Submission #7598: SFan's PSX Pac-Man World "all levels" in 33:41.90

Syncing Info: Make sure to use BIOS: SCPH-5500, use BizHawk 2.3.2 for movie playback, and have U+D & L+R set to priority. Some issues may or may not pop up due to bizhawk not identifying the cue that I used as a good dump despite it matching with the one on redump, though I could be wrong so let me know right away if problems come up.

This branch aims to complete every level, including the bosses, without skipping any of them. So, I mentioned in the any% comments that the (PSX) bootup can affect the sync of the first level. Well, that's pretty much what happened here due to the bootup taking a few frames longer and along with entering more levels, it caused the any% inputs to desync after around 100 frames or more, I had no choice but to create similar inputs to Any% for the entirety of it, so if there’s any differences between the two, that’s why.

The JP release was the second version of the game and because of that, there’s a lot of changes to the game as well as making the difficulty easier for Japanese players. There're only 3 major changes that are notable in a TAS setting, there's a lot more changes that benefit RTA runs but aren't worth mentioning here. First of all, Krome Keeper (the 5th boss) takes 6 hits here instead of 8 which saves a few seconds. Second of all, health refills after completing a level which is useful for this branch as there's a lot more damage boosts throughout the run. Lastly, the charged dot throw only requires 5 Pac-Dots instead of 10. Also, the butt bounce on the title screen is something you can do in the other versions if you remap (in-game) jump to any of the bumpers, here you can do it with the default mapping if you mash quick enough.

The movement tech has already been explained in the any% comments which applies here.

I'll mainly be going over levels that weren't in the any% TAS with some exceptions...

Corsair's Cove: I was finally able to get the foreground clip for myself. So, it's very finicky to pull off at all and it can also cost time when not done optimally. I can't really go as fast when I'm trying to stay out of bounds because if I'm not careful with the movement, then I'll be pushed back into bounds or getting pushed out would take longer. For the gate clip at the end, all I'm gonna say is that it held back progress for way too long but I'm very happy to pull it off.

Crazy Cannonade: I didn’t explain what the deal with the camera is in the any% comments since it was only relevant for two levels, so I’ll explain it now since it’s relevant here and for some of the later ones too. As funny as the camera being very behind is, it comes with its own set of problems. If I don’t let it catch up or if I’m too far away from it, everything in the level including Pac-Man himself despawns essentially softlocking the game so there’s intentional moments with either slower movement or a couple of frames with no inputs, the ending of Far Out shows off what I mean to some extent. Another thing to talk about that applies here and some later ones is the rev-roll near the cages, I have to slow down right before I get to the cage, charge up the rev-roll, and pray that I’ll get close enough to release the friend and also get launched far enough to be away from the cage. I wasn’t able to get very far into the end token for this level due to the awkward camera angle.

HMS Windbag: This is the first boss in the game and while the fight itself is easy, optimizing it is difficult mainly because of the buttons. It also contains the rare zigzagging to the right because once you enter the room with the buttons, you can't zipzag here otherwise you'll bump into an invisible wall.

Crisis Cavern: There's a jump to skip a decent chunk of the water portion and some damage boosts off the swinging logs near the end to get further ahead in the level without using the helivators. Fun fact about the ending, I didn’t think I was gonna get launched that high up in the air or that I could even get behind that door lmao.

Anubis Rex: Some context for those who haven't played/seen the game before. The second part of the boss is probably the most infamous one in the whole game, this is primarily due to how unfair the last two phases are, not that you see them here since there's a TAS strat for this boss. So after the mummy chase, there's a specific spot I have to align Pac-Man in once I've opened the heart by rev-rolling on the four plates. Once it's opened, I have to get behind the heart, make sure to get stuck behind it, and time the rev-rolls so that I can hit it multiple times.

Gimme Space: There's a JP exclusive glitch here which can happen if the camera isn't properly following Pac-Man in the area with the two blue switches and can send the player back to the start, it's pretty dumb so I have to move towards the camera to prevent that.

King Galaxian: Welcome to the only auto scroller in the game, there's not much to do here because of it. You can press the x, square, and circle buttons to shoot multiple bullets at once which is useful. Unfortunately, unlike Anubis Rex, there's no way to one cycle this boss due to how the phases are handled for this boss. Once an eye gets damaged and enemies start to spawn in, the rest become invulnerable for this state.

Spin Dizzy: So in the set of B-doings, there's usually a bumper car enemy in that area on US but it's missing here so I have to take a different route so that I can still skip the hammers in similar fashion.

Clown Prix: So, this is a race instead of a proper boss, the clowns just kinda spawn wherever and whenever they feel like so. I go for the Power Pellets here as they're my only way to gain any real speed boosts, not much to do here.

Perilous Pipes: There’s only one damage boost to skip using the b-doings but that's about it.

Under Pressure: I go out of bounds to skip a decent chunk of the water portion and swim to a specific spot to load the next chunk otherwise I can’t progress, after that it's pretty straightforward.

Down the Tubes: The ending’s a bit weird but that’s mainly due to the small space I have between the ceiling.

Krome Keeper: I don't like this boss and you can probably see why, it's boring and doesn't change in difficulty as the fight goes on. The magnets are the only real threat here since getting attracted by them would lose a lot of seconds, so I have to avoid them at all costs. As I mentioned earlier, this boss takes 6 hits here instead of 8 hits making the fight faster regardless of the fact that this is a TAS.

Ghostly Garden: Lots of butt bouncing here, not much to this one.

Toc-Man's Lair: There are no ghosts here making the fight a little easier to navigate in but the downside of using J is that the first phase is a little slower due to the charged dot throw only requiring 5 instead of 10 and Toc-Man’s health doesn’t lower right away from it, other than that it's relatively the same.

I am very stoked with the results and it's nice to have a fully completed All Levels TAS that isn't in low quality or unoptimized. While having to create similar inputs to the Any% ones was a hassle, I was able to pull through and finish it. I personally feel that the explanations weren't as interesting as the any% ones as they become pretty straightforward once you've seen the first few levels but I do hope some of the different routed levels were interesting to watch though!

slamo: Claiming for judging.

slamo: Again, this is a really great run. This game was just made to look completely broken by TASing, and I enjoyed seeing the levels that weren't in any%.

I think this fits our "No Major Skips" branch perfectly. It forgoes the overworld clips and completes every level, which is what is required in normal game progression. In addition, it avoids the level skip glitch involving the bonus level, which I would have considered a major skip. There are small skips here and there in most levels, but nothing else that I would consider "major".

Accepting to Standard as a No Major Skips branch.

Spikestuff: Publishing.