but watching you die is half a minute faster and frankly we're on a tight schedule to escape today in 0:20:57.

To continue on the horror theme I have a new game for you to watch, The Cat Lady. Susan Ashworth is chronically depressed and her only companions are stray cats that she is able to summon by playing her piano. After one night where she commits suicide, the Queen of Maggots sends her back to the living world as an immortal and gives her the task to get rid of five psychopaths. Andrew 'Bigmanjapan' Bondarenko plays through this interesting game in 1:45:57, Single Segment.

Wednesday, April 15, 2015 by IsraeliRD

Laughter

They say it's the best cure. Both games below are attempting to be humoristic, so we might help a few of you today.

Years after the first game The Legend of Kyrandia 2: Hand of Fate takes place where Zanthia, a young female alchemist and wizard, finds that the Kingdom of Kyrandia is disappearing piece by piece. The Mystics hold a meeting and The Hand (a giant glove with supposedly no relation to Master Hand) gives Zanthia the task to obtain a magic anchor stone from the centre of the world. Andrew 'Bigmanjapan' Bondarenko helps Zanthia on her quest for a new wardrobe (and save Kyrandia, can't forget that) in 0:31:56, Single Segment.

There are quite a few metroidvania inspired games, and today we have a run for Magicians and Looters. Unlike most games in this style it differs in its very funny yet silly dialogue, having several characters with their own abilities and items, and an ability to throw fruit at enemies. 'Uraj' runs through the many enemy mobs to beat the game in 0:34:13, Single Segment.

Saturday, April 11, 2015 by UraniumAnchor

A Long Time Coming

Travis 'Klaige' Nible has long been threatening (or promising, depending on your perspective) that he'd be revisiting Castlevania Bloodlines and pushing the John Morris category (aka whip guy) under half an hour. A couple of months back I was fortunate enough to catch his 0:29:50 live, and I'm pretty sure I heard his victory yell across three states. Trust me when I say it's fantastic. And as a bonus, it's got not one, but TWO audio commentary tracks. If you haven't already seen it on his Twitch channel, what are you waiting for?

Wednesday, April 8, 2015 by IsraeliRD

Level Select

I got good levels for you to play on your favorite media player.

Are you a power-hungry Shaman? Are other tribes keeping you away from becoming a God? Do you like killing mercilessly using supernatural disasters? If you answered yes to all questions, then Populous: The Beginning is the game for you! You play as a female Shaman and you take your tribe to battle against three other tribes who simply wish to remove you from existence. Battling on 25 different planets is 'Grubby Hour' who dismantles everything in his path using some crazy routes and blessing from the God of RNG, in 2:39:18.

If you enjoy plain good kills with something that resembles a storyline then I have Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter, which today sees a 21 seconds improvement in its Individual Levels list, which now stands at 0:39:34. Yoann 'Yoyoshi' Decamps speedran Moon Mountains and got 0:01:05, tourist difficulty.

It is not often we see two speedruns for the same game in one update, but guess you get lucky today. The game in question is Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2. This "part sequel, part prequel" game sees the Rainbow team on the hunt after terrorists with chemical bombs, but as it turns out the mastermind is an ex-Rainbow team member who is a bit full of himself. 'Soliduz Znake' plays the game on the PS3 version, and achieves a time of 1:49:35. Tim 'Judgy' Kedge plays on the PC version, netting a time of 1:16:11. Both runs are on the Casual difficulty.

Saturday, April 4, 2015 by IsraeliRD

Detective Weekend

Take out your magnifying glass, we're going on a search for clues in this novel!

