Incredible Crash Dummies for Genesis was a game that honestly turned out more interesting than I would have guessed at first glance. We chose the genesis version over the SNES for now for a few reasons. First of all, a huge glitch that exists in the SNES version that would cut out a lot of the stages is not present in this version. For me, the stages are interesting enough that skipping most of them would eliminate a lot of the entertainment.
Another reason is that the speed boost powerups seem to be faster, or last longer than the SNES version. And ducking while running in the genesis version is a roll, which is not as comical as the SNES way of skidding on your feet I suppose.
Note: Subtitles are available in the movie file.
Tricks/Glitches
While there isn't much found in the way of glitches for the game, there are actually a few useful tricks.
Jump Speed
Jumping at the start of every stage increases your acceleration, reaching the maximum running speed of 8 much quicker. For the autoscrolling levels the vehicles are on a set acceleration period, so the trick does not work.
Rolling Hitbox
Rolling reduces the vertical height of your hitbox, meaning we can duck under obstacles or under ledges after turnaround falls in order to turn quicker. Rolling also allows you to throw wrenches much lower which can be useful when falling to hit certain enemies or just for messing around. Also, one last unexpected use for rolling in this game is that in certain places it reduces lag. I assume the smaller sprite doesn't use up as much resources.
It's also important to note that rolling also has an effect on speed at times. When collecting speed boost powerups while rolling you'll be at max speed of 15 instantly, whereas not rolling you have to build your way up to it.
Launch pad optimizations
Vertical launch pads can be further boosted by jumping just before triggering them, giving you a little bit of extra height. While the same can be done for the end stage launch pads, those don't actually save any time because they are on a frame rule as to when you will exit the top of the stage. When we trigger a vertical launch pad, our vertical speed is -16. If we press and hold down, it's 12. Our horizontal speed is only ever 4 in either direction (left or right). Because this is generally half our normal speed, we want to cancel our vertical launch as soon as possible, usually by crashing into the side of platforms just as we reach them.
You also want to avoid collecting the red coins as they increase your in game timer. this makes us lose about a frame for each one when it gets counted up at the end of the level.
Sideways launch pads can be triggered while further away from them by using the rolling hitbox as well, which does extend your hitbox horizontally a bit. These launch pads are usually useful even if we have to backtrack a bit in order to reach them, because it puts our horizontal speed at 15. We also have vertical control, though very limited.
Boss Strategies
Each boss has it's own hp value and the game usually starts us off with a different number of available wrenches. You can't gain any more wrenches than you start with. Because of this, as long as we hit the boss with all the wrenches before the number of times we're required to bounce on him, we won't have lost any time. The number of times we have to jump on the boss is the difference between the amount of wrenches given and the bosses HP. What we can do however, is wait to use our wrenches as late as possible to reduce lag. If we spam all the wrenches at the start of the fight, the game lags heavily.
As for the third boss (the plane boss), we have to manipulate him to land as early as possible. This is done with careful positioning; if we're at a certain horizontal position when the boss re-enters the screen, he will land. We want him to land because he cannot die unless he's on the ground. This happens even if we get the boss to -1 hp, which is when they usually die. It doesn't matter even if we could get the boss to -500 HP, he must be on the ground to begin the death animation.
The last boss is very lenient in number of wrenches we're given. In fact we kill the boss so fast, that his second phase spawns in when he's already at -1 HP. This means he just dies as soon as the second phase begins. That also means we can end input relatively early.
Inflation Animation Glitch
While this has no practical use, it's still pretty funny. When we cancel the inflation powerup, if we press down the animation starts over. We can keep doing this as long as we press down before the animation fully ends even when the powerup is canceled. Don't worry, even though we get this animation we're definitely in our regular form and can resume normal horizontal speed of 8. Horizontal speed while in that form caps out at 6.
While I'm here I might as well explain a trick involving this inflation powerup. Previously the strat was to fly up and just cancel the powerup as soon as we were above a ledge. But sometime during work on the very last stage it was found that pressing A and C on the same frame allows us to jump as we're canceling the powerup. This is useful for cutting our flight time down a bit, because floating upwards is pretty slow.
Lightning Bolts
Lightning bolts are our speed powerup for the game. They increase our horizontal speed to a max of 15, same as horizontal launch pads. This can be extended further than the actual powerup lasts however, as you can jump on the very last frame before it runs out and maintain that speed as long as you're in the air. Landing on solid ground or even on top of an enemy resets your speed back to 8 instantly, so we just need to make the largest jump possible without landing on enemies.
I don't feel individual level details is extremely important, as it's all pretty straightforward once you know what tricks the run has. That said, there are also subtitles built into the run if you really need to read something about the levels, though most of it is just the same as the stuff we put here.
But with that, you have the Incredible Crash Dummies for the Genesis. All in all it was a pretty fun and simple game to work on, and I think it ended up as a decent game. I wasn't sure if I would continue the game when I first started testing, but as we found more and more out about the game I started liking it. And here is the result, enjoy.. if you want.
Memory: The movie seemed well optimized.
The game does not seem very complicated but the pace and amount of action kept me engaged regardless. The audience really liked this run as well, with 17 Yes votes and a bunch of positive replies.
The SNES version is supposedly slower despite having additional skips. Given the additional skip and the changes to the speed power-up, it seems different enough to consider having as an entirely separate publication, if a polished TAS of that version were to be submitted.
Accepting to Moons.
