Cancelled due to known improvements. I will make an improved version. See my latest post for more info.
There are games that are fun to play but make for a boring TAS. Then there are games that are terrible to play, but make an entertaining TAS. In my opinion, this run is the latter. Kid Kool is a guy who can run very fast, and he has a furry ball that he uses as a weapon. For some reason, enemies can't take getting hit by this soft buddy, so throwing him on enemies will kill them. This game is pretty much a rip-off of Super Mario Bros, just a lot worse.
Emulator used: FCEU 0.98.28 (the submitted movie file is an .fm2 that synchs with FCEUX.)
Aims for fastest possible time.
Manipulates luck.
Genre: Platformer.
About the game
The story in the game is that you have to collect 7 herbs in order to save the king's life. He need them for a certain medicine or something, I guess.
Kid Kool is, as stated above, in many ways a rip-off of Super Mario Bros. The goal on each stage is simply to get from start to finish. Every third level there is a boss, who you kill by jumping on a pump until it hits the bottom. Sometimes the boss' neck is the pump. Yes, really.
The first thing you'll notice is that it takes quite a while for Kid Kool to accelerate to top speed. But once he has, he runs pretty darn fast. Keeping top speed throughout the whole level isn't always possible, but overall, I keep top speed throughout most of the levels. The most common reason for slowing down is to avoid bumping in to a wall.
Kid Kool can't accelerate during a jump, he maintains the speed he had when the jump was made during the entire jump.
Kid Kool can also jump on water, as long his speed is high enough. He can't jump on water if he lands on it after a jump.
You can jump on enemies, just like in SMB, however, enemies usually take several jumps to kill - they usually get pushed down into the ground by the first jump.
After each stage, there is a wheel of fortune type game, where you have a chance to get extra lives. You need to have collected sacks of coins in order to play this game, but obviously this would only waste time in a TAS, therefor I avoid all sacks of coins. The sacks are found in hidden boxes throughout the level (kinda like those hidden boxes in SMB).
Everyone who has played this game will learn to hate the air cannons. These horrible, horrible, cannons are mounted to the wall, gruond or roof, and will shoot air puffs. These air puffs will push you in the direction they're travelling. These are the source of several slowdows in this run.
The furry ball that I pick up on level 1-1 is your only weapon in this game. You throw him at enemies to kill them, and after a while, he comes zooming back to you. You can not deal damage to bosses with him.
Some comments on this TAS
When I started this run, I wasn't sure I would submit it, because I thought it would be pretty dull. But after doing the first 4 worlds, I changed my mind about it - although the game isn't the best game out there, I really do think it makes for a nice TAS.
The only thing I had to compare to was an old WIP by Krieger, which did the first 9 levels of the game. This run improves that run on all levels, but it should be noted that his run was just a test run, and not frame optimized. I've looked around on the internet for a run of this game, but haven't found anything, so perhaps this is the first complete speedrun of this game!
Here I'll comment on things that might look odd or that I think need commenting:
The way the pump works on boss levels is quite complex. There is a timer that decides when you can jump on the pump again, and this timer will only increase when you're in mid-air. So you want to keep on jumping after you hit the pump, and at the same time avoid getting hit by the boss.
I manipulate luck (kill the boss on a specific frame) to make the herb move to the right when it appears on screen.
Basically all weird slow downs, especially the long wait in level 3-2, is done in order to manipulate the air cannons. The only way I found to manipulate them is to wait, so at times there will be some ugly, but non-avoidable, maneuvers.
If I run back a bit at the start of a level, it is to gain a bit more speed before a jump.
Around frame 8550 I stop when I hit the ground. Here I abuse the fact that by stopping when you're moving at top speed, Kid Kool will continue moving forward over the gap without falling down. If I didn't stop here, I would fall down the gap.
Kid Kool can't run on sand without slowing down, so I avoid doing so where possible.
Thanks to Krieger for his WIP, and thanks to Maximus for TAS movie editor, which was used a few times in the making of this run.
Enjoy!
Truncated: Movie file replaced. According to Randil:
I redid this level (5-3) from this point, and succesfully edited it in, and this trick saved about 80 frames. I also managed to kill the boss slightly faster, so a total of 106 frames were saved!
Randil: Cancelled due to known improvements, see discussion thread.
