Kid Speedy
From Homestar Runner Wiki
| Game Category: New Game |
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| Kid Speedy | |
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| Description | Avoid the sweets! Get the fleet feets! |
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| Release date | July 10, 2006 |
| Play Game | |
| Box Art | |
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"Who's faster than Kid Speedy? EVERYBODY!! This little fatso is the slowest poke in the bunch. Try not to get dead last while avoiding sweets and insults in this hilarious arcade-style race 'em up." — Videlectrix
Kid Speedy is a game in which you play the character Kid Speedy, trying to win a race (or, at least, not come in last). The game was originally only mentioned in the Videlectrix game catalog; it was made available for play on July 10, 2006.
Date: Monday, July 10, 2006
Page Title: Don't Forget Your Inhaler!
Viidelectrix Page Title: Kid Weedy
Contents |
[edit] Gameplay
Kid Speedy automatically runs forward, and his vertical position can be adjusted with the up and down arrow keys. Collecting vegetables and happy faces boosts Kid's speed, as shown by a bar at the bottom of the screen, though this boosted speed slowly decays. Collecting junk food or swears, on the other hand, resets his speed to its initial, slowest level.
The game consists of eight different races, which can be chosen in any order. Each racetrack has borders resembling the name (for example, Cheese Puff Hills has orange borders).
- Jelly Woods Fun Run
- Cheese Puff Hills 2 Mile
- Porkchop Wilds 5K
- Egg Mountain Minithon
- Probate Flats Walk-a-thon
- Indiana
- The Loop
- Demon's Rub Marathon
The goal of the game is not to win, rather it is simply not to lose — that is, Kid Speedy must finish the four-man race in third place or above to "qualify," and the goal of the game is to get a qualifying finish in all eight races. Placing "DEAD LAST!" will require the race to be run again. Once Kid Speedy has qualified in all eight tracks, the ending is shown and new characters can be unlocked.
[edit] Unlockable characters
Winning the game as Kid Speedy unlocks "Strong Sad Mode", featuring the first of several unlockable characters. These characters all play differently than Kid does.
[edit] Strong Sad
Strong Sad is a more volatile runner: speed-up items are 50% more effective, but his speed decays twice as fast.
- The eighth track is instead the "Doomed Souls Charity Trudge".
- There's a chance that Kid Speedy will be one of the opposing racers.
- When you collect a speed-down item, the third opponent (see trivia) will match speeds with you, plus a large amount (more than they usually beat you by), right before you slow down (so if you're going full speed when you hit one, they'll race ahead of you for that 1.5 seconds).
Beating the game as Strong Sad unlocks "KOT Mode".
[edit] The King of Town
Befitting his odd diet, the power-ups are reversed for the King: junk food and swears speed him up, while healthy food and smiley faces slow him down.
- The eighth track is instead the "Caramel Canyon Walk-Take".
- There's a chance that Strong Sad and Kid Speedy will be among the opposing racers.
- The King of Town trips and falls on the qualification cutscene, causing the victory music to abruptly stop.
Beating the game as the King of Town unlocks "Homestar Mode".
[edit] Homestar Runner
Homestar is a terrific athlete: speed-up items work twice as well as they do for Kid Speedy. His maximum running speed is 25% higher than the others — while they can potentially place up to second, only Homestar is fast enough to win a race.
- The eighth track is instead the "Crumble Star Sprintup".
- The three opponents will always be Kid Speedy, Strong Sad, and The King of Town.
[edit] Endings
[edit] As Kid Speedy
{Three runners are standing on a stand, cheering. A blimp flies overhead reading "WIN!" The camera pans left to Kid Speedy, who is bouncing up and down.}
NARRATOR: {subtitled} CONGRATULATIONS! YOU GOT NOT DEAD LAST!
{Kid Speedy walks off-screen to the left and enters a city scene. He is walking down a sidewalk beside a brick wall.}
NARRATOR: {subtitled} KID SPEEDY WON A 2 DOLLAR CONSOLATION PRIZE...
{Kid Speedy enters a room with a woman and television set inside. Kid Speedy bounces up and down again. Kid Speedy's dialogue is in white subtitles while his mom's is black.}
KID SPEEDY: {subtitled} MOM! I WON 2 BUCKS!
KID SPEEDY'S MOM: {subtitled} NOW WE HAVE ENOUGH TO GET THE ORPHANAGE ITS OPERATION!
KID SPEEDY'S MOM: {subtitled} HOORAY!
KID SPEEDY: {simultaneously; subtitled} HOORAY!
{A screen showing yellow, blown-up text "the end" appears.}
NARRATOR: {subtitled} YOU UNLOCKED STRONG SAD MODE!
