Submission #5315: McBobX's NES Adventure Island IV in 16:36.64

Improvement over the current run by roughly 10548 frames or 2:55.50.

This is a tool-assisted speedrun of Adventure Island IV known as Takahashi Meijin no Bouken Jima 4 in Japan which actually released only in that version. Unlike the previous three games, this one is based on Metroidvania style in which you can access stages and collecting items at anytime and then begin route planning. About tricks and glitches in this game, the most known trick is the damage boost that allows you to move at a high speed, simply by just holding Down and keep pressing A button to jump, but what I think I discovered, but not sure, is that you don't have to make a frame perfect jumps to keep speed, you need just to release the A button at a certain height that is near to the ground then press and hold the A again, and so, this is an easier method to keep moving at high speed, it is possible in real time as well.

And then a huge time saving glitch has been discovered lately: Clipping to final boss. This glitch can save huge time like around 2min or more because it skips half of the pyramid stage and thus skip one boss. To perform this glitch, it is necessary to get the boomerang from the pyramid since it's place in the menu is the key of the glitch: Normaly, you are not allowed to use flying dinosaur underwater and so it automatically destroyed as soon as it touches the water, also you cannot select it from the menu if underwater too, but for some reason, if you select boomerang while taking the dinosaur, and then going to water and selecting the dino again it won't be crashed then you can play with it in water, other elements of the menu doesn't work, that's why the boomerang is needed. Now we are in the water with the flying dino, we need to press the A button to fly and then directly press Start to select boomerang, afterward, automatic out of bound.

This two tricks are the most notable in this run.

Here I'm going to talk about notable things only. There was some optimizations in the whole run.

This is the first stage, it has a big time save via the damage boost trick that can skip the first mini boss and thus skip the hammer, after that, I placed warp egg so that I can return later

Nothing special here, but there was more optimizations that saved some times like executing another damage boost before entering the boss room. Oh, I didn't turn on the light stright after beating the mini boss in order to not prevent a higher bitrate for the encode, lol

Getting the P coin was best here, instead of using turbo A only, I performed what's like Hadouken in Mega Man X but reversed, from right to left, it could not be from right to right, I don't know why. This could save like 3 sec. After the challenge, I lifted the block exist before the door then I released it in mid-air so to perform a minor zip. A new thing has been discovered is the free J coin: While fighting the boss and before delivering the final hit, a free J coin can be earned by beating the boss as soon as he release a block. Here I lost some frames, due to waiting for the block to be released and then giving the hit, but this is actually going to save large time later.

Well, I warped to where I placed the egg at the beginning in order to create a shortcut. I used here speed boost instead of damage boost in order to keep full health. The mini boss fight was very optimized and with 0 damage as well. While swimming, I tried to swim quickly to the top and make high jumps to get outside of the water in order to move freely. Now performing a damage boost, probably the longest one and also skips the J coin challenge, so frames lost previously was saved here and another great time. Everything was optimazed later although I'm forced to switch from umbrella to bones in order to kill enemies, due to the J coin skip. On the way, I placed the egg in order to to warp here later.

Now, I'm allowed to go up to clouds, nothing here was special, I flew to the last challenge where I should get the D coin, which gives me more speed while holding B button like the early 3 games, and then go to Pyramid (I took a heart in the way to refill the energy), I changed the route to save more time by going diagonally somewhat, then beat the mini boss and get the boomerang. I didn't complete the stage since there is no need to do so, I have to warp to Crystal with full heart since the place were I'm going to use the glitch in has spikes, so I jumped to that place, I clipped and got out of bounds. Here I have to access the beginning place twice in order to fix the camera and get to the last stage. Here I also skipped the cutscene by the way. Now I swim in air (A contradiction!)

Here I can't move freely due to the glitch that forces me to swim but this can be fixed by placing the egg in this place and warp so the game thinks that I exist in the cave and so warping normaly inside the cave, however I lost time since the current run uses skateboard with the gained speed from D coin. I used a small trick that allows me to fly very fast from ladder by climbing it and then directly switch to flying dino. After that, I fought the last mini boss with the flying dino instead of boomerang, both of them gives the same damage however boomerang waste time rotating around the enemy unlike the dino that shoots directly to it. Now I only need to go to the last boss and beat it using flying dino and finish the game and everyone lived in happily ever.

Hello!. Is there anyone here? Ah, I think you left someone behind you. Hello!! Master Takahashi!! Someone needs rescuing here. I'm captured as you know!...

This was really a great TAS I worked on, and I enjoyed it a lot, hopefully you will. By the way, I would like to  special thank:

feos: Updated the submission file as requested by the author, 386 frames saved.

feos: Accepting as an in improvement over [1304] NES Adventure Island IV by Cardboard in 19:32.15.

feos: Updated once again, with a 165 frame improvement, as requested by the author via PM.

Spikestuff: Since Faxanadu isn't judged yet. I have no choice (I do, but eh)... Publishing.