In SSSV you play as Evo, a robot who has been sent to investigate a mysterious space station. Along the way, Evo loses his robot body and must inhabit the corpses of dead robot animals to survive. As you carry through the game you secure the space station and rebuild Evo's body. The game features a variety of animals with unique abilities that must be used correctly to complete objectives within each level. Because no two animals are the same, many skips and glitches are only useful in one or two stages, so expect to see a wide variety of gameplay.
Game objectives
- Emulator used: BizHawk v1.11.4
- Goal: Reach the end credits
General Notes:
- This run was performed on a "fresh" ROM, which requires you to watch a cutscene upon powering-on. A used ROM can skip this cutscene, but I opted to keep it in to avoid possible de-syncing.
- The game emulates well using the Glide64 plugin (mark 2 used here) but it still has significantly less lag than a console, so a direct time comparison is not accurate of gameplay. This can be observed in the first level, where the TAS completes it in ~2:50, but the best RTA time is ~3:01. Actual gameplay
- Most "cutscene skips" involve transitioning into an animal (either from Evo or from a different animal) as a cutscene starts. The cutscene still plays, but you retain control of your animal where normally you do not.
Smashing Start
You must play as a sheep and pick up an energy cell. The teleporter activates faster if you collect the energy before killing the sheep.
Have A Nice Day!
You must herd the sheep into their pen and play as a mouse. There is a sheep on the centre island that runs away as you get close. This trigger is activated first. The "teleporter active" cutscene is skipped by reaching the teleporter before the cutscene starts. Barking/biting as the dog is faster than walking.
Honeymoon Lagoon
You must play as a sheep, turn on the big machine, and deactivate the electric fence. Turning on the big machine and deactivating the fence are done at the same time. A cutscene skip is used to progress through the stage during the big machine cutscene. A "sheep push" is used to move the corpse of a sheep as far as possible using the mouse before being required to play as the sheep because the mouse is faster.
Battery Farm
You must raise the bridges, grow some carrots, and deactivate the electric fence. Another "sheep push" is used to move the ram. A cutscene skip is used for the first bridge. The second bridge is activated using a hitbox extension glitch by headbutting it as the ram.
The Engine Room
You must collect a keycard, open a door, and activate a bridge. The keycard is obtained early by tail-whipping the scientist. A cutscene skip is used during the "found the door" cutscene. Another cutscene skip is used during the "bridge activated" cutscene. During this cutscene skip, the "Leap of Fox" is performed: a glitch that lets the fox reach the teleporter platform from a lower area.
Fat Bear Mountain
You must kill the dog and the bear, open the cave door, and fill the swimming pool. The dog is killed using the mouse (not normal), a cutscene skip is used during the door opening cutscene, during which time the bear is killed and entered. Another cutscene skip is used for the pool-filling cutscene, during which time a ramp is used to get the dog onto the cave roof. The dog can reach the teleporter from there (skipping the sheep)
Rocky Hard Place
You must play as a spring sheep/ram and raise some asteroids. The ram is obtained early by using the fox teleport to get over the electric fence. The gravity is turned of by clipping over the fence as the ram, allowing the level to be completed in a straightforward manner. A cutscene skip is used for the asteroid raising cutscene.
Stinky Sewers
You must bring gain access to the king rat's room (the teleporter area), get a keycard, and fill a pond. Only the first objective must be completed. The racing dog is brought to the king rat using a barrel to ramp up into a small pathway intended as an exit, then by backing through a pipe meant to keep the dog out.
Rat-o-matic
You must kill the foxes and blow up the rat-o-matic, but you actually don't have to do any of these. The teleporter is active from the level start, so the only goal is to get there as fast as possible. A mouse is killed and entered through a doorway. The mouse can only exit the room via the mouse sucker. This brings you to the rat-o-matic, but a glitch is used to send the mouse up and out of the machine instead of down and into it. Finally, the mouse clips into the mouse hole to reach the exit.
Give A Dog A Bonus
You must fly through the rings, then kill 7 or 8 animals. The trophy at the end can only be obtained after the cutscene finishes.
Snow Joke
You must play as a husky, turn on a computer, and turn on some fans. The husky runs faster using his bite attack.
Ice 'n' Easy Does It
You must collect the 3 heads...The heli-rabbit is used to clip onto a cliff, skipping the walrus.
Penguin Playpen
You must kill the seagull and melt the statue. The seagull is killed immediately without letting it fly away. The seagull moves faster (superslides) when trying to fly while landing. The buttons to melt the statue aren't supposed to be activated by live penguins or by the corpse of an animal you just exited. The game actively tries to prevent these button from being pushed, so the buttons are a glitch too.
Pinball Blizzard
You must collect the notes and play the piano. The piano was played messily on purpose and for fun. It demonstrates how weird the piano is.
Hoppa Choppa
You must kill the huskies and blow up the gun turrets. The king penguin is clipped through the wall to immediately reach the heli-rabbit, which is then used to kill everything. The heli-rabbit falls faster toward the teleporter by sliding off the edge of a cliff instead of hovering down.
