SDA Knowledge Base - User contributions [en]

Shadow Of The Colossus

2013-12-08T09:21:02Z

Naegleria: /* Basics */

[[Category:Playstation 2]]
[[Category:PlayStation 3]]
[[Category:Games]]
{{sda run|http://speeddemosarchive.com/ShadowOfTheColossus.html}}

==Basics==
;Versions
* The PS3 version is based off the PS2 PAL version. The most notable differences are that in the PS2 NTSC version you gain control slightly earlier in time attack and some colossi behave slightly different at the start of time attack.

;Movement
* Rolling is the fastest method of moving on flat ground (without Agro).
* It takes a couple seconds to reach max speed when running, whistling will instantly make you move at max speed when you start running.
* During some cutscenes, you still have control of Wander.
* Momentum of the colossi can be used to launch Wander in various places.

;Stabbing
* Jump stab - Jump with triangle, then hold R1 and press square. A jump stab will do the same amount of damage as a fully charged stab; however, it takes much longer to pull the sword out, so jump stabs should primarily be used as final stabs only. Some colossi shake too much to make jump stabs worth attempting, since you can easily be launched off in those cases.
* By sheathing the sword (and having the hand icon) then holding R1 and Square when being shaken, you will start charging a stab as soon as possible. This trick is version dependent (verified on PS3 and PS2 PAL).
* If you keep square pressed while charging a stab it charges it 25% faster.
* Sweet spots - places on a sigil where you can stab without being shaken.
* If a sigil takes a fraction of a stab, like 2.5 stabs, what you want to do is two stabs dealing 1.5 total then a jump stab. Typically you want to do a half stab, full stab, then jump stab/full stab in that scenario.

==Time Attack Strats==

{{#ev:youtube|z0Z4guOZtAI}}

;Colossus 1
* Start running, then whistle to get to max speed, and as soon as Wander whistles, start rolling towards the colossus' left leg.
* When at the leg, jump and hit the weak spot, then jump and grab on to stab it a second time. Alternatively, you can jump and grab on then do two stabs.
* Once the cutscene in which the colossus falls begins, hold diagonal down-left (or jump to the right then hold diagonal down-left if the thigh is in the way). Ideally you want to grab onto the top of the colossus' head, but this is very difficult, so grabbing the chest then climbing up to head may be preferable.
* 3 full stabs are required, so you want to perform 2 full charge stabs and a jump stab. The safest part of the sigil to stab is the part furthest from the colossus' face.

;Colossus 2
* Face the front right leg and take two steps then take out the bow and do a roll. As soon as the roll is complete, charge an arrow and aim at the right leg and wait for the left leg's paw to come into view and shoot it. As soon as you hit the paw, start running toward the right paw, and Wander will be knocked back by the left leg falling and put into a position where you can jump onto the leg.
* Once you jump onto the leg, charge a full jump and you may start running up the leg. If you are really fast, you can jump on the bare patch of skin above the ledge when the colossus shakes his leg, but this is very difficult; alternatively you can climb onto the ledge and wait for the colossus to roar. Immediately upon hearing the roar, jump onto the colossus' back and run for the head.
* The sigil on the head has a few sweet spots, the easiest to get is the very top corner of the sigil (Naegleria's youtube video above shows this spot at 4:40), after three full stabs, start running for the rear sigil.
* Jumping when running to the back of the colossus will give you a little boost of speed.
* When you reach the sigil, you want to do 1 full stab, a 2/3 stab, then a jump stab.

;Colossus 3
* Take two steps forward, take out the bow and do two rolls.
* Start shooting the lower sigil with fully charged arrows (you can safely get 5 shots in, but more are possible), this will save you time later when you need to stab it.
* Jump into the air when the colossus swings his sword down, as long as you are in the air you are basically immune to that attack if you dodge it. Crouch near the lower symbol on the sword arm and wait.
* The sword launch is tricky, at 26.3 seconds if you did everything else right (roughly the point at which Wander is at the same height as the highest bracer on the colossus' right leg), you want to let go of R1, then hold diagonal up-right and jump. If you do it right, you will land on the colossus head. You can also go for the colossus chest, the lower sigil, or the arm.
* 3's sigils are an absolute nightmare, I don't have much info on how to do them fast.

;Colossus 4
* Jump on agro right at the start, and run towards the colossus' right hind leg. Hold R1 and Up on Agro to stand up, and from this standing position, jump onto the ledge on the leg. Move to the center of the ledge, and wait til the left leg is just about to hit the ground, at that point, do one small jump to get on the ledge, then jump onto the second ledge, then to the tail. It is possible to skip the second ledge and go straight for the tail, but this is tricky.
* Once on the tail, charge two jumps and roll towards the weak spot, if you get there fast you can stab it twice before it shakes.
* Run onto the head then do 4 full stabs and a jump stab.

;Colossus 5
* Take out the bow and hop just under the gap in the fance, this will let you get some horizontal distance as you fall.
* Hold R1 and swim toward the leftmost of the 3 platforms. You will need to get some air, so you can either press triangle to jump out of the water while holding R1, or let go of R1 and take a breath.
* When you get to the left platform, jump onto it and charge an arrow to shoot at the bird. Then jump to the middle platform and take your sword out. Jump onto the bird (it should be around 48-49 seconds on the timer if you are fast).
* When the fight music stars, let go of R1 for just a moment to be flung a little down the wing. Let go of R1 when it is raising it's wing, and hold R1 as it is lowering it. Letting go of R1 in the right spots will let you be on the right wings sigil as soon as the flapping is done.
* Charge a full stab on the sigil and hold R1, there is a chance you can fall off when removing the sword while upside down, so hope that does not happen. When Wander is above the spikes sticking out of the bird's head, let go of R1 to fall and land on the left wing. Ideally you will land on the sigil.
* When on the left sigil, charge a full stab and wait for Wander to be above the spikes again to let go of R1, this time aiming for the tail.
* Jumping when on the tail is faster than rolling or running.
* The hitbox for the tail's sigil is much bigger than the sigil (see Naegleria's video at 21:00).
* Do one full charge stab, a 2/3 stab, and a jump stab.

;Colossus 6

;Colossus 7

;Colossus 8
* Whistle right at the start to get the colossus' attention, then roll forward and take out the bow. From here you want to roll under the bar (see 34:20 in Naegleria's video) then shoot the colossus' legs. You might want to wait a few seconds for the colossus to climb the wall, since the higher it is when it falls, the longer it will be stunned.
* An alternative to the route with the roll is to run for the stairwell on the right at the start and whistle. Run down the stairs and on the floor below there is an opening in the wall which Wander can stand on to shoot the colossus' legs.
* Each sigil takes 2.5 stabs, so do a full stab, half stab, then jump stab on the last sigil.

;Colossus 9

;Colossus 10

;Colossus 11

;Colossus 12

;Colossus 13
* Right at the start, you want to run and jump onto Agro. From a stand still, hold Down and X and Agro will rear and run at full speed, do this then hold left to go through the little building.
* Run towards the giant rock and start shooting the gas bag things on the colossus. If you get lucky the colossus will fly really low into the ground and you can jump from Agro onto the colossus' back, but this is seemingly random.
* Once you are on a wing, start jumping two ledges at a time til you get to the top, then jump onto its back and head for the first sigil. Do one full stab, then a 7/8 stab. If you do two full stabs the colossus will do a barrel roll, by doing a little less than a full stab you can deal enough damage to the sigil and prevent the roll.
* Jump as you run down the colossus to the next sigils and perform the same stab pattern on the 2nd sigil.
* For the last sigil you want to do a 7/8 stab then a jump stab.

;Colossus 14
* The fast strat with jumping on then off the colossus is tricky, but its not as random as you'd think. At the start, roll toward the waterway and jump into it. When you land, whistle to accelerate to top speed then jump and grab over the ledge. Start rolling to the final pillar and stand in front of it.
* Wait for the colossus to charge at you and roll to the side at the very last moment. Immediately after the roll you want to jump onto the shoulder of the colossus and onto the pillar. If you mess it up you can run away and back to set it up again. You could also jump onto other structures, but the final pillar is the fastest.
* During the cutscenes when the pillars fall (the first and last one), you still have control of Wander, this is particularly helpful on the last pillar. If you hold diagonl up-right and jump off the final pillar as it falls then start rolling, you can get to the wall a little earlier.
* Just like with Colossus 11, you want to be standing perpendicular on the colossus when stabbing.

;Colossus 15

;Colossus 16
* Explaining the visual cues for the run up to 16 is hard, so just watch at 1:18:10 of Naegleria's video.

F-Zero GX

2013-09-09T23:55:33Z

Naegleria: /* Video Tutorials */

[[Category:Gamecube]]
[[Category:Games]]

=F-Zero Central Ladder=
http://fzerocentral.org/f0/gxladderhome.php
F-Zero Central's ladder contain hundreds of ranked times for multiple categories.

=Advanced Techniques=
http://fzerocentral.org/viewtopic.php?t=463

;The next few sections were copied from http://fzerocentral.org/viewtopic.php?t=13405

=Technical Info=

;Resolution:
640x480. NTSC versions have Progressive scan support. PAL versions have 50Hz support. Runs at 60 fps 99% of the time (50 fps in PAL50).

Note: the 50Hz mode converts the timer automatically so you don't need to do time conversions to get equivalent times like in FZSNES or FZX.

;Memory card usage:

Main save uses 4 blocks and cannot be copied in any way (not even with Wii homebrew because it uses info about the original card's format and block location and the save would be unusable in a different card. those bastards...)

Replays use 3-6 blocks with original machines and 7-14 blocks with custom machines. Ghosts use 3 blocks always. Emblems use 3 blocks always. Garage uses 18 blocks always and allows 4 custom cars to be saved (including the emblems you paste on it. You don't need the emblem data in the same card as the garage data)

;Connectivity:
Can connect with F-Zero AX to unlock some things faster or earlier (AX cup before Diamond cup is only possible this way). Compatible with logitech steering wheel for GC.

;Extras:
No physical limited editions or bonuses. There was a 1-time giveaway of the hidden unobtainale parts in japan to participants of a contest but this never happened internationally (this is why people call those parts "AR parts").

=Game Engine global properties (part 1: controls)=

This is the section where a lot of the little things that people don't get initially will be detailed. Some of these properties are surprising and counter-productive to usual racing.

Let's start with the regular actions assigned to every button. I'll use default key assignments.

==Gameplay Controls (Story, Practice, VS and GP)==

;Control Stick:
Steers the ship. Sensitivity can be adjusted in the options menu. The default setting can be too sensitive for some people. I recommend trying out between the default sensitivity and customized ones to see what suits you best. Personally, i play with adjusted sensitivity (in the sensitivity option, i just rotate the stick until the polygon doesn't move anywhere and save the changes)

;A Button:
Accelerator (gas). Accelerates the ship. Unintended side effect: release it at a high speed and your speed decrease rate will be lower than what you get if you just hold it. This is known as Momentum Throttle (MT) and is a very powerful technique since it is the basis for a lot of the other techiques used in high level play like MTS, MTRS, Shift Boosts, MT Boost and Dive landing. The thing you should know is the time where MT should be used and where not to use it since it stops being effective at a certain speed. Over the years, it has been found that, on heavy ships with high top speed, you should use MT for any speeds over 1300 km/h. Ships that have low top speed but a decent weight should use it above 1200 km/h and for light ships with bad top speed, it works good on speed above just 1100 km/h. Top speed takes preference over weight so any ship above 1100 km/h non-boosted speed should use MT when above 1300 km/h (even if they're light like Sonic Phantom).

;B Button:
Air Brake. Stops the ship. Less useful than what you'd think due to the speed decreasing really fast normally when you stop boosting. The way i brake is just by not doing MT after i stop boosting. The brake is useful if you need to brake really fast in a pinch.

;Y Button:
Boost. Uses the booster. Unintended side effect: by using MT just as your boost ends and then pressing A and Y at the same time to resume the gas and activate another boost, you can keep your speed at higher levels and make your boosts last more until the next refiller. This is called MT Boost and it helps greatly those ships that have a fast boost pickup speed since they can Boost, MT for more than a second and Boost again to get more out of their boosts. The other ships can wait like between 0.5-1 seconds between boosts to do well.

;X button:
Side Attack. Attacks to the side. You need to press the control stick left or right to attack in the appropiate direction. Unintended side effects: the first one is the side attack dive. This move resebles FZX's DTDs in a way but it is done way differently. To do one, hold the shoulder button corresponding to the direction you're going, hold the control stick in the same direction and use the side attack continuously. If you start with the correct angle and speed, you can go above 2000 km/h easily in the air and land at much higher speeds than normal. The second side effect is at the end of an MTS. When you exit an MTS, use a side attack to minimize speed loss (this one depends on the ship. Some ships don't benefit from this. The third side effect is getting extra speed in turns where an MTS wouldn't be practical. If you hold a shoulder button and the same sirection with the stick (say, left and L) and use side attacks, your ship will get some extra speed. this is only useful with certain ships (most popular usage is the long turn in PTAD after the first zipper)

;Z button:
Spin attack. Attacks by spinning the ship around. This move is useful in CH4 to defeat a lot of enemies quicky but it has little use outside that since GP mode opponents are much harder to kill with that strategy. Side attacks are much more effective.

;L and R buttons:
Strafe/Shift. This shifts the ship to the side. Useful to adjust the ship's direction. Unintended side effects: first and most popular ones: snaking and spaceflying: when you set max acceleration, pressing these buttons in combination of the stick with a certain rhythm causes the ship to build up massive speeds without using boosts. The reason is that the shift action gains power the more you approach max acceleration. Spaceflying is possible because this shift is done in an upwards manner and it can overcome the game's gravity. You need to hop out of the road to fly since the road itself prevents the ship from raising into the air. The second effect is shift boosts. By going out of the road and back into it, you can get an extra burst of speed due to the difference in the terrain change. Shift boosts are usable without these buttons but they become more abusable if you combine the L and R button shift and MT.

;D-pad:
Camera adjustment. It has been proven that the default camera is bad for driving properly. Zoom out once and you have the perfect camera for playing the game and getting the best out of it. The other views are just for novelty and first person camera is awful for any advanced maneuver.

;C-stick:
No use in normal gameplay but it lets you chosse between machines in a GP mode replay. With this you can see how the CPU cheats when they are magically ahead of you.

;Start/Pause:
Pauses the game and lets you retry or quit if you messed up. You can also go to the settings screen or change course in Time Attack.

==Settings Screen controls:==

;Control Stick:
Move the settings bar left and right

;L and R:
Cycle between ship/pilot colors

==Cutscene controls:==

;Z Button:
Activates subtitles

;Start/A Button:
Skips cutscene

==Replay mode Controls:==

;Z Button:
Cycles between GX logo and speedometer

;D-pad:
Lets you adjust the camera view

;L and R Buttons:
Cycle between pilot themes

=Game Engine global properties (part 2: physics)=

While every ship has their own stats and stuff determining how bad or good they are, there's some global properties that apply to every machine. i'll do my best to explain these.

===Weight===

First, Weight in this game is important. In this game, the heavier a ship is, the better it is because it can reach much better speeds and benefits from practically everything that happens within the game.

Weight is beneficial for the following things: improves MT, improves Shift Boosts, improves Max Boosted Speed, improves Body resistance, improves Side Attack Dives, improves mine boosts. (all of these are better with higher weight)

Weight is detrimental for the following things: reduces air time, reduces acceleration, makes some shortcuts harder, hinders spaceflying greatly. (all of these improve with lower weight)

Weight is neutral for the following things: Quick Turn, cornering, Grip, Boost pickup speed, MTS, MTRS. (individual ships have a much bigger effect in these)

That's why you see beasts like Gallant Star-G4 taking the WRs in max speed settings while things like Maximum Dragon are used for spaceflying.

===Settings bar===

something that is easy to miss is the effects from the settings bar causes on ships. unlike FZX, people use either max acceleration or max speed in all the ladders since anything in between is banned in the snaking and max speed ladders (open is best with max acceleration always so there's no reason to go above).

setting the bar to the far right does this:

improves momentum-based moves (MT, MTS) because speed loss rate is at its lowest.

boosters pick up speed slower but reach higher max speeds.

improves body and grip performance.

cornering is at its worst (you need to use Quick Turn with most ships to take corners)

gives you the maximum non-boosted max speed available (not on every ship though)

reduces the speed gain by turning and by pressing L or R in a turn (that's why you can't snake effectively with max speed)

setting the bar to the far left does this:

speed loss rate is at its highest. even if you MT, you lose speed rather quickly.

boosters pick up speed faster but reach lower max speeds

body and grip performance is at its weakest

cornering is at its best (you can turn with no effort at all by just steering the ship)

gives you the minimum non-boosted max speed available (not on every ship)

increases the speed gained by turning and by pressing L or R in a turn (this makes snaking and spaceflying possible)

that should cover the settings bar effects.

===Air Time (Max Speed version)===

i've heard people complain that navigating in the air is a pain and it makes sense. when you're in the air, the physics behave weird.

here's what you should know when you go into the air:

;distance tips:

doing MT when going straight lets you retain a lot more speed and cover bigger distances. helps to cut some corners.

touching the stick is bad. you lose height instantly. the best way to cover air distances is to line up before you leave the road and, if you need to adjust the ship, use the L and R buttons since those don't make you lose height faster. combine with MT for the full effect.

;diving tips:

when you're diving, the best is to actually hold the accelerator for the duration of the dive. also, when you dive, push up in the stick all the way since that gives you the highest speed gain and the ship has a limit in how much it can point down its nose (unlike FZX where if you push up all the way, your ship goes all the way down and messes up the dive)

when it comes to the landing, you need to know that the best way to retain speed is to line up the ship parallel to the road just before you touch the road. if you land at an angle, you lose more speed. landing parallel has the minimum speed loss on landing. you also need to MT just a bit before you touch the road to get the best effect out of it. if you MT when landing or later, your speed will be gone before you realize it.

;side attack dive:

this move is a bit tricky to pull off. to get the best angle, you first do an MTS in the direction you want to start the dive (say, if you want to do the right side dive in PTAD, MTS between the 2nd and 3rd zipper before the dive towards the right ) and when you're in the air, you start holding the shoulder button of the opposite side, hold the stick towards the same direction and up and start using the side attack repeatedly (if you're on the right side, hold L + Left and Up in the stick and mash the side attack). after a while, you need to line up so that you can land properly. at this point, you stop using the side attack and holding L and the stick and MT while you use L or R to line up with the road. the reason you MT is that when you stop side attacking and are not nosediving, your speed will die fast normally. with MT, you keep the speed while you line up. when you are lined up, you can nosedive and hold the accelerator for extra speed if there's still enough distance before landing. when you land, don't forget to be parallel to the road and MT just before landing.

it is also possible to switch between L+left and R+right while doing a side attack dive. that's useful in the ADS dive since that one is big enough to give you time to do this and build extra speed.

max acceleration changes the way being in the air behaves but i'm lacking knowledge there since i don't play with those settings.

===Road Elements===

each track has several things that affect your performance while driving. some of them can have massive effects in the race.

;Refiller:
refills your health bar. it refills you very fast so you can pass it at max speed most of the time but there's some tracks where it is better to slow down a bit here to ensure you are at 100% health.

;Zipper:
the zippers in this game don't replace or stop your boost's effect. they just add up to your current speed. unintended side effect: if you hit a zipper at the very edge on either side but parallel to it, it can give you extra speed that isn't possible by taking it normally.

;Jump Plate:
these let you jump in the air. for most of them, it is better to nosedive when you take them but a few can allow you to cut corners, provided that you don't skip a checkpoint. CH3 is where they're more prominent. air time tips apply when you're in the air from them.

;Dirt Area:
this are slows you down when you touch it and don't have a boost active. zippers and boosting negate their effect.

;Ice Area:
these areas make your grip drop to the lowest possible and you slide out easily. you can still control your ship with help of the L and R buttons and can MTS on it easily (after all, MTS relies on breaking the ship's grip)

;Mines:
while these seem to be just a hazard, they actually provide extra boosts for the heavier ships that can hit them and lose little energy. they cause a type of shift boost when you hit them and shift boost rules apply here.

;Lava Area:
this area is in story mode only. their only effect is reducing your health. they don't affect ship handling but you shouldn't hit them too often.

;Checkpoint:
these are invisible areas that tell the game you've passed a part of the track so that it allows you to get to the next and so on. unlike old Mario Kart games or 2D F-Zero games, the tracks' whole information isn't completely loaded at once when you play them and you can only be on a chunk of it at a time. that's why you die instantly when you try to get to a part that looks reachable but is much further than your current position. in some situations, you can trick these checkpoints and can hit some further areas without dying if you have the correct height and speed. they're also pretty bad because, if you fly too high, you can skip a lot of them and that's why spaceflying is viable at all since flying around the whole track would be slower than snaking.

;AX Checkpoint:
i suppose someone will ask about this one. they give you extra time in the AX version but have no use in GX. the devs were too lazy to take them away from the tracks.

===Deaths===

in this game, when you run out of energy and hit something, you start exploding and then die with a big explosion. in story mode, this is final and you die pretty much when you start exploding but, in GP mode and Time Attack, the game doesn't count you as dead until the big explosion. due to this, you can die and actually finish the race. while this looks like it has no use because you normally lose speed after dying, if you die in certain ways, you can reach speeds much higher than normal for that brief period of time and cross the finish line before exploding. this si called a suicide finish and can happen in various ways. the most popular one is doing an MTRS against a wall at low energy and a certain angle to shoot off at the finish line as soon as you "die" (MCSO uses this type). there's also types that use an MTS against a wall in such a way that the resulting bounce sends you towards the finish line (LTR has one of the oldest ones like this). there's also others where you just touch a wall and gain speed after dying (BBO is this type).

one thing to keep in mind is that crossing the finish line must be done above it. if your car goes outside the track and falls too low to the side, it won't count. the finish line extends upwards and to the sides so you can suicide upwards or to the sides fine and finish the race (some lines don't extend too far but they're few)

you also die by not hitting the checkpoints in the correct order or hitting certain objects in the track. these objects are usually very solid ones like walls. things like the metal structures in FF won't kill you in 1 hit. there's also some objects that have no collision but these are few.

=Video Tutorials=

youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5UD8kOhQuv8I3IpEU57N1pCAeiYQNr36

Playlist contains the videos below, as well as guides on each track (including story mode)

;Momentum Throttling
{{#ev:youtube|Ub97QnGcGxA}}

;Dives/Jumps
{{#ev:youtube|A6aKqspnwLk}}

;Shift Boosts
{{#ev:youtube|AhuL3luoKYg}}

;MTS
{{#ev:youtube|C8X9h96dBjg}}

;Side Attacks
{{#ev:youtube|KEozbOY_E9M}}

;Customize/Calibrate
{{#ev:youtube|hPMl4stBMLc}}

=Momentum Throttling=

Here is a graph depicting speedloss over time. This can visually descrive how above a certain point (the MT point) you do not want to have the engine on (unless boosting).
<doc id="0Anm7OyHbh5RfdDlvczFNelhoTDdPdGlZS1V6WGhMNGc" type="spreadsheet" width="800" height="800" />

A basic formula was made to calculate the MT points based on top speed and weight. 15 vehicles had mt points manually measured and a formula which got a 15 km/h standard deviation was made and used for the following spreadsheet.
<doc id="0Anm7OyHbh5RfdGZYb3dTVnFCQUVXRGhXRDh1WXhNMFE" type="spreadsheet" width="800" height="800" />

Boosting at high speeds has some effects which are not entirely understood in terms of how the game is handling it. Just like how having the engine off over having it on is better above a certain point, I hypothesize that having the engine off would be better than boosting above a certain point.
<doc id="0Anm7OyHbh5RfdFdYd2RSZEIzVVMybXV1YnpRbjZGZGc" type="spreadsheet" width="800" height="800" />

F-Zero GX

2013-09-09T23:55:24Z

Naegleria: /* Video Tutorials */

[[Category:Gamecube]]
[[Category:Games]]

=F-Zero Central Ladder=
http://fzerocentral.org/f0/gxladderhome.php
F-Zero Central's ladder contain hundreds of ranked times for multiple categories.

=Advanced Techniques=
http://fzerocentral.org/viewtopic.php?t=463

;The next few sections were copied from http://fzerocentral.org/viewtopic.php?t=13405

=Technical Info=

;Resolution:
640x480. NTSC versions have Progressive scan support. PAL versions have 50Hz support. Runs at 60 fps 99% of the time (50 fps in PAL50).

Note: the 50Hz mode converts the timer automatically so you don't need to do time conversions to get equivalent times like in FZSNES or FZX.

;Memory card usage:

Main save uses 4 blocks and cannot be copied in any way (not even with Wii homebrew because it uses info about the original card's format and block location and the save would be unusable in a different card. those bastards...)

Replays use 3-6 blocks with original machines and 7-14 blocks with custom machines. Ghosts use 3 blocks always. Emblems use 3 blocks always. Garage uses 18 blocks always and allows 4 custom cars to be saved (including the emblems you paste on it. You don't need the emblem data in the same card as the garage data)

;Connectivity:
Can connect with F-Zero AX to unlock some things faster or earlier (AX cup before Diamond cup is only possible this way). Compatible with logitech steering wheel for GC.

;Extras:
No physical limited editions or bonuses. There was a 1-time giveaway of the hidden unobtainale parts in japan to participants of a contest but this never happened internationally (this is why people call those parts "AR parts").

=Game Engine global properties (part 1: controls)=

This is the section where a lot of the little things that people don't get initially will be detailed. Some of these properties are surprising and counter-productive to usual racing.

Let's start with the regular actions assigned to every button. I'll use default key assignments.

