This TAS completes the 100% category of the game, which is defined as seeing the complete map before catching Jerry. It is much faster than the any% category which just catches Jerry as early as possible.
The any% TAS doesn’t show off much of the movement tech in this game, so this category gives the opportunity to show off a bit more.
I originally got the inspiration to put this TAS together after talking to arnaud33200 during making my speed run review video on the game. During this process, me and arnaud33200 have both been grinding this category RTA. That speedrun review video looks into the game in detail and explains the tech used in both categories. If you’re interested it can be found here:
https://youtu.be/BhY61X8PPm4
Walk through walls glitch
The glitch saves a lot of time in this category. It can be done by letting go of right on particular frames when Tom is bonking into a wall. If you are not pressing right on the correct frames, you’ll walk through the wall. In RTA this will feel like tapping right with a particular rhythm.
General tech and optimisation
Since you’re trying to get to the end of each level, it’s best to keep Jerry moving so that the screen scrolls. The initial concern is that this would make the game too autoscroller-y but this wasn’t the case. I had to try pretty hard to keep the screen scrolling as fast as possible, so it remains interesting.
The 100% category is defined as seeing all the screen (having the map scroll as far as possible before catching Jerry). This is really important, for example in level 2 where I catch him on the earliest possible pixel. I thought of an alternate definition which would have Jerry lie down before you can catch him, but I went with the RTA definition of scrolling the map. I’m pretty sure you’re not supposed to be able to catch Jerry at the end of level 6, so the waiting for him to lie down definition wouldn’t work. The only way I manage to catch him at the end of level 6 if by catching him before he climbs up before the dog.
Most of the speed up in this category is done with the walk through walls glitch, as well as taking damage to get through obstacles quicker. I also do a fake out run (run stop run) to make Jerry run fast without throwing bombs. I have to be sure not to actually get in front of Jerry otherwise I will often catch him accidentally.
Special Thanks
A huge thanks to arnaud33200 for coming up with this category and having a great back and forth with me about the cool speed tech in this game.
Thanks to Wrayal for finding the walk through walls glitch.
ThunderAxe31: All right, I see the game itself doesn't provide any definition of full completion. So the
speedrunning community, or more specifically arnaud33200, had to come up with a definition that works, even though it may look unconventional. The definition is clear and definite, so we can use it for TAS records.
Accepting as a new branch.
