Atlantis: The Lost Empire for the Game Boy Advance is one of several games based on the 2001 Disney film of the same name, the others having been released for the PlayStation, Game Boy Color, and PC. The movie/game follows the story of Milo Thatch, a thirty-something cartographer/linguist who, using his knowledge of the Atlantean language to interpret the text of the Shepherd's Journal, joins an epic expedition to discover the titular lost city.
- Emulator version: BizHawk 1.9.1
- Aims for fastest time
- Takes damage to save time
- Genre: Platform
Level 1, or, 'Boiler Troubles'
Starting with the first level, we introduce two important movement techniques. Firstly, jumping before a handle or switch allows Milo to activate it during his landing animation, rather than having to stop - thus conserving his horizontal speed.
Secondly, pressing the opposite direction in mid-air instantly reverses Milo's horizontal speed.
During this level, the submarine Ulysses comes under attack from the Leviathan. The objective is to rescue fifteen of the sub's crewmembers, giving Milo a golden opportunity to show off his wavedashing skills.
Level 3, or, 'Get the Heck out of There, Thatch!'
Five minutes, eh? Hold my beer, I can do it in one.
Level 4, or, 'Akimi ka, akoro rami!'
Now that we have found the path to Atlantis, it's time for some real platforming. Another quirk about Milo's movement physics is that, when holding A while falling, his vertical acceleration is reduced. This allows him to jump lower to clear gaps, as holding the button while rising slows him down.
Level 5, or, 'Spiders on the Walls'
This level is full of climbable stuff... I know! Why don't we just jump-climb up it all? Yeah, that'll be fun.
Level 6, or, 'It's Not Even Spelunker'
A breakable floor, eh? Let me just use this here dagger, and... oh, of course, this is a TAS, isn't it? Falls right through it
Level 7, or, 'Just Keep Swimming, Just Keep Swimming'
And falling. And climbing. And, err... a little bit of running, I guess.
Level 8, or, 'Welcome to the Club, Son!'
In this level, grabbing certain ledges allows Milo to avoid collapsing from fall damage. Apart from that, there's not much in this level that hasn't been seen before.
Level 9, or, 'The Not-so-final Final Boss'
In order to cut the chain, the hacksaw must be used on it 24 times. However, because the saw can only be used 9 times before breaking, three cycles are required.
Level 10, or, 'The Final Puzzle'
To assist with routing this level, I compiled a table of the x- and y-positions of the runes and their slots, and plotted them as an image to form a rudimentary map. Fortunately, this didn't take nearly as long as I expected!
There may be a few sections here and there which could be improvable (e.g. Levels 5, 8, and 10), but apart from that, I'm mostly happy with the result.
I haven't really thought of a screenshot suggestion, so I'll let the publisher decide.
Enjoy the run, and see you until my next project.
ars4326: Hi, EgixBacon. Nice game choice on the run (and an exceptional soundtrack from Disney). I especially noticed good movement optimizations, as well as that clever routing you came up with at the end in compiling the x/y coordinates of the runes. The stages did end up getting a bit repetitive, by very good job on this, regardless.
Accepting for publication to the Vault!
