So I finally plucked up the courage to tackle this game once again, this time implementing a ceiling clip in the final level (which I admittedly knew about but couldn't recreate for the life of me no matter how much I tried). Due to the framerule system this game has, I was unable to improve the first 7 levels but the ceiling clip and the lucky layout of the last level allowed 45 frames to be saved of the
last improvement
Game objectives
- Emulator used: BizHawk 2.8
- Aims for fastest completion
- Minor glitch abuse
The special ability the frog has to make this game unique is the ability to blow bubbles that can then be moved up and down or side-to-side, though this also makes the frog move left and right. Bubbles will spawn directly beneath the frog if up or down are held and A can also be pressed to jump on it. Holding both results in a cycle of blowing and jumping on a bubble that travels up directly underneath the frog then popping it and this repeats, effectively giving us full control of the frog as we have a way to get infinite height. While there is a cooldown between blowing bubbles, it can be made shorter by being a certain distance from a wall to pop it faster so the next one can be generated earlier (the best example is in level 4).
As I previously said, the game also uses a 13 frame framerule system (RAM address 0x0653) so the frog will only pose and end the level every 13th frame, making improvements in levels 1-7 highly unlikely.
Level 8
The final level makes full use of the fact the bubble pushes the frog into walls, with it going fully through 1 block thick walls. With some careful positioning, it can clip through the first ceiling and luckily pass through the spikes which was one of the biggest setbacks when I first made this TAS. We are also able to end input surprisingly early because of a second bubble blown after getting through the first ceiling that also pushes the frog through the ending platform. It also only worked if the frog was at least a certain distance to the right so this is the earliest it (should) can end. The frame the second bubble was blown was also a little finnicky but it all worked out in the end, I guess, and I'm finally happy with a TAS of Frog - how unexpected
ThunderAxe31: This frog seems to be enough frog. Frog accepted.