Joined: 10/17/2005
Posts: 629
Location: Seattle, WA
This game could instead be said to be a rip-off of Psycho Fox for the Master System, except for the fact that the two games (and another, Decapattack) were all made by the same guy. Psycho Fox already has a run here, but it uses warps. I guess this game doesn't have any.
I'd watch and rate if I had my stuff near me, but it sounds like a good watch.
Joined: 6/23/2009
Posts: 2224
Location: Georgia, USA
Man, watching this game makes me want to see more of Psycho Fox and Decap Attack as well! They're all pretty goofy games. I mean, what in the world are you even pumping up when you kill these bosses? Maybe there are remote-control explosives in their bellies? Also, the ending is hilarious.
This was enjoyable, and it looks good to me. Yes vote.
Used to be a frequent submissions commenter. My new computer has had some issues running emulators, so I've been here more sporadically.
Still haven't gotten around to actually TASing yet... I was going to improve Kid Dracula for GB. It seems I was beaten to it, though, with a recent awesome run by Hetfield90 and StarvinStruthers. (http://tasvideos.org/2928M.html.)
Thanks to goofydylan8 for running Gargoyle's Quest 2 because I mentioned the game! (http://tasvideos.org/2001M.html)
Thanks to feos and MESHUGGAH for taking up runs of Duck Tales 2 because of my old signature!
Thanks also to Samsara for finishing a Treasure Master run. From the submission comments:
Shoutouts and thanks to mklip2001 for arguably being the nicest and most supportive person on the forums.
Joined: 6/2/2009
Posts: 1182
Location: Teresópolis - Rio de Janeiro - Brazil
Be a nice king and eat your vegetables, or else I'll not marry your daughter!
The game is not so bad after all, and you did a nice run indeed, Yes vote.
I am old enough to know better, but not enough to do it.
Joined: 8/1/2004
Posts: 2687
Location: Seattle, WA
There were a lot of spots in the run that made me stop to question your choices. I'll poorly amass them in a block of text.
Did the throw at the intro to 2-3 cost time at all? For the pole-shot-thing in 2-3, would you have been able to shoot at a lower angle and hit max speed faster, or does it launch at full speed as is? Why did you hop at the end of the second boss fight? If you maintain speed when falling from a platform, why didn't you start running from the ledge at the end of 2-3? Did running backwards in 3-1 serve a speed purpose? Why the pause in killing the third boss? In 4-2, could you have hopped off the pole-shot-thing earlier and simply ran back to top speed? Why the pause at the group of enemies in the middle of 4-3? Were the two quick screen transitions avoidable in 5-3? Couldn't you manipulate the fourth and fifth bosses to move away from the pump by jumping behind them while the pump reoriented itself? Why the slowdown in the beginning of 6-3?
Everything else seemed pretty spot on. I'll hold my vote until you can shoot down more than half of those without saying "I was manipulating something."
Joined: 4/20/2005
Posts: 2160
Location: Norrköping, Sweden
Wow, that's a lot of points brought up. Here are the answers:
Did the throw at the intro to 2-3 cost time at all?
Nope, throwing your furry friend never wastes any time. I did it here because when he zooms back to me, he kills a few enemies at the same time.
For the pole-shot-thing in 2-3, would you have been able to shoot at a lower angle and hit max speed faster, or does it launch at full speed as is?
I'm not sure I see what you mean here, but I'll try to explain anyway. Your acceleration after being launched by the pole works like this: The higher up your grab the pole, the faster acceleration you'll have. You'll see that I grab the pole at the very top, thereby gaining maximum acceleration. How high the pole launches you has no effect on your acceleration.
Why did you hop at the end of the second boss fight?
As stated in the author's comments, this is done to manipulate the herb to move from left to right, rather than moving from right to left. If I don't jump here in order to kill the boss slightly later, the herb would be moving in the othre direction, and it would waste more time to pick it up and then run to the end of the level.
If you maintain speed when falling from a platform, why didn't you start running from the ledge at the end of 2-3?
I'm not sure I know which place you're talking about here, so you might want to provide a around what frame in the movie this occurs. If you mean the jump around frame 11385, running down the ledge would make me miss the small platform that I land on after the jump, so in this case, running down the ledge isn't possible. But again, perhaps you're talking about a completely different part of the level. :)
Did running backwards in 3-1 serve a speed purpose?
