[Sonic Singularity]

Right, I've put off asking long enough. I have to give in and ask:

How did you do it, Mike? Just a perfection of the standard strategy, or did you discover some remarkable new trick? You say in your comment for the time that you have a recording of it - fancy uploading that video?

I neeed that one second!

(I also want to update my guide for the level, not only here but I also want to submit it to Speedrun wiki, if they're accepting Sonic games.)

[yse]

They looked as though they were accepting Sonic strategies, seeing as how there are a few for SA/SA2.

Anyhow, I'll find the Metropolis 1 vid (I'm pretty sure I re-encoded it, it's about 4MB) and put it up today.

[Sonic Singularity]

I'm digging this topic up again, because after a long absence, I've just noticed that both Metropolis 1 1:10 and 1:08 have been achieved since I last visited. How's that happened? 1:10's definitely possible using a perfected version of the same technique me and mike89 used before, but I assumed that 1:08 was reserved for Sonic and Tails together?

Yes, I know it's ages since I last held this record, and I'm not likely to catch up now, but I'm still fond of the stage. So: how'd ya do it, Stanski? :)

[stanski]

I'll explain where the various optimizations come when NOT using tails, using the in game timer from the run you linked to.

First, to start, you can spindash jump off that slope and carry enough speed to take you through that area slightly faster (about 1 second saved).

At :23, instead of holding right to slow down like i did to manipulate tails like i did, you can save some time by letting your momentum carry you through the to the area with the yellow bumpers.

At :34, you can jump a lot sooner than that, land on the platform, and THEN hit the switch (not jump to the switch like i did).

At :45, you can spindash instead of running which is what I did, to save another half second.

At :53, I wait way too long to spindash on those platforms. Watch the knuckles vid of how to properly spindash-jump through this area with the spike-blocks, as it was really slow in my vid.

At :58, you do not need to charge up a huge spindash like I did, you can do it a lot quicker.

At 1:00, you can roll down that area instead of standing, which saves a bit of time because you are rolling down the slope.


1:05 is actually possible without tails, believe it or not, but you have to perform this pretty well. That vid has a lot of my older strat's (as you can see by some of the various optimizations that apply to both sonic alone and sonic with tails), and I think 1:01 is doable with tails.

Actually a lot of the metropolis levels have more optimizations now that I look at them that are not used. My 2:02 for metro 3 is good, but its so much better than the others that I didn't bother optimizing it to death.

[stanski]

BTW, 1:06 without tails now... nothing really changed except the area right after I roll jump into that spring hanging from the ceiling and go off those yellow springs. If you spidash jump at the top  and then let your momentum carry you when you fall down that slope without touching any buttons, you go pretty fast and you can save a bit of time (although you can' t do this in a run with tails, as that manipulates his flight in an unfavorable way).

1:01 with tails that will be uploaded to sda. I don't think 1:06 without tails was that hard to do actually (took me 15 minutes of trying after doing the run with tails), so with a bit of practice you should be able to match or beat it. If you need any other tips for this level, let me know, but thanks for making me go back to it again ;-). 1:04 without tails is probably the best you could do, unfortunately waiting for tails wastes a bit of time so getting sub-1 minute is nearly impossible without having a second player playing as tails.