It's Cheetahmen II, one of the worst games of all time, so bad that it was never released. The only reason it can actually be played is that someone found a bunch of cartridges. 6 of the 10 planned levels are on these cartridges, but only 4 of them are accessible without using this patch or experiencing a very rare glitch that starts the game at these two levels.
This TAS is an improvement of 11 frames (0.19 seconds) over the published run by was0x.
Game objectives
- Emulator used: Bizhawk 1.4.0 (syncs on 1.5.0)
- Requires a patched ROM
- Aims for fastest time
- Abuses programming errors
- Takes damage to save time
Tricks used
- Infinite Jump: The two melee characters can cancel their jumps by attacking in midair, allowing them to jump again. This can be repeated infinitely.
- Enemy manipulation: By changing the frames to kill or jump, enemies will sometimes spawn differently. I not only used this to save time, but also to make additional enemies appear wherever it didn't waste time, so I can get a better score.
- Lag reduction: This game isn't laggy, it should be called "Lag: The Game". Every second frame is a lag frame, you can't do anything about that, you can only try to avoid additional lag.
Level by level
Level 1
I wasn't able to improve this, it was already very optimized.
Level 2
2 frames were saved by reducing lag. No improvements found in the boss fight.
Level 3
This level was a nightmare to TAS. It has the most lag of all levels and I had to try random variations of input. 3 frames saved.
Level 4
6 frames were saved thanks to a new strategy for the boss. I start the fight with only 1 HP left, which alone saved 5 frames, and still gained a frame on the fight itself.
Level 5
When I saw was0x' TAS, I thought that the slowdowns in this level were due to lag. I was wrong. There just necessary waiting frames to survive the endless waves of enemies. Strangely, the last two levels have no extra lag at all, despite their massive amounts of enemies. So no frames were saved.
Level 6
Same here. I couldn't change was0x' strategies in the slightest or I would die. The boss fight is also unchanged.
Total frames saved: 11
Comments
I picked this horrible game up because it was short and I thought I could probably improve the last two levels. Ironically, I ended up improving only the earlier ones. Also, the whole thing was much harder than expected, TASing games with that much lag and limited controls can be very frustrating. Overall I'm very happy that I managed to squeeze 11 frames out of this mess of a game.
Thanks to:
- Was0x for doing the old TAS. It was very optimized and helped me a lot as a reference.
- Wingblade for testing out various things and providing me with memory addresses. He was also the person who commented on my WIPs.
- The AVGN for doing his review of this game, without it I wouldn't even know about its existence.
- The TASVideos community for being awesome and making my life a bit more nerdy ;)
Enjoy!
feos: Accepting for Vault and publishing...