It seems only yesterday when we last saw Mario Kart 8 Deluxe added to the site. Earlier this year, Jose 'UchihaMadao' Karica performed a fantastic run of all the courses in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe with all the items on. With how chaotic it can be to be randomly attacked by blue shells or lightning, it can be tricky to get a good time while not getting obliterated in the process. He has returned having made changes to his kart set up and using Gold Pink Peach instead of Rosalina.  With these changes and some luck from the RNG Gods, he has improved on his previous run with the new time of 1:33:16, improving on his previous run by two minutes.

While it is great to see an improvement, sometimes you have to wonder to yourself, "How would it be to do all the tracks without worrying about a blue shell coming from behind you?" This was a thought expressed by 'UchihaMadao' when he decided to submit a second run for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.  When you don't have to worry about anything coming from behind, you can be much more efficient with your final time.  At a final time of 1:27:56, it definitely is impressive at how much time can be saved when items are turned off. There were still a few missteps such as missing a few shortcuts, but for the most part, this is still a well-executed run through all 48 tracks.

When it comes to River City Ransom, it can be best described, as how 'yelsraek' put it: One Big Boss Rush.  It's one thing for you to get to where you need to be to beat down some thugs, but another for everyone to be right where you want them to be when you get there. One prime example was having the brothers in the warehouse spawn at a specific point and using the crate to attack them from the other side of the wall.  It was with this and other careful planning that the run saw an improvement by over a minute at 0:06:38. 

Improvement has always been a tenable object that many have striven for over the course of history. These improvements come either in the form of efficiency or qualitative thought, but rarely together. Oh wait, that was my lecture from a class I just taught. Anyways, speedruns are meant to be improved on and 'AntonioPeremin' decided that he did not conquer Thracia and other ancient civilizations fast enough in Rome: Total War. 'AntonioPeremin' has gone back to virtual Europe and Asia and led the armies to victory in 0:02:47 on the easy difficulty. This is an improvement of 24 seconds from the previous run. The action is fast in this one so pay attention or you may miss the intricacies of battle logistics.

Rewriting the historic face of the world is not enough for Antonio though. He has returned to the world of The Elder Scrolls, this time to The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. He disembarks from the boat, gets his parole papers, and proceeds to kill a god in a blistering 0:03:15. Normally Morrowind involves beating many missions, constant travel, and waylaying people for boots of blinding speed (well, I do at least) and maybe even some tree climbing. If you haven't watched an Any% Morrowind run for a while, you will certainly want to watch this one.  Not only does this run beat the former published run here by over a minute but this run is the current WR at the time I am typing this.

Journey, Motley Crue, Kiss, and Aerosmith: Their music has been featured in video games. Now we may add Jerry Paper to the list. Paper is a philosopher/musician and you can read more about him here. Chameleon World is a surreal experience of a game and even in a normal play through things do not always make sense. Sequence breaking the game causes that “reality” to shatter even more. 'dogia900' breaks on through to the other side in 0:18:19.This game features talking frogs, a chameleon dressed as a clown, some wonky jumping physics, and a bottle bearing frog. Is this a synthesis of different mediums coming together to unify as a whole or a dream/nightmare simulator? Watch and decide.

How's it going, everyone? I'm MAS8705 and I will be helping out with the Front Page for today. While I might not be as well known in the speedrunning community, I have submitted a few runs that have been featured on the site: These runs include Fire Man from Megaman Powered Up, Crash Tag Team Racing, and Naughty Bear: Panic in Paradise. I've also assisted with SDA's verification for new runs added to the site. I've been away from Speed Demos Archive for some time and I'm excited to be back! So let's waste no time and talk about the latest additions to the site!

Starting things off, we have a game that lets you build your very own racing vehicle. It also gives you the choice between racing as an Astronaut or a Pirate. Lego Racers came out at a time when racing games were a dime a dozen. One feature in the game was the ability to use boosting power-ups to warp past courses and finish races faster. As it turns out, you can actually earn better times if you warp at specific parts of the track while power sliding in the more tighter parts of the course. A tactic used-well by 'Greycatmon' who improved the times for all 12 tracks in Time Race at a combined time of 0:16:43.87. I wonder what the chances are that Lego would want to make another racing game in the future? It feels like we are long overdue for a sequel.

When you think of a long-running RPG series, the first game that might come to mind would be Final Fantasy. But did you know that the 2nd longest running Eastern RPG is Ys? Ys II: Ancient Ys Vanished - The Final Chapter had a unique system where you can "bump" your enemies until they fall over dead. The sequel expanded the game further by introducing a magic system that allowed for more options in fights and exploration. By running directly into danger and monsters,Jeff 'Korzic' David achieved a final time of 1:04:18. Of course when it comes to Ys, there's a lot more to the game than running into your foes and see who gets knocked down first. Be sure to listen in to the audio commentary provided by Korzic.

