Hello gamers of all genders, and welcome! I'm ikuyo, writer who can't type, and I am here as your band leader for this month's Load State! Follow my lead as we revisit the month gone by and find TAS work that makes me love this medium. Let's get to it!

• [7112] NES Sack of Flour, Heart of Gold by ZoroarkGX in 03:28.074 is a simple game with a simple TAS. ZoroarkGX is thus required to lean on the basics of platformer optimization, and the result is a movie that in spite of its seemingly basic look, manages to save more than 30 seconds over its equivalent RTA run, reminding us that even the simplest games out there benefit from the superhuman opportunities granted by TASing.
• [7113] PC Jiji and the Mysterious Forest - Chapter 1 "good ending" by MUGG in 00:30.462 relies heavily on step routing and save-quits to minimize random encounters in this Adventure/RPG hybrid, and this combined with extremely efficient movement leads to a really fast completion. Thank you a lot for this one, MUGG!
• [7114] GBC Rayman "100%" by SuperSqank in 23:01.136 is a really fun run where SuperSqank takes advantage of death warps, glitches and clips to make their way thru every collectible and secret. I appreciated the included drawings and diagrams in the submission notes that helped me make sense of the level layouts.
• [7118] C64 Wham Ball by nymx in 04:21.224 is a pinball-inspired game with an interesting twist in the formula, and nymx, with some scripting help, finds a way to speed it up as much as possible with a lot of tilting.
• I had a lot of fun judging [7120] PC Momentous: Monumentum by dillthepill08 in 01:46.783, a tricky platformer where the issue is less gaining speed and more making the most out of it, as momentun is generally preserved. In a TAS setting, it becomes a puzzle game where even small one frame changes drastically change your trajectory. For fans of precise fast movement, this is the movie for you!
• The Game Boy Advance is not a console we usually assocaite with first person shooters, despite having a shockingly large array of those. Dimon12321 brings us [7123] GBA Serious Sam Advance by Dimon12321 in 20:27.073, and makes it look easy to play!
• Krasio makes his first publication on site with [7125] NES Fire 'n Ice by Krasio in 58:26.409, a 5 minute improvement on an over 20 year old movie, with significantly improved routing and execution. Let's give him a round of applause for his first movie!
• One of my favorite site traditions is that no matter what, at some point each year, we will get an improvement to the 16-bit Lion King games. And yes, I will watch them every time! This month we got [7130] Genesis The Lion King by Akiteru, EZGames69, ShgofcTAS & Cubbina in 10:43.312, a 3 second improvement thanks to new strats. Optimization is asymptotic work, and we can always find something to improve.
• [7133] PSX Thunder Force V: Perfect System by thegugafá in 24:42.978 is everything you love about shoot em up TASes. Speedy, daring, and unleashing maximum violence whenever a boss is ahead. thegugafa continues his work in shoot em ups with this one and I am always glad to see it.
• [7134] PSX Thrasher: Skate and Destroy "playaround" by somyeol in 31:39.746 is an entertaining spin on the skateboarding game TAS. Want to watch some funny ragdolls? Unexpected out of bounds? Some great comedic timing? Then somyeol got you covered!
• [7135] N64 Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness "Cornell" by zggzdydp in 43:04.867 is a significant improvement of 5 minutes over the previous run thanks to a combination of new strats and general execution polish. If you love Castlevania 64 and its forgotten rerelease, please give it a look!
• If you enjoy women as much as you enjoy German suplexes, do I have the movie for you! [7140] Genesis Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters by alexheights1 in 04:04.915 is a hilarious watch as alexheights1 grapples their way through the single player mode of this fighting game!
• CasualPokePlayer gave us several save glitch TASes for Pokemon games that all share the same underlying glitch and setup to skip to the Hall of Fame. As my favorite, I recommend [7144] GBA Pokémon: Emerald Version "save glitch" by CasualPokePlayer in 08:35.173, as I was as confused by the sudden ending as Wurmple was.
• Walgrey went on a spree last month and produced a lot of work. I want to highlight [7146] NES Soccer by Walgrey in 00:14.742, which made me chuckle really hard. Watch as Spain overcomes its anxiety after scoring a single goal, and watch as the United States team fumbles every opportunity to draw while playing solo! Feels a lot like watching my national team, to be honest.
• [7148] NES RoadBlasters by DrD2k9 in 21:33.686 is a bullet hell game disguised as a racing game, and DrD2k9 puts his pedal to the metal as he weaves his way thru each obstacle with no hesitation, dodging every obstacle in his path.
• McBobX returns to the world of Contra with [7154] NES Super C "1 player, low%" by McBobX in 12:54.192 to prove that where we are going, we don't need no upgrades. Watch as he weaves and jumps his way across levels and dispatches enemies and bosses with nothing but the starting gun.
• What, you thought I was gonna let [7162] ZXS Crapbert Buttslut in the muthafuckin' damn stone-circle of the devil. by Darkman425 in 10:29.811 slide? Hell no! Its's a breezy arcade platformer movie with clever usage of limited movement and a catchy tune to go along.
• And to wrap it all up, I will just link you to [7165] Flash The Boohbah Zone "playaround, all interactions" by zapkt in 02:24.444 and not say anything. I promise you, it is best if you go blind. Let go of whatever your ideas about TASing are and let yourself be immersed in this work. I was stunned by it, and I am thankful to zapkt for having made it.

