Submission #835: Highness's Genesis Ghostbusters in 27:00.00

"If there's something strange in your neighborhood, who you gonna call?

Ghostbusters!!

If there's something weird and it don't look good, who you gonna call?

Ghostbusters!!"

Thats right! It's Ghostbusters time ladies and gentlemen!

Once again I was inspired by Frenom's unfinished works. His movie stops at the grim reaper boss in the castle. I was very pissed over this for a long time. In the beginning when I watched this I tried to make my own video. But it was so much slower, even in the menue in the beginning etc. Now days when we are spoiled with frame advance, this was no match for me. I really love this game and what I want to show you now is somewhat very extream for this game.

The game is a regular platform shooter, with somewhat semi-mazed levels. You can buy weapons, shields, items such as bombs and food to restore your health. You get money by blasting enemies through out each stage, or to trap the middle ghosts. Finaly you get a bigger award from blasting away the final boss on each level, which you by the way have to do in order to advance in the game. :)

Level 1 - Home Sweet Home

Nothing much to say really. It was made very fast and smooth. The mini boss is completed rather fast. He splits up in the first attack, but this is not that amazing. I've done that a shit load of times on console as well. He dies and get sucked in. I use bombs to remove flying scales at the boss in order to smoke him faster.

Level 2 - Appartment

This level was a bit harder to make. I did pretty good at the first miniboss, but then it came to mind that I could get a better spawn when she splits into three. You'll see for your selves. :) Second miniboss was a bit harder and longer. I got a bit frustrated and was just about to hit the load state button as I stumbled over a programming error. An overflow in the collision check system which allows me to shoot right through the ice robot defence. As I realised this I remade the entire fight as I had missed a moment earlier. This time with a thrilling result of barley 8 seconds. Pretty satisfactory eh? =) Up to the snowman then.. This is probably the hardest boss in the entire game to pull of quickly. Alot of jumping to get in range of hitting him with the weapon, as well as avoiding his minions that fires carrots. Nothing can stop me baby, and so he noticed as he started to melt away. Second tablet, piece of cake (atleast I wish it were).

Level 3 - Woody house

I decided to pickup phaser shells and energy before this level to make my battle with the flame ninja easier. The first encounter (with the flame dragon) was very smooth and fast. I put his life out faster than I could imagine. Only took 13 seconds from the encounter sign to the point where the ghost is sucked in. At this point I'm 91,1 seconds faster than Frenom. As I reach the flame ninja and about to kick his ass I realize that the regular weapon is even faster here. Infact it's a whole 503 frames faster! My way there was also 402 frames faster than Frenom. We both takes damgage on the flame walls to save time. And I suspect that this is about the only stage in the game were time can be saved by taking damage.

<--Inserted part:-->

I hexedited away some things that I didn't need as the fight with flame ninja was faster than expected:

Changes made in this level with hexeditor/GMV-Editor:

When reviewing the movie I noticed some small errors, such as the screen with "middle ghosts" appeared (which it shoulden't). Also as I'm not used to play on the hard level on my console I didn't bother to check my inventory very carefully until after the flame ninja, where I need to eat a turkey to restore my health so that I can take more damage. This made me edit the movie file with the "Gens_Editor" my friend "Firefox" made. A third thing I changed is that I strip away the phaser shells and extra energy tanks. I never bother to buy it this time as I won't need it on this level. And since I will need to buy other weapons later I felt it unnceccary to go into the weapon shop more than once since this will cost alot of time.

When I arrived at the flame dragon before editing the time said 05:45:55. New time after editing is 05:45:35. This means 20 frames improvement. :)

<-Inserted part end->

I'm quite satisfied with the backtrack leading towards the flame face. I deceided to "bounce" on an enemy instead of hitting a flame wall because this was faster. The flame face is about to get it..

