As seen on AGDQ2019!
Mari0 is a PC game developed by Maurice of
stabyourself.net in 2012 that combines the classic Super Mario Bros. with the puzzle-platfomer Portal by giving Mario a portal gun. The game launched with 2 "mappacks", with the one most people played being the Super Mario Bros. mappack containing the original set of levels. This TAS instead showcases the other mappack which features 18 Portal-inspired puzzles spread across 9 different levels, along with the multiplayer mode which saves 10.3 seconds compared to singleplayer.
Game objectives
- Emulator used: libTAS 1.3.2
- Aims to complete the Portal mappack as fast as possible
- Heavy abuse of programming bugs and oversights
- Contains a speed/entertainment trade-off
Why 4 Players?
It looks cooler.
Do you really need all 4?
This is where the speed/entertainment trade off comes in, but not how you might expect. It would be optimal to skip rebinding player one's controls, as this would still provide the further-right spawning point of player four, but without the few extra frames setting up controls for use in libTAS, as player one is not used to solve any puzzles faster. However, I didn't think this would be as fun and instead chose to use all four players.
How'd you clip through that door? And how'd that cube go through the grill?
High speeds and portal things. (Please see
6133S for detailed explanations of tricks.)
Singleplayer & Multiplayer Differences
1-2
One of the players is used to hold down the first button instead of flinging ourselves into the cube. Another player then acts as a shield against the laser to protect the main player while they shoot their portals.
1-3
Another player is used to hold down the button instead of waiting for the cube's cycle.
1-4
For the first puzzle, one player stays behind in spawn to quickly portal the cube onto the button. For the last puzzle, a cube is stolen through the previous room by dropping the cube on one of the few frames before it gets disintegrated by the emancipation grill, which is faster in multiplayer thanks to the quicker grabbing of the cube and the lack of lost speed from dropping the cube in front of the player.
2-1
The extra players prevent having to turn around after firing the orange gel.
2-2
One player holds down the button at the end instead of temporarily placing the cube. Another player fires portals as soon as they can do so without the grill deleting their previous portal thanks to the platform moving the player past the killzone. One last player then runs through these portals to cube jump at record speeds.
2-4
Multiple sets of portals are used to bring the players around the map faster.
3-1
One player shoots portals at the end to allow faster access to the ending part of the stage. One player then sits on the button while the other jumps to the goal.
Special Thanks
- Masterjun for finding (and doing) lots of the massive time saves (ie cube jump)
- Maurice for only being a little upset about us breaking his game
- dwangoAC for introducing me to libTAS and giving me the opportunity to bring this to AGDQ :)
- keylie for fixing libTAS issues quickly and adding enhancements to make multiplayer TASes easier
- MM102 for the TASBot mod (including a timer, memory watch, and firework warning)
feos: Claiming for
rejection.
feos: I watched this side by side with the previous submission, and I conclude that the difference is not that big.
In most movies using several players, the goal is usually completing the game with all of them. In rare cases, some of them die in the process, but the game still feels like a multi-player mode. In this game, the multi-player mode is competitive. It's impossible to beat a level with several characters. So the main goal of the movie feels the same as with a single player.
Even though other players are used to advance the winner farther, due to similarity of the goal this branch plays like a more optimal and creative version of the other branch. And definitely more entertaining.
Subjectively, the difference in challenge is hard to spot due to how fast-paced the game is, and how short the levels are. It just flashes by and then you're watching the fanfare. Actual difference can only be spotted if you know the game well, or if you watch the movies side by side in slow motion. To an untrained eye this movie just feels generally superior.
