This is my timeattack attempt at X-men, a side-scroler of the most popular mutants of the Marvel Comics for SNES, and in my humble opinion, one of the best X-men game ever made. The storyline is typical: Magneto wants to destroy humanity, and the X-men, lead by Charles Xavier, need to stop him. The game is a simple beat’em up, but most of the time you don't need to kill all the enemies to advance. Each X-man has some advantages over the others, and the choice for each stage isn't as hard as it appeared at first. Psylocke is the fastest, Beast is the strongest (highest damage rate), Gambit and Wolverine are in the middle of this. Cyclops is a good choice for a realtime game, but is much too slow for a TAS; however, you must use him at his starting stage.
  • - Aims for fastest completion
  • - Takes no Damage
  • - Manipulates luck (to control enemies' moves)
  • - Uses no Passwords
I've used snes9x improvement9 to make this movie, and a (U) Rom.
  • Use WIP1 Timing: ON
  • Allow Left+Right / Up+Down: OFF
  • Volume Envelope Height Reading: OFF
  • Fake Mute desync workaround: OFF
  • Sync samples with sound CPU: OFF

Stage by Stage

The time i used for frame counting starts when the text "Mission Start" flashes for the first time, and ends when the "Mission Complete" is fully completed on the screen.

Cyclops Stage

Cyclops (and all other characters) is faster jumping than walking. The recover time from his slide is very slow, but when i did this and fall from a platform, the recover time is minimum. His slide is very short, then i used this only when jumping isn't faster than sliding. As soon as the first aircraft is destroyed, the third aircraft shows up. And as soon as the second is destroyed, the fourth aircraft shows up. Therefore, i only need to kill as soon as possible the second and the fourth aircrafts, which leaves me free to just play around with the other two.In the bridge, i killed the aircraft while jumping, which made me fall at maximum speed.
Stage Time: 5406 frames
Frames Gained: 212

Beast Stage

This level had a lot of things to be improved. The most notable points are the miniboss and boss fights. Both are much faster than the previous version and give me a lot of time. The Head Hop used to avoid the Brass Knuckle Guy also give me the correct time to avoid one of the bombs in the ceiling. Beast have the most powerfull attack from the game: The Double-hit Headbutt (DHHB). it helped a lot to the boss fights and the obrigatory beat'em up fights.
Stage Time: 4539 frames
Frames Gained: 1114

Gambit Stage

No surprises. In my last run i already did a frame-perfect double-kicks moves, then all the frames gained in this movie are from the fights. In other words, i just correct my errors from the last run.
Stage Time: 7270 frames
Frames Gained: 713

Wolverine Stage

Just in the start i have a 2 frames delay because of a brown guy who try to smash me (probly because of randomness of different stage order). The Guys Fight are optimized, and i think it cant be finished faster (probly i'm wrong, but let me stay in my fantasy world =D). This improve too my climbing time, because i never fall before grabbing the wall. Robot fights are good, but not the best. I just couldn't make the boss not jump at the start of the fight. It give me a delay of +-30 frames, but i decided to stay with it. The airdash to knock down the Brass Knuckle Guy give me 60 frames, and the sentinel fight is frame-perfect (but can be done faster if the green guys don't come so close).
Stage Time: 4323 frames
Frames Gained: 376

Psylocke Stage

This is the hardest of the 5 initial stages to optimize, because it has 3 beat'em up areas that i need to test in a lot of ways to discover which is the fastest. I abused the larger hitbox of Flying Knee to defeat the enemies before they stay on my visible reach. I didn't improve this stage as much as i wanted to, because the only improveable parts were beat'em up, and there aren't that many. All the rest of the stage is "Slide as fast as you can", and i already did this in frame perfect.
Robot fight i just waited for some moments because if i run directly to it, it lands. Then, i have much less area to hit him and avoid his attacks. The main time gained in this fight came from a better use of the Psychic Knife.
Sentinel fight is boring, but efficient. Anyway... i gained 62 frames in this fight.
Stage Time: 6123 frames
Frames Gained: 613

