"Minions, assemble!"

Content warning: The last chapter of the game contains camera movement that may cause motion sickness. Other parts of the TAS contain rapid camera movement.

Despicable Me: The Game is a 2010 game based on the movie, Despicable Me. The DS version of the game, which was released under the title of Despicable Me: The Game - Minion Mayhem, was developed by Wayforward, and tests the player's puzzle solving skills. The game plays similarly to Lemmings in the sense that the characters move on their own and have their own special abilities.

The main objective of this game is to grab the level's required collectable and reach the exit. A "Chief Minion" will be available in every level and is the only Minion who can pick up the collectable and exit. If the Chief Minion is defeated, whether it be by an enemy or hazard, he is defeated and the level has to be restarted. As the game progresses, more and more level elements get introduced, including different types of Minions which can be used for different purposes. You might think that because the Minions move on their own, the TAS wouldn't be much different than a standard playthrough, but I got a few tricks up my sleeve.

The game starts off with Gru telling the player a story of how he bested his arch-nemesis, Vector. Vector somehow "steals" the internet and Gru decides to use his "Atomitator" invention against him. But first, he needs to rid his liar of robot taters. This game has five worlds with six levels each. Let's see how fast we can do all thirty!

Are you ready, Minions?

This level introduces springs. Tapping on a spring with the touchscreen will bounce any Minion or enemy on top of it. Once you tap on a Minion, he will keep moving and cannot be stopped, so we have to wait for him to bump into the wall and turn around.

This level introduces ladders. When a Minion comes across a ladder, he will automatically climb up or down it. I use the spring at the start of the level, then climb down the ladder and use the spring again. Climbing ladders in this game is quite slow. If I didn't use the spring at the start, I'd have to climb the ladder twice and walk all the way to the right wall.

This level introduces extending platforms (but I'll call them bridges for simplicity's sake). Pressing the button next to the bridge extends or retracts the bridge, and you'll need to interact with them to get the Minions across gaps safely. Bridges are actually extremely useful and we'll be seeing some interesting tech with them later. For now, I make use of a trick where I activate a bridge at a specific time to slightly push the Minion forward. Doing this saves one frame. Huge, I know.

As the Minion climbs the steps up to the collectable, I activate the bridge and he snaps to the top of it, skipping a step. I then activate the other bridge across from the Minion and get him to walk into the wall, forcing him to turn around and skip the ladder.

This level introduces our first new Minion! The Disintegrating Ray Minion will automatically destroy these blocky walls as soon as he is near them. Disintegrating Ray Minions will also automatically stun enemies when they get near them, and cannot be defeated by enemies. I get the Disintegrating Ray Minion to walk as soon as possible to destroy the blocks. I then toggle the bridges to stop the two Minions from walking into each other. When two Minions collide, they stop and reverse directions. Sometimes this is helpful, sometimes this isn't.

The Disintegrating Ray Minion then walks into the level's exit. When an extra Minion reaches the level's exit or gets defeated, it will respawn at its original starting position and resume walking. The Disintegrating Ray Minion respawns at the top of the level. When a Minion falls from a height, he does a landing animation before walking again. I toggle the bridges at the right time to get the Disintegrating Ray Minion to land as close to the Chief Minion as possible without bouncing on top of him. If a Minion lands on top of another, he will bounce on top of the other Minion's head until he moves out of the way, which would lose time in this situation.

When the Chief Minion reaches the level's exit, a countdown will start. The game will count down from 10, giving the player some extra time to get the other Minions to the exit for extra points before actually ending the level. The game will stop counting down and end the level early if all of the extra Minions reach the exit in time or are defeated.

This level introduces enemies and the Sumo Minion. Sumo Minions will automatically defeat enemies when they get near them. Not much to this level other than getting both Minions to the top optimally.

This level introduces pneumatic tubes (which I'll just call tubes for these notes). When a Minion is near a tube's entrance, it'll be sucked in and transported to its exit. The collectable here is between two sets of blocks, so I need the Disintegrating Ray Minion to access it. I move the Sumo Minion into the tube to get it out of the way. The tube's exit leads to the level's exit, so the Sumo Minion respawns back to the start after a while. Eventually, all Minions are near the tube's entrance, so I use the spring on each of them to get them to the end.

