Playing the Movie
- 1 wiimote and nunchuck connected, no wii motion+ (not sure if it matters but this is dolphin we're talking about)
- Direct3D 11
- Be sure to go into your dolphin user folder > wii > title and delete everything in that folder before you play the movie. The game will autosave in that folder, and also try to autoload from it on boot, so you'll need to clear it every time you play the movie.
SHA-1: 9dc8bc8de9fb110df14d44b007c2b9e3703f9339
ISO MD5: 41a5551a80121717385ddbea72871035
Introduction
Spider-Man: Edge of Time is a 2011 video game that came after Shattered Dimensions, albeit this time with a deeper focus on the interconnected story of two Spider-Men. This game still uses some assets from SD, however.
The Amazing Spider-Man, or present day Spider-Man, or Peter Parker, is voiced by Josh Keaton - the voice of Spider-Man in The Spectacular Spider-Man.
The Spider-Man from 2099, Miguel O'Hara, is voiced by Christopher Daniel Barnes - the voice of Spider-Man in the 90s animated series (the one that yells for Shocker in that one video).
Peter David, responsible for a number of Spider-Man comics, is the main writer of the story for this game.
Honestly, it's the perfect storm for a Spider-Man game, and I'd say they did really well. Onto the TAS!
Main Strategies
The fastest strategy to skip large chunks of the game is to go out of bounds, and then access a door as close to the end of the current section as possible. Then the game goes "yup, you went through this door, that must mean we need to load the next room! Oopsie, looks like it's not ready; here's a load screen!" Then the game loads it, you progress from there, rinse and repeat.
However, this only works with doors that don't require a key. There's no way to store a key to unintended sections, and if there was, there would be no location you could stand on close enough to a floating door to be able to actually use the key.
Doors aren't picky about your location, generally - get close enough for it to open, and be on the other side of it when it closes for it to consider you having passed though.
So, how exactly do you get out of bounds?
Zip Clips and Zip Delay are two directly connected strategies that can get you out of bounds relatively easily. So, the web zip and web swing button is shared - if you tap it (specifically, 5 frames or less), you zip to a marked point, and if you hold it, you web swing. However, if you're holding the button for those initial 5 frames, the game is storing where your zip point is, and even if you pass a wall in that time, the game will still zip you to that point when you release the button. The goal is to press the zip button and walk around a corner at the same time, so Spider-Man goes through the wall to get to the point. Then just cancel the web zip by attacking as you pass through the wall, and voila!
5 frames? Isn't that a pretty unforgiving amount of time to cover distance with? Why yes, yes it is! Introducing Zip Delay (zip storage was taken, rip). During those 5 frames, if you start attacking before the web zip actually comes out, and keep holding the web zip button, Spider-Man won't web zip to the point until you're done attacking. This allows you to cover as much ground as you want by just attacking repeatedly, then web zip afterward, making it incredibly easy to get out of bounds.
I could really just end the submission notes here, since anything else in the video can solved with context clues... but that wouldn't be any fun.
Explanation, Prelude
At the start of the movie, I pause and switch to easy difficulty, and also enable subtitles.
Anti-Venom is the main antagonist of the first Act of the game. If you strike him too many times in quick succession, he will block, which is very slow. For the tutorial, you have to damage him down enough for him to charge at you, so the game can tell you about hyper sense.
Most people don't realize this, but hyper sense makes you literally invincible against everything (and you run faster). It's Amazing Spider-Man's main defensive option.
From here, just deal some more damage to Anti-Venom and a cutscene triggers where we learn that he's capable of de-powering Peter. After being thrown down, we just have to get grabbed by Anti-Venom again to progress. Which attack he does is completely up to RNG, but I got him to just grab.
Most cutscenes can be skipped by holding A, in case you were wondering why the scene abruptly ended (in this case, it can only be skipped once the 2099 box appears).
2099 1 (1:49 in provided encode)
Miguel is practicing his role as the sussy imposter, venting his way through Alchemax to figure out what Walker Sloan is up to. Also known as, hold forward for about 3 minutes and 50 seconds. For those sections where you stand up, just avoid the blocks of light.
At 5:39, we gain real control. For some reason, the text box appearing gives us an additional jump.
At 6:20, we see our first zip clip. There's a large, invisible floor ahead of me, so I fall straight down to avoid it, then webswing to the door on the other side of the gateway room. This skips the tutorial for Miguel's main defensive ability, decoy. This means we don't unlock it for the entire game, either. This saves a little under a minute.
