Pokemon Snap
This was another run I was majorly looking forward to - Pokemon Snap's another nostalgic favorite of mine that I haven't really revisited that often recently, and I'm interested in seeing what goes into speedrunning high scores out of it.
Some of the very minor manipulations you have to do to go fast in this game are pretty interesting; always trying to look forward so your vehicle doesn't slow down, lag manipulation, planning your routes so that you have to run through each level the fewest times possible, getting some shots from some pretty funny angles. It wasn't QUITE as compelling as I hoped, since the game is pretty short and most of the Pokemon are pretty straightforward to get - a lot of the pictures aren't even very good because if they're too good they take up more time! Still, though, it's worth it for what interesting manips do exist. And I love the goal here - I think it's so much more interesting to need a good score at the end than simply getting to the end.
- I love that SNOM was the winning filename. Snom is a good Pokemon. The donors are good people.
- This is probably a topic for another time - like say, a best games list - but I just love the late 90's Pokemon aesthetics. There's something special about it that's just not the same anymore, and I can't explain it. We were cleaning out the basement earlier this week and we found some vintage Pokemon merch, including an unopened pack of gen 1-era stickers, and I'm just so excited and happy about it.
- You go slower when you look backwards, so you always want to be looking forwards. What a positive message!
- The first level is almost entirely looking at the sky. Thrilling!
- Second reference to orbs this GDQ. I feel like there's stuff I should keep tallies of like this.
- Bad Cloyster rng. He's the one Pokemon that ruins this run. Booooo, Cloyster.
- The river is my favorite level in this run - he does it in one go and there's just so many quick pictures that have to be taken in quick succession with good accuracy.
- I love the Doduo snipe at the start of the return to the beach level - just knowing where it's going to be and hitting it as soon as it comes out.
- "You didn't see them because of lag reduction, but trust me, they were there, and it was cool."
- There was a warning not to look at the screen because of motion sickness, but I thought it was going to be a warning not to look at the screen because of Jynx.
- The single best picture in this run is the one of Pikachu riding on Articuno, where we clip through Articuno and get a picture of Pikachu showing off its taint. Beautiful. No further comments.
---Highly Recommended---
Kirby and the Forgotten Land
Mass Effect
---Recommended---
Shadow of the Colossus
Rolled Out!
Pokemon Snap
---Maybe Recommended---
WarioWare: Touched!
---Not Recommended---
Sonic Generations