Game objectives
- Emulator used: DeSmuME 0.9.7 with Advanced Bus-Level Timing OFF
- Aims for fastest time
- Abuses programming errors
- Takes damage to save time
- Uses death to save time.
Super Mario 64 DS was released in 2004 for the Nintendo DS. The game is a remake of Super Mario 64 for the Nintendo 64, bearing some new features on its storyline, gameplay and graphics. Unlike Super Mario 64, this time there are 4 playable characters, but only Yoshi is available at the start.
This new submission is an improvement of 16302 frames to our previous publication due to a new strategy which lets us finishing the game with just one star, and some stage improvements that are described below.
Glitches and Tricks
- Outside the castle glitch: when using a slidekick, if you do it correctly with a certain angle (glitching inside the castle’s wall as you are entering the water), the character is pushed down to the water floor, bypassing the water-entry check into swim animation. However, getting too close to the water’s surface will trigger the swimming animation, making running to the moat door our only option. Also, if you press A or B 4 frames before glitching, you’ll always go to the water floor no matter your position. This is slower than the normal method but due to disregarding position it can become faster situationally.
- No input: this trick consists of not pressing any direction. It's useful while the character's speed is above normal top speed, since speed goes down slower than pressing any direction.
- Standstill run: holding the dash button without pressing any direction button makes the character run staying still. After doing it, pressing a direction would make the character run faster than normal speed and gain extra height on jumps. The trick is useful when you need to wait for something to happen.
- Dialogue glitch: it works by talking to toad/bunny when the game would be pushing you out of its sprite, making you go through boundaries with the right position.
- Wall corner glitch: By getting an optimal angle, you can slidekick or long jump in a wall corner in order to get pushed up (heaven portal), pushed down out of bounds to die instantly, or get through the wall.
- Direction reset: When pressing the opposite direction that the character is facing, the speed starts decreases until it becomes negative (which means the character is actually going to the opposite direction that he's facing). However, if the speed is 0 for a frame while decreasing the speed, the speed will increase (Positive numbers) even if you're going to the opposite direction so that you can start running fast or getting a high speed after landing from the jump instead of slow down.
- Outside the castle: We got a slightly better angle to reach the waterfall, saving 4 frames. Then, in order to glitch inside the castle's wall, when doing the slide kick, Yoshi turns around so that we can keep its speed after glitching, and being able to land on the stairs with a double jump. In total 42 frames were saved on this part.
- Basement (Yoshi): The main change here is the side jump angle. Instead of a forward side jump (which would be the natural way), we now use a backwards-right angle. This evade us from losing speed when getting close to the wall, which make us getting a bigger acceleration when Yoshi starts running again, saving 4 frames. Also because of the direction reset, Yoshi starts running fast just after landing since the trick makes the game think that Yoshi was already being moved straight ahead. After that, we needed a new strat to go to Shifting Sand Land level, since "Shining Atop the Pyramid" is the fastest star.
- Shining Atop the Pyramid (Shifting Sand Land) : We use a similar method to get this star than in our 8-star run. The main improvement was made by going to the left of the tornado, and using the touchscreen to get a better angle to reach the star. 50 frames were saved on this course.
- Main Hall: 4 frames were improved thanks to the touchscreen.
- Peach's room: We execute a corner glitch to go through the wall. Then, by jumping and hovering we get throught the Peach's portrait, afterwards a long jump is executed to get behind the character's wall, facing the 8 star door already. With a new jump and hovering, I land on the edge of the minigame's room, and there I'm already in a good position to long jump to get into Mario's paint.
- Goomboss: After climbing the pole, we were able to accelerate some frames before to get a better speed at the Long jump. We also noticed that it was slower to kill the piranha plant, saving 24 frames in total. The Goomboss battle was similar, however we were able to save 6 frames by positioning at the edge of the platform instead of being under Goomboss (it made the dialogue appear 6 frames before). Then, since 8 star door is still locked, we need to return to the main hall. The fastest way to do that is to kill yourself while getting the key, because this way it's possible to exit the course without needing to re-enter on it. Then the Main Hall's strat was purely replicated.
- Going to the basement: Since we still need the bunny's help to go through the walls, we need to talk to Toad so that we are aware that the bunny's are running around the castle. However, with the help of the new trick found on this speedrun (corner glitch), we are able to go outside the castle much faster, which consist on glitching in the corner to be pushed down and dying instantly. Then with just one long jump we reach the moat's door.
- Basement (Mario): Like Yoshi, changing the side jump angle was faster. 10 frames in total were saved on this part.
- Bunny glitch (basement): 2 frames were saved on the bunny glitch, and 8 frames were saved on the swimming because the new bunny glitch had a better angle.
- Bowser in the Fire Sea: 2 frames were saved at the first long jumps due to better angles. Then, we reach the pole with a back jump instead of a side jump, which makes Mario be able to leave the pole as soon as he touchs it since he gets the perfect alignement for it, saving around 60 frames. After the wallkicks, 2 frames were saved for triple jumping and diving instead of going up and double jumping and diving. The long jumps before reaching the edge of the last platform were much cleaner this time and we finally saved by entering into Bowser's stage by touching the hole just once. In total 94 frames were saved on this part. Bowser battle wasn't improved.
- Going to the 2nd floor: 4 frames were saved in the main hall by getting a better angle of the long jump. Then 8 frames were saved in the stairs by using the touchscreen to turn there tighter.
- 50 star door skip and 80 star door skip: Bunny catching wasn't improved. After getting through the wall and single jumping once, we're now turning tighter and reaching the stair with a single jump instead of a double jump, which saved 8 frames. Then 2 frames were saved in the corner glitch.
- Bowser in the Sky: There were two main improvements on this stage. The first one was reaching the stairs with a triple jump + dive, which saved a lot because we don't need to do a standstill run anymore. Just before that triple jump, single jump and double jump were done really thanks to the wall corner so that it was possible to add a long jump before. After that, a combination of a side jump and a wall kick was added to reach almost the end of the stage, saving around 3 seconds. The final improvement was done in the end, where we go more to the right so that we're less affected by the air. 360 frames were saved on this part.
Final bowser wasn't improved. Maybe you guys have noticed that after killing both Bowsers, it looks like I didnt even try to do a bit of freerunning to improve the entertainment. The reason to this is that Bowser's dialogue after dying happens before if you don't move and you stay on a certain spot of the platform.
Special Thanks
Firstly we would like to thank AJC868 (YT user) for discovering the 8 star door skip strategy. It was the main motivation for us to improve this TAS and test new route ideas. It is also important to mention that he was also the first person proving that Dire Dire Docks skipping was possible with Mario.
Also we would like to thank the youtube user "pannenkoek2012" for giving us the idea to kill yoshi while getting the key.
Baxter: Submission file updated at the author's request.
Baxter: Very nice improvement to the previous run; accepting.