==Gameplay Controls (Story, Practice, VS and GP)==

;Control Stick:
Steers the ship. Sensitivity can be adjusted in the options menu. The default setting can be too sensitive for some people. I recommend trying out between the default sensitivity and customized ones to see what suits you best. Personally, i play with adjusted sensitivity (in the sensitivity option, i just rotate the stick until the polygon doesn't move anywhere and save the changes)

;A Button:
Accelerator (gas). Accelerates the ship. Unintended side effect: release it at a high speed and your speed decrease rate will be lower than what you get if you just hold it. This is known as Momentum Throttle (MT) and is a very powerful technique since it is the basis for a lot of the other techiques used in high level play like MTS, MTRS, Shift Boosts, MT Boost and Dive landing. The thing you should know is the time where MT should be used and where not to use it since it stops being effective at a certain speed. Over the years, it has been found that, on heavy ships with high top speed, you should use MT for any speeds over 1300 km/h. Ships that have low top speed but a decent weight should use it above 1200 km/h and for light ships with bad top speed, it works good on speed above just 1100 km/h. Top speed takes preference over weight so any ship above 1100 km/h non-boosted speed should use MT when above 1300 km/h (even if they're light like Sonic Phantom).

;B Button:
Air Brake. Stops the ship. Less useful than what you'd think due to the speed decreasing really fast normally when you stop boosting. The way i brake is just by not doing MT after i stop boosting. The brake is useful if you need to brake really fast in a pinch.

;Y Button:
Boost. Uses the booster. Unintended side effect: by using MT just as your boost ends and then pressing A and Y at the same time to resume the gas and activate another boost, you can keep your speed at higher levels and make your boosts last more until the next refiller. This is called MT Boost and it helps greatly those ships that have a fast boost pickup speed since they can Boost, MT for more than a second and Boost again to get more out of their boosts. The other ships can wait like between 0.5-1 seconds between boosts to do well.

;X button:
Side Attack. Attacks to the side. You need to press the control stick left or right to attack in the appropiate direction. Unintended side effects: the first one is the side attack dive. This move resebles FZX's DTDs in a way but it is done way differently. To do one, hold the shoulder button corresponding to the direction you're going, hold the control stick in the same direction and use the side attack continuously. If you start with the correct angle and speed, you can go above 2000 km/h easily in the air and land at much higher speeds than normal. The second side effect is at the end of an MTS. When you exit an MTS, use a side attack to minimize speed loss (this one depends on the ship. Some ships don't benefit from this. The third side effect is getting extra speed in turns where an MTS wouldn't be practical. If you hold a shoulder button and the same sirection with the stick (say, left and L) and use side attacks, your ship will get some extra speed. this is only useful with certain ships (most popular usage is the long turn in PTAD after the first zipper)

;Z button:
Spin attack. Attacks by spinning the ship around. This move is useful in CH4 to defeat a lot of enemies quicky but it has little use outside that since GP mode opponents are much harder to kill with that strategy. Side attacks are much more effective.

;L and R buttons:
Strafe/Shift. This shifts the ship to the side. Useful to adjust the ship's direction. Unintended side effects: first and most popular ones: snaking and spaceflying: when you set max acceleration, pressing these buttons in combination of the stick with a certain rhythm causes the ship to build up massive speeds without using boosts. The reason is that the shift action gains power the more you approach max acceleration. Spaceflying is possible because this shift is done in an upwards manner and it can overcome the game's gravity. You need to hop out of the road to fly since the road itself prevents the ship from raising into the air. The second effect is shift boosts. By going out of the road and back into it, you can get an extra burst of speed due to the difference in the terrain change. Shift boosts are usable without these buttons but they become more abusable if you combine the L and R button shift and MT.

;D-pad:
Camera adjustment. It has been proven that the default camera is bad for driving properly. Zoom out once and you have the perfect camera for playing the game and getting the best out of it. The other views are just for novelty and first person camera is awful for any advanced maneuver.

;C-stick:
No use in normal gameplay but it lets you chosse between machines in a GP mode replay. With this you can see how the CPU cheats when they are magically ahead of you.

;Start/Pause:
Pauses the game and lets you retry or quit if you messed up. You can also go to the settings screen or change course in Time Attack.

==Settings Screen controls:==

;Control Stick:
Move the settings bar left and right

;L and R:
Cycle between ship/pilot colors

==Cutscene controls:==

;Z Button:
Activates subtitles

;Start/A Button:
Skips cutscene

==Replay mode Controls:==

;Z Button:
Cycles between GX logo and speedometer

;D-pad:
Lets you adjust the camera view

;L and R Buttons:
Cycle between pilot themes

=Game Engine global properties (part 2: physics)=

While every ship has their own stats and stuff determining how bad or good they are, there's some global properties that apply to every machine. i'll do my best to explain these.

===Weight===

First, Weight in this game is important. In this game, the heavier a ship is, the better it is because it can reach much better speeds and benefits from practically everything that happens within the game.

Weight is beneficial for the following things: improves MT, improves Shift Boosts, improves Max Boosted Speed, improves Body resistance, improves Side Attack Dives, improves mine boosts. (all of these are better with higher weight)

Weight is detrimental for the following things: reduces air time, reduces acceleration, makes some shortcuts harder, hinders spaceflying greatly. (all of these improve with lower weight)

Weight is neutral for the following things: Quick Turn, cornering, Grip, Boost pickup speed, MTS, MTRS. (individual ships have a much bigger effect in these)

That's why you see beasts like Gallant Star-G4 taking the WRs in max speed settings while things like Maximum Dragon are used for spaceflying.

===Settings bar===

something that is easy to miss is the effects from the settings bar causes on ships. unlike FZX, people use either max acceleration or max speed in all the ladders since anything in between is banned in the snaking and max speed ladders (open is best with max acceleration always so there's no reason to go above).

setting the bar to the far right does this:

improves momentum-based moves (MT, MTS) because speed loss rate is at its lowest.

boosters pick up speed slower but reach higher max speeds.

improves body and grip performance.

cornering is at its worst (you need to use Quick Turn with most ships to take corners)

gives you the maximum non-boosted max speed available (not on every ship though)

reduces the speed gain by turning and by pressing L or R in a turn (that's why you can't snake effectively with max speed)

setting the bar to the far left does this:

speed loss rate is at its highest. even if you MT, you lose speed rather quickly.

boosters pick up speed faster but reach lower max speeds

body and grip performance is at its weakest

cornering is at its best (you can turn with no effort at all by just steering the ship)

gives you the minimum non-boosted max speed available (not on every ship)

increases the speed gained by turning and by pressing L or R in a turn (this makes snaking and spaceflying possible)

that should cover the settings bar effects.

===Air Time (Max Speed version)===

i've heard people complain that navigating in the air is a pain and it makes sense. when you're in the air, the physics behave weird.

here's what you should know when you go into the air:

;distance tips:

doing MT when going straight lets you retain a lot more speed and cover bigger distances. helps to cut some corners.

touching the stick is bad. you lose height instantly. the best way to cover air distances is to line up before you leave the road and, if you need to adjust the ship, use the L and R buttons since those don't make you lose height faster. combine with MT for the full effect.

;diving tips:

when you're diving, the best is to actually hold the accelerator for the duration of the dive. also, when you dive, push up in the stick all the way since that gives you the highest speed gain and the ship has a limit in how much it can point down its nose (unlike FZX where if you push up all the way, your ship goes all the way down and messes up the dive)

when it comes to the landing, you need to know that the best way to retain speed is to line up the ship parallel to the road just before you touch the road. if you land at an angle, you lose more speed. landing parallel has the minimum speed loss on landing. you also need to MT just a bit before you touch the road to get the best effect out of it. if you MT when landing or later, your speed will be gone before you realize it.

;side attack dive:

this move is a bit tricky to pull off. to get the best angle, you first do an MTS in the direction you want to start the dive (say, if you want to do the right side dive in PTAD, MTS between the 2nd and 3rd zipper before the dive towards the right ) and when you're in the air, you start holding the shoulder button of the opposite side, hold the stick towards the same direction and up and start using the side attack repeatedly (if you're on the right side, hold L + Left and Up in the stick and mash the side attack). after a while, you need to line up so that you can land properly. at this point, you stop using the side attack and holding L and the stick and MT while you use L or R to line up with the road. the reason you MT is that when you stop side attacking and are not nosediving, your speed will die fast normally. with MT, you keep the speed while you line up. when you are lined up, you can nosedive and hold the accelerator for extra speed if there's still enough distance before landing. when you land, don't forget to be parallel to the road and MT just before landing.

it is also possible to switch between L+left and R+right while doing a side attack dive. that's useful in the ADS dive since that one is big enough to give you time to do this and build extra speed.

max acceleration changes the way being in the air behaves but i'm lacking knowledge there since i don't play with those settings.

===Road Elements===

each track has several things that affect your performance while driving. some of them can have massive effects in the race.

;Refiller:
refills your health bar. it refills you very fast so you can pass it at max speed most of the time but there's some tracks where it is better to slow down a bit here to ensure you are at 100% health.

;Zipper:
the zippers in this game don't replace or stop your boost's effect. they just add up to your current speed. unintended side effect: if you hit a zipper at the very edge on either side but parallel to it, it can give you extra speed that isn't possible by taking it normally.

;Jump Plate:
these let you jump in the air. for most of them, it is better to nosedive when you take them but a few can allow you to cut corners, provided that you don't skip a checkpoint. CH3 is where they're more prominent. air time tips apply when you're in the air from them.

;Dirt Area:
this are slows you down when you touch it and don't have a boost active. zippers and boosting negate their effect.

;Ice Area:
these areas make your grip drop to the lowest possible and you slide out easily. you can still control your ship with help of the L and R buttons and can MTS on it easily (after all, MTS relies on breaking the ship's grip)

;Mines:
while these seem to be just a hazard, they actually provide extra boosts for the heavier ships that can hit them and lose little energy. they cause a type of shift boost when you hit them and shift boost rules apply here.

;Lava Area:
this area is in story mode only. their only effect is reducing your health. they don't affect ship handling but you shouldn't hit them too often.

;Checkpoint:
these are invisible areas that tell the game you've passed a part of the track so that it allows you to get to the next and so on. unlike old Mario Kart games or 2D F-Zero games, the tracks' whole information isn't completely loaded at once when you play them and you can only be on a chunk of it at a time. that's why you die instantly when you try to get to a part that looks reachable but is much further than your current position. in some situations, you can trick these checkpoints and can hit some further areas without dying if you have the correct height and speed. they're also pretty bad because, if you fly too high, you can skip a lot of them and that's why spaceflying is viable at all since flying around the whole track would be slower than snaking.

;AX Checkpoint:
i suppose someone will ask about this one. they give you extra time in the AX version but have no use in GX. the devs were too lazy to take them away from the tracks.

===Deaths===

in this game, when you run out of energy and hit something, you start exploding and then die with a big explosion. in story mode, this is final and you die pretty much when you start exploding but, in GP mode and Time Attack, the game doesn't count you as dead until the big explosion. due to this, you can die and actually finish the race. while this looks like it has no use because you normally lose speed after dying, if you die in certain ways, you can reach speeds much higher than normal for that brief period of time and cross the finish line before exploding. this si called a suicide finish and can happen in various ways. the most popular one is doing an MTRS against a wall at low energy and a certain angle to shoot off at the finish line as soon as you "die" (MCSO uses this type). there's also types that use an MTS against a wall in such a way that the resulting bounce sends you towards the finish line (LTR has one of the oldest ones like this). there's also others where you just touch a wall and gain speed after dying (BBO is this type).

one thing to keep in mind is that crossing the finish line must be done above it. if your car goes outside the track and falls too low to the side, it won't count. the finish line extends upwards and to the sides so you can suicide upwards or to the sides fine and finish the race (some lines don't extend too far but they're few)

you also die by not hitting the checkpoints in the correct order or hitting certain objects in the track. these objects are usually very solid ones like walls. things like the metal structures in FF won't kill you in 1 hit. there's also some objects that have no collision but these are few.

=Video Tutorials=

youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5UD8kOhQuv8I3IpEU57N1pCAeiYQNr36
Playlist contains the videos below, as well as guides on each track (including story mode)

;Momentum Throttling
{{#ev:youtube|Ub97QnGcGxA}}

;Dives/Jumps
{{#ev:youtube|A6aKqspnwLk}}

;Shift Boosts
{{#ev:youtube|AhuL3luoKYg}}

;MTS
{{#ev:youtube|C8X9h96dBjg}}

;Side Attacks
{{#ev:youtube|KEozbOY_E9M}}

;Customize/Calibrate
{{#ev:youtube|hPMl4stBMLc}}

=Momentum Throttling=

Here is a graph depicting speedloss over time. This can visually descrive how above a certain point (the MT point) you do not want to have the engine on (unless boosting).
<doc id="0Anm7OyHbh5RfdDlvczFNelhoTDdPdGlZS1V6WGhMNGc" type="spreadsheet" width="800" height="800" />

A basic formula was made to calculate the MT points based on top speed and weight. 15 vehicles had mt points manually measured and a formula which got a 15 km/h standard deviation was made and used for the following spreadsheet.
<doc id="0Anm7OyHbh5RfdGZYb3dTVnFCQUVXRGhXRDh1WXhNMFE" type="spreadsheet" width="800" height="800" />

Boosting at high speeds has some effects which are not entirely understood in terms of how the game is handling it. Just like how having the engine off over having it on is better above a certain point, I hypothesize that having the engine off would be better than boosting above a certain point.
<doc id="0Anm7OyHbh5RfdFdYd2RSZEIzVVMybXV1YnpRbjZGZGc" type="spreadsheet" width="800" height="800" />

F-Zero GX

2013-07-13T22:25:38Z

Naegleria: /* Video Tutorials */

[[Category:Gamecube]]
[[Category:Games]]

=F-Zero Central Ladder=
http://fzerocentral.org/f0/gxladderhome.php
F-Zero Central's ladder contain hundreds of ranked times for multiple categories.

=Advanced Techniques=
http://fzerocentral.org/viewtopic.php?t=463

;The next few sections were copied from http://fzerocentral.org/viewtopic.php?t=13405

=Technical Info=

;Resolution:
640x480. NTSC versions have Progressive scan support. PAL versions have 50Hz support. Runs at 60 fps 99% of the time (50 fps in PAL50).

Note: the 50Hz mode converts the timer automatically so you don't need to do time conversions to get equivalent times like in FZSNES or FZX.

;Memory card usage:

Main save uses 4 blocks and cannot be copied in any way (not even with Wii homebrew because it uses info about the original card's format and block location and the save would be unusable in a different card. those bastards...)

Replays use 3-6 blocks with original machines and 7-14 blocks with custom machines. Ghosts use 3 blocks always. Emblems use 3 blocks always. Garage uses 18 blocks always and allows 4 custom cars to be saved (including the emblems you paste on it. You don't need the emblem data in the same card as the garage data)

;Connectivity:
Can connect with F-Zero AX to unlock some things faster or earlier (AX cup before Diamond cup is only possible this way). Compatible with logitech steering wheel for GC.

;Extras:
No physical limited editions or bonuses. There was a 1-time giveaway of the hidden unobtainale parts in japan to participants of a contest but this never happened internationally (this is why people call those parts "AR parts").

=Game Engine global properties (part 1: controls)=

This is the section where a lot of the little things that people don't get initially will be detailed. Some of these properties are surprising and counter-productive to usual racing.

Let's start with the regular actions assigned to every button. I'll use default key assignments.

==Gameplay Controls (Story, Practice, VS and GP)==

;Control Stick:
Steers the ship. Sensitivity can be adjusted in the options menu. The default setting can be too sensitive for some people. I recommend trying out between the default sensitivity and customized ones to see what suits you best. Personally, i play with adjusted sensitivity (in the sensitivity option, i just rotate the stick until the polygon doesn't move anywhere and save the changes)

;A Button:
Accelerator (gas). Accelerates the ship. Unintended side effect: release it at a high speed and your speed decrease rate will be lower than what you get if you just hold it. This is known as Momentum Throttle (MT) and is a very powerful technique since it is the basis for a lot of the other techiques used in high level play like MTS, MTRS, Shift Boosts, MT Boost and Dive landing. The thing you should know is the time where MT should be used and where not to use it since it stops being effective at a certain speed. Over the years, it has been found that, on heavy ships with high top speed, you should use MT for any speeds over 1300 km/h. Ships that have low top speed but a decent weight should use it above 1200 km/h and for light ships with bad top speed, it works good on speed above just 1100 km/h. Top speed takes preference over weight so any ship above 1100 km/h non-boosted speed should use MT when above 1300 km/h (even if they're light like Sonic Phantom).

;B Button:
Air Brake. Stops the ship. Less useful than what you'd think due to the speed decreasing really fast normally when you stop boosting. The way i brake is just by not doing MT after i stop boosting. The brake is useful if you need to brake really fast in a pinch.

;Y Button:
Boost. Uses the booster. Unintended side effect: by using MT just as your boost ends and then pressing A and Y at the same time to resume the gas and activate another boost, you can keep your speed at higher levels and make your boosts last more until the next refiller. This is called MT Boost and it helps greatly those ships that have a fast boost pickup speed since they can Boost, MT for more than a second and Boost again to get more out of their boosts. The other ships can wait like between 0.5-1 seconds between boosts to do well.

;X button:
Side Attack. Attacks to the side. You need to press the control stick left or right to attack in the appropiate direction. Unintended side effects: the first one is the side attack dive. This move resebles FZX's DTDs in a way but it is done way differently. To do one, hold the shoulder button corresponding to the direction you're going, hold the control stick in the same direction and use the side attack continuously. If you start with the correct angle and speed, you can go above 2000 km/h easily in the air and land at much higher speeds than normal. The second side effect is at the end of an MTS. When you exit an MTS, use a side attack to minimize speed loss (this one depends on the ship. Some ships don't benefit from this. The third side effect is getting extra speed in turns where an MTS wouldn't be practical. If you hold a shoulder button and the same sirection with the stick (say, left and L) and use side attacks, your ship will get some extra speed. this is only useful with certain ships (most popular usage is the long turn in PTAD after the first zipper)

;Z button:
Spin attack. Attacks by spinning the ship around. This move is useful in CH4 to defeat a lot of enemies quicky but it has little use outside that since GP mode opponents are much harder to kill with that strategy. Side attacks are much more effective.

;L and R buttons:
Strafe/Shift. This shifts the ship to the side. Useful to adjust the ship's direction. Unintended side effects: first and most popular ones: snaking and spaceflying: when you set max acceleration, pressing these buttons in combination of the stick with a certain rhythm causes the ship to build up massive speeds without using boosts. The reason is that the shift action gains power the more you approach max acceleration. Spaceflying is possible because this shift is done in an upwards manner and it can overcome the game's gravity. You need to hop out of the road to fly since the road itself prevents the ship from raising into the air. The second effect is shift boosts. By going out of the road and back into it, you can get an extra burst of speed due to the difference in the terrain change. Shift boosts are usable without these buttons but they become more abusable if you combine the L and R button shift and MT.

;D-pad:
Camera adjustment. It has been proven that the default camera is bad for driving properly. Zoom out once and you have the perfect camera for playing the game and getting the best out of it. The other views are just for novelty and first person camera is awful for any advanced maneuver.

;C-stick:
No use in normal gameplay but it lets you chosse between machines in a GP mode replay. With this you can see how the CPU cheats when they are magically ahead of you.

;Start/Pause:
Pauses the game and lets you retry or quit if you messed up. You can also go to the settings screen or change course in Time Attack.

==Settings Screen controls:==

;Control Stick:
Move the settings bar left and right

;L and R:
Cycle between ship/pilot colors

==Cutscene controls:==

;Z Button:
Activates subtitles

;Start/A Button:
Skips cutscene

==Replay mode Controls:==

;Z Button:
Cycles between GX logo and speedometer

;D-pad:
Lets you adjust the camera view

;L and R Buttons:
Cycle between pilot themes

=Game Engine global properties (part 2: physics)=

While every ship has their own stats and stuff determining how bad or good they are, there's some global properties that apply to every machine. i'll do my best to explain these.

===Weight===

First, Weight in this game is important. In this game, the heavier a ship is, the better it is because it can reach much better speeds and benefits from practically everything that happens within the game.

Weight is beneficial for the following things: improves MT, improves Shift Boosts, improves Max Boosted Speed, improves Body resistance, improves Side Attack Dives, improves mine boosts. (all of these are better with higher weight)

Weight is detrimental for the following things: reduces air time, reduces acceleration, makes some shortcuts harder, hinders spaceflying greatly. (all of these improve with lower weight)

Weight is neutral for the following things: Quick Turn, cornering, Grip, Boost pickup speed, MTS, MTRS. (individual ships have a much bigger effect in these)

That's why you see beasts like Gallant Star-G4 taking the WRs in max speed settings while things like Maximum Dragon are used for spaceflying.

===Settings bar===

something that is easy to miss is the effects from the settings bar causes on ships. unlike FZX, people use either max acceleration or max speed in all the ladders since anything in between is banned in the snaking and max speed ladders (open is best with max acceleration always so there's no reason to go above).

setting the bar to the far right does this:

improves momentum-based moves (MT, MTS) because speed loss rate is at its lowest.

boosters pick up speed slower but reach higher max speeds.

improves body and grip performance.

cornering is at its worst (you need to use Quick Turn with most ships to take corners)

gives you the maximum non-boosted max speed available (not on every ship though)

reduces the speed gain by turning and by pressing L or R in a turn (that's why you can't snake effectively with max speed)

setting the bar to the far left does this:

speed loss rate is at its highest. even if you MT, you lose speed rather quickly.

boosters pick up speed faster but reach lower max speeds

body and grip performance is at its weakest

cornering is at its best (you can turn with no effort at all by just steering the ship)

gives you the minimum non-boosted max speed available (not on every ship)

increases the speed gained by turning and by pressing L or R in a turn (this makes snaking and spaceflying possible)

that should cover the settings bar effects.

===Air Time (Max Speed version)===

i've heard people complain that navigating in the air is a pain and it makes sense. when you're in the air, the physics behave weird.

here's what you should know when you go into the air:

;distance tips:

doing MT when going straight lets you retain a lot more speed and cover bigger distances. helps to cut some corners.

touching the stick is bad. you lose height instantly. the best way to cover air distances is to line up before you leave the road and, if you need to adjust the ship, use the L and R buttons since those don't make you lose height faster. combine with MT for the full effect.

;diving tips:

when you're diving, the best is to actually hold the accelerator for the duration of the dive. also, when you dive, push up in the stick all the way since that gives you the highest speed gain and the ship has a limit in how much it can point down its nose (unlike FZX where if you push up all the way, your ship goes all the way down and messes up the dive)

when it comes to the landing, you need to know that the best way to retain speed is to line up the ship parallel to the road just before you touch the road. if you land at an angle, you lose more speed. landing parallel has the minimum speed loss on landing. you also need to MT just a bit before you touch the road to get the best effect out of it. if you MT when landing or later, your speed will be gone before you realize it.

;side attack dive:

this move is a bit tricky to pull off. to get the best angle, you first do an MTS in the direction you want to start the dive (say, if you want to do the right side dive in PTAD, MTS between the 2nd and 3rd zipper before the dive towards the right ) and when you're in the air, you start holding the shoulder button of the opposite side, hold the stick towards the same direction and up and start using the side attack repeatedly (if you're on the right side, hold L + Left and Up in the stick and mash the side attack). after a while, you need to line up so that you can land properly. at this point, you stop using the side attack and holding L and the stick and MT while you use L or R to line up with the road. the reason you MT is that when you stop side attacking and are not nosediving, your speed will die fast normally. with MT, you keep the speed while you line up. when you are lined up, you can nosedive and hold the accelerator for extra speed if there's still enough distance before landing. when you land, don't forget to be parallel to the road and MT just before landing.

it is also possible to switch between L+left and R+right while doing a side attack dive. that's useful in the ADS dive since that one is big enough to give you time to do this and build extra speed.

max acceleration changes the way being in the air behaves but i'm lacking knowledge there since i don't play with those settings.

===Road Elements===

each track has several things that affect your performance while driving. some of them can have massive effects in the race.

;Refiller:
refills your health bar. it refills you very fast so you can pass it at max speed most of the time but there's some tracks where it is better to slow down a bit here to ensure you are at 100% health.

;Zipper:
the zippers in this game don't replace or stop your boost's effect. they just add up to your current speed. unintended side effect: if you hit a zipper at the very edge on either side but parallel to it, it can give you extra speed that isn't possible by taking it normally.

;Jump Plate:
these let you jump in the air. for most of them, it is better to nosedive when you take them but a few can allow you to cut corners, provided that you don't skip a checkpoint. CH3 is where they're more prominent. air time tips apply when you're in the air from them.

;Dirt Area:
this are slows you down when you touch it and don't have a boost active. zippers and boosting negate their effect.

;Ice Area:
these areas make your grip drop to the lowest possible and you slide out easily. you can still control your ship with help of the L and R buttons and can MTS on it easily (after all, MTS relies on breaking the ship's grip)

;Mines:
while these seem to be just a hazard, they actually provide extra boosts for the heavier ships that can hit them and lose little energy. they cause a type of shift boost when you hit them and shift boost rules apply here.

;Lava Area:
this area is in story mode only. their only effect is reducing your health. they don't affect ship handling but you shouldn't hit them too often.

;Checkpoint:
these are invisible areas that tell the game you've passed a part of the track so that it allows you to get to the next and so on. unlike old Mario Kart games or 2D F-Zero games, the tracks' whole information isn't completely loaded at once when you play them and you can only be on a chunk of it at a time. that's why you die instantly when you try to get to a part that looks reachable but is much further than your current position. in some situations, you can trick these checkpoints and can hit some further areas without dying if you have the correct height and speed. they're also pretty bad because, if you fly too high, you can skip a lot of them and that's why spaceflying is viable at all since flying around the whole track would be slower than snaking.

;AX Checkpoint:
i suppose someone will ask about this one. they give you extra time in the AX version but have no use in GX. the devs were too lazy to take them away from the tracks.