[edit] As Strong Sad
{Three runners are standing on a stand, cheering. A blimp flies overhead reading "WIN!" The camera pans left to Strong Sad, who is bouncing up and down.}
NARRATOR: {subtitled} CONGRATULATIONS! YOU GOT NOT DEAD LAST!
{Strong Sad walks off-screen to the left and enters Strong Badia, with the white fence in the background.}
NARRATOR: {subtitled} STRONG SAD WON A 2 DOLLAR CONSOLATION PRIZE...
{Strong Sad enters the Basement of the Brothers Strong. Strong Bad is here, along with the Trogdor arcade game.}
STRONG SAD: {subtitled} STRONG BAD! I WON 2 BUCKS!
STRONG BAD: {subtitled} CORRECTION: YOU WON ME 2 BUCKS.
STRONG SAD: {subtitled} HOORAY!
STRONG BAD: {simultaneously; subtitled} HOORAY!
{A screen showing yellow, blown-up text "the end" appears.}
NARRATOR: {subtitled} YOU UNLOCKED KOT MODE!
[edit] As The King of Town
{Three runners are standing on a stand, cheering. A blimp flies overhead reading "WIN!" The camera pans left to The King of Town, who is bouncing up and down.}
NARRATOR: {subtitled} CONGRATULATIONS! YOU GOT NOT DEAD LAST!
{The King walks off-screen to the left and enters a green pasture, with mountains in the background.}
NARRATOR: {subtitled} THE KOT WON A 2 DOLLAR CONSOLATION PRIZE...
{The King enters the castle, and walks past The Poopsmith.}
THE POOPSMITH: {subtitled} (I THINK HE ATE THE 2 BUCKS.)
THE POOPSMITH: {subtitled} (HOORAY.)
{A screen showing yellow, blown-up text "the end" appears.}
NARRATOR: {subtitled} YOU UNLOCKED HOMESTAR MODE!
[edit] As Homestar Runner
{Three runners are standing on a stand, cheering. A blimp flies overhead reading "WIN!" The camera pans left to Homestar, who is bouncing up and down.}
NARRATOR: {subtitled} CONGRATULATIONS! YOU GOT NOT DEAD LAST!
{Homestar walks off-screen to the left and enters a field, with trees and The Brick Wall in the background.}
NARRATOR: {subtitled} SOMEHOW HOMESTAR WON LIKE A MILLION DOLLARS...
{Homestar enters Marzipan's house.}
HOMESTAR RUNNER: {subtitled} MARZIPAN! I WON A MILLS BILLS!
MARZIPAN: {subtitled} NOW WE HAVE ENOUGH FOR A HYBRID CAR, OR MAYBE...
{Homestar and Marzipan drive for a while in their new car. A screen showing yellow, blown-up text "the end" appears.}
[edit] Updates
The game was added to videlectrix.com on July 10, 2006. A week later on July 17, the game was updated to "version 1.new":
- Added The King of Town and Homestar Runner as unlockable characters — previously, only Strong Sad could be unlocked, and Kid Speedy would still appear at the end of each level and the end of the game.
- Added tomato and cookie items.
- Food items bob up and down on some levels now.
- The 8th level now changes depending on your character:
- Kid Speedy — Demon's Rub Marathon
- Strong Sad — Doomed Souls Charity Trudge (the map resembles Strong Sad's head)
- The King of Town — Caramel Canyon Walk-Take (the map resembles a ham)
- Homestar Runner — Crumble Star Sprintup (the map resembles a star)
[edit] Easter Eggs
- While Homestar and Marzipan are driving at the end of the game, you can control the car with the left and right arrow keys.
- At the title screen, you can press "s", "k" or "h" ten times to start the game as Strong Sad, The King of Town or Homestar Runner, respectively.
[edit] Fun Facts
[edit] Explanations
- The term "Race 'em up" is based on the widely-recognized video game genres "Shoot 'em up" and "Beat 'em up".
- Though the title screen indicates the game can be played either solo or "online" against other players, this is simply a joke. All of the runners in both modes are computer controlled; the "searching for opponents" screen is just for show.
- Kid Speedy is most likely a parody of "educational" computer games that often promote nutrition.
[edit] Trivia
- Each race starts with the message "Ready! Set! OK, now go."
- When you play the last race, a group of runners will pass you and your opponents very quickly (They can be seen in the left margin of every race, running in place, if you play the Flash file). If your last race is the shortest race, Egg Mountain Minithon (#4), then these runners can finish the race in under seven seconds.
- The box art for Kid Speedy reads "BOX ART UNAVAILABLE!".
- The gameplay is very random: It is possible to acquire every healthy food item in the course and only them, and still lose.
- "The Loop" is the only level in the game whose preview shows a design that doesn't loop.
