To start off I currently speedrun this game. I only play on Gnarly and currently hold most of the current Individual Level World Records for Raphael. The current single segment runner for Raphael Lovins33 who is my protage/friend/rival and I were talking a little while ago and both agreed it would be amazing to see a TAS of this game. The game has great Stage Design and Boss Fights as a whole as well as an interesting list of mechanics and speed tricks most of which are useful in the run. Bosses can be manipulated for the most part especially during the first stages of the fight and it would be incredible to see what Tool Assisted Speedrunners could find to advance the game even more. Also the game currently has 9 Characters to play as the top tiers include 1) Raph, 2) Leo, 3) April, 4) Splinter and 5) Casey. Don is very interesting but, extremely hard for speedrunners to optimize. As he can do stages really well but, its very difficult to get Boss Fights on par with the other 5 I listed.
I don't know how up to date current TAS tools are for creating a TAS for this game but, I was just wondering if anyone was interesting in making a TAS for this incredible game. If so I will list all the info on what is currently known about the game and the various speed tricks that are used. For now I'm just seeing if people are interested in making one.
SPEEDRUN TECHNIQUES
Here is the list of the various Mechanics and Speedrun tricks/techniques to look for when watching or speedrun this game. In this speedrun there are various speed tricks that may go unseen if you have no knowledge of them. So I will explain in detail so you can better understand the game.
QUICK SCREEN SCROLLS/ENEMY QUICK SPAWNS
One of the most obscure speed techniques in the game are Quick Screen Scrolls/Enemy Quick Spawns. So the game will proceed when an enemy is dead to spawn out certain enemies in the room or the last enemy in the room to unlock the Screen Scroll. Now normally when an enemy dies it enters a falling state but, if you hit a dead enemy AKA overkill or kill an enemy while it is in a Fall State it will register its dead immediately allowing the next wave to spawn sooner or unlock the scroll to the next room.
A couple of minor more obscure things to note is if you kill an enemy in an Armored State like a ninja that is throwing a bomb or an Axe Ninja trying to swing you will have to overkill them for the Quick Scroll/Spawn. Also if an enemy is in an Air Reset state you will need to put them into a fall state in order to get the Quick Scroll/Spawn. If multiple enemies are killed at the same time with a Dive Super you will have to hit all of them with your next attack to Quick Scroll/Spawn right away. Wall Splats can also lead to Quick Scroll/Spawn as they register that the enemy is dead upon splat animation.
INSTANT CHARGE ATTACK/CHARGE ATTACK TECHNIQUES
Another technique some might not know of being new to the game is called the Instant Charge Attack/Heavy Swing which can be done in 2 different ways. I will copy it from Wavuvi Guide which explains it very well. Here is the link which is a little out of date as it hasn't been updated in a while but, still contains a lot of great information.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2825154271
All characters can get a full charge instantly after a Full X X X X Combo or a Flying Attack (B+A). In both cases the button must be held on the last attack input. Doing so correctly your character will enter the charge state and immediately 'DING' for a full charge. Easy for backflip (only 1 button press), but requires a little more finesse on the 4 hit string.
The hit before charging MUST connect with an enemy or object to get the instant charge.
Raph can't do this to most enemies unless they are against the wall, as his Flying Attack has huge knockback. But he does get 1 extra damage on the move.
One other thing to note is you can change direction by holding the opposite direction while waiting for the charge animation to kick in. This turn animation thing doesn't just work with quick charges either you can also initiate a normal charge after a Dive Kick or any attack if you hold the attack button while tapping or holding the opposite direction during the recovery animation which is useful if you want to be as close to a wall as possible.
Due to the DLC patches and beyond you can actually jump or dodge while in your Charge Attack Animation. This is somewhat useful if you find yourself out of position due to enemy movement or poor decision on the players part.
DASH/BACK KICK/JUMP/SLASH/RISING ATTACK CANCELS
One other very useful technique to know is how cancelling works in this game. There are many ways to cancel your moves. Dashing, Rising Attack and Front and Back Flip all have there uses. The most useful are Dashing and Rising Attack because it allows you to move sooner or deal more damage quickly while also cancelling the animation of your final attack. Here is more detail from Wavuvi guide which also will help explain the last technique I will go over.
The lag from final hit of the 4 hit combo can be interrupted by doing a dash attack or a rising attack.
Rising attack (jump + attack) cancelling is useful on Bebop, Rocksteady, Groundchuck & Dirtbag, Tempestra, Leatherhead, and Krang to avoid their melee attacks. It has situational use to escape incoming attacks from regular enemies as well without giving up damage output entirely.
Dash cancelling is the key to maximizing damage out and really shines on 10 HP enemies, Chromedome, and the final 2 bosses.
This is how to do it: X, X, X, X, dash, X, repeat
The lag of the final hit of the standard combo will be interrupted by the dash attack. As a bonus, it speeds up the next standard combo after the dash attack. On Chill/Okay difficulty starting with a dive special and going into this combo loop allows every character to 2 cycle Chromedome and 4 cycle the final boss. The first boss on the final level is often -just- out of reach of dash attacks, so it only works based on character and boss position.
Back Kick which is done by hitting back and attack at the same time not sure the frame window on it but, you must bring it to a neutral state while attacking as it will reverse buffer into Dash Attack. Not very useful for speedruns as its hard to do but, another note about back kick is that it can also be canceled into Rising Attack/Jump/Dash Attack.
Due to the most recent patch of the game Jump can now cancel your attacks as well. This doesn't have any speedrun applications currently but, it has a lot of potential. Its great with one of the New Characters Usagi though.
Another note Jump can also be canceled into Rising Attack for a higher Rising Attack. This isn't easy for speedrunners and also doesn't have any current useful applications at all.
Now there is one other technique that is called slash cancelling when you are next to a wall you can get faster combos off without dash attacking and dashing into a wall to stop your momentum which will lead to more damage per second this technique is only really used on the Statue of Tyranny Boss Fight.
QUICK RISE INVULNERABILITY
While Quick Rising after getting hit and knocked down you will have quite a few frames of invulnerability on all your moves if you attack within a certain window after quick rising. This even includes attacks like Dive Kick which means its a very long invulnerability period overall.
ATTACK SPEEDUP
The last technique I want to go over is Attack Speedup which has various applications used throughout the course of the speedrun. So in a nutshell there are various ways to speed up your attacks. The basic property that causes this is the recovery animation in certain moves. The fastest speed combo is done off of a Dive Super which has about 20 or so recovery frames if you go into full combo right after you will speed your combo up significantly. For instance a Normal Standing Combo for Raph is about 56 frames. After Dive Super it can be done in 35 frames. Another speed up though not as drastic can also be done off Dash Attack which lowers it to 49 frames.
Also here is a list to the current IL Speedruns for Raph. I hope people will check out the other Gnarly IL's that are available like Leo, April and Don. Since we don't have a Level Select for Arcade Mode Settings we have to cope and keep track of our meters properly when emulating Arcade Mode in Story Mode Settings. Characters at Full Power in Story Mode have 5 Extra Health Bars and have potential to gain up to 3 Super Meters. Arcade Mode only has one Super Meter.
https://www.speedrun.com/shredders_revenge/levels?h=1p-individual-levels-raph-arcade-Gnarly&x=02q6wz7k-wl3dg0y8.mlno9g0q-wle9vv48.4qykr041-68k5ee38.5q8noygq