All the S@nics - the end

[CrappyBlueLuigi]

BEECA
DAEDE
CBCAA
DBBBB
EABEA

eabea...

[LunarRainbowShyGuy]

I find this level to be rather interesting. There are a bunch of moving platforms that you're meant to traverse, but when you come back with the ability to hover you can cut out a lot of waiting around by using the hover to reach the platforms, which makes it feel very different compared to the first visit. (At least I assume so; I've played this level so many times with the hover I barely remember what it's like without it.)

[Bean]

The big reason why it's easier on Eggman for his missions is that there are more enemies placed in easier positions to rack up the combos. They still play slow enough that the only way you'll miss the A on most of his hard mode levels is if you lose a life on your way to the goal, and that's mostly going to happen if you fall off the map more than taking damage.

I think there's only one level of his that's kind of a problem, and even then, it's way more lenient than the other play styles.

[Blivsey]

We'll
Be
Right
Back

[Crow]

that's the actual speedrun tech for this level, btw

[Grounder]

Fun Fun
SHADOW
Recording

[xnamkcor]

Fun Fact: Saint Blaze is the patron saint of choking people. He's my favorite saint because I feel like choking people occasionally.

[Matt is me]

So, I'm the type of guy who doesn't usually laugh at angrycow type things--not really what I find funny.

But, that moment that you homing attacked the enemy and shadow started doing circles around him at 12:54, and you just screamed "how does THAT happen??"....I admit I had a proper laugh there.

[LunarRainbowShyGuy]

Looks like this mission 4 was quite a thing. I remember having a lot of trouble here too, to the point that I want to say this is the strictest timed mission in the game. Although, as usual it's been a long time since I've played this game, so I can't say that with 100% certainty.

Also, I also must confess that I laughed quite a bit when Shadow's homing attack sent him going in circles around that one enemy.

[kitikami]

For what it's worth, as painful as it was to get there the final run did look really cool.

[Leet]

i'm gonna lose it at rao always jumping around that one somersault pillar but knowing to somersault under every other one in the level

[Count Mohawk]

Looks like this mission 4 was quite a thing. I remember having a lot of trouble here too, to the point that I want to say this is the strictest timed mission in the game. Although, as usual it's been a long time since I've played this game, so I can't say that with 100% certainty.

Also, I also must confess that I laughed quite a bit when Shadow's homing attack sent him going in circles around that one enemy.

Yeah, Radical Highway on the speed mission is painful. You're basically required to use all the speedrunning tactics (spindashing down hills, Light Dashing all the rings, etc), and even if you're 100% on-point with your gameplay, you will have maybe 5 seconds left at the end, tops.
I have A-ranked all of Shadow's missions before; this was easily the hardest one among them, including Final Chase which is itself nominally pretty difficult, but nowhere near as tight on the time limit.

[Blivsey]

in this episode, both shadow and raocow entered orbit

[Reecer7]

angrycow already makes me very sad. grief-strickencow makes me even sadder. :(

[Crow]

BEECA
DAEDE
CBCAA
DBBBB
EABEA
CBDCC

also i don't remember the radical highway speed mission being so much of a thing when i replayed the game recently but admittedly most of the time limits weren't really a thing for me, i just have too much memorized skill in the game i guess lol

[Crow]

so for curiosity's sake i wanted to put rao's run up against a random run i did just a bit ago to see like, where there was struggles/what could be done to improve and like? mostly it's like the entire run fell apart in the last minute for him, apparently, the two are otherwise neck-in-neck the whole way through lol. my run's not even that clean either & i intentionally avoided doing the bridge-walk skip just to prove a point. so yeah rao i think it's mostly just nerves that got to you. it's just knowing the level & having confidence, i guess. i suppose this is probably one of the stricter speedruns but? i feel like city escape is stricter somehow? most of the sonic & shadow time limits aren't quite this strict though, the only one that comes to mind is

crazy gadget

so

[Grounder]

keywords\":[\"it dawned on me\",\"that because of all this\",\"I'm kinda comitted\",\"to going real deep\",\"and exhaustive\",\"in future sonic games\",\"I play huh

please no

heroes and unleashed are already going to be "the game that wouldn't leave"

[Crow]

if you really, truly need to play extra content in heroes only the chaotix missions change anything in any way or add new content.
don't play the chaotix extra missions. they're some of the worst content in the entire sonic franchise. they make shadow's worst missions look good

[LunarRainbowShyGuy]

Seeing raocow look around for a key when I feel like it was almost certainly in the monkey that he casually dismissed was painful to watch. And just to be sure, I looked up a list of emerald locations, and there is a key for which the last two hints are "Snake Altar", and "The monkey robot on the pillar", so it probably was in that monkey.

Also, I find it a bit amusing that Omochao might have been able to give raocow some helpful advice here (about how to avoid the patrol robots; it's easier than you'd think), but as usual raocow made every effort to avoid Omochao. Although it looks like raocow did eventually figure out the best way to deal with those robots, which is to go around the loop in the same direction as them so you can avoid crossing paths with them at all.

[Grounder]

sonic and the deathly shallows (water)

[Crow]

BEECA
DAEDE
CBCAA
DBBBB
EABEA
CBDCC
CEAAD

thankfully the worst mission in the game is now done

[Blivsey]

at least theres a theme in place as opposed to just being "these ones are harder to find!". kinda feels like an actual unique mission when you think about it that way!

too bad picking things up sucks

[LunarRainbowShyGuy]

I was wondering what this mission was like when raocow said he remembered it being a thing, because I had completely forgotten about this. Once I saw the first key in a cage though it all came back to me. I'd like to think that it's not impossibly difficult to figure out that you need to use the bombs here, if only because your options are limited. Also, for the first key there's a monkey right by it, and the second one seems pretty clearly set up so that you can carry something up to those cages, so it's not like the game doesn't try to clue you in. In any case, I was able to figure it out. That being said, picking up the bombs can be rather finicky, and the fact that the monkeys can blow themselves up is kind of dumb.

Also, does raocow not know you can destroy enemies by gliding into them? I keep seeing him take the time to land and use ground attacks when it would often be much easier to just glide into them. Although in hard mode you do have to swerve around a bit to avoid getting shot, but even then I'd say it's still better to glide into enemies than it is to attack them from the ground.

[Grounder]

"flashlights are for fuckin pussies" - dr. ivo "julian" "eggman" robotnik

[LunarRainbowShyGuy]

This level isn't one I think about often, but I think it's pretty alright. I like the idea of destroying enemies in order to illuminate the area. I've certainly seen a lot worse in terms of darkness gimmicks; I can say that much. Also, I remember having a lot of trouble finding the chao here; I'm a bit surprised raocow found it as quickly as he did.