Further, the time of this run is about 40 seconds slower than the baseline run. Simply obtaining the powerup doesn't take that long; so either there are unnecessary inputs at the end of the run that didn't get truncated correctly (I didn't check), or it's evidence that this submission lacks known optimizations that are present in the baseline run.
I think most of the extra 40 seconds is blank input, but I did notice a few optimization issues during the run such as slowing down on some staircases.
The staircase slowdown on 8-2 I'd assume you're talking about is due to unfortunate placing of enemies (the spiny thrown by lakitu). The thing is, due to the European Version's (PAL) faster acceleration, the spiny does not have time to fall lower. If you run as fast as possible you will hit it and lose the fire mushroom. So unfortunately we have to slow down. Although, it looks like I slowed down too much, it is the closest by the frame you could slow down for it to fall.
Other than merely obtaining the fire powerup (and using it to dispach a few enemies where it's not extra beneficial to kill in this manner), this run doesn't appear to offer anything significantly different in general gameplay from the baseline run. Therefore, in my opinion, obtaining the powerup is effectively just time wasted, as its acquisition doesn't benefit the run in any meaningful way. If it was worthwhile to have the fire power (by either being faster than a small mario run, or by offerring a significant difference to the overall gameplay experience) then this branch might be worthwhile.
Further, the time of this run is about 40 seconds slower than the baseline run. Simply obtaining the powerup doesn't take that long; so either there are unnecessary inputs at the end of the run that didn't get truncated correctly (I didn't check), or it's evidence that this submission lacks known optimizations that are present in the baseline run.
In my opinion, this run shouldn't be accepted for publication.
Yes. Around ~35 seconds are blank inputs after I complete the game (idk how to fix it) thus I put the title as 4:57.300 since that would be the correct RTA time.
About the Fire powerup, You're right, Its just that I assumed that since there is a speedrun category for the same thing, making a TAS for such category would make sense. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVPm0oioBww&ab_channel=Niftski
Thank you all for expressing your opinion on the viewing experience. Sadly due to my potato laptop, I couldn't remove the pink pixel at the left side.
If there's more that worsen the viewing experience, let me know to make those mistakes in case I ever submit a TAS again 👍