===Deaths===

in this game, when you run out of energy and hit something, you start exploding and then die with a big explosion. in story mode, this is final and you die pretty much when you start exploding but, in GP mode and Time Attack, the game doesn't count you as dead until the big explosion. due to this, you can die and actually finish the race. while this looks like it has no use because you normally lose speed after dying, if you die in certain ways, you can reach speeds much higher than normal for that brief period of time and cross the finish line before exploding. this si called a suicide finish and can happen in various ways. the most popular one is doing an MTRS against a wall at low energy and a certain angle to shoot off at the finish line as soon as you "die" (MCSO uses this type). there's also types that use an MTS against a wall in such a way that the resulting bounce sends you towards the finish line (LTR has one of the oldest ones like this). there's also others where you just touch a wall and gain speed after dying (BBO is this type).

one thing to keep in mind is that crossing the finish line must be done above it. if your car goes outside the track and falls too low to the side, it won't count. the finish line extends upwards and to the sides so you can suicide upwards or to the sides fine and finish the race (some lines don't extend too far but they're few)

you also die by not hitting the checkpoints in the correct order or hitting certain objects in the track. these objects are usually very solid ones like walls. things like the metal structures in FF won't kill you in 1 hit. there's also some objects that have no collision but these are few.

=Video Tutorials=

;Momentum Throttling
{{#ev:youtube|Ub97QnGcGxA}}

;Dives/Jumps
{{#ev:youtube|A6aKqspnwLk}}

;Shift Boosts
{{#ev:youtube|AhuL3luoKYg}}

;MTS
{{#ev:youtube|C8X9h96dBjg}}

;Side Attacks
{{#ev:youtube|KEozbOY_E9M}}

;Customize/Calibrate
{{#ev:youtube|hPMl4stBMLc}}

=Momentum Throttling=

Here is a graph depicting speedloss over time. This can visually descrive how above a certain point (the MT point) you do not want to have the engine on (unless boosting).
<doc id="0Anm7OyHbh5RfdDlvczFNelhoTDdPdGlZS1V6WGhMNGc" type="spreadsheet" width="800" height="800" />

A basic formula was made to calculate the MT points based on top speed and weight. 15 vehicles had mt points manually measured and a formula which got a 15 km/h standard deviation was made and used for the following spreadsheet.
<doc id="0Anm7OyHbh5RfdGZYb3dTVnFCQUVXRGhXRDh1WXhNMFE" type="spreadsheet" width="800" height="800" />

Boosting at high speeds has some effects which are not entirely understood in terms of how the game is handling it. Just like how having the engine off over having it on is better above a certain point, I hypothesize that having the engine off would be better than boosting above a certain point.
<doc id="0Anm7OyHbh5RfdFdYd2RSZEIzVVMybXV1YnpRbjZGZGc" type="spreadsheet" width="800" height="800" />

F-Zero GX

2013-07-13T22:16:31Z

Naegleria:

[[Category:Gamecube]]
[[Category:Games]]

=F-Zero Central Ladder=
http://fzerocentral.org/f0/gxladderhome.php
F-Zero Central's ladder contain hundreds of ranked times for multiple categories.

=Advanced Techniques=
http://fzerocentral.org/viewtopic.php?t=463

;The next few sections were copied from http://fzerocentral.org/viewtopic.php?t=13405

=Technical Info=

;Resolution:
640x480. NTSC versions have Progressive scan support. PAL versions have 50Hz support. Runs at 60 fps 99% of the time (50 fps in PAL50).

Note: the 50Hz mode converts the timer automatically so you don't need to do time conversions to get equivalent times like in FZSNES or FZX.

;Memory card usage:

Main save uses 4 blocks and cannot be copied in any way (not even with Wii homebrew because it uses info about the original card's format and block location and the save would be unusable in a different card. those bastards...)

Replays use 3-6 blocks with original machines and 7-14 blocks with custom machines. Ghosts use 3 blocks always. Emblems use 3 blocks always. Garage uses 18 blocks always and allows 4 custom cars to be saved (including the emblems you paste on it. You don't need the emblem data in the same card as the garage data)

;Connectivity:
Can connect with F-Zero AX to unlock some things faster or earlier (AX cup before Diamond cup is only possible this way). Compatible with logitech steering wheel for GC.

;Extras:
No physical limited editions or bonuses. There was a 1-time giveaway of the hidden unobtainale parts in japan to participants of a contest but this never happened internationally (this is why people call those parts "AR parts").

=Game Engine global properties (part 1: controls)=

This is the section where a lot of the little things that people don't get initially will be detailed. Some of these properties are surprising and counter-productive to usual racing.

Let's start with the regular actions assigned to every button. I'll use default key assignments.

==Gameplay Controls (Story, Practice, VS and GP)==

;Control Stick:
Steers the ship. Sensitivity can be adjusted in the options menu. The default setting can be too sensitive for some people. I recommend trying out between the default sensitivity and customized ones to see what suits you best. Personally, i play with adjusted sensitivity (in the sensitivity option, i just rotate the stick until the polygon doesn't move anywhere and save the changes)

;A Button:
Accelerator (gas). Accelerates the ship. Unintended side effect: release it at a high speed and your speed decrease rate will be lower than what you get if you just hold it. This is known as Momentum Throttle (MT) and is a very powerful technique since it is the basis for a lot of the other techiques used in high level play like MTS, MTRS, Shift Boosts, MT Boost and Dive landing. The thing you should know is the time where MT should be used and where not to use it since it stops being effective at a certain speed. Over the years, it has been found that, on heavy ships with high top speed, you should use MT for any speeds over 1300 km/h. Ships that have low top speed but a decent weight should use it above 1200 km/h and for light ships with bad top speed, it works good on speed above just 1100 km/h. Top speed takes preference over weight so any ship above 1100 km/h non-boosted speed should use MT when above 1300 km/h (even if they're light like Sonic Phantom).

;B Button:
Air Brake. Stops the ship. Less useful than what you'd think due to the speed decreasing really fast normally when you stop boosting. The way i brake is just by not doing MT after i stop boosting. The brake is useful if you need to brake really fast in a pinch.

;Y Button:
Boost. Uses the booster. Unintended side effect: by using MT just as your boost ends and then pressing A and Y at the same time to resume the gas and activate another boost, you can keep your speed at higher levels and make your boosts last more until the next refiller. This is called MT Boost and it helps greatly those ships that have a fast boost pickup speed since they can Boost, MT for more than a second and Boost again to get more out of their boosts. The other ships can wait like between 0.5-1 seconds between boosts to do well.

;X button:
Side Attack. Attacks to the side. You need to press the control stick left or right to attack in the appropiate direction. Unintended side effects: the first one is the side attack dive. This move resebles FZX's DTDs in a way but it is done way differently. To do one, hold the shoulder button corresponding to the direction you're going, hold the control stick in the same direction and use the side attack continuously. If you start with the correct angle and speed, you can go above 2000 km/h easily in the air and land at much higher speeds than normal. The second side effect is at the end of an MTS. When you exit an MTS, use a side attack to minimize speed loss (this one depends on the ship. Some ships don't benefit from this. The third side effect is getting extra speed in turns where an MTS wouldn't be practical. If you hold a shoulder button and the same sirection with the stick (say, left and L) and use side attacks, your ship will get some extra speed. this is only useful with certain ships (most popular usage is the long turn in PTAD after the first zipper)

;Z button:
Spin attack. Attacks by spinning the ship around. This move is useful in CH4 to defeat a lot of enemies quicky but it has little use outside that since GP mode opponents are much harder to kill with that strategy. Side attacks are much more effective.

;L and R buttons:
Strafe/Shift. This shifts the ship to the side. Useful to adjust the ship's direction. Unintended side effects: first and most popular ones: snaking and spaceflying: when you set max acceleration, pressing these buttons in combination of the stick with a certain rhythm causes the ship to build up massive speeds without using boosts. The reason is that the shift action gains power the more you approach max acceleration. Spaceflying is possible because this shift is done in an upwards manner and it can overcome the game's gravity. You need to hop out of the road to fly since the road itself prevents the ship from raising into the air. The second effect is shift boosts. By going out of the road and back into it, you can get an extra burst of speed due to the difference in the terrain change. Shift boosts are usable without these buttons but they become more abusable if you combine the L and R button shift and MT.

;D-pad:
Camera adjustment. It has been proven that the default camera is bad for driving properly. Zoom out once and you have the perfect camera for playing the game and getting the best out of it. The other views are just for novelty and first person camera is awful for any advanced maneuver.

;C-stick:
No use in normal gameplay but it lets you chosse between machines in a GP mode replay. With this you can see how the CPU cheats when they are magically ahead of you.

;Start/Pause:
Pauses the game and lets you retry or quit if you messed up. You can also go to the settings screen or change course in Time Attack.

==Settings Screen controls:==

;Control Stick:
Move the settings bar left and right

;L and R:
Cycle between ship/pilot colors

==Cutscene controls:==

;Z Button:
Activates subtitles

;Start/A Button:
Skips cutscene

==Replay mode Controls:==

;Z Button:
Cycles between GX logo and speedometer

;D-pad:
Lets you adjust the camera view

;L and R Buttons:
Cycle between pilot themes

=Game Engine global properties (part 2: physics)=

While every ship has their own stats and stuff determining how bad or good they are, there's some global properties that apply to every machine. i'll do my best to explain these.

===Weight===

First, Weight in this game is important. In this game, the heavier a ship is, the better it is because it can reach much better speeds and benefits from practically everything that happens within the game.

Weight is beneficial for the following things: improves MT, improves Shift Boosts, improves Max Boosted Speed, improves Body resistance, improves Side Attack Dives, improves mine boosts. (all of these are better with higher weight)

Weight is detrimental for the following things: reduces air time, reduces acceleration, makes some shortcuts harder, hinders spaceflying greatly. (all of these improve with lower weight)

Weight is neutral for the following things: Quick Turn, cornering, Grip, Boost pickup speed, MTS, MTRS. (individual ships have a much bigger effect in these)

That's why you see beasts like Gallant Star-G4 taking the WRs in max speed settings while things like Maximum Dragon are used for spaceflying.

===Settings bar===

something that is easy to miss is the effects from the settings bar causes on ships. unlike FZX, people use either max acceleration or max speed in all the ladders since anything in between is banned in the snaking and max speed ladders (open is best with max acceleration always so there's no reason to go above).

setting the bar to the far right does this:

improves momentum-based moves (MT, MTS) because speed loss rate is at its lowest.

boosters pick up speed slower but reach higher max speeds.

improves body and grip performance.

cornering is at its worst (you need to use Quick Turn with most ships to take corners)

gives you the maximum non-boosted max speed available (not on every ship though)

reduces the speed gain by turning and by pressing L or R in a turn (that's why you can't snake effectively with max speed)

setting the bar to the far left does this:

speed loss rate is at its highest. even if you MT, you lose speed rather quickly.

boosters pick up speed faster but reach lower max speeds

body and grip performance is at its weakest

cornering is at its best (you can turn with no effort at all by just steering the ship)

gives you the minimum non-boosted max speed available (not on every ship)

increases the speed gained by turning and by pressing L or R in a turn (this makes snaking and spaceflying possible)

that should cover the settings bar effects.

===Air Time (Max Speed version)===

i've heard people complain that navigating in the air is a pain and it makes sense. when you're in the air, the physics behave weird.

here's what you should know when you go into the air:

;distance tips:

doing MT when going straight lets you retain a lot more speed and cover bigger distances. helps to cut some corners.

touching the stick is bad. you lose height instantly. the best way to cover air distances is to line up before you leave the road and, if you need to adjust the ship, use the L and R buttons since those don't make you lose height faster. combine with MT for the full effect.

;diving tips:

when you're diving, the best is to actually hold the accelerator for the duration of the dive. also, when you dive, push up in the stick all the way since that gives you the highest speed gain and the ship has a limit in how much it can point down its nose (unlike FZX where if you push up all the way, your ship goes all the way down and messes up the dive)

when it comes to the landing, you need to know that the best way to retain speed is to line up the ship parallel to the road just before you touch the road. if you land at an angle, you lose more speed. landing parallel has the minimum speed loss on landing. you also need to MT just a bit before you touch the road to get the best effect out of it. if you MT when landing or later, your speed will be gone before you realize it.

;side attack dive:

this move is a bit tricky to pull off. to get the best angle, you first do an MTS in the direction you want to start the dive (say, if you want to do the right side dive in PTAD, MTS between the 2nd and 3rd zipper before the dive towards the right ) and when you're in the air, you start holding the shoulder button of the opposite side, hold the stick towards the same direction and up and start using the side attack repeatedly (if you're on the right side, hold L + Left and Up in the stick and mash the side attack). after a while, you need to line up so that you can land properly. at this point, you stop using the side attack and holding L and the stick and MT while you use L or R to line up with the road. the reason you MT is that when you stop side attacking and are not nosediving, your speed will die fast normally. with MT, you keep the speed while you line up. when you are lined up, you can nosedive and hold the accelerator for extra speed if there's still enough distance before landing. when you land, don't forget to be parallel to the road and MT just before landing.

it is also possible to switch between L+left and R+right while doing a side attack dive. that's useful in the ADS dive since that one is big enough to give you time to do this and build extra speed.

max acceleration changes the way being in the air behaves but i'm lacking knowledge there since i don't play with those settings.

===Road Elements===

each track has several things that affect your performance while driving. some of them can have massive effects in the race.

;Refiller:
refills your health bar. it refills you very fast so you can pass it at max speed most of the time but there's some tracks where it is better to slow down a bit here to ensure you are at 100% health.

;Zipper:
the zippers in this game don't replace or stop your boost's effect. they just add up to your current speed. unintended side effect: if you hit a zipper at the very edge on either side but parallel to it, it can give you extra speed that isn't possible by taking it normally.

;Jump Plate:
these let you jump in the air. for most of them, it is better to nosedive when you take them but a few can allow you to cut corners, provided that you don't skip a checkpoint. CH3 is where they're more prominent. air time tips apply when you're in the air from them.

;Dirt Area:
this are slows you down when you touch it and don't have a boost active. zippers and boosting negate their effect.

;Ice Area:
these areas make your grip drop to the lowest possible and you slide out easily. you can still control your ship with help of the L and R buttons and can MTS on it easily (after all, MTS relies on breaking the ship's grip)

;Mines:
while these seem to be just a hazard, they actually provide extra boosts for the heavier ships that can hit them and lose little energy. they cause a type of shift boost when you hit them and shift boost rules apply here.

;Lava Area:
this area is in story mode only. their only effect is reducing your health. they don't affect ship handling but you shouldn't hit them too often.

;Checkpoint:
these are invisible areas that tell the game you've passed a part of the track so that it allows you to get to the next and so on. unlike old Mario Kart games or 2D F-Zero games, the tracks' whole information isn't completely loaded at once when you play them and you can only be on a chunk of it at a time. that's why you die instantly when you try to get to a part that looks reachable but is much further than your current position. in some situations, you can trick these checkpoints and can hit some further areas without dying if you have the correct height and speed. they're also pretty bad because, if you fly too high, you can skip a lot of them and that's why spaceflying is viable at all since flying around the whole track would be slower than snaking.

;AX Checkpoint:
i suppose someone will ask about this one. they give you extra time in the AX version but have no use in GX. the devs were too lazy to take them away from the tracks.

===Deaths===

in this game, when you run out of energy and hit something, you start exploding and then die with a big explosion. in story mode, this is final and you die pretty much when you start exploding but, in GP mode and Time Attack, the game doesn't count you as dead until the big explosion. due to this, you can die and actually finish the race. while this looks like it has no use because you normally lose speed after dying, if you die in certain ways, you can reach speeds much higher than normal for that brief period of time and cross the finish line before exploding. this si called a suicide finish and can happen in various ways. the most popular one is doing an MTRS against a wall at low energy and a certain angle to shoot off at the finish line as soon as you "die" (MCSO uses this type). there's also types that use an MTS against a wall in such a way that the resulting bounce sends you towards the finish line (LTR has one of the oldest ones like this). there's also others where you just touch a wall and gain speed after dying (BBO is this type).

one thing to keep in mind is that crossing the finish line must be done above it. if your car goes outside the track and falls too low to the side, it won't count. the finish line extends upwards and to the sides so you can suicide upwards or to the sides fine and finish the race (some lines don't extend too far but they're few)

you also die by not hitting the checkpoints in the correct order or hitting certain objects in the track. these objects are usually very solid ones like walls. things like the metal structures in FF won't kill you in 1 hit. there's also some objects that have no collision but these are few.

=Video Tutorials=

;Momentum Throttling
{{#ev:youtube|Ub97QnGcGxA}}

;Dives/Jumps
{{#ev:youtube|A6aKqspnwLk}}

;Shift Boosts
{{#ev:youtube|AhuL3luoKYg}}

;MTS
{{#ev:youtube|C8X9h96dBjg}}

;Side Attacks
{{#ev:youtube|KEozbOY_E9M}}

=Momentum Throttling=

Here is a graph depicting speedloss over time. This can visually descrive how above a certain point (the MT point) you do not want to have the engine on (unless boosting).
<doc id="0Anm7OyHbh5RfdDlvczFNelhoTDdPdGlZS1V6WGhMNGc" type="spreadsheet" width="800" height="800" />

A basic formula was made to calculate the MT points based on top speed and weight. 15 vehicles had mt points manually measured and a formula which got a 15 km/h standard deviation was made and used for the following spreadsheet.
<doc id="0Anm7OyHbh5RfdGZYb3dTVnFCQUVXRGhXRDh1WXhNMFE" type="spreadsheet" width="800" height="800" />

Boosting at high speeds has some effects which are not entirely understood in terms of how the game is handling it. Just like how having the engine off over having it on is better above a certain point, I hypothesize that having the engine off would be better than boosting above a certain point.
<doc id="0Anm7OyHbh5RfdFdYd2RSZEIzVVMybXV1YnpRbjZGZGc" type="spreadsheet" width="800" height="800" />

F-Zero GX

2013-07-13T01:53:01Z

Naegleria: /* F-Zero Central Ladder */

[[Category:Gamecube]]
[[Category:Games]]

=F-Zero Central Ladder=
http://fzerocentral.org/f0/gxladderhome.php
F-Zero Central's ladder contain hundreds of ranked times for multiple categories.

=Advanced Techniques=
http://fzerocentral.org/viewtopic.php?t=463

;The next few sections were copied from http://fzerocentral.org/viewtopic.php?t=13405

=Technical Info=

;Resolution:
640x480. NTSC versions have Progressive scan support. PAL versions have 50Hz support. Runs at 60 fps 99% of the time (50 fps in PAL50).

Note: the 50Hz mode converts the timer automatically so you don't need to do time conversions to get equivalent times like in FZSNES or FZX.

;Memory card usage:

Main save uses 4 blocks and cannot be copied in any way (not even with Wii homebrew because it uses info about the original card's format and block location and the save would be unusable in a different card. those bastards...)

Replays use 3-6 blocks with original machines and 7-14 blocks with custom machines. Ghosts use 3 blocks always. Emblems use 3 blocks always. Garage uses 18 blocks always and allows 4 custom cars to be saved (including the emblems you paste on it. You don't need the emblem data in the same card as the garage data)

;Connectivity:
Can connect with F-Zero AX to unlock some things faster or earlier (AX cup before Diamond cup is only possible this way). Compatible with logitech steering wheel for GC.

;Extras:
No physical limited editions or bonuses. There was a 1-time giveaway of the hidden unobtainale parts in japan to participants of a contest but this never happened internationally (this is why people call those parts "AR parts").

=Game Engine global properties (part 1: controls)=

This is the section where a lot of the little things that people don't get initially will be detailed. Some of these properties are surprising and counter-productive to usual racing.

Let's start with the regular actions assigned to every button. I'll use default key assignments.

==Gameplay Controls (Story, Practice, VS and GP)==

;Control Stick:
Steers the ship. Sensitivity can be adjusted in the options menu. The default setting can be too sensitive for some people. I recommend trying out between the default sensitivity and customized ones to see what suits you best. Personally, i play with adjusted sensitivity (in the sensitivity option, i just rotate the stick until the polygon doesn't move anywhere and save the changes)

;A Button:
Accelerator (gas). Accelerates the ship. Unintended side effect: release it at a high speed and your speed decrease rate will be lower than what you get if you just hold it. This is known as Momentum Throttle (MT) and is a very powerful technique since it is the basis for a lot of the other techiques used in high level play like MTS, MTRS, Shift Boosts, MT Boost and Dive landing. The thing you should know is the time where MT should be used and where not to use it since it stops being effective at a certain speed. Over the years, it has been found that, on heavy ships with high top speed, you should use MT for any speeds over 1300 km/h. Ships that have low top speed but a decent weight should use it above 1200 km/h and for light ships with bad top speed, it works good on speed above just 1100 km/h. Top speed takes preference over weight so any ship above 1100 km/h non-boosted speed should use MT when above 1300 km/h (even if they're light like Sonic Phantom).

;B Button:
Air Brake. Stops the ship. Less useful than what you'd think due to the speed decreasing really fast normally when you stop boosting. The way i brake is just by not doing MT after i stop boosting. The brake is useful if you need to brake really fast in a pinch.

;Y Button:
Boost. Uses the booster. Unintended side effect: by using MT just as your boost ends and then pressing A and Y at the same time to resume the gas and activate another boost, you can keep your speed at higher levels and make your boosts last more until the next refiller. This is called MT Boost and it helps greatly those ships that have a fast boost pickup speed since they can Boost, MT for more than a second and Boost again to get more out of their boosts. The other ships can wait like between 0.5-1 seconds between boosts to do well.

;X button:
Side Attack. Attacks to the side. You need to press the control stick left or right to attack in the appropiate direction. Unintended side effects: the first one is the side attack dive. This move resebles FZX's DTDs in a way but it is done way differently. To do one, hold the shoulder button corresponding to the direction you're going, hold the control stick in the same direction and use the side attack continuously. If you start with the correct angle and speed, you can go above 2000 km/h easily in the air and land at much higher speeds than normal. The second side effect is at the end of an MTS. When you exit an MTS, use a side attack to minimize speed loss (this one depends on the ship. Some ships don't benefit from this. The third side effect is getting extra speed in turns where an MTS wouldn't be practical. If you hold a shoulder button and the same sirection with the stick (say, left and L) and use side attacks, your ship will get some extra speed. this is only useful with certain ships (most popular usage is the long turn in PTAD after the first zipper)

;Z button:
Spin attack. Attacks by spinning the ship around. This move is useful in CH4 to defeat a lot of enemies quicky but it has little use outside that since GP mode opponents are much harder to kill with that strategy. Side attacks are much more effective.

;L and R buttons:
Strafe/Shift. This shifts the ship to the side. Useful to adjust the ship's direction. Unintended side effects: first and most popular ones: snaking and spaceflying: when you set max acceleration, pressing these buttons in combination of the stick with a certain rhythm causes the ship to build up massive speeds without using boosts. The reason is that the shift action gains power the more you approach max acceleration. Spaceflying is possible because this shift is done in an upwards manner and it can overcome the game's gravity. You need to hop out of the road to fly since the road itself prevents the ship from raising into the air. The second effect is shift boosts. By going out of the road and back into it, you can get an extra burst of speed due to the difference in the terrain change. Shift boosts are usable without these buttons but they become more abusable if you combine the L and R button shift and MT.

;D-pad:
Camera adjustment. It has been proven that the default camera is bad for driving properly. Zoom out once and you have the perfect camera for playing the game and getting the best out of it. The other views are just for novelty and first person camera is awful for any advanced maneuver.

;C-stick:
No use in normal gameplay but it lets you chosse between machines in a GP mode replay. With this you can see how the CPU cheats when they are magically ahead of you.

;Start/Pause:
Pauses the game and lets you retry or quit if you messed up. You can also go to the settings screen or change course in Time Attack.

==Settings Screen controls:==

;Control Stick:
Move the settings bar left and right

;L and R:
Cycle between ship/pilot colors

==Cutscene controls:==

;Z Button:
Activates subtitles

;Start/A Button:
Skips cutscene

==Replay mode Controls:==

;Z Button:
Cycles between GX logo and speedometer

;D-pad:
Lets you adjust the camera view

;L and R Buttons:
Cycle between pilot themes

=Game Engine global properties (part 2: physics)=

While every ship has their own stats and stuff determining how bad or good they are, there's some global properties that apply to every machine. i'll do my best to explain these.

===Weight===

First, Weight in this game is important. In this game, the heavier a ship is, the better it is because it can reach much better speeds and benefits from practically everything that happens within the game.

Weight is beneficial for the following things: improves MT, improves Shift Boosts, improves Max Boosted Speed, improves Body resistance, improves Side Attack Dives, improves mine boosts. (all of these are better with higher weight)

Weight is detrimental for the following things: reduces air time, reduces acceleration, makes some shortcuts harder, hinders spaceflying greatly. (all of these improve with lower weight)

Weight is neutral for the following things: Quick Turn, cornering, Grip, Boost pickup speed, MTS, MTRS. (individual ships have a much bigger effect in these)

That's why you see beasts like Gallant Star-G4 taking the WRs in max speed settings while things like Maximum Dragon are used for spaceflying.

===Settings bar===

something that is easy to miss is the effects from the settings bar causes on ships. unlike FZX, people use either max acceleration or max speed in all the ladders since anything in between is banned in the snaking and max speed ladders (open is best with max acceleration always so there's no reason to go above).

setting the bar to the far right does this:

improves momentum-based moves (MT, MTS) because speed loss rate is at its lowest.

boosters pick up speed slower but reach higher max speeds.

improves body and grip performance.

cornering is at its worst (you need to use Quick Turn with most ships to take corners)

gives you the maximum non-boosted max speed available (not on every ship though)

reduces the speed gain by turning and by pressing L or R in a turn (that's why you can't snake effectively with max speed)

setting the bar to the far left does this:

speed loss rate is at its highest. even if you MT, you lose speed rather quickly.

boosters pick up speed faster but reach lower max speeds

body and grip performance is at its weakest

cornering is at its best (you can turn with no effort at all by just steering the ship)

gives you the minimum non-boosted max speed available (not on every ship)

increases the speed gained by turning and by pressing L or R in a turn (this makes snaking and spaceflying possible)

that should cover the settings bar effects.

===Air Time (Max Speed version)===

i've heard people complain that navigating in the air is a pain and it makes sense. when you're in the air, the physics behave weird.

here's what you should know when you go into the air:

;distance tips:

doing MT when going straight lets you retain a lot more speed and cover bigger distances. helps to cut some corners.

touching the stick is bad. you lose height instantly. the best way to cover air distances is to line up before you leave the road and, if you need to adjust the ship, use the L and R buttons since those don't make you lose height faster. combine with MT for the full effect.

