Monster Party features a baseball-playing kid named Mark who is summoned by an alien gargoyle named Bert to use his baseball bat (which Bert considers a powerful weapon) to destroy the monsters on his home planet. They accomplish this by merging into one being who looks like Mark but can change into Bert for a short time after taking pills dropped by dead enemies. Mark and Bert use their combined powers to defeat 20 bosses, including a bubble-spitting carnivorous plant, a caterpillar named Royce, dancing zombies, a punk rocker, a javelin-throwing haniwa, and a fried shrimp the size of a small car. It seems as if the game designers were taking some of those pills as well...

Goals:

  • Aims for fastest time
  • Manipulates luck
  • Uses warps
  • Takes damage to save time
This run of Monster Party is:
  • 7384 frames faster than Dasrik's cancelled submission
  • 5240 frames faster than Josh the FunkDOC's cancelled submission
  • 2598 frames faster than my test run
  • 1181 frames faster than my first improvement
The biggest improvements over the unpublished movies are better health management, better use of Bert, and the use of the hidden warps in the second stage. Compared to my test runs, this run uses more edge boosting and defeats the bosses more quickly.

Tricks and Glitches

Damage Boosting

When you take damage, your character is launched backwards at high speed. By turning around three frames prior to getting hit, it's possible to be launched forward instead. Sometimes, the act of turning around delays the hit by one to three frames, making the damage boost barely worth the lost health. To boost through stationary enemies, you have to either get on top of them or inside them by hitting them just before walking into them. This is seen mainly in stages 2 and 4.

Edge Boosting

When Mark or Bert falls off a platform, his x position is increased by 2 (3 in stage 7 for some reason). This generally translates into a gain of two frames. Jumping, however, usually costs two frames - one on takeoff, and one upon landing. Thus, the best way to gain frames by edge boosting is to fall instead of jump wherever possible.

Hovering

By alternating A and B every other frame, you can make your character hover in mid-air. This is used to quickly defeat stationary bosses and against several moving bosses to deal damage while staying close to the exit door. This trick only works when ascending - using it on descent generally doesn't work.

Flight

Bert has the ability to fly, but there is a bit more to it than just flapping your wings. The fastest way to ascend is to autofire A every other frame. When moving laterally, you will occasionally freeze for a frame when Bert's flying sprite changes. This can be avoided in one of two ways - either by ascending again or by pressing down to glide. Gliding wastes one frame at first, but the lost flight frames add up, so it's better to glide than fly long distances.

Ducking Shot

After Stage 4, Bert gains the ability to shoot two projectiles at once. When ducking on the ground, Bert will only shoot one, which will travel in a shallow arc before disappearing. It still does the same 3 damage as the full double shot, but it can be rapid-fired, making it ideal for taking out bosses.

Stage-by-stage Commentary

Stage 1

This stage is one of three in which I edge boost enough to visibly alter Mark's position on the screen. It doesn't appear to be possible to avoid the long transformation scene in the middle of the stage (although it can be delayed by edge boosting far enough to the right).

Stage 2

There are hidden warp zones in this stage that greatly shorten the route. Right after the fight against Medusa, I have to go through an enemy that's situated right next to a ladder. Because of the way ladders work in this game, it's impossible to damage boost through this enemy, and since it takes six hits to kill it, the fastest way to get past it is to get hit, boost in the opposite direction, and just run through it. It looks a little sloppy, but it's the fastest way to get to the warp zone.

Stage 3

This stage also contains a fair number of edge boosts. I end the stage with more than one health left because I need all the health I can get for the following stage. Two of the three bosses here can be manipulated into moving right next to the exit door and staying there.

Stage 4

This stage contains tons of damage boosting thanks to tight spaces and copious enemies. I transform into Bert here to take advantage of a shortcut that saves more than the six seconds of transformation time.

Stage 5

This stage is fairly relaxing, and there are only two bosses this time. The first one doesn't even require any effort to defeat - you simply have to watch the zombies dance for about thirty seconds and they'll disappear (they'll start all over again if you hit them). The second boss, a giant haniwa, can be manipulated into throwing a constant stream of javelins that can be deflected right back at him for three damage a shot.

Stage 6

I take a slight detour to beat pills out of a chair with a baseball bat. After this transformation, I remain in Bert form for the rest of the game. There are constant lightning flashes in this stage, and every time it strikes, your character freezes in place for a frame. This lightning can be manipulated by jumping, attacking, or changing the frame upon which you enter a door. Several times I burned a frame at a door in order to save two or three frames due to better lightning.

