Submission #9531: Walgrey's DS Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian in 18:18.42

(Link to video)
Nintendo DS
Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
BizHawk 2.10.0
65714
59.82609828808082
22826
PowerOn
Night at the Museum - Battle of the Smithsonian - The Video Game (USA).nds
USA
dd4aebb2345f4c632e3081dc1f5839c2
Submitted by Walgrey on 2/14/2025 6:59 AM
Discuss and Vote Queue All by submitter Download
Submission Comments
"What are you?"
"I'm the nightguard."
Content warning: This game contains fireworks at the end of the level 'Fireworks'. In the encode provided, this occurs between 10:50 and 11:25.
There are also several instances of the screen shaking heavily at the end of the level "Pop Art Showdown". These occur between 13:15 and 14:05.
Edit: I saved 8 frames since submitting this TAS. The improved movie file can be found here.

Objectives

  • fastest completion
  • takes damage to save time
  • takes intentional deaths
  • heavy luck manipulation
  • slides on a dinosaur
  • Emulator used: BizHawk 2.10.0

Game Overview

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian is a 2009 game based on the movie of the same name. The DS version was developed by The Fizz Factor and sees Larry Daley, a former night watchman, in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. This museum, now hosting a magical, golden tablet makes all of the exhibits come to life at night. Kahmunrah, the evil brother of the pharaoh Ahkmenrah, steals the magic tablet, scattering pieces of it across the museum, and plans to use his powers to raise an undead army. It's up to Ben Sti- I mean, Larry to put a stop to it in this 2D platforming game!

Larry

Let's learn a few things about our protagonist:
  • Jumping repeatedly (or just being in the air in general) is faster than running on the ground.
  • If you have extra speed, you can conserve most of it if you jump as soon as you land on the ground. You will still lose speed on every jump, so staying in the air is key.
  • Larry's ledge grab is quite slow. If you press B as soon as you grab ledge, Larry will recover 15-18 frames faster.
    • Fun fact: I actually made 80% of the TAS without knowing this and had to go back and fix it.
  • If Larry has high speed in mid-air, he can keep some of that speed and slide on the ground for a bit if the d-pad is neutral.
  • When Larry gets damaged, he will enter a damage animation and be dealt some knockback. While you can interrupt the damage animation to recover faster, generally speaking, getting damaged loses time, as you lose all of your extra speed if you have any. That being said, there are some moments where I do have to damage boost.

Flashlight

  • Like any good night watchman, Larry has a flashlight. Larry can shine his flashlight for a short period of time by pressing the Y button. The flashlight can attack enemies that are in range. When an enemy is hit, they'll first be stunned, and then can be defeated by using the flashlight on them again. Enemies that are stunned can't damage Larry, but will still block his path.
  • The flashlight can also be pointed downwards when you're in mid-air. This is an especially helpful manoeuvre that allows Larry to pogo off enemies without losing any speed. Reflective pads appear in various levels. They're the upside-down white triangles with yellow arrows on top and they can also be bounced off of in the same way.
  • Certain enemies have armour on them, preventing them from being attacked from their fronts and tops. Attacking them in their backs is the only way to damage them. This is relevant because armoured enemies can't be pogo'd off of without losing all your extra speed.
  • Larry's flashlight can also destroy or reflect projectiles. Comes in handy sometimes.
  • Sometimes an enemy can be defeated with just one use of the flashlight instead of two. Not sure how this works, but I think it might have something to do with lag.
  • If Larry jumps on a platform that's moving up and immediately uses the flashlight, he can do a shorter jump. This unfortunately has no uses in the TAS.

Grapple

  • When Larry is mid-air and near a camera, you can hold B to grapple onto it and swing from it. I don't use them super often in this TAS, but they're sometimes useful.

Slopes

  • Special slope surfaces appear throughout the game. When Larry touches these, he'll start sliding on them. Larry can jump while on a slope and he will keep that speed until he starts walking on the ground or lands back on the slope. Generally speaking, it's slower to jump on slopes and you should only jump off of them at the end. Slopes are really useful in early game, where there's a lot less options for fast movement.

