Metroid 2 - Return Of Samus Any%, done in 173'168 frames
VBA rerecording 19 Allow R+L/U+D
Samus Aran is back, ready to kill every last Metroid in the known part of the Universe (and therefore let the infamous parasite X grow stronger, and cause Metroid Fusion to happen. Very clever Samus)! This time, she decides to only take what she needs and leave the rest to its fate.
== The run itself ==
I really don't have that much to say about the run itself. I just run around killing the Metroids and picking up a few items.
I pick up 14 (13 if you are not counting the beams) items, which should be roughly 41% (Or 43%, if you do not count the beams at all) of the items.
Some frames that might be interesting to know about:
- 2810 - Despite being a long fall, cutting this corner is out of the picture, due to the hitbox of the Morphball (Also, I'd probably end up making an extra landing losing time etc etc)
- 8400 - I would have landed on that ledge even as a Morphball, so I could as well cut the corner.
- 15110 - Believe it or not, but getting the E-tank while falling was one frame faster than first landing, and then jumping onto the platform.
- 16990 - That bomb do not have a purpose, other than expressing my withheld agression. No, I had a plan for it, but failed, but I decided to keep the bombing, because it looks, well, not ordinary.
- 46380 - No, it is not faster to cut that corner. Adaption to be able to cut it costs more than the cutting gains.
- 71000 - I extend this Metroid's life span, so he can help me up when I'm about to leave the room. I also believe that this is faster anyways (Didn't really test).
- 81000 - I fall through this room as Human instead of Morphball to build up some HP for the Acid Dive.
- 82700 - That is what I call a Metroid Bounce. Gained around 200 frames compared to climbing the wall as a Spider Ball.
- 86200 - No words can express how much I hate that fight, but I think I made the best of it.
- 116300 - This is a good Metroid-fight. I wish all fights could look like that.
- 118900 - Just a major mistake from my side (Actually I made the mistake itself several frames earlier, while getting the Ice Beam). I however, decided not to redo it, since I might as well lose 20 frames as gain 20 frames against the Metroid in between (Oh yes, these fights are random).
- 165200 - I am actually cornercutting this Metroid. That is respect.
Some things you might want to know:
- Contrary to common knowledge, lag is good (Shows how much YOU know). When Metroid II lags, the enemies get delayed, or in best case, frozen. Therefore, I sometime shoot a lot just to cause lag.
- The beast holding the Spring Ball actually died before the last bomb was set off. Serves 'em right.
- I can NOT use the Spider Throw during the Acid Dive, since the Spider Ball takes A LOT of damage, probably "Not Varia"-damage.
- An enemy can either drop Missiles OR HP. Never both.
~Stuff about the run~
Equipment:
- Morphball
One of Samus' three initial equipments. By pressing down twice, Samus turns into a ball.
As a ball, Samus' hitbox decreases, which is useful while falling and navigating. Also, after unmorphing, Samus gets a free jump if she's in the air.
Later on, Samus finds add-ons for the Morphball, such as...
Bomb
A bomb can only be planted while Samus is Morphballed. The bomb do a lot of things.
It destroys blocks, and it hurt enemies. So I guess a lot means 2. Well actually it do one more thing. It makes Samus fly up in the air, which in 9/10 causes more damage than good. However, that bouncing can be neglected by correct abuse of the...
Spider Ball
This thing is sent from heaven. Seriously first time you use it you go like "Meeeeeh do I have to use this? Samus moves slooooooowly" but once you get the hang of the hidden powers this thing possess, nothing can stop you from loving it.
First of all, like I said, it can neglect the bomb-bounce caused by turning into a Spider Ball the very frame a bomb explodes. Good stuff.
It also allows you to climb on walls, which is good, and its main purpose, and another neat, but very very annoying use of it is the ability to hover, where you press Down followed by A, and then Down again, and A again etc. Doing this in mid-air makes Samus hover. This was discovered by jimsfriend.
However, the by far most useful ability of the Spider Ball is the Spider Throw. It goes like this: If Samus is about to bounce as a Morphball due to falling from a 2 or more block height, triggering the Spider Ball during the bounce gives her speed. A lot of speed. This however is mostly just useful when Samus must move vertically during the span of the Spider Throw. If the Spider Throw is triggered during a Spring Ball Jump, Samus gains a lot of speed, and this is very useful when crossing pits.
Sounds too good to be true? Well, the major drawback of the Spider Throw is that all rooms are one ways. To the left. Not at all funny.
