Post by Cpadolf

Metroid Zero Mission any% improvement by Dragonfangs. Aims for realtime, uses "Ridley First" route.

Emulator used: Visual Boy Advance re-recording v20 (confirmed to sync with v19.3)
Aims for fastest time
Takes no damage
Abuses programming errors in the game
Manipulates luck

This movie is an attempt to be faster in realtime than the currently published run, and accomplishes it by being 34 seconds (2,046 frames) faster. The main reason being an entirely different route, the same one used in BoltR's old submission back in the day, and the one being used most by unassisted runners: Killing Ridley before Kraid. This causes a cutscene of Ridley looking menacing and turning his ship towards Zebes to not play out. Or at least that's what I think he does, he could be pulling mad drifts out in space for all we know. I'm not even sure he's in control of anything, he's a giant-ass Dragon sitting on a brain pedestal or something. Now, I know this is the "future" and all, but still, brain pedestals? really? Anyway, the route is still plenty different from the norm though, so I believe you'll still be entertained. ("Plenty" is most probably an exaggeration). The run also manages to be about 12 seconds faster than the previous run on the ingame timer, ending at 21:27, due to both a higher level of precision and several new room strategies. ("Several" could be an exaggeration).

There are no real new "tricks" on the micro level in this compared to the 100% run. So anyone new to this can check that submission for explanations for the more common (and uncommon for that matter) things used. And if you liked this I urge you to check it out anyway if you haven't already (Shameless plug oh yeah).

Most of the new room strategies are self-explanatory, but that one room at the end of Kraid goes by quite fast, and could be confusing. I'm abusing Power Grip there, shooting away blocks to create ledges for grabbing. Average speed during that part is slightly faster than speed boosting by the way.

There are a few possible route improvements that I'm not really sure about:

Not grabbing the 3rd super pack on my way to Tourian from Kraid and instead get 2 additional Missile packs earlier. Grabbing it does speed Tourian up quite a bit, and lowers my total acquired item count by 2. But it involves four (4) room transitions.
Not grabbing Hi-jump. It does save time pretty much everywhere after acquiring, especially in the space jump heavy part after getting the Full Suit, and it is acquired quite early with this route. But it involves four (4) room transitions AND a lengthy text explaining the item. Skipping these means possible route improvement #1 is mandatory as Hi-jump (or rather, Jumpball) is required for that item.

I'm gonna throw out a thank you to PJBoy for having a very helpful Dump page among other things.

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