Other

  • Hitting enemies and equipping Ingots can sometimes cause lag.

Ingots

  • Ingots are special powers that Larry unlocks during his journey. You can equip and unequip Ingots through the touch screen. Pressing L/R will unequip or equip your last used Ingot. Each Ingot has unique abilities, most of which are activated by holding A while on the ground.
  • If you land on the ground and want to use your charge ability as soon as possible, you can hold left/right and A before you land to do so. If you try doing this without holding left or right, Larry will perform a landing animation and you won't be able to use the ability until you either let the animation finish or press left/right.
Below is a list of the Ingots, their abilities, and their applications!
Cloud Ingot
  • The first Ingot that you unlock. Holding A on the ground will launch you into the air and let you float until you land. While floating, you can press A up to two times to give yourself an extra jump. This is a good way to do long-distance jumps and is also helpful if you need to get a little bit of height very quickly.
  • Using the flashlight while floating will cancel the ability.
  • Whenever you're falling in mid-air, you can press A to start gliding. This is a good way to space out your repeated jumps if you need to or if you need to stay in mid-air to keep your extra speed.
Moon Ingot
  • The second Ingot that you unlock. After charging this Ingot's ability on the ground, Larry will super jump straight up. Great for vertical distance! Not so much for horizontal...
  • If Larry jumps with the Moon Ingot active and immediately unequips it, he can do a short hop instead of a full jump. This has some niche applications.
  • Switching to the Scarab Ingot will interrupt the super jump. You can use this if you need to get Larry to the ground quicker.
  • With the Moon Ingot equipped, Larry will passively have lower gravity. This is extremely handy, as you can get more height out of your jumps and bounces.
  • While the Moon Ingot's passive abilities have amazing aerial potential, they suffer when used on the ground. Larry will walk slower when the Moon Ingot is equipped, so it's important to either stay in the air or unequip it when on the ground.
  • The Moon Ingot's charge ability can also break through stone ceilings.
  • If you're landing while Larry is moving at a fast horizontal speed and has the Moon Ingot equipped, he can slide for a little bit along the ground if the D-pad is neutral.
  • If you're travelling in the air at a high horizontal speed, you can equip the Moon Ingot and hold in the opposite direction to get Larry to stop quickly.
Scarab Ingot
  • The third Ingot that you unlock. When this Ingot is equipped, Larry will shrink! Larry's small size can allow him to go into small passages. After holding A, Larry will quickly dash across the ground. Zoom!
  • Larry will keep doing his high-speed sprint until he hits a wall, an enemy, or when the opposite direction is pressed.
  • Larry can jump out of a dash, but when he hits the ground, he won't keep running, and you'll have to charge the dash again.
  • When Larry dashes off a platform, he has a lot of coyote time. And I mean a LOT of it.
  • Special Scarab platforms appear in the game. Larry can only stand on these when he's using the Scarab Ingot.
  • Switching to the Scarab Ingot on the right frame can interrupt the "getting damaged" animation. Larry will still be affected by the knockback however.
  • Larry can't unequip the Scarab Ingot if he's directly below a ceiling. This can affect you if you need to switch Ingots in a specific spot (eg. if you need to short hop in a small corridor).
Bull Ingot
  • The fourth Ingot that you unlock. The Ingot will give Larry the ability to bash through stone walls. It doesn't offer Larry any movement opportunities, so we're only going to use it when we need to.
  • After breaking a wall, Larry will do a short bumping animation. By unequipping the Bull Ingot at the right time, this animation is cancelled, allow Larry to be actionable sooner. This animation can also be interrupted by jumping, and you can even keep the speed from the charge (although this isn't really ideal, since the Scarab Ingot is faster).
Monkey Ingot
  • The fifth Ingot that you unlock. When this Ingot is equipped, Larry can climb up vines, cling on walls, and jump off them.
  • Vines can be rapidly scaled by grabbing onto them, then immediately jumping off while equipping the Moon Ingot, and regrabbing the vine with the Monkey Ingot.
  • When Larry jumps off a wall, his trajectory will be briefly locked. This can be cancelled by switching to the Scarab Ingot. Combining this with the Moon Ingot's gravity, and Larry can do one-sided wall jumps!
Elephant Ingot
  • The sixth Ingot that you unlock. When this Ingot is equipped, Larry will grow larger. In this form, Larry can stomp on the ground, destroying stone floors and damaging enemies.
  • Like the Bull Ingot, a short animation plays after breaking a floor. It can be cancelled by switching to the Scarab Ingot.
  • Larry's damage animation can also be interrupted by switching to the Elephant Ingot at the right time, much like the Scarab Ingot
Jackal Ingot
  • The last Ingot that you unlock. It isn't actually usable in game, it's just there for the plot.

