The problem is that Axel and Blaze can't keep up with the screen when it scrolls, so it ends up waiting for them.Max and Skate are the only ones who can keep the screen scrolling at the highest speed..
How fleeting are all human passions compared with the massive continuity of ducks.
I think the best pairing would be Max and Skate, due to Max's powerful moves and Skate's flashy moves, as well as a nice counter balance: Max's slow power and Skate's quick glancing blows.
Finally, I found it. I thought I had seen this happen, I wasn't imagining:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=6nD1hguBwbI
If a new SoR2 movie is made, this should be in there somewhere.
So ever since I downloaded this game to my Wii, I've been playing it nearly non-stop and have learned the system decently. Now that I know how the game works, it has easily become my most wanted movie. So I read through this topic and there were a few things I wanted to mention.
First of all, EVERYONE can keep up with the screen scrolling. Max's walking speed is the same speed that the screen scrolls, and since everyone else walks faster than Max, they can all keep up. What's important is their position to the screen. Although everyone can keep up with the scrolling, if you have two players, if one of them is too far to the left, the screen won't scroll until they advance. Even still, I think Skate is still the best choice for Max's partner for the reasons mentioned in this topic: he's quick, he's showy and he could be used to throw Max. :)
Also, I think that this movie should have the "Has Entertainment/Speed tradeoffs" title because this movie would definitely be better that way. If you just go for fastest speed, you'll have them using the same moves over and over. Lame.
As for that video with the combo glitch, if it's to be used, I don't think it should be used very often, if at all. I don't know how it works or how to execute it, but since it kills enemies so fast, viewers may find themselves asking why it wasn't used more often. And using it to kill bosses wouldn't be very fun to watch. Same thing if it were used too often.
It seemed like there was something else I was going to mention, but I can't remember it at this time. Either way, I hope these comments help.
>First of all, EVERYONE can keep up with the screen scrolling. Max's walking speed is the same speed that the screen scrolls, and since everyone else walks faster than Max, they can all keep up.
The point is you want to be ahead of the screen. So you can kill the enemies before the screen stops scrolling. Just keeping up isn't enough.
I agree about Entertainment/Speed tradeoffs.
I disagree about the glitch though. I haven't tried it out for myself, but you need at least two enemies and both players to execute it. Thus it can't be used on most bosses. My guess is that it also ends when one enemy dies. The characters seems to freeze afterwards (perhaps it can be canceled out of), so it wouldn't be worth using all the time.
... now we just need someone to actually record the movie.
I see what you mean about the screen scrolling, but let me explain (difficult though it may be.)
You may not always want both characters to be as far right as possible. Why? Because at certain points (and there are a lot of them, especially in Mania mode), enemies will come from BOTH sides. As such, it'd be useful to have a character all the way to the right and a character as far left as possible to make the screen still scroll, but still be close enough to enemies who spawn from the left.
I can't think of any particular time off the top of my head, but it may indeed be useful to have both characters on the right side, but in Mania, there are TONS of enemies with 2 players coming from all sides.
As for the glitch, I didn't know some of those details, but I still think it shouldn't be used often. Maybe once when whomever does this movie can get TONS of enemies in it, like in level 7 during the elevator. I hate that part by the way. Either way, if the player can make it interesting, I'd be open to seeing it used more often than that.
Not to put anyone on the spot, but I think that xipo would be a good candidate for a movie like this. Ever since he's joined this site, he's been making movies like crazy and they're all pretty entertaining. He's really dedicated and dedication is what a movie like this would need. Of course, that's just a suggestion. :)
Joined: 5/1/2004
Posts: 4096
Location: Rio, Brazil
I have recently bought this game for virtual console and have been playing it a lot. Still can't beat it on mania level, even with 9 lives...
anyway, I found 2 bugs
1 - when you beat a level, your character is frozen. not exactly, you can hold B and then release it, and he'll do a move. it can be used to show off, or destroy a barrel on the last moment, in some levels.
2 - sometimes you can get hit but use the special move with A at the same time, and then only after you're done with the attack animation you'll take damage! in a weird way. It even works with enemy throws. I was wondering if this could be used to beat a boss and then die during the "stage completed" message and maybe lose the last life there for a game over. Wonder if anything weird happens.
While that's an interesting idea, I doubt it could be used since losing lives in this run would be a huge time waster. And even if the run starts off at 1 life, the points will rack up and lives will be gained. So even to lose the last life at the very last moment, you'd have to lose any extra lives you've gained. Not very entertaining to watch. But I have noticed this bug before. Well, it's probably not a bug, but more like a programming oversight. It's very odd, indeed. And very annoying. Especially in Mania mode.
