I decided to have a little look into this game. Its not a great game casually but it can be fast paced and it has a lot of jank which can make it an interesting speedrun. Speedrunner Baggypantsman had already made a TAS for this game which is around the 25-26 minute mark although the run is not super optimised and some discoveries have been made since that TAS.
Link to video
As a result, I decided that I would start working on my own TAS. So far, I have only done the first world and I have managed to save around 10 seconds compared to the pre-existing TAS. The time save comes from a mix of better optimisation and new strats, particularly with the grappling hook. The old TAS didn't get the grappling hook at all but I figured out a glitch to get it early and around half of the time save in this WIP comes from the grappling hook. This game is tricky to optimise and I am not certain if I will get this TAS done in the near future. I have provided the WIP file in case anyone wants to have a closer look into the run.
Link to videoUser movie #638934792523054271
This next thing is not an update to the TAS but rather, it is to show a theoretical skip that would be absolutely huge if a way to perform it could be found. 4-1 is a very long level (4+ minutes) where you slowly go down a Volcano. There is a bit of silver lining however because there is an end trigger which exists above the level so if you could somehow get above the level, the level could potentially be completed much faster, save a ton of time and eliminate the slowest and dullest level in the run. However, there currently is not a way to actually perform this and it seems like it would be extremely unlikely. I uploaded a video using position editing in order to demonstrate the debug trigger.
Link to video
Finished world 2. World 2 is over a minute faster than to the old TAS. The grappling hook is far more powerful in world 2, allowing for bigger skips. In addition to grappling hook stuff, there's better movement optimisation and a much faster Rufus section (which is unfortunately completely unskippable without some sort of way to break game progression).
Link to video
Finished world 3. I managed to save 1:40+ compared to the old TAS, leading of a total lead of close to 3 minutes going into world 4. Only one world left.
Link to video