The Levels

Lift-off

We start the TAS off by jumping repeatedly across the ground. If you look closely, you can see that I let go of right in some jumps. This is because there are small tutorial textbox triggers that can be avoided if you jump in the right spots. Some of these are unavoidable though, like that key near the start. You can't walk under it despite it looking like you should be able to.
This level has a lot of moving platform cycles. Unfortunately, we can't reach most of them in time, so we have to wait. You can reach the first one, but you still have to wait for the next.
Near the end of the level, we unlock the Cloud Ingot. I use the Cloud Ingot to land right next to the exit door, which is faster than going to the edge and jumping to it.

One Giant Leap

The section with the planet blocks was a little tricky to figure out. I experimented a few different paths and found that using the Cloud Ingot on the chest platform was the fastest way up.
In the section immediately after the Moon Ingot, I use its ability on the right side of the walls to grab ledges on the way up. You can't get on top of these walls without grabbing the ledges.
At the end, we see our first slope and our first demonstration of conversing speed. After jumping off the slope, I glide in the air, land right in front of the enemy, jump, switch to the Moon Ingot, and bounce off the enemy, giving myself BARELY enough height to clear the next enemy.
That enemy in the slope section is also pretty annoying, since it can randomly just stop you from sliding forward for a few frames.

Aces of the Clouds

This level has a special restriction that prevents us from using our Ingots. Luckily, this level is quite short. We can't just hold right and jump though, as we'll end up falling between the planes and grabbing their ledges.
At the end of the level, you can see me reflect a cannonball downward. If I try reflecting the cannonball back at the enemy I end up getting hit because my flashlight's hitbox is above it. I can delay my flashlight attack to hit it, but then I'll just fall between the planes.

Discover the Moon

Nothing to write home about in the first section of this level. You do see me switch to the Moon Ingot every now and then to keep slope speed for just a little bit longer though.
After the last slope, I bounce on an armoured enemy and switch to the Moon Ingot. I lose a bit of speed doing this, but I'm able to clear the wall without grabbing the ledge, and can just get back to my normal speed by unequipping the Moon Ingot and jumping.
Kahmunrah Fight
Our first boss! After flipping three switches, Kahmunrah will go to a separate room on the right, where he'll be standing on one of three plane models. Larry then has to bash him with the Moon Ingot's ability. Rinse and repeat three times and the boss is defeated!
This is a very difficult boss to do quickly. In the switches phase, planes will fly around, dropping bombs that leaves firey areas on the ground. These planes appear to be on some sort of global timer? Not entirely sure how they work, but entering this area at different times can cause a different arrangement of planes, and if you're unlucky, these obstacles can be in some really unforigivng locations (i.e. completely covering a switch). By using Larry's flashlight and Ingots, we can manoeuvre our way through this danger zone and hit all the switches, all while spending as little time on the ground as possible.
After hitting all three switches, Kahmunrah will choose a plane to stand on in the right room. The plane Kahmunrah stands on is determined by RNG. We want Kahmunrah to pick the leftmost plane each time, because that decreases the distance we need to travel. Now I'm not 100% positive on how RNG in this fight works, but it seems that RNG can be advanced by destroying the planes. Destroying a different amount of planes will yield a different outcome, at least from my testing. I went through a lot of trial and error to make it so that Kahmunrah is always on the leftmost plane. If you look closely, you can see me hitting planes behind me, hitting planes above me when my flashlight beam is facing down, and even jumping with the Moon Ingot's gravity just to nab an extra plane needed for RNG to advance. Just goes to show the great lengths I went through to make this work.
In the second and third phases, it's important to always hit the rightmost switch last. This is so that the camera has less distance to pan at the end of each cutscene and lets Larry be actionable sooner.

