Submission #1606: mushroom's SNES Animaniacs in 23:17.28

Emulator used: Snes9x 1.43WIP-dehacked-improvement7

Animaniacs is about three creatures of undetermined species who hang out in a water tower over Warner Studios, only coming out when they want to cause trouble, much to the irritation of Ralph the security guard. Pinky and the Brain are two mice, the latter super-intelligent and bent on conquering the world, the former just dumb. In this game they're carrying out one of their plots, and the animaniacs have to stop them for some reason by heading through four studios of varying genres, collecting pages of scripts, and then going to the editing room for the final showdown. How any of these events correlate story-wise, I haven't the foggiest, but it really doesn't matter.

In this run I collect only the script required to end the game and take nothing that could be construed as damage, as this game is a one-hit kill thing, and whatever I do hit just stuns me. I dash most of the time, which can't be done consecutively without any interstitial frames. Out of the three dash cancellation methods I tested (waiting, braking and jumping out of it), waiting took the least amount of time before the next opportunity to dash was available.

An odd thing about this game is that vertical movement is rather restricted and is split into three "lanes". They can't be switched while dashing, so (sometimes particularly ugly) pauses in movement occur occasionally as various unjumpable obstacles rely on this lane structure.

This is my first TAS, so this movie probably isn't as optimized as it should be (the rerecord count is frighteningly low), but I used frame advance for the whole thing and I think I know the game pretty well, so I did the best I could do.

I pause momentarily at the very end so my dash would affect Ralph, otherwise I would've had to jump to avoid him.

Part 1 - A couple of pauses because the hatchlings aren't possible to avoid full-speed.

Part 2 - Nothing too exciting to report here.

Part 3 - Just avoiding Ralph and spazzing out all over the place, waiting for the UFO to arrive.

Part 4 - There are a lot of autoscrollers in this game, as you'll see later.

Part 5 - The freeze-frame when the truck hits the barrels looks particularly cool.

Boss - I was able to nail the first two levers before the boss got a bit too close for comfort. He's slow, but he takes big steps, so some running around to lure him out of the way was required.

Part 6 - A couple of really ugly-looking jumps to avoid Ralph occur here. The ladder can only be grabbed on the ground, so that's why I didn't jump.

Part 7 - See Part 4.

Part 1 - One...

Part 2 - Two...

Part 3 - Three! Three autoscrolling levels in a row! At least they're marginally entertaining.

Part 4 - The running-into-an-anvil thing was for comedic effect, as I only needed to be dashing for a short period of time. A couple of lane-change pauses occur.

Boss - I just have to lead him into the anvil's path and then head through the exit door. Nothing unusual occurs here.

Part 1 - Nothing special to report.

Part 2 - Part-autoscroller, part-manual, part-boss. The squid can't be hit until it turns pink, after which it re-emerges and turns red again unless you're precise enough to hit it before it fully rises (which is, of course, what I do). The developers didn't give me much help in the way of "creating art while waiting."

Boss - Just another squid with more hitpoints.

Part 1 - Blah blah blah.

Boss - The coconuts can't be picked up until they stop bouncing, which is why I wait. I also get to show off the ridiculously flawed pattern used for the gorilla hands by sitting in one position for a period of time without dying. This game features the most random boss placements I've ever seen.

Part 2 - In normal play, the water below the platforms equals instant death because the alligator is practically unavoidable due to its speed. Fortunately, normal play isn't the case here. I can't dash in either situation and the platforms require some Warner-stacking (see opening stage for an example of that), so this is faster by default.

Part 3 - Gotta wait for the vultures to pass so I can swing successfully.

Part 4 - The crushing ceiling that follows the first door is impossible to pass, as no matter how slowly it's lowering, it always pauses for a moment and then slams down at the moment I'm seemingly able to jump out. So I take the door instead. Nothing to report beyond that.

I fight all previous bosses. How original. See previous boss sections, these are nearly exactly the same.

Boss boss - No, the screen-wrapping isn't a glitch. Essentially I have to hit the Brain eight times in total, then collect the last script to end the game. It's the worst ending, but it's still funny. And abrupt.

And that's it. Enjoy.

adelikat: I am rejecting this submission. Reasons are posted in the discussion thread.