One of my favorite custom mansions is Happy Hannukah! because it emphasizes speed over everything else. After playing it repeatedly, it made me replay many of the other mansions with an eye towards speed as top priority. It completely changed the way I approached many of the mansions.

I wonder if there ought to be a board for Fastest Times as well as Highest scores. 

What would this board provide that's different from the global high score list?

Or, should there be an option to view all global high scores sorted by fastest time instead of by score?

A sorting option would probably be sufficient. I know for this newer game I've been amusing myself on the easier levels for trying to play the mansions as fast as possible.

Playing with speed in mind can have a real impact on how you approach the game. I find that I use up shields like crazy - never hesitating to plow straight through an obstacle just because it's slowing me down. In rooms with slow zappers or platforms, I might commit jack-i-cide to instantly return to the start of the room rather than deal with the slow obstacles.

Please Vern, if you ever put a time limit option in MM, then make sure it is optional and not obligatory.  I would never play time-limited mansions.

This Topic was moved here from Game Improvements by brell.

Oh... I don't *ever* want a time limit. Nor am I suggesting that.  It's just a way of breathing new life into an old mansion at least for me.  Time bonuses on the other hand...nah.. nevermind.

:)

It's going to be *very* tough for someone to beat my score for Magma Peak Easy without resorting to some of the same "speed-play" techniques.

Rob Seegel wrote on 31.08.2010 at 06:14:20:

It's going to be *very* tough for someone to beat my score for Magma Peak Easy without resorting to some of the same "speed-play" techniques.

Gee that sounds like a challenge!

Jim

Rob Seegel wrote on 31.08.2010 at 06:14:20:

Oh... I don't *ever* want a time limit. Nor am I suggesting that.  It's just a way of breathing new life into an old mansion at least for me.  Time bonuses on the other hand...nah.. nevermind. :) It's going to be *very* tough for someone to beat my score for Magma Peak Easy without resorting to some of the same "speed-play" techniques.

Rob, I didn't misunderstand you.  I just wanted to mention this since your suggestion could lead to time-limit discussion.

I remember that as a kid, I played Metroid 2 (for Gameboy) this way. I think I had a time of something like 0:29 as my fastest. I remember seeing a magazine (Nintendo Power perhaps? I forget) post some "fastest times" for that game, and one kid had gotten 0:49 and they were like "wow!" And I was thinking to myself "Dude, I WAY beat that."

Haha. Yeah, fastest times can be fun. To me though, it makes more sense to design mansions with this specifically in mind -- much smaller mansions.

VernJensen wrote on 12.09.2010 at 07:44:50:

I remember that as a kid, I played Metroid 2 (for Gameboy) this way. I think I had a time of something like 0:29 as my fastest. I remember seeing a magazine (Nintendo Power perhaps? I forget) post some "fastest times" for that game, and one kid had gotten 0:49 and they were like "wow!" And I was thinking to myself "Dude, I WAY beat that." Haha. Yeah, fastest times can be fun. To me though, it makes more sense to design mansions with this specifically in mind -- much smaller mansions.

I completely agree - which explains the fact that I've only been registering my high scores on the smaller/easy mansions. They are the most fun to blitz. I've discovered some... ah... interesting exploits.

My next mansion should be themed around a speed run ... have one path through where if you do the right things in the right order you can blaze through.

I don't have the patience of OCD to actually get a true Speed Run record, but I love sequence breaking games like Super Metroid to see how far I can get without the High Jump Boots, or the Varia Suit, etc.