The ripper would be faster if he was in perfect position so you didn't have to stop when you entered the shaft. Otherwise, you'd be waiting anyway. But yes, it would be faster.
On a side note, has anyone ever actually gotten into Tourian with just taking damage from the creature and no bombs? It's proving quite trying.
EDIT: OK, here's the awful, hastily put together framework for the boss-less run.
[URL=
http://www.nintendorecords.com/metroid-bossless.zip]CLICKY[/URL]
Nevermind the mistakes - I put it together quick, but here's what I noticed:
1) The second missile tank collected is obselete - avoiding this should save about 1 minute.
2) The bombs may or may not be unnecessary. I tried and tried and failed and failed to get the boost simply from damage, but couldn't pull it off. There's obviously a trick to it that I'm not getting. But if possible, skipping the bombs should save about 1-2 minutes.
3) There are at least 1-2 minutes of mis-jumps and stalling. I played at around 25% at some parts to just see if this run was possible, so there isn't a thing about it that's perfect.
4) The wall climb to the morph jump in Norfair can be done much faster. I don't think you'd need to go nearly as high as I did to get the boost.
5) With the perfect ripper spawn in Norfair, it may not be necessary to jump to the above ledge and roll off, but it would take Cracker-Jack timing from the ripper.
6) Item drops can be done mucho-faster-o everywhere.
7) Whoever suggested Mother Brain remembers her hits was correct, but he failed to mention the jar needs to be broken again (It doesn't change anything, thankfully). Because I collected an extra tank, I adjusted myself in Tourian. So the order, with 30 missiles, is such:
- Enter lair with 30 missiles, break 3 Zeebetites, exit to reload with 6.
- Enter lair with 30 missiles, break remaining 2 Zeebetites, break jar, fire 8 shots at Mother Brain, exit to reload with 5.
- Enter lair with 30 missiles, break jar, kill Mother Brain.
With perfection, I think this could be a serious contender for the any% run. Tourian takes a while longer, but with not much back-tracking anywhere, it's gonna be close.
8) The UP+A utelization may not be in the perfect spots. (The one from the last missile in Norfair after the last missile is fine, but it's probably faster to NOT use UP+A after getting the ice beam if you don't go for the bombs. Just guessing though.)
Also, I don't pretend to be a pro here, but in Tourian it seems faster to roll back and forth down the shaft than to drop, but I don't know for certain. But it seems faster than any run that's up. Could be an illusion.
(EDIT: I just tested the frame count of this movie versus Zoizite's 1% run for this section and found mine to be 20 frames slower; however, I did half-ass it in a couple of tries and Zoizite's run through the shaft looks optimized. But again, take into consideration going into and coming out of the ball. I still believe, though, a perfect ball roll through this area is faster than standing tall.)
I would love someone who's solid at this game to make this run, rather than have me submit 4 or 5 that keep getting rejected. But I'm working on a faster version and would love some suggestions.
Take it from here...
