Wendy: Every Witch Way is a fun little platformer for the GameBoy Color. In it, Wendy the Good Little Witch accidentally releases the Chaos Emeralds from a treasure chest after clipping through the wall to her attic. The restless emeralds then proceed to knock down a floating castle that was blocking their view of the moon, and Wendy must flip her way through the castle to get them back.
Wendy's magic attacks in this game blink constantly, so they do not show up on YouTube half of the time. This can be fixed by blending the frames together. I know some people really dislike the blurriness frame blending gives, so... Link to Part 2 Frame-blended Part 1Frame-blended Part 2
I made two sets of encodes!

Game objectives

  • Emulator used: VBA v23, svn217
  • Aims for fastest time.
  • Takes damage to save time.
  • Plays on the hardest difficulty.
  • Sets a new record for most consecutive "Yeah!"s in a TAS.

Comments

(I apologize for the lack of depth in these comments; I am very busy with other things at the moment. But please feel free to ask any questions!)
There are only a few differences between normal and hard mode. In hard mode:
  • There are fewer stars.
  • There are a few more enemies.
  • You have less time to complete each stage.
  • Spikes kill you in one hit instead of doing one damage.
  • The final boss might have more health, but I never actually checked.
Stars are health and attack power. Higher level attacks go farther, and level four and five attacks are three-shot spreads.
There are two kinds of stages in this game: normal and flying. There are sixteen levels, and every fourth level is a flying stage. The final stage also has a boss fight at the end.
In normal stages, you must get from the start to the finish as fast as possible. You can jump, shoot, and flip gravity. Jumping costs 1 frame unless you were not moving when you jumped or you jump immediately after landing. Flipping gravity normally costs 50 frames, but you can save up to 27 by taking damage on the same frame gravity changes. It is also possible to jump again after taking damage.
By ducking right after you walk off a ledge, you can stand in midair. You will still be pulled by gravity, and you will enter your falling animation if you duck again or walk.
The corners of spiked platforms are safe to touch.
In flying stages, you must fight or avoid enemies while you automatically fly forward to the finish. Yes, they are the dreaded autoscrollers. Flipping gravity usually does not cost any frames and only immobilizes you for 16 frames. However, taking damage immobilizes you for some large number of frames that I never bothered to count.
You will automatically flip rightside-up at the end of the stage unless you are perfectly aligned with the finish. Finishing a stage upside-down does not save or waste any time.
You can still collect stars after you die, but that is not useful.
You are automatically pushed back to the left side of the screen during the final boss fight, but you will remain in place as long as you hold A. You cannot do anything in this state, though, so it is necessary to let go for one frame when you attack.
The final boss will spit orange and green orbs at you. The orange ones must be avoided, and the green ones must be hit back at him to make him vulnerable to your attacks. They will not hit him until they have bounced at least once. He has 20 health and 10 frames of invincibility between each hit, so it is not possible to beat him in one cycle.
The Advance World is a set of three normal stages that can only be played on a GameBoy Advance (unless you use a password). VBA does not allow for GameBoy Color games to be recorded in GameBoy Advance Mode, so I did not do them. They might be better off as a separate submission, anyway.
Certain actions, like holding select for five frames or entering the Konami Code, will remove one frame of lag before the password screen. I have no idea why.

Suggested screenshots

Thank you for watching!

klmz: Replaced the submission file with one that syncs on both old & new versions of VBA-rerecording. There should be no visual difference when played on v22.
Mukki: Judging...
Mukki: Accepting for publication. This played out like a very cute version of Metal Storm; the gravity element was interesting to watch and I liked the methods you found to abuse it. The game is pleasant to look at, so the autoscrollers were much easier to sit through than they may have been.
P.S. I like the last screenshot.
Flygon: Reencoding with new input file. Publishing at some point soon.


