Uploaded January 2012 | Updated September 2026, 51 minutes ago
I don't own this video, I only downloaded and uploaded this video to YouTube. The original owner is Paraxade, and the original page can be found here: speeddemosarchive.com/Sonic4Episode1.html
Another level that I redid. My first run was 1'25"60, and redid it after a few months, with some more experience with the game helping me see how easily improvable my first run was. As it turns out, this level is hellish to speedrun, because around 10 seconds in there's a trick where I go through a couple bumpers. This saves a couple seconds and lets me catch an earlier barrel cycle. The problem with this trick is it is absolutely, absurdly inconsistent. There are two ways to do it as far as I know - either you have to hit it in a way so that Sonic hits the right side of the bumper instead of the left someone and so bounces to the right, or you have to air dash on the same frame you touch it. So you get a choice between either pixel perfect or frame perfect, basically. I chose pixel perfect. There's also a few sets of barrels and a lot of card platforms near the end. All of these run on universal timers, meaning they are running through the entire level, not just when you get close to them, which means you can only improve your time in specific intervals or else you end up stuck waiting. This run is almost as good as the time will ever get, because if you went any faster than this you would run off the ending card path and I don't think you can catch an earlier barrel cycle without new tricks.
I don't own this video, I only downloaded and uploaded this video to YouTube. The original owner is Paraxade, and the original page can be found here: speeddemosarchive.com/Sonic4Episode1.html
Another level that I redid. My first run was 1'25"60, and redid it after a few months, with some more experience with the game helping me see how easily improvable my first run was. As it turns out, this level is hellish to speedrun, because around 10 seconds in there's a trick where I go through a couple bumpers. This saves a couple seconds and lets me catch an earlier barrel cycle. The problem with this trick is it is absolutely, absurdly inconsistent. There are two ways to do it as far as I know - either you have to hit it in a way so that Sonic hits the right side of the bumper instead of the left someone and so bounces to the right, or you have to air dash on the same frame you touch it. So you get a choice between either pixel perfect or frame perfect, basically. I chose pixel perfect. There's also a few sets of barrels and a lot of card platforms near the end. All of these run on universal timers, meaning they are running through the entire level, not just when you get close to them, which means you can only improve your time in specific intervals or else you end up stuck waiting. This run is almost as good as the time will ever get, because if you went any faster than this you would run off the ending card path and I don't think you can catch an earlier barrel cycle without new tricks.