The Sumo Minion ends up bouncing on the Chief Minion after exiting the tube, but this actually faster. If the Sumo Minion didn't bounce, it would eventually be underneath the Disintegrating Ray Minion, causing that one to bounce instead and lose even more time.

After collecting all the taters, Gru and his Minions infiltrate Vector's fortress to steal his invention: the Brainfish.

This level introduces elevators. When a Minion walks into an elevator, the doors will shut and the player can move the elevator up or down floors. After moving, the elevator doors open and the Minion walks out. Alternatively, the player can also close the elevator and move it without having any Minions inside. Once an elevator is closed, it will only open after moving. I need to use the elevator multiple times at the start of this level in order to get the right Minions to the right places.

This level also introduces fire jets and Fire Resistant Minions. Fire jets are just hazards, like spike pits. Fire Resistant Minions are... resistant to fire, as the name implies. They are not however, resistant to enemies. Basically, I let the Fire Resistant Minion get hit by the enemy because it's faster than getting all Minions to the exit.

The first half of this level doesn't have anything noteworthy, but I do something interesting near the end. If the Chief Minion walks off the edge of the platform above the exit, he actually won't be in the exit's hitbox, and will continue walking forward. What can I do? Well, by activating the bridge at the right time, the bridge's hitbox will actually push the Minion to the right a bit, allowing him to finish the level!

Initially, I tried to get the Disintegrating Ray Minion to walk into the fire to end the level quicker, but this actually proved to be slower, since the game actually waits for the Minion to fall off screen before finishing the level. So while defeating Minions at the end of levels is a great strategy, it's not something we can or should do everywhere.

This level introduces the Freeze Ray Minion. Freeze Ray Minions will freeze water pits and turn them into ice, allowing them to be walked on. Freeze Ray Minions will also freeze enemies when they come into contact with them, and cannot be defeated by them.

We won't get to see the Freeze Ray Minion's powers be used here though, because we just need to wait for the piranha enemy to move out of the way. Minions automatically turn around when faced with an unfrozen water pit, so we can just drop down and turn around. The elevator here only goes up two floors.

Nothing to this level other than moving the Minions as soon as possible.

The only way to get to the button is to take the long path at the bottom of the level and up the ladders. The elevator doesn't take you to the button. There's no enemies to defeat the Fire Resistant Minions with, so I try to get them to get to the exit as fast as possible.

I want the Freeze Ray Minion to turn around as soon as possible, so that he can go up the tube and get on the other side of the water pit. Luckily, the Sumo Minion is right next to him at the start of the level. However, there's a problem. When a Minion walks into a Minion that's standing still, the standing minion will start walking. I don't need this Sumo Minion for anything, so I want to keep him in one spot so he doesn't interfere with the other Minions. There are two bridges where the Sumo Minion is, so I can just make him walk back and forth on those bridges while the other Minions do their thing.

I make the Chief Minion and the Freeze Ray Minion enter in a specific way so that the Chief Minion will bump into the Freeze Ray Minion while he's freezing the water pit, causing the Chief Minion to turn around and pick up the collectable.

While this is all happening, I switch back to the Sumo Minion and use a trick I like to call "bridge stalling". Remember that whenever a Minion falls from a height, it'll enter the landing animation and can't move for a bit. By retracting a bridge and immediately extending it again, we can have the Minion briefly fall before snapping back on top of the bridge, forcing the landing animation and delaying its movement. This is extremely useful for when you want to keep a Minion in one place, or want to delay its movement. By bridge stalling the Sumo Minion, we can control when it falls down and enters the tube. I also bridge stall the Freeze Ray Minion a few times at the end to get it to land behind the Sumo Minion without bouncing on him.

After finishing the level, Vector's Brainfish steals Gru's Atomitator, and uses it on him, trapping Gru and his Minions in cyberspace. Now Gru takes the role of Chief Minion.

This level introduces extending ladders. They're basically ladders that you can toggle on and off. I'll talk more about them a bit later. All we do is make Gru walk the fastest path to the collectable and exit, while making the Sumo minions touch the spike pits. I make the right minion start moving in a specific way so that the squidfoot enemy starts walking... up in mid-air??? Completely accidental, but very funny! It also saves time, since the Sumo minion won't stop to defeat it!

