Street Fighter 2010: The Final Fight (1990, NES) by Capcom

Current speedrun.com leaderboard (Any%)
When I first saw this speedrun, I laughed a bit.  I thought there was no way I’d go for this almost meme-worthy speedrun over the full game one, right?  I mean, I’m the guy that chose to 100% TOMB RAIDER!  Well, to be honest, I wasn’t going to do any%, instead doing the any% (no wrong warp) category that disallows this glitch.  What glitch?  Well, if you press start on a particular frame after you die in the Japanese version of Street Fighter 2010: The Final Fight, you can glitch Capcom’s weird black sheep of the Street Fighter series and skip the entire level you died on!  Pretty nifty, right?

Well, if you knew this game, you might choose any% as well!  Street Fighter 2010 is not a fighting game, like the main series’ brethren.  You play as Ken (or, in the JP version, Kevin!) and you battle aliens and monsters in some convoluted plot involving alien invasions and whatnot.  Nobody cares.  Capcom pivoted HARD after Street Fighter II hit arcades, ditching this game’s formula in the dust.  However, on this game’s release, there were only 2 Street Fighter games: Street Fighter (AKA the weird fighting game) and this title.  They put their heart and soul into this game, and it shows: the graphics and sound are on par with any game they made around the end of the 80’s.  The controls aren’t bad, although they do take some time to get used to.  Frankly, however, this game is hard.  HARD.  And the speedrun doesn’t make it any easier.  When you tell me pressing start frame-perfectly 15+ times in a single run is easier than just playing the game, you know it’s a rough experience.

Care, I do not!  Because I wanted this challenge.  Where else can you speedrun something where all you have to do is be perfect, in a way that is 100% on you?  This speedrun has very little RNG, and is pretty easy to learn since all you really need to do is die.  There’s nothing else like it on the NES or in the Trials, as far as I can tell.  It’s such a unique run to attempt.  Does it mean I might’ve missed some of the game?  Sure.  Does anyone really care though?