EnglandI will bring: HDMI Modified Gamecube Swiss so that my PAL copy of MK DD can run at 480p 1 GC controller with my name on it Memory card if necessary. I don't have that GC broadband accessory.
Area 1: Same as the others, Hypershot still required.
Area 2: Same as Gunvolt, her cupid arrows can destroy blocks.
Area 3 Same as the others, get hover, defeat boss, Save & Quit warp.
Area 4 Same as the others, get key after defeating boss then Save & Quit warp.
Area 5: Same as Gunvolt, her cupid arrows can destroy the 4 blocks and her hover allows her to reach to the exit.
Area 6: Although she cannot shoot upwards, there is a small frame/pixel window that her arrow can destroy blocks above her. Early Wall climb is not possible because the route requires wall jumping which Ekoro cannot do.
Area 5 > Area 4 Eject from the tank and take the lower route, avoiding the wall spikes and then go up to the very top and you'll see 4 grey blocks in a single row, with a well timed shot you can destroy the blocks above Ekoro without the underwater gear.
Area 7 and 8 By crouching, aim your cupid shots next to the corner of the breakable block. This allows her to destroy blocks below her without using Crusher shot + wall climb down combo.
Notes: Her eject jump from the tank does not allow her to hover, so there's no new out of bounds with this character.
Overall, the run is not going to be as fast as GV and some of Area 8's final rooms are very difficult if you've skipped the underwater gear
Area 1: None. You still need the first weapon upgrade in order to destroy the wall monster leading to Area 2.
Area 2: Gunvolt's weapons can destroy the brown blocks, so second weapon upgrade can be skipped.
Area 3: Same as normal.
Area 4: Same as normal
Area 5: Gunvolt can destroy the grey blocks underwater, so the Dive Gear can be skipped.
Area 6: After the control switch and a few rooms full of ice blocks, you can go through a path that is intended to be a shortcut after obtaining Wall Climb. The main difference is that we no longer have to go through a series of tough platforming to skip the cannon shot.
Area 7: No major stuff but you can destroy the brown blocks when starting the fight against Skeleton Boss, so platforms are indeed skippable.
Area 8: If you've skipped the Dive Gear, you will have to exit the tank in order to get through the underwater segments.
New modes:
Destroyer Mode Basically, a hard mode where Top-Down mode enemies are weak to certain weapons and Side-View mode enemies are not only tougher but unleash a revenge projectile after getting destroyed. I think they have removed life extensions and certain parts of the game have tweaked the big power-ups to smaller power-ups.
Gunvolt Mode: Available May 4th (that's tomorrow usual eShop update time). Free to download first 2 weeks of launch, becomes paid afterwards (not sure if free users can keep it free forever, probably).
Ekoro Mode Available June 1st Similar to Gunvolt mode, it's free for the first 2 weeks of launch.
Credits: Holding +, L, R, ZL or ZR allows you to speed up the text significantly, shorter in-game times!
Bug fixes: One of the bugs I've posted to Inticreates Twitter account which involves crashing the game by ejecting during the last active frames of a Spark Tackle dash has been fixed!
Tank going backwards: Fixed. If you do either the following: Hold right on stick and left on D-pad OR Hold right on D-pad and left on stick. It's possible for the tank to face to the right but move to the left. This minor exploit no longer works on version 1.2
The out of bound related glitches are still intact.
Streets of Rage 2 GG solo in ~23:31 (actual run will be done in Co-op mode)
Marathon friendly route GG Shinobi 2 in ~22:31
Fantasy Zone is going ok. Going to learn plan B strategies just in case of possible unintentional deaths during the run.
Updates: IRL stuff and reviewing Wonder Boy Dragon's Trap 2017 has caught up to me, fortunately, 3 out of my 4 games are very easy to derust.
Game Gear Streets of Rage 2, since the actual run is going to be done in co-op I have been testing out higher difficulties for the actual run at ESA. Me and Btrim will need to do some practice and discover some co-op strategies for the first few days so ideally, the actual run should happen on Tuesday at the earliest..
Game Gear Shinobi 2: Memorised the route pretty well, the actual run will have a minor adjustment for marathon safety because at one point in the run you can execute a risky time saver but messing it up will drop my current ninpo count from 5/6 to 1 which will make me lose time on factory. There is an alternate route which makes the run less stressful.
Edenal recently messaged me that he has been modifying my Game Gear to support both video output and wired controllers. This is vital for Shinobi 2 because the actual run will not be done on an emulator's keyboard which will be interesting to see how easy it is to pull off grapple swing storage on a controller.
