Submission #8949: SuperSqank's GBA Totally Spies! in 22:58.44

General notes

• Uses Bizhawk 2.9.1
• Rerecord count - 6479
• Takes damage and intentional deaths to save time
• Uses glitches and exploits to save time

Introduction

General game notes

• You have two different single jumps: a stationary jump (jumping while standing still) and a moving jump (jumping while moving). A stationary jump grants more height but it has significantly longer startup. Because stationary jumps are much slower, we always want to jump while moving.
• Climbing up ledges is slow so we want to avoid grabbing ledges whenever possible, typically by performing well placed wall jumps.
• If you take damage while crouching/crawling, you will not go into a knockback animation when taking damage. This means that most times where we want to take damage, we want to make sure we get hit while crawling.
• If you die while grounded, you will go into a death animation but if die while in the air, you will just immediately die. We do actually perform death abuses in the platforming levels so we want to take the deaths while airborne.
• You have the ability to attack but it is quite literally useless. You can a punch/kick combo on the ground which brings you to a screeching halt while in the air, you have a karate kick which makes you bounce off enemies. I don't even think the 2nd and 3rd platforming levels even have enemies you can fight. Because of this, attacking is not used in this TAS at all.

Level comments

1. The Ampitude Test

• Moving up and down in this level slows you down so you want to move up and down as little as possible. I often move up and down as late as possible without getting caught for style.
• After the mid level cutscene, we have a notable skip. Normally, you have to use the Bug_Tronic to traverse the minefield and activate a control panel. This activates Clover's infrared goggles, allowing you to see the mines in the minefield. However, we can just go through the minefield without needing the infrared goggles, dodging the unseeable mines. Sam is the smart one so she just knows where the mines are. This skip is performed in RTA runs but it was not performed in the old TAS, saving me around 20 seconds in this level compared to the old TAS.

• At the start of the level, Clover has a textbox which is followed by a very long unskippable camera movement. We can skip this camera movement however. If we wall jump off the right side of the platform, we will grab on to the pipe where we can then climb around half way along the pipe, delaying Clover's textbox. We can then drop off where the camera movement (after the text box) will end which will bring up Clover's text box, we can skip it and then we can immediately move, saving a good few seconds. This was not performed in the old TAS. We do have to be careful when performing this however not only because we want to reduce the camera movement as much as possible but if we activate the textbox in a specific spot, the game will softlock.
  • While the first Sam textbox is technically skippable (which the old TAS even achieved), we do have to activate it in this route in order to do the Clover textbox skip. This is kind of annoying as this dialogue has an extra textbox in every non English language and it is the main reason why Dutch and Italian ended up being slower (although even without the textbox, those languages would have still not been worth it in this TAS). The delayed jump after the cutscene was also intentional as if I jumped any earlier, I would simply be locked out from double jumping. Just one of the numerous examples of this game’s wack platforming physics.
• After the first test tube, we do a similar trick by jumping to delay Sam's textbox and reduce the camera movement to save time.
• This level has a bunch of robots you are supposed to fight. We can skip fighting them however by just jumping over them. The old TAS fought a couple of the robots in the tighter corridors but this TAS jumps over all the robots. Those aforementioned robots in the corridors are hard to jump over but you can just barely make it.
• The grappling hook has some interesting properties. It alters your jumps and you can of course use it to swing across metal ceilings. I minimised the amount I needed to use the grappling hook to swing across ceilings in order to save as much time as possible. You also always want to use the grappling hook in the air as you go through a lengthy animation to get it out on the ground (which was a mistake the old TAS made, in addition to rather sub optimal swinging).
  • It is technically possible to skip getting the grappling hook but it is slower than actually getting the grappling hook.
• When reaching the last goo trap, I damage boost through the goo. Climbing on the metal bars is slow so I avoided climbing. I overall managed to save over 20 seconds in this level compared to the old TAS through new/faster strats and better optimisation.

• This is the first lame minigame level. All you had to do is shoot the goo before the level ends. I did manage to save a bit of time compared to the old TAS by performing the ending in a certain way in order to manipulate the goo to come out faster but there isn't much to say about this level otherwise.

2. Save The Earth

• When hacking the computers, we want to move in a certain way. If we move in just the right way, we won't swing too much after hacking the computer and we can move immediately once the door opens. If we don't move in the right way however, we will swing a ton after opening the door and it will delay when we can start moving again quite a bit. Because of this, I made sure I always got the small swing after hacking the computers.
• You want to be centered when the vents finish in order to start moving after the vents as soon as possible. This unfortunately means you cannot play around in the vents as much as I would have liked as you can do some funny stuff in the vents. You can go so high the bungee wraps to the bottom of the screen and you can even hit the heat walls from behind. I don't do any of that however is I do need to make sure Alex is close to centered when the vents stop blowing air. I do still play around a bit though.
• I do damage boost through some of the lasers instead of waiting for them and for the lasers I do wait for, I make sure I get past them as soon as possible. All in all, I believe I saved close to 3 seconds here compared to the old TAS.

