My Favourite Games #10: saturnin55
Posted by hb on September 6th, 2017 @12:40AM
‘My Favourite Games’ is a regular MossRanking feature which gives us a chance to get to know our fellow Spelunkers a little better. In each edition, we put the spotlight on one member of the community, as they pick three of their most treasured video games ever and give their reasons why. Featured members are allowed to pick whatever games they want... except for Spelunky.
The tenth entry is also the season one finale, and who more fitting to speak to than MossRanking boss saturnin55. A vital member of the community, Saturnin's contributions over the years cannot be understated -- and he is an excellent Spelunker to boot. Here are his three games...

“As a young 5- or 6-year-old, I wanted to fight dragons, solve puzzles, and save the world. When I discovered that I could do all of that in Adventure, I was hooked!”
Adventure (Atari 2600, 1980)
For Saturnin’s first game, we have to travel back to 1980. Roguelikes may be commonplace nowadays, but nearly 40 years ago, this Atari 2600 game had randomised elements which encouraged repeated playthroughs.
Adventure sees the player tasked with going out into an open-ended environment and bringing a chalice back to the castle. “There are three dragons -- green, yellow, and red -- each more and more ‘intelligent’ and difficult to kill,” Saturnin explains. “You also can’t move more than one object at a time, so being without your sword is risky -- but it is often needed because you have to juggle a bunch of items.”
Speaking about the game’s replayability, Saturnin describes: “The items are coloured keys for each of the three castles: sword, magnet, bridge, and chalice. When playing on the hardest difficulty, the starting locations of the items are randomised throughout the four mazes, three castles, and the many paths. Also, a bat roams around and shuffles the items, and can steal whatever you are holding. So each game is different.
“It even had a fog of war effect in some mazes!”
Most impressive for its time, for sure.
“I can say without a doubt that playing this game opened up a world that fueled my imagination and got me in fantasy. It got me interested in everything Dungeons & Dragons-related for the rest of my life,” Saturnin adds. “Playing Adventure today, knowing what we all know today, would probably be quite boring. But if you place yourself back in the early ‘80s, it wasn’t. At least for me!”

“One of the first games I bought with my own money, and it is still today the game I have the best memories of.”
Crystalis (NES, 1990)
While many NES owners were enjoying The Legend of Zelda, Saturnin was charmed by SNK’s action RPG named Crystalis -- and it all started with the packaging.
“I basically bought the game blindly, looking at the box and thinking it looked cool,” he says. “I bought this game knowing next to nothing, and I was blown away by the amount of content the game had. So many quests, and everything about it felt right and kept me captivated. It was an all-around surprise to discover I had such a game to play.”
In the game, the amnesiac protagonist sets out to combine the four elemental swords into the legendary Crystalis -- and defeat the main villain.
One of Crystalis’ greatest strengths lies in its mechanics and how well it plays. “The controls are so smooth compared to most similar games of the time,” Saturnin explains. “You can move in any direction and change direction quickly, unlike in The Legend of Zelda which had more rigid (and painful) controls. The character in Crystalis moves quite fast, too. I remember spending a long time playing this game, exploring dungeons, figuring the puzzles out, and leveling up.
“There were a lot of items, puzzles, magics, bosses -- and the music is great, too! There is a lot to explore.”

“Since playing this, I’ve been interested in Ancient China history. The movie Red Cliff -- in which you see many of the main characters -- is one of my favourites of all time because of the connection I have with this game.”
Destiny of an Emperor (NES, 1990)
Saturnin’s final pick is the strategy game Destiny of an Emperor. “I fell in love with this game because of the unique combat mechanics and the deep historical plot which is based on Romance of the Three Kingdoms with Liu Bei, Zhang Fei, and Guan Yu,” he shares. “The game is quite long, has a rich map to explore, and has many caves and fortified cities.”
Destiny of an Emperor is a title that was ahead of its time in 1990.
Although the player starts off with only a few units, they can recruit unique generals -- often through bribery of money or horses -- after defeating them and their armies in battle. This adds to 150 playable characters. “You can have up to seven generals in your active army, but up to 70 in total in reserve,” Saturnin says. “Some generals are more into magic, others are more melee type. Boss battles are quite tactical and require a lot of micromanagement each turn. I just loved that I could do different styles of combat, and it was very rewarding.”
Much care was given to ensure that the 150 generals actually felt like individuals, as Saturnin explains. “They all had their own specific artwork and abilities, which made the game even cooler. And that they could betray you or you could have notorious bad guys join your party made it really unique.”
Honourable Mentions: Uncharted Waters (NES, 1991), Romance of the Three Kingdoms II (SNES, 1991), The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES, 1992), Tecmo Super Bowl (NES, 1991), Baseball Stars (NES, 1989), Final Fantasy II (SNES, 1991), The Faery Tale Adventure (Amiga 500, 1987).

