My first submission. (Still working on another one which is taking forever.) I didn't see any other recordings for this game so thought I'd give it a shot.
I used FCE Ultra 0.98.15 (the version I downloaded from the forums) to record this. My aim was to complete it as fast as possible while taking no damage.
The game is a wacky sort of platform game where you take on the role of Spider-Man and for some reason everything you kill explodes. Spider-Man must take on six villains. Respectively, Electro, Sandman, Mysterio, Vulture, Hobgoblin, and finally Dr. Octopus.
You can collect web fluid powerups to shoot pellets at your enemies, but strangely enough you can websling across the levels even when your web runs out.
Most of the tricks I used in the run are ones I discovered more or less by accident while recording. Example: Mysterio can be hit multiple times with a single punch if you're standing in the right spot and if you hold down the A button long enough. A much harder trick is dropping from a web to jump kick at the right moment, and then slinging a second web to grab the same platform. Especially because of the web's limited range. Hope you like it.
adelikat: Rejecting. This run needs some improvements as discussed in the forum. The game itself is certainly a publish-worthy game. Therefore, I "formally" give a green light for the author to work on an improved version.
Joined: 8/1/2004
Posts: 2687
Location: Seattle, WA
For your first submission, this was a pretty entertaining movie. I do have a question, though: is it faster to run or jump along flat land? You seem to alternate between the two without any obvious reason. Is it that jumping is faster, but the landing delay cancels it?
Your vulture battle looks like it could be improved by a bit, and I didn't like how you slowed down a few times in the beggining of Dr. Octopus' level. Still, the run seemed entertaining enough to me.
For your first submission, this was a pretty entertaining movie. I do have a question, though: is it faster to run or jump along flat land? You seem to alternate between the two without any obvious reason. Is it that jumping is faster, but the landing delay cancels it?
Yes, exactly. I jump when it's feasible to do so without worrying about the landing delay. If I can't get enough distance (or if the ceiling is too low) I just run.
Edit: Also, there's a point in which you run out of momentum from a jump and just drop straight down. I try to avoid those.
Zurreco wrote:
Your vulture battle looks like it could be improved by a bit, and I didn't like how you slowed down a few times in the beggining of Dr. Octopus' level. Still, the run seemed entertaining enough to me.
Most of the slowdowns were to avoid getting hit and tried as I might, it was difficult to do so without stopping in some way. Unless there's a slowdown I made that didn't require that, that I didn't notice. And yes, I guess the Vulture battle could have been done a bit better. He's a difficult opponent.
Thanks for the critique.
Why did you use a different nickname for the submission?
I created this forum account a while back. It's the nickname I've usually gone by, but I thought my other more recent screenname (which I commonly use as well) is a little more unique and less likely to be used by other speedrunners.
I mean...
It's all part of my complicated and nefarious plot.
Good question. I was considering that, but I think there are two reasons why it wouldn't be a good idea.
First, it would be all but impossible to see what I'm doing. I suppose that's the point, but I think even if I were to try I would probably end up bumping into things and not even know it.
Second, it's not really very entertaining to watch pitch blackness for several minutes, is it?
Joined: 10/17/2005
Posts: 632
Location: Seattle, WA
It'd only be for that room anyway, right? One stretch of pitch black to save time would be alright on the viewer side I think! You could even hex-edit in your path from this movie to make it easier to make.
Okay, tell ya what. If this movie generates enough interest to get published (or rejected... needs more votes either way) I'll make another one to obsolete it where I skip the shades.
It looked to me like running was faster than swinging, but you swinged all the time and ran only occasionally (even when there didn't seem to be any obstacles). But the movement in this game seems quite irregular anyway.
Some of the bosses seemed well made (Mysterio) and some not (flying green guy - Vulture?).
I would also suggest skipping the shades, especially since it looked like it was only one room where they were needed.
Or maybe you should obsolete it now so the publishers don't have to bother publishing two movies!
Well, there's not really any point in making a new movie if the game isn't going to attract any attention, which is why I'm waiting to see if it generates interest before re-attempting it.
Truncated wrote:
It looked to me like running was faster than swinging, but you swinged all the time and ran only occasionally (even when there didn't seem to be any obstacles). But the movement in this game seems quite irregular anyway.
Swinging follows some strange rules. Swinging in general is faster, because you're usually able to move at jumping speed but without the delay that happens when you hit the ground. The speed you swing depends very much on the length of the web. A smaller length of web means that you take longer to swing across, but a longer length gives you more momentum.
If I press B while swinging I can immediately websling once I reach the end of my swing, and continue with very little lost momentum. If I press A, I let go of the web, which in most cases, launches me forward very fast, (much faster than running) but if I try to websling from there, it takes longer for my web to hit its target so it's difficult to judge where you'd optimize.
I should mention the really difficult part about speedrunning is that you can't turn around in mid-air like you can in some games, although you can speed up and slow down at will.
Joined: 8/1/2004
Posts: 2687
Location: Seattle, WA
This game probably WILL get published, so long as you are confident in it. It's a fairly standard platformer, which is what the site seems to focus on. Just tidy it up so that it isn't noticably beatable, and you should be fine.
PS: If you don't, it'll be rejected either now or as soon as someone else submits a better version.
I thought the run was interesting, and it looked to me like this is a pretty good game as a candidate TAS since it has lots of maneuvers. But I didn't vote because I wasn't at all familiar with this game, and I couldn't say at all how well-played it was.
Anyway, my point is, don't be discouraged by the lack of votes. At least in my case, it's from a lack of familiarity rather than a lack of interest.
