Fist of the North Star is sidescrolling fighter game known for its difficult boss battles. The current run is a ~25 second improvement over the published run due mainly to a newly discovered glitch which allows bosses to be killed instantly while near full health.
Game objectives
- Emulator used: FCEUX 2.2.2
- Beats the game as fast as possible
- Abuses programming errors
I stumbled on this glitch completely by accident while trying to optimize a boss fight. Basically, bosses in this game all have super strong attacks that can kill Kenshiro if they connect with him while he is stuck in a corner. However, if you counter attack on the last possible frame before you fall over, you can kill the boss as well resulting in a double KO. The game registers the bosses death (if he collapses not explodes) before Kenshiro's death and the level is beaten. This can be done even for bosses near full power, a true Fist of the North Star attack!
I couldn't make it work for bosses at full health though, this particularly impacted the last two bosses. I also couldn't make it work the one jumping boss.
Originally, it was suggested that the bosses weaknesses be incorporated into this run, which deal a significant chunk of damage on the first hit. However Kyman tried this, and noticed that the fight took significantly longer to end this way. I realized eventually that a timer reset and added additional time to the ending sequence (maybe some animation was meant to go here but never added?) Anyway that proved to be a dead end. In fact, you can see this on one boss even in the published run, I'm not sure it was noticed at the time.
A bit of good luck is always nice to have. I'm not sure I would ever have thought to check this case on my own. Surely there are still significant glitches left out there to discover!
I suspect some frames, even up to a second, can be saved on this run by delving deeper into manipulating boss patterns to critical attack you sooner, but the game honestly isn't that interesting so I'm not sure who would bother.
Nach: Bland game, but nice improvement, accepting.
