There are a few things I want to talk about when it comes to speedrunning this game. First, there is a little bit of movement tech in this game. It involves starting a sprint and then interrupting it around 15 frames (half a second) before the sprint runs out. This is what it looks like:

Optimally, this saves somewhere between 0.1 to 0.2 seconds for each successful sprint cancels (That's roughly 1 second for every 6 sprint cancels). To save time, each sprint interruption needs to be within a 5 or 6 frame window. Outside of that, you will most likely lose time or possibly break even with normal sprinting. Keep in mind that the video shown above is a TAS, so it's unlikely that anybody's movement will actually look like that.

Besides Sprint cancelling, the fastest way to move is to start a sprint as soon as you are able to. This is faster than waiting for a longer sprint because you spend more time sprinting and less time waiting when you sprint as soon as possible.

Thankfully, all versions of this game seem to run the same as far as speedrunning goes. There are no known differences between the North American NTSC version and the European/Australian PAL version that affect speedruns. Even the versions with different spoken languages such as the Japanese version are the same because the different voices are simply dubbed over the exact same cutscenes. If that's not good enough, even different consoles run this game the same way. Whether you're playing on an original Wii or a Wii U, it won't affect lag and loading times. However, keep in mind that aging hardware could possibly run slower than newer systems. But in my tests with different systems, as long as the console isn't really old or damaged, it should run the same. Possible differences with hardware will only affect full-game runs because those are timed by real time. Speedruns of individual levels are timed with the in-game timer, which ignores lag and loading times.

Controller choice is another factor in speedrunning this game. You can play this game with a GameCube controller, a Wii Classic Controller, or the Wii Remote and Nun-chuck. GameCube controller vs. Classic Controller is really up to personal preference. As far as i'm aware, there is no time difference between them. I don't know enough about the motion controls for this game so I'm not going to pretend like I do. From watching videos of people playing with the Wii Remote, it appears to be slower because you can't turn as quickly. But I don't think it's really that big of a deal. Also it's worth mentioning that you cannot use the GameCube controller if you're playing on Wii U, even if you're using the official adapter.

There are a few of us working on getting the IL table filled up with good runs, so I would recommend watching those if you're interested in optimizing your times. PurpleSunDeryl is crazy good at coming up with new strategies and optimizations, and he's been doing a lot of work on this game lately. I've been doing a lot of work on 007 Classic runs as well as TASing this game. JamesBong3333 is also a really good runner and he's been doing Operative and Time Trial runs for a really long time. If you have any questions about anything in this game, post it on the forums and one of us will respond to you.