'My Favourite Games' goes on hiatus as the All Shortcuts + Olmec Tournament kicks off on Friday, September 8. Season two will start later this year.
'My Favourite Games' season 1 in full:
My Favourite Games #9: SAIBOT
Posted by hb on August 28th, 2017 @04:08AM
‘My Favourite Games’ is a regular MossRanking feature which gives us a chance to get to know our fellow Spelunkers a little better. In each edition, we put the spotlight on one member of the community, as they pick three of their most treasured video games ever and give their reasons why. Featured members are allowed to pick whatever games they want... except for Spelunky.
In the ninth entry, we go to SAIBOT, an experienced and incredibly fast speedrunner who has, among other impressive runs, a 4:14 Max Low% and a 2:12 Any%. Below are his three games...

Dark Souls (PC, 2012)
Saibot’s first pick is the notoriously tough Dark Souls. Saibot has finished the game three times now, and his love for it stems largely from its unforgiving but fair difficulty. “The unforgiving difficulty is important, because it forces you to learn the optimal way to play the game,” he explains. “The difficulty is fair because it never makes you lose without giving you ample opportunity to escape the situation or overcome the challenge.”
Among other things, Saibot appreciates the “detailed areas and nuanced enemies”, and praises the world of Dark Souls and how meticulously it was put together. “The world itself feels truly natural, which makes the setting seem more believable,” he says. “The areas are often interconnected in very clever ways, which both contribute to the natural feeling and also eliminates the tedious running from one area to another that one might expect in such a game. Possibly more significant, though, is the sheer detail and the intricacy that each area has.”
It sounds like he’s not done with the game, either. “I find myself going back to play the game in new ways that provide extra challenge and fun,” Saibot comments. “For example, my second run of the game was Soul Level 1, which prohibits you to level up your character throughout the whole game.”

Super Meat Boy (PC, 2010)
Next is indie platformer Super Meat Boy, another game which is noted for its difficulty. When asked about what he loves about being challenged, Saibot answers: “I think difficult games provide a much more intense feeling of pride and accomplishment when you conquer them."
Super Meat Boy, which features 300 levels and puts a huge emphasis on split-second timing, made Saibot's list because of its “tight controls and masterful level design”, and he explains that the way these two elements combined contributed towards a truly memorable experience for him. “This game fulfilled my platforming needs before I played Spelunky,” he comments. “It forces you to execute moves that you didn’t think were possible before. The precise controls were crucial, because without them, the game wouldn’t feel fair as having adequate control of your character is needed in a tough platforming game.”
The other notable aspect of the game Saibot loves is the impressive variety of playable characters, many of which have unique attributes. “The unlockable characters help provide an extra incentive to collect the bandages in each level, which add extra challenge,” he says. “Also, their varying playstyles expand the ways and routes to beat each level.”