;diving tips:

when you're diving, the best is to actually hold the accelerator for the duration of the dive. also, when you dive, push up in the stick all the way since that gives you the highest speed gain and the ship has a limit in how much it can point down its nose (unlike FZX where if you push up all the way, your ship goes all the way down and messes up the dive)

when it comes to the landing, you need to know that the best way to retain speed is to line up the ship parallel to the road just before you touch the road. if you land at an angle, you lose more speed. landing parallel has the minimum speed loss on landing. you also need to MT just a bit before you touch the road to get the best effect out of it. if you MT when landing or later, your speed will be gone before you realize it.

;side attack dive:

this move is a bit tricky to pull off. to get the best angle, you first do an MTS in the direction you want to start the dive (say, if you want to do the right side dive in PTAD, MTS between the 2nd and 3rd zipper before the dive towards the right ) and when you're in the air, you start holding the shoulder button of the opposite side, hold the stick towards the same direction and up and start using the side attack repeatedly (if you're on the right side, hold L + Left and Up in the stick and mash the side attack). after a while, you need to line up so that you can land properly. at this point, you stop using the side attack and holding L and the stick and MT while you use L or R to line up with the road. the reason you MT is that when you stop side attacking and are not nosediving, your speed will die fast normally. with MT, you keep the speed while you line up. when you are lined up, you can nosedive and hold the accelerator for extra speed if there's still enough distance before landing. when you land, don't forget to be parallel to the road and MT just before landing.

it is also possible to switch between L+left and R+right while doing a side attack dive. that's useful in the ADS dive since that one is big enough to give you time to do this and build extra speed.

max acceleration changes the way being in the air behaves but i'm lacking knowledge there since i don't play with those settings.

===Road Elements===

each track has several things that affect your performance while driving. some of them can have massive effects in the race.

;Refiller:
refills your health bar. it refills you very fast so you can pass it at max speed most of the time but there's some tracks where it is better to slow down a bit here to ensure you are at 100% health.

;Zipper:
the zippers in this game don't replace or stop your boost's effect. they just add up to your current speed. unintended side effect: if you hit a zipper at the very edge on either side but parallel to it, it can give you extra speed that isn't possible by taking it normally.

;Jump Plate:
these let you jump in the air. for most of them, it is better to nosedive when you take them but a few can allow you to cut corners, provided that you don't skip a checkpoint. CH3 is where they're more prominent. air time tips apply when you're in the air from them.

;Dirt Area:
this are slows you down when you touch it and don't have a boost active. zippers and boosting negate their effect.

;Ice Area:
these areas make your grip drop to the lowest possible and you slide out easily. you can still control your ship with help of the L and R buttons and can MTS on it easily (after all, MTS relies on breaking the ship's grip)

;Mines:
while these seem to be just a hazard, they actually provide extra boosts for the heavier ships that can hit them and lose little energy. they cause a type of shift boost when you hit them and shift boost rules apply here.

;Lava Area:
this area is in story mode only. their only effect is reducing your health. they don't affect ship handling but you shouldn't hit them too often.

;Checkpoint:
these are invisible areas that tell the game you've passed a part of the track so that it allows you to get to the next and so on. unlike old Mario Kart games or 2D F-Zero games, the tracks' whole information isn't completely loaded at once when you play them and you can only be on a chunk of it at a time. that's why you die instantly when you try to get to a part that looks reachable but is much further than your current position. in some situations, you can trick these checkpoints and can hit some further areas without dying if you have the correct height and speed. they're also pretty bad because, if you fly too high, you can skip a lot of them and that's why spaceflying is viable at all since flying around the whole track would be slower than snaking.

;AX Checkpoint:
i suppose someone will ask about this one. they give you extra time in the AX version but have no use in GX. the devs were too lazy to take them away from the tracks.

===Deaths===

in this game, when you run out of energy and hit something, you start exploding and then die with a big explosion. in story mode, this is final and you die pretty much when you start exploding but, in GP mode and Time Attack, the game doesn't count you as dead until the big explosion. due to this, you can die and actually finish the race. while this looks like it has no use because you normally lose speed after dying, if you die in certain ways, you can reach speeds much higher than normal for that brief period of time and cross the finish line before exploding. this si called a suicide finish and can happen in various ways. the most popular one is doing an MTRS against a wall at low energy and a certain angle to shoot off at the finish line as soon as you "die" (MCSO uses this type). there's also types that use an MTS against a wall in such a way that the resulting bounce sends you towards the finish line (LTR has one of the oldest ones like this). there's also others where you just touch a wall and gain speed after dying (BBO is this type).

one thing to keep in mind is that crossing the finish line must be done above it. if your car goes outside the track and falls too low to the side, it won't count. the finish line extends upwards and to the sides so you can suicide upwards or to the sides fine and finish the race (some lines don't extend too far but they're few)

you also die by not hitting the checkpoints in the correct order or hitting certain objects in the track. these objects are usually very solid ones like walls. things like the metal structures in FF won't kill you in 1 hit. there's also some objects that have no collision but these are few.

=Momentum Throttling=

Here is a graph depicting speedloss over time. This can visually descrive how above a certain point (the MT point) you do not want to have the engine on (unless boosting).
<doc id="0Anm7OyHbh5RfdDlvczFNelhoTDdPdGlZS1V6WGhMNGc" type="spreadsheet" width="800" height="800" />

A basic formula was made to calculate the MT points based on top speed and weight. 15 vehicles had mt points manually measured and a formula which got a 15 km/h standard deviation was made and used for the following spreadsheet.
<doc id="0Anm7OyHbh5RfdGZYb3dTVnFCQUVXRGhXRDh1WXhNMFE" type="spreadsheet" width="800" height="800" />

Boosting at high speeds has some effects which are not entirely understood in terms of how the game is handling it. Just like how having the engine off over having it on is better above a certain point, I hypothesize that having the engine off would be better than boosting above a certain point.
<doc id="0Anm7OyHbh5RfdFdYd2RSZEIzVVMybXV1YnpRbjZGZGc" type="spreadsheet" width="800" height="800" />

F-Zero GX

2013-07-13T01:51:27Z

Naegleria: /* Momentum Throttling */

[[Category:Gamecube]]
[[Category:Games]]

=F-Zero Central Ladder=
http://fzerocentral.org/f0/gxladderhome.php
F-Zero Central's ladder contain hundreds of ranked times for multiple categories.

;Copied from http://fzerocentral.org/viewtopic.php?t=13405
=Technical Info=

;Resolution:
640x480. NTSC versions have Progressive scan support. PAL versions have 50Hz support. Runs at 60 fps 99% of the time (50 fps in PAL50).

Note: the 50Hz mode converts the timer automatically so you don't need to do time conversions to get equivalent times like in FZSNES or FZX.

;Memory card usage:

Main save uses 4 blocks and cannot be copied in any way (not even with Wii homebrew because it uses info about the original card's format and block location and the save would be unusable in a different card. those bastards...)

Replays use 3-6 blocks with original machines and 7-14 blocks with custom machines. Ghosts use 3 blocks always. Emblems use 3 blocks always. Garage uses 18 blocks always and allows 4 custom cars to be saved (including the emblems you paste on it. You don't need the emblem data in the same card as the garage data)

;Connectivity:
Can connect with F-Zero AX to unlock some things faster or earlier (AX cup before Diamond cup is only possible this way). Compatible with logitech steering wheel for GC.

;Extras:
No physical limited editions or bonuses. There was a 1-time giveaway of the hidden unobtainale parts in japan to participants of a contest but this never happened internationally (this is why people call those parts "AR parts").

=Game Engine global properties (part 1: controls)=

This is the section where a lot of the little things that people don't get initially will be detailed. Some of these properties are surprising and counter-productive to usual racing.

Let's start with the regular actions assigned to every button. I'll use default key assignments.

==Gameplay Controls (Story, Practice, VS and GP)==

;Control Stick:
Steers the ship. Sensitivity can be adjusted in the options menu. The default setting can be too sensitive for some people. I recommend trying out between the default sensitivity and customized ones to see what suits you best. Personally, i play with adjusted sensitivity (in the sensitivity option, i just rotate the stick until the polygon doesn't move anywhere and save the changes)

;A Button:
Accelerator (gas). Accelerates the ship. Unintended side effect: release it at a high speed and your speed decrease rate will be lower than what you get if you just hold it. This is known as Momentum Throttle (MT) and is a very powerful technique since it is the basis for a lot of the other techiques used in high level play like MTS, MTRS, Shift Boosts, MT Boost and Dive landing. The thing you should know is the time where MT should be used and where not to use it since it stops being effective at a certain speed. Over the years, it has been found that, on heavy ships with high top speed, you should use MT for any speeds over 1300 km/h. Ships that have low top speed but a decent weight should use it above 1200 km/h and for light ships with bad top speed, it works good on speed above just 1100 km/h. Top speed takes preference over weight so any ship above 1100 km/h non-boosted speed should use MT when above 1300 km/h (even if they're light like Sonic Phantom).

;B Button:
Air Brake. Stops the ship. Less useful than what you'd think due to the speed decreasing really fast normally when you stop boosting. The way i brake is just by not doing MT after i stop boosting. The brake is useful if you need to brake really fast in a pinch.

;Y Button:
Boost. Uses the booster. Unintended side effect: by using MT just as your boost ends and then pressing A and Y at the same time to resume the gas and activate another boost, you can keep your speed at higher levels and make your boosts last more until the next refiller. This is called MT Boost and it helps greatly those ships that have a fast boost pickup speed since they can Boost, MT for more than a second and Boost again to get more out of their boosts. The other ships can wait like between 0.5-1 seconds between boosts to do well.

;X button:
Side Attack. Attacks to the side. You need to press the control stick left or right to attack in the appropiate direction. Unintended side effects: the first one is the side attack dive. This move resebles FZX's DTDs in a way but it is done way differently. To do one, hold the shoulder button corresponding to the direction you're going, hold the control stick in the same direction and use the side attack continuously. If you start with the correct angle and speed, you can go above 2000 km/h easily in the air and land at much higher speeds than normal. The second side effect is at the end of an MTS. When you exit an MTS, use a side attack to minimize speed loss (this one depends on the ship. Some ships don't benefit from this. The third side effect is getting extra speed in turns where an MTS wouldn't be practical. If you hold a shoulder button and the same sirection with the stick (say, left and L) and use side attacks, your ship will get some extra speed. this is only useful with certain ships (most popular usage is the long turn in PTAD after the first zipper)

;Z button:
Spin attack. Attacks by spinning the ship around. This move is useful in CH4 to defeat a lot of enemies quicky but it has little use outside that since GP mode opponents are much harder to kill with that strategy. Side attacks are much more effective.

;L and R buttons:
Strafe/Shift. This shifts the ship to the side. Useful to adjust the ship's direction. Unintended side effects: first and most popular ones: snaking and spaceflying: when you set max acceleration, pressing these buttons in combination of the stick with a certain rhythm causes the ship to build up massive speeds without using boosts. The reason is that the shift action gains power the more you approach max acceleration. Spaceflying is possible because this shift is done in an upwards manner and it can overcome the game's gravity. You need to hop out of the road to fly since the road itself prevents the ship from raising into the air. The second effect is shift boosts. By going out of the road and back into it, you can get an extra burst of speed due to the difference in the terrain change. Shift boosts are usable without these buttons but they become more abusable if you combine the L and R button shift and MT.

;D-pad:
Camera adjustment. It has been proven that the default camera is bad for driving properly. Zoom out once and you have the perfect camera for playing the game and getting the best out of it. The other views are just for novelty and first person camera is awful for any advanced maneuver.

;C-stick:
No use in normal gameplay but it lets you chosse between machines in a GP mode replay. With this you can see how the CPU cheats when they are magically ahead of you.

;Start/Pause:
Pauses the game and lets you retry or quit if you messed up. You can also go to the settings screen or change course in Time Attack.

==Settings Screen controls:==

;Control Stick:
Move the settings bar left and right

;L and R:
Cycle between ship/pilot colors

==Cutscene controls:==

;Z Button:
Activates subtitles

;Start/A Button:
Skips cutscene

==Replay mode Controls:==

;Z Button:
Cycles between GX logo and speedometer

;D-pad:
Lets you adjust the camera view

;L and R Buttons:
Cycle between pilot themes

=Game Engine global properties (part 2: physics)=

While every ship has their own stats and stuff determining how bad or good they are, there's some global properties that apply to every machine. i'll do my best to explain these.

===Weight===

First, Weight in this game is important. In this game, the heavier a ship is, the better it is because it can reach much better speeds and benefits from practically everything that happens within the game.

Weight is beneficial for the following things: improves MT, improves Shift Boosts, improves Max Boosted Speed, improves Body resistance, improves Side Attack Dives, improves mine boosts. (all of these are better with higher weight)

Weight is detrimental for the following things: reduces air time, reduces acceleration, makes some shortcuts harder, hinders spaceflying greatly. (all of these improve with lower weight)

Weight is neutral for the following things: Quick Turn, cornering, Grip, Boost pickup speed, MTS, MTRS. (individual ships have a much bigger effect in these)

That's why you see beasts like Gallant Star-G4 taking the WRs in max speed settings while things like Maximum Dragon are used for spaceflying.

===Settings bar===

something that is easy to miss is the effects from the settings bar causes on ships. unlike FZX, people use either max acceleration or max speed in all the ladders since anything in between is banned in the snaking and max speed ladders (open is best with max acceleration always so there's no reason to go above).

setting the bar to the far right does this:

improves momentum-based moves (MT, MTS) because speed loss rate is at its lowest.

boosters pick up speed slower but reach higher max speeds.

improves body and grip performance.

cornering is at its worst (you need to use Quick Turn with most ships to take corners)

gives you the maximum non-boosted max speed available (not on every ship though)

reduces the speed gain by turning and by pressing L or R in a turn (that's why you can't snake effectively with max speed)

setting the bar to the far left does this:

speed loss rate is at its highest. even if you MT, you lose speed rather quickly.

boosters pick up speed faster but reach lower max speeds

body and grip performance is at its weakest

cornering is at its best (you can turn with no effort at all by just steering the ship)

gives you the minimum non-boosted max speed available (not on every ship)

increases the speed gained by turning and by pressing L or R in a turn (this makes snaking and spaceflying possible)

that should cover the settings bar effects.

===Air Time (Max Speed version)===

i've heard people complain that navigating in the air is a pain and it makes sense. when you're in the air, the physics behave weird.

here's what you should know when you go into the air:

;distance tips:

doing MT when going straight lets you retain a lot more speed and cover bigger distances. helps to cut some corners.

touching the stick is bad. you lose height instantly. the best way to cover air distances is to line up before you leave the road and, if you need to adjust the ship, use the L and R buttons since those don't make you lose height faster. combine with MT for the full effect.

;diving tips:

when you're diving, the best is to actually hold the accelerator for the duration of the dive. also, when you dive, push up in the stick all the way since that gives you the highest speed gain and the ship has a limit in how much it can point down its nose (unlike FZX where if you push up all the way, your ship goes all the way down and messes up the dive)

when it comes to the landing, you need to know that the best way to retain speed is to line up the ship parallel to the road just before you touch the road. if you land at an angle, you lose more speed. landing parallel has the minimum speed loss on landing. you also need to MT just a bit before you touch the road to get the best effect out of it. if you MT when landing or later, your speed will be gone before you realize it.

;side attack dive:

this move is a bit tricky to pull off. to get the best angle, you first do an MTS in the direction you want to start the dive (say, if you want to do the right side dive in PTAD, MTS between the 2nd and 3rd zipper before the dive towards the right ) and when you're in the air, you start holding the shoulder button of the opposite side, hold the stick towards the same direction and up and start using the side attack repeatedly (if you're on the right side, hold L + Left and Up in the stick and mash the side attack). after a while, you need to line up so that you can land properly. at this point, you stop using the side attack and holding L and the stick and MT while you use L or R to line up with the road. the reason you MT is that when you stop side attacking and are not nosediving, your speed will die fast normally. with MT, you keep the speed while you line up. when you are lined up, you can nosedive and hold the accelerator for extra speed if there's still enough distance before landing. when you land, don't forget to be parallel to the road and MT just before landing.

it is also possible to switch between L+left and R+right while doing a side attack dive. that's useful in the ADS dive since that one is big enough to give you time to do this and build extra speed.

max acceleration changes the way being in the air behaves but i'm lacking knowledge there since i don't play with those settings.

===Road Elements===

each track has several things that affect your performance while driving. some of them can have massive effects in the race.

;Refiller:
refills your health bar. it refills you very fast so you can pass it at max speed most of the time but there's some tracks where it is better to slow down a bit here to ensure you are at 100% health.

;Zipper:
the zippers in this game don't replace or stop your boost's effect. they just add up to your current speed. unintended side effect: if you hit a zipper at the very edge on either side but parallel to it, it can give you extra speed that isn't possible by taking it normally.

;Jump Plate:
these let you jump in the air. for most of them, it is better to nosedive when you take them but a few can allow you to cut corners, provided that you don't skip a checkpoint. CH3 is where they're more prominent. air time tips apply when you're in the air from them.

;Dirt Area:
this are slows you down when you touch it and don't have a boost active. zippers and boosting negate their effect.

;Ice Area:
these areas make your grip drop to the lowest possible and you slide out easily. you can still control your ship with help of the L and R buttons and can MTS on it easily (after all, MTS relies on breaking the ship's grip)

;Mines:
while these seem to be just a hazard, they actually provide extra boosts for the heavier ships that can hit them and lose little energy. they cause a type of shift boost when you hit them and shift boost rules apply here.

;Lava Area:
this area is in story mode only. their only effect is reducing your health. they don't affect ship handling but you shouldn't hit them too often.

;Checkpoint:
these are invisible areas that tell the game you've passed a part of the track so that it allows you to get to the next and so on. unlike old Mario Kart games or 2D F-Zero games, the tracks' whole information isn't completely loaded at once when you play them and you can only be on a chunk of it at a time. that's why you die instantly when you try to get to a part that looks reachable but is much further than your current position. in some situations, you can trick these checkpoints and can hit some further areas without dying if you have the correct height and speed. they're also pretty bad because, if you fly too high, you can skip a lot of them and that's why spaceflying is viable at all since flying around the whole track would be slower than snaking.

;AX Checkpoint:
i suppose someone will ask about this one. they give you extra time in the AX version but have no use in GX. the devs were too lazy to take them away from the tracks.

===Deaths===

in this game, when you run out of energy and hit something, you start exploding and then die with a big explosion. in story mode, this is final and you die pretty much when you start exploding but, in GP mode and Time Attack, the game doesn't count you as dead until the big explosion. due to this, you can die and actually finish the race. while this looks like it has no use because you normally lose speed after dying, if you die in certain ways, you can reach speeds much higher than normal for that brief period of time and cross the finish line before exploding. this si called a suicide finish and can happen in various ways. the most popular one is doing an MTRS against a wall at low energy and a certain angle to shoot off at the finish line as soon as you "die" (MCSO uses this type). there's also types that use an MTS against a wall in such a way that the resulting bounce sends you towards the finish line (LTR has one of the oldest ones like this). there's also others where you just touch a wall and gain speed after dying (BBO is this type).

one thing to keep in mind is that crossing the finish line must be done above it. if your car goes outside the track and falls too low to the side, it won't count. the finish line extends upwards and to the sides so you can suicide upwards or to the sides fine and finish the race (some lines don't extend too far but they're few)

you also die by not hitting the checkpoints in the correct order or hitting certain objects in the track. these objects are usually very solid ones like walls. things like the metal structures in FF won't kill you in 1 hit. there's also some objects that have no collision but these are few.

=Momentum Throttling=

Here is a graph depicting speedloss over time. This can visually descrive how above a certain point (the MT point) you do not want to have the engine on (unless boosting).
<doc id="0Anm7OyHbh5RfdDlvczFNelhoTDdPdGlZS1V6WGhMNGc" type="spreadsheet" width="800" height="800" />

A basic formula was made to calculate the MT points based on top speed and weight. 15 vehicles had mt points manually measured and a formula which got a 15 km/h standard deviation was made and used for the following spreadsheet.
<doc id="0Anm7OyHbh5RfdGZYb3dTVnFCQUVXRGhXRDh1WXhNMFE" type="spreadsheet" width="800" height="800" />

Boosting at high speeds has some effects which are not entirely understood in terms of how the game is handling it. Just like how having the engine off over having it on is better above a certain point, I hypothesize that having the engine off would be better than boosting above a certain point.
<doc id="0Anm7OyHbh5RfdFdYd2RSZEIzVVMybXV1YnpRbjZGZGc" type="spreadsheet" width="800" height="800" />

F-Zero GX

2013-07-13T01:41:14Z

Naegleria:

[[Category:Gamecube]]
[[Category:Games]]

=F-Zero Central Ladder=
http://fzerocentral.org/f0/gxladderhome.php
F-Zero Central's ladder contain hundreds of ranked times for multiple categories.

;Copied from http://fzerocentral.org/viewtopic.php?t=13405
=Technical Info=

;Resolution:
640x480. NTSC versions have Progressive scan support. PAL versions have 50Hz support. Runs at 60 fps 99% of the time (50 fps in PAL50).

Note: the 50Hz mode converts the timer automatically so you don't need to do time conversions to get equivalent times like in FZSNES or FZX.

;Memory card usage:

Main save uses 4 blocks and cannot be copied in any way (not even with Wii homebrew because it uses info about the original card's format and block location and the save would be unusable in a different card. those bastards...)

Replays use 3-6 blocks with original machines and 7-14 blocks with custom machines. Ghosts use 3 blocks always. Emblems use 3 blocks always. Garage uses 18 blocks always and allows 4 custom cars to be saved (including the emblems you paste on it. You don't need the emblem data in the same card as the garage data)

;Connectivity:
Can connect with F-Zero AX to unlock some things faster or earlier (AX cup before Diamond cup is only possible this way). Compatible with logitech steering wheel for GC.

;Extras:
No physical limited editions or bonuses. There was a 1-time giveaway of the hidden unobtainale parts in japan to participants of a contest but this never happened internationally (this is why people call those parts "AR parts").

=Game Engine global properties (part 1: controls)=

This is the section where a lot of the little things that people don't get initially will be detailed. Some of these properties are surprising and counter-productive to usual racing.

Let's start with the regular actions assigned to every button. I'll use default key assignments.

==Gameplay Controls (Story, Practice, VS and GP)==

;Control Stick:
Steers the ship. Sensitivity can be adjusted in the options menu. The default setting can be too sensitive for some people. I recommend trying out between the default sensitivity and customized ones to see what suits you best. Personally, i play with adjusted sensitivity (in the sensitivity option, i just rotate the stick until the polygon doesn't move anywhere and save the changes)

;A Button:
Accelerator (gas). Accelerates the ship. Unintended side effect: release it at a high speed and your speed decrease rate will be lower than what you get if you just hold it. This is known as Momentum Throttle (MT) and is a very powerful technique since it is the basis for a lot of the other techiques used in high level play like MTS, MTRS, Shift Boosts, MT Boost and Dive landing. The thing you should know is the time where MT should be used and where not to use it since it stops being effective at a certain speed. Over the years, it has been found that, on heavy ships with high top speed, you should use MT for any speeds over 1300 km/h. Ships that have low top speed but a decent weight should use it above 1200 km/h and for light ships with bad top speed, it works good on speed above just 1100 km/h. Top speed takes preference over weight so any ship above 1100 km/h non-boosted speed should use MT when above 1300 km/h (even if they're light like Sonic Phantom).

;B Button:
Air Brake. Stops the ship. Less useful than what you'd think due to the speed decreasing really fast normally when you stop boosting. The way i brake is just by not doing MT after i stop boosting. The brake is useful if you need to brake really fast in a pinch.

;Y Button:
Boost. Uses the booster. Unintended side effect: by using MT just as your boost ends and then pressing A and Y at the same time to resume the gas and activate another boost, you can keep your speed at higher levels and make your boosts last more until the next refiller. This is called MT Boost and it helps greatly those ships that have a fast boost pickup speed since they can Boost, MT for more than a second and Boost again to get more out of their boosts. The other ships can wait like between 0.5-1 seconds between boosts to do well.

;X button:
Side Attack. Attacks to the side. You need to press the control stick left or right to attack in the appropiate direction. Unintended side effects: the first one is the side attack dive. This move resebles FZX's DTDs in a way but it is done way differently. To do one, hold the shoulder button corresponding to the direction you're going, hold the control stick in the same direction and use the side attack continuously. If you start with the correct angle and speed, you can go above 2000 km/h easily in the air and land at much higher speeds than normal. The second side effect is at the end of an MTS. When you exit an MTS, use a side attack to minimize speed loss (this one depends on the ship. Some ships don't benefit from this. The third side effect is getting extra speed in turns where an MTS wouldn't be practical. If you hold a shoulder button and the same sirection with the stick (say, left and L) and use side attacks, your ship will get some extra speed. this is only useful with certain ships (most popular usage is the long turn in PTAD after the first zipper)

;Z button:
Spin attack. Attacks by spinning the ship around. This move is useful in CH4 to defeat a lot of enemies quicky but it has little use outside that since GP mode opponents are much harder to kill with that strategy. Side attacks are much more effective.

;L and R buttons:
Strafe/Shift. This shifts the ship to the side. Useful to adjust the ship's direction. Unintended side effects: first and most popular ones: snaking and spaceflying: when you set max acceleration, pressing these buttons in combination of the stick with a certain rhythm causes the ship to build up massive speeds without using boosts. The reason is that the shift action gains power the more you approach max acceleration. Spaceflying is possible because this shift is done in an upwards manner and it can overcome the game's gravity. You need to hop out of the road to fly since the road itself prevents the ship from raising into the air. The second effect is shift boosts. By going out of the road and back into it, you can get an extra burst of speed due to the difference in the terrain change. Shift boosts are usable without these buttons but they become more abusable if you combine the L and R button shift and MT.

;D-pad:
Camera adjustment. It has been proven that the default camera is bad for driving properly. Zoom out once and you have the perfect camera for playing the game and getting the best out of it. The other views are just for novelty and first person camera is awful for any advanced maneuver.

