This run is over 5 minutes faster than valagard's previously published run, and is still at the highest difficulty ("crazy hard"). The biggest difference is in the now-"kamikaze" boss fights, but everything else is faster too (even the auto-scrolling sections, apparently).
Sparkster is an extremely fast-paced, high-action game. I think the main character is a possum/rocketeer/knight. He can swing his sword, spin-slash quickly left or right, and get a high-speed rocket boost in any direction after a short charge-up time, among other things.
In addition to watching the charge-up meter and trying to use the rocket boosts at optimal times, I also have to watch out for the hidden "dizziness" meter the game keeps track of for the character, which makes the character become immobile and helpless for quite a while if I use the ever-useful spin-slash move too much. If you notice me walking sometimes when spinning would be faster, it's because I can't spin anymore without dropping like a rock and waiting 5-10 seconds to recover. Taking damage resets the dizziness to zero, however, so I take advantage of this a lot (especially in boss fights) to be able to spin more. (The spin move is the only thing that can prematurely end a boost or cancel the "freaking out" animation after a boost, and it cancels the "getting hit" animation, does decent damage, is faster than walking, and keeps me in the air, so you can see why that's always useful.) Also, a trick I use to go faster in horizontal sections is to rocket-boost along on the ground immediately into a jump, which maintains the rocket-boosting speed for longer than normally possible.
For boss fights: Rocket boosting / in-place-spinning into an enemy is the strongest attack, followed by spin-slashes and direct sword hits which are almost as strong, and weakest are indirect sword hits. So, I alternate between the former two attacks, keeping their respective meters in balance, and avoid using indirect attacks. The in-place rocket boost (twirling) does the same damage as a directional rocket boost, but it also makes me invincible for its duration. The spin-slash on the other hand is almost impossible to use as an attack without taking damage in the process, but that's OK because I need to take damage to use it as frequently as necessary and it even cancels out the damage animation.
Oh, and someone will probably ask this, so: The end-of-level bonus displays for some minimum amount of time, so ending each level with only 1/2 life is not faster than still having a few hearts extra, although having 100% health seems to slow it down as the points go over 10000.
This run:
- Aims for fastest time
- Manipulates luck
- Plays at highest difficulty
- Takes (a lot of) damage to save time
Can also be viewed with Snes9x 1.43 WIP. These sound settings must be set: Volume Envelope Height Reading OFF, Sync samples with sound CPU ON.
