2007 Awards
History: The first official award ceremony. Previously, Nach had set up his own informal poll for awarding TASes. This ceremony borrows a few ideas from Nach's poll and formalizes the process. Instead of making a few separate categories, then dividing them up by system, which is what Nach did and it lead to a very large list of categories, the community decided to have one award for each system, then have a few special categories focusing on specific aspects of a good TAS. The selection started with a nomination process, and then went on to voting. Though there were still a few problems to iron out, the award ceremony was overall considered a success. Thus was started an annual tradition here at TASVideos.
TASer of 2007
History: There were a great group of TASers on the list. All of them had a large body of work and are considered TAS all-stars today. However, adelikat pulled ahead as the clear winner of this competition. Not only did he have a large group of runs this year, but also had the most breadth of anyone. Adelikat TASed in multiple systems covering many different styles of gameplay. Highlights from adelikat in 2007: [1013] NES River City Ransom "playaround" by adelikat & JXQ in 12:55.38, [878] SNES Super Punch-Out!! by adelikat in 15:59.88, [797] NES Contra (Japan) "2 players" by adelikat in 08:57.98
Rookie TASer of 2007
History: Pretty much everyone on the nomination list went on later to distinguish themselves within the community. However, the true winner was Cardboard for having the most runs, the highests quality runs, and not sticking to one system. Highlights for Cardboard in 2007: [996] GBA Castlevania: Circle of the Moon "warp glitch" by Cardboard in 05:21.93, [979] GB Metroid II: Return of Samus "100%" by Cardboard in 49:22.82, [852] NES Bionic Commando by Cardboard & JXQ in 13:58.98
NES TASer of 2007
History: This was universally agreed to be the hardest category. The votes had a mini competition between adelikat and Randil, with Baxter in a close third. Adelikat for his multiple quality runs and Randil for his large quantity, including many runs which were way overdue for an obsoletion. In the end, adelikat won the category for his high profile runs of popular games, which was enough for him to edge out Randil. Highlights on NES for adelikat: [976] NES Super Mario Bros. 2 "warps, princess only" by adelikat in 08:29.57, [913] NES Marble Madness by adelikat & Deign in 02:48.40, [778] NES Double Dragon II: The Revenge "2 players" by adelikat in 09:21.65
SNES TAser of 2007
History: Unlike the other TASer categories, there wasn't anyone with a large number of TASes in the SNES category for 2007. However, all the nominees released top-notch runs that year. Hero of the day had the most unique runs with three; all of which were very good. In the end, the voting came down to who had the best run that year, and JXQ won hands down for having two absolutely amazing runs: TAS of the year Super Metroid and Super Demo World. Highlights for JXQ on SNES in 2007: [982] SNES Super Demo World: The Legend Continues "warps" by skamastaG, Fabian, jimsfriend & JXQ in 19:07.55, [817] SNES Super Metroid "100%" by JXQ in 1:10:45.02
Sega TASer of 2007
History: Although there were many good candidates nominated this year, there was one shining star in the category. upthorn dominated the polls, getting 54% of the vote (Second place was Aqfaq with 15%). This is all on virtue of the very high profile TASes he completed. On top of two Sonic runs, he also tackled both Ristar and Rocket Knight Adventures. Rocket Knight in particular had been on the cue for improvement for a long while. In addition to this, he added many features to the Gens emulator so it was as easy to use as the other emulators on the site. Highlights for Upthorn on Genesis in 2007: [958] Genesis Rocket Knight Adventures by upthorn in 27:18.13, [795] Genesis Sonic the Hedgehog by upthorn & JXQ in 18:07.63, [779] Genesis Sonic 3 & Knuckles "Knuckles, 100%" by upthorn in 45:28.60
GBx TASer of 2007
This was the closest race of the year that didn't end in a tie. There were two people contending for the top spot. Cardboard had done a lot of work on Circle of the Moon and Metroid II. zggzdydp had been working on the rest of the Castlevania series, including one of the Castlevania Gameboy games. In the end, though, Cardboard came out on top because on top of every run being high quality, he was working with two different franchises. Highlights for Cardboard on Gameboy systems in 2007: [996] GBA Castlevania: Circle of the Moon "warp glitch" by Cardboard in 05:21.93, [979] GB Metroid II: Return of Samus "100%" by Cardboard in 49:22.82
N64 TASer of 2007
In 2007, the N64 category was dominated by Super Mario 64 TASers. AKA and Swordless Link had the current record for any% and Rikku had churned out an 120 star run that blew the previous one out of the water time-wise. When the time came for voting, though. People all went for the candidate that didn't do Super Mario 64. Mukki had taken on two very tough runs that year. Majoras Mask on top of being very difficult in terms of route planning and movement tended to desync a lot, which causes a whole bunch of frustration. Gex 64 had a lot of 3d platforming action, and was also a longer run. Highlights for Mukki on N64 in 2007: [963] N64 The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask by Mukki in 2:14:03.08, [808] N64 Gex 64: Enter the Gecko by Mukki in 49:59.93
TAS of 2007
History: After the rewards for each system were given, the winners of those categories were put into a new category for TAs of the year. When everything had finished, we came out with not one, but two winners. Super Metroid gained the nod for its commitment to being as entertaining as possible. Super Mario 64 won for succeeding at a task that had stumped TASers for quite a while: beating the game without collecting any stars. This was huge news at the time.
