TakaM, I wouldn't be surprised if my video is even more improvable; possibly by your suggestions, further optimizations, and perhaps even a new TAS only route. I did it mostly to beat the WR and to discover new tricks, which I shall now get into.
The first thing I have found I will coin Backward Long Jump, after Super Mario 64, because the end result looks the same and you are essentialy doing a long jump backwards. When sliding on the rail, I had gotten up to speeds of 25, and right when I jump, I press and hold left and jump. For some reason, Sonic's speed stays at 25 when he jumps off like that. Normally jumps go down to a speed of 10 (unlike in other sonic games where a jump on a down slope maintains a higher than normal speed) and when I do a backward facing jump, the speed is preserved at 25, and decelerates very, very, very, slowly. By the time I land on the ground, I'm at a speed of 22 or so, and still holding left puts sonic in braking mode, and he still is decelerating very slowly. And when he's braking on the ground, he's on his back and waving his arms around, which looks like Mario when he's BLJing.
This effect can be mimicked slightly in other scenarios. The very first jump off that springboard I hold left which puts my speed at 16, but that decelerates faster, so I optimally start pressing right again as soon as possible. (I forgot to try that again at the other springboard, oops.)
If you land on a down slope, your running speed increases slightly. I did this right at the beginning, which is why the last airdash is spaced later.
When in the air your speed becomes 10, so I use the tension boost during that, which puts your aerial speed at 12 (or maintains above average aerial speed without dropping it to 10.) Hence whenever I'm doing airdashes, I use the tension boost. Airdashes shouldn't be used on the ground when your speed is 13 or higher.
I didn't fully understand every single trick for increasing points, but I kept the gauge from running out, so that's not a problem. But you're right, there's plenty of ways to keep the tension meter rising.
I didn't notice switching screens to waste time... shrug.
At 13 seconds, I should have tested this but it may be possible to spin dash to gain enough speed to clear it without having to go down, and up. The gap is large, but there must be some way to clear it by going horizontally the entire time.
At 26 seconds, you mean just before breaking through those blocks of wood? I think an airdash homed in on the enemy, but I didn't think to test jumping over them. You're probably right.
The special stages do look not boring, but too easy. I don't think a chaos run should be done; nor is it fun to see someone spam "do chaoz emrrlds" suggestion on every single sonic game.
I was the only one clever enough to lift my feet high in the air as we snuck up on some bookworms. This is from the world premiere musical that we just completed.