Uploaded February 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
You may be familiar with certain challenges in 2D Sonic games with Knuckles where people try to beat them without pressing left or right. I considered this too easy, and decided to challenge myself to see how much of the game I could beat without using the D-Pad at all.
Not only that, I've decided to see how fast I can beat each level with this requirement.
Given Knuckles can move forward with the glide, banning only Left and Right on the D-Pad means you can still use Up and Down to climb up and down walls, as well as use down to spindash. But with A Button only, all you can do is jump and glide in the direction you are facing, making it way more restrictive.
This stage is a pretty easy complete - though I will note it took me quite a while to actually get a 25. Got a large number of 26s before I finally got a run optimised enough to cut off this last second.
Discord server: discord.gg/0jCpl8wIKvQWXJaP
Speedrun profile: speedrun.com/user/werster
Twitch stream: twitch.tv/werster
Patreon: patreon.com/werster
Kofi: ko-fi.com/werster
You may be familiar with certain challenges in 2D Sonic games with Knuckles where people try to beat them without pressing left or right. I considered this too easy, and decided to challenge myself to see how much of the game I could beat without using the D-Pad at all.
Not only that, I've decided to see how fast I can beat each level with this requirement.
Given Knuckles can move forward with the glide, banning only Left and Right on the D-Pad means you can still use Up and Down to climb up and down walls, as well as use down to spindash. But with A Button only, all you can do is jump and glide in the direction you are facing, making it way more restrictive.
This stage is a pretty easy complete - though I will note it took me quite a while to actually get a 25. Got a large number of 26s before I finally got a run optimised enough to cut off this last second.
Discord server: discord.gg/0jCpl8wIKvQWXJaP
Speedrun profile: speedrun.com/user/werster
Twitch stream: twitch.tv/werster
Patreon: patreon.com/werster
Kofi: ko-fi.com/werster
![Pokemon Stadium 2 - GLC R1, Transfers ONLY from New Game (Gold) in 4:33:38 [WR]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/x4GjLOu9Q80/mqdefault.jpg "Pokemon Stadium 2 - GLC R1, Transfers ONLY from New Game (Gold) in 4:33:38 [WR]
The concept of these runs, is starting from a new game in the Game Boy game via Dodrio tower, and make a team to beat the Gym Leader Castle. The reason for doing transfers *only*, is that otherwise just using rentals would be faster. The reason for starting from new game, is otherwise just using perfectly built mons is boring as hell, and extremely easy. The reason for not doing the whole game, is grinding to L100 for Prime Cup is also boring as hell.
But this is a sweet spot thats really interesting to theorise routes for, in terms of Pokemon to get and use, and risk/reward factor between how much to prioritise team building and how much to go in as soon as possible.
In this case, I routed out Gold for GLC Round 1, but Ive done other categories doing cups and with different games.
This run, well... I probably want to do other categories and keep this run forever just because of the Ho-Oh to be honest. The stuff of legend.
FAQ: https://speedpastes.org/THE98o9W
Discord server: https://discord.gg/0jCpl8wIKvQWXJaP
Speedrun profile: http://www.speedrun.com/user/werster
Twitch stream: https://www.twitch.tv/werster
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/werster
Kofi: https://ko-fi.com/werster")
![Pokemon Stadium 2 - Little Cups, Transfers only from New Game (Crystal) in 1:53:16 [WR]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/xRC_e2XVioY/mqdefault.jpg "Pokemon Stadium 2 - Little Cups, Transfers only from New Game (Crystal) in 1:53:16 [WR]
After coming up with the good way to do transfer runs, Little Cup from gen 2 was always next on my list I wanted to take on. And this one was a lot more involved! Changed the route significantly while doing runs, and made minor adjustments on every attempt. And love where I landed.
The concept of these runs, is starting from a new game in the Game Boy game via Dodrio tower, and make a team to beat one of the cups. In this case, Little Cup (both Round 1 and 2). The reason for doing transfers *only*, is that otherwise just using rentals would be faster. The reason for starting from new game, is otherwise just using perfectly built mons is boring as hell, and extremely easy. The reason for not doing the whole game, is grinding to L100 for Prime Cup is also boring as hell.
But this is a sweet spot thats really interesting to theorise routes for, in terms of Pokemon to get and use, and risk/reward factor between how much to prioritise team building and how much to go in as soon as possible.
Really pleased with where the route ended up, in terms of I dont think you could make a winnable team within reason much earlier than this, and also the fact that Wooper plays the critical glue role for the hard fights is so perfect.
FAQ: https://pastebin.com/NJyjsPHk
Discord server: https://discord.gg/0jCpl8wIKvQWXJaP
Speedrun profile: http://www.speedrun.com/user/werster
Twitch stream: https://www.twitch.tv/werster
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/werster
Kofi: https://ko-fi.com/werster")
![Sonic Pinball Party - any% Speedrun in 24:19 [Current World Record]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/xUb_fSOqcxo/mqdefault.jpg "Sonic Pinball Party - any% Speedrun in 24:19 [Current World Record]
Heres a game I never expected to run. I... still dont quite know why I did. Randomly got the urge to play this, and just decided to learn the run.
So lets talk about what makes this run interesting. It wont take too long:
Going through most of the stages is self explanatory, complete the table by beating the boss. Only Amys stage takes place on the NiGHTS board, every other board is basically the same, but with different music. So hit that loop, hit the hole, kill eggman. Repeat, a lot.
The Tails stage has some neatness too it, as it asks for a points value. You get 10 mil per boss kill and he asks for 15 mil, so it does take a decent amount of skill to get the extra 5 mil in good time before it transitions to the next board.
Given Tails and Amy are right near the start, it makes the first 6 minutes or so of this run actually alright. Then you fight Metal Sonic, and it sucks. You have to repeat the same board 7 damn times. Not only that, you simply cant skip the minute long clear bonus after every stage, *and* you cant do anything meaningful during the time either. In fact, I found its slightly faster to actually do nothing and just hold the ball, just to avoid the occasional lag frame. At least you get all the fun of the Sonic Advance soundtrack, and even a bit of Sonic R (just with none of the fun of actually playing it!)
Then Eggman is basically get 30 million except it doesnt stop when you reach it like Tails does, its a timer. So the only meaningful thing here is to once again minimise the amount of boards. In this case, to 2. Doing so requires a little bit of risk, since you want to get a lot of the clear bonus points, but dont want it to actually end, so you want to defeat the boss in secret base with right on 1 minute left, in order to get enough points without it actually progressing. Because of this, I mess around for a few minutes before doing so.
I actually think its possible to do Eggman in one board, if you set off multiball and spam the shit out of the jackpot. But doing so is insane, given the camera doesnt track the balls during multiball (wtf???) so you have to do it blind. Not for my human hands, but a TAS could do it.
Anyway, thats the game. I didnt even bother making splits cause I aint gonna play this again lol. Enjoy, I guess.
Discord server: https://discord.gg/0jCpl8wIKvQWXJaP
Speedrun profile: http://www.speedrun.com/user/werster
Twitch stream: https://www.twitch.tv/werster
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/werster
Kofi: https://ko-fi.com/werster")
