This is only a draft of a future submission to the site. I don't like writing all this on-spot, so I want this to be a cumulative ordeal. That's why I'm posting it here.
Here is a temp encode of the run. The encode is not of very high quality, I know, but it will only be kept up until the movie is published.
Introduction
Extra movie information
- Core: mGBA
- Left+Right/Up+Down allowed
- The input file ends at the last frame input is needed to get to the credits; that would be right after the last score menu in level 9.3 is skipped.
Goals
- Aims for fastest time
- any% completion
- Takes damage to save time
- Uses death to save time
- Genre: Platformer
About the game
Babar to the Rescue is a strange children's platformer game released in 2006 for the Game Boy Advance only. The game is based on the children's book character Babar the Elephant and the fictional universe in which he resides. On a slightly interesting note, the game was made on the 75th anniversary of the character (the first children's book appearance of Babar was in 1931), and this is even mentioned in-game.
In the game's plot, Babar and his kids, Pom and Alexander, are playing hide-and-seek outside. His kids think hiding in a hot-air balloon is a good idea, but the balloon ends up flying into the sky, carrying the kids along with it. Regretful for his child neglect, the entire premise of the game is that Babar is trying to find and rescue his kids and take them back home. And of course, as mentioned below, the game starts off with Babar flying in a hot air balloon to chase after the kids, but after the balloon breaks, the adventure takes the form of several new transportation mediums.
Levels
There are a total of 9 "levels" in the game. In reality, each of these "levels" are just a series of 3 sublevels (each organized in the menu like, for instance, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3). In total, there are 27 sublevels. Each one of these levels has a different style of gameplay, but there are 3 main styles. Two levels (1 and 9) are hot-air balloon levels. Four levels (2, 4, 6, and 8) are platformer levels, where Babar walks/jumps around on foot. The other three levels (3, 5, and 7) are driving levels, where you drive some vehicle through a road course.
Gameplay
The goal of each level is to collect a certain amount of crowns; each crown is encased in some kind of huge bubble; and then to get inside the building to officially finish the level. If you don't have enough crowns in any said level, you cannot progress to finishing the level. Mandated crown amounts vary depending on the level. The top-right HUD displays a circle that gets filled up with white kind of like if slices of a pie get eaten. It counts how many of the mandatory crowns you've collected. Once you've collected all that are necessary to beat the level, an orange arrow appears pointing towards the finish-level-house.
But...WHY CROWNS??? I mean if I was trying to rescue my kids, I wouldn't be worrying so much about some stupid crowns (though it'd be a pretty shocking situation to see them lying about in large numbers everywhere I go). This is a very decent example of a franchise-gamey excuse to include some kind of challenge in the game. Useless but required collectibles are very typical of these kinds of games. Kind of like "oh, so Babar wears a crown, so let's just make him collect crowns! Huh-huh." Not to mention, if it wasn't for the crowns, the game would be extremely, exceedingly easy to beat (it's extremely easy to beat anyway, but it'd be "extremely easier"). Maybe Babar wants to make a trip to the pawn shop after this adventure...
And you think that's weird? Well, I'm just getting started here. So, the amount of crowns you actually have to collect to BEAT the level doesn't even amount to the amount of crowns that there are in the level! So that was one of the bigger challenges of this game...routing crowns. Sounds pretty bad, huh? But I'm not done yet!
There is a points/ranking system in this game, but it's pointless in regards to TASing this game (in any% anyway, if 100% can even be a thing). Every time you collect a crown, you get 3,000 points (represented as 3.000 because it's a European game). The points system is extremely strange because it always counts down 3 individual points every frame (and if it's 0 it never goes negative; it stays at 0). So basically, the longer you're in the level, the more points you lose, naturally. If you even care about points...which for TASing purposes we don't.
There are other ways you can lose points too, such as touching certain animals that are flying around or getting hit by thunder (level 9 only!). Since we do this sometimes in the TAS, that counts as "taking damage to save time" because it's very similar and looks almost identical to doing this, but the game doesn't actually keep any count of damage. We also "die" a lot in the platforming stages of the TAS to save time. This isn't actually death; there is no death or damage count, as in the level doesn't end, but I only call it a death because it's falling into a pit and resetting your position somewhere. Babar cannot actually die. He's the equivalent to Zeus in elephant form!
Also irrelevant to the TAS but relevant to gameplay, the game does keep track of your scores in the "High score" menu. Depending on how many crowns you do collect, you get either a bronze, silver, or gold medal. Gold medals are only achieved when you collect all crowns in any given level. But, in the TAS, again, this is irrelevant, and we always get the amount of coins needed to just barely get the bronze medal. What an exciting game! Screw Call of Duty and Super Mario 64 and all that shit, no, let's just collect crowns until the end of eternity! Need I mention that the Nintendo Wii was released in the same year that this fucker came out? Unexcusible!
Mechanics abuse, tricks, and glitches
Useful RAM addresses
Level-by-level commentary
Text and menuing
Level 1: Balloon Ride
Level 1.1
Level 1.2
Level 1.3
Level 2: Across the Rivers
Level 2.1
Level 2.2
Level 2.3
Level 3: Jungle Rally
Level 3.1
Level 3.2
Level 3.3
Level 4: The Savannah
Level 4.1
Level 4.2
Level 4.3
Level 5: Down the River
Level 5.1
Level 5.2
Level 5.3
Level 6: In the Snow
Level 6.1
Level 6.2
Level 6.3
Level 7: Motorcycle Rally
Well this must be one really badass children's book character to be riding a motorcycle!
Level 7.1
Level 7.2
Level 7.3
Level 8: Off to the Island
Level 8.1
Level 8.2
Level 8.3
Level 9: Going Home
Level 9.1
Level 9.2
Level 9.3
Conclusion
Not too special of a game, but it took a lot of time and work to make this, so I hope you enjoy it, even if ever-so-slightly.
Suggested description
Suggested screenshots
Special thanks to
- The TASVideos community, for being active and continuing to keep me motivated in doing my favorite hobby!
- Everyone who took their time to watch this TAS and/or read this lengthy submission text.