Here is my run of the Genesis version of Batman, beating the previous movie by 1500 frames. Improvements come from use of TAStudio and not being new to TASing when I made this. This run is done on Bizhawk 2.4.2, which was the latest version of the emulator when I started it.
As usual, here is my
TAStudio file from making this movie. It's not necessary for enjoyment or understanding, but it may provide insight into my thought process and what was tried.
I've been working on a couple of longer runs for complicated games and needed to find a smaller project I could do to recharge. At the same time, developments happened to help speedrunners of the game, and through watching attempts, I got some ideas. Thank you to takojaki for doing runs of this game. I decided to improve my old run as a quick breather, and it did turn out to be a quick project. After I actually sat down and worked on it, that is.
Surprisingly, I wasn't really able to find new techniques or routes which were significantly different from the original run. It all came down to better use of the long jump and more aggressive boss fights.
I don't actually have much substantial to say, so here are some level-by-level comments.
I lose 10 frames to the old run due to emulator differences.
Gotham City Street
I made it so no enemies blocked my jumps through a combination of punching enemies out of the way and messing with the camera.
First boss
My strategy with pretty much every boss is to knock them across the screen stopping just far enough away from the edge that I can get behind them and knock them in the other direction.
In nearly every circumstance, when you throw a batarang, this boss will stop whatever he's doing and duck under it. This includes being in the pain animation. Punching him before throwing a batarang someone negates this.
Batarangs are by far the most damaging attack in Batman's arsenal. You can punch and throw a batarang at the same time and both attacks will go out. This turns out to work like a small bit of extra damage between batarang throws.
Axis Chemical Factory
For the grapple, I land farther to the left, which allows me to start the grapple sooner. After that, it's just better jumping.
Flugelheim Museum
Boss
Instead of allowing him to land on top of me with the body slam, I dodge to the side. I then attack him in a way that prevents him from using that move again, since he's invincible during it. I allow the first one to happen because it moves him forward quicker than the slow shuffling he does while holding the boombox.
Gotham City Street
Honestly, I don't think there is any way possible to make this stage more interesting. The only things you can do during the stage are move and shoot. Also this stage by itself is the same length as all the stages before it combined. At least the music's catchy.
For the tank, I got the idea to fire my gun in order to maintain a single strand of bullets, allowing me to give more continuous damage.
Gotham City Street II
The change that allows the time save is I manage to double jump one jump earlier. I take damage far enough to the left that I can double jump to the platform above. The different routes you can take through the platforms are pretty comparable. I didn't find one route that was better than all the others.
Boss
From watching the speedrun strat for this boss, I realized it was possible to stop him from using his invincible attack by pushing him to the edge of the screen.
In the Sky Over Gotham City
The helicopter at the end of the stage will try to adjust its position in order to hit the batplane with its missiles. If you are in position to hit it with your gun that means it'll adjust by moving up. It also likes going off the top of the screen out of bullet range. I also need to make sure that both missiles hit on every shot. It's possible (actually pretty likely) even at point blank range for you to fire missile and have one of them just pass right through. I bring the helicopter down to center screen and move upward at a time where I can make sure no missiles miss.
Gotham Cathedral
Big improvement comes from being able to jump across the top of the stage without slowing down. The refights have similar strategy to when I first fought those bosses.
Part 2
I noticed turning around after jumping off a wall took time, so I made an effort to cut out some of those turnarounds.
That's pretty much it. Hope you enjoy the run.