Something Fishy
You must free the fish and open the door. Most of the level is skipped by hitting a switch as Evo by putting the fish just on the shoreline to exit the animal. Being in the water or on land doesn't work.
Walrace 64
You must win the race. Starting in front of the orange walrus lets you pick up the first boost. After the race, the trophy is collected during the cutscene and the walrus is moved almost all the way to the teleporter.
Jungle Japes
You must turn on the air pump and kill the piranhas. The elephant is skipped by clipping through the boulders as the turtle. The button is pushed early by using the height Evo gains from leaving the turtle to get onto the platform. The hyenas and piranhas are killed in groups to minimize the number of shots required.
Jungle Doldrums
You must activate the log ride and kill the parrot. The entire level is skipped by pushing the hippo into a wall and switching between the hyena and the hippo to gain a lot of height ("hippo jump"). Hyenas kill animals faster when the animals are off screen.
Swamp Of Eternal Stench
You must play as a hyena, play as a gorilla, and free the magic rope. By boosting through the swamp, the swamp maze is skipped. The gorillas are killed quickly by moving them off-screen while recharging the laugh attack. The rope is accessed early by walking a gorilla into a box held by a gorilla corpse to gain a lot of height ("gorilla jumping"). Swinging on the vine at the right time brings the gorilla straight to the teleporter.
Weight For It!
You must play as an elephant, play as a piranha, and activate the stepping stones. The elephant is obtained by using a gorilla jump. Another gorilla jump is used to bring the lion to the area with the piranha and the stepping stones switch. The piranha is used to reach the teleporter.
Jungle Jumps
You must kill the biker hyenas, kill the gorillas, and collect the keys. One key is obtained early by boosting across a lava pit as a biker hyena. Another key is obtained early by ramping off a jump properly as the biker hyena. The gorillas are killed faster by grouping them up. A cutscene skip is used during the final cutscene after grabbing the third key.
Evo's Escape
You must get 12100 points, then kill Evo's chameleon at the end of the level. This level is an autoscroller, so instead of doing lag-reduction strats by staring at the roof for a whole minute, I went for max score while also being sure to get all the weapon power ups (except the ones in the shooting gallery setion) and to blow up all the speakers.
Fun In The Sun
You must turn on the oil pump and open the fuel line valves. You can jump on the pump before the pump cutscene starts. A cutcene skip is used for the "oil flowing" cutscene to reach the teleporter faster.
Hot Cross Buns
You must kill the foxes, blow up the speakers, and turn the O's into X's. A cutscene skip is used during the first and the second "platform raising" cutscenes. A hitbox extension is used to hit the switch for the second platform (which is underground) by using the vulture's grab attack. The third platform doesn't need to be raised to be turned into an X.
Sting In The Tail
You must play as a kangaroo and as a vulture. Spin attacking is faster than walking as the desert fox. The kangaroo is faster than the vulture and is used to reach the teleporter.
Borassic Park
You must find all 4 archaeological discoveries and kill a kangaroo. Three cutscene skips are used during the archaeological discovery cutscenes. The first cutscene skip is extended to encompass both of the first two archaeological discovery cutscenes. The teleporter is reached using the kangaroo instead of doing the intended platforming section to reach a vulture.
Whirlwind Tour
You must play as a desert fox, a kangaroo, and a vulture. The camel is brought straight to the desert foxes by launching it against the opposite shore. The fox is used to kill the kangaroo, and the kangaroo is used to kill the vulture. The kangaroo is carried to the teleporter area, the fox is placed on top of it, and the vulture's grab ability is used, resulting in a large gain of height to reach the teleporter faster.
Shifting Sands
You must play as a kangaroo and as a vulture. The entire level is skipped by jumping on a TV to get to the kangaroos early.
Punch up Pyramid
You must knock out each animal 3 times without dying. Time is saved by not missing punches.
Big Celebration Parade
In part 1 of the level you must kill the brain. Cutscenes showing the earth shrinking are skipped by pushing buttons. The final cutscene showing the space station crashing into Earth is skipped by replaying the level, which must be done after a certain point or else part 1 must be completed again.
In part 2 you have to kill all the animals. Not much to say about it.
In my opinion, the best levels to watch are (in order of appearance): The Engine Room, Fat Bear Mountain, and Jungle Jumps.
If you are familiar with the run, these levels also display some inhuman levels of play that casual viewers might not appreciate as much: Honeymoon Lagoon, Give A Dog A Bonus, Jungle Japes, Swamp Of Eternal Stench, Evo's Escape, Fun In The Sun, and Borassic Park.
New strats are frequent in this game, which will yield improvements. One very recent strat is in Punch up Pyramid, where you can use the kangaroo's passive punches for free damage. Another time save is known, but nobody knows how to do it. In Stinky Sewers, the racing dog can clip through the wall by the barrels and into the king rat's area.
Samsara: Samsara Silently Steals Spectacular Space Station Silicon... Svalley. S'judging.
Samsara: I wasn't aware of this game until now, but it makes for a great TAS! The run looks well-optimized and researched: I always really enjoy seeing RTA runners coming over here and TASing their games of choice, and given that it's a N64 game, the movement is really well done. Accepting to Moons.
