2019 review

Speedrunning:

Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land
Any%: 39:30 -> 38:08 [WR]
100%: 43:38 -> 42:44 [WR]

ok, now this is epic. Got WR in both categories with a ton of work lol. I’ve been playing this game for over two years now, so once I get 37 in any% I’m not sure how much I’ll ever grind these again.

I also won the tournament in the summer which was nice. Brought it all the way back after losing to Kobral in winners’ quarters. In terms of organizing, I was pretty ambitious with trying out a points system in the group stage, but it turned out to not work well in practice, being particularly inflexible in terms of unexpected dropouts and forfeits. Likely won’t ever use it again.


Kirby & the Amazing Mirror
Any%: 30:03 -> 29:22
100%: 1:12:25

Any% is kuso category. I got 29:28 on like January 6th, then I’ve had two more PBs since that were 29:23 and then 29:22, both losing upwards of 35 seconds on Dark Mind. Might run it some more for the tourney coming up but after that never again lol

100% is epic though,  and I’m running it in in the JP relay come March. I wanna really improve (1:09?) so I can compete with yamayuu.


Kirby Super Star Ultra
100%: 2:19:55 -> 2:15:23
MKU: 29:22.61 -> 26:54.63

Being able to record KSSU is pretty inconvenient for me since 1) I don’t have a 3/DS capture card, 2) playing with webcam/phone kills my arms, and 3) my family’s only computer powerful enough to run MelonDS is also my parents’ main work computer. With all this in mind, I just decided to get some decent times and put the game down for good. (Computer Virus also played a part in discouraging me from running more lol.)


Kirby’s Dream Land
Beat the Game (Normal Mode): 11:57 -> 11:24

So I intended to never play this again but then tournament happened and I learned a bunch of manips. I ended up getting this time and then burning out really hard so ohp, but hey I’m top 10 in KDL now lol


Kirby: Squeak Squad
Any%: 45:42 -> 44:58

got 44 then quit forever. kuso game


Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards
100%: 1:33:20

Learned this so I could race KatAM64 200% with grample. It is not a fun run in my opinion, and I’m never going to take it seriously. Still a great game casually though.


Super Mario Odyssey
Any%: 1:20:22

My time in this is still garbage, but 3D platformers take more free time than I usually have to get good at. Might go back someday.


Fishy
Any%: 2:45.58

excellent meme


Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Subspace Emissary Any% - Easy: 2:54:20

Did this for a 12 hour challenge. Super fun. Too long for me to ever take seriously, but I do want to do NG+ at some point in the future.


Casual games:

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - really didn’t understand the game at the beginning of the year so I didn’t really get into it until like late August. I think now I can finally say I’m decent at the game though. Bounced all over in terms of a main, from Mii Swordfighter on release to Mario, Diddy, Wolf then finally back to good ol’ MK. Currently I co-main him along with Hero (hoes mad). In February I’m looking to start up a new tournament series in our city with Deck, so I’m excited for that too

Pokémon Emerald - replayed this fully for the first time since I was like 7. Still a top 5 game for me, and has the greatest video game OST of all time. If you disagree you are clearly objectively wrong

Pokémon Vega Minus - the romhack I finished years ago. I did yet another playthrough of it lol, I think my fifth? I played it a ton while playtesting. Still going with it even now because I want to finally complete the National Dex (there’s a final bit of postgame content you can only access if you do so).

Fire Emblem: Three Houses - sick game, definitely reminded me how much I like Fire Emblem lol. At this point I can’t really defend myself when people call me a weeb, despite the fact I don’t watch anime at all. On a related note, the game also inspired me to start writing FE fanfiction again (no it’s not smutty)

Pokémon Sword - still haven’t finished it because school was crazy from the end of November onwards, but I’ve beaten six gyms and can say pretty confidently that I really like the game. It doesn’t top Moon or Emerald but I’d say it’s up there. I’ll definitely get around to finishing it soon


Other random thoughts:

Musictown:
We do this thing in Jayhawker’s server where a bunch of us will share playlists of music we like, and then rate other people’s. Before this year, I pretty much exclusively listened to video game OST along with whatever my dad played in the car but I’ve definitely diversified my tastes thanks to this. Shoutouts to Relient K.

Pokémon Degen Version:
Thanks, Vega Minus. Playing romhacks again also gave me the hacking itch again, so I started on this meme hack featuring all the boys. It’s on hold for now but look forward to the demo… whenever I get around to working on it again

Kirby RTA Relay 2:
Coming up on March 14, in the words of Shiro this is the biggest event in the history of Kirby speedrunning, with 30 western and 30 Japanese runners participating. It’s a relay of 15 different Kirby games, with four teams competing against each other. Initially SK and I thought we’d have difficulty even finding one team for the Western side, but once I started getting more aggressive with recruitment it turned out a lot of people were willing to participate.

Now I’m getting really hyped for it, with tons of iconic names in on it like SK, Kobral, Shasta, and even Anwonu on the western side, and a lot of well-known runners on the Japanese side as well.


2020’s looking to be a good year. This past fall semester was pretty rough but my winter classes look like they’ll be a lot more fun, and I have tons of stuff to look forward to in the new year.

Also, I’m now 20. man i’m old lol