[TAS] Sonic Mania as Knuckles "All Emeralds" - Speedrun

This is a Tool-Assisted Speedrun. For more information, see tasvideos.org/
This is a speedrun of Sonic Mania as Knuckles in 47:05.90 to all emeralds. All emeralds is Good Ending/Best Ending.
Total re-record count: 26152.
✩ Game Description ✩
Sonic Mania is a platform game published by Sega for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows in August 2017. Produced in commemoration of the Sonic the Hedgehog series' 25th anniversary, Sonic Mania pays homage to the original Sega Genesis Sonic games, featuring speedy side-scrolling gameplay. It takes place over 12 levels, including several redesigned from past games. The story follows Sonic, Tails and Knuckles as they venture to defeat their nemesis Doctor Eggman and his robotic henchmen, the Hard-Boiled Heavies.
✩ Plot ✩
After the events of Sonic 3 & Knuckles, Sonic and Tails detect a powerful energy reading on Angel Island and board their biplane, the Tornado, to investigate. However, Dr. Eggman sends an elite group of EggRobos to reach the signal before Sonic and Tails. The EggRobos excavate the source of the signal, a magical gemstone called the Phantom Ruby, just as Sonic and Tails arrive. The EggRobos gain new powers from the ruby, becoming the Hard Boiled Heavies, and send Sonic, Tails, and the island's guardian, Knuckles, through zones the trio have previously visited where they pursue Eggman to prevent him from using the ruby's power for evil, clashing with him and the Heavies along the way.
Sonic and his allies discover that Eggman has used the Phantom Ruby's power to retake control of Little Planet from Sonic CD. They board Eggman's robotic fortress, defeat him and the Heavies, and escape just as it explodes. If all 7 Chaos Emeralds are collected while playing as Sonic, the Phantom Ruby transports him and Eggman to another dimension. There, the Heavy King (the Hard Boiled Heavies' leader) betrays Eggman and takes the ruby, imbuing himself with power; Eggman attacks the Heavy to try to reclaim it. Sonic uses the Chaos Emeralds to become Super Sonic and fights Eggman and the Heavy King separately to keep the ruby out of their possession. After the battle, the Phantom Ruby reacts with the Emeralds, negating Sonic's super state and creating a wormhole that engulfs itself and Sonic as Little Planet vanishes.
✩ Special Thanks ✩
Rubberduckycooly, MGRich - for decompilation of Sonic Mania.
Clément Gallet - for LibTAS.
⏱ Timecodes:
▶ 0:00 - The Beginning
▶ 0:21 - Green Hill
▶ 4:00 - Chemical Plant
▶ 8:37 - Studiopolis
▶ 13:39 - Flying Battery
▶ 16:47 - Press Garden
▶ 19:39 - Stardust Speedway
▶ 23:17 - Hydrocity
▶ 27:46 - Mirage Saloon
▶ 30:33 - Oil Ocean
▶ 33:19 - Lava Reef
▶ 37:46 - Metallic Madness
▶ 41:33 - Titanic Monarch
▶ 47:32 - Good Ending as Knuckles
▶ 47:58 - Credits
✩ Social Media ✩
▶ Discord - / discord
▶ Twitter - / shiro_paradox​​
▶ Facebook - / shiro.parado...​
▶ Instagram - / ​​
Thanks for watching!
#Sonic #SonicTheHedgehog #SonicMania #ToolAssistedSpeedrun
#ShiroParadox

[@That0neDude]

Here I come, rougher than the rest of them, the best of them, tougher than leather. You can call me Knuckles, unlike Sonic I don't chuckle. I'd rather flex my muscles. I'm hard as nails, it ain't hard to tell, I break 'em down whether they solid or frail. Unlike the rest I'm independent since my first breath, first test, feel the right, than the worst left. Born on an island in the heavens, the blood of my ancestors flows inside me. My duty is to save the flower, from evil deterioration! I will be the one to set your heart free true, cleanse yourself of them evil spirits that's in you. Streaking lights, loud sounds, and instincts, are the elements that keep me going. I am fighting my own mission, nothing's gonna stand in my way!

[@rosnymathieu7218]

AWESOME

[@someguynamedgamer_iscoolguy]

knuckles don't chuckle

[@elmonextbot]

cap

[@hatmahfyah]

Here I come, rougher than Knuckles The best of them, tougher than Knuckles You can call me Knuckles, unlike Knuckles I don't chuckle I'd rather flex my Knuckles I'm hard as Knuckles, it ain't hard to chuckle I break 'em down whether they're Knuckles or Knuckles Unlike Knuckles I'm independent since my first chuckle First Knuckles, feel the Knuckles, than the Knuckle chuckle

[@ljvallot8255]

Knuckles the echidna 3 and knuckles.

