Stuff!
- Bizhawk 2.3.1 works
- Uses warps.
- Plays all stages
- Avoids the Y button, because it's scary
- Takes damage to save time.
- Abuses programming errors in the game.
The goal of this run is to play through all the stages without using Y. The Y button lets you run, roll and pick up barrels. There are however certain mechanics that will allow Diddy/Donkey to run without Y. Such as: Grabbing a rope and getting shot out of certain barrels. Sometimes it is faster to enter a bonus just to get the speed from being shot out of the barrel. I'm only allowed to run on the ground for a couple of frames, otherwise the effects run out, so jumping it is!
You are required to use Y to pick/throw barrels during the Queen B fight, for a total of 5 input presses in total.
This run using the same ruleset for "All Stages" as the RTA community, which allows the map warp to skip most of Orang-utan Gang, 3-5.
Corner boosts are applied quite a lot of in this category. You can get a boost by either walking/running down the slope or jumping at the corner. Walking/running down gives a bigger boost, though while running it usually doesn't work because the running effect will wear off, which is why jumping is more commonly used.
Enemies are avoided when possible. Each enemy kill (With the exception of when using Enguarde or Rambi) will pause the game for 2 or 3 frames. Some enemies are unavoidable to process or in order to keep the running speed.
Level Summary
Kongo Jungle
Jungle Hijinx:
As I can't pick up the DK barrel, poor Diddy has to wait awhile for his action. Then it's just walking down corners and avoiding enemies to victory.
Ropey Rampage:
If you walk down the slopes in the beginning, the Army will be in the way and cause lag. The rope, as mentioned, activates the running, for to me unknown reasons. The bonus barrel is one of those barrels that will not give you running speed when you are blasted off.
Reptile Rumble
Entering the bonus is the only way to get running speed in the level, which saved a lot of time throughout.
Coral Capers
Water levels are not affected by this category, as you don't swim faster with Y and you can use B to charge with Enguarde. So I went lazy and copied most of the inputs from my 101% TAS.
Barrel Cannon Canyon
Nothing worth noting, I believe.
Very Gnawty's Lair
Except for the very first hit, this is practically the same without Y.
Monkey Mines
Winky's Walkway
The bonus will not shoot you out from a barrel, so no speed can be gained here and the level has no corner boosts either.
Mine Cart Carnage
Mine carts suck.
Bouncy Bonanza
It's quite nice that I get to show off the useless Winky (Shoutouts to Joe) room. Good thing Winky is still useless, I just need the speed from the barrel.
Stop & Go Station
Short and easy. Rolling can normally be used to avoid taking damage from the Rockkroc, but you can just keep jumping, just keep jumping, just keep jumping...
Millstone Mayhem
The warp barrel can only be accessed with Donkey, which is also true for level 3-1 coming up, and it's faster to keep the slow Donkey than to sacrifice him (For now...).
Necky's Nuts
Another + of having Donkey first is that his victory animation is faster than Diddy's.
Vine Valley
Vulture Culture
This warp barrel, which is Donkey only, is also running on a timer. Even with a slow start, the running speed later was enough to reach it in time. Then we can finally kill off Donkey again. Despite hugging the wall in the end, it was faster than to walk into it, as the speed would have ran off.
Tree Top Town
Warps are nice. I like warps.
Forest Frenzy
In order to both avoid the Kritter and to reach the first cycle of the rope, some nice moonwalking was used. If you jump off a rope too early, you'll usually regrab it again. Which is why I wait for it to reach its destination.
By holding down, Diddy won't automatically be zipped downwards when you jump off-camera, so you can keep jumping higher and higher. By then jumping off, it's possible to skip a rope section.
Temple Tempest
Expresso is hiding in the first bonus, which would have been faster, except that I can't open said bonus... Normally ropes are grabbed automatically when you approach them, though some ropes can be avoided if you jump to get a corner boost, which puts Diddy in a "falling" state. It also means I can't use some corner boosts at times where I need to grab the rope to progress.
Orang-utan Gang:
Funky is a nice guy and takes us directly to the end of the level.
Clam City
Water stage, move along, move along.
Bumble B Rumble
The only level where Y is required, five presses in total, which are only used to pick and instantly throw a barrel, no speed is gained from this.
