Kirby And The Amazing Mirror Any% TAS
Note: English is not my first language.
About the game
Kirby And The Amazing Mirror is the second Kirby game released on GBA and is one of the most unique and different Kirby games so far. The story involves some sort of parallel universe in which some evil force has gained entrance to the normal universe and things are just all over flip flopped.
The game is like Kirby - Nightmare In Dreamland (the Remake of NES Kirby's Adventure).
It uses the same sprites and same midbosses etc.. However, you are able to choose your own path and many abilities were upgraded.
And there are other Kirbys controlled by the game that you can call if you're in trouble (not used in the run).
The game's goal is to collect 8 mirror pieces in order to enter the big mirror in the main hall where the endbosses are waiting for you.
About the run
Please watch the run first.
Abilities were upgraded so that the wheel could bounce for example. I used the wheel as some kind of my main transport ability when I noticed that nearly all the rooms in the game were flat. The missile was only used if it was faster (like in the water area) or if I needed a grey block-breaking ability.
The run took me about 3 months in total and several reattempts. The most annoying part was the Dark Mind matches. Especially the 4th Dark Mind is hard to luckmanipulate.
I was unable to copy the last match from my Boss Endurance TAS so that I was slower maybe. Or Dark Mind just acted different and there's no (big) difference in time.
- abuses programming errors in the game
- Aims for fastest time
- Takes damage to save time
- Manipulates luck
- Used emulator: Visual Boy Advance 1.7.2 rerecording v19.3
UPDATE
The minigame that isn't necessary to be played to finish the game was requested to be played. So the movie file was replaced and the movie time grew from 25:19.8 to 26:11.52
Why Japanese ROM?
The Japanese version of the game was used since attacks were more effective.
And a breakable wall which was on the way to Area 4: Moustard Mountain in USA and European version isn't there yet.
Route
(Note: The name of the area Kirby is in can be read from the screen)
For the route please watch the run. Because you have to go through different areas in order to get to a boss, it's quite complicated to explain.
But I'll list what all pressed switches do:
| Area 2: Moonlight Mansion | Shortcut to Area 9: Candy Constellations |
| Area 2: Moonlight Mansion | Opens gate to Area 6: Olive Ocean and Area 4: Moustard Mountain |
| Area 6: Olive Ocean | Shortcut to Area 3: Cabbage Cavern (+ other areas) |
| Area 3: Cabbage Cavern | Shortcut to Area 5: Carrot Castle |
| Area 3: Cabbage Cavern | Shortcut to Area 3: Cabbage Cavern |
| Area 5: Carrot Castle | Shortcut to Area 7: Peppermint Palace |
Basic timesavers
NOTE: Many of these timesavers were not used in the beginning (the most suitable part for these timesavers of the game)
since I discovered them later in the run and forgot to use them in my final version where I started from a later room.
- While having the biggest horizontal momentum and being in mid-air, just repress "A" without "->" or "<-" and you almost won't lose momentum.
- Two slides or more are faster than running.
- It is possible to get into a ceiling with the upper part of Kirby's body by flying towards it from left or right. It was mostly used while being rocket. For example, in the water area, in the last room before the shark, it was possible to skip some blocks this way.
- If horizontal momentum is needed after entering a room or quitting a slide animation it's the best to start the running animation and then jumping immediately. I forgot to use it in the earlier parts as well.
- Jumping towards a door and entering it is 1 frame faster than doing so without jumping.
- It is possible to press Down or Up in water and swim into a direction for 10 frames or so without canceling the swimming-animation.
There are more, but they are more specific and minor.
Possible improvements I know about
All the things I mentioned above should be used everywhere when possible.
And the boss fights could be improved. I often redid a boss fight two times and then continued with the fastest result.
Improving a run of such a game may be hard or easy, as the game is sometimes quite random. Your Kirby buddies are fooling around while you're going your path. In one of my earlier attempts I went through the great mirror to the endbosses with Red Kirby so that Dark Mind 4 was even harder to luckmanipulate.
I know some more timesavers than listed here.
So if someone wants to improve the run, PM me on the forums.
Thanks to
- Zefiris for posting his WIP or whatever it was. It showed me some stuff like sliding is faster than running and that calling the kirbys is not needed to pass an obstacle in the intro stage. Eventually It helped me to make this final version.
- LuckyStar who posted his run on the forums / youtube. Without him I wouldn't have started my run because I knew and bought the game only because I was fascinated by his TAS.
- Truncated for helping me labeling the ROM.
Screenshots
Bisqwit: Replaced tons of superfluous
%%% markup with ... nothing. Nothing was required to accomplish the same effect. Read Text Formatting Rules for instructions. Also, updated the submission file as the author requested: The new file contains a minigame which is not necessary to finish the game, but the community requested it to be played.
adelikat: Accepting for publication.
adelikat: Processing.