3DS Fantasy Zone: Going to do some practice before the weekend as it's under 10 minutes long and playing it on the handheld means I am not restricted to the living room.
GBA: A Link to the Past: This is the game that would require a lot more time to derust and I personally don't mind if this game gets cut. Moldorm sucks to fight against in the GBA version for dealing with smaller resolution/vision range and falling into the pit is pretty humiliating.
I may do a run of this for the upcoming Handheld Heroes marathon which is happening on the week before ESA but it allows me to have more free time with friends, Switch, Arcades, Fantasy Zone, Beethoven 2nd, etc.
Materials obtained after completing a level is RNG based and the upgrades are too ineffective. Is your run done with NTR streaming? I hope there is a good wi-fi signal at the event as previous 3DS runs used USB capture.
For the clipping glitch: Requires a 1 block gap between floor to ceiling and can only be done underwater because Jason can ascend by holding up. You have to be underneath a corner because, for some reason, Jason's eject jump allows him to go through the solid object.
First one is a major one to those running fresh file 100% or Unlimited mode. DO NOT push the X button right after dashing or you will crash the game. I've tweeted this to Inti Creates and it will be fixed in a future patch.
The next 3 videos are out of bound glitches
Getting Life Up in Area 5 via Out of Bounds might be the fastest way in Unlimited Mode 100% runs as you can skip the painful backtrack by save + reset warping.
Speedrun mode will be treated as a different category. Faster runs, in my opinion, should submit a video to show proof.
SMS Fantasy Zone race Game Gear Streets of Rage 2 co-op Azure Striker Gunvolt 1 race between Ajarmar & Coolkid which got declined, then accepted during the start of the event and then declined again due to capture card related tech issues.
Just like the first game, some of the bosses have different names based on the version you are playing, the same rule applies to their desperation move. (phase 3 attack). English name first followed with Japanese name.
Tenjian "The Frozen Blade" [EN/JP] The most frequent boss you'll face in the game.
Desperation Moves: Frigid Blossom [EN] 氷華雪断 Ice Flower Snow Cut [JP] note: JP name does not use English text
Gunvolt vs Phantom Tenjian final attack:
Seven Slashes [EN] 羅雪七星 Seven Star [JP] note: This unique attack does not appear in Secret Mission 5 nor Garden 3's Score run mode (yay).
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Teseo "The Serial Experiment" [EN/JP] The online troll.
Desperation Moves: Impregnable Fortress [EN/JP]
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Ghauri "The Prism Master" [EN/JP] The one who speaks quite a lot of English.
Desperation Move:
Poetry Slam [EN] Prism Prisma Prison [JP]
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Desna "The Starstruck Beauty" [EN] Nike “Tower’s Beauty Hair Angel (Towering Blonde)” [JP]
The female member with blonde hair
Desperation Move:
Entangled Strands [EN] Entangle Blonde [JP]
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Milas "The Aquadynamic Merman" [JP] Nimrod “The Flowing Merman (Grateful Merman)”[JP]
The one who uses water powers.
Desperation Move:
Aqua Avatar [EN/JP]
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Asroc “The Pygmalion Furnace” [EN/JP] The puppet master
Desperation Move
Amuse-Bouches [EN] Beat Up Entremets [JP]
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Gibril “The Full Metal Jacket” [EN] Jibril "Blood & Steel Carved Dress (Full Metal Jacket)” [JP]
The crazy girl with bloody claws.
Desperation Move: Iron Maiden [EN/JP]
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Zonda "The Lustful Mirage" [EN] Panthera [JP]
The one you did not get to actually fight against in the first game.
Desperation Move (Copy fight) Phantasmagoria [EN/JP]
Desperation Move (Fairy fight vs Gunvolt in Garden 3 story mode) Paradise Lost [EN/JP] note: JP does not use English text.
Desperation Move (Fairy fight vs Copen/Gunvolt in Garden 3 outside of Gunvolt's story Garden 3) Eden's Presence [EN] Resident of Eden [JP]
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Copen "The Adept Slayer" [EN] Acura (Kamisono Acura) [JP]
The other playable character.
No desperation moves in Tenjian's stage but he has 2 in the true final chapter.
Desperation move (normal) Guilt Sequence [EN] Guilt Combination [JP]
Desperation move (anthem) Doppler Destroyer [EN] Final Lust Doppler [JP]
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Gunvolt "The Azure Striker" [EN] "Armed Blue" Gunvolt [JP]
The main playable character.