TASVideoAgent
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Cute little game. Yes voting. Happy Samhain from your friendly neighbourhood druid! (PS: This time next year, I wanna see more Hallowe'en themed games. Come on Dolphin people, Luigi's Mansion ftw!)
GabCM
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I will make an SD and HQx encode.
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Well, Mister Epic had claimed previously, per if perhaps, I will do the encoding SD
[18:51] <scrimpy> Oh, nothing [18:51] <mmarks> oh [18:51] <Nach> I think scrimpy is just jealous of you mmarks
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Since I scared all the trick-or-treaters away last year Halloween was pretty boring, thanks for the Halloween spirit... Back to the movie, nicely done, pretty entertaining. This line wasn't a joke: "Sets a new record for most consecutive "Yeah!"s in a TAS." Voted yes.
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This ended up being pretty nice! Even the autoscroller parts are reasonably interesting, since you can level up your shots. The last boss fight was also pretty impressive. Overall, the run looks well-played too. I think I saw a missed shot in one of the levels of World 2, but that's not much of an issue. It seems sometimes like you're taking damage and flipping at the same time, but the flipping animation is still slow (as opposed to the faster flip that saves 27 frames that you mention in the submission text). There may not be much that can be done about that. Good enough for a Yes vote. Yay for a Halloween-themed run too.
Used to be a frequent submissions commenter. My new computer has had some issues running emulators, so I've been here more sporadically. Still haven't gotten around to actually TASing yet... I was going to improve Kid Dracula for GB. It seems I was beaten to it, though, with a recent awesome run by Hetfield90 and StarvinStruthers. (http://tasvideos.org/2928M.html.) Thanks to goofydylan8 for running Gargoyle's Quest 2 because I mentioned the game! (http://tasvideos.org/2001M.html) Thanks to feos and MESHUGGAH for taking up runs of Duck Tales 2 because of my old signature! Thanks also to Samsara for finishing a Treasure Master run. From the submission comments:
Shoutouts and thanks to mklip2001 for arguably being the nicest and most supportive person on the forums.
GabCM
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Just a little question. Are the suggested screenshots picked automatically? Or did the author pick them?
Post subject: Re: #2899: Kumquat's GBC Wendy: Every Witch Way "Halloween Spooktacular" in 17:47.28
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Personally, I love this screenshot.
adelikat wrote:
I very much agree with this post.
Bobmario511 wrote:
Forget party hats, Christmas tree hats all the way man.
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Mister Epic wrote:
Just a little question. Are the suggested screenshots picked automatically? Or did the author pick them?
I think he pulled a TASVideoAgent and automatically generated them.
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I have to admit, I wasnt too entertained by this movie. However, it wasnt overly long like other games so this is good enough. Yes Vote. Also, Did anyone ever remember the show that Wendy was in? I could have sworn she was on a cartoon. >_<
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mklip2001 wrote:
Overall, the run looks well-played too. I think I saw a missed shot in one of the levels of World 2, but that's not much of an issue. It seems sometimes like you're taking damage and flipping at the same time, but the flipping animation is still slow (as opposed to the faster flip that saves 27 frames that you mention in the submission text). There may not be much that can be done about that.
I missed that shot on purpose as a sort of trick to make you think the run might have desynced if you were watching it on an emulator. In retrospect, I think it was a bad idea, but there is not a lot I can do about it now. I guess you could pretend it was intentional luck manipulation. Edit: Wait, I missed a shot on purpose on level 1-3. Where did you think you saw a missed shot in world 2? Am I reading the rest of what you wrote wrong, or are you under the impression that the faster flip and interrupting a flip with damage are different things?
Flygon wrote:
Mister Epic wrote:
Just a little question. Are the suggested screenshots picked automatically? Or did the author pick them?
I think he she pulled a TASVideoAgent and automatically generated them.
No, I picked them all myself. The four dark ones are another trick.
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Kumquat wrote:
Flygon wrote:
Mister Epic wrote:
Just a little question. Are the suggested screenshots picked automatically? Or did the author pick them?