Gorilla Glacier
Snow Barrel Blast
Not much to note here, except that ice physics are never fun. It was sadly not possible to hit the hidden barrel in the end without first landing in the above barrel.
Slipslide Ride
With the blue ropes, you are not able to use the infinite-jumping trick that was done in 3-3, without using the Y button. Which means the fat old Donkey had to be used for the warp... Sad day for all of us... Thankfully, he can be killed afterwards.
Ice Age Alley
Here we can finally get Expresso. His running speed can be achieved without Y, making the level pretty quick.
Croctopus Chase
Without Y, you can't set up the split up glitch to use Expresso in this stage (thankfully). So this long boring stage is done the old fashioned way: Slowly!
Torchlight Trouble
This used to be the only (not counting Queen B) level where Y was required, as there is a jump later on that can't be made. Rainbowsprinklez found that you could use a Superjump at the start of the level and fly over the entire stage. Thanks to the DK barrel being a floating barrel, Y is not needed to destroy it.
To do a Superjump, one Kong first has to take damage and run into a wall that makes him jump straight up into the air, which is why I need to go right for a bit at the start. Get the Kong back, take damage, keep holding B and land on something you can bounce off of, in this case the Squawks barrel, getting him some time to shine as well. The longer you hold down B for, the higher you go and thus further.
Rope Bridge Rumble
Last level where we get to ignore Winky, making him the only animal buddy not featured in this run (As it should be). We have to tease him a bit and enter the bonus where he's hiding for some speed.
Really Gnawty Rampage
Killing off Donkey can skip a jumping cycle, saving a few seconds. But the best gain is to not have Donkey anymore, obviously.
Kremkroc Industries Inc.
Oil Drum Alley
Rare were nice enough to put a rope at the beginning, I like them. After that it's a classic jumping festival. ("♫ It's time to jump up in the air, jump up, don't be scared ♫")
Trick Track Trek
However... Rare were evil enough to put the warp barrel out of reach. Which means it's autoscroller hype. The most fun you can do is to make a Krusha stuck in midair.
Elevator Antics
Another way to keep your speed, other than jumping, is to crouch. This can be done for as long as possible and still keep the speed aftwards. It's only used to wait for enemies or platforms.
Poison Pond
Don't say you expected some kind of interesting text or explanation? Come on, it's a water level. Get out of here.
Mine Cart Madness
It's always a terrible day when it's faster to break Donkey out from the DK barrel than to skip him. Mine carts have interesting speed mechanics. If you land back into it, the speed will usually reset to the same value. If the mine cart is moving quickly, you want to avoid landing back in it for as long as possible, which is why some enemies were killed in order to bounce further. When the cart is moving slowly, you want to jump back into it as many times as possible to increase the speed for a brief moment.
Blackout Basement
It's dark enough that half of the "action" is missed, no loss there.
Boss Dumb Drumb
Donkey time. Again. Sorry.
Chimp Caverns
Tanked up Trouble
At least a little bit more interesting than Trick Track Trek, still a boring a level.
Manic Mincers:
Rambi is slightly faster than Diddy and you can also use him to damage boost through enemies.
Misty Mine:
Expresso is sadly hiding at the end of a long bonus and was a lot slower to get. But you aren't sick of all this jumping action yet, right?!
Loopy Lights
Same old, same old...
This level was the most challenging to do, both to keep the speed throughout the level as well as avoiding enemies. It had me stuck for quite some time, especially the end with all the Krushas. It did work out nicely in the end I think.
Master Necky SNR:
It's another Necky. You've already seen this. Stop watching and go to the next boring boss fight instead.
King K Rool:
I actually found a faster method to end the run compared to my previous TASes. It uses the same idea, but it's done earlier.
"And there you have it. Donkey Kong Country done in 5.0 Y presses."
Memory: Optimization looks very good, no obvious mistakes at all.
The entertainment was very good in my eyes. The difference between this goal and the existing branches is like night and day, and there are plenty of clever things in the TAS that make it still entertaining despite being moving significantly slower. The audience enjoyed it too.
The only problem is whether this is truly a walkathon. If you consider moving with the y-button: rolling and running to be not walking, then this is fine. There isn't exactly a much easier way to phrase this without getting overly mechanical so I see "Walkathon" as a fitting enough descriptor.
Accepting to Moons as a new branch.