Stage 7

There are actually three bosses in this stage, but you only have to fight two to get the key. In fact, if you fight all three, you lose the key and can't get it back. I chose to fight Royce and Spider II, since the Grim Reaper is a stationary boss that takes too long to kill with Bert.

Stage 8

This level is very long and has lots of platforms for edge boosting. I end up stretching Bert's transformation time to the limit here, getting pills just a few frames before the timer runs out. The final boss battle involves dodging eyeballs and waiting for the boss's weak point to be exposed. Somehow, taking damage made it appear more quickly.

Possible Improvements

This game is very, very random. Everything down to the lightning in Stage 6 (which causes you to freeze in place for a frame when it strikes) can be manipulated, but I suspect that any major improvements would require the RNG to be reverse-engineered. The final boss battle could probably be improved if the mechanism behind its randomness was figured out.

Useful Memory Addresses

  • 03D6: X position
  • 03CB: Y position
  • 0054: Bert Transformation Timer (counts up from 00 - 22h)
  • 0366: Boss HP
  • 0367: Boss 2 HP (only used in Tempura battle)
  • 0368: Boss 3 HP (only used in Tempura battle)

Special Thanks

  • Josh the FunkDOC and Dasrik, for doing the first runs of this game.
  • DeceasedCrab, for his hilarious Let's Play of this game.
  • DarkKobold, Kirkq, Zeupar, Dwedit, and Ferret Warlord, for providing feedback on my WIPs.

feos: HD encode embedded.

DarkKobold: Congrats on your first publication. Good work optimizing, and not just taking your first run!

TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #3027: Tanooki_Teabag's NES Monster Party in 14:58.07
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Joined: 12/30/2007
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Nice improvement.And I don't know the game's name in my childhood. The music is good.Awesome boss battle.Well-planned damage management. Yes vote.
Do the work.
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Encoding...
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
Joined: 12/19/2010
Posts: 126
nice run, but not my sort of game and it looks like a normal gameplay to me so a NO for me
live life
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Joined: 7/7/2006
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Location: US
The author has shown consistent improvement on this run. It seems to be reasonably well optimized. (with a bit of unoptimized randomness in any beginner's TAS) This run contains plenty of well-planned damage boosting and drop manipulation at the end. The game isn't great, but it's an alright watch. The bosses are quite strange. Destroying an onion ring with a baseball bat is typically interesting. One critique. Is it necessary to get hit by the final boss? It looks bad if it isn't saving time. The submission can be updated if necessary so it isn't a big deal to fix it if it can be better. Also, I don't really think this submission "uses warps" in the sense that other games do. I'm thinking it would be better not labeled as such. (I also agree with Apathos's post below that a little more could have been done with the music. You did move/fly pretty close to enemies where applicable though, which was good.) I'm a bit unclear how this could look "like normal gameplay." I could understand if it wasn't found greatly entertaining, but I've seen plenty of normal gameplay in my day. (I watched the encode not the movie file.) Yes vote.
Joined: 8/11/2010
Posts: 45
Location: Virginia
I voted yes because as it seems reasonably optimized and the game seems interesting, however I feel like there wasn't a that much personal style in the gameplay, which I felt was missing. It looks like you only ran from boss to boss with minimal effort. I don't know if what I'm saying makes sense, but it would have been nice to see you doing things like running backwards or jumping to the music instead of just running into the wall waiting for it to open. I hope this is constructive for you.
Joined: 8/23/2009
Posts: 5
Location: Colorado Springs
As soon as I am not considered a lurker on the forums I will vote yes for this run. I loved this game as a kid and the music from the game. Seeing the hover glitch in action and the optimization in the last levels with Bert was a joy to watch. The kid humping the floor during the zombie fight was a bit disturbing however... even if the kid has rhythm.
mklip2001
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Nice job! I'd seen the previous submissions, but I didn't know they could be improved by this much. This was quite entertaining, with maybe the exception of Stage 6 with all the doors. Out of question, if Bert gets the double-shot after stage 4, why don't you use him more in Stages 4 or 5?
Used to be a frequent submissions commenter. My new computer has had some issues running emulators, so I've been here more sporadically. Still haven't gotten around to actually TASing yet... I was going to improve Kid Dracula for GB. It seems I was beaten to it, though, with a recent awesome run by Hetfield90 and StarvinStruthers. (http://tasvideos.org/2928M.html.) Thanks to goofydylan8 for running Gargoyle's Quest 2 because I mentioned the game! (http://tasvideos.org/2001M.html) Thanks to feos and MESHUGGAH for taking up runs of Duck Tales 2 because of my old signature! Thanks also to Samsara for finishing a Treasure Master run. From the submission comments:
Shoutouts and thanks to mklip2001 for arguably being the nicest and most supportive person on the forums.
Joined: 11/9/2008
Posts: 108
Location: New Orleans, LA U.S.A.
i've been waiting for this game forever! awesomejob, YES vote
__--N0ISE
Warepire
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Incredibly well done, I cannot vote anything but yes to this.
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Joined: 1/24/2011
Posts: 108
Thanks for the feedback, everyone. Time to answer some questions:
Kirkq wrote:
One critique. Is it necessary to get hit by the final boss? It looks bad if it isn't saving time. The submission can be updated if necessary so it isn't a big deal to fix it if it can be better.
Getting hit does save time in that battle, since he doesn't expose his weak point as quickly otherwise.
Apathos wrote:
I voted yes because as it seems reasonably optimized and the game seems interesting, however I feel like there wasn't a that much personal style in the gameplay, which I felt was missing. It looks like you only ran from boss to boss with minimal effort. I don't know if what I'm saying makes sense, but it would have been nice to see you doing things like running backwards or jumping to the music instead of just running into the wall waiting for it to open. I hope this is constructive for you.
My goal was to get the fastest time possible, and since most actions (jumping, ducking, attacking, etc.) take a few frames to execute, I only use them where necessary. As for my personal style, lots of other players jump around to the music during waiting periods. I wanted to do something different (namely, the humpty dance and having a seizure) during the two periods of waiting the game gave me.
mklip2001 wrote:
Out of question, if Bert gets the double-shot after stage 4, why don't you use him more in Stages 4 or 5?
The only reason I use Bert in stage 4 is because he can take a shortcut to the Punk Rocker boss. He's pretty useless otherwise. In level 5, Bert gets the double lasers, but he's tough to use there because of the zombie "battle," since he can't stay transformed throughout it. Also, he's inferior to Mark against the Haniwa, so there's no real reason to use him in stage 5 at all. It is possible to get pills from an enemy towards the end of stage 5, but it's impossible to keep that transformation going until the Chameleon battle. Fighting the chair in stage 6 is, AFAIK, the optimal way to go.
Rayas wrote:
Dunno if I'm really clear. I need to drink more.
<br>
adelikat wrote:
The idea was to kill off my family to avoid lost time to them getting sick and other inconvenient things.
Joined: 5/14/2007
Posts: 525
Location: Pisces-Cetus filament
I was waiting for your answers before voting. Good job with this movie, TT!
Zeupar wrote:
If this movie is published (and it will most likely be), this has to be the screenshot. :P
^O RLY? The screenshot is optimized.
AzumaK wrote: I swear my 1 year old daughter's favorite TASVideo is your R4MI run :3 xxNKxx wrote: ok thanks handsome feos :D Help improving TASVideos!
Brandon
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Claiming the SD encode.
All the best, Brandon Evans
Brandon
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http://www.mediafire.com/?wupyzdcywrx51vt Archive.org has consistently been broken for a while. It keeps giving different issues. This time, the error is "ERROR copying item into cluster (error). Please wait for an administrator to resolve or you may try a different identifier name and try again..." Hopefully, it'll eventually start working like it used to.
All the best, Brandon Evans
Brandon
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OK, apparently, when those error messages display, it means that you have succeeded in uploading...what. Oh well, here are the files: SD Encode: http://www.archive.org/download/NesMonsterPartyusaByTanookiTeabagIn1458.07/monsterparty-tas-tanookiteabag.mp4 Torrent File: http://www.mediafire.com/?thz629dm8b7z6ry
All the best, Brandon Evans
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. ---- [1753] NES Monster Party by Tanooki Teabag in 14:58.07
Joined: 4/29/2005
Posts: 1212
There's a problem with the Archive.org Publication file. It doesn't want to download.
sgrunt
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Works for me here. What's going wrong, precisely?
Joined: 4/29/2005
Posts: 1212
I'm not exactly sure. I just tried downloading something from Archive.org again, on the Long Plays site, and I'm STILL having trouble downloading anything. It's weird. It's like my connection isn't getting through. Edit: Weird. Now I can download this Run. Archive is acting goofy on me.