Table of contents
General notes
- Syncs on Bizhawk 2.11
- Documented Rerecord count - 18952
- Uses glitches and exploits to save time
- Takes intentional damage to save time.
Introduction
Rayman is a 2000 Game Boy Color game in the Rayman franchise. The game is a 2D platformer similar to the original Rayman from 1995 although this game is its own thing. It's a good game with strong visuals and enjoyable gameplay once you get past the game's really... questionable renditions of Rayman 2 music (although you can play the game with an easier soundtrack on the ears by playing the game through the Rayman 30th Anniversary collection).
I made a TAS for this game last year which was a near 9 minute improvement compared to the TAS CtrlAltDestroy made all the way back in 2005-2009. I was really satisfied with the TAS I made and I had no intentions on improving it. But then the 30th Anniversary Collection came out and then prolific Rayman runner Thextera started running the game. As a result, I decided to take another look into the game and much to my surprise, I was able to find a whole bunch of stuff which ended up saving a lot of time, well over 2 minutes.
Most of the time save in this run comes from new skips and new exploits. There is some extra optimisation here and there but most of the time save comes from new discoveries. Like my previous submission, I will be using visual representations of the levels to show route changes (courtesy of Ray1map). It has crudely drawn lines to show the route differences so I do apologise in advance if it is hard to read at times. Green represents the previous TAS while Orange represents route changes in this new TAS.
New Exploits
I will be going over some of the new exploits used in this run. I recommend reading my previous submission for an explanation of the older exploits not explained here. ( https://tasvideos.org/9798S )
Ceiling Zips
If you jump into a ceiling and glide the frame you hit the ceiling, you will zip along the ceiling if you are moving right. While this is not a new discovery, even being utilised in CtrlAltDestroy's old TAS, what we didn't know before is that if you zip into a wall, the game will clip you through the wall. Clipping through walls can eject you onto the top of the wall. This is used a handful of times throughout the run.
There is another variation of the ceiling zip. If you go on a vine which goes into a wall and you jump off the vine, you can clip into the wall and then you can zip in the wall which can send you above the wall which is typically a platform. It is really inconsistent, I'm assuming that the trick only works with a specific sub pixel position so it simply does not work most of the time. There are only a few walls like this but we can perform this exploit on a couple of these vines to our advantage.
Trumpet Blast
This was discovered by a user known as Mart. If you glide above a trumpet on the left side and then you cancel your glide on the frame the trumpet blows, the game will give you a huge vertical boost and your glide will not be cancelled. There are a couple of areas where this can be utilised.
Level comments
Here, I will go over the improvements in this TAS. You can read my previous submission for explanations of pre existing skips or notes on level which did not change in this run ( https://tasvideos.org/9798S ).
Airy Tunes 3
- In the previous TAS, once I reached the checkpoint, I simply continue going left and take the intended route, at least after taking a jump over the checkpoint to a higher platform.
- In this TAS however, I instead drop down after the checkpoint, collecting the health. I then get momentum storage on the cloud which allows me to clip through the right side wall and reach the end of the level. This saved around 4 seconds.
Airy Tunes 4
- In the previous TAS, I immediately got out of my way to spawn a moving platform so I can get momentum storage and hang glide up to a later part of the level with the last jumping trumpet.
- In this TAS however, I instead make my way to the first jumping trumpet. I then make the trumpet go all the way to the top of the area so I can clip through the ceiling and reach the last trumpet. This saved over 10 seconds.
Rainy Forest 3
- I clip above the camera sooner in order to reach the end goal sooner. While I did clip above the camera in the previous TAS, I didn't do it until I reached the last platform which made me lose out on some time save. I believe I managed to hit it as early as possible since you need to wait for it to load in. This saved over 3 seconds.
Rocky Peaks 1
- At the beginning of the level, instead of moving right to a bouncy cloud, I immediately jump up to the bonus platform and then I climb the vine in order to clip through the ceiling onto the platform above. This saved over 5 seconds.
Rocky Peaks 2
- I perform a slightly faster clip into the last platform which allowed me to hit the end goal half a second sooner.
Rocky Peaks 3
- I do not perform the last damage boost so I actually lose some frames compared to the previous TAS. The reason for this is that I need the health for later in the run.
Rocky Peaks 4
- I reach the top platform slightly faster but I no longer do the damage boost which ended up making this level a few frames slower overall. Again, I cut out the damage boost to use my health later.
Ancient Forest 1
- When I reach the first trumpet, I perform a trumpet blast which allows me to clip through a platform and reach the end of the level, skipping the entire level. This is the biggest new skip in this run, saving 42 seconds compared to the previous TAS.
- This skips the health I collected in the old TAS which is why I cut out the damage boosts in the previous 2 levels.
Ancient Forest 2
- When I reach the first falling ring, I drop down to the floor and then when the ring goes through the floor, I grab onto the ring, which teleports me to the ring. This gets me under the thorns, skipping a sizeable chunk of the level. This saved around 21 seconds.
