it took me 33 hours :/

It took me 44 minutes to watch the video of him playing. Does that count for something?

But the question is

Is he faster than Sanic?

Aeolus451 said: Wright said: Why not?   He used exploits and bugs to do the speed run. It's like doing a cycling marathon in a car. Anyone else is welcome to pat him on the back or offer congrats but I sure the fuck won't.

If it is in the game it is legit, most speedruns use glitches and bugs in the game. 

Again, He used exploits and bugs to beat the game. It's not commendable. It's being done outside of the normal game. Bugs and glitches were not intended by the creators of it. If you exploited a bug or glitch that you're aware of within a slot machine, it's still considered cheating. If you exploited a glitch that an ATM was having and took all the money that you could. It's still considered stealing. Any% only matters within the speedrun community.

15-20 hours in with 4 bosses down playing 3-4hours a day (my wife has the TV all day). The game is huge, so many places to go that sometimes its difficult to choose where to go next. I have also revisited every old area since I came across with someting in the same place I killed father G after I killed the third boss.

Those are not done outside the normal game. The glitchs and bugs are present, there, inside the game; and that's a developer's fault (not to sound rude, I can understand not being able to clear out all the glitches), not the gamer's. Also, I don't know about slot machines, but on the city were I live some people discovered a glitch on a ATM machine and they left it dry; and police did nothing despite the bank's claim that it was stealing. (Maybe it's just that police are lazybones here, hehe).

As I said before, I can understand not liking a speedrun that uses glitches on their advantage, but unless you're watching a "glitchless" speedrun, that's how things are done. Sometimes, one can stumble upon a glitch in a game that puts you in an advantageous position. You're not going to reset the whole game just because you did something the way it was not intended by the creators.

This speedrun is the culmination of those glitches the player stumbled upon in order to beat the game as fast as he can.

Sorry, I don't care what the "official rules" of speedruns are. The point of a speedrun, for me, is to see how fast someone could beat the game that the developers made. Not a part of it. It shouldn't include side quests, but everything that is part of the main story should be there.

People have every right to praise this guy, but for me, using exploits is cheating and thus the whole thing becomes a joke.

Normally, I don't care if people use exploits while playing whatever game but when speed runners who uses exploits get some kind of recogination like being in the news for their so called achievement, I have a problem with it. They are in a way gaining an award from doing it. It's not something that you inspire others to do.

Is exploiting a bug or glitch allowable in gaming tournaments with cash prizes or any kind of rewards? Is it considered cheating? Is it something to commend them for doing?

I see that you're trying to get me to understand it from that community's perspective but my opinion is already fixed on this. I'll just rephrase "It's being outside the normal game" to "it's being done outside of the intended game by the developers".  Like I said, I won't offer any commendation for resorting to using to exploits to win. If you think differently than me on it then to each their own.