A bit preliminary since the site was down for a day and the movie file hasn't been replaced with the correct one yet. Still, here go my thoughts on this run.
I was one of those lucky fellows who were able to track adelikat's progress and sometimes give him tips on what to do next. I should say that I don't like all the formerly submitted Gradius runs (including Morimoto's) for various well-known reasons. But this one is VERY different from them all. I consider this to be the first Gradius run fully worth publishing here, historical reasons aside.
First, it is much shorter. How often do you see an autoscroller improved by three minutes? It is also technically flawless on top of that. Adelikat used pretty much every tool possible, with the exception of ROM disassembling, and the result speaks for itself: every boss/miniboss battle is frame perfect, aside from the awesome feats in the levels themselves.
Second, there's not a single dull moment. Adelikat uses a wide variety of possible options (including the ingame "options", literally) to bring something different to every level, so that his movements don't have enough time to get old. Besides, adelikat's version have much more perceived dynamic range between the slowest and the fastest speed. He even slows the ship down artificially to let you regain the feeling of speed. And the death at one of the later levels serves the same purpose; it may look unusual or disturbing, but in fact it resets the speed and thus doesn't get you overly bored with constantly fast movement.
Third, this run is an example of true TASing art. How often do you see "EAT AT JOE'S" written in a speedrun? The movie transcends from just a playaround to something that doesn't have anything to do with the actions intended by developers, it just ignores all the boundaries.
It is also one of those runs that take a simple game and pwn it to the extent that can seriously make you gasp and laugh at certain parts from the beginning till the very end, much like the Excitebike run.
That being said, I think it deserves the star as much as it possibly can. Is there a better way to show the beginner what a TAS is if not by recommending them this run?
Yes vote!