The reason why I run back a bit at the start of 3-1 is because I need to have a large enough speed to make the jump from the first spring to the second spring. Had I just started the level by running forward, I would make the jump to the first spring, but not to the second one.
Why the pause in killing the third boss?
Same reason as the second boss, see above.
In 4-2, could you have hopped off the pole-shot-thing earlier and simply ran back to top speed?
This is yet another quirk with the poles - after you've released the pole, you actually accelerate just as fast you would have done when running on the ground. You can't release the pole earlier, you are stuck to it on a fixed time.
Why the pause at the group of enemies in the middle of 4-3?
As yes, this. The reason why I hesitate is that if I jump on the first enemy, I would scroll the screen up, so I want to avoid jumping on him. At the same time, I cannot hit him with Furry, because he is thrown slightly upwards when you throw him. I can't move straight forward either, because then I would run straight into him, and take damage. The only option left is to avoid touching him, which is why I have to wait until he has landed, and then jump over him.
Were the two quick screen transitions avoidable in 5-3?
Now here is one thing I did not consider. There is one more pole after that first one, so I'll have to grab one extra pole this way, but it's still faster. I redid this level from this point, and succesfully edited it in, and this trick saved about 80 frames. I also managed to kill the boss slightly faster, so a total of 106 frames were saved! Thanks!
Couldn't you manipulate the fourth and fifth bosses to move away from the pump by jumping behind them while the pump reoriented itself?
I've tried using this strategy on all bosses, but it turned out slower in all cases.
Why the slowdown in the beginning of 6-3?
I don't know what you mean here, I couldn't find any slowdown at the start of 6-3, so a frame count and a more thorough explanation would be nice. :) It's true that I don't reach full speed before the first jump, but that's simply becuse I run out of ground to run on, and running back a bit at the start of the level wouldn't save any time here.
Phew... I think that's all. I've sent a PM to adelikat, asking him to replace the movie file with this 106 frames improved version. For all those who have watched this run, the only difference is that level 5-3 has been improved by 106 frames.
Joined: 8/1/2004
Posts: 2687
Location: Seattle, WA
Randil wrote:
If you maintain speed when falling from a platform, why didn't you start running from the ledge at the end of 2-3?
I'm not sure I know which place you're talking about here, so you might want to provide a around what frame in the movie this occurs.
I was actually referring to the end of the boss fight, but I now realize it was done to grab the herb.
Randil wrote:
Why the slowdown in the beginning of 6-3?
I don't know what you mean here, I couldn't find any slowdown at the start of 6-3
It's the part where you attack the two enemies in the bouncy tunnel area. It's 10:55 in to the run, but that description should suffice. You slow down in the middle of attacking them. I don't know if it's just because you couldn't get rid of two bounces and the limiting action to the pipe ahead was falling, not moving to the right. Food for thought.
Well, with those questions mostly out of the way, I'll give this a Yes vote. Also, it seems like a large portion of the music in this game was blended together to make a lot of Breath of Fire music.
FYI: I have watched another run of this game (J version, "Kakefu-kun no jump tengoku speed jigoku") played by narimasa:
http://dic.nicovideo.jp/v/sm6972518 (fcm/fm2 seems not available)
Your run seems to beat that run successfully in most stage, but in a stage, that run seems to be a little faster than yours (watch from 10:00 of the movie above). But I have never played this game, so I don't know whether your run is improvable (I don't know the differences between J and U).
Joined: 4/20/2005
Posts: 2160
Location: Norrköping, Sweden
TaoTao wrote:
FYI: I have watched another run of this game (J version, "Kakefu-kun no jump tengoku speed jigoku") played by narimasa:
http://dic.nicovideo.jp/v/sm6972518 (fcm/fm2 seems not available)
Your run seems to beat that run successfully in most stage, but in a stage, that run seems to be a little faster than yours (watch from 10:00 of the movie above). But I have never played this game, so I don't know whether your run is improvable (I don't know the differences between J and U).
Nice, now I have something to compare to!
About that improvement, I'm feeling really, really stupid now. Someone should hit me with a stick or something, because I did a really silly mistake in this run. I didn't see that I could jump over the pole in 5-3, saving a whole lot of time.
In the light of this, and that I have a feeling that some of the boss fights might be improved further, I will cancel this run and start working on an improvement. Sorry for the inconvenience, but the next submission will at least be faster! (perhaps even under 14 min? who knows)