After the load screen, we have to defeat 5 of the 6 initial enemies for the next batch to spawn. Then we have to defeat 9 of the 10 total enemies for the platform in the center of the room to spawn. Of course, I have some fun with the last enemy.
Amazing 1 (8:50)
There is a fabled skip for this starting part where you use the glass at the entrance of the office to clip out of bounds. I tried it for literal months while not TASing before determining it had to be made up - no video evidence, merely a screenshot and an explanation.
Anyway, the game gives us a tutorial on spider-sense and keys here. You can't attack the enemy until he's fully spawned in, so I get deep enough into my combo and hit him with 2 strong attacks the moment it's possible. You also have to wait a brief moment after the spider-sense prompt pops up before you can actually do it.
Swinging through the door at a specific angle allows me to skip a part where you stand still for like 8 seconds.
At 9:34, we learn about forcing open doors. So, you can't actually use hyper sense while forcing open a door to make yourself invincible during it, so you have to either kill all the enemies or web them up to keep them from hitting you. Of course, I've manipulated them to do nothing. Once the door is open, we do another zip clip and gradually climb our way up to a specific door. This skips unlocking the upgrades menu, meaning we won't be able to buy anything until later.
10:28, we get our first example (in the run) of quantum causality - basically the butterfly effect but with bigger words. Something in the past affects something in the future. Apparently no one bothered to fix these giant robots in the 88 year difference between the timelines.
The thing the enemy does at 11:04 is a grab attempt, but since I'm busy, he can't grab me. You can also see I stop pulling the robot's leg for like a quarter of a second. This is a tactic commonly referred to as a "mistake". Manipulating these enemies to miss their shots and only do grab attempts is really painful.
2099 2 (11:40)
The door up ahead has a lock on it that needs an explosive to destroy. Normally you'd use the decoy to lure one of the turret's missiles into it, but we don't have decoy, so we take some damage. Then we use a delayed zip clip to get out of bounds and skip a few cutscenes.
The room I enter at 12:06 has a complicated scenario. Normally there's a key enemy in the adjacent room that only fights you once you've defeated all the enemies, but since we entered the room like this, he spawns without a key. However, by restarting checkpoint as we reach the exit door, it gives us a key and spawns us in the next room.
You have to go through the key door for the elevator shaft to spawn, so we do that and clip out of bounds so we can swing to it. After the load screen at 12:42, we learn about the wonders of... holding the A button for 100 seconds and dodging obstacles.
The wall you have to climb up at 14:40 is absolutely terribly made. The collision is all over the place, meaning you can randomly get stuck, hence why my movement seems a little sporadic. Also, you'd use the decoy to make the turrets miss their shots, but since we don't have it, we have to take some pretty decent damage.
At 15:40, we climb up onto a ledge. In the following room, there's a big fight, but if you hold backward, you can skip it (unless the game decides you can't, which is really annoying in runs of this game). So we swing to the next segment and climb some more. You can web swing all the way up instead of climbing the wall if you so wish, but climbing the wall is much faster.
Amazing 2 (16:51)
I feel like this part mostly speaks for itself until around 18:09. Normally you'd go through this room and go through a whole section where some hallways get destroyed, and then come back into a rearranged version of this room due to the damage. But thanks to the ability to clip through stuff, we can access the timed door even while "stuck" in this room.
At 18:44, we start the fight with Anti-Venom. Like I said at the start, if you hit him too many times too quickly, he'll start blocking, and that's bad, so I take it a little slow. Also worth noting that, if you're close to your target, the attack where spidey throws 2 rocks over his shoulder can hit twice and do double damage. You also have to let him heal.
At 19:22, when entering the hallway, normally you're forced to walk slowly around the boxes, but by swinging at a very specific angle, you can skip it completely. Spider-Man then gets grabbed by AV and loses his ability to use hyper-sense, so now you have to jump to get out of the way of his attacks. As you damage him down, he'll eventually jump into the center of the room and you can circle around him, but I made him slide out of place.
The Main Event (20:22)
I'm kind of just getting to the point where I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel here. I clip out of bounds and access a later door.
At 21:50, you are powerless and all you have to do is exist for 20 seconds. Even stumbling around, I still make a fool out of AV. Then, at 22:14, you can crawl, but you don't have to. It makes it more dramatic if you do, though.