[@ToonRed]

The thing I love about this tas is that you can really stop for a spindash anytime you want with his glide

[@ireallydontknowifiamhonest]

Makeshift Dropdash

[@itzkonata3687]

22:59 that perfectly timed spindash for the explosion was sick

[@upscale9109]

how to make knuckles badass 101

[@pacifistichuman82649]

How to make Knuckles badass again, 101

[@awildcommenter7240]

Wow whoever this TAS guy is they are pretty good at speed running

[@CSharpDCS]

Plays a lot of games.

[@lowtiertomad4647]

He's the variety content creator we deserve

[@Dowux]

Professional gamer

[@sharmat1611]

Wow what an original joke

[@That0neDude]

@@sharmat1611 The only non-original joke here is your comment

[@neon8292]

Something i always love about tas runs is the programming to do frame perfect dash dancing when it doesnt need to do anything

[@Biddybud]

He was faster than the rest of them. Some could even say he was the best of them, tougher than leather, even.

[@yeeeee2599]

The best Christmas gift anyone could ask for

[@yeeeee2599]

Sorry I missed the premiere I was asleep imma watch it today though

[@duffman18]

What about a million pounds and a Terry's Chocolate Orange? That (combined) would be a better gift.

[@ABHMughal]

16:35 I was literally saying "Wait... REALLY?!" when I saw those gliders and then you reached to the goal capsule

[@Anaklusmos42]

Same. I mean, that's a huge skip

[@callmezeldaonemoartime]

It’s a TAS, there’s no “you” in it

[@DaDandyman]

@@callmezeldaonemoartime TASes still have players. It's not like an AI was coded to do every level perfectly. TAS means tool-assisted. It could be anything from slowing the game down and using savestates to programming a macro that does everything perfectly.

[@spikeythinker7763]

Looks like this speedrun was... **puts on shades** ...rougher than the rest of them.

[@clairebennett9104]

*"HERE I COME ROUGHER THEN THE REST OF THEM"*

[@GMKGoji01]

*"THE BEST OF THEM, TOUGHER THAN LEATHER!"*

[@spimbles]

nnnah. 💩

[@ovatails]

@@spimbles?

[@Grunts_NIC]

🤡 ​@@spimbles

[@CeeKay07]

Sonic Mania, but Eggman stole the Master Emerald instead of the Phantom Ruby.

[@upscale9109]

this perfectly describes what's happening

[@Furtleturtle]

In a theoretical sense, it would make sense for Knuckles to reach this.level of speed like with the movie adaptations. He's trained on angel island for who knows how long, meaning his strength isn't just for his fists. Clearly he's got excellent leg muscle if he were to move at the speeds he can go in this speed run.

[@dionlackey798]

Originally knuckles was always fast. He was the 2nd fastest in the series second only to sonic until people like shadow showed up then they made him irrelevant to sonic and not only made him dumber but slower as well. Knuckles could in fact keep up with sonic but couldn't surpass him at max speed. However ppl say knuckles is as strong as sonic is fast and if that's true knuckles should just be as fast as sonic if running with his strength

[@brokenman4414]

@@dionlackey798 knuckles’ power is in his arms where sonic’s power is in his legs, that’s what people mean by “knuckles is as strong as sonic is fast”

[@dionlackey798]

@@brokenman4414 Where was that official stated? It may not be canon but I've seen sonic use his arms to make mini twisters in comics and sonic x irrc. If he could use his arms in that matter than so can knuckles use his legs. Sonic is a force of pure speed. Knuckles is strength. Say for whereas sonic could vibrate through matter with just speed alone, knuckles can't do that. However knuckles should be able to use his strength to be able move at a higher speed whereas sonic is that speed.

[@duffman18]

Knuckles' leg muscles aren't as strong as Sonics, which is why he's always had a lower maximum jump height than sonic and tails in the games. Made it a pain in the arse to play Knuckles in Sonic 2 back in the day because the game wasn't designed around that too low jump height, like I remember it made it impossible to beat the final boss robot in death egg zone because of the method I'd come up with for it. The method didn't work with knuckles cos his jump wasn't high enough. So I had to change the whole method. It seemed like I was using quite a bad method anyway compared to how most people defeat the robot, but I was only 7, so it was upsetting to me at first that I kept dying and couldn't beat the boss. But yeah, Tails was always as fast and as high jumping as Sonic because of his tails, where when he ran he uses them as propellors to sort of half-fly or glide along, and when in the air he could use his tails as propellors like a helicopter to jump that high (and then in sonic 3 he gained the ability to actually fly period, for a brief amount of time, not merely able to jump as high). Knuckles is not quite as high jumping as either of the other 2, but us makes up for it by having his wall climbing ability and his gliding ability, which makes him arguably the funnest to play as of the 3 main characters.

