Released in 2025 as a big new ModRetro Chromatic title, this new homebrew game released officially by GameStop stars their old gun weilding mascot Buck the Bunny in a big platforming adventure.
The game spans 6 worlds with different themes each. The main goal in each level is to kill all the enemies in the level to open a door where you can exit and beat the level. Each world ends with a boss fight and then you have to play a minigame to travel to the next world.
Buck has a gun where he can shoot bullets to kill various enemies and solve puzzles. There's a bunch of hidden collectables scattered across the game for 100% completion.
There exists a "Hacker's Shop" where you can buy upgrades to Buck's abilities, like a dash, air dash, double jump, and a float ability, among 3 health upgrades. The problem is that most upgrades are VERY expensive, costing a lot of coins, so a lot of time grinding is a must. Unlocking the dash ability and nothing else is the most realistic thing for an any% TAS, as it only cost 173 coins.
After beating the game, you unlock a Hardcore mode, where you unlock all abilities from the start, but you lose your save if you die once and game over. There also exists a Nightmare mode where it's the same thing as Hardcore except there are no upgrades at all (1.1 version only and it requires 100% completion to unlock).
I think a TAS of Hardcore mode would be neat, with all the dashing across levels and stuff (I don't wanna make a verification movie for this tho...).
Here's the speedrun.com page:
https://www.speedrun.com/Buck_and_The_Cursed_Cartridge