"Mr. McGee, don’t make me angry. You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry."
Game Objectives
- Plays at Hardest Difficulty
- Take Damage to Save Time
- Manipulates Luck
The purpose of this run is to celebrate the third anniversary of my first submission to this site. It’s just 378 frames faster than my published run, nothing really new was found, but I’m sure you’ll notice the differences between them. As always, I hope you enjoy watching the run as much as I enjoyed making it.
Tricks and Glitches
Stop ‘n’ Go
Assuming you are going to the right; while running, release the directional pad for one frame, hold right+R for one frame then release. Repeat it as long as you want to delay some item, enemy or a few other animations in the game, useful to avoid enemy fire or to gain that extra distance from an enemy to avoid getting hurt.
Walk Through Walls
You need a droid or any enemies you can hold in a choke hold positioned near and facing the wall you want to walk through; walk towards him and as soon as the enemy turns around Hulk will grab him and pass through the wall. In some walls you’ll just get stuck, in some you’ll fall to your death, but if you are lucky to find an untested wall, you’ll skip some segment.
Infinite Energy
I called it “invincibility” in the old run but it’s not what this trick gives you. You must sacrifice a life (Start+X+Y) a few frames before the “Stage Complete” message appears after defeating a boss, but you must be shot by a droid in the next stage. Alternatively, you can lose all your health, die and take damage. This is a lot faster than the suicide trick, but the only place it is possible is where I already used in the old run.
Items Collected
Gamma Capsule
This capsule is used to power up the Hulk, or as we like to call it, make him “Hulked Out”. It’s red and green in color. Taking one of these, Hulk run, jump higher than normal and performs some special moves, like the "sonic clap".
Gamma Shard
Hidden inside crates and other objects, it’s used to replenish a little bit of energy. It’s green in color, but if an enemy gets ahold of it, it will become red and will drain a bit of Hulk’s energy if swallowed.
Pistols
It can’t be used by Hulk; I collect it just to spend time while waiting for a boss to be vulnerable again. By the by, this item is quite useless if you lose your energy and change to Bruce Banner; it only has two bullets, no matter how many pistols you collect.
Boss Strategy
When I did the previous run I did not know anything about how to manipulate the bosses of this game, I was just extremely lucky to have those patterns in my boss fights. Now I know that killing the mid-boss on a given X coordinate is what determines the behavior of the next boss.
Abomination
It’s the green fish-faced creature, also known as mid-boss. Manipulate it is quite easy and only depends on the X position of the Hulk. When hit, it slides backwards and will be vulnerable again after 23 frames. While jumping, it is always vulnerable to Hulk’s attacks.
Rhino
You probably won’t need to manipulate this guy, but it can also be manipulated by some of Hulk’s attacks or position. When hit, it only goes to the right and will be vulnerable again 23 frames later.
Tyrannus
He’s a Super Man wannabe. He likes to fly around, out of Hulk’s noggin, but it’s not so hard to make him do exactly the opposite. When hit, he teleports to a random location, but luckily, if you hit him fast enough he is always vulnerable.
Absorbing Man
The longest boss fight of the game, but nothing else can be done about it as the fight has three phases and he can’t be manipulated. When hit, he will either slide backwards or fall to the ground and is vulnerable whenever he swings his flail.
The Brains
The manipulation of the boss of stage 5 is done on the mid-boss of stage 4! This coordinate is from my old run; X 489. When hit, it will follow a predefined path and is always vulnerable, but since Hulk also is, better avoid making it go to the left, and that coordinate makes just that.
The Leader
He was also exposed to gamma rays, but unlike Bruce Banner, he seems weaker than before. When hit, he’ll just laugh like a madman. The only effective attack against him is an uppercut.
Stage by Stage
City and Construction Site
The first stage of my first submission and here I am, trying to find mistakes and things I should have done faster. Here’s what I’ve found; on the first manhole, avoid the damage animation is faster, I did the same mistake two times in this stage. Another thing I should have tested is jumping out of the elevator as soon as possible; it’s a lot faster than wait and run out of it.
Tyrannus' Labyrinth
The second stage is not much different in terms of mistakes, but since saving time is not so important as before, I tried to smooth things up a bit, but it ended being faster in a way or another. Again, I’m avoiding the damage animation as much as possible, but my old strategy seems to be already pretty solid in this stage.
Leader's Fortress
I’ve found out that it is possible to enter walls while riding elevators on the old run, but I thought it was useless at that time. Now, combined with the new strategy to jump out of the elevator it saved quite some time. Since I have to wait until it reaches a certain height to jump out, I decided to play around a little more on the elevators too.
Leader's Interior
Lots of small improvements here, like popping those bubbles without jumping. It may look slower, but believe me, it is faster. Oh, I almost forgot; I’m now using a Lua script to find not only the best spot to jump, but also the height of my jumps. Sometimes, jumping one frame later makes me land one frame sooner or a pixel further or both.
Final Confrontation
Let’s go back to Leader’s Fortress, but this time, to face the Leader himself. The biggest difference you might notice here is where I made Hulk have infinite health, not really my intention, but his energy was a little low to continue to the spot I did it on the old run. This stage also has a lot of elevators, and as expected, jumping out of them saved quite some time.
feos: Accepting for Moons and processing for publication...