- This skip is stupidly easy, it's honestly surprising that this wasn't discovered sooner.
- There is health if I move further along right after clipping but collecting this health was slower than cutting out the 2 damage boosts in Rocky Peaks.
Ancient Forest 3
- Before getting momentum storage to skip a portion of the level, I take damage sooner so I can gain momentum storage sooner. This saved some frames.
Fiery Depths 1
- Instead of death warping to a checkpoint, I can ceiling zip to clip through the wall behind the checkpoint. This saved some frames.
- After the checkpoint, I take a different route in order to reach the goal.
- In the previous TAS, I go down and go along the rings to reach a corner with a cage. I then spawn a moving platform which I then use to get momentum storage and float up to the goal.
- In this TAS however, I instead go up. I make my way to the top of the spiky wall where I can then ceiling zip in order to clip through the wall. After clipping, I perform a punch so I can float in the air, get attached to the ceiling and then quickly zip to the goal. This saved nearly 12 seconds compared to the old TAS, with this TAS saving over 12 seconds in this level as a whole.
Fiery Depths 2
- I take a completely different route in this level.
- In the previous TAS, I performed some very precise jumps to go under the level which skips a sizeable portion of the level, I would then go right and eventually start scaling up the level, jumping through a hole in the floor in order to reach the end faster.
- In this TAS however, I instead start the level by scaling up to the top. This is closer to the intended route but I used Glitched Double Jumps and damage boosts to take a more direct route. I then pick up the health and I make sure I trigger the ring bat. I then use the ring bat in order to hit the spikes on the ceiling where I can then damage boost jump and ceiling zip in order to clip through the wall and reach the end of the level. This saved over 11 seconds.
Arcane Forest 1
- I start off the level by quitting out and reloading the level. The game remembers the password for the level you are on so you can simply reload the level by continuing. I do this in order to refill my health.
- I do a ceiling zip after jumping on the plum as a small optimisation.
- After jumping off the first slippery platform, instead of going right as normal, I go onto the second vine where I can clip into the ceiling and clip onto the floor above, skipping a portion of the level. This saved just under 10 seconds, even with the level reload.
- With this skip, I skip the health I collected in the previous TAS. This is why I reloaded the level as it was the fastest way to refill my health.
Arcane Forest 2
- I do a trumpet blast in order to reach the end of the level faster, I also punch during the trumpet blast, timing it so that I clip into the ceiling. This allows me to zip along the ceiling while floating and I can punch again to fall back down into the goal. This saved some frames.
- It unfortunately does not seem possible to clip into the end of the level sooner. I did try dropping off the top ledge but it still wasn't enough.
Arcane Forest 4
- Instead of doing the level somewhat normally, just with plenty of double jump shortcuts, I get momentum storage on the first moving platform which I then use to float to the top of the level later. I can then get into the ceiling in order to zip halfway across the level. I could jump when clipping into the first wall in order to cancel momentum storage (you would end up above the level with no way back down with momentum storage/the wrong movement). This saved around 13 seconds.
Mr. Dark
- I make sure that I always spawn Mr. Dark as high as possible so he can go into his ball sooner and I make sure that Mr. Dark is always really high up when I perform the final hit of a phase so that he transitions into the next phase faster. I did not utilise the latter in the previous TAS. This saved around 2 seconds.
Conclusion
And that's the run. Rayman on GBC done in 16 minutes and 59 seconds (16:34 RTA). I am pretty amazed at how much more time I was able to squeeze out of the run. I was pretty satisfied with the 19:16 and I thought there wouldn't be much more time to squeeze out but I ended up being very wrong. This game had a lot more tricks hiding up its sleeves and I am glad that I was able to uncover those tricks and cut so much more time out of the run.
There might be a bit more room to optimise in places, more lag reduction could be a thing and there might be more undiscovered potential skips but I am definitely happy with this run for now, especially since we now have significant skips in some of the levels which didn't have skips before (Ancient Forest 1 and 2). Mr. Dark has very annoying RNG which makes improving the run very annoying since you will likely have to redo Mr. Dark if any improvements earlier in the run are made. Better Mr. Dark RNG is theoretically possible. Regardless, this improvement makes this already crazy game even crazier and I hope that the improvement is fun to watch.
Also, shoutouts to the Rayman speedrunning community for all the things they've figured out in this game as well as the creators of Ray1Map for creating easily useable visuals for these levels. Special shoutouts go to Thextera for finding ceiling zips into wall clips and for inspiring me to make this update as well as Mart for finding Trumpet Blasts, leading to the biggest new skip in this run which allowed a sub 17 to be possible.
nymx: Claiming for judging.
nymx: Replacing with improvement file.
nymx: Accepting over [6657] GBC Rayman by SuperSqank in 19:16.10.
inconsistent: Processing...