Good choice, Ix. That should be enjoyable to watch.

FYI: My money's on Lantis for this race.

I might suggest watching this, Gold:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzyx3ZAY3_0

Are you good for Sunday afternoon, Dray?

Yeah, that's fine.

Quick question for the race- I'm assuming no keyhole shortcuts, but in Chocolate Mountain 2- if you go fast enough, you pretty much have to use the key(you go to a different room from a pipe with a bunch of baseball guys and a key right next to a hole). Is that going to be allowed? It pretty much lets you skip Reznor(dino triceratops fireballs on wheels), but it would be super easy to accidentally get the shortcut around it since it's time-based and not going-out-of-your-way based.

I vote that we should just let that one, because if you're speeding through and good enough, skipping that one mini-castle would just avoid a headache anyways. And I think anyone here could totally make the key time anyways.

And of course, in Forest of Illusion there's a mandatory key since that's the only way to progress to the next world.

What do y'all think? I had no idea about the Chocolate Mountain thing til today- when I play, I usually ended up with the key and thought nothing of it until I realized from the intarweb it's time-based.

Fay. after playing this game for years, I actually know how fast you must go to reach that key. (but I'll keep that quiet for now)

If you had quoted Fay and left that reply out, you would have conveyed the exact same information to us. The only thing we know now is that YOU know and aren't telling us anything.

Try to make posts where you tell us something besides that, okay?

No keyhole shortcuts (except where required to beat the stage), no Star Road I say. That good?

Sounds good, but I do apologize if I end up going too fast on that one stage. Unless we all agree to wait to go into the one tunnel after the stage timer is past the key room. It's like on the main track of the level on a timer, which kinda sucks.

Aside from the Chocolate Island instance and Star Road, are there really any shortcuts in the game? Far as I can remember, many of the secret exits just bring you to a branch that's equally as long as the regular path, if not longer. I was kinda hoping for the opportunity to use those secret exits if we wanted, for the sake of variety. Like some people might choose to go around the lake in Donut Plains while others might go through it (which is arguably just as slow).

Dray, I think I can give one example.

Though fair warning, if you don't want to know...DO NOT CLICK ON THE SPOILER TAG!

Oh yeah, forgot about that. Yes, I know about every secret exit in the game. Just hard to remember them all without the game in front of me. But yeah, that shortcut probably won't be allowed.

We are fully aware of how spoilers work. That's why they are called spoilers. Though I'm not sure I understand what exactly this spoils. It's just an alternate exit to a level.



I haven't played SMW enough to know where all the exits are or even know which ones are genuinely shorter or not. I just know that there are two instances were you HAVE to use them. And that's the only ones I committed to memory.

Very well, then. I'll give out the info regarding Chocolate Island 2:

Area 2A - Collect 0-8 coins in Area 1
Area 2B - Collect 9-20 coins in Area 1
Area 2C - Collect 21 or more coins in Area 1

Area 3A (the area with the key) - Complete Area 2 with 250-300 on the timer.
Area 3B - Complete Area 2 with 235-249 on the timer.
Area 3C - Complete Area 2 with 234 or less on the timer.

Area 4A - Complete Area 3 with 0-3 Dragon Coins
Area 4B - Complete Area 3 with 4 Dragon Coins

Hope this helps.

I don't think anyone really quite asked for that information.... but thanks?

I think so too. I won't loose sleep if people skipped the 6th(?) castle since Reznor is a PITA. Though, it's Ixz's race so I won't argue. Also, I think it's a good strategy thing that would add variety. Like.. one of the switch palaces or two are behind keyholes. Those aren't so much skips rather than taking extra time.

Well, in that case, it's maybe it would be better to say "No Star Road" then?

Yeah, Star Road lets you skip major parts of the game. I think that's pretty agreeable to me, at least.

...Plus, as embarrassing as it is, despite that being one of my favorite parts as a kid- I can't quite remember how to get there off the top of my head. I do know there's one by that bottom right ghost house in world 2 hidden. But the baby yoshis are a lot of fun.

So... I am now controller ready for the race. I finally got my PS3 controller to work. So now we'll see if I do any better or perform the same in the race. Though, it definitely will be nice to have analog for OoT.

I might be able to join this race today if spots are available. I can do a test recording on google hangouts before the race and have that determine if I'm able to join or not. If it turns out laggy, I'll just let you guys do your thing.

The only thing I need to know is if I should record my own audio. I'll be using XSplit. Also, since I'm using a Blue Yeti, I hope you guys dont mind the occasional background noise.

Also, do I have to screenshare my game in the hangout? We're just using that as a way to hear each other right?