Oh noes! Another submission for the Maxim!

Well, apparently I was not as thorough as I should have been in my previous submission. So here's a much better improvement. As wonderfully asked during the voting process of the last one:

pirate_sephiroth: Hah, really cool. But... maybe someone can make it in 25 seconds?

The answer is yes, my friend. Yes, it can. In less than 25 to boot.

And here's how.

This is now 124 frames faster than my first improvement to the glitched Maxim run (which has now had 5 submissions; by now he's pleading with ninja puppy eyes to have a longer run with him made.) I received a random Instant Message from a friend who said he had beaten my run by 18 frames. I investigated how he did this, and prepared to redo this run thinking I would barely be able to make sub 26 seconds. I saved some small frames here and there which kept me going. However, randomly sitting working at Camp near no computers, I came up with 2 ideas in the warp route that could theoretically improve a lot of time. When I got home, both ideas proved to be accurate, and significant time savers. The number of frames just kept adding up and up and up.

Here's how it all turned out:

Menus are once again optimal. There just ain't no better way to enter 'dem letters.

No frames gained

The same sliding method is used. I experimented a lot with different ways to go about with this section. I believe that it is perfect. I tried dashing at the start and then sliding, so that pixel wise I was better going over the small slope near the entrance, and gained 1 frame. However, inside the castle I lost 4 frames because of this. I have not gotten anywhere near as close to saving any frames while getting a 100% perfect alignment for the whip launch.

No frames gained

Saved two frames in doing the whip launch. I did not triple jump, I only double jumped. Maxim takes two frames to perform his jumps in the air, and he still has sufficient speed from his double jump to hit the candle.

I tried very hard and was able to jump at frame 809 instead of 810, but this did not save any frames.

Frames gained: 2

Here we go! Major frame saving here. I had previously thought that the warping was not improvable; boy was I wrong!

I felt like sliding in the wall, because it was funny and strangely made Maxim stay in the animation in the second wall. Weird.

In the Sky Walkway, I managed to skip one entire room transition, and skipped the whole "fall down past the wall". As soon as I left being stuck in the wall, I did a spiral jump, and then held down+right to exit the spiral jump animation and get a nice diagonal down boost (this move also led to another save at the end of the warp; it was this very discovery, although my friend did not know how it worked, which led to the initial 18 frame improvement that got me started on this.) 49 frames saved from that change.

Another 13 saved in the Aqueduct of Dragons.

17 frames gained from skipping two room transitions between Clock Tower and that room with the two big skeletons.

14 frames saved from leaving the Castle Treasury earlier.

When I left that area earlier, I used the left+down to use that boost when getting out of spiral jump mode; this caused a major frame gain as Maxim started falling at max speed far faster than before.

Frames saved: 93

Same strategy as before, except this time I have better downwards acceleration at the beginning, which saved 12 frames. (I had initially saved 33... but found out that most of that 33 I counted wrong from the time that I left castle treasury. Oopsie!)

Frames saved: 12 frames saved

Different strategy; I dashed then jumped up and did a dive kick, then slashed the sword (for no reason other than to manipulate luck and move me into a good position) and then did the mirage attack. So no shuriken glitch this time; although in one way I tested that ended on 1462 I had a gorgeous shuriken glitch that nailed 3-4 critical hits. It was a thing of beauty. Once again, the move was done with just enough oomph to kill the ugly hodgepodge of flesh.

Frames saved: 19

Pirate_Sephiroth, who challenged me to get under 26 seconds. Sorry it took so long to see that happen.

Pyromaniac: He IM'd me stating that he had beaten my run by 18 frames. He is solely responsible for me redoing my run and saving so much time. We spent a good few days trading .vbas and ideas back and forth to get this incredibly optimal. Thanks a bunch.

adelikat: Accepting and processing.

NesVideoAgent: Hi! I am a robot. I took a few screenshots of this movie and placed them here. Oh! I also replaced the ROM name.