Sly 2 - What is the X Button Challenge?
Thanks for stopping by! This video intends to explain what the X Button Challenge is.
Here's the full playlist of all the XBC videos that have been uploaded so far: • Sly 2 Band of Thieves X Button Challenge
Now I'll go over some details that I felt didn't need to be in the video itself.
Most of the work I’ve done for this challenge was done on console. Despite this I’ve been able to do some crazy stuff to save X presses; so crazy in fact that it’s up in the air whether I can even prove through video that those strategies even exist and are possible. And because I don’t want to claim something exists without video proof, I don’t want it to be eligible to save X presses. This is why the total X press count of 92 is a conservative estimate. It’s very likely I'll prove it can go lower than that, however. Sub-90 is definitely possible, and I’d give sub-80 around a 1-in-3 chance of happening by the time I reach Episode 8.
= Why am I doing this? =
I started doing stuff like this in 2021 with the Circle Button Challenge (CBC) for myself as a fun way to test my knowledge of the game and to solve a puzzle seemingly no one had ever tried to solve before. After a while I became bored with the challenge because of how easy it was to save O presses initially, and how hard it became to come across new saves afterward.
So in July 2022 I started the X button challenge and immediately could tell how much more fun it was to try and solve. Up until last June, all of my work on both challenges were on console. I only picked up emulation specifically to try and put my work out there, but luckily for me that decision alone was responsible for a bunch of X press saves I couldn't've feasibly found without save-states.
I have three main inspirations:
Pannenkoek2012 (@pannenkoek2012 ) & the ABC Crew, and Bismuth (@Bismuth9 ) for inspiring me to start the challenge in the first place and for being the sources of some of the design choices in my videos.
SlyCooperReloadCoded (@SlyCooperReloadCoded ) for inspiring me to pick up emulation and editing to make XBC videos to share on Youtube. Her Discord server was also the source of all the necessary files I needed to start emulating Sly 2, and her own attempt at an X button challenge was the source for a few X press saves that I never found.
To them all, thank you so much!
= Upload Schedule and Future Plans =
I will have released four XBC videos with this one, and after that I hope to release at least 1 video a day, which should give me time to at least record the rest of Episode 4's jobs (this episode may take the longest to record out of all the other ones because of how many tedious/difficult tricks it has). By the time the last of the scheduled videos are released, I’ll be in the thick of college; because of this I’ll have no future upload schedule, so expect videos to come out randomly.
In Episode 8, Sly is able to unlock the Feral Pounce gadget, which basically acts as a separate, single jump. I have no problem using it since it doesn't use the X button and is unlocked in the last episode (in which you play Sly the least out of any other episode), but I can see others having a problem with it. So when I reach Episode 8, I plan on releasing two videos for each job with Sly in it: one using Feral Pounce, and one without using it.
Have any questions? Ask about it in the comments or DM me at mcfighter2000 on Discord.
You've reached the end. Thanks for reading, and have a blessed day! :D