Submission #3098: CoolKirby's GBC SpongeBob SquarePants: Legend of the Lost Spatula in 07:35.75

1. to help viewers understand parts of the video
2. to help rookie TASers (like myself) who might find a new glitch, decide to do this game and need information about the game
3. because I personally like reading others' long submission texts, so I made one myself

About the run

• Emulator used: VBA rerecording v23.2 svn284 (will also sync on v23.4)
• Aims for fastest time
• Uses no passwords
• Takes damage to save time
• Genre: Platform

Tricks and Strategy

Moving

Manipulation

Health

Stage by stage comments

To Treasure Chest

• I skip the intro cutscene and controls text boxes by pressing Start for both.
• Once I get to Goo Lagoon (the beach level), I have to go to the far right of the level to get the spatula and the net launcher. These items are necessary to beat two bosses later in the game.
• Instead of backtracking to the goo directly over the cave, I save time by pausing and selecting "Restart Area" and appearing on the grassy area. I took damage near the middle of this level and lost my second hit point (SpongeBob only has two), but restarting the area refreshes my second hit point.
• There is a route to an anchor that is floating in midair directly over that spot, which you are supposed to hold on to as it falls very fast through the goo. Alternatively, you can approach the spot where the anchor is and sink to the cave under the goo.
• I’m happy that I was able to find the glitch that saved 8.5 seconds in sinking to the cave. Normally, when SpongeBob sinks to the cave, he sinks very slowly. But by sinking on the edge of the anchor’s allowed path, SpongeBob shoots down through the water as if he was on the anchor and lands right next to the treasure chest.
• Opening the treasure chest unlocks 4 new areas where there are 4 oven knobs that SpongeBob needs to collect to unlock the statue.

To Jellyfish Fields

• I fall down a steep drop and barely make it over the first scallop in the low path. The next scallop is unavoidable without switching to the jellyfish net item, which takes 165 frames to switch to and 57 frames to use. Since this is a speed-oriented run, this item is too slow to be of use.
• SpongeBob only has one hit point left, so if he hits another scallop, he will "die" and go back to the treasure chest. After I got the spring shoes (which I need for later), I paused and restarted the level. This was faster than walking right, hitting the unavoidable scallop, having to go through a "death" animation, and appearing at the same place that "Restart Area" would take me anyway.
• There is another scallop in another part of the cave (about frame 4975 or 1:25 in the official encode) that only has a one frame window for jumping over it. I barely made it.

Jellyfish Fields

• Going to the oven knob-areas in the order (Jellyfish Fields - The Carnival - Kelpazoic Jungle - Undersea Desert) is fastest because SpongeBob defeats the Big Jellyfish with the bubble wand with which he starts the game.
• This level introduces geysers that shoot SpongeBob very high in the air. As this boost also helps with long horizontal distances, I use these throughout the level. For the rest of the level, I use jumps to keep moving left.
• After trying three different strategies, I finally optimized the boss battle. The first strategy was standing on the ground and blowing bubbles up at Big Jellyfish. Then the second strategy involved walking on the ground and jumping and blowing bubbles, which I thought was optimal until I realized that just jumping up and down and blowing the bubble inside Big Jellyfish will hit him on the first frame he can take damage after recovering from the last bubble (which looks better anyway).
• Defeating the boss earns SpongeBob the first oven knob.

To The Carnival

• I use Up+Select as a shortcut to the Item Switch menu and switch to the spring shoes to enable some super-shortcuts in The Carnival.

The Carnival

• I abused the geyser’s shoot-player-upward-no-matter-where-he-touches-it behavior to fly to a platform halfway through the level.
• That moving hook is the only hook in this area high enough to use the spring shoes to jump to the high platform and across a series of hooks to the second oven knob.
• The two big shortcuts I used allowed me to complete this area in about 17 seconds.

To Kelpazoic Jungle

• Spring shoes help our square yellow friend move fast and efficiently.