I think he she pulled a TASVideoAgent and automatically generated them.
No, I picked them all myself. The four dark ones are another trick.
Ah... well. Okay, I mostly just said it because they are the sorts of screenshots that TASVideoAgent is infamous for pulling when he was still in the job. Basically, they don't follow the screenshot guidelines very well. I'm a furry, I'm not exactly used to referring to people as she... either way, I feel pretty silly now.
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Flygon wrote:
[small text]I'm a furry, I'm not exactly used to referring to people as she... either way, I feel pretty silly now.[/small text]
Furry nothing, this is the internet: male until proven female. Also, I rather miss the Agent's auto screen capping. A lot of the animations in this title reminded me of Krion Conquest. Am I the only one who finds it disturbing that her "end of level" giggle is used for getting hit as well?
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Sonikkustar wrote:
Also, Did anyone ever remember the show that Wendy was in? I could have sworn she was on a cartoon. >_<
Casper the Friendly Ghost. The movie was okay. I TASed this game a while ago, but I eventually thought nobody was going to like it and quit. I could share my WIP if you want.
YoungJ1997lol wrote:
Normally i would say Yes, but thennI thought "its not the same hack" so ill stick with meh.
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Nice game. Loved the run and the music! Yes vote.
[19:16] <scrimpy> silly portuguese [19:16] <scrimpy> it's like spanish, only less cool
Post subject: Kumquat = Rad
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Yes vote for reasons that will upset/offend people. Seriously though, a fun witch. I mean, watch.
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I have finished the encoding SD and uploaded to Dailymotion, no to Youtube SD Encode Archive page Enjoy...
[18:51] <scrimpy> Oh, nothing [18:51] <mmarks> oh [18:51] <Nach> I think scrimpy is just jealous of you mmarks
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NitroGenesis wrote:
The movie was okay. I TASed this game a while ago, but I eventually thought nobody was going to like it and quit. I could share my WIP if you want.
I was kind of worried that it would be too long, but it looks like I was wrong! (Thanks, everyone!) How far did you get in your WIP? Did you discover anything I missed?
alden wrote:
Yes vote for reasons that will upset/offend people. Seriously though, a fun witch. I mean, watch.
I am upset and/or offended by your horrifying pun.
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Kumquat wrote:
NitroGenesis wrote:
The movie was okay. I TASed this game a while ago, but I eventually thought nobody was going to like it and quit. I could share my WIP if you want.
I was kind of worried that it would be too long, but it looks like I was wrong! (Thanks, everyone!) How far did you get in your WIP? Did you discover anything I missed?.
I got to the third level AFAIK. (placeholder for WIP which I will upload tonight)
YoungJ1997lol wrote:
Normally i would say Yes, but thennI thought "its not the same hack" so ill stick with meh.
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This movie can be made synching on v23 by zeroing Frames 30112-30135 (inclusive), which contain button sequences that would trigger a reset on the final release of v23 but not on older versions. However, it's up to the author.
<klmz> it reminds me of that people used to keep quoting adelikat's IRC statements in the old good days <adelikat> no doubt <adelikat> klmz, they still do
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Sorry about that. Here is an edited .vbm with the input on frame 30125 removed. It should work with the newest VBA now. Is it okay for me to just post it here, or do I need to send it to someone in particular to have the movie file replaced?
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In theory, you may just post it here for a judge or admin to see and decide whther to replace the submission file with it, but I'd think it's better to edit the submission description text to include such info so that it couldn't be missed easily.
Note: When writing something that affects the processing of this movie, please edit the submission instead of posting at the forum.
Anyway, I saw this. EDIT: Done.
<klmz> it reminds me of that people used to keep quoting adelikat's IRC statements in the old good days <adelikat> no doubt <adelikat> klmz, they still do
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Reencoding in SD, since no one else has done the new input file.
Post subject: Movie published
TASVideoAgent
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This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [1671] GBC Wendy: Every Witch Way by Kumquat in 17:47.28