werster's 2023 speedyear

The end of the year means reflecting on what really matters, what PBs were achieved in the year. This year however, I really only focused on a handful of runs, compared to other years where I have worked on a lot. This has mostly been centered around one in particular, which I am getting very close to putting to bed.

So without further ado, here are all the PBs I got this year:

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Pokemon Fire Red - Trainer Tower
3:58:44 on June 29th
3:58:10 on July 1st
3:54:53 on July 2nd - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEfD4yLzLyM

A very fun run, now my favourite way to play FR/LG as I find it more enjoyable than E4R2. The run itself definitely has more improvement and always will given the catching requirement has so much variance, and could definitely see myself going back at some stage, but not anytime soon. Run this for ASM as well, which was very fun too.

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Sonic the Fighters - Sonic
2'56"30 on May 16th - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEWHJc-47Qs

Came back to this game briefly to improve the time with Sonic after my previous PB got beaten. Was one of my worse attempts that just had a crazy good Metal, so as always can see myself coming back and improving.

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Pokemon Stadium 2 - Gym Leader Castle Round 1 (Switch)
1:51:35 on August 25th - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9jNMW3I5AA

The Stadium games getting released on Switch means I've got a great reason to return to all the categories throughout the series, as they all play considerably faster. This run was even better than my N64 PB as well in far far fewer attempts, so really really pleased with how this one played out. Definitely more Stadium in the future, but this category is off my list for now.

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Sonic Origins Plus - Amy & Tails
12:41 IGT on October 10th - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mwxXmgKYQk

Sonic Origins was a disappointing first release, but Origins Plus was much, much better. Amy is actually surprisingly fun, and did a decent amount of work with her, with both this run, and my run at PAX. Definitely still improvement here, I already know of some better strats from having done another character later in the year...

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Pokemon Stadium 2 - Gym Leader Castle Round 2 (Switch)
2:31:31 on October 26th - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-cYMZC5OJE

Similar to Round 1, booted up Round 2 to get a better time on the Switch. This run might've beaten my N64 time, but the run was worse, so this one is still on my list to improve.

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Sonic Origins Plus - Sonic & Tails
11:55 IGT on Nov 29th - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTaaEaXfis8

Thought I'd just quickly push out a Sonic run at a similar time to Amy, but ended up getting one much lower. Very fun game, happy I ended up pushing this to an 11.

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Sonic 3 & Knuckles - Sonic All Emeralds Glitchless
1:10:25 on Dec 16th - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRzIN35-UUs

Had been cooking this since last year, has become maybe my most fun way to play the game. This is my favourite game of all time so it shouldn't come as a surprise, but I'm still shocked how much joy I still get out of playing this game to this day.

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Pokemon Soul Silver - any% Glitchless
3:31:44 on February 15th
3:31:07 on June 8th
3:30:31 on June 16th
3:30:30 on September 11th
3:30:25 on November 7th
3:30:19 on November 17th
3:30:03 on December 17th - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pa6uH9GfO8E

Well, this has been the big one. Put a massive amount of work into this run, reaching levels of play I had not at all before. Some of the identification and manip stuff I'm doing now would've seemed crazy to myself at the start of the year. Very close to what my goal time has been the whole time (Sub 3:30:00), will definitely get there next year.


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And my marathon runs from 2023:

Sonic State of Origins Plus:
Whole Event: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZbZpDAuHHM

This was a super fun event that was organised in collaboration with AusSpeedruns and Five Star Games (who were effectively directed by SEGA) in order to promote Sonic Origins Plus. We put together a format and had two different teams compete in different events across the games - it was actually super fun. Probably actually had the most fun in the lead up, teaching Lacey and stylonide the Competition Mode was a key speedrun memory I won't forget.

AusSpeedruns - ASM 2023:
Pokemon Fire Red - Trainer Tower | Run: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiHa-KPEmN4

A fun run that I think is very well suited to a marathon setting. A bit disappointing how the run finished up, but that's just how it goes sometimes.
Would like to give a brief shoutout to the event itself - ASM 2023 was the most fun one yet by a long way, and quite possibly the best event I've ever been to. Truly a place where an honest speedrunner such as myself can belong.

AusSpeedruns - PAX 2023:
Sonic Origins Plus - Sonic 1 Amy Co-op with Sten & Lacey | Run: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTBFxxxKyZA

This might be the most fun marathon run I've ever done. We had a donation incentive for the co-op partner to be one of multiple people - none of whom knew how to play the game. So between having to run and explain the game, is the backdrop of having to teach my partner what to do, at the same time of the controller being swapped to someone else as well. Had great vibes too, would definitely recommend giving this one a watch.

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And then of course the huge amount of IL stuff that I always do, but won't post it all here because there's just so much of it.
So that was 2023. More fun ahead in 2024!