It may be a bit cooler in some parts with the first full week of autumn, but things are always heating up on the Twin Galaxies leaderboards when it comes to video game excellence - and we're here to share the news! This week the Scoreboard Spotlight has selected an assortment of performances that span everything from marbles to race cars, all of which were peer-reviewed by community members through Twin Galaxies Submission and Adjudication Process (TGSAP). Let's begin!
Elipsis - Marble Madness (NES) - NTSC - Points
With over 350 speedruns since 2006, you could say that multi-record holder Elipsis knows a thing or two about video games. And among the titles that Elipsis has excelled at, the Marble Madness franchise has been right near the top. And what's not to love about a game where you steer a marble through geometric courses littered with whacky obstacles and enemies in the quickest time possible? Elipsis shared some marble magic with a new TG world record on the title for the Nintendo Entertainment System. On this run, Elipsis was chasing points rather than chasing the fastest time, and the results speak for themselves. With smooth-as-silk execution honed from years of speedrunning, this high score run is an absolute masterpiece to behold. By successfully completing all six stages of the game, Elipsis earned a final score of 184,170 points - to take the record, he found an extra 150 points to push his score over the top.
EVN - Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike (Arcade) - Tournament Settings - Points
We love to see a good ol' fashioned '90s street fighter, and EVN delivered a history-making rumble on the arcade fighting title Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike. And yes, while every TG record is history-making, in EVN's case the history at stake was 22 years old. Yes, the last time someone beat the TG record for this game was waaaaaay back in 2000. And it wasn't like the old record was a push-over either. So needless to say, EVN had his work cut out but as they say, "there's no time like the present to get a new world record" (we tacked on a few additional words). Playing as the fearsome Akuma, EVN put on a thoughtful-yet-aggressive display of fighting that led to the final 3-round match against Gil. EVN left his mark, winning the bout with a Raging Demon Super Combo and a new TG record of 4,628,100 points.
Dalthanas - Pac-Man 256 (Xbox ONE) - Points
Just when you thought you've seen everything that Pac-Man can do 40 years after his debut, Dalthanas takes some old school score chasing and combines it with a "reinvention" of our favorite dot muncher. In the style of an "endless runner"-type game, Pac-Man 256 takes the ingredients of the arcade classic and gives them a little twist. Dalthanas capitalized on both the familiar and the new with a Pac-Man run that would stop at nothing for a new world record. Forget power pellets - Dalthanas equipped his Pac-Man with a powerful laser that cleared a path from the encroaching "kill screen" graphics in killer fashion, to say nothing of "Electric" Pac-Man or "Pyro" Pac-Man that did the same kind of damage to the hapless ghosts. After nearly 40 minutes of gameplay, Dalthanas turned in a score of 189,302 points and claimed a new TG world record.
Greg Degeneffe - Speedway! (Odyssey2) NTSC - Skill 2
It isn't quite "playing with sticks and stones" territory, but this record might be a bit jarring for gamers whose childhood consoles were the PS1 or the Xbox. Back in 1979, a racing video game didn't get better for a lot of families than Speedway! for the Odyssey2 console. But don't let the simple graphics fool you - to get an incredible score on this game, you need someone with Neo-like abilities to see the Matrix code for what it is to beat the game. And our man of the hour is Greg Degeneffe who did just that by taking high-speed action to etch his name onto the leaderboards with a new record. Greg's objective was to steer his racer through a crowded field of competitors to obtain the maximum number of points without colliding. Easier said than done, right? For Greg, he calmly threaded his race car back and forth through the on-coming traffic and finished with a final score of 7,162 points, taking down a record of 6,510 points from 2015 in the process.
MyOwnWorstEnemy - Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2002 (PlayStation2) - NTSC - Scenarios - Breezy Finish [Fewest Strokes]
For anyone growing up in the 80s, the death knell of Saturday morning cartoons was the early afternoon broadcast of ABC Wide World of Sports that often featured golf. And to add insult to injury, many kids didn't find golf all that exciting, so why on earth would you want to play it as a video game? MyOwnWorstEnemy gives us a resounding answer - and corrective - with his latest submission on Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2002 for the PlayStation 2. Competing on the Breezy Finish course, where the goal is to shoot 2-under for the last 5 holes to win, MyOwnWorstEnemy had his work cut out. But by choosing a game where every swing of the club feels like it's an adrenelin-fueled action film sequence, MyOwnWorstEnemy gave his superb golf play the increased gravitas that it deserved. And as if to underline his mastery, he closed out the contest with a double eagle - the golfing equivalent of a blue moon - and a final score of 10 to seal the deal with a tie for first place.
This covers our Scoreboard Spotlight for this week. As a reminder, these were just a few of exceptional records that were adjudicated and accepted recently. Every record that made it through verification and landed on our leaderboards has a well-deserved place in the Twin Galaxies gaming pantheon.
Keep scoring high, finishing fast, and game on!
