Submission #9651: Walgrey's DS Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian — The Video Game in 17:56.49

"We're going home! Yeee-hawww!"

Content warning: This game contains fireworks at the end of the level 'Fireworks'. In the encode provided, this occurs between 10:45 and 11:20.
There are also several instances of the screen shaking heavily at the end of the level "Pop Art Showdown". These occur between 13:10 and 14:00.

Edit: I improved this TAS by 72 frames. The improvement can be found here, while the extended credits input can be found here.

Note: The linked encode is of an outdated version of the TAS. You can watch the 72 frame improvement here.

This is a 501 frame improvement of my current publication for Night at the Museum - Battle of the Smithsonian - The Video Game for Nintendo DS. If you want to see a description of the game and read some notes about the run, you can do that here.

In this TAS, I take advantage of a technique that I only used a few times in my first submission. In the "Solomon's Mines" level, when I'm making my way to the third switch behind all of those lava pillars, I couldn't just jump with the Moon Ingot active to get to the wall I needed to wall-jump off of. Even though the Moon Ingot is super powerful and gives Larry lower gravity, it still faces challenges when it comes to on-demand height. In order to get enough height to reach the wall, I switched to the Scarab Ingot, jumped, and then immediately equipped the Moon Ingot, giving me more height in my jump. I didn't really think of this at first. If I remember correctly, I think I only did that to avoid hitting the lava pillar. I later remembered this quirk and realized that you could take advantage of this by using it to skip some ledge grabs. I decided to check the TAS again, seeing which ledge grabs I could skip.

Quick note: You don't have to use the Scarab Ingot for this, you just need to unequip the Moon Ingot before you jump. The later you re-equip it, the more height you gain. I'll just call these "Extended Jumps" for lack of a better term, and since I'll be referring to them a lot.

Remember that one ledge grab that you're forced to get after starting the pterodactyl ride? Previously, I said that you could avoid the ledge grab, but the cannonball hits you in mid-air if you try. Turns out, you can actually avoid it! By reflecting the cannonball down at the right time, we can avoid both the ledge and taking damage! I then start my charge on the left side of the platform, so I have to bounce on two enemies instead of one to reach the ramp. After stunning the enemy on the ramp, I actually land on its head and start charging my dash on top of it, since it's faster than jumping over it and waiting to land on the ground instead.

Instead of bouncing on the robot and flying on through, I briefly stop, stun the robot, and then charge a dash on top of it (like in "Dig Into Fossils"), allowing me to get through the next section with higher speed.

I use an Extended Jump to avoid the first ledge grab, then coyote jump after charging so that I don't have to slow down as much in the corridor. After clearing the vertical section, I jump on the sabre-tooth tiger and skip the next ledge grab, and then extend my jump to skip jumping to the left altogether. I skip the next ledge grab at the CurseWall, and instead of using the Cloud Ingot to scale the steps, I opt for an Extended Jump into a ledge grab. This saves enough time that I can actually defeat the sabre-tooth tiger with my LightBurst instead of having to avoid it.

Turns out that Extended Jumps also work when bouncing on reflective pads! I was able to bring the number of bounces in the first section down from 4 to 2! Unfortunately, I have to lose a bit of time when I pick up the Bull Ingot. In past runs, you could just shine your flashlight forward. The enemy would block it, but it would bounce you up slightly, allowing you to go over it spending too much time in the air. That trick doesn't work this time. Shining your flashlight forward stuns the enemy, which doesn't give you the bounce, and pointing it down would give you more airtime. This isn't a big issue though, since you can workaround it with a short-hop.

At the end of the level, there's a platform that I reach by charging the Moon Ingot's ability. I can avoid doing that by using an Extended Jump instead.

Instead of jumping on the ramp and over the robot, I stun the robot and charge a dash on top of it. This saves 21 frames.

I skip the reflective pad after the checkpoint with an Extended Jump. I'm earlier in the moving spiky log cycle, so I have to jump over the middle log on the way back. I switch to the Moon Ingot to halt my horizontal momentum and avoid sticking to the wall. I have to lose a few frames to sync the Napoleon fight back up.

Saved 7 frames in the Al Capone fight by jumping off the vine from a higher point, allowing me to spend less time on the ground.

Side-note: This level is so god damn annoying to resync.

Saved 2 frames by waiting a bit after opening the final door. I get to the exit without being interrupted by it.

Saved 4 frames by charging a dash after the first portrait. I then get to glide down the open area at full speed, instead of jumping and losing a bit of speed in the last run.

I do an Extended Jump on the second reflective pad to avoid having to do a one-sided wall-jump. I have to waste 4 frames just before the Ivan the Terrible fight in order for the first two phases to sync. Unfortunately, Ivan the Terrible runs in the opposite direction in the third phase, but I can fix this by just wasting 2 frames before stomping the pressure plate in phase 2.

I do an Extended Jump to skip the ledge grab before the last switch.

There's probably still more places where you can save time, especially near the beginning. You can save 9 frames in "Discover the Moon", but the global cycle for the planes in the Kamunrah fight becomes very unfavourable, as there's a patch of fire blocking one of the switches. Really glad that I decided to revisit this again, because now we have 18 levels in less than 18 minutes! Think I'll leave this alone for a bit, but really happy with the end result! Thank you for reading and hope you enjoyed!

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go practice the high jump event for track and field. I found this weird amulet with a blue moon on it and ever since then, my jumps have been super floaty! Those poor contestants won't know what hit them. Just don't tell the judges. This'll be our little secret. - Walgrey

InputEvelution: Replaced with a 72 frame improvement by the author.

DrD2k9: Claiming for judging.

DrD2k9: Accepting as an improvement to [6476] DS Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian — The Video Game by Walgrey in 18:04.86