When I started this TAS I didn't know anything to improve in comparision to the Genesis TAS. But I've always been interested in TASing it, I also made a "promise" to TheMexicanRunner, a speedrunner of the game, that I would make a TAS. And here we are, it was a lot of fun to work on!

My main reason for picking SNES is because I highly dislike the sound/music in the Genesis version. There are a couple of other changes between the two. They differ in lag and loading times a bit, which could be between Bizhawk and Gens as well. Simba hits ceilings easier in SNES, making some jumps not doable. Sometimes enemies have been added to Genesis and the ground clip (See below) doesn't seem to work the same way in Genesis. There are some more minor changes, but the biggest one is that you can skip cutscenes in Genesis. Something that adds a lot of time total for my run. The fact that I'm 4216 frames faster than the previous run by Mukki isn't fully compareable, gameplay wise it is a lot more. I imagine the Genesis version being faster in the end, but the two are likely going to be seperate publications anyway?

Ground clip: With the right speed and angle, you can clip through a corner at certain places. This is mainly used in Simba's Exile. Sadly, Simba ate too many bugs as a cub, becoming fat, resulting in not being able to floor clip as an adult. It would have been a major timesaver in a level like Be Prepared.

ISG: The Lion King is the new Ocarina of Time! Though this is the Infinite Slash Glitch instead. By slashing in midair shortly before you land, you are able to damage enemies by running into them. The effect resets after a normal slash or when you land after jumping.

Midair slashing: You can gain additional height by slashing in midair a few frames after starting a jump, as well as avoid falling down as quickly by slashing on your way down. This is used frequently to reach platforms you aren't supposed to, as well as avoiding the climbing animation.

Movement: Both running and jumping has the same speed, but you can't accelerate in midair. If you turn around in midair for more than one frame, or if you jump straight up without moving, the speed is lost. By holding left+right Simba will wobble in midair, by doing this you can keep your speed in one direction during a jump, when you have to climb up cliffs but keep moving to the right/left. Every time you jump you'll lose a frame. Sometimes "unneccesary" jumps are used to avoid lag, mainly during adult Simba levels.

Fighting enemies: Hyenas are the worst, as cub Simba at least. After each hit, they have to make two attack moves before you can damage them again. The three different moves are: Jumping, a single bite and multiple bites. Jumping is very slow and should be avoided at most times. A single bite is the quickest, it can however not be done several times in a row and the hyenas usually have to move first. Multiple bites can be done many times in a row, under the conditions that Simba is in attack range. Best way to manipulate this is by jumping close to them, which often requires you to take a hit afterwards.

As adult, fighting Hyenas is mostly easier. You can jump forward while slashing them at the same time. If you land on the side of an enemy, you will be able to move around while they are damaged. You usually have to turn around or slash at the right moment to keep the damage going. If you jump the trick will be cancelled. ISG isn't very useful because of the setup that is needed for it. And you can't damage enemies quicker with ISG compared to regular slashes anyway.

Not really much to say here, it's pretty straight forward. A lot of time was saved by better execution and use of the wobbling between the jumps to keep my speed. Ducking at the start of the Hyena fight makes him jump down a few frames earlier for whatever reason. Taking damage helps to get in hits a few frames earlier. A cutscene normally starts after beating the level, but by hanging on the cliff (Not actually sure how this works...) at the end, you are able to skip it. This is the only cutscene you can skip in the SNES version.

This level is quite slow and boring. Jumping as Simba on the ostrich has the same "you lose one frame" effect as you would get if you jump normally. There is a glitch with the rhinos where you fly up either to the left or right instead. This could have potential in some kind of sequence break. The problem is that you can't land on the ground again and no other monkeys are able to catch you. One way it could be useful is with the very last rhino and fly to the left to hit the loading zone for beating the level, but it is too far away, too bad. Instead, you'll get to "enjoy" some roaring. Rawr.

As explained above, hyenas are the worst. The first fight is quite tricky and had me stuck for several weeks, health management was the trickiest part. It is possible to reach the upper area early. But even if you could glitch through the wall at the end, as the hyenas won't spawn so you can't break the wall, it is impossible to finish the level. You have to activate the water pillars at the bottom right of the level to for the exit to spawn. Evil programming...

No... Just no...

This is where things get a bit interesting! Ground clips galore! The speed you get from turning around in midair isn't enough to clip through, that's why I have to land, get some speed, jump, wobble for the right angle and then clip through. It's faster to clip again on the left side after the first clip, you'll fall down quite far. The problem is that you are then required to pick up a bonus game bug. Which made it slower in the end anyway. Just before the final clip is another corner that looks like I could use to clip through. Sadly, you can't. The reason is that the first platform is not high enough, resulting in Simba landing on the lower platform and can't clip through.

Getting hit by the spider while climbing up saves time, as you can skip the climbing animation. I tried to stomp on the spider midair and land on the cliff at once without taking damage, but too bad... I love the ground clip after the waterfall, isn't really a major timesaver, but it's neat. Then some monkey business in the end, nothing to add there.

Adult time! And introducing of the slashing. It's frequently used to reach higher platforms. On the first and third panther fights, I roar to exhaust them to quickly clip through without fighting them all. Roaring is not possible in the second fight, unless you exhaust the panther below.

This is a great example of where the wobbling in combination with the midair slashing is used to get through stuff quickly! Mukki took several hits from the lava pillars to run through them, thouh I managed to avoid them all, making the first part of this level very quick. Second part is just meh. At the end of the ride I need to climb up a wall, I could get hit by a bat there to skip the climbing animation. But because I'm going too fast for the bats, having to wait for it ended up being slower, unless some better method for it is found. And please don't watch the end of this level... You have to wait for each pillar to shoot up five times before you can finish, which takes over a minute. It is possible to jump back up to the right side platform, but that will reset the room.

Time to slaughter hyenas. These ended up being trickier than I expected. Both using regular slashes, landing on them and ISG take the same amount of time to kill it, but they each have their advantages and disadvantages. Testing between the three can be tricky, especially when there are many hyenas to kill on the same screen that you have to adjust for.

In comparision to other enemies, Scar takes less damage from slashes than landing on him. When you have damaged him enough, he'll run away, which takes a long time to wait for. This can be avoided by having him die outside of the screen. I had to lure him further to the left for the second fight to be able to do it there. The alternative method is to run very far to the left while damaging him and then run back to the right. Which was slower than waiting. This level has a lot of lag compared to other levels, I managed to reduce quite a bit through jumping at specific frames. It was 10 frames faster to kill Scar on the right side instead of the left. You need to throw him off the cliff to beat the game. Which means I again have to wait for him to walk forward a bit. GG.

Harpa: Helping me out with things at the start and has followed my project until the finish line. Also thanks to his version of the Ground Clip glitch, I managed to find one that was useful!

TheMexicanRunner: One of the reasons why I started this in the first place. His World Record run was nice to use for a reference. Keep rocking with NESmania, no mames!

Mukki: Who made the previous TAS, which was my guideline when I started with this project. I know you love the Genesis version, sorry for not sharing that opinion ;).

Adelikat: For fixing my dumb requests for Bizhawk, making my TASing experience a whole lot better. Thank you, good sir!

feos: Judging!

feos: Acceblishing to Moons...