Awesome. Awwwesome. That was a blast to watch. You did a great job keeping it from being too repetitive while using every opportunity to entertain in the dead space. You clearly put a ton of work into this, and you succeeded!

Awright, this is completed! The run looked great; nice job! Congratulations on finally finishing. I don't think the inconsistency about the new and improved Handshake of Death is a big deal. I mean, sure, ideally there'd be a run that is consistent throughout, but that run doesn't exist. This run does exist, and it's a good run, so it should be published. (Similar logic applies to your 1P run, but I guess that ship has sailed...)

I've been expecting this for long time, and saw the WIPs, so I give it a strong Yes vote. (upd) I suggest frame 109342 :)

Glad to finally see this finished. Yes vote.

That was really good. Lots of fun to watch. Easy Yes vote for Moons or better.

one issue. At some points, player 1 does nothing but stand in the middle of the screen while player 2 does all the work. isn't that slower? And if it isn't, please explain

Usually that's because there's nothing player 1 (Zan) can do to speed that particular part up while player 2 (Blaze) is finishing enemies with her more powerful combos and quicker slam. In the scenes where Blaze is using the sword blitzes on ninjas, if you add in punches or anything else in the middle with Zan, the hits don't stack and Blaze ends up knocking down the ninja prematurely due to how her sword blitz works.

Usually that's because there's nothing player 1 (Zan) can do to speed that particular part up while player 2 (Blaze) is finishing enemies with her more powerful combos and quicker slam. In the scenes where Blaze is using the sword blitzes on ninjas, if you add in punches or anything else in the middle with Zan, the hits don't stack and Blaze ends up knocking down the ninja prematurely due to how her sword blitz works.

thanks for explaining. However, shouldn't he be at the right edge of the screen to make it scroll sooner?

Which particular instance are you referring to? The screen doesn't scroll unless both players are on the right side/running from middle, so if Blaze is busy in the middle/left the screen won't scroll until she's done and catches up.

The screen can't scroll anyway, if Blaze is stuck over on the left-hand side of the screen. EDIT: too slow.

I saw a few of the WIPs and was uncertain on how I felt about the run. After watching the entire run from start to end, I am very happy with the result. It was very entertaining throughout. Voting Yes!

Wow, this brought back such great memories. I think you did an excellent job making it entertaining, while still being quite speedy. ...Actually, I kind of wish there could be a legitimate goal or category of "uses all characters & attacks." For this game, it would break up the monotony a bit without really costing much time -- just select each character to only have 1 life in options, and strategically KO & continue at certain points where it doesn't slow you down too much. If I'm understanding the multi-hit bug correctly, any two players can use their down-air attacks to do massive damage. Axel & Skate both have interesting & stylish movesets, especially their special dash attacks & weapon moves (I would love to see Skate's bat special successfully smacking a huge group of enemies; I usually knocked them down on the startup & whiffed on the spinning combo). Shiva & Ash are kind of boring, but Roo has some interesting tricks (& can do a throw-combo-attack with the main 4!).

I liked the Speedrun but throw are more fast than double jump & attack combo in some bosses (Fake Axel and Yamato) ?

I liked the Speedrun but throw are more fast than double jump & attack combo in some bosses (Fake Axel and Yamato) ?

That bug only works on multiple enemies.

Very good run. It exploited invulnerabilities, hitboxes, and bugs I was unaware of. The only thing to make it better if it were to show off more of the game like Floogal said. Despite the game being mediocre (or at least to me compared to the other SOR games), this run blows my expectations. I vote Yes!

Encoding...

This is the moment I've been waiting for, ever since I uploaded the WIP on YouTube. As for the character exhibition, unlocking Roo by defeating Bruce without killing him takes up time. Ash can't be unlocked in SOR3 by normal means, so that's out of the question. SOR3 isn't bad of a game, it might be localization turning off some people due to the outfit colors changing and the significant increase in difficulty.

It's the increase in difficulty and the fact that most of the levels are really monotonous compared to SOR2. In SOR2 levels, you usually only have 3-4 "fights" to get through before you progress to a new environment (where a fight is a point where scrolling stops and you have to dispatch all of the enemies to continue). In SOR3 you have long, samey corridors with enemy after enemy all with entirely too much health. Bare Knuckle 3 is reasonably fun but still kind of monotonous, but SOR3 is a slog.

Also, one of the main reasons why SOR3 Hard is so ridiculous is because enemies can take off 3/4 of your lifebar in one combo. So not only is is a slog, it's a slog that heavily punishes mistakes. Unfortunately, BK III on Very Hard is too easy because it doesn't resort to cheap tricks like scaling up damage and dumping 4 or 5 lifebars on enemies in a game where all the characters are weak. Fun fact: There's a Goldie in the City Hall route that has over 5 lifebars on 2P Hard. That's more than any boss in SOR2 Mania had.

The farthest I can make it in SOR3 Hard is at Robot X in Stage 5, with Zan. Tiny mistakes can cause me like, two lives or so the last time I tried Stage 3.

Looks excellent! Question: how do you make the sword last so long (e.g. in the first stage)? I thought it would fall out of your hands after 3 or 4 attacks.

If Blaze grabs an enemy before her blitz is over, the sword doesn't lose energy.

I attempted SOR3 good ending hard mode once. I actually beat it, by being lucky enough to get Robot Y in a loop: repeatedly knocking him off-screen with Skate's Dynamite Headbutt, timing the next to hit him as he leaps back in (trivia: I learned that hitting with the somersault hurts more than the headbutt, the opposite of SOR2). I never bothered to attempt it again, after realizing that Hard Mode requires you to destroy a whole lifebar every 20 seconds. Other problems with SOR3: - on harder difficulty levels, some of the basic grunts start moving ridiculously fast - if you hit your ally, you do full damage to them - the whole "not allowed to finish on easy mode" trope is never good - robot imposters? invisible, teleporting, magical samurai? Mad scientists & brains-in-jars? I understand that series evolve a bit, but this was all a bit too sci-fi for a series about beating up street thugs and taking down mobsters. It's quite a shame, as this game had several other aspects that could have made this the best game in the series: - recharging special mechanic encouraged variety without spamming - dashing & rolling added mobility, and the game is in general more fast-paced - bonuses for staying alive a long time or having a 6-button gamepad - special moves with weapons - bringing back the team-attack-combos - lots of stage hazards, especially pits that won't make you lose an entire life at once

As for the character exhibition, unlocking Roo by defeating Bruce without killing him takes up time.

You can enter a code to unlock Roo before even beginning the game (doesn't cost time; he appears on the character select screen). Besides, I think defeating Bruce while saving Roo would be more entertaining, as it's quite tricky to do while playing normally. Perhaps it could be considered part of the "good ending" goal? By the way, atro city, please don't take my musings on more character variety as whiny complaints. Your video is very entertaining!

If Blaze grabs an enemy before her blitz is over, the sword doesn't lose energy.

Interesting. Is that something you can pull off reliably in normal gameplay, or does it require frame-level precision?