[@pacifistichuman82649]

@@duffman18If you think playing S2 as Knux was painful, just do a no-horizontal run. I'm dead serious here, it's possible. The Death Egg methods are just stupid.

[@tenshi7751]

Mom: dinners ready! Me: 14:17

[@romgskn]

Sonic:I'm the fastest thing alive Knuckles:hold my beer 🔴💨

[@Fluxuation]

As someone who hasn’t played mania in quite a while, this is very helpful for some time saves!

[@Kaarui]

23:04 THAT WAS CUTE

[@zakwilson2606]

Now I'm wondering how ridiculous this TAS would be with Ray because his gliding ability is insane.

[@kiributmissing4276]

There is something very amusing about the tas coming from a stand still to a full speed in seconds, and also how it gently passes over the syringes in chemical plant. Great stuff

[@newbaggett]

Sonic: WHERE IS HE EVEN GOING!? Tail: To the end...

[@user-nk4wy1bc5z]

Sonic:OF WHAT?

[@jaytheglitch8194]

25:57 Nice beat drop man, that wall snare going crazy

[@clawcakes2]

i love it when TASes don't have anything to do so they just take a moment to flex. 3:51 look at him schmoovin

[@GamerSmash64]

That was super Fast, I'm Totally impressed with the Speed!

[@RickyRiceB]

Just got this game on Christmas and only really had the time to actually play it a few days ago. Guess I’m a bad player if I thought speedruns of classic sonic couldn’t look this graceful

[@pacifistichuman82649]

You're not bad at the game, you just need to get used to speedrunning. That's coming from someone who struggles on the Encore mode special stages. (Yes, they're different than the Mania mode ones and yes they're mostly in different spots.)

[@dionlackey798]

Knuckles is so underrated and underutilized

[@Gamespeedrunner2020]

Great TAS Shiro I was surprised when Knuckles climbed with nothing. Merry Christmas Eve and Christmas

[@ShiroParadox99]

Thanks and Merry Christmas^^

[@Gamespeedrunner2020]

You're the best man! Thanks

[@weirdface1846]

your sonic mania speedruns are great! keep it up

[@spankmaster]

Love the jumps on the loops! Also I'm curious is the Puyo Puyo segment at the end of Chemical Plant at 7:32 RNG based at all, or could you plan it carefully?

[@ShiroParadox99]

Not quite RNG, rather using of logic.

[@SexualIntercourse25]

When knuckles rolls on the ground switching from his gliding animation constantly scared the shit outta me

[@joshuamiller3701]

Three cheers for Shiro Paradox and Sonic Mania as Knuckles "All Emeralds" Speedrun and Merry Christmas 🎄

[@Venny-jv9wn]

Awesome dude!!!. You must have practiced many hours to achieve such precision and reflexes when making the video. My respects!!!.

[@TheRetroRoar]

This was a bot not a person

[@thepixelartists5756]

@@TheRetroRoar Wait, can you hear that? *woooosh* That's the sound of you missing the joke

[@TheRetroRoar]

@@thepixelartists5756 wow that was so funny that I forgot to laugh 😐

[@lukazgarza4075]

@@TheRetroRoar I laughed

[@Grunts_NIC]

​@@TheRetroRoarwow bro, learn what TAs is

[@yousefjoudeh8471]

I've been waiting for this for the last week

[@robb6973]

I love the silent slow, just to hype up the eye strain speeds of the Tas

[@emersonfernando2796]

I love your speedruns

[@Murder_Guy]

Great TAS! Also, Merry Christmas!

[@ShiroParadox99]

Thanks and Merry Christmas!

[@greatrthansymbol3161]

22:48 Oh god the robots are t bagging they’ve grown sentient

[@iannkata8449]

This speed run is sick.