Dig Into Fossils

After sliding down a bunch of dinosaurs, falling down a shaft, and using our flashlight to save us from falling rocks, we meet a Stegosaurus! We can't just jump over it, because it will lunge forward and damage us. We can't pogo off of it, because it's an armoured enemy, and we'll lose speed if we do. We can however, switch to the Moon Ingot and use its gravity to get us over it.
Immediately after, we have another really cool trick. The ledge with the large medkit is too high up. Even if we use the Moon Ingot's passive gravity, we still have to grab the ledge. Initially, I would just stun the spider and use the Cloud Ingot to get up the wall, which was servicable, but I wanted to see if I could clear it without slowing down. I tried using the Moon Ingot's gravity while bouncing on the spider from the left, but no matter what I tried, I would always fall short. That's when I had an epiphany. I should try bouncing from the right side! All I had to do was turn left for just one frame and that was enough to hit the spider and clear the wall!
We pick up the Scarab Ingot shortly after, and this, everyone, is where the magic happens. With its on-demand high speed that you can keep after jumping, the Scarab Ingot unlocks a whole new world of movement. Instead of holding left/right and repeatedly jumping, now the name of the game is using the Scarab Ingot as much as possible. Dash, jump, then conserve your speed. Rinse and repeat.
In the last section of this level, you need to ride this pterodactyl platform to reach the end, EXCEPT YOU DON'T BECAUSE I HAVE THE POWER OF THE SCARAB NOW, WHICH MEANS I GET TO MAKE THE RULES AND I SAY WE'RE SKIPPING ALL OF THAT!
So here's what we ACTUALLY do. We ditch the pterodactyl as soon as we can using the Moon Ingot and reach the platform above. We then get to the right edge, super jump up with the Moon Ingot, switch to the Cloud Ingot at the end, and glide to the next platform. Unfortunately, we have to grab the ledge here. If we delay equipping the Cloud Ingot, we can get more height, but then we'll be in direct line with a cannonball, which will stop us. Then, we switch to the Scarab Ingot, dash, jump, switch to the Moon Ingot, and bounce on an enemy to send us straight to the next platform. This next platform has a slope with an enemy at the top, forcing us to lose speed as we jump over it. We then perform the same manuever as before, this time gliding with the Cloud Ingot at the very end and BARELY making it to the finish platform.
YEAH! NOW THAT'S HOW IT'S DONE!
I could've kept that speed with another jump, but I would then overshoot the finish and fall off, so I just opted for a regular jump to the end. Compared to riding the pterodactyl all the way to the end, this skip, which I affectionately call "Pterodactyl Skip", saves about 20 seconds.

When Dinosaurs Ruled

The start of this level has a little sequence where you ride a wooden platform that's carried by a dinosaur. When you step on this platform, you're locked into this sequence until the platform reaches its destination. We can skip this though by using the Scarab Ingot, jumping, switching to the Cloud Ingot, and gliding. We end up reaching a lower part of the level, so we have to use the Moon Ingot to get back on the main path (also the dino mysteriously teleports right next to us, but ignore that lol).
We can do the same trick again, although this time, we can briefly switch to the Moon Ingot after jumping to give ourselves a little bit of extra distance for our glide. After landing on the slope and swinging to the checkpoint, I use the Scarab Ingot to dash forward, briefly equipping the Moon Ingot to cross that gap. I then jump to keep my speed and equip the Moon Ingot to jump higher and use my flashlight on the robot.
After gliding over the last slope with the Scarab Ingot's speed, I glide just a bit more, and then jump and shine my flashlight downwards on the enemy. Normally, this enemy will block my way, but if I switch to the Scarab Ingot at the right time, I can squeeze right above it!

