General notes
- Uses GBAHawk 2.1.3
- Rerecord count - 8362 (+ numerous undocumented rerecords)
- Uses glitches and exploits to save time
- Performs a major exploit to skip large portions of the game
- Note: the SHA1 does not match with the Rom. The movie file is made to sync with the US version of the game.
- My YouTube upload is an earlier version of the TAS.
Introduction
"Kim Possible 2: Drakken's Demise" is the second Game Boy Advance game based on the Disney Channel show "Kim Possible" (which I have still not seen). The game is a 2D platformer where you mainly control Kim with the game being split up into 4 separate chapters each with their own story. It's honestly a pretty good game which can't be said about most games based on 2000's Disney Channel shows. I am the current RTA WR holder and already made a TAS for this game a while back (
https://tasvideos.org/9296S). I was able to beat the game in just 8 minutes by using an exploit which lets you carry over end level cutscenes into different levels and save files, allowing you to skip most of the game. Since then, I have been able to save another 7 seconds in the run. I would strongly recommend reading my previous submission for more information on the TAS as I will mainly be going over the improvements in this run.
Run_Overview
Here, I will explain the differences between my original TAS and this improvement:
The early parts of the run
- From 1-1 to 1-5, I was able to save a handful of frames by optimising jumps further (around 15 frames in total). There are areas where I perform lower jumps, saving frames. In order to perform a minimum height jump, you have to tap A for 1 frame 4 times in a row. These level are largely the same however outside of small optimisations.
- To skip world 2, I go to 1-5 instead of 1-1. This ended up saving time as 1-5 loads faster than 1-1, saving me 18 frames overall. You can press R on the global justice menu to instantly scroll down to 1-5.
- To skip world 2, I go to 2-5 instead of 1-1. This ended up saving time as 2-5 loads faster than 1-1, saving me 20 frames overall. I press R twice in order to reach 2-5 as quickly as possible.
4-5: Shego and Drakken
This is where most of the time save in this TAS comes from. I was able to cut off around 6 seconds from these fights by altering my strategy. In this run, I use a spring kick to attack every opportunity I can. A spring kick deals 3x the amount of damage as any other attack and optimally spring kicking is faster than any other form of attack. One thing I do in this run which I did not do in my original TAS is that I utilised pressing the jump button in the air in order to reduce my jump height, allowing me to attack faster.
- Against Shego, I carefully used my spring kicks in a way so that she does not roll away (where she is invincible) or pre-emptively attack me. I did have to gain height on various of my spring kicks to make sure that I could hit Shego.
- The hit I take against Shego is intentional. Shego becomes invincible after a certain amount of hits and getting hit by her is the fastest way to make her vulnerable again. I manipulate her in order to attack me as quickly as possible.
- After Shego hits me, I use the hot sauce to squeeze in extra hits on Shego. This is faster than performing one more spring kick (this is not performed in the YouTube upload).
- Against Drakken, I once again exclusively use spring kicks to take him out. I gain height on one spring kick in phase 1 in order to get over a laser. In phase 2, I have to gain just enough height so I can hit Drakken while also landing as quickly as I can. In phase 3, I squeeze one last spring kick in and then I constantly swing on the wall and jump kick Drakken to hit him as quickly as I can without falling down. Drakken is too high up for spring kicks to reach so this is the only way to deal with him in phase 3.
Conclusion
And there we have it. Kim Possible 2: Drakken's Demise in 8:00 (7:27 RTA). Kim managed to cause Drakken's Demise in less than 8 minutes with no caveats.
I am happy with how this improvement turned out. I was working on a full game TAS after I published my original TAS and while working on that TAS, I not only found the early game improvements but I also figured out that you could control your spring kick jump height to take out bosses faster. It wasn't until now where I decided to actually test it out on the final boss and well, it made a massive difference. There could still be more room for optimisation, I wouldn't be surprised if a sub 8 was possible but I am satisfied with how this run turned out. This is a very enjoyable game and while it is a shame that we do skip most of it in this run, I do also find it very cool and amusing that this game has an exploit as dramatic as cutscene storage. I do want to finish a full game TAS at some point in the future as this game has even more tricks up its sleeve which we don't get to take advantage of in this Any% run.
