Submission #9492: Tuffcracker's GBA Sonic Battle "challenge mode" in 04:13.62

This run aims to complete Sonic Battle's Challenge Mode as fast as possible. This also improves upon the currently published run by 1,540 frames.*

* - This includes (what i think are) regional differences, which are not considered improvements according to the Movie Rules.

Sonic Battle was developed for the Game Boy Advance and was released in late 2003 for Japan and early 2004 for the rest of the world. The game is essentially a beat-em-up game, and shows off 2D sprites fighting in 3D arenas. The Story Mode of the game features Sonic and his friends going on a journey to unlock the secrets of a special robot that copies their fighting techniques just by observation in order to become the ultimate fighter. Challenge Mode is a mode where you can select a character, and go through 5 gauntlets of fights, in which the first person to get 10 points wins. You gain a point everytime you KO an enemy, which means the fastest way would usually be to not allow the opponent(s) to gain a point and be a point hog >:D

In Sonic Battle, every character has different speeds, attack damage, and various fighting techniques. Within these techniques are a move called your "special moves," which can be used by pressing the R shoulder button. At the start of every battle, you are given three options to select from. The first icon you select will be your ground special, the second icon you select will be your aerial special, and the third one you select will be the special move that you will automatically block. The icons are called your Shot attack, your Power attack, and your Trap attack. All of them have unique attacks depending on what order you select them in. You can block any moves (including special moves) that your opponent makes at you with the L shoulder button, as long as you are on the ground. Pressing L twice will move the camera to the other side of the arena, and allows you to see behind some platforms that would obscure your character otherwise. Holding L will allow you to heal your character, and also builds up your "ichikoro meter," which will be referred to as the special meter from now on. When you fill up your special meter, whether by healing or blocking attacks, your character will start flashing, and the next special move you use will be a one-hit KO against your opponents. This can only be done one time per meter fill, in which case you will have to fill the meter again to use it again. If you block a special attack from your opponent when they have a full ichikoro meter, the meter will be transferred over to you, allowing YOU to do a 1-hit KO move instead!

This is the most useful glitch in the entire game. Sonic has an aerial special move where he will curl into a ball and launch a wave towards the enemy that can deal a big amount of damage, and also be recoiled backwards. When doing this move right before hitting the ground, no wave will occur and no recoil will be applied to him. When Sonic is in this pre-wave ball state, he can deal a small amount of damage to the enemy before the wave is shot out. If you fill your special meter, and then use Sonic's aerial special against the enemy within a 2 frame window before landing, Sonic will one-hit KO the enemy, and his special meter will not be depleted! This leads to incredibly easy and quick yet boring fights. This trick also works with Emerl's default aerial special move, and was initially discovered using Emerl. This can also be done with Knuckles and Amy in specific situations, however that's for another time ;)

I used the Japanese version due to the fact that as opposed to the USA release, after the Sonic Team screen, you're able to hit start on one frame, then press start again two frames later. On the US release, there's a roughly 80 frame delay between hitting start after the Sonic Team screen and hitting start to go to the main menu. (I'm assuming this counts as a "regional difference" and wouldn't save time? idk i'll let the judge decide)

The first fight is against Amy Rose. By luring Amy over to a wall, I'm able to use my position to manipulate her into using her heavy attack 3 times in a row. By rebounding after being hit, I can very quickly gain ichikoro meter and one-hit KO her for an easy 10 points! This fight was a 365 frame improvement.

The A press during the score screen after the first fight was delayed for one frame in order to get a good Tails and Knuckles fight. I spam the ground trap attack on Knuckles and Tails in order to get them to gain a full ichikoro meter very quickly. Then I have to manipulate one of them to use a special move that I can block and then steal their meter, and from there I can insta-kill them for another very easy 10 points. This fight was a 176 frame improvement.

The A press during the score screen after the second fight was also delayed for one frame. I focus on getting Amy's ichikoro meter to full, which is not easy when she has a quick block recover, and a quick punch. But I can avoid both her attacks and the attacks from Rouge and Cream by just moving a little bit down. At the end I utilize Rouge and Amy's spawning right next to each other in order to get the last two points very quickly. This fight was a 408 frame improvement.

This fight is the same as the last one, except at the end I lure Knuckles to jump near where Tails is about to spawn, which also allows me to get the last two points very quickly. This fight was a 280 frame improvement.

I focus on getting Chaos' meter to full in this fight, but allow Shadow to get a point by killing Chaos after I get the meter fill. I couldn't get a timesave by preventing this, so I left it in. This fight was a 206 frame improvement.

Thank you to KusogeMan for his published run! Your story mode run is next >:D but only if i can get lucky