I've had a bit of a gap since my last SHMUP Master video, and this game is the reason. HyperZone in itself isn't a particularly difficult game to 1LC, although it is tough if you want to speedrun it. I started practicing for my 1LC run back in November, managed to capture it pretty quickly but then realized that people were actually speed running this game (not many, granted). So after watching the speedrun of the game on SDA and Speedrun.com, I figured I'd try to beat it. And yeah, SHMUPS generally aren't games that many relate to speed running, but in the case of HyperZone it works because you can accelerate and decelerate, not to mention getting hit slows you down. The real time savings (like any SHMUP I suppose) is in the boss fights and killing them really fast. Although it's also pretty obvious that HyperZone has more in common with F-Zero and Space Harrier than more traditional looking SHMUPS. Either way though, it's an entertaining watch and a fun game to try and master for a speedrun.
Well, I managed to beat the WR run and it's been verified at SDA (Speed Demos Archive) and Speedrun.com. I was able to beat the current time mostly by using what I call the "Ship Skip" trick. In HyperZone, you get ship upgrades based on your score in the game. When you get an upgrade there is an animation at the beginning of the stage that lasts around 8 seconds. If you can time your score perfectly through the first 5 stages, it is possible to skip two ship upgrades and thus save 16 seconds in time. The problem is that it is extremely hard to pull off as you literally have to time your score down to the hundreds of points. At any rate, I managed to do it, so I was happy about that!
As far as the run itself goes, the raw version will be up on SDA in the next week or two. For the video on my SHMUP Master channel, I decided to take a different approach. I created a custom layout based on each stage which showcases all the enemies, ships and bosses. Here is an example of what it looks like:
I figured this would make the run a bit more interesting to watch and add something to it. Generally I release a produced video along side my runs but in this case I didn't think HyperZone was a big enough game to cover with a full fledged, produced video, so I tried this instead. You can view the video below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbbbHCyVvYc
As always, any feedback, ideas or discussion is welcome. Thanks!