I found some improvements here while working to console verify. It turns out doing small jumps significantly reduce lag in areas where there are otherwise a lot of lag frames. I changed to GBA mode as well. This run is console verified as in the temp encode.

nymx: Claiming for judging.

nymx: Uploading again to correct the cycle count.

nymx: Everything checks out here. 42 frames cut, due to lag is a nice improvement, as lag reduction is one of my favorite optimization techniques. It is so rewarding to remove as much of it as possible, where there is nothing else to experiment with. Great find on that technique.

Accepting over [5595] GBC Grimace's Birthday by Cephla in 03:40.34.

fsvgm777: Processing.