The flame face was a pretty funny battle to make. I manipulate him to be on the left side at all times because that is where the tablet is going to be later, and it would slow me down to run between all the time. I also manipulate so that the face is faced the right way so that I can shoot like crazy at him. Because of these manipulations the regular weapon obsoletes the phaser shells hence I improve the battle quite a bit! When I grab the tablet I'm 118,13 seconds faster than Frenom.

$8000 richer I'm heading towards......

Level 4 - Highrise building

Ok.. This time I buy Phaser shells (again), 3-way shoot and as much energy as possible. I'm entering the building and heads to the eye-worm. At the encounter sign I'm 170 frames faster than Frenom. I kill the eye-worm very fast and I'm very satisfied over that. What I'm less happy about is that I only was 30 frames faster than Frenom in this battle. But I don't blame him for that. He's great at making runs. Also I coulden't get the ghost to spawn as I liked which made it even harder for me to catch it.

Okidoki.. Onward to Ghost number two then.. A bit of backtracking has to be made in this level to get there. I'm once again surprised that I could save even more time on taking damage in this game. Some very cool savers will be shown throughout the movie. Some dazzling moments of running from enemies and get to safety right in time! I wish I could implant the theme from the movie "Jaws" where that happends. :D I have to swim through a passage of water containing two tentacle monsters. They get to taste the power of my 3-way shoot.

One thing I've noticed in this game is the structures of the houses. Who was that damn architect who made those houses anyways? He should have a bullet in his brain by now. I don't think Olga, 92 years old, want to jump around, climb the tables and swim through tunnels just to get to bed upstairs! I think I should make a sequal to this game called "Ghostbusters II - Re-decorating" Perhaps a combination with a "Wrecking crew" hack? The ideas are endless about this fact. But now I think we're done talking about that. It's time to open up a can of whoop-ass!

One more thing though.. I've gained another 5.2 seconds on Frenom during the backtrack and my way to encounter 2. ;)

983 frames! Thats the improvement result of the battle with the laser spitting eye-bat.. Or what ever to call it. It went straight into my vaccum cleaner atleast. The big diffrence between my version and Frenom's is that Frenom uses the Phaser shells here instead of the 3-way shoot.

Time to eat some marshmallows. :D

Note that the 3-way shoot is not a good weapon at this boss, even though one might think that speed in this weapon and ammount of energy is sufficent to get a good time. Infact.. This was slower than the phaser shells. There for I was very disappointed when I saw that Frenom pwned me during the test. It was very cool to see the 3-way shoot blasted like that though. I think I'm going to keep that movie file just for that sake being. :D I also tried the regular weapon (of course) but I ended up being two seconds slower than 3-way shoot which I had not hoped for. I think that the regular weapon might be the better one if you're not using save states and re-recording since you would have to hit with almost all 3 shoots with the 3-way weapon in order to do more damage and make the fight quicker. So I actually see the 3-way shoot and the regular weapon to be equally good, if not the regular weapon is even better? Perhaps a combination of the two? Waste all energy and switch to regular? Oh well.. That doesn't matter. Phaser shells here I come!!

The pahser shells is da shit for this boss, thats for sure. I thought it was going to be slow in the beginning. Clock stops on 12:09:49 as I grab the last tablet. This is an improvement of 865 frames compared to my 3-way shoot test. Still keep in mind that my first test at this boss was slower than Frenom's version, but in the final version I crunched his time down with 397 frames. 14:39:34 is the frame where Frenom grabs the tablet. This makes me 149,75 seconds faster (or 8985 frames) in total so far.

A beutiful cutscene with a greedy customer who think she pays too much money. Yeah right! Next time she'll be dealing with the gigant her self. Pffft!

Back to the Ghostbusters HQ. But what's this!? No one around!! Where is everybody? Door slams open and the guy from the weapon shop tells me I need to visit Arthur up in the spooky castle. Arthur is spooky as well. He wants the tablets, so I give them to him in replace for the lost ghostbusters. Oh no! They have disappeared in the spooky castle and who knows what happend to them? I do. Since I played this game a billion of times. :D

Armed and dangerous I now go to rescue my mates in...