[@ecliypse5901]

aside from the challenge of finishing the game in a low time and the competitive nature of speed running looking at these are really relaxing Thanks ^_^ and merry Christmas

[@ShiroParadox99]

Merry Christmas ^_^

[@leoandrews792]

​@@ShiroParadox99Christmas is over

[@chilidogsonic6774]

This was so cool you earned yourself a subscriber

[@theoverseer1775]

Him "this is TAS'd" Me watching him do 60 wall jumps with knuckles in 2 seconds: 👁️👄👁️ Like yeah no shit bro, really couldn’t tell, thanks for the clarification

[@GLVMR64]

These tickle my brain in the best way

[@SmashCrafter321]

Nice TAS man! Kinda wish Knuckles had more unique paths in the base game. Though from what I've heard, there is a mod that does just that, giving knux new paths and reworked stages to better fit his abilities. Any chance a TAS of that comes in the future?

[@ShiroParadox99]

If that mod has for decomp version

[@Fas_Dan]

i was waiting for knuckles, thanks

[@blackgamerxyt3219]

Woah your speedrun first time to see that ⚡👍

[@envyme6275]

Knuckles has become a vessel for a God and literally annihilates egg man at the speed of sound:

[@Jgame0701]

3:51 VIBRATE MODE ENGAGE

[@ghanig9948]

that's what she said

[@DETahaX]

That backwards leg in the thumbnail does not cease to disturb me.

[@exotic_george]

imagine seeing it in 2x speed

[@NeonTheHedgehogYT]

Nice Sonic Mania Returns On Shiro Paradox TAS Sonic Mania As Knuckles

[@alphaandrew9985]

hey shiro paradox nice speedrun tas very nice buddy youre awesome

[@MarioMastr]

The fact that I’ve managed to rival TAS times on most of these special stages is fucking nuts.

[@Updated_Player]

Good gameplay bro and merry christmas

[@ShiroParadox99]

Thanks, and Merry Christmas too^^

[@Updated_Player]

Thx ;)

[@brando9553]

100000 IQ knuckles doing poyo poyo like its nothing

[@That0neDude]

I was here in spirit, I was watching the whole time! (I was watching it on my TV)

[@OneZenDarius]

The funny thing is that Knuckles is the only character that will face all 5 of the Heavies in a single run while Sonic and Tails only face 4 of them. This is because they don't face Heavy King at all until the final fight.🥃

[@DeltaMarlfox]

Knuckles only faces Heavy Rider in the last Robotnik boss encounter and his chances of actually doing so are low

[@OneZenDarius]

@@DeltaMarlfox That is true. I forgot that Sonic and Tails face of against her at the same time Knuckles fight him.

[@Kip_jr]

@@OneZenDarius wait "her"?

[@OneZenDarius]

@Kip_jr Yeah, Heavy Rider is a she along with Heavy Magician. They are both female. Gunner, Ninja, and King are male.

[@duffman18]

@@OneZenDarius do robots even have gender?

[@JenukiDa]

my jaw dropped when you skipped the spider boss thats insane

[@igorgabrielmartinezribas1945]

Im not bilíngue,but this speed thats magnificent

[@shaunathenicehedgehog6740]

*Merry Christmas Eve And Merry Christmas!*

[@TheTolnoc]

I'd love to see a speedrun where the main goal is to hit Eggman with a Hellfire chain in Puyo.

[@DubKun]

nice TAS

[@GMKGoji01]

Merry Christmas, Shiro!

[@ShiroParadox99]

Merry Christmas too!

[@Tails_Z]

Merry Christmas, as well!

[@Tailsfan5338]

0:16 oh my god WE GET IT GAME!!! THERE’S AN AUTOSAVE FEATURE!!! once for each player that plays it for the first time is enough. You don’t need to bring this up EVERY SINGLE TIME!!!

[@Jay19874]

I loved your tas skilz. So how to conent libtas into sonic maina

[@ShiroParadox99]

I used decomp-linux version

[@ovatails]

ok that climbing trick ive never seen before congrats

[@LoqueneAS]

this is the meaning of "gotta go fast"

[@CaptainOfTheLeviathan]

Knock Knock It's Kunckles

[@Gamespeedrunner2020]

Let's go Knuckles and flex your muscles because you need them to beat this game. Time for a Knuckles sandwich

[@cameronzeferino6938]

Hard to believe it's been 5 years

[@guy1684]

Good you are speedrun sonic mania

[@caotico2703]

Knuckles he's a powerful character, I worry about the super version of him

[@theoverseer1775]

3:46 ok but that bm on Robotnik tho

[@nachoguy707]

I saw the mean bean machine part was a bit of a struggle. If you need help with Puyo, an easy way to make a quick 3-5 chain is with the stair stacking method. Here’s a quick video about it if you need it: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hn7Mn6mubLZ7hdE Also, amazing TAS as usual my man.

