Submission #1945: VolcanoStormWind's Genesis Gods in 19:23.10

Objectives of this movie :

I used Gens 9.5b for this run, and made much use of the frame advance feature, to always be exact at the needed times. There's also an AVI file I madehere.

The "Collect 100% Set Treasures" objective means I collect all the treasures that have been set in a certain place in the game, and it includes the ones appearing as a "speed/lives bonus" gold bag or gem or life, and I go as far as killing myself (only 2 times, in 1-1 and 2-1) to get certain of those "conditional bonuses".

"Gods" is a pretty unknown and pretty hard game made by Mindscape, and is really unique in how it merge simple yet interesting puzzles within the platform-action gameplay it has. Another great thing is how the stages are elaborated and often rather large, yet well-made because they are never complicated or confusing at all. The goal of our char is to get past the puzzles and monsters of the three stages of each level and to beat the four end-level Guardians to attain the rank of "God" (like Zeus and others, which are in the highscores at first play) and reach immortality (as well as finding keys and getting many treasures by resolving the puzzles).

In this game, monsters aren't already in place but instead most of them appear as you walk along the ground and in an activator. This gameplay makes you need to be quick and on your guards pretty much all the time, but at the same time when you are at a puzzle-phase and cleared the room, you can take the time to try the levers and understand what you have to do to advance in the game. Some items I use in the game are, the starbust (the blue skull head) which sends stars flying all around and clears up the room of monsters, the invulnerability (the little red-cross in a blue circle) which gives me 16 seconds of invincibility, the freeze potion (a long light blue vertical icon), the big/little health regain (a big or little dark orange heart), and the weapons I buy or which are given to me in a level. At the shopkeepers I often buy an invulnerability shield and/or some health plus new and more powerful weapons when available.

In this TAS, I use all the features I have or get (like the items I talked about a bit earlier) to make it the fastest possible and beat it like the best player would. And it really goes well with this game. If it's faster and doesn't take away too much health, I try to take the missiles the monsters often throw at me instead of ducking under them, or even to collide with a monster because it will kill him no matter what, at the price of rather much health. I can also intentionally lose a live by monster-colliding, and use that to reappear nearly at the same exact place but with all my health and a very practical short temporary invulnerability. With ladders I found a nice glitch, which makes me able to grab them when I'm just at the side of it, saving some time but a few times it doesn't work. And at the score screens, putting the attack button on autofire makes the score adding itself really fast. There are also many treasures to find in the game, and my goal was to find and collect all of them, showing how many hidden things this game may reveal to you.

I think you will understand what I'm doing better if you have already played the game (even not far), and I hope seeing this "not enough known" game TASed will make people appreciate it because it deserves it, even if it's a hard game, and will entertain you as much as I liked succeeding to make it really quick.

An advantage the Gods Genesis version have over the SNES one is the invulnerability shield time. It lasts twice as long on Gens and it helps a lot at saving time and making the movie quicker. For those who have seen my SNES TASes tries, this run is longer because I discovered new treasures in the game that I didn't know at first, yet it's still faster because I found better strategies/tricks that gained some time.

Also some needed comments stage by stage follow hereafter :

1-1 : At first I have to reset the two first levers on my way, to activate a shortcut-teleporting later in the stage and collect a fire gem in it. Then I have to kill myself to get past the spikes that are just after the shortcut-teleporting. After the teleporting, I pull the second lever to the right, then the third one farther to gain a nice blue chest. And after letting me die because of overcrowding, I pull up the middle lever and pull down the left one to get a fire gem. Another secret is at the stage end door, if you go pull its lever before visiting the treasure room (room just below), from the left wall a platform will come out and help you push the hidden switch above it. It gives another fire gem.

1-2 : At the beginning where I get the trap door key, I have to kill the monsters in my way and then push the hidden switch to get a giant jump potion, helping me access the large platforms above me and the many treasures along them. I also press the 3 other hidden switches to open trap-doors, making a gray chest fall at the end of the stage so that I can open it. It's also needed to take the two ceramic pots in the stage to get the world key and a fire gem later on.

