Game Overview
Egg Mania: Eggstreme Madness (2002) is a puzzle game developed by HotGen and published by Kemco. The game's main mode, "Egg Mania", is a head-to-head battle mode where the player competes against the computer to build a tower using falling build pieces in order to reach the balloon quicker. The individual pieces are one to five blocks large, come in different shapes, and can be rotated to fit the situation. The stage is eight blocks across, and completing a line adds bonus blocks to the tower. Other than building pieces different items drop as well. They can either improve the player's situation or mess with the opponent. First one to reach the balloon at the top wins the round.
Syncing
- Emulator used: Dolphin 5.0 Lua Core
- Native internal resolution
SHA1 checksum: 4bdcaaf48f11d58a833206739a65c5690ea8af51
Movie Objectives
- Near perfect block placement, to generate
- Massive combos, in order to
- Build the towers at record speed, to
- Beat the most difficult game mode as fast as possible
TAS-specific tricks
Strictly speaking there are no tricks on display in this TAS that is impossible for a human to do. Because I have perfect knowledge of what blocks will come and the ability to construct my tower in an optimal way, and because of frame perfect movement I am able to do it faster than otherwise possible, but a speedrun of this game plays almost the exact same way. There are a few levels where perfect movement allows me to place blocks at a speed which enables combos that would be impossible to achieve in real time, but that is about it.
Game mechanics
Pieces and blocks
When playing, crates containing build pieces fall from the sky. A build piece is made up of one to five blocks, but no piece is more than three blocks in one direction. The stage is eight blocks across. Completing a line grants bonus blocks to the tower depending on how many blocks of the final piece were used to clear the line. If only one block is used to complete the line, one bonus block is placed atop the first column from the left, two blocks give two bonus blocks in columns 1 and 2, and three blocks give three.
Combos
Completing multiple lines with successive pieces give additional bonus blocks. If the first line is completed with one block, and the second line is completed also with one block, first one, then two additional bonus blocks are placed on the tower (1+(1+1) + (n+3) and so forth). The bonus blocks always start from column 1, going all the way across to column 8, then start over from right to left, from column 8 back to column 1. This pattern continues indefinitely.
Completing multiple lines at once gives the total amount of blocks used to complete the lines times how many lines were completed. The largest pieces are five blocks, but no more than three blocks in any direction. This means the largest amount of blocks an individual line completion can give is five blocks times three lines (5x3=15). However, bonus blocks from earlier comboing are also multiplied, meaning that if a player has a running combo of eighteen blocks, and clears two lines at the same time using two blocks, they are awarded forty blocks (2(2+18)), or five full bonus lines.
Setting myself up perfectly to achieve massive combos like this is how I beat each level at record speed. This is done by structuring my towers in order to be able to keep completing line after line, either by having the bonus blocks leave the right size gap in a line, or by leaving holes in the tower that can be filled in later to keep the combo going.
The player character
Unlike Tetris, with which Egg Mania: Eggstreme Madness shares core concepts, the player cannot just put a piece down anywhere they want. Rather, the player controls a character (an egg) that has to grab the falling crates from the sky first, and then move to the position on the tower where they want to put the piece down. The player character can move sideways and jump, and combine the two to jump sideways. A jump can be prolonged by holding up on the control stick, and a fall can be sped up by holding down. The player character can also drop down from the tower, either landing in a hole or in the water below. The 'A' button activates a held crate (placing pieces/activating items), and the 'B' button discards held crates.
The player can choose from 8 different base eggs with 5 more hidden eggs to be unlocked by completing different game modes. Eggy is the default choice when selecting a character, and the other base eggs are the first seven opponents.
Items
Aside from crates containing build pieces, there are five different items that drop down.
Jump boost
The jump boost item (shoe) is the most useful of the items in this situation. When obtained the player's jump height is greatly increased (looks about triple normal jump height). This can be used to grab crates from higher up, but it is most useful for reaching the end balloon and beating the stage from a smaller base height.
Concrete
The concrete item (trowel) is used in a few stages. When used it adds 6 concrete blocks to your tower, where depending on the player's X and Y positions. It can add blocks to the top of the tower or fill in gaps in the tower if used at a lower height (or relative distance to the hole). Using a concrete item ends any ongoing combo, so I avoid using these mid combo.
Bomb
The bomb item (bomb) can be used to throw a bomb at the opponents stage. The bomb explodes after a set amount of time, destroying nearby blocks and knocking the opponent down from their tower if they are too close. Before it explodes the bomb can be picked up and thrown back by the opponent. Picking up and discarding a live bomb defuses it. Having holes blown in your tower does not end a combo, so this can be used to keep a combo going. I only make use of this once in the TAS, and it is more useful in real time.
