There's always something appealing about gamers teaching old retro arcade or console titles new tricks, especially when they involve achieving a TG world record that many thought was out of reach! And of course it's all the sweeter if such an achievements unlocks a big TG bounty challenge prize! So pull up a chair as we review lightening-fast boat racing, aerial firefights, a quirkly plaltformer adventure, console malfunctions, and some super-fast heroism, so read on!
AxlThunder – Hydro Thunder (Arcade) – Greek Isles – Fastest Race
In February 2024, AlxThunder lived up to his name with a thunderous record on the arcade racer Hydro Thunder. Since 1999, the fastest record on the Greek Isles track was 1:30.39 – until AlxThunder converted the Titanic into the world's fastest speedboat and hit the course with a wild and crazy race that broke his personal best and took home a new TG record with a final time of 1:24.66.
Fordy – Karous (Sega Dreamcast) – Points
Fordy went into battle still trying to figure out the controller layout but emerged with an explosive inaugural score on the 2007 release Karous for the Sega Dreamcast. Infused with a graphic novel aesthetic, Fordy lit up the sky and upped his power to Level 49 before finishing his run with 23,524,520 points.
Earle Castledine – Bongo (M.A.M.E.) – Points
New TG member Earle Castledine made his mark on the TG leaderboard with a new world record on the retro arcade release Bongo. While the game is both celebrated and derided for its “unique” mechanics and gameplay, Earle left no doubt about who's the champ on the game with a final score of 370,190 points, beating the previous record by 8k.
redelf – Geometry Wars: Galaxies (Nintendo Wii) – Mastris - Points
After 3 hours of gaming excellence, redelf's high score run on Geometry Wars: Galaxies came to an abrupt end. Turns out that the Nintendo Wii U said “I've had enough” and shut down, forcing redelf to call it a day on Planet Mastris with an incredible high score of 699,431,450 points, vaporizing the previous record of 184k set in 2009.
Alantheace – Superman (Atari 2600) – Fastest Completion
Look up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Alantheace, the winner of the $250 Superman Bounty Challenge! Alan's superpower? Never giving up. After months of trial and error, he unlocked the path to ultimate victory by collecting the criminals, rebuilding the bridge, and returning to the Daily Planet as Clark Kent in 49 seconds flat, the winning condition for the bounty. Check out the world's first fully documented video run of this amazing record. Congratulations!
This covers our Scoreboard Spotlight for this week. As a reminder, these were just a few of exceptional records that were adjudicated and accepted recently. Every record that made it through verification and landed on our leaderboards has a well-deserved place in the Twin Galaxies gaming pantheon.
Keep scoring high, finishing fast, and game on!
