Goals
- Maximal completion
- Uses level passwords (3 of them, to be exact)
- Takes damage to save time
- Genre: puzzle
Goal definition
This TAS is based on the RTA speedrun category called 200%+, meaning that we complete the main game mode and the Time Attacks, both as Donkey Kong and Diddy, as well as beating the single player Jungle Jams, which are the minigames that this game proposes.
The 3 passwords that we enter at the very beginning of the run are to unlock 3 Jungle Jams that are only unlockable via entering a code. These Jungle Jams do NOT add anything to the percentage counter, however skipping these in a maximal completion run that has to do the other Jungle Jams wouldn’t feel as satisfying and as coherent as unlocking the Jungle Jams with a password and beating them.
Done on the US version of the game. Japanese saves about 30 seconds over the whole speedrun, which isn’t significant enough for me to choose it.
Does this beat the world record? Yes, by 18 minutes.
Techniques used
Banana usage
In this game, you can use 10 bananas to refill one heart (only way to regain health), or use 20 bananas to enter a state where you’re invincible and go faster. In this run, we try to prioritise screens where it’s faster to use those bananas, and due to the fact that we get lots of those from the bonuses, we get to use lots of them for the DK section. Diddy doesn’t have get to do bonuses and have free bananas, so we only get to see 2 of them for Diddy.
Speedgrinding
Alternating L and R on every frame makes you go at the speed that you’d get from the first frame after releasing a peg, but for every frame. Due to fact that Diddy turns a lot faster than DK, it is sometimes not faster for Diddy to use this technique, especially when going sideways.
Run Description
Note: If a strat doesn’t seem to be described in one of the sections, check the earlier sections, as I don’t want to have to repeat the same thing.
DK Adventure
For this segment, I pretty much had to TAS most rooms twice to figure out the best banana route, since there wasn’t any route for it before the TAS was made. This run by PiePusher11 features the strats that were used before the start of the TAS.
https://www.speedrun.com/dkkos/run/y8q8owdy
Banana usage
- Contraption Caves bonus (20)
- Puzzling Pyramid 1 (10)
- Puzzling Pyramid 2 (20)
- Cactus Woods 3 (20)
- Treacherous Twister 1 (20)
- Necky’s Canyon 1 (20)
- Fire Necky (20)
- Kremling Kamp 1 (20)
- Kremling Kamp 2 (20)
- Kremling Kemp 3 (10)
- Ship of Souls 2 (20)
- Lockjaw Fall 2 (20)
- Lockjaw Falls 3 (20)
- Ragine Ravine 2 (20)
- Raging Ravine 3 (20)
- Ice Castle 3 (20)
- Underwater Ruins 1 (20)
- Booster Barrel Skyway (20)
- Artillery 2 (20)
- Hull 3 (20)
- Engine 1 (30)
- Engine 2 (20)
-10 from the free second heart that you get from starting the game.
For a grand total of 420 bananas used in this segment. Nice.
Tutorial
Pretty much normal stuff.
Banana Bungalow
Really precise jump on the way to the end platform.
Contraption Caves
Speedgrinding allows to get good cycles in the first room.
The boost in the bonus lets us not have to break all the barrels one by one.
Puzzling Pyramid
Damage boost in the first screen.
The boost in the second screen lets us conveniently grab the coconut.
We can sneak past the kremling in the third screen to let me crank the switch for us.
Tropical Treetops
This is speedgrinding hell.
Congazuma
We can kill him quickly by luring him to the right while he’s already on the right side of the screen, skipping sections where he’s invincible.
Cactus Woods
Barely slowing down before jumping coming out of the bonus saves 1 frame from shortening the jump.
Madcap Mines
Optimal way of cranking the switches: closing then opening the hand on every frame.
It was almost fast enough to damage boost in the second screen instead of killing the rat. It was one of the last things to figure out.
We can skip most switches in the third screen with some cool jumps.
Treacherous Twister
Not a fun level.
