Talk:What is a speedrun?
From SDA Knowledge Base
Metroid: Zero Mission has several categories that are run: Any% Normal, 100% Normal, 9% Normal, Any% Hard, 10% Hard, and maybe 9% Hard EU version. Clearly, any category created beyond Any% Normal is done so due to increased Challenge, and routes of each are dependent on each runner's personal comfort level. But there's one thing people often tend to forget: there's actually an Easy Mode.
The article lists reasons for creating categories, and assumptions made in making said list, but I'm curious if Omnigamer considered a category being eliminated for actually not being Challenging enough. Another Example is Metroid Fusion. The game's community is debating the value in running the JP version because it potentially has about 2 minutes less dialogue to scroll through for RTA runs, since in-game time is starting to become too vague to use competitively. But even then, nobody's seriously suggesting using the JP-only Easy Mode, despite it giving good luck for almost every significant instance of RNG.
Thanks for the article. Cheers!