I felt the need to clog up the Submissions page with even more SNES time attacks, so here's another one. This is an improvement of 74 seconds over Zurreco's currently published Magical Quest run.
  • Takes damage to save time
  • Plays at hardest level
  • Aims for fastest time
This is a game where you control Mickey Mouse, who can switch between several suits that give him different powers, and try to beat all the levels and bosses in hopes of finding Pluto.
This game looks pretty easy, but it's a lot harder than it looks, at least on Hard mode. Mickey's movement and jumping is really limited, and a surprising amount of mistakes you can make are punished by instant death. Mickey normally walks slowly, and the only way to make him run is to walk down a slope (or get pushed by something you throw, but that only happens in boss fights), so I try to go down slopes wherever possible. Once running, I stay in the air as much as possible because running speed is (oddly) preserved by jumping.
I take a hit to save time in levels 3-3 and 6-2 for the same reasons as Zurreco (saves a lot of waiting in those places), but not in 1-2 or 2-4 (or anywhere else) because I found taking damage to be slower anywhere else.
I wait a little in a few places, but only where it saves time overall compared to all alternatives (or is necessary to avoid death).
Info on some boss fights:
  • The first miniboss (the winged guy) is easily the most annoying enemy in the game, for trying to make a time attack especially (it tries to force the battle to be slow-paced). Anyway, it wasn't so bad once I realized that thrown enemies do a lot more damage than jumping. After the fight, I keep the momentum of the last enemy I threw by jumping, and use that to run to the exit.
  • The main fire boss was the thing I was least able to improve in the run. There's basically only one way to beat it quickly, which is to blast it continuously. I'll just add that this is a LOT harder than it looks; I don't think I would be able to beat this boss when playing normally at this difficulty mode.
  • The bird boss I'm able to hit twice in each round, to kill it in 3 rounds. It seems like it should be possible to kill it in 2 rounds by hitting 6 times in round 2 with stunned birds, but after many tries I gave that up as impossible and settled for 3 rounds.
In case you're wondering how much damage various attacks do: Jumps do 4 damage, thrown enemies do 10 damage, uncharged magic blasts do 4 damage, partially charged magic blasts do 5 damage, fully charged magic blasts do 16 damage, and water squirts do 1 damage.
Emulator used is the Snes9x 1.43 improvement v7 available at: Forum/Topics/1816 Can also be viewed with Snes9x 1.43 WIP. These sound settings should be set: Volume Envelope Height Reading OFF, Sync samples with sound CPU ON.

Phil: I think I will refuse it.
Joke ;). Good work, it will be published.

TASVideoAgent
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Very nice, I didn't think that Zurreco's movie could still be improved by 74 seconds. To be honest, I didn't really notice that many obvious improvements, it must have been lots of small details I liked your route in 4-2, I never managed to do that What I did not like were those upward jumps (e.g. at 16300 / 18900 /22000), but I guess they can't be shortened The wait at 21000 was needed to not get hit by those hammer stompers?
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VIPer7 wrote:
Very nice, I didn't think that Zurreco's movie could still be improved by 74 seconds. To be honest, I didn't really notice that many obvious improvements, it must have been lots of small details
There were a lot of improvements, maybe I should list them:
  • jumping past the auto-walk part of 1-1
  • not losing forward momentum on a block later in 1-1
  • not getting hit in 1-2
  • killing the 1-2 miniboss faster with more throw attack
  • running to the exit of 1-2
  • killing the 1-4 snake boss a little faster
  • keeping momentum and not waiting for an enemy in 2-1
  • running across the leaves to the exit in 2-1
  • swimming faster in 2-2
  • killing the 2-2 miniboss faster by using the much stronger fully-charged shots
  • running instead of walking throughout 2-3
  • killing the 2-4 spider boss a little faster
  • running instead of walking to the miniboss in 3-1
  • running instead of walking when going up the platforms and hill in 3-2
  • not waiting for a platform in 3-2
  • clearing blocks faster in 3-3
  • making it under the fire wall when it comes down the second time instead of waiting for it
  • faster climbing and grappling in 4-1
  • going under the mountain in 4-2
  • killing the 4-3 bird boss a LOT faster
  • killing the 5-3 walrus boss a little faster
  • not using the slower-than-running magic carpet in 6-1 or wasting time changing into the magic suit
  • riding up a block in 6-3 (this is actually near-impossible to do)
  • pushing block in 6-3 other direction and somehow getting an invisible foothold to jump on it
  • killed the 6-4 final boss a decent amount faster
VIPer7 wrote:
What I did not like were those upward jumps (e.g. at 16300 / 18900 /22000), but I guess they can't be shortened
Right, the game does not give any control of how much vertical height those branches give, either you go up a lot or you barely go up at all.
VIPer7 wrote:
The wait at 21000 was needed to not get hit by those hammer stompers?
It was the minimum time I had to wait in order to both not get hit AND be able to continue running throughout the rest of the level. It more than made up for the time lost waiting.
Joined: 12/13/2004
Posts: 103
WOW! Surprisingly much time cut off the previous run. I love the boss fights.
xou
Joined: 4/26/2004
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Location: france
YES Running is well used in this timeattack & I that way under the mountain in 4-2 is really worthy. This would make a good & entertaining movie.
hello world !
Joined: 4/16/2004
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Great movie! In regards to killing the bird in two rounds, you can do it with the wizard. The only problem is that you have to change to the wizard in the beginning of the boss, then in between the rounds you have to change back to the mountain climber (to grab the thingie so you won't fly away) and then back to the wizard. I don't know if the time saved is greater than the time lost on the changes.
Joined: 8/1/2004
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Bah. I leave for a week and this is what happens... Good run. I'm impressed in both your methods of avoiding the slow sequences and your newer routes. I would vote yes, but there are a few parts where you stall longer than you would need to. Examples include during the snake boss, during the forest miniboss, during the tree stump area, etc. There are at least enough places that you can optimise another second or two out of the run. I guess I won't vote for now.
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Joined: 10/17/2004
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Just wondering... this movie beats an already published movie by more than a minute. 10-0-0 votes is not soo much, but that's probably because the game is not so popular :S But I think it should get published nevertheless, simply because it beats the old video
Joined: 8/1/2004
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Well, I assume I might as well vote here. I am voting yes, but with all this talk about damage statistics the bird fight is improveable. You are able to use the magic cap on the bird. When it dives in from either side, jumping to that side of the screen will give you enough slide time to stay on the platforms. This also lets you do a few full charge shots per egg drop, but you'll have to worry about dealing with bird minions and whatnot. Voting yes, simply because your time kicked my ass, but I still think you should work on the bird fight.
hi nitrodon streamline: cyn-chine
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Zurreco wrote:
You are able to use the magic cap on the bird. When it dives in from either side, jumping to that side of the screen will give you enough slide time to stay on the platforms. This also lets you do a few full charge shots per egg drop, but you'll have to worry about dealing with bird minions and whatnot.
Hmm, OK, I'll look into this and resubmit if it turns out to be faster. EDIT: BTW, I did look into this a while ago, and was unable to get that fight to be faster. Couldn't get in position to hit it and still charge up soon enough to hit the bird with a fully-charged blast every round, which made everything I tried slower overall, although maybe I missed some trick that would make it possible.
Post subject: Movie published
TASVideoAgent
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This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [333] SNES The Magical Quest Starring Mickey Mouse by nitsuja in 16:19.98
xou
Joined: 4/26/2004
Posts: 118
Location: france
hum.. that video codec is a pain ... :(
hello world !