Lightning
The lightning item (lightning bolt) creates a cloud on the opponent's stage that strikes down twice underneath it. If the opponent is hit by either of these strikes they are knocked off their tower. This is not useful.
Hammer
The hammer item (hammer) throws a hammer across the screen to the opponent's stage. If the hammer hits the opponent, they are knocked down. If it hits the tower, any uncompleted lines are destroyed one at a time with a few seconds between if they are not completed before that. This is also not useful.
Stage hazards
Each stage has different stage hazards that can mess with your gameplay. These can either knock you down or otherwise rend you unable to move for a time, or steal whatever crate you are holding. In some stages the crate thief drops the crate back down afterwards, which I make use of in one stage, but most of the time you do not get the thing back. These are usually no problem at all, and I deliberately get hit by them in some stages for added flavor.
The water at the bottom of the tower rises as time goes on. If the water becomes level with a line with a hole in it, that line is destroyed. According to Vizzed.com, the water level rises faster if the player leaves holes in the tower, but that might just be on the GBA. Regardless it is of no concern here.
Completing stages
The first one to reach the balloon at the top of the stage wins. It does not matter how tall the tower is or what condition it is in; once someone reaches their balloon the stage is over.
Category
I chose to do this TAS on the hardest difficulty (Hard Boiled Hard) because I thought it would make for the most interesting video. On lower difficulties the crates fall at a lower rate and the balloon is much lower. Additionally, not all build pieces are available from the start. On Hard Boiled Hard crates fall faster than it is possible to pick up and place sensibly, and all different types of crates are available from the start, making for the most interesting gameplay and the biggest combos.
The final stage and opponent is always the same. Other than that, the stages are all random, and the opponents are randomly chosen from unlocked eggs. When all unlocked eggs have been met, locked eggs are chosen from.
When making this TAS I did not enter each stage on different frames in order to get new randomized crate drops, and try to find the best one. I entered each stage as soon as I was able, and rather tried to make the best of the situation. Because the game is inherently random, different looking towers and different results are to be expected from each stage. I still managed to complete all stages within 33-38 seconds. In my fastest live run of this game (GC world record (GBA is faster because of significant version differences)), my fastest stage clear was 54 seconds, and no other stages were cleared in under a minute.
Stage 1 - Eggy vs Spike
The bread and butter of building towers quickly is demonstrated here; comboing from the start to the finish, leaving holes and dropping down to fill them in as needed, and building an unsafe tower in the end to reach the balloon from. Because keeping your combo going is so important, sometimes I simply have to wait around for the right crate to come within jumping distance. I try to make the best of these situations.
At one point I jump down to complete a line left behind despite being able to complete one at the top. This might have been a slight mistake, but since it did not ruin the combo I am still able to beat the stage quickly.
Stage 2 - Eggy vs Funky
The crate thief stage hazard in this level is a bird that swoops down from above and then drops your crate again. At one point I use this to put a purple S piece higher up in order to use it later. If I had not, I would not have been able to place the second pink bridge piece after it. Bonus bomb throw at the end.
Stage 3 - Eggy vs Robo
Now after the TAS is completed, it seems to me that the fastest stage completion times were achieved by striking the right balance between setting up the tower and starting the combo. In this stage, perhaps to some unfortunate crate drops, I do a lot of setting up before starting the combo, and it does not get going as quickly as I might have wanted it to.
Due to perfect movement I was able to squeeze the red double piece into column 8 before dropping down to fill in the big hole with the yellow cross piece. I think it looks pretty cool and I was very happy with it at the time, but no matter how you look at it, 14 seconds seems pretty late to start comboing.
The ending looks a little weird. Instead of filling in a hole with a teal single piece I deliberately end the combo and start manually constructing the last line before jumping up to the balloon. I do not recall exactly why I did this, but I think it was because dropping down to the water and getting back up would take as much if not more time.
Stage 4 - Eggy vs Yolko
In this stage I actually don't start the combo until almost 17 seconds in.
I started this TAS sometime late last year, and I took a break for a pretty good while after getting stuck on this level. Eventually I came back and found a good solution, but the end product might have suffered as a result.
The stage is saved because of a jump boost that lets me reach the balloon with 2/5 of the stage still left to go. For a faster stage and overall time, every stage would ideally end like this. Bonus bomb at the end.
Stage 5 - Eggy vs Coolio
Getting cement drops early can set you up for a solid base to build off of. Here I get it for the first time.
