Submission #7741: electricpants's FDS Super Mario Bros. 2 "Worlds A-D, warps, Luigi" in 06:34.38

(Link to video)
Famicom Disk System
Worlds A-D, warps, Luigi
FCEUX 2.3.0
23702
60.0988138974405
2197
PowerOn
Super Mario Brothers 2 (Japan).fds
Submitted by electricpants on 10/14/2022 12:04:39 PM
Submission Comments

Overview

This is a TAS of FDS Super Mario Bros. 2, specifically of the letter worlds. You can play the secret letter worlds after getting 8 stars on the title screen, and you can access them by pressing A+Start on the controller at the title screen--as such, getting 8 stars is required before being able to play the movie, which means this TAS starts with an unclean SRAM state. This means a verification movie is required, which can be found here: https://tasvideos.org/UserFiles/Info/638008645247617084 The linked movie gets the required SRAM state this TAS uses to start directly in world A.

Run Objectives

  • Starts from unclean SRAM state
  • Abuses glitches
  • Uses warpzones
  • Uses an unoptimal character

Glitches Used

Flagpole Glitch (FPG): Used in B-1, B-2, B-3, D-2, and D-3. By clipping into the block at the bottom of a flagpole within a 0.5 pixel window, Luigi can touch the flagpole lower than intended. This activates a normally completely unused bit of code that causes the flag-lowering routine to be skipped, allowing Luigi to finish any levels with a flagpole 21 frames faster than is otherwise possible (in most cases--see the FFPG section for exceptions).
Full Flagpole Glitch (FFPG): Used in A-1 and D-1. By touching the flagpole even lower than is possible with FPG--either by clipping in the ground as seen in this TAS, or by using an enemy bounce like in 8-2 of SMB1--Luigi is too low to snap on top of the flagpole block, causing him to be ejected out to the left instead. This causes the timer countdown to begin earlier than is otherwise possible, which can save a large amount of time.
Wall Clip: Used in every level, in some way. By pressing left within a 1 pixel positioning window, Luigi can be pulled into a block, rather than be pushed out of it as is normal. The amount of airtime Luigi has before landing inside the wall will affect how far he goes inside, as the longer he spends in the air, the farther to the right he will be pulled, which is important due to the fact that the moment Luigi lands, if he isn't fully clipped into the wall, he will be pushed out to the left instead. This effect is only used to get FPG in B-1, B-2, B-3, D-2, and D-3--however in A-1, A-2, B-4, D-1, and D-4 it is used to greater effect. In A-1, Luigi jumps barely too low to get on top of the block he clips into, which gives him just enough airtime to fully clip into the corner of the block with precise enough positioning. In A-2, B-4, D-1 (with help from the wind), and D-4, Luigi doesn't have enough airtime to fully clip into the walls, however with a few extra jumps, is still able to fully clip inside.
Long Firebar Skip: Used in D-4. Due to the fact that firebars always rotate a fixed amount every ~6 frames along their length, the tips of firebars travel more distance than the center. This means that with a long enough firebar, and precise enough positioning and timing, Luigi can be on one side of the firebar, barely not touching it. Then, on the next frame, the firebar rotates, and at the same time, Luigi moves, so that he's on the other side of the firebar without having touched it at all.

Levels

A-1: Here, I lower the platform in front of the flagpole enough to clip into the ground, which allows me to perform a full flagpole glitch, skipping the flag-lowering and walking to the castle cutscenes. Normally you can either clip into the flagpole base with a running speed jump, or do a 1 frame jump at walking speed to get the FFPG, however Luigi jumps too high for the latter to be possible, so the former method is the only possible way of getting ground clip FFPG as Luigi.
A-2: In A-2, I use a wall clip to enter the warpzone faster than otherwise possible. Unlike my Mario TAS, Luigi jumps too low for a corner clip to be possible here. Therefore, I perform a normal wallclip. However, I have to do it at the lowest possible height, since otherwise Luigi will hit the ceiling in the warpzone, causing him to die to the piranha plant.
B-1: Nothing special really, just some cool stuff and a flagpole glitch. I tried my best to make it entertaining, though unfortunately I couldn't really change the route too much from my Mario TAS.
B-2: Again not too much interesting, since again I couldn't change my route much from the Mario TAS. Still hopefully entertaining.
B-3: Nothing special either, though there is some pretty cool use of bullet bills later in the level.
B-4: The first castle level in the TAS, though we never get to meet the fake Bowser it contains. I perform a wall clip partway through the level, to skip Luigi having to ride the platform below.
D-1: In this level, I abuse wind mechanics to clip into the floor, allowing me to perform the second full flagpole glitch of the run. I also deviate notably from the route used in the Mario TAS, which I think is nice.
D-2: Technically nothing too special, though the framerule here is very tight. I take a different route here as well to show off some cool stuff in the level, and do a backwards FPG directly from the spring, which I think looks quite cool.
D-3: Both really cool-looking and quite technical. The framerule I get here is extremely precise--this TAS gets r00, which means the framerule has 0 frames to spare. In order to get this, I had to do a slowdown before touching the spring, rather than after, since I would still be touching the spring on the same frame. This meant I could speed back up earlier, which saved just enough frames to make this framerule possible.
D-4: In the first room, I abuse firebar mechanics to allow Luigi to pass through the long firebar in the first room. In the second room, I have to avoid being killed by the piranha plant, which is easier than with Mario due to Luigi's much higher jump height. And in the fourth and final room, I have to clip through a wall to skip having to wait for the podoboo near Bowser to fall back down. I also have to avoid getting a backwards-moving Bowser, which in D-4 is always an impossible pattern without slowing down significantly, and in order to do that I had to lose 1 frame in the first room.

feos: Claiming for judging.
feos: Just like Mario and Luigi co-exist in regular levels, they can co-exist in these extra levels. The difference may not be ground-breaking and instantly obvious to everyone, but it's still there. Sorry I'm not asking for viewer feedback here, because the branch doesn't feel questionable, arbitrary, or unnecessary. It's just a character with different stats, within non-primitively looking gameplay, so the result is good enough for Moons Alt.
Accepting as a new branch.

despoa: Processing...
Last Edited by despoa on 11/3/2022 5:10 PM
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