Metroid Zero Mission any% improvement by Dragonfangs, using the "Kraid First" route.
  • Visual Boy Advance 1.7.2 re-recording v19.3
  • Aims for fastest time
  • Takes damage to save time
  • Abuses programming errors in the game
  • Manipulates luck
Metroid Zero Mission has several hidden paths and alternate routes for things which, if used correctly, shortens the game greatly. It also produces many possible routes through the game, but the fastest one is pretty much set. Apart from one detail, which of the main bosses to beat first?
Going for Kraid first has the advantage of an earlier speed booster, which quite obviously speeds things up. Having speed booster also allows for a slightly different, faster, order of picking up a few expansions.
Ridley first, however, gives you Super Missiles before Kraid, which allows for a really fast Kraid fight. Ridley first also gives you power grip and possibly hi-jump really early. And power grip really speeds up vertical shafts, way more than you'd think, actually. Ridley first also has a slightly shorter route through Brinstar.
So the big question is, which saves more time: Speed Booster in Norfair/Ridley, or Power Grip/Hi-jump in Kraid? I believe speed booster wins that race. Don't trust me completely on that though, both these routes are very close in terms of speed.
This run mainly aims for the ingame timer. This doesn't really make a difference in most cases, but some of the routes I take might be slower in real time due to doors. The final timer reads 21:39 with 22% of items collected. 1 minute and 50 seconds faster than the previous run.

Random Notes of DOOM

  • Exiting a spin jump will still keep your vertical momentum unless you shoot.
  • If exiting a spin jump without shooting and while rising, you'll still rise for a frame regardless if you hold jump or not, if you then press jump again you'll start spinning again and still rise. I can't actually remember ever using this for time saving purposes.
  • Exiting a spin jump positioned the right way under a ledge, you'll get pushed down a bit, and since you don't lose any vertical momentum by exiting a spin jump you can save a bit of time.
  • Doing the "corner boost" at a certain place in Chozodia made a part of the room load incorrectly. But it's just a visual glitch and can't be used for anything.
  • The horizontal movement of all of Samus's projectiles are related to Samus's movement, so if you move in the same direction of a missile it will move faster to keep itself away from Samus, avoiding a doppler effect. This same technique can be used to "curve" shots by shooting diagonally and then moving sideways.
  • If multiple projectiles hits an enemy, all of them will do damage. This is only really useful against the Brinstar Worm/Charge Beamst/Boss right after missiles that drop the charge beam.
  • Shooting while turning around cancels the entire turnaround animation, speeding up a turn by quite a bit.
  • Starting a spin and shooting at the same time makes the shot appear at the bottom of Samus's sprite instead of at the arm cannon.
  • Morphing and shooting at the same time fires the projectile at the back of the Morph ball sprite.
  • After the Chozo ghost battle it usually locks you in place before transforming you to your full suit. But if you turn around during a certain time frame of about 4 frames you can move freely again and the rest of that scene still plays out the same. If there happens to be any stun pistol shots left on the screen when the you've got the suit for real, they'll turn into garbled plasma sprites.
  • The stupid slow walking robot in the Mothership has to get hit first and then go through an animation before you can start pumping him full of missiles. So it might seem like I "waste" a missile but I need to do that first, missiles have longer range.
  • Power Grip is usually way faster than other forms of vertical movement(shinespark excluded) because there is only a single frame without upwards movement.
  • There is a "sticky walls" effect when spin jumping. In other words, if you touch a wall while spinjumping and then try to move away from it, you accelerate way slower than you would if you haven't touched anything. Most likely there to make wall jumping easier.
  • Space Jump removes the ability to Wall jump, which would've been faster if there's a wall nearby. But at the same time, Space Jump removes the sticky walls effect.
  • Ingame time still runs during the "Item get!" popup.
  • Mother Brain will usually only take 5 missiles or a super before closing its eye to charge a beam. But there is a short amount of time right after a beam is fired where she'll accept damage anyway.
  • Bosses in this game die too fast :P

Thanks

I'd like to thank P.Jboy for providing me with a lot of useful information, Boltr for making the previous run and giving me something to compare to(it's kind of unfair to compare to that run because of all the lag, but it was still helpful).
I want to thank moozooh for commenting on my wips with constructive criticism, he really tried his best to make this run as good as possible, and he was a great help.
I'd like to thank a lot of people but mainly Angerfist and my IRL friends that go by the nicknames Meroigo, KConny and Demon for keeping the time spent on this worth it and enjoyable.

Truncated: Accepted as an improvement to the any% category.


