Wario Land Super Mario Land 3.is pretty much part sequel, part spin-off..
From Wikipedia:
Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 starts at the end of Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins. Wario Land features a theme of greed remarkably different from almost all of Nintendo's other franchises: It is the first game Nintendo has made where the main character's cause is decidedly selfish. There are no princesses to save, no world in peril. There is only one goal: for Wario to earn as much money as possible, in an effort to buy his own massive castle and make Mario jealous. The larger the cash total Wario has collected at the end of the game, the better house (and ending) that Wario will receive.
Emulator used: vba-rerecording-19 3.exe
- The newer v22 does work when you load up a GBx Rom
Game objectives
- Aims for the fastest time
- Heavy glitch abuse
- No damage taken (losing the Jet hat is a BAD idea)
- Uses impossible D-pad inputs (Up and Down. Left and Right)
- Abuses fake deaths (this is not a typo).
- Manipulates Luck (coins from blocks, coins after defeating a boss and the 3rd boss).
- Does not use the debug code (pause the game, press select 16 times = tweak Wario).
- Doesn’t have the patience for auto scrolling moments and breaks the game
Secondary game objectives.
- Aims for the lowest coin total (only applies to Course 40, the rest of the courses actually saves time).
Re-recording count note:
Although the re-record count is over 37 thousand. It’s really 15873; this is because the other 21407 is from my past cancelled WIP (perfect ending). I didn’t had any experience of Hex-editing so to save time I started re-recording for the Any% next to the first ladder on the 4th level.
Tricks and glitches used:
High Jumps while crouching:
Holding Down for one frame and then Up+Down (+Left or Right) +A for a couple more frames enables Wario to perform a high jump while crouching, it has some uses to cut ceiling/block corners and to High jump much sooner from the doorways
Notable courses: Nearly everywhere.
Destroying multiple blocks above Wario in 1 jump without the bull hat.
Use a Crouch high jump and when Wario is near a block let go the down button for 2 frames and then hold down again. This way Wario instantly destroys a block and return to a crouch state while still rising from his high jump.
Notable courses: 20 and 38
Jet ‘diving’
During casual play, when Wario has run out of fuel when Jet Dashing he descends in an angle. You can use this move anywhere during a dash by pressing A on the first frame followed by pressing B on the second frame.
Jet Dashing underwater.
When you swim up to the water’s edge Wario is technically in the air and activating the Jets will enable Wario to Jet pass through water based areas much faster than intended.
Notable courses: 8
Faster ways to climb up ladders:
There a couple of ways to go up much faster than the default climbing method.
The platform hitbox is pretty big that Wario can go up nearly 90% of a ladder block when you disable his jet dash.
Abusing this enables Wario to go up ladders very quickly.
Pros:
Very effective if there isn’t any open space.
Notable courses: 4, 38
Cons:
Unfortunately it doesn’t work well if the ladder is surrounded by huge open space.
In other words, a near peak High Jump to a Jet Dash is faster than Jet Dashing to the ladder first and hyper climb. Course 27 is a good example.
The second problem is when the game camera is in ‘free mode’.The camera pans on Wario not just the X axis but also the y axis. When you do a hyper climb the camera doesn’t follow therefore abusing it will enable Wario to go off screen. Off screening is actually pretty bad because if you enter a doorway while being far off screen to the point Wario appears from the bottom, Wario will end up in a different room (usually for the worse, rather than the better).
Sprite limit overload:
This game can’t handle loads of active sprites at once that the game may remove a newer sprite ahead to keep the game stable. I took advantage of this and removed a giant Skull door.
Notable courses: 27 & 37
Hit box abuse:
When Wario is jet dashing, his hitbox is notably different that I can go through the ceiling spikes and spear traps without any problems, this looks way more suspicious than Mario jumping over a Piranha plant on SMB1.
The Pirate Goon (spearmen) have a bizarre hitbox that one of their idle looking sprites are vulnerable to a dash attack to the front.
