Intro
Here, for your viewing pleasure, is my run of the Lion King for the Sega Genesis. The run itself is 2294 frames faster (38.23 seconds) than the currently published run by Dan. The Lion King is one of favourite games for this console; visually and musically it is one of the most beautiful, the gameplay is very responsive and tight and the difficulty is very high (and misleading for a Disney game). The plot of the game is faithfully (for the most part) based on the movie of the same name. Being a huge fan of the movie and the game I was drawn to doing this TAS and am glad I was able to churn one out. I began this project almost immeadiately after submitting Majora's Mask and was not prepared for how challenging a TAS it would be (this project was very redotastic). The improvements come from a couple of new tricks, new routes, a dash of new glitches, all seasoned with better precision.
- Aims For Fastest Time
- Plays At Hardest Difficulty
- Abuses Programming Errors In The Game
- Manipulates Luck
- Genre: Platform
- Recorded using Gens 9.5b
Improvements
I'll list here only the main and obvious improvements.
- Level One: The Pridelands
- I jump to grab a ledge about halfway through which saves about three seconds This ledge is insanely difficult to get as Simba's position has to be of an exact value for it to work. This allows me to take a slightly different route up the left side of the level.
- During the Hyena battle you may notice that I take damage. This means I can get inside the hitbox of the hyena to damage it a few frames earlier when it become vulnerable.
- Level Two: I Just Can't Wait To Be King
- After riding the ostrich I press jump for a single frame causing Simba to long jump for some reason. I use this to grab onto one of the higher animals. Saves about three seconds.
- Level Three: The Elephant Graveyard
- There's a secret tunnel about a third of the way through that Dan didn't know about that saves about three seconds.
- If you jump over the top of the screen the game, for a single frame, thinks Simba is on the ground. There is only one place I can use this but it conveniently allows me to jump over a few Hyenas.
- Level Four: The Stampede
- Bleh...
- Level Five: Simba's Exile
- No real new tricks...just frame shaved.
- Level Six: Hakuna Mattata
- As above...
- Notice the cool little glitch I show off after defeating the gorilla. Notice it!
- Level Seven: Simba's Return
- One of the most beautiful levels of any game from this era in my opinion. Perhaps a screenshot from here?
- Many of the ledges that Dan grabs can be jumped over using a high-jump (jump + attack button).
- Dan never glitched past the second leopard battle. It seems impossible because they don't exhaust like normal but after a bit of luck manip I found a way to pull it off.
- Rolling the boulder near the end can be skipped by a high-jump to the platform.
- Level 8: Be Prepared
- Some of the geysers that Dan takes damage from can be jumped over with a high jump.
- I tried to make the "boss" interesting. Feel free to skip it...
- Level 9: Simba's Return
- Same route but frame shaved in places.
- Level 10: Pride Rock
- Usig a high jump I was able to grab a higher grapple rock than Dan right before the final boss.
Special Thanks
Aqfaq: Extra special thanks to this man. Thanks for advice, tips and for discovering most of these tricks. I'd also like to thank you for your WIP of the first few levels. This is as much your run as it is mine.
Dan: Cheers for your movie. I used it for comparison at many points and I hope you enjoy the results!
Frezy_Man Of SDA: Thanks for your speedrun. I wasn't aware of the shortcut in The Elephant's Graveyard which saved a nice few seconds.
Grizzly Of vgmaps: Thanks for the level maps. They were invaluable for route planning.
Enjoy!!
adelikat: Accepting for publication as an improvement to the published movie.
NesVideoAgent: Hi! I am a robot. I took a few screenshots
of this movie and placed them here.
I'm not sure I got the right ROM though. (I tried
Lion King, The (W) [!].gen, which was the closest match to what you wrote.) Well, here goes! Feel free to clean up the list.
ccfreak2k: Processing...