Speed run of Star Fox 64 on Expert mode following the redline route, done on September 27 2006. Available in five qualities: normal/low quality DivX, and normal/high/low quality H.264 MPEG-4.
Author's comments: Acknowledgements
Thank you Nate for your unparalled prowess at being...Nate.
Thank you Radix for all that you do to make SDA awesome!
Thanks also to Mike Uyama and DJGrenola -- SDA's cup overflows.
Big thanks to InsipidMuckyWater who enthusiastically supported my Star Fox 64 speedrunning efforts.
Thanks are due to Sir VG, StrangenessDSS, and SuperCoolAl for their activity in the Redline discussion topic where this all got started.
Thanks to TSA for speedrunning the game first. He's the "Hylian who saved Lylat."
General Comments
The Redline Run Forum Topic was in fact the first Star Fox speedrun forum I found. Seeing the competition going on with the redline run and the discussion about further Star Fox 64 categories gave me the idea for my 100% run. That was where I made my first post. After being well into my 100% run a while later I went back and did a redline run for fun. In the end, my final 100% run contained a redline portion that was 35:43 with earning all the medals and it being Expert Mode. For the Redline category to make sense I figured the run submitted for it would need to be significantly faster than the redline portion of the 100% run, so I went to work. After a few days of repeated attempts I finally nailed this very snazzy 35:35 in Expert Mode.
Now, how exactly does Expert Redline count as it's own category? There was much discussion in the thread, but the basic premise is this:
The "redline route" is CO-SY-AQ-ZO-SZ-A6-VE, which is designated by the game as the hardest route with red paths connecting those levels.
This route is created by earning a Mission Accomplished on every mission (as opposed to "Mission Complete")
The route leads to the real ending and the any% route does not
This route shares almost nothing in common with the any% route.
Doing the redline route in Expert Mode is the greatest possible "Pure Speed" achievement in a single playthrough.
Informal competition has confirmed the difficulty of this route compared to the any% route.
The reason I chose to do it in Expert Mode was to set the bar high. For a Normal Mode run to be accepted, it would need to be much faster, which would take enough skill that it might as well be done in Expert Mode. That's what I figure anyway. Expert may not change casual playing much, but it greatly effects speedrunning because losing lasers cripples your ability to do as well. Also, the laser fire is much more intense, items are less plentiful, and Fox has awesome sunglasses! The keys to speed are in avoiding collisions, avoiding game lag, not missing searchlights on Zoness, completely owning all bosses, and off course: holding the boost button! I was very satisfied with this run, and I think while it contains some mistakes, much of it is very impressive and well executed. I think it's within a minute of TAS-like perfection, so while it is beatable, it won't be easy!
Now onto level comments...
Level Comments
Corneria I couldn't have asked for a better opening to the run. Other than getting hit a few times, everything down to the barrel rolling was right on. The main difficulty here is in boosting through the arches and making it through the final hoard of enemies without any collisions. I managed both very smoothly, setting me up nicely for the boss fight. The Attack Carrier, a blast from the SNES past, is my favorite boss to take down in the whole game. You'll see me cap off the first level with much gusto as the Carrier succoumbs to my rapid tapping.
Sector Y This level is always tricky, but went very well overall. I use some interesting bombing to take out enemies that pose a collision risk from behind. Other than that I actually have to take down more enemies here because I need the 100 points required to proceed to Aquas. Obviously I got the 100 points, but I bet you weren't expecting such a close call... The boss fight is really the meat of the level because of it's annoying randomness. In this run I lose about 15 seconds chasing the boss down. A more patient player could luck-manipulate this boss into a much quicker death, but I just ate the lost time and called on my luck later in the run.
Aquas How a Fox ended up in a submarine to destroy a bio-clam-weapon beats me, but I bet Fox would want to get this level over with quickly. I do just that by holding boost the whole way as I take out whatever enemies pose a threat. The exploding starfish were my biggest concern. Other than that I barrel roll like crazy to avoid damage and meander my way through the enemies. The boss went entirely well except that I wasted a cycle of eye vulnerability because my torpedoes wouldn't lock onto the eye when I needed them to. I lost the few seconds I gained from doing the level effeciently.
Zoness This is a pivotal level in the run, because 1 missed searchlight means an immediate restart. The searchlights aren't so bad until you hold down the boost button and tend to whip right past them. Also being in Expert Mode makes the level even more brutal because there are so many random opportunities for collisions. Aside from a few close calls with both collisions and searchlights, everything went swimmingly. The boss here is very systematic, and I manage to keep my bombs fully stocked by collecting the bombs he gives out. I took the pirate down with no contest, careful to avoid collision with the ball and chain or any of the cannonballs.
Sector Z This level has some fairly simplistic objectives: destroy the missiles, don't collide with the missiles, don't do much else for fear of causing lag. I actually play a risky game with myself of seeing how far away from the missiles I can be when they first arrive and still make it there in time to destroy them as they come onscreen. If the missile gets destroyed before ROB64 finishes saying "Distance 50" then I consider it a success. At most I lost maybe 3 seconds from not destroying them sooner. Wingmates could possibly be used to help destroy them faster, but the lag created in dogfighting could be more loss than the gain of a wingmate putting a few more measly shots in. I'm very satisfied with the level overall.
Area 6 Running this level without killing everything is a serious act of will power! I basically just boost through the level taking out any enemies that pose a threat to my precious hyper lasers. Between that and dodging lasers I had my hands full most of the time anyways. I use a bomb to take out some of the butterflies before the checkpoint. Mad barrel rolling saves my hide on numerous occasions. The boss did not go nearly as well as I'd hoped. I was hoping to mimick what I did in my 100% run, but I ended up doing worse than "normal" in the process. I tried to get all 3 tenticles in one appearance, but not only does that never occur, it took me 3 seperate appearances of the boss to get the second set of tenticles. This was another avoidable time loss for sure. Luckely my mistakes never cost me my lasers giving me the change to redeem myself on Venom!
Venom Redeem myself is exactly what I did! While I didn't get good opening shots on the Star Wolf team, I dropped them like flies with some dogfighting skills. I then take the speediest route to Andross and wreak havok on his face. My finger got a bit sticky when shooting the hands, but I still took them both out in one go. I then proceed to own the brain in the best kind of way, you'll just have to see it yourself! After that, depending on your sense of humor, drama, or irony you may or may not like my exit sequence! I assure that all mistakes in the exit were unintented, which to me actually makes the exit sequence a pretty awesome ending to the run.
I hope you enjoyed it!
Feedback & Authorship
For additional comments on the run, the forum topic Star Fox 64 "Red Line" seems to be the most appropriate place. I can be PMed at SDA or contacted through any links in my SDA profile. At Gamespot and elsewhere I am flutefreak7. I'm likely done with speedrunning this game because I need to focus on other things. Any challengers have their work cut out and are welcome to replace me, just remember to check your G-diffusor system and do a barrel roll!
This run is the property of the runner, Brett Ables. If the run is posted anywhere online, or made available for viewing by any means other than personal viewing through download from SDA, please include my name and speeddemosarchive.com or a link to this comments page. I gladly allow the use of this run for DVDs, music videos, etc. with the intent of supporting SDA so long as proper credit is given as previously mentioned.
Sincere thanks to all who watched the run and/or read the comments!
A final thanks to Myamoto for creating my favorite game.
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