Based on the movie of the same name, The Lion King is a Sega Master System version of the SNES and Genesis games. however it has entirely different level layouts and slightly different movement mechanics.
Game objectives
- Emulator used: Bizhawk 2.3.1
- Become King
- Uses Hard Mode
This is a 711 frame improvement to the previous submission of mine, I spent a lot more time finding any sort of time save using more optimal movements, to finding a few route changes. I got to the point where any time I would find a new improvement, it would be nullified by the random slowdowns caused by the game, so I think what I have now is much better.
I also switched to BizHawk 2.3.1 as it isnt as buggy as 2.3 and has some slightly better emulation than the previous bizhawk I used (2.2.1) from what I can tell.
most of this is going to be copy pasted from my previous submission, with some explanation of what changed.
stage 1
One of the first noticeable changes is instead of going to the right, I climb up the ledges at the beginning, this saved about 2 seconds in total.
the swings I take I try to manipulate my position so I can immediately start swinging, you can only swing in the direction that you're facing.
before I battle against the boss, I have to grab a bug, this for some reason skips a cycle in the boss fight. the bug seems to double your attack so that's what I think is happening.
I also have to avoid collecting that gem because that brings you to a bonus level which has no real use in the run.
129 frames were saved.
Stage 2
this stage has a ton of lag due to sprites on the screen, it's also hard to tell what can reduce lag because lag frames do not show up on tastudio, so it was more of a guessing game.
some of the monkeys have to be roared otherwise you cant progress, this is because some of them can spawn or despawn invisible walls, I found out that the last monkey in the stage doesnt have an invisible wall, I can just jump over it and finish the stage.
220 frames were saved.
Stage 3
doing some jumps when running up the spines saves a bit of time.
I was able to land on the ledge above before going into the secret exit, thanks to MemoryTAS for finding that.
36 frame were saved.
Stage 4
I found out that you can save a significant amount of time if you keep jumping in this stage, as it reduces the slowdowns. I also managed to jump high enough to get to each ledge without any slowdowns.
84 frames were saved.
Stage 5
you see me doing a lot of falling as I attack, this is so simba can start back up at speed, normally you would fall and have a small damage animation. this skips that.
6 frames were saved.
Stage 6
because some of the slides I tried to avoid because you go too far right to fall down another ledge. the boss only takes on hit here.
25 frames were saved.
Stage 7
this stage is also a bit laggy due to sprites. there's one jump which seems slow but it actually skips an invisible wall.
I also have to collect the bug I got that one time in the first stage because that skips another cycle in the boss fight. for some reason the boss is the gorilla again.
46 frames were saved.
Stage 8
It turns out you dont need to do the ledge clip in this level, you can just jump over it and head the the exit that way.
128 frames were saved.
Stage 9
the ledge clip still is useful here, but the only thing that really changed was jumping to fall faster on the first ledge.
36 frames were saved.
Stage 10
you can get a quick kill (and an amusing one at that) if you swipe at scar when he's close to the edge. the best part about this quick kill is this is actually how scar is defeated in the movie.
1 frame was saved
I am happy that I was able to save a significant amount of time in this. If there is any more time to be saved in this, it would have to be from better understanding how the slowdowns can be optimized, since the game doesnt produce lag frames during them, it's a guessing game to what reduces it. Overall, I'm satisfied with the end result.