This level introduces grabbers. Grabbers are claw-like objects that will grab any minion walking underneath them and transport them to a different part of the level. Grabbers often need to be activated by a button. We don't use the grabber here in this level though, since it ends up being more a hindrance to the minion routing.

This level also introduces Glowstick Minions. Some levels in this world have these dark areas that only Glowstick Minions can go through. Other minions will just treat them as a wall. Sometimes there are button, bonus items, or paths hidden in these dark areas.

We can do a neat little trick with the extending ladders. When a Minion climbs down the ladder, we can retract it so that he lets go of the ladder and lands faster!

This level introduces Inflatable Minions and air vents. When an Inflatable Minion comes across an air vent, he'll puff up and float away. Inflated Minions can block entry ways for tubes and the paths of enemies. After being inflated, the Minion can be deflated by tapping him with the touchscreen.

Not a lot to say about this level other than it being pretty convoluted. I tried different paths to see which would result in the Minions finishing faster, but I'm not super satisfied with this solution. Can't find anything better.

This level introduces magnets. Magnets will automatically pull any Minions towards them, causing them to get stuck. Magnets can only be deactivated by pressing a button. I have to take a little detour at the start of this level to hit a button that deactivates a magnet, allowing the Inflatable Minion to become free and finish the level with the others.

This level is one big tower, filled with extendable ladders and enemies. An Inflatable Minion helps us out by allowing Gru to turn around early. Then we simply let Gru take the fastest route to the top and let the Inflatable Minion hit the enemy as soon as possible.

Another level that stumped me for quite a bit. The only way to get the collectable is for the grabber's button to be pressed, which is all the way in the dark area. The button underneath the collectable disables the magnet protecting the grabber button. We can't make Gru hit this button, because there isn't a way back up. We unfortunately have to make a Glowstick Minion press it, which will eventually result into him walking through a dark area and into an active magnet. It's pretty slow, but that sadly seems to be the only way to beat this level.

I do a bridge stall with the Glowstick Minions on the right to prevent one from bouncing on top of another.

After escaping cyberspace, Vector reveals that he upgraded Gru's Atomitator into a Mega-Atomitator. One of Gru's Minions breaks the Mega-Atomitator into pieces, which we now have to collect in Vector's secret lab.

This level introduces Chemical Resistant Minions. They're pretty much a reskin of Fire Resistant Minions. Instead of fire jets, there's chemical vents that these guys are impervious to.

This level also introduces drawbridges. At first, they behave like walls. Once its button is pressed, the drawbridge will lower, acting as a floor and opening the path. I start this level off by making the Minions walk in such a way, that by the time the rightmost Chemical Resistant Minion reaches the drawbridge, it actually thinks he's in the air for a little bit, and as a result, does the landing animation. This stops the right Minion and forces the left one to bump into him and turn around. A drawbridge stall (this is the only drawbridge stall of the entire run).

Also, this is the level where I learned that if a Minion is in the turning animation and a spring is activated underneath him, he will turn while in mid-air. This is a lot faster than say, using the spring, landing, and then turning around.

This level introduces Driller Minions. Driller Minions will drill through blocky floors when standing over them.

This level also introduces blockers. These are retractable walls that you can toggle on and off. I LOVE these things. If a Minion is walking into a blocker, you can activate the blocker at a specific time so that the Minion is both raised into the air and pushed off the blocker's edge. Then you can retract the wall and repeat the process. I call these "blocker stalls". They're like bridge stalls but EVEN BETTER because they're easier to control and they're just extremely convenient.

Like bridges, blockers can also push Minions forward when activated at the right time. This can save one to three frames. I do this at the very start of the level with the Sumo Minion. I get the Driller Minion in front of the Chief Minion and then do a blocker stall on the Driller Minion to delay his movement. After the Chief Minion hits the button and starts walking to the exit, I do a blocker stall on the Driller Minion, but don't retract the blocker so that it turns around and touches the enemy right when the Chief Minion reaches the exit.

This level introduces blowers. When a Minion steps on a blower, he'll be blown up. No, not that definition of blown up. I mean pushed up. With air. Anyway, blowers can be activated with buttons. When a Minion is on the edge of a blower's hitbox, he'll be pushed to its centre.

The Freeze Ray Minion doesn't need to be used in this level, so I let the Chief Minion bump into him to turn around sooner.

