Hi all, I just wanted to go over how this game tracks endings (and also why I think additional endings should be considered for the leaderboard).

According to GameFAQs, endings aren't based entirely on deaths, etc. The game has a hidden score. If you take damage from weak or strong enemies, you get hit by bosses or Penguin, or you die, it will affect your score. Here is how the game tracks points according to the guide:

"In this game, you'll find that your health - specifically how often you're hit and how many times you die - determine the ending. Taking hits and dying adds points to a counter:

• a hit from basic enemies: +8
• a hit from middle grade enemies: +12, +16, +18 or +24
• a hit from bosses (Penguin excluded): +48
• a hit from Penguin (both boss fights): +80
• dying: +1,024 (overwhelmingly the greater influence).

Basically, outside of dying, the points added to the counter are proportional to damage received. When you finish the final stage, depending on the values of this counter, you will get a different ending. The estimates in regards to number of deaths are merely estimates, as taking a certain number of hits is still equivalent to a loss of life."

And as for endings:

Hidden score is less than 5,376 = Best Ending (Awesome! You are the hero of all heroes!)

Hidden score is between 5,376 and 9,984 = Good Ending (Congratulations, Batman! You've saved Gotham City.)

Hidden score is between 9.984 and 14,848 = Bad Ending (Your skill has improved, but you're not a real hero yet.)

Hidden score is more than 14,848 = Worst Ending (You took too much time to get here. Try getting here sooner.)

With all of this said, it is possible to get the Good Ending despite dying. In fact, I did it while prepping this game for NES Odyssey 2024. I'm going to link a video of my stream archive; it shows me dying in Stage 5, then I keep playing, and eventually I still get the Good Ending. I played on regular cartridge + top loader NES.

As for why I'm bring this up at all, I want to offer my two cents regarding how this board is set up. The rules state you have to get the Good Ending, but it also says you can't die. However, turns out dying at least once is still okay (depends on that hidden score). Obviously, dying at all is slow and this game is still fairly punishing. The thing is, I think this game would attract more runners and attention if we allowed for any ending to be submitted. You could even mark your ending as "best, good, bad, worst" on your submission, as some boards allow you to do so. For example, Batman: The Video Game allows you to click "yes" or "no" if you did the Joker Glitch.

Let me know what you all think about this; I know it's a lot but this game is such a hidden gem and it'd be a shame if people avoided this game just because they died (which as I've shown, can still lead to a Good Ending). Thanks!

Hi all, I just added a bit of clarification on where to start/stop the timer. The prior mod didn't create any timing rules and I'm only just now realizing this, lol. Everyone has been starting from Run/Hop and ending when the screen is completely black after entering the door in the last stage, and I just clarified that in the rules. This won't change anything but I figured I'd clarify just in case.

A new rule has been added to this game. Passwords are allowed if you game over. You may return to the level you game over'd on. You cannot use a password to skip ahead. Since using passwords doesn't give you an advantage, they are allowed. This is also to encourage more runners to try this game/other categories out.

Hi all, I have removed the IL boards for 5-1 and 5-5. Both of these are timer based, so as long as you survive and don't pause, you'll get the same time every time. I removed these levels from the ILs since they're quite trivial.

Also, I accidentally removed 2-5 at first, but it's been re-added. If you had a run in 2-5 and I accidentally cleared it, let me know.

One day I'll figure out how to remove 100% from a few levels, as not all levels have coins. If you run an IL that has no coins, just submit to Any%.

Ok that's all, thanks.

Hey everyone. It's been brought to my attention that when you reset the game, the difficulty/options you set before the reset stay the same. so if you pick Novice, then reset later, you'll still be on Novice.

there are still ways of knowing what difficulty someone is on (boss fights are the big example) but in the future, I'm going to recommend people show their settings before beginning a run. it's not a huge deal, honestly, but it does make verifying runs a bit easier.

I won't make any adjustments to peoples' runs or anything like that. just wanted to let people know about this games' resets/options.

Hey everyone. I was added as moderator a few months ago as both previous mods were inactive, and I just now realized that there were no rules in any of the categories. Rules have now been added (and nothing's gonna change, don't worry. Simply put, no rules were ever added which is weird but it's taken care of now).

Timing begins when you press A on the Daytona/Vs. Japan screen (depending on what category you're doing) and ends when the ball hits the ground on the final point in the last match.

I was doing runs of the Study Game category and noticed that while it's only 1 level, you can actually pick any level from the 36 levels in the game. When the "Round 1" text appears you can press Up/Down on the D-Pad to select a level.

I just wanted to make a post to make sure this was a known thing already. Study Game would be great for practice/ILs, but since you can pick any level I'm not sure if this will change anything on the leaderboard (like if Study Game will still be a category or if it will become ILs, etc.).

Hey everyone, just wanted to make a quick post regarding emulators.

I've added a new rule to this game which you can find in the "Game Rules" portion of the page.

"If playing on emulator, it is recommended you use mGBA or Bizhawk (with the mGBA core). VBA is not recommended, but will be allowed.

Please state which emulator you used when submitting runs. Runs submitted before 3/27/2020 will remain on the boards."

VBA is still accepted by sites such as TASVideos, and the emulator has been allowed for GBA games in the past (some games still allow it, but bigger GBA speedruns don't, hence this post). It's been brought to my attention that mGBA and Bizhawk w/ mGBA core are more accurate, so I'd recommend those emulators. But since this leaderboard has few runners right now, I'm not going to outright ban it. If we run into an issue regarding VBA, I'm willing to discuss it.

I was explaining to a friend how the wall clips work and I figured I'd post my explanation here in case it helps anyone else out.

Currently this game (and the sequel) are spelled "Civilballs" instead of "Civiballs". I had trouble finding the leaderboard for this game because of it. Just wanted to give a heads up.

Hey guys. So I figured I'd make a post with a few things since this game's getting attention.

So I was the one who initially created the leaderboard for this game. I made the full game and IL categories, etc. However, shortly after my sub-30 in Any% I deleted all of my social media, including my old sr.c account because I had quit speedrunning. Since Ted had done runs and beat my time, I made him the mod for this game.

Obviously I came back and made a new account, but I haven't really considered returning to this game. I did make a tutorial a while back, but I remember looking at Ted's run at the time and I figured my tutorial was outdated. Though I could still show a few strats I found if/when I get a chance (I could make videos). I never found any glitches or anything but damage boosting is your best friend in this game.

I saw a question about emulator runs: I used emulator before I got the cartridge/Game Boy Player and disc. I used VBA, and I didn't notice any differences between that and cartridge. Of course if there are then we can have a discussion about that.

Anyways, hope that clears some things up. Have fun with this game.

I was cutting through a door in the first Mustafar level, but then somehow I was able to clip through it. The game crashed shortly after, but I wonder if this can be implemented at all. Was playing on PS2, still unsure why the game crashed tho

We have a Discord server for this game for anyone who'd like to join: https://discord.gg/T2meQnK