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My Little Pony Crystal Princess - The Runaway Rainbow! Come join the fun and adventure as you guide not-Rarity through beautiful landscapes and meet new friends like the Breezies and not-Rainbow Dash! She is a brand new princess who was accidentally whisked away from home and will need to travel through the Breezy Forest and not-Ponyville to fulfill her important role of bringing about the first rainbow of the season!

This run was thrown together in a few days to commemorate the premiere of season two of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Recorded using VBA v23.5 svn 394.
Yeah, yeah, it's not the My Little Pony most of you are familiar with. This comes from the G3 line, and stars most of the cast that got morphed into some G1 ponies to produce the current ones. I was personally surprised to learn that over 25+ years of being around, very few games were made. This seemed like the only one I could do.
As for the run itself, yeah. Every single minigame may be skipped, but if I did it'd be little more than 30 minutes of "Hey, get this for me!" I kept them in to break up the monotony.
Some tricks:
  • While you usually walk on top of an item to pick it up, you can interact with them the way you do with most other characters, IE just approach and press A. This allows you to pick up items at quite a distance. Note that there appears to be some bias when approaching from the left. Coming from the right requires getting in much closer.
Some commentary:
Chapter 1: Introduction to not-Rarity and her mentor not-Cheerilee. Not-Rarity has been appointed a new princess and has the job of helping form the first rainbow of the season. Not-Rarity, however, has a bad case of ADD. Hoping to get rid of some of this excess energy, not-Cheerilee has her help the other unicorns in setting up for the Rainbow Celebration. This doesn't help, and her ADD addled (ADDled?) brain gets her into trouble.
Chapter 2: Here we meet the Breezies, the fairies resident to this universe. Here not-Rarity is charged to help compensate for their inability to keep their possessions organized and is sent wandering through the woods picking up books and playing Whack-A-Breezy before they'll help her. They seem intent to be obstacles, though, forcing her to pick up an item through collision detection and even barricading her from doing her job for a bit.
Chapter 3: The Breezies carry not-Rarity to not-Ponyville where she meets up with not-Pinkie Pie, not-Rainbow Dash, and not-Spike. She introduces herself by greedily munching down on a pie and then blaming her hosts for being so hospitable. Ordinarily she has the ability to send another pony to go help others with their chores, but she miraculously becomes responsible and helps them herself. Now if they'd only let her pick up more than one item at a time...
Chapter 4: Not-Spike decides the best way back to Unicornia is through a mountain pass. Here not-Rarity endangers not only her own life but the lives of two other ponies through her ADDled fascination with a butterfly. Not-Rainbow Dash pulls them out with her luggage, and not-Rarity does a little growing up from her experience. Eventually she passes by not-Cheerilee and has to race the pink star home before it's too late to make the first rainbow!
Chapter 5: All's well that ends well! Now talk to people and invite them to the celebration.
Some improvements:
  • Twenty minutes into this run and I realized there's a better way to handle text boxes. Towards the end of chapter 3 on you'll notice fewer text boxes because of this.
  • Maybe manipulate the breezies so they don't get in the way very often?
Some screenshots:
Remember, you too are a pretty princess! ~_^

adelikat: Replacing submission file for author. New file is 739 frames faster due to a new route in the final level

DarkKobold: Judging for Friendship and Magic.

DarkKobold: While I enjoyed the culturally relevant submission, the actual movie was barely a TAS. While some people claimed to have voted "no" due to ponies, it seems to me that a majority of yes votes were only for ponies. The general feedback related to game play was miserable. We here at TASvideos are not your friends, nor do we make magic. This leads to an incompatibility between ponies and TASes. Thus, I must reject due to this incompatibility.... Ok, actually game choice.

adelikat: Unrejecting for consideration of publicaton to the Vault

adelikat: "Twenty minutes into this run and I realized there's a better way to handle text boxes" - Given the simplicity of this run, it isn't unreasonable to demand the beginning of the movie be redone. It suffers enough in terms of not looking much like a TAS, this would help. Therefore, setting this back to rejected. However, a more optimized version of this may be Vault eligible.