As for your first point, thanks for posting that because that reminded me of something I wanted to post before. It's not a huge deal or anything, but for entertainment purposes, it's possible during certain sections of levels to go off-screen. For example, at the very first stage, after you beat Electra, there's a small moment of time right before you lose control over your character where you can jump, slide, special, etc. off the screen. It's amusing especially to go left off screen, only to have your character automatically walk back right. This is most amusing on the elevator section in round 4, because you stay off screen for a while.
There are also parts where the scene ends by just fading away, not with having your character walk off screen. An example of this is seen at the end of section 1 of round 1. During these parts, creative 'freeze frames' would be interesting. Like having both characters about to hit each other when the screen fades away. Other things would be interesting as well. For example, when I play this, at the end of the first section of round 2, I try to make it look like Max is jumping into the back of the truck. Like I said, not a big deal, but a lot of little things like that are what makes run interesting to watch.
And finally, as for the holding down B part during the very end, it could be interesting, just as long as something different is done every time. Of course, this seems obvious, but I thought it best to mention it since it's the only move (I believe) that can be executed when you lose control of your character.
Phew! I find it amusing that I can write so much on such little things, but not supply practical help. :/
Joined: 5/1/2004
Posts: 4096
Location: Rio, Brazil
Oh yeah, inside the truck you can hit the wall after the level is done without having to wait for the automatic slow A move. I don't remember if it's been used though, just pointing it out.
UP
I managed to do a Speed Run of this game, It took me 29 minutes and 17 seconds, I played with Max in Mania.
Is this the highest record? the time goes since the very moment I start the emulator to the moment I put the initials after defeating Mr. X.
The current run is one of the oldest on the site. Given the advances in TASing tools it would be fair to expect it to be done using 2 players. I'm pretty sure it's possible to improve it by a bigger margin than what you've stated.
I don't think a 2 player version would be faster, because most of the ultra damaging moves are done by jumping "inside" an opponent, and using attacks that hit multiple times back and forward as well - by jumping "inside", you have the back and forward hits landing, turning a punch-punch-punch into a 7 hit combo that does half a lifebar damage.
Also, by abusing the backbreaker move hitboxes, so it affects more than one enemy (that move alone does 3/4 lifebar damage).
2 players would get in each others way with this tactic, since the goal is to have all enemies crowd around a single devestating blow that can kill them in one shot. The other player would either attract some enemies who they can't kill as fast, or not be able to do extra damage while player one is pounding with every hitbox in effect. Player 2 would either get hit, or hit player one, freeing the enemies from the hit stun.
With the insane AI on Mania mode, positioning the characters right would be a real challenge alone.
I would like to see the improved run done in less time, but what I would like to see more, is a speedrun using other characters. Skate/Sammy is very fast and has some impressive crowd control attacks that go very underrated. Blaze has many multi-hit combo attacks, but could get easily overwhelmed by the sheer amount of enemies on screen. Axel would end up the most boring IMO, since he is a "can-counter-everything" with no real pros (and is also the slowest character, cause he doesn't have any moves like Max to make him advance faster).
Some of the boss tactics were more impressive in the old run, but other than that, your try does everything better.
I like how you frequently use the full arsenal of Max, including his backwards attack (an underrated but powerful move).
Would you be interested in making runs with the other characters?
Yep, I killed the first bosses without anything impressive, even so, in the the old run the 2 first bosses are killed just 1 second better than I do. To be honest, I didn't want to plagiarize SprintGod's tactic on the Jet.
Yeah, I'm interested in making speedruns with the other characters, now I'm trying it with Blaze (Axel and Skate are quite boring to me) and it's damn hard to know if you are using the right strategy.
Skate can be extremely impressive in some cases, see here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-iBvki3674
Axel is indeed a little boring, he has nothing outstanding about him.
Blaze can be fun, but she lacks powerful moves and enough invincibility frames to even survive Mania mode.
Personally, I think Skate is the one with the best chances, after Max, if used correctly.
From what I understand of the comments it occurs when both players attack at the same time from opposite sides, and only works on the fat enemies. It is definitely worth testing for other enemies though if something similar can be performed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zl8J8mhXsVQ&feature=related
Has some more detail on multi-hit combos. Plus some...very disturbing shots of Axel's jumping attacks in the second part. It's a pity the third glitch, with the chained backbreakers, doesn't actually seem to deal damage.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Dude, if I had a body like that, I'd go around posing around all day to the tune of "I'm too sexy for my shirt".
What's disturbing is that Axel still wears the tightest possible jeans and t-shirt, even though he is on a journey next to a bodybuilding ex-wrestler, who is performing wrestling moves, in particular a whole repertoire of grabs and holds, on any random punk he encounters.
And let's not get into the stripper getup Blaze is wearing! It's impossible to do judo in a skirt like THAT. Furthermore, if you play the japanese original game, you may notice that her skirt does not cover well enough either. One must question this choice of clothing, especially as she is up against hordes of street-hardened criminals.