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (PC, 2012)
For his final game, Saibot chooses Valve’s multiplayer shooter Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Saibot has spent around 500 hours on the game, and a large part of it is because of its “focus on teamwork” and “economic decisions”.
The money system is particularly interesting. Earned through winning rounds and completing various objectives, cash can be spent on better weapons during matches to give you the upper hand against your opponents. Explaining the allure and the depth of this system, Saibot says: “A good example of a thoughtful economic decision would be to not buy weaponry and other equipment at the start of the round when your team’s funds aren’t fully adequate, such that the next round you can fully buy everything you need to have a good chance of winning that round.
“This feature makes the experience compelling because, while in theory I like the concept of the first-person shooter, most games in that genre are unfortunately mindless and don’t involve much strategy or thought. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s emphasis on mindful play and strategy makes it far more interesting, and a more interesting game than most other shooters I’ve played.”
And on the teamwork component of Global Offensive, Saibot adds: “The focus on teamwork makes the game much more enjoyable for me, because it forces me to coordinate strategies with either friends or random teammates. This coordination increases the depth and makes the strategy of the game more complex.”
--
What's ahead... 'My Favourite Games' season one wraps up this coming week with entry #10, which centres on saturnin55. Very exciting. The series will then go on hiatus as the All Shortcuts + Olmec Tournament launches on Friday, September 8. Season two will start later this year.
Previous 'My Favourite Games' entries:
My Favourite Games #8: MrEikono
Posted by hb on August 21st, 2017 @10:22PM
‘My Favourite Games’ is a regular MossRanking feature which gives us a chance to get to know our fellow Spelunkers a little better. In each edition, we put the spotlight on one member of the community, as they pick three of their most treasured video games ever and give their reasons why. Featured members are allowed to pick whatever games they want... except for Spelunky.
In the eighth entry, we go to MrEikono, a regular member and occasional streamer. You can find him on Twitter and Twitch. Below are his three games...

Crash Bandicoot: Warped (PlayStation 1, 1998)
For some people, their first video game they can remember playing is special. That is the case with MrEikono and Crash Bandicoot: Warped, the third game in the popular platforming series. “When I was a small child, we used to have a PlayStation 2 and a motley assortment of games, one of which was this one,” MrEikono shares. “Though I never did beat it, it was my favourite PS2 game as a child and actually the first real game I think I’ve ever played.”
The game sees the player control both Crash and Coco, as they travel through time. MrEikono never finished the game, but years later, Warped remains inspiring and meaningful to him.
“Even though the furthest level I beat was level six, it all still made me think, ‘Wow! Actual video games are really cool!’, and in that regard was the very first thing that pushed me in the direction I hope to go in the future, working as an indie game developer,” he says. “I loved how the controller would rumble in my hands as certain things happened, and I generally just enjoyed the whole aesthetic of going through lots of different time periods, running away from dinosaurs and stuff.”
And one of his favourite memories with Warped lies with the first boss -- a large beast named Tiny Tiger. “In particular, I remember sitting there trying to beat it for ages, accompanied by the undying encouragement (and sometimes attempts to help) from the rest of my family, before I finally won the fight. I’ll never forget that,” he recalls.

Fantasy Online (Browser, 2010)
MrEikono’s second game is this browser-based MMORPG. Heavily inspired by role-playing games of the Super Nintendo era, Fantasy Online took over MrEikono’s life until it shut down on New Year’s Day in 2014. “I loved it to death,” he says. “I would play it all the time. It had an incredible amount of depth, the pixel art was gorgeous, and it’s the Flash game I have the fondest memory of.”
MrEikono did it all -- including being part of a guild and making friends during his time with the game. He even went through ‘rebirth’, a new game plus feature of sorts. “In Fantasy Online, reaching level 60 allowed you to rebirth, which put a skull next to your level number and made you start from the beginning again but with perks,” he explains.
So it felt like the end of a significant era when Fantasy Online closed. “I had put a lot of time into the game, and then I found out that it was being shut down because [developer Pixelated Games] wasn’t willing to be in charge of the game anymore and didn’t want to put anyone else in charge of it. Absolutely ridiculous,” he says. “I kept playing up until its end, though.”

