A Koopa's Revenge 2 is a Super Mario fan game set in a parallel universe where Bowser and company are the good guys, while Mario and his pals are pure evil. After defeating Mario and his cohorts in the first game, Koopa sets off to a distant land where a kidnapped Bowser is being held by a mysterious robed figure.
This TAS is an improvement over
the World Record by approximately 9 minutes and 35 seconds, through optimized movement and menuing, alongside a completely different route throughout the game.
Version & Category Details
This run is done on the 2.9.0 version of the game, which is the latest official release of this game. I say this because recently the developer created an unofficial release of the game, 2.9.0.2, which features a brand new "Speedrun Mode" with an In Game Timer for real time runs and it changes a lot of mechanics to help RTA runs. This version is much faster than 2.9.0, but since I was already far into the run I decided to keep going on the official version for the sake of my motivation. This version is mainly cosmetic, but it patches some of the tricks present in the 2.0 version. However, there are still a few that have slipped through the cracks but they aren't present in this run. One change which impacts this run is that the final boss takes 1 more cycle to die compared to the 2.0 version, and sadly there is no way to speed up that fight. The pipe that takes you to the underground section in the first stage was changed, which saves a few frames. One final change is that 2-3 features an autoscroller after entering the door for the first time, which takes 206 frames to finish. Although this version is slower than the 2.0 version, I chose it because it is the most popular amongst RTA runners of this game.
In order to get a 100% completion of the game and be able to beat the true final boss, the following are required:
- All levels must be completed (including the secret exits for the ones which have them);
- All 75 Silver coins;
- All 7 Koopalings;
- All 4 Switch Palaces;
- Bloodshed particles (unlocked by typing abacabb while in the "Cheats" tab in the pause menu);
- The Infinite 1-Up found in 5-3;
- Rush (RC) from Mega Man found in 2-3;
If all of these are met, then you are able to beat the true final boss of this game. However, the developer left 2 more collectibles known as "cheats" which bump the completion percentage to 107%:
- Space Jump - lets you jump midair infinitely any time you want to jump;
- Screw Attack - is an upgrade to Space Jump that makes you invincible while in this state;
- God Mode - unlocked after beating the final boss with 107% completion.
These do make the run faster, but because they ruin the fun of the game and they make the category a lot less exciting, I collect them but I turn them off and never use them.
Glitches
As far as glitches in this game go, there are very few that are actually useful in runs. This TAS only makes use of 1 glitch in the level 1-2 to save 5 frames and that is corner clipping. Just like in most other games, with a very precise position it's possible to clip through the corner of any block in the game. This sounds very useful at first, but the main problem is that the developer actually coded it so even if you do clip inside a block, you remain stuck in the wall, as every block in almost every wall has its own separate collision box. The staircase in 1-2 is the only place that I found where you can clip inside and repeteadly wall jump to get out of the wall, in the rest of the staircases you just get stuck midway through. It is not fully understood exactly how precise the position to clip in has to be, since there are no tools for this game.
Tricks
Reverse Wall Jump
To perform a wall jump, you need to jump at a wall and by pressing the Jump key while sliding off the wall, you will jump off it in the opposite direction you are facing from. However, this can be exploited to wall jump in the same direction you're going by facing the opposite direction you want to go in and then jumping on the first possible frame you touch the wall. So, if you are going right and want to wall jump to the right, you would need to press Left, then jump at the wall and press the Jump key on the first frame. This is very useful for clearing walls that are barely too tall to get on top of using a regular jump, or to simply gain more height. If you perform a reverse wall jump and the wall is high enough you can wall jump again, but this time it's impossible to do another reverse wall jump (unless you have the Water Flower power-up.
Instant Pipe / Door Enter
The Tanooki leaf power-up not only has all the features that the regular leaf power-up has, such as gliding and the P meter which allows you to fly in the air, but it also has another useful ability that lets you turn into a heavy weight and descend very fast downwards. While in this state you are able to hit breakable blocks and even get power-ups, and you cannot take damage. While these perks are also useful for the run, the most important perk for this run is the fact that it kills all your horizontal speed instantly. I found that by pressing the F key to switch to the other power-up 3 frames before performing this ability, you are able to kill all your speed but skip the animation of the heavy weight, and with good positioning this is used right before doors or pipes to enter them instantly as you have to come to a complete stop to enter them.