Kelpazoic Jungle

• There are two routes to the final area, and I choose the right one because it’s (a lot) faster.
• Near the end of the second area, I jump between two thorny bushes (spikes?). It’s safe to jump between them, but touching either one results in instant "death."
• I can’t make huge shortcuts in the first two areas because these areas are all about climbing or falling short distances. In the final area, I can make shortcuts through the level thanks to the spring shoes.
• I had previously thought that the spot the Jungle Fish boss jumps to was based on SpongeBob’s X position, but it appears to be on some kind of frame rule based on which frame SpongeBob enters the battle. The battle can start earlier or later depending on how you enter the stage. A shorter jump into battle will usually make the Jungle Fish jump up earlier, but it may also depend on what height SpongeBob is at when the battle starts (or even when he touches the ground) and how fast the screen scrolls to reveal the boss.
• After beating the Jungle Fish, SpongeBob gets the third oven knob.

To Undersea Desert

• I had to switch back to the spring shoes to cover more horizontal distance on the way, since the shoes really help save time in long, flat, horizontal areas like the 4 main areas and Undersea Desert.

Undersea Desert

• That statue at the beginning of the Desert is the one SpongeBob found at the beginning of the game. It’s fitting that this area holds my last oven knob, even though I could have gone through the stages in any order.
• Jumping in some caves and hitting the ceiling may look slower, but is actually faster by a few frames.
• There is a part of a cave where I seem to be wasting time, standing in one place and slowly jumping over an urchin. This is because I am waiting for an unavoidable scallop to swim past me so I have a small amount of time to avoid it and pick up more health. I have to open the treasure chest to refresh my second hit point. Without the jellyfishing net equipped, I have to hit the unavoidable urchin near the end of the level and go back down to one hit point. Luckily, I won’t need to take damage for the rest of the run, so I don’t need to waste time opening any more treasure chests.
• The boss, Hot Sauce Bandito, chooses between two attacks based on SpongeBob’s Y position. If SpongeBob is above a certain line when he spits out the previous patty, he will do a slow grin animation, slowly take out a hot sauce bottle, and slowly shoot out three hot sauce squirts (did I mention it’s slow?), so I stay on the ground when he’s spitting out patties to always keep his faster attack.
• It takes the same amount of time to stand at a distance, throw a patty, and jump as it takes to jump toward Bandito and practically feed him the patty. I decided to do the latter, since I think it’s more entertaining.
• I defeat Hot Sauce Bandito and pick up the fourth and last oven knob. I equip the spring shoes because I will need them in Rock Bottom to jump the great horizontal distance across the level.
• At the "You Have Found an Oven Knob" screen, pressing A will play a cutscene but pressing Start will skip the cutscene and cut to SpongeBob falling into Rock Bottom.

Rock Bottom

• This level has lots of enemies. Almost half the platforms (not including balloons) have an urchin or a one-eyed monster on top, both of which are harmful to the touch (or deadly to the touch with one hit point left). To avoid hitting these enemies, I sometimes have to use shorter jumps or walk to the edge of platforms I land on to avoid enemies on the next platform.
• The spring shoes make quick work of this level, with a level time of about 19 seconds.
• I did a lot of testing for the jump into Dutch Under, and used what I had learned about the game’s jump mechanics and gravity to execute it perfectly.

Dutch Under

• The final level of the game! This level introduces ghost birds which behave like jellyfish and big pirates that behave similar to beach bullies. The level music is pretty cool too.
• I have to wait for some platforms to move up so I can reach a higher platform, so I try to provide some entertainment.
• Sometimes it looks like I’m wasting time going out of my way and not jumping on a moving platform soon enough. For some reason, platforms seem to have less delay moving up when they are just barely off-screen. Go figure.
• When I read the walkthrough five years ago, it said that you can only feed the Flying Dutchman one patty every time he is onscreen and then you have to wait for him to fly off-screen, attack, and come down again before you can feed him another patty. This is false; as soon as he spits out the patty, you can feed him another one. I tried it on a real Game Boy Color and I fed him five successive patties on my first try.
• Don’t fight him, feed him!
• SpongeBob defeats the Flying Dutchman and obtains the Golden Spatula!

Possible Improvements

Thanks

• Groudon199, for suggesting this game (quite a while ago)
• Those who made the Rules and Guidelines, which inspired me to make the run and encouraged me to learn about the game’s mechanics.

Suggested Screenshot