Recorded using the U.S. version of Streets of Rage 3 and Gens 2.11 with movie support. Used 6 button configuration for both controllers.
No warps or passwords used, abuses programming errors, takes no hits or deaths. Completes Hard difficulty with Zan as fast as possible (with entertainment as a primary/secondary goal, read more below).
Streets of Rage 3 is the relatively controversial end to the Streets of Rage beat 'em up series. Some like it, others hate it, but regardless, it makes a good time attack.
The goal of this movie was to balance speed and entertainment. There are times in the run where I willingly sacrifice a small amount of time to make the run more entertaining. Overall, I estimate I lost one minute, possibly a minute and a half tops by doing this, but it goes a long way towards making the movie more fun to watch. I would rather have people see a 46 minute movie that's interesting than a 45 minute run that's boring.
I chose Zan for many reasons. He's severely underrated, for one. His range is superb, his throw (as well as his ability to throw both ways) and directed special are top notch, and since throwing enemies into each other (in most cases) is the fastest way to kill them, this leads to some pretty interesting stunts in the movie. His speed is irrelevant because he dashes at the exact same speed the screen scrolls, so getting a faster character is a waste. Plus, seeing an old man beat the hell out of everyone never gets old.
There are countless times in the movie where it looks like I can grab/ kill an enemy faster, but I assure you that the wait is for a reason. Most of the time, it's to manipulate the enemy's AI or possibly other enemies' (for example, in the first set of Soozies I encounter, I grab one and wait, because if I throw her immediately, the second Soozie that enters will jump way out of range, costing more time in the end). Other times I wait for good opportunities to throw enemies into each other. This is almost always worth waiting for, especially if we're talking about hitting 3 or more enemies. Other times an enemy will be on the edge of the screen and will (look) like he/she can be grabbed. Unfortunately, this isn't true.
This was a difficult game to time attack. Everything you do affects what every enemy on the screen will do at any given time. This makes it hard to accurately reproduce favorable instances in some cases.
On some enemies, I use dragged out combos with weaker hits (i.e. two punches, a downward jump attack, two flurries[grab attacks], and a throw) because for some enemies it takes forever for them to get up (Electras are good examples), and it's actually faster to do this than to just throw and wait for them to get back up. I usually use this as a finishing combo. Other enemies, such as Donovans, get up really quickly, so just throwing them is faster.
Enemy trigger points were also important. You've got "sets" of enemies where you have to defeat every enemy before more will come. In these cases, I focused on enemies with more health (and throwing them into weaker enemies). Then you have times where the game wants a certain number of enemies on-screen at one time, and will dump new enemies to replace killed ones. In these cases, I focused on the weaker enemies (and throwing them into each other) so that new enemies can be killed quicker. Occasionally there will be enemies that drop in after a certain amount of time regardless. For that, all you can do is wait...
Also, Zan's directed special can be used at no cost before the blue meter fills up completely. In some cases, it can be used when it's not filled up at all.
Game-specific notes:
Menu selection in the beginning wasn't perfect for some reason. I had gone nearly frame by frame and had chosen what looked to be the first available time I could move the cursor and select the options. When I played the movie back (after completing Stage 1), I realized I was apparently mistaken. However, due to the extreme difficulty of manipulating every single enemy move in Stage 1 again to match what I had done, I did not go back and redo it, as I could have very well lost time in the end.
Stage 1, Scene 1:
Pretty self-explanitory. I only threw the agents with guns at the end despite them taking a long time to get up. This was done because they don't take flurry hits well at all (they will break out of the grab and hit you). I also placed emphasis on getting them in the middle of the screen because they tend to camp just out of grabbing range, which is very annoying.
Stage 1, Scene 2:
Fat guys probably take the longest to rise from a knockdown, but you also can't throw them, so the only choice is to throw other enemies at them and/or special.
Three reasons for hitting (and not killing) the bikers. The first is entertainment, the second is that if you kill them, you lose a lot of time, as the game waits for the biker to disappear before it throws another one on the screen. The third is that if you hit them, they go across the screen faster than usual, and when they're gone, the next bikers come. This saves time (except for the very last biker...by then the boat shows up and then it doesn't matter if you kill him or not).
Stage 1, Scene 3:
Shiva cannot be hit until he lowers his guard. When he gets up and you're near him, he'll do a fast jump kick and land. This is faster than his other method of getting up. On the last hit, I made a mistake I realized halfway through the run and threw him. Had I done a single flurry, vaulted, and slammed, it would've been a little faster due to less time in slow motion.
