Plok is an irresistible, irrepressible, unstoppable, highly improbable and downright dangerous bundle of pure energy.
Plok does not like fleas.
Plok has the amazing ability to fire all his body parts at will.
Plok can really 'throw' a punch.
Plok has a very short fuse; at the slightest irritation those limbs begin to fly.
Plok hates fleas.
Plok is a true hero, with a heart of gold and joints of the highest-quality velcro.
Plok is a man with a mission. He is dedicated to ridding the world of the dreaded Fleas.
Plok is a dreamer, a wanderer, a free spirit. He's suave and elegant. He's grade-A, first-class prime cut.
Plok really does not like Fleas.
Plok is the king of the beautiful island called Akrillic, part of the archipelago Poly-Esta.
After my last submission over a year ago, I have decided to pick this game back up and do it right. I have taken advantage of the previously overlooked warps and amulet (which allows Plok to turn into a sawblade, essentially one-hit killing Fleas), and have made speed a number one priority. To accomplish this I have avoided as many shells as possible before getting the amulet. If the Plok meter reaches full capacity it will cause a "Bonus Plok" which wastes 198 frames (3.3 sec). When the amulet is used it expends shells, so there is no longer a need to purposefully avoid shells. Damage is taken to save time, which includes taking damage to avoid shells, and to jump higher while still being able to shoot limbs (especially useful for boss battles). Luck was manipulated to cause Flea eggs to land where I intended. Thanks to frame advance, ledge-to-ledge jumps are pixel perfect, shots are taken as soon as possible and never missed, and programming errors are abused (such as passing through spikes in Silent Running). ...I don't "wobble".
This game is actually quite fast and difficult. I was never able to beat this game on the SNES console and am glad to have finally conquered it, even if I am "using an emulator as a tool". This game also has excellent music. You are encouraged to get the SPCs.
Thanks to Nitsuja for actually watching my WIPs and providing me with a little help.
Well let me be the first to say I thought this movie was very enjoyable and very well played. I especially liked your handling of the boss battles. Well done.
the fact that plok is so adorable sold me heh. as juan said its really enjoyable and just from watching you can tell its being played well. thumbs up from me
Joined: 8/1/2004
Posts: 2687
Location: Seattle, WA
Yes vote. I never beat this game as a kid, but it always stuck with me. Glad to see someone make a run for this. It was very well planned and played.
Kudos to you, kooz.
Wow, this game was wierd. I've never played it, but maybe I should try. It seems to be hard with the limited amount of limbs, maybe there's more limbs to pick up than the ones that you did. I've gotta try it some day. :)
Never played the game so I don't wanna vote, sorry. But I enjoyed watching the movie, so I hope it gets published.
Joined: 3/29/2005
Posts: 229
Location: The boonies.
Lol. Awesome. This is one of those games that can almost get a movie from concept alone. Yes, he flings his limbs at enemies. Yes, he gets this limbs back. Yes, he can run without legs. No, you can't take him home with you.
Yes vote, and if the River City Ransom run deserves a star, I'd say this one does, too.
Me like. A lot. I don't think there's much that can be optimized, maybe some of the fleapit levels.
Couldn't get it to work on any of the Linux versions though (desyncs just before the warp in level 3). Had to use Snes9x in wine which dropped frames every once in a while.
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 100
Location: Michigan, United States
Graveworm: Your limbs return to you after making contact with an enemy. When you shoot a target, your limbs teleport to a coat hanger.
Jeffrey: I would imagine a small amount of optimization is possible, maybe in Real Rumblings. I will play around with it.
Less Ashamed Of Self: I can make an AVI for you if this movie doesn't get posted.
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 100
Location: Michigan, United States
I've created an AVI using h.264 with very acceptable quality, although I would like to obtain optimal settings from one of our encoding members as I'd like to make this movie as well as others in Nesvideos-friendly format. This had been brought up in the General forum, however that topic went nowhere. I will edit this post for a link to the movie soon.
EDIT: Link.
I would like to obtain optimal settings from one of our encoding members as I'd like to make this movie as well as others in Nesvideos-friendly format. This had been brought up in the General forum, however that topic went nowhere.
If you still haven't gotten a response, maybe you should ask them on IRC. It could be that a response to your question would require more of a back-and-forth than they wanted to deal with on the forums.
Oh, and I voted 'yes' for this movie. I think it starts out somewhat boring (because of the way the game starts), but it gets pretty fun once you have the amulet. I didn't particularly like the vehicle sections at the end, but I can't tell if there's any way to make those better, and the boss fights looked good (although too complicated to be sure that they're optimal).
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 100
Location: Michigan, United States
Thanks for the "yes" vote. I agree, though, the first levels are quite boring. The vehicle levels at the end are ridiculously difficult. I spent almost half of my time on this run doing them.
I am still thinking about doing a full run of this game. Some of the Akryllic levels that were skipped are really cool, and I have never really liked the idea of a warp run anyway. Absolute speed seems to be the highest goal at Nesvideos, though, so I thought I'd start there.
I will probably get on IRC tomorrow to try and extract a response. ^^
This movie has been published.
The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie.
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[448] SNES Plok by kooz in 31:15.55
In the final areas where you get the present
vehicles, it can be done much faster.
With the flying ones, such as jetpack and UFO,
you can fly at the same level as the water
to go to the other sections skipping
much of the map.
Other than that, good job.
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 100
Location: Michigan, United States
Scubed, I was not aware of that. Thanks! I was posting WIPs most of my way through this run looking for feedback but was not getting much, but I will definitely put that to use in my next version.
Is it just a bug in my video player, or does the audio get desynchronized with the video somewhere in the cave levels for anyone else? Neat run, in any case.
Having never actually beaten the game *obviously, since it was RIDICULOUSLY FREAKIN HARD*, I have to ask:
For the final fight, do the springs just "go" all the time, or are you making them jump at specific intervals? For a while it looked like you were timing it to the music, but it slowly went off-sync before the queen died.
Overall: excellent ^^ makes me wish I had bothered to play this game for any reason other than to laugh at the hilarity of it <.<
YtterbiJum, on SMB3:
I've tried 20+ times and it always desyncs there. Unless, of course, Genisto meant to die, use a star on the map screen, go in a pipe, and jump around till time runs out.
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 100
Location: Michigan, United States
Nope, there's nothing I can do about the intervals at which Plok jumps during the final battle. As a matter of fact, the jump button and up/down do absolutely nothing.
Nope, there's nothing I can do about the intervals at which Plok jumps during the final battle. As a matter of fact, the jump button and up/down do absolutely nothing.
Most retarded final boss ever.
BTW; in Blind Leap (I think?) the 8thish stage of Cotton Island... can you not gain more speed ducking and sliding down those hills? It gets you under all of the logs.
I could see two possible reasons why it would not be an improvement:
1-It is impossible to slow down appropriately and you'll hit the water/fishbones... which... isn't really a problem since you're not likely to lose your health,
2-The more likely reason if there is one: it doesn't matter how quickly you get to the bottom of the hills to the water/platform, it's on it's own cycle.
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 100
Location: Michigan, United States
can you not gain more speed ducking and sliding down those hills? It gets you under all of the logs.
My main concern here was to avoid shells, however I had not considered the possibility of this saving more time than a bonus plok wastes.
It does matter how quickly you get to the bottom, as well. The water platform cycle will not start without you jumping on it first.
Noted for the next run.