And that's game! Thank you as usual for coming along for the ride. If you have any movies you would like to shout out, you know how to do it on our Discord server on in this forum. Stay safe, stand proud, and happy TASing!

Hello everyone! Welcome to the second ever Competition Spotlight! I'm kierio04, and it's time for the review of all TAS competitions from May 2026.

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MKWii TAS Competition 2026 (Mario Kart Wii) Each year, this competition is broken up into "sets" of 5 official tasks. May saw the commencement of Set 2 2026.

• 3 May to 9 May: Task 6 2026: Slippery Slope (21 competitors, won by kierio04). This was a speed task, in which competitors were given 4 hours to create a TAS of custom track Compact Closed Pushy Penguins, a klein-bottle shaped course based on the Pushy Penguins gamemode from Mario Party 5. This was a very divisive task, with some people enjoying the chaos and others (including someone who had competed in every official task since late 2021) choosing to opt out of competing altogether. If you're paying attention, you'll notice that I won this task! It was my first solo task win since Task 6 2024 (which was also a speed task).
• 10 May to 30 May: Task 7 2026: Back in the City (25 competitors across 16 teams, won by kierio04 & Police). In this task, competitors were asked to complete a lap backwards on custom track Big Express City without any mushrooms or respawns; a challenge previously done in a series called "CTGP Backwards" by the task winners themselves. Rigged? Fitting victory? Or just inevitable...?

Want to join in? Check out the MKWii TAS Competition discord server!

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New SM64 TAS Competition (Super Mario 64) Coincidentally, SM64 is also in Set 2.

• 4 May to 16 May: Task 8: It Must Be a Sign (6 competitors, won by galoomba). Despite being a task allowing teams of 2, this was won by a solo competitor! That happens sometimes, and it either means it's a quiet task with less competitors than average or the solo competitor is just that good. Let's go with both. In this task, there were custom-placed boxes and signs throughout Wet-Dry World, and competitors had to interact with all of them before collecting the custom-placed star.
• 18 May to 30 May: Task 9: Road to the Stars (7 competitors, won by Kieran). Taking place on popular romhack Super Mario Star Road, this was the first romhack task since Task 9 2022. In this task, competitors started on the top of a tower and had to collect coins, goombas, and trees before dying to finish.

Want to join in? Check out the New SM64 TAS Competition discord server!

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Trackmania is absolutely winning in 2026 with multiple active competitions running concurrently. I didn't mention this but, in April, Trackmania passed Mario Kart Wii to become the game with the 2nd most TAS competitions ever held. As of writing this post, the standings are Super Mario 64 in 1st at 419, Trackmania in 2nd at 216, then Mario Kart Wii in 3rd at 163. TASmania (Trackmania Nations Forever) TASmania, the flagship competition, is consistently performing well with around 20 competitors every month!

• 2 May to 16 May: TASmania 30 (19 competitors, won by Rio)

Want to join in? Check out the TASmania discord server or sign up on the TM TAS Exchange! SpeedTAS Season 2 (Trackmania Nations Forever) Part of the reason for Trackmania's surge in total task numbers is the consistency of output at SpeedTAS, which hosts weekly speed tasks.

• 3 May: SpeedTAS 17 (11 competitors, won by Rio)
• 10 May: SpeedTAS 18 (14 competitors, won by igntuL)
• 17 May: SpeedTAS 19 (8 competitors, won by vogtek)
• 24 May: SpeedTAS 20 (11 competitors, won by Thoman)
• 31 May: SpeedTAS 21 (8 competitors, won by skycrafter)

Want to join in? Check out the SpeedTAS discord server or sign up on the TM TAS Exchange! Random TAS Comp (Trackmania Nations Forever) RTC is still going strong, with another 5 tasks in May!