Editor, Experienced player (570)
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AKheon wrote:
A grown man TASing My Little Pony? Preposterous! Little bit of hypocritical humor...
OK, this was pretty funny.
Active player (435)
Joined: 9/27/2004
Posts: 650
Location: Canada
This is just a really unpleasant game to watch. I can't handle it.
Editor, Player (44)
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Just finished watching this, and it really isn't as bad as everyone seems to be making out. Imagine what a TAS of an RPG typically looks like: all battles run from except a few plot battles that are beaten with cheap tactics or luck manipulation, leaving basically the entire run as cutscenes, fetchquests, and minigames. And isn't that just what this game is? As a benefit, the plot makes rather more sense than the average RPG's. Voting meh, as per my policy on voting on RPG runs that skip or power through all the interesting bits (in this case, there are no interesting bits to skip, but I don't see why that should make a difference). The bits of the game that are done (all of it), whilst a little repetitive and uninspired, are done pretty efficiently and precisely, and I don't see why the run shouldn't be published so that fans of the game can watch it; it's not like we're likely to get a better run of the same game any time soon (unless it gets frame-warred). I really don't think popularity of a game should factor into a decision on whether to publish a TAS, nor how fun the game is to play in unassisted conditions.
Demon_Lord
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Location: Chicoutimi, Qc, Canada
I enjoyed watching the Simon games being solved thru mind-reading, but that's about it. If only ponies could run...
Active player (435)
Joined: 9/27/2004
Posts: 650
Location: Canada
Demon Lord wrote:
If only ponies could run...
That would probably save the TAS for me. As it stands it's like watching paint dry. Pink paint.
mklip2001
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Joined: 6/23/2009
Posts: 2227
Location: Georgia, USA
ais523 wrote:
Just finished watching this, and it really isn't as bad as everyone seems to be making out. Imagine what a TAS of an RPG typically looks like: all battles run from except a few plot battles that are beaten with cheap tactics or luck manipulation, leaving basically the entire run as cutscenes, fetchquests, and minigames. And isn't that just what this game is? As a benefit, the plot makes rather more sense than the average RPG's. Voting meh, as per my policy on voting on RPG runs that skip or power through all the interesting bits (in this case, there are no interesting bits to skip, but I don't see why that should make a difference). The bits of the game that are done (all of it), whilst a little repetitive and uninspired, are done pretty efficiently and precisely, and I don't see why the run shouldn't be published so that fans of the game can watch it; it's not like we're likely to get a better run of the same game any time soon (unless it gets frame-warred). I really don't think popularity of a game should factor into a decision on whether to publish a TAS, nor how fun the game is to play in unassisted conditions.
You bring up a really good point about the comparison with RPG runs. However, the fact that RPG runs skip a lot of the game is important, at least to me. I enjoy watching an RPG run with the knowledge that the game should honestly take way longer than the speedrun takes. This game does have more challenge than I originally thought, but it's still overly simplistic with a slow-moving character. Also, this game doesn't have anywhere near the amount of luck manipulation that makes a first-class RPG run. Luck manipulation effectively makes or breaks an RPG.
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.
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ais523 wrote:
The bits of the game that are done (all of it), whilst a little repetitive and uninspired, are done pretty efficiently and precisely, and I don't see why the run shouldn't be published so that fans of the game can watch it; it's not like we're likely to get a better run of the same game any time soon (unless it gets frame-warred).
Most of the people who voted No (including me) did so because it's a bad game choice, not because it's suboptimal. For that reason, it probably won't be published.
Joined: 6/4/2009
Posts: 570
Location: 33°07'41"S, 160°42'04"W
Thanks for the encode, Canar! This TAS seems to be very well done, so I'm voting yes. It would be good to see something sweet and friendly on TASvideos for a change.
Onyx3173
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Joined: 5/30/2010
Posts: 76
Location: Oregon, USA
Voted no. Seems like a poor game choice to me and was quite boring. And in addition to that, unless I read wrong, the author said earlier that he could have saved more time throughout most of the game with the text boxes anyway.
alden wrote:
It is an awesome show and everyone should watch it.
Not everyone enjoys the same things and shouldn't have to suffer through things they don't enjoy just because someone else thinks they should. I have an irl friend who is a brony so I have watched the show while hanging out with him. I wasn't impressed one way or another and have no interest in continuing to watch it.
I am a figment of my imagination.
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Posts: 5712
ais523 wrote:
Imagine what a TAS of an RPG typically looks like: all battles run from except a few plot battles that are beaten with cheap tactics or luck manipulation, leaving basically the entire run as cutscenes, fetchquests, and minigames. And isn't that just what this game is? As a benefit, the plot makes rather more sense than the average RPG's. Voting meh, as per my policy on voting on RPG runs that skip or power through all the interesting bits (in this case, there are no interesting bits to skip, but I don't see why that should make a difference).
