This is a Tool Assisted Speedrun of the Competition Levels in Sonic 3 & Knuckles: Azure Lake, Balloon Park, Chrome Gadget, Desert Palace, Endless Mine. I searched on TASvideos, SDA, and Youtube, and I was surprised to find out that nobody submitted a serious attempt at this. Since I thought it can be interesting, I decided to give it a try.
Game objectives
- Emulator used: <Gens v2.11 Movie 9Z>
- Contains Speed/Entertainment Tradeoffs
- Collect No Items
- No Death
- Takes No Damage
- Uses No Password
Comments
In this Speedrun I beat the 5 competition levels in Sonic 3 & Knuckles as fast as possible, while trying to retain a decent level of variety. The usual Sonic tricks are used, as 8-rev spindashes in 8 frames, jumps inside loops, and so on. I play in Grand Prix mode with No Items, alone. This allows me to do everything I want in all the 5 levels. While Tails and Knuckles can be faster than Sonic in some levels, I chose to do a "Sonic Only" speedrun. If feedback is good I might consider another run with Tails or Knuckles.
Stage by stage comments
Azure Lake
Pretty much straight forward, with the exception of the first lap, due to the different speed (because of the Spin Dash).
Balloon Park
This is more interesting. Also because of the moving bar, I decided to add some variety here. The result may be suboptimal, but more entertaining, in my opinion.
Chrome Gadget, Desert Palace, Endless Mine
Nothing extraordinary going on here, I played these levels as well as I could.
Other comments
<Explain here things the audience would probably like to see> The Competition Levels don't get much love. This is the chance to see some good Speedrunning through them.
<Explain also things that could be improved in your movie> This could live with fewer entertainment tradeoffs, but I like them. I think my strategies are optimal for the most part.
<You may also suggest screenshots.> http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/2329/69424253wy2.png
mmbossman: Quoting the Rules: "A speed-oriented movie must beat all existing records
If your movie is going to beat something, be sure it beats it. If your tool-assisted movie is slower than the non-tool-assisted world record of the game you play, your movie will almost certainly be rejected." As is mentioned in the thread, this movie fails to beat several of the records documented elsewhere. Thus, rejecting.