Brood (Alien) Stage

The most notable change of this stage is the character. Gambit still being the fastest person to kill the boss, Psylocke is the fastest to get through the stage. Even with this, it was a pain to keep her faster than Gambit (She comes to the boss like... 500 frames ealier. But Gambit almost makes it up by killing the boss much faster than her).
On this stage, Psylocke is faster than any other character because of 2 factors: She can jump over the trucks and she has the longest slide of the game. The "fight" with the eggs are perfected. Is impossible to kill then faster (believe, i tried every possibilities).
I redid the Queen Brood Fight at least 4 times from the start to the finish, trying not to waste Psylocke's time gained in the stage and stay faster than the overall Gambit. The last hit is delayed on purpose to position the boss in the edge of the screen to make the stage end earlier.
Stage Time: 3343 frames (417 frames to password screen)
Frames Gained: 543 (623 to password screen)

Tusk Stage

From this point to the end of the game, i used just the Beast, because he's the strongest of all. The Headbutts in frame-perfect made me reach the end of the stage without problems. Then i kill the 6 Tusketes. If i kill they in the mid of the stage, when i reach this point there will be more tusketes respawning.
Tusk fight isn't hard to perfect. With a good manipulation i could hit him with 2 HeadButts in sequence (To see it easily, slow down the speed between the frames 40700 to 40750), because he stay stuck under the elevator. One thing that we need to consider: The lava never kill Tusk, no matter how much Health he has.
In other words: It isn't a hard stage to optimize, so it is hard to improve. Play with the Tuskete on the screen maybe made the fight more impressive, but Beast has slow recovery from the Headbutt, which made the Tuskete catch me offguard.
Stage Time: 1455 frames
Frames Gained: 221

Apocalypse Stage

At first, i thought that only Psylocke could pass all the barriers, but Spider-Waffle told me that Beast could do it too. I tried, and it works! With Beast's Climbing abilities, the 2 climbing parts are made much faster than last time. At the only beat'em up part of the stage, it was hard to find a way to defeat the Knife Guys because in order to connect the Double-Hit Headbutt i need to stay inside the enemy. The hitbox of the knife Guys change a lot when they stay in the hit animation. With a good manipulation i made the Green Guy walk together with the last Knife Guy, and could hit both with only a single Double-Hit Headbutt.
Apocalypse fight is very hard to optimize, because he teleports after he's hit a certain amount of times. But start beating him in a specific frame made him acept all the hits until he died. It was hard to find the specific point to jump and start the combo.
Stage Time: 2883 frames
Frames Gained: 1920!!

Omega Red Fight

No secrets either. I just find a way to kill Omega Red in two combos. I couldn't find a way to kill him in only one because he start to swing his tentacles after the fifth hit, no matter what i do.
Stage Time: 906 frames
Frames Gained: 458

Juggernaut Fight

Beast again. I was afraid with this stage because Juggernaut have a lot of attacks that have auto-guard (He can be hit, but the move doesn't stop), but with manipulation i could avoid all of them. The only thing that i don't like is stay in all bosses using the jump-hit-hit-hit-jump... Is so boring for me... =/
Stage Time: 912 frames
Frames Gained: 344

Exodus Stage

Better manipulation to remove the teleporting guys from my way, Exodus destroyed with only two combos, jumps made by frame-perfect, and boss fight at frame perfect too. No more secrets.
Stage Time: 3558 frames
Frames Gained: 335

Magneto Fight

I Played agressivelly with Magneto. I Abused manipulation to always make him use the Magnet Ray. I made him to use the steel throw twice because the delay of the Magnet Ray doesn't allow me to combo him as i wish (Elevators in a bad positioning).
Movie finished in the first possible frame to reduce movie lenght.
Stage Time: 2133 frames
Frames Gained: 867