One of the best female detectives around is Nancy Drew, gaining worldwide fame for solving crimes, especially murders, thanks to her cunning ability to interrogate suspects, solve puzzles and discover clues. It is as such no surprise as to why she visits us today. Crimes have been committed in both Nancy Drew: Labyrinth of Lies and Nancy Drew: The Deadly Device. Unfortunately she is on a tight weekend (Easter and all, ya'know) so she needed some additional help. Joining forces with her is Michael 'arglefumph' Gray who seems to know what he is doing, able to solve mind-boggling puzzles and go directly to where he needs to be every time... suspicious. On The Deadly Device Niko Jovic was found fatally electrocuted and with his tech worth millions, some people could play a hand in his untimely demise. Michael 'arglefumph' Gray catches his or her murderer in 0:34:40, done in 10 segments. Paying attention to Labyrinth of Lies now, we see Greek artifacts mysteriously disappear right as the museum's most anticipated event of the year, Persephone in Winter, a play about the myth of Persephone, is being performed. Michael 'arglefumph' Gray figures out the mystery in a surprisingly fast 0:52:04, Single Segment. Both runs were done on the Amateur sleuth mode. I think the biggest mystery of the day is the fact that Nancy Drew is 18 years old in Labyrinth of Lies, released in 2014, and was also 18 in the first game about her, released in 1998.

Onto older detectives that didn't age either I have for you the World's Greatest Detective, Batman. We had seen several runs come past on the fan-favorite Batman: Arkham Asylum game page, and the community keeps breaking the game further every time, with new discoveries being found even recently. That is some good detective work, guys. Anyhow until they are all implemented I have an awesome run for you to watch by 'cojosao'. Using a brilliant skip to cut the bell in the mansion tower, we skip Scarecrow 2 and lots of other things. Not only that but rounding up with a few more small skips that save additional time and overall better gameplay, the time to beat is 1:47:23, done on GOTY version on the PC. Now please play this in your head: na na na na na na na na na... BATMAN!

The last mystery of the day is why do speedrunners have this affinity to play extremely bad ports to games; they are glitchy, unstable, crash a lot, inconsistent, got bad controls and seem to have had little to no testing. I don't think 'triblast55' has an answer for us. Today's "why was this made" game is Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent, and I should mention right now it is the Ubisoft Shanghai version (PS3/X360/PC). Sam Fisher is set up by the government as a bank robber and killer in order to infiltrate the terrorist organization, John Brown's Army (JBA). Completing missions for both the NSA and JBA, Sam is doing his usual detective work that involves lots of dead people left behind, although only three choices decide what ending the player gets. 'triblast55' beats the game in the Best Ending and also plays through the unlocked bonus level from it in 1:42:20, done in 106 segments, Hard difficulty, with 100% Stealth score for all levels which means Sam doesn't get to kill those who aren't his objectives. While some may argue 106 segments were done for optimization, the runner says it is due to the game being crash-happy. I should also note the amount of bugs results in some hilarious results with Sam being invisible to guards even in pure daylight. In front of them.

Today's final game is O.D.T.. Now you must be asking me why this belongs here and this is a mystery that I want you to solve. The airship Nautiflyus with its Captain Lamat takes a shortcut through the Forbidden Zone (another mystery!) and crash-lands, and now its captain and a Green Pearl with healing powers are abducted, and the other four crew members set out to rescue both Captain and the Green Pearl. Runner Dan 'DanE' Söderhäll goes through the many puzzles in this game as he plays as Ike on the Easy difficulty and finishes the game in the Bad Ending in 1:03:49, using 10 segments.

Wednesday, April 1, 2015 by IsraeliRD

April Fools?

Surprise! A serious update.

Rosenkreuzstilette Freudenstachel is a Japanese Mega-Man clone that is actually pretty good. 'Vucious Creed' plays as the lovely Freudia and with several new tricks under his sleeve, he improves the previous run by 30.82 seconds, down to 0:32:19.94, Single Segment. You can alternatively download the replay file.

If you enjoy good Pikmin speedruns, then today you'll be happy to see a run from 'MrDodiou' who chose to run the game on the 100% category. Using plenty of impressive techniques and a good dash of luck the time to be awed at is 1:08:15, Single Segment.

If you enjoy horror adventure games, then The Marionette is for you. A struggling sculptor is drawn to a strange world and attempts to find out why he was brought there as well as escape. Andrew 'Bigmanjapan' Bondarenko chose to get Eshana's death ending because it is faster to stab someone than pay actual attention to them, so he ended up with a run time of 0:03:12, Single Segment.

An enhanced remake of a remake? Sounds like Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3, a very successful milking of the Mario franchise. Added to it was the Nintendo e-Reader which allowed players to insert cards that gave special power-ups or levels. Jordan 'Greenalink' Greener got all 12 U.S. released levels and ran them to a total time of 0:09:57.