Run starts at 00:23. Timer starts when selecting the character, before that I show that the game is being played on Normal difficulty; timer is stopped upon touching the finish line in North Pole Star 2.
Relevant links:
/ discord
www.speedrun.com/spacerace
This is the best run I've had in a while, and the Cup O' Mystery (which is one of the most RNG-centric parts of the run as the tracks it plays are randomized and the number of laps can be either 1, 3, 5 or even 7) was particularly generous compared to the usual. Most of my runs these days float around 1h 35m and 1h 38m.
This could've been a sub 1h 30m run, but I screwed up some things, notably the Looney Spoon cup and NPS2. I still have a way to go improving on some shortcuts, the majority that are shown in this run I've learned watching this run by Aestheticvoid which also has a commentary: • Looney Tunes Space Rac... (in fact, a huge difference in time between our runs is made by the fact that I've been playing on Emulator, which has much faster loading times).
I'm not really a speedrunner (I just like this game so much and I can't help but want to beat it as fast as possible!), so I hope you viewer will pardon my lack of professionalism. The footage is unfortunately a bit laggy at times (...that being because the game is laggy for me, as my PC isn't really top noch) and the way I keep track of the time doesn't include a timer permanently on screen or proper splits. The app I've been using to record also records my screen rather than my game.
Some explanations on the run (but you should watch Aestheticvoid's commentary for a more proper explanation in general or ask on the Discord server):
Characters:
Marvin the Martian is the fastest character in the game, but also the hardest to handle. He can be unlocked by winning either the Looney Dish Cup or Slowpoke Cup (or you could beat two cups from the second tournament); before he is unlocked, Wile E. Coyote is the fastest; he is pretty easy to handle and can gain height very easily. Every track in the game is faster with Marvin, except Planet Acme 1, which can be done faster with Wile E.
Backwards driving
Wile E. Coyote, Marvin the Martian and Elmer Todd have more backwards speed compared to their regular speed. Driving backwards is as a consequence much faster than driving normally and that changes a bit how you can approach shortcuts and such (for instance, there is a shortcut on Asteroid Field which you couldn't normally do without Turbo, but Marvin can just perform it by driving backwards). The Turbo mechanic temporarely gives you a boost moving forward (think of a Mushroom from Mario Kart), using it while driving backwards is hardly practical and as a consequence Turbo, which would have to be carefully measured in a non-backwards speedrun, is rarely useful in this run. Galactorama Park 1 (only for Marvin) and 2 are the tracks that include shortcuts that require a full turbo gauge; I personally tried using the Turbo to my advantage in Asteroid Belt with Wile E. in this run, but I'm honestly not sure if it does save a meaningful amount of time for its headache.
Tilting up on the joystick:
If you tilt the joystick up while driving (at least with Wile E. and Marvin) you will go slightly faster, but driving also becomes a little bit more sloppy. I do this frequently with Wile E. in order to increase my speed and hopefully not fall down (...which happened in this run), but very rarely with Marvin as he is quite hard to handle already.
Off-Track
Off-Track is a concept that I recently learned about and I can only really satisfy a surface level knowledge. Basically, you can spend up to a few seconds off track, then you fall down, and this limit resets upon falling down. As a result, if a shortcut requires you to go off-track for a second or more, you will probably have to fall down before performing said shortcut again. This limit is very relevant on some tracks like Galactorama Park 2 and Asteroids Belt, but also tracks like The Nebula and Far West Quarters 2 if you perform their shortcuts in such a way that you don't fall down the track.
Routing:
I unlock Marvin by going for the Looney Dish Cup with Wile E., the reason for that being that the Slowpoke Cup is much easier to do with Marvin as Looney Dish is the only cup in the game to always feature the Off-World City Limits 2 track, which is the narrowest track in the entire game. Looney Spoon is also done with Wile E., despite the fact that it could be overall slightly faster to do with Marvin - doing it with Wile E. is just much less frustrating. I will try doing it with Marvin in the future if I can improve my execution of Planet Acme 1. Any unaccounted for difference in routing is my personal preference honestly. Doing Cup O' Mystery right after Looney Dish is obviously efficient for grinding in case I will ever get to that point.