By Way of Exposition
There is a young empire, headed by a wolf named Badler. Although ambitious in its desire to rule the world, it is smart enough to start slow, and begins by conquering a small archipelago to work its way up from.
Enter a trio of counteractive terrorists, residents of one of the islands, who get fed up with being ruled by this fascist regime. Although lacking in formal organization, they each serve an important role in there own little movement.
- Punky Skunk: Primary action guy and main character. His decision to stand up to Badler catalyzes the other two into doing the same. And yes, his main form of attack is to stink his opponents to death.
- Nash: Gadgeteer genius whose inventions include the pogo stick and snow board. Has a penchant for building gameshow setpieces on a whim. Who knows what his species is supposed to be.
- Kelly: Pink rabbit whose function is simply to assign silly names to various areas, often while referencing other works of popculture including Cool Runnings, and explain how the controls have changed for the current boss fight. Otherwise some bizarre form of fanservice.
The villains, on the other hand, have a more formal organization:
- Badler: Self appointed dictator for life. Seems to relate with Scooby Do villains, as shown in a cutscene you won't get to watch during this run. Is depicted to wear red, although he's wearing black whenever you see him. Thinks he's so cool his eyepatch switches sides every time he turns around. Literally.
- Commander Chew: Second in command to Badler. Most conflicts will be with this guy. Smart enough to realize that kidnapping the female companion is pointless and goes for the more strategically important weapon dealer Nash. Also quite honorable in that he's willing to have a 100 ton weight dropped on him for losing a game of volley ball (although he's a cheating scumbag during the boat race).
- The Chew Army: Mice that act as military grunts. They come with all sorts of crazy armaments, including a costume that looks like a large flower pot. Very loyal to the regime.
The Game Itself
This is a rather bizarre title. Once you read the back of the CD case, it becomes apparent that it's trying to ride the waves of Sonic the Hedgehog several years too late. Trouble is, once you boot up the game itself you quickly realize the character is less a smelly Sonic and more like Sammy Squirrel (the grey one in the beginning) [EDIT: dead youtube link removed] with a sense of patriotic indignation. And a pogo stick.
That's not to say the game itself is bad. Its platforming is solid and is a fairly good way to unwind. It's just that the title is wholly unremarkable and will leave little to no impact on you unless you've played it as a child. And, as a corollary to that, this game seems like it would be good for kids.
So why did I make a run for a kid's game? Someone (I think it was theenglishman) showed me |this article [EDIT: dead article link removed] about a year ago, and I saw this game on there at 33. When I first saw that, I thought to myself, "I am so making a run of the title when the proper tools come out." Well, the tools have come out, so I made a run. I mean, come on! It stars a skunk! Skunks are a close second to raccoons on the Awesome Wildlife totem! Not to mention they're also in the same family as ferrets...
...oh, all right, fine. The only reason I did this was because of the skunk's connection to the ferret. If the closest I'll come to TASing a game with a ferret is to TAS a game that stars a cousin, then by golly, so be it.
A Few Notes About the Run
About the minigames: For the most part, I aim to simply get through the levels as quickly as possible. However, in the first ten minutes, I have to play four different minigames. I decided that watching me fail some of them in order to reduce bonus time would be rather dull, so I decided to do as well as possible within the constraints of tool assistance, regardless of the bonus that should come. This results in getting a score of 117 for the matching game and the 109 lives that come as a consequence.
About the sound: This game uses CD audio for its music. If you want to hear the (often illfitting) music, burn the ISO to a disc and read mz's post here. I personally couldn't get it to work via virtual drive mounting, although some have had luck with that route.
Or you could use SaPu's CD-ROM Plugin. Works even better and requires no pesky cables! (and don't worry, it plays back just fine with this plugin)
Notable Bugs
The main conceit behind this title is that scattered throughout the levels are various devices that aid the player in doing whatever. The most useful bugs are the result of these.
- Switch Jumping: After changing between outfits in midair, you have a window of two frames in which you can jump. Good for accessing shortcuts and working around some obstacles.
- Switch Snapping: If you're within a certain distance distance of certain platforms, Punky will "snap" to that platform's level. Used to climb faster is some cases and to assist in the above glitch in others.
- Claw Walking: Comes in two forms, both of which can only be done while wearing the claws.
- Fast Walking: When you press left and right at the same time, Punky will double his walking speed in whatever direction he was facing. Needs to be a good distance from dirt to work.
- Wall Zipping: If you press the opposite direction you were walking with no gaps in the input, Punky will continue walking in the original direction, but walls will act like he's walking the direction you are holding. This allows you to enter into walls and initiate a wall warp once you get in far enough. There can be no dirt laterally near the place you are entering, and can screw with how objects get generated in the level. In part two of Pathgrinder III, if I had entered at the earlier point, a boulder would have appeared where I would have gotten out at, blocking my path. In Crevasse Chaos, I couldn't perform the zip right before the end because the flagpole wouldn't have generated. (also, in Pathgrinder I, the vertical zip was the result of the quicksand right next to the wall)
- Dirt Grabbing: Another claw glitch. If Punky catches a dirt wall while falling, he may get a vertical boost putting him 16 pixels above where he should have grabbed. If his head gets lodged in a wall or a boulder as a result, you can perform the afore-mentioned wall warp.
There are also two other glitches that aren't the result of suits.
- Stink Extension: While in standard outfit, attacking near the apex of a jump will cause Punky to hover for the duration of the attack animation. Used mainly for some minor stuff.
- Victory in Death: After hitting the flagpole, the screen will stop scrolling. If there's no solid ground underneath you at the time, this will create a pit which will kill you, but the level will still finish anyway. Used once to force the end-of-level bonus time down. Does not work in Aeroskunk.
Known Goofs in Order of Severity
- I made two in Pathgrinder II, both in part 2: First, I should have wall warped at the very beginning to reduce travel time as standard Punky. Second, I should have fast walked closer to the flagpole to reduce claw travel time.
- I probably should have waited in the dialog during Drill Sargent in order to manipulate the Commander's final position to be closer to the bottom.
- In both Castle Hassle and Sugar Rush Hour, I should have jumped first thing after grabbing the roller blades. This would have brought me up to max speed instantly.
- I don't think I handled most of the updrafts optimally. Who knew falling for a bit before entering would give you slightly greater height?
- About half way through I realized I was handling the dialog boxes wrong. As such, most of these can be improved by exactly one frame.
Most of these could be hexed in, except the RNG that functions on many levels is based on a universal timer that gets started when you begin the first level. In order to hex these in, I would have had to redo most of the levels, probably multiple times, in order to get things to synch back up, and I don't quite have ComicalFlop's near lethal determination.
I hope you enjoy the video.
Classifications
- Aims for fastest time
- Ignores delays due to bonuses (only during the minigames; in the levels I try to bring this down during autoscrollers)
- Takes damage to save time (often just to work through something, but also the previous classification)
- Manipulates luck (bosses and the matching minigame, plus item drops in some levels)
- Abuses errors in programming (already listed)
- Uses death as a shortcut (kinda sorta)
Settings
Although recorded off a disc, it plays fine using an ISO or a virtual drive. You may not get music that way, though.
Random Screenshot
adelikat: Replaced submission file at author's request. (Ferret_Warlord: Jumped over first pit in Windy City instead of jumping into it, saving about 12.5 seconds; some subsequent parts redone to get the RNG back in check)
mmbossman: Finally got this to work, and while it is pretty standard platforming fare, it's definitely worthy of publication, so I'm accepting it. However, due to sound issues, encoding may take a while.
ShinyDoofy: Processing. Thanks to error1 for the audio!