This run is the product of what I first thought was a cruel twist of fate. After my 12:01 deaths run was approved I wanted to make a no deaths run and was planning to submit once I got around 12:15 or less. The idea was to have both deathless and deaths runs up simultaneously. My first good no deaths time was 12:01 which just so happens to be EXACTLY the same time as my previous deaths run. This presented a problem because Mike Uyama informed me that the deaths run will be obsoleted.
At first I was annoyed at how I could randomly get the exact same freakin time (which has never even happened until now). I mean how could it not have been a few seconds faster for sub 12:00 or a few seconds slower to be a nice complement to my 12:01? After my initial annoyance and disgust subsided, it hit me. I realized the beautiful truth...this was a sign that my work on this game was not done. Sub 12:00 had to be achieved and I knew I could do it. I actually developed a few new strategies for this run some of which you will get to see. Others will just be described in the comments since I did not execute them correctly.
- Mission 1 - Into the Turf (1:23)
This was a pretty solid mission with only missed knees on Roper and Burnov that cost a few seconds. I successfully executed my strat upgrade on the 2nd set of Williams on the rooftop and managed to save 12 seconds right off the bat from my previous run.
- Mission 2 - The Heliport (1:15)
Only some bad luck with the Roper jump kicking me prevented a perfect run of this mission. 6 seconds saved here and I am on a blistering pace.
- Mission 3 - In the Chopper (0:29)
I made a mistake by taking a step up after the first set of Williams and it cost me 4-5 seconds, but I recovered and finished the mission okay. No time saved or lost here.
- Mission 4 - Undersea Base (1:31)
A minor upgrade to the strategy at the beginning allows me to ensure the 3rd Roper can never hit me with his weapon and keeps the Lindas to the right of the screen. I display my new strategy against Bolo which involves punching him out rather than going for the single punch + two knees. I saved 3 seconds here and am still on a great pace.
- Mission 5 - Forest of Death (1:48)
Well no one is perfect and I always fail at least 1 knee attempt per run but had two really costly ones here. The first at the beginning was disappointing because I had done the TAS strat perfectly and then just randomly fail the 3rd knee. The one on the train was even worse and I even messed up my new strat on Arnold where I keep him up top with 1 uppercut + 2 knees ftw. Other than those errors the mission goes according to plan and I still save 13 seconds from the previous run.
- Mission 6 - Mansion of Terror (1:01)
I get the worst flame pattern and somehow manage to get hit by the 1st Right arm for the first time in the history of my speedrunning this game. Little did I know how badly that would throw off the rest of the mission. It had a strange randomness ripple effect that caused me to lose more time and I ended up 5 seconds slower than my previous run. At this point I almost reset and was ready to scrap the run because I had blown my pace, but I usually finish the game for practice anyway and I am sure glad I did that here.
- Mission 7 - Trap Room (1:58)
Oh the Trap Room. My most hated mission in the game. It is basically just a series of things you can screw up on for an entire mission. I actually execute pretty darn well this time around other than getting hit in the gear room and few other minor mishaps. The main problem was getting a bad pattern on the Right arms which cost a lot of time. Even though this is 5 seconds slower than the previous run I am never unhappy with a sub 2 minute Trap Room.
- Mission 8 - Double Illusion (1:25)
I get the bad pattern on the Chins and completely blow it on the third one. After that I get my shit together and finish the rest of the mission nearly flawlessly. I saved 9 seconds here mainly by killing the Ninjas and having a TAS like Illusion fight.
- Mission 9 - Final Confrontation (0:31)
You guys remember that game Mortal Kombat and how when you won without taking any damage the announcer guy would say "Flawless Victory" Well that basically sums up this boss fight.
A few notes on the shadow boss. In order to get the good pattern you have to wait a second on the last cutscene before starting the fight (I actually figured out which note of the music to press the button on). If you do this he will NOT flip away from your 1st knee. Once you get him cornered you have to do a variation to keep him trapped. During the first half you take a ? step away before jumping and kneeing again once he is in the corner. In the 2nd half of the fight you just face away and jump/knee. If you do not do this he will hit you. It took me a long time to figure out the "randomness" of this guy, but I now know pretty much everything there is to know about the goon and how he reacts.
I am pretty pleased with this run and all told I managed to save 39 seconds. Most of my mistakes were not too costly and I did execute pretty well in some spots. The best part for me about this run time is that I actually completed the entire game faster than the original 1 player TAS done by Fobbi on Intermediate difficulty in 11:22 (timing ends with final hit). I think 11:0x is definitely possible but I am not going to be running this game anytime soon. If someone comes along and beats my time I will return and go for sub 11:00 which is the Holy Grail for this game but requires the mission 6 glitch to be performed or near perfect execution in all 9 missions.