;C-stick:
No use in normal gameplay but it lets you chosse between machines in a GP mode replay. With this you can see how the CPU cheats when they are magically ahead of you.

;Start/Pause:
Pauses the game and lets you retry or quit if you messed up. You can also go to the settings screen or change course in Time Attack.

==Settings Screen controls:==

;Control Stick:
Move the settings bar left and right

;L and R:
Cycle between ship/pilot colors

==Cutscene controls:==

;Z Button:
Activates subtitles

;Start/A Button:
Skips cutscene

==Replay mode Controls:==

;Z Button:
Cycles between GX logo and speedometer

;D-pad:
Lets you adjust the camera view

;L and R Buttons:
Cycle between pilot themes

=Game Engine global properties (part 2: physics)=

While every ship has their own stats and stuff determining how bad or good they are, there's some global properties that apply to every machine. i'll do my best to explain these.

===Weight===

First, Weight in this game is important. In this game, the heavier a ship is, the better it is because it can reach much better speeds and benefits from practically everything that happens within the game.

Weight is beneficial for the following things: improves MT, improves Shift Boosts, improves Max Boosted Speed, improves Body resistance, improves Side Attack Dives, improves mine boosts. (all of these are better with higher weight)

Weight is detrimental for the following things: reduces air time, reduces acceleration, makes some shortcuts harder, hinders spaceflying greatly. (all of these improve with lower weight)

Weight is neutral for the following things: Quick Turn, cornering, Grip, Boost pickup speed, MTS, MTRS. (individual ships have a much bigger effect in these)

That's why you see beasts like Gallant Star-G4 taking the WRs in max speed settings while things like Maximum Dragon are used for spaceflying.

===Settings bar===

something that is easy to miss is the effects from the settings bar causes on ships. unlike FZX, people use either max acceleration or max speed in all the ladders since anything in between is banned in the snaking and max speed ladders (open is best with max acceleration always so there's no reason to go above).

setting the bar to the far right does this:

improves momentum-based moves (MT, MTS) because speed loss rate is at its lowest.

boosters pick up speed slower but reach higher max speeds.

improves body and grip performance.

cornering is at its worst (you need to use Quick Turn with most ships to take corners)

gives you the maximum non-boosted max speed available (not on every ship though)

reduces the speed gain by turning and by pressing L or R in a turn (that's why you can't snake effectively with max speed)

setting the bar to the far left does this:

speed loss rate is at its highest. even if you MT, you lose speed rather quickly.

boosters pick up speed faster but reach lower max speeds

body and grip performance is at its weakest

cornering is at its best (you can turn with no effort at all by just steering the ship)

gives you the minimum non-boosted max speed available (not on every ship)

increases the speed gained by turning and by pressing L or R in a turn (this makes snaking and spaceflying possible)

that should cover the settings bar effects.

===Air Time (Max Speed version)===

i've heard people complain that navigating in the air is a pain and it makes sense. when you're in the air, the physics behave weird.

here's what you should know when you go into the air:

;distance tips:

doing MT when going straight lets you retain a lot more speed and cover bigger distances. helps to cut some corners.

touching the stick is bad. you lose height instantly. the best way to cover air distances is to line up before you leave the road and, if you need to adjust the ship, use the L and R buttons since those don't make you lose height faster. combine with MT for the full effect.

;diving tips:

when you're diving, the best is to actually hold the accelerator for the duration of the dive. also, when you dive, push up in the stick all the way since that gives you the highest speed gain and the ship has a limit in how much it can point down its nose (unlike FZX where if you push up all the way, your ship goes all the way down and messes up the dive)

when it comes to the landing, you need to know that the best way to retain speed is to line up the ship parallel to the road just before you touch the road. if you land at an angle, you lose more speed. landing parallel has the minimum speed loss on landing. you also need to MT just a bit before you touch the road to get the best effect out of it. if you MT when landing or later, your speed will be gone before you realize it.

;side attack dive:

this move is a bit tricky to pull off. to get the best angle, you first do an MTS in the direction you want to start the dive (say, if you want to do the right side dive in PTAD, MTS between the 2nd and 3rd zipper before the dive towards the right ) and when you're in the air, you start holding the shoulder button of the opposite side, hold the stick towards the same direction and up and start using the side attack repeatedly (if you're on the right side, hold L + Left and Up in the stick and mash the side attack). after a while, you need to line up so that you can land properly. at this point, you stop using the side attack and holding L and the stick and MT while you use L or R to line up with the road. the reason you MT is that when you stop side attacking and are not nosediving, your speed will die fast normally. with MT, you keep the speed while you line up. when you are lined up, you can nosedive and hold the accelerator for extra speed if there's still enough distance before landing. when you land, don't forget to be parallel to the road and MT just before landing.

it is also possible to switch between L+left and R+right while doing a side attack dive. that's useful in the ADS dive since that one is big enough to give you time to do this and build extra speed.

max acceleration changes the way being in the air behaves but i'm lacking knowledge there since i don't play with those settings.

===Road Elements===

each track has several things that affect your performance while driving. some of them can have massive effects in the race.

;Refiller:
refills your health bar. it refills you very fast so you can pass it at max speed most of the time but there's some tracks where it is better to slow down a bit here to ensure you are at 100% health.

;Zipper:
the zippers in this game don't replace or stop your boost's effect. they just add up to your current speed. unintended side effect: if you hit a zipper at the very edge on either side but parallel to it, it can give you extra speed that isn't possible by taking it normally.

;Jump Plate:
these let you jump in the air. for most of them, it is better to nosedive when you take them but a few can allow you to cut corners, provided that you don't skip a checkpoint. CH3 is where they're more prominent. air time tips apply when you're in the air from them.

;Dirt Area:
this are slows you down when you touch it and don't have a boost active. zippers and boosting negate their effect.

;Ice Area:
these areas make your grip drop to the lowest possible and you slide out easily. you can still control your ship with help of the L and R buttons and can MTS on it easily (after all, MTS relies on breaking the ship's grip)

;Mines:
while these seem to be just a hazard, they actually provide extra boosts for the heavier ships that can hit them and lose little energy. they cause a type of shift boost when you hit them and shift boost rules apply here.

;Lava Area:
this area is in story mode only. their only effect is reducing your health. they don't affect ship handling but you shouldn't hit them too often.

;Checkpoint:
these are invisible areas that tell the game you've passed a part of the track so that it allows you to get to the next and so on. unlike old Mario Kart games or 2D F-Zero games, the tracks' whole information isn't completely loaded at once when you play them and you can only be on a chunk of it at a time. that's why you die instantly when you try to get to a part that looks reachable but is much further than your current position. in some situations, you can trick these checkpoints and can hit some further areas without dying if you have the correct height and speed. they're also pretty bad because, if you fly too high, you can skip a lot of them and that's why spaceflying is viable at all since flying around the whole track would be slower than snaking.

;AX Checkpoint:
i suppose someone will ask about this one. they give you extra time in the AX version but have no use in GX. the devs were too lazy to take them away from the tracks.

===Deaths===

in this game, when you run out of energy and hit something, you start exploding and then die with a big explosion. in story mode, this is final and you die pretty much when you start exploding but, in GP mode and Time Attack, the game doesn't count you as dead until the big explosion. due to this, you can die and actually finish the race. while this looks like it has no use because you normally lose speed after dying, if you die in certain ways, you can reach speeds much higher than normal for that brief period of time and cross the finish line before exploding. this si called a suicide finish and can happen in various ways. the most popular one is doing an MTRS against a wall at low energy and a certain angle to shoot off at the finish line as soon as you "die" (MCSO uses this type). there's also types that use an MTS against a wall in such a way that the resulting bounce sends you towards the finish line (LTR has one of the oldest ones like this). there's also others where you just touch a wall and gain speed after dying (BBO is this type).

one thing to keep in mind is that crossing the finish line must be done above it. if your car goes outside the track and falls too low to the side, it won't count. the finish line extends upwards and to the sides so you can suicide upwards or to the sides fine and finish the race (some lines don't extend too far but they're few)

you also die by not hitting the checkpoints in the correct order or hitting certain objects in the track. these objects are usually very solid ones like walls. things like the metal structures in FF won't kill you in 1 hit. there's also some objects that have no collision but these are few.

=Momentum Throttling=
<pre><doc id="0Anm7OyHbh5RfdGZYb3dTVnFCQUVXRGhXRDh1WXhNMFE" type="spreadsheet" width="800" height="800"/></pre>

F-Zero GX

2013-07-13T01:18:19Z

Naegleria: Created page with "Category:Gamecube Category:Games Copied from http://fzerocentral.org/viewtopic.php?t=13405 =Technical Info= ;Resolution: 640x480. NTSC versions have Progressive sc..."

[[Category:Gamecube]]
[[Category:Games]]

Copied from http://fzerocentral.org/viewtopic.php?t=13405

=Technical Info=

;Resolution:
640x480. NTSC versions have Progressive scan support. PAL versions have 50Hz support. runs at 60 fps 99% of the time (50 fps in PAL50).

special note: the 50Hz mode converts the timer automatically so you don't need to do time conversions to get equivalent times like in FZSNES or FZX.

;Memory card usage:

main save uses 4 blocks and cannot be copied in any way (not even with Wii homebrew because it uses info about the original card's format and block location and the save would be unusable in a different card. those bastards...)

replays use 3-6 blocks with original machines and 7-14 blocks with custom machines. ghosts use 3 blocks always. emblems use 3 blocks always. garage uses 18 blocks always and allows 4 custom cars to be saved (including the emblems you paste on it. you don't need the emblem data in the same card as the garage data)

;Connectivity:
can connect with F-Zero AX to unlock some things faster or earlier (AX cup before Diamond cup is only possible this way). compatible with logitech steering wheel for GC.

;Extras:
no physical limited editions or bonuses. there was a 1-time giveaway of the hidden unobtainale parts in japan to participants of a contest but this never happened internationally (this is why people call those parts "AR parts")

=Game Engine global properties (part 1: controls)=

this is the section where a lot of the little things that people don't get initially will be detailed. some of these properties are surprising and counter-productive to usual racing.

let's start with the regular actions assigned to every button. i'll use default key assignments.

==Gameplay Controls (Story, Practice, VS and GP)==

;Control Stick:
steers the ship. sensitivity can be adjusted in the options menu. the default setting can be too sensitive for some people. i recommend trying out between the default sensitivity and customized ones to see what suits you best. personally, i play with adjusted sensitivity (in the sensitivity option, i just rotate the stick until the polygon doesn't move anywhere and save the changes)

;A Button:
Accelerator (gas). accelerates the ship. unintended side effect: release it at a high speed and your speed decrease rate will be lower than what you get if you just hold it. this is known as Momentum Throttle (MT) and is a very powerful technique since it is the basis for a lot of the other techiques used in high level play like MTS, MTRS, Shift Boosts, MT Boost and Dive landing. the thing you should know is the time where MT should be used and where not to use it since it stops being effective at a certain speed. over the years, it has been found that, on heavy ships with high top speed, you should use MT for any speeds over 1300 km/h. ships that have low top speed but a decent weight should use it above 1200 km/h and for light ships with bad top speed, it works good on speed above just 1100 km/h. top speed takes preference over weight so any ship above 1100 km/h non-boosted speed should use MT when above 1300 km/h (even if they're light like Sonic Phantom).

;B Button:
Air Brake. stops the ship. less useful than what you'd think due to the speed decreasing really fast normally when you stop boosting. the way i brake is just by not doing MT after i stop boosting. the brake is useful if you need to brake really fast in a pinch.

;Y Button:
boost. uses the booster. unintended side effect: by using MT just as your boost ends and then pressing A and Y at the same time to resume the gas and activate another boost, you can keep your speed at higher levels and make your boosts last more until the next refiller. this is called MT Boost and it helps greatly those ships that have a fast boost pickup speed since they can Boost, MT for more than a second and Boost again to get more out of their boosts. the other ships can wait like between 0.5-1 seconds between boosts to do well.

;X button:
Side Attack. attacks to the side. you need to press the control stick left or right to attack in the appropiate direction. unintended side effects: the first one is the side attack dive. this move resebles FZX's DTDs in a way but it is done way differently. to do one, hold the shoulder button corresponding to the direction you're going, hold the control stick in the same direction and use the side attack continuously. if you start with the correct angle and speed, you can go above 2000 km/h easily in the air and land at much higher speeds than normal. the second side effect is at the end of an MTS. when you exit an MTS, use a side attack to minimize speed loss (this one depends on the ship. some ships don't benefit from this. the third side effect is getting extra speed in turns where an MTS wouldn't be practical. if you hold a shoulder button and the same sirection with the stick (say, left and L) and use side attacks, your ship will get some extra speed. this is only useful with certain ships (most popular usage is the long turn in PTAD after the first zipper)

;Z button:
Spin attack. attacks by spinning the ship around. this move is useful in CH4 to defeat a lot of enemies quicky but it has little use outside that since GP mode opponents are much harder to kill with that strategy. side attacks are much more effective.

;L and R buttons:
Strafe/Shift. this shifts the ship to the side. useful to adjust the ship's direction. unintended side effects: first and most popular ones: snaking and spaceflying: when you set max acceleration, pressing these buttons in combination of the stick with a certain rhythm causes the ship to build up massive speeds without using boosts. the reason is that the shift action gains power the more you approach max acceleration. spaceflying is possible because this shift is done in an upwards manner and it can overcome the game's gravity. you need to hop out of the road to fly since the road itself prevents the ship from raising into the air. the second effect is shift boosts. by going out of the road and back into it, you can get an extra burst of speed due to the difference in the terrain change. shift boosts are usable without these buttons but they become more abusable if you combine the L and R button shift and MT.

;D-pad:
camera adjustment. it has been proven that the default camera is bad for driving properly. zoom out once and you have the perfect camera for playing the game and getting the best out of it. the other views are just for novelty and first person camera is awful for any advanced maneuver.

;C-stick:
no use in normal gameplay but it lets you chosse between machines in a GP mode replay. with this you can see how the CPU cheats when they are magically ahead of you.

;Start/Pause:
pauses the game and lets you retry or quit if you messed up. you can also go to the settings screen or change course in Time Attack.

==Settings Screen controls:==

;Control Stick:
move the settings bar left and right

;L and R:
cycle between ship/pilot colors

==Cutscene controls:==

;Z Button:
activates subtitles

;Start/A Button:
skips cutscene

==Replay mode Controls:==

;Z Button:
cycles between GX logo and speedometer

;D-pad:
lets you adjust the camera view

;L and R Buttons:
cycle between pilot themes

=Game Engine global properties (part 2: physics)=

while every ship has their own stats and stuff determining how bad or good they are, there's some global properties that apply to every machine. i'll do my best to explain these.

===Weight===

first, Weight in this game is important. in this game, the heavier a ship is, the better it is because it can reach much better speeds and benefits from practically everything that happens within the game.

Weight is beneficial for the following things: improves MT, improves Shift Boosts, improves Max Boosted Speed, improves Body resistance, improves Side Attack Dives, improves mine boosts. (all of these are better with higher weight)

Weight is detrimental for the following things: reduces air time, reduces acceleration, makes some shortcuts harder, hinders spaceflying greatly. (all of these improve with lower weight)

Weight is neutral for the following things: Quick Turn, cornering, Grip, Boost pickup speed, MTS, MTRS. (individual ships have a much bigger effect in these)

that's why you see beasts like Gallant Star-G4 taking the WRs in max speed settings while things like Maximum Dragon are used for spaceflying.

===Settings bar===

something that is easy to miss is the effects from the settings bar causes on ships. unlike FZX, people use either max acceleration or max speed in all the ladders since anything in between is banned in the snaking and max speed ladders (open is best with max acceleration always so there's no reason to go above).

setting the bar to the far right does this:

improves momentum-based moves (MT, MTS) because speed loss rate is at its lowest.

boosters pick up speed slower but reach higher max speeds.

improves body and grip performance.

cornering is at its worst (you need to use Quick Turn with most ships to take corners)

gives you the maximum non-boosted max speed available (not on every ship though)

reduces the speed gain by turning and by pressing L or R in a turn (that's why you can't snake effectively with max speed)

setting the bar to the far left does this:

speed loss rate is at its highest. even if you MT, you lose speed rather quickly.

boosters pick up speed faster but reach lower max speeds

body and grip performance is at its weakest

cornering is at its best (you can turn with no effort at all by just steering the ship)

gives you the minimum non-boosted max speed available (not on every ship)

increases the speed gained by turning and by pressing L or R in a turn (this makes snaking and spaceflying possible)

that should cover the settings bar effects.

===Air Time (Max Speed version)===

i've heard people complain that navigating in the air is a pain and it makes sense. when you're in the air, the physics behave weird.

here's what you should know when you go into the air:

;distance tips:

doing MT when going straight lets you retain a lot more speed and cover bigger distances. helps to cut some corners.

touching the stick is bad. you lose height instantly. the best way to cover air distances is to line up before you leave the road and, if you need to adjust the ship, use the L and R buttons since those don't make you lose height faster. combine with MT for the full effect.

;diving tips:

when you're diving, the best is to actually hold the accelerator for the duration of the dive. also, when you dive, push up in the stick all the way since that gives you the highest speed gain and the ship has a limit in how much it can point down its nose (unlike FZX where if you push up all the way, your ship goes all the way down and messes up the dive)

when it comes to the landing, you need to know that the best way to retain speed is to line up the ship parallel to the road just before you touch the road. if you land at an angle, you lose more speed. landing parallel has the minimum speed loss on landing. you also need to MT just a bit before you touch the road to get the best effect out of it. if you MT when landing or later, your speed will be gone before you realize it.

;side attack dive:

this move is a bit tricky to pull off. to get the best angle, you first do an MTS in the direction you want to start the dive (say, if you want to do the right side dive in PTAD, MTS between the 2nd and 3rd zipper before the dive towards the right ) and when you're in the air, you start holding the shoulder button of the opposite side, hold the stick towards the same direction and up and start using the side attack repeatedly (if you're on the right side, hold L + Left and Up in the stick and mash the side attack). after a while, you need to line up so that you can land properly. at this point, you stop using the side attack and holding L and the stick and MT while you use L or R to line up with the road. the reason you MT is that when you stop side attacking and are not nosediving, your speed will die fast normally. with MT, you keep the speed while you line up. when you are lined up, you can nosedive and hold the accelerator for extra speed if there's still enough distance before landing. when you land, don't forget to be parallel to the road and MT just before landing.

it is also possible to switch between L+left and R+right while doing a side attack dive. that's useful in the ADS dive since that one is big enough to give you time to do this and build extra speed.

max acceleration changes the way being in the air behaves but i'm lacking knowledge there since i don't play with those settings.

===Road Elements===

each track has several things that affect your performance while driving. some of them can have massive effects in the race.

;Refiller:
refills your health bar. it refills you very fast so you can pass it at max speed most of the time but there's some tracks where it is better to slow down a bit here to ensure you are at 100% health.

;Zipper:
the zippers in this game don't replace or stop your boost's effect. they just add up to your current speed. unintended side effect: if you hit a zipper at the very edge on either side but parallel to it, it can give you extra speed that isn't possible by taking it normally.

;Jump Plate:
these let you jump in the air. for most of them, it is better to nosedive when you take them but a few can allow you to cut corners, provided that you don't skip a checkpoint. CH3 is where they're more prominent. air time tips apply when you're in the air from them.

;Dirt Area:
this are slows you down when you touch it and don't have a boost active. zippers and boosting negate their effect.

;Ice Area:
these areas make your grip drop to the lowest possible and you slide out easily. you can still control your ship with help of the L and R buttons and can MTS on it easily (after all, MTS relies on breaking the ship's grip)

;Mines:
while these seem to be just a hazard, they actually provide extra boosts for the heavier ships that can hit them and lose little energy. they cause a type of shift boost when you hit them and shift boost rules apply here.

;Lava Area:
this area is in story mode only. their only effect is reducing your health. they don't affect ship handling but you shouldn't hit them too often.

;Checkpoint:
these are invisible areas that tell the game you've passed a part of the track so that it allows you to get to the next and so on. unlike old Mario Kart games or 2D F-Zero games, the tracks' whole information isn't completely loaded at once when you play them and you can only be on a chunk of it at a time. that's why you die instantly when you try to get to a part that looks reachable but is much further than your current position. in some situations, you can trick these checkpoints and can hit some further areas without dying if you have the correct height and speed. they're also pretty bad because, if you fly too high, you can skip a lot of them and that's why spaceflying is viable at all since flying around the whole track would be slower than snaking.

;AX Checkpoint:
i suppose someone will ask about this one. they give you extra time in the AX version but have no use in GX. the devs were too lazy to take them away from the tracks.

==Deaths==

in this game, when you run out of energy and hit something, you start exploding and then die with a big explosion. in story mode, this is final and you die pretty much when you start exploding but, in GP mode and Time Attack, the game doesn't count you as dead until the big explosion. due to this, you can die and actually finish the race. while this looks like it has no use because you normally lose speed after dying, if you die in certain ways, you can reach speeds much higher than normal for that brief period of time and cross the finish line before exploding. this si called a suicide finish and can happen in various ways. the most popular one is doing an MTRS against a wall at low energy and a certain angle to shoot off at the finish line as soon as you "die" (MCSO uses this type). there's also types that use an MTS against a wall in such a way that the resulting bounce sends you towards the finish line (LTR has one of the oldest ones like this). there's also others where you just touch a wall and gain speed after dying (BBO is this type).

one thing to keep in mind is that crossing the finish line must be done above it. if your car goes outside the track and falls too low to the side, it won't count. the finish line extends upwards and to the sides so you can suicide upwards or to the sides fine and finish the race (some lines don't extend too far but they're few)

you also die by not hitting the checkpoints in the correct order or hitting certain objects in the track. these objects are usually very solid ones like walls. things like the metal structures in FF won't kill you in 1 hit. there's also some objects that have no collision but these are few.

Shadow Of The Colossus

2013-07-13T01:02:37Z

Naegleria:

[[Category:Playstation 2]]
[[Category:PlayStation 3]]
[[Category:Games]]
{{sda run|http://speeddemosarchive.com/ShadowOfTheColossus.html}}

==Basics==
;Versions
* The PS3 version is based off the PS2 PAL version. The most notable differences are that in the PS2 NTSC version you gain control slightly earlier in time attack and some colossi behave slightly different at the start of time attack.

;Movement
* Rolling is the fastest method of moving on flat ground (without Agro).
* It takes a couple seconds to reach max speed when running, whistling will instantly make you move at max speed when you start running.
* During some cutscenes, you still have control of Wander.
* Momentum of the colossi can be used to launch Wander in various places.

;Stabbing
* Jump stab - Jump with triangle, then hold R1 and press square. A jump stab will do the same amount of damage as a fully charged stab; however, it takes much longer to pull the sword out, so jump stabs should primarily be used as final stabs only. Some colossi shake too much to make jump stabs worth attempting, since you can easily be launched off in those cases.
* By sheathing the sword (and having the hand icon) then holding R1 and Square when being shaken, you will start charging a stab as soon as possible. This trick is version dependent (verified on PS3 and PS2 PAL).
* Sweet spots - places on a sigil where you can stab without being shaken.
* If a sigil takes a fraction of a stab, like 2.5 stabs, what you want to do is two stabs dealing 1.5 total then a jump stab. Typically you want to do a half stab, full stab, then jump stab/full stab in that scenario.

==Time Attack Strats==

{{#ev:youtube|z0Z4guOZtAI}}

;Colossus 1
* Start running, then whistle to get to max speed, and as soon as Wander whistles, start rolling towards the colossus' left leg.
* When at the leg, jump and hit the weak spot, then jump and grab on to stab it a second time. Alternatively, you can jump and grab on then do two stabs.
* Once the cutscene in which the colossus falls begins, hold diagonal down-left (or jump to the right then hold diagonal down-left if the thigh is in the way). Ideally you want to grab onto the top of the colossus' head, but this is very difficult, so grabbing the chest then climbing up to head may be preferable.
* 3 full stabs are required, so you want to perform 2 full charge stabs and a jump stab. The safest part of the sigil to stab is the part furthest from the colossus' face.

;Colossus 2
* Face the front right leg and take two steps then take out the bow and do a roll. As soon as the roll is complete, charge an arrow and aim at the right leg and wait for the left leg's paw to come into view and shoot it. As soon as you hit the paw, start running toward the right paw, and Wander will be knocked back by the left leg falling and put into a position where you can jump onto the leg.
* Once you jump onto the leg, charge a full jump and you may start running up the leg. If you are really fast, you can jump on the bare patch of skin above the ledge when the colossus shakes his leg, but this is very difficult; alternatively you can climb onto the ledge and wait for the colossus to roar. Immediately upon hearing the roar, jump onto the colossus' back and run for the head.
* The sigil on the head has a few sweet spots, the easiest to get is the very top corner of the sigil (Naegleria's youtube video above shows this spot at 4:40), after three full stabs, start running for the rear sigil.
* Jumping when running to the back of the colossus will give you a little boost of speed.
* When you reach the sigil, you want to do 1 full stab, a 2/3 stab, then a jump stab.

;Colossus 3
* Take two steps forward, take out the bow and do two rolls.
* Start shooting the lower sigil with fully charged arrows (you can safely get 5 shots in, but more are possible), this will save you time later when you need to stab it.
* Jump into the air when the colossus swings his sword down, as long as you are in the air you are basically immune to that attack if you dodge it. Crouch near the lower symbol on the sword arm and wait.
* The sword launch is tricky, at 26.3 seconds if you did everything else right (roughly the point at which Wander is at the same height as the highest bracer on the colossus' right leg), you want to let go of R1, then hold diagonal up-right and jump. If you do it right, you will land on the colossus head. You can also go for the colossus chest, the lower sigil, or the arm.
* 3's sigils are an absolute nightmare, I don't have much info on how to do them fast.

;Colossus 4
* Jump on agro right at the start, and run towards the colossus' right hind leg. Hold R1 and Up on Agro to stand up, and from this standing position, jump onto the ledge on the leg. Move to the center of the ledge, and wait til the left leg is just about to hit the ground, at that point, do one small jump to get on the ledge, then jump onto the second ledge, then to the tail. It is possible to skip the second ledge and go straight for the tail, but this is tricky.
* Once on the tail, charge two jumps and roll towards the weak spot, if you get there fast you can stab it twice before it shakes.
* Run onto the head then do 4 full stabs and a jump stab.

