This game was picked to be a part of Big 20 #8 and due to the difficulty and confusion about the goal choice for the race I ended up doing a bunch of research on how the game works. As a result we ended up changing the goal for the race, but the research also has implications for the leaderboard categories.

The original goal for the race was "1 loop", but as it turns out the game branches (sometimes backwards) rather than loops. The goal was updated to cross 4 double bridges. This seems good for the race, but I don't think it makes sense for an any% category. As seen below the map is really sort of tree shaped, and ares 7 and 8 (desert areas) are really the end of the branches. I would argue that the end of the desert (either one) should be the end of any%.

I'm guessing the first question will be 'what about the snow?'. Snow palette and physics happen on top of existing areas (e.g. Area 3 after finishing desert) depending on multiple criteria, one of which seems to be the least significant bit of a frame counter (e.g. 50/50 chance of snow). The fact that the snow is random and also not a unique area probably mean it should not be included in any%.

I also think an 'all stages' category should exist. Players would be required to visit each of the 10 areas and the timing would end when they finish the 10th. I do think a snow area should be required for this category. Even though it is random, I think it should be considered as part of the full game experience. Also since the water area (area 9) loops to itself, but there is no good visual indication I think it should be sufficient to enter and exit the area once (the alternative would be to require a loop and a half).

Here is the mapping information I came up with after checking into the game with TAS tools and watching the pointer to the map while testing everything out.

Spy Hunter Map Area Num, Left path, Right path, length(segments), description Area 1, Area 2, Area 3, 73, green Area 2, Area 4, Area 5, 100, green. pink trees Area 3, Area 6, Area 5, 100, green. blue trees Area 4, Area 8, Area 5, 100, brown and green palms Area 5, Area 8, Area 7, 100, dark green and palms Area 6, Area 2, Area 7, 102, light green and palms Area 7, Area 2, Area 3, 132, desert Area 8, Area 6, Area 3, 132, desert Area 9, N/A, Area 10, ???, water Area 10, Area 6, Area 3, ???, desert after water

Agree that random snow has 0 impact on any% and should be removed, and a "loop" of the game should be defined.

We did figure out that snow didn't happen 100% of the time, but figured that the end of one loop was the end of the area after the desert, whether it was snow or another area. It is going to be difficult to define a loop of the game, because if I understand the routes correctly, there is no true loop that restarts from the beginning of the game. If this is the case, the only real solution I can see is to have an all stages category and perhaps have a score category like some of the arcade speedruns where the objective is to get a 1up.

Based on the tree shape of the map and the image I linked below I'd argue that finishing the desert is about as good of an any% as you're going to get. You are correct that there is no way to loop back to area 1, but at that point you're forced to loop back to somewhere. It could also be argued that a run through the boat area (9) should be included. A score run would also be legitimate due to the arcade nature of the game.

http://s16.photobucket.com/user/TheCarpenter/media/ONPGSpyHunterPic.jpg.html