THE CASTLE!

Alot of obstacles and labyrinths in this level. Dangerous knives, new types of monsters, and hard bosses (?).

Four middle ghosts and one big one.

I choose to select the phaser shells straight away as this weapon will be of great help through out this level. Atleast in the beginning. :) You might find it odd what I do to that plant shooting fireballs. The thing is that It's hard to manipulate so that I bounce in the right direction. I smoke that vegitable and bounce backwards on one of the shoots because the phaser shells cannot be fired again until the first fireball is out of the screen. The second vegitable was bouncing me in the right direction. This is not very manipulatible. I need to bounce back first in order to be able to bounce right the next time. I don't know how that works in depth though. Anyways. I head onwards to the first encounter by avoiding obstacles and enemies in best possible way. All of a sudden it hits me as I climb a ladder. If I take the last step up to the next floor and quickly start to climb back down on the ladder and then back up again the character will end up being in mid air. From here it's possible to jump and reach new heights. However.. As I climbed up the ladder next to the room with the first encounter I sort of got jammed into the wall and could pull of a "jump-through-wall". I never thought that exciceted! Damn I was satisfied when discovering that glitch! Saved alot of time as well! As I enter the boss room and the encounter sign shows up, I'm 12.85 seconds faster than Frenom! How did the boss go then? Well.. This must be some kind of world record. :D I'm using the same tactic as when I always play this game. But never ever have I finished this quick. Not so strange you say since you have frame advance now days! Well.. Infact you get very much control with the phaser shells. And I have pulled simmilar rounds on the hardware before. But I did not think my time would end at 13:02:59 as the ghost is sucked in! I totaly blasted Frenom's time here by 41.43 seconds! WOW! :D Frenom's finishing time here was 16:27:01. Totaly 3min and 24 seconds faster. :D

A rather long back track takes place now, but it's necessary (duh!). Boing boing boing is the sound as I'm jumping up to a high place to find the carterpillar made from eyes. The 3-way shot is the best here. My way here was improved by 419 frames. And killing the boss was 230 frames faster. I might move around too much in this battle you think. But thats because to manipulate the eyes better. Ghost is sucked in and everybody is happy. Besides me. I haven't found the second missing ghostbuster yet. I know where to look though. So on we go.

Another backtrack to find that boss. I was soo devastated to see that I was slower than Frenom by 20 frames here and I almost put my run on the shelf. Actually it took me half a week. This evening I was talking to Angerfist how misserably I felt as I coulden't figure out where that loss came from. Then it just popped out of my brain.. "DAMN!! I'M SWITCHING WEAPON!! THAT'S WHERE THE LOSS COMES FROM!!" :D With this in mind I continue to smash the haunted soul of the second ghostbuster and begin my quest towards the last "middle ghost", being the grim reaper! Yet again I switch weapon and loose a couple of frames. But motivation is back on top where it belongs. Grimmy won't get an easy fight with this ghostbuster!

Hehe.. I didn't think it was possible to beat him that fast. I accidently sort of stumbled over yet another collision overflow which allowes me to hit the grim reaper through the chest instead of the head when he throws those flame sickles. Took me only 468 frames from encounter to ghost sucks in. Frenom's movie stops before he defeats grim reaper. When the movie stops he had been fighting for 1548 frames. Assuming that he would have killed grim reaper at that time I would have been 1080 frames faster.

I want to thank Frenom alot again for his movie. It's always easier when you have a referrence to watch and compare.

Leaving all that behind us it's now time to continue.

The way to the boss can be tricky. You have to jump on those platforms that grows from the walls. Nothing that is hard with frame advance however. The weapon of choise on the boss is phaser shells.

The flesh eating, laser spitting flower is indeed the most boring boss in the entire game I beleive. Takes over 3min to get rid of it with the phaser shells. Sadly I even run out of energy. I don't think the strength of the gun is weakened though. Only that it can't travel through things. I think that you will find the battle quite interesting anyways. There's alot of enemies to avoid while blasting the boss and I try to make it as good looking as possible. At 18:27:12 I grab the skeleton peice.