- Your three opponents behave like this: two of them run at a constant speed all the way to the finish line, the third changes every 3 seconds (on average - it can be anywhere from 0 to 6) to be slightly faster than you (how much faster depends on what level you're playing). When you collect a power-down item, the third opponent will always match speeds a second and a half later.
- Although the game was originally hosted on the Videlectrix site, it was also uploaded onto Homestarrunner.com, though this version remained unlinked from the website until the post-Flash site update.
- This game suggests that Marzipan's House is to the left of the brick wall. However, in Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People, it is impossible to reach Marzipan's House any other way than clicking on it from the map.
[edit] Remarks
- When you beat Strong Sad Mode, he is seen jumping up and down. In Strong Sad's Lament, he revealed that he was unable to jump.
- If you play the game with the Flash file, you can cheat on every level by right-clicking on the game and selecting Play after the race starts. You'll hear the falling down sound effect and see the congratulations screen for a few seconds, then it will show the typical qualified screen.
[edit] Glitches
- In Flash Player 6, Kid Speedy's slowest opponent is absent. While getting second place is extremely difficult, it's impossible to lose since he can rank no lower than third.
- If you qualify for a level, but play it again and lose, you will have to beat it again to win the game.
- No matter which race you choose in version 1.new, it will always show the image of your character's eighth race when you qualify.
- This was later fixed for the Viidelectrix version. However, qualifying for the eighth race will now always show the map of Demon's Rub Marathon, regardless of which character you are.
- Sometimes, if you are playing as the King of Town, the items will have their normal effects: the good items will help you, and the bad items will harm you.
- While watching the demo, changing to the King of Town by pressing "k" ten times before the screen displays the "Lose speed with these" parts will change the aforementioned section, paradoxically making it seem as though collecting the healthy objects will raise and decrease your speed.
- Likewise, starting the demo with the King of Town and then swapping to anyone else in the same manner as above, the screen will note that junk food and swears increase and decrease your speed.
[edit] Fixed Glitches
- When the game first came out, the player had to cross the center of the finish line to finish the level, while the computer players needed only touch the edge of the line. Thus it was possible to finish barely ahead of the last runner, but still lose the level. This has since been fixed.
[edit] Inside References
- One of the tracks is the "EGG MOUNTAIN MiNiTHON", making this another instance of Lowercase i's and eggs.
- Homestar Runner's ending includes a reference to hybrid cars.
- The Mini-map sprites are similar to the ones in Secret Collect. The player's mini-map sprite is Strong Bad's and the others are "secrets".
- The narrator says "CONGRATULATIONS! YOU GOT NOT DEAD LAST!"
- Videlectrix calls the game a "hilarious arcade-style race 'em up".
[edit] Real-World References
- The "Indiana" and "The Loop" levels are likely inspired by the the arcade racing game Cruis'n USA, which features Chicago and Indiana venues.
- "Wide Loading" (on the loading screen) is a reference to the "Wide Load" sign which appears on trucks carrying large items. It is also used as a slang term for "fat".
- In the Flash file of Kid Speedy, there are three other runners to the left of the screen and they seem to be wearing colors of flags. The top runner wears the flag of Germany and the middle runner wears the flag of Sweden. The lowest runner wears the flag of Kenya (black, red, and green stripes, separated by white). These runners are later seen racing ahead to the finish line in the 8th race, as well as in the ending.
- At the ending podium, the three "winning" runners each have an animation similar to the animations made by the characters at the end of Super Mario Kart. Notably, the "first place" winner's ending looks like he is clanging champagne bottles, similar to Koopa Troopa's victory animation in Mario Kart.
- When Kid Speedy trips on the finish line, he does so in the same manner and sound as does the character in the NES version of Track & Field.
- Kid Speedy's ending sequence is a reference to the common movie theme of competing in a race or other competition to win money to either save an orphanage or pay for an operation.
- Homestar's ending segment which shows him and Marzipan driving towards the sunset is an homage to the Sega racing title Out Run. Its drawing style also resembles the arcade game Pole Position.
- The insult power-downs may be a reference to Duke Nukem, where swear words are a powerup instead.
- Mills Bills were part of a General Mills cereal promotion in which cereal box tops could be collected and redeemed for money for a local school.
- This game is also a reference to an Atari 2600 game called Fast Food, with the junk food items replacing the purple pickles.
[edit] Possible Names in Online Mode
- There are several possible names that you can get as opponents in Online Mode. Each three-letter name includes a number following their name, while four-letter names do not.
- The following names were added in version 1.new.
[edit] External Links
- play "Kid Speedy"
- play "Kid Speedy" on the old Flash site
- view the Flash file for "Kid Speedy"
- play the Wii version of the game
- view the Flash file for the Wii version of the game
- forum thread re: the Wii version of the game
