Sonic Generations Speedrunning: Rooftop Run

Sonic Generations Speedrunning

Stage: Modern Rooftop Run

For my last blog post, I am going to play through the Modern version of Rooftop Run. This level is one of my favorites in the entire game. The great sense of speed and calming but exciting music make playing through this stage a treat. As usual, I am going to play through this stage twice, once normally, and again with all the shortcuts and alternate paths mentioned in the book.

Attempt #1

The first run through was relatively simple. Like previous runs,  I went through the stage without using any shortcuts. My time for this was 3 minutes 11.28 seconds.

Attempt #2

I played through the stage once again using all the shortcuts. Unlike in City Escape, I was able to do all the shortcuts the book mentions.
The first occurred at the 0:23 mark in the video, where the book states to "Jump at the end of the first grind rail to hit a Dash [Rainbow] Ring and fly high over the area" (Birlew 158). This automatically leads to the second shortcut where going through the second set of Rainbow Ring (0:28 mark) to propel Sonic in the air. "Hang in the air long enough for the scythe to swing away, then Homing Attack at the balloons [0:30 mark]" (Birlew 159). Unfortunately, I got too over confident and ended up running into a set of scythes at the 0:42 mark.
The next shortcut was performed at the 0:56 mark, where I had to "Immediately jump to land on a bridge over the area . . ." (Birlew 160). This leads to the following shortcut at the 1:06 mark, where the book states to "Cross the patio and leap onto a vertical jump panel" (Birlew 160). This leads to a 2D section where I had slightly jump in order to make Sonic hit the wall jump panel. This part is directly connected to the next shortcut where, in a cannon, I had to "Fire Sonic to the right, then fire him from another Four - Way Cannon strait up [1:08 mark]" (Birlew 160).
The last alternate path the book mention occurs at the 2:09 mark, where after using the Homing Attack on the first two set of balloons, "Sonic then targets a Spring suspended in space . . ." (Birlew 163). The rest of the stage is just dodging attacks to the finish line. 
In the end, my final time was 2 minutes 26.18 seconds. In total, I saved 45.1 seconds from using the shortcuts.

Conclusion

This stage overall was the second most easy stage to speedrun. It was refreshing going through a stage where random chance is a factor in a shortcut. To end these blog posts, I'm glad I did a topic like this. Though there were many times of frustration, the feeling of triumph when I finally did successfully complete a stage is unrivaled. So what was your favorite level that I played through? More importantly, should I continue playing though stages on my free time? Be sure to comment down below with questions or anything else you want to know.

Birlew, Dan. "Rooftop Run: Act 2." Sonic Generations. Indianapolis, IN: DK/BradyGames, 2011. 156-63. Print.