AM2R 1.4.2 Random Fusion Run

1.4.2 got released, and though it was a very minor release I decided to give it a shot anyway, just in case it corrected the lagginess.

And the answer is... partially?

When I initially booted up the game, before I initiated recording, there wasn't any lag at all. Then I started the first recording session -the first video- and it was lagging all over again. But when I came back for a second session -the middle three videos- it mostly didn't lag while recording. And in the end it turned out Zetas and Gammas no longer horribly lagged the game, but the Queen still brutally lags the game.

So overall an improvement, just not as complete of one as I'd have liked.

The most major gameplay change 1.4.2 makes is; in all previous versions, playing on Hard or Fusion meant that Metroids didn't drop pickups when killed and neither did the little green plant things that are all over the one Breeding Ground. In 1.4.2, these all drop pickups when killed, even on Hard and Fusion. This is very much appreciated -it meant I was able to go through that one Breeding Ground in one go, and if I hadn't done so badly on the second Omega of the set of three at the end I could've done all three of them without diverting to the Save Station. It speeds the game up without meaningfully impacting difficulty, outside making the multi-Metroid fights -what few there are- slightly easier to take on.

1.4.2 also does some tweaks to eg how music in the item rooms is handled, and cleaned up a few glitches I've never personally run across... though, irritatingly, the 'Queen Metroid headbutts you unavoidably as part of a transition' glitch that occasionally crops up is still not fixed, and indeed this time I had the bright idea of Spiderballing on the ceiling to get away from it because it occurred to me that the Queen Metroid always lunged downward, and no, it was going downward because it's actually homing in on me.

I'm proooobably not going to make any additional recordings for this version, but I am glad I did this particular run. It ended up surprisingly interesting, with me getting both Suits and the Screw Attack right away and then struggling to get mobility enhancers, up to and including Bombs/Power Bombs, leading to a lot of odd choices. (And a fair amount of dithering, unfortunately, as I kept wanting to go do a thing and then I'd realize I couldn't do that thing) Notably, I showed off even more of the assistant rock-bugs, showed off that Random mode has special accommodation for if you come into Hydro Station first via the shortcut tubes and thus go through the water-lowering sequence backwards (Answer: it preemptively destroys the water-lowering destructibles for you), and actually ended up killing the Weapons Tester in one try even though I had a really terrible set of tools for fighting it and was convinced I was going to die. I also for once ended up using the Spider Ball a fair amount -usually in random runs High Jumps, Space Jump, and Speed Booster end up shunting it aside, even if I get the Spider Ball early.