In Godzilla(NES), there is a password screen normally used to continue past games. But there are two special passwords that can be used to unlock special game modes. This TAS is a speedrun TAS for the "Destr0y All M0nsters" minigame. I plan to make a main game TAS some day, but thought starting with this category would help me learn some things.
Game Objectives
- Emulator used: FCEUX v2.4.0
- Complete Earth in "Destr0y All M0nsters" mini-game.
- Kill all enemy Kaiju.
Destr0y All M0nsters (DAM)
In DAM, Godzilla and Mothra start on Earth at lvl 8, instead of 1, and all the enemy Kaiju in the game are present and at the power level they would normally be on the last level of a full game. In the DAM category on speedrun.com you are required to kill all the Kaiju and advance to the next level. There's no changes to the rest of the game other than your Monsters getting a head start on levels (enemy Kaiju return to their normal levels on each planet), so the category ends the run there. It's a great category for new players because it's short, teaches you the basics, and let's you practice against all the Kaiju with the power levels weighted against you (Godzilla would normally be level 16 when fighting fully powered Kaiju).
Enter Password : Gosh. I hope I put the password in as fast as possible.
Overworld Overview: On a Player's turn they will move one of their Monsters over Hexes. Each Hex represents a side-scroller stage the Monster will have to play through. Godzilla can move over two hexes on a turn and Mothra can move four. After completing the stages, one of the enemy Kaiju will move two hexes before the player gets another turn. The overworld routing for DAM is pretty straight forward.
Stage Overview: The main goal of a side-scroller stage is to keep moving right and avoid lag. Obstacles and enemy sprites will get in your way and cause damage. Many attacks cause a knockback when they damage you, but you can't be knocked back when in the middle of an attack animation. Punches, Tail Slaps, jumping and ducking do not impede rightward movement. Kick does because of the way it shifts your hitbox around, but kicks can be used right before walking off screen to trigger the fade out faster. Blast attacks can destroy multiple things at a distance, but cause lots of lag.
Wilderness-1 Stage: We start by moving Godzilla South-East and South on the overworld. These keeps Godzilla closer to Mothra so that we don't have to move out cursor as much when we take her turn later. We then enter the first side-scroller stage. The only thing that delayed rightward progress in this stage was getting stuck on the first mountains when breaking them. An enemy ship appears in the sky, which would normally cause lag, but destroying all the enemy sprites helped keep things clean. Kicked at the end to finish stage faster.
Skyship Overview: Skyships trigger when you reach a sort of checkpoint on the stage and they move across the top of the gameplay area. They cannot be destroyed by your attacks. Enemy Skyships fly from right to left and can be despawned if they are triggered during a particular frame of another enemy sprite being destroyed. The elevation of an enemy Skyship can be manipulated in the TAS. Friendly Skyships move left to right across the screen dropping balls of light that deflect attacks and can collect life capsules. They are always the same color as the active player Monster so they always cause lag. I have never been able to successfully despawn one, but they can be destroyed if you put them on a collision course with an enemy Skyship, which will also destroy the other ship under certain circumstances.
Wilderness-2 Stage: Just like before: Move Right, Avoid Lag. At one point we stop. This is so I can despawn a Skyship. Two other Skyships still spawn, but one of them is friendly. I put them on a collision course so they would stop causing lag sooner. Got caught on the row of Mountains, but physical attacks were still faster than blasting them. At the end of the stage, a fireball I've always called the "F*** Magnet" appears, but they're easy to avoid by making them fly up with a little jump. Kick to end the stage faster. Gezora takes a turn on the overworld, moving closer to our Monsters.
Mothra Death: Completing a stage only requires one Player Monster to be alive. Mothra is faster than Godzilla and can move 4 hexes per turn, but she's horrible against the Kaiju, so we kill her off. This is done on another Wilderness Type-2 Stage. Destroy sprites to reduce lag. The Skyship we despawned as Godzilla is allowed to spawn here because the damage it causes will be helpful when we're trying to get damaged later. The other two Skyships are put on a collision course like before. Had to stop for a few frames to make sure they destroyed each other. The lighting towers are the fastest way to kill Mothra. Have to fly around to get as much damage as we can from other things on the screen, but prioritizing the lighting. It's important for Mothra to be low in the screen because the scene transition happens after she finishes sinking off screen. When one of the player Monsters die, the previous enemy Kaiju takes another turn. This causes Gezora to move up to Godzilla and trigger a fight.
Boss Fight Overview: The goal of a Boss Fight is to kill the enemy Kaiju at quickly as possible. There is a time limit, but we don't reach that in the TAS. Different Kaiju have different hit boxes and personalities and abilities, but due to RNG manipulation and TAS tactics many of them will look the same here. Punches can deal 3 damage every 10 frames, the fastest DPS physical attack without "modifiers". Kicks deal 5 damage every 20 frames, not too bad on it's own. Tail Slaps do the same damage as kicks but take 40 frames, but benefits from a longer range. Blasting is the best DPS even with the lag, but has to recharge before it can be used again. Most Kaiju have two hit boxes which can be hit at the same time for double damage. This is very easy to do with a Blast at the right distance. Punches don't have a big enough strike box to hit both boxes, but kicks can just barely hit them both with precision. Tail slaps can easily hit both boxes. With this doubling effect, kicking both boxes becomes the best possible physical DPS. When a Kaiju is defeated it will usually have a death animation to fall off screen, but there are a few where you can skip the death animation by having the killing blow happen when they're in the air. Godzilla usually fills 4 bars of life after a victory, but when the death animation is skipped this get cut off very early.
