Hi.
So, some members of the
Ultime Décathlon community have done a race on Aladdin yesterday and two of them skipped the desert level.
We tried to look on the internet but found no mention of this skip so we guessed it was something new and unknown and after quite some time we (mainly
Psychowse) have managed to find a way to do it consistently.
I doubt it has any use for the TAS of this game but I figured I could mention it here, just in case it can lead to other discoveries.
The steps required for this skip:
1) You need to change the default binds to C/A/B instead of B/A/C
2) Then you need to wait for the game to show the demo of Abu's minigame with the pots falling from the sky.
The demo actually plays prerecorded inputs and since you've changed the binds, Abu will jump instead of slashing his sword and that will end this level, start the following cutscene and then loads the desert level.
3) Once it's done, you quit the demo, start your run and play the game. At the end of level 1, the game will load the level 3, skipping the level 2 entirely.
You can watch it explained and shown
here (in french).
I hope this can be helpful to breaking the game even more. :)