Scoreboard Spotlight: Kevin Tobin's Tight Tetris DS Techniques & More
By Twin Galaxies Editorial Staff ·
This last week saw a plethora of fine new video game records, including a fine set of reverse track racing, a super massive virtual pinball score, and some impressive pocket Tetris proficiency!
If you know Twin Galaxies, you know we love ourselves a high score. That’s why we dig through the archives to see what kind of amazing new feats that players are conquering week after week! There was a lot to go through in the Adjudication Archive, and each of them deserved their place there, but we pulled a handful that simply have to be seen. From a neat little run of an under-the-radar adventure platformer on the Commodore 64 to some stellar organization and puzzling skills on Tetris DS, these were the Accepted and Undisputed new records that caught our eyes this week!
Marc Cohen – The Pinball Arcade (PlayStation 4): Ghostbusters Premium Points
For starters, we went with a massive new addition to the scoring ranks of Twin Galaxies world records. Pinball machines can most certainly be generous with their point increments, but that doesn’t make Marc “Marcade” Cohen’s run of the Ghostbusters Premium layout in The Pinball Arcade on PS4 any less spectacular. Cohen puts on a spectacular 40 minute display of bumper and flipper action, hitting target after target, completing bonuses, scoring and making use of multi-balls, and generally being a pain in Zuul’s rear-end. By the time Cohen finished off on his final ball, he was left with an amazing 4,833,715,020 points to show for his performance. How good is that you might ask? Well, it’s good enough to land him squarely in first place for the Pinball Arcade Ghostbusters Premium point track. His closest competitor, Terrence O’Neil sits quite a ways behind him at a current 1,457,778,130 in second place, but considering O’Neil’s high score wasn’t long ago itself, perhaps the challenge of Cohen’s record score is just a mountain waiting to be climbed by hungry competitors? Either way, it’s a score well earned for Cohen and it will be interesting to see what else these virtual pinball wizards can accomplish.
Brandon Finton – Burnout Legends (PlayStation Portable NTSC/PAL): Reverse Fastest Laps
Our next spotlight has managed to score a few records in the last week. Brandon “Desidious” Finton has been on a campaign to be the best speed demon he can be on PSP’s Burnout Legends. His recent escapades have been challenging “Fastest Lap” runs through tracks in reverse. Take his run through the reverse T3 Airport track for instance. Finton shows off some incredible racing skills, drifting carefully through turns, dodging oncoming cars, and narrowly avoiding some extremely tight obstacles. For his efforts in this particular run, he finds himself finishing a lap at an amazingly low 27.53 seconds, which is good enough to secure his position at the number one spot for the Fastest Lap on the Reverse Airport track. The competition to his records (in this case, the closest being John Brissie), sits a couple years behind, but sometimes only precious seconds back. That said, Finton hasn’t been content to run the roost on one track. He’s also taken the top spots with the fastest laps on other tracks like the Reverse Sunrise Valley. Finton clearly has the driving skills show up consistently as he continues to take top spots in the Burnout Legends library. Whoever attempts to dethrone his place at the top of this particular game has their work cut out for them.
Matt Sales – Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (Atari 2600 Emulator): Game 1 Difficulty B Points
In an incredible blast from the past, our next spotlight topples a nearly 20-year-old record! Matt “ILLSeaBass” Sales took to the emulated version of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back on Atari 2600, which tasks players with flying an Airspeeder over the frozen wastes of Hoth and taking out AT-ATs wherever they come across them. Sales puts on a 15 minute run of fantastic flight and firepower as he maneuvers around each target, laying down offense and dodging return fire where he can. As the speed increases and the game becomes more frantic, Sales still manages to expertly take out more than a few of the Empire army before they take out the Echo Base. At the end of the run, Sales put up an extremely admirable score of 4,971 points, which outdoes his closest competitor Rob Macauley’s original record set back in 1999 and sets him firmly in the number one spot on the emulated Empire Strikes Back track for Atari 2600. It’s always great to see games revisited and improved upon with new tricks or fresh reflexes. Sales admits he’s not quite sure his record will withstand another 19 years, but his modern-day attempt on this otherwise two decade long throne is still one to be recognized and applauded.
Marco Sandoval – Montezuma’s Revenge (Commodore 64 Emulator): Points
This one is as fun to watch as it is impressive. Montezuma’s Revenge is a colorful little dungeon platformer in which players must traverse a maze of traps and treacherous creatures in order to snag treasure, keys, and occasionally items to defend themselves from danger. Marco “Marco1019” Sandoval makes a pass at an emulated version of Montezuma’s Revenge that leaves opportunity for challenge, but still shows more than enough proficiency to shine on its own. He works through the quirky momentum of jumps and timing to often pass through some very tight and unforgiving spaces in the game’s dungeon, navigating trouble with relative calm. When all is said and done, Sandoval puts up a solid 27,200 points and absolutely crushes the previous emulated Montezuma’s Revenge record set at 3,450 by Vincent Morales in 2009. Though Sandoval’s efforts were impressive to say the least, there definitely seems to be more to explore in this game and greater treasures left on the table. That said, Sandoval undeniably holds the top spot for the time being with plenty of points to show for it.
Kevin Tobin – Tetris DS (Nintendo DS NTSC/PAL): Tower – Level 1 (Touch) Points
Our final spotlight takes a look at some fantastic organizational and score maximizing skills with the unique take on the classic style that is Tetris DS. Kevin Tobin aimed for a single level high score in this particular instance, challenging the Tetris DS Tower at Level 1. This version of Tetris isn’t necessarily reflex intensive as much as it is incredibly strategic. Instead of positioning falling piece into lines on the fly, players have a finite pile of tetromino pieces to arrange at the bottom of the pile to try to maximize their score and combos. Tobin arranges the pieces impressively enough to build combo after combo and get some pretty great multi-line set ups erased from the board at once. The level ends when there are no more line combinations to be made and folks like Roger Edwin Blair III and Jeffrey Dean Lowe Jr. have reached into the 6,000 point range in the past, but Tobin blew past them in this instance, setting the bar even higher for the Tetris DS Tower Level 1 track with 7,400 points. Tobin didn’t leave many shapes on the table and his continuous combos were rampant throughout the run. It may be a score worth challenging, but it will take some stellar strategy to outdo what Tobin managed to accomplish.
That wraps up our Scoreboard Spotlight for this previous week, but don’t think that this is all there is. There were so many other Undisputed scores in the treasure troves of Twin Galaxies Adjudication Archives as well, each well deserving of their new places among gaming history, and just from this last week alone! As players continue to climb and improve upon new and old games, we continue to watch and be amazed at the feats. Keep scoring high and finishing fast at your favorite games and yours might be the score we feature next time!
In the meantime, check out our Scoreboard Spotlight from last week featuring a supermassive Dr. Mario 64 score and more gaming greatness!