This is a 2p run of Streets of Rage, it beats the current movie by over 10 mins or 36577 frames to be exact
- Aims for fastest time
- Plays on hardest difficulty
- One player controls two characters.
- Abuses programming errors
- Contains entertainment trade offs
- Manipulates luck
- Contains death abuse
- Takes damage to save time (also done for entertainment purposes)
I've been wanting to do a TAS of this game ever since I joined the site, but I was always hesitant to do so, since I didn't know what the best strategies were, the current run is one of the oldest on the site and is known to be massively improvable for a long time. Sprint, the author of the published run knew above all how much his run could be improved and he was probably biggest help since he theorized a lot of better strategies which I tested and proved would be of benefit. Also this is a prime example where a 2p run is significant better and more fun to watch compared to a 1p run. The current movie generally uses similar strategies throughout and plays for fastest time; while our movie uses much more varied strategies containing several trade off's throughout, but still keeps a fast pace throughout. This is probably the most enjoyable run I've worked on since I wasn't stressing over trying to shave frames and the game allows a lot of stylistic choices to be implemented without incurring time. Chemist found a glitch in the last level which cuts the level short, I'm not going to go into great detail about it, but normally when a character goes above or below the screen then its instant death, except from the last level. I think its probably related to the trap door during the Mr X speech. If you decide to join him he opens a trap door sending you back to level 6 so some data gets written. But in this case no data gets written and the game somehow thinks you've completed the level.
Streets of Rage is one of my favorite games for the Sega Megadrive/Genesis. When I first discovered this site one of the first runs I watched was Sprint's TAS of this game. Unfortunately, that run, albeit unbeknown to me at the time, was suboptimal and subenjoyable (judging by the ratings). As I became more knowledgeable and opinionated about TASes the more I wanted to improve Sprint's movie. Don't get me wrong, I did certainly enjoy his movie, however I felt that a 2-player TAS could offer so much more. Firstly, it was the two-player mode that made me love this game. When playing with friends we'd always spend more time attacking each other rather than the enemies. It's what made the game funny and exciting. I felt that a TAS could do this better. Secondly, I knew the game could be beaten much faster, even before Chemist discovered the level 8 glitch. Sprint's run was half an hour long and, to those not familiar with the game, rather uninteresting and repetitive in places (especially level 8). This run is a pocket-sized 20 minutes and doesn't feel as bulky because the lengthy eighth level is effectively skipped. I would also say that this was probably the most enjoyable TAS I've worked on. Whilst TASing my efforts were geared more towards a kind of choreography rather than ripping my hair out over frame perfection. Having said that every effort was made to make this run as optimal as possible without loss in entertainment. This has been the movie I've been hoping to make for a while now as it gave me considerable freedom to be creative. I hope you all enjoy the results.
Thanks to...
Sprintgod: He came up with a lot useful strategies that were used in this run
Truncated: For making a damage table showing how much damage certain attacks and weapons do
Chemist: He found a glitch on the last level which saved 6-7 mins
Truncated: Slight overuse of the team special, and the bosses are a little disappointing. But all in all it's a huge improvement over the current movie, both in time and in entertainment. Accepting.