Post subject: Wario Land 2
Former player
Joined: 8/17/2004
Posts: 377
This game would make a good time attack, or several depending on how you look at it. Due to the nature of how the levels are structured, and the Chapters are accessed, it would be possible to 'finish' the game in a very short amount of time. When the first stage starts don't press any buttons and keep Wario asleep, eventually the stage will end and you'll be thrown into one of the hidden chapters upon which the game will end when you beat it. That is technically an ending. The 'proper' normal ending, though, comes when you beat Captain Syrup at Syrup Castle, after progressing through most of the normal game. So on what grounds should a normal, as fast as possible, time attack be judged? Reaching 'an' ending as fast as possible, or reaching the 'normal' ending as fast as possible? Then there's a 100% run, which would be quite long, especially since you would have to watch the ending several times in one movie. What would be the best way to handle that? You could potentially do a soft reset every time you complete one of the ending levels to bypass the actual ending and credits, and in doing so you could realistically do all the game's levels in one sitting. You would also have to get the treasure and map piece in every level as well, which would add on time. What do all of you think? Fast as possible: Any ending, or the normal one? 100% completion: Watch every ending or soft reset past them? If you're not familiar with Wario Land 2 then some of this may not make a lot of sense, but if you are then you know what I'm talking about.
Former player
Joined: 8/17/2004
Posts: 377
I just whipped up a quick run that goes through the first secret chapter, 'Invade Wario's Castle' that you get by staying in bed in the first stage. Beating this gives you an ending, so by some terms it's a complete run. Of course it's far from perfect, I just made it up to give a general impression of how a pure speed run would go... Wario Land 2 - 10:00 I got 10 minutes on the dot, too, just happened to end recording the last time I had to hit a button when the auto-save screen came up. Anyway, as I mentioned before, if someone wanted to do a 100% run, the best thing to do would be to play through the game normally, getting all the treasure and map pieces along the way, then defeat the 'normal' final boss, do a soft reset, and continue with all the hidden areas, starting with this one, soft resetting at every ending. Once you get all the treasures and all the map pieces one final Timed area opens up, whereupon you get the final final ending when you beat it. That time let the credits run through... At least that's the best way to do it in my eyes... Thoughts?
Spacecow
He/Him
Joined: 6/21/2004
Posts: 247
Location: New Hampshire
A soft-resetting run of every level seems to be the best solution, but I don't really see any reason to get all treasure/map pieces (well, maybe map pieces... I don't think I ever bothered to get every one and don't remember what getting them all gives you). [edit: Oh man, I didn't know there was a hidden chapter. I've been missing out on it all this time. D: I guess all treasure and map pieces are go, then.] Good thing te game gives you a map of all possible branches when you finish it for the first time--makes going back and doing the other brances a lot easier. :P
Former player
Joined: 6/6/2005
Posts: 384
If I ever work out my issues with resuming recording (*grumble*) I'll do SML3. Wario Land 1. I figure I might as well try and avoid everything as much as possible and keep the horns upgrade to keep charging forward as much as I can. Taking a test run at 100% speed just to get reaccquainted with the game, since it's been forever since I last played. Ahh, Wario. Good times. Good games. I heard you can't die in the later games, though. That seems outright weird to me. I've never played anything past the first game. :x
Former player
Joined: 8/17/2004
Posts: 377
Ok, I've started a f'real trial at a 100% time attack. Here I play through the first stage of the game, get the treasure and the map piece. First Stage There's a few things I've learned so far... Charging seems to be the fastest way to move around, normally. Normally if you start dashing and want to stop, to enter a door or avoid hitting a wall and being bumped back, Wario typically has to pause to actually stop. However I've found that if you hit the direction button that's opposite to the way he's charging for one frame, then on the next frame hit the button for the direction he is going, he'll stop charging, but won't suffer the pause he normally would. This means I'll have to redo this attempt, since in the first room on the level I don't use this trick and Wario DOES pause right before I enter the door. Near the end of the level I somehow managed to manipulate a 'silver' coin, which gives you 100. I don't know how, but after some tests on that specific jar I got it from, I found that I could only get it of I had Wario jump the instant the jar breaks as he charges into it, it wouldn't work any other way. I couldn't get a silver coin earlier in the level, so I spend a few moments gathering coins before the first bonus game. If I can figure out just how to manipulate the silver coin drops I won't need to stop for coins at ALL... That's all I really have to say so far... thoughts?
Former player
Joined: 8/17/2004
Posts: 377
Alright, I optimized the first stage, managed to get a silver coin sooner, and did the second stage. First and Second Stages I included a savestate to skip the intro, for the heck of it. Now, some good news and bad news. I believe the Silver Coin drops depend on what moment Wario breaks the jar/kills an enemy, and what buttons happened to be pressed at the same time. They're rare drops, though, but I'm going to try and manipulate them as much as I can so I won't have to stop to build coins up along the way otherwise. I've also found that Dashing is only useful if used for a certain distance, I haven't calculated how much yet though... And I've also discovered that in the in-stage bonus games, the treasure chest ones, you can manipulate which enemy-face-lock you recieve, thus I can fix it so that each one I get is automatically the first tile the cursor starts off on, to save a few moments. I couldn't do the same with the Map-piece bonus game, though, otherwise I'd make them all 0's. The bad news is that I'm probably going to have to redo the entire second level, since I realized while doing the bonus game at the end of the second level that I can speed up the way the numbered tiles disappear, which I didn't do in the first map piece bonus game. So from that point on will likely have to be redone. C'est la vie. Anyway, any comments at all so far?
LSK
Joined: 4/17/2006
Posts: 159
Here's a comment: When will this be continued?
Former player
Joined: 8/17/2004
Posts: 377
You're a year too late man. ;) My progress on this came to a stand-still when I couldn't figure out how to manipulate the random drops of the shiny coins as I wanted. If someone else wants to do this run, they can feel free to give it a shot.
LSK
Joined: 4/17/2006
Posts: 159
Let's go for main adventure, pure speed. Think that's doable?
Former player
Joined: 8/17/2004
Posts: 377
That's more doable, sure. 'Main adventure' is kind of hard to define though. Presumably I'd guess it would mean from stage 1 to a final boss without taking any alternate exits in any of the levels. If the run included alternate exits then it would only be a few stages long via doing the first secret chapter, Take Back Wario's Castle. There's still the problem of my IRL business as of late. A lot of things have my attention right now. I can watch and comment on runs, but devoting the time to making them? That's another story. If someone else wants to take this up, it's all theirs.
Joined: 1/23/2006
Posts: 352
Location: Germany
Start to credits in the fastest possible time. A "warp" run would certainly be the fastest and if there's a positive response you can still make a full run.