Fake Death (Major trick Course 33)
For some odd reason it’s possible to cancel his death by cancelling his Jet Dash followed by pressing B on the next frame. Wario will die but then immediately Jet Dash right afterwards, gaining control after his fake death disables the auto scrolling camera movement. A huge timesaver I was never going to expect to discover otherwise sub 30 minutes wouldn’t be possible. If you dash underneath the platform part of the minecart you will be on top of the cart once you dash across the middle part of the cart,
Giant coin:
A very useful weapon to kill heavy enemies (D.D aka Dangerous Duck and those Yo-yo pirates) and light enemies without having to pick up a small coin. You can recover sooner by pressing A for one frame followed by pressing B on the next frame.
Frame Rule:
This game has a frame rule window of 8 frames. This also means that if someone is going to improve this run, you may need to beat each room by at least 4-5 frames to get a better chance of beating the 8 frame rule window (and therefore save 8 frames per room).
Skipping courses:
This is one important trick, it enables you to skip CERTAIN courses. It basically requires a non console friendly input (usually Up+Down+Left AND/OR Right)
List of skip able courses:
10, 21, 23, 28*, 29*, 32*
But it does have limitations
- You can’t skip 2 courses in a row (like Course 28 and 29) I tried exiting the later course to see if I can skip it but it doesn’t work.
- Skipping course 32 prevents Wario advancing to the next world, so if you don’t drain the lake, then you can’t go to Syrup Castle.
Boss battle coin celebration mechanics:
The prize coins spawn/activates when:
- Wario is on the ground
- Wario is (Jet) Dashing
- Wario collides to a wall by performing a Dash attack.
It does not activate when Wario is in Mid-air during a jump not doing anything else.
The event ends sooner when there are a few coins left to spawn and when Wario is not in mid-air doing nothing.
On Mt. Teapot and SS Tea Cup boss battles you can end the event much sooner by simply falling into the pit but only when the event has started.
So in course 5 (Rice Beach) I had to spam the jet dash (and cancelling) certain frames so I can get loads of small coins without losing too much frames. When there were 3 remaining I have to toss 1 big coin then pick up a small coin, and repeat that method 2 more times so that I finish the course with 000. The reason why I didn’t jet dive to the ground because I wouldn’t have enough time sorting out the big coin and most of the small coins could be out of place (in other words the prize coins are random and they don’t land on the exact same positions).
Leaving the coin countdown room sooner.
Clearing the course with 0 coins enables Wario to leave the Coin total room 120 frames earlier
Rice Beach
Course 1:
Most of the work here was done by Blu Blu for his really good and entertaining attempt in course 1. The second room was done by me.
Course 2:
The first half before the jet power up was done by Blublu, but the rest was done by me.
Course 3:
This course was fully done by me (and onwards to the end of the run).
Course 4:
This is where my run shows new notable material. If you watched the cancelled 100% WIP, I didn’t perform the hyper climb until Course 30 when I found out the trick. I saved 24 frames but I lost 1 frame due to bad luck. Fortunately the 8-frame rule loads up 1 less frame, recovering the lost.
Course 5:
In the small tunnel room with 2 flashing spike orbs. I found out that you can defeat them with a Giant Coin. Saving a whooping 72 frames.
During the boss battle. I managed to hit the boss for the second time 4 frames earlier compared to my cancelled WIP. You also get to see that the Giant coins can’t be thrown off the screen.
However, if you throw a Giant coin and then pick up a regular coin. You’ll be able to throw another Giant coin. I took advantage by trying to collect the coins first to end the bonus game sooner and releasing all of the coins I’ve collected.
Mt. Teapot
Course 7 & 8:
Nothing too spectacular, viewers may remember this from my cancelled 100% WIP.
Course 9:
A slight change in one of the rooms thanks to the hyper climb trick.
Course 10:
Skipped by using a bug.
Course 11:
Not using the star actually saves time.
Course 12:
Pretty short course, the bottom route in the second room could have been used but it will require a different route in the first room so that I will have 20 coins in the third room.