1-3 : At the shopkeeper I buy 3 throwing stars for better power, some health and an invulnerability shield (I often buy one at every shop on my way). Two levers are at the left but only the left-up one is needed to put away the spike trap guarding the needed giant jump potion. After finding the treasure key on a late-spawning monster, I reset the trap-door opener so that the lever opening the treasure room will give me an inv. shield nearby as well. At the treasure room, I cannot take the lightning bolt weapon (same for the two diamonds after it), because the game will reward you with a very nice gold chest if you beat the guardian without this powerful weapon. When I arrive to the guardian, my invulnerability shield is still on and allows me to pass through him and to fire at him without having to worry about his projectiles. When at the shop I buy a power potion to add me a fireball as it costs less this way, and an inv. shield I will need in the next level.

2-1 : The hidden switch I press at the right side opens a trap-door, behind where are thieves which will help me getting the treasure key. I use my invulnerability shield to kill the two guards to the left which gives me a gold chest key, and also to get no damage at the spikes in the thieves room (I will need this health). In this room, when the thieves appear I drop the chest key to attire them to it, then pick it up back to make them going get the treasure key instead. Then at the far left after I picked up the Ice gem, I let me fall all the way down and pass through the serpent to the left to get the gold bag, and in the meantime, kill myself to go through the right corridor and explode the serpents in it. Near the end when I'm at the world door, the giant jump potion hasn't wore off yet and prevents me from jumping up to the ledge at the right for a little time. In the treasure room, I've been able to kill one the fliers and to prevent the other from coming at me and taking my health. I will need this health in the next stage.

2-2 : Here I take the 3 chalices (gold/silver/iron) they talk about in a hint, and gets a treasure key as a reward, plus a gray chest if I take the chalices out before going out of the "world key" room. I didn't need the room key or teleport key, there was a faster way. Near the end I let myself fall a long way down and lose a life/gain invulnerability, again to explode the serpents nearby (as well as saving time).

2-3 : In this stage pieces of a mosaic must be found to repair it and permits advancing further in the stage. At first I take out my inv. shield to be abIe to use it later, because my inventory will be full soon with the 3 mosaic pieces I need to get first. I collide with some monsters on the way to lower my health, so that I can take the globe for the 3rd piece and teleport-dying just after, which makes for a shorter way of completing the mosaic puzzle. I use my freeze potion after getting the blue key to make it so only one bubble damage me and to help me gain time with the two next monsters. After resolving the mosaic puzzle, I take the inv. shield I took out earlier and put it to good use. And just after at the trap-doors place, I return the 3 levers to make spikes disappear later in, opening the way for taking the cross which I need for getting the treasure key. After taking the trap key to the left I jump to the platform and "inside" of it, and kill a flier and a guard to prevent them from damaging me later on, then take the candle needed to make the world key appear in the study later on. And just after I have to backtrack, then fall on the trap in the middle to get a blue key and go dying to teleport much nearer to the room corresponding this blue key. Some time after when I'm at the serpent corridor, I need to let a little serpent be living to teleport-dying just after taking the two keys, gaining some time by exploding the serpent near the ladder and then going to the "dragon gem" room. At the guardian, I had to duck instead of walking back at a moment, to prevent him from flying too high and being killed slower because not all the spears would hit him. At the shopkeeper after this battle, I buy a full-health and an inv. shield but also the big shield for a nice added protection (around 2 times less damage).

3-1 : As soon as I'm in the stage, I take out my inv. shield and run to the right, getting a water gem in a corner downward, and then opening the shortcut up-right above thanks to the fact I got near the ladder in less than 50 seconds. I keep running right up to a ladder I fall in and get two fire gems, then I open the door and fire to the left to break a ceiling with my maces, which lets a fire gem fall down to me. Then I arrive to the treasure room and fire maces to break a ceiling, giving me a starbust which will explode all the thieves nearby and the world key.

