As NYMX mentioned, I had been discussing with him that I was under the impression that exhausing all difficulty increases was no longer strictly required for looping games, so long as new content was not being introduced as the method of increasing the difficulty (i.e. speed increase as the only difficulty increase). I would have sworn that I remember seeing a disucssion about this somewhere, but for the life of me, I can't find it now. I had also mentioned that I was under the impression (again from that discussion that I can't find at the moment), that longer runs which showcased more of the harder dififculty loops would be preferred over shorter runs of fewer loops when such runs came under consideration for obsoletion. But I was still under the impression that a singular loop of a game would be sufficient if no new content were introduced thereafter. I had also shared with Spikestuff that this was my understanding of site policy for loopign games. Here is the rule as it's currently are written:

If there's no clear ending, end after all unique content (enemies, level layouts, game mechanics, etc.) is exhausted. -Alternately, after completing all unique content, you may end when the in-game difficulty (enemy speed, AI, etc.) stops increasing.

The way I read this; the first line states that exhausting unique content is the minimial end point for looping games. The second line allows for (but does not require) continuing farther onward through all difficulty increases. These are the basis for my understanding of the policy on looping games, and also the reasons I believe that one loop may be sufficient for a game like this one. FWIW, I will be performing a formal review of this run as-is. I'll update this post with that review once I complete that review. REVIEW: I was able to sync the run. Optimization looks solid; I wasn't easily able to find any improvements. Completely theoretical improvements: 1) Forest Stage - IF the vine swings could be better manipulated, this stage may be improvable. 2) River Stage - There are two types of crocodiles (standard and rogue). Multiple standard crocs can be on-screen at one time with their spawns being separated by 64 frames on a count-down timer stored at RAM address 0x64. Only one rogue croc will be on-screen at any one time. Having a rogue croc on-screen prevents standard ones from spawning even if the timer hits zero. So IF it were possible prevent rogue crocs from spawing and yield only groups of standard crocs, it would be possible to clear the necessary 14 crocodiles faster. I was not able to readily deduce how the game determines when to spawn a rogue instead of standard. (I tried using trace-logger to no avail). 3) Boulder Field - There are a couple large boulders that Winslinator ducks underneath instead of jumping over. Ducking stops horizontal leftward movement slightly delaying progress. While it is possible to jump over the first of these two large boulders (pressing UP while jumping in this stage increases Dashly's jump height slightly) and maintain forward momentum, I was not able to jump the second without manually delaying movement anyway. So waiting to duck for this second large boulder effectively eliminated the savings made by high-jumping the first. I didn't dig in to see if the boulder sequence is predetermined or if it's RNG, but IIRC it is RNG based in other ports of the game. So IF it's also RNG based in this version, it may be possible to manipulate boulders in such a way that could yield a sequence where no ducking was necessary; this would save a few frames. Thoughts on difficulty: 1) The game's manual allows for staring on two different difficulties; this run uses the harder. The manual also mentions that the difficulty increases in subsequent loops after rescuing Lady P, but does not specifically describe HOW the difficulty increases. 2) In other ports, a monkey is added to the Forest stage. The monkey climbs on vines and can knock Dashly off a vine, thus making that stage more difficult. This port does not contain the monkey. 3) The gators do increase speed on the loop immediately following this run, but their speed doesn't seem to increase further with subsequent loops. (The loop number is stored in RAM address 0x0B, and selecting the harder difficulty at the start simply increases this from 0 to 1, effectively making this run's starting loop what would normally be the second loop if starting on easiest difficulty). 4) In the Boulder stage, the boulders do seem to bounce slightly different heights when poking different values into the adress that holds the Loop #, but this is mitigated by holding UP on the jumps. The sequence of boulders was otherwise unchanged, and thus is either pre-programmed or based on RNG values from earlier in the game. 5) I did not note any differences in the Cannibal stage regardless of what values I was poking into the Loop # address. SO....thoughts on difficulty while also considering my comments above this review: I believe 1 loop of this game is sufficient to satisfy the rule requirement of exhausting new content. That being said, it would require only one more loop of play to also exhaust difficulty increases of this otherwise never-ending game (the loop counter resets to 0 after 255). Therefore, while I feel this submission is acceptable as-is, I'd strongly encourage Winslinator to revisit this run and complete the 2nd loop so as to also exhaust difficulty increases.