I make the Chief Minion and Chemical Resistant Minion bump into each other at the start to make them go in opposite directions. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find a way to make the Chemical Resistant Minion hit the wall before the Chief Minion hits the blower's button. If I could, it'd be a bit faster, since the Chemical Resistant Minion wouldn't need to turn around after reaching the top of the level.

I was dreading this level when I first got to this world, but it's actually not that bad! The collectable appears to be conveniently placed in the fastest route down. Because the Driller Minion has to drill the hole before the Chief Minion can go down, this results in the Driller Minion being in front of the Chief Minion before the exit, which is bad, because we need the Chief Minion to reach the exit first. But, by activating the bridge at the right time, we can use the bridge's hitbox to push the Chief Minion slightly to the right. This results with the Chief Minion bouncing on the Driller Minion's right side, which forces the Driller Minion to turn around!

I don't have anything to say other than that this is the fastest solution I was able to find. The blocky wall at the top blocks the path for the button at the top-right, so it just makes the most sense to send the Disintegrating Ray Minion to the top-left. Since the Driller Minion has to dig a hole to the exit, it has to respawn at the start and make its way to the exit again. Even if you do this as early as possible, you still have to wait quite some time for him to finish. While you can dig the hole early, the button near the blocker needs to be hit before the Disintegrating Ray Minion can get there though, so sadly, that takes priority.

After collecting all of the pieces of the Mega-Atomitator, Gru uses it on Vector. Gru then reveals that his plan all along was for Vector to steal the Atomitator and upgrade it on his own, then steal it back, all because the bank wouldn't give him a loan for its upgrades. Gru then challenges the player to do six more challenges inside his house.

The levels in this world are the most devious ones yet. Tricky puzzles, vicious hazards, strict time limits, and to top it off, the camera is constantly rotating or zooming. I guess Gru decided he really wants to test your limits.

The camera movement in this level, 5-3, & 5-6 is RNG-dependant. Every time I found a timesave earlier in the run, I had to resync this part of the TAS to account for the different camera rotation. I had to do this at least four five separate times (my genuine reaction on the right).

This level introduces Electrical Minions. When an Electrical Minion passes through a spark wire, it becomes charged. When a charged Electrical Minion passes through an inlet (those grey devices with the digital numbers on them), the number on the inlet decrements. When an inlet's number reaches 0, it will open a door. Some of the levels in this world involve getting charged Electrical Minions to walk past inlets multiple times.

I get the leftmost Electrical Minion to walk into the Chief Minion, who then walks into the other Electrical Minion, who then turns around towards the spark wire on the right. I have to delay that Minion with the spring though, because I need to wait for the Chief Minion to get off the bridge before I can use it. Both Electrical Minions become charged, and I can send the right one to the inlet with the spring. I need to bridge stall its movement though, otherwise it'd get in the way of the other Electrical Minion. Both Minions reach the inlet, walk away, and latter respawn while the Chief Minion heads to the exit. Both Electrical Minion walk on top of the bridge. When the Chief Minion reaches the exit, it's just a frame-perfect touchscreen press into the spike pit for both of them! Nice!

This level introduces Gravity Minions. When a Gravity Minion reaches a polarity pad, he will flip gravity and start walking upside down.

Nothing much to this level. I can't start the lower Gravity Minion's movement late to avoid the bounce at the end, since it would be falling up towards the Chief Minion after falling through the open bridge, wasting time.

The Disintegrating Ray Minion is needed to access the collectable on the lowest part of the level and the exit, which is at the highest. Two of Gru's dogs patrol some floors in this level. Hey... doesn't Gru have one dog? Where did the other come from??

Anyway, the lower dog isn't a problem, since the Disintegrating Ray Minion can stun him briefly. I experimented with another path where the Disintegrating Ray Minion and the Chief Minion went up via the ladder, but it ended up being about 70 frames slower. So I decided to send both Minions up with the elevator. I can only move one Minion at a time, and I want both Minions to be facing right when leaving the elevator. But if I just let the Chief Minion walk around while the elevator is coming down, then he'll be facing left when entering. What can I do?