23:09 Defeat the 3 key enemies and break into the gateway room.
23:30 Carry Spider-Man to the regeneration egg. Amazing Spider-Man is now in 2099, and 2099 Spider-Man moves to present day to stop AV from coming to the future. At the start of the AV fight as Miguel, you just walk past him, and no, you can't stop yourself from doing it.
Miguel's boss fight ability is much better than Peter's, but Miguel sucks at group fights, and vice versa.
At 24:34, you're supposed to use the decoy to trick AV into running into the side room, but we don't have decoy, so...
By angling myself just right, I can have AV smash me into one of the regeneration eggs early, skipping a cutscene. Then, since we don't have decoy, we have to let him smash us into the other regeneration eggs as well.
Then we finish off AV and enjoy a cutscene of AV getting revenge on the jerks that controlled him.
Act 2, Hydroponic Jungle (26:22)
First things first, the game says we have upgrades available. Even though we skipped unlocking the upgrades menu, pressing the button to open the menu just unlocks it. I buy Time Paradox, which will be explained later.
The regeneration egg has also fully restored Peter's powers.
Tentacles. No further comments, your honor.
At 27:35, I perform a perfect hyper sense by activating it just before I get hit. This slows time and gives me extra hyper sense, and I use the slowdown to skip disabling two more tentacles on the way to the jungle.
It's possible to skip the entire Hydroponic jungle section (27:50) on the Xbox 360 version, but not here. We have to collect 3 atomic batteries around the jungle.
At 28:00, you can see me wait a moment before activating the switch. This is because of the turret to my side about to attack - I use the hyper sense thing mentioned earlier to slow time.
There's a little bit of landing lag, where you can't interact with anything. Sometimes you get it, sometimes you don't, and I don't have any explanation for it.
24:25 I jump into the hole, which deloads the previous room, and then swing back out the way I came in, letting me go out of bounds. Apparently there are some invisible checkpoints or something, but the doors after the one I go to are locked, so I just use the closest door.
2099 3
30:02 Miguel has to activate 3 breakers around the room and fight a horde of enemies. Remember what I said about Miguel being terrible with group combat? Yeah... he has like 2 really good moves for crowd control and that's it.
I also use Time Paradox, which spawns an orb - any enemies in this orb are frozen and die in one hit.
31:45 Do some diving, do a zip clip... repeat... repeat... (after each clip, I restart checkpoint to enter diving mode, or else you'll just be falling).
At 34:45, you have to get hit here.
I restart checkpoint after landing here, or else the glitch at 35:16 won't work. This is important because normally you'd have to destroy 4 turrets around a door that you have to force open, so... being able to do this zip clip is very important. Anyway, there's 3 total switches in this room and you have to hit all of them.
On the 3rd floor of the other side of the room, the side closest to the switch door is blocked by an invisible, one-way wall, so I have to enter through the far side.
35:52 (muffled rap god playing)
36:02 By performing a heavy attack within 2 frames of spawning, I can skip a detour that you're normally forced to take.
36:12 This broken cutscene happens because of the sequence break earlier. Normally Peter is about to be crushed between two walls and you needed those switches earlier to save him (since I mentioned before, Peter is in 2099 and Miguel is in present day).
Amazing 3
37:46 There may be a skip for this room, but I didn't realize that until after the TAS was done - it would theoretically skip the entire part where you wait for Miguel to save you.
EDIT: I found that theoretical skip:
39:40 I wait a moment here as to not get spotted by the lasers.
39:55 I punch here to delay my web zip, so after I activate the panel, I zip out of the room. Normally you need 3 keys to open the door, and that applies to either side of it, so you have to do this or else you're stuck. This skip also only works on the Wii and 3DS versions of the game.
2099 4 (40:20)
So Peter learns that Mary Jane is going to die on this very night, and he needs Miguel to save her. The name of this objective is "Mary Jane in the Library with a Tentacle". This is a direct reference to the fact that the developers were very horny.
40:46 Doing this skip has the lovely effect of
She went down a corridor on the second floor.
She went down a corridor on the second floor.
She went down a corridor on the second floor.
She went down a corridor on the second floor.
She went down a corridor on the second floor.
She went down a corridor on the second floor.
41:12 Getting too close to the elevator triggers a cutscene, so I don't do that.