Points to optimize

  • Cyclops Stage: At frame 2196 i forgot to make a jump. I just noticed this when i was already fighting Omega Red, and I didn't wanna to come back to the start of the movie because of 10 frames or less.
  • Beast Stage: Better Strategy to kill the sentinels (jump-hit-hit-hit-DoubleHit Headbutt doesn't kill them)
  • Gambit Stage:
    • At the start, has a Brown Guy that i knock off and continue the stage. If i kill him, a Brown guy appear in the platform over the box pile. If someone want to make a Take damage to save time run, you could use this new guy to boost you up to the platform. I didn't make this because (1) i didn't test to make sure this faster than normal way, and (2) This is the only part of all game that i could use a hit to boost me in a upper platform, so i prefered to keep it clean.
    • And in the last elevator fight, i can't manipulate the Green Guy to don't use the low kick. You can manipulate him to stay stopped and hit him and the gun guy without waiting time.
  • Apocalypse Stage: In the second climbing part, i think that i could use the diagonals to jump faster up. As the first improvement i said, i just noted this after i'm in a longer stage in the game.
  • Juggernaut Stage: I think i did a hit more than necessary. If i avoid it, then i gain 10 frames from the hitbox.

Special Thanks

  • To Spider-Waffle, who helped me a lot with hints and tips.
  • To FODA, who made a fast revision on my english =p

adelikat: A well planned, well executed run. The game is entertaining and has gotten good response. Accepting.

adelikat: Processing...

TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #1128: Nibelung's SNES X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse in 15:44.62
nesrocks
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Posts: 4096
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Already watched this, very well planned and executed. The best x-men game (imo), deserves this TAS. 2 thumbs up!
Active player (432)
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Posts: 3516
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
I'll refrain from voting since I dont know whether if I should vote yes or meh. The author did a good job but the game is a bit boring and the music is too quiet. Also, why wasnt Beast used in most of the stages? He does the most damage and also slides quickly. Edit: Thanks for the explanation. Voting Meh.
Nitrogenesis wrote:
Guys I come from the DidyKnogRacist communite, and you are all wrong, tihs is the run of the mileniun and everyone who says otherwise dosnt know any bater! I found this run vary ease to masturbate too!!!! Don't fuck with me, I know this game so that mean I'm always right!StupedfackincommunityTASVideoz!!!!!!
Arc wrote:
I enjoyed this movie in which hands firmly gripping a shaft lead to balls deep in multiple holes.
natt wrote:
I don't want to get involved in this discussion, but as a point of fact C# is literally the first goddamn thing on that fucking page you linked did you even fucking read it
Cooljay wrote:
Mayor Haggar and Cody are such nice people for the community. Metro City's hospitals reached an all time new record of incoming patients due to their great efforts :P
Joined: 9/1/2005
Posts: 803
AngerFist wrote:
Also, why wasnt Beast used in most of the stages? He does the most damage and also slides quickly.
While I haven't watched it, and have barely read the description, its probably because each stage is restricted to a specific character, perhaps excluding the final stage; can't remember.
Joined: 4/13/2006
Posts: 150
Location: Caratinga - MG - Brazil
why wasnt Beast used in most of the stages? He does the most damage and also slides quickly.
In the beginning i need to pass a mission with each X-man. From the 6th stage i can choose any character to pass the stage. In the Alien Stage, Beast isn't the best option because his headbutt don't go in diagonal-down and have a lot of enemies on the screen that can be hitten and slow him down.
Not more working on: DKC3 105% < Needs modified Nitsuja Snes9x+9, with reset recording.
Player (147)
Joined: 7/12/2006
Posts: 264
Location: Brazil
I look at the player's performance... the game is good, it is not a fast game... but the race was good...I liked...vote yes
adelikat
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Joined: 11/3/2004
Posts: 4736
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Looks optimized enough and the movie is entertaining enough. No complaints, though nothing particularly wow-ed me. I disagree that it is the best x-men game at least in TAS terms. Genesis X-men 2 is much faster paced and has more interesting strategic possiblities with wall & ceiling climbing and teleporting. Anyway, I will vote yes.
It's hard to look this good. My TAS projects
nesrocks
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I meant it's the best x-men game, period. Not the best to TAS. But since it is, as many people would say, the best x-men game, and the TAS is very precise, this would be good promotional material for the site.
Active player (308)
Joined: 2/28/2006
Posts: 2275
Location: Milky Way -> Earth -> Brazil
The best X-men game, in every way, it's X-Men vs Street Fighter. PERIOD
"Genuine self-esteem, however, consists not of causeless feelings, but of certain knowledge about yourself. It rests on the conviction that you — by your choices, effort and actions — have made yourself into the kind of person able to deal with reality. It is the conviction — based on the evidence of your own volitional functioning — that you are fundamentally able to succeed in life and, therefore, are deserving of that success." - Onkar Ghate
Bisqwit wrote:
Drama, too long, didn't read, lol.
Joined: 11/29/2005
Posts: 317
Location: Sao Paulo - Brazil
Great TAS, excelent game, a obviously YES vote (e ainda fala portugues =])
Post subject: Movie published
TASVideoAgent
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This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [739] SNES X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse by Nibelung in 15:44.62
Joined: 4/13/2006
Posts: 150
Location: Caratinga - MG - Brazil
Just to hep the "todo"s, i'll show some good screens: 14403 - Gambit stand in midair 28224 or 32611 - Psylocke showing her "non-hit" knee rising 43183 - Beast grabbing the upper platform 43643 - Beast using a small glitch to don't be hitten 56351 - Good Magneto screen, with the iron bars making an X The description can be something like this:
This is the better X-men game to the SNES. This game have the beaten-all format and 5 differents X-men to choice, anyone with different powers. The author completed it killing the minions the fastest possible time and taking no damage. Majority of the bosses even have a chance to move.
And you forget the (A.k.a: Nibelung) in the front page =] Thanks for the encoding. I was waiting for a long time to my first publishing movie. Now i just want my player status to be happy forever XD
Not more working on: DKC3 105% < Needs modified Nitsuja Snes9x+9, with reset recording.
Joined: 11/15/2004
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Location: Canada
The published run has been misspelled as "Muttant Apocalypse".
TASing or playing back a DOS game? Make sure your files match the archive at RGB Classic Games.
Joined: 8/1/2004
Posts: 2687
Location: Seattle, WA
Retroactively voting yes for a very entertaining and highly surprising run. May I suggest using the shot of Beast headbutting Juggernaut's crotch for the screen cap?
hi nitrodon streamline: cyn-chine
Joined: 4/13/2006
Posts: 150
Location: Caratinga - MG - Brazil
I don't know... Beast headbutting Juggernaut's Crotch is the screen that "stops" the fight, so it con be viewed to anyone. It's the reason that i not suggest the cyclops facing left when his blast go right (in the end of his stage).
Not more working on: DKC3 105% < Needs modified Nitsuja Snes9x+9, with reset recording.
Joined: 3/13/2004
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Location: Elyria/Oberlin, OH
Darn, I really wanna enjoy this one...but for some reason the sound isn't working. It's fine with literally every other TASvideos release. *shrug*
but then you take my 75 perchance chance of winning, if we was to go one-on-one, and then add 66 and two-thirds ch...percents...i got a 141 and two-thirds chance of winning at sacrifice
Joined: 9/24/2006
Posts: 4
I think the encoding got messed up, there's a three second delay before the movie actually starts playing, the sound doesn't work at all unless I open it with Avidemux (I tried Winamp, WMP, MPC, and VLC and they all did the same thing), and then it's played far too fast.
Joined: 3/13/2004
Posts: 706
Location: Elyria/Oberlin, OH
Any help? I still have the same problems. Thanks, Josh.
but then you take my 75 perchance chance of winning, if we was to go one-on-one, and then add 66 and two-thirds ch...percents...i got a 141 and two-thirds chance of winning at sacrifice
nesrocks
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Location: Rio, Brazil
It plays perfectly fine here. I have windows Xp latest ffdshow i'm using VLC media player on winamp and WMP it plays upside down
Joined: 3/13/2004
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Location: Elyria/Oberlin, OH
Yay, that works for me. Thanks a lot, FODA!
but then you take my 75 perchance chance of winning, if we was to go one-on-one, and then add 66 and two-thirds ch...percents...i got a 141 and two-thirds chance of winning at sacrifice
Joined: 7/7/2007
Posts: 161
This movie suffers from the same "Mono -> Joint Stereo" bug described here: http://tasvideos.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=148890#148890
Editor, Player, Publisher (46)
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