• This is literally just a glorified game of Simon. You watch a pattern and then you repeat the pattern. You can menu fast but that's about it. The pattern you have to perform is based on cycles and the only way to get a different pattern is to wait a significant amount of time.

• If you land on the edge of a platform, Clover will land on the platform but she will continue falling. Clover is considered grounded while she is in her landing animation which notably means we can fall further without dying. We can utilise this at the beginning of the level to fall down to the bottom immediately. This saves close to 17 seconds compared to the old TAS which did not do any notable skips.
• Near the end of the level, there is a skip where you can jump down to a lower elevator and then jump onto a ledge near the end of the level. This was performed in the old TAS. I overall managed to save close to 20 seconds in this level compared to the old TAS, mostly due to the skips at the beginning of the level but also due to considerably more optimised movement.
  • While not particularly relevant to this TAS, Sam's dialogue has one less textbox in Italian, in addition to Alex's dialogue being shorter. Italian would be the way to go for an IL speedrun.

3. The Halloween Chase

• Throughout the level, I utilise carefully placed damage boosts to save time and minimise waiting. This level has a lot of obstacles you are supposed to wait for but I tank through as many of them as I can.
• After saving the second girl, I take an intentional death to refill my health, allowing for more damage boosts. This ended up being slightly faster than not dying.
• Compared to the old TAS, I take a completely different route which ended up saving a lot of time (the same route used in the RTA record). I already managed to save around 10 seconds before the routes diverged but by the end, I managed to save around 35 seconds.
  • For the first 6 girls you save, Dutch and Italian have textboxes which save one frame each compared to English. On the opposite end, German has an extra textbox for each of these girls, losing 6 frames per girl. German loses well over half a second in this level alone.

• While this is a basic sort and match game, it does have a couple of tricks up its sleeve.
• In this level, you get checkpoints where you only have to check 39 or 19 items compared to the 49 you start off with. However, these checkpoints activate when you have 40/20 items left. So what we can do is that we can intentionally fail as soon as we have 40 (and later 20) items left and it is faster than just waiting for the items normally.
• The level does not end until all of items are off screen. This means that if you wait for garbage to be thrown away, the level will take considerably longer to end. So what we can do is that we can suck up the garbage to end of the level earlier (and as a sidenote, it is faster to suck them up on the left side). This was performed in the RTA WR but not the old TAS. I overall managed to save around 6 seconds compared to the old TAS with these strats.

• In this level, you can hold A to accelerate. As basic as this sounds, the old TAS did not do this. The game never teaches you about this to be fair but I do find it interesting that the old TAS had such a basic oversight as this. This alone saved quite a bit of time.
• Moving up and down is slower so I went up and down as little as possible, mainly using it to dodge traffic. This naturally resulted in numerous damage boosts.
• This is the first level where the old TAS started to really noticeably lag. While at least half of my time save came from accelerating and cutting out unnecessary movement, the other half came from the game not having extra lag caused by a poor emulator.

4. A Lovely Singer

• This is literally just a basic DDR level. There is nothing you can do to optimise it, you just press buttons and don't mess up.
  • I messed up in the level for fun (Sam is the smart one so she's naturally the best dancer) and the funny thing is that when Clover messes up, it literally looks like she dies. Wild.
  • One more tidbit about this level is that Dutch has one less text box than every other language.

• After the tutorial segments, you can press A to skip the camera movement to the next character, giving you immediate control. This sounds very basic but the old TAS did not do this, leading to a free time save in this TAS.
• In Alex's section, you have these moving billboards. You are supposed to stay behind these billboards in order to avoid being spotted by cameras. If you take a certain route however, you can go through this section while minimalizing wait times, being able to walk through the whole section after the 3rd billboard. This is very tight to get but we can just barely make it. The old TAS did utilitse this route albeit with slightly different execution.
• This level has a bunch of laser walls. For some of the walls, you can simply bypass the lasers them by walking underneath them. We can perform this with Alex in order to get to Clover's control panel. While you do still have to play as Clover (and you cannot bypass the wall to Sam's section), this is around half a second faster than getting Alex's normal control panel.
  • We can also utilise this walk under laser trick with Sam near the end of her section. The old TAS did not utilise this walk under lasers trick. All in all, around 10-11 seconds were saved in this level compared to the old TAS.

• Similar to Clover's driving level, we want to minimalize moving up or down to save time but it is still faster to move up/down than it is to get hit by obstacles.
• For defeating Phil, I start off by collecting the first two gun powerups. What's important is that I have at least one bullet left after the 3rd jump.
• After the third jump, I shoot Phil in order to make him move down a space, putting him closer to the gun powerup. I pickup the gun powerup as late as possible while moving up and I soon as I can move up again, I rapid fire on Phil which defeats him instantly. The old TAS used a less optimal strat to take out Phil.
• I ended up saving over 10 seconds compared to the old TAS and while part of that was due to getting a faster kill on the boss, most of that was unfortunately due to the old TAS lagging heavily in this level.

5. Kiwi-Kiwi In Danger

• When neutralising the bombs, your submarine centers itself before it neutralises the bombs. Because of this, we center the submarine as much as we can before neutralising the bombs to diffuse them as quickly as possible.
• Shooting missiles slows down your sub so we only want to shoot when we have to.
• This level is filled with strategic damage boosts, partly because of shooting slowing you down.
• For the sections where you have to wait for the yellow submarine to stop shooting, you want to be right in the submarine's face when it stops shooting in order to progress as quickly as possible.
• There are sections where doors are jumping up and down and you have to shoot the door past them in order to progress. These doors not only damage you but they can also instantly kill you so you do have to be careful. I shot early and tanked through these doors while also avoiding death.
• This level was my biggest timesave compared to the old TAS, saving over a minute. While some of that was due to more optimised movement and better damage boosts, a majority of that unfortunately came from the old TAS lagging a ton in this level. It is a shame.

• At the beginning, I have to take 2 damage boosts the old TAS did not have to take. While this may seem like a bad thing, this actually turned out rather ok as we need to take a lot of damage in this level. It would have been more optimal if the RNG lined up in that first section with the crushing rocks like in the previous TAS (and the lack of damage boosts can be worked around without losing time) but that did not not end up happening and I don't think there would have been a fast way to manipulate the RNG for that outcome, with most of this game's RNG being based on global cycles from what I could tell. I did try finding a way to manipulate the RNG but I was unsuccessful. If there were a way to efficiently manipulate the RNG in that area, that would be a potential improvement.
• After getting past the first laser wall (which cannot be skipped), you have some platforms with lasers on them. You are supposed to go to a control panel to flip over the laser platforms but you can simply just jump on the laser platforms. The old TAS did not perform this skip.
• I tank through the flat level sections with damage boosts which is faster than climbing on the metal pipes and attempting to jump on the platforms. The old TAS climbed on the pipes.
• After activating the bomb, I take an intentional death to refill my health. I am going to need every piece of health I can get in the rest of the level. The old TAS does not take a death here but the RTA WR does.
• At the start of the escape, you have climb a large wall with a ton of lasers. You are supposed to wait for the lasers to deactivate (which takes a really long time) but you can just tank through them which is significantly faster, even when taking the time it take to die into account. You have to get hit by the lasers while wall jumping as it heavily decreases your downwards momentum. On the last laser specifically, you can amusingly jump in mid-air after getting hit by it, since you are considered grounded for some reason.
• I tank through the lava section with the metal pipe as per usual at this point.
• At the end of the level, you are supposed to activate a control panel to bring up some platforms (which the old TAS did do). You can skip this however by simply tanking through the lava. Doing it by taking only 1 hit is tight but it is doable. The RTA WR took two hits here which is far easier. I overall saved around 30 seconds in this level with 1/3rd of that time save being before the bomb and 2/3rds after the bomb.
  • One sidenote about this level is that the dialogue after deactivating the bomb has one less textbox in Italian, Dutch and even Spanish. This would mainly be useful for an RTA IL.

• In this boss, you have to kick these bombs into a machine 3 times in order to destroy it. You have to wait for these bombs to appear.
• There are two types of bombs in this level: instantly exploding bombs which just hurt you and normal bombs which can hurt the boss. In the first phase, you get both of these bombs but in the next two phases, it is random which bombs you get. You really do not want instant bombs in the second and third phases as they lose a ton of time.
• In this run, I managed to two normal bombs and no instant bombs in the 2nd/3rd phases. The old TAS got an instant bomb in phase 2. This better RNG resulted in my saving around 16 seconds compared to the old TAS. I did actually have to manipulate the RNG in order to get the right outcome but luckily for me, all I had to do to get this RNG is that I had to wait a frame before finishing the previous level. Any eagle eyed viewer may notice that I stood still for one frame just before finishing the last frame. This is why.

• If you grab Terrence as soon as possible, the game will allow you to regrab Terrence at any point, even though you are not supposed to. This allows you to skip an entire phase and the old TAS did utilise this trick. I however took it a step further:
  • I heavily delayed the second grab and when I get the second grab, I intentionally don't finish the input. Instead, I keep hold of the last input for quite a while. I do not complete the input until the game lets me perform the third grab where I can then immediately grab onto Terrence for the 3rd and final time. This strat not only significantly reduces the amount of time it takes to grab onto Terrence but it also lets me input the grab onto him earlier which is pretty neat. If I finished the second attack just one frame earlier, I would not have been able to get the early 3rd grab. The final input I had to do did have a repeat input which was annoying but there was no fast way I could avoid it. I saved close to three seconds here compared to the old TAS.
• For the credits, I replaced the cutscene theme with the main theme, just for my YouTube upload. I simply did this for entertainment as the main theme in this game is a banger and we barely get to hear it normally. This is not present in the TASVideos publication.

Closing statement