Turok: Evolution is a fast-paced and rather hectic shooter/platformer for the GBA. Due to some rather odd behaviour with the grappling hook-type weapon, which I've taken to calling the Chain (after the very similar Chain Rod in Mega Man Zero 2), the main character Djunn flies by many areas at absurd speeds.
Game objectives
- Emulator used: BizHawk 2.2.1, mgba 0.6.0
- Beat final bosses and reach credits in shortest possible time
Tricks used:
- Djunn is used over Tal'set since Tal'set's melee weapon is just a boring old axe. (Branch idea, perhaps?)
- The Chain stuns enemies, allowing Djunn to run through them.
- When grappling onto the ceiling and holding down the intended direction (left or right), Djunn starts to swing left and right. While swinging, pressing A or B on (usually) the second frame it is allowed lets him cover a significant amount of horizontal distance. Jumping immediately after that often maximises this distance. (At normal walking speed, jumping does not make him travel faster)
- This technique has limited effectiveness with low ceilings. With high ceilings, it can still be used; Djunn just has to spend extra jumps to reach the ceiling.
- This technique is not very good for vertical scaling, but in urgent situations, it can be used to swing up to a platform above. This requires building momentum and releasing it on the third swing.
- Using the technique while standing right next to a door allows you to clip through it.
- Damage boosts are not very significant in this game, so they are used sparingly.
- As long as you don't use up a weapon's ammo, it appears to refill on the next level.
List of selected weapon damage
- 2 - pistol
- 5 - chain
- 10 - shotgun
- 3*5 - rave, flamethrower
- 15 - rocket, laser
- 20 - (something that ends with -age; the first half was obscured by scenery)
Boss HP
- 50 - container (spawns purple dinos)
- 20 - slime guns
- 255 - big tank
- 120 - gun dino
- 240 - floating skull
- 150 - king dino
- 240 - gun dino 2
Useful memory addresses
- 13A0: X
- 1418: Y
- 5460/5494/54FC/54C8/5460: Boss HP
Areas for improvement
- Clean up swinging; a few of them can definitely be further optimised
- Moving platforms are the biggest time-waster in this run
- Use vertical scaling where possible
- Weapon management; I only picked up weapons that weren't out of the way
- Some of the more open-ended levels (usually the later ones) could be optimised with better routing
- Find a way to bypass the minefield in stage 1, or clip through the egg-doors on stage 5
- Utilise more damage boosts
- Figure out how the guns in the slime boss work (they appear to still be alive when they have 0 HP)
ThunderAxe31: Judging.
ThunderAxe31: This run features many fast-paced movements, thanks to the abuse of Djunn's special weapon. I have to note that making a run with Tal'set would be pointless since he doesn't feature any kind of special movement that could speed up the game in any way.
The author has also chosen to leave the default difficulty, which is the easiest available. This was also a good choice since the harder difficulty does only increment the enemy health, which would have the only effect to make the boss fights uselessly longer.
I see that this run is a clear example of tool-assisted gameplay, and the audience found it entertaining. Accepting for Moons.
feos: Pub.