SNES Speedruns Set New WC Record

Speedruns are another element of modern video gaming that haven't yet taken hold in the world of Wing Commander. CirclMastr is working to change this with some quick runs of WC on the Super Nintendo. This is an extremely competitive area where challengers use precise measurement tools and work aggressively to shave off every fraction of a second they can get. Since the goal is ultimate speed regardless of method, anything goes as long as it's not cheating or external manipulation of the game. As such, in these playthroughs there is liberal use of the ejection system to maximize movement through the mission tree. In the losing run, it's simply a race to get through to the end of the Apocalypse System (the SNES version of Hell's Kitchen). The winning run requires strategic ejection to get to Hubble's Star, and then it takes key successes in that system, Rostov and Venice to get the Pewter Planet. He's already crunched his initial 46 minute run down to 41 minutes. It's a different way of playing through the series, and it'll be interesting to see how fast he can get in the future!

World Record because I've found no evidence that anyone else runs this. The SNES version of Wing Commander differs from the PC version in a number of ways that contribute to make it a much slower run, even in the best circumstances. "Much slower" still means pretty quick, however. I intend to get this record under 45 minutes, and it could probably get under half an hour with a good run and good RNG.