;Colossus 5
* Take out the bow and hop just under the gap in the fance, this will let you get some horizontal distance as you fall.
* Hold R1 and swim toward the leftmost of the 3 platforms. You will need to get some air, so you can either press triangle to jump out of the water while holding R1, or let go of R1 and take a breath.
* When you get to the left platform, jump onto it and charge an arrow to shoot at the bird. Then jump to the middle platform and take your sword out. Jump onto the bird (it should be around 48-49 seconds on the timer if you are fast).
* When the fight music stars, let go of R1 for just a moment to be flung a little down the wing. Let go of R1 when it is raising it's wing, and hold R1 as it is lowering it. Letting go of R1 in the right spots will let you be on the right wings sigil as soon as the flapping is done.
* Charge a full stab on the sigil and hold R1, there is a chance you can fall off when removing the sword while upside down, so hope that does not happen. When Wander is above the spikes sticking out of the bird's head, let go of R1 to fall and land on the left wing. Ideally you will land on the sigil.
* When on the left sigil, charge a full stab and wait for Wander to be above the spikes again to let go of R1, this time aiming for the tail.
* Jumping when on the tail is faster than rolling or running.
* The hitbox for the tail's sigil is much bigger than the sigil (see Naegleria's video at 21:00).
* Do one full charge stab, a 2/3 stab, and a jump stab.

;Colossus 6

;Colossus 7

;Colossus 8
* Whistle right at the start to get the colossus' attention, then roll forward and take out the bow. From here you want to roll under the bar (see 34:20 in Naegleria's video) then shoot the colossus' legs. You might want to wait a few seconds for the colossus to climb the wall, since the higher it is when it falls, the longer it will be stunned.
* An alternative to the route with the roll is to run for the stairwell on the right at the start and whistle. Run down the stairs and on the floor below there is an opening in the wall which Wander can stand on to shoot the colossus' legs.
* Each sigil takes 2.5 stabs, so do a full stab, half stab, then jump stab on the last sigil.

;Colossus 9

;Colossus 10

;Colossus 11

;Colossus 12

;Colossus 13
* Right at the start, you want to run and jump onto Agro. From a stand still, hold Down and X and Agro will rear and run at full speed, do this then hold left to go through the little building.
* Run towards the giant rock and start shooting the gas bag things on the colossus. If you get lucky the colossus will fly really low into the ground and you can jump from Agro onto the colossus' back, but this is seemingly random.
* Once you are on a wing, start jumping two ledges at a time til you get to the top, then jump onto its back and head for the first sigil. Do one full stab, then a 7/8 stab. If you do two full stabs the colossus will do a barrel roll, by doing a little less than a full stab you can deal enough damage to the sigil and prevent the roll.
* Jump as you run down the colossus to the next sigils and perform the same stab pattern on the 2nd sigil.
* For the last sigil you want to do a 7/8 stab then a jump stab.

;Colossus 14
* The fast strat with jumping on then off the colossus is tricky, but its not as random as you'd think. At the start, roll toward the waterway and jump into it. When you land, whistle to accelerate to top speed then jump and grab over the ledge. Start rolling to the final pillar and stand in front of it.
* Wait for the colossus to charge at you and roll to the side at the very last moment. Immediately after the roll you want to jump onto the shoulder of the colossus and onto the pillar. If you mess it up you can run away and back to set it up again. You could also jump onto other structures, but the final pillar is the fastest.
* During the cutscenes when the pillars fall (the first and last one), you still have control of Wander, this is particularly helpful on the last pillar. If you hold diagonl up-right and jump off the final pillar as it falls then start rolling, you can get to the wall a little earlier.
* Just like with Colossus 11, you want to be standing perpendicular on the colossus when stabbing.

;Colossus 15

;Colossus 16
* Explaining the visual cues for the run up to 16 is hard, so just watch at 1:18:10 of Naegleria's video.

Sonic the Hedgehog

2013-07-13T01:01:49Z

Naegleria:

[[Category:Games]]
[[Category:Genesis]]
[[Category:PlayStation Network]]
[[Category:Xbox Live Arcade]]
[[Category:Virtual Console]]
{{sda run|http://speeddemosarchive.com/Sonic1.html}}

==Version differences==

As with all the 16-bit Sonic games, the PAL version runs 17% slower than the NTSC version. However, the in-game timer is slowed down by the same amount, so identical times are possible in both versions. PAL players may have a slight advantage due to the slowdown aiding players' reactions, but in general players in all regions can compete equally.

== Terminology ==

;Frame:1/60th of a second, the smallest unit of game time.

;Frame window:the amount of these units you have to execute a particular action. A "frame-perfect" action has a window of just one frame, for instance.

;Universal timer:There's two different timing properties of moving objects in this game. The universal timer is where an object starts moving the instant you start the level, and will therefore be in a certain position at a certain time, every time.

;Camera timer:The other kind is this one, which only starts moving once it's brought onto the screen (or near the screen - when the object is first rendered, in any case). Knowing which objects have which timing properties is important to good times when you have to deal with them.

;Ramp jump:Sonic's jump speed and height are dependent on both your speed going into the jump and the slope of the ground you jump off. Running up a slope causes your jump to become much higher, while running down a slope will make you jump quite flat to the ground, gaining speed. This applies even if the slope is very small.

;Loop jump:Similar concept, but inside a loop. If you're moving through the loop from left to right, a loop jump is from the top-left to the bottom-left. It's kinda finicky because if you land at different angles you get different speeds, but in the best case it is faster, and it's also a very convenient way to switch from rolling to running.

;Path switcher:This is an invisible item in the game that allows the levels to work as structured. There are three different levels of background/foreground and Sonic is always in one of them at any one time, and these items seamlessly switch Sonic from background to foreground and vice versa. This is especially necessary for things like loops to work, because if you didn't have them they would just be solid all the time and you wouldn't be able to enter it. Knowing where these are and how they work is key to some tricks in this game.

;Speed cap:Oddly for a game designed and marketed around speed, there are certain situations where the game will actually limit your speed. If you hold the direction you're moving and you're above the speed cap, the game will knock your speed back to the speed cap. This can be circumvented just by not pressing right.

;Zip:A zip occurs when Sonic is stuck in a wall somehow and presses left or right. Since collision detection is designed to stop you from going into a wall in the first place, pushing left against a wall makes the game push you back to the right so you aren't embedded in it. As a result, when you're already inside a wall holding left or right causes you to travel in the opposite direction much faster than you can attain by normal play.

;Level wrap:This is what happens when a zip causes you to bypass the left edge of the screen. The game treats your X-coordinate in memory as a number less than 0 - but position coordinates are unsigned, so instead of a negative number it's a VERY large positive one - which correlates to the end of the stage.

===More detailed information===

TASvideos has a much more in-depth analysis, mostly dealing with the way the engine works. It can be found at http://tasvideos.org/GameResources/Genesis/SonicTheHedgehog.html (this covers all three games in the classic series).

== In-game Time vs. Real Time ==

In all of the classic Sonic games, completing levels very quickly (in Sonic 1, under 30 seconds) gives a 50,000 point time bonus. Completing a level between 30 and 45 seconds gives a 10,000 time bonus instead. On the act clear screen, the bonus ticks down at a rate of 100 points per frame, and cannot be skipped. What this means is, in real time it would in fact be faster to wait for the timer to tick over to 30, as long as the time you would otherwise get is between 23 seconds, 20 frames (0:23::20) and 30 seconds even. The Sonic playing community generally agrees that this is pretty dumb, and the time spent actually playing the stages is what matters, so these games are timed by taking the sum of the in-game times for each level.

For a further explanation, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaMGf1V3MMM this video] does a good job of explaining why in-game time matters in certain games, particularly in the Sonic franchise.

== Video Tutorial ==

{{#ev:youtube|u7g-GGqQeCQ}}

== Best Times ==

The current best known times for Sonic 1 ILs are on The Sonic Center:
http://soniccenter.org/rankings/sonic_1/times

Shadow Of The Colossus

2013-02-23T02:59:36Z

Naegleria: /* Basics */

[[Category:Playstation 2]]
[[Category:PlayStation 3]]
[[Category:Games]]
{{sda run|http://speeddemosarchive.com/ShadowOfTheColossus.html}}

==Basics==
;Versions
* The PS3 version is based off the PS2 PAL version. The most notable differences are that in the PS2 NTSC version you gain control slightly earlier in time attack and some colossi behave slightly different at the start of time attack.

;Movement
* Rolling is the fastest method of moving on flat ground (without Agro).
* It takes a couple seconds to reach max speed when running, whistling will instantly make you move at max speed when you start running.
* During some cutscenes, you still have control of Wander.
* Momentum of the colossi can be used to launch Wander in various places.

;Stabbing
* Jump stab - Jump with triangle, then hold R1 and press square. A jump stab will do the same amount of damage as a fully charged stab; however, it takes much longer to pull the sword out, so jump stabs should primarily be used as final stabs only. Some colossi shake too much to make jump stabs worth attempting, since you can easily be launched off in those cases.
* By sheathing the sword (and having the hand icon) then holding R1 and Square when being shaken, you will start charging a stab as soon as possible. This trick is version dependent (verified on PS3 and PS2 PAL).
* Sweet spots - places on a sigil where you can stab without being shaken.
* If a sigil takes a fraction of a stab, like 2.5 stabs, what you want to do is two stabs dealing 1.5 total then a jump stab. Typically you want to do a half stab, full stab, then jump stab/full stab in that scenario.

==Time Attack Strats==

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0Z4guOZtAI

;Colossus 1
* Start running, then whistle to get to max speed, and as soon as Wander whistles, start rolling towards the colossus' left leg.
* When at the leg, jump and hit the weak spot, then jump and grab on to stab it a second time. Alternatively, you can jump and grab on then do two stabs.
* Once the cutscene in which the colossus falls begins, hold diagonal down-left (or jump to the right then hold diagonal down-left if the thigh is in the way). Ideally you want to grab onto the top of the colossus' head, but this is very difficult, so grabbing the chest then climbing up to head may be preferable.
* 3 full stabs are required, so you want to perform 2 full charge stabs and a jump stab. The safest part of the sigil to stab is the part furthest from the colossus' face.

;Colossus 2
* Face the front right leg and take two steps then take out the bow and do a roll. As soon as the roll is complete, charge an arrow and aim at the right leg and wait for the left leg's paw to come into view and shoot it. As soon as you hit the paw, start running toward the right paw, and Wander will be knocked back by the left leg falling and put into a position where you can jump onto the leg.
* Once you jump onto the leg, charge a full jump and you may start running up the leg. If you are really fast, you can jump on the bare patch of skin above the ledge when the colossus shakes his leg, but this is very difficult; alternatively you can climb onto the ledge and wait for the colossus to roar. Immediately upon hearing the roar, jump onto the colossus' back and run for the head.
* The sigil on the head has a few sweet spots, the easiest to get is the very top corner of the sigil (Naegleria's youtube video above shows this spot at 4:40), after three full stabs, start running for the rear sigil.
* Jumping when running to the back of the colossus will give you a little boost of speed.
* When you reach the sigil, you want to do 1 full stab, a 2/3 stab, then a jump stab.

;Colossus 3
* Take two steps forward, take out the bow and do two rolls.
* Start shooting the lower sigil with fully charged arrows (you can safely get 5 shots in, but more are possible), this will save you time later when you need to stab it.
* Jump into the air when the colossus swings his sword down, as long as you are in the air you are basically immune to that attack if you dodge it. Crouch near the lower symbol on the sword arm and wait.
* The sword launch is tricky, at 26.3 seconds if you did everything else right (roughly the point at which Wander is at the same height as the highest bracer on the colossus' right leg), you want to let go of R1, then hold diagonal up-right and jump. If you do it right, you will land on the colossus head. You can also go for the colossus chest, the lower sigil, or the arm.
* 3's sigils are an absolute nightmare, I don't have much info on how to do them fast.

;Colossus 4
* Jump on agro right at the start, and run towards the colossus' right hind leg. Hold R1 and Up on Agro to stand up, and from this standing position, jump onto the ledge on the leg. Move to the center of the ledge, and wait til the left leg is just about to hit the ground, at that point, do one small jump to get on the ledge, then jump onto the second ledge, then to the tail. It is possible to skip the second ledge and go straight for the tail, but this is tricky.
* Once on the tail, charge two jumps and roll towards the weak spot, if you get there fast you can stab it twice before it shakes.
* Run onto the head then do 4 full stabs and a jump stab.

;Colossus 5
* Take out the bow and hop just under the gap in the fance, this will let you get some horizontal distance as you fall.
* Hold R1 and swim toward the leftmost of the 3 platforms. You will need to get some air, so you can either press triangle to jump out of the water while holding R1, or let go of R1 and take a breath.
* When you get to the left platform, jump onto it and charge an arrow to shoot at the bird. Then jump to the middle platform and take your sword out. Jump onto the bird (it should be around 48-49 seconds on the timer if you are fast).
* When the fight music stars, let go of R1 for just a moment to be flung a little down the wing. Let go of R1 when it is raising it's wing, and hold R1 as it is lowering it. Letting go of R1 in the right spots will let you be on the right wings sigil as soon as the flapping is done.
* Charge a full stab on the sigil and hold R1, there is a chance you can fall off when removing the sword while upside down, so hope that does not happen. When Wander is above the spikes sticking out of the bird's head, let go of R1 to fall and land on the left wing. Ideally you will land on the sigil.
* When on the left sigil, charge a full stab and wait for Wander to be above the spikes again to let go of R1, this time aiming for the tail.
* Jumping when on the tail is faster than rolling or running.
* The hitbox for the tail's sigil is much bigger than the sigil (see Naegleria's video at 21:00).
* Do one full charge stab, a 2/3 stab, and a jump stab.

;Colossus 6

;Colossus 7

;Colossus 8
* Whistle right at the start to get the colossus' attention, then roll forward and take out the bow. From here you want to roll under the bar (see 34:20 in Naegleria's video) then shoot the colossus' legs. You might want to wait a few seconds for the colossus to climb the wall, since the higher it is when it falls, the longer it will be stunned.
* An alternative to the route with the roll is to run for the stairwell on the right at the start and whistle. Run down the stairs and on the floor below there is an opening in the wall which Wander can stand on to shoot the colossus' legs.
* Each sigil takes 2.5 stabs, so do a full stab, half stab, then jump stab on the last sigil.

;Colossus 9

;Colossus 10

;Colossus 11

;Colossus 12

;Colossus 13
* Right at the start, you want to run and jump onto Agro. From a stand still, hold Down and X and Agro will rear and run at full speed, do this then hold left to go through the little building.
* Run towards the giant rock and start shooting the gas bag things on the colossus. If you get lucky the colossus will fly really low into the ground and you can jump from Agro onto the colossus' back, but this is seemingly random.
* Once you are on a wing, start jumping two ledges at a time til you get to the top, then jump onto its back and head for the first sigil. Do one full stab, then a 7/8 stab. If you do two full stabs the colossus will do a barrel roll, by doing a little less than a full stab you can deal enough damage to the sigil and prevent the roll.
* Jump as you run down the colossus to the next sigils and perform the same stab pattern on the 2nd sigil.
* For the last sigil you want to do a 7/8 stab then a jump stab.

;Colossus 14
* The fast strat with jumping on then off the colossus is tricky, but its not as random as you'd think. At the start, roll toward the waterway and jump into it. When you land, whistle to accelerate to top speed then jump and grab over the ledge. Start rolling to the final pillar and stand in front of it.
* Wait for the colossus to charge at you and roll to the side at the very last moment. Immediately after the roll you want to jump onto the shoulder of the colossus and onto the pillar. If you mess it up you can run away and back to set it up again. You could also jump onto other structures, but the final pillar is the fastest.
* During the cutscenes when the pillars fall (the first and last one), you still have control of Wander, this is particularly helpful on the last pillar. If you hold diagonl up-right and jump off the final pillar as it falls then start rolling, you can get to the wall a little earlier.
* Just like with Colossus 11, you want to be standing perpendicular on the colossus when stabbing.

;Colossus 15

;Colossus 16
* Explaining the visual cues for the run up to 16 is hard, so just watch at 1:18:10 of Naegleria's video.

ShadowOfTheColossus

2013-02-23T01:59:35Z

Naegleria: Blanked the page

Shadow Of The Colossus

2013-02-23T01:59:08Z

Naegleria: Created page with "Category:Playstation 2 Category:PlayStation 3 Category:Games {{sda run|http://speeddemosarchive.com/ShadowOfTheColossus.html}} ==Basics== ;Versions * The PS3 vers..."

[[Category:Playstation 2]]
[[Category:PlayStation 3]]
[[Category:Games]]
{{sda run|http://speeddemosarchive.com/ShadowOfTheColossus.html}}

==Basics==
;Versions
* The PS3 version is based off the PS2 PAL version. The most notable difference is that in the PS2 NTSC version you gain control slightly earlier in time attack, and some colossi behave slightly different at the start of time attack.

;Movement
* Rolling is the fastest method of moving on flat ground (without Agro).
* It takes a couple seconds to reach max speed when running, whistling will instantly make you move at max speed when you start running.
* During some cutscenes, you still have control of Wander.
* Momentum of the colossi can be used to launch Wander in various places.

;Stabbing
* Jump stab - Jump with triangle, then hold R1 and press square. A jump stab will do the same amount of damage as a fully charged stab; however, it takes much longer to pull the sword out, so jump stabs should primarily be used as final stabs only. Some colossi shake too much to make jump stabs worth attempting, since you can easily be launched off in those cases.
* By sheathing the sword (and having the hand icon) then holding R1 and Square when being shaken, you will start charging a stab as soon as possible. This trick is version dependent (verified on PS3 and PS2 PAL).
* Sweet spots - places on a sigil where you can stab without being shaken.
* If a sigil takes a fraction of a stab, like 2.5 stabs, what you want to do is two stabs dealing 1.5 total then a jump stab. Typically you want to do a half stab, full stab, then jump stab/full stab in that scenario.

==Time Attack Strats==

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0Z4guOZtAI

;Colossus 1
* Start running, then whistle to get to max speed, and as soon as Wander whistles, start rolling towards the colossus' left leg.
* When at the leg, jump and hit the weak spot, then jump and grab on to stab it a second time. Alternatively, you can jump and grab on then do two stabs.
* Once the cutscene in which the colossus falls begins, hold diagonal down-left (or jump to the right then hold diagonal down-left if the thigh is in the way). Ideally you want to grab onto the top of the colossus' head, but this is very difficult, so grabbing the chest then climbing up to head may be preferable.
* 3 full stabs are required, so you want to perform 2 full charge stabs and a jump stab. The safest part of the sigil to stab is the part furthest from the colossus' face.

;Colossus 2
* Face the front right leg and take two steps then take out the bow and do a roll. As soon as the roll is complete, charge an arrow and aim at the right leg and wait for the left leg's paw to come into view and shoot it. As soon as you hit the paw, start running toward the right paw, and Wander will be knocked back by the left leg falling and put into a position where you can jump onto the leg.
* Once you jump onto the leg, charge a full jump and you may start running up the leg. If you are really fast, you can jump on the bare patch of skin above the ledge when the colossus shakes his leg, but this is very difficult; alternatively you can climb onto the ledge and wait for the colossus to roar. Immediately upon hearing the roar, jump onto the colossus' back and run for the head.
* The sigil on the head has a few sweet spots, the easiest to get is the very top corner of the sigil (Naegleria's youtube video above shows this spot at 4:40), after three full stabs, start running for the rear sigil.
* Jumping when running to the back of the colossus will give you a little boost of speed.
* When you reach the sigil, you want to do 1 full stab, a 2/3 stab, then a jump stab.

;Colossus 3
* Take two steps forward, take out the bow and do two rolls.
* Start shooting the lower sigil with fully charged arrows (you can safely get 5 shots in, but more are possible), this will save you time later when you need to stab it.
* Jump into the air when the colossus swings his sword down, as long as you are in the air you are basically immune to that attack if you dodge it. Crouch near the lower symbol on the sword arm and wait.
* The sword launch is tricky, at 26.3 seconds if you did everything else right (roughly the point at which Wander is at the same height as the highest bracer on the colossus' right leg), you want to let go of R1, then hold diagonal up-right and jump. If you do it right, you will land on the colossus head. You can also go for the colossus chest, the lower sigil, or the arm.
* 3's sigils are an absolute nightmare, I don't have much info on how to do them fast.

;Colossus 4
* Jump on agro right at the start, and run towards the colossus' right hind leg. Hold R1 and Up on Agro to stand up, and from this standing position, jump onto the ledge on the leg. Move to the center of the ledge, and wait til the left leg is just about to hit the ground, at that point, do one small jump to get on the ledge, then jump onto the second ledge, then to the tail. It is possible to skip the second ledge and go straight for the tail, but this is tricky.
* Once on the tail, charge two jumps and roll towards the weak spot, if you get there fast you can stab it twice before it shakes.
* Run onto the head then do 4 full stabs and a jump stab.

;Colossus 5
* Take out the bow and hop just under the gap in the fance, this will let you get some horizontal distance as you fall.
* Hold R1 and swim toward the leftmost of the 3 platforms. You will need to get some air, so you can either press triangle to jump out of the water while holding R1, or let go of R1 and take a breath.
* When you get to the left platform, jump onto it and charge an arrow to shoot at the bird. Then jump to the middle platform and take your sword out. Jump onto the bird (it should be around 48-49 seconds on the timer if you are fast).
* When the fight music stars, let go of R1 for just a moment to be flung a little down the wing. Let go of R1 when it is raising it's wing, and hold R1 as it is lowering it. Letting go of R1 in the right spots will let you be on the right wings sigil as soon as the flapping is done.
* Charge a full stab on the sigil and hold R1, there is a chance you can fall off when removing the sword while upside down, so hope that does not happen. When Wander is above the spikes sticking out of the bird's head, let go of R1 to fall and land on the left wing. Ideally you will land on the sigil.
* When on the left sigil, charge a full stab and wait for Wander to be above the spikes again to let go of R1, this time aiming for the tail.
* Jumping when on the tail is faster than rolling or running.
* The hitbox for the tail's sigil is much bigger than the sigil (see Naegleria's video at 21:00).
* Do one full charge stab, a 2/3 stab, and a jump stab.

;Colossus 6

;Colossus 7

;Colossus 8
* Whistle right at the start to get the colossus' attention, then roll forward and take out the bow. From here you want to roll under the bar (see 34:20 in Naegleria's video) then shoot the colossus' legs. You might want to wait a few seconds for the colossus to climb the wall, since the higher it is when it falls, the longer it will be stunned.
* An alternative to the route with the roll is to run for the stairwell on the right at the start and whistle. Run down the stairs and on the floor below there is an opening in the wall which Wander can stand on to shoot the colossus' legs.
* Each sigil takes 2.5 stabs, so do a full stab, half stab, then jump stab on the last sigil.

;Colossus 9

;Colossus 10

;Colossus 11

;Colossus 12

;Colossus 13
* Right at the start, you want to run and jump onto Agro. From a stand still, hold Down and X and Agro will rear and run at full speed, do this then hold left to go through the little building.
* Run towards the giant rock and start shooting the gas bag things on the colossus. If you get lucky the colossus will fly really low into the ground and you can jump from Agro onto the colossus' back, but this is seemingly random.
* Once you are on a wing, start jumping two ledges at a time til you get to the top, then jump onto its back and head for the first sigil. Do one full stab, then a 7/8 stab. If you do two full stabs the colossus will do a barrel roll, by doing a little less than a full stab you can deal enough damage to the sigil and prevent the roll.
* Jump as you run down the colossus to the next sigils and perform the same stab pattern on the 2nd sigil.
* For the last sigil you want to do a 7/8 stab then a jump stab.

;Colossus 14
* The fast strat with jumping on then off the colossus is tricky, but its not as random as you'd think. At the start, roll toward the waterway and jump into it. When you land, whistle to accelerate to top speed then jump and grab over the ledge. Start rolling to the final pillar and stand in front of it.
* Wait for the colossus to charge at you and roll to the side at the very last moment. Immediately after the roll you want to jump onto the shoulder of the colossus and onto the pillar. If you mess it up you can run away and back to set it up again. You could also jump onto other structures, but the final pillar is the fastest.
* During the cutscenes when the pillars fall (the first and last one), you still have control of Wander, this is particularly helpful on the last pillar. If you hold diagonl up-right and jump off the final pillar as it falls then start rolling, you can get to the wall a little earlier.
* Just like with Colossus 11, you want to be standing perpendicular on the colossus when stabbing.

;Colossus 15

;Colossus 16
* Explaining the visual cues for the run up to 16 is hard, so just watch at 1:18:10 of Naegleria's video.

Sonic the Hedgehog

2013-02-23T01:55:14Z

Naegleria: Created page with "Category:Games Category:Genesis Category:PlayStation Network Category:Xbox Live Arcade Category:Virtual Console {{sda run|http://speeddemosarchive.com/Soni..."

[[Category:Games]]
[[Category:Genesis]]
[[Category:PlayStation Network]]
[[Category:Xbox Live Arcade]]
[[Category:Virtual Console]]
{{sda run|http://speeddemosarchive.com/Sonic1.html}}

==Version differences==

As with all the 16-bit Sonic games, the PAL version runs 17% slower than the NTSC version. However, the in-game timer is slowed down by the same amount, so identical times are possible in both versions. PAL players may have a slight advantage due to the slowdown aiding players' reactions, but in general players in all regions can compete equally.

== Terminology ==

;Frame:1/60th of a second, the smallest unit of game time.

;Frame window:the amount of these units you have to execute a particular action. A "frame-perfect" action has a window of just one frame, for instance.

;Universal timer:There's two different timing properties of moving objects in this game. The universal timer is where an object starts moving the instant you start the level, and will therefore be in a certain position at a certain time, every time.

;Camera timer:The other kind is this one, which only starts moving once it's brought onto the screen (or near the screen - when the object is first rendered, in any case). Knowing which objects have which timing properties is important to good times when you have to deal with them.