Extinction Theory

This level introduces a new mechanic. When Larry is near a Golden Shrine, he will have LightBurst power, a timed effect that instantly defeats all enemies near Larry and destroys nearby CurseWalls. CurseWalls can only be destroyed with the LightBurst effect.
There are multiple Golden Shrines and CurseWalls in this first section. You're intended to detour to the Golden Shrines on the lower levels and make your way back up to destroy CurseWalls before its timed effect runs out. But, by using the Scarab and Moon Ingots, we can just destroy all four CurseWalls in this section, no detours required! I even have enough time to defeat an extra enemy! Despite having access to great horizontal speed, Larry still struggles a lot with vertical mobility sometimes, so a ledge grab is required at the start of that section. I also have to do a some short hops in order to get through the straight path without stopping.
In the next section, you can see me cancel the Moon Ingot ability by briefly equipping the Scarab Ingot. I do this so that I can land sooner.
After reaching the top, I dash, and jump on the sabre-tooth tiger??? This game is weird and sometimes allows you to briefly stand on enemies. Truly cursed, but hey! That's the fastest way up I was able to find.
Next, we dash across a Golden Shrine and destroy a CurseWall that's blocking a switch. With a fast ledge grab and the Cloud Ingot, we can just barely reach the next CurseWall, skipping the need to detour to another Golden Shrine on the right. My LightBurst doesn't last long enough for me to defeat the sabre-tooth tiger, so I have to wait for it to pounce out of the way.
After hitting the last switch, I jump to land faster and so that there's less distance for the camera to pan on the way back. Using the Moon Ingot here is the fastest way to get out of this shaft. Humorously, the sabre-tooth tiger is back for round two, but Larry is able to escape its clutches.
In this last section, you're supposed to shrink down and go through this long corridor to get to a Golden Shrine. You're then supposed to use its LightBurst effect as a shield against the falling rocks above. Then, you need to grapple onto a camera and slide down the side of the volcano. We get here so fast though, that there's hardly any rocks falling, so we just dash on through, using the Moon and Cloud Ingots to also skip the camera.
Strangely, after landing by the exit door, Larry is inactionable for a short period of time. This can be negated somewhat by using the Scarab Ingot to damage boost on the enemy next to the door.

Forgotten Cities

The reflective pad staircase at the start of the level was difficult to figure out. The Moon Ingot's gravity isn't enough to skip the last reflective pad, so I unequip it to fall down to it sooner. I dash, jump, and start gliding. I jump as soon as I land, making sure I equip the Moon Ingot for that extra height and keep gliding. This is just enough for me to get to the ledge. I have enough LightBurst to defeat the next enemy, but strangely, it'll only be defeated if you jump.
The section with the Bull Ingot was difficult to solve. So many different ways to approach this. After grabbing the Bull Ingot, a cutscene plays. During this cutscene, the nearby enemy will hone in on you if its not defeated, damaging you after the cutscene finishes. Dashing and then jump-attacking will only stun the enemy, who will then unstun itself and attack you anyway. Defeating the enemy or tanking the hit is also too slow. How do you do this fast? Simply turn around as you're collecting the Bull Ingot! Apparently you can use the flashlight on the enemy to avoid getting attacked, but only if you're facing the right way. After destroying the wall, I jump down, and damage boost on the tiger.
I destroy the next wall and jump over the enemies. In this last room, a cutscene will start as soon as we touch any of the platforms. The entrance will shut and a spiky floor will start to rise. However, by standing on the very edge of this platform, we can actually skip the cutscene! This saves ~6.5 seconds. We then skip all this platforming with the Moon Ingot's ability.