It’s really convenient that the pegboard under the barrel containing the coconut is just close enough to the barrel that leads to the second screen. Makes the boost worth it.
Necky’s Canyon
Throwing a rock while being boosted makes the rock pierces through things that are not walls.
Fire Necky
Having piercing rocks allows us to get double hits from a single rock, allowing us to end the fight in 1 phase, and only 4 rocks.
Third world route
While it is faster to do the third world clockwise, the banana route makes it better to do counter-clockwise, saving enough bananas to do the boost in Lockjaw Falls 3.
Risky Reef
I had to wait before going in the barrel after getting the medal, otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to grab the spinning pegs coming out of it.
Kremling Kamp
A boost in the first screen lets us go directly to the bonus.
Getting the coconut the optimal way without landing on the platform is very precise.
We can skip the entire second screen with a boost.
Boosting in the third screen saves something like 2-3 seconds, from the fact that DK can’t reach the top of the tire by himself.
Ship of souls
Ghosts are not RNG, even if they appear to be.
The thing that makes boost worth in the second screen is that you don’t bonk when breaking the boxes.
In the third screen, when you grab a peg, 6 other pegs appear around it, so have to grab quite a lot of pegs to reach the top of the screen.
Lockjaw Falls
There is no convenient way to kill the bee in the second room without a boost.
The glitchy collision that happens with the barrel in the third screen happens from pressing L or R on the same frame that I hit the barrel. Only works when you’re boosting (perhaps from the higher speed that you get?)
Davie Bones
I really couldn’t figure out a better ending, the hitbox of the bottom-left spike is quite small.
Ragine Ravine
Bouncing off of the tire in the first room is faster than letting DK naturally fall onto it.
The thing that makes the boost worth in the second screen is that you can break the barrel and get the medal in 1 jump.
Oh, and we can also skip the entire third screen.
Ice Castle
Sliding on ice is way faster than speedgrinding if you grab a platform right after letting go of it.
In the third screen, it’s possible, but slower, to skip the barrel that spawns the pegboard, from the fact that the barrel is in your way when you fall down to the exit.
Underwater Ruins
We can skip the second part of the autoscroller in the first room with a boost!
Barely not getting crushed ejects you upward by a little bit.
Getting the coconut like the way that the TAS does it is very precise.
Cold Cold Forest
Sadly the platform with the medal is just barely unreachable from a tire bounce.
Sassy Squatch
Doing the first throw in the air allows the ball to get more speed before it gets into the mouth.
Booster Barrel Skyway
Fairly straightforward level.
Artillery
The tire bounce at the beginning allows to get the bananas for free.
The bottom route in the second screen saves 1 second.
Hull
We can directly reach the bonus from the spinning peg, skipping to have to turn the valve.
You can’t do the bonus without passing somewhere twice, the layout doesn’t allow for that.
Slowing down before jumping off the platform coming out of the bonus saves time from bonking off of the ceiling later.
The Hull 2 boost saves 96 frames, it’s the least efficient one in this run. We’re kinda forced to do that one from the fact that we get lots of bananas in the 3 levels that come before hull, and there’s only 2 levels left to the run. For a comparison, the other boosts save 3+ seconds.
Engine
It’s the great return of the 30 banana combo hoo-haw fire bounce DX to skip the first screen. I just barely have enough time from the boost timer to get the coconut and do the skip with 1 boost.
K. Rool
For the first phase, it’s faster to boost K. Rool, since we can only leave the race once he’s done.
Single Player Jungle Jams
For the races, the goal is to make sure the CPUs don’t mess up, as I can only leave the races once everyone is done. For the other minigames, they’re pure autoscrollers, so it’s all entertainment. For the races, I do wait a fair bit before locking in what opponents I’ll get, as some of them are better at doing some sections than other. Despite Diddy being one of the best in terms of agility, is AI is really bad, and it really feels like he tries to sabotage everyone rather than going fast. I pick DK because he has the worst stats compared to the other AIs so that I don’t get to have an opponent that slows me down by playing DK.