3-2 : This is the stage where I must find 3 tiny gems (fire/water/ice) to make the world door open itself. In the shop I buy an inv. shield and a freeze potion, plus an axe and a power potion to add me two other axes, as they will help me killing the guardian and the monsters in this level much faster. I begin by jumping at some platforms and taking the yellow gem to the left, earning me a bonus fire gem as well. Then I go up to the little health heart, and prevent from appearing a thief which usually steals the tiny fire gem and takes it to a hard-to-reach place. When I pick up the gem I use my freeze potion to not get bothered by some fliers and satyrs that appears nearby. Just after then I activate the lever just before the ladder, because it will give you a trap-door key if you get all the way up without losing health, key which is useful to give you some quite nice treasures and an inv. shield. And this shield coupled with the other one I bought earlier will then be very useful to get past the two next tiny gems places quickly and easily.

3-3 : Here I need to take the two flask/pot in the stage to gain a key for the trap-doors which will lead me to the world key and the treasure key. I begin the stage by pulling the left lever two times to get a water gem. Against the guardian I use my three axes to kill him fast, and when he makes the grounds shake I even stay in the air firing at him for a while, because I fire as fast as possible and the game can't make me fall if I fire too fast. At the shopkeeper I buy a full-health, a freeze potion and an inv. shield, then buy a mace to sell back the axes and gain much money, this way it gives me enough to buy a hunter as well.

4-1 : I begin by getting the power potion which puts my hunters and maces up to 3, then use my inv. shield which will be useful for nearly all it's time. After that I gain a fire gem because I got the door key without losing health. The game gives me another one for daring to jump down just after the door, and then I go destroy the blocks down there and also take the starbust on the way, then go up to the ladder taking the two keys here, and using my freeze potion to help me getting a fire gem lower in this stage. And after I go kill myself on the thief to regain my health.

4-2 : At this shopkeeper I buy a second big shield (now damage are around 4 times less, how nice) plus an inv. shield and an "intense arc" which will help much for the treasure room I do first in this stage. I go search the room key and just after, even if I'm at full health, I go for dying on the rotating trap because it gets me to the room door faster. In this room I have to destroy many blocks, and when I go down there's a starbust I have to delay using, because I need to wait for the flying monsters to approach me more. That is because they drop a nice blue chest. At the first room where there is an alchemist tool, I found that if you jump and try to fire just before hitting the ledge completely, you will arrive less far on the ledge, which helped me preventing the monsters that should appear from spawning at all (the moving ones). Also thanks to the inv. shield I used not long before, I had enough health to go through the rotating trap and activate this third lever earlier than normal. After that is the treasure room with many breakable blocks, I tried all I could find out and I think it's well-optimized. Same thing is true for the room with the lamp. At the end of this stage I'm at very low health, but I need to not lose my last life because I will use it in the next stage.

4-3 : For first action I kill myself and use the invincibility to pass through the monsters and advance to the ladder. Then I have to wait for the thief to steal the treasure key and pull the lever to make a ceiling appear and open the door. Behind the door I go the way right and fall, and the game in it's niceness gives me a life as a "help bonus". I go right some more and in the next room I have to lose a life to regain all my health. Just after this I activate levers and take the trap-door key that will be used to get the axes you might have seen before. Then I'm teleported to a room literally full of treasures and gems, and I go use the hidden switch with the trap-door key to gain the axes by breaking the blocks under them. I really need 3 axes to beat the last guardian the fastest way, as he his already quite long to beat when fully-armed. For that I go take the power potion, since it's only two axes which dropped and I need 3 of them. Then comes the last guardian, well it's a long and rather uneventful part, so you might want to skip right to the game ending. Watch the ending and the credits will come a while after the message ended. It's a nice ending scene.

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 Gods (U) [!].gen, which was the closest match to what you wrote.) Well, here goes! Feel free to clean up the list.

Truncated: I will reject this. Reasons:

Reviewing your last movie, I see that all this was already pointed out. I wish you good luck in your future TASing.