Submission #4554: EgixBacon's NES Darkwing Duck "Pacifist, no special weapons" in 12:52.21

"Let's get dangerous... without actually being dangerous."

The game Darkwing Duck possibly needs no introduction. Numerous TASes of it were made during the early days of TASVideos, ending with the current published run. This run, however, takes a different approach - completing the game while defeating as few enemies as possible, without using any of the Arrow, Heavy, or Thunder gas weapons.

This is an improvement of 763 frames (12.7 seconds) over my unsubmitted test run.

This TAS is mostly inspired by the pacifist runs of the Contra games. My main reasons for starting the challenge of making this run were:

a) To offer something different to complement the existing ('any%') run of this game.

b) To show a 'category' (and I use that term loosely since this isn't SotN) which would be very difficult to complete in real time.

This run defeats 8 enemies in total: Seven bosses (which obviously cannot be avoided) and one regular enemy (which can only be avoided if arrows are used).

This stage was mostly improved by using more efficient damage routes. Otherwise, there's not really much to say.

By avoiding a falling egg near the beginning of the level, I was able to take damage from one of the jumping enemies later on to save waiting for the moving platform. Also, dodging a murder of angry crows like a boss is much less fun than it looks.

Saving the best for last for the first three stages. By taking damage one less time, I manage to avoid having to grab a health pack which would have required going out of the way to get it. Otherwise, this stage is mostly unchanged.

In this level, Darkwing introduces the Cape Dance, and dodges flying carpet ducks just like he dodges those crows. There's no death glitch on the boss this time, but don't worry - it comes back later on!

The boss fight was improved by alternating my shots between Moliarty and the flame shooter light, allowing me to save one cycle over the test run. Apart from that, there's not much else that's different.

This time, we save the worst for last instead. Terrible level, awful boss... there were no major improvements in this level. Moving on.

Ahhh... I guess I should explain about that one regular enemy. There are three enemies in the early part of the level which are positioned underneath low ceilings - this makes it so you can't jump over them without getting hit. The only way to avoid them is to go over the top of the level - which, unfortunately, requires arrows to be used. Because no special weapons are allowed in this run, I have to take damage from these enemies.

In the next room, there is another enemy who roams inside a two-tile-high corridor. Because DW has already taken damage three times (i.e. one health left), the enemy cannot be jumped over, and the checkpoint has not been reached yet, the enemy must be killed to get past.

In the test run, I managed to get this enemy to drop a health pack - however, in this run, the RNG was in a very bad position, which meant that whichever frame he died on, he would drop either a gold bar, or nothing. Instead, I take a death at the checkpoint to get my health back, which allows two more low ceiling enemies to be passed.

I don't want to spoil too much about the final battle, but I can say that it features a shocking twist...

I'm probably not going to be making any more TASes for a long time, so that's it for now. Goodbye!

Nach: As a special category, the audience appears to be displeased with the results of it, and would prefer a modification of the rules. Also, it appears a bit more work should be put into such a run and save additional time. Rejecting.