But you're aware that the mini-games are optional, right? For some reason the game allows you to press Start at any point during a mini-game to receive the option to quit it early, yet it gives you credit for completing the mini-game after doing that anyway. So by playing the mini-games normally, Ferret Warlord is really giving us the "Sacrifices time for entertainment" version of the TAS. Also, I haven't checked for myself and it's not addressed in the submission text, but I believe there could be a little luck manipulation involved in those mini-games--you know, making it so that your targets are closer and any obstacles are farther away. I think FerretWarlord might have said once on IRC that he couldn't manipulate the randomly walking ponies to stay out of Rarity's way, though.
put yourself in my rocketpack if that poochie is one outrageous dude
Joined: 2/6/2011
Posts: 130
Slow paced indeed. But I think the backgrounds and the variety of the mini games makes it bareable... still it's slow so I'm voting meh due to techincal merit... (The mini game at 8:30, the giggle is way creepy... and a bit sexy... but creepy... creepy). Suggested screenshot:
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Zavalix wrote:
But I think the backgrounds and the variety of the mini games makes it bareable...
Oh yeah, I find the music pretty soothing too...
put yourself in my rocketpack if that poochie is one outrageous dude
Joined: 3/18/2006
Posts: 81
Location: Finland
Creatus wrote:
Want mah encode! :D
I wish I never said that... so sad :( The could do much better than this with MLP theme. Just like Disney does with their games. No vote, didn't find anything to entertain me there.
Sir_VG
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Joined: 10/9/2004
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I killed a pony. I...I need consolation.
Taking over the world, one game at a time. Currently TASing: Nothing
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I thought ponies could run faster than that. Anyway, there's hardly anything TAS-worthy that stands out. The most notable ones are the minigames, which for the most part aren't that much anyway. Add to that the slowness of the ponies, going back and forth so much, and a highly uncompelling (or rather, compelling in a bad way) viewer experience, and I must vote no.
Mr. Kelly R. Flewin wrote:
Honestly though.. the only part that was almost even REMOTELY entertaining was the one part in Chapter 3 where for a few seconds it looked like she was sent to fetch a bomb! I was actually giddy thinking the game had such a hidden dark potential... then I realized it was a freaking PLUM! Killed my spirits right there.
That's what I thought too. :( Bleh, our videogame culture is far, far different from MLP culture. Blame it on that. I was wondering for a while what "Crystal's Pony Tale" (Genesis game) was like when Ferret Warlord brought it up, but now that I know what kind of weird interests he has, I think I'm better off not knowing. I could post 50 screenshots of this game like I do on some other submissions, but given that some people will vomit if I do that, I guess I won't.
xPi
Joined: 8/1/2008
Posts: 58
if only rainbow dash was the player character
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Joined: 5/29/2004
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You could play as Rainbow Dash during the part of the Ponyville chapter where you collect rainbowberries for Sweetberry, but unfortunately she's not the popular Rainbow Dash, so it would do you no good.
put yourself in my rocketpack if that poochie is one outrageous dude
Jungon
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xPi wrote:
if only rainbow dash was the player character
If only this one was the player character... =P Voted Meh, too few entertainment, saw the bombs too, I don't think they look like plums, but it's not nearly close to enough for a yes vote anyway.. >.>
*Jungon*/*Johnnyz* smilie weirdo =P ^^ o.o @__@ +D
Banned User
Joined: 3/10/2004
Posts: 7698
Location: Finland
What a charming little game... er... I mean... Aaargh! Pink! Too much pink! My eyes! I feel my testosterone levels dropping. I'm tempted to vote yes simply because of all the hatred. OTOH, 28 minutes of a slow-paced game might be a bit too much. Perhaps if it was 10 minutes or less... It's not a horrible run, though. I have definitely seen more boring runs published. I'll vote meh. (Although, if this run is published, which it probably won't be, but if, then this text should be added to the description: "Warning: Watching this video may lower testosterone levels.")
ALAKTORN
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Joined: 10/19/2009
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Location: Italy
horrible game, voting no for bad choice
KennyMan666
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Location: Göteboj
I finally managed to get through the entire thing, and I could feel my mind numbing. Boring game, very unexciting watch, and no physics were mercilessly broken. And who the hell has ever heard of a horse who can't run? Due to bad game choice, I'm forced to vote SHOO BE DOO, SHOO SHOO BE DOO.
Det man inte har i begåvning får man ta ut i energi. "I think I need to get to Snoop Dogg's level of high to be able to research this post." -Samsara Read my fanfic, One Piece: Pure Corruption
TASVideosGrue
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om, nom, nom... minty!
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Location: Watching a TAS in the basement...
TASVideos Grue wrote:
om, nom, nom... minty!
Heh, my sister has an MLP named Minty. Coincidence?
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It can't be coincidence. Minty was always considered the best character in those cartoons. Why she hasn't appeared in the new show yet is beyond me.
put yourself in my rocketpack if that poochie is one outrageous dude
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I think that if the judges get to control which line Grue says when he eats the submission, then judging by the humorous wording of his decision, I think DarkKobold chose that one especially for you pony fans.