This is my first submission, the little quip about it being the 90th time refers to my struggle with the gens emulator. Speaking of the emulator, gens v2.11 with the movie patch version 9f was used. Available here. No emulation specific options were changed from the defaults. As far as tricks used in the video I only used slow down (25% normal speed most times) and abused the small size of my ship's hit box to evade terrain features. Everything else was by game design. The goals of the run were to complete one pass through all 8 levels without dying, and to pull off stunts that you couldn't normally do. No hits are taken, and no lives are lost.
The game is played on hard skill one time through. This grants the "worst" ending you can get short of a game over. I opt to use the blue laser weapon the entire time I can as the red one is too uncontrollable and the green one is a tracking weapon which would be boring and lame for this.
Basic premise is that all of your forces have been taken over by CATS and you're next. You and your Zig fighter take off just as your ship is blown to scrap, and now it's up to you to battle through 8 levels to defeat CATS.
I did this movie for two reasons. One it hadn't been done yet which strikes me as odd given the scale of the “all your base” craze. Two because I've watched so many tool assisted runs that I just had to do one of my own. I hope you enjoy watching it as much as I did making it. Making it wasn't all that hard, just time consuming. If you're interested in seeing someone taking out swarms of enemies in a non-standard way, you'll probably like this.
Level notes
- Level 1
Like you'll see a lot in this movie I abuse the prisoner beam a lot as well as kill lots of enemies by crashing my option pods into them. I don't think this is how you're supposed to kill people, but it's more fun!
- Level 2
More abuse of the prisoner beam, but now my ship is fast enough to do something curious, crash an enemy into the very shot they fired. Bet they didn't see that coming. There are also these three medium ships that if you fly very close over or under then you can block all their purple bullets as soon as they're fired. Who knew that the pods would be so useful! The walls... At first I just decided to blow them all away, but then went back and redid the section opting to fly around them like they were just an obstacle course for me. I also learn that the hit box for terrain is very different from the one for bullets. You'll see me fly through some very tight spaces. I do it later too.
- Level 3
I swear, the music reminds me of Lava Reef Zone from Sonic 3. Nothing really interesting here. Though I will say that the boss moves way faster than he should be able to at that size.
- Level 4
This level is oddly boring, and short. Well, except for that flying turret. Though I'm pretty sure that was a glitch. Nice music though.
- Level 5
I don't know what's up with that grill they put on the screen, but I will say this. Those giant blue insect walkers, pain in my rear! I also get the coveted 4th stage weapon power-up. I wasn't going to get it before because it was too much of a hassle. Then it just sort of appeared, so I took it. Not that it really does much if you ask me. I so wanted to get out of the mid-boss' ring of death, but stood my ground and pulled off a death defying victory!
- Level 6
Narrow flight paths and more physics defying squeezes. Also a few spots where you get bonus points for fancy flying. You'll see a couple points where I fly into an enemy backwards and kill him. This is because now that I have the level 4 option pods they're actually longer than my ship. Therefore in a tight space I am neigh invincible because the pods stick out about a pixel on each end. The boss for this stage is really lame. It's a wall. Doesn't have any of those fancy guns that shoot at you no matter where you are.
- Level 7
INSECTS! Hundreds of them! Also taking out those rear facing heads, not fun at all. Part way through the mid-boss he opens up and releases a swarm of mini enemies. I just get between him because even tool assisted they were becoming a real trouble as they constantly home in on you. The boss of this stage seemed to glitch. You'll see two gray things fall down. The one on the left kept killing me even though it didn't hit me. Strange.
- Level 8
Final level! Woo! Those stupid things on the ceiling home in on you. While they're slow, they're big and that's a problem. Especially considering the large ships that follow. I call those little red guys on the floor wizards. Why? No reason. The final boss confused me terribly because for the longest time, nothing happens! You just keep shooting him. The last two death heads you can't kill. I tried.
Custom subtitle to be placed after last boss is defeated: All your base are scrap, CATS.
Truncated: For reasons layed out in my post in the corresponding topic, this submission is rejected.
Better luck next time.