Stage 2, Scene 1:
I used a neat trick to kill the second green biker on his second go. It involves him getting hit twice in a row by throwing an enemy.
Stage 2, Scene 2:
The first set of Soozies were extremely aggravating. Though it may not look like it, that was the fastest way to beat them.
Stage 2, Scene 3:
Except for the first and last hits, I couldn't get any good opportunities to attack Mona and Lisa at the same time. So I was forced to wail on Lisa while Mona just walked around...
Stage 3, Scene 1:
The fat guy grabs the Garcia in the beginning no matter what you do, and unfortunately you have to get them out of this combo before you can damage them. The barrels provided for nice long-range weapons, and at the end, when I hit the barrel to kill the two green Garcias and the fat guy, one Garcia didn't get hit for some strange reason. There was nothing I could do about this glitch.
Stage 3, Scene 2:
Ah, the bulldozer scene. Since the walls take the same amount of damage in the same time span no matter what attack you use, I used dash attacks when one wall was at low health to instantly charge into the next wall. When the bulldozer crept up on me, stationary specials allowed me to hit both the wall and the dozer at the same time.
At the last wall, a strange unexpected glitch happened. The bulldozer actually hit the wall and destroyed it in one hit without hitting me. This actually saved a little time.
Stage 3, Scene 3:
Every single enemy fell in the hole. 'Nuff said.
Robot Axel was pretty cut and dry. One part I saved a little time by making him do a Grand Upper the wrong direction when he got up, keeping him on the screen when I knocked him down. There was pretty much no way to slam him in the end (throwing him was suicidal enough).
Stage 4, Scene 1:
The cars deal more damage faster to enemies, so it's a strategic advantage to use them whenever possible.
Stage 4, Scene 2:
Since some ninjas would hang from the top screen when a car came, I had to stun some of them first to get them to be hit by the car.
Stage 4, Scene 3:
All three Yamatos will always get up in the direction that's farthest from you. Not like it will make a difference for them, though...
Watch the chicken when the last Yamato dies. It should explode, but it disappears and you can only hear the explosion.
Stage 5, Scene 1:
The "normal" route (i.e. the route you automatically go through if you don't choose one) was the fastest route to take. Two of the secret routes contained way too many enemies, and the other made you go through an unnecessary scene.
Stage 5, Scene 2:
Probably the best part of the whole run. Throw opportunities galore...it almost seemed like clockwork.
Two times I hold a karate guy for an unusually long time. I was waiting for a good throw opportunity, and the results (hitting 3 enemies) were worth the wait.
Stage 5, Scene 3:
It looks like I was slow on the first set of enemies, but again, I was waiting for good throw opportunities.
Sometimes, Robot X will not let you throw him when he gets up. As a result, I had to use other attacks occassionally.
Stage 6, Scene 1:
I did some research, and the most logical explanation I can come up with for the seemingly random robots self-destructing is that some robots have the capability to self-destruct, while others don't. Regardless, this saved me a LOT of time.
At the first switch, I got very good throw opportunities on all enemies. For some reason, I was unable to manipulate this at the second switch (in fact, the whole battle was different). Also, I tried to kill all the enemies first before killing the switch, because the game waits for all enemies to die, regardless of whether or not the switch is busted.
Stage 6, Scene 2:
In the Jet battle, sometimes I stall with downward jump attacks until I can special. I also slammed him a few times, just for fun. Unfortunately, I was unable to slam him when he was at his last health, and believe me, I friggin' tried.
Stage 7, Scene 1:
Unfortunately, the bikers in this stage move faster than the ones in Stage 2, so I can't hit them twice in a row with a throw. However, I got the ninja to throw me, which hit both of them at the same time.
At the end, I finally got a good chance to use a trick where I grabbed the robots, flurried, wait for them to break out, and grab/flurried again.
Stage 7, Scene 2:
Hope you like my little dance at the beginning. It was the best I could do while robots were rushing past me left and right.
Stage 7, Scene 3:
Dahm can only seem to be hit so many times before he retracts his arm (I noticed this because he seemed to be retracting a little faster than normal).
Stage 7, Scene 4:
I left the part where he throws me in just for entertainment.
That's about it. I'd like to give a big thanks to Truncated for his ever-useful tips which allowed me to make this run much better.
Truncated: Compared to the movie in progress with 2 players, this one is quite unspectacular. It also contains those little things that annoy me, like hitting the bikers too late so that they stay on screen longer than they need to, or letting the boss escape out of the screen.
Since I know the 2-player version will be absolutely awesome, I think rejecting this one isn't a bad movie. All the cool things in this one will be in the new movie anyway, just less repeated.