I read through the posts, and here are my thoughts regarding the points brought up (might be long):
-Advanced Difficulty
I didn’t choose Novice with the intention of making a faster run. Time wasn’t the major concern, although Novice difficulty does speed things up. This game could actually be finished much faster through repetitive A-button trashcan attacking, but who would want to watch that? The reasons why this was played on Novice was to keep a constant flow through the entire run and allow more flexibility for the fights.
Now I watched GSGold’s run; pretty good attempt at Advanced mode btw. You can see that on hard difficulty, his attacks are being blocked by regular enemies, and bosses are blocking even more. Only natural since their stats are double from that of Novice.
I just don’t see the point in wanting to do this run on Advanced. It will be the same run, with longer, more repetitive fights due to less flexibility from the bosses.
-Collecting coins
The only reason for collecting the coins is because the boss doesn’t show up until all coins are off the screen. Also, you must wait for the boss’s coin to appear after beating him, or else you can’t proceed to the next boss.
-Buying Stuff
Why don’t I buy stuff?
1. Main reason is time and flow. If you are trying to keep a good flow(which is my main goal for the run), you have to go through the whole game without slowing down or stopping.
If you are trying to finish as fast as possible, buying anything wastes more time than it could potentially save. Why? If you’re beating only the necessary enemies and bosses, you won’t have the money or even the chance to buy skills until you reach Flatiron’s Mall, which is already more than half-way through the run (unless you backtrack to Grotto, which is an even bigger waste of time). Then you have to go through the store screen to buy, leave, then 2 menu screens to activate your skill. Now you have a new problem:
2. Repetitiveness/Less variety. You will only be able to afford 1 skill, and you will probably be using nothing but that skill for the rest of the run (that’s the point in buying it, right?). Let’s say you bought Grand Slam. There would be no point in using kicks or punches anymore, since you can kill faster with your new skill. Any variety you try to add would make your purchase even more wasteful.
3. Any Boots or Power-ups are pointless. Trashcan, that’s why.
-Better Randomization
Blocking: The only time I recall having a problem with enemy blocking is during the Double Dragon fight, and I doubt you can get through this fight without having them block you. You’re probably thinking just re-record until you hit them. Consider this; they are the fastest bosses in the game, and there are 2 of them. If you hit one of them, the other may block you. Also, you must keep up a constant attack to hold them back or else they’ll get in and hit you. This part can definitely be improved mind you, but you will still have to put up with blocking.
Making enemies appear in convenient places: Doesn’t really matter most of the time. Regarding the warehouse, whatever side you defeat the current enemies in, the next set of enemies will appear on the opposite side, so you have to run back and forth to beat them.
-Fighting
This is what I put the most thought into. I try to avoid repetitiveness at all cost. As you can see, even though I pretty much use the same moves over and over again, yet each boss battle is done differently. If you are wondering about picking up the enemy and letting him jump away, it is intentional. When they jump, you can use a variety of attacks to hit them in mid-air. In fact, for bosses Thor and Slick, the finishing move requires them to jump out of my hold. It looks so much better in slow mo though.
Regarding the last boss fight; it’s the only fight where I miss attacks. Unlike all the previous fights where I fly through with ease, I wanted this fight to be a bit messy and look more like a struggle. Sort of like the beat down Sonny gave in the Godfather. So lots of kicking and throwing the trashcan and against the wall. A good chunk of this part was me just playing in slow mo btw. I don’t really care if people think it’s flawed or not done as fast as possible, it’s just how I decided to do it.
I think that's everything.
btw, Josh, if you like pure speed, check out the Sonic runs if you haven't already. Amazing.