No desperation moves in Tenjian's stage but he has 2 in the true final chapter.
Desperation move (normal) Luxcalibur [EN] Spark Calibur [JP]
Special Moves (anthem) Lightning Sphere - Mandala [JP] Spark Calibur - Shoot/Shot [JP] (Will reconfirm this with a video soon /Jinny)
Desperation move (anthem) Septimal Surge [EN] Unlimited Volt [JP]
July 22nd Landing to Copenhagen at ~19:55 (7:55pm) July 23rd, catching a train from Copenhagen Airport to Växjö. 9:06am - 11:48am
I'm kinda in the same boat as Pottoww but with NSMB 2 instead of SMG 2. New, non-arbitrary category making a debut vs some 90s Mario games 100% related categories for the 3rd or so time.
Drakodan, checking on the games that you run, it really depends on the system you are playing on.
Nintendo: NES to N64, Running these PAL games on NTSC systems is a big no. Pitch is off, speed is off, everything. https://kb.speeddemosarchive.com/Nintendo_Console_Region
Sega: Genesis The older PAL games have less restrictions and works perfectly fine on NTSC systems including Streets of Rage and Revenge of Shinobi but later games were more optimised for PAL systems and runs worse on NTSC systems, notable examples: Sonic 2, Sonic 3 (& Knuckles). https://kb.speeddemosarchive.com/Sega_Console_Region
Rocket Knight Adventures & Sparkster are both region locked games according to this Gamefaqs list. https://www.gamefaqs.com/genesis/916377-genesis/faqs/60595
I'll be staying in a hotel on Friday night at Denmark and then arrive to the event sometime after 12:30pm roughly on the 23rd of July. Then I'll have to leave at around 9am on Sunday 31st to catch a train.
Available: Saturday 23rd July after 4pm Unavailable: Sunday 31st July after 00:00am (preparing to pack up, etc).
Speed run update: New Super Mario Bros 2 Warpless run WR got smashed by 31 seconds but I can still improve it by ~12 seconds by not entering the red pipe by accident in W4-Castle.
I'm not sure if ESA tech crew/ members have been following recently about my practice but I am now doing Shadow Complex Remastered on Steam, not Epic Launcher. This is great now as I no longer need to install an extra client and experiment on how to skip installation.
The video below shows that I have been trying out NG+ 100% Insane runs very recently (no practice in April due to waiting for Steam release) but even with 2 deaths I am under estimate. The Z-Slide Ground Pound to go out of bounds trick for Early Fusion Helmet is tad inconsistent which is sort of why the estimate is a bit high. I am going to ask Brad who is Community Manager of ChAIR to see if he is still interested in attending ESA, he had a great time at AGDQ earlier this year and I'm sure he will enjoy this event as well.
Similar to S, despite not frequently updating my SR times I'll tell you my progress:
High focus priority/dedication:
New Super Mario Bros 2 (Warpless): Did 2 runs this week and both were sub 50 (30+ seconds slower than my personal best/world record) feeling comfortable about this. Both of them had minor mistakes which is pretty good if something bad happens during the actual marathon run, think of it as plan B recovery strats.
Shadow Complex Remastered (NG+ Insane 100%): There is going to be a PC Steam release next month which: A) Makes it easier to set up the game in a marathon scenario, no idea how good Epic Launcher is for that. B ) A more reliable cloud saving system so that I don't somehow lose the ability to enter the gold room. C) Going to do some grinds to level 50 for a NG+ ready file I did an 100% run at AGDQ and you can trust me on this one.
Mid focus priority/dedication:
Wonder Boy 3 (Wii VC Any%): Did 2 runs this week, a finished run did get under estimate but I got to remind myself what armour I am wearing at a certain point of the run so I don't suddenly lose 50% of my life from a single fireball. Going to try out emulator and figure out some time savers for the tougher dungeon parts, etc.
Low focus priority:
Gunman Clive 2 (PC Steam): Haven't had time to practice this one but it is a straight forward game and dying is a really minor penalty. I got the 3DS version to practice on the go.
GG Shinobi (3DS VC): Just like Gunman Clive 2, I haven't had time to practice this one. It is shorter but it is also a bit more challenging than Gunman Clive 2. I won't be gutted if this one gets cut in Round 2 as this was more of a backup game if any of my other 4 did not get through Round 1 cuts.
After a certain Mario 64 vs Mario 64 DS project, you will expect a lot more streams from me when I focus on my games weeks before the event.