The Spider Throw can, like previously stated, be even more effective if used alongside with the...
Spring Ball
Now of all the silly item pickups in a game, I think Spring Ball wins.
In any good game, you get a description of what the item does. Or at least gives you a description inside of a menu. Well this is not the case with the Spring Ball. I mean to get it, you must first kill an enemy, by using the bombs. Fair enough. The enemy then drops the item, hovering in the place where he died. Okay. You pick up the item, and... well... okay, there goes the fanfare, but no message WHAT SO EVER what you just picked up. Sheez.
Well with this out of the picture, the Spring Ball is a neat item. It allows you to jump as a Morphball, which helps a lot.
- a) When Spider Climbing a wall, you can get a jumping start on the wall, saving some climb-frames.
- b) Combine the Spring Jump with the fact that leaving ball-form allows Samus to perform an extra jump and you reach new heights.
- c) Spider Throwing Deluxe.
- d) Easier to cornercut as a Morphball.
To defend herself, Samus uses...
- Beams
Samus also has a handful of beams, which replaces one another upon pickup. These are her main weapon, as they never drain. Unlimited ammo and a license to kill. Every boy's dream. Now in the hands of a girl. Among the different beams, I only use one add-on.
-Ice Beam
Ice Beam freezes enemies (Kinda like lag, but not even close), so you can walk on them if you want. This is less effective than damage boost, however, so it's kinda useless for me. It also makes enemies withstand at least one shot more.
However, it freezes the Metroid Infants, which makes them vulnerable to missiles, so therefore, the Ice Beam is a must.
- Missiles
The Missiles are slow accelerating shots which hurt Metroids. Samus starts off with 30 Missiles, but can pick up Missile Tanks, which increases her maximum amount of missiles by 10. Basically Missiles are a lot more powerful than the standard beam, but due to ammo trouble, I can not use it to kill off all enemies, since I'll end up losing missiles, and won't be able to kill Metroids.
- Other equipment
-E-tanks
Gives Samus a blazing 100 more HP to play around with.
-Varia Suit
Lifts Samus' breasts (It's actually true, judging from the sprites), makes her run faster and makes her take less damage. Good stuff. Also gives the Morphball a creepy color.
- Metroids
There are seven kind of Metroids on the planet, each with their own abilities.
Infant Metroids: 8 of them, towards the very end of the game. The only way to kill them are to freeze them, and then nail them with 5 missiles.
Alpha Metroids: The by far hardest Metroid to optimize in a fight. Hit them, and they fly across the screen in a totally unpredictable manner. 5 missiles kills them.
Gamma Metroids: The pretty big Metroids who blocks missiles with lightning. 10 missiles kills one.
Zeta Metroids: Tough ones. Takes 20 missiles for them to take the count. Only 3 to be found in the game, though.
Omega Metroids: The huge Metroids. Has a bad habit of wagging its tail (No joke). Takes 40 missiles from the front, 14 from the back. Or 13 from the back and 1 from the front, which is how I do it.
Queen Metroid: The one at the end of the game. Takes 150 missiles, or 5 bombs. Or 120 missiles and 1 bomb. Well, you get the picture. Only appears once Samus has killed the other Metroids in the game. Queen can not die from a bomb if it reduces her HP to 0, but a missile which lowers the HP to 0 is enough.
The author, which should be me, wishes to thank a lot of people for a lot of different reasons:
- adelikat Alter AngerFist
- Baxter Boco
- DK64_MASTER
- Fabian
- herooftheday
- jimsfriend JXQ
- kwinse
- Lag.Com
- mmbossman moozooh
- pirate_sephiroth
- Recca
- Saturn skamstaG
- thegreginator
- Vidar
Run spoiler (I think it's for the better if you see this rather than read it, your choice though)
La la la la la laaaaa~
Oh, butterfly :o
707
(>")>)] <--|o<("<)
...and yes, I did skip (S p a c e J u m p), and would do it again any day. Space Jumping up a vertical wall is slower than doing Spider Climb when not having the High Jump-boots, and this item is really only useful in ONE area, where it took Alter around 700 frames (Would have been a lot slower for me) to get to the top, Spider Climbing took ~1400, and it takes around 1700 frames to get Space Jump in the first place)
-= Run spoiler, and submission, ends =-
Suggested screenshot can be found at frame 152830, and it looks like this:
Truncated: I find this run entertaining, and it has also received very good votes. Accepting for publication.
adelikat: Setting to delayed while the author is improving his movie.