Course 13:
I had to sacrifice a frame when destroying a set of blocks to prevent a coin spawning. Luckily it wasn’t enough to make me lose 8 frames overall due to frame ruling. After the boss battle I ended the coin event at the earliest possible frame.
Courses 14 – 19 are from Sherbet Land, a hidden world you’ll only see in a 100% run. It’s unlocked by finding the secret exit on Course 8.
Stove Canyon
Course 20:
During the latter half of the course, the hyper climb trick had a few issues against the first spearman. Wario cannot take out a Giant coin when he is ‘standing’ on the ladder. So the solution looks sloppy but is unfortunately the fastest way to get through at the time.
The next spearman wasn’t a problem since I had a Giant coin to take him out and with the sprite overload happening at the same time, I managed to remove the last spearman instantly.
Course 21:
Skipped
Course 22:
Very similar to the 100% cancelled WIP
Course 23:
Skipped
Course 25:
A pretty tough route, I have a feeling it is improvable but it’s very awkward at the same time. If I had 8 coins at around “375 remaining” I will have problems dealing with one of the spearmen. The boss does look like (Luck wise) it is improvable but I really had a very tough time to manipulate him to attack sooner than the run is shown on here but it never happened. It reminds me of RNGing where the seed gives him a sets of spots where the boss either uses his tongue or his nose and the (random) actions forces him to use a move at this certain spot. I manipulated him using his nose attack at the exact same spot despite using a different set of random actions.
Having 25 coins during the boss battle made it harder for the coin celebration event. I did throw away 2 giant coins before the event but to finish the event pretty fast I had to pick up 25 small coins and 3 giant coins (giving a total of 60).
I drop to the ground without Jet Diving because I didn’t have enough time to throw 6 giant coins in a very short time. Although it’s probably improvable it’s nice to see a complicated strat being cleared with 000 coins.
S.S. Teacup
Course 26:
It’s short only because there is a long, secret path that leads to the treasure.
Course 27:
I tested both routes to see which 7 coins were faster and the treadmill track route was slower than the route shown on this video. At the end I used the sprite limit overload trick to remove the skull door. It requires using a giant coin and other moving actors (enemies) to cause the sprite overload to happen.
Course 28:
Course 28 is skippable but I haven’t found a way to skip 2 courses in a row (as course 29 can be skipped too). I play through this course then skip the later course mainly because this one is the shorter of the two.
Course 29:
Skipped
Course 30:
The checkpoint room was notably different, hyper climbing the second ladder was fast enough for Wario to avoid the spearman. The next 2 rooms I had to limit Wario’s hyper climb abuse because entering a doorway while being off-screen wiil take him to a different room for the worse (in this case the treasure room).
Parsley Woods
Course 31:
The coin route is easier than I thought, it seems like there was enough space to avoid the last set of coins by jet dashing and avoiding the death trigger below.
Course 32:
Exactly the same when comparing to the Cancelled 100% WIP. Jet Dashing on top of the mine carts gives me a small speed boost saving a couple of frames. After draining the lake, take a note on the World Map’s name. From Parsley to Parsely
Course 33:
This is the first level where all of the input had no inspiration from any other past WIPs.
I managed to touch the first mine cart on a very early frame. If I land on the mine cart too soon I will need to spam his fake death even more. I did a test and found out that touching the mine cart on the earliest possible frame isn’t the fastest to finish the room due to one too many Fake death setups. Spamming the fake death uses up the sprite actor limit and it enables me to instantly remove all of the enemies on screen.
For the second mine cart I couldn’t activate it too soon unlike the first mine cart. However because the first dash was closer to the centre of the mine cart I only had to use the fake death exploit once.
Bonus Material:
The discovery of the bug.
Course 34:
The tree course, I had to only sacrifice 1 frame loop (8 frames) to pick up a few coins enough as the fastest possible route wasn’t divisible by 10. This course also contains one of the most memorable shortcuts for both Any% and 100% by going Out of Bounds and end up in the treasure room. This trick was discovered by Freefang.