• 3 May to 5 May: RTC 9 (3 competitors, won by Comfy_Ivy)
• 7 May to 10 May: RTC 10 (7 competitors, won by ingtuL)
• 14 May to 18 May: RTC 11 (12 competitors across 7 teams, won by skycrafter & Rio)
• 22 May to 24 May: RTC 12 (11 competitors, won by Comfy_Ivy)
• 27 May to 30 May: RTC 13 (9 competitors, won by Thoman)

Want to join in? Check out the RANDOM TAS COMP - RTC discord server or sign up on the TM TAS Exchange! LIC Competition (Trackmania Nations Forever) A new competition in May, which instead of aiming for fastest time, you aim for the lowest input count (LIC), i.e. the least number of unique input changes.

• 5 May to 11 May: LIC Competition #1 (7 competitors, won by Comfy_Ivy)
• 10 May to 17 May: LIC Competition #2 (2 competitors, won by Der_Kabeljau)
• 20 May to 24 May: LIC Competition #3 (3 competitors, won by Der_Kabeljau)
• 25 May to 31 May: LIC Competition #4 (5 competitors, won by Comfy_Ivy)

Want to join in? Check out the Trackmania Tool Assisted discord server or sign up on the TM TAS Exchange! UnitedTAS (Trackmania United Forever) Unfortunately, this experimental competition for the paid TMUF came to a close this month, with UnitedTAS #4 being the last edition.

• 1 May to 6 May: United TAS #4 (TMUF-X) (1 competitor, won by CA1EBYT)

TAS of the Day (Trackmania Nations Forever) Coming in as a huge shock is the introduction of the first ever daily TAS Competition in history.

• 7 May: LunaticBay (8 competitors, won by ArkesTM)
• 8 May: Marina (1 competitor, won by Thoman)
• 9 May: Marina XIV (2 competitors, won by charliethepig)
• 10 May: »Lunatix 14 (7 competitors, won by LittleD3m0 & skycrafter)
• 11 May: So Short # 082 (2 competitors, won by Thoman)
• 12 May: TMN Race B-5 (1 competitor, won by Rio)
• 13 May: I-2 (0 competitors)
• 14 May: Kackiest Kacky #412 (0 competitors)
• 15 May: S12 (7 competitors, won by Thoman)
• 16 May: S87 (2 competitors, won by Thoman)
• 17 May: Tropical Mini :) (2 competitors, won by Rio)
• 18 May: MM Lunatic 033 (4 competitors, won by igntuL)
• 19 May: Quic jump 13 (3 competitors, won by igntuL)
• 20 May: Polaris XIV (1 competitor, won by igntuL)
• 21 May: 222 - Khai-Muk (2 competitors, won by igntuL)
• 22 May: Jsut Hard Short | 11 (2 competitors, won by igntuL)
• 23 May: Kacky United D8 | Westie (2 competitors, won by igntuL)
• 24 May: ~ JUMP 57 ~ (6 competitors, won by igntuL)
• 25 May: [Speedracer] stupid LOL 42 (2 competitors, won by Bedeux)
• 26 May: Mini Hard Project #10 (3 competitors, won by Fabi)
• 27 May: A01-Race-Bubble (0 competitors)
• 28 May: xtrm Hard - 9 - S107 (2 competitors, won by igntuL)
• 29 May: Grass fun slider A2# (2 competitors, won by igntuL)
• 30 May: Uni-Hard 06 (2 competitors, won by LittleD3m0)
• 31 May: tracut #018 (1 competitor, won by ArkesTM)

Want to join in? Check out the Trackmania Tool Assisted discord server or sign up on the TM TAS Exchange!

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That's it for May! If you've made it this far, thanks for reading! If you're interested at all in seeing more of what these communities do, consider joining their competitions! Participation helps keep these things going. I look forward to writing again June!

We've discovered that the Commodore 64 core in BizHawk became non-deterministic since version 2.11: loading different savestates from the same timeline may lead to different results later on. So we recommend to use BizHawk 2.10 or older for C64 TASing, even though it's not yet known how many C64 configurations are affected.

Sometimes you add a single game tool that counts for 50 games! And this is one of those times. As of right now, CTAS movie files, developed with the CoffeeTools mod for UFO 50 are allowed for submission! This collection of games has a dedicated speedrunning and TASing scene we hope to see work on quite soon. Many thanks go to synabler, for raising awareness about the tool to staff; to our publishing team, for developing the publication process for PC games; and to Blazier and ToastGhost, main developers of CoffeeTools, for their support and for implementing changes to the format (such as including rerecords count and a timer in the file itself) to improve support on our end. Happy TASing!