Magical Pop’n is a 1995 action-platformer developed by Polestar and published by Pack-In-Video exclusively for the Super Famicom. The game follows Pop’n, a young princess who sets out on a journey to recover a stolen magical item and prove her worth.
Game Objectives
- Takes damage to save time
- Uses death as a shortcut
- Emulator: BizHawk 2.11
This TAS was created in response to repeated requests and interest expressed in the SNES wishlist section of the TASVideos forum. The game had been suggested multiple times as a candidate for tool-assisted optimization, and this run aims to explore its mechanics in depth while demonstrating the fastest known completion strategies. The project was undertaken both to address that community interest and to showcase the potential for sequence breaking, damage abuse, and movement optimization present in Magical Pop’n.
Tricks and Techniques Used
Pogo Jumping
By pressing B, then Down + Y, Pop’n can jump slightly higher than a normal jump. This allows for extended airtime, rapid vertical movement, and skipping sections that would normally require standard platforming.
Camera Manipulation
By pressing the opposite horizontal direction every 15 frames, the camera can be prevented from scrolling as intended. This is used to keep enemies or objects off-screen, avoid some objects to spawn, and reduce lag in some areas.
Boss Fights
Due to the large number of stages in the game, this section focuses only on notable strategies used during boss fights rather than providing a stage-by-stage breakdown.
Furniture Mage
The first boss encountered in the game. While normally resilient to standard attacks, the Furniture Mage takes double damage from the Magical Beam, allowing the fight to be ended much more quickly with proper item usage.
Blue Gargoyle
The second boss. Like the previous boss, it takes increased damage from the Magical Items. Additional time can be saved by defeating it at a lower vertical position, which shortens the post-defeat transition.
Flying Seed Spitter
The third boss. Its movement can be manipulated to prevent it from continuously flying around, keeping it in a more favorable position and allowing for a faster and more controlled defeat.
Stone Skull
The fourth boss. Its behavior can be manipulated, and doing so results in a faster fight than simply attacking it continuously. During this battle, Pop’n intentionally takes damage to set up a death-based shortcut later in the run.
Cyclops Golem
The fifth boss. Once it loses its fire-spitting spikes, it becomes vulnerable to bombs, which then deal increased damage. Proper timing of the bomb attack allows the fight to be completed more quickly.
Four Faces
The fifth boss. This fight is relatively standard. The boss only takes damage while actively attacking, and its position cannot be manipulated for a lower-height defeat, requiring a straightforward approach.
Green Gargoyle
The sixth boss. Its behavior is very similar to the Blue Gargoyle, taking increased damage from the Magical Beam and allowing for additional time-saving if defeated at a lower vertical position.
Sir Frosty
The seventh boss. Each attack only deals one health point of damage, regardless of the type used. Prior to this fight, a Camera Manipulation trick is used to skip a large section, saving a lot of time.
Ogre Rhino
A mid-stage sub-boss. Ogre Rhino follows a simple and predictable attack pattern and does not allow for meaningful manipulation or positioning tricks.
Rocket Knight
Another sub-boss. Its behavior can be manipulated to prevent it from repeatedly flying away, keeping it grounded and within range for most of the fight.
Robotic Bird
The eighth boss in the game. Its head must be attacked first to expose its belly, which is the only vulnerable point. The fight is optimized to trigger this state as quickly and as often as possible.
Purple Wizard and Blue Mage
Two of the three sub-bosses encountered before the next main boss. Both fights are relatively standard, with little to no meaningful manipulation available, and are therefore handled in a straightforward manner.
Platinum Knight
The last sub-boss of the game. His behavior closely resembles the Rocket Knight fight. Its movement can be manipulated to prevent it from repeatedly retreating or repositioning, keeping it within attack range for most of the encounter.
Old Warlock and Pop'n Slayer
The final boss encounter consists of two phases: the first against the Old Warlock, and the second against the Pop'n Slayer. Both phases are relatively standard fights with limited opportunities for manipulation, and are handled in a straightforward manner, focusing on consistent damage to end the battle as quickly as possible.
Authorship and Acknowledgments
Dooty's
This TAS is co-authored with
0xwas Special thanks to him for sharing his excellent WIP and for the helpful discussion and insights provided on the forum, which were invaluable to the improvement of this run.
0xwas’s
I'd like to credit
Kirkq. He originally started working on Pop’n, and I later took over his work. Even after I had begun, he continued to provide valuable feedback and shared Lua scripts that greatly improved the project. Without his help, I wouldn’t have been able to upload WIPs with this level of quality.
Suggested Screenshot
Frame 43947
nymx: Claiming for judging.
nymx: Replacing with the final improvement.
nymx: I don't know what is more impressive...the thread collaboration, or the movie. As
Dimon12321 stated, this was a really good discussion having led to impressive results. This was fun to watch and I'm personally reminded how collaboration furthered my own work. Good work to the three of you on this excellent submission.
Accepting to "Standard".