The Forgotten Empire

There isn't a lot to explain in this level. It's fairly linear, so I just get through it quickly.
At the elevator, you have to hit to correct switches in order for it to rise. While it is moving up, Larry is inactionable. After the elevator, you're supposed to go to the left, climb up a floor, and then go to the right, but we can skip that with the Moon Ingot.
Napoleon Fight
To defeat Napoleon, we have to use the Bull Ingot to reflect his cannonballs back at him. The Scarab Ingot is used in this fight to traverse underneath Napoleon's platform.
I tried various methods to do the first hit as fast as possible and found that skipping the first cannonball and reflecting the second is the fastest. I also made sure to stand right next to Napoleon as the cutscene starts because of the camera's panning.
After being dealt damage, Napoleon will shoot at the ceiling, causing rocks to fall. We're supposed to travel underneath his platform to reach the other side, where he'll turn to start firing once more. If we do that fast enough however, the rocks will start falling on our side. This isn't a super huge issue though, since we can just use flashlight hitbox shenanigans to deal with them.

The Great Wall

You'd think a pretty straightforward and open level would be easy to TAS, but this ended up turning into one of the most challenging levels to do efficiently. There are just so many ways the first section can be done. Here's a comparison of three early routes.
There's this robot right before the reflective pads and I asked my friends if I should hit it or leave it alone. My friends told me to leave it alone because hitting things is mean :(
After breaking the wall, we grab the Monkey Ingot! I start climbing the vine and repeatedly jump with the Moon Ingot while switching back to the Monkey Ingot to regrab the vine.
In the winding S section, I wanted to jump down the passage as opposed to just running off the edges. If you dash, jump, hold back, and touch a wall however, you'll be stuck to it until you reach the ground. I then discovered that by equipping the Moon Ingot and holding back, you can immediately slow down your horizontal momentum. This didn't end up being super useful here however. Since we have to jump over the enemies anyway, how much of each corner we cut doesn't really matter. In fact, it's actually better to slide down the walls, as there's a small slope on each corner, allowing us to land sooner and charge our dash again quicker. I only use switch to the Moon Ingot to avoid landing on one corner, as that one in particular is quite janky, and forces Larry to land on it twice. Using the Moon Ingot on every corner loses 6 frames.

The Great Climb

Not a lot to say about this level. Being able to keep the LightBurst effect for a bit longer and dash through the enemies is pretty cool however. I like how this level looks! :)

Fireworks

Nothing noteworthy at the start other than the fact that we skip the raft, which we're supposed to ride. Later on, the level has two paths: one through the bottom, and one at the top. The top route is faster, even though it's a little less interesting.
Those pterodactyl cycles are a real pain, but I'm glad I was able to make a good cycle in time.
Al Capone Fight
In this battle, we need to climb to vines and press the two switch on the left and right sides of the room. After this, the bridges will break, forcing us to climb up the vines all over again. While falling down, you cannot grab onto any of the vines, and even though you can cling on the walls, the bridges still won't reappear until you reach the bottom.
Here, we use the Moon/Monkey Ingot combo to scale the vines quickly. After hitting the first switch, I use the Scarab Stone's massive coyote time to quickly dash underneath Al Capone and hit the switch on the other side. I make sure to bump my head on the underside of Al Capone's lift so that I can fall sooner.

Celebrating Modernism

I knew I'd find a use for those one-sided wall jumps eventually! The intended path is going to the right where you climb up a passage using the Moon Ingot and Monkey Ingot, then glide to the left with the Cloud Ingot.
The Elephant Ingot is unlocked in this level.
I need to get to the Golden Shrine to destroy a CurseWall. Grabbing the ledge will let Larry in its range and he can quickly let go of it by holding left. That neutral d-pad slide thingy almost made it into the TAS (I initially slid to grab the ledge), but it got obsoleted by a faster strategy unfortunately.
This level also has a really weird out of bounds glitch at the end. It's completely useless but I wonder if it can be replicated in a different level.

The Great Surrealists

Very short level. I made sure to reach the bottom of the slopes as fast as possible so that I can charge the Scarab Ingot, then use its speed to fly to the painted platforms. It looks like I lose time because I bump into a corner, but I have to start gliding this early or else Larry will start sliding on the slope below.
After using the Moon Ingot to climb the platforms, I charge the Scarab Ingot and glide to the end.

