This is one of the hardest NES games to timeattack perfectly. Mainly this is because jumping is so slow. Every jump in the game has to be perfectly minimized. This is especially difficult in the vertical shafts.
True story: Just as I was starting out on this version, Red Scarlet appeared to me in a dream and said that a perfect time would be 13:32, or 42 seconds faster. This became my goal. I compared times between this version and the last one at almost every door. I only moved on if the new one was faster; sometimes I still redid it even if it was faster. These few frames quickly added up to whole seconds.
Main improvements in this version:
- Almost every room played more precisely
- The first vertical shaft is many seconds faster
- Missiles are used more aggressively early
- Vertical shaft from Hell (Kraid's Lair) improved again
- Sped up clearing the blocks in the small vertical shaft leading to Kraid's Lair
- Shortcut into Tourian is the most improved section timewise
- The 5 Zeebetites were destroyed quicker
- New strategy against Mother Brain
Mother Brain was frustrating. I tried 4 different tactics to find the best way to kill her. The way in the video seems to be the fastest. The problems were that 1) Mother Brain's lower half is invincible; 2) From super close range, missiles can be fired faster than Mother Brain takes damage from them (every other one is ineffective); 3) The last green laser is annoying.
Back to the dream.... I thought it was going to be right on, because when I defeated Mother Brain my time was 41.97 seconds faster than before. However, I completed the last vertical shaft 1.33 seconds faster than before, so this version ended up being 13:31 / 48666 frames / 43.30 seconds faster.
Acknowledgements:
- Red Scarlet, helpful outside of my dreams as well, with her comments and videos.
- sdkess, another excellent Metroid speedrunner
- Spider-Waffle, for trying to think of a better route
- Bisqwit, (obvious)
P.S. The 'Manipulates Luck' category applies to this game.
I forgot to mention this: The first half was played at 6%, the second half at 4%, and the ending sequence at 3%.
I also forgot: This game has problems with slowdown; much effort was put into avoiding slowdown wherever possible.
Bisqwit: I find this movie entertaining. Can I call you ninja now? :)
Submission accepted.