Terraria (PC, 2011)
MrEikono’s favourite game of all time is none other than Terraria. This 2D sandbox game blew MrEikono away. It was the first game he bought on Steam, and to this day he has spent 700 hours on it. "As soon as I saw it, I had to get it. I knew," he says.
“The thing about Terraria that made me spend so much time with it was the amount of depth it had. Going from being a useless nublet to an overpowered monster took a long time, but you had a lot of things to do along the way. A lot.”
MrEikono calls Terraria “timeless”, and does not hesitate to call the game -- at least for him -- perfection. It has an incredible amount of replayability, and for MrEikono, it will probably never get old. “When you finish everything by yourself, that’s the point where that world and that character pretty much transitions into creative mode, because you’re able to gather anything you need to build anything you want, no risk,” he says. “And you can go through everything with a friend or multiple friends, bringing more experiences you just can’t get alone!
“I just about died of laughter when one friend helped me figure out -- after almost 600 solid hours -- that planting acorns make new trees! Such a stupid, trivial thing that I figured out so, so late.
“Terraria is a game that, to me, really can be played forever. Terraria has just got something about it that makes it absolutely perfect.”
--
What's ahead... 'My Favourite Games' season one will be wrapping up, with entries #9 and #10 coming over the next two weeks. The series will then go on hiatus until (at least) after the end of the upcoming All Shortcuts + Olmec Tournament. If you would like to express interest in being featured for 'My Favourite Games' season two, contact me on the Spelunky Discord.
Allow me to also say a big thank you for everyone's support. It's been amazing to see the positive response this feature has received.
-- hbix
Previous 'My Favourite Games' entries:
All Shortcuts + Olmec Tournament in September and October!
Posted by saturnin55 on August 17th, 2017 @07:12PM
Hey Spelunkers,
You may have read the post about the interest form for the AS+O tournament sent out a few weeks ago.
Thanks to all the input we got, we are proud to announce that the format is finalized and the schedule for the All Shortcuts + Olmec Tournament of 2017 has been decided! The tournament will have two stages: a round-robin format followed by a 16-player bracket.
To sign up, please read this document carefully so you don't miss any important details.
Then fill out this form.
If you filled out the previous interest form, all you have to do is confirm that you are still participating in the #aso-2017 channel on our discord. Thanks!
Again, if you have any questions feel free to comment on this thread or message any of the names below. We also would like to encourage everyone to join our discord server as we have a super helpful community there that can help you learn the category, give you useful resources, and are just a blast to hang out with!
Hope to see you there,
saturnin55, twiggle, hbix, meowmixmix, kinnijup, kazzy
All Shortcuts + Olmec Tournament IN September and October!
Posted by saturnin55 on August 17th, 2017 @07:12PM
Hey Spelunkers,
You may have read the post about the interest form for the AS+O tournament sent out a few weeks ago.
Thanks to all the input we got, we are proud to announce that the format is finalized and the schedule for the All Shortcuts + Olmec Tournament of 2017 has been decided! The tournament will have two stages: a round-robin format followed by a 16-player bracket.
To sign up, please read this document carefully so you don't miss any important details.
Then fill out this form.
If you filled out the previous interest form, all you have to do is confirm that you are still participating in the #aso-2017 channel on our discord. Thanks!
Again, if you have any questions feel free to comment on this thread or message any of the names below. We also would like to encourage everyone to join our discord server as we have a super helpful community there that can help you learn the category, give you useful resources, and are just a blast to hang out with!
Hope to see you there,
saturnin55, twiggle, hbix, meowmixmix, kinnijup, kazzy
My Favourite Games #7: Kazzy
Posted by hb on August 12th, 2017 @04:52PM
‘My Favourite Games’ is a regular MossRanking feature which gives us a chance to get to know our fellow Spelunkers a little better. In each edition, we put the spotlight on one member of the community, as they pick three of their most treasured video games ever and give their reasons why. Featured members are allowed to pick whatever games they want... except for Spelunky.
In the seventh entry, we go to Kazzy, Twitch global moderator and familiar face to the Spelunky community. Below are her three games...