Back at the station.. Time to complete the puzzle. *puts the skeleton in the middle*. BOOOOOOM!! EARTHQUAKE!!!! Major bursts through the door saying that ghosts are flowing out the great hole in center of town.

I pickup two more energy refills (which is maxed now), grabs my weapons and head for...

DEEP HOLE

A hard level if played normally. Jumps have to be precice at some places in order to not take damage. There are four minibosses (re-matches of old bosses).

Nothing much to say about the beginning of this level really. I take some elavators and pays a re-visit to scaley. Scaley this time is a bit tougher. A bit more HP, hence the increased time it takes to kill him off. I trap the ghost and head on.

After scaley I need to ride the elavator back up. The problem is I can't connect with it the first time it goes down. I tried to manipulate this but no good. :( I will just have to wait for the elavator to come and pick me up the second time instead.

I could now choose to go for flame face, according to the guide at gamefaqs.com. But I think I would need to backtrack more than just once, so it's not worth it. I choose to go and say hi to Mr. Frosty instead, this time with a diffrent weapon. Harr harr harr..

"One ice cream cone please!" "OH? No? Well then. Say hello to my flame thrower! BWAHAHHAHAHA!!!!!".

Frosty dies away in 29 seconds this time. Sad for him.

Onwards to the third miniboss - Flesh eating venus death trap again. :( Slightly weaker this time. They way there includes alot of escalating. But I think it went very well. Took exactly 25 seconds from the point where the ghost was sucked in to the new encounter sign! Not bad. :)

I have not yet fully understood the damage system of the flower. Some times it seems random. This time I took it down in 31 blasts. Time where ghost is sucked in stops at 23:20:59. This is the most aggressive way I've ever captured a ghost. See if you get a chance to notice. ;) Well.. I'm not talking about fastest way. But I assault the ghost so early before it's hardly even airborn, so my weapon looks all strange. Hehe.

The way to the last miniboss is alot harder. Doesn't look like it in your eyes perhaps? Play the game again! ;)

As boring as ever you finaly encounter the last miniboss *releifing sigh*. Flame face in his own royal boringness. :D Once again I crush him, still with the regular weapon as I need to save my energy for Jenna (last boss). Ghost is sucked in at 25:10:49.

Ok then.. Backtrack backtrack and backtrack. What else is there to say?

FINALY it's time for the last battle. Jenna - The goddess of destruction.

Jenna is probably the hardest boss in the entire game, which is quite naturall! She is devided into two parts. First part she sits still, throws a sickle and also throws a heart. Very easy. The phaser shells is a good weapon here. When she sits still one can atleast connect with two hits per shell fired. I also jump towards her to let the phaser shells travel out of the screen faster so that I can fire a new one. Note that I don't do that the first hit I make since I already frame perfected that shot!

The second part of Jenna is much harder if you don't wanna get hit! She flies around throwing her sickle at a greater rate. Very tough to make it look good and within a resonable time frame. 26:54:59 is the time where I grab the last tablet. But I choose to stop my movie after the dialogues, which get's the time 26:59:59.

A very crappy ending takes place. Too bad since it is such a great game!

I really did hope you enjoyed my movie! One last time... THANK YOU FRENOM!

Bisqwit: Submission file replaced by author's request.

adelikat: This is certainly not a bad game or a bad run, but it is not an excellent one either. It's a borderline game at best. Also, there is a general lack of interest in the game (including both the author and I trying to stir up some response). Mainly, I think it is too long and drawn out.

Rejecting. Sorry, your Highness ;)

P.S. I do appreciate the author's response and interest in this run after it was submitted. It certainly helps is judge's decisions. Thanks.

adelikat: Rejecting this movie due to tech quality (improvable by over 5 minutes) and failing to at least meet all known records