(Link to video)
Alex Kidd in Shinobi World is an SMS platform game serving as the final entry in the Alex Kidd series. (Although, like High Tech World, it wasn't originally one... it was originally called "Shinobi Kid" and was a cute parody of the Shinobi games, much like Kid Dracula.) Alex Kidd must save his girlfriend from an evil being while battling many enemies from the Shinobi series. This TAS is a 403 frame improvement to the published movie.

Game objectives

  • Emulator used: BizHawk 1.11.3
  • Aims for fastest time
  • Takes damage to save time
  • Heavy glitch abuse

Comments

I've known a few improvements to the current movie for a while but was wary of implementing them due to my lack of experience with TASing. Eventually I decided to go for it because I didn't want my improvements to just sit there in the game's thread unused while the published run remained suboptimal. It turned out to be a relatively smooth process. I was worried at first that Dega and BizHawk's different emulation would pose a lot of difficulties, but outside of a few differences in lag and luck the emulation does not especially differ between the two, making it easy to compare with AngerFist.
The first trick I found came early on in the movie. When Alex Kidd is walking, he moves 1px-2px-1px-2px (and so on). When he transforms into a fireball, he moves 3px-3px-3px-3px, etc. and when his fireball form ends and he turns back to normal pressing right immediately resets his speed back to 1px-2px. However, by jumping as soon as Alex hits the ground without holding right, he is able to jump and maintain his speed for a short amount of time. This also works from the tornado and the downward slopes, but their effect is not as noticeable, only moving a few pixels more per frame.
This game has some zipping glitches, which can be achieved by hitting UP+DOWN/LEFT+RIGHT on ladders. Typically, they just send you off-screen, and you die, but it's possible to make them work to your advantage if you're precise. I tightened up most of them in this run, making attempts to zip closest to the exit as possible. In the level before the boss, it is possible to use the ladder to zip directly into the door, but this means we do not get the hearts and can not use a damage boost on the last screen.
My motivation for doing this movie was to simply update the published run with the tricks I knew. I didn't expect to find many savings in the other levels, but was pleased when I ended up discovering improvements in every level - some more minor than others, however. I expected this game to be more tedious than it actually was, and figured having to constantly check my work against AngerFist's would be strenous. Luckily, there were only a few instances where staying ahead of AngerFist was tough, so that turned out to be a nice surprise. :)

Thanks

AngerFist - for creating the original movie CoolKirby - for some help and motivation

ars4326: Judging!
ars4326: Hello, RobynS. Very nice improvements made here! Watching them both side-by-side, the speed momentum saver and improved zip-glitching tricks (especially in the platform room, near the end) really stood out. The improved Heli boss fight looked good, as well. Good work here, and congrats on your first published run :)
Accepting as an improvement to the published run!
fsvgm777: Processing.

TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #4957: Jules's SMS Alex Kidd in Shinobi World in 06:14.85
Joined: 3/9/2009
Posts: 530
Shinobi Kid wasn't ever actually released. That was the working title for the game and Alex Kidd was eventually tacked on top of it, but it's not like High Tech World where in Japan it was an entirely different game and the localization painted over everything.
Jules
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Tangent wrote:
Shinobi Kid wasn't ever actually released. That was the working title for the game and Alex Kidd was eventually tacked on top of it, but it's not like High Tech World where in Japan it was an entirely different game and the localization painted over everything.
Yeah, I knew that. Poor Alex Kidd didn't seem to command much ingenuity at Sega, heh. Was just giving examples. It totally counts! Though, with the fact that the first boss was supposed to be a parody of Mario when the game was still "Shinobi Kid", maybe an Alex Kidd re-skin was meant to be. : P
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Great Job Robyn! Proud of you. Thanks for improving my run. I've always wondered if one could manipulate the lobster boss to constantly do tiny jumps. I still believe you can improve the Heli fight. Easy yes vote.
Nitrogenesis wrote:
Guys I come from the DidyKnogRacist communite, and you are all wrong, tihs is the run of the mileniun and everyone who says otherwise dosnt know any bater! I found this run vary ease to masturbate too!!!! Don't fuck with me, I know this game so that mean I'm always right!StupedfackincommunityTASVideoz!!!!!!
Arc wrote:
I enjoyed this movie in which hands firmly gripping a shaft lead to balls deep in multiple holes.
natt wrote:
I don't want to get involved in this discussion, but as a point of fact C# is literally the first goddamn thing on that fucking page you linked did you even fucking read it
Cooljay wrote:
Mayor Haggar and Cody are such nice people for the community. Metro City's hospitals reached an all time new record of incoming patients due to their great efforts :P
mklip2001
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Location: Georgia, USA
Wow, great job! The run looks quite smooth, especially in some of the longer horizontal stages like 2-2. The new damage boosts in the big fire level (3-2, I think) were also especially noticeable. How does that Heli fight work in the first place? I've always been confused by seeing some little helicopters survive, but then the fight ends anyway. Lastly, I really appreciate your first paragraph in the movie description about going after an improvement even with little TASing experience. I'm still somebody who hasn't gotten their feet wet with TAS tools, and among other things, I've been wary of anti-newcomer bias (implicit or otherwise). It's really refreshing to see you honestly mention your relative lack of experience and still put out a very polished product. Great job!
Used to be a frequent submissions commenter. My new computer has had some issues running emulators, so I've been here more sporadically. Still haven't gotten around to actually TASing yet... I was going to improve Kid Dracula for GB. It seems I was beaten to it, though, with a recent awesome run by Hetfield90 and StarvinStruthers. (http://tasvideos.org/2928M.html.) Thanks to goofydylan8 for running Gargoyle's Quest 2 because I mentioned the game! (http://tasvideos.org/2001M.html) Thanks to feos and MESHUGGAH for taking up runs of Duck Tales 2 because of my old signature! Thanks also to Samsara for finishing a Treasure Master run. From the submission comments:
Shoutouts and thanks to mklip2001 for arguably being the nicest and most supportive person on the forums.
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mklip2001 wrote:
How does that Heli fight work in the first place? I've always been confused by seeing some little helicopters survive, but then the fight ends anyway.
Each mini chopper represents one unit of the boss's (the big Heli) health. It just spits them out until you manage to kill enough of them.
Nitrogenesis wrote:
Guys I come from the DidyKnogRacist communite, and you are all wrong, tihs is the run of the mileniun and everyone who says otherwise dosnt know any bater! I found this run vary ease to masturbate too!!!! Don't fuck with me, I know this game so that mean I'm always right!StupedfackincommunityTASVideoz!!!!!!
Arc wrote:
I enjoyed this movie in which hands firmly gripping a shaft lead to balls deep in multiple holes.
natt wrote:
I don't want to get involved in this discussion, but as a point of fact C# is literally the first goddamn thing on that fucking page you linked did you even fucking read it
Cooljay wrote:
Mayor Haggar and Cody are such nice people for the community. Metro City's hospitals reached an all time new record of incoming patients due to their great efforts :P
Synahel
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Posts: 259
Location: France
The world needs to know that Kabuto, the first boss, was first designed as Mari-Oh (he gets smaller when hit and throws fireballs, rings any bell?). Yes. Really. Very nice improvements, love to see this game done so swiftly :) i wonder if Heli could be improved, hard to see (and manipulate, i guess)
Post subject: Movie published
TASVideoAgent
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This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [3046] SMS Alex Kidd in Shinobi World by Jules in 06:14.85
Jules
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Wow, new to published just in a night! Thanks, everyone!
Zucca
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Nice new tricks! Yes -vote! But are you sure crouching at 00:55 is faster than to break one block? Or was that because of the red ninja under there?
trazz wrote:
Killing the skeletons sooner or letting the skeletons live (unlive?) won't affect that at all.
Jules
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Posts: 102
Location: California
Zucca wrote:
Nice new tricks! Yes -vote! But are you sure crouching at 00:55 is faster than to break one block? Or was that because of the red ninja under there?
Thank you! Yes, the crouching is to move while preventing the ninja from spawning.
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Good work on this! I had planned to improve the previous run after your bug post, but ended up becoming very busy, so thanks for picking up the slack. I appreciate the thanks as well!