Submission #5356: DrD2k9's NES Circus Caper in 07:03.89

Circus Caper

• Weapons - One HP of damage per hit against bosses (equal to your fist).
  • Hammer - Throw horizontally across the screen.
  • Yo-Yo - Swing in circles around yourself as a weapon and pseudo-shield.
  • Soccer Ball - Rolls across the screen.
  • Bomb - Destroys all enemies on-screen. Ineffective against bosses.
• Tools
  • Brick - Can be placed in the air for a makeshift platform.

TAS Notes

• There is a major glitch in this game that is exploited in this run.
  • While you are normally supposed to run to the right of most stages and jump to the exit at the top of the screen, it is possible to simply jump out the upper left of most levels as well. When you do this, the level ends as it would if you left the right side of the level.
  • This glitch is used in RTA runs.
• Boss battles are physical battles with one exception as explained below.
  • With all physical boss fights, the bosses cannot move or attack during their invulnerable period following a hit.
• While the run-time of this video is close to the fastest RTA run on Speedrun.com, this apparent approximation is deceptive for the following reasons:
  • This run starts timing from Power On while the other starts at the beginning of the first stage.
  • The final input of this run is at the end of the story following the death of the final boss (a few inputs after the boss are necessary to bring the game to the "The End" screen). The other run stops timing upon death of the final boss.
• Where items are needed, luck is manipulated to get the desired item in as few frames as possible.
• Damage is taken to save time.
  • Most notably during the finial battle when a minor glitch/programming oversight is used speed up the fight. After taking damage, there is a 1-frame window in which you can jump out of mid air. This allows for double or even multiple aerial jumps if you're willing to take the damage.
• At the end of boss battles where a key drops from the top of the screen, the character is positioned in the highest location directly under the key to minimize time of the key falling. (Any higher position results in a soft-lock.)

Stage Notes

• Boss - Clown Bag - Physical fight

• Boss - Tightrope Dancer - Physical fight.

• Boss - White Tiger - Teriyaki Battle (Timed challenge)
  • In this challenge, either a piece of meat or an empty bone shows up on the table. If you grab the meat, you get a point. If you grab the bone, you lose a point. In this run, the meat is grabbed so fast the Tiger just stares in awe of your cat-like reflexes. He attempts to beat you a couple times, but only accomplishes grabbing the bone.
  • This is a 1-Minute timed event and the higher score wins the battle.

• Boss - Lion Tamer - Physical Battle

• Boss - Bear on the Ball - Physical fight.

• Mini-Game - Kangaroo Fight (1-Minute Timed Challenge)
  • You must punch to catch the falling balls. Catch more than the kangaroo does in the allotted time and you win back health. As it is impossible to catch them all, I only caught what was necessary to win. (A tie counts as not winning.)
  • It was pointed out by Spikestuff that watching the character just stop trying in the first run was disappointing, so I played along the entire round this time.
  • The Kangaroo needs to drink less coffee.
• Boss Marathon
  • Clown Bag - Hammers are used to kill the Clown faster than I can reach him to use fists.
  • Tightrope Dancer, Lion Tamer, Bear on the Ball - All of these are 2-hit kills. The hammer is used to get the first hit as soon as possible. While punching for the second hit takes a couple more frames than trowing a second hammer, only 5 hammers can be held. Thus throwing a second on the first couple rematches would result in longer times to the 1st hits on the latter boss rematches. Also, in my attempts, the time required to obtain a soccer ball for a second weapon would be longer than the time saved by having two weapons in the boss marathon.
  • Mr. Magic - Basic physical fight.
  • The aerial jump glitch mentioned above can be seen here.