Emulator used: Gens 9F NitsujaMod (Gens 9F compatible)
Emulator settings:
- Controller 1: 6 button
- Controller 2: 6 button
- Allow Up+Down: Yes
- 32X 68000 Bios: 32X_G_BIOS.BIN (File CRC is 5C12EAE8)
- 32X Master SH2 Bios: 32X_M_BIOS.BIN (File CRC is DD9C46B8)
- 32X Slave SH2 Bios: 32X_S_BIOS.BIN (File CRC is BFDA1FE5)
- Sound: Enabled, 44100KhZ Stereo, YM2612 High Quality enabled
Categories
- Does not use warps or passwords
- Abuses programming errors in the game
- Manipulates luck
- Takes no damage
- Aims for fastest in-game completion time
- Ignores semi-important goals in the game
About the Game
Knuckles' Chaotix is a Sonic game that doesn't feature Sonic. Also, the player is tied to a partner with an elastic band of 'ring energy'. Also, after each stage, the next level is selected via roulette. There are five selectable player characters, and seven partners chosen in between levels in a crane-minigame, making this the Sonic game with the largest cast of characters before Sonic Heroes. The player characters are Charmy the Bee, Espio the Chameleon, Knuckles the Echidna, Mighty the Armadillo, and Vector the Crocodile. The two additional partners are Heavy the Robot, and Bomb the Bomb. For this run I have chosen Knuckles as my primary character.
About the Movie
This movie makes extensive use of programming glitches and oversights to open up routes which would be impossible in normal play. This movie manipulates luck to create a better sense of continuity by playing each attraction continuously from start to finish. This movie avoids all damage without losing time as a result.
In-game completion times:
Introduction: 0:55:30
Speed Slider (Total): 1:31:31
- 0:09:56
- 0:11:71
- 0:11:66
- 0:09:95
- 0:48:43
Marina Madness (Total): 1:38:31
- 0:09:78
- 0:06:65
- 0:07:48
- 0:06:63
- 1:07:77
Botanic Base (Total): 2:46:37
- 0:08:20
- 0:22:71
- 0:24:70
- 0:36:11
- 1:14:65
Amazing Arena (Total): 2:13:52
- 0:16:15
- 0:18:16
- 0:15:35
- 0:21:05
- 1:02:81
Techno Tower (Total): 1:23:80
- 0:10:43
- 0:09:13
- 0:11:50
- 0:11:11
- 0:41:63
Final Boss: 0:59:71
Total Time: 11:28:32
Notes and Explanations
- If you have never played the NTSC version of Knuckles' Chaotix before, this movie may desync. This is because the game lags in several places if there is no preexisting save data. This issue can be addressed by opening the rom, starting a new game in any slot (including the no save slot), closing the rom, and opening it again (to generate a blank SRM).
- Many levels are completed with negative rings. This is because of the negative ring trick. The sole exception is Botanic Base 1, where the route simply didn't have enough rings to cover the cost of the calls.
- Some levels are completed with rings. This is because the Negative Ring Trick only works if there is no secret bonus.
- In Amazing Arena, a switch must be hit in each level, or that level will be failed when you reach the clear.
- There are certain portions of the movie where I do something, the purpose of which may not be immediately apparent.
- at 16:47:56, in Botanic Base 3, I go slightly out of my way to pick up a Giant-size box. Giant-size causes the player's throws to be more powerful, and has a less well defined hitbox.
- at 22:36:54, in Amazing Arena 2, I stop, and don't immediately regain full speed. This is because I need to throw my partner at a certain angle so that I can perform zipping.
- at 23:39:44, in Amazing Arena 3, I have to exit the wall to the left in order to hit the switch.
- at 23:47:15, in Amazing Arena 3, I begin spindashing to the right inside a wall. This is to prevent the wall from pushing me forward, as I was already above the height of the goal.
- in Amazing Arena 4 and 5, I begin higher up than the goal-switches. As a result, I cannot use zipping to bypass the slow hover rides at 24:45:06 and 24:54:53
- at 27:48:02, in Techno Tower 1, I use throw-hovering to maintain my upward velocity.
- at 31:48:41, in Techno Tower 5, I hit the partner swap monitor, because it acts as an instant brake. I then make a slight use of the partner's ability to help gain tension faster for slingshotting.
- at 32:45:45, before the final boss, I swap partners to allow for faster completion of the boss.
- Call
- The act of summoning the partner. Costs 10 rings.
- Call cancel
- If the partner is thrown on the same frame he is called, the call animation is canceled, but 10 rings are still used.
- Negative Ring Trick
- If the player has negative rings when the score tally screen begins, it only ticks once, and tallies 0 points.
- Secret Bonus
- A score bonus of 10,000 points awarded for traversing some portion of the level. Tallied in the score tally screen. Cancels the Negative Ring Trick.
- Slingshot
- The act of using the rubber band to change directions rapidly.
- Throw cancel
- If the player jumps during the throwing animation, the throwing animation is cancelled, and the partner can be grabbed again immediately.
- Throw hovering
- During the throwing animation, the player:s velocity will remain constant unless stopped by a wall or other object. The throw animation is 9 frames long, and, in optimal conditions, can be performed once every 10 frames, effectively reducing gravity to 10%.
- Zipping
- What happens when a wall attempts to eject the player, but fails. In Knuckles' Chaotix zipping always occurs at 32 pixels right and 32 pixels upwards per frame, regardless of the direction faced. There are certain animations which negate the Zipping effect. They are, spindash, jump, and glide. No other animation I have tested will negate the ejection effect.
Truncated: Spastic glitching, entertaining tricks and high-velocity movement. What is there not to like? Well...
The big drawback is how incredibly long the cut-scenes and level select sequences are. The total time spent traversing the levels is listed as 11:28, which is only 33% of the total movie length. (Whoever designed that part of this game should be killed. Twice.) Judging from the votes, this doesn't seem to be an insurmountable bother to watchers.
It's almost so that I want to edit out all the level selects from the AVI, but maybe that's a little extreme. I will leave that decision to whoever encodes this, and just say "This is good enough to be published".