raocow's talkhaus

The final boss initially is as confusing and janky as most Sonic final bosses, but like the rest of the game, once you understand its language and what the game actually wants from you, it actually goes rather smoothly. A perfect encapsulation of the videogame. The ring balloons are still impossible...

this is accidentally a really great mission to end on because it's probably the biggest path divergence of the entire game between the hero and dark missions, they split off very early and only rejoin at the very, very end (if you don't complete the dark mission first) anyways time to beat the game...

That'd do it, but honestly, it can also just work out. Omachao gun is crazy strong (the 100% Speedrun uses it), if you know the game's language and remember this level's layout from your first playthrough, you might be able to follow the blimp on its path shooting it with that, that's a massive chun...

This mission is especially terrible among the chase and destroy levels (which are all awful) because it tries to have cool setpiece moments that do not work in the slightest in this game's janky engine, and therefore you miss out on a lot of opportunities to damage the balloon. It starts with the ju...

Okay, I finished Expert Mode. Lost Impact had me there for a second - I almost thought they were doing something really interesting with it. Then they immediately gave up and the level remained insanely boring. Cosmic Fall in particular I remember being Hell in expert mode You weren't kidding. The f...

Played some more. Air Fleet and Space Gadget have some truly bizarre voice lines. That's probably what people meant with the funny snippets you can get only in Expert Mode. Death Ruins plays itself more now than originally. That's a decision. Mad Matrix is barely changed but forces you to play all f...

I played a bit of Expert Mode myself now so I could make an informed recommendation. Westopolis and Lethal Highway are almost the same, that is very boring linear affairs, so that would leave a bad first impression. Digital Circuit is a bit more interesting, but not massively so. Glyphic Canyon is t...

I think it's extremely tough to say what tone they were shooting for, when often it's not even clear what gameplay there were shooting for. It's very much possible that there was a person on the team who did not take the guns and the black alien invasion and the nuking of the white house seriously a...

Score actually barely matters for the Neutral exits, because it really only comes from rings, and those don't give much. Time is far, far more important to get an A-Rank, which is also why deaths don't matter as the timer is reset to what it was when you touched the checkpoint. That's why you almost...

If you feel like the level replays are too repetitive on their own, why not look for Keys in one of them, just to see how that feels like and take a peek behind the secret doors?

Nice show. It's easy to see how much you've improved. I've rarely seen a game that leaves such a terrible first impression improve so much by the player slowly learning its language. Imagine if it DIDN'T communicate in moonspeak. I think the "upper path" you missed to skip the last robot g...

This mission is godawful and you can tell by how they gave you the long stretch of just plane in front at the end that this is how it's supposed to go normally, as in "not cheesing it for A-Rank". That you do by getting the Omachao gun (or something even better later) from the Shadow crate...

Actually, that spiraling rail is the ending of a different path through the level! The end-of-level skydive is entirely intentional. There's a key hidden in it, too. Is it, like, if you follow the Evil path but don't complete the objective, so that's where it plops you out? Also, for the next Black...

The final part of this level breaks with fair consistency, it never deposits you on the rail correctly. It's bizarre but totally in line with how janky the rest of the level is. Not quite as janky as its Crazy version, but up there. The indoor elevator parts are a slap in the face, what a terrible d...

Another round of excellent lessons on Conveyance Killing robots raises platforms! Killing Black Arms lowers them! Sometimes! Go down! Circle round! Half the contents of each room are completely useless empty space! Special shout-outs to the dash pads that deposit you on a platform a meter lower and ...

Considering the tight A-Rank time, this is in fact the intended way to play the Neutral mission, congratulations on figuring out The Optimal Path Of Hold A

The 10/71 is now higher, because you aquired some A-Ranks - that's their total number. You're getting there ;) ;) ;) Honestly though, getting the A-Ranks in this game isn't hard at all, mostly because the scoring system is quite simplistic and the pace is so leisurely by design that they can't force...

I thought you could cancel it in normal levels, at least I saw speedrunners do it, but I didn't figure it out myself - maybe they only were able to cancel it if they activated it with the infinite-use-glitch on the checkpoints? Anyway, DEATH RUINS is an okay to fine level that mostly suffers from th...

Boring is better than trashfire, at least on replays once the "lol" factor wears off, for me

Guns are good in one instance, and the speedrun does that: get Egg Dealer to tip over from the bomb fever activation, then unload in the cockpit while he's lying there. Saves you a phase.

This boss is insanely dumb but otoh it's quick and simple to defeat with just the homing attack that works extremely well if you - nota bene - use it at the very peak of your jump, so overall Egg Dealer is the best boss in the game by a country mile.

Yeah Lava Shelter is easily one of the best levels in the game. The extremely different Hero/Dark routes, the actual (and generally working) platforming challenges, rails that are the tightest they've been yet, and - gasp - some challenge that's not rooted in the awful controls, it's good. This is w...

This is one of the most elaborately designed levels in the game, if it didn't have the godawful Dark mission, it might be a stand-out. This, I feel, does the segmentation style of Shadow level design pretty well. You have the segments where you chase the Pod, and during them you can either follow th...

the homing attack is a feature they mess with in like every single sonic game and it finds new and amusing ways to not work or feel bad in unleashed they add a cursor BUT THEN TIE IT TO THE SAME BUTTON AS BOOST FOR NO APPARENT REASON and i think this carries over to the rest of the boost games too ...

i think that’s a fundamental problem with shadow the hedgehog’s design. the homing attack is one of the fundamental verbs of sonic games, and it’s also super fun if utilized correctly. the problem is that guns deal like several orders of magnitude higher DPS and the games is balanced around that. i...

raocow are you allergic to ammo crates The number of times I winced when you opted to chase the tank with your terrible homing attack damage instead of stopping for just a second to get a weapon hurt me physically. Even worse, when you do stop for a second to get A gun, but not for another second to...