REN AND STIMPY - THE QUEST FOR THE SHAVEN YAK
Sega Master System version
I just now realized that the Game Gear version came first and apparently the SMS version was released after? I assumed every game for these systems went the other direction. Well, SMS version is what I did instead so whatever. The game's pretty well regarded for the console, according to my brief web searches. The graphics and music are alright, to be fair! There's only one guide on GameFAQs for the game and its info is wrong so whatever, like it actively thinks both characters play exactly the same it's not well done I got nothing out of reading it
Anyway R&S:QftSY was released originally in 1993 and is a pretty basic Hold Right to Win platformer, though it's also pretty tough by my estimation. Enemies come fast, respawn easily, and are often placed where they're tough to get around quickly--regular play requires a lot of cautious advance if you want to stay alive. There are decent amounts of health pickups scattered around though so the game does try to help too. I randomly decided to to try the game out yesterday and figured a TAS couldn't be a big pain in the butt to work on, during the next time I had too much stress and wanted something to distract myself. Today ended up a good day for that. Few hours later, here ya go.
You can choose to play as either Ren or Stimpy, and can alternate them between stages. There are five levels made up of multiple stages, and you can skip to them using passwords. The game reveals each level's password during a cutscene as you head to the new level--our heroes suffer pain or fear and cry out in distress: the YEOUCH or AURGGH that they yell is that level's password. Kinda cute idea, makes the passwords hard to guess but easy to remember.
This TAS uses Ren for every stage. Each character plays exactly the same, but with one important difference: They each have a unique special move to access areas of the stages that the other one can't reach. Ren's special move lets him do an extra high jump, and it only costs one single frame of not moving forward to be available. Stimpy's move is an invincible butt bounce that, after a couple seconds of animation, can be used to shatter thin branches, allowing him access to pathways below what Ren can reach. I found nowhere where Stimpy's secret paths are any faster than Ren's, and between the butt bounce being slow and Ren's super jump giving him extra flexibility to dodge enemies, like, it just doesn't make sense to ever use the silly cat in a TAS, it's chihuahua only, baby.
Other than all that, you can really just watch the embedded video and understand everything that's going on. I found a glitch where on levels that begin with you descending on a log, if you very quickly do Ren's super jump you can go above the screen and glitch out. You can't interact with the stage anymore, just float left and right forever. Obviously useless but I thought it interesting to mention. Lessee...Going down slopes is faster while you're on them, going up is slower so you want to jump the whole way. You just want to hold forward the whole way and try to reduce lag as you can. I try to not attack enemies when possible because my shots often cause lag, but sometimes it's the only way to really get by an enemy without slowing down. Some enemies, like rabbits or skunks, require two shots and have an invincibility period, too, so those are really annoying to have to get passed. There are large enemies that don't put your character in a YOWCH! animation when they hit you, instead just throwing your character away. If you face to the left while you hit them, though, they toss you to the right, and combined with your I-Frames from taking damage, I use this in the last level to save a little time I would have had to spend trying to sneak between the other enemies. The last level is totally crowded with enemies! The final boss is a drag because, unlike the previous four bosses, he is only vulnerable during one exact moment of his attack cycle, and you can only damage him once per loop. You can stand just to the right of him and, other than one slow snowball, you will be in absolutely zero danger for the entire fight. But it takes forever to damage him, so it's really disappointing.
OH also once per level you might see a Croc-O-Stimpy run by. Once they get beyond halfway across the screen, they slow down, and if you catch them in this slowed down state, they're a 1-UP. I avoid all 1-UPs and Health Ups in this run because the character does a second-long animation of happiness. So that's why you see me avoid things like money bags and roasted turkeys and stuff, they would actually slow down the run to collect. The only stuff I touch are fire hydrants (which act as checkpoints in case you lose a life) and weapons. And speaking of happiness, yes, during the ending sequence, the characters do do the Happy Happy Joy Joy dance! The rest of the opening and ending cutscenes are all references to the shaven yak episode from early in the TV show's run, in case you're wondering why they end with the characters flying in front of the full moon in a canoe. like watch the show, yo, the first season was honestly genius and still holds up, promise
nymx: Claiming for judging.
nymx: So this run looks good. I only had one issue, which turned out to be nothing. It was related to the "invulnerability frames" for the bosses. I found it odd that the bosses had such a high span of i-frames, which is usually done for any player's character. Also, there are places where there are some minor delays...but all of them appear to be necessary. From my account, some frames could possibly be found...but none seem to be left over from negligence.
Accepting.