TASVideoAgent
They/Them
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #1583: Dragonfangs's GBA Metroid Zero Mission in 33:07.53
Senior Moderator
Joined: 8/4/2005
Posts: 5777
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This improvement was long overdue, and I thank you for delivering it in such a fast and asskickingly awesome way. :) Excellent run on all accounts. Yes vote!
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
Active player (437)
Joined: 4/21/2004
Posts: 3517
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Holy Moly! You totally mocked Ridly. Im speechless... So damn amazing. Big yes vote.
Nitrogenesis wrote:
Guys I come from the DidyKnogRacist communite, and you are all wrong, tihs is the run of the mileniun and everyone who says otherwise dosnt know any bater! I found this run vary ease to masturbate too!!!! Don't fuck with me, I know this game so that mean I'm always right!StupedfackincommunityTASVideoz!!!!!!
Arc wrote:
I enjoyed this movie in which hands firmly gripping a shaft lead to balls deep in multiple holes.
natt wrote:
I don't want to get involved in this discussion, but as a point of fact C# is literally the first goddamn thing on that fucking page you linked did you even fucking read it
Cooljay wrote:
Mayor Haggar and Cody are such nice people for the community. Metro City's hospitals reached an all time new record of incoming patients due to their great efforts :P
Player (89)
Joined: 11/14/2005
Posts: 1058
Location: United States
Really incredible run. Yes vote.
They're off to find the hero of the day...
Former player
Joined: 8/1/2004
Posts: 2687
Location: Seattle, WA
Great job improving this. The boss fights were noticeably better (poor Ridley), and the mostly undetected Pirate Ship was a nice reprieve from the usual blasting. Yes vote. e: For your last shinespark, can't you do it while in ball form to also zip through that small airduct? I'm sure I've seen someone do it before...
hi nitrodon streamline: cyn-chine
Active player (378)
Joined: 6/5/2006
Posts: 188
Location: Malmö, Sweden
You need Hi-jump to spark in ball form.
Even the best player is limited by the speed of his fingers, or his mind's ability to control them. But what happens when speed is not a factor, when theory becomes reality?
Former player
Joined: 8/1/2004
Posts: 2687
Location: Seattle, WA
Ah. Well then, there you go.
hi nitrodon streamline: cyn-chine
Former player
Joined: 9/1/2005
Posts: 803
Those ridley fights weren't even fights. Those were massacres. There's surely a law against that. yes vote.
Tompa
Any
Editor, Expert player (2224)
Joined: 8/15/2005
Posts: 1943
Location: Mullsjö, Sweden
Very very nice run! You totally owned up, and destroyed, the game. Easy yes on a well made run.
Editor, Player (95)
Joined: 5/27/2006
Posts: 240
Yes.
N._Harmonik
She/Her
Joined: 8/27/2006
Posts: 502
Location: Canada
Now we need the traditional 100% run.
Why, oh, why do I even <i>try</i> to understand my own species?
Editor, Player (95)
Joined: 5/27/2006
Posts: 240
Don't expect one from me anytime soon. I'm busy working on metroid fusion 100% v2.
Emulator Coder
Joined: 10/9/2004
Posts: 453
Location: Norway
Poor Ridleys... Nice improvements.
Tub
Joined: 6/25/2005
Posts: 1377
Samus: "10 bucks say I can kill you without touching the ground." Ridley: "No way!" the usual dragonfang-combination of style and ownage. yes-vote.
m00
Sir_VG
He/Him
Player (40)
Joined: 10/9/2004
Posts: 1914
Location: Floating Tower
I still wonder if Ridley before Kraid is faster, since you cut out that one tremendously long cutscene. It might not affect in-game time, but it affects real-time. Outside of that concern, the run looks great.
Taking over the world, one game at a time. Currently TASing: Nothing
Joined: 5/13/2006
Posts: 283
Waiter, can you get that man a YES with a side of OMG please?
<Zurreco> if so called professional players cant adapt to every playing field, theyre obviously not that great
Active player (328)
Joined: 2/23/2005
Posts: 786
Wow, that was way too short! I want another Fusion movie.
Joined: 9/7/2005
Posts: 144
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Aww... I was hoping you'd do perfect stealth. It's a speed/entertainment trade-off, of course, but I would've liked to have seen it. It's doable on console, though a bit difficult. Ah well. You get my yes for Ridley taking it up the ass and Mother Brain not knowing what the fuck.
This guy are sick.
Former player
Joined: 8/17/2004
Posts: 377
Very, very yes.
Active player (378)
Joined: 6/5/2006
Posts: 188
Location: Malmö, Sweden
So I got bored and decided to take a bunch of possible screenshots:
Even the best player is limited by the speed of his fingers, or his mind's ability to control them. But what happens when speed is not a factor, when theory becomes reality?
Active player (437)
Joined: 4/21/2004
Posts: 3517
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
I think the first Ridley fight screenshot or the second one on the bottom row looks best.
Nitrogenesis wrote:
Guys I come from the DidyKnogRacist communite, and you are all wrong, tihs is the run of the mileniun and everyone who says otherwise dosnt know any bater! I found this run vary ease to masturbate too!!!! Don't fuck with me, I know this game so that mean I'm always right!StupedfackincommunityTASVideoz!!!!!!
Arc wrote:
I enjoyed this movie in which hands firmly gripping a shaft lead to balls deep in multiple holes.
natt wrote:
I don't want to get involved in this discussion, but as a point of fact C# is literally the first goddamn thing on that fucking page you linked did you even fucking read it
Cooljay wrote:
Mayor Haggar and Cody are such nice people for the community. Metro City's hospitals reached an all time new record of incoming patients due to their great efforts :P
Former player
Joined: 12/22/2006
Posts: 193
Location: Flowood, MS
First Ridley screenshot, definitely
<adelikat> tony hawk is porn for me <Comicalflop>my mom is hot
P.JBoy
Any
Editor
Joined: 3/25/2006
Posts: 850
Location: stuck in Pandora's box HELLPP!!!
hehe, that was high 21:39. I mean really high. 63 frames high. 1 frame slower and that would of been 21:40 My vote Yes!
Joined: 1/21/2006
Posts: 117
The metroids screenshot would be nice, especially since you'd know what a PITA they are even individually if you've played the game :D
Shingen
He/Him
Joined: 11/23/2004
Posts: 68
Location: Urf
Ridley fights? Sorry, all I saw was a blur of missiles and something that looked like Ridley.