Gex [PS1] - Any% Segmented Speedrun (59:05) [1/5 - Cemetery]
28Quick note - NOT AN APRIL FOOLS JOKE. Just wanted to get that out of the way first. ._.
Well, this is a first for me - up to this point, most of my gaming videos on my channel are guides, music remixes, random quirks and general final boss bad-assery. But now, this would mark my first known attempt at a Speedrun! (Yes, I'm not counting my Skylanders time attack runs - that counts more like a guide for the time limit objectives :P)
So, not long after I was done with Gex 3, instinct caved in for me to check out the original title. Yes, I never owned the physical in my youth (mostly because I could never find it), so any nostalgia with it is pretty much out of the window; however, I'm definitely keen to try new experiences, and at £4 over the PSN I call it a good deal!
It was a solid insight to see what Gex was before the transition into 3D gaming. It may seem somewhat primitive now, but even in 2D platformer form it still had a lot of charm and attention to detail, and got ridiculously tough later on. The only real downside I noted was its length - my first known playthrough (including the Planet X levels) merely took a couple of days to complete. But with what I experienced, I thought it would be fun to try something with it, hence thus: the original Gex would become the subject matter for my first speedrun.
The goal I set myself here is to clear it in less than an hour. That easily means no deaths (harder than it sounds - can only one-life "On the Move" once every 20 attempts or so), a handful of shortcuts, no Planet X bonuses (not going for 100%) and making sure to not get too sidetracked. Talking of shortcuts, I find it quicker to break it down between passwords after defeating the bosses. True, there are STILL some mistakes, some of them totalling up to anywhere between 30 seconds and 1 minute per segment (ouch segment 3), but the fact remains that I pulled through and succeeded.
Will I ever submit a speedrun to SDA? Probably not, due to A) the limitations of my Dazzle, and B) my reaction times being on the clumsy side. But I still enjoy watching them, and I hope that one of these days someone could provide a significantly improved run in some form and get it out there.
Finally, the playing method if it wasn't too obvious - PS1 PAL version through the PSP.
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SEGMENT 1: CEMETERY
A good first impression would be needed here. I may lose a bit of steam in the second half, but it was made up for with some amazing runs early on.
Frankie & Heli (00:53): Only after rendering the run did I realise that the indent in the wall leading to the extra life and area skip seemed faster than going through the rest of the area with the boost powerup. That could probably save about 5 or 10 seconds if done right.
Grave Danger (02:14): Maybe aside from skipping the powerups early on (wanted to be as safe as possible), I'd say that this was a great run. Wonder if there's any skips around here...
Tomato Soup (04:12): Got a little lost on the climbable wall section (yep, that's my mind wandering a bit), and had some time cut when I was one hit point away from a restart (5 seconds?), but I say this was also a solid effort, and my best attempt at this stage.
Disco Inferno (06:18): Let the slip-ups begin. At this point I was happy I got through Tomato Soup in one piece and ended up taking things a little more cautiously (hence the wall climbing reliance and the random backtrack). That probably wouldn't have been too bad, had it not been for THAT ONE CASKET near the end that brought me back to an earlier part of the level, thus the loss of 20 seconds from that mistake alone. Not to mention that I thought I broke the game at the map by moving before the error came in... whoops.
Spit n' Puke (11:08): Pretty good fight. Could've had some better reaction times with the first and third hits, not to mention I thought the remote was to fall on me instead of just hover.
(To be continued in part 2)
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