Why is the speed run timing for this game marathon-style instead of match times? It just seems like an odd choice compared to most games in this style (Punch-Out!!, for example).

I dunno how Punch out works, but in this game, match time reported is only granular to the second but the actual time of the fight doesn't adhere to that... so if you finished every match in 20.9 seconds and I finished every match in 20 seconds, we'd both have the same in game time, but marathon style, i'd be like 15 seconds faster. Goal of the speedrun is to beat the game the fastest.

It actually happens on this board. Mcfly's in game time is actually a second slower than AndrewG, but if you watch the runs side by side, you'll see Mcfly beat it a second faster end to end.

It was timed as In-Game time initially. Real time makes more sense since it only records full seconds for in-game. This is why both are listed on the leaderboard.