The Super Easy speedrun over at SDA is shorter than this by a few seconds (using presumed power on to final input). Is this because of loading time differences?

It's probably because it's on SuperEasy, rather than SuperHard. edit: On further research, I am not entirely sure what changes between SuperEasy and SuperHard difficulties, besides password-saving and the like. I presume the bosses have more health, but I have not confirmed this with any sort of investigation. editAgain: Also, I wasn't able to find a (J) rom of this game, but pleasantly it works on (U).

I presume the bosses have more health

Yes, they have:

the extra health the boss has makes it very difficult to pull off on hard.

Also, I wasn't able to find a (J) rom of this game, but pleasantly it works on (U).

Are you sure?

Released in February 1995, Alien Soldier is well known for its difficulty, but not in the US, because the game was only released in Japan and Europe.

I'm temporarily abstaining from voting. Right now my vote is a tentative yes. It was definitely entertaining. What makes me reluctant, however, is that you have less than 2000 rerecords for a 20-minute plus run. Some parts look like they might be unoptimized but it's impossible to tell because I'm not familiar with the game and how the weapons work to tell if certain delays are important or necessary. The notes given in the submission are helpful. More description might have helped. I'm going to look into it a bit more before I give my final vote, though. All-in-all it looks pretty good. Really, it's just the 1925 rerecord count that makes me feel like something doesn't add up. I can easily go through that many rerecords doing a single level of a different game.

I vote NO. The quality of this movie is too low. This run is ~10:40 something, a 9:35 movie was posted on this very forum by Daibakusho Curry. Here are some reasons: - You stop during the stages to change weapons. There is plenty of time between levels to do this. - You stop to wait for weapon power-ups to change to the right ammo types. You can shoot them to change them to your current ammo type. - You say that you choose the weapons with the highest damage output, but during the 7-force fight you downgrade to the Buster Force. - Before you get the Buster Force, you don't damage Medusa Force (the wheel) with any weapon, even though you have lancer. - You run out of ammo during some boss fights, this is avoidable with some planning and by using the white suit. The gold suit consumes more ammo. - You can kill the Ant man (second boss) directly with the phoenix, without firing at it first. - The spider fight is way slower than the unassisted run of this game. You can hover under the moth, no waiting required. - You don't need to take damage at the fish boss. Also D.curry showed a faster strategy than what you used. - Etc.... - Stylistically, I think you heavily overuse the counter-force, but that's just me.

Funny, I never knew (but am not surprised) that the same music was used in both this game (Stage 20 Boss) and Gunstar Heroes (Seven Force). I give this a Meh. Overall it looks pretty good, but some of the boss fights seem like the order of attacking with your weapons and your Phoenix Attack could be done differently to save some time, from what I see. But I'm no expert at this game, mind you.

Voting no. I didnt read the comments before I watched, so Im not gonna repeat that has already been said, but I agree with everything that Truncated wrote. I think that alot of the bosses can be speeded up with atleast 10-15% or even more in this run just by collecting the life tanks better or save them so you can do your phoenix more. Correct me If Im wrong, but cant you kill the Butterfly with one Phoenix instead of flaming it to death? And please, do some less Counter-force.. that annoyed me alot..

I change weapons in stages when a wapon apears. Why I don´t shhot the weapons power ups? well, between aiming and and shooting I lose a lot of frames instead of waiting... This TAS is faster, belive me, I do it for 3rd time, improving a few details in each try... And, I don´t believe that of a SR faster... link the page. Medusa Force... Why I don Shoot? Its necesary to teel that I´m saving ammo? lose a few second instead of 1 minute its faster, or not? I just say one thing, analyze it and play it if you have doubts.. I don´t agree the guy who say "I´m vote NO ´cause I´ll do it faster".. So, do it. I Know the counter is anoying, but, if I do the teleport all the time it will be anoying to. By the way, I did other things. I domn´t try to be a jerk and nothing for the style, just be fair with your words. ^.^

I just say one thing, analyze it and play it if you have doubts.. I don´t agree the guy who say "I´m vote NO ´cause I´ll do it faster".. So, do it.

It's already been done. Here is a link of the previously mentioned run by daibakusho_curry, which completes the game approximately 3000 frames faster than this one. Please note that this .gmv does not end input until after the credits, which takes another 25k frames.

om, nom, nom... juicy!