This is a TAS of the 10 time attack courses of Mr. Driller 2. The game is a fast paced puzzle game where the goal is to drill to the bottom of the level within the time limit.
The reason this is tagged with "Time attack courses" is because there are also a mission mode and an endless mode.
- Aims for fastest in-game time.
- Aims for fastest real time.
- Genre: Puzzle.
I decided to aim for fastest in-game time first and fastest real time second, since the in-game time is shown at the end of the level. I thought this would add to the entertainment. It also adds a bit more to the strategy, since you have to consider what time bonuses (these subtract from the current in-game time) to pick up: these items are usually a bit out of the way, so it requires some planning to figure out which ones are worth getting.
There is no precedent run of this game (at least non that I know of), neither normal console speedrun or TAS, so I didn't have much to compare to. This is my second version of this TAS, and I tested several strategies for all levels in order to find the best one. Although the game is fairly simple, it's not trivial to TAS, and there are many minor tricks you can use to shave off a few frames here and there.
Here is a table of the in-game times I got for each level as well as the time required to pass the level (s=seconds, m=minutes):
| Course | My time | Time limit |
|---|
| Course A | 10.98s | 24s |
| Course B | 6.59s | 16s |
| Course C | 33.24s | 46s |
| Course D | 7.75s | 16s |
| Course E | 15.65s | 28s |
| Course F | 24.55s | 37s |
| Course G | 11.06s | 28s |
| Course H | 32.89s | 43s |
| Course I | 19.14s | 36s |
| Course J | 1m 0.90s | 1m 45s |
Notes:
- It's faster to drill through bigger blocks and thus falling a greater distance than drilling through several small blocks.
- You can move a few pixels horizontally while falling if there is nothing blocking you from doing this. This is a good way to move horizontally without losing any time.
- For some reason, you fall slightly faster on the last level: you fall one block in 6 frames rather than 7. I don't know why this is, or if it noticable when watching the TAS.
Thanks to funnyhair for support and feedback.
I hope you enjoy this little TAS!
klmz: I was expecting some more feedbacks since last weekend, which unfortunately didn't come up. Given what I have read so far, people enjoy the speedy resolutions of the puzzles in this submission. As long as it doesn't feel repetitive, I am accepting this submission as the goals are sensible and the overall quality is high.
Note: I changed the branch name, although it might look too long. This is subject to change again.
sgrunt: I've set the branch name to "Time Attack", in the interest of having a short-yet-unambiguous branch name that corresponds to what the mode is called in game.