When you go out of bounds you need to wait until Wario is on screen for a few seconds. If you press up too soon, you’ll end up in a different room. In this case I pressed up on the earliest possible frame that takes me to the room I wanted to go (inside the tree with the treasure door lock.
Course 35:
This course also contains another Out of Bounds shortcut. Going out of bounds wasn’t discovered by me but the uses when going out of bounds (sequence breaks like skipping 2 auto scrolling sections) were discovered by me. You might be thinking why I had to stand still and wait at one point & after jet dashing to the right, I had to go to the left and then right again. I got a video with annotations which should explain it a bit easier.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AEqpXcPA2Q
Syrup Castle
Course 36:
During the boss battle the only way to pick up the coins very quickly after defeating the boss is to become petrified for a few seconds and by holding Up+A you’ll get an extra height boost. The fastest method to defeat the ghost is by picking up the first spear ghost, and then wait until he summons another spear ghost. If you attack too soon after obtaining the first spear ghost, the boss will slowly move to the left and repeat his cycle costing too much time.
Starting the boss battle with 10 coins is way better than 9coins because I can just pick up all 30 small coins and throw 3 giant coins right afterwards. After collecting the 30th coin I jet dive down to the ground because it will end the event sooner, I didn’t start the dive too soon because I wouldn’t have enough time (and even if I did when testing it the frame rule prevented me saving 8 more frames than the attempt shown here).
Course 37:
Nothing too special except the last room. I did some trial and error tests on how to remove the skull sign by sprite limit overload abuse. It seems like it only works when, I make contact to the Yo Yo pirate’s left side and then throw away a giant coin. I tried abusing the glitch by jumping on top of him but it didn’t work.
Course 38:
A pretty complex level really. The vertical room in particular was a bit difficult but I chose the left half because it didn’t involve changing direction (going to the right) and then hyper climb up but also because of ‘free cam’ mode hyper climbing is limited so some jump boosts from the enemies and high jumps on the top of short ladder parts made a superior route choice.
Course 39:
Pretty short and you get to see more hit box abuse with those blade traps in the second room.
Course 40:
Final course at last.
I pick up 20 coins in the first room so that the first giant coin is used against the knight sub boss and the last 10 coins to swap with the genie lamp (and to finish with the absolute minimum coin total possible).
After the knight room, I had a tough time deciding the route due to hyper climb limitations in ‘free cam’ mode. What is important is that you need to hyper climb the first ladder to dodge the first fireball trap. Wario can’t perform high jumps if he is in front of a ladder tile but can if he is on top of the ladder tile (assuming pressing UP doesn’t force Wario to be in his climbing mode).
The genie boss battle wasn’t too hard but it’s a shame that there aren’t enough frames for Wario to go on the ground and do some random actions so that he can hit him again without losing any frames.
Possible improvements:
Some parts may be improvable but the 8 frame rule prevents most of the simple rooms being cleared a few frames faster to beat the rule.
Better optimisation and better luck in the boss rooms (the coin prizes for instance) and the free cam rooms that involves hyper climbing.
And better stunt based actions during the parts I have to wait.
Many thanks to:
Mickey Mage: Produced a impressive Real time run of this game
Free Fang: Discovered some important out of bounds, most notably course 34.
Blublu: For discovering the key shortcut in Course 4 and optimizing Course 1.
--
Swordlesslink & Nineko : For praising my attempts in 2008 on my cancelled WIP.
Grunt: Found the cause why I couldn't login to the TASvideos Wiki
And TASvideos for having a site that make these kinds of runs possible.
Note to encoders:
Since the ending is pretty lengthy I added the frame number where it is safe to end, to avoid any guess work for you encoders if you’ve never played this game.
Recommended end AVI frame: 132600
Recommended Screenshots:
74432
80547
80701
94864
97863
103076
To do: Edit the text a bit more to make it easier to read.
GabCM: Added another YouTube module.
GabCM: Removed my YouTube module. Since the encode is broken... again...
Nach: Nice to see a good run of a highly anticipated run finally submitted. It even surpassed my expectations. Accepting.
sgrunt: This will be published as soon as I finish uploading it to archive.org.