(Link to video)
This is a speed oriented TAS for MK4.

Game objectives

  • Emulator used: Bizhawk 2.3.2(x64)
  • Complete single-player mode Endurance mode in Ultimate difficulty, Master II tower.
  • Do it in fastest time possible.

Why Endurance?

  • Endurance is chosen because it has one round only and you always keep the same health between battles, so I'll only take damage the first time to avoid Flawless Victory message. Also no Finisher to try a fatality on the enemy.

Comments

The fastest strategy in RTA is repeatedly kicking the enemies in the face. However, it's only done because RTA players don't have control over the RNG. This game, unlike MK3, has a very static RNG which is not easily manipulatable, so you just kinda accept the RNG for the fight mostly. New actions can cause new rng, but just waiting will not change the result. This is really bad for TAS. If you can cause a new action, all the rest of the RNG for the fight will change. Sometimes i delay to get a new action.

Combos

Combos usually slow the matches down because the hits that come after have lesser damage per hit, but I figured a few that make the match go faster. Combine that with RNG I can't control and you get a lot more variety in this TAS. Doing IAJK (instant air jump kick) 2 HKs is a universal combo which is significantly faster than just doing HKs.Good luck trying to make the enemies eat your combos though.. I sometimes use a weapon at the end of this combo for big damage, but only if I can avoid triggering Max Damage..

Maximum damage

This mechanic separates characters if one of them has done a combo with more than 40% of damage to the other. It slows the match even more this one-time only mechanic. It stops the combo and separates characters, and the few ways to circuvent this take a boatload of time.

Weapon combos!

Each character in this game has a set of Weapons, I noticed Scorpion Sword, Shinnok Lance and Liu Kang Sword are the most relevant ones for their damage and combo potential. Taking the weapon from your pocket inside a combo already makes it hit the enemy with a very fast animation, instead of the slow startup the weapons have by themslves when being taken from their character's pocket. You could use other weapons by selecting the 3rd and 4th outfit for the characters, but i didn't find anything interesting with that. ( johhny cage has a pistol with the suit, looks really good!)

Character choice

Shinnok is similar to the past versions of Shang Tsung, he can morph into other character fight styles, with weapons and combos and special moves all from these charters. He doesn't get the Fatalities though, but we don't care about that. We use the fight styles to get other weapons, like scorpion and liu kang, and to cancel normal moves into the style switch to recover faster from your own moves.
 

How many moves does it take to kill someone in mk4?

I don't have damage values but it takes:
8 High Kicks, or 4 IAJK HKx2 combos or, 2 of IAJK HKx2 and one IAJK HKx2 WEAPON COMBO with Scorpion or Shinnok (50 and 48 % damage combos)

Goro

Goro has more health, but that also means he's less prone to trigger Maximum damage. He also doesn't use lows, so the Liu Kang Sword is really useful with that fast attack( without max damage that would be an infinite, but unfortunately it's still hard to hit normal enemies with that move, they sweep all the time)

IMPROVEMENTS I BELIEVE IN

RNG

Character choice

Hardly, I tried Quanchi and Tanya too but they all leave the enemy a great distance or have bad recovery in their more damaging moves. But who knows, maybe someone finds a way to bypass max damage or to cause more damage faster.

Other comments

I really wished Scorpion was faster, but at the end of the day, the stance cancels from Shinnok and the Liu Kang Sword made a significant difference from the original TAS i MAde with Scorpion, both are in my Youtube Channel.
Screenshot: whatever , maybe something with maximum damage or 50% damage combos.
Thank you for reading, TASvideos for the amazing community and MK SPEEDRUN Discord for providing the most valuable input and support.

Truncated: Claiming for judging.

Truncated: I usually think it is a bit cheap to decrease the number of rounds in fighting games, but in this case I think it works out. Since the life bar carries over between fights, it actually makes the game harder, and as mentioned in the submission, it means you can go at full speed and still avoid Flawless Victory messages every stage. I will accept this to the standard category, i.e. not replacing the current playaround movie.

