Super Metroid (PAL) - Any% TAS v2 in 0:25 by Saturn
Sync Settings
- WIP 1 Timing: ON
- Left+Right/Up+Down: ON
- Volume Envelope Height Reading: OFF
- Fake Mute desync workaround: ON
- Sync samples with sound CPU: OFF
Attributes of this run
- classic any% mode (no restrictions other than using game-breaking glitches)
- aims for fastest ingame time (due to universal recognition, regardless of emulator)
- takes damage to save time
- manipulates luck
- abuses minor non game-breaking glitches
- Genre: Platformer
- Total Frames: 134254
About the Game
Super Metroid is a classic platformer with many advanced techniques and a very fine, subpixel-based move engine. The story is about a bounty hunter called Samus who has the goal to explore a foreign planet called Zebes to find and destroy Mother Brain, the evil leader of the galaxy who is breeding a mighty species called Metroids to abuse them for her own benefits. During the journey you will find alot of items such as new ammo, energy tanks, special upgrades that speed you up or allow to pass certain areas you would normally not be able to, and making your character strong enough to be ready for the upcoming showdown against Mother Brain.
Despite being over 15 years old by now, it is considered as one of the best games ever made, and is still played by many people on a regular basis. Due to the many different move techniques, a high variety through the new upgrades, and alot of route possibilities, this game is a very common target for many types of speedruns and playthroughs.
This is my reborn any% TAS project for Super Metroid, recorded between April 30 and July 5, 2010. It uses an optimized route I designed back in 2006 when working on my first any% TAS attempt, which collects all the necessary items to maximize mobility, variety, and damage power of the beams for much quicker battles, while also using the latest speed tricks and boss strategies, with some of them
never done before. The result is a game completion of only 25 minutes (25,62 to be precise), which is the fastest time possible on the PAL version of the game.
I picked the PAL version for the following reasons:
- never TASed before, therefore it was interesting to see the completion time limit for it
- slightly different physics
- supports an additional language at dialogs (in this case German) for a wider audience
- much less lag, making the run look smoother in some locations
- the NTSC version has an existing run by Cpadolf using a nearly same route that already reached the completion time limit on the game clock there
Differences of the PAL version compared to the NTSC version
Physics
- Considerably slower horizontal morphball speed in mid-air, making it impossible to fall through vertical 3-block holes at max speed, such as in the large pink Brinstar room, Kraid Lair's Ki-Hunter room, etc. Down Reverse Fall through this holes seems only possible with the zig-zag turn-around trick as well.
- Faster morph, demorph, crouch, and stand up animation, making it impossible to bypass damage boosts, for example by mockballing through enemies.
- Somewhat different jumping heights at various running speeds when having Speed Booster.
Timing
- Same frame count on opening animations of doors, charged beams, bomb spreads, shoot frequency of Missiles etc, making them all slower when adapting to the 50 fps PAL speed. For example, the improved Phantoon 1-rounder is impossible because of that.
- Considerably slower boss-, and event scripts (except for Botwoon), with the Mother Brain battle already losing almost a whole minute compared to the NTSC version.
- Slightly shorter shinespark charge counter, making it impossible to execute the very benefitting Draygon shinespark without High Jump Boots.
My overall estimation of the total time difference between PAL and NTSC is a bit less than 2 and a half minutes for the any%, meaning that this run, if performed on NTSC, should be somewhere in the low 0:23 area.
A small present
Many people have asked me to post the smv of my old any% run, which I kept private so far to maintain the surprise value, but now with the any% project being done, I want to finally make it public. So here it is, untouched as of February 11, 2007 where I cancelled it shortly after Draygon:
If in doubt that the smv existed for so long already, simply compare the unique and impossible to duplicate refill drops of the Botwoon fight at ~2:00 into
this video that I uploaded in February 2nd 2008, for proof.
Notes
The run is also available on
YouTube.
Enjoy!
TASVideosGrue: More food! Om nom nom... blech!! Dislike branches and arbitrary goals! *Explodes*