The Binding of Isaac (PC, 2011)
Kazzy’s first pick is a game often compared to Spelunky. The Binding of Isaac is a roguelike title which features procedurally generated dungeons and permadeath. Since its release in 2011, the game has undergone several evolutions and iterations. “I learnt everything about the game inside out and inevitably played hundreds of hours of it,” Kazzy says, adding that The Binding of Isaac was also the first Twitch community she properly got involved in and the first game she attempted to speedrun. “It was only natural to progress from vanilla to Wrath of Lamb to Rebirth -- which was a complete remake of the game -- and then Afterbirth.”
For Kazzy, one of the more appealing parts of releases like The Binding of Isaac is that runs aren’t particularly long, affording her flexibility. “I like games I can play without needing to commit a lot of time to in one sitting. I like being able to pause pretty much anywhere, and a game short enough that I didn’t mind quitting midway.” She has logged more than 2,000 hours on the base game and a further 900 hours on the Rebirth remake, which was released in 2014.

Dofus (Browser, 2004)
Browser-based MMORPG Dofus became a huge part of Kazzy’s life for a long while. Although Dofus is more well-known in France than the rest of the world, it hooked Kazzy in, firstly as a casual player and then to the point where she became obsessed. “It is a tactical and turn-based game,” she explains. “It’s unique in the sense that one had the freedom to build one’s character in any way, dress them in any equipment to allow any sort of stats, and play it the way one wanted to.”
While in combat, players take in turns to use Action Points and Movement Points. Such is the depth of Dofus that there are numerous different character classes, which led to Kazzy having 22 paying accounts. “I wanted different characters of different builds for different purposes,” she says. “When I was playing it, it had twelve classes with four basic elementals. You could even combine elementals for different combinations. Each had their own strengths and weaknesses. Ideally, one would find other players to do stuff with, but I wanted to be able to provide them with whichever class and element a group needed.”
Kazzy ended up being part of a major guild, and she made plenty of good friends as a result. “I was second-in-command of one of the biggest, most prestigious English guilds on my server,” she shares. “We frequently had hang-out sessions with guild members where we’d run around and do silly things together. It made for great times and lots of laughs.” You can check out a couple screenshots of Kazzy's time with The Reapers (her guild) below:


"Epiphany and I have been partners in the game since 2010, and we share everything -- accounts, in-game money equipment, houses, everything," Kazzy adds. "During my first visit to the US in 2015, I went to visit him."

Don't Starve (PC, 2013)
Lastly, we have Don’t Starve, an indie survival game with plenty of roguelike elements. In Don't Starve, the player is thrown into a randomly-generated open world and must survive as long as possible, managing health, sanity, and hunger. Permadeath is also a significant feature -- if your character dies, it’s game over for good. “I love everything about Don’t Starve,” Kazzy comments. “The art, the music, the gameplay. It’s the only game I truly love every aspect of. I love how they’ve spaced out their expansions (Reign of Giants and Shipwrecked), I love all the characters in the game, and I love the difficulty of it.”
Kazzy praises the player-created mods for adding extra value to what is already an impressive game. “They’re very easy to install and range from making the HUD neater to adding completely new characters with their own stats to play with in-game,” she says. “I particularly enjoy having new characters and challenges when one has exhausted the native ones.”
But Don’t Starve wouldn’t be as good as it is without its implementation of permadeath. Unlike Spelunky and The Binding of Isaac, where runs often last mere minutes and regular resets are expected, Don’t Starve is all about exploration, the gathering of food and resources, and ultimately survival. Games last hours, not minutes. “It has a steep learning curve, and is completely punishing and unforgiving,” Kazzy explains. “But the sense of achievement one gets after surviving a couple of seasons is satisfying. Without permadeath, the game would become monotonous. One becomes more careful in order to progress and discover new areas.”
--
Want to be featured? Contact me on the Spelunky Discord.
Previous 'My Favourite Games' entries:
My Favourite Games #6: Konato_K
Posted by hb on August 7th, 2017 @01:27AM
‘My Favourite Games’ is a regular MossRanking feature which gives us a chance to get to know our fellow Spelunkers a little better. In each edition, we put the spotlight on one member of the community, as they pick three of their most treasured video games ever and give their reasons why. Featured members are allowed to pick whatever games they want... except for Spelunky.
In the sixth entry, we go to Konato_K -- Reddit moderator, boss of the Spelunky Wiki, and all-around expert on the mechanics of the game. He also has some hugely impressive runs to his name. Here are Konato's three games:

