Batman Forever is a beat 'em up game based on the movie of the same name. The game exists on Genesis and SNES. I choose the Genesis version because that's the one I know and because it has no loading time between each part of the levels.
Game objectives
- Emulator used: Gens 11b
- One player controls two characters
- Aims for fastest time
- Plays on hardest difficulty
- Takes no damage
First I'd like to say that if you have played the SNES version, you might notice some differences like the controls, a few places where there are more or less enemies, no "HOLD ON", but that's about it.
This game can be played with Batman, Robin or both. The only real difference between them is the weapons you can choose. It's a pretty hard game, especially if you don't know the secret areas where you can find extra lives (you start with 6 and have them for the entire game). There are a lot of controls and special moves, but they're not easy to do. It took me some time to manage them all.
At the beginning I had no idea how this run would look like. So I started by testing all the attacks and how much damage they do. I found among other things that the attack with A does 4 damage, C does 8, uppercut and the best other attacks do 12. But I discovered another attack that I never used before that does up to 24 damage. That's the one where you grab the enemy. I used it a lot during all the run except for the last boss. There are 2 versions of this attack, one that does 24 damage and one that does 20 but kills faster.
I spent a lot of time on this TAS trying to optimize it as much as possible. I had to find the best order and timing to kill the enemies, the best combo to kill them with Batman and Robin together, dealing with the lag and manipulating them to not protect themselves or doing something stupid like jumping or trying to attack me.
- Most of the time you have to kill all the enemies to go from one room to another, even if there is no door.
- If Batman or Robin goes out of the screen, he will automatically respawn after some time. Leaving the screen is always possible vertically, but horizontally you have to do some tricks like using the grappling hook or the circular pegs.
- You cannot have more than 2 enemies at the same time
- The roll and some attacks can only be stopped by using the "grab attack", otherwise you have to wait until they finish (these attacks can also be stopped by doing a roll).
Level 1: Arkham Asylum
This is the easiest level and one of the few where going in secret areas is faster than the normal way.
Level 2: The Bank
This is the longest level, and a nightmare to optimize because there are a lot of enemies in each room and almost infinite possibilities on how to kill them.
In some rooms I take the green thing that displays text and sometimes I jump above it. It depends on the situation and one can make lose less time than the other.
In the last part of the level I use a trick where I spam the fly command to push the enemies farther. Without it I wouldn't be able to make them fall in one hit.
Level 3: The Circus
This is the first level where I use the "grappling hook glitch". To do it, you have to press the button to let go the grappling hook (A) 1 frame before it touches a platform. This way you will be thrown very fast and far.
Level 4: The Warehouse
In this level I use a trick to go in the acid without taking damage. To do it you have to fall in the acid while you have invincibility frames. You have them while you use the grappling hook or during some attacks. So usually I do it with the "grab attack" when I'm rolling on the edge of a platform (just before falling).
In the next to last room of this level, I use several tricks to go much faster than the normal way. First I separate Batman and Robin using the peg, then when Batman respawns, I jump with Robin for him to fall from high enough to catch the peg. Batman will then go to the switch that opens the way on the right of the room.
Level 5: Ritz Gotham
Basically, there are 2 ways in this level. One where you go in a hole in the first room, and one where you go on the right (only possible when all enemies are dead). I choose the second one because I calculated that theoretically it should be faster. Although I'm not 100% sure because it is very approximate and the difference is small.
Some things to note:
- switches can only be activated when enemies are dead.
- the hole I open with a bomb is the only one that can be opened that way
- all the enemies must be dead to reach the last room
Level 6: Abandoned Subway Station
In the subway, there is electricity on the rails. To avoid it, I time my attacks so that I have invincibility frames exactly when the electricity goes through me.
In the last room, Batman uses the grappling hook so that Robin can go off the screen and kill the enemy there.
Level 7: Wayne Manor Destroyed Batcave
On the way to the last room, Batman and Robin seem to slide instead of rolling. I do that by spamming the roll command. Aside from being cool, it's totally useless. Also, as I do in other levels, I use invincibility frames of an attack to avoid the thing the machine fires at me.
Level 8: Claw Island
Here I will just talk about the Big Riddler fight as I have already explained all the tricks used.
This boss has the particularity of being impossible to grab as well as taking 50% damage.
I found that the attack that has the best damage/rate is the high kick. Normally it's rate is very low, but you can stop the attack by doing a "grab attack" and start immediately another one. So the fastest rate is a high kick every 18 frames.
Batman and Robin do that both, resulting in the boss dying in 3.8s.
turska: NANANANANANANANA NANANANANANANANA ACCEPT
