After winning a level, the game tallys your score and takes some events into account. The level was done very fast, but you won some award for which fireworks are shown, awards are given, etc. These events are long.
The best example is Super Mario Bros 3. 3 cards of the same type nets you fireworks. Anything not 3 of a kind gets you a 1up and no special events. Running at max speed guarantees a star for the most part, so getting anything but a star actually slows down your in-game time. But doing so skips a ~10 second celebration.
Runs which watch the fireworks in exchange for the fastest per-level time are given this category.
Joined: 12/26/2006
Posts: 256
Location: United States of America
OK, I understand. A lot of Sonic the Hedgehog movies fall into this category because of the huge "time bonus" at the end of this level -- nobody would ever suggest running the level slower to reduce the time bonus and make the overall time "faster", even if that were possible.
A question, though: Sonic the Hedgehog also has a "ring bonus" at the end of each level. Suppose I complete each level in the exact same amount of time -- same number of frames and everything -- but collect fewer or no rings to save "bonus time", thus decreasing overall time by several seconds, even though each level time is the same. Am I correct in assuming that this would not be considered an improvement because the existing movie "ignores delays caused by bonus effects"?
I don't assert that this is possible, just hypothetically...
It is possible (making overall time faster); in fact the situation happens a lot. Any time you complete a level in a time between 23.333... and 30 seconds (exclusive), overall time would be reduced by completing the level in exactly 30 seconds.
If you complete the level in the exact same time and reduce overall time by taking fewer rings, it should be considered an improvement.
Well, since ring bonus and time bonus are tallied simultaneously, you'd only be saving time if the ring bonus had been larger than the time bonus to begin with (which means >500 rings in <30 seconds, >100 rings in <45 seconds, >50 rings in <1 minute, or so on). And if you watch the existing movies, you'll see that this scenario never occurs.
If that were possible, though, it would be considered an improvement.
How fleeting are all human passions compared with the massive continuity of ducks.
IIRC Mario always has to take some time to take off his cap and put it back on during the coin-counting animation, so as long as the runner doesn't collect a ridiculous number of coins it shouldn't matter.
Joined: 5/1/2004
Posts: 4096
Location: Rio, Brazil
I really haven't tested over 100 coins, but i'm thinking that it counts faster if you have over 100 coins (so that it doesn't take longer than the hat animation). It doesn't matter anyway, no time was wasted dodging coins in the 120 star run.