Submission #5159: Aglar, Hotarubi & Samsara's NES Gimmick! in 04:24.61

Gimmick.

For those familiar with the published run, the new input begins at 2:48 in the encode, with the Stage 4 boss fight.

This is a 2817 frame improvement over the published run, due to two new glitches that save between 20-30 seconds each. The tradition of each new Gimmick! TAS being significantly faster than the last one continues.

An interesting little game-breaker, triggered off of the boss of Stage 4. There's a lot of technical explanation behind the glitch, but the gist of it is that it's a permanent hitbox change, and you can push yourself into ceilings and zip through corners. Yes, it's permanent until the console is turned off.

The problem with this glitch is something you'll see a hell of a lot in Stage 6, especially when comparing the common rooms to the published run or some of the other previous runs. I'll explain that mess in the stage comments.

For a huge explanation of this glitch, Becored has a lovely writeup over here.

Most of Stage 6 can be skipped with a clip at the very beginning of the stage. This is actually independent of the zip glitch, and can be done on its own.

Exactly the same as the published run.

The zipping glitch is set up. A few frames are lost because of the different strategy needed, and because the power-up wouldn't drop if I killed the boss immediately.

A new route is used that actually zips into the hidden area, skipping a huge portion of the stage. The switch just before the zip needs to be hit, otherwise I would die the moment I jump back into the stage. I also needed specifically no more than one power-up before the zip, otherwise I would have gotten stuck on the bomb drops coming in.

The end of the stage is slightly improved due to the zip glitch as well, as I can push myself forward using the ceiling. Boss fight is redone, but visually unchanged.

Basically hell. The clip shaves off a significant amount of time, but over the rest of the stage I'm slowly losing time due to the zip glitch being active. I'll run through everything room by room after the clip/zip.

Since the zip glitch always pushes you to the right when you're in a ceiling, the first room after the clip is a lot slower, as I can't bounce along the lower corridor riding a star.

The second time I'm in the long room after the clip, a significant amount of time is lost partially because the zip glitch messes with my positioning over the long ride, and because I need the potion, not just for the second mini-boss fight but because I need to spend some time before the first mini-boss to get the proper RNG for the skip. Going in earlier would lock the boss in a horrible, unusable pattern. Luckily this one works just fine.

The first mini-boss is basically the same.

The second mini-boss uses a slightly different, faster strategy over the published run.

First pre-boss room is slightly faster with the zip glitch.

Second pre-boss room is slower because of the zip glitch, since I can't get onto the star when thrown in the small hallway.

The final boss is the last slower part, requiring a strategy similar to the previously published run, though the exact strategy can't be used again because of different RNG.

My main goal was just to implement the new tricks and optimize the results to the best of my ability, without worrying too much about the rest of the run. I'd like to take another stab at this game on the next version of BizHawk, hopefully finding some improvements all throughout, maybe even doing both a new any% and best ending.

Naturally, thanks to Aglar and Hotarubi for the previous run (and because of that, roughly 5/8 of this run).

Huge thanks to Becored for finding the zip glitch and Cyghfer/Orange Claw Hammer for bringing it to the forums' attention, and a second huge thanks to guywithalightsaber for finding the Stage 6 clip and Patashu for bringing it to the forums' attention.

Tompa: Judging judging...
Tompa: Most beautiful. The new zip glitch was very surprising and neat to see. Accepting.

Spikestuff: Publishing.