Submission #5485: maTO's Genesis Batman Returns in 09:30.03

Sega Genesis
baseline
Gens 11a
34158
59.922751013550524
20670
Unknown
Batman Returns (U) [!].bin
Submitted by maTO on 4/27/2017 9:33:48 PM
Submission Comments
This second game in Batman movie games franchise on Sega Genesis was released in 1992.
Other two Batman games on Genesis have already a run published.
First one in 2007, second in 2012 and now five years has passed again...
Movie Features
  • Emulator used: Gens 11a
  • Takes damage to save time
  • Genre: Platform
Moving
Rope swinging is the fastest way to move.
Most of the time Batman is jumping though.
Three different jumps can be made:
1-6 frames small jump
7-9 frames medium jump
10+ frames long jump
Speed jumping in final parts of the game, in 5-2 and 5-3.
Jump a frame earlier to get a acceleration boost.
Gliding in air is only used to extend your jump distance.
Two vertical bars on right of weapon indicate how much "gas" you have left.
Walking is only done where you have time to spare.
Normal punch, flying punch, sidekick, crouching kick and kick while swinging are the melee options.
They work on some enemy projectiles too.
Utility belt weapons - they are actually in the order of efficiency
Batarang is boring long distance tool that does minimal damage.
Smoke bombs. well they are slow and ineffective. Couldn't find use for these.
Swarm of bats. A little slow but against Catwoman as effective as the next two weapons.
Rope weapon. Fast and effective.
Homing batarang. A little slower but can reach escaping enemies.
Boss memory adresses:
00FFFE5D - general boss hp, total hp of boss team
00FFDEF6 - statue left
00FFDF70 - statue right, machine at the final battle
00FFDFEA - clown 3 in circus
00FFE064 - clown 4 in circus
Level by level comments
ACT 1-1
I go with a little slower route collecting weapons for boss fights.
When Catwoman is defeated at the edge of the screen the time to fade out is shortened.
ACT 1-2
At 0:59 a head of a stone statue falls down to slow down movement a little. This doesn't always happen.
At 1:10 you have to break a piece from the second statue head to block the air vent.
I accidentally found out that throwing a batarang there also prevented Batman getting sucked to the air ventilation. That saved 4 frames.
ACT 1-3
Left statue normally releases a cog (1:22) that could hit me.
I was very lucky to find on my first try a movement pattern that prevented that happening.
I couldn't replicate that or didn't want to spend too much time finding how it happened.
Otherwise this part would be improvable by 10 frames (jumping over the first cog instead of dodging).
ACT 1-4
You have to pick batarangs at 1:45 or the bigbat weapon doesn't appear (1:47).
At 2:10, gargoyle statues. Normally you have to destroy two statues. Unless the other is off screen.
ACT 2-1
Motorist are manipulated by delaying some jumps by a few frames.
ACT 2-2
At 3:33, getting damaged gives a short moment of invulnerability that allows Batman to climb just high enough to reach the platform.
ACT 3-3
In circus the pillars between the "get-yourself-punched-to-the-face-cabinets" have explosives and health is a kind of issue here, so that limits the jumping.
ACT 4-2
At 7:50, the enemy whose over the head I swung, would turn and shoot two troublesome bullets if I landed in his sight,
so had to pick a little slower route that pays in the end.
ACT 5-1
At 8:23, avoiding getting hit is faster than going straight up.
ACT 5-2
Here I accidentally found a speedjump. If on a moving platform you jump one frame earlier you get a speed boost.
Rope swinging is still faster though.
At 8:43 a tall clown appears. If you're too fast it spawns in front of you. By slowing down just enough it spawns behind you.
At the end part of level I could have gone faster but then I needed a platform where to stand at the right end of screen to finish the level.
ACT 5-3
At the final fight, the machine has to destroyed before the Penquin can be defeated.
Finally, thanks to honorableJay, who started a discussion on Genesis board. Too bad he didn't have time to TAS this game. It was quite fun to do.

Fog: Judging.
Fog: I'm marking this as delayed, as to give the chance to the author to add additional inputs to achieve the good ending and possibly bring the tier up to Moons.
Fog: Received a response in the submission topic, which makes it seem like no further work will be done on this submission.
Anyhow, this submission was nicely executed with some interesting points throughout. However, there is one major sticking point that I feel needs to be addressed.
In the Genesis version of Batman Return, there are two possible endings which can occur after beating Penguin. These endings are obtainable during the playable final credits when facing off against Catwoman. The bad ending happens if you let Catwoman beat up Batman enough, he falls off the roof and gets picked up by his Batmobile. The good ending happens if Batman beats up Catwoman, eventually falling off the roof and getting eaten(?) by cats. This submission aims for the bad endings, thus ending the inputs after defeating Penguin. However, the current RTA World Record obtains the good ending, spending the extra 10 seconds or so to defeat Catwoman. This puts the submission in a weird position.
If we ignore the ending, the run is possibly entertaining enough to be considered for Moons. However, with the ending considered, it's clear that the goal of the run is to complete the game as fast as possible, without taking into consideration the entertainment value. Because of the lack of inputs after defeating Penguin, it makes the run feel rather incomplete and unfinished despite being the opposite. This also removes a lot of the entertainment factor from the overall submission. The run does reach the credits and the final ending screen (with the credits fight being, well, extra credit), so the run itself can't be rejected for not completing the game. We also have a lot of precedent concerning bad endings in TASes, but the vast majority of those games which do reach the bad ending are sitting in the Vault tier (with maybe one or two exceptions). Considering this along with everything else above, I don't find the run to be an exception to the trend.
Accepting to Vault.
sheela901: I will take care of the publication.
Last Edited by adelikat on 10/22/2023 4:08 AM
Page History Latest diff List referrers