This is my first submission to TAS Videos and beats the previous TAS time by around 2 minutes. The run is much more optimized than the previous and also uses a slightly different route. The general idea of the main career mode is that by completing objectives and/or winning medals, you win enough money to unlock the next level. I used a slightly different combination of objectives that ended up being faster overall, saving time in every single level to unlock the final career mode level and beat the main game.
This run does not use any cheats/glitches/passwords etc. and starts from a clean 'file' (cleared S-RAM).
As requested, more details about the run:
A big part of all of the levels is getting your score up very quickly, whether it be to complete score objectives or to score points in competition levels. The easiest way to do this is to increase your score multiplier, which there are 3 ways of doing:
-180/360 flips
-starting a manual
-starting a rail grind
So in most levels, you'll see me manual a lot everywhere and also kind of 'hop' on rails a bunch not only to increase my speed but also to quickly achieve a higher score multiplier.
It is almost always slower to upgrade your points in between levels, and for this reason it is important to choose a skater that has high stats in the right places. For example, you wouldn't need a character with good rail/manual balance because you control that easily when going frame by frame. In this case, I went with Kareem Campbell as he has a high base spin (important for multipliers), gets very good air, and has a good ollie and decent speed as well.
Hangar - Probably the biggest mistake the previous TAS made was getting too many objectives here. The cash rewards for objectives significantly increase as you unlock more levels (as you need increasingly larger amounts of cash to unlock them), and the rewards for most of the objectives here are chump change. Here I just got the barrels, nosegrinded the pipe, and got the High/Pro/SICK score rewards for the absolute minimum amount of cash needed to unlock School.
School - To make up for the cash/objectives I didn't get in Hangar, here I grab the secret tape instead of just going straight for the kickflip on TC's roof. Slightly slower than the previous TAS in theory (I still beat the IL time though), it ends being faster in combination with the route change to Hangar.
Marseille - This is the first of two 'competition' levels, where a gold medal is required to unlock the next level instead of objective completions. I took advantage of some rails and the quarter pipe near the beginning to get my multiplier up quickly and bag an easy gold, with my score being only slightly above the 2nd place finisher.
Warehouse - Similar to Hangar, I opted to skip multiple objectives that the old TAS got in exchange for some other higher paying ones later in the run. The only objectives I got here were the gaps, score, and the secret tape (which is actually extremely hard to get with no stat upgrades!) Grabbing some cash floating around through the level is also very important, and allows me to skip an objective.
NY City - The old TAS only got three objective here: High/Pro/SICK score, S-K-A-T-E, and 50-50ing Joey's Sculpture. Because of how I did Warehouse, I had to get more objectives that had slightly better payout: Score, Wrangling the Blue Cow, Hydrants, and Joey's Sculpture. This is a much slower route in theory, but I still managed to complete the level a good number of seconds faster than the previous run.
Skate Street - The final level and second competition stage, this is over very quickly as there are many conveniently placed rails right at the start which are easy to combo off of. Slightly different route the second heat as I got a few extra points during the first heat.
Nahoc: Great run! Accepting for publication.