Gezora Fight: In RTA Gezora is one of the more frustrating fights because she will sometimes pin you in the corner. But with RNG manipulation we can keep punching without ever being knocked back. Gezora only has one big hit box, so after a Blast to start things off, punching is the best DPS, and finish off with final Blast. Pushing up into Gezora's hitbox during the blast reduces the lag. It's important that Gezora not be in the air when she dies because her death animation will last longer.
Brain Tree & Another Wilderness Type-2: After Gezora's Death, it's important to travel through the wormhole hex before ending on the mountain hex below it. This hex contains the shortest stage in the run. All that's needed is to jump to make the first creature that comes out of the tree go up. No lag. No slowdown. These trees are a kind of mini-boss, but are not required for a DAM run. Then we do another Wilderness-2 which pretty much goes the same as before, except at the end we let the F-Magnet damage us a little big, but we use a tail slap so we don't get knocked back. This is to help set up for a death exploit later on. After exiting the stage with another kick, Varan moves two hexes to attack Godzilla.
Varan Fight: Varan is probably the hardest Kaiju to TAS in the game. He has two hit boxes, so the opening Blast is huge if from the right distance. Then we do in for the double hit box kicks. In addition to the double damage from the hitboxes, Varan can be critical hit for double damage. These can combine for quadruple damage! When Varan gets critical hit, he has a special animation. He cannot be crit if in the middle of an animation and there is an RNG element as well which can be manipulated in the TAS. Some kicks had to be delayed a few frames in order to hit both boxes and/or score a critical hit, but that was still better DPS than other options. I skipped the death animation at the end by kicking when he was in the air, which is not only faster but also avoids the grand majority of the victory health boost, which is important for the next part.
Death Warp: On the overworld I move South-East two hexes and say yes to fighting Hedorah. We won't actually fight it yet, but it's fewer inputs than saying no. We then enter a Volcano Type-2 stage. We use a Blast to "drift" through the first fire harpy (because we won't get knocked back mid-animation) and aim at the second and third fire harpies. The fire harpies drop life capsules, which we need for the death exploit. An enemy skyship spawns, nothing can be done about it. We then walk into an F-Magnet to let it damage us to set-up for the Death Warp. We continue going to the right, ducking under the life capsule we don't want to collect yet, until we get to the volcano. This triggers a friendly skyship and we tail slap into an enemy attack to get the last point of damage we need to die and to also destroy the volcano for a third life capsule. It's important that we die during a tail slap because it keep Godzilla's hitbox low so that the death animation will end faster. Balls of light from the friendly ship collect the three life capsules, healing us before the death animation ends. The extra HP from multiple life capsule grabs will make our Blasts recharge faster for the Kaiju fights ahead. We then return to the overworld, but Godzilla is still where we left him! We didn't have to complete the side-scroller stages. The only downside to the death is that Godzilla did lose a level, but his physical attacks deal the same damage and the shorter life/power bars don't matter in a TAS.
The Royal Rumble: 5 fights in a row! Moguera takes a turn and attacks us. Like Varan, Moguera has two hit boxes. We start the fight with double box kicks.. RNG Manipulations to keep it in the corner and prevent it from using it's ranged weapon. Blast weapon close to the end, then we get the death animation skip. The we attack Hedorah on the overworld. Hedorah fight goes pretty much the same as Moguera except there's enough time for a Blast at both the beginning and end. No death animation skip on Hedorah unfortunately. Then Baragon comes and attacks us. Baragon is an ***hole. Without manipulations he regularly stands up to shoot a fire weapon, becoming immune to damage until he starts to lay back down. Also he only has one hitbox, but its positioned low, so you can't punch him unless he jumps. So we lead with a blast, then get to kicking, using manips to force him to constantly be hoping and never standing up. We can get two punches in at the peak of the hop so long as it's all timed right. The fight lasts long enough to get a second Blast attack off, but killing blow still has to be a physical attack to skip the death animation. We then attack Mecha on the overworld. This fight is pretty much the same as Moguera, except no death animation skip and the fight lasts long enough for two Blasts. Then Gigan attacks and it's pretty much the same thing again.
Base Type-1 Stage: After the 5 fights, move to Ghidorah and attack. This stage is almost as easy as the brain tree. Just use punches to avoid knockbacls then tail stap the last sprite and kick at the end. Manipulated a life caspsule out of the last sprite to we can have maximum Blast recharge against Ghidorah.
Ghidorah Fight: Ironic that the boss of the game, the hardest fight by far in RTA, is the easiest to TAS. Just a steady supply of punches with three Blasts at the beginning, middle, and end. Manipulations to keep them in the corner and stop them from using their lighting attack. Death animation skip.
Base Type-3 Stage & Game End: Move Godzilla to the last hex. Lot of frame perfect stuff in the final stage. The punch to avoid a knockback from the first ball of light is frame perfect. Destroying the missile launchers early is frame perfect (you have to wait until after they move otherwise). Despawning a skyship is frame perfect. Despawning another skyship is frame perfect. Walk to another F-Magnet to set up for a final death warp. The on the overworld need to just say yes on the menu a bunch to finish the planet and the category.
feos: Claiming for judging.
feos: Removed "password" from the branch, because we only mention the mode itself, and password usage is handle via movie tags.
feos: The goal of this movie can't be called objective or standard, because it imposes an external requirement to kill all monsters on the first planet, and doesn't play the game further. Given the details about what this password does at all, that sounds like the most sensible decision, because playing the game until the ending would only showcase weaker monsters (compared to the player), as their level is reset after the first planet, and they spawn normally again. Yet I can't say a full movie would be rejected, because it still uses a different main character.
This run didn't get much feedback either, so it's hard to judge how much more (or less) entertaining it would have been if it played the full game. But still there are no complaints about accepting this run to Alt as is.
Accepting as a side branch.