Pop Art Showdown

I tried various routes for the reflective pad section at the beginning and found that using the Moon Ingot, two reflective pad bounces, and a one-sided wall jump was the fastest way up. I then dash and bounce on a nearby enemy, gliding all the way to the vine.
The next part is pretty straightforward, just getting to the bottom of the level.
Ivan the Terrible Fight
Warning: The camera shakes intensely in this fight.
In this fight, you have to use the Scarab Ingot to climb up a series of small passages with bombs that roll down to the bottom. Then, you have to use the Elephant Ingot to stomp on a pressure plate that explodes a barrel near Ivan. The floor will then drop, forcing you to climb back up to deal another hit.
In terms of camera panning, hitting the middle barrel is about 12-14 frames faster than hitting the side barrels. The closer you are to the centre, the more time you save. Still, it's better to hit Ivan as early as possible.
At the very last level before the pressure plates, I unequip the Scarab Ingot and jump through the floor, allowing me to reach the pressure plates quicker. I can't use the flashlight with the Elephant Ingot, so I have to destroy the projectiles before I can stomp.
When I land a hit, I position myself in such a way so that I land near a moving wall when I fall. The wall then rises out of the floor when the next phase starts. I can then use the Elephant Ingot to reduce my jump height with the ceiling and then land on the moving wall as it's rising, allowing me to jump again sooner.
Ivan will run from barrel to barrel, staying near one for a short period of time. When we reach the top, Ivan starts running away. The direction he runs away in is random.
After defeating Ivan, the Jackal Ingot will spawn on the left, so it's important to finish Phase 3 on the left side to avoid any unnecessary distance.
The arena is also very glitchy. I can clip through the ceilings sometimes.

The Hidden Pyramids

Welcome to the underworld.
I start off this level by using the Scarab Ingot to... fall through the floor? I don't know why, the game just lets you do that.
You have to ledge grab the platform with the switch on it. Wall-jumps won't work. The switch will move the pyramid up, and then we need go outside, climb it, and use the Moon Ingot to reach the next section. As far as I know, I don't think there's a way to skip this. If you run off the edge as you hit the switch, the pyramid will move up while Larry stays stationary, saving a bit of time.
The first section of this level has some enemies and a checkpoint. As soon as I did the normal path, I immediately tried to see if dying to the enemies and respawning to the checkpoint would save time. I tried multiple enemy routes but sadly, none of them saved time. I didn't record it either unfortunately, but this death warp strategy is around 10-15 frames slower.
After hitting the switch in the pyramid, I land near the right wall to manipulate a nearby enemy into moving away from the ceiling.
In the last section, you have to ride an elevator down. You can partially skip this elevator section however. The right wall isn't a straight line and is actually a slope. Eventually there's enough space for Larry to squeeze between the wall and the elevator. I goof around and dunk Larry in the water to show just how much time you have to spare.

Solomon's Mines

Probably the most unique level in the entire game from a speedrunning standpoint. It is completely non-linear, requiring you to find and activate four switches scattered throughout the level before being allowed to finish.
I start off the level by going for the blue switch on the left. I have to tank a hit from the tiger to reach it. Now, this all happens really quickly, but after the cutscene, I jump on the tiger, jump off it with the Moon Ingot, shine my flashlight forward, and get bounced up. I didn't point Larry's flashlight at the tiger, and even if I did, the tiger wouldn't be in range. So how did I do it? Beats me! If I have to seriously guess though, I think being on top of the tiger in such a small space glitched the game out somehow, allowing me to do one free flashlight bounce anywhere in my jump. I tried recreating what I did with other enemies and tigers in other levels, but I couldn't replicate it. This was such a random find, and I just had to incorporate it in the TAS.
I then dash and bounce on several enemies on my way to the red switch. For some reason, equipping and unequipping the Scarab Ingot at the end of my glide was the only way to get a high enough jump to actually cling on the wall.
After hitting the red switch, I turn around and glide back to the start, perfectly missing the centre platform and landing right in the small corridor. I jump to keep my speed here and land on the nearest platform that would allow me to dash down to the right. I then use the Scarab Ingot's coyote time to bump into the ceiling and land between two enemies to hit the next switch. This time, I'm able to actually charge my Scarab Ingot before the enemy reaches me.
On the way to the green switch, I made sure to skip the checkpoint. The neutral d-pad slide almost made it in at the green switch section, but that unfortunately got obsoleted too. I then dunk Larry into the water after hitting the switch to respawn to the start, since that's faster than backtracking.

