This month our Community Spotlight is JRP2234, a speedrunner of Metroid Fusion from Australia, who was the first to complete the game with an impressive 1:03 in-game time. He has participated in Games Done Quick, and is currently working towards the goal of entering the top five all-time records of Super Metroid by the end of 2020.
JRP
My name is Joel or JRP and I live in Australia. I speedrun various Metroid games, from the GBA Metroids to Super Metroid. I also speedrun Ninja Gaiden on and off. I have been speedrunning for about over 15 years, as early as 2005 when I ran Metroid Prime Hunters. It was not until 2013 I started getting back into it and started to run Metroid Fusion. I chose Metroid because the skill required to play them well requires a lot of dedication and practice. Its fast, demanding and satisfying to do well in.
What I like to think was a great accomplishment was bringing down the time on Metroid Fusion by coming up with better strategies and reinventing the run. I made a theory TAS (tool assisted speedrun) that had a lot of revised strategies, some of them were almost humanly possible. This let me break the 46 barrier with a 45 IGT (in-game time). My most recent accomplishment with Metroid Fusion was obtaining a long awaited 1:03 IGT in 100%. As of now I have retired from Metroid Fusion Any%, but may still do other categories in the future.
I tend to play about 5 hours a day, typically at night when there is nothing to do. I would spend at least 1-2 practice before attempting a run, and I normally play music in the background while doing so, because listing to the game music has become rather dull, ha.
My current goal is top 5 in Super Metroid. I have been grinding that game out and I want to achieve this by the end of the year. I have also been learning some side games to run alongside Super Metroid to avoid burning out; at the moment it’s Ninja Gaiden III for Famicom.
I also make music for various systems. For example, GBA Metroid custom music for ROM hacks, Yamaha OPL3, NES and sometimes Commodore 64. I tend to do this if I don’t feel like speedrunning, and I tend to post them to my SoundCloud.
Our Thoughts
RoyboyX
I’m always amazed at the talent of speedrunners in the Metroid community, especially when they take on games other than Super Metroid. Given the linear nature of Fusion, finding ways to sequence break is no easy feat, but JRP has managed to do it in spades. I hope that one day I can be as good at Fusion as he is. Best of luck to JRP on his future speedruns!
Video Gallery
For more of JRP’s works, please visit one of the links below: