If you've never heard the name [Jervailin ](https://www.youtube.com/@Jervalin/videos)before, he's the guy who beat [Halo 2 Legendary Most Skulls Deathless](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YveuZFMbpWQ) - one of the biggest achievements in the last few years. He inspired me to do something similar with games I love - the Gears of War series. When considering what kind of challenge I could try, I thought of no chainsaw, no shots, maybe pistol only? The game requires mandatory use of Hammer of Dawn, which makes some kind of challenge based around that impossible.

After failing to come up with something for one of my favorite franchises of all time. I thought what about another that I love with a passion - Soulcalibur. I joked around on stream that I thought how funny it would be to try playing with a Guitar Hero Controller so I did several attempts and my first submitted Arcade run I was glad being sub 1 min. Achieved January 9th, 2024.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97hnBdLLptg

If that wasn't enough I had the even crazier idea to do Weapon Master which is a collection of missions across ten chapters to beat. With differing objectives such as hot bomb, where you hit the enemy to attach a bomb but they can attach a bomb too if they hit you. Another with icy floor and having to do 20 hits. My hurdle was trying to get past the tutorial which requires you to do certain actions.

With a GH controller how it's done and what buttons are mapped is difficult. I tried several combinations and even looking up which one corresponds to which 360 controller buttons. Even then that didn't help and I guess my issue is Voldo's moveset. When I tried Nightmare was able to do all actions with ease. And so on January 10th I was able to beat Weapon Master with the GH controller.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnR0GabU6xE

After this, I went to do Extra Arcade and did them for both original and HD. I found HD to be easier for Weapon Master because it creates a new save file. If I were to do with the original I would need to delete my current one. For some reason, SCII doesn't have the same type of save file that can be copied or moved.

One more interesting and final thing I would like to add that left me speechless was this amazing run. If just one thing had gone differently I would have got WR with a guitar controller. Just think about that - I could have beat my run of 44.36 with a guitar. I ended up getting a 45.65. Unbelievably close to WR as of writing this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwKikdah1jA

## My Final Thoughts

Do something for a game you love with some crazy challenge - or maybe if you want to, also do some GH guitar Soulcalibur runs! My current goal is to try to do Time Attack and Team Battle next or try Soulcalibur IV next.

The first person I believe at least to my knowledge to play and beat Soulcalibur II with a GH guitar controller.

Guitar Hero Controller Speedrunning - Soulcalibur II

Aww man since it appears 5-life code using runs are getting rejected / scrubbed from the leaderboard, can I suggest the rules be modified to specify that the 5-life code is definitively not allowed?

Looking at the current board, it looks like there are actually precedent runs that have already been accepted using the 5-life code?    So it seems like both 5-life and continues should be allowed then, correct?

https://www.speedrun.com/battletoads_nes/runs/yd20k80m

Thanks Negativ4k!   I see that from above, I'm just looking for an active SRC moderator to chime in and confirm or disagree (because they're the ones who would be approving runs).

Hi folks, I'm looking at trying to do a run of this and am curious if an official moderator ruling has been made on for Any % No Credits Warp for:

- 5-life code allowed/not allowed

- Continues allowed/not allowed

Right now the rules still only state *'SDA Timing: Starts when you gain control of the toad in level 1 and ends when you lose control after the Dark Queen fight (when the game cuts to Professor T. Bird's final dialogue). The wrong warp to the credits is not allowed.'*

From the rules, it would appear both 5-life code and continues would be allowed?

I speedrun a bunch of classic NES and SNES games with a Guitar Hero controller!  Most comfortably I run 2D platformers like Castlevania, Mega Man, Ninja Gaiden, TMNT, Zelda II, SMB.   I'm in the top 40 for Castlevania, and am the only Big20 NES runner to have finished a race!