;Ramp jump:Sonic's jump speed and height are dependent on both your speed going into the jump and the slope of the ground you jump off. Running up a slope causes your jump to become much higher, while running down a slope will make you jump quite flat to the ground, gaining speed. This applies even if the slope is very small.

;Loop jump:Similar concept, but inside a loop. If you're moving through the loop from left to right, a loop jump is from the top-left to the bottom-left. It's kinda finicky because if you land at different angles you get different speeds, but in the best case it is faster, and it's also a very convenient way to switch from rolling to running.

;Path switcher:This is an invisible item in the game that allows the levels to work as structured. There are three different levels of background/foreground and Sonic is always in one of them at any one time, and these items seamlessly switch Sonic from background to foreground and vice versa. This is especially necessary for things like loops to work, because if you didn't have them they would just be solid all the time and you wouldn't be able to enter it. Knowing where these are and how they work is key to some tricks in this game.

;Speed cap:Oddly for a game designed and marketed around speed, there are certain situations where the game will actually limit your speed. If you hold the direction you're moving and you're above the speed cap, the game will knock your speed back to the speed cap. This can be circumvented just by not pressing right.

;Zip:A zip occurs when Sonic is stuck in a wall somehow and presses left or right. Since collision detection is designed to stop you from going into a wall in the first place, pushing left against a wall makes the game push you back to the right so you aren't embedded in it. As a result, when you're already inside a wall holding left or right causes you to travel in the opposite direction much faster than you can attain by normal play.

;Level wrap:This is what happens when a zip causes you to bypass the left edge of the screen. The game treats your X-coordinate in memory as a number less than 0 - but position coordinates are unsigned, so instead of a negative number it's a VERY large positive one - which correlates to the end of the stage.

===More detailed information===

TASvideos has a much more in-depth analysis, mostly dealing with the way the engine works. It can be found at http://tasvideos.org/GameResources/Genesis/SonicTheHedgehog.html (this covers all three games in the classic series).

== In-game Time vs. Real Time ==

In all of the classic Sonic games, completing levels very quickly (in Sonic 1, under 30 seconds) gives a 50,000 point time bonus. Completing a level between 30 and 45 seconds gives a 10,000 time bonus instead. On the act clear screen, the bonus ticks down at a rate of 100 points per frame, and cannot be skipped. What this means is, in real time it would in fact be faster to wait for the timer to tick over to 30, as long as the time you would otherwise get is between 23 seconds, 20 frames (0:23::20) and 30 seconds even. The Sonic playing community generally agrees that this is pretty dumb, and the time spent actually playing the stages is what matters, so these games are timed by taking the sum of the in-game times for each level.

For a further explanation, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaMGf1V3MMM this video] does a good job of explaining why in-game time matters in certain games, particularly in the Sonic franchise.

== Best Times ==

The current best known times for Sonic 1 ILs are on The Sonic Center:
http://soniccenter.org/rankings/sonic_1/times

ShadowOfTheColossus

2013-02-22T07:25:53Z

Naegleria: /* Time Attack Strats */

[[Category:Playstation 2]]
[[Category:PlayStation 3]]
[[Category:Games]]
{{sda run|http://speeddemosarchive.com/ShadowOfTheColossus.html}}

==Basics==
;Versions
* The PS3 version is based off the PS2 PAL version. The most notable difference is that in the PS2 NTSC version you gain control slightly earlier in time attack, and some colossi behave slightly different at the start of time attack.

;Movement
* Rolling is the fastest method of moving on flat ground (without Agro).
* It takes a couple seconds to reach max speed when running, whistling will instantly make you move at max speed when you start running.
* During some cutscenes, you still have control of Wander.
* Momentum of the colossi can be used to launch Wander in various places.

;Stabbing
* Jump stab - Jump with triangle, then hold R1 and press square. A jump stab will do the same amount of damage as a fully charged stab; however, it takes much longer to pull the sword out, so jump stabs should primarily be used as final stabs only. Some colossi shake too much to make jump stabs worth attempting, since you can easily be launched off in those cases.
* By sheathing the sword (and having the hand icon) then holding R1 and Square when being shaken, you will start charging a stab as soon as possible. This trick is version dependent (verified on PS3 and PS2 PAL).
* Sweet spots - places on a sigil where you can stab without being shaken.
* If a sigil takes a fraction of a stab, like 2.5 stabs, what you want to do is two stabs dealing 1.5 total then a jump stab. Typically you want to do a half stab, full stab, then jump stab/full stab in that scenario.

==Time Attack Strats==

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0Z4guOZtAI

;Colossus 1
* Start running, then whistle to get to max speed, and as soon as Wander whistles, start rolling towards the colossus' left leg.
* When at the leg, jump and hit the weak spot, then jump and grab on to stab it a second time. Alternatively, you can jump and grab on then do two stabs.
* Once the cutscene in which the colossus falls begins, hold diagonal down-left (or jump to the right then hold diagonal down-left if the thigh is in the way). Ideally you want to grab onto the top of the colossus' head, but this is very difficult, so grabbing the chest then climbing up to head may be preferable.
* 3 full stabs are required, so you want to perform 2 full charge stabs and a jump stab. The safest part of the sigil to stab is the part furthest from the colossus' face.

;Colossus 2
* Face the front right leg and take two steps then take out the bow and do a roll. As soon as the roll is complete, charge an arrow and aim at the right leg and wait for the left leg's paw to come into view and shoot it. As soon as you hit the paw, start running toward the right paw, and Wander will be knocked back by the left leg falling and put into a position where you can jump onto the leg.
* Once you jump onto the leg, charge a full jump and you may start running up the leg. If you are really fast, you can jump on the bare patch of skin above the ledge when the colossus shakes his leg, but this is very difficult; alternatively you can climb onto the ledge and wait for the colossus to roar. Immediately upon hearing the roar, jump onto the colossus' back and run for the head.
* The sigil on the head has a few sweet spots, the easiest to get is the very top corner of the sigil (Naegleria's youtube video above shows this spot at 4:40), after three full stabs, start running for the rear sigil.
* Jumping when running to the back of the colossus will give you a little boost of speed.
* When you reach the sigil, you want to do 1 full stab, a 2/3 stab, then a jump stab.

;Colossus 3
* Take two steps forward, take out the bow and do two rolls.
* Start shooting the lower sigil with fully charged arrows (you can safely get 5 shots in, but more are possible), this will save you time later when you need to stab it.
* Jump into the air when the colossus swings his sword down, as long as you are in the air you are basically immune to that attack if you dodge it. Crouch near the lower symbol on the sword arm and wait.
* The sword launch is tricky, at 26.3 seconds if you did everything else right (roughly the point at which Wander is at the same height as the highest bracer on the colossus' right leg), you want to let go of R1, then hold diagonal up-right and jump. If you do it right, you will land on the colossus head. You can also go for the colossus chest, the lower sigil, or the arm.
* 3's sigils are an absolute nightmare, I don't have much info on how to do them fast.

;Colossus 4
* Jump on agro right at the start, and run towards the colossus' right hind leg. Hold R1 and Up on Agro to stand up, and from this standing position, jump onto the ledge on the leg. Move to the center of the ledge, and wait til the left leg is just about to hit the ground, at that point, do one small jump to get on the ledge, then jump onto the second ledge, then to the tail. It is possible to skip the second ledge and go straight for the tail, but this is tricky.
* Once on the tail, charge two jumps and roll towards the weak spot, if you get there fast you can stab it twice before it shakes.
* Run onto the head then do 4 full stabs and a jump stab.

;Colossus 5
* Take out the bow and hop just under the gap in the fance, this will let you get some horizontal distance as you fall.
* Hold R1 and swim toward the leftmost of the 3 platforms. You will need to get some air, so you can either press triangle to jump out of the water while holding R1, or let go of R1 and take a breath.
* When you get to the left platform, jump onto it and charge an arrow to shoot at the bird. Then jump to the middle platform and take your sword out. Jump onto the bird (it should be around 48-49 seconds on the timer if you are fast).
* When the fight music stars, let go of R1 for just a moment to be flung a little down the wing. Let go of R1 when it is raising it's wing, and hold R1 as it is lowering it. Letting go of R1 in the right spots will let you be on the right wings sigil as soon as the flapping is done.
* Charge a full stab on the sigil and hold R1, there is a chance you can fall off when removing the sword while upside down, so hope that does not happen. When Wander is above the spikes sticking out of the bird's head, let go of R1 to fall and land on the left wing. Ideally you will land on the sigil.
* When on the left sigil, charge a full stab and wait for Wander to be above the spikes again to let go of R1, this time aiming for the tail.
* Jumping when on the tail is faster than rolling or running.
* The hitbox for the tail's sigil is much bigger than the sigil (see Naegleria's video at 21:00).
* Do one full charge stab, a 2/3 stab, and a jump stab.

;Colossus 6

;Colossus 7

;Colossus 8
* Whistle right at the start to get the colossus' attention, then roll forward and take out the bow. From here you want to roll under the bar (see 34:20 in Naegleria's video) then shoot the colossus' legs. You might want to wait a few seconds for the colossus to climb the wall, since the higher it is when it falls, the longer it will be stunned.
* An alternative to the route with the roll is to run for the stairwell on the right at the start and whistle. Run down the stairs and on the floor below there is an opening in the wall which Wander can stand on to shoot the colossus' legs.
* Each sigil takes 2.5 stabs, so do a full stab, half stab, then jump stab on the last sigil.

;Colossus 9

;Colossus 10

;Colossus 11

;Colossus 12

;Colossus 13
* Right at the start, you want to run and jump onto Agro. From a stand still, hold Down and X and Agro will rear and run at full speed, do this then hold left to go through the little building.
* Run towards the giant rock and start shooting the gas bag things on the colossus. If you get lucky the colossus will fly really low into the ground and you can jump from Agro onto the colossus' back, but this is seemingly random.
* Once you are on a wing, start jumping two ledges at a time til you get to the top, then jump onto its back and head for the first sigil. Do one full stab, then a 7/8 stab. If you do two full stabs the colossus will do a barrel roll, by doing a little less than a full stab you can deal enough damage to the sigil and prevent the roll.
* Jump as you run down the colossus to the next sigils and perform the same stab pattern on the 2nd sigil.
* For the last sigil you want to do a 7/8 stab then a jump stab.

;Colossus 14
* The fast strat with jumping on then off the colossus is tricky, but its not as random as you'd think. At the start, roll toward the waterway and jump into it. When you land, whistle to accelerate to top speed then jump and grab over the ledge. Start rolling to the final pillar and stand in front of it.
* Wait for the colossus to charge at you and roll to the side at the very last moment. Immediately after the roll you want to jump onto the shoulder of the colossus and onto the pillar. If you mess it up you can run away and back to set it up again. You could also jump onto other structures, but the final pillar is the fastest.
* During the cutscenes when the pillars fall (the first and last one), you still have control of Wander, this is particularly helpful on the last pillar. If you hold diagonl up-right and jump off the final pillar as it falls then start rolling, you can get to the wall a little earlier.
* Just like with Colossus 11, you want to be standing perpendicular on the colossus when stabbing.

;Colossus 15

;Colossus 16
* Explaining the visual cues for the run up to 16 is hard, so just watch at 1:18:10 of Naegleria's video.

ShadowOfTheColossus

2013-02-22T07:24:04Z

Naegleria:

[[Category:Playstation 2]]
[[Category:PlayStation 3]]
[[Category:Games]]
{{sda run|http://speeddemosarchive.com/ShadowOfTheColossus.html}}

==Basics==
;Versions
* The PS3 version is based off the PS2 PAL version. The most notable difference is that in the PS2 NTSC version you gain control slightly earlier in time attack, and some colossi behave slightly different at the start of time attack.

;Movement
* Rolling is the fastest method of moving on flat ground (without Agro).
* It takes a couple seconds to reach max speed when running, whistling will instantly make you move at max speed when you start running.
* During some cutscenes, you still have control of Wander.
* Momentum of the colossi can be used to launch Wander in various places.

;Stabbing
* Jump stab - Jump with triangle, then hold R1 and press square. A jump stab will do the same amount of damage as a fully charged stab; however, it takes much longer to pull the sword out, so jump stabs should primarily be used as final stabs only. Some colossi shake too much to make jump stabs worth attempting, since you can easily be launched off in those cases.
* By sheathing the sword (and having the hand icon) then holding R1 and Square when being shaken, you will start charging a stab as soon as possible. This trick is version dependent (verified on PS3 and PS2 PAL).
* Sweet spots - places on a sigil where you can stab without being shaken.
* If a sigil takes a fraction of a stab, like 2.5 stabs, what you want to do is two stabs dealing 1.5 total then a jump stab. Typically you want to do a half stab, full stab, then jump stab/full stab in that scenario.

==Time Attack Strats==

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0Z4guOZtAI

;Colossus 1
* You want to whistle at the start of the battle to gain the colossus' attention. Start running, then whistle to get to max speed, and as soon as Wander whistles, start rolling towards the colossus' left leg.
* When at the leg, jump and hit the weak spot, then jump and grab on to stab it a second time. Alternatively, you can jump and grab on then do two stabs.
* Once the cutscene in which the colossus falls begins, hold diagonal down-left (or jump to the right then hold diagonal down-left if the thigh is in the way). Ideally you want to grab onto the top of the colossus' head, but this is very difficult, so grabbing the chest then climbing up to head may be preferable.
* 3 full stabs are required, so you want to perform 2 full charge stabs and a jump stab. The safest part of the sigil to stab is the part furthest from the colossus' face.

;Colossus 2
* Face the front right leg and take two steps then take out the bow and do a roll. As soon as the roll is complete, charge an arrow and aim at the right leg and wait for the left leg's paw to come into view and shoot it. As soon as you hit the paw, start running toward the right paw, and Wander will be knocked back by the left leg falling and put into a position where you can jump onto the leg.
* Once you jump onto the leg, charge a full jump and you may start running up the leg. If you are really fast, you can jump on the bare patch of skin above the ledge when the colossus shakes his leg, but this is very difficult; alternatively you can climb onto the ledge and wait for the colossus to roar. Immediately upon hearing the roar, jump onto the colossus' back and run for the head.
* The sigil on the head has a few sweet spots, the easiest to get is the very top corner of the sigil (Naegleria's youtube video above shows this spot at 4:40), after three full stabs, start running for the rear sigil.
* Jumping when running to the back of the colossus will give you a little boost of speed.
* When you reach the sigil, you want to do 1 full stab, a 2/3 stab, then a jump stab.

;Colossus 3
* Take two steps forward, take out the bow and do two rolls.
* Start shooting the lower sigil with fully charged arrows (you can safely get 5 shots in, but more are possible), this will save you time later when you need to stab it.
* Jump into the air when the colossus swings his sword down, as long as you are in the air you are basically immune to that attack if you dodge it. Crouch near the lower symbol on the sword arm and wait.
* The sword launch is tricky, at 26.3 seconds if you did everything else right (roughly the point at which Wander is at the same height as the highest bracer on the colossus' right leg), you want to let go of R1, then hold diagonal up-right and jump. If you do it right, you will land on the colossus head. You can also go for the colossus chest, the lower sigil, or the arm.
* 3's sigils are an absolute nightmare, I don't have much info on how to do them fast.

;Colossus 4
* Jump on agro right at the start, and run towards the colossus' right hind leg. Hold R1 and Up on Agro to stand up, and from this standing position, jump onto the ledge on the leg. Move to the center of the ledge, and wait til the left leg is just about to hit the ground, at that point, do one small jump to get on the ledge, then jump onto the second ledge, then to the tail. It is possible to skip the second ledge and go straight for the tail, but this is tricky.
* Once on the tail, charge two jumps and roll towards the weak spot, if you get there fast you can stab it twice before it shakes.
* Run onto the head then do 4 full stabs and a jump stab.

;Colossus 5
* Take out the bow and hop just under the gap in the fance, this will let you get some horizontal distance as you fall.
* Hold R1 and swim toward the leftmost of the 3 platforms. You will need to get some air, so you can either press triangle to jump out of the water while holding R1, or let go of R1 and take a breath.
* When you get to the left platform, jump onto it and charge an arrow to shoot at the bird. Then jump to the middle platform and take your sword out. Jump onto the bird (it should be around 48-49 seconds on the timer if you are fast).
* When the fight music stars, let go of R1 for just a moment to be flung a little down the wing. Let go of R1 when it is raising it's wing, and hold R1 as it is lowering it. Letting go of R1 in the right spots will let you be on the right wings sigil as soon as the flapping is done.
* Charge a full stab on the sigil and hold R1, there is a chance you can fall off when removing the sword while upside down, so hope that does not happen. When Wander is above the spikes sticking out of the bird's head, let go of R1 to fall and land on the left wing. Ideally you will land on the sigil.
* When on the left sigil, charge a full stab and wait for Wander to be above the spikes again to let go of R1, this time aiming for the tail.
* Jumping when on the tail is faster than rolling or running.
* The hitbox for the tail's sigil is much bigger than the sigil (see Naegleria's video at 21:00).
* Do one full charge stab, a 2/3 stab, and a jump stab.

;Colossus 6

;Colossus 7

;Colossus 8
* Whistle right at the start to get the colossus' attention, then roll forward and take out the bow. From here you want to roll under the bar (see 34:20 in Naegleria's video) then shoot the colossus' legs. You might want to wait a few seconds for the colossus to climb the wall, since the higher it is when it falls, the longer it will be stunned.
* An alternative to the route with the roll is to run for the stairwell on the right at the start and whistle. Run down the stairs and on the floor below there is an opening in the wall which Wander can stand on to shoot the colossus' legs.
* Each sigil takes 2.5 stabs, so do a full stab, half stab, then jump stab on the last sigil.

;Colossus 9

;Colossus 10

;Colossus 11

;Colossus 12

;Colossus 13
* Right at the start, you want to run and jump onto Agro. From a stand still, hold Down and X and Agro will rear and run at full speed, do this then hold left to go through the little building.
* Run towards the giant rock and start shooting the gas bag things on the colossus. If you get lucky the colossus will fly really low into the ground and you can jump from Agro onto the colossus' back, but this is seemingly random.
* Once you are on a wing, start jumping two ledges at a time til you get to the top, then jump onto its back and head for the first sigil. Do one full stab, then a 7/8 stab. If you do two full stabs the colossus will do a barrel roll, by doing a little less than a full stab you can deal enough damage to the sigil and prevent the roll.
* Jump as you run down the colossus to the next sigils and perform the same stab pattern on the 2nd sigil.
* For the last sigil you want to do a 7/8 stab then a jump stab.

;Colossus 14
* The fast strat with jumping on then off the colossus is tricky, but its not as random as you'd think. At the start, roll toward the waterway and jump into it. When you land, whistle to accelerate to top speed then jump and grab over the ledge. Start rolling to the final pillar and stand in front of it.
* Wait for the colossus to charge at you and roll to the side at the very last moment. Immediately after the roll you want to jump onto the shoulder of the colossus and onto the pillar. If you mess it up you can run away and back to set it up again. You could also jump onto other structures, but the final pillar is the fastest.
* During the cutscenes when the pillars fall (the first and last one), you still have control of Wander, this is particularly helpful on the last pillar. If you hold diagonl up-right and jump off the final pillar as it falls then start rolling, you can get to the wall a little earlier.
* Just like with Colossus 11, you want to be standing perpendicular on the colossus when stabbing.

;Colossus 15

;Colossus 16
* Explaining the visual cues for the run up to 16 is hard, so just watch at 1:18:10 of Naegleria's video.

ShadowOfTheColossus

2013-02-22T05:20:48Z

Naegleria: /* Basics */

[[Category:Playstation 2]]
[[Category:PlayStation 3]]
[[Category:Games]]
{{sda run|http://speeddemosarchive.com/ShadowOfTheColossus.html}}

==Basics==
;Versions
* The PS3 version is based off the PS2 PAL version. The most notable difference is that in the PS2 NTSC version you gain control slightly earlier in time attack, and some colossi behave slightly different at the start of time attack.

;Movement
* Rolling is the fastest method of moving on flat ground (without Agro).
* It takes a couple seconds to reach max speed when running, whistling will instantly make you move at max speed when you start running.
* During some cutscenes, you still have control of Wander.
* Momentum of the colossi can be used to launch Wander in various places.

;Stabbing
* Jump stab - Jump with triangle, then hold R1 and press square. A jump stab will do the same amount of damage as a fully charged stab; however, it takes much longer to pull the sword out, so jump stabs should primarily be used as final stabs only. Some colossi shake too much to make jump stabs worth attempting, since you can easily be launched off in those cases.
* By sheathing the sword (and having the hand icon) then holding R1 and Square when being shaken, you will start charging a stab as soon as possible. This trick is version dependent (verified on PS3 and PS2 PAL).
* Sweet spots - places on a sigil where you can stab without being shaken.
* If a sigil takes a fraction of a stab, like 2.5 stabs, what you want to do is two stabs dealing 1.5 total then a jump stab. Typically you want to do a half stab, full stab, then jump stab/full stab in that scenario.

==Time Attack Strats==

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0Z4guOZtAI

;Colossus 1
* You want to whistle at the start of the battle to gain the colossus' attention. Start running, then whistle to get to max speed, and as soon as Wander whistles, start rolling towards the colossus' left leg.
* When at the leg, jump and hit the weak spot, then jump and grab on to stab it a second time. Alternatively, you can jump and grab on then do two stabs.
* Once the cutscene in which the colossus falls begins, hold diagonal down-left (or jump to the right then hold diagonal down-left if the thigh is in the way). Ideally you want to grab onto the top of the colossus' head, but this is very difficult, so grabbing the chest then climbing up to head may be preferable.
* 3 full stabs are required, so you want to perform 2 full charge stabs and a jump stab. The safest part of the sigil to stab is the part furthest from the colossus' face.

;Colossus 2
* Face the front right leg and take two steps then take out the bow and do a roll. As soon as the roll is complete, charge an arrow and aim at the right leg and wait for the left leg's paw to come into view and shoot it. As soon as you hit the paw, start running toward the right paw, and Wander will be knocked back by the left leg falling and put into a position where you can jump onto the leg.
* Once you jump onto the leg, charge a full jump and you may start running up the leg. If you are really fast, you can jump on the bare patch of skin above the ledge when the colossus shakes his leg, but this is very difficult; alternatively you can climb onto the ledge and wait for the colossus to roar. Immediately upon hearing the roar, jump onto the colossus' back and run for the head.
* The sigil on the head has a few sweet spots, the easiest to get is the very top corner of the sigil (Naegleria's youtube video above shows this spot at 4:40), after three full stabs, start running for the rear sigil.
* Jumping when running to the back of the colossus will give you a little boost of speed.
* When you reach the sigil, you want to do 1 full stab, a 2/3 stab, then a jump stab.

;Colossus 3
* Take two steps forward, take out the bow and do two rolls.
* Start shooting the lower sigil with fully charged arrows (you can safely get 5 shots in, but more are possible), this will save you time later when you need to stab it.
* Jump into the air when the colossus swings his sword down, as long as you are in the air you are basically immune to that attack if you dodge it. Crouch near the lower symbol on the sword arm and wait.
* The sword launch is tricky, at 26.3 seconds if you did everything else right (roughly the point at which Wander is at the same height as the highest bracer on the colossus' right leg), you want to let go of R1, then hold diagonal up-right and jump. If you do it right, you will land on the colossus head. You can also go for the colossus chest, the lower sigil, or the arm.
* 3's sigils are an absolute nightmare, I don't have much info on how to do them fast.

;Colossus 4
* Jump on agro right at the start, and run towards the colossus' right hind leg. Hold R1 and Up on Agro to stand up, and from this standing position, jump onto the ledge on the leg. Move to the center of the ledge, and wait til the left leg is just about to hit the ground, at that point, do one small jump to get on the ledge, then jump onto the second ledge, then to the tail. It is possible to skip the second ledge and go straight for the tail, but this is tricky.
* Once on the tail, charge two jumps and roll towards the weak spot, if you get there fast you can stab it twice before it shakes.
* Run onto the head then do 4 full stabs and a jump stab.

;Colossus 5
* Take out the bow and hop just under the gap in the fance, this will let you get some horizontal distance as you fall.
* Hold R1 and swim toward the leftmost of the 3 platforms. You will need to get some air, so you can either press triangle to jump out of the water while holding R1, or let go of R1 and take a breath.
* When you get to the left platform, jump onto it and charge an arrow to shoot at the bird. Then jump to the middle platform and take your sword out. Jump onto the bird (it should be around 48-49 seconds on the timer if you are fast).
* When the fight music stars, let go of R1 for just a moment to be flung a little down the wing. Let go of R1 when it is raising it's wing, and hold R1 as it is lowering it. Letting go of R1 in the right spots will let you be on the right wings sigil as soon as the flapping is done.
* Charge a full stab on the sigil and hold R1, there is a chance you can fall off when removing the sword while upside down, so hope that does not happen. When Wander is above the spikes sticking out of the bird's head, let go of R1 to fall and land on the left wing. Ideally you will land on the sigil.
* When on the left sigil, charge a full stab and wait for Wander to be above the spikes again to let go of R1, this time aiming for the tail.
* Jumping when on the tail is faster than rolling or running.
* The hitbox for the tail's sigil is much bigger than the sigil (see Naegleria's video at 21:00).
* Do one full charge stab, a 2/3 stab, and a jump stab.

;Colossus 6

;Colossus 7

;Colossus 8
* Whistle right at the start to get the colossus' attention, then roll forward and take out the bow. From here you want to roll under the bar (see 34:20 in Naegleria's video) then shoot the colossus' legs. You might want to wait a few seconds for the colossus to climb the wall, since the higher it is when it falls, the longer it will be stunned.
* An alternative to the route with the roll is to run for the stairwell on the right at the start and whistle. Run down the stairs and on the floor below there is an opening in the wall which Wander can stand on to shoot the colossus' legs.
* Each sigil takes 2.5 stabs, so do a full stab, half stab, then jump stab on the last sigil.

;Colossus 9

;Colossus 10

;Colossus 11

;Colossus 12

;Colossus 13

;Colossus 14

;Colossus 15

;Colossus 16
* Explaining the visual cues for the run up to 16 is hard, so just watch at 1:18:10 of Naegleria's video.