Review Super Metroid: This run is a must see, and very worthy of the title for best TAS of 2007. Not only does JXQ destroy the game Super Metroid, collecting every item as he does, he does it with style. Highlights include the messages and animation put into the input (he had five controllers running specifically for this purpose) and antics before and after boss fights.
Review Super Mario 64:
NES TAS of 2007
History: The votes for the NES TAS of the year were very divided. Strong support was given to Castlevania, Super Mario Bros 2, Journey to Silius, and Super Mario Bros. In the end, Super Mario Bros. was able to win by a sizeable margin. This is because the improvement was so unexpected. It had been over two years since the last Super Mario Bros. movie, and the game had been frame warred to death at that point as well. Many people didn't think improving the run would be possible.
Review:
SNES TAS of 2007
History: The SNES category had a lot of high profile and highly rated movies, pulling heavily from Mega Man, Metroid, and Mario franchises. Many of these movies were also seriously considered for the star run category when the system was revamped. Two movies in particular got a lot of support, both through votes and on the forums: "All items" Super Metroid, with its humorous input animations and fast paced action; and "small only" Super Mario World, which featured several very creative solutions for getting around the lack of power-ups. Both were entertaining, fast and unique. Super Metroid won the vote in the end and went on to claim the TAS of the year award as well.
Sega TAS of 2007
History: While many good runs were in this category, two runs dominated the voting. One was Sonic 3 and Knuckles, which turned the game into a glitchfest on par with Mega Man 2 and warped through levels at lighning speed. The other was Gunstar Heroes, a long overdue obsoletion which used the versatile game mechanics to make the run as entertaining as possible. Both of these runs went on to receive stars. Other runs, like Comix Zone and Rocket Knight Adventures only received a few votes, but there were people that showed support for them, usually after declaring they had voted for either Gunstar Heroes or Sonic.
Review: Instead of dealing with all the obstacles, Sonic decides to skip everything and go straight to the end.This run hits the perfect balance between glitching and normal gameplay. Nitsuja also makes great use of Tails to save a lot of time and provide some interaction between the two players. This run is fun, fast and surprising.
GBx TAS of 2007
History: The votes for GBx were spread pretty evenly over the different choices. While most people seemed to have a favorite run of the year, there wasn't any large consensus over which one was the best. Link's Awakening had a lot of support from people that responded to the topic. The run featured a lot of flashy tricks and was faster paced than most Zelda runs. A later incarnation of that run would receive a star. The silent majority, however, put Dragonfang's 100% Metroid Zero Mission on top. The run surprised a lot of people by being incredibly entertaining and impressive throughout its long length. Other runs which gained decent support were Harmony of Dissonance and Aria of Sorrow.
Review:
N64 TAS of 2007
History: The N64 was dominated by Super Mario 64 in 2007. While there were other good and popular runs up for the award, such as Goldeneye and Majora's Mask, the uncontested winner for the category was 0 star Super Mario 64; a new category which TASers had been trying to accomplish for years previous.
Review:
Funny TAS of 2007
History: 2007 had some very funny fighting games, with Splatterhouse 2, Altered Beast, Mortal Kombat II and River City Ransom all up for the spot. Rounding out the list were two platformers: Journey to Silius and Chip 'n Dale. River City Ransom and Altered Beast were the runs to pull ahead for the category. Altered Beast had its antics and bears simulating improper acts during the run. River City Ransom was a run dedicated to playing with the game, completely ignoring speed as an objective. Journey to Silius also got a lot of support from the people explaining their votes, though it didn't do that well in the final standings. River City Ransom won this category for the sheer insanity of its antics.
Review: Instead of going for speed, adelikat and JXQ decide to play with the game as much as possible; juggling weapons, opponents and each other; performing a variety of sketch comedy; generally glitching out the game; and even stopping for a quick round of baseball. The result is a run that is very high on entertainment value.
Glitchy TAS of 2007
History: