Submission #9289: Mikewillplays's Flash Go Go Gummo in 04:20.10

Movie information

• This movie was made with the --no-gui argument
• MD5 Hash: 8ac02c8fa74f968fe8bd402a702a3f8d

About this game and movie

Basic mechanics

Speeds

Gummo walks at a maximum of 200 units per frame, and his terminal velocity is 780 units per frames.

Balling

When you press down, Gummo turns into a ball, which makes it so he doesn't lose horizontal momentum when bouncing on the floor. This is very useful for carrying speeds, it's basically this game's version of bunny hopping. The vertical bounce you get depending on your vertical speed is useful too.

Grappling

This is the single most broken mechanic in the game, not glitch wise (we'll get there later), but speed based, it's the mechanic that allows me to get the absurd speeds I get in this movie. It's also an amazing tool for getting a lot of height. The only downside to it is that it only works on these pink, sticky walls (or do they?).

Ladders

Ladders in this game are a common, but uninteresting mechanic. The most optimal way to climb them is to just climb them without jumping (thought if you jump for 3-4 frames, it doesn't save or lose time).

Slingshot

This item can be used to fling Gummo very far. While it's useful, it doesn't have many uses due to the fact that it's usually in spots that are very out of the way.

Air tank

This item can be used to allow Gummo to float up like a balloon, but it's pretty slow, so it should be avoided when possible.

Tricks and glitches

Jump-start

Like in most games, this game has acceleration when you start moving from a standstill. If you jump during this acceleration state, when in the air, you'll be moving at a faster speed (20 to 30 units more than usual). This is why I always jump in the beginning of most stages.

Damage boosting

Damage boosting can be used to gain a little boost, but I don't use it very often. Not only does it require specific positioning from the enemy you're boosting off (which rarely happens), but there are better ways of gaining speed and actually maintaining it, because when you get damaged, you can't turn into a ball. I only use damage boosts when absolutely necessary.

Ravine riding

When you turn into a ball close to a convex corner at high speeds (doesn't matter if it's vertical or horizontal), what may happen is that you'll "ride" the wall you were moving towards. While situational, it has a surprisingly high amount of uses in this run.

Fast fall

It's possible to use the grappling mechanic to start falling faster. The reason why I call this a glitch is that it's not how real life physics work, you can't just alter the trajectory of a falling object and expect it to fall faster just because a rope is attached to it, but this is Gummo, so breaking the laws of physics is pretty normal.

Corner grappling

As you already know, Gummo can grapple onto pink walls. However, for some reason, it's possible to grab onto most convex corner in this game (this includes glass spikes), and I have no idea why this happens. The only problem with this trick is that it only works on about 70% of corners, and sometimes it's very precise.

Corner clips

If you're moving towards a concave corner at a very high speed, it's possible to clip through it. While this is useful, this requires really high speeds, which really hinders it's accessibility.

RNG manipulation

There are many things controlled by RNG, such as enemy position and usage of air tanks, and there are two things that I can do to manipulate it: First is waiting, which I don't want to do, and the second one is way more useful, which is grappling.

Level by level commentary

Overworld movement

going to world 1

I can't jump because I need to be in the ground in order to enter the world 1 door. I ball so that I can get a slight boost from the tutorial base slope.

Going to world 2

Regular movement.

Going to world 3

Regular movement until the slingshot, where I use it to do a ravine ride and later grab the sticky wall to go to the world 3 door.

Going to world 4

The same movement as in world 2, until the slingshot, where I use it to shoot myself into the door of the last world.

Level movement

World 1

Moving to 1-1

As you already know, I jump in the beginning to get as much speed as possible, but there's actually more going on here, I jump in a specific frame so that I warp to the right side of the step next to the door, allowing me to enter it earlier.

1-1

I start by jumping, not only to be faster, but because it allows me to perform a big boost off the tutorial base's slope. I later carry some of that momemtum up the slope until I reach the second base, where I do another boost. After that, I just jump to the key and ride the slope until the end door.

Moving to 1-2

I simply walk to the door.

1-2

After climbing the ladders that allow me to reach the key, I move in a specific way that allows me to get a boost off the base to climb up the slope and reaching the end.

Moving to 1-3

I just climb the ladder, not much to say.

1-3

I roll down the slope, along with grappling the ceiling to boost a little. After that I use the ceilling to climb to the door without having to go through much of the slope.

Moving to 1-4

Just like in 1-3, I ride the slope that leads to the 1-4 door. I also grapple onto the red wall, which saves one or two frames if I remember correctly.

1-4

This level introduces the slingshot, I use it to sling myself to the corner of the edge to grab the key and come back. Reusing the slingshot saves some time.

Moving to 1-5

It's just a matter of jumping to it, I use the sticky floor to save a little bit of time.

1-5

This is the first stage where you can see how ridiculous grappling can be, I get speeds as high as 824 units per frame (4x walking speed). I bounce off the wall to preserve a lot of that speed (about 75% of it).

Moving to 1-6

I use the sticky ceiling in order to land faster, allowing me to enter the door earlier.

1-6

This stage introduces the air tank, which I use to rise to the top, I really don't think there's a way to avoid using it for this stage in particular. Moving to the right as early as possible is important in this case because it clips me slightly upwards.

Moving to 1-Boss

Usually, you're supposed to use the air tank to float to the boss door, but I grab the spike in order to climb to it, which saves a lot of time.

1-Boss (Lightbulb)

I jump to the ramp in a specific way to be fast and high enough to allow me to vertically boost off the sticky platform in order to skip the air tank. After that, I grapple onto corners to accelerate, allowing me to kill the "boss".

World 2

Moving to 2-1

I grapple to the platform where the door is to sort of pull myself up there.

2-1

I found that rolling down the slope was the fastest way to reach the first slingshot, I tried jumping from a higher point on a slope, but it ended up being slower.

Moving to 2-2

I use the grapple to build some downwards momentum, saving a few frames.

2-2

After collecting the key, the sticky wall on the left is supposed to fall after a while, but I'm fast enough to pass through it.

Moving to 2-3

I roll to be faster and save time.

2-3

Using a combination of the slingshot and the sticky platform, I reach the upper slingshot. After that, I skip the need of rolling downwards because the sticky wall is close enough.

Moving to 2-4

Pretty similar to the 2-1 entry, except with less space.

2-4

The beginning of this stage is probably the longest slingling section in the game, and I clear it in just a few seconds. I build as much speed as possible not only to skip the air tank below, but the ladder itself (unfortunately I couldn't skip the second air tank). After that, it's just a roll to the end, along with a corner grab on the spikes to save time.

Moving to 2-Boss (Pedro)

Here we encounter the first miniboss, Pedro! (that's his actual name). The way you damage the bosses in this game is very interesting, because it depends on your momentum. Also, one thing you'll quickly realize about the minibosses is that they're the real bosses of this run. Anyways, I can easily kill him in 2 hits and end up close to the door platform.

2-Boss (Elasto)

One thing you'll quickly realize about the boss stages is that it's faster to skip them by corner clipping (except in 1-Boss where it's faster to just defeat it). I wasn't able to clip on the higher corner (probably due to either insufficient speed or the different types of wall in the corner). Also, I don't know why that loud sound plays (I lowered it on the encode)

World 3

Moving to 3-1

Regular movement. I move to the left because of the slope that's on the ground, which allows me to enter the door a frame earlier.

3-1

After gaining a lot of speed due to grappling, I use the speed I obtained to gain a lot of vertical speed. One thing about optimizing vertical speed is that it's about maintaining most of that speed, it's very hard to maintain the initial vertical speed without sticky walls, which this stage fortunately has. Also, every level in this world has 2 keys, but they're pretty close to each other on this stage so it isn't much of an detour.

Moving to 3-2

I grab the sticky ceiling and perform a ravine ride. The same slope thing from 3-1 happens here.

3-2

I skip the first air tank by corner grappling on the bottom and top of the wall. After climbing with the sticky walls, I swing into the key from the side, which I think is an unintended way of getting the second key.

Moving to 3-3

Regular movement, with a little bit of grappling to save a little bit of time.

3-3

First off, going to the right first is faster than going left first, but a problem with that is the boulders that fall, because they block the path after coming back from the left key. Fortunately, I manage to weave in between them.

Moving to 3-4

I use the sticky platform to go to the door.

3-4

This was probably my least favorite level to TAS, mostly because it's extremely random, and not in the ways you might think. For example, there a corner grapple I could've performed on the beginning, but it only worked once, and I was never able to replicate it after improving a section on an earlier stage. I had a version of this stage that was about 20 frames faster, and it literally looked the exact same. Anyways, in the jump I do in the vertical tunnel, I have to walk against the right wall, which increases my height very slightly, allowing me to clear it.

Moving to 3-Boss (Fresco)

I have to wait for the boss to spin because it's impossible to be fast enough to skip it (the boss spins shortly after appearing on screen regardless of when it happens).

3-Boss (Ember)

This level probably has the most unique corner clip in the game. Instead of building up speed, I use the boss's groundpound attack to gain a lot of speed instantly, so much speed in fact that I don't even lose my speed after clipping.

World 4

Moving to 4-4

I tried many routes, and 4-1-2-3 ended up being the fastest one, which makes it the only stage where I don't play the stages on their intended order (mostly because the level order in this world is wack). Besides that, getting to the 4-4 door is just a matter of a corner grab up to the platform.

4-4

This is probably the glitchiest stage in the run, it features almost every single glitch, I corner grab onto the air, which I use to the boost vertically to the key, where I then fast-fall to achieve terminal velocity faster than normal, and then I clip to the lower part of the level, a place in which the supposed entrance is all the way back on the right side of the level. I then come back after collecting the second key and collect the third key in an unintended way.

Moving to 4-1

A single jump.

4-1

I couldn't find a way to skip the first ladder, because I couldn't corner grab onto anything, despite there being many corners. After climbing them, it's a matter of being fast in the sections that allow you to do it. I tried testing if going to the circle from below was faster, but it wasn't.

Moving to 4-2

Fast falling allows me to be way faster, also, going left is slightly faster than going right.

4-2

This is the only stage where I'd say there's a cycle I have to clear, that being the top, sticky horseshoe (if you're wondering why I'm not describing what happens in the levels in-depth, that's mostly because you can just see what happens, meaning I don't really I need to explain it).

Moving to 4-3

Pretty simple overall, just slingshooting upwards and grappling on the diamond.

4-3

When I perform a ravine ride, all my vertical speed is converted into horizontal speed. After that, I need the screw enemies to be in a specific position to be as fast as possible. Also, I think the route I took it technically the intended route, but backwards.

Moving to 4-Boss (Prong)

This is probably the hardest clip I had to perform, it took a lot of rerecords to get it. The boss needs 3 hits to kill, mostly because of the lack of ways to get fast, and it's also very RNG dependent. I had about 5 versions of this boss in total before revisions on previous stages, and fortunately this one was the fastest.

4-Boss (Magno)

Another stage where I have to perform a clip, and it's actually more difficult than it looks, you can't use the slingshot to perform the clip, which is weird because that's how I clip in 2-Boss. Also, my downwards speed in the end is so fast that I don't even visually collect the key.

Extras

Possible improvement

I ran this game on the version 1.1.0, but there's an older version. The main differences I found in this version is that the title screen is different and there are no company logos in the beginning, which would've made it faster. It could have also had more glitches, but I can't confirm that. So why didn't I use it then? Simply put, I couldn't get the older version to work, meaning I lost a few seconds, but I'm not too upset since that's the only big time loss I can think of, and it has nothing to do with the TASing process.

Thanks

Special thanks to CasualPokePlayer for creating a script that allowed me to see how many units I moved every frame, even if the script wasn't explicitly made for this game. This run (and the run this script was made for) would be way worse if it wasn't for this script.

Suggested screenshots

Frames 4705 and 5692 (I couldn't decide which one was better).