Spiny accels
The Spiny power-up is located in world 2, and it's the power-up that saves the most time over the course of the run. Normally it takes 5 frames of walking to get to running speed from a full stop, however Spiny has the ability to get the player to running speed instantly by pressing Down + S. S can be held but it will delay the launch until it's released, so by pressing it only for 1 frame you save 4 frames every time you have to get to running speed using it, and since there are hundreds of places over the run it saves a tremendous amount of time. It is one of the main places where the TAS really drifts away from the RTA World Record as it's extremely hard for a human to press Down + S frame perfectly and for a single frame this many times in a run. Another very useful perk is that it's able to kill most enemies into the game by stomping on them, no matter how high or low you jump, meaning you are able to keep this power-up for a long time. One final perk that it has is that it can break brick blocks and not bounce back, which is why we use Spiny in 1-1 for example.
Textbox Skips
Normally, when a textbox appears on the map screen (and inside the level in the case of Switch Palaces), it takes 6 frames for the text to appear, after which you can press S to clear it, taking another 6 frames. However, if you instead pause on the first frame after the textbox appears, the text doesn't appear anymore and it skips to the closing animation immediately, saving 6 frames each time. There is a textbox after beating any exit of 1-1, after beating each of the bosses, after unlocking Space Jump, Screw Attack and RC, as well as 2 textboxes for each Switch Palace, totaling up to about 20 textboxes, therefore this saves close to 120 frames in total.
One of if not the biggest timesave over the World Record comes from the route which is completely different. Many levels in this game have more than 1 exit, so which exit is completed will be marked next to the level name. For simplicity sake, the normal exit will have N next to its name, and the secret one will have S. If neither N nor S appear, it means the level has just 1 exit. Because the spare box can only store 1 additional power-up, and most levels require more than 2 power-ups to complete optimally, it was very difficult to come up with a route that satisfies all criterias. Another very important thing that we had to look out for are the day & night cycles. The game starts on a day cycle; if you beat a level or die, the world becomes nocturne, and beating or dying in another level will change it back to daytime. This is important because many levels in this game are different whether it's night or day, so to differentiate them, the night levels will have their name bolded, while the day levels will have regular names.
| Level | Silvers | Comments |
|---|
| 1-0 | - | I exit the Airship level immediately because I don't have the power-ups to complete it optimally and go straight to 1-1 |
| 1-1 S | - | The secret exit is taken in order to get to world 2 as fast as possible to grab Spiny |
| 2-2 S | 1 2 3 | I get spiny in the last room as it required the shortest detour to grab it in the level |
| 1-1 N | 1 2 3 | The first level where I can make use of spiny accels and reverse wall jumps |
| 1-2 S | 1 2 | I get the secret exit to get to Yellow Switch Palace as fast as possible |
| Yellow | - | This is the only Switch place that also features the Dragontail power-up, the second most useful power-up in this run |
| 1-2 N | 3 | The only instance of corner clipping being useful in the run |
| 1-3 | 1 2 3 | Walking on the platforms that are moving right gives Shy Guy a higher speed and it saves a few frames each time |
| 1-4 N | 1 2 3 | At the end I slow down intentionally to grab the last Silver coin as it's on a cycle |
| 1-4 S | - | |
| 1-6 | 1 2 3 | The fastest way to beat the boss is to simply stomp on it using the Dragontail power-up which kills it instantly |
| 1-7 N | - | The first Koopaling that we pick up in the run |
| 1-7 S | 1 2 3 | |
| 2-A N | - | |
| 2-4 S | - | It's crucial that this level is done while it's night because in the last room it's impossible to get to the end without taking damage without slowing down |
| 2-1 S | - | It's possible to perform a tail swipe and clear the brick blocks above you only in specific circumstances and this is one of the few ones in the run. Also doing it now saves a map click to navigate to the next level |
| 0-1 S | - | |
| 0-1 N | - | |
| 4-1 N | 1 2 3 | |
| 4-2 N | 1 2 3 | |
| 4-2 S | 1 2 3 | |
| 2-5 | 1 2 3 | To beat this level optimally we have to lose spiny and damage boost 3 times, once in the second room and twice in the last room. The boss requires 5 hits to be defeated and the way to get them optimally is to build up P speed to fly |
| 2-A S | 1 2 3 | At the end I have to lose spiny to grab the vine optimally |