[@ahmedhann-uz5yy]

bro how do u do that spindash its so cool

[@ygbailey22]

I like how some special stage have the bird and fish from the sonic 1 special stages

[@EvaderOFTHETAXES]

Heya! So shiro could you do a armadillo speedrun?

[@ShiroParadox99]

After 15th September

[@EvaderOFTHETAXES]

@@ShiroParadox99 okey dokey ツ

[@maysahelo6483]

55:1 was so calm and nice deserved a sub🥶🥵😎

[@thiagoseno3009]

O incrível é que você memorizou todos caminhos. 😁👍

[@idkfn]

Also there’s some OOB glitches with super knucks so yeah. Good TAS bot

[@CompulsingFate]

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE EVERYBODY!

[@TheTolnoc]

Even with the power of the emeralds, you must respect... the bumpers.

[@danknoob2902]

I could watch this for days i love it wp and HOW DO U SPAM THAT FAST

[@ShiroParadox99]

Using frame advance or frame by frame.

[@danknoob2902]

@@ShiroParadox99 D A M N

[@duffman18]

@@danknoob2902 TAS stands for tool-assisted speedrun. Basically the speed runner goes through the entire game frame by frame with all the time in the world to set the computer to hit certain buttons and so certain commands for each individual frame of the game, and there's 60 frames per second, so that's a lot of frames. It means the computer can be programmed to do the craziest things that are so far beyond what any human can achieve. Then once the entire TAS is programmed, they can press play and have the game perform the speedrun in real time, like you see in this video, and it's always mind blowing to watch. There's a tradition in TAS speedrunning to show off as much as possible too, even when it saves no time at all. Just for the purpose of looking cool and being more entertaining. Human-performed speed runs are amazing and mind blowing too most of the time, but TAS runs just do things that no human will ever be able to do and so they're a whole different thing of their own. The two communities are closer than you'd think though, cos most of the time TAS runners find the glitches and tricks and secrets and methods that the human runners then learn to perform themselves in real time to get world records, so it's not like the two communities are diametrically opposed or anything, they support each other. TAS runs tend to be more entertaining though for obvious reasons.

[@J4WSH1E]

What type of controller did you use? and What platform did you do this run?

[@ShiroParadox99]

I used decomp version for LibTAS. Controller? I just used gaming keyboard.

[@loofington]

Dreams been mighty quiet since this dropped

[@NicolasTapiaGokuPvz2]

Nice

[@RADish-official]

I love how knuck rotates his fist because his sprite model doesn’t have any fingers

[@m.k.a.n.w.]

9:18 Super Knuckles

[@ThatOneV]

Oh wow u gotta have a really pro gaming chair!1!1

[@Darkcallan]

so I was playing it wrong this whole time!

[@crazeepetey]

Wow 👌

[@kemishareid6984]

Are you doing the mighty speedrun next?

[@ShiroParadox99]

Now, I'm resting from Sonic Mania.

[@Blanko_nopico]

Do do do dododo dodo do do, you know me the fighting freak knuckles and we're at pumpkin hill, you ready?

[@canaldeabestado6385]

Omg it's a new speed run 30 seconds it's a all esmerald

[@spo0ns]

Do you plan on doing a mighty or ray speedrun?

[@ShiroParadox99]

Sure

[@Lol_itsAdrian]

Now, we'll just wait to move onto plus for mighty, then ray, and possibly encore mode.

[@_G.C]

Ray would be so fun to see a speedrun of

[@ovatails]

rays glide will make him beat levels in possibly 30 seconds because of how broken it is

[@ktegaming3437]

9:14 Holy Crap!

[@TittleTattler]

Will there be Mighty & Ray TAS in the future?

[@ShiroParadox99]

Yes

[@nolanlong1979]

Bro the amount of disrespect to just jive while speed running is insane to me

[@epicmike16-abskepic50]

just curious about Tm1/2. Why didn't you do the two skips. (the one that clips you under the lightning box in tm1 and the big tm2 skip?

[@ShiroParadox99]

Because on decomp version those clips don't work :(

[@epicmike16-abskepic50]

@@ShiroParadox99 interesting. The same with the puyo skip?

[@ShiroParadox99]

@@epicmike16-abskepic50 Yeah

[@xdrunic]

He makes it looks like the video is playing at 2x speed by his skills lmao

[@AndrewBlechinger]

Man. All emeralds is 3 minutes slower with Knuckles than Tails? Dang.

[@abeerabf321]

21:06 POV:you missed the school bus but don't want to tell you parents 23:29 POV:you turned into jesus cuz you hate swimming😂