So I have a YouTube channel (same as my username) showcasing ring attacks in individual levels for Sonic 2, some runs of which appear in the IL leaderboards. I didn't submit any runs that make use of 2P Tails, because that is banned in all current categories. At the moment I'm working on an improvement video for Aquatic Ruin 2, a level in which I use Tails to grab 2 rings normally inaccessible to get the Perfect Bonus, that's the only way it's possible.

Some thoughts I have regarding the max rings criteria are: -2P Tails should be allowed if using Sonic, at least for levels that require him for achieving Perfect Bonus such as Hill Top 2 -For levels that have rings stuck inside walls such as Mystic Cave 2 and Oil Ocean 2, only the main rings should be required (Like 280 in MC2 and 245 in OO2, as seen in my IL runs) -You must be holding all rings when you finish the level -Though idk if a max rings category would work for Casino Night Zone, since you can max out the rings using the slots and there's already the Gambling% category for that

Why Sonic 2? In my opinion, the levels are compact like Sonic 1, and using spindash they can be completed relatively quickly even when going for max rings. Plus, you get to see parts of the game even glitchless runs skip over!

Let me know what you guys think!

I think a Ring% category could be interesting, as a category extension. The rules could be similar to Low% -- i.e. ring count is most important, and ties are broken by time. So if I have a run that collects, say, 1000 rings in 25 minutes, and you find a way to collect 1001 rings in two hours, your run beats mine. I think use of 2P should be allowed for Ring%, but only if it's the same person (1P2C).

Only problem I see is that there might not be enough interest in the community to support the new category. But it's not like it's difficult to add new category extensions. I'm curious to see what other people think about it.

Yeah it would be a good category extension for sure. It may only be you on the board though but I think it would be cool to have for sure

Thank you for your replies. What I like to do in speedrunning is doing things I haven't already seen someone else do or has very limited attention, it allows me to be more inventive and original with my content.

For example, the first speedrun I published is a run of Four Swords Adventures that avoids using glitches, all the fastest runs of that Zelda are heavily glitched and skip a whole ton of the game. That run is (at the time of writing) in 23rd place on the world record leaderboards. Most of the Zelda games have a glitchless category whose leaderboards are led by runners much more dedicated and professional than myself, but FSA currently doesn't so I thought that would be a cool idea to pursue running!

Btw I just finished the Aquatic Ruin 2 video and it's on YouTube!

Just a thought on Casino Night, you could prohibit using the slots. That would keep the player from skipping the part of the run that differentiates it from a beat the game speedrun, exploring the whole level quickly. It also increases the difficulty as Casino Night 1 requires some tricky backtracking in the later pinball sections to finish with 302 rings and Casino Night 2 has split paths with points of no return.

I know Tee-N-Tee has set some impressive IL ring attack speedruns in Sonic 1, so seeing this idea develped into a full game run would be cool to see.

I actually did both Casino Night levels like that in my ring attack series, where I got 302 rings and the perfect bonus without the slot machines in act 1, and 275 in act 2. I think most of Tee-N-Tee's IL runs are tool-assisted but they are nonetheless awesome to watch!

Idk if any of you have seen Evil_3D's stuff on YouTube, but his TASes are totally bonkers! He did a TAS of Sonic 2 with Knuckles that is a full-game ring attack, and in it he got the perfect bonus in Oil Ocean 2 by doing the super speed glitch 7 or 8 times over, so not only was Evil able to get all the rings inside solid terrain, he did the entire act in a minute and a half! He's done a bunch of other ring attack videos of classic Sonic, but that one was my favorite.

I've seen that max rings has gotten attention in the TAS community, so I set out to see what a RTA run getting max rings would look like, and I'm glad to bring unique content! Sonic Spinball already has the 100% category that requires all the rings, so I know it has a lot of potential for interesting runs in the main series if the idea gets support!