Final Fantasy VII (PlayStation 1, 1997)
Final Fantasy VII has drawn plaudits from around the world in large part due to its ambitious storytelling, but Konato had a rather different perspective. On his first playthrough, his English wasn’t strong enough to understand the dialogue. “Can you think of playing and completing a whole game that is very story-driven in a different language you can’t understand? Then years later go back to it and be able to get the story and the whole plot, and everything starts to make sense?”
Nevertheless, Konato had a blast with his first playthrough. “From what I could understand, you followed a group of people trying to save a world,” he says. “That’s good enough for a kid, isn’t it?” Konato was also complimentary about the turn-based combat, adding that his enjoyment from it lead him to try other games in the long-running role-playing game series.
When Konato revisited the game with a considerably stronger grasp of the English language much later, what he experienced was a narrative which grabbed him from start to finish.
“The story also has some ‘hidden’ things that you can only find by visiting certain places with specific characters or by doing specific actions,” he adds. “Those things made part of the story and explained other things that just aren’t explained otherwise. That kind of happens in a lot of games, but it somehow felt special in this one for me.”

The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons (Game Boy Color, 2001)
The Legend of Zelda is one of the most revered gaming franchises, and Konato actually lists the underrated Oracle of Seasons for the Game Boy Color as one of his favourites. “I never owned this game,” he says. “It was a cartridge that our cousin lent us for a while, and I played it so many times. It was the most polished 2D game that I played at the time.”
Oracle of Seasons was released alongside Oracle of Ages. Seasons was more combat-oriented, while Ages had a greater focus on puzzles -- and Konato says it was Seasons’ approach to the action that truly elevated his experience with the game. “The combat was very interesting in the boss fights,” he explains. “It wasn’t just mashing buttons. You had to make use of the tools you found in the dungeons to be able to hurt the bosses. You can obviously find this in other games, but I felt like the way it was done with the 2D restrictions was pretty good.”
Another aspect of Oracle of Seasons that stands out (shared with Ages) are the three animal companions Link can encounter during his adventure. Each one comes with unique abilities -- for example, Ricky the kangaroo can climb up cliffs while Dimitri, a reptilian, helps Link travel on water -- but they also cause the landscapes of certain areas to change.
“The section of the map basically changed a lot depending on which one you had,” Konato comments. “Ricky had mostly cliffs and small holes, while Dimitri had pretty much everything surrounded in water. But they were not only useful here. They were other parts of the map where you could make use of them, or even just use them as combat companions if you wanted to.”