Scale of Souls

The final level!! A gauntlet of challenges that tests your Ingot skills!
I try to use the Scarab Ingot as much as possible in the first section, doing one-sided wall jumps to get back on the course. I cancel the damage animation on the spikes and use my invincibility to dash on top of the spikes.
The next section is just a small corridor for the Scarab Stone. Nothing much to note.
In the Monkey Ingot section, you're supposed to get to a Golden Shrine to protect yourself from falling rocks as you wall jump your way up. I decide to bounce on the rocks as they're falling, using the Moon Ingot's gravity to assist me.
Final Boss
The final boss! Kahmunrah!
In this fight, we have to go across an obstacle filled path, complete with falling rocks, conveyor belts, and spirits. We have to get Larry to the pair of scales that Kahmunrah is standing on and use the Elephant Ingot twice to get Kahmunrah to touch the spiky ceiling above him. We need three hits to defeat him.
As you can already guess, I use the Ingots to launch myself to the scales as fast as possible. I equip the Scarab Ingot at the right moment to cancel the cooldown from the Elephant Ingot, allowing me to use it again faster.
After dealing a hit, the controls are turned off, and Kahmunrah pushed Larry back to the start. Normally, Kahmunrah also pushes you up as well, which loses time since it takes longer for you to reach the ground. Sometimes however, he'll just push you straight to the left. I'm not entirely sure how this works. Whether it's an intentional mechanic or just a bug is unclear to me. In any case, I'm luckily able to manipulate the horizontal push both times. It is better to get pushed when you have the Elephant Ingot equipped, as you get stuck on the wall, making it so that there's less distance you need to cover. Unfortunately, I'm unable to both equip the Elephant Ingot and get the horizontal push in the first phase.
In Phase 3, I got unlucky with the rocks, so I couldn't make a straightshot to the scales like in the other phases (you can't bounce off the spirits), but I'm at least able to get to the scales without stopping. I have to waste frames to damage boost the approaching spirits.
And with two more stomps, Kahmunrah is banished to the underworld and the day is saved! 18 levels, 18 minutes & 18 seconds!

Possible Improvements

There's 6 frames of timesave in The Great Climb. Because of lag however, I'm only able to keep 2 of them before entering the Ivan the Terrible fight. Then because of RNG, I'm not longer able to stay ahead as a bomb appears on my path and Ivan's movement is different.

Comments

It should be worth noting that this game has credits and I think they should be shown in the encode. However, they don't automatically play after beating the game like I initially thought. The credits can be played by entering a save file and selecting it from the "Options" Menu. I can provide an alternate file if necessary.
I first discovered this game in late 2023 and I thought it was a pretty alright game with some nice mechanics. Very strange movie to adapt into a game in my opinion, and despite the DS version being completely different to the console/PC version, I think the way they adapted it into a 2D platformer was done very well. TASing it and finding all these timesaves and making Larry fly around the screen only made me like the game even more. If licensed DS games are your sort of thing, I suggest checking it out! This game also has some bonus levels that don't seem to have any footage online. Maybe a 100% TAS is on the table? I think this TAS is my best work so far, and I'm proud I made an attempt to branch out a little in my TASing journey! I hope you all enjoy the TAS!
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to try to hide in my local museum so I can be inside after hours. I wanna see if I this giant dinosaur skeleton comes to life. I don't have anything to protect myself with, but I have a flashlight. Should be good enough, right? Currently hiding behind this large Easter Island head. Don’t tell anyone where I am. - Walgrey
Last Edited by Walgrey 4 days ago
Page History Latest diff List referrers