ShadowOfTheColossus

2013-02-22T05:20:02Z

Naegleria: /* Basics */

[[Category:Playstation 2]]
[[Category:PlayStation 3]]
[[Category:Games]]
{{sda run|http://speeddemosarchive.com/ShadowOfTheColossus.html}}

==Basics==
;Versions
* The PS3 version is based off the PS2 PAL version. The most notable difference is that in the PS2 NTSC version you gain control slightly earlier in time attack, and some colossi behave slightly different at the start of time attack.

;Movement
* Rolling is the fastest method of moving on flat ground (without Agro).
* It takes a couple seconds to reach max speed when running, whistling will instantly make you move at max speed when you start running.
* During some cutscenes, you still have control of Wander.
* Momentum of the colossi can be used to launch Wander in various places.

;Stabbing
* Jump stab - Jump with triangle, then hold R1 and press square. A jump stab will do the same amount of damage as a fully charged stab; however, it takes much longer to pull the sword out, so jump stabs should primarily be used as final stabs only.
* By sheathing the sword (and having the hand icon) then holding R1 and Square when being shaken, you will start charging a stab as soon as possible. This trick is version dependent (verified on PS3 and PS2 PAL).
* Sweet spots - places on a sigil where you can stab without being shaken.
* If a sigil takes a fraction of a stab, like 2.5 stabs, what you want to do is two stabs dealing 1.5 total then a jump stab. Typically you want to do a half stab, full stab, then jump stab/full stab in that scenario.

==Time Attack Strats==

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0Z4guOZtAI

;Colossus 1
* You want to whistle at the start of the battle to gain the colossus' attention. Start running, then whistle to get to max speed, and as soon as Wander whistles, start rolling towards the colossus' left leg.
* When at the leg, jump and hit the weak spot, then jump and grab on to stab it a second time. Alternatively, you can jump and grab on then do two stabs.
* Once the cutscene in which the colossus falls begins, hold diagonal down-left (or jump to the right then hold diagonal down-left if the thigh is in the way). Ideally you want to grab onto the top of the colossus' head, but this is very difficult, so grabbing the chest then climbing up to head may be preferable.
* 3 full stabs are required, so you want to perform 2 full charge stabs and a jump stab. The safest part of the sigil to stab is the part furthest from the colossus' face.

;Colossus 2
* Face the front right leg and take two steps then take out the bow and do a roll. As soon as the roll is complete, charge an arrow and aim at the right leg and wait for the left leg's paw to come into view and shoot it. As soon as you hit the paw, start running toward the right paw, and Wander will be knocked back by the left leg falling and put into a position where you can jump onto the leg.
* Once you jump onto the leg, charge a full jump and you may start running up the leg. If you are really fast, you can jump on the bare patch of skin above the ledge when the colossus shakes his leg, but this is very difficult; alternatively you can climb onto the ledge and wait for the colossus to roar. Immediately upon hearing the roar, jump onto the colossus' back and run for the head.
* The sigil on the head has a few sweet spots, the easiest to get is the very top corner of the sigil (Naegleria's youtube video above shows this spot at 4:40), after three full stabs, start running for the rear sigil.
* Jumping when running to the back of the colossus will give you a little boost of speed.
* When you reach the sigil, you want to do 1 full stab, a 2/3 stab, then a jump stab.

;Colossus 3
* Take two steps forward, take out the bow and do two rolls.
* Start shooting the lower sigil with fully charged arrows (you can safely get 5 shots in, but more are possible), this will save you time later when you need to stab it.
* Jump into the air when the colossus swings his sword down, as long as you are in the air you are basically immune to that attack if you dodge it. Crouch near the lower symbol on the sword arm and wait.
* The sword launch is tricky, at 26.3 seconds if you did everything else right (roughly the point at which Wander is at the same height as the highest bracer on the colossus' right leg), you want to let go of R1, then hold diagonal up-right and jump. If you do it right, you will land on the colossus head. You can also go for the colossus chest, the lower sigil, or the arm.
* 3's sigils are an absolute nightmare, I don't have much info on how to do them fast.

;Colossus 4
* Jump on agro right at the start, and run towards the colossus' right hind leg. Hold R1 and Up on Agro to stand up, and from this standing position, jump onto the ledge on the leg. Move to the center of the ledge, and wait til the left leg is just about to hit the ground, at that point, do one small jump to get on the ledge, then jump onto the second ledge, then to the tail. It is possible to skip the second ledge and go straight for the tail, but this is tricky.
* Once on the tail, charge two jumps and roll towards the weak spot, if you get there fast you can stab it twice before it shakes.
* Run onto the head then do 4 full stabs and a jump stab.

;Colossus 5
* Take out the bow and hop just under the gap in the fance, this will let you get some horizontal distance as you fall.
* Hold R1 and swim toward the leftmost of the 3 platforms. You will need to get some air, so you can either press triangle to jump out of the water while holding R1, or let go of R1 and take a breath.
* When you get to the left platform, jump onto it and charge an arrow to shoot at the bird. Then jump to the middle platform and take your sword out. Jump onto the bird (it should be around 48-49 seconds on the timer if you are fast).
* When the fight music stars, let go of R1 for just a moment to be flung a little down the wing. Let go of R1 when it is raising it's wing, and hold R1 as it is lowering it. Letting go of R1 in the right spots will let you be on the right wings sigil as soon as the flapping is done.
* Charge a full stab on the sigil and hold R1, there is a chance you can fall off when removing the sword while upside down, so hope that does not happen. When Wander is above the spikes sticking out of the bird's head, let go of R1 to fall and land on the left wing. Ideally you will land on the sigil.
* When on the left sigil, charge a full stab and wait for Wander to be above the spikes again to let go of R1, this time aiming for the tail.
* Jumping when on the tail is faster than rolling or running.
* The hitbox for the tail's sigil is much bigger than the sigil (see Naegleria's video at 21:00).
* Do one full charge stab, a 2/3 stab, and a jump stab.

;Colossus 6

;Colossus 7

;Colossus 8
* Whistle right at the start to get the colossus' attention, then roll forward and take out the bow. From here you want to roll under the bar (see 34:20 in Naegleria's video) then shoot the colossus' legs. You might want to wait a few seconds for the colossus to climb the wall, since the higher it is when it falls, the longer it will be stunned.
* An alternative to the route with the roll is to run for the stairwell on the right at the start and whistle. Run down the stairs and on the floor below there is an opening in the wall which Wander can stand on to shoot the colossus' legs.
* Each sigil takes 2.5 stabs, so do a full stab, half stab, then jump stab on the last sigil.

;Colossus 9

;Colossus 10

;Colossus 11

;Colossus 12

;Colossus 13

;Colossus 14

;Colossus 15

;Colossus 16
* Explaining the visual cues for the run up to 16 is hard, so just watch at 1:18:10 of Naegleria's video.

ShadowOfTheColossus

2013-02-22T03:46:15Z

Naegleria: /* Time Attack Strats */

[[Category:Playstation 2]]
[[Category:PlayStation 3]]
[[Category:Games]]
{{sda run|http://speeddemosarchive.com/ShadowOfTheColossus.html}}

==Basics==
;Versions
* The PS3 version is based off the PS2 PAL version. The most notable difference is that in the PS2 NTSC version you gain control slightly earlier in time attack, and some colossi behave slightly different at the start of time attack.

;Movement
* Rolling is the fastest method of moving on flat ground (without Agro).
* It takes a couple seconds to reach max speed when running, whistling will instantly make you move at max speed when you start running.
* During some cutscenes, you still have control of Wander.
* Momentum of the colossi can be used to launch Wander in various places.

;Stabbing
* Jump stab - Jump with triangle, then hold R1 and press square. A jump stab will do the same amount of damage as a fully charged stab; however, it takes much longer to pull the sword out, so jump stabs should primarily be used as final stabs only.
* By sheathing the sword (and having the hand icon) then holding R1 and Square when being shaken, you will start charging a stab as soon as possible. This trick is version dependent (verified on PS3 and PS2 PAL).
* Sweet spots - places on a sigil where you can stab without being shaken.

==Time Attack Strats==

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0Z4guOZtAI

;Colossus 1
* You want to whistle at the start of the battle to gain the colossus' attention. Start running, then whistle to get to max speed, and as soon as Wander whistles, start rolling towards the colossus' left leg.
* When at the leg, jump and hit the weak spot, then jump and grab on to stab it a second time. Alternatively, you can jump and grab on then do two stabs.
* Once the cutscene in which the colossus falls begins, hold diagonal down-left (or jump to the right then hold diagonal down-left if the thigh is in the way). Ideally you want to grab onto the top of the colossus' head, but this is very difficult, so grabbing the chest then climbing up to head may be preferable.
* 3 full stabs are required, so you want to perform 2 full charge stabs and a jump stab. The safest part of the sigil to stab is the part furthest from the colossus' face.

;Colossus 2
* Face the front right leg and take two steps then take out the bow and do a roll. As soon as the roll is complete, charge an arrow and aim at the right leg and wait for the left leg's paw to come into view and shoot it. As soon as you hit the paw, start running toward the right paw, and Wander will be knocked back by the left leg falling and put into a position where you can jump onto the leg.
* Once you jump onto the leg, charge a full jump and you may start running up the leg. If you are really fast, you can jump on the bare patch of skin above the ledge when the colossus shakes his leg, but this is very difficult; alternatively you can climb onto the ledge and wait for the colossus to roar. Immediately upon hearing the roar, jump onto the colossus' back and run for the head.
* The sigil on the head has a few sweet spots, the easiest to get is the very top corner of the sigil (Naegleria's youtube video above shows this spot at 4:40), after three full stabs, start running for the rear sigil.
* Jumping when running to the back of the colossus will give you a little boost of speed.
* When you reach the sigil, you want to do 1 full stab, a 2/3 stab, then a jump stab.

;Colossus 3
* Take two steps forward, take out the bow and do two rolls.
* Start shooting the lower sigil with fully charged arrows (you can safely get 5 shots in, but more are possible), this will save you time later when you need to stab it.
* Jump into the air when the colossus swings his sword down, as long as you are in the air you are basically immune to that attack if you dodge it. Crouch near the lower symbol on the sword arm and wait.
* The sword launch is tricky, at 26.3 seconds if you did everything else right (roughly the point at which Wander is at the same height as the highest bracer on the colossus' right leg), you want to let go of R1, then hold diagonal up-right and jump. If you do it right, you will land on the colossus head. You can also go for the colossus chest, the lower sigil, or the arm.
* 3's sigils are an absolute nightmare, I don't have much info on how to do them fast.

;Colossus 4
* Jump on agro right at the start, and run towards the colossus' right hind leg. Hold R1 and Up on Agro to stand up, and from this standing position, jump onto the ledge on the leg. Move to the center of the ledge, and wait til the left leg is just about to hit the ground, at that point, do one small jump to get on the ledge, then jump onto the second ledge, then to the tail. It is possible to skip the second ledge and go straight for the tail, but this is tricky.
* Once on the tail, charge two jumps and roll towards the weak spot, if you get there fast you can stab it twice before it shakes.
* Run onto the head then do 4 full stabs and a jump stab.

;Colossus 5
* Take out the bow and hop just under the gap in the fance, this will let you get some horizontal distance as you fall.
* Hold R1 and swim toward the leftmost of the 3 platforms. You will need to get some air, so you can either press triangle to jump out of the water while holding R1, or let go of R1 and take a breath.
* When you get to the left platform, jump onto it and charge an arrow to shoot at the bird. Then jump to the middle platform and take your sword out. Jump onto the bird (it should be around 48-49 seconds on the timer if you are fast).
* When the fight music stars, let go of R1 for just a moment to be flung a little down the wing. Let go of R1 when it is raising it's wing, and hold R1 as it is lowering it. Letting go of R1 in the right spots will let you be on the right wings sigil as soon as the flapping is done.
* Charge a full stab on the sigil and hold R1, there is a chance you can fall off when removing the sword while upside down, so hope that does not happen. When Wander is above the spikes sticking out of the bird's head, let go of R1 to fall and land on the left wing. Ideally you will land on the sigil.
* When on the left sigil, charge a full stab and wait for Wander to be above the spikes again to let go of R1, this time aiming for the tail.
* Jumping when on the tail is faster than rolling or running.
* The hitbox for the tail's sigil is much bigger than the sigil (see Naegleria's video at 21:00).
* Do one full charge stab, a 2/3 stab, and a jump stab.

;Colossus 6

;Colossus 7

;Colossus 8
* Whistle right at the start to get the colossus' attention, then roll forward and take out the bow. From here you want to roll under the bar (see 34:20 in Naegleria's video) then shoot the colossus' legs. You might want to wait a few seconds for the colossus to climb the wall, since the higher it is when it falls, the longer it will be stunned.
* An alternative to the route with the roll is to run for the stairwell on the right at the start and whistle. Run down the stairs and on the floor below there is an opening in the wall which Wander can stand on to shoot the colossus' legs.
* Each sigil takes 2.5 stabs, so do a full stab, half stab, then jump stab on the last sigil.

;Colossus 9

;Colossus 10

;Colossus 11

;Colossus 12

;Colossus 13

;Colossus 14

;Colossus 15

;Colossus 16
* Explaining the visual cues for the run up to 16 is hard, so just watch at 1:18:10 of Naegleria's video.

ShadowOfTheColossus

2013-02-22T03:44:26Z

Naegleria: /* Basics */

[[Category:Playstation 2]]
[[Category:PlayStation 3]]
[[Category:Games]]
{{sda run|http://speeddemosarchive.com/ShadowOfTheColossus.html}}

==Basics==
;Versions
* The PS3 version is based off the PS2 PAL version. The most notable difference is that in the PS2 NTSC version you gain control slightly earlier in time attack, and some colossi behave slightly different at the start of time attack.

;Movement
* Rolling is the fastest method of moving on flat ground (without Agro).
* It takes a couple seconds to reach max speed when running, whistling will instantly make you move at max speed when you start running.
* During some cutscenes, you still have control of Wander.
* Momentum of the colossi can be used to launch Wander in various places.

;Stabbing
* Jump stab - Jump with triangle, then hold R1 and press square. A jump stab will do the same amount of damage as a fully charged stab; however, it takes much longer to pull the sword out, so jump stabs should primarily be used as final stabs only.
* By sheathing the sword (and having the hand icon) then holding R1 and Square when being shaken, you will start charging a stab as soon as possible. This trick is version dependent (verified on PS3 and PS2 PAL).
* Sweet spots - places on a sigil where you can stab without being shaken.

==Time Attack Strats==

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0Z4guOZtAI

;Colossus 1
* You want to whistle at the start of the battle to gain the colossus' attention. Start running, then whistle to get to max speed, and as soon as Wander whistles, start rolling towards the colossus' left leg.
* When at the leg, jump and hit the weak spot, then jump and grab on to stab it a second time. Alternatively, you can jump and grab on then do two stabs.
* Once the cutscene in which the colossus falls begins, hold diagonal down-left (or jump to the right then hold diagonal down-left if the thigh is in the way). Ideally you want to grab onto the top of the colossus' head, but this is very difficult, so grabbing the chest then climbing up to head may be preferable.
* 3 full stabs are required, so you want to perform 2 full charge stabs and a jump stab. The safest part of the sigil to stab is the part furthest from the colossus' face.

;Colossus 2
* Face the front right leg and take two steps then take out the bow and do a roll. As soon as the roll is complete, charge an arrow and aim at the right leg and wait for the left leg's paw to come into view and shoot it. As soon as you hit the paw, start running toward the right paw, and Wander will be knocked back by the left leg falling and put into a position where you can jump onto the leg.
* Once you jump onto the leg, charge a full jump and you may start running up the leg. If you are really fast, you can jump on the bare patch of skin above the ledge when the colossus shakes his leg, but this is very difficult; alternatively you can climb onto the ledge and wait for the colossus to roar. Immediately upon hearing the roar, jump onto the colossus' back and run for the head.
* The sigil on the head has a few sweet spots, the easiest to get is the very top corner of the sigil (Naegleria's youtube video above shows this spot at 4:40), after three full stabs, start running for the rear sigil.
* Jumping when running to the back of the colossus will give you a little boost of speed.
* When you reach the sigil, you want to do 1 full stab, a 2/3 stab, then a jump stab.

;Colossus 3
* Take two steps forward, take out the bow and do two rolls.
* Start shooting the lower sigil with fully charged arrows (you can safely get 5 shots in, but more are possible), this will save you time later when you need to stab it.
* Jump into the air when the colossus swings his sword down, as long as you are in the air you are basically immune to that attack if you dodge it. Crouch near the lower symbol on the sword arm and wait.
* The sword launch is tricky, at 26.3 seconds if you did everything else right (roughly the point at which Wander is at the same height as the highest bracer on the colossus' right leg), you want to let go of R1, then hold diagonal up-right and jump. If you do it right, you will land on the colossus head. You can also go for the colossus chest, the lower sigil, or the arm.
* 3's sigils are an absolute nightmare, I don't have much info on how to do them fast.

;Colossus 4
* Jump on agro right at the start, and run towards the colossus' right hind leg. Hold R1 and Up on Agro to stand up, and from this standing position, jump onto the ledge on the leg. Move to the center of the ledge, and wait til the left leg is just about to hit the ground, at that point, do one small jump to get on the ledge, then jump onto the second ledge, then to the tail. It is possible to skip the second ledge and go straight for the tail, but this is tricky.
* Once on the tail, charge two jumps and roll towards the weak spot, if you get there fast you can stab it twice before it shakes.
* Run onto the head then do 4 full stabs and a jump stab.

;Colossus 5
* Take out the bow and hop just under the gap in the fance, this will let you get some horizontal distance as you fall.
* Hold R1 and swim toward the leftmost of the 3 platforms. You will need to get some air, so you can either press triangle to jump out of the water while holding R1, or let go of R1 and take a breath.
* When you get to the left platform, jump onto it and charge an arrow to shoot at the bird. Then jump to the middle platform and take your sword out. Jump onto the bird (it should be around 48-49 seconds on the timer if you are fast).
* When the fight music stars, let go of R1 for just a moment to be flung a little down the wing. Let go of R1 when it is raising it's wing, and hold R1 as it is lowering it. Letting go of R1 in the right spots will let you be on the right wings sigil as soon as the flapping is done.
* Charge a full stab on the sigil and hold R1, there is a chance you can fall off when removing the sword while upside down, so hope that does not happen. When Wander is above the spikes sticking out of the bird's head, let go of R1 to fall and land on the left wing. Ideally you will land on the sigil.
* When on the left sigil, charge a full stab and wait for Wander to be above the spikes again to let go of R1, this time aiming for the tail.
* Jumping when on the tail is faster than rolling or running.
* The hitbox for the tail's sigil is much bigger than the sigil (see Naegleria's video at 21:00).
* Do one full charge stab, a 2/3 stab, and a jump stab.

;Colossus 6

;Colossus 7

;Colossus 8
* Whistle right at the start to get the colossus' attention, then roll forward and take out the bow. From here you want to roll under the bar (see 34:20 in Naegleria's video) then shoot the colossus' legs. You might want to wait a few seconds for the colossus to climb the wall, since the higher it is when it falls, the longer it will be stunned.
* Each sigil takes 2.5 stabs, so do a full stab, half stab, then jump stab on the last sigil.

;Colossus 9

;Colossus 10

;Colossus 11

;Colossus 12

;Colossus 13

;Colossus 14

;Colossus 15

;Colossus 16
* Explaining the visual cues for the run up to 16 is hard, so just watch at 1:18:10 of Naegleria's video.

ShadowOfTheColossus

2013-02-22T03:41:25Z

Naegleria: /* Time Attack Strats */

[[Category:Playstation 2]]
[[Category:PlayStation 3]]
[[Category:Games]]
{{sda run|http://speeddemosarchive.com/ShadowOfTheColossus.html}}

==Basics==
;Versions
* The PS3 version is based off the PS2 PAL version. The most notable difference is that in the PS2 NTSC version you gain control slightly earlier in time attack, and some colossi behave slightly different at the start of time attack.

;Movement
* Rolling is the fastest method of moving on flat ground (without Agro).
* It takes a couple seconds to reach max speed when running, whistling will instantly make you move at max speed when you start running.
* During some cutscenes, you still have control of Wander.
* Momentum of the colossus can be used to launch Wander in various places.

;Stabbing
* Jump stab - Jump with triangle, then hold R1 and press square. A jump stab will do the same amount of damage as a fully charged stab; however, it takes much longer to pull the sword out, so jump stabs should primarily be used as final stabs only.
* By sheathing the sword (and having the hand icon) then holding R1 and Square when being shaken, you will start charging a stab as soon as possible. This trick is version dependent (verified on PS3 and PS2 PAL).
* Sweet spots - places on a sigil where you can stab without being shaken.

==Time Attack Strats==

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0Z4guOZtAI

;Colossus 1
* You want to whistle at the start of the battle to gain the colossus' attention. Start running, then whistle to get to max speed, and as soon as Wander whistles, start rolling towards the colossus' left leg.
* When at the leg, jump and hit the weak spot, then jump and grab on to stab it a second time. Alternatively, you can jump and grab on then do two stabs.
* Once the cutscene in which the colossus falls begins, hold diagonal down-left (or jump to the right then hold diagonal down-left if the thigh is in the way). Ideally you want to grab onto the top of the colossus' head, but this is very difficult, so grabbing the chest then climbing up to head may be preferable.
* 3 full stabs are required, so you want to perform 2 full charge stabs and a jump stab. The safest part of the sigil to stab is the part furthest from the colossus' face.

;Colossus 2
* Face the front right leg and take two steps then take out the bow and do a roll. As soon as the roll is complete, charge an arrow and aim at the right leg and wait for the left leg's paw to come into view and shoot it. As soon as you hit the paw, start running toward the right paw, and Wander will be knocked back by the left leg falling and put into a position where you can jump onto the leg.
* Once you jump onto the leg, charge a full jump and you may start running up the leg. If you are really fast, you can jump on the bare patch of skin above the ledge when the colossus shakes his leg, but this is very difficult; alternatively you can climb onto the ledge and wait for the colossus to roar. Immediately upon hearing the roar, jump onto the colossus' back and run for the head.
* The sigil on the head has a few sweet spots, the easiest to get is the very top corner of the sigil (Naegleria's youtube video above shows this spot at 4:40), after three full stabs, start running for the rear sigil.
* Jumping when running to the back of the colossus will give you a little boost of speed.
* When you reach the sigil, you want to do 1 full stab, a 2/3 stab, then a jump stab.

;Colossus 3
* Take two steps forward, take out the bow and do two rolls.
* Start shooting the lower sigil with fully charged arrows (you can safely get 5 shots in, but more are possible), this will save you time later when you need to stab it.
* Jump into the air when the colossus swings his sword down, as long as you are in the air you are basically immune to that attack if you dodge it. Crouch near the lower symbol on the sword arm and wait.
* The sword launch is tricky, at 26.3 seconds if you did everything else right (roughly the point at which Wander is at the same height as the highest bracer on the colossus' right leg), you want to let go of R1, then hold diagonal up-right and jump. If you do it right, you will land on the colossus head. You can also go for the colossus chest, the lower sigil, or the arm.
* 3's sigils are an absolute nightmare, I don't have much info on how to do them fast.

;Colossus 4
* Jump on agro right at the start, and run towards the colossus' right hind leg. Hold R1 and Up on Agro to stand up, and from this standing position, jump onto the ledge on the leg. Move to the center of the ledge, and wait til the left leg is just about to hit the ground, at that point, do one small jump to get on the ledge, then jump onto the second ledge, then to the tail. It is possible to skip the second ledge and go straight for the tail, but this is tricky.
* Once on the tail, charge two jumps and roll towards the weak spot, if you get there fast you can stab it twice before it shakes.
* Run onto the head then do 4 full stabs and a jump stab.

;Colossus 5
* Take out the bow and hop just under the gap in the fance, this will let you get some horizontal distance as you fall.
* Hold R1 and swim toward the leftmost of the 3 platforms. You will need to get some air, so you can either press triangle to jump out of the water while holding R1, or let go of R1 and take a breath.
* When you get to the left platform, jump onto it and charge an arrow to shoot at the bird. Then jump to the middle platform and take your sword out. Jump onto the bird (it should be around 48-49 seconds on the timer if you are fast).
* When the fight music stars, let go of R1 for just a moment to be flung a little down the wing. Let go of R1 when it is raising it's wing, and hold R1 as it is lowering it. Letting go of R1 in the right spots will let you be on the right wings sigil as soon as the flapping is done.
* Charge a full stab on the sigil and hold R1, there is a chance you can fall off when removing the sword while upside down, so hope that does not happen. When Wander is above the spikes sticking out of the bird's head, let go of R1 to fall and land on the left wing. Ideally you will land on the sigil.
* When on the left sigil, charge a full stab and wait for Wander to be above the spikes again to let go of R1, this time aiming for the tail.
* Jumping when on the tail is faster than rolling or running.
* The hitbox for the tail's sigil is much bigger than the sigil (see Naegleria's video at 21:00).
* Do one full charge stab, a 2/3 stab, and a jump stab.

;Colossus 6

;Colossus 7

;Colossus 8
* Whistle right at the start to get the colossus' attention, then roll forward and take out the bow. From here you want to roll under the bar (see 34:20 in Naegleria's video) then shoot the colossus' legs. You might want to wait a few seconds for the colossus to climb the wall, since the higher it is when it falls, the longer it will be stunned.
* Each sigil takes 2.5 stabs, so do a full stab, half stab, then jump stab on the last sigil.

;Colossus 9

;Colossus 10

;Colossus 11

;Colossus 12

;Colossus 13

;Colossus 14

;Colossus 15

;Colossus 16
* Explaining the visual cues for the run up to 16 is hard, so just watch at 1:18:10 of Naegleria's video.

ShadowOfTheColossus

2013-02-22T03:32:36Z

Naegleria: Created page with "Category:Playstation 2 Category:PlayStation 3 Category:Games {{sda run|http://speeddemosarchive.com/ShadowOfTheColossus.html}} ==Basics== ;Versions * The PS3 vers..."