The last of our runs today is a sandbox game based on one of the most influential films of all time: The Godfather. The game itself was so big at the time, it had five different versions. The Godfather: The Don's Edition on PS3 made use of the SIXAXIS controls to help throw people against walls or off rooftops. It can be a lot of fun to recreate various scenes out of the film and to shake down local businesses for your protection. In the case of 'Soliduz Znake', he decided to take a more direct approach in helping the Corleones take over New York City. At a time of 3:02:36, this single-segmented run comes in at a couple of minutes more than the original film itself and improving on his previously submitted segmented run.

That's all the time we have for today. Be sure to watch these great runs and stay tuned with us here at Speed Demos Archive for more fantastic Speed Runs!

 

COMPLETELY UNEXPECTED NEWS FLASH!

The arduous and longitudinal analysis is complete; the results from the grand speedrunning survey of 2017 are in. They will be announced and picked apart on the Twitch stream of tonic, the head of the team whose initiative this whole shebang was. This is happening this Sunday at 6PM EDT. Check here to see when that is for you.

Contra III to common belief, I am not Alien to the meanest levels of punnery. It is, after all, a basic part of the speedrunner's parLance! I know this kinda stuff can result in Flame Wars, but that's only fitting, because this game isn't TOO far away from a frame one. Improving (by six seconds) on hotly contested runs like this is indeed living in Reset City. Sometimes you have no clearly superior strategy and runners might take risks in different parts of the run. Just don't Spread out too thin or you know who's paying the Bill! At the end of the day, you'll be able to say: "I did it Skyyyyyyywwaaayyyyyyy... or the Highway!" I know what you're thinking: "UFO real bro? You're killing it!" Of course some may be regretting the fact it's not a Suicide Kill.

Ledge Skip ahead a bit now. In most action games, the guy's motivation is to get the girl back. The hero charges into the building, carries her out in his arms, Laser down on the grass... not the case here though. So what do you get from a good orange tree? Good RNGs. Now that I've brought up food, the Nesting to mention is good table manners. Elbows off the table, empty your plate and don't Gargoyle. Besides what's demonstrated in the 0:12:11 run on easy, there's various kinds of lag management: fly overnight, avoid stimulants, pre-adjust sleep cycle... And just Rest. Someone rattling their Doritos? Don't worry, a peaceful time will come! 'TheDrifter18' is the runner here, the Star of the show. Wait, "Star"? Oh, that must have leaked over from...

Ristar! (You can leave the [self-]loathing to me BTW.) Right, so here's one we desperately need to vivisect: Rise-Star? Rising Star? An up-and-comer? I wonder if this star feature was aware of his grim prospects around the Japanese launch of February '95? His authors at the Sonic Team (presumably those who made Sonic but what do I know...) decked domestic shelves with a game by the extended title of Ristar the Shooting Star... and there verily are no parts two or three – "for various reasons" says one of the directors. That's as hilariously self-fulfillingly ironic as they get, guys, despite some re-releases and mostly flattering reviews.

In-game you control what's effectively both a "rise" and a "fall" star with Bionic Commando arms and a propensity to head-butt (a word with hardly a synonym; "pate-smack" will throw people off in a fight though). If you can see through the characteristic elements of other 16-bit platformers, the feel is of a more puzzle-oriented game that apparently doesn't faze the casuals but certainly will the ambitious lot that is us folk. Skilful maneuvers abound (the game even gives you a so-called "technical bonus"!) and again we must beseech Lady Fortune for further expedition. 'Chubbus'' is an improvement of 42 seconds over a run you saw in 2009, so you have no excuses for skipping it (and the 0:28:05 run doesn't need any!).

When it's time to show 'n' tell, some kids go for cool points with like a toy lightsaber, or their pet frog Honda. Or clever points if they were given the letter 'U' and they brought a flashlight, pointed it at themselves and smugly announced "Umbra!". That one overlaps with the easygoing-no-future points which you get for an article of clothing you'd normally be wearing anyway, or the book you just finished reading... aloud... with the whole class. Then there's sheer provocation. Flags, banners, manifestos, religious insignia, poetry and a fake Hitler moustache (or, well, a real one) would all fall into this category, slightly depending on where exactly events are taking place. Now we're talking about case Michael 'arglefumph' Gray and the sobering discussion we need to have with their parents over the Detective Barbie 2: Vacation Mystery they pulled out in front of everyone.

While today they may have just groggily (and I realize I've inadvertently made argle's family sound like they're all alcoholics, which wouldn't surprise me at all actually) picked up the wrong item off the table in a rush having overslept, if we examine his records, an alarming trend will leap out like a crouching cheetah. While it started innocuous enough with Nancy Drew, that stalwart defender of justice who's 5% sugar and spice and 95% moral fiber, we started treading dangerous waters with The Pagemaster... and now this?! Look at her! She doesn't even blink! The others blink, why does she not blink?! Why is there always a beach? Why is Ken such a surfer dude? What is everyone's substitute for food? Please somebody take action, I implore you! IsraeliRD, who was in class at the time, has this to say: "I wanted to mute it within a minute of just listening, and was really sick of it as it kept going." One of the kids pulled their cellphone out and managed to capture this 0:11:21 footage that has already been delivered to the authorities.