DK Time Attacks
IGT Summary
| Level | RTA | TAS | Delta |
|---|
| Banana Bungalow | 19,27 | 17,37 | 1,9 |
| Tropical Treetops | 21,27 | 19,15 | 2,12 |
| Contraption Caves | 23,9 | 21,53 | 2,37 |
| Puzzling Pyramid | 19,87 | 18,32 | 1,55 |
| Necky’s Canyon | 28,67 | 24,5 | 4,17 |
| Cactus Woods | 29,17 | 26,5 | 2,67 |
| Treacherous Twister | 23,53 | 20,25 | 3,28 |
| Madcap Mine | 27,97 | 24,63 | 3,34 |
| Risky Reef | 45,12 | 39,77 | 5,35 |
| Lockjaw Falls | 25,47 | 22,97 | 2,5 |
| Kremling Kamp | 31,37 | 28,03 | 3,34 |
| Ship of Souls | 28,87 | 22,23 | 6,64 |
| Cold Cold Forest | 30,52 | 27,6 | 2,92 |
| Raging Ravine | 39,33 | 32,23 | 7,1 |
| Underwater Ruins | 59,95 | 54,22 | 5,73 |
| Ice Castle | 37,55 | 32,73 | 4,82 |
| Booster Barrel Skyway | 16,55 | 16,43 | 0,12 |
| Artillery | 19,9 | 17,73 | 2,17 |
| Hull | 44,18 | 40,25 | 3,93 |
| Engine | 53,63 | 44,97 | 8,66 |
Contraption Caves
In the third screen, we can do a precise tire bounce to go directly to the orange pegboard.
Puzzling Pyramid
You can skip all of the second screen without boosts too!
Necky’s Canyon
With some really precise rock throws, you can break all the rocks on the first screen with only 2 rotations.
Cactus Woods
The top route in the second screen saves 0.3s.
Kremling Kamp
Damage boost in the first room because it’s not possible to beat the Kremling.
Precise tire bounce in the second room to skip having to break another barrel.
Ship of Souls
Gotta take full advantage of having 3 hearts in the second screen to efficiently take the barrel shortcut.
Cold Cold Forest
Faster to take the middle route in the third screen even if it makes it so that it’s not convenient to get 20 bananas.
Raging Ravine
Despite the very long wait to get the bomb from the Kremling, it’s faster to get that bomb instead of the traditional one.
Booster Barrel Skyway
Going out of the way to get bananas saves an entire second.
Artillery
With the 20 free bananas, we can boost in the second screen.
Engine
In the words of PiePusher11, “We do the entire first screen... to skip the entire first screen.” There are exactly 20 bananas in the first screen, which is barely enough to be able to do the “Hoo-Haw Skip Skip”.
Diddy Time Attacks
| Level | RTA WR | TAS | Delta |
|---|
| Banana Bungalow | 18,35 | 17,48 | 0,87 |
| Tropical Treetops | 19,75 | 18,63 | 1,12 |
| Contraption Caves | 21,83 | 20,13 | 1,7 |
| Puzzling Pyramid | 18,38 | 16,78 | 1,6 |
| Necky’s Canyon | 27,38 | 22,83 | 4,55 |
| Cactus Woods | 26,6 | 23,55 | 3,05 |
| Treacherous Twister | 22,27 | 19,12 | 3,15 |
| Madcap Mine | 23,5 | 21,95 | 1,55 |
| Risky Reef | 43,4 | 37,08 | 6,32 |
| Lockjaw Falls | 21,88 | 20,55 | 1,33 |
| Kremling Kamp | 26,12 | 21,77 | 4,35 |
| Ship of Souls | 26,87 | 21,72 | 5,15 |
| Cold Cold Forest | 31,68 | 26,32 | 5,36 |
| Raging Ravine | 31,28 | 26,47 | 4,81 |
| Underwater Ruins | 57,83 | 50,4 | 7,43 |
| Ice Castle | 33,85 | 29,87 | 3,98 |
| Booster Barrel Skyway | 16,18 | 16,05 | 0,13 |
| Artillery | 19,17 | 17,18 | 1,99 |
| Hull | 43,87 | 38,37 | 5,5 |
| Engine | 39,63 | 32,42 | 7,21 |
Banana Bungalow
Due to the huge amount of speedgrinding done diagonally in the first screen, DK is actually faster than Diddy for that one level.