EZGames69: Processing...
EZGames69: removed "hardest difficulty, and Master II", as we dont include those in branch names

TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #7468: KusogeMan's N64 Mortal Kombat 4 "Endurance" in 02:34.02
MESHUGGAH
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Joined: 11/14/2009
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LMAO I love this! After Shinnok doing great leg works with an occasional single sword slash at the end, he realizes the true power of helicopters and unleashes it on Goro! I don't have any improvement ideas, I watched a few N64 MK4 TASes on youtube but none of them had this fast rounds you did! Good job! edit: I've checked again a lot of TASes. None of them were this close to end a fight like this TAS. I've checked all Dark Noob's MK4 playaround TASes. I'm pretty convinced that Shinnok is the best, only thing I don't know is - does this 3 hit 27% combo is the fastest one to use. judging by the encode it's something like HK, LK, HK+Back - is it possible to use a different combo while avoiding 40% "Maximum Damage" (for new ones, damaging too much make the fighters pushed away from themselves to give opportunity to the other fighter to stand up). Just trying to figure out best strategy. Still very good TAS!
PhD in TASing 🎓 speedrun enthusiast ❤🚷🔥 white hat hacker ▓ black box tester ░ censorships and rules...
Joined: 6/30/2010
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That was a good fighting game TAS. It makes the hardest difficulty look like a joke in only a couple of minutes, that's what I want to see. "Yes" vote!
Current project: Gex 3 any% Paused: Gex 64 any% There are no N64 emulators. Just SM64 emulators with hacky support for all the other games.
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the main problem with keeping combos going is: -scaling,a not a big deal if it's a big hit though - knockdown, big problem because it puts the enemy into a non-neutral state. - distance, so i'll lose time chasing the enemy, even though there are a lot of fast moves in this game. above all, maximum damage because the combo counter is glitched as hell in thie game. There's no point in using a b.HK since it put enemy far away or special moves as well. The idea of leaving the enemy standing up mostly happens because it's the only way i can make sure i avoid the maximum damage. There's significant number of things which aren't combos, but because the combo counter is so bugged in this game, they activate this protection. Putting special moves after usually knockdown and stop the enemy from returning to a neutral state. This game errouneously understand for example that doing the combo 2xHK flying kick with liu kang twice without the opponent going back to a neutral state is a combo. In order to trigger a neutral state, i could whiff a move, but then i have to spend time doing a move i don't want to just to hit the enemy again. basically if you get hit too often without retuning to a neutral state, it's considered a combo in the counter and also for the maximum damage counter as well. This is the reason the game gravitates towards reseting combos with the enemy standing and then doing a combo that kills. Weapon acombos are also the most damaging in the game, with all the negative aspects of combos, but at least their damage compensates for the time wasted. If i did a weapon combo mid round, i lose a lot of time. Even cage's nutcracker or quan chi telekicks are slow as hell when seen from the angle, the distance the damage or the knockdown simply don't compensate for activating maximum damage or delays after the move is done.
TAS i'm interested: megaman series: mmbn1 all chips, mmx3 any% psx glitched fighting games with speed goals in general
MESHUGGAH
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Joined: 11/14/2009
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Thank you for the elaborated informations! It makes this TAS even more impressive to me!
PhD in TASing 🎓 speedrun enthusiast ❤🚷🔥 white hat hacker ▓ black box tester ░ censorships and rules...
EZGames69
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Joined: 5/29/2017
Posts: 2702
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So I have confirmed this movie to sync in the recent dev build of Bizhawk while using the AngryLion video plugin. This is the same kind of plugin we've been using for more recent Mupen encodes that doesnt rely on upscaled graphics and goes for a more accurate look. and example can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgLoyL4dBt8 KusogeMan, would it be ok with you if we waited until the release of BizHawk 2.9 so I can publish this with the AngryLion plugin? The release should be in the next few days. Otherwise I can publish this with GLideN64 if you would prefer that. Here’s what the run will look like with this plugin: Link to video
[14:15] <feos> WinDOES what DOSn't 12:33:44 PM <Mothrayas> "I got an oof with my game!" Mothrayas Today at 12:22: <Colin> thank you for supporting noble causes such as my feet MemoryTAS Today at 11:55 AM: you wouldn't know beauty if it slapped you in the face with a giant fish [Today at 4:51 PM] Mothrayas: although if you like your own tweets that's the online equivalent of sniffing your own farts and probably tells a lot about you as a person MemoryTAS Today at 7:01 PM: But I exert big staff energy honestly lol Samsara Today at 1:20 PM: wouldn't ACE in a real life TAS just stand for Actually Cease Existing
Active player (405)
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Location: Brasil
Please use the glide i like it
TAS i'm interested: megaman series: mmbn1 all chips, mmx3 any% psx glitched fighting games with speed goals in general
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. ---- [4692] N64 Mortal Kombat 4 "Endurance" by KusogeMan in 02:34.02