Blockwick 2 (PC, 2015)
Konato’s final pick is a neat puzzler which many people may not have heard of. Blockwick 2 is a simple yet colourful block-pushing game which asks the player to connect the colours. “It starts simple,” Konato says. “You just got to slide blocks and put ones of the same colour together.”
Blockwick 2 has a huge 300 puzzles and took Konato 22 hours to 100%, but where it truly succeeds is keeping the gameplay fresh throughout the campaign with smart implementation of new types of blocks. “The difficulty increases with new types of blocks that make you see puzzles in different ways -- for example, blocks that make others ‘sleep’, sticky blocks that you can’t move directly, and caterpillar blocks that move like a train rather than a solid box,” Konato explains. “It never feels like you’re doing the same puzzle over and over again.”
Konato is complimentary about the different levels of difficulty as well. In Blockwick 2, there are multiple ways to approach each puzzle, depending on how much of a challenge you’re looking for.
“If you find a ‘hidden’ moon pearl, you can skip to the next level. It’s good for whenever you’re stuck with a puzzle,” Konato says. “You can complete puzzles the easy or the hard way. The easy way is to just put together the blocks of the same colour and that’s it. The hard way is to have the blocks placed in a way that they cover certain glyphs on the ground. I think the difficulty is just right, and it only gets to be a real challenge if you want to complete it the hard way.”
--
Want to be featured? Contact me on the Spelunky Discord.
Previous 'My Favourite Games' entries:
All Shortcuts + Olmec Interest Form
Posted by meowmixmix on July 31st, 2017 @07:51PM
We are excited to announce that the MossRanking team will be hosting an All Shortcuts + Olmec tournament!
For those who are unaware, All Shortcuts + Olmec (AS+O for short) is a category where the player starts with a clean save file, unlocks all the shortcuts, and finishes by slaying Olmec as fast as possible. You can read the exact rules of the category, and see tons of videos of runs from a variety of people: here
Just like the Scoreathlon the AS+O tournament will feature:
- A live re-stream
- The world's best Spelunky players as commentators
- Post-run interviews with willing participants
In addition, one of the big things we were able to get and are extremely excited for this tournament is to host the semi-finals and finals on SpeedGaming twitch channel! Make sure to follow them so you won't miss those final butt-clenching rounds!
Before we can begin setting up brackets, race times, etc. we need to know who is going to participate so we can organize this event to best fit the number of people interested
If you are interested in running...
Please read this document for rules and general information!
And then fill out this form to sign up!
By filling out this form, you are not committing to any times or dates yet, just simply voicing your interest in participating in the tournament so we can figure out what matchups/times works best for everyone.
If you just want to watch....that's cool too!
Make sure to follow the MossRanking twitch channel so you don't miss a thing when we start doing the tournament!
We don't have any dates confirmed for this event so expect updates in the future.
If you have any questions feel free to comment on this thread or message any of the names below. We also would like to encourage everyone to join our discord server as we have a super helpful community there that can help you learn the category, give you useful resources, and are just a blast to hang out with!
Hope to see you there,
-saturnin55
-meowmixmix
-twiggle -hbix
My Favourite Games #5: ShinGraywords
Posted by hb on July 30th, 2017 @10:04AM
‘My Favourite Games’ is a regular MossRanking feature which gives us a chance to get to know our fellow Spelunkers a little better. In each edition, we put the spotlight on one member of the community, as they pick three of their most treasured video games ever and give their reasons why. Featured members are allowed to pick whatever games they want... except for Spelunky.
In the fifth entry, we go to ShinGraywords, an ever-reliable runner and a popular name in the community. Graywords goes retro with his three games, revisiting some of the best the '90s had to offer. Here are his three games.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PlayStation 1, 1997)
Graywords’ first pick is one which many people consider to be one of the greatest games of all time. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night -- alongside the Metroid series -- helped to shape the ‘Metroidvania’ subgenre. Such games feature an open and interconnected world map which the player explores, picking up new abilities or items along the way to gain access to new areas. Graywords suggests that Symphony of the Night holds up today as a near-perfect example of the subgenre. “It’s a blast to play,” he shares. “I try to replay it at least once a year.”
Graywords says he has beaten Symphony of the Night more than fifty times now. When asked what makes him continue to revisit the game, he comments that he always finds new ways to play it, thanks to Symphony of the Night's open nature. “Sometimes it’s fun to just blaze through everything with the overpowered Crissaegrim. Other times I’ll feel like a challenge and do a fists-only run,” Graywords reveals. “The map is another reason I keep playing. The stages connect to each other in more than one location, so you don’t have to take the same route every time.”
A huge twist involves the discovery of the ‘inverted castle’ -- a secret which when unlocked doubles the length of the game. The player can attain a 200.6% map completion as a result. “Discovering the inverted castle was a thrill,” Graywords says. “I first learned about it watching my friend play through the import version of the PSX game. Helping him figure out the pendant clues in Japanese, getting the secret item, learning to use it properly, then realising you have a whole extra half of the game to explore -- those are priceless moments.”

