My instinct is to say it goes against the spirit of the run...but the category as it is now seems to be more of "intended gameplay". So would doing level 4 first be simple different "routing" of the game? I could see that argument.

The ONLY difference in time is the level choice menuing, since you always start on level 1 in the game menu. Therefore, if one starts on level 4, you save the menu time scrolling to level 4. Very minor considering the RNG in the game.

I am not opposed to letting the runner choose the order of the levels, but how does that also fit with the other Fisher-Price NES games...could we consider to get ALL of them to have level order choice? They are all quite similar in their construct and, at least definitely in Perfect Fit, have similar emphasis on RNG.

I like the idea of doing them in order as well. I mean to be fair it makes sense to do it the other way since the last levels pretty much make or break the run across the series. It's true we are just doing this in this order since that's how it was first done, but I do like doing them in order since it seems to make sense from a game play perspective.

That is true, but I'll play devil's advocate here to say speedruns are almost never meant "to make sense from a gameplay perspective" :P

I can definitely see it more as a "routing" choice as I described above. The only thing I would say is that if people decide it's right for Firehouse Rescue, I think it should be considered for ALL Fisher-Price NES games (since all have the level choice option).

Has there been any finalization on this topic? The rules of the category still just say "complete all 4 levels". Are we sticking with playing in order or can we choose the order level?

Oh I think being able to choose would be great because reseting after bad RNG one level 4 is pretty terrible

I don't believe it went either way - we should have had a super serious meeting about this at AGDQ. ;)

Either way, I plan to do more runs of this game very soon. I'm going to continue to do it the way as we always have for now, and if we happen to change our mind I guess I can change. Pretty much as long as we are all on the same page it's fine either way. I do prefer it in numerical order but I'm also silly. I'd end up playing the game either way I think.

Yeah I agree, there really is no other argument for doing the levels in order except "it's always been done that way"...which seems like a silly argument.

I'll start a vote to say that I'd be in favor of saying you can play the levels in any order. It makes sense from a routing perspective and a speed perspective. In the words of LackAttack24 "categories shouldn't determine the route a player must take" which is why I'm usually against the "intended way" categories.

Yeah I vote any order

I still stand by my stance from 6 months ago that I like keeping them in order. I know that "it's always been done that way" isn't always a good reason for not changing things, but seeing as we have 8 submitted runs already I don't agree on suddenly changing the rules.

Can a moderator resolve this? Would be nice to have a firm decision?

i agree with rottdawg

I agree (although the category isn't any%). Keeping "100%" seems fine.

I am super-late to the party... and at first I agreed with Sparkover, but after reading Rottdawg and Random's arguements, and Tarbash's addition, I actually agree with the "any order" arguement. It does feel to me kind of like a Mega Man game. Sure, there's an "intended order", but you can play any stage you want without a cheat code or anything. And the same applies here.

The rules still haven't been changed btw. Just a heads-up :)

i started running Godzilla 2 backwards for this very reason. saves from losing runs there after 5 hours or whatever. mind you this is on a smaller scale, but if there is a level select it just seems better to get the heavy rng out of the way asap.

The Sub-12 dream is here, folks. Who wants it?

So, the rules still say "in sequence"...

Also, would "All Stages" as a category name make more sense than "100%"? Just throwing that out there.

Might do some runs of this in between my Bible Buffet RNG fest runs LUL

Bible Buffet... ugh.

i thought someone had changed the rules already. i am just a "verifier" so i can't make edits.

I didn't realize I was added as a moderator. I changed the category rules to read "order doesn't matter". HAVE AT IT!

This would need a slightly more clear definition, still says when the player is promoted to Chief. That only happens after level 4 though. Perhaps just when you get to the promotion screen?