Uploaded July 2018 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Solid time
My controls:
Jump: Right Bumper
Shoot: Left Trigger
Ex Shoot: A
Switch Weapon: X
Lock: Left Bumper
Dash: Y
Solid time
My controls:
Jump: Right Bumper
Shoot: Left Trigger
Ex Shoot: A
Switch Weapon: X
Lock: Left Bumper
Dash: Y
![(WR) NES Dragons Lair Speedrun in 7:16 (Any% US) [Live Recording]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ilfhGn2JxwA/mqdefault.jpg "(WR) NES Dragons Lair Speedrun in 7:16 (Any% US) [Live Recording]
Oooh boy, this game. Where do I even begin? Its quite the experience. I first played it last year, and it was... quite an interesting playthrough. The game is full of, intentional or not, troll moments that end up defining the game. Highlights include: most enemies killing you in one hit even though you have a health bar, moving platforms that dont actually move you automatically and instead make you manually walk with them (else they move without you and you fall off), a random dark area that you have to brighten up by pressing start (the candle button! isnt it so obvious?), moving platforms in level 3 that work by completely different rules out of nowhere and that force you to take a death if you freeze them at the wrong spots, and a very, very difficult and random final boss to top it all off. Did I mention theres no continues in this game? After running out of lives (you start with 5), its back to the title screen.
I ended up beating Singe with save states back then because it got a little too ridiculous in the end. But then, I thought it wouldve been a pretty funny idea to speedrun the game for April Fools 2021, and so I ended up doing just that for... 11 hours on my twitch channel, and I got a 7:54 by the end of it.
And then, months later, I decided to shoot for this world record, because thats an idea that makes sense. And it was torture. Honestly most of the run is pretty simple (and actually kinda fun), but level 4 and most importantly Singe are very random and very tough. This meant that I was essentially getting a run on world record pace to Singe very regularly (as much as every hour of attempts or even less), but most would just die to bad rng or a mistake. Some runs managed to kill Singe, but then a baby dragon would still be on screen, and when Id try to kill it, a fireball would block one of my axe throws (yes, thats a thing, a presumably metal axe getting completely nullified by a fireball) and itd manage to hit me and kill the run.
It took a couple weeks to get this run, and Im definitely done with the game now. Until I decide to come back for another rodeo, of course.
Let my story be a lesson: taking a joke too far is risky business.
And before anyone asks, yes, my attempt counter is totally, 100%, legit. I definitely did not tamper with it.
This may or may not be another joke. But who even knows at this point.
And also, yes, the game naturally runs at 12fps. And I set up my webcam to run at a similar framerate. To help give that cinematic impression, you know.
For a gameplay only version click here: https://youtu.be/6ErvBjYE7bM
Twitch channel: https://www.twitch.tv/sbdwolf")
![[Former World Record] All Bosses Co-op Speedrun - 31:38 - Current Patch, Regular - Cuphead](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/jIOeR4pk4wI/mqdefault.jpg "[Former World Record] All Bosses Co-op Speedrun - 31:38 - Current Patch, Regular - Cuphead
Co-op speedrun with XunningX. Was really fun to do, might do some more of this in the future.
Xunning is Cuphead, Im Mugman.
Played over the internet with parsec.
Watch live at https://www.twitch.tv/sbdwolf
My controls:
Jump: Right Bumper
Shoot: Left Trigger
Ex Shoot: A
Switch Weapon: X
Lock: Left Bumper
Dash: Y")
![[Former World Record] All Bosses - 26:12 - Legacy, Expert, Solo - Cuphead](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/jowHfisoI_A/mqdefault.jpg "[Former World Record] All Bosses - 26:12 - Legacy, Expert, Solo - Cuphead
Ive been recently working on strategies for Expert mode on Legacy, and this is my first deathless run, which also happens to be a world record by almost a minute! The time could be pushed under 26 minutes for sure.