Contraption Caves
In the third screen, Diddy can go from the tire directly to the exit.
Treacherous Twister
At the beginning of the second screen, Diddy can directly grab the pegboard without having to land.
Madcap Mines
Diddy can just skip everything in the first room, after some waiting so that the bat moves out of the way.
Risky Reef
The bottom route in the third screen saves 2 seconds.
Kremling Kamp
Diddy jumps slightly lower than boosted DK, so he has to spawn the pegs at the beginning of the second screen.
Cold Cold Forest
It’s important to throw the 2 rocks in the first room to make sure to not get hit.
Raging Ravine
The first room of this level is the only time that I actually had to look at PiePusher11’s inputs to understand how he made the cycles. He did a fantastic job in his Any% TAS.
The last bomb in the third screen serves no purpose but entertainment, it does become useful in the Adventure part of the TAS though.
Underwater Ruins
Diddy can skip the first screen without any boost.
Booster Barrel Skyway
Entering the second barrel saves 3 frames.
Engine
Very precise skip for the first screen, by using a bounce from the canon, then from the cannonball. Saves 5 seconds of waiting for the spike to go around.
Diddy Adventure
Banana Usage
- Fire Necky (20)
- Engine 1 (10)
- Engine 2 (20)
-10 from the second heart from starting the Adventure mode
For a total of 40 bananas. Not so nice.
Puzzling Pyramid
Bonking against the ceiling after getting the medal is faster than turning on the side.
Cold Cold Forest
The DK medal can be reached by a tire bounce.
Engine
The boost in the second screen allows to skip about half of it.
Shoutouts
Special Thanks to PiePusher11 who helped me start this whole project. He doesn’t want to have authorship on this TAS, since he had to quit in the middle of Wild West World in the DK Adventure section. Fortunately, he did give me the confidence and the determination to go through the 16 months that it took me to make this TAS.
Blunderstab
He basically made a Jungle Beat 100% TAS, but never published it because of desyncing. He had made a TAS of all the ILs, but it wouldn’t sync when combining them. Hopefully he finds the strength to make a submission happen at some point in the future.
The rest of the DK: King of Swing community:
for being awesome, and finding so many strats over the years. When will we start having races? ;)
And you, the viewers who took the time to witness this movie. I hope you liked it, and don’t forget to rate it after watching!
ThunderAxe31: I was waiting to see a full-completion TAS of this game, and I must say that it turned out more entertaining than what I expected. Despite its total length, the movie keeps being interesting and diverse. The main story levels are played four times, however each time they feature many differences in gameplay and optimization challenge. These differences are the physics of the character used, the amount and position of the bananas, and the health points available. All minigames are also beaten in order to achieve full-completion, which is denoted in-game with the 200% percentage.
Apart from what already mentioned, the movie also features 3 secret minigames unlockable by passwords, which is
allowed in this case. Beating these doesn't increment the in-game completion percentage, however they feature unique contents and thus including them gives a better sense of full-completion, without detracting anything from the rest of the movie (hence the "200%+" label). Additionally, the speedrunning community considers these secret minigames as part of
their full-completion definition for this game, which suggests the presence of general agreement, in accordance to our
full-completion rules. For these reasons, including these 3 additional levels doesn't count as a speed/entertaining tradeoff, and the movie goal is applicable for Vault.
There are no redundant movie contents compared with the published
fastest-completion or
Diddy Mode movies, so this submission is accepted for Moons as a new branch.