| 2-1 N | 1 2 3 | I grab spiny back without losing any time with a tail swipe after losing it in the previous level |
| Green | - | |
| 2-4 N | 1 2 3 | Unfortunately I couldn't manage to get the right position to corner clip at the end for the last silver, so I had to wait in the quicksand. Could be a potential improvement in the future |
| 3-1 S | 1 2 3 | This level and the following levels require the Water Flower power-up to be completed optimally, so we get rid of spiny for a few levels |
| 3-1 N | - | |
| 3-2 S | - | I am able to climb up walls using the Water Flower by doing multiple reverse wall jumps as it jumps higher off walls than all other power-ups |
| 2-2 N | - | I regrab Spiny here because Dragontail isn't necessary in the upcoming levels |
| 1-0 | - | Doing a reverse wall jump off blocks that are breakable by throwing objects at them let you fully clip through them, so I do that to save a bunch of frames. This level is done to get Larry, I type 'abacabb' and immediately exit the level afterwards |
| 1-5 S | 1 2 3 | |
| 1-5 N | - | You're supposed to hit a hidden vine block and climb up the vine to get to the coin area, but the loading zone is always active so by jumping and just holding Up you are able to skip that entire process and get to the coin area instantly. By falling off you get sent at the end of the level |
| Red | - | |
| 3-2 N | 1 2 3 | I get Iggy in this level |
| 3-3 | 1 2 3 | The first autoscroller of the run and certainly not the last. There is a pipe that skips to the end of the level but because I have to get all 3 silvers anyway and because the last silver is very close to the end of the level it's best to just beat the level normally |
| 3-4 | 1 2 3 | The first cheat (Space Jump) is unlocked in this level. I discovered that it's possible to do a spiny accel only the first frame after grabbing an object from the ground so I used that to save some frames. One of the very few levels that has RNG in it, revolving around where the Umbrella boss is going to move once it gets into the toxic rain phase |
| Blue | - | I immediately regrab Spiny after the last level and replace Fire Flower as it's not needed anywhere else. I do a floor clip at the end to clip through the switch blocks |
| 4-1 S | - | Roy is obtained in this level |
| 4-3 N | - | I replace Dragontail with Hammer power-up as it's needed for the following 2 levels to clear object blocks. Hammer is a useless power-up otherwise |
| 4-3 S | 1 2 3 | |
| 5-1 N | - | Another autoscroller but thankfully it features a pipe right at the beginning that takes you to an area containing Ludwig and a pipe that takes you to the end of the level |
| 5-1 | 1 2 3 | I do the level for real this time to grab all silvers. Fortunately though, I can exit level as soon as the last Silver becomes checked and skip the rest of the autoscroller |
| 4-4 | 1 2 3 | I get the final Koopaling in this level, Lemmy |
| 4-5 | - | I beat the boss and get the final cheat in this level, Screw Attack. Unfortunately this level is filled with cycle locks so I had to wait for the weight platform to lower to take the secret door. Because of this I replace Spiny with Thunder power-up which is only useful for this level |
| 4-5 | 1 2 3 | I do the same thing as in 5-1 and I exit level as soon as the last silver gets validated because I already beat the level |
| 5-2 | 1 2 3 | The last true autoscroller in the game |
| 2-3 S | 1 2 3 | The level where it's most important to be night. I replace Thunder with Spiny and Dragontail with Boo Flower which only appears in this Ghost House at night and in 1 other level |
| 5-3 | - | For this level it's required to be day time in order to not take damage with the Boo/Bone power-up to pick up the Infinite 1-Up. Not much can be done to speed up the boss as it's essentially another autoscroller |
| 2-3 N | - | I get the final secret collectible of the run in this level, Rush (RC). It is technically also considered a cheat by the RTA community so it too is not used in the run |
| 5-3 | 1 2 3 | The final level before the final boss. I once again exit level after grabbing the last Silver |
| 5-4 | - | After this level, God Mode is unlocked, the final cheat that can be unlocked in the game |
Potential Improvements
- There is 1 frame that can be saved from menuing from 1-1 to 2-2 which I only realised could be saved after I was already nearly finished with the run.
- While corner clips are nowhere near as powerful as they seem to be, if tools are developed for this game and they are better understood, I believe there could still be some uses for it in this category especially. One idea that I got but I couldn't get to work was to corner clip in 2-4 N to grab the last silver.
Potato: I would like frame 75069 as the thumbnail.
Potato: Huge thanks for GamerMate for helping with the route, he did most of the work so most of the credits have to go him, and also for helping with some optimizations as I was making this run. Hope you all enjoy.