My controls:
Jump: Right Bumper
Shoot: Left Trigger
Ex Shoot: A
Switch Weapon: X
Lock: Left Bumper
Dash: Y")
![[Former World Record] All Flags Speedrun - 29:42 - Legacy, Regular, Solo - Cuphead](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/k0_5wg2EQS8/mqdefault.jpg "[Former World Record] All Flags Speedrun - 29:42 - Legacy, Regular, Solo - Cuphead
Not a bad run. The time can still go quite a bit lower though
My controls:
Jump: Right Bumper
Shoot: Left Trigger
Ex Shoot: A
Switch Weapon: X
Lock: Left Bumper
Dash: Y")
![[Former World Record] Simple% Speedrun - 16:46 - Current Patch, Solo - Cuphead](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/kKdkupFmz6s/mqdefault.jpg "[Former World Record] Simple% Speedrun - 16:46 - Current Patch, Solo - Cuphead
Not gonna lie, this has been a pretty difficult category to get the record in. The run itself doesnt have many difficult tricks, but the time was quite decent already. And once I beat Xunnings 17:10 run with a 16:59, he quickly got the record back just a few hours later. Happy with this run, I think that with the current strategies there are still around 20 seconds to be saved but Im going to try and put this effort into All Bosses Simple CP instead :)
My controls:
Jump: Right Bumper
Shoot: X
Ex Shoot: Left Trigger
Switch Weapon: A
Lock: Left Bumper
Dash: Y")
![[Current World Record] All Bosses Speedrun - 20:49 - Current Patch, Simple, Solo - Cuphead](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/l7qIFEWv3Q8/mqdefault.jpg "[Current World Record] All Bosses Speedrun - 20:49 - Current Patch, Simple, Solo - Cuphead
Nice run outside of a handful of splits. No Grim quick kill especially means that this time can still go quite a bit lower.
My controls:
Jump: Right Bumper
Shoot: Left Trigger
Ex Shoot: A
Switch Weapon: X
Lock: Left Bumper
Dash: Y")
![Castlevania 1 Any% Speedrun in 11:24.567 [Former World Record]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/lfQZJyCL41M/mqdefault.jpg "Castlevania 1 Any% Speedrun in 11:24.567 [Former World Record]
Got my goal for this game. Done for a while, good luck to whoever wants to beat this time. Great run all around, that level 3 split in particular was basically perfect and a new gold for me.
FAQ:
Q: Why is the Bat Boss in level 1 dying in one hit?
A: Its a glitch called critical hit glitch. When you hit an enemy on the same frame it hits Simon, the whips hitbox glitches out and lingers for longer than normal, dealing extra damage. This makes it a frame perfect trick. Doing the glitch on stairs will deal even more additional damage, to the point where it one-shots the Bat Boss.
Q: Why are the Mummies in level 3 dying so quickly?
A: This is another glitch with the cross subweapon. If theres two overlapping hitboxes (the Mummies) and the cross passes over them, each hitbox will end up taking damage every other frame while its going through them. So all thats needed for this fast kill is to stack the Mummies on top of each other and then throw a cross at them. Normally this is done with 1 cross and a (slower) pattern manipulation, or with 2 crosses if the Mummies werent maniped. In this specific run I didnt manip the Mummies but only had 1 heart, which meant I had to go for a frame perfect toss in order to get the one-shot.
Q: Can this run be beaten?
A: Of course it can! While mostly subtle, theres definitely some time losses in this run. First of all theres the heart pickup in level 1 (which I found out to be only 8 frames of time loss instead of 12 as I pointed out in the video). Then I lost around 0.2 seconds from a laggier pattern on the bone pillars in stage 06; around 0.3 seconds from a slower jump off the moving platform in stage 10; 1 framerule in stage 13 by settling for the alternative bone boost instead of getting the fast bone or trying for the TASbone; and around one full second throughout all of level 6 thanks to a slightly unoptimal damage boost off of the skeleton in stage 17 and a couple holy water throws that I missed on the Cookie Monster (notice the jumps where I only whipped instead of throwing holy water on landing).
That being said, this run still had an incredible amount of things going right (that level 3 is the fastest Ive ever done) and its definitely doing to be difficult to replicate this runs pace and improve upon some of its time losses.
Theres also some new strategies that some other runners are already attempting and that Ill be trying for as well when I come back to this game. The most notable is going for critical hits on other bosses. Right now theres a critical hit on the Bat Boss and on Dracula, which when combined with other tricks and depending on your definition of it means that theres 4 or 5 mandatory frame perfect tricks in the run for the world record, along with a few extra frame perfect item manips I hit in level 3, and a number of 2 and 3 frame windows as well. Going for a crit on Medusa, Frankensteins Monster or Death doesnt save nearly as much time as it does on other bosses because you dont have stairs (like on the Bat) or you dont save a teleport (like on Dracula), so it only ends up totaling to around 0.8 seconds for crits on Medusa and Frank, and even less for Death as it requires picking up some wall meat to do it. The time save was never really worth the extra frame perfect trick considering how hard the run was already. Now is probably the time to go for at least one of them.
I like to compare this run to Super Mario Bros. a lot, and more specifically this crit situation reminds me of the flagpole glitch in that game, in how its a relatively small and very difficult time save that is only worth the extra resets if theres not much time to save elsewhere. While SMB is on just another insane level of optimization and Castlevania is probably never going to get there, I like to think that its getting somewhat close as its soon going to enter the flagpole glitch era :)
Long paragraph, heres a cookie for scrolling down this far [::]
Twitch channel: https://www.twitch.tv/sbdwolf")
