Starting life as a Manga in 1988, Shounen Ashibe is a long running series about a boy (Ashibe) and his pet Harp Seal (Goma-chan) and their adventures.
In this game, we set out to Dive, Jump and Swim our way to victory - rounding up all the collectables and besting all the foes in our way.
Game objectives
- Emulator used: Bizhawk 2.4
- Beat the game as fast as possible in real-time
- Take damage to save time
Routing:
- For each level we must obtain 8 collectables in order to activate the goal at the end. There are no additional collectables outside of those 8 and the locations they appear in are fixed
- There are 4 particular NPCs in this game that challenge us and when we beat them we receive a coloured gem. Once we have collected all 4 of these gems, we gain access to the final stage, The Castle
- With branching paths and obstacles blocking our way sometimes, it is important we collect items in the perfect order. This took some trial and error, testing alternate movement and routing options
- There are switches that must be used in some stages in order to open up a new area or activate hidden platforms. This needed to be carefully factored into the overall route
- Cycles and enemy behaviour are proximity based. In light of this, I had to keep a watchful eye on how I related to those cycles and possible means of keeping that cycle in play whilst I routed in additional item collections around it
- In the Underwater Stages, there are invisible currents of water that push us back. They must be navigated expertly to keep up our momentum!
Movement:
Regular Land Stages:
- Diving with Y is the fastest form of movement and is utilised wherever possible. It is important that we keep in the diving animation as long as possible too, so that we capitalise on the full speed increase before having to re-initialise another action
- Jumping is the same speed as walking and we can leap to whatever height we wish without incurring any frame loss, which is handy
- Ledge Diving - If we dive into the very corner pixel of most platforms it allows us to instantly shift our momentum in the opposite direction, which is crucial for getting speedy turnarounds
- An important thing to avoid at all costs is falling from too great a height. If we do, Goma-chan becomes stunlocked for multiple seconds before being allowed to move again
Underwater Swimming Stages:
- Similarly to on land, diving with Y is the fastest form of movement here
- 30hz mashing Y when pushed against a wall is the fastest means of gaining height
- Maintaining our momentum during these sections is vital, so it is best to avoid clipping as many corners as possible
Overhead Swimming Stages:
- 30hz mashing the Swimming Action is the fastest means of movement for these stages
- Collectables spawn when we are within range of the NPC, so aside from the brief moments where we have to leave their far-spanning range of vision to collect the furthest thrown collectables, these stages otherwise play like autoscrollers
Final Thoughts:
This game was a blast to optimise!
I really enjoyed learning to TAS a platformer and this game has a nice movement set to play around with. Coming up with different ways to fill the downtime was an interesting exercise too, seeing all the wacky ways I could get Goma-chan to move.
I hope you enjoyed watching c:
Samsara: Judging.
Samsara: What an adorable little game! Run looks optimized and well-planned, and the downtime was made interesting even in the slower portions, what with the throwing things and the water. Very nicely done all around! Accepting to Moons!
Zinfidel: Processing...