I am able to save a double line clear until almost the very end, which in one move gives me 42 bonus blocks. Pretty neat!
Stage 6 - Eggy vs Bebub
More cement. The crate density seems to get a bit higher during the later stages of the run, which might speed things up if you can place them all.
Around 25 seconds in, despite being able to complete a line with a pink bridge piece, I let it go and use a purple S piece for the completion. I do this because I cannot complete the next line with the purple S piece, and would have to wait for another crate entirely. Unless you're the Magnus Carlsen of Egg Mania and can keep a combo running in your head to perfectly recreate a tower after a hypothetical piece placement, I do not think this kind of thing is possible in real time.
Stage 7 - Eggy vs Astro
Similarly to in stage 3, there is some movement here which I am really happy with how it turned out. At around 19 seconds, I am able to clear lines using a blue L piece and a teal single piece before dropping down to fill in the hole with the purple S piece right before it gets lost in the sea of code red mountain dew. Even prior to that, thanks to an early jump boost, I am able to jump all over the tower and place pieces where I want without trouble. It all looks very slick.
Following that I purposely collide twice with stage hazards. I did so to add flavor, and for that purpose I did not speed up the second fall. Looking at it now it is funny, but it might have cost me a little time. Oops!
This stage is also where I make use of a bomb blowing a hole in my tower. It keeps the combo going, but some time is lost waiting for it to explode.
Stage 8 - Eggy vs Sir Eggolot
This stage was another one that gave me trouble, and I ended up taking a break. I was trying to figure out a way to use the two cement crates that show up around 14 seconds in without having to ruin a big combo. I am really happy with what I came up with, and I think it made the stage look great. Two bonus bombs at the end, although unfortunately neither hit the target.
Stage 9 - Eggy vs Poncho
After I came back and managed to beat stage 8 in a satisfactory manner, I guess I felt inspired, because I managed to knock stages 9 and 10 out in just two days, and both faster than any previous stage. It might be in part due to higher crate rates, but I also tried a different approach. I wanted to try starting the combo with less setup and make do with just the bonus blocks. Despite having to wait around a bit for the right piece, I got going quickly and beat the stage in 33 seconds, and with a bonus bomb.
Stage 10 - Eggy vs Yolkohama
Normally this stage is very difficult. The dragon head stage hazard that follows you around and knocks you down can be tricky to deal with in real time, but it is nothing I have to concern myself with. I tried the same approach as in stage 9, and it worked well this time too. Almost right after starting my combo, I am able to clear six lines in quick succession and finish the sequence off with a drop down double clear with a piece I let fall toward the bottom. It both raises my tower sky high, and looks really cool. Thanks to that bit of luck at the end, I get another 33 second stage clear, and in my opinion the best looking stage of the video. The final input is on frame 36281, just before I reach the final balloon.
Potential improvements
With a different random assortment of crates, each stage has the potential to be improved. Maybe the strategy I employed in the last few stages could have saved some time in the earlier stages as well. However, I am happy with how the video turned out. I got to show off the game and some cool combos, and I do not think there is anything that I missed. Were I to try to improve on my individual stage times, or my overall time, and succeed, I do not think the end result would look very different.
Screenshot suggestions
By and large, any mid-stage screenshot would probably look good as a thumbnail. Maybe at some point where I have a lot of bonus blocks in the tower, or at some point where I am dropping down to fill a hole would look best.
Final words
I got this game for no money at all back when I was around 10 years old. By no means is it a lost gem, or even a great game, but it has some things going for it. For what it is worth I am happy to be able to show it off in a TAS, though only one of the three egg unlocking game modes are being shown off. I apologize in advance if I have left out some information in my submission; it has been a while since I visited the site and I just copied the layout of my last successful submission. There is also no reason for me using a LUA Core version of dolphin other than habit. I hope that does not make things harder for you, and I am sorry if it does. Thanks for watching/reading, and have an eggstremely good day!
eien86: Uploaded new movie with truncated inputs, to the last one that is needed to finish the game.
eien86: A rather EGGcentric SCRAMBLE on the Tetris concept, Egg Mania is a family-friendly game with some charm. Here the author defeats the AI on the hardest difficulty with the help of hindsight, as they know which pieces follow, and flawless execution. A better outcome could have been achieved had RNG been fully manipulated, but this is of course not required for acceptability. As EGGspected, a fun movie to watch overall.
Accepting to Standard
BTW: The level transitions give me 'Bowling Alley'-animation-style vibes.
eien86: Modifying goal to any% (empty), as 'Hard Boiled Hard' should be the standard difficulty.