Secret of Mana (SNES, 1993)
In the early ‘90s, the majority of role-playing games leaned towards turn-based battle systems. Secret of Mana -- Graywords’ second pick -- favoured real-time battles, and was one of the reasons why Square's title received (and continues to receive) much love and appreciation.
“It was a bit of a underserved subgenre at the time,” Graywords reflects. “It felt good to have an RPG that made me feel immersed and reactive, as opposed to waiting for my ‘turn’ to come up. I really felt ‘in control’ of the characters. This kind of gameplay reminded me a bit of Crystalis on the NES, which I loved... 'Whacking' -- or, critically hitting -- the monsters felt nice, and racking up big numbers with chain spellcasts against elemental weaknesses on bosses always gave me a big grin."
Then there’s Secret of Mana’s three-player cooperative multiplayer. Innovative at the time, particularly as owners of the game had to buy a multi-controller adapter (the SNES only had two controller ports), this feature made the game stand out even more as far as Graywords is concerned. “It really felt like a cohesive multiplayer experience,” he says. “Not to mention, all you had to do to join the game was press start on the controller, so it was easy for your buddies to drop in or out.”
That said, Graywords is full of praise for the whole package, not just the game’s innovations. “The beautiful art combined with the pastel colour palette really gave it a different feel from a lot of games out there,” he states. “And the beautiful, ethereal soundtrack kept me entranced, complementing the playstyle and the artwork to really glue the whole experience together.”

Rocket Knight Adventures (Genesis, 1993)
Konami’s opossum knight Sparkster did not get as much attention as Mario or Sonic in the 16-bit era, but 2D platformer Rocket Knight Adventures on the Genesis is a much-loved title for Graywords. “This one is pure platforming,” he says. “All you have is your sword, your rocket pack, your wits, and your tail. It’s one of the few Genesis games I still pop into my system from time to time.”
One of the most impressive things about Rocket Knight Adventures is its sheer and maddening variety. Gameplay can differ dramatically from stage to stage, keeping the player always on their toes. “There were several ‘all you can do is dodge’ sections of stages, some ‘on-rails’ sections at high rates of speed, and some gimmicky portions where you follow your reflection or control elevator devices,” Graywords explains. “At other points, they completely change the genre of the game by mixing in a shoot-’em-up stage or two, or throwing you into a robot boxing match. I loved the innovation and variety crammed into this game.”
Despite the series’ comparative underappreciation, Graywords reveals that he’s actually glad Sparkster and his adventures never reached the heights of popularity achieved by his platforming rivals. “While that could have allowed for more games and content, not all of that content would be guaranteed to be good,” he outlines. “But I would love to see more Rocket Knight games if they can capture the essence properly. I’m not sure how an official modern game would play out -- the Konami of the 1990s is not the Konami of today.”
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You can now sync your MossRanking account to your Speedrun.com Account
Posted by meowmixmix on July 27th, 2017 @08:47PM
Hey everyone,
We have some exciting news for you all here at MossRanking! That is that you can now link your Speedrun.com account to your MossRanking profile and all your current, and future, runs will be submitted to Speedrun.com in their respective category. Once you're linked, you're done! Everything is taken care of for you automatically!
This is great news for not only MossRanking but the Spelunky speedrunning community in general because it allows us to show the larger speedrun community that we have a very active community base.
Because of this I strongly encourage everyone to setup a Speedrun.com account so that we can fill up the Spelunky page as much as we possibly can and show the speedrunning world what we are made of! 
Here are the list of steps you need to take in order to get your runs onto Speedrun.com and have all future submissions be posted there as well.
Step 1: Create a Speedrun.com account
You obviously can't link a speedrun.com account if you don't have one. What are you waiting for?
Step 2: Link your Speedrun.com API Key in your settings
In order for us to actually post runs in your name, we need a little bit of authentication from you before we are allowed to do that. Just go to your user profile settings on MossRanking and towards the bottom you will see a "Speedrun.com API Key" section. Follow the link to the right of the textbox, log in, copy the API key, and paste it back into the textbox. Then hit save.
Step 3: Bask in the glory of all your runs being on Speedrun.com
Your runs will take a max of 10 minutes to sync but after that you're good to go. EZ as pie 
Something to keep in mind : Your runs will not be posted to Speedrun.com right away, it will take a max of 10 minutes. Also to keep in mind, whenever you submit a new run, you will have to wait for 24 hours before it gets posted. The reason for this is because we want to allow people a grace period to edit their runs so they are submitted without any issues. And the reason we have chosen this 24 hour approach is because of limitations in the Speedrun.com API. So if you submit a new run and its not on Speedrun.com right away...don't worry.
Link those accounts and Lunk your hearts out.
-meow 