Amazing 4
44:39 A girl.... AND a gamer? Whoa mama! Hummina hummina hummina bazooooooooing! *eyes pop out* AROOOOOOOOGA! *jaw drops tongue rolls out* WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF *tongue bursts out of the outh uncontrollably leaking face and everything in reach* WURBLWUBRLBWURblrwurblwurlbrwubrlwburlwbruwrlblwublr *tiny cupid shoots an arrow through heart* Ahhhhhhhhhhh me lady... *heart in the shape of a heart starts beating so hard you can see it through shirt* ba-bum ba-bum ba-bum ba-bum ba-bum *milk truck crashes into a bakery store in the background spiling white liquid and dough on the streets* *inhales from the gas tank* honka honka honka honka
44:22 We have to start the encounter by using our chunky white stuff to knock up Black Cat, then bring the hurt when she's all dizzy- and she's dead. That was quick.
45:50 The clones are an absolute pain, but the Time Paradox is busted good, so we can take care of them quickly.
46:08 In this cutscene, we learn that the CEO of Alchemax in 2099... is Peter Parker.
46:53 This might be the biggest skip in the entire game.
Act 3, 2099 5 (47:43)
The spiders have returned to their respective timelines.
48:20 By jumping into this vent, we can run through it instead of having to crawl.
48:46 This might be the second biggest skip in the game.
49:59 I hope you enjoyed waiting, because now we have to wait some more. The failed experiments will attack these pipes, and the percent counter won't go up while they do. They will also endlessly spawn, unless you leave one alive and just bully it until the analysis reaches 100%. There is no way to skip this as far as I know, even clipping into the center of the room doesn't skip it.
Amazing 5 (52:16)
53:05 All you have to do is exist.
2099 6 (56:54)
CEO Peter explains why he's the villain of 2099. Then we dive down. Then we dive up. I do another checkpoint restart at 1:00:10 to begin diving.
1:01:17 Exist.
Amazing 6 (1:02:23)
1:02:41 No way to skip this segment, unfortunately. Things just won't load.
1:04:08 Clipping out of bounds and killing the guard early will give you the key, but you won't be able to use it, so you have to do this part as intended as well. Enjoy the overlapping conversations. Toaster.
1:04:43 If you access this panel too quickly, you softlock and have to restart checkpoint, so I wait a brief moment before using it.
1:05:05 There's still a lingering hitbox from the spinning parts of the teleporter.
2099 7 (1:05:40)
Absolutely massive, TAS-only skip.
Finale (1:06:45)
I hope you enjoy playing like a little bitch, because that's what you have to do against Atrocity's phase 1 and 2. Run away while shooting webs at its tentacles - if you get too close, it'll try to grab you, and webs you shoot at it while it's doing so will have no effect on it.
Then climb onto one of the breakers Miguel set up way earlier, and let Atrocity try to grab you while you're on it. This will stun him.
1:07:50 CEO phase 1 is similar - invincible except when he doesn't feel like it. If you shoot webs at him, you'll cancel his current attack. He's kind of just on a timer, and when that timer is up, he can jump away. Just cancel his attack when that timer's up and he'll do it. As far as I know, he's impossible to 1-cycle, even with upgrades.
1:09:00 Atrocity phase 2 is just phase 1, but with less tentacles, and also the floor is lava.
1:09:40 Phase 2 CEO is much more enjoyable IMO, as tentacles come up from the ground and you use them to stun the CEO instead of playing the waiting game.
1:10:11 Phase 3 Atrocity is just
STANDING HERE, I REALIZE, YOU WERE JUST LIKE ME, TRYING TO MAKE HISTORY
Phase 3 CEO - you have now entered the fun zone. You are allowed to enjoy yourself for 30 seconds since he no longer has invincibility. I use the time paradox while he's stunned since it makes him stunned for longer.
Unfortunately you don't get any of the CEO's cheeky dialogue while preparing to slingshot yourself into him, thanks to the fight going by much faster than intended.
Assuming this gets accepted, I would like to request 2 encodes - one of the normal game, and one with fog disabled. Disabling the fog removes the rather abrasive glow when out of bounds, and it's not entirely inaccurate to do so, as the 3DS version lacks most fog. I don't think this affects the movie's ability to sync, either.
slamo: Claiming for judging.
slamo: The optimization looks reasonable enough, you mention some known improvements but obviously that's going to be nearly impossible to splice into a DTM. This movie tripped the site's SRAM flag for some reason, but I can indeed confirm it syncs with no SRAM at all. Accepting!