This is where I decided to take bridge stalling to its absolute limits. While bridge stalling is helpful, I don't need to do it over an extended period of time for most levels. Here, I need to stall the Minion for about 5.5 seconds, which requires me activating and deactivating the bridge at specific frames really quickly. A lot of attention needs to be devoted to this bridge stall to prevent the Minion from either falling down or walking away. On top of that, I have to use the spring on the Disintegrating Ray Minion, call the elevator down, and trap the top dog behind a blocker to free the path. A definite highlight of the TAS for me!

While the elevator is moving up, I do a blocker stall on the dog. Believe it or not, the Disintegrating Ray Minion can actually stun the dog through the blocker, so I do a blocker stall to offset his cycle and prevent this from happening. I also start the Gravity Minion's movement so that he touches the dog right when the Chief Minion exits the level.

In this level, bombs will constantly drop from the top and land on the level. These acts as hazards, and if a Minion walks into one, he'll be defeated. Bombs can be destroyed by the touch screen. Bigger bombs require two hits to destroy. Where and when bombs drop is determined by RNG (I think). You can influence the bomb drops by destroying the bombs on different frames. Sometimes you can even get a bomb to land directly on top of the Chief Minion and instantly cause a loss, which is pretty funny. With TAS tools, you could hit the bomb as it drops, but in an RTA setting, there's no way you'd be able to react to that.

You're supposed to make the Gravity Minion walk across the bridge and hit the button, which activates the drawbridge above where the Electrical Minion is. If you do this though, the Electrical Minion won't be able to access the spark wire below. However, that drawbridge gives access to another button which activates a drawbridge that gives access to the rest of the level, which we need to explore.

Luckily, there are two polarity pads at the start of the level: on the floor and on the ceiling. I drop the Gravity Minion down and make him bump into the Chief Minion. While the Gravity Minion walks upside-down to the other polarity pad, I start the Electrical Minion, who bumps into the drawbridge and makes his way to the spark wire below. The Gravity Minion hits the second polarity pad and then lands next to the button needed to access the right half of the level.

I destroy any bombs that are on the way and make a path for the Chief Minion to follow them. We actually don't need the Gravity Minion anymore, so I let him touch a spike pit and waddle around on his own at the start. The right side of the level has the collectable and another spark wire, so all we need to do is to get both Minions safely across. As they head back, I let the Electrical Minion climb up and walk past the inlet, opening the door.

Ok, so the old strat involved letting the other Minions walk into some bombs as the Chief Minion exits the level so that they respawn and touch some bombs that are close to their spawn points, but I'm looking for improvements while writing these notes and I just...??????? I was trying to see if I could make it so they both hit a bomb immediately after the Chief Minion leaves but I somehow made the Gravity Minion turn the Electrical Minion around??? This ended up saving me 47 frames. Magic.

You can destroy the bombs after the level ends to jumpscare the viewer but it adds extra loading time. Must.... resist.... the speed/entertainment trade-off...

For a world this chaotic, this level is actually pretty tame. We just get the Chief Minion to the collectable using the shortest route. I start moving the Gravity Minion early, since it's in the Chief Minion's way. The Gravity Minion reaches the exit and respawns to its starting location and follows the Chief Minion to the exit.

Not much to say about this one. I need the Chief Minion to enter to tube at the right to get the collectable, so I make the rightmost Electrical Minion go to the top-right tube, which brings him to a spark wire on the left. The other Electrical Minion is redirected left and down to get to another spark wire. After both Electrical Minions walk past the inlet, I make them go back to the spark wire, since it's faster. Some blocker stalls are added to prevent the Minions from bouncing on top of each other.

After beating the final level, Gru reveals that this entire game was a test to join "Team Gru". He congratulates you for passing the test, promising adventure, play time with the Minions, and no pay. Truly despicable indeed.

This game was on my radar for the longest time, but I never got around to playing it fully. Glad to have TASed it though. This game is pretty neat and I loved trying to find unintended solutions for some of these levels. The graphics and music are nice, too. As someone who unironically loves these little yellow guys, I'm really glad that this game exists. TASing this was a nice experience. Sorry for the Minion gifs btw, I just couldn't resist. :-)

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go use this new Shrink Ray I found. Feel like stealing the moon today. I want to see if it's actually made out of cheese. If it is, I'll have enough cheese to last my entire life! Sure hope some guy with